I can't imagine Aaron Sorkin losing for Best Adapted Screenplay. I think there are arguments against it, primarily the fact that he's terrible at writing for women, but the dialogue carried that movie for me.
I dont think you could be more wrong about the movie being about Jeff Bridges. That girl drove the movie, even if she didnt have a text book story ark, which Cogburn didnt have either. I think Bridges did very well sinking into his role and deserves a nom for it, as far as the story went it was all about the girl. Bridges character was important but you really just wanted him to trade sassy barbs with Lebouf and murder people not that his story was particularly engaging. Im also curious on how lead/supporting actor/actress is determined by the academy. Do they have a set of standards to determine if the role was a lead or not? There were no other prominent women roles in the movie so Id think that would make her lead actress but if they do consider another characters role more important, even if it was a man in the role, would she automatically be labeled a supporting character?
Good question. For instance, in my one of my favorite films ever, "Network", Faye Dunaway won Best Actress (and her performance was insanely good) despite being having two male characters more central to the story than herself. But more recently, in a film like "Up in the Air", both actresses were up for Best Supporting, and ditto for Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler". I agree that he is a mortal lock to win, but probably more because he is a darling of the Hollywood Left and they want to reward their own.
Going on my picking method, choosing the media's forgone conclusions to who is going to win what beforehand, Sorkin is the shoe in. Was the dialog snappy? Were there some pithy fast paced exchanges between characters? Yes and yes, but I really think he is over rated. Aside from the dialog there was nothing that noteworthy about his script. Story structure, characterizations(aside from Zuckerbergs character), nothing else stood out at all. Honestly the fact that you have to focus on the machine gun delivery of lines does not make it smart.
Yeah but in both of those examples, the women involved weren't anywhere near as central to the actual story as Faye Dunaway was. I don't quite agree when you say that the two men starring in "Network" were more central to the story. Perhaps more central to the actual movement of the plot, I would have to say the heart of the story wholly concerned Dunaway. She was a "lead" actress in that role, and she filled it easily (with one of the greatest female performances ever, fuck you Streep), something that I can't say for any women in "Up in the Air" and "The Wrestler." Now, I haven't seen "True Grit" yet, but from everything I've read about it, I can't help but think the girl falls under the "lead" category as well, if only because the actual heart of the story concerns her.
I completely agree; without Diane Christenson, there is no "Network", but the same is true of Max Schumacher and Howard Beale, and they had more scenes and screen time. And yes, that was one of the most incredible performances I have ever seen, female or not. And good point about the other three female performances being more expendable.
I think the consideration, and ultimately, conclusion of who is considered "Best" or "Best Supporting" is more than likely political like most Academy decisions. Take the 1965 version of Othello. As is noted toward the end of the entry, As KIMaster said of Faye Dunaway Network, the same could easily be said of Iago in Othello. The overall story of Othello is just as much, if not moreso, Iago's story since he is the driving influence behind the story's events. And it's not like they can't have actors in the same movie compete in the same category. As this article points out, it has happened plenty of times before.
Who i think will win, not necessarily who should. Picture: The Social Network Director: Fincher Actor: Firth Actress:Bening Supp. Actor: Bale Supp. Actress:Steinfeld Other thoughts - I don't think Timberlake will be nominated. If a supp. actor is nominated from Social Nework, I'd imagine it will be Garfield.
Was that just a slow year when Vera Farirmigialilaia was nominated for Up in The Air? The movie was alright, a kind of a downer and a tad overrated, but I didnt think her character or performance stood out at all. The younger girl was a lot better. Im guessing the politics of Hollywood had something to do with it? (aka suck the epidermis off of Jason Reitmans indie dick?) She was a lot better in The Departed. Someone get ahold of El Tee, if there is one person who can explain the lead/supporting metrics it's him.
