My Oscar Picks.

I give a shit about the Oscars.

I really do. Even though I know I shouldn’t.

I know there’s a ton of pretentious Hollywood jack-off’s who get a big kick out of all the self-adulation and insider back-slapping. I know it gets political and what should be brief, humble acceptance speeches turn into seven minute long, self-serving diatribes. I know that the fashion element gets paraded as the centerpiece of a show that was designed to be a celebration of film. And I know that ultimately the winners of the awards don’t necessarily reflect the real achievements made that particular year.

I know, I know. I don’t need you to keep fucking telling me.

The bottom line though is this: I’m a hardcore movie-geek and The Academy Awards are still the highest honor that can be paid to the artform. And I say “artform” because I truly believe that filmmaking at it’s purest is just that (no matter how much cynical, conveyor-belt bullshit the machine decides to spit out at us every year).

So with that, I take a vested interest and tune in. Good, bad or ugly, I sit back and watch the shenanigans go down. 2010 in particular has been an exceptional year at the movies and overall, I’m pretty pleased with the nods that were given out. Most of these cats are people I’d like to see recognized for their contribution to the conversation that is film. But on any given Sunday in February, someone’s gonna win and someone’s gonna lose. The point is, can you win or lose like a man?

Or woman.

So here are my picks for Oscar Bowl 2011.

(Please make the distinction, these are my picks - not my predictions.)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BLACK SWAN
INCEPTION
THE KING’S SPEECH
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
TRUE GRIT

There’s no way I’m not going with Deakins on this one. Dude is a master of stark images and lush photography. I’d say this was easily one of the best looking films among the Coen’s career - and if you’ve followed said career(’s), you know that’s saying ALOT. In a year of very pretty pictures, this was guy was hands down responsible for the prettiest.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
INCEPTION
THE KING’S SPEECH
127 HOURS
THE SOCIAL NETWORK

I loved the work Atticus and Trent did here. It’s really just that simple. The right modern sensibility coupled with a sort of simplistic melancholy that echoes throughout at all the right moments. You feel the effects of the score without it ever calling too much attention to itself.

BEST EDITING
BLACK SWAN
THE FIGHTER
THE KING’S SPEECH
127 HOURS
THE SOCIAL NETWORK

This one seems like a lock to me because when your film requires a guy to be pinned beneath a rock for the majority of the run-time, you really have to use editing as a weapon. The fact that Danny Boyle is able to tell such a vast story under such minimalist limitations is really a credit to the editing style the flick implements and for that I believe Jon Harris should take it down this year.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Mike Leigh - ANOTHER YEAR
Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson - THE FIGHTER
Christopher Nolan, INCEPTION
Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg - THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
David Seidler, THE KING’S SPEECH

Yeah, it’s got a lot of expository dialogue and I’ve heard all the comparisons to “Dreamscape” (not to mention the Donald Duck comic strip), but c’mon! Are we going to let any of that cloud the fact that Chris Nolan is taking huge amounts of cash from Hollywood and rolling the dice in a big, bad way by actually attempting to (God-forbid) challenge a mass audience? There’s more intelligence and imagination being executed in any random five minutes of this flick than most big-budget, mainstream movies even attempt in their entire run-time. For that alone, the man would have my vote.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy - 127 HOURS
Aaron Sorkin - THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Michael Arndt - TOY STORY 3
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - TRUE GRIT
Debra Granik and Anne Rosselini - WINTER’S BONE

I personally love dialogue-driven films and this one in particular has got a lot of words (just that verbose opening scene should tip you off to the verbal chessmatch ahead). Aaron Sorkin lends a lot of weight to those words and crafts scenes where the dialogue alone hits like a kick to the throat (“did I adequately answer your condescending question?”). He may have taken some liberties with the reality of Zuckerberg’s motivations behind inventing “The Facebook”, but what counts is that he tells a complex tale of greed and betrayal that has a solid narrative backbone.

BEST ANIMATED FILM
TOY STORY 3
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
THE ILLUSIONIST

No-brainer. Pixar is one of the safest bets you can make these days when it comes to animation. They have an unprecedented string of four star flicks that perfectly balance adult themes and childlike imagination and never commit the cardinal sin of talking down to kids. The third entry in most trilogies end up notoriously being the worst of the bunch (sup “Back To The Future 3”? Nice haircut, Spidey. Talk to the hand, Ahhhnuld), but in my opinion Toy Story 3 is easily the best entry in the series by being the most funny and poignant. And if the incinerator scene pictured above where the toys all hold hands as the stare down certain doom didn’t get you choked up, then I’m convinced you’re dead from the heart down.

