So this award season got it's grande finale last night with the Oscars. Which means another 9-10 months of none of this award stuff and more just talk about the movies themselves. Since I had to work today, I actually missed watching the award show itself and just checked the results this morning when I woke up.
I think this Oscar season was one of the strongest ones in a while, with great movies like The Social Network, True Grit, Black Swan and Winter's Bone in there. That's not to say The King's Speech didn't deserve it's awards as it's a great movie as well, just not up to the other movies I listed there. But here we go: A list of the wins that I liked and didn't like:
LIKED:
Actor in a Leading Role
Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"
Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in "The Fighter"
Actress in a Leading Role
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
Achievement in Cinematography
"Inception," Wally Pfister
Film Editing
"The Social Network"
Makeup
"The Wolfman," Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Music (Original Score)
"The Social Network," Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Sound Editing
"Inception," Richard King
Sound Mixing
"Inception," Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
Visual Effects
"Inception," Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
"The Social Network," Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Like I thought they would, the Academy treated Inception just to the technical awards. Film Editing going to The Social Network is nice too, but it's an award that should've gone to Inception (or in a just world, to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but that's another story). Aaron Sorkin's script for The Social Network is one of the best scripts I've seen in years in Hollywood and definitely deserving of this win. Can't wait what he's writing next.
The Social Network's score is brilliant and slightly unusual, still would've preferred to see some How To Train Your Dragon love here as John Powell's score is pure brilliance and will undoubtedly be heard in numerous trailers and TV spots to come.
The reason I'm adding Wally Pfister's win here is because he deserved a win. Above Roger Deakins? No, but Wally's work on Inception is well worth an Academy Award. Poor Roger Deakins though. He's one of the very best in the business and now his total is 10 nominations without any wins. Where's the love, Academy? Must be some kind of a conspiracy, I'm telling you.
No surprises on the acting side of things, all the awards went to those people said they'd go to. Melissa Leo's win for Best Supporting Actress isn't here because I think it should've gone to Hailee Steinfeld. And Rick Baker won his 7th Oscar, this man is a god of makeup, couldn't have gone to a better man.
Wins I didn't like:
Best Picture
"The King's Speech," Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
Achievement in directing
"The King's Speech," Tom Hooper
Actress in a Supporting Role
Melissa Leo in "The Fighter"
Animated Feature Film
"Toy Story 3" Lee Unkrich
Achievement in Art Direction
"Alice in Wonderland"
Costume Design
"Alice in Wonderland," Colleen Atwood
Writing (Original Screenplay)
"The King's Speech," Screenplay by David Seidler
Like I said before, I don't mind The King's Speech winning all these awards, but there were better movies this year. I would've liked to see Academy awarding something more original, like Inception for the Best Original Screenplay. I didn't think Tom Hooper's direction was near the level of all the other nominees this year, maybe for the expection of David O. Russell. And Best Picture of the year for me from these nominees was The Social Network, plain and simple. But I guess Harvey Weinstein still knows how to campaign his movies for Oscars. Still, nowhere near the disaster win of "Crash" or "Shakespeare in Love" proportions.
Alice in Wonderland doesn't deserve anything except to be forgotten. A useless movie if there ever was one. I mentioned the Melissa Leo win earlier. I don't think she was bad in the role, it's just wasn't anything new and Hailee was just magnificent in True Grit. Hopefully she'll be able to find roles that'll work for her as well in the future.
And I think Toy Story 3 won just for being Toy Story 3. It's a fun movie, but it feels like a lesser movie that the previous ones. How To Train Your Dragon, while not being the freshest story in the world, is able to create it's own world, making every child (and most of the parents) want their own dragon. And it really does have a kick-ass score.
The rest of the awards I'm not well enough aware to say anything about. It's nice to see Denmark winning Best Foreign Language movie over Biutiful, which I hear is breath-taking. Will catch both when I get the chance.
So like I said before, the award season is over. But as the cliche goes, it's not the amount of awards your movie gets that makes it worthwhile. It's all about the money, anyway. Or art. Yes, that sounds better. It's all about the art.
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