Project 365 here 365Pieces
Yeah, this post is almost two weeks late. Oh well…
So the Academy announced their nominations for what they thought were the best movies/actors/every other category the best part of two weeks ago and I have to say that, despite a few major snubs, they did a great job. As always, they nominated the films that were made to be nominated for awards shows, but 2010 was a great year for Oscar-bait. If I had my way and ran the academy the list would, of course, be completely different, but the Academy did a fine job of choosing from what they were offered. Full list of nominations here.
We’ll start with the nominations for Best Actor. I’ve seen four of the five nominated performances (and once True Grit comes out over here, I will be making it five) and each of them definitely deserved the nod. The front runner is surely Colin Firth for The King’s Speech. Now, I’ll have no problem if he wins because he really shone as Bertie, and let’s face it, he will win. All of the other performances were just as good though. The Academy love showy performances (hence Firth’s inevitable win) so it was a nice change to see the likes of Eisenberg and Bardem nominated here for their less flashy performances. Eisenberg’s layered, subtle and hilarious performance as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network was probably the most memorable male performance from the list but it sticks out because of it’s subtle nature. When Bardem was nominated for Biutiful I didn’t think much of it because I hadn’t seen the film but, now that I have, I am so happy they chose him. He was heartbreaking as a dying man trying to come to terms with leaving his kids behind and his turn as Uxbal could probably be the best piece of acting I will see in 2011. Franco was good in 127 Hours but it wasn’t as memorable as it should have been.
The only major snub in this category is Ryan Gosling for Blue Valentine. I say the only major once because the film was Oscar-bait. I’d have him in the list over Franco in a heartbeat, though. He was just devastatingly good. Some great performances that went unnoticed (but obviously were never going to be nominated) were Ryan Reynolds for Buried, the criminally underrated Aaron Eckhart for Rabbit Hole and, of course, Kodi Smit-McPhee for Let Me In. But basically, if I had to choose my five favourites it would look like this:
Eckhart really does deserve more attention for his role in Rabbit Hole so he’d get my Grand Prix for best actor but Firth’s performance is a great one, so that took his place. Firth will win and I’ll be happy if he does, but I’d rather Bardem for the proper award.
Now, onto the Best Actress award. Once again, I have seen four of the five nominated performances (I have yet to see The Kids Are All Right). Like the Actor category, they seem to have done an all round good job. My main problem, however, lies in what the academy define as a leading role. Let’s face it, Lesley Manville had a leading female role in Another Year, and while Ruth Sheen played the lead female character, what’s to say there can’t be two!? Manville had more lines than Sheen and in the end, the film is actually about Mary (Manville’s character)! It’s complete shite how she wasn’t nominated in this category but even if they didn’t consider her role to be leading, why wasn’t she nominated in the supporting category? A shoe-in with every critic/cinema goer who saw the film, this is arguably the biggest snub of the lot. And it was disappointing because normally the Academy eat Mike Leigh’s films up. Agh, a complete let down. The same could be said for Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit but I haven’t seen the film so I can’t argue. I have read the book, though, and the story centres on her and is told be her so something’s up there.
Ok, I had a tough time making this list but here are my favourite female performances for the movie year 2010:
There are two other ones I really wanted to list: Chloe Moretz in Let Me In (better acting in LMI than Kick-Ass, even though she stole the show in the latter) and Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. Ok, before you lose your heads, hear me out. While Whitney Able wasn’t as good as Lawrence, I am choosing my favourites and Able was heartbreaking in Monsters. Her portrayal as a lost woman was just… I don’t know. It was haunting. And yes, you’re probably right when you say Lawrence was better than Kidman too. However, I love those domestic dramas and Kidman was fantastic and hilarious as a woman holding it all inside. Natalie Portman will deservedly win the Oscar and I’ll be happy when she does but for me, Manville was robbed.
In terms of supporting actors and actresses I’m not too bothered. The Fighter is the apparent shoe in for both categories but I haven’t seen it, nor do I plan on. If I had my way, Andrew Garfield would have been nominated and won for The Social Network. John Hakwes for Winter’s Bone is a tricky one. I have practically forgotten his turn as Teardrop in Winter’s Bone but that might have been me not thinking his character was that important when he was first introduced to us. The big shocker is Jeremy Renner for The Town. Like, are you fucking kidding me? Just no. Give the nomination to Garfield. Or maybe Tom Hardy for Inception. He was great.
Supporting Actress should have had Lesley Manville so I already hate this category. I’ve only seen one of the nominees and that’s Helena Bonham Carter for The King’s Speech. I really don’t have much to say on this category seen as I haven’t seen most of them. I plan on seeing True Grit and Animal Kingdom though, so keep an eye on my twitter for reactions to those. I’d say I’ll end up loving Steinfeld in True Grit anyway. Also, I know I haven’t seen it, but it looks like Keira Knightley puts in a real corker of a performance in Never Let Me Go. I really think she’ll pull it out of the bag.