I thought the exact opposite; the younger girl (Anna Kendrick) wasn't just unexceptional, but awful and a major detriment to the film. (Both her performance and the way the character was written) I was however very impressed by Vera Farmiga. From the films I had seen that year, that was definitely one of the better female performances. At the very least, she was better than Sandra Bullock, who won "Best Actress" for a nothing role in a nothing movie. Is he very popular among Hollywood circles? I assume he doesn't need the Oscar buzz boost, because his indie films have all been enormously profitable, something exceedingly rare in that genre nowadays. Where is that guy, anyways? Hopefully not trampled to death in a tragic accident at a Sugar Ray concert.
Just watched a great documentary that will probably end up getting nominated this year: Exit through the Gift Shop. It's about a French amateur filmmaker named Thierry Guetta who starts putting together this documentary on street art. At one point, he meets Banksy, the secretive British graffiti artist (who did these incredible tags). Long story short, Banksy takes over film making duties and Guetta starts his career as an artist in LA, and what follows is this documentary. Highly, highly recommend -- really funny and incredibly insightful. One of the top 3 movies I've seen this year, and probably the funniest actually (shitty year for funny movies, though). Anyone else seen any good Oscar-potential docs this year? I've heard good things about Inside Job, Waiting for Superman, and Restrepo, in particular.
Skip Waiting for Superman; it's not often I agree with public school teachers, but this documentary was another example of brain-dead sensationalism (it's the awful teachers who are at fault for inferior education! Simple solution! Replace them with good ones!), instead of digging deeper, and asking "why", or "what happens in cases where...?" I don't know anything about Inside Job, and I'm very excited about seeing Restrepo myself.
Worth noting that the Golden Globes were last night, and while usually the GG's and the Oscars don't correlate, I think they will this year. I won't change much from my original predictions, except to say that it's looking like David Fincher will win for Best Director. We'll have to wait for the DGA's to pick their best director (really good indicator for the Oscars), but I'm guessing that's how it'll end up. I'm still hoping for Nolan, but it's looking less likely. Other than that, there's a good 90% chance the Oscars follow the formula of The Social Network, Fincher, Firth, Portman, Steinfeld, Bale. There's a chance Nolan upsets Fincher and that Melissa Leo upsets Steinfeld for Best Supporting Actress (Leo won at the Golden Globes last night, although Steinfeld wasn't even nominated), but the others are basically locks. For the writing awards, The Social Network is basically a lock for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it's looking like The King's Speech or Inception will win for Best Original Screenplay. By the way, watched Restrepo last night and it was fucking awesome. Both Restrepo and Exit through the Gift Shop are in my top 5 films of the year.
Exit Through the Gift Shop was the best 86-minute 'Fuck You' that I have ever seen. An absolute must-watch.
Nominees are out. I win my bet: Best Supporting Actress Amy Adams, The Fighter Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech Melissa Leo, The Fighter Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit Jackie Weaver, The Animal Kingdom Best Supporting Actor Christian Bale, The Fighter John Hawkes, Winter's Bone Jeremy Renner, The Town Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech Best Actress Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone Natalie Portman, The Black Swan Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine Best Actor Javier Bardem, Biutiful Jeff Bridges, True Grit Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network Colin Firth, The King's Speech James Franco, 127 Hours Best Director Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan David O. Russell, The Fighter Tom Hooper, The King's Speech David Fincher, The Social Network Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit Best Original Screenplay Another Year - Mike Leigh The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson Inception - Christopher Nolan The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg The King's Speech - David Seidler Best Adapted Screenplay 127 Hours - Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt True Grit - Joel & Ethan Coen Winter's Bone - Debra Granik & Anne Rossellini Best Foreign Film Biutiful (Mexico) Dogtooth (Greece) In a Better World (Denmark) Incendies (Canada) Outside the Law (France) Best Animated Film How to Train Your Dragon The Illusionist Toy Story 3 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
I don't put much stock put into Hollywood backslapping. I just like to see true talent acknowledged and rewarded. But these guys keep FUCKING Christopher Nolan. No Director nod? He should have swept for every eligible category. They fucked him and his brother out of Screenplay on Dark Knight, they fucked him out of director/picture/screenplay on The Prestige (possibly the best movie that year, easily top 5 of the decade), and maybe a Director nod on Dark Knight.
