Oscars 2011: Who Should Win (even if I didn’t see all the movies)

Published on February 25th, 2011 in: Movies, Upcoming Events |

By Jesse Roth

I like to think of the movie awards season like American politics: Millions all over the country offering up their baseless, uneducated opinions on various candidates and platforms, supporting them for all the wrong reasons and then bitching about the outcome, even when their candidate is declared the winner. As a dedicated fan of the moving picture, I figured it was time to throw my hat into the ring, writing my own pointless article regarding the upcoming Oscars. Throughout the year, I’ve had the chance to see many (but not all) of the nominated films and performances, and base my picks on a myriad of criteria, ranging from the educated to the downright irrational. Then again, I’m only following some of the same rationale used by those who are actually mailed official Academy ballots.

*Movies I have seen are denoted with an asterisk.

Inception

Best Picture

Black Swan*
The Fighter*
Inception*
The Kids Are All Right*
The King’s Speech*
127 Hours
The Social Network*
Toy Story 3*
True Grit*
Winter’s Bone

The Fighter, Kings, Toy Story: all great movies, but I don’t think they should win the big prize. Black Swan and Kids were good, but not great. 127 Hours had a guy cutting his own arm off . . . Fuck that. True Grit was fantastic, but I have to say, Inception and The Social Network were the two (non-foreign) films that I left the theater thinking, “WOW” and kept talking about for days. To me, that’s a clear Best Picture nominee.

Now the problem: To whom do I give it? I iz struggling. Inception took me into a whole new concept, did so with good acting and (from what I remember) a decent script. Visually it was stunning. The Social Network took what was a rather mundane biopic and turned it into an exciting tale of nerd betrayal and pinpointed a culturally historical moment, perfectly capturing it and allowing us to relive what was a more “innocent” time (in retrospect). The acting performances were excellent, the script was (predictably) spot-on, and Fincher (as usual) did a great job directing. Sigh. I saw The Social Network more recently so it’s fresher in my head. Maybe watching Inception again will clear it up.

The Fighter

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale, The Fighter*
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town*
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right*
Geoffery Rush, The King’s Speech*

Ruffalo’s always reliable but I don’t think he gets the nod for this movie. I am the only one not surprised about Renner’s nomination for The Town. He is one of the best character actors out there and his “coming out” with The Hurt Locker last year was what should have given him the reward. I’m going to pass on him here, though. Bale and Rush (also always fantastic) were amazing in their roles. I have a feeling Rush will get it, but I’m going to go with Bale. You did not see Christian Bale in that role. You saw a down and out crackhead with little concept of the reality he was living in. His redemption at the end of the film was still rather unsettling. He was by far the best part of The Fighter, really the reason I would tell anyone to watch it. In the case of Rush, I’d probably just tell you to see The King’s Speech for ALL of the phenomenal performances.

The King’s Speech

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams, The Fighter*
Helena Bonham-Carter, The King’s Speech*
Melissa Leo, The Fighter*
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit*
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom*

OK, this category is spot-on. For once, I have seen all of the performances so I feel better picking. Amy Adams . . . meh. I feel like she doesn’t have a lot of range but for some reason she has ingratiated herself into the minds of voters. If she wins over ANYONE else in this category, it will be a damn shame. Melissa Leo is finally getting her recognition and that makes me happy (yay Homicide alums!). She is probably the number two reason behind Bale to see The Fighter, and unlike Bale, most people still don’t know who she is.

Bonham-Carter made me wanna fistbump the Queen Mother. Loved her take on the role of a character we thought we knew. Jacki Weaver’s nomination pisses me off. No, not because I don’t think she deserves it (in fact, when I saw Leo in The Fighter, I thought “It’s like the mom from Animal Kingdom!”) but because WHY IS THIS THE ONLY NOMINATION THIS MOVIE IS GETTING? Animal Kingdom knocked the wind out of me. Literally. I saw it with a group and none of us could say a word for minutes after leaving the theatre. This film should have at least been up for Best Foreign Film and really should be in the Best Picture mix. Hailee Steinfeld’s performance almost rivaled Jeff Bridges’ and she’s what? 14-15 years old? Part of me wants to see her get it, but I think I’m going to go with Bonham-Carter. But like I said, any of them (except freaking Amy) could win and I’d be thrilled.

The Social Network

Best Actor

Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit*
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network*
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech*
James Franco, 127 Hours

Jeff Bridges is so damn good at playing a scruffy old dude with a beard. In fact, True Grit is the movie he should win for, not what he did win for last year (Crazy Heart). Oh, had the Academy known they wouldn’t have to give him a pity award . . .

Colin Firth also gave another great Colin Firth performance playing a refined yet severely flawed British man that most of the female audience wants to defile (my grandmother included . . . nasty girl).

Alas, it should be Jesse Eisenberg, and not because he is my namesake. Like Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada, (meant to be a thinly veiled portrayal of Anna Wintour), Eisenberg took a famous person we all thought we knew, made it his own and made you forget you were watching a biopic. Yes, he had a good script to work with and great direction, but all that aside, he was Zuck. He was Jesse playing Zuck and you forgot that for 90 minutes.

Black Swan

Best Actress

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right*
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan*
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Ok, this one is tough because I haven’t seen all of the performances. Annette Bening did a good job, but this just wasn’t the fantastic movie the hype made it out to be.

