Welcome back again. We're here to wrap the best of 2010 in a nice little bow and send it to someone who will love it. Today, I'm going to offer you guys a cheat-sheet for what I think is the best this year (in case 40 pages of lists feels too daunting to read); I'm giving you my Oscar Ballot. No commentary, no rankings, just five nominees, with the winner in bold. Just for funsies, I'll also denote actual Oscar nominees with asterisks, so y'all can see the surprising amount of overlap this year between my taste and the Academy's. So:
Best Picture
127 Hours*
Animal Kingdom
Black Swan*
Blue Valentine
Dogtooth
How to Train Your Dragon
The Kids Are All Right*
Restrepo
The Social Network*
Toy Story 3*
Director
Darren Aronofsky-Black Swan*
Danny Boyle-127 Hours
David Fincher-The Social Network*
Yorgos Lanthimos-Dogtooth
Roman Polanski-The Ghost Writer
Actor
Jeff Bridges-True Grit*
Jesse Eisenberg-The Social Network*
Colin Firth-The King's Speech*
James Franco-127 Hours*
Ryan Gosling-Blue Valentine
Actress
Annette Bening-The Kids Are All Right*
Julianne Moore-The Kids Are All Right
Natalie Portman-Black Swan*
Emma Stone-Easy A
Michelle Williams-Blue Valentine*
Supporting Actor
Christian Bale-The Fighter*
Andrew Garfield-The Social Network
Josh Hutcherson-The Kids Are All Right
Ben Mendelsohn-Animal Kingdom
Jeremy Renner-The Town*
Supporting Actress
Amy Adams-The Fighter*
Mila Kunis-Black Swan
Melissa Leo-The Fighter*
Lesley Manville-Another Year
Jacki Weaver-Animal Kingdom
Original Screenplay
Animal Kingdom
Black Swan
Easy A
The Kids Are All Right*
The King's Speech*
Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours*
The Ghost Writer
How to Train Your Dragon
The Social Network*
Toy Story 3*
Art Direction
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1*
Inception*
The King's Speech*
Shutter Island
TRON Legacy
Costume Design
Burlesque
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
I Am Love*
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
TRON Legacy
Visual Effects
Clash of the Titans
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1*
Inception*
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
TRON Legacy
Makeup
Black Swan
Clash of the Titans
Splice
Film Editing
127 Hours*
Black Swan*
Inception
Restrepo
The Social Network*
Cinematography
Black Swan*
Dogtooth
Inception*
Shutter Island
True Grit*
Original Score
How to Train Your Dragon*
Red Hill
The Social Network*
Toy Story 3
TRON Legacy
Sound Mixing
127 Hours
Black Swan
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception*
TRON Legacy
Sound Effects Editing
127 Hours
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
How to Train Your Dragon
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
TRON Legacy*
Original Song
"Express"-Burlesque
"Sticks and Stones"-How to Train Your Dragon
"Black Sheep"-Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
"Mother Knows Best"-Tangled
"We Belong Together"-Toy Story 3*
Well, there we have it. Another year of movies done with. I'll probably return next week for a bit, just to discuss Oscar predictions/wins, but, until then, thanks much for reading!
Showing posts with label best of 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best of 2010. Show all posts
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Best of 2010, part 4: Tech Categories
Last list post for 2010, and it's a doozy, so I ought to get started. First things first though: I feel like I should define the categories I'm about to talk about, so here you go:
Art Direction: Production design: creating, designing, and building the world in which the movie takes place. Generally associated with set-building, but also stretches to conceptual aspects
Costume Design: ...The design of the costumes.
Visual Effects: Special Effects. CGI, models, etc.
Makeup: ...makeup.
Film Editing: Editing the movie: cutting in some places, lengthening in others. Generally responsible for the rhythm of a film, as well as keeping continuity and making sense of the plot.
Cinematography: In layman's terms, how pretty the movie is. Screen composition, lighting, camera techniques, etc.
Original Score: Music composed for the film itself.
Sound Mixing: Blending the four film sound elements (dialogue, sound effects, ambient noise, music) to create a coherent overall mix.
Sound Effects Editing: creating the sound elements and sound effects heard in the film.
Original Song: Songs written specifically for the film.
Art Direction
5. Shutter Island-Grand Guignol-inspired, instantly memorable locations. That grungy cell-block, the bright white patient ward, the creepy mausoleum in the woods.
4. The King's Speech-wonderfully specific set design, with locations built to look interesting for long periods of time. Lionel's study is delightfully off-kilter.
3. Inception-Paris dreamscapes, rotating hotels, and snowbound strongholds. This movie looks as classy as it feels.
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1-Our protagonists leave Hogwarts for the first time, and the world they discover is dark, surreal, and beautiful. Malfoy Manor and Godric's Hollow stick out in my mind.
1. TRON Legacy-Nothing could beat the creation of a new world. TRON's visualization of the secret world of computers is gorgeous and unique. I love Jeff Bridge's hidden townhouse, and the futuristic dance club.
Honorable Mention: Black Swan's terrifying apartments and foreboding performance spaces.
Costume Design
5. TRON Legacy-Sci-fi minimalism. The designs are simple, but evocative and memorable.
4. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-Clothing for the Canadian hipsters out there, and their slightly psychotic exes. All the threads are great and character-specific.
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1-Wizard-chic and scared teen formal-wear. The beginning wedding scene is a particular standout.
2. Burlesque-Delightfully wacky performance clothes. That dress made entirely out of fake pearls, or the one with the big silly handprints on it. Or what about that beautiful green dress Christina Aguilera wears with the huge train? Great stuff.
1. I Am Love-I love the incredibly rich colors used to garb this group of filthy rich Italians. These people dress like they're expensive food. Tilda Swinton's wardrobe is consistently gorgeous.
Honorable Mention: A melodramatic interpretation of ancient Greek fashion for Clash of the Titans.
Visual Effects
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-Constantly appearing video game effects, coupled with flashy fight scenes.
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1-Dementors, giant snakes, silvery Patronuses. Plus, the duels look better than they ever have.
3. Clash of the Titans-So many monsters! Giant scorpions, winged horses, plus that ridiculous turtle-Kraken. Delightfully goofy work here.
2. Inception-Nolan and team tweak the laws of reality to jaw-dropping effect. Folding cities, exploding cafes, rotating hotels, and a disintigrating Limbo.
1. TRON Legacy-Beautifully evocative digital spaces, spectacular light cycle races, and the coolest fight scenes all year. Oh, and they de-aged Jeff Bridges too. How did the Academy not nominate this?! *despair*
Honorable Mention: Helping Nina transform, physically and mentally, in Black Swan.
Makeup
3. Black Swan-lots of memorable gore effects; broken toe-nails, peeling skin, people getting stabbed. Plus that already icon Black Swan ballet makeup.
2. Splice-creating one of the strangest, most realistic almost-human creatures I've seen in a while. Dren looks too lifelike to exist.
1. Clash of the Titans-Lots of silly hair, A half-man-half-scorpion, those amazing, troll-like Fates, and that beautiful rendition of Charon, who looks like he's been carved out of driftwood.
