Much of the Oscar list is way too easy to handicap.
Best actor? Colin Firth. Done.
Natalie Portman for best actress? I wouldn’t bet against her.
Christian Bale for best supporting? Done and done.
Best supporting actress? Likely Melissa Leo.
But what about Best Picture?
There we’ve got a horse race.
The so-called smart money used to be on The Social Network. And then the tide changed and The King’s Speech became the front runner.
I’m still betting on The Social Network. As marvelous as The Kings Speech is, The Social Network is the film that matters, beyond the art of it—and for the art of it both.
Ditto for The Social Network’s director, David Fincher for best director.
I’d give ’em best original score too. But that one’s hard to call.
Best adapted screenplay? The Social Network
Best original screenplay? Probably The King’s Speech. But The Fighter is a great script too. (Ditto for Winter’s Bone in the above category).
Best documentary…Oh, I’m going with my personal favorite: Restrepo.
Okay, it’s time.
What’s your bet?
LATER NOTE: Even though I love Restrepo, I’m really glad to see “Inside Job” win for best doc. Go Charles Ferguson! What a great year for documentaries!
Celeste, as one who is a real movie aficionado I must say that I found 2010 to be an almost virtual wasteland when it came to movies. Of course I hold this same opinion about music, art, and almost all popular culture nowadays. I sometimes wonder if we are not in a new dark age.
Therefore I have picked my own Oscars to give to some of the great pictures and performers of past years who never won a thing when they should have.
Best Picture? Not even close, Stanley Kubricks anti war classic that was banned in France for many years, “Paths Of Glory” 1957, match it with anything today if you dare.
Best Actor, Collin Firth? Naw, I gotta give it to Paul Newman for “Hud”, he should have picked up an Oscar in 1963!
Natalie Portman for Best Actress? Yawn! I’m going with Nicole Kidman for her creepy role in “To Die For”. But my heart is really with Judy Davis who along with Sydney Pollack were the most funny yet poignant couple ever in Husbands and Wives 1993
Christian Bale for Best Supporting Actor in “The Fighter”. Hmmm-pretty good but I think it’s about time that one of the creepiest characters in movie Dom history is rewarded.
Joe Turkel hands down as Lloyd the bartender in “The Shinning”. I know that every time I get shit faced in some bar I’m afraid to look up, it might be Lloyd staring at me.
Best Supporting Actress, and easy pick, who can forget Lillian Gish as the sweet protective Miss Rachel Cooper in Charles Laughton’s masterpiece “The Night Of The Hunter”. Easy pick hands down!
David Fincher for “Best Director” (The Social Network), not bad but couldn’t hold a candle to my pick for this year, “Sidney Lumet” in a walk for his work in 1957’s “12 Angry Men”
Best Adapted Screenplay. “The Social Network” again? Get outta here! It has to be David Mamet for his incredible work in “The Verdict”.
Best Original Screenplay? The Kings Speech? The Fighter? Yeah OK but match Raymond Chandlers writing for Billy Wilder’s classic “Double Indemnity”
Another middle east war documentary this year huh? Put it up against John Huston’s once banned WW2 documentary on the Battle of the Bulge siege “San Pietro” 1945.
OK these are my picks for the movies I saw in 2010, hoping for an improvement in 2011!