One of the more interesting categories (for me anyway) is Best Cinematography. I’ve seen four of the five nominees and I’m happy enough with them (from what I’ve seen from trailers/clips, True Grit looks like it really deserves it’s nom). I have some problems though. The cinematography in both Black Swan and The King’s Speech was slightly underwhelming. I think Black Swan is more deserving than TK’sS in this category but even still, I think there were far better looking films to choose from. Black Swan’s slightly hazy brown and greys worked well in context but it just seemed sort of thrown together. TK’sS’s nomination is, however, entirely undeserving. The cinematographer obviously said this: “HEY GUYS THIS IS A FILM SET IN LIKE THE OLDEN TIMES YEAH SO LET’S THROW A GREY AND BROWN FILTER IN THERE AND WHEN HE’S FEELING SAD WE’LL MAKE IT BLUE? SOUND GOOD? OK BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY 2K11 IN THE BAG!”
My favourites:
My ultimate choice here would be the criminally ignored (by everyone) Monsters. After that, Inception. Some other films that deserve a mention include Winter’s Bone (its gothic blacks and blues were mesmerising), The Town (it was just so wonderfully shot) and contrasting colours of Of Gods & Men. Rabbit Hole loooked quite well too, but overall it was a little too beige. Also, Tangled and How To Train Your Dragon had a lovely look about them.Tangled more so but HTTYD made great use of the idea of flying and the sky etc.
Thank you for putting up with my incoherent ramblings thus far… They’re about to get more incoherent though, because we’re onto the main event: Best Picture.
Overall they did a great job with their ten picks. I have seen seven of the ten nominees so I feel like I have a good enough of idea of what’s going on (in case you missed it, I haven’t seen The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right and True Grit). I can’t fault them on their choices from what I’ve seen: they’re all solid picks. I have a few problems though. How, for instance, can they nominate something (I know I haven’t seen it, but just let me have this rant) that looks as predictable and boring as The Fighter but snub original, moving films like Another Year and Buried. Yeah, Buried never really stood a chance of getting a nod but Another Year was surely in with a shot. The other major travesty here is the lack of Blue Valentine. I liked 127 Hours, but if I had to take a film off it would be that. I just wasn’t as emotionally involved as I should have been. Yes, Boyle pulled it off but I think Blue Valentine and Another Year were far superior films on every level. I would probably have Of Gods & Men and Biutiful in there, but I’m not sure if foreign language films qualify in the BP category. I’m happy to see Toy Story 3 on the list though. While I preferred Tangled, Toy Story 3 is a better fit in this sort of category.
There’s all the debate over whether or not The King’s Speech can do what nobody thought it could and beat The Social Network to be the winner of the Best Picture award. It’s looking pretty likely but it will be an absolute travesty if it happens. You all know that I’d have Inception win all of the awards but it’s obviously not going to win the Best Picture one. It’s a two horse race between TSN and TKS. The Academy love all that classy costume shite, and while The King’s Speech was a great film, it has nothing on the other front runner - The Social Network. The Social Network is complex, relevant, important, original and so many other things. The King’s Speech is.. well, what exactly? It’s a nice little costume drama about a King who overcomes a stutter. Is this relevant to anything? Yeah, it’s a heartwarming tale of friendship as well but we’ve seen it. All. Before. Wouldn’t it be better to see something exciting and new win at the Oscars, and change the game for years to come? The Social Network was the obvious choice to win, and for me it still is. I really hope the Academy make the right choice and choose originality and relevance over what they’re comfortable with. It would just make the Oscars a much more relevant and exciting event for years to come if something different like The Social Network (or even Inception - outside shot, people) won.
And now for the fun part. The snubs. I’ve mentioned some already but just wanna say them again to get them out of the way
and of course
What. Was. That. What was it? I am sorry but what on earth possessed you not to choose Nolan for this award? Of all the films that could have been chosen to have their director nominated, Inception would have been the most difficult to direct, let alone pull off. But what did Nolan do? He did it. He pulled it off. He made a masterpiece. But once again they choose comfort (hello David O’Russell) over greatness. I would have been fairly pissed off he had been nominated and lost (but maybe not to Fincher) but to not even nominate him? What are you doing Academy? He would have been my choice to fucking win the award - I guessed a nomination would have been obligatory.
Ok, it’s pretty obvious from the mess that I’ve just written that I take the whole awards season thing far too seriously. I needed to get all of this off my chest though, so if you’ve read this far - you need a life almost as badly as I do!
