First, I'll start out by reflecting on last year's Academy Awards, in which they doubled the nominations for best Picture, from 5, to 10. This coming because they snubbed the dickens out of The Dark Knight in 2009 by nominating stupid movies like The Reader and The Curious Case of Benjamin Fuckface. Now I think that it's good that the Academy recognized their lunacy in not including The Dark Knight in the nominations for Best Picture, BUT I think it's even stupider to have 10 nominations. Movies like The Hurt Locker are up against, Up, which don't get me wrong, I bawled my eyes out like a girly man during, but shouldn't be in the same category because they have no chance of winning.
That being said I was very pleased with the winners last year and felt that the Academy got it right. The low budget tough as nails The Hurt Locker outmanned the highest grossing film of all time, Dances With Wolves II: The Destruction of Hometree. While Avatar didn't fail to titillate (haha tit) it's audience with breathtaking imagery caused by new groundbreaking 3D technology and special effects, it was a story that wasn't only cheesy, but was at the same time overplayed. At first glance everyone was captivated by the tall blue people and thought it was cool that they were speaking in some dumb made up language, but at the end of the day it was just Pocahontas with blue people fornication. The Hurt Locker was clearly the superior film and to the few that saw it, they knew it to be the correct one.
Now on to this year.
I've seen 9 out of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture at this years Oscars and they are all great films. The only one I haven't seen is The Kids Are Alright which isn't because I'm a homophobe, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Even though all films stand in their own right as a great movie, there are two clear favorites that are in a duel for best picture, The King's Speech, and The Social Network. I don't think any other film out of the lot stands a chance at toping either of these and this is why.
The King's Speech is an absolutely wonderful film that hits right on all cylinders. The acting carries the wonderful dialogue and is filled with enriching characters that are joyous to watch. They take what could be arduous and painful, and somehow make it lighthearted and inspiring. It's also taken home a slough of awards already, including the BAFTA (The Limey Oscars) Best Film award which is one of the highest regarded awards.
The Social Network is another film that is perfectly executed. The screenplay by Aaron Sorkin is to die for. Even though Sorkin's dialogue is almost too perfect to be considered realistic, it's like poetry in how well it's written. A lot of that has to do with the way it's performed and the acting brings that out, as well as David Fincher who was the perfect person to put the movie to a screen. It won Best Motion Picture-Drama at the Golden Globes and has received critical acclaim at nearly all award ceremonies this year.
Which will win? My guess is The King's Speech which has picked up momentum ever since The Social Network won at the Golden Globes. Speech is legitimately a better movie all around with acting that over powers most every other movie in the mix. The Social Network has an intangible factor contributing to it's success and that is how culturally relevant a movie about fuckface is. I mean Facebook rather, sorry. Facebook is the world's most widely used website and it is now valued at over 50 billion dollars. A guy, who's under the age of thirty, created a website that is valued at more than 50 billion dollars. That's the thing that makes The Social Network stand on the same level as The King's Speech.
Personally I think Black Swan was the best movie of the year. It was such a haunting movie carried by an incredible performance by Natalie Portman who took it to the next level. It takes all the beauty of ballet and makes them ugly and demented but you can't take your eyes off the screen... Especially when she and Mila Kunis are having their "girl time".
It will be interesting to see which one wins. I feel like either way I guess it's going to be the opposite, but to not pick one would make me a dick, so I'm going to say The Social Network wins just because that's what my gut was telling me at the Globes so maybe it will be that way again.
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech.
Why? He was nominated last year for A Single Man, and many people thought he should've won then. That and he was better than everyone else. Sorry Franco, you can host the Oscars but that doesn't mean you'll win one this year.
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan.
Why? She muff-dove herself in a lesbotronic sex scene that I had no problem with.
Best Supporting Actor: Christain Bale, The Fighter.
Why? I hate method acting but if he had to smoke crack to portray Dickie Eklund then kudos to you, you deserve it. Geoffrey Rush deserves some recognition for his work in The King's Speech as well though.
Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech.
Why? Well this one is a toss up between Melissa Leo for the Fighter and her tenacious portrayal of Micky Ward's mother. Her fighting is much more interesting than Markie Mark's. I just feel that they will give as much to The King's Speech as possible (especially if it doesn't win Best Picture).
Director: Christopher Nolan, Inception.
Wait- Oh yeah they snubbed a nomination for him again this year. Shitheads. It will probably go to Fincher or Hooper though, probably whichever one win's Best Picture.
Cinematography: The King's Speech.
Why? Because they like to suck that movie's dick. Should be Inception because no blockbuster's look anything quite like Nolan's.
Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Why? I just put this "why?" here to not break from convention, but really there's no contest.
Original Screenplay: David Seidler, The King's Speech.
Why? Because the Academy likes to give all the awards to only a few movies. Even though this Award should go to Christopher Nolan for Inception.
Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network.
If he doesn't win, then it's just more affirmation that the world is going to end in 2012.
Original Score: The King's Speech.
Really it should go to Inception or The Social Network because those are the best score's I've heard it years, but I'm willing to bet that I'll be disappointed on this one.
There are a bunch of other Awards that I don't feel like getting to. Basically Inception will win all things that have to do with sound or visual effects. It should win Art Direction too, but it wont because the Academy is dumb with those kinds of awards. If Alice in Wonder-hole wins best Costuming then I hope the Kodak theater collapses into the San Andreas fault in a massive earthquake.
There is one movie that will be overlooked for most of the Awards, and that is Winter's Bone. It's up for a lot of awards but it won't win anything and will be mostly forgotten once the awards season is over and it's sad because it's a truly haunting movie about the crime and underbelly of rural Missouri and about just how awful that can be. John Hawkes performance in it is chilling, and I'm happy he got a nomination for best supporting actor. If anyone could should knock the cracked out Christian Bale off of his best supporting actor throne, it would be him.
Now we'll just have to sit back and see what happens at the Awards tomorrow and hope the Academy get's it right.
But that's probably too much to ask for.
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