Ah, some fresh blood

Well, Catherine O'Hara will be nominated for an Oscar, as I've predicted. The Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced an hour ago, and O'Hara is up for best female lead. (Plus, some critics are inexplicably issuing glowing reviews of For Your Consideration, which is actually a trainwreck.) So O'Hara will definitely snuggle into the supporting actress category at the Oscars. Good for her. I love her. I just wish her performance in FYC was guided correctly. It could've been sensational, and it could've won her the damn Oscar.

The nominations made me scramble to locate a bunch of previously-profileless titles: The Dead Girl (out Dec. 26), Man Push Cart (unknown release date), Pan's Labyrinth (Dec. 29) plus the already-on-DVD nominees Sorry, Haters (Robin Wright Penn!), American Gun (the unlikely entree for Forest Whitaker) and Land of Plenty (Michelle Williams gets a second consecutive nod). Anyone seen these yet? I have American Gun and Sorry, Haters up next in my queue, so I'll post shortly.

Besides O'Hara, Oscar booster shots go to Daniel Craig (cited for Infamous? Really? Bleh), Arkin, Ryan Gosling, Ed Norton, Aaron Eckhart, Robert Altman and, of course, the silly enterprise that is Little Miss Sunshine.

Hooray: Soderbergh up for Bubble. (My post on it.)

Boo: Holofcener and McDormand up for the dismal, solipsistic Friends with Money.

Conspicuously absent: The King, penned by Monster's Ball scribe Milo Addica (a master of the genuine) and featuring quiet, stunning performances by Gael Garcia Bernal, William Hurt, Laura Harring, Pell James and Paul Dano (nominated, with Arkin, for an Indie this morning for the wildly over-praised LMS).