Academy Awards noms get some right, some wrong

I see a lot of movies, but most years I don’t see a lot of Oscar nominated movies until after the awards ceremony or when they come out on DVD. But this year I managed to see eight of the 10 movies nominated for best picture.

Now first, I have to say that I still don’t really like that the Academy decided to open up the field from five nominations to 10. I understand the reasoning of doing it so that more popular movies have a shot so that it’s not just all about high-brow art movies that no one ever sees. But the truth is most years there aren’t even 10 good movies, let alone 10 that deserve to win a best picture award. So in some ways the increased number of movies nominated kinda dilutes what it means to be Oscar-nominated. Of course, we all know some of the movies don’t really have a chance.

Though I loved “Toy Story 3,” and I am happy to admit it tugged at my heart strings in a way that most movies don’t manage to do, I don’t really think it deserves a best picture nomination. As an animated film, its unfair to compare it to movies that have to deal with actually actors. Sure, the voices are great in “Toy Story,” but it’s really not acting in the same sense as say, Natalie Portman in “Black Swan,” or Jeff Bridges in “True Grit.

The two movies on the list that I haven’t seen yet include “127 Hours,” which is now in general release, and “Winter’s Bone.”

Of the best picture movies I have seen, my vote still goes to the one I thought should have won the Golden Globe. “The King’s Speech” was the best 2010 movie I saw, and perhaps I am biased because I’ve always loved Colin Firth in anything, but the movie was the one that seemed to tie everything together – acting, directing, screenplay – and so I think it deserves the win.

The one movie I did see that I really don’t think deserves the nomination is “The Kids Are Alright.” I know the critics loved it and all the reviews talk about how it was a movie that broke down the barriers of what it means to be a family or a married couple – but my big gripe with it remains that at its center I find it hard to believe that a lesbian woman (Julianne Moore) would just fall into bed with the first donor dad (Mark Ruffalo) that comes along. Really?

As for “Black Swan,” I have mixed feelings about it. I think Natalie Portman did a great
job as a driven ballerina, and she deserves the nod for best actress. But overall, I just didn’t really enjoy the movie. Maybe Darren Aronofsky’s deeper meaning was lost on me, or maybe I’m looking for a deeper meaning where there is none.

“The Fighter” is another movie that deserves the supporting actor nods for Christian Bale, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams, but overall the movie isn’t strong enough to win the best picture nod. It feels like a story that’s been told before.

“Inception” is a story that feels completely new, even though its heart it really is a story about a man trying to get over his heartache. This movie should win for best original screenplay and art direction, but it’s not as strong a contender as some of the other films. In a field of five, this more mainstream movie probably would not have been nominated.

“The Social Network” won the Golden Globe for best dramatic movie so it’s likely to make a showing at the Oscars. The movie was good, given that it was basically about two lawsuits filed against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin took something everyone is familiar with and gave sort of an insider’s view of how it started. I think people – and critics – like the movie because of the juxtaposition that one of the biggest ways people stay connected with friends was founded by a guy who allegedly screwed over his friends. Personally, I think Facebook is overhyped enough without the movie winning a best picture Oscar.

“True Grit” was the last movie I saw in 2010, on New Year’s Eve, and it was one of my favorites. I guess I just like Jeff Bridges as a grizzly old man. I did enjoy newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross. I don’t like westerns, and I enjoyed this movie, so maybe that’s why I think of it as a favorite. But Bridges character might have been a little too close to his turn as the alcoholic country singer in “Crazy Heart” last year to edge this into the best picture win.

For best picture, my pick is “The King’s Speech,” though I think the Academy will go with “The Social Network.”

Some thoughts on other categories:
Lead Actor – I saw three of the two movies in which people are nominated. Colin Firth is the clear lead for his turn as a stutterer in “The King’s Speech.” Not only was his stuttering superbly painful to watch, but he also showed the way in which royalty can stunt one’s emotional growth.

Supporting actor – I saw four of the five movies nominated and I think if ever Christian Bale is nominated, the Academy should just cross out all the other nominees. I’ve never seen Bale turn in a bad performance and he changes not only his appearance, but all his mannerisms when he becomes a character. According to magazine reports, residents of Lowell mistook Bale for Dickie Ecklund, the jittery boxer turned drug addict he plays in the movie. I believe it.

Lead actress – I saw only two of the five movies in this category so it’s kind of hard for me to make an informed comment on this category. I didn’t really like “The Kids Are Alright” or “Black Swan,” the movies I did see. I give the edge to Natalie Portman over Annette Bening, though Bening won the Golden Globe and is probably a shoo-in for the Oscar.