Honorable Mention: The movie sucked, but everyone looked appropriately unhealthy in Frozen.
Film Editing
5. Michael Levine-Restrepo-sifting through a year's worth of footage to create a compelling, tightly structured film.
4. Lee Smith-Inception-sorting through a number of different plotlines in three different levels of reality and still coming out completely understandable in the end.
3. Jon Harris-127 Hours-splitscreens and quick cuts create a desperate rythm to counterpoint Aaron Ralston's own desperation.
2. Andrew Weisblum-Black Swan-Beautifully realized dance sequences, frenetic scenes of psychological distortion, and a plodding inevitability. Black Swan is edited like a train-wreck.
1. Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall-The Social Network-Things like typing and coding shouldn't be interesting to watch, but the pulsing, churning rythm of the film makes it that way. This movie plunges in from the very first scene and doesn't come up for breath until the end.
Honorable Mention: The clean-cut, effortlessly suspenseful Animal Kingdom
Cinematography
5. Thimios Bakatakis-Dogtooth-Sumptuously lit with slightly off-kilter framing. I love the shot of the son playing with his airplane, where we can only see his hands and his toy.
4. Robert Richardson-Shutter Island-Contrasting between the low-key present day scenes, and the high-key flashbacks. The use of light in this film is nothing less than painterly. Points for that horrific concentration camp tracking shot.
3. Wall Pfister-Inception-Clean, competent, with evocative use of slow motion. The framing/camera choices are exquisite.
2. Roger Deakins-True Grit-It's not his best work, but even mediocre lensing from modern day demigod Roger Deakins is head and shoulders above the rest. Beautifully lit, intelligently filmed. The scene with the hanged man in the grove is really stunning.
1. Emmanuel Libatique-Black Swan-Beautifully monochrome shots with stunning compositions. Great use of reflective surfaces, both thematically and stylistically.
Honorable Mention: Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak's roving camera in 127 Hours
Original Score
Two notes: 1. I know the winner here won't be a surprise to anyone who has talked to me for five minutes for the last three months, but bear with me here.
2. This was a really close race. The top four slots could all have easily won in a different year, and I wouldn't be surprised if the top three all showed up on a best of decade list (if I'm still making lists in ten years...)
(I'll link to my favorite tracks from each movie.)
5. Randy Newman-Toy Story 3-A classic score in the best sense, Newman's compositions are big and bold, but find the right quiet beats to help the movie rip your heart out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-y90KLoqdA
(Further listening: 'Sunnyside,' 'What About Daisy?')
4. Dmitri Golovko-Red Hill-A giddy Ennio Morricone-esque riff on Western music. Big trumpet themes, inventive percussion use, aggressive acoustic guitars.
(It's not on youtube, but if you have iTunes, search "Red Hill Soundtrack" and listen to a couple of the sampels. 'Alice's Theme,' 'Shane's Theme,' 'The Panther,' and 'Finale' all stick out to me.)
3. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-The Social Network-totally atypical movie scoring. Pulsing electronic rythms, strange orchestrations, and the tiniest bit of decorative piano.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ajArNJmjY&feature=related
(Further listening: ''Hand Covers Bruise,' 'The Gentle Hum of Anxiety,' 'Complication With Optimistic Outcome')
2. John Powell-How to Train Your Dragon-I love this score. It's so huge. Big brass fanfares, Celtic/Irish influences, ethnic instruments. Plus it's just gorgeous. Just go listen to this score. It's awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ei2HSGeLHo
(Further listening: 'Test Drive,' 'Forbidden Friendship,' 'Romantic Flight,' 'Dragon Training')
1. Daft Punk-TRON Legacy-Come on, what else was it going to be? Daft Punk's score is an sometimes an orchestra, sometimes a dance hall anthem, and always, always awesome. This music elevated the movie beyond anything it could have been on its own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4dUiBfMQVU&feature=related
(Further listening: ...Really, the whole score, but especially 'Son of Flynn,' 'End of Line,' 'The Game Has Changed,' 'C.L.U.,' 'Arena')
Honorable Mention: Inception has some greally fantastic tracks, but a few too many "BRAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUs" for me.
Sound Mixing
5. Inception-a complex wall of sound that never gets (too) muddled.
4. How to Train Your Dragon-huge dragon battles, aerial acrobatics, and just the right amount of quiet.
3. Black Swan-Nina is completely nuts, and it shows on the Sound Mix. Bird noises, whispering voices, and breaking glass are all incorprated alongside the bombastic Swan Lake score.
2. TRON Legacy-This film creates an entirely new space, with a soundscape of its own, and Daft Punk's music is effectively integrated to seem like part of the world itself.
1. 127 Hours-Sometimes the simplest design is the most effective. 127 Hours takes the few sounds it has and uses them to conjure the fear of being stuck in the same place for a long, long time.
Honorable Mention: living inside a tank that sounds like a sentient being in Lebanon.
Sound Effects Editing
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1-This series has never sounded so interesting. Points for the duelling scenes, which sound unlike anything we've heard in movies before.
4. 127 Hours-The biggest cringe of the entire film is the sound of an arm breaking. This sound team plays the audience like a piano.
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-This movie is convinced it's a video game, and it sounds like it. Beeps, boops, 8-bit sound effects, and silliness.
2. TRON Legacy-Whirs, hums, mechanical screams, all in service of realizing a reality completely seperate from our own.
1. How to Train Your Dragon-Every type of dragon sounds unique and believable. Add in amazing combat, pyrotechnic, and weapons work, and all those great flying noises, and you've got something special.
Honorable Mention: Creating Nina's aural manifestations of her psychoses in Black Swan.
Original Song
5. "Express"-Burleseque-A trashy dance-hall anthem, belted as only Christina Aguilera can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMK78jAi8A
4. "We Belong Together"-Toy Story 3-Bouncy, energetic, happy. All the things you need to stop crying at the end of this movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBBT7K7LmGo
3. "Mother Knows Best"-Tangled-A mix of saccharine sweetness and veiled threats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MGTkIFG8kM&annotation_id=annotation_715021&feature=iv
2. "Black Sheep"-Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-An angry chick-rock anthem. It wouldn't be out of place at Lillith Fair. It's the best of Scott Pilgrim's decidedly awesome soundtrack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19-RS02R0H4
1. "Sticks and Stones"-How to Train Your Dragon-It's a four-minute ball of pure joy. Fast-paced, energetic, and sometimes in Norwegian. What else could we want?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBYg3N-uvAc
Well, there we have it. I'll finish up tomorrow with my dream Oscar ballot. Until then, what do you think?
Art Direction: Production design: creating, designing, and building the world in which the movie takes place. Generally associated with set-building, but also stretches to conceptual aspects
Costume Design: ...The design of the costumes.
Visual Effects: Special Effects. CGI, models, etc.
Makeup: ...makeup.
Film Editing: Editing the movie: cutting in some places, lengthening in others. Generally responsible for the rhythm of a film, as well as keeping continuity and making sense of the plot.
Cinematography: In layman's terms, how pretty the movie is. Screen composition, lighting, camera techniques, etc.
Original Score: Music composed for the film itself.