I admire Nolan for some very specific reasons (his commitment to practical SFX, an eye for striking images), being a great director or screenwriter isn't really one of them. I agree with you on Prestige being worth at least a nod, but his big action epics since then just haven't been really great films. Dark Knight was 40 minutes longer and much more convoluted than it ever needed to be. Inception was about as subtle as a brick to the head. It was half expository dialog and half fighting/explosions. Mostly it just suffered from lack of imagination. There were so many possibilities but it ended up playing out like the summer blockbuster that it truly was. I guess he started it 10 years ago but the climax of the film is the Ice Fortress Level that we've seen so many times before? Ellen Page plays origami with the streets of Paris but does nothing that interesting for the rest of the movie. Leo's wife's name is Mal? Oh. She's supposed to be evillll. I see. Never mind the fact that Nolan likes to use 8 shots for what could be accomplished in 2 or 3. I mean, I really liked those movies while I was seeing them on an IMAX screen because they were the popcorn films that we all love except more original and technically more impressive (a minimum of shitty CGI) than virtually every action blockbuster for 5 years. Kind of like The Matrix. A great action film, but no one except trenchcoat wearing nerds believes it was snubbed for Best Picture in 99.
I agree that TDK should not have won best picture, but where are you finding these 40 minutes that should have been cut? Are you saying that just because Tucker did(sorry, have to ask)? For most people watching it was entertaining the entire way through. I don't see what's wrong with a longer movie as long as it can consistently hold the viewer's interest. I find it strange that you go after Inception for it's obvious strengths. That was probably the most original movie of the year (well ok, that might be pushing it because I haven't seen all of them, but it was definitely original). Exactly which movies had an ice fortress in a deep level of a dream sequence as it's climax? I guess you could say that there's an explosion, but that's so generic and vague it hardly takes away from the scene being original.
I saw TDK twice in the theaters and the second time I was really feeling the length. I don't think anyone would argue that the Joker/Batman conflict wasn't the best part of the movie. Sometimes in film less is more, and the simplest plots can be great because they allow characters to grow and the audience to fully process the dynamics at work. The Nolan(s) kind of crams a whole lot of stuff into the screenplay and attempts to make it all work by tying it together with big splosions. So not only did we have the Joker vs. Gotham's inhabitants, Joker vs. Batman, Joker vs. the Mob, Dent vs. the Mob, Dent vs. Wayne and Two-Face vs. Batman, Rachel vs. Wayne then Batman, Morgan Freeman vs. Wayne, and finally Gotham vs. Batman - we got an attempt to create a parable of the post 911 world with heavy handed metaphors for suicide bombing and wiretapping. Oh, and also kidnapping, torture, financial and political corruption, murder, assassination and terrorism. Does that not seem a tad excessive for an action film designed primarily for entertainment? Inception takes place in our dreams, which we all know are extremely fucked up and abstract. I find it absurd that the deepest level of the dude's dream consisted of people in white camo with automatic weapons and snowmobile chases and a big concrete bunker on an ice mountain. Before that, we see some martial arts in a fancy hotel and a chase sequence through some generic urban environment and a gunfight at an abandoned warehouse. Oh, and lots of explosions. The riot in Mumbai or Somalia or wherever, did we really need to see like 5 cars explode? How many fucking times have we seen that shit in action movies? And this is supposed to be a film about one of the most complex and unknown realms that we can imagine. A movie about dreaming is not in itself original in any way. It's what you can do with an essentially limitless version of reality that makes the film and Nolan just didn't do much with his possibilites. We see Ellen Page do some interesting things and she's supposed to be like this genius fabricator. They even take her along in case they need her unique and valuable talent. But she does nothing memorable except shout expository lines for the rest of the film. Big important rule in film: show, don't tell. We're told that Leo loves his kids, that Page is a valuable asset to the team, and that the dream world is intricate and vast. But we aren't shown these things through the visuals. What we are shown is lots of cool looking fighting and destruction, which makes it a good action film.