Oscar 2010 Predictions: Lead Actor

By now it's an undisputed fact that Colin Firth's performance in The King's Speech is the best of 2010, and there's no denying that fact. It almost makes it difficult to accept that in a race this clean, but Firth really deserves it. I think he probably deserved it more for his role in A Single Man last year, but better for him to receive recognition now than to never receive it at all. And what of the rest of the field? They could be mere flies on a windshield up against Firth, but they're actually pretty close and fantastic performances in my opinion. The only one I can't comment on is Javier Bardem, because, like many Americans out there, I still haven't seen Biutiful. I know. I'm a massive failure.

Probably the actor who I truly wish was nominated this year was Aaron Eckhart for Rabbit Hole, and I ride on the same current as most people. Nicole Kidman is great in that film, but I found that the rollercoaster heart of the piece was Eckhart's rigorous emotionality. Instead, Jeff Bridges was nominated for True Grit, and I'm only slightly not okay with that. I think his performance in the film was great, and I almost got to wishing he would win this year and Firth had won last year. What stopped me was that this really isn't the main attraction. This is a supporting performance meant to serve Hailee Steinfeld's leading work as Mattie Ross. I also kind of wish Matt Damon was nominated for his work as Labeouf, but that is undisputably supporting in any case, and the supporting branch is packed as it is.

A month back, I would've said that Jesse Eisenberg was going to steal the gold from Colin Firth, and my reason for that was that he was gaining some traction in the critics awards, and if there's any performance that impressed as much as Firth's, it was Eisenberg's in The Social Network. Nobody would have thought that the Michael Cera look alike would have so much to offer, but he really hit it out of the park in a way that nobody expected, even after they'd seen the film. If Firth didn't have this locked up, I'd say Eisenberg would be the one to steal it. The actor I kind of pegged as the underdog was actually James Franco. Before I saw 127 Hours, I felt like it was a bit overblown. I couldn't have been more wrong, because Franco does deliver some brave work as Aron Ralston, and manages to translate his journey emotionally. That's the best an actor can aspire to.

1. Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
2. Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
3. James Franco (127 Hours)
4. Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
5. Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Will & Should Win: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Potential Upset: Are you serious? No way!

Should Have Been Nominated: Aaron Eckhart (Rabbit Hole)

Oscar 2010: Foreign Language Film Finalists

I'm not really a trustworthy source when it comes to this specific category, because I haven't gotten around to seeing any of the films on this list. I might be seeing Biutiful sometime soon, but the rest I'm just blind to. I'm surprised that Of Gods and Men didn't make it in, because it was getting some heat going until just now. In a Better World is probably the one to watch for, because it's just come off of a Golden Globe win, but I don't have any idea exactly which films will make it. If you do, please comment below, because I'm lost on this one.

Hors la Loi/Outside the Law (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Confessions (Japan)
Biutiful (Mexico)
Life, above All (South Africa)
Tambien la Lluvia/Even the Rain (Spain)
Simple Simon (Sweden)

Awards 2010: BAFTA Nominations

\Amongst the last major nominations before the Academy Award nominees are announced, the BAFTA didn't really pull any surprises with their announcements, and if they did, they were mild. Javier Bardem made it into the Best Actor race, while Hailee Steinfeld was actually nominated for Best Actress, instead of being lumped in the supporting race. So we've proved that Steinfeld does have enough weight to be legitimately nominated amongst Portman and Bening. Pete Postlethwaite was given a farewell nomination for his work on The Town. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 had minimum presence in the technical categories compared to other films in the franchise. Black Swan got an insane amount of nominations, and it's slowly becoming more and more possible for it to take the big prize if all the dominoes align for it.

Best Film
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“The Social Network”
“True Grit”

Best British Film
“Another Year”
“Four Lions”
“The King’s Speech”
“Made In Dagenham”
“127 Hours”

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”)
Christopher Nolan (“Inception”)
Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”)
Danny Boyle (“127 Hours”)
David Fincher (“The Social Network”)

Theatrical Trailer: Biutiful

Quite a few films have come and gone this year, leaving very little impression on people. As a film, Biutiful has continued along that same path, but as a performance piece for Javier Bardem, it endures. It's going to be an uphill battle for him, but judging from this new trailer, I'd say he still has a proper chance. Take a look, and comment below on your thoughts.

