Anyway- with THAT behind us- let's talk about who took home the awards!
Best Picture of the Year: After much anticipation, it has gone to The King's Speech. I won't pretend to be surprised or upset about this one. That movie had it all- a starstudded cast, without being A-List, witty dialogue, clever ways to keep the audience's attention, great music, costumes, makeup, editting, cinematography, etc. This film has literally swept the industry, not only because it's an "original" screenplay doing so well (Let's not forget, it is based on actual events, so it's technically a nonfiction adaptation) but this is a COMPLETELY off-the-book film. The industry's standard that they've slipt into sounds a lot like "Bigger and better than ever before!" If it's not an Epic, it's a Sequel. If it's not a sequel, it's based on a video game or a comic book. They want to shake the younger audience. With this film, they relied on the opinions of the mature audience, and not just on the middle school crowd who can't wait to see Avatar in 3D for the seventh time... this week. The King's Speech is a sign to writers, directors, and audiences, that America's film department is coming out if its agregious recession, and we're headed, again, for intellect.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth for The King's Speech. While I am proud of the middle-aged Firth for accepting this role, and what a surprise it was for him and for his friend and family, especially given his older age and working in Hollywood, I actually thought that Jesse Eisenberg was going to collect this one for The Social Network. I felt like that role was unlike anything he'd done, so far, and the character was so... GOOD. But, in large part, that character was good for his line and delivery. Eisenberg takes credit for the delivery, but not those lines- those are all writer, baby. So, Firth claimed the award, I'm sure in part by making a stammer easy and hard for us to watch at the same time. You go, Colin.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Nathalie Portman for Black Swan. I mean... of course! Nathalie, you are Captain Rule-a-Role. Everything I have ever seen that girl in, she takes a part, makes it COMPLETELY her own, and turns it into a ravenous beast that could rip out your throat. She's such a cute little thing, and a badass- a total oxymoron- but she's captivating, cinematic, and talented. You're right, Academy. Black Swan may not have been the best written, but it was certainly good for one thing: Nathalie and Mila. Need I say more?
Best Performance by Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale for The Fighter. Okay, so I still haven't seen this one. I rest judgment until I do see it, but let me just say... Mark Ruffalo is FIIINE and he did a fantastic job in The Kids Are Alright. I'm glad he was nominated, despite Bale taking it home- and what was up with his giant old-man beard? He beats his wife and kids and we have to forgive him, but the man beard? It's makin' it a little harder for me to forget the incident. Bale, try to be sexy at LEAST.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo for The Fighter. Again, I haven't seen this film. But personally- and we all know I didn't like the movie- I was rooting for Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit, a little bit. I mean, she's 14 and that performance was beyond her age as far as I'm concerned. Not to mention she looked great and was completely charming and optimistic the whole time. But, if this performance by Leo was really wonderful, as I will found out as soon as Netflix lets go of its hold on the DVD, then more power to her! Oh, and I did I mention, she was so flabbergasted that she swore on stage? The big one! She was "fucking" excited, man. Loved it.
Best Achievement in Directing: Tom Hooper for The King's Speech. Tommy... nice work. He must really be excited. He's won so many awards at this point, he could make a new suit out of them. And now that award season has ended, he gets to take them all home and make himself a shelf ripe with domination. Thank God he beat the Coen brothers, or I may never have watched the Oscars again. He must really be thanking his mother by now for enjoying Australian theater, so much.
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: David Siedler for The King's Speech. I completely support this win, though I feel bad for Christopher Nolan. He worked SO hard, for so long... but at least he lost to someone who worked equally as long and hard on his own screenplay. And let's not forget, Siedler was attracted to this story because he grew with- and overcame- a stutter. I'm sure this has been an incredibly emotional award season for him, knowing that his story has been shared so well and so thoughtfully. My condolences to Inception, however, who will not stand forgotten. In my mind, Nolan, you've already won so much just for being the only screenplay nominated which wasn't based on another story, or true events.
