Oscar Nominations

As some of you may know, the nominations for the 2011 Academy Awards were announced today. Overall  I'm pleased with them, the only deserving movie that seemed to get a bit of a snuff was The Town (which still pulled in a nomination for Jeremy Renner, although he probably won't win). Here's the complete list of nominations; the following are my predictions for who will probably win in the Big 6 categories (Best Picture, Best Director, and the 4 acting categories), followed by who I think SHOULD win in each of those categories. Enjoy, and lay on the feedback!

PREDICTIONS

Best Picture- The Social Network

Best Director- David Fincher, The Social Network

Actress in a Leading Role- Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Actor in a Leading Role- Colin Firth, The Kings Speech 

Actress in a Supporting Role- Helena Bonham Carter, The Kings Speech 

Actor in a Supporting Role- Geoffrey Rush, The Kings Speech


 WHO SHOULD WIN


 Best Picture- Black Swan

This was, in my opinion, unquestionably the best movie of the year. A masterpiece of acting, directing, cinematography, and artistry. It pushed the envelope of conventional film making in almost every way imaginable.

Best Director- Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
 This movie would never have been possible if not for Aronofsky's brilliance.  Everything down to the costumes, soundtrack, and camera angles were tailored perfectly by this director to suit the story. A great movie requires a director with great vision, and no other director this year demonstrated the perfection of his craft the way Darren Aronofsky did.

Best Actress in a Leading Role- Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Prior to this movie, I was never a big fan of Natalie Portman. I didn't think she was terrible, she just never really struck me as anything noteworthy.  This film completely changed that. Her performance demonstrated an ability to show a wide range of emotion and believability (as well as become a halfway decent ballerina in just a few months). She was real, intense, complex, twisted, and raw, and if the Oscar goes to any other Actress, it will truly be a travesty.
  
Best Actor in a Leading Role- Colin Firth, The Kings Speech

Hollywood has a very successful tradition of outstanding performances by actors and actresses portraying disabilities (Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Al Pacino in The Scent of a Woman, Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker, etc.), but few have been as outstanding as Colin Firths portrayal of  King George VI of Britain, who was plagued for much of his life by a stammer. His performance was unique in that his frustration with his speech condition radiated off the screen in a way that made the audience connect with him on a much more deep and emotional level, making his character so much more than just the "guy on the screen."

 Actress in a Supporting Role- Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit                                                             

Hailee brought a completely different dynamic to this whole movie.  While the rest of the characters were crusty, dirty old men on horseback, her character Maddie was quick, sharp, articulate, and witty...and she's only 15 years old! Though she definitely isn't the odds on favorite to win the Supporting Actress Oscar, she certainly deserves it.



 



Actor in a Supporting Role- Christian Bale, The Fighter

This was possibly my favorite acting performance of the year. I can't imagine that it's easy to play a once-promising boxer now nearly homeless and addicted to crack, but Bale brought a level of emotion and intensity to the role that overshadowed the rest of the cast (though Amy Adams and Mark Whalberg were also excellent) by leaps and bounds. He was equal parts eccentric, funny, fierce, and provided the key ingredient to making a boxing movie that wasn't just another Rocky or Cinderella Man, but a unique masterpiece with a truly compelling message.

Black Swan

 In a sea of atrocious Ashton Kutcher romantic comedies, a desert of fart joke-ridden Sandler flicks, and a never-ending galaxy of Nicholas Cage's receding hairline, is a gem of modern film making. That gem is Black Swan.

Black Swan centers around a ballet dancer named Nina (Natalie Portman), who's New York City ballet company is doing a rendition of the classic Swan Lake, only with a slight twist- the Black Swan and the White Swan are to played by the same dancer. Nina is thrilled when she finds out she has been chosen as the lead, but the overwhelming pressure from her producer, mother, and fellow dancers starts to take its toll.  Nina becomes increasingly paranoid that her understudy (Mila Kunis) is out to sabotage her, and she develops a dark side which becomes essential for her perfect performance of both the Black and White Swan.

To give the appropriate amount of praise to every aspect of this movie would require a blog post much longer than anyone would care to read; and at any rate, I've got things on the agenda myself (...dinner.) So instead, I'd like to focus on a couple particular elements of the film that really captivated me:

Soundtrack
Being a musician and music enthusiast, a movie's soundtrack is always one of the first things to grab my attention, and few have ever done so like this movie did.  The soundtrack is largely centered around Tchaikovskys music for Swan Lake, but with radical adaptations that are tailored perfectly to what is going on at that moment in the story. This aspect of the film almost makes it seem as though the movie itself is a just a radical re-telling of Swan Lake, an idea that director Dan Aronofsky was undeniably trying to suggest. Unfortunately, since the bulk of the soundtrack is based on previously-composed works, it's not eligible for an academy award (Best Original Score), but the adaptation of the music for the film will surely be praised as an art form unto itself.


Cinematography

Cinematography is widely considered to be the most unsung element of a movie; ironically so, because It is truely  the element of a movie that can make it spectacular. Black Swan clearly illustrates this. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, cinematography is basically the use of lighting and camera angles in a film.  The cinematography in Black Swan centered largely around a few key elements; darkness, grittiness, and mirrors. A vast portion of the film takes place in dark places- makeup rooms, subway trains, rehearsal spaces, etc. The use of darkness and light in these particular scenes literally transcended you to the point where you thought you were there yourself. Grittiness is a technique often used by Dan Aronofsky. If you've seen The Wrestler and other previous Aronofsky films, you'll notice how he uses it to accent certain places and enhance how they are perceived by the viewer.  In The Wrestler he used it in strip clubs and locker rooms. In Black Swan, he uses it in the subway and in the makeup room, among other places. Lastly, mirrors are a centerpiece is the film's cinematography. The use of mirrors as an effect to enhance tension and even fear is common with horror and suspense films, two genres that this film certainly mingles with. Black Swan took the element above and beyond, with mirrors in almost every major scene of the film, and almost always used as a vehicle to perpetuate the story.

An interesting sidenote- the bulk of the movie (most notably the dance scenes) were filmed at the center for the arts at SUNY Purchase. Whatupp 914!