Sound Mixing: Blending the four film sound elements (dialogue, sound effects, ambient noise, music) to create a coherent overall mix.
Sound Effects Editing: creating the sound elements and sound effects heard in the film.
Original Song: Songs written specifically for the film.
Art Direction
5. Shutter Island-Grand Guignol-inspired, instantly memorable locations. That grungy cell-block, the bright white patient ward, the creepy mausoleum in the woods.
4. The King's Speech-wonderfully specific set design, with locations built to look interesting for long periods of time. Lionel's study is delightfully off-kilter.
3. Inception-Paris dreamscapes, rotating hotels, and snowbound strongholds. This movie looks as classy as it feels.
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1-Our protagonists leave Hogwarts for the first time, and the world they discover is dark, surreal, and beautiful. Malfoy Manor and Godric's Hollow stick out in my mind.
1. TRON Legacy-Nothing could beat the creation of a new world. TRON's visualization of the secret world of computers is gorgeous and unique. I love Jeff Bridge's hidden townhouse, and the futuristic dance club.
Honorable Mention: Black Swan's terrifying apartments and foreboding performance spaces.
Costume Design
5. TRON Legacy-Sci-fi minimalism. The designs are simple, but evocative and memorable.
4. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-Clothing for the Canadian hipsters out there, and their slightly psychotic exes. All the threads are great and character-specific.
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1-Wizard-chic and scared teen formal-wear. The beginning wedding scene is a particular standout.
2. Burlesque-Delightfully wacky performance clothes. That dress made entirely out of fake pearls, or the one with the big silly handprints on it. Or what about that beautiful green dress Christina Aguilera wears with the huge train? Great stuff.
1. I Am Love-I love the incredibly rich colors used to garb this group of filthy rich Italians. These people dress like they're expensive food. Tilda Swinton's wardrobe is consistently gorgeous.
Honorable Mention: A melodramatic interpretation of ancient Greek fashion for Clash of the Titans.
Visual Effects
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-Constantly appearing video game effects, coupled with flashy fight scenes.
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1-Dementors, giant snakes, silvery Patronuses. Plus, the duels look better than they ever have.
3. Clash of the Titans-So many monsters! Giant scorpions, winged horses, plus that ridiculous turtle-Kraken. Delightfully goofy work here.
2. Inception-Nolan and team tweak the laws of reality to jaw-dropping effect. Folding cities, exploding cafes, rotating hotels, and a disintigrating Limbo.
1. TRON Legacy-Beautifully evocative digital spaces, spectacular light cycle races, and the coolest fight scenes all year. Oh, and they de-aged Jeff Bridges too. How did the Academy not nominate this?! *despair*
Honorable Mention: Helping Nina transform, physically and mentally, in Black Swan.
Makeup
3. Black Swan-lots of memorable gore effects; broken toe-nails, peeling skin, people getting stabbed. Plus that already icon Black Swan ballet makeup.
2. Splice-creating one of the strangest, most realistic almost-human creatures I've seen in a while. Dren looks too lifelike to exist.
1. Clash of the Titans-Lots of silly hair, A half-man-half-scorpion, those amazing, troll-like Fates, and that beautiful rendition of Charon, who looks like he's been carved out of driftwood.
Honorable Mention: The movie sucked, but everyone looked appropriately unhealthy in Frozen.
Film Editing
5. Michael Levine-Restrepo-sifting through a year's worth of footage to create a compelling, tightly structured film.
4. Lee Smith-Inception-sorting through a number of different plotlines in three different levels of reality and still coming out completely understandable in the end.
3. Jon Harris-127 Hours-splitscreens and quick cuts create a desperate rythm to counterpoint Aaron Ralston's own desperation.
2. Andrew Weisblum-Black Swan-Beautifully realized dance sequences, frenetic scenes of psychological distortion, and a plodding inevitability. Black Swan is edited like a train-wreck.
1. Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall-The Social Network-Things like typing and coding shouldn't be interesting to watch, but the pulsing, churning rythm of the film makes it that way. This movie plunges in from the very first scene and doesn't come up for breath until the end.
Honorable Mention: The clean-cut, effortlessly suspenseful Animal Kingdom
Cinematography
5. Thimios Bakatakis-Dogtooth-Sumptuously lit with slightly off-kilter framing. I love the shot of the son playing with his airplane, where we can only see his hands and his toy.
4. Robert Richardson-Shutter Island-Contrasting between the low-key present day scenes, and the high-key flashbacks. The use of light in this film is nothing less than painterly. Points for that horrific concentration camp tracking shot.
3. Wall Pfister-Inception-Clean, competent, with evocative use of slow motion. The framing/camera choices are exquisite.
2. Roger Deakins-True Grit-It's not his best work, but even mediocre lensing from modern day demigod Roger Deakins is head and shoulders above the rest. Beautifully lit, intelligently filmed. The scene with the hanged man in the grove is really stunning.
1. Emmanuel Libatique-Black Swan-Beautifully monochrome shots with stunning compositions. Great use of reflective surfaces, both thematically and stylistically.
Honorable Mention: Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak's roving camera in 127 Hours
Original Score
Two notes: 1. I know the winner here won't be a surprise to anyone who has talked to me for five minutes for the last three months, but bear with me here.
2. This was a really close race. The top four slots could all have easily won in a different year, and I wouldn't be surprised if the top three all showed up on a best of decade list (if I'm still making lists in ten years...)
(I'll link to my favorite tracks from each movie.)
5. Randy Newman-Toy Story 3-A classic score in the best sense, Newman's compositions are big and bold, but find the right quiet beats to help the movie rip your heart out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-y90KLoqdA
(Further listening: 'Sunnyside,' 'What About Daisy?')
4. Dmitri Golovko-Red Hill-A giddy Ennio Morricone-esque riff on Western music. Big trumpet themes, inventive percussion use, aggressive acoustic guitars.
(It's not on youtube, but if you have iTunes, search "Red Hill Soundtrack" and listen to a couple of the sampels. 'Alice's Theme,' 'Shane's Theme,' 'The Panther,' and 'Finale' all stick out to me.)
3. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-The Social Network-totally atypical movie scoring. Pulsing electronic rythms, strange orchestrations, and the tiniest bit of decorative piano.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ajArNJmjY&feature=related
(Further listening: ''Hand Covers Bruise,' 'The Gentle Hum of Anxiety,' 'Complication With Optimistic Outcome')
2. John Powell-How to Train Your Dragon-I love this score. It's so huge. Big brass fanfares, Celtic/Irish influences, ethnic instruments. Plus it's just gorgeous. Just go listen to this score. It's awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ei2HSGeLHo
(Further listening: 'Test Drive,' 'Forbidden Friendship,' 'Romantic Flight,' 'Dragon Training')
1. Daft Punk-TRON Legacy-Come on, what else was it going to be? Daft Punk's score is an sometimes an orchestra, sometimes a dance hall anthem, and always, always awesome. This music elevated the movie beyond anything it could have been on its own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4dUiBfMQVU&feature=related
(Further listening: ...Really, the whole score, but especially 'Son of Flynn,' 'End of Line,' 'The Game Has Changed,' 'C.L.U.,' 'Arena')
Honorable Mention: Inception has some greally fantastic tracks, but a few too many "BRAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUs" for me.
