Running the pack with 12 nominations was The King's Speech starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. While it did not win all of the technical awards it did however take home 4 awards including Best Original Screenplay (for David Seidler), Best Director (for the incredible Tom Hooper), Best Actor in a Leading Role for the visceral and intriguing Colin Firth (his first time winning) and finally Best Motion Picture. There was no doubt about the wins, although I still feel sad that Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter did not get the credit they deserved, their portrayals were so endearing and powerful that it's almost as if there should be two awards given in their respected titles of nominations. For this film to win Best Picture shows the real critique and thought put into it, this year truly contained some great pictures... My personal favorites were Toy Story 3, Inception, and The Social Network but the performances in this film and the direction of the Tom Hooper really sealed the deal. The King's Speech really deserved the award and is one of the high points of 2010.
This does not mean that I didn't like the winners who won in their supporting roles. From the intense drama The Fighter, Melissa Leo and Christian Bale both put memorable roles on-screen and deserve the recognition. Although those were the only awards The Fighter could pick up, the awards they won do show the real emotion put into this piece of work. And I don't think we will be forgetting Melissa Leo's thank-you speech. The win has left her breathless, barely able to speak, and swearing like a trucker. It's all so beautiful until your daughter says, “What does that word mean, Mommy?” Only joking Melissa. The Fighter had a strong message and contained even stronger performances from all of its actors including the lead Mark Wahlberg. Honestly I was surprised when he wasn't nominated. But he will still be remembered for the title role in The Fighter and probably a little more than for his role in The Other Guys or Date Night (although guilty pleasures).
Another champion at the Oscar's was Christopher Nolan's Inception. While it didn't win the artistic awards it did pick up some of the technical awards like Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects and garnering a total of four wins. The film does feed on the technical side of the film so this was no surprise. Yet, an award for its script would have sufficed and deserved as well. Inception was another film that redefined the art of film-making. It was a true science-fiction film that contained the true integrity that’s made for the award shows. It created a whole new world of fantasy, with no real elements of fantasy but using science as a way to enter these dream states.
The Social Network picked up three awards. One for Best Adapted Screenplay (for Aaron Sorkin…like we didn't see that coming), one for Best Original Score and finally, one for Best Film Editing. Now of course I can see why it won Best Film Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay, but I cannot fully grasp why it won Best Original Score. The score for the film is beautiful, with rhythmic hues popping throughout the different songs and haunting melodies blossom the air. But I really thought The King's Speech or How To Train Your Dragon would've won with their magical compositions. The Social Network contained raw ingenuity and real talent from the cast and did deserve a few of the other awards nominated but with other choice films, the ones it came out with is good enough in my books.
Best Animated Feature went to the famous toys Buzz and Woody in Toy Story 3. While How To Train Your Dragon and The Illusionist were both beautifully animated, speckled with choice dialogue and humor, there was no competition with the Pixar hit that some are saying is better than the first two. With that said, I loved How To Train Your Dragon. The animation was nothing I had seen before and the characters were so surreal and heartwarming. Still, when lovable characters that come all the way back to 1995 with a solid sequel, Toy Story 3 is a champion. Of course, when the one animated film is also nominated for Best Picture there's no question that it'll win for Best Animated Picture. It also won the award for Best Original Song (what a shocker by Disney’s and Pixar’s go to guy, Randy Newman).
Randy Newman also performed the song live, “We Belong Together”, and was a great performance at the show. As well as winning the Oscar, Randy Newman had one of the most memorable speeches almost smashing the Awards at the same time. By the by, he has been waiting for this prestigious award for years.
Alice in Wonderland took two awards as well, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. Whoever didn't see at least one of these coming has obviously not seen the film. Although I did not like the Art Direction for Alice, the colors did not blend well together and set pieces that looked a little messy. In my opinion, it took away from the characters making us look at all the wacky designs and not as much on the emotions of the characters. The costumes on the other hand were inventive, colorful, and fun, which showed a bit of personality of the different protagonists and antagonists and was probably the best attribute of the film. Alice In Wonderland was a very artistic picture, full of imagination, that was complete Tim Burton and held strong together until it feel apart during the climactic battle scene.
Other wins went to Natalie Portman, of course, for her portrayal in the dark drama thriller Black Swan. Her role was deep and full of despair; this film really gave her credit to her performance and really gave her a significant amount of pedigree. The Wolfman, a film all the way back from February of last year and starring Benicio Del Torro and Anthony Hopkins, won Best Achievement in Make-up. A film that was mostly panned by critics and did dismal at the box office as well, yet, the make-up was the one highlight in the mostly forgotten film.
The Denmark film, In A Better World, won for Best Foreign Language Film beating out Javier Bardem's winning film Biutiful. One of the biggest upsets of the evening. One would have thought the quality and weight of Biutiful, which was carried by Javier Bardem, would have driven it to the award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Best Animated Short went to The Lost Thing. Best Documentary Short was awarded to Strangers No More. And Best Live-Action Short went to God of Love.
Best Documentary went to the film Inside Job which was narrated by Matt Damon and studied the ever popular topic of financial-ism.
A film many thought was under-represented was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The film was nominated for two awards: Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects, which lost to Alice In Wonderland and Inception, respectively. The film contained fantastical sets filled with magic and strong degrees of angles and shapes which the entire Harry Potter saga has done. The visual effects were astounding filling the screen with spectacle and amazement. The creation of Kreacher and Dobby were very highlighted. Dobby the House-Elf had so much detail poured into it that you can see little wrinkles and birth marks, he honestly looks like a real, little house-elf. The entire saga hasn't had much luck at the Oscars, which has drawn up a lot of controversy. This film series is a well constructed film franchise and really deserves the recognition. Let's just hope with the final installment, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 coming this July, that next years Oscars recognizes their contribution.
Shutter Island was another film not celebrated; it did not even get nominated for one award that was strong, creepy, eerie, and beautifully shot. The editing was top-notch and the music was grippingly dark. This film definitely deserved some recognition especially by the talents of director Martin Scorsese and the stellar performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo.
Although the winner of Best Documentary was Inside Job, another favorite was 2010’s Catfish. This film told the story of three guys who make friends with a family on Facebook, everything is awesome and when they are close to the mysterious family’s town you won't believe what you'll find. The documentary is so thrilling and nail-biting that it actually feels like a fiction film or a faux-documentary. The three main characters also are very funny and very realistic making us connect to the characters.
All the films that were awarded this year were no doubt truly original pieces of work. The Oscars now need to work on getting some variety instead of a cliché award show. The films celebrated were powerful films that represent a whole new generation of film.
Altogether the Oscar's were wonderfully constructed. Although some critics and even a member of the Academy did not like Franco and Hathaway, I thought hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway were delightful, sweet, and innocent and refrained from being rude to their superiors in the film industry. Using colorful elements and interesting themes each award was as interesting as the next. The only problem with this year’s show was the shock value. There was no upset or shocker to the winners and the losers. Perhaps it was just one of those years or some of the other award shows airing prior gave the cat out of the bag.
Still with that said, living legend Kirk Douglas delivered a hilarious speech prior to Melissa Leo winning for Best Supporting Actress and gave one of the true unique moments. The Oscars is an institution, it has highs and lows but we still want to know the final results. Can't wait for next year!
Powered by AkoComment 2.0!
