Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

WHO I'D PICK:

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN- INCEPTION

Another movie I caught flack for being opinionated about.  I'm sorry, but I fail to see how Inception tops Nolan's masterpieces Memento and The Dark Knight (the ignoring of the latter at the Oscars two years ago may be a good reason for this one's nod).  However, I must admit that the premise of this mind-bending thrill ride is pretty cool, and it has a strong cast of deeply developed characters to boot. In my view, this one puts the Matrix to shame.  My beef with Inception was all the hype it got, I truly believe the material to be well worth it's weight in Oscar gold.  

FAVORITE MOMENT: The multi-layered consequences of dream interaction involve a car flipping on its head with a fearless Joseph Gordon Levitt battling constructs in a rotating hallway.  What else?

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

DAVID SEIDLER- THE KING'S SPEECH

King's Speech is interesting, has well-rounded characters, and dialogue that says so much, sometimes, forgive the pun, by saying so l-l-l-l-l-little.  Keep in mind that, although lauded, Inception is still just another summer blockbuster, something Academy voters have a hard time marking the box for.  One the other hand, who really knew anything about King's Speech before the nominees were announced?  The independent edge, as well as the many mentioned cliches of voting trends, give King's Speech a big head start in this race, but I do believe that things could get interesting.

FAVORITE MOMENT: Is it sad I kind of enjoy Bertie's frustrating string of profanity in a particularly hot blooded therapy session?

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

WHO I'D PICK:

AARON SORKIN- THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Aaron Sorkin doesn't have a lot of screen credits to his name.  But what he lacks in quantity...you get the rest.  Sorkin was able to turn several what I'm sure were boring meetings with lawyers, ex-girlfriends, and ex-friends into an interesting and spellbinding mosaic on interaction.  The dialogue is flawless, and few things are out of place in the structure of the story.  Sorkin sucked us in with a movie with hardly any violence, action, or many other things we deem entertaining.  That's skill, and I hope he's got something funny lined up for his speech.

FAVORITE MOMENT: The Winklvoss twins debate on the action to take with backstabbing partner Mark Zuckerberg.

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY): 

AARON SORKIN- THE SOCIAL NETWORK

It's too brilliant to pass up, and the competition is surprisingly stale.  Winter's Bone is a depressingly bland story that failed to make a point with me.  Toy Story 3 is just dealing with issues already solved in the two previous installments.  True Grit, though I do love the Coen brothers, is a modernized rehash of the original, with very little original input as far as I can tell.  Lastly, 127 Hours is not by any means an audio movie, it is a visual film, and while I haven't read the screenplay, I believe it's fairly impossible to capture the beautiful desert on paper the way they do in the movie.  But hey, you do let your main character talk to himself quite a bit.

Best Director

WHO I'D PICK

DARREN ARONOFSKY- BLACK SWAN

Hear me out.  There is a reason that Black Swan is the only Best Picture nominee that does not have a nod for Best Screenplay.  To be honest, the screenplay for Black Swan really isn't that good.  I can't think of a single zippy line or phrase that stuck out as brilliant.  Take into consideration that it's a movie about ballet (snore, right?), and you're talking one tough job putting it all together.  So how did he do it?  Aronofsky, known for disturbing, nearly unwatchable flicks, saw the potential for a great movie and made a mountain out of an anthill.  I believe he deserves the Oscar for meeting the challenge, and catching the vision of something few others could have seen.     

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

DAVID FINCHER- THE SOCIAL NETWORK

For the longest time, I thought Hollywood saw something I didn't in David Fincher.  I enjoyed Fight Club, but still refuse to acknowledge it as the decade-defining feature it's made out to be.  I had no idea how the snore-fest of Benjamin Button managed to get so many nominations outside of its source material.  Zodiac has been in my Netflix queue for ages.  Then I see The Social Network, a movie I expected to be another boring let down.  Wrong!  Fincher's approach to the genesis of Facebook, mainly through its creator Mark Zuckerberg, was nothing short of brilliant.  This movie touched exactly what it should have: not focusing on Facebook itself, but on our interaction and communication with one another.  Though I favor Aronofsky for this one, it won't hurt my feelings at all to see Fincher give the speech.

Best Animated Feature

WHO I'D PICK:

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

Pixar has been doing what they do and dominating animation for the past few years.  But this year's best put Dreamworks back on top, if only for a short while.  A great story about putting aside hate and finding friends in unlikely places, Dragon was a movie that looked disappointing in previews, but left me needing to see it again.  Who doesn't want their own dragon?  Who wouldn't love to take their date flying through the midnight sky?  It's magic.  Plus, it boasts a great performance by the speechless Toothless, which makes up for Hiccup's occasionally annoying banter.  Oh if only I'd been around to see it in 3-D.

FAVORITE MOMENT:  Hiccup takes his long-time crush Astrid on a nighttime flight accentuated with possibly the best musical score to come out this year.