Sound Mixing
5. Inception-a complex wall of sound that never gets (too) muddled.
4. How to Train Your Dragon-huge dragon battles, aerial acrobatics, and just the right amount of quiet.
3. Black Swan-Nina is completely nuts, and it shows on the Sound Mix. Bird noises, whispering voices, and breaking glass are all incorprated alongside the bombastic Swan Lake score.
2. TRON Legacy-This film creates an entirely new space, with a soundscape of its own, and Daft Punk's music is effectively integrated to seem like part of the world itself.
1. 127 Hours-Sometimes the simplest design is the most effective. 127 Hours takes the few sounds it has and uses them to conjure the fear of being stuck in the same place for a long, long time.
Honorable Mention: living inside a tank that sounds like a sentient being in Lebanon.
Sound Effects Editing
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1-This series has never sounded so interesting. Points for the duelling scenes, which sound unlike anything we've heard in movies before.
4. 127 Hours-The biggest cringe of the entire film is the sound of an arm breaking. This sound team plays the audience like a piano.
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-This movie is convinced it's a video game, and it sounds like it. Beeps, boops, 8-bit sound effects, and silliness.
2. TRON Legacy-Whirs, hums, mechanical screams, all in service of realizing a reality completely seperate from our own.
1. How to Train Your Dragon-Every type of dragon sounds unique and believable. Add in amazing combat, pyrotechnic, and weapons work, and all those great flying noises, and you've got something special.
Honorable Mention: Creating Nina's aural manifestations of her psychoses in Black Swan.
Original Song
5. "Express"-Burleseque-A trashy dance-hall anthem, belted as only Christina Aguilera can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMK78jAi8A
4. "We Belong Together"-Toy Story 3-Bouncy, energetic, happy. All the things you need to stop crying at the end of this movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBBT7K7LmGo
3. "Mother Knows Best"-Tangled-A mix of saccharine sweetness and veiled threats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MGTkIFG8kM&annotation_id=annotation_715021&feature=iv
2. "Black Sheep"-Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-An angry chick-rock anthem. It wouldn't be out of place at Lillith Fair. It's the best of Scott Pilgrim's decidedly awesome soundtrack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19-RS02R0H4
1. "Sticks and Stones"-How to Train Your Dragon-It's a four-minute ball of pure joy. Fast-paced, energetic, and sometimes in Norwegian. What else could we want?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBYg3N-uvAc
Well, there we have it. I'll finish up tomorrow with my dream Oscar ballot. Until then, what do you think?
Friday, February 18, 2011
Best of 2010, part 3: Acting
Here we are again. Today is all about acting, and, since I'm sure I don't need to define acting for you fine people, we'll get right to it. Here are the best performances of 2010.
I'll try to include clips of every performance, but no guarantees.
5. Colin Firth-The King's Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka2g2ehdLj0
Funny story here. I'm not a huge fan of this performance, but this year suffered an ungodly dry spell of interesting performances in lead roles (of the movies I've seen anyway. I am missing quite a few films which reputedly feature great male performances). Still, I needed five, so Colin Firth stammers his way in. It's not a great performance, but it's a heartfelt one, and Firth hits all his emotional beats well. It's not a virtuoso performance on the level of A Single Man, but it's certainly passable in its own right.
4. Jesse Eisenberg-The Social Network
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMeYdSYCC7A&feature=related
I love how internalized this performance is. I'm not sure Eisenberg raises his voice throughout the movie, nor does his body language ever seem anything less than restrained. This quiet, bound up approach is absolutely vital for The Social Network's take on Mark Zuckerberg. Instead of portraying him as a charismatic innovator or a stereotypical antihero, Jesse Eisenberg creates a quiet, frustrated little boy who stumbles into billions. Watching him morph from grumpy college boy to confused kid pretending to be an adult is fascinating.
3. Jeff Bridges-True Grit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvmJWzewMEE&feature=related
This performance is sort of Crazy Heart: The Early Years, but I love it anyway. Admittedly, stumbling alcoholic is ground that Bridges has covered before, but he does it delightfully well. In True Grit, he infuses his performance with something woefully lacking from Crazy Heart: humor. Rooster Cogburn may be a burnout, but try telling him that to his face. This tongue-in-cheek self-importance lends the character some version of wounded dignity, which lends his legitimate fear and empathy for young Mattie Ross startling poignancy.
2. Ryan Gosling-Blue Valentine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xXMQQs6z5M&feature=related
Ryan Gosling had to play two different people in this movie: an excited young man with his whole life ahead of him, and the same man, four years later, who's had his optimism beaten out of him, but is still trying to hold onto the past. It's an interesting thing, having to play yourself four years older: it's not a large-enough time period to really affect you physically, four years of hardship have still changed who you are. Gosling's bravura performance finds the common threads between his younger and older selves, and exploits them to devastating effect. We can see both the young and the old man occupying the same space, and it's heartbreaking.
1. James Franco-127 Hours
(Best I can get is the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5oTlfCGWKE&feature=relmfu)
127 Hours is absolutely a one-man show. Without James Franco, there's no movie. And if his performance had fallen flat, the movie would have been unbearable. Lightning struck, though, and Franco gives a performance that's completely engrossing. He creates a fully realized, all-too recognizable individual; a man whose overconfidence isn't too much to be off-putting, but enough to get him into trouble. Watching this man, pinned under a rock, slowly come to terms with his own death, and his subsequent determination to avoid it, is extraordinary. Franco's screen presence is nothing less than magnetic.
Horable mention: Ryan Reynold's justifiably upset truck-driver in Buried
Best Actress
5. Emma Stone-Easy A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIqUDHT5UCk
Sure, some people might be confused by a performance in a lightweight high-school comedy getting in over other, meatier parts, but I don't care. Emma Stone takes this movie, rips it apart, refashions it, and wears it on her chest. She owns the whole damn film. And rightfully so: her performance is effortlessly light and physical, her timing is perfect, and she brings a perfect sort of winking naivete to the proceedings. This is the very definition of a star-making turn: after this movie, Emma Stone's going to drown in role offers.
4. Annette Bening-The Kids Are All Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VREJyLpzzU
I love the clip here, because it's just about the only time Annette Bening allows her character to be vulnerable. And even then, she spends the whole time pushing her feelings down and moving on. Her character always has to feel in control of her emotions, even when the world conspires to push them to the forefront. Bening is tough and assertive; almost too assertive, as if she wants to become the father figure that her children don't have. And then, when her grouchy exterior is finally violated, her lonely vulnerability is all too believable.
3. Michelle Williams-Blue Valentine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIqhOJAWuX8&feature=related
Like her on-screen partner Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams has to play two people throughout the course of the movie. Where Gosling's character was two version of the same person, however, Williams' character is two completely different individuals. The four years that pass during the movie exact a harsh toll on the younger, naive version, and turn her into a world-weary slave to her job and her marriage. Williams' transformation is astounding; her moments of realizing that she can never get back the love she's lost for her husband stick out in my memory.
