Well, we'll see. Don't have plans to watch the Oscars this evening, to be honest, although I think the Best Picture category is stronger than it's been in a long time. Even so, the Academy criminally overlooked Get Low, as well as Robert Duvall for best actor and Bill Murray for best supporting actor. It lumped True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld into the best supporting actress category, when she's actually the first of the three main cast members to appear onscreen and has a larger role in driving the story than either of the other two.
Colin Firth is likely to win best actor because he performed well but didn't win last year, even though Jeff Bridges and James Franco both topped him. Javier Bardem and Jesse Eiesenberg's presence on the list of nominees is not, as some movie writers suggest, a travesty. It is, however, a mystery.
Natalie Portman is likely to win best actress because she plays a woman losing her mind and acting that out sexually (including a meaningless titillation scene with costar Mila Kunis), which the Academy rarely fails to reward. She's actually the second weakest performance on the nominee list, although on odd-numbered days I'd agree she was the worst and that Nicole Kidman edged her out. Jennifer Lawrence from Winter's Bone ranks at the top of the nominee list.
The King's Speech, starring Firth, is considered the favorite for best picture. It's certainly not a bad movie, but there's nothing about it that couldn't be seen on any Masterpiece Theatre production on PBS. The only ones of the ten that would rank as Crash-level head-scratchers would be Inception, Black Swan or The Social Network. The first is a dazzling spectacle without much of a story at its center, the second's an un-dazzling spectacle without much of a story at its center and the third tries to make me care about a fictionalized version of the creation of Facebook, and I don't. If I go with the one I liked best (which is what Academy voters will do anyway), I'd take True Grit, Toy Story 3 or Winter's Bone.
For best supporting actor and actress, I'll take my lead from Mr. Murray, who used to do an Oscar prediction bit on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" sketch: "Who cares?"
ETA: But Bob Hope rocked ;-)
yeahhhhh...i'm gonna have to disagree with you on firth: i think he won fair and square. bridges lost points with me for being unintelligible. (it's kind of hard to judge the performance when you can make out half the words.) and franco was perfectly good...but i never really saw the "best actor" thing for him.
ReplyDeletebut you're right that duvall was robbed...as was murray. it's funny: i didn't really like "get low," but i thought they were both terrific in it.
how bad was that telecast, last night?
I had it on in the other room and just drifted in and out when something sounded interesting (like Bob Hope). It sounded awful ;-)
ReplyDeleteI can certainly live with Firth; some of my "meh" probably leaks over from my response to the movie itself. He's a quality actor with a lot of versatility.