Movie Reviews from the Dark

Greetings again from the darkness.  Announcement Day for the Oscars is always fun!  Arguing about who got a nom that they didn’t deserve? Who was snubbed?  Were politics involved? (Yes, always).  Pleasant Surprises? Disappointments?  All that makes for indigestion-inducing lunchtime banter … and the ceremony (the 83rd) is still 33 days away! So below are just a few of my observations and reactions to today’s announcements … these are NOT my predictions.  At the end, there are two links.  One to my Best of 2010 list, and the other to a full list of nominations.  
 
1. BEST PICTURE: thrilled to see Winter’s Bone get a nom (4 in total).  It’s a  shame more people didn’t see this little film (box office less than $7 million) during it’s theatrical run. It’s very compelling and features two of the best performances of the year.  Toy Story 3 (my favorite film of the year) got nominated for both Best Picture and Best Animated Feature … and it deserves both.  Other than that, I just don’t have much to say about this category as it was pretty easy to predict (except for Winter’s Bone vs. The Town).  Not a year for great movies, but there were plenty of good ones!
 
2. DIRECTOR: OK, this one actually bothers me.  How does Christopher Nolan (pictured) get snubbed AGAIN?  I certainly understand how some people don’t like his movie Inception, but it was nominated for Best Picture and it, more than any other film on the list, is clearly a director’s film.  Mr. Nolan is an amazing filmmaker who has somehow ended up on the “naughty” list for Academy voters.  With ten Best Pic nominees and only five Best Director nominees, there will always be some terrific directors who are left out.  Nolan should not have been one.  If you ask me who should have been left off for Nolan, my answer is David O. Russell for The Fighter.  It is a terrific movie, but we all know this has been Mark Wahlberg’s pet project for almost a decade.
 
3. LEAD ACTOR: Two rarities here: a Lead Actor nomination for a non-English speaking role (Javier Bardem) and back-to-back years (Jeff Bridges).  Bardem’s film Biutiful will just start gaining release this upcoming weekend, and Bridges was terrific in the Rooster Cogburn role that won John Wayne his only Oscar.  While this is not a list of my predictions, it seems pretty clear that Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) is the lead horse in this race.  I had hoped Robert Duvall (Get Low) might sneak in, but the buzz of The Social Network got Jesse Eisenberg some recognition. It will also be interesting to see how they handle James Franco’s (127 Hours) nomination since he is also one of this year’s co-hosts!
 
4. LEAD ACTRESS: Was relieved that Julianne Moore did not get a nomination.  I thought both she and Annette Bening overacted in their roles as lesbian parents in The Kids Are All Right.  Ms. Bening did get a nom and may get the win (vs Natalie Portman) since she has been wrongfully overlooked in the past. The other three nominees were all fantastic, but in movies very few people actually saw.   Jennifer Lawrence (pictured, Winter’s Bone) is my breakout star of the year.
 
5. SUPPORTING ACTOR AND ACTRESS:  Along with Jennifer Lawrence, three of my six favorite performances this year all belong to women in this category – Melissa Leo (The Fighter), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), and Jacki Weaver (pictured Animal Kingdom).   My other two favorite performances are also noted in this category for the men – Christian Bale (The Fighter) and John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone).  I would not have picked Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech), but it is her best work since A Room with a View.
 
6. FILM EDITING.  I know … you don’t realy care about this category, but I must mention the major snub of Inception (Lee Smith).  Whether you like the film or not, there is no argument to how well it is edited.  Not only should have been nominated, but should have been the clear front runner.  Bah.
 
7. SCREENPLAY : only oddity is that Black Swan was not nominated, and in it’s place was Mike Leigh’s Another Year.  The rest of the nominations followed the Best Picture list.
 
8. DOCUMENTARY: some will argue that Waiting for Superman should have been nominated.  I believe that argument is based on the importance of the topic, rather than the quality of the film.  Very cool that Exit Through the Gift Shop scored a nomination.  Banksy.
 