Oscar 2010: Post-Telluride Predictions

This weekend a number of things happened that changed the state of the Oscar race considerably. Most, if not all of them, happened at Telluride. However, of the films weakened by their premiere, at the Venice Film Festival the most obvious has to be Miral, from director Julian Schnabel. I never had faith in the film, because I believe that a film's quality should be present in the trailer and not in the name of the man behind it, and I didn't see anything significant. Fortunately enough, Miral wasn't the only card The Weinstein Company had to play.


Lingering just a little longer on Venice, the other film that was revealed not to have as high Oscar prospects as expected was Somewhere. Do not take this at all to mean that the film isn't great. It simply isn't what the Academy is looking for, which I think will work for the better of the film. Often people set up the highest expectations for films with Oscar potential, and those expectations aren't met. Somewhere looks like the kind of film that you can enjoy without worrying whether or not it will strike Oscar gold.


Without a doubt, the biggest hit of Venice so far (as they still have the rest of the week to go) has been Black Swan. The trailer was absolutely stunning, and it put both critics and general audiences behind this film, which is no easy feat. According to the reviews, it lived up to the trailer, and I've heard plenty of nice things said about this film. Problem is, I don't think this is the sort of film that the Academy will be able to wrap their head around. It looks like a genre film and in that way it will be a success and I look forward to seeing it. It probably will earn Natalie Portman a Best Actress nomination, but for now, I'm keeping Black Swan off my predictions for Best Picture.


Passing on to Telluride, the biggest disappointment of the festival would have to be the announcement that Peter Weir's The Way Back would be released in January, thus taking it out of Oscar contention. The film has gotten good reviews, and may have been nominated if people had a little more faith in it. Other than that news, the only film of the festival that even came close to disappointing is Never Let Me Go. That film, more than any other this weekend, really divided both critics and audiences. Some people were deeply touched, while some left the theater with a cold feeling, having gotten nothing from the experience. I have my doubts on this little brit, and am keeping it out in the cold until I see it.


Now getting to the films that truly made the cut, 127 Hours made its surprise premiere, and critics really appreciated it. Despite it spending nearly the entire film in a specific environment, and being a bit shorter than most dramas, playing on the screen for just over 90 minutes, this film seems to put up enough energy to keep it from being just another film. Then, I don't think there's a thing I could say that I haven't already said about The King's Speech. It delivered, and gave Harvey Weinstein something he could put into the ring as Miral failed. We have no trailers or clips for it yet, but we're still highly anticipating the opportunity to see it.


Finally, we got some confirmation on a few things that were a little uncertain of after Cannes. Critics have clearly gotten behind Another Year, and it seems like now it's a sure thing for a nomination. As for Biutiful, the consensus is still that the film isn't all that special, but Javier Bardem's performance in it is amazing. So I'll be surprised if he is not nominated for Best Actor this year. So for now, I'm filling out the rest of my Best Picture list with four films that have yet to be formally released and reviewed: The Social Network, True Grit, Hereafter, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Next stop is Toronto this Thursday.

"Biutiful" IS Coming this December!

This film has been waiting for a pickup since it first premiered at Cannes Film Festival this year, and now, a mere four months before the close of the year, Roadside Attractions and Liddel Entertainment have aquired the rights to release Biutiful this December! Reviews for the film have been somewhat mixed, and they'll likely remain that way until either its release of its showing at the Toronto Film Festival. At the very least, Javier Bardem is the closest thing to a lock for a nomination that the Best Actor category has so far this year.

Trailer Tuesday: The Social Network, The Town, Biutiful, Miral, Howl, Devil, Due Date, It's Kind of a Funny Story

We have a massive heap of trailers this week; more massive than we've had in weeks. So lets get right into with the first full-length trailer for The Social Network. Three weeks in a row we've had trailers from this film featured here, but now we have an actual idea of what this film is about. As rumored earlier, this is a decidedly darker film than originally expected. Then again, this is David Fincher we're talking about, so expecting him not to bring as much darkness to the foreground as possible is kind of illogical. I get the feeling that we have a smart and clever script on our hands here, and the actors seem more than capable of handling it, so consider this film a lock for a Best Picture nomination, just by this trailer.

