The Oscars: My thoughts and predictions

Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and the SAG awards have now all passed, so all we have left is the big one – the Oscars.  I used to not care too much for the Oscars because it felt like all the movies I actually watched were not the type to be nominated for anything.  But in the past few years I’ve expanded my movie tastes and now I follow it all much closer.

Last year I had actually seen about 8 out of the 10 movies that were nominated for Best Picture.  I’d like to try and see them all this year, but do not know if I’ll get there.  So far I have seen 6: The Social Network, Inception, Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, and Toy Story 3. (That reminds me, I need to write a review for The Fighter, because I just watched it.)  So the one’s I have left are True Grit, Winter’s Bone, The King’s Speech, and 127 Hours.

I was really hoping The Town would have been nominated in place of 127 Hours because I really do not want to watch that movie…just watching the trailer stresses me out.  Winter’s Bone will be easy enough to watch, because I can just Redbox it and I definitely want to see it, especially since it was filmed about 30 miles from where I live and I believe the star is an unknown and is from around here too, and she’s nominated for Best Actress.  That’s impressive.  True Grit I’d definitely like to see because the Coen brothers’ movies are always pretty good.  As for The King’s Speech, I feel like I HAVE to see it because of how much attention it has gotten at all the awards shows so far.  I think the movie looks like it will be dreadfully boring, so I do not especially want to pay $7+ to see it, but we’ll see.  If it goes to our cheap theater and I can see it for $1 on a Tuesday, that would make it much easier to see.

So who will win the big award?  Personally, I hope and want The Social Network to win.  If you’ve read my first blog post ever, you know how I feel about this movie.  Although I do think Inception was every bit as good, I just don’t see it taking home the Oscar.  I don’t think it stands a chance actually, which is sad considering just how amazing it is.  I think the only movie that stands a chance of stealing the big prize from The Social Network is The King’s Speech. I will be deeply upset if that happens.

As for the other major categories – here are my predictions / personal choices:

Actor — I think Colin Firth will win it for The King’s Speech because he’s won it at every other awards show.  From what I know about the movie, I do think I can get behind this decision.  He is an incredible actor and I think this role was probably a hard one to get right.  However, if I had to make my personal choice, it would probably be Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network of course.

Actress — I both predict and WANT Natalie Portman to win this one for Black Swan.   This outcome is very likely since she has also won it at every other show.

Supporting Actor — If there’s one category I am sure of, it is this one (and adapted screenplay, but we’ll get to that).  Christian Bale deserves this award for The Fighter and anyone who has seen the movie will agree.  Now Justin Timberlake is my favorite person in the world..and even if he HAD been nominated for this category (which he wasn’t, nor was anyone else from The Social Network), I STILL would want Bale to take this award.  THAT is how good he was.

Supporting Actress — I don’t feel strongly one way or another about this category, so I can’t really say who I’d like to win.  Melissa Leo will probably win it for The Fighter and I am okay with this.  Although I’d probably rather Amy Adams win it for that movie.

Director — This is the only category that I’m upset with the nomination list.  Christopher Nolan did NOT get a nomination for Inception and that is just wrong.  Have you SEEN that movie?!  Tell me that direction wasn’t amazing.  I’m not sure I would have predicted him to win, but I still think a nomination was definitely deserved.   I have no idea who to predict to win this, I think they all have a chance.  Since I want David Fincher to win for The Social Network, I’ll just go ahead and make that my prediction too.

Adapted Screenplay — One article I read about the Oscars a while back said that this category should just be called “Aaron Sorkin and the 4 others that will lose to him” and I sure hope that is true.  The Social Network dialogue is brilliant and I do not see how Sorkin couldn’t take home this award.

Original Screenplay — I really want to see Nolan win this one, especially since he didn’t get the director nom.  I think he has a good chance too.  I would hope so.  I mean, it doesn’t get more original than Inception.  There’s never been a movie like it really, and I doubt there ever will be another.

Score — I both predict and want Trent Reznor to win this for the music in The Social Network.  Although I would be okay if Hans Zimmer won for Inception, but I don’t think that is as likely as Reznor.

And that’s all the categories I’m going to talk about.  I guess I could have thrown in Animated, but it’s pretty obvious that Toy Story 3 will take that one.  And as for all the other categories, I just don’t know enough about them or care enough about them to go into all of it.  Let’s just say I’d like Inception to take as many technical categories as possible…and for any other that The Social Network is nominated for, then I want them to win those.  Those are the two movies I care about most.

There is just under a month until the big night and hopefully I can catch those 4 I’m missing before then, although I doubt that seeing any of them will change my opinions about the above.  Anyone else have any predictions?  I defy you to argue with me about The Social Network…haha!

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THE movie of my generation…

Image by k-ideas via Flickr

This is my first real blog…and I figured I’d start it talking about the most recent movie I’ve seen.  A movie I actually saw twice within 24 hours.  The Social Network.  If you haven’t seen it, go!  Go now.  Is it the best movie I’ve seen this year? I don’t know…Inception was awfully amazing.  But The Social Network is a movie to go down in history.  It’s about the creation of a website that has defined my generation and every generation after me.  I still remember signing up for it back when it was still very new…when you HAD to have a university email to sign up.  I didn’t think much of it then, I just figured it was just a random site I would use while I was in college but then get bored with and stop signing into after I graduated.  But now I can’t imagine a world without Facebook.  And the thing that blows my mind more than it all…the creator is less than 4 months older than me.  Someone my age created something that changed the world.  Maybe “change the world” is extreme…but 500 million people are on this website…and they don’t just use it as a pass time, they use it for lifetime connections and to advertise their businesses.  I think that justifies the phrase “changing the world”.  I feel honored to have been around since almost the start (not the actual start since it started in Ivy League schools and was exclusive to that).  Children are being born into the world right now and someday will end up on Facebook…never knowing anything different.  And then their parents are going to pop in their DVD (actually, probably a blu-ray…) of The Social Network and the kids will be amazed at this “old movie” about the invention of a simple website that to them isn’t something monumental, it’s just a way of life.

Facebook…a way of life.  Created by 20 year old college student.  Can you even imagine?  Let’s talk about the movie a little.  The Social Network follows the story of Mark Zuckerberg as he starts a little website called “thefacebook.com” and proceeds through to the later years when he is in the middle of 2 lawsuits, one of them being from his former best friend that created the site with him.  The dialogue is fast-paced, smart and at times, very funny.  One of the best scripts of any movie I’ve ever seen.  I consider myself somewhat of a movie buff, but I’ll admit that it is very rare that I pay attention to or notice a movie’s score.  But I noticed it this time and it is incredible. Something as simple as deep chords chiming behind the dialogue during an intense scene can make you feel even more connected to the emotion of the script.  And then the acting…every cast member does an exceptional job but the stand outs are definitely Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield.  If both are not nominated for Oscars, then I’ll be very shocked.  Now something everyone should know about me…is I am a BIG fan of Justin Timberlake.  Actually “BIG” isn’t a big enough word.  So needless to say, by default Justin Timberlake IS my favorite part of The Social Network.  And I’m SO glad that I can say without bias that he did a fantastic job! He’s getting Oscar buzz too…and he deserves it.  I don’t know if he deserves it more than Andrew Garfield, but personally of course I still would rather Justin get it (now THAT is me being biased…)  There is a lot more I could say about Justin, but I’ll probably have a blog or two devoted to just talking about him, so I’ll save it for that.

I think that’s all I have to say.  My next blog will have a better ending but for this one the end is just simply going to be me saying it’s the end.  Aren’t I clever?

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