Oscar Watch 2011: The Big Awards

And so we have arrived with less than 24 hours before Oscar Day, it’s time to unveil the winners for the big categories, you know, acting, directing, best pic. If you’re interested in my selections for the other categories, check ‘em out here. All right, enough pandering, let’s get to it.

Hey, isn't that guy one of the Just For Men hair models? Oh wait.

Adapted Screenplay:

127 Hours (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing), Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Michael Arndt. Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit (Paramount), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone (Roadside Attractions), Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

My Pick: The Social Network At a WGA Writers event, Sorkin revealed that Social was shot from one draft. One. That means whatever Sorkin wrote on down the first time was what Fincher ended up shooting (albeit with about 100 takes per scene). That is simply unheard of and if you’re a writer, you either have to sit in awe of that fact or feel the morsels of self-confidence crumble like dried oatmeal cookies…. Mmmm cookies.

I see Batman in the background! (Kidding)

Original Script:

Another Year (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter (Paramount), Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception (Warner Bros.), Written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right (Focus Features), Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Seidler

My Pick: Inception This one seems like a lock for Nolan. Kind of like his substitute award for not getting nominated for director. Of course King’s Speech is in this category here and could unjustly steal this award away from Nolan. But I have faith.

If they don't win this award, they WILL use those guns.

Cinematography:

Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit

My Pick : Inception Social and King’s are in the “happy to be nominated” category here, while Grit, while nicely shot, doesn’t have the visual impact of Inception and Swan. So while it’s a two-horse race, it really isn’t. Swan has a limited outside chance of winning this but against Inception, my money’s on Nolan’s mind-bender.

The Best Director award winner with the Best Actress award winner.

Directing:

Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky
The Fighter, David O. Russell
The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper
The Social Network, David Fincher
True Grit, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

My Pick: Darren Aronofsky The category that generated the most buzz on Nominations Morning with its omission of Chris Nolan. Frankly, this is Aronofsky’s to lose. The Coens and Fincher have an outside chance, but really, the mustached man should take home this trophy.

Teenage Academy Award winner.

Actress in a Supporting Role:

Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

My Pick: Hailee Steinfeld One could argue that Steinfeld doesn’t really belong in this category, which is true. But slotting her in the Leading Actress category vs. the likes of Portman and Bening would drop her awards chances drastically. Among the other nominees, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo cancel each other out. We’ve seen it time and again with multiple nominees for the same movie. Helena Bonham Cater could play spoiler if King’s picks up a wave of momentum, although I don’t see it happening here. And Jacki Weaver’s nomination I don’t really get and yes, I did watch Animal Kingdom and I was bored out of my mind. I’ll blog that in the next “What I Watched…” So, that been said, congratulations Ms. Steinfeld! (Video below of her leaving the set of ‘True Grit’)

Batman's on an apples only diet.

Actor in a Supporting Role:

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

My Pick: Christian Bale Take Hawkes, Renner and Ruffalo and give them a handshake and a pat on the back because this is a showdown between Bale and Rush. The outcome all depends on how much momentum their respective films can pick up over the course of the night. Throughout the awards season, they’ve been more or less split down the middle in regards to accolades. But in this battle of Brit vs. Aussie, I’ll side with the Brit who’s simply mesmerizing as Dicky Eklund.

Academy Award winner, new mom and five movies in 2011. Not bad.

Actress in a Leading Role:

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

My Pick: Natalie Portman Portman is the safe pick and as much as I would like to go with Bening in the upset of the night, I can’t. Just can’t. Kids was a pretty good movie, but against Swan, fuhgetaboutit. Kidman, Lawrence, Williams, thanks for playing and wear something nice.

He's too much of a class act, but it would be hilarious if he did a little bit of the King's Speech schtick during his acceptance speech.

Actor in a Leading Role:

Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours

My Pick: Colin Firth Again, a lock. Only Eisenberg and perhaps Bridges could play spoiler, but, no, no, not happening. This one is guaranteed.

The Academy could save about twenty minutes of airtime by just showing this YouTube video.

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

My Pick: The King’s Speech If I ran the world, not only would I be worn out from all the stress and lack of sleep, but Inception would walk away with this award. But, thankfully, I don’t run the world and so what this category boils down to is The King’s Speech vs. The Social Network vs. True Grit. Social was the early favorite. Then King’s started to garner some momentum and Grit followed with an impressive performance at the box office. Taking my cue from what happened in the battle between Avatar and Hurt Locker, I’m going with King’s. It’s not the best movie of the bunch and I’m sure there are those that would argue that Black Swan or the best reviewed movie of 2010, Toy Story 3 should be in the conversation. But then that would be complicating things too much and the Academy voters like to keep things simple and go with the chic picks. Hence, King’s for the win.