Supporting actress – I saw four of the five movies and my vote goes to Helena Bonham Carter, in “The King’s Speech.” She proved that she can play a role that is not outlandish (as she often plays in Tim Burton films) and still be phenomenal. I like Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit,” but I just don’t like that studios can campaign to have an actor in the supporting actress role instead of lead so they have a better shot at it. Steinfeld was clearly a lead actress in “True Grit,” as a main character, but the studio campaigned for her to be in the supporting character because of her age. She is still unlikely to win.

Animated feature film – I didn’t see “The Illusionist,” and I probably never will since I tried once to watch “The Triplets of Belleville” from the same creator and I just didn’t like it. “How to Train Your Dragon” is a fun film, but it’s “Toy Story 3” that really has heart.

Art direction – I don’t really know what the academy members think about when they choose best art direction, but I think “Inception” was pretty damn artful in creating dreamscapes that feel real, but are just off enough to feel like an alternate reality. The thing that makes me vote for “Inception” is that it created so many different realities, including the heartbreaking world that Cobb longs for with his wife and children.

The winners in these categories, and all the rest, will be announced Feb. 27, at 5 p.m.

Top 10 movies of 2010

Every year, I look back at all the films I reviewed in the Weekend Pinnacle’s “Movie Lines” column. Each year, I am shocked at the number of movies I see in the theater and the number I also see on DVD or on TV. In 2010, I saw at least 45 movies in the theater and reviewed a handful more that were already out on DVD.

It was no surprise to me that a few of my favorite movies that I saw in early 2010 were actually 2009 releases. The top of the list includes “Crazy Heart,” “Up in the Air,” and “Invictus.” But since this is a list of the best movies released in 2010, I’ll leave those off and hope that I will have a chance to see some of the Oscar-buzz fare that is just now coming into wild release. For now, here is my top 10 of 2010, based on the few dozen films I had a chance to see.

10.) The Other Guys
This is the one “guy” movie that makes my list. Why? Because Mark Wahlberg is really funny and paired with Will Ferrell, I laughed more at this movie than any other movie I saw this year. Was it a good movie? Not really. Was it predictable? Yeah, pretty much. But it made me laugh as Wahlberg and Ferrell work together as two misfit cops who are the only ones who can unravel a mystery. Michael Keaton also earns a few laughs as their Captain, who moonlights at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

9.) Red
“Red” is another movie that isn’t really good, but I just can’t resist Helen Mirren toting a semi-automatic weapon. She’s played the Queen Mum and Tolstoy’s wife – now she is a former covert agent who knows her way around espionage. Mirren’s role in the movie is small, but still worth a watch. Bruce Willis is the lead character, a retired CIA agent who is the target of an attempted assassination, who tries to figure out who and why someone would want to kill him. His cohorts include John Malkovich, who always plays the crazy guy, and Morgan Freeman, as the distinguished martyr. Mary-Louise Parker plays Willis’ love interest who sticks by his side despite an unorthodox first meeting.

8.) The Fighter
Anything with Christian Bale is bound to be good and “The Fighter,” is a good movie that went a little awry into melodrama for me. The movie is about Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg,) a working class guy from Massachusetts who has his sights set on being a champion boxer. The biggest thing holding Ward back is his family, which includes an overbearing mother (played by Melissa Leo) and half brother Dicky Ecklund (Bale), who is more interested in getting his next score than training his younger brother. Amy Adams turns up as Micky’s girlfriend in a role that couldn’t be farther from her turn in “Enchanted.” There are no fairy princesses in this movie, though there are a slew of evil older sisters in the form of Micky and Dicky’s seven sisters who chime in together once in a while.

The movie is touching in that it is based on a true story, but the caricatures of the sisters and the melodrama between Micky’s family members just held it back a bit.

7.) La Mission
I might just like “La Mission” so much because I saw it at the Cinequest Film Festival in March, got to walk up some stars next to Benjamin Bratt, who certainly didn’t look in my direction, at the California Theatre before it screened, and heard the filmmaker talk in depth about it. In some ways, the movie reminds me of the more recent release “The Fighter,” but without all the melodrama. The thing that made the movie work is that all the heavy scenes in it are balanced with just the right amount of humor. Peter Bratt directed brother Benjamin Bratt in the film about a recovering alcoholic and former jailbird who is trying his best to raise his son on the straight and narrow in the Mission district of San Francisco. The problem is Che’s son Jesse (Jeremy Ray Valdez) is a great kid, but he’s gay, something that his father’s machismo won’t let him accept. The movie follows Che as he struggles with his pride and his desire to love his son.

6.) Easy A
As with romantic comedies, the pure comedy genre has also had its share of misses in recent years. I saw quite a few movies with what I would describe as “guy humor,” including “Due Date,” “Dinner for Schmucks” and “Cop Out.” The movies combined low-brow humor with lame plots and ended up less than entertaining. So perhaps it’s no surprise that my favorite comedy wasn’t a “guy comedy.”