2. Julianne Moore-The Kids Are All Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBwht54TDOI
Where Annette Bening is too tough and cold, Julianne Moore is a whirling dervish free spirit. She's trying so hard to be fun and cool and open, she's forgetting to be a real person. She's loving, but sometimes glaringly immature; many of her conversations are punctuated by petulant little asides. Still, her loneliness and her marital dissatisfaction are honestly and expertly portrayed. She manages to look like a victim, even as she acts in ways that threaten her entire family.
1. Natalie Portman-Black Swan
(believe it or not, the best I can get is a trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViWQUOGIaSU&feature=related)
Nina just wants to be perfect. Sure, she's nuts, emotionally unstable, violent, and bi-curious, but hey. To play this role, Natalie Portman had to hit pretty much every high and low in the spectrum of human emotion. Then she had to do it while dancing. Portman trained for months to be able to dance for the film. Her Nina is an emotionally sheltered little girl whose world slowly opens up to reveal all the things that go bump in the dark as Nina transforms herself into a woman and a swan. That final dialogue-less closeup: right before the end, while she's in her dressing-room, fixing her makeup, is alone worthy of an Oscar.
Honorable Mention: Nicole Kidman's fragile, slowly imploding mother in Rabbit Hole
Supporting Actor
5. Jeremy Renner-The Town
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2ATw11GWy8
Violent, angry, and twitching with nervous energy, Renner is a perfect ball of manic gleeful energy. Points for the stressed brotherly relationship he sells with Affleck.
4. Josh Hutcherson-The Kids Are All Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsEo-xE4e2U&feature=relmfu
Though he's only 18, Hutcherson holds his own with far more practiced thespians, effortlessly capturing the emotional roller-coaster of wanting a father figure, finding one, and realizing that he's kind of a dick.
3. Ben Mendelsohn-Animal Kingdom
(no clip, and the trailer doesn't really feature him...Sorry!)
The second-best villain of the year. Mendelsohn's Pope can only be described as a sociopath: cold, calculating, not really there. His stare is almost too blank. It's unnerving.
2. Christian Bale-The Fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY_emnRnntY
Christian Bale plays a strung-out junkie whose one shot at legitimacy and fame has passed. He holds on to that one memory while slowly strangling the life from those around him. Bale is energetic, charismatic, completely alive: in his eyes however, lingers just the right flash of bitterness and hate.
1. Andrew Garfield-The Social Network
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPlzlVegfbA&feature=related
It was a nail-biter between Garfield and Bale, but, in the end, Garfield's kicked puppy won out. Garfield's goofy energy, his Hardy Boys-style fundraising, and his confused, bitter betrayal make for some of the best scenes of the year.
Honorable Mention: Geoffrey Rush's amusingly cavalier speech therapist in The King's Speech
Supporting Actress
5. Mila Kunis-Black Swan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ykq5V1--Bc
Strong, self-assured, sensual: everything Nina's not. Mila Kunis plays the real-life Black Swan, and pulls it off with smoky intensity.
4. Amy Adams-The Fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qmjAqkRCjc
Loving and supportive, but tough as nails. Adams' blunt realism is a nice foil for the more optimistic worlds that the other characters inhabit.
3. Lesley Manville-Another Year
(Only a trailer, sorry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDVJwhj5EgA&feature=related)
Achingly vulnerable, lying to herself incessantly, and drinking too much, Lesley Manville provides a far more interesting story than the actual plot. One keeps hoping that the movie will give up and follow her around instead.
2. Melissa Leo-The Fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qmjAqkRCjc
Melissa Leo chews the scenery with frantic intensity; she's a loud-mouthed mother to a changeling brood of well-haired spawn, and she loves it. Leo plays her like a Lady Macbeth in way over her head.
1. Jacki Weaver-Animal Kingdom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db9kgfsvuGs
The best villain of the year, and the craziest mother as well, which was no mean feat, given this year's movie-obsession with overbearing mommies. Jacki Weaver is sunny, outgoing, friendly, and also the cold-blooded head of a crime-family. She does everything thinkable (and unthinkable) to protect her boys, and she does it with a smile on her face.
Honorable Mention: Marion Cotillard's vengeful dead spouse in Inception.
Well, there we have it. Tomorrow I post the tech awards, and on Sunday I'll wrap up with my dream Oscar ballot. Groovy!
I'll try to include clips of every performance, but no guarantees.
5. Colin Firth-The King's Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka2g2ehdLj0
Funny story here. I'm not a huge fan of this performance, but this year suffered an ungodly dry spell of interesting performances in lead roles (of the movies I've seen anyway. I am missing quite a few films which reputedly feature great male performances). Still, I needed five, so Colin Firth stammers his way in. It's not a great performance, but it's a heartfelt one, and Firth hits all his emotional beats well. It's not a virtuoso performance on the level of A Single Man, but it's certainly passable in its own right.
4. Jesse Eisenberg-The Social Network
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMeYdSYCC7A&feature=related
I love how internalized this performance is. I'm not sure Eisenberg raises his voice throughout the movie, nor does his body language ever seem anything less than restrained. This quiet, bound up approach is absolutely vital for The Social Network's take on Mark Zuckerberg. Instead of portraying him as a charismatic innovator or a stereotypical antihero, Jesse Eisenberg creates a quiet, frustrated little boy who stumbles into billions. Watching him morph from grumpy college boy to confused kid pretending to be an adult is fascinating.
3. Jeff Bridges-True Grit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvmJWzewMEE&feature=related
This performance is sort of Crazy Heart: The Early Years, but I love it anyway. Admittedly, stumbling alcoholic is ground that Bridges has covered before, but he does it delightfully well. In True Grit, he infuses his performance with something woefully lacking from Crazy Heart: humor. Rooster Cogburn may be a burnout, but try telling him that to his face. This tongue-in-cheek self-importance lends the character some version of wounded dignity, which lends his legitimate fear and empathy for young Mattie Ross startling poignancy.
2. Ryan Gosling-Blue Valentine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xXMQQs6z5M&feature=related
Ryan Gosling had to play two different people in this movie: an excited young man with his whole life ahead of him, and the same man, four years later, who's had his optimism beaten out of him, but is still trying to hold onto the past. It's an interesting thing, having to play yourself four years older: it's not a large-enough time period to really affect you physically, four years of hardship have still changed who you are. Gosling's bravura performance finds the common threads between his younger and older selves, and exploits them to devastating effect. We can see both the young and the old man occupying the same space, and it's heartbreaking.
1. James Franco-127 Hours
(Best I can get is the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5oTlfCGWKE&feature=relmfu)
127 Hours is absolutely a one-man show. Without James Franco, there's no movie. And if his performance had fallen flat, the movie would have been unbearable. Lightning struck, though, and Franco gives a performance that's completely engrossing. He creates a fully realized, all-too recognizable individual; a man whose overconfidence isn't too much to be off-putting, but enough to get him into trouble. Watching this man, pinned under a rock, slowly come to terms with his own death, and his subsequent determination to avoid it, is extraordinary. Franco's screen presence is nothing less than magnetic.
