Normally I don't pay a too close of attention to the Oscars. I'll tune in and just kinda have it on while I'm doing other things, root for the couple of movies I actually saw, and (at least the past few years) enjoy the host. This year was interesting because I found myself actually looking forward to the show. Before they had even announced the nominees, my wife and I had already seen (and enjoyed) 6 of the best picture films, so I was already starting to get interested because I had a horse in the race. Well...6 horses actually, but still...I could have an educated opinion. We took advantage of AMC's "Best Picture Showcase," where they show all 10 nominated films over the course of 2 days, to round out the category. Now I actually was excited because I had legitimate picks, and felt like the competition was actually pretty stiff. Now on to specifics:
Overall Production:
...was terrible. The show itself was just bad. I don't understand why you pick people to host a show who really don't "do" hosting. The reason Billy Crystal did it, and did it well, for so long is because he's a natural emcee. Jon Stewart was great...because he's a host. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were great...because they're both just naturally funny. Hugh Jackman is about the only exception. Now, I love Anne Hathaway and James Franco...but neither of them ever really seemed like they were supposed to be there. Anne thought that she was doing an episode of Saturday Night Live apparently, and was overacting and basically acting like that loud drunk girl everybody knows who just thinks she's so "fun," while James just seemed like he'd much rather be anywhere else and was probably thinking more about the paper he has to write for class than hosting (although his deadpan delivery was pretty funny a couple times.) The AWFUL writing didn't help matters either. The writing is always bad though...the difference is when you have guys like Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin who are just so effortlessly funny and clever, they can work with the bad writing and ad lib and make something out of nothing. These two could not. Rock bottom moment: the attempt to cash in on the Gregory Brothers' auto-tuned songs by making 'songs' out of some of last years movies...almost made me vomit out of rage.
Best Lead Actor:
I really wasn't sure who to go with on this one at first, probably siding with Jesse Eisenberg out of convenience. But then I saw The King's Speech. I kind of figured the Academy would give it to Colin Firth, just knowing that it seemed like the prefect movie for those guys to go crazy over. Then, after seeing it, I realized that Colin really was absolutely brilliant in the role and I immediately felt bad for anyone running against him. Not only did he have to learn to stutter for the role, but he learned to stutter convincingly...which is much harder to do, while at the same time rounding out a fascinating character. They got this one right.
Best Lead Actress:
Much like in the lead actor category, I felt bad for anyone running against Natalie Portman. The first thing I could get out of my mouth after I picked my jaw up off the floor after seeing Black Swan was "just give her the award now and get it over with." Some people were calling for an Annette Benning upset, but I just didn't see it. The Kids are All Right was a better-than-average movie with some decent performances, and Annette was good in it, but the full range of emotion and the sheer nonstop intensity that Natalie gave made it not even a contest. Incidentally, Black Swan was also easily one of my favorite movies of the year, so there's that.
Best Supporting Actor:
Christian Bale had this one locked for me all the way. Everybody was talking about it beforehand and after I saw The Fighter, I wholeheartedly agreed. Once I saw The King's Speech, I could totally understand if Geoffery Rush were to win this one. They both put in phenomenal performances, but I was glad to see Christian get the nod. I was also glad to see his incredible beard.
Best Supporting Actress:
This one bummed me out a little bit. Melissa Leo did a fantastic job in The Fighter, don't get me wrong, but I was rooting so much for Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit. I really thought she had a shot too, given that her role was more a lead role than a supporting role, and she knocked it out of the park. At 15 years old no less! I guess the Academy just couldn't bring themselves to give the young breakout performance the nod instead of going with the veteran. Again, I don't want to take anything away from Melissa, but Hailee chewed up way more screen time and really owned her role, and probably should have gotten it.
Best Director:
You want to talk about a stacked category, here you go. The Coens, Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, David O. Russell, and Tom Hooper. Wow. I, along with a LOT of other folks, was a bit disappointed to not see Chris Nolan on that list, but I mean...who do you get rid of on there? In my heart I was pulling for Darren just because Black Swan was so beautiful and masterful, but in my head I was pulling for Fincher. Neither of those guys made it, but I'm not disappointed in the least that Tom Hooper got it.
Best Picture:
As much as I hate the fact that there are 10 movies in this category, there was actually a pretty full list of deserving things this year. I feel like ever since they bumped it up to 10 there's always these 'filler' movies that don't really deserve any kind of nomination, but they needed something to get it to 10. The only film I felt like met the 'filler' criteria this year was The Kids are All Right. It wasn't bad...but it definitely wasn't Oscar material. Like I alluded to before, it's just a better-than-average romantic comedy dressed up with indie flair, with tons of plot holes and underdeveloped characters. While I really did feel like the other 9 films had every right to be in the running, as it always does it really came down to 2: The Social Network and The King's Speech. I was really hoping the Academy wouldn't take the obvious choice with The King's Speech and show a little diversity, but the fact that Hooper had already gotten the best director award, it was pretty obvious. As I've said throughout this post, The King's Speech was a fantastic film and absolutely deserving of best picture. It just would have been nice to see the Academy take a chance on another equally deserving film.
All-in-all, terrible production aside, everything went pretty well. No real surprises, and I didn't feel like anything really got stiffed (although the GLARING omission of TRON: Legacy in the visual effects category still baffles me). I just hope we get as many quality movies this year as last year.