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

TOY STORY 3

I'm pretty sure I don't need the probably on this one.  I have caught a lot of flack for my opinion on the closing chapter of Woody and Buzz's adventures.  Let's face it, this movie is not winning for itself, it's winning for a legacy that rocked the face of animation forever.  Truthfully, I found Toy Story 3's story to be fairly shallow and uninspiring at times.  You can only address the same problem so much: we'll be forgotten, should we live in the moment or abandon who we love before he does likewise?  They handled those dilemmas with the first two films.  Not to say I didn't love many of 3's moments, especially the opening homage to the first movie's beginning, which I remember loving as a kid.  But this movie doesn't win for one, it wins for all, which is bittersweet because I always wanted to see the original classic get more than an honorary award.

FAVORITE MOMENT:  The good spirited toys of Bonnie's tea party were welcome additions to the family.  A little improv goes a long way.

Actress in a Supporting Role

WHO I'D PICK:

HELENA BONHAM CARTER- THE KING'S SPEECH

Behind every great man is a better woman, and would you believe the actress with the reputation to play homicidal maniacs was the one to pull it off?  Carter plays Elizabeth, the ever-supportive wife of King George VI, who is responsible for finding the man who would eventually help "Bertie" overcome his stammer.  But don't think she's all sunshine.  In fact, "Liz" has several moments of discontent, such as ensuring that speech therapist Logue's wife does not take the same informal liberties that their husband's do.  Seeing Carter in such a gentle light (and not in a Tim Burton movie!) warms my heart, and she is excellent at making the point that it would all have been impossible without her. 

MY FAVORITE MOMENT: Trying to comfort Bertie, Elizabeth explains why she was hesitant to accept his first two proposals, as she couldn't stand the thought of the pressure of royalty life.  "But he stammers so beautifully, they'll leave us alone."  

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

MELISSA LEO- THE FIGHTER

I honestly don't know.  Leo's role as manager for her two sons Dickey and Michael, as well as her predominately female family, didn't strike me as anything spectacular.  But, as I said, few things about The Fighter did.  Also nominated for the same picture is one of my personal favorites, Amy Adams, who broke my heart by shedding her good girl image and becoming the catty and seductive Charlene, who tears "Mickey" away from his soul-sucking family.  Hailee Steinfeld's part as Mattie Ross in True Grit was well-played, but I don't think she can beat out (especially at 14) a role that personifies selfishness and motherly dominance.  At least she snaps out of it.

MY FAVORITE MOMENT: Disappointed to catch Dickey in a drug house, the momma's boy quickly defuses the situation by lulling her into a sing along.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

WHO I'D PICK:

GEOFFREY RUSH- THE KING'S SPEECH

Yes, he's won before.  Yes, he plays a part in that Oscar cliche-fest.  But how can you not love a guy who has the gall to tell a King they must be treated as equals?  Rush is Lionel Logue, the Australian speech therapist who agrees to take poor "Bertie" as a patient to cure him of his crippling stammer.  While Bertie lacks the self-confidence to speak his mind most times, Logue has more than enough for them to share.  Constantly crapped on for his Aussie heritage and lowly station as (gasp) a wannabe Shakespearean actor, he never gives up on his dream to be great, and to have his voice heard as well.  He never lets his circumstances stand in the way of his charm, and you have to like a man who wants to help people.  

MY FAVORITE MOMENT: On averagre, Rush has an awesome comeback about every thirty seconds; but the fuzzy moment has to be playing a game with his two sons, wherein he recites (and, with great attention to detail) Shakespeare and has them guess the source material.

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

CHRISTIAN BALE- THE FIGHTER

I may be the only person who doesn't think that The Fighter is mind numblingly awesome.  Maybe I'm annoyed that we can't seem to make an award-winning sports movie that isn't about boxing.  Maybe I don't get Irish people.  But I've gotta say, Bale did a pretty good job portraying Dickey Ecklund, the crackhead half-brother/manager of Mickey Ward, the aforementioned fighter.  It's tough to see Bale, who we all know and love as the gravely voiced Dark Knight, as a tweaked out and low-life has-been.  Heart breaking moment: he refuses to believe 1) that his much coveted knock out of Sugar Ray Leonard was actually just the boxer tripping, and 2) the HBO camera crew following him around is actually making a documentary about the effects of crack, rather than his comeback fight which cannot happen at his old age.  Dickey has fights of his own, just not in the ring, and it does us good to see him get his act together.  Who wouldn't want to reward that?

MY FAVORITE MOMENT: Hoping not to get caught in a house of ill-repute by his mother and brother, Dickey must plummet a few stories into the trash through the back window.  Shoot, I want to try it.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

WHO I'D PICK

NATALIE PORTMAN- BLACK SWAN

This one could be more of a cliche than Colin Firth's turn in "King's Speech", but the fact is you never expected wimpy Darth Vader's girlfriend to be this amazing!  She plays Nina, a young ballerina in New York aching for her big role.  When her company puts on "Swan Lake", she is the perfect choice for the role of the White Swan.  However, the role also requires performing the part of the seductive and dark Black Swan, which Nina cannot seem to master.  As the opening curtain comes closer and closer, Nina loses the controlled life she once had, and falls prey to rebellion, seduction, and dementia.  Watching Portman slip closer and closer to her wild side is the most on edge I've been put in a long time.  She was perfect for the role of the innocent dancer, and in the end became that mysterious and dark Black Swan.  I'll never look at Star Wars the same again.