Horable mention: Ryan Reynold's justifiably upset truck-driver in Buried
Best Actress
5. Emma Stone-Easy A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIqUDHT5UCk
Sure, some people might be confused by a performance in a lightweight high-school comedy getting in over other, meatier parts, but I don't care. Emma Stone takes this movie, rips it apart, refashions it, and wears it on her chest. She owns the whole damn film. And rightfully so: her performance is effortlessly light and physical, her timing is perfect, and she brings a perfect sort of winking naivete to the proceedings. This is the very definition of a star-making turn: after this movie, Emma Stone's going to drown in role offers.
4. Annette Bening-The Kids Are All Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VREJyLpzzU
I love the clip here, because it's just about the only time Annette Bening allows her character to be vulnerable. And even then, she spends the whole time pushing her feelings down and moving on. Her character always has to feel in control of her emotions, even when the world conspires to push them to the forefront. Bening is tough and assertive; almost too assertive, as if she wants to become the father figure that her children don't have. And then, when her grouchy exterior is finally violated, her lonely vulnerability is all too believable.
3. Michelle Williams-Blue Valentine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIqhOJAWuX8&feature=related
Like her on-screen partner Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams has to play two people throughout the course of the movie. Where Gosling's character was two version of the same person, however, Williams' character is two completely different individuals. The four years that pass during the movie exact a harsh toll on the younger, naive version, and turn her into a world-weary slave to her job and her marriage. Williams' transformation is astounding; her moments of realizing that she can never get back the love she's lost for her husband stick out in my memory.
2. Julianne Moore-The Kids Are All Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBwht54TDOI
Where Annette Bening is too tough and cold, Julianne Moore is a whirling dervish free spirit. She's trying so hard to be fun and cool and open, she's forgetting to be a real person. She's loving, but sometimes glaringly immature; many of her conversations are punctuated by petulant little asides. Still, her loneliness and her marital dissatisfaction are honestly and expertly portrayed. She manages to look like a victim, even as she acts in ways that threaten her entire family.
1. Natalie Portman-Black Swan
(believe it or not, the best I can get is a trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViWQUOGIaSU&feature=related)
Nina just wants to be perfect. Sure, she's nuts, emotionally unstable, violent, and bi-curious, but hey. To play this role, Natalie Portman had to hit pretty much every high and low in the spectrum of human emotion. Then she had to do it while dancing. Portman trained for months to be able to dance for the film. Her Nina is an emotionally sheltered little girl whose world slowly opens up to reveal all the things that go bump in the dark as Nina transforms herself into a woman and a swan. That final dialogue-less closeup: right before the end, while she's in her dressing-room, fixing her makeup, is alone worthy of an Oscar.
Honorable Mention: Nicole Kidman's fragile, slowly imploding mother in Rabbit Hole
Supporting Actor
5. Jeremy Renner-The Town
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2ATw11GWy8
Violent, angry, and twitching with nervous energy, Renner is a perfect ball of manic gleeful energy. Points for the stressed brotherly relationship he sells with Affleck.
4. Josh Hutcherson-The Kids Are All Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsEo-xE4e2U&feature=relmfu
Though he's only 18, Hutcherson holds his own with far more practiced thespians, effortlessly capturing the emotional roller-coaster of wanting a father figure, finding one, and realizing that he's kind of a dick.
3. Ben Mendelsohn-Animal Kingdom
(no clip, and the trailer doesn't really feature him...Sorry!)
The second-best villain of the year. Mendelsohn's Pope can only be described as a sociopath: cold, calculating, not really there. His stare is almost too blank. It's unnerving.
2. Christian Bale-The Fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY_emnRnntY
Christian Bale plays a strung-out junkie whose one shot at legitimacy and fame has passed. He holds on to that one memory while slowly strangling the life from those around him. Bale is energetic, charismatic, completely alive: in his eyes however, lingers just the right flash of bitterness and hate.
1. Andrew Garfield-The Social Network
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPlzlVegfbA&feature=related
It was a nail-biter between Garfield and Bale, but, in the end, Garfield's kicked puppy won out. Garfield's goofy energy, his Hardy Boys-style fundraising, and his confused, bitter betrayal make for some of the best scenes of the year.
Honorable Mention: Geoffrey Rush's amusingly cavalier speech therapist in The King's Speech
Supporting Actress
5. Mila Kunis-Black Swan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ykq5V1--Bc
Strong, self-assured, sensual: everything Nina's not. Mila Kunis plays the real-life Black Swan, and pulls it off with smoky intensity.
4. Amy Adams-The Fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qmjAqkRCjc
Loving and supportive, but tough as nails. Adams' blunt realism is a nice foil for the more optimistic worlds that the other characters inhabit.
3. Lesley Manville-Another Year
(Only a trailer, sorry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDVJwhj5EgA&feature=related)
Achingly vulnerable, lying to herself incessantly, and drinking too much, Lesley Manville provides a far more interesting story than the actual plot. One keeps hoping that the movie will give up and follow her around instead.
2. Melissa Leo-The Fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qmjAqkRCjc
Melissa Leo chews the scenery with frantic intensity; she's a loud-mouthed mother to a changeling brood of well-haired spawn, and she loves it. Leo plays her like a Lady Macbeth in way over her head.
1. Jacki Weaver-Animal Kingdom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db9kgfsvuGs
The best villain of the year, and the craziest mother as well, which was no mean feat, given this year's movie-obsession with overbearing mommies. Jacki Weaver is sunny, outgoing, friendly, and also the cold-blooded head of a crime-family. She does everything thinkable (and unthinkable) to protect her boys, and she does it with a smile on her face.
Honorable Mention: Marion Cotillard's vengeful dead spouse in Inception.
Well, there we have it. Tomorrow I post the tech awards, and on Sunday I'll wrap up with my dream Oscar ballot. Groovy!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Best of 2010, part 2: Directing and Screenplays
Hello again. Since yesterday's post was so devastatingly gargantuan, I'm going to follow it up with a short-ish post today, so maybe I can avoid carpal tunnel. Today, we'll look at a few specific behind-the-camera film aspects: directing and screenplays.
Best Director
5. Danny Boyle-127 Hours
It's not an easy task to stick a movie in a canyon for 90 minutes with an immobile protagonist and still be entertaining. To accomplish this feat, Danny Boyle used every cinematic trick in the book; split-screens, time-lapses, unpredictable camera placing, big zoom shots, interesting sound choices, etc., etc. 127 Hours is primarily an exercise in style. The screen just sweats Boyle visual style.
4. Roman Polanski-The Ghost Writer
Almost nothing endears a director to me like restraint does. The Ghost Writer is an ode to reigning one's impulses in and taking the careful, controlled route. This approach pays off in spades; The Ghost Writer is effortlessly paced, unnerving, almost painfully suspenseful. Not only do the visuals succeed, but Polanski somehow drew a fantastic performance from Pierce Brosnan, which is something near an impossibility.
3. Yorgos Lanthimos-Dogtooth
This movie could have gone so terribly wrong in so many, many ways. Only a perfectly executed tightrope walk could have landed this film's bizarre mashup of comedy and cat-murdering. Lanthimos maintains his film's unique tone throughout, never once stopping to pander to the audience, or flinch away from the story's uglier aspects, and he still manages to wring some guilty laughs out of the audience. Lanthimos must be a Schadenfreudist at heart, because the fun he has at his characters' expense is pretty horrific. It doesn't hurt that the film looks spectacular, either. Bonus points for some of the strange framing decisions.