“Easy A” is about a high school teen who finds her popularity increasing as she gets an undeserved reputation for being easy. She helps the nerds and geeks at her school by pretending to have relations with them to increase their social standing, but she soon finds her own status plummeting. Emma Stone plays the lead role in the film. It is witty and clever in a way that reminded me of my favorite ’80s teen comedies, and there is even a sequence in it that pays homage to John Hughes.

5.) It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Every once in a while I will see a movie that is sort of under the radar that really surprises me. This year it was “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.” It was the one movie with Zach Galifianakis that I actually liked this year and that is probably because he didn’t play is typical type. In it, he is a mentor of sorts to Craig (Keir Gilchrist,) a teenager who checks himself into a mental hospital and then immediately has second thoughts about it. While Bobby (Galifianakis) has real problems, Craig’s issues seem to pale in comparison. He just gets stressed about his schoolwork and anxious about his future. Even Noelle (Emma Roberts,) another teen in the hospital seems to have worse problems than Craig, as the bandages on her wrists attest. Gilchrist is sweetly likeable and comes into his own in a way he hasn’t yet on the Showtime series “The United States of Tara,” in which he stars as the gay son of a woman with multiple personalities (it’s a comedy, in case you couldn’t guess that.) Galifianakis is likeable as a mentally ill man who is trying to take the first small steps of starting over. The movie stays light most of the time, though it is dealing with serious stuff and it makes it understandable that even the best of us might sometimes need a little mental break from life.

4.) The Social Network
A movie about a corporate lawsuit has a lot against it in creating the kind of tension that keeps a film interesting. But “The Social Network” works nonetheless. The biopic follows Mark Zuckerberg as he creates the social phenomena we all know as Facebook. Luckily the movie doesn’t focus on the computer geek programming a bunch of code, but on the ways that he may or may not have screwed over friends and acquaintances on his way to the top. Jesse Eisenberg is perfectly awkward as the Harvard student turned Internet start-up owner and Andrew Garfield is well placed as his best friend and first investor. Justin Timberlake also proves that he has enough acting chops to make it in the business, with his turn as the creator of Napster, Sean Parker. The movie moves back and forth in time, between Zuckerberg’s time on campus and during the early stages of Facebook to the time period when he was facing two lawsuits. At the very least, it was interesting to watch one interpretation of how Zuckerberg got to the top and created something that people embraced so thoroughly in just a number of years.


3.) Babies
I’ll admit I don’t see a lot of documentaries. If I want to see a documentary, I am much more likely to see it when it comes out on DVD. Part of that is because documentaries aren’t very likely to play around Gilroy. But it’s also because a lot of documentaries can be dry and depressing, as was the case with “Waiting for Superman,” which chronicles issues with public school education. But there was one documentary that was a joy to watch and that was last year’s almost dialogue-less “Babies.” The filmmakers picked four families to follow through the first year of birth from different countries. The babies came from Africa, Mongolia, San Francisco and Japan. The parents’ lifestyles are all drastically different, but the movie really shows are similar the human experience can be as each baby takes the same milestones of crawling, talking and walking in stride. The thing I liked the most about the movies is how loved and content all the babies seemed to be, no matter where they lived.

2.) Toy Story 3
I am a sucker for a cartoon that can make me feel real emotions and this year’s “Toy Story 3” did just that. Of course, it is a Disney Pixar movie, and the filmmakers are masters at creating children’s fare that appeals to adults. Just remember 2009’s “Up,” which had grown men crying in the theater. “Toy Story 3” is the last in the trilogy and it’s been quite a while since movie No. 2 came out. Andy is all grown up and ready to head off to college. But before he leaves, he has to clean out all the childhood things he doesn’t want or need anymore. Andy quickly picks Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) to come with him to college, but the fate of the other toys is less certain. The toys end up on another journey, but the thing about the movie is that it creates an emotional response for anyone who has put aside childish things as they grew up.

1.) Inception
A lot of movies I saw this year were bad or just mediocre, but there was one movie that stood above all the rest for me. I had high expectations for the film, which I know from experience can often lead to disappointment. But when I heard the director who was behind “Memento,” a twisted mystery thriller starring Guy Pearce, and the much lauded “The Dark Knight,” I knew I wanted to see “Inception.”

Christopher Nolan directed this more recent twisted story that had me still guessing what had really happened even after it ended. Leonard DiCaprio leads the cast as a master manipulator of dreams. Using high-tech equipment he and his crew of dream bandits can go into someone’s dreams and find their secrets. But when he is hired to perform inception, the act of planting an entirely new idea in someone’s mind, he and his crew have to go more layers deep than they have gone before. I am not sure that I really understood the movie, but it is one of those movies I want to watch again and again. The movie also had a profound effect on me, apparently, since I had some crazy dreams for a few weeks after seeing it. Now that it is out on DVD and Blu-ray, I am looking forward to watching it a few more times and seeing if I can find any new answers to the puzzle Nolan created.