OSCAR FRENZY!
I haven't posted in a couple weeks- somehow between No Strings Attached and Yogi Bear I haven't had an enormous amount of motivation to go to the movies. The only thing that gets me through this abysmal month of movies is of course, the anticipation of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. And this year is a good one!
The Oscars are sticking with the precedent set last year, bumping the Best Picture nominees to ten. I really wouldn't be against ten Best Picture nominees, if it weren't so painfully obvious which movies are the five that are getting "honorable mention" noms (Inception, Toy Story 3, Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, Winter's Bone). I mean honestly, does anyone really think that Winter's Bone is going to win Best Picture?
No real surprises in the nominations, but plenty of grievances. First of all, there's no excuse that Hailee Steinfeld wasn't nominated for Best Lead Actress. She was by far the main character in True Grit, and it's extremely condescending to think that she can't be nominated for Best Actress, seemingly because of her age.
Also, there are some major snubs this year, most notably for Shutter Island (the better Leo DiCaprio behemoth) and The Town. The Town received one nomination for Supporting Actor for Jeremy Renner, and Shutter Island received zero. Meanwhile, Alice in Wonderland, the worst and ugliest movie of the year, is sitting pretty with three nominations for Art Direction, Costume Design, and Visual Effects.
Here's hoping that Toy Story 3 wins Best Picture, but everyone knows that it won't happen. The Best Animated Feature category renders its Best Picture nomination pointless, and I highly doubt that this will be the year to break the trend. Sorry Pixar.
PREDICTIONS
Best Picture- The Social Network
Best Director- David Fincher
Best Actor- Colin Firth
Best Actress- Natalie Portman
Best Supporting Actor- Christian Bale
Best Supporting Actress- Hailee Steinfeld
Best Documentary- Exit Through the Gift Shop
Best Animated Feature- Toy Story 3
Best Editing- The Social Network
Best Original Screenplay- Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right
Best Adapted Screenplay- Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
James Franco and Anne Hathaway are hosting, an interesting pairing that should be pretty fun. Harry Osbourne and Catwoman! But in the end, I don't care how good they are- they're no Billy Crystal....
Matt, interesting that you're going against the more recent assumptions of everyone that The King's Speech will sweep Best Picture and Best Director, etc. Truthfully, I really want The Social Network to win (since Toy Story 3 cant).
ReplyDeleteI'm still miffed that Christopher Nolan didn't get a Directing nod and Andrew Garfield didn't get one for Supporting Actor for his work in Network. He made the movie for me. Also, completely agree about Steinfeld. She CARRIED that movie. Absolutely mesmerizing. Stupid Oscar politics.
Also ridiculous that Inception didn't get a nomination for Editing. Are you KIDDING? And Scott Pilgrim was all about Editing and VFX so those snubs stung (maybe a little biased cuz it was my favorite film of 2010).
Should definitely be interesting.
JP- thanks for commenting! Yes, Andrew Garfield was snubbed, and so was Scott Pilgrim. Can't say I agree about Christopher Nolan though. He was snubbed in 2008 for The Dark Knight. This year, not so much...
ReplyDeleteMatt is that one weirdo who hated Inception, JP.
ReplyDeleteOne in every group.
Matt- You hated Inception?
ReplyDeleteYou make me sad.
I wouldn't say I hated it, but I do think it's supremely overrated. I do like how ambitious it is, but to me it falls flat where it counts (story, characters).
ReplyDeleteIt just felt hollow, and none of the characters were particularly sympathetic or relatable. For as inventive and intellectual as parts of it were, too much of the film reverts to mindless action movie shoot-outs, car chases, and explosions.