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Delight No. 2: The Shocking, But Thematically Apt, Snubbing of Inside Llewyn Davis

I love Inside Llewyn Davis unreservedly. It was my favourite film of 2013 after one viewing, and I've now seen it four times more and it remains a beautiful work of art, and one of the Coen Brothers' best films. And I would have loved it if this brilliant, sad film had been nominated for as many Oscars as their previous film, the hugely fun but incredibly slight remake of True Grit, was. However, the character of Llewyn Davis spends the entire film being shit on by the world: He gets beaten up, loses what little money he scrapes together, and has his dreams ground up and blown to the wind. Nothing could be more thematically appropriate for Inside Llewyn Davis than for it to be almost totally ignored by the Academy.

Delight No. 3: Blackfish Being Shut Out of Best Documentary

I feel it's worth stating upfront that I don't hate Killer Whales. I wouldn't want to go swimming with them, but I don't think they deserve to be mistreated and abused in the way that Blackfish alleges they have been at SeaWorld, and I certainly don't think SeaWorld should escape liability for the deaths that have resulted from their treatment. That said, I came away from Blackfish thinking that it was a pretty shoddily assembled documentary about a very worthwhile and compelling subject, and while I'm exceedingly pleased to see that it has gone out into the world and caused a whole heap of trouble for SeaWorld, hurling bad publicity upon it like chunks of dead fish, I don't think it deserves to be included in the same league as The Act of Killing, Cutie and The Boxer, or any of the other films released last year which pushed the boundaries of what you can do with the documentary format. Blackfish is a noble piece of agit-prop that has had a sizable impact, but it's not a great piece of filmmaking.

Delight No. 4: Karen O is Now An Oscar Nominee

Continuing their trend of nominating musicians who their grandkids think are cool - or, perhaps more accurately, people their grandkids thought were cool ten years ago - the Academy have now added Karen O to a list that includes Trent Reznor, Bret McKenzie and David Byrne as musicians who have somehow wound up being Oscar nominees. While I doubt Karen O will get to join the aforementioned musicians in the winners' circle because, as lovely as "The Moon Song" is, it's not got much of a chance against the behemoth that is "Let It Go", it's certainly cool that she is now, in the words of Danny McBride, an Academy Awarded nominated person. Here's hoping she Björks the fuck out of the ceremony.

Delight No. 5: The Best Picture Nomination for Her

The original, and now largely unspoken, reason why The Oscars were created was as a promotional tool for Hollywood as much as it was a way of rewarding artistic achievement. While the awards have gained a considerably greater, some might say inflated, sense of importance over the years, they still serve their original purpose by bringing attention to films which people might not have heard of or considered seeing. While I doubt a Best Picture nomination for Her, Spike Jonze's hilarious and heartbreaking story of computer love, will turn it into a breakaway hit, it will hopefully convince a few more people to give it a chance. Unfortunately, in the process it may inadvertently turn Spike Jonze into the Roman Polanksi of Apple products; sure, he makes great films, but would you leave him alone with your iPhone?

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