But, seriously though, not even a nod for “Legend of the Guardians”?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Melissa Leo - THE FIGHTER
Hailee Steinfeld - TRUE GRIT
Helena Bonham Carter - THE KING’S SPEECH
Amy Adams - THE FIGHTER
Jacki Weaver - ANIMAL KINGDOM

Melissa Leo and Amy Adams were insanely great in “The Fighter”, but I defy you to see “True Grit” and not be in awe of the presence of Hailee Steinfeld. Watching her square off and negotiate for her dad’s horse was by far one of my favorite scenes in any film I caught this year. This is a young lady who can handle heavy dialogue and dramatic weight like a champ. Total star-making performance. Hope she gets it.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale - THE FIGHTER
Geoffrey Rush, THE KING’S SPEECH
Jeremy Renner, THE TOWN
John Hawkes - WINTER’S BONE
Mark Ruffalo, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

This one’s another no-brainer. If it were up to me, Christian Bale would’ve gotten some Oscar gold ten years ago for the sorely under appreciated “American Psycho”, but I digress. The dude has made a career out of playing intricate, nuanced characters. This time around he swings big with a very over-the-top performance as the real-life “Pride of Lowell” Dicky Eklund. It’s a big performance for sure and one that’s finally gonna get this cat his reservation at Dorsia.

BEST ACTRESS
Natalie Portman, BLACK SWAN
Annette Bening, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Michelle Williams - BLUE VALENTINE
Nicole Kidman - THE RABBIT HOLE
Jennifer Lawrence - WINTER’S BONE

This one was a really tough call because as amazing as Natalie Portman’s performance was (and as much as I absolutely loved the “REPULSION on twenty hits of ecstasy” that was “Black Swan” ) I’m going with Jennifer Lawrence for playing such an understated badass in “Winter’s Bone”. This is a performance that contains absolutely no vanity and is the type of extremely heavy material that I feel like most Hollywood teenagers would shy away from. Jennifer Lawrence hits it dead-on and makes Ree Dolly one of the most well-drawn characters of the year.

BEST ACTOR
Colin Firth - THE KING’S SPEECH
Jesse Eisenberg - THE SOCIAL NETWORK
James Franco - 127 HOURS
Jeff Bridges - TRUE GRIT
Javier Bardem - BIUTIFUL

I admittedly have not seen “The Kings Speech” yet, which puts the front-runner Mr. Firth out of the running for me (nor have I gotten around to “Biutiful” yet, so I can’t weigh in on Bardem either). Eisenberg was fantastic and The Dude always kills it, but I gotta give it up to James Franco who quite honestly does some work here that I didn’t realize he was capable of. Again, despite the self-imposed limitations of the story I think Franco really nailed down a fully realized three-dimensional character that kept me caring about him all the way through (even though I knew his inevitable fate the whole time). Not an easy task and the man brought his A-game. Good luck, dude.

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky - BLACK SWAN
David Fincher - THE SOCIAL NETWORK
David O. Russell - THE FIGHTER
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - TRUE GRIT
Tom Hooper - THE KING’S SPEECH

This is one hell of a list, one of the most deserving I’ve ever seen for this category. But I’m going with the man responsible for taking “The Facebook Movie” and making it a FILM. In a cynical film world where “brands” are looked upon as instant cash cows (so much to the point where  I swear that any day now we may see the greenlighting of “Hungry Hungry Hippos: THE MOVIE”) this guy took the daunting task of taking on what could’ve been an absolute disaster project and used that as an opportunity to create a story that actually had something to say.

Plus, let’s be honest here, the dude made “Fight Club”.

Nuff said.

BEST PICTURE
127 HOURS
BLACK SWAN
THE FIGHTER
INCEPTION
THE KING’S SPEECH
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
TOY STORY 3
TRUE GRIT
WINTER’S BONE

With the exception of “The King’s Speech” (which I didn’t see) and “The Kids Are All Right” (which I didn’t like), I’d be happy to see any of these snag the award. Personally, “The Social Network” was my favorite flick of the year (with “The Fighter” as a very close 2nd). A depiction of the inception (nice wording, natch!) of one of the most powerful social tools being utilized today coupled with one of the most insane betrayals I’ve seen put to film makes this worthy of catching a Best Picture win. The image of the youngest billionaire in the world refreshing a page as he awaits an approved friend request hits hard and makes the case for the flick’s brilliant tagline.

© Dom Portalla 2011