Commentary : Wherefores, Whys (and Why Nots?) : Conspicuous omissions indicate the academy’s squeamishness about realism in movies like ‘Do the Right Thing’ and ‘Drugstore Cowboy.’

Spike, you wuz robbed. Again. Or snubbed, although a nomination from one’s screenwriter-peers is far from a snub, and Danny Aiello’s nomination is clearly a right thing.

There is a fresh feeling to many of the other nominations: in the presence of Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker and, astonishingly enough, their director Jim Sheridan for that tenacious burr of a movie, “My Left Foot,” for Pauline Collins’ personal charisma in the gaudy “Shirley Valentine,” and to Kenneth Branagh’s strong double-showing as actor and director of “Henry V.”

But could we wonder here for a moment if British films, especially a British Shakespeare, which is a double bonus point for the culture-vultures, still carry a certain cachet with Academy voters, while Spike Lee is still too raw, too political and too close to the bone?

Can’t prove it. But there is the thought that the edge of Lee’s blast from Bed-Stuy cuts too sharply for many Academy members, and the director’s habit of putting his mouth where his heart is may have worked against him. From this corner, I’m sad to see that neither Ruby Dee nor Ossie Davis registered enough with nominators, and that Ernest Dickerson’s impeccable, mood-setting camera work was also overlooked. Next time.

Perhaps abrasiveness doesn’t pay. The all-out gleeful vitriol of “War of the Roses” certainly shocked the Academy into silence on every front. C’mon, guys, not even its art direction ?

Was “Drugstore Cowboy’s” shut-out another sign that the Academy has come part-way into the world as it is, but that too much verisimilitude makes them, well, nervous? One might think so. This movie, like Spike Lee’s, is on the curl of the wave of the future and it would be nice to see its prescience recognized.

That said, could we look to the pluses? To the pair of nominations for the indefatigable ladies of “Enemies, A Love Story,” Anjelica Huston and Lena Olin (sorry about that, Margaret Sophie Stein), and the film’s screenplay nod, which may not make up for Paul Mazursky’s shut-out in the Oscars or for the DGA, but at least gives us “Enemies” fans a private glow.

Could we take heart from the fact that the marvels of “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” did not go unnoticed by the technical savants? Art direction, costume design, makeup and visual effects--the Baron rides again. Could we at the same time wonder how the ant-with-heart from “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” or its back yard veldt escaped a single nomination?

“Driving Miss Daisy’s” nominations for Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman are a sort of felicitous double-bind. Yes, they are exactly the kinds of roles that Academy voters like to recognize, but at the same time they bear the imprint of a lifetime of observation and of craft and if that’s not reason to nominate, what is? But did they create these performances entirely on their own, blocking, camera movement and all, or was not Bruce Beresford around somewhere? Certainly not among the directing nominees.

Now to a private crimes or misdemeanors section: trade you one garden-variety Jessica Lange performance in “Music Box” for one radiantly unfolding one by Andie MacDowell in “sex, lies and videotape.” If the voters want an annual Jessica Lange nomination, they should wait for their chance with “Men Don’t Leave.”

The old prejudice against comedy seems to have struck again, in the case of Rob Reiner, Meg Ryan and “When Harry Met Sally. . . . “ Comedy is harder than dying, and airy, insouciant comedy is at least as hard as the earnest righteousness of “Dead Poets Society.”

The art direction of “Glory” and “Batman” were stunning, but for inventiveness on a less-than-shoestring, “Some Girls’ ” art nouveau mansion still remains one of the sterling memories of the year.

And in terms of deftness vs. overkill, could we substitute Alan Alda’s triumph of smugness in “Crimes and Misdemeanors” for Marlon Brando’s bombast in “A Dry White Season”? Please.

Exit cavilers, kvetchers and pickers of nits, humming “The Little Mermaid’s” irresistible nominated “Under the Sea,” and feeling better already.