What I Watched… (Vol. 6)

This is probably going to be one of the shorter entries considering, A., I watched two complete mini-series and B., my attention and time is geared more towards the Oscars at the moment. That been said, let’s dive into this sixth edition of “What I Watched…”

The Pacific – Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ companion piece to Band of Brothers follows the same harrowing tale of combat during World War II, this time, in the Pacific vs. Japan. I must first off state that I am half-Japanese, so WWII movies that take place in the Pacific always have an extra special meaning to me. That been said, it took until the fifth episode of this series before I really got into it. The first four episodes are so languid and slow-paced and while the cinematography is great and the musical composition by the legendary (and seemingly ubiquitous) Hans Zimmer ebbs and swells at the appropriate moments, I couldn’t like the first batch of soldiers as much as the latter half. This is significant because with Band of Brothers, I was rooting for that group of soldiers from the get-go. The battle sequences are still top-notch, and honestly, I would expect nothing less from Spielberg and Hanks’ with their resume featuring Brothers and Saving Private Ryan.

A still from one of the epic battle sequences in "The Pacific."

Hotaru no Hiakri (ホタルの光) I already knew I was going to like this Japanese romantic comedy series. Translated it means, “Glow of Fireflies,” and stars one of my favorites – Ayase Haruka in the lead role. There is a second part to this series which I will watch shortly and include in the 7th edition of this series, but in the meanwhile, you can get a general breakdown of the relationships and storyline in this manga-adapted comedy. As an added bonus, I found this compilation video set to Aaron Carter’s “When It Comes To You,” which is edited beautifully and makes me love this series even more.

A second "first kiss" in "Hotaru no Hikari."

The Last Song Contrived, yes. But Miley Cyrus and Greg Kinnear do a nice job with their characters. The ending seems a bit forced and the twist involving Kinnear’s character seemed a bit too fresh for me, having just experienced that. (Yea, I’m no gonna give it away) Maybe that’s what helped my empathize with Miley’s character. Overall, not as bad as the critics make it out to be.

Miley and Liam experiencing Nicolas Sparks' trademark summer fling syndrome.

The Kids Are All Right I can totally see why the critics loved this movie. The acting is excellent all around and while the story seems to meander around, it definitely has that hip indie vibe to it. Annette Bening is REALLY good, which is saying something cuz I don’t normally like her in movies. Julianne Moore gives a strong emotional performance as well. Mark Ruffalo, eh. I definitely saw more of his bare ass than I cared to see. The ending is very ho-hum. Kind of like, “OK, well, that’s all the story we have for ya. Thanks for watching.”

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in "The Kids Are All Right."

Drive Angry 3D Bullets, blood and boobs in 3D. An early review from a private screening. Consequently, this is the first movie I watched on an actual movie screen this year. I was a bit leary about watching this given that it’s directed by the guy who made My Bloody Valentine, but Drive Angry is a pretty kick-ass Grindhouse-type movie in pretty decent 3D. Granted it’s not great but it’s certainly not as bad as I thought it might be. Nicolas Cage plays it pretty even keel, kind of like The Bride from Kill Bill while Amber Heard, well, Amber Heard. William Fichtner is freakin’ hilarious as well and David Morse makes a nice cameo. Overall, an OK movie.

Amber Heard and Nic Cage set off to kick some ass. In 3D!

Hmmm, OK, I guess this didn’t end up being that short of an entry after all. Happy movie watching and see you all around at the next post!

Oscar Watch 2011 – The Auxillary Awards

Marty McFly has told me that in a future post, I’ll breakdown the more mainstream categories including Best Picture, Best Actor/Actress and such. So with that in mind, I’ll take this opportunity to rundown the awards categories that nobody really cares about and only watch to see who’s presenting.

Visual Effects:
“Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
“Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky and Joe Farrell
“Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
“Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

My Pick: Inception Frankly, it’s a two-way race between Potter and Inception. Not to take anything away from Alice, which could play a spoiler role here, but with so much angst regarding Nolan’s directing snub, voters may look to reward him in as many categories as possible, minus Best Picture. Potter is always a strong candidate, but the Hogwarts hero’s award is most likely due next year once the series has wrapped.

"So you see, Leo, we're going to perform inception on the Academy voters to make up for my directing snub."

Sound Mixing:
“Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
“The King’s Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
“Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
“The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

My Pick: True Grit While Inception and Social Network are also solid dark horses, the Coen Bros. western should score here. The King’s Speech nom is a token gesture while, I suppose, Salt is just filling out the category.

Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges look on in fascinated horror as they realize Sarah Silverman really IS f*cking Matt Damon!

Sound Editing:
“Inception” Richard King
“Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
“Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
“Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

My Pick: True Grit Honestly, this category is wide open. Any one of these could win, if voters keep to the true definition of sound editing. But Grit should have early momentum with Inception playing spoiler.

Josh Brolin zips up after putting out the morning campfire.

