Wow. As always, there are a handful of puzzling snubs to be found on the list of Oscar nominees.

First off, The Reader is officially the most overrated movie of 2008. The fact that it took the fifth Best Picture spot over much more deserving films such as The Dark Knight, Doubt and The Wrestler is mind boggling. Those films will be remembered 20 years from now and The Reader will not. Speaking of Knight, the Academy just lost a couple million more viewers by snubbing an entirely deserving film. In a recent poll by Fandango, 71% of respondents said they'd be more likely to watch the show if Knight received a Best Picture nod. Mainstream audiences are not responding to The Reader at all, considering that it has grossed only $7.9 million domestically since opening in December. Needless to say, they did respond quite well to Knight.

Where is Bruce Springsteen's nomination for his original song in The Wrestler? Oh, that's right, the music from Slumdog Millionaire needed to take up two of the three nomination spots. Pah! Springsteen's tune is easily the finest work he's done recently, and it fits perfectly with the film. "The Wrestler" plays over the end credits of the film, and it's the perfect match for the most satisfying ending of the year.

Not all of the snubs were bad. I'm incredibly pleased that the Errol Morris documentary Standard Operating Procedue didn't make the cut. SOP is one of the most poorly edited, exploitative and uninteresting docs I have ever seen and I'm glad that the Academy recognized that.