2. David Fincher-The Social Network
David Fincher is something of a perfectionist. Not since Kubrick, I've read, has there been a director so slavishly devoted to monitoring every aspect of a film production. While this cold, sterilized approach may ring false with some storylines (not sure "cold and emotionless" were the best adjectives to bring to Benjamin Button), Fincher's style suits The Social Network perfectly. The whole movie is about building a tiny, perfectly controlled world. It only makes sense, then, that the world the characters inhabit is perfectly controlled. The film also achieves the strongest, most compelling rhythm of any film this year, no doubt due in large part to Mr. Fincher. It also must have been a major feat in itself just finding ways to make Aaron Sorkin's verbose screenplay sound perfectly natural. The Social Network is a great film, and a great film can't exist without a great director.
1. Darren Aronofsky-Black Swan
Yeah, yeah, no surprise who's at the top. Black Swan, like Dogtooth, is another flawless balancing act. It would have been all too easy for the movie to fall into silly, melodramatic territory. Aronofsky sure throws himself at the line between drama and camp, but always manages to keep at least one toe on the side of serious. What results is a genuinely disturbing movie, due in part to the seeming dissonance between the subject matter and gleefully malovolent way that it's handled. With Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky again proves that he would make the coolest horror movie we've seen in years. How insane would his rendition of an exorcism movie be? Aronfsky is also one of the most interesting visual directors working today. Moving past his earlier Requiem-esque style, he treats Black Swan with the same grainy, cinema-verite style that he used on The Wrestler. I've heard a few complaints about the seediness of it all, but what else should a story about a psychotic ballerina be but seedy? Black Swan shouldn't look like a postcard, and Aronofsky knew that. He nailed the visuals, the tone, and the performances; the three major obstacles a director has to face to create a great film.
Honorable Mention: David Michod's taut, intelligently paced work on Animal Kingdom
Best Original Screenplay
5. Mar Heyman, Andres Heinz, and John J. McLaughlin-Black Swan
The dialogue is minimalist, like so much else in the film, but the story achieves a sort of grandly tragic inevitability by chaining itself to 'Swan Lake.'
"Everything Beth does comes from within, from some dark impulse. I guess that's what makes her so thrilling to watch. So dangerous. Even perfect at times."
4. Will Gluck-Easy A
Witty, hilarious, full of genuine humans instead of stereotypes. How often in a teen comedy are the two funniest characters the parents?
Mr Griffith: I don't know what your generation's fascination is with documenting your every thought, but I can assure you, they're not all diamonds. 'Roman is having an OK day, just bought a Coke Zero at the gas station. Raise the roof.' Who gives a rat's ass?
Olive: That Roman! Another Coke Zero? He's incorrigible.
3. David Michod-Animal Kingdom
Conjures suspense from the most mundane situations, creates some of the most engaging and vicious characters of the year. Enough great twists and turns to keep the viewer from ever nailing down where the movie's going.
"Things survive because they're strong. You may think you're one of the strong creatures, but you're one of the weak ones. You've survived because you've been protected by the strong. But they're not strong anymore."
2. David Seidler-The King's Speech
Intelligent, emotionally resonant and incredibly light on its feet. The King's Speech understands and wonderfully conveys the processes by which friendships develop.
Queen Elizabeth: My husband's work involves a great deal of public speaking.
Lionel Logue: Then he should change jobs.
Queen Elizabeth: He can't.
Lionel Logue: What is he, an indentured servant?
Queen Elizabeth: Something like that.
1. Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Bloomberg-The Kids Are All Right
Wonderfully observed human comedy, and the year's most believable family. Writing this natural is something of a minor miracle.
"Marriage is hard. Just two people slogging through the shit, year after year, getting older, changing. It's a fucking marathon, okay? So, sometimes, you know, you're together for so long, that you just... You stop seeing the other person. You just see weird projections of your own junk. Instead of talking to each other, you go off the rails and act grubby and make stupid choices. I don't know, maybe if I read more Russian novels..."
Honorable Mention: Derek Cianfrance captures first love and romantic breakdown in Blue Valentine.
Best Adapted Screenplay
5. William David, Dean DeBlois, and Chris Sanders-How to Train Your Dragon, based on the book by Cressida Cowell
Manages to sidestep a minefield of cliches to become funny, honest, and heartwarming.
Hiccup: He never listens! And when he does, it's with this disappointed scowl, like someone skimmed the meat on his sandwich. 'Excuse me, barmaid! I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered a boy with extra-beefy arms, extra guts, and glory on the side. This is a talking fish-bone!'
Gobber: Now you're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside of you that he can't stand.
Hiccup: Thanks for summing that up.
4. Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy-127 Hours, based on the book by Aaron Ralston
Great scripts aren't always about the dialogue, and 127 Hours manages to tell a great story without anyone explaining it as it happens. Extra points for that gallows-humor self interview.
"This rock has been waiting for me my entire life. Its entire life, ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space. It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the out surface."
3. Robert Harris and Roman Polanski-The Ghost Writer, based on the Robert Harris novel The Ghost.
Great dialogue, great pacing, and characters that leap off the screen. Fitting that a movie about a book should sound so literate.
"Do you know what I'd do if I was in power again? I'd have two queues at the airports. One for flights where we'd done no background checks, used no intelligence gained under torture, infringed no one's precious bloody civil liberties. The other for flights where we'd done everything possible to make passengers safe. Then we'd see which plane the Rycarts of this world would put their bloody kids on."
2. Michael Arndt-Toy Story 3, based on characters created by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich
The crowning achievement of an already impressive trilogy. An inspired mix of comedy and no-holds-barred tearjerking.
"Now Woody, he's been my pal for as long as I can remember. He's brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special, is he'll never give up on you... ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what."
1. Aaron Sorkin-The Social Network, based on the The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
This film is a scalpel; it cuts in all the right places at all the right times. There's not one ounce of fat. The dialogue is some of the sharpest I've heard in quite a while.
Gage: Do you think I deserve your full attention?
Mark Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don't want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.
Gage: Okay - no. You don't think I deserve your attention.
Mark Zuckerberg: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try - but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. Did I adequately answer your condescending question?
...So, it wasn't as short a post as I had dreamed it would be, but these things to happen. I'm just terribly long-winded when it comes to movies. So where did I mess up? What did I get right? I'll continue tomorrow with the acting laurels.
Best Director
5. Danny Boyle-127 Hours
It's not an easy task to stick a movie in a canyon for 90 minutes with an immobile protagonist and still be entertaining. To accomplish this feat, Danny Boyle used every cinematic trick in the book; split-screens, time-lapses, unpredictable camera placing, big zoom shots, interesting sound choices, etc., etc. 127 Hours is primarily an exercise in style. The screen just sweats Boyle visual style.
