Oscars Get it Wrong. Again.

The common phrase for actors around Oscar season is “it’s just an honor to be nominated.” Well there is one actor who should no longer agree. Leonardo DiCaprio has long been considered one of the best actors of his generation, and for good reason. The man has turned from the teen heartthrob from Romeo + Juliet and Titanic to a bonafide star and quality actor. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has managed to nominate him three times for his efforts. While three sounds like a decent amount for an actor still in his 30s, I argue that it is a disgrace and almost a mockery of the awards system I so dearly love and yet have so much hatred for.

The three nominations DiCaprio has earned were for Supporting Actor in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Best Actor in The Aviator and Blood Diamond. The issue I have here is that he has been in seven movies that have been nominated for Best Picture (Titanic and The Departed which won as well as Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Inception, and now Django Unchained)  and five others that were recepients of Best Picture hype before the nominations were ultimately announced (Catch Me If You Can, Blood Diamond, Revolutionary Road, Shutter Island, and J. Edgar). Overlooking Titanic because I truly don’t believe his work was worthy of a nomination that year, that is a total of 11 movies starring DiCaprio that vied for the top prize in Hollywood over the past 10 years and he was only nominated twice during that time. I understand the politicking that occurs with these awards: The young rarely get nominated because “they will have their chance later” and the older are getting the awards to make up for the fact that they overlooked their amazing work earlier in their career. This should be the point where DiCaprio is getting nominated every 2-3 years, not every 5. In fact his last nomination came 6 years ago. It was looking like he had a chance with Django, playing a villain for the first time but unfortunately he was outshined by Christoph Waltz and had to deal with a split vote from Samuel L. Jackson as well. This was somehow too much for the far too talented actor to overcome. While being in these films is by no means a guarantee that the actor is any good, he is always riveting in his performances. None of the films released in the last 10 years have I felt that he was phoning it in when he so easily could have. In Gangs of New York he held his own with Daniel Day-Lewis who is rightfully considered the best actor possibly ever. In The Departed he went up against Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon, was better than both of them and was ignored again.

In comparison, Tom Cruise has fallen hard from popularity since his 2005 couch-jumping, “I LOVE THIS WOMAN” manic episode, a dissapearace from film, and a return to primarily blockbuster movies instead of the ones that look for Oscar glory and yet he has managed to score three nominations in his career as well. While I personally think Cruise deserved more during his heyday, but when comparing the talent between the two, DiCaprio wins hands down. Most interestingly, DiCaprio has managed to blur the line between an awards-bait film and a film for the masses. Of the 11 movies that had Best Picture hopes in the past 10 years, the average box office gross is over $100 million. Please note I again did not include Titanic in this total, if I did the total would be over $150 million per movie. Considering every year the Academy tries to appeal to the younger, bigger audiences, nominating the man who grew to stardom by being idolized by an audience that is now in their mid-20s starring in a movie that is averaging $100 million at the box office might be the way to go. Once the Academy finally gets that step down, don’t make him jump through hoops and allow more time to pass, give him the award. He has truly earned it.

Note: I wrote this entry on Tuesday, but held off posting it with the hope of a pleasanst surprise yesterday morning. Alas, that did not happen.