Short Film (Live Action):
“The Confession” Tanel Toom
“The Crush” Michael Creagh
“God of Love” Luke Matheny
“Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
“Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

My Pick: Wish 143 Ah yes, the eeny-meeny category. In the past, I’ve often just looked at the titles and thought, “If I were an Academy voter, which movie would I vote for,” which, I wouldn’t be surprised, is how the winner is chosen in this category. Especially since I usually get this one right. So while God of Love might appeal to the religious voters and The Confession may be intriguing, Academy voters in general are softy mainstreamers so a title like Wish 143 fits their bill perfectly. And when they get a load of the storyline, it’s a lock.

Determined to not die as a virgin. Seriously, that's the storyline. Well, that and the terminal illness thing.

Short Film (Animated):
“Day & Night” Teddy Newton
“The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
“Let’s Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
“The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

My Pick: Day & Night Remember what I said about “mainstreamers?” Well, this is another category where that rule is in effect. Honestly, I could only remember one of these five and frankly, it is the best one in this group. Also, Day & Night preceded Toy Story 3. End of discussion.

Hey Night Time. My eyes are up here.

Music (Original Song):
“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3″ Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

My Pick: “We Belong Together” Randy Newman basically owns this category. The only time another songwriter/performer has a shot is if he’s not nominated. And a weak crop of songs only strengthens this lock.

Randy Newman. Artist's conception.

Music (Original Score):
“How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
“Inception” Hans Zimmer
“The King’s Speech” Alexandre Desplat
“127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
“The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

My Pick: The Social Network This is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ award to lose. An essential lock that only Hans Zimmer from Inception could possibly spoil. But I don’t see it in this case.

Hey Eduardo, me and Justin Timberlake are gonna screw you over. But don't worry, you'll be shooting spiderwebs from your wrists in a crappy, unnecessary franchise reboot... Yes, I'ma douche.

Make-Up:
“Barney’s Version” Adrien Morot
“The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

My Pick: The Wolfman Look at these three movies. Which one requires the most make-up work? Exactly, Wolfman. A lock.

Emily Blunt = the only redeeming thing about this movie. Although apparently the make-up kicks ass.

Foreign Language:
“Biutiful” Mexico
“Dogtooth” Greece
“In a Better World” Denmark
“Incendies” Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

My Pick:Biutiful Boy this one is a tough one to pick from. Especially since a couple films that I thought would be in this group got left out. In A Better World could also win this award, but my hunch is that Academy voters are fond of familiar faces and with Javier Bardem attached to Biutiful, I’m leaning toward Mexico for the win.

So much angst in this picture that my CPU needs some Prozac.

Film Editing:
“Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
“The Fighter” Pamela Martin
“The King’s Speech” Tariq Anwar
“127 Hours” Jon Harris
“The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

My Pick:Black Swan Strange how Inception is not in this category considering the numerous levels of dreams that had to be pieced together in a coherent manner. Nolan’s loss is Black Swan‘s gain as it is the strongest candidate in this group.

"Hey Natalie, ready to take this movie into the R-rating territory?"

Documentary (Short Subject):
“Killing in the Name” Jed Rothstein
“Poster Girl” Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block
“Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
“Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
“The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

My Pick: Strangers No More Once again applying the “Short Film Live Action strategy” here, Strangers sounds like a movie about people who come together either in a time of adversity or through extraordinary circumstance, which trumps the vaguely titled Sun Come Up and Poster Girl. Of course, I hardly ever get this category right, so who the hell knows.

Yay! Happy kids!.... That's all I know about this movie.

Documentary (Feature Film):
“Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
“Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
“Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
“Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

My Pick:Exit Through the Gift Shop Inside Job could play spoiler here with the Academy not wanting to risk Banksy being the newest “Most Outrageous Oscar Moment,” though banning him from the stage seems to already have made quite an uproar. That been said, Gift Shop is the stand out in this category.

Banksy doing his best Eminem from "8 Mile" impersonation.

Costume Design:
“Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
“I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
“The King’s Speech” Jenny Beavan
“The Tempest” Sandy Powell
“True Grit” Mary Zophres

My Pick: The King’s Speech My thinking is that if King’s Speech is going to have a big night, this is where it begins. Granted, I don’t think it deserves to win in this category, but it’s the safe, chic pick that Academy voters love.

If you melted the total number of awards these three have won in their lifetime, it would finance a small Third World country.

Art Direction:
“Alice in Wonderland”
Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
“Inception”
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
“The King’s Speech”
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
“True Grit”
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

My Pick: Alice in Wonderland Tim Burton movies do extremely well in this category (I wonder why *sarcasm*) so this Oscar should be a lock.

A part of you has to wonder what Tim Burton's dreams are like...

Animated Feature Film:
“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

My Pick: Toy Story 3 Seriously, the only other category that’s more pre-determined than Colin Firth winning Best Actor is Toy Story 3 for the win.

Toys. Caught off guard.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can focus on the more mainstream awards, however, as I mentioned in the very first sentence of this post, that will come at a later time. Thoughts, agree, disagree, general praise. Comment below.