Natalie Portman rocked her roll and I think she’s going to win. But was this performance a real stretch for her? Did I see her as anything but Natalie? Actually, yes. You really do believe her transition. Does she deserve to win? I really can’t say until I see these other films. For a moment, however, I’ll take a purely irrational stance about one of these roles I have not seen: I can’t fucking stand Nicole Kidman. I’ve never found her performances to be all that remarkable and from what I remember of this trailer, this movie was not going to be any different. I’d rather see “girl all my male friends want to do but, sorry, that dancer dude got to her first” get it over her.

True Grit

Best Director

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan*
David O. Russell, The Fighter*
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech*
David Fincher, The Social Network*
Joel Coen/Ethan Coen, True Grit*

Woohoo! Another category I have a legitimate say in! Aronofsky did a great job blending psychological torture and insanity with reality, leaving you momentarily confused as to where the main character stood on that continuum. Black Swan, however, is not one of his better films.

The Fighter is a great film, but not because of David O. Russell. The film’s strength, like The King’s Speech, is all in the amazing performances and when you have casts like that, I don’t think you need a whole lot of coaching. If anything, Russell is mostly known for just yelling and screaming at his famous casts. But I digress.

Fincher did a great job with The Social Network. Hell, his directing was the only good thing about Benjamin Button but it was not the most distinguishing feature of The Social Network.

True Grit was a western with a very distinguishable (yet still strangely subtle) Coen Brothers twist. The action scenes were impeccably directed and should be studied by other directors, who tend to muddle such things up (actually, Russell might want to take note; his boxing scenes in The Fighter weren’t all that fantastic). Fincher winning over the Bros. would not be a tragedy.

Toy Story 3

Best Screenplay—Adapted

Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours
Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network*
Michael Arndt, Toy Story 3*
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, True Grit*
Debra Granik and Anne Roselini, Winter’s Bone

Toy Story 3 made us bawl like babies because it reminded us that childhood ends and we’re forced to make a break, but will always have a hard time doing so. Seriously, just thinking about the end of that movie is going to cause me to cry. Damn you, Pixar! Damn you Tom Hanks! But does that earn you a best screenplay? Mehhhhh . . . I don’t think so.

True Grit and The Social Network were always supposed to have great screenplays; look who is writing them for chrissake!!! The Coen Brothers kick ass at working in that antiquated language, too (and this provided a better platform for showing it off than the freaking Ladykillers remake, though to this day I still sometimes bust out the “We must have waffles forthwith” line). But once again, Sorkin was a HUGE part of the success that was The Social Network. He took a boring-ass story and turned it into the most exciting film put out by these United Broke-Ass States in 2010. Dammit, Sorkin, stop writing so good! Uh, well!

The Kids Are All Right

Best Screenplay — Original

Mike Leigh, Another Year
Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, The Fighter*
Christopher Nolan, Inception*
Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right*
David Seidler, The King’s Speech*

Sigh. I feel weird speaking here. I have trouble remembering Inception‘s script and so I don’t want to make it my pick. Thinking back, however, the words of the characters were not the most memorable part of the movie.

The character-based nature of The King’s Speech did make you notice the script, but like I said before, the strength of that movie was more in what those actors did with their roles and the script given. Kids had some good dialog but I felt like it really tried too hard overall.

The Fighter convinced me I was in a dying Massachusetts down ravaged by economic disappointment and the failure of its heroes to rise above. It did so because of its strongest performance, but even Amy Adams was helped along by having some realistic and tragic words shoved down her gullet.

Dogtooth

Best Foreign Language Film

Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)*
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Algeria)

What the hell? I’m failing in my goal of becoming one of those assholes who only watches foreign films. Of course, I’ve already bitched about how Animal Kingdom should AT LEAST be on this list, but I guess Australia doesn’t count because they speak English or some shit. But wait, so does Canada. THE FUCK?!!? Anywho, I guarantee you Dogtooth is the most fucked up and creative film on this list. They made another world carved out of our society and left you WTF-ing for what? 90 minutes? And even beyond that. The performances were fantastic (never have I seen almost-thirty-somethings play naive and abused teens-to-early-twenties so well) and to this day, I still refer back to this movie and the humor/questions/memories it provided.

Best Animated Feature

How to Train your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3*

Why the hell do we have this category? “Best Pixar-like movie produced by Pixar or Pixar-like studio with another animated feature thrown in to make things legit”? I’ve heard The Illusionist was quite good, but it shares a title with that awful movie that came out the same time as the AMAZING Prestige (yeah, Christopher Nolan!), the one that also employed Jessica “why is she still around?” Biel. Toy Story 3 will get it because it made us cry and Ned Beatty was just so damn adorable and evil as a big purple bear. Another Homicide alum FTW!

Inside Job

Best Documentary

Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job*
Restrepo
Waste Land

Once again, I’ve only failed myself here. I, the lover of documentaries, managed to only see one of these films. I should have at least seen Restrepo but I kept thinking, “Wait, I think I saw The Hurt Locker last year, why do I want to see it again, sans Jeremy Renner? Oh, it’s a documentary? Ehhh.” I betcha it wins. Inside Job was good but once again, I haven’t seen the rest of these yet and feel weird picking one. But oh, what the heck.