9. VISUAL EFFECTS: the third biggest snub belongs to Tron: Legacy.  The tidal wave opening scene in Hereafter was amazing, but the entire Tron film was a study in spectacular special effects.  I believe the Academy voters took it’s brilliant production for granted.
 
Sure there are some minor quibbles, but for the most part, this year’s nominations were pretty easy to predict.  That said, the eventual winners might not be so clear cut.  I will post my Oscar predictions as we get closer to the ceremony.  In the meantime, let me know what you think.  Did your favorite get snubbed?  Did one you hated get nominated?  This is much more fun to complain about than your job!!

Oscar Nominations: http://oscar.go.com/nominations

Best of 2010: https://moviereviewsfromthedark.wordpress.com/annual-bests-2/best-of-2010/

(3-8-10) Greetings again from the darkness.  Yes, I watched every moment of last night’s Academy Awards presentation.  Mostly because that’s what I do every year at this time.  However, this year, there was a bit of anticipation as we had been led to believe that this year’s show would be something unique – a break from the past!

So imagine my surprise when the show opened with a musical number from Neil Patrick Harris!  Not taking anything away from Mr. Harris, but this felt oddly familiar to the opening from past years.  Then the co-hosts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, came out for their duo-logue.  Together, they “worked the room” poking and prodding the key nominees.  Some of it worked and some of it didn’t.  The two best jokes came from Mr. Martin.  He linked Precious to his first movie The Jerk, stating they both got their start as poor black kids.  Even better was his exchange with Christoph Waltz who played a Jew hunter in Inglorious Basterds.  Martin congratulated Waltz for the mother lode as he encouraged him to look around the room.  Pretty funny.

There were some terrific moments and some very odd ones … plus a couple of just painful ones.  Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win Best Director, and she received it from Barbra Streisand, who always felt she had been slighted for direction of Yentl.  But did they really need to accompany Ms. Bigelow with Helen Reddy‘s “I am Woman”?  The John Hughes tribute was very well done, but it begged the question of why now and why him?  So many Hollywood legends have passed away and they have traditionally been recognized with only a photo or two during a montage on the show.  Personally, I like this idea very much, but question why Mr. Hughes is worthy, while so many others have not been.  The standing ovation for Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman seemed to underscore my point.  Hollywood types long to acknowledge the greats among themselves.  Too bad they weren’t allowed onstage.

The Horror Film clips were most welcome, but again it seemed odd, as the Academy historically ignores this genre (Silence of the Lambs, The Exorcist are two exceptions).  Speaking of horror, how about the “Kanye West-type” moment during the Documentary Short presentation?  The producer jumped on stage and interrupted the director’s thank you speech with a wild, raucous, rambling mess of words.  My guess is there is more to this story.

I did find it funny that during Mo’Nique‘s acceptance speech, a quick cut to Samuel L. Jackson in the audience perfectly captured his rolling of the eyes.  Much less funny was the less-than-entertaining interpretative dance number for the Original Score nominations.  Not sure I am smart enough to connect the 1980’s robot dance moves with the musical score of Up. Maybe I was alone in this disconnect?  Can’t let it go without making sure everyone knows Sandra Bullock won her first Oscar the day after she was awarded the Razzie for her work in All About Steve.  She becomes the first to win Best and Worst in the same year.

My Oscar predictions were very solid (especially in the key categories), but not perfect.

Correct predictions: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Animated Film, Score and Song.

Incorrect predictions: Foreign Language Film (this was a shocker), Cinematographer, Costume, both Shorts

So, another year in the books.  Don’t worry, next year’s show will be much different from this years.  If you believe that, you will also believe that James Cameron is really upset for not winning one of the top two awards for Avatar. My guess is that he is quite satisfied in knowing that it is approaching $3 BILLION in worldwide box office.  Wow!