4. Roman Polanski-The Ghost Writer
Almost nothing endears a director to me like restraint does. The Ghost Writer is an ode to reigning one's impulses in and taking the careful, controlled route. This approach pays off in spades; The Ghost Writer is effortlessly paced, unnerving, almost painfully suspenseful. Not only do the visuals succeed, but Polanski somehow drew a fantastic performance from Pierce Brosnan, which is something near an impossibility.
3. Yorgos Lanthimos-Dogtooth
This movie could have gone so terribly wrong in so many, many ways. Only a perfectly executed tightrope walk could have landed this film's bizarre mashup of comedy and cat-murdering. Lanthimos maintains his film's unique tone throughout, never once stopping to pander to the audience, or flinch away from the story's uglier aspects, and he still manages to wring some guilty laughs out of the audience. Lanthimos must be a Schadenfreudist at heart, because the fun he has at his characters' expense is pretty horrific. It doesn't hurt that the film looks spectacular, either. Bonus points for some of the strange framing decisions.
2. David Fincher-The Social Network
David Fincher is something of a perfectionist. Not since Kubrick, I've read, has there been a director so slavishly devoted to monitoring every aspect of a film production. While this cold, sterilized approach may ring false with some storylines (not sure "cold and emotionless" were the best adjectives to bring to Benjamin Button), Fincher's style suits The Social Network perfectly. The whole movie is about building a tiny, perfectly controlled world. It only makes sense, then, that the world the characters inhabit is perfectly controlled. The film also achieves the strongest, most compelling rhythm of any film this year, no doubt due in large part to Mr. Fincher. It also must have been a major feat in itself just finding ways to make Aaron Sorkin's verbose screenplay sound perfectly natural. The Social Network is a great film, and a great film can't exist without a great director.
1. Darren Aronofsky-Black Swan
Yeah, yeah, no surprise who's at the top. Black Swan, like Dogtooth, is another flawless balancing act. It would have been all too easy for the movie to fall into silly, melodramatic territory. Aronofsky sure throws himself at the line between drama and camp, but always manages to keep at least one toe on the side of serious. What results is a genuinely disturbing movie, due in part to the seeming dissonance between the subject matter and gleefully malovolent way that it's handled. With Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky again proves that he would make the coolest horror movie we've seen in years. How insane would his rendition of an exorcism movie be? Aronfsky is also one of the most interesting visual directors working today. Moving past his earlier Requiem-esque style, he treats Black Swan with the same grainy, cinema-verite style that he used on The Wrestler. I've heard a few complaints about the seediness of it all, but what else should a story about a psychotic ballerina be but seedy? Black Swan shouldn't look like a postcard, and Aronofsky knew that. He nailed the visuals, the tone, and the performances; the three major obstacles a director has to face to create a great film.
Honorable Mention: David Michod's taut, intelligently paced work on Animal Kingdom
Best Original Screenplay
5. Mar Heyman, Andres Heinz, and John J. McLaughlin-Black Swan
The dialogue is minimalist, like so much else in the film, but the story achieves a sort of grandly tragic inevitability by chaining itself to 'Swan Lake.'
"Everything Beth does comes from within, from some dark impulse. I guess that's what makes her so thrilling to watch. So dangerous. Even perfect at times."
4. Will Gluck-Easy A
Witty, hilarious, full of genuine humans instead of stereotypes. How often in a teen comedy are the two funniest characters the parents?
Mr Griffith: I don't know what your generation's fascination is with documenting your every thought, but I can assure you, they're not all diamonds. 'Roman is having an OK day, just bought a Coke Zero at the gas station. Raise the roof.' Who gives a rat's ass?
Olive: That Roman! Another Coke Zero? He's incorrigible.
3. David Michod-Animal Kingdom
Conjures suspense from the most mundane situations, creates some of the most engaging and vicious characters of the year. Enough great twists and turns to keep the viewer from ever nailing down where the movie's going.
"Things survive because they're strong. You may think you're one of the strong creatures, but you're one of the weak ones. You've survived because you've been protected by the strong. But they're not strong anymore."
2. David Seidler-The King's Speech
Intelligent, emotionally resonant and incredibly light on its feet. The King's Speech understands and wonderfully conveys the processes by which friendships develop.
Queen Elizabeth: My husband's work involves a great deal of public speaking.
Lionel Logue: Then he should change jobs.
Queen Elizabeth: He can't.
Lionel Logue: What is he, an indentured servant?
Queen Elizabeth: Something like that.
1. Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Bloomberg-The Kids Are All Right
Wonderfully observed human comedy, and the year's most believable family. Writing this natural is something of a minor miracle.
"Marriage is hard. Just two people slogging through the shit, year after year, getting older, changing. It's a fucking marathon, okay? So, sometimes, you know, you're together for so long, that you just... You stop seeing the other person. You just see weird projections of your own junk. Instead of talking to each other, you go off the rails and act grubby and make stupid choices. I don't know, maybe if I read more Russian novels..."
Honorable Mention: Derek Cianfrance captures first love and romantic breakdown in Blue Valentine.
Best Adapted Screenplay
5. William David, Dean DeBlois, and Chris Sanders-How to Train Your Dragon, based on the book by Cressida Cowell
Manages to sidestep a minefield of cliches to become funny, honest, and heartwarming.
Hiccup: He never listens! And when he does, it's with this disappointed scowl, like someone skimmed the meat on his sandwich. 'Excuse me, barmaid! I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered a boy with extra-beefy arms, extra guts, and glory on the side. This is a talking fish-bone!'
Gobber: Now you're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside of you that he can't stand.
Hiccup: Thanks for summing that up.
4. Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy-127 Hours, based on the book by Aaron Ralston
Great scripts aren't always about the dialogue, and 127 Hours manages to tell a great story without anyone explaining it as it happens. Extra points for that gallows-humor self interview.
"This rock has been waiting for me my entire life. Its entire life, ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space. It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the out surface."
3. Robert Harris and Roman Polanski-The Ghost Writer, based on the Robert Harris novel The Ghost.
Great dialogue, great pacing, and characters that leap off the screen. Fitting that a movie about a book should sound so literate.
"Do you know what I'd do if I was in power again? I'd have two queues at the airports. One for flights where we'd done no background checks, used no intelligence gained under torture, infringed no one's precious bloody civil liberties. The other for flights where we'd done everything possible to make passengers safe. Then we'd see which plane the Rycarts of this world would put their bloody kids on."
2. Michael Arndt-Toy Story 3, based on characters created by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich
The crowning achievement of an already impressive trilogy. An inspired mix of comedy and no-holds-barred tearjerking.
"Now Woody, he's been my pal for as long as I can remember. He's brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special, is he'll never give up on you... ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what."
1. Aaron Sorkin-The Social Network, based on the The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
This film is a scalpel; it cuts in all the right places at all the right times. There's not one ounce of fat. The dialogue is some of the sharpest I've heard in quite a while.
Gage: Do you think I deserve your full attention?
Mark Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don't want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.
Gage: Okay - no. You don't think I deserve your attention.
Mark Zuckerberg: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try - but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. Did I adequately answer your condescending question?
...So, it wasn't as short a post as I had dreamed it would be, but these things to happen. I'm just terribly long-winded when it comes to movies. So where did I mess up? What did I get right? I'll continue tomorrow with the acting laurels.
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