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network. Again, I say, of course. The fact that Toy Story 3 was even in this category shows me how desperate they were. But, aside from that, this film really was great. As I said to my boyfriend last night, however, I wish they'd get smarter with the writing award. Because writing is more than just a story. Some writers right excellent story pieces without so much thought for the dialogue, and vice versa. I wish they would break the category down a little further like they've done to music and sound. That would really be more precise, I feel. Because honestly, I felt that Winter's Bone had a better STORY than The Social Network, but the dialogue in this film could cut glass it was so sharp. Nonetheless, I support the decision, at least... until they break down the category further.
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Toy Story 3. I hope that no one was surprised about this. It was nominated for Best Picture of the Year for Christ's sake. Of course it was going to win for best animated picture. But, again, I don't think that's bad. The film was a good animated picture, for sure. I also was partial to How to Train Your Dragon, especially for the score which was really well-done, but Toy Story 3 did very well. So, kudos!
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: In a Better World (Denmark). I haven't seen any of the nominees for this category so far, but they included Biutiful (Mexico), Dogtooth (Greece), Incendies (Canada), and Outside the Law (Algeria). I plan on seeing them in the coming weeks, and will post about my responses to them, accordingly.
Best Achievement in Cinematography: Wally Pfister for Inception. Well, if nothing else, at least they finally saw the visual effect of the film. I was happy for this to take this award home, because it helps increase its notority, and the cinematography really was great, and the other films nominated were good, but not exeptional. There you go, Inception. It's going to be okay.
Best Achievement in Editing: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for The Social Network. I agree, the editting in this film was great. But, I'm not the best person to judge editing, so... I guess that's my only comment on that one. Moving along!
Best Achievement in Art Direction: Robert Stromberg and Karen O'Hara for Alice in Wonderland. Tim Burton's films are nothing if not artistic, so I felt that this award was well-placed, especially since- apart from Inception- the other nominees weren't especially artistic to me. The sets of this film are stunning, and colorful, and must have taken a good long time to make, so I concur. And, of course, they also took home Best Achievement in Costume Design (Collen Atwood). Again, it was one of the only nominees that really used elaborate costumes so again I say... of course; no contest.
Best Achievement in Makeup: Rick Baker and Dave Elsey for The Wolfman. I actually forgot about this film! I saw it back in January or February of 2010, I believe, and I completely forgot about it. The makeup is wonderful however, and it's also a decent thriller/horror film if you wanted to see it for that. I enjoyed it. It makes good stabs at mental institutions and tall, dreary castles. It is, of course, a remake.
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network. I absolutely agree with this decision, and I watched the film last night, which made me re-agree. That score is entirely befitting the piece, but can still sound epic when it stands alone. Inception's score was really, really good too, but I think that it's a little too similar to The Dark Night to really stand by itself, whereas Reznor and Atticus's work here is a little more... not original, but noticable, I would say.
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song: Randy Newman's "We Belong Together," from Toy Story 3. I'm a little disappointed about this one. I honestly thought that A.R. Rahman and Dido's song "If I Rise," 127 Hours, was better than this one, and that maybe it wasn't chosen because of that film was less popular, or because those artists are less well-known, but the song itself was better and harder hitting to me. Not to mention, I just don't see anything that speical about Randy Newman's voice. The singer in the other piece had a lot of talent. So, boo Academy.
Best Achievements in Sound Mixing and Sound Editing: Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick, and Richard King for Inception. I don't know much about sound, but power to Inception for packing in the smaller scale awards! It certainly sounded good to me.
Best Achievement in Visual Effects: Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Pete Bebb, Paul J. Franklin for Inception. I mean... duh. Paris on the ceiling.
Last of the awards I wll mention: Best Documentary, Feature: Inside Job. This is another category that I have yet to see any of the nominees for, but will be seeing in the coming weeks. So don't worry your pretty little heads, I WILL have an opinion!! I plan on it. :)
Those are the awards! For those of you looking for a complete list of the winners, since I stopped before the shorts, you can find a complete one at IMDB.com, as well as a list of all the potentials- nominees- who did not take home an Oscar. As I said, I'll still be watching some of the nominees in the coming weeks, so look back for those reviews! Award season is over, but a new realm of films to judge is about to begin! I'll be here to keep you posted on my feelings, until next year, when we do this all over again.
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