MY FAVORITE MOMENT: The second(?) act of Swan Lake where Nina (symbolically and literally) transforms into the Black Swan and wins the cheers of the crowd.  Awesome.

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

NATALIE PORTMAN- BLACK SWAN

As I said, this one is almost a shoe-in.  There have been talks that only one other nominee stands a chance against Queen Natalie: Annette Bening.  Although I loved her in "American Beauty" a decade ago, Bening's domineering lesbian failed to give me the wow, as did about every other nominee in this category.  You feel for Jennifer Lawrence's poor Ree, who has to take care of her younger brother and sister, pratically comatose mom, while at the same time hunting down her meth-addicted father.  But again, I think the goosebumps are the one's that will win out here.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

WHO I'D PICK:

COLIN FIRTH- THE KING'S SPEECH

As I mentioned before, certain aspects of this role are things Oscar voters cannot resist casting their ballots for: British, handicapped, troubled.  But that's something a performer can fall into, and it's difficult to actually make it work.  Firth not only has the pathetic and, at times, irritating stammer down, but you honestly believe his massive concern for the state of his country, and his self-conscious fear that he may not be all that it needs him to be.  From his first speech you feel so sorry for the poor guy, and when you see his heart of gold you want to personally punch the people who would bully him.  That's what I believe it all comes down to: can this actor involve me as though he were real?  Well he's done a great job at that, so I look forward to see Firth's next performance: The Best Actor's Speech.

MY FAVORITE PART: He can't give a speech at the English Expo, but he'll do his dardest to deliver a bedtime story about a Penguin Prince to his two girls.

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

COLIN FIRTH- THE KING'S SPEECH

This year has some great performances, but they all have little imperfection that cast them out.  James Franco's performance as Aron Ralston, you all know who he is, actually failed to wow me until about his third day stuck in that canyon; and while he had some awesome moments (my favorite: morning talk show with himself), half a great role isn't enough to win.  Then you've got Jeff Bridges, who does a great job as hard-butt Marshall Rooster Cogburn, but let's face it, you can't not nominate a role that won John Wayne his only Oscar all those years ago.  My second pick would actually be to Jesse Eisenberg.  I never though he'd be more than "that Zombieland kid trying to be Michael Cera", but his role as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was cold, calculating, and, once again, enthralling.  But, then again, he's not British royalty.

Best Picture

Admit it, you don't care about sound mixing or costume design.  You'd just as soon, and probably do, skip the whole show to see who takes this prize.

WHO I'D PICK:

BLACK SWAN

Every year when the nominees are announced, there are naturally many movies that slipped under my radar, and so I have to hunt them out.  Six was the case with this year's picks, four of which were still in theaters.  I arranged them so that I would see the ones I was least excited to see first so my experience would get better each movie, this put Black Swan at number two.  Sadly, the last two, though excellent, couldn't meet my expectation.  Black Swan is a terrific and terrifying thriller about an innocent prima ballerina who is sucked into a whirlpool of delusion and darkness after she lands the lead role in the ballet Swan Lake.  I picked this one for second because, honestly, who wants to see a movie about ballet?  But the flawless editing and perfect performance by Natalie Portman made this one the most gripping of all this year's ten nominees.  Absolutely too dark for me to recommend to my friend's, but there is no doubt who should walk away with the statue Sunday night.

MY FAVORITE PART: The final ballet which starts with a whimper and ends with a bang has what few movies do: a perfect ending.

WHO THEY'LL PICK (PROBABLY):

THE KING'S SPEECH

All the hype you've heard is true.  Tom Hooper's look at the pathetically speech-impaired King George VI really is an engaging and well put together little piece of film.  It also happens to fit many of the molds that Oscar voters tend to flock to: Period piece (about British Royalty no less), actors who have lent their talent to Jane Austen adaptations, and a main character who's handicapped, among other things.  But to say it isn't deserving is a lie.   All the actors give great performances, and the story has this way of cutting right to the heart.  After all, at it's core, The King's Speech is just another buddy picture, with Colin Firth's "Bertie" and Geoffrey Rush's unorthodox speech therapist Lionel Logue always bickering back and forth, then making up over tea or airplane models.  I would rank it the second best movie made this year, and as such, you won't see me cry when it takes off with the gold.

MY FAVORITE PART: As stated before, Bertie and Logue's well-balanced friendship drives this movie, and no conversation is ever a dull one.

Oscars 2011

That's right friends, the time is upon us.  This Sunday night, Hollywood's "best and brightest" will gather to crown the cream of this year's cinematic crop.  Seeing as this is my Superbowl, I thought you may be interested to know my feelings on the entire shin-dig.  I've put together posts for each category worth the time to type about, each with a few basic features.  

     Since who will win and who should win are almost always two entirely different things, I have posted my vote for who deserves the coveted golden man, and who'll leave that person cursing in their seat.  Also will be my favorite moments from that particular role/picture/design/ etc.  Hopefully you enjoy and think I know what I'm talking about.