Next is Ben Affleck's The Town, which visually looks quite a bit like his directorial debut film, Gone Baby Gone, but I also get the nagging feeling of Brooklyn's Finest spliced into this. We've got three brilliant actors at work here in the form of Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, and Rebecca Hall, and then we have Ben Affleck. If he could just stay behind the camera, I'd be fine with it. However, he seems to have some sort of vision of himself as the next Clint Eastwood, which he isn't. The plot feels a bit too predictable for my tastes, and there are some lines that feel recycled ("I'll see you again, this side or the other."). I also get the feeling that all of the action displayed here is all of the action that will actually be in the film. Call me a pestimist, but I don't see this film doing well in the awards circuit.

There are quite a few trailers out there that don't reveal much of anything about the plot, but rather show a series of images with out dialogue, while a nameless monologue continues on in the background. The international trailer for Biutiful works a lot like that, to greater affect than most of its brethren. This is a noticably dark story, and you can tell from the hue of the cinematography, the tone of the voice over, and the look on Javier Bardem's face, that this is a film that probably won't end pleasantly. This trailer has me very much intrigued, and seeing as Bardem's performance already won Best Actor at Cannes Film Festival for this role, I'd say he stands a good chance at a nomination this year. That is if it's released before the end of the year.

Then, on the lower half of the Oscar pool is Miral, a story of an israeli girl played by Freida Pinto. That's really all I could pick up from this trailer. There is some sort of uprising, somebody who can't be trusted, and I just don't understand why. This trailer has mood swings bigger and more irrational than that of Edward Cullen. It seems to me that this is a film that's trying to get all it can from the middle east setting, and it doesn't quite register with me. I don't see anything that interests me enough to catch this film in theatres, so unless critics begin praising it, count me out on this one.

Going from vague and confusing, to vague and intriguing, the trailer to Howl. Before you ask, the answer is no. This is not a werewolf movie. This movie is more in the veign of Milk, which also starred James Franco. This time Franco takes the lead role of Allen Ginsberg, a writer who penned "Howl", a poem accused of being obscene. The trailer doensn't reveal a lot, but the way it's put together puts it on the artistic side of the spectrum. I'm not quite sure of the focus of the film, but I like the combination of black and white, the old school color, and the more modern color. This film looks at the very least interesting.

Taking a short break from quality to look into the new trailer for Devil, the M. Night Shyamalan produced horror film. People have actually been defending this trailer, saying the Shyamalan didn't direct or write the film, and that he simply is producing it. While true, that doesn't excuse the fact that not much that is truly terrifying happens in this trailer. It's a bunch of stereotypes in an elevator that stop working. Apparently, the devil is in there with them, which feels like a huge stretch, which is something Shyamalan is known for. The twist ending? The elevator opens to Narnia. I don't care about this trailer, and I don't really care about the film. All I care about is that some guy who had a small role in (500) Days of Summer is in it. I hope he lives.

Finally, we have two Zach Galifianakis trailers in a row. Starting with Due Date, director Todd Phillips' followup to The Hangover. The film follows Robert Downey Jr. as he goes on a road trip with Galifianakis in order to make it to see the birth of his child. I was a little worried about this film during the first thirty seconds of the trailer when Galifianakis starts laughing at Downey Jr.'s father abandoning him. I was wondering if that was really the joke. Then Zach spoke up and said "My dad would never do that. He loved me." It's that sort of unexpected humor that made The Hangover such a knock out film, and I'm glad that they're going that route with Due Date.

The other Galifianakis trailer is for It's Kind of a Funny Story, a dramatic comedy set in a mental hospital. Picture a more lighthearted version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with a romantic plot and Zach Galifianakis spliced into it, and you've got a good idea of what you're in for. Zach doesn't have quite the same great dialogue to work with here, but he's got a nice bit of charm to him. It's that little unknown main actor I'm most invested in though. Whenever I see an actor I don't know who really impresses me, I see it as a sign that there is still unknown talent out there. This might be a surprise success.

The Social Network Trailer
The Town Trailer
Biutiful Trailer
Miral Trailer
Howl Trailer
Devil Trailer
Due Date Trailer
It's Kind of a Funny Story Trailer