Oscar Picks - Only 4 Months Late!

The 83rd Academy Awards took place on February 27, 2011 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. On June 20th I watched The Fighter - completing my goal of viewing all ten of the Best Picture nominees.  Here's how I rank 'em:

1) The King's Speech - absolutely deserving of every bit of praise it has received.  Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, all of it.  Absolutely.

1A) Winter's Bone - liked this so much I can't bring myself to rank it number 2.  Watched it first and was convinced it would be my clear-cut favorite of the year.  Jennifer Lawrence is solid but it was John Hawkes' character Teardrop that got to me the most.  I couldn't look away.


3) The Fighter - like Speech and Bone, The Fighter and True Grit were very close but I'm going with Fighter here based on originality and Christian Bale's crazy-good performance.  He may be somewhat of an asshole on set but you cannot deny the man's talent.


4) True Grit - I'm a sucker for all things Coen and the brothers don't disappoint.  The usual strengths are all here - great dialogue, great characters, great imagery.  It's hard to believe Hailee Steinfeld is only fourteen.

5) The Social Network - I've been a fan of Aaron Sorkin since his West Wing days and found the story of Facebook interesting.  Jesse Eisenberg just bugs me.  So sue me.


6) Black Swan - intriguing, dark and a tad disturbing. And I'd rank it this high even without the lesbian scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.  Maybe.


7) Inception - though I refuse to climb aboard the Christopher Nolan-is-a-god bandwagon you can't deny the visual power.  A couple big problems with this film, all screenwriting related, but  still a blockbuster worth watching at least once.


8) The Kids Are Alright - solid performances all around and they actually made Mark Ruffalo unlikable - not an easy task.


9) Toy Story 3 - I don't have a problem with a cartoon being nominated - it's just that a third installment requires little in the way of character development, backstory, etc.  Plus it felt like I'd seen it before when I hadn't.


10) 127 Hours - to me this actually felt like 127 hours, and not in the 'so-intense-I-felt-like-I-was-there' way.  Were this not directed by the same guy that wooed Hollywood with Slumdog Millionaire 2 years ago I don't see it receiving a nod.