Oscar 2011

The nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards were announced today.  Overall I feel that the nominees this year are populated by very deserving candidates – perhaps more than in past years.  Last year I wasn’t too excited about the nominations and last year was the first year the Academy allowed ten movies to compete for best picture.

Best Picture – I’ve seen them all this year!

• Black Swan – good but not going to win
• The Fighter – excellent, has a chance!
• Inception – I enjoyed it but not going to win
• The Kids Are All Right – I thoroughly enjoyed it but not going to win
• The King's Speech – excellent, this will probably be neck and neck with a one or two others.
• 127 Hours – amazing but not sure that it’ll win best picture
• The Social Network – the perfect representation of our times – this won the Golden Globes this year…just sayin’
• Toy Story 3 – definitely an animated film deserving of accolades, but not going to win.
• True Grit – ugh, this will probably be a contender.
• Winter's Bone – loved this one and it’s an underdog, great acting, etc, but not going to win.

Despite my feelings about the various films, my money is split between The King’s Speech (12 nominations overall) and The Social Network (8 nominations).  If one of those two don’t get it, The Fighter probably will.

Directing – Yikes, I’d be ok with any but True Grit winning.  David Fincher won the Golden Globe.

• “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
• “The Fighter” David O. Russell
• “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
• “The Social Network” David Fincher
• “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Actress in a Leading Role – I can’t comment because I haven’t seen Rabbit Hole or Blue Valentine.  Natalie Portman won at the Golden Globe (for a drama).

• Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
• Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
• Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actor in a Leading Role – I’ve seen all but Biutiful.  The one I want to win is James Franco, but I suspect Colin Firth has this one in the bag (he won the Golden Globe for a drama).

• Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
• Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
• Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
• Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
• James Franco in “127 Hours”

I’m not going to go through every category.  You get the idea.

eight to go

As I mentioned in a blog post last week, I had ten movies to see before the Academy Awards. Now I have just eight! This week I watched four movies but only two of them were on my Academy Awards "must watch" list. You ready? Here is the rundown.

1. The Blind Side: In a very small nutshell, this is a movie based on a true story of a way-underprivileged African-American teenager in Memphis that is taken in by a well-to-do white family and thrives. Although it's one of the ten movies nominated for an Academy Award for best picture this year, it got average reviews. I resisted seeing it mostly because I thought it was "one of those sports movies" but really just didn't know much about it (also I'm not really a fan of Sandra Bullock). It's been four days since I've seen it and I have to say, I liked it. Sure it was a feel good movie but the true story part of it really hit home. Feel good movies can often times be cheesy and usually come around holiday time. If it wasn't based on a true story, I'd have a hard time believing it really happened. The New Orleans Times-Picayune review sums it up nicely:

• "The message, of course, is that a simple act of kindness can have a profound impact on the trajectory of a life. There's built-in potential there for overwrought emotion and cloying, movie-of-the-week formula, but Hancock [the director] deftly dodges it, and "The Blind Side" ends up being a tear-jerker, a heart-warmer and a thorough crowd-pleaser in one tidy package.

2. (500) Days of Summer: In a bizarre twist, this movie got better reviews than The Blind Side. Just goes to show that you never can tell... Ok, what was this movie about? Let's see, boy meets girl but it's not a love story, which is fine but what is it really about? Sure, I like romantic comedies every now and then but not this one. Maybe I'm not young and hip enough and/or maybe I've been married too long but this movie was not my cup of tea.


Ok, I've gone on long enough for tonight. I'll discuss the other two movies in a "part two" later.

2010 Academy Award Nominations

Let's start at the same point - check out the 2010 Academy Award Nominations.

Ok, so now that we've both reviewed the list I can spout my opinions.

This is the first year that the Academy has nominated 10 movies for best picture instead of 5. Now 5 more movies can slap the "Academy award nominated" label on the front of their DVDs. I'm not clear on other reasons. I heard something about wanting to draw in more of the mainstream crowd (i.e. most of America that has never seen Precious or A Serious Man) by nominating some mainstream movies (e.g. The Blind Side and Up). That's not to say these "mainstream" movies don't have merit. It does confuse me how "Up" can be nominated for both Best Animated Feature Film and Best Picture.

I need to see about 10 movies to be up to speed by March 7th (the day of the awards show). Unfortunately 2 or 3 of the 10 movies are no longer in the theaters and are not yet on DVD. Since I haven't seen many of the movies in the running for one award or another, I can't properly judge them. I can, however, say that I'm pleased to see The Hurt Locker in the running for Best Picture. Conversely, I am not entirely pleased to see that Avatar is also in the running. Although Avatar is an innovative film in its presentation and concept, it doesn't seem like Academy Award quality. Do we really want a quasi-animated movie that tells the same old story of a white guy saving a tribal people representing the best film of our time? I'm not 100% that The Hurt Locker represents the best film of our time either but it does embrace an actual reality and makes us face it too. I'm sure many will disagree with me but oh well.

This year brings the fourth Best Director nomination ever for a woman: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. The three others were: Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003). No woman has ever won Best Director.

This year also brings only the second Best Director nomination for an African-American: Lee Daniels for Precious. The other was John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood (1991). No African-American has ever won Best Director.

I'll have to return to this topic after I've seen a few more films.