2011 Oscars: The Winners

The winners of the 83rd Academy Awards have been announced. My 2011 Oscars predictions were announced earlier. This year I successfully predicted 7 of 8 in the big categories and 15 of 24 over all (20 of 24 if you count second guesses).

I was pretty happy with this year's awards. My favorite film of the year Inception won the most Oscars (four: Cinematography, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects), tied with The King's Speech (Picture, Director, Actor, Original Screenplay). My hope for Best Picture was The Social Network, which won 3 Oscars (Editing, Score and Adapted Screenplay). Interestingly, Alice in Wonderland won 2 important awards (Art Direction and Costume), denying The King's Speech any kind of sweep. It was sad to see True Grit lose 10 Oscars, the most of the night, but I was glad The King's Speech lost 8, 127 Hours lost 6 and both The Fighter and The Social Network lost 5.


The biggest disappointment was Tom Hooper winning Best Director instead of David Fincher (or, hello!, Christopher Nolan), followed by Natalie Portman winning Best Actress (I wanted Annette Bening to win).
The best moment was Inception winning Best Cinematography. I still don't understand how anyone can listen to the nominated scores and think Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' for The Social Network is better than Hans Zimmer's Inception.

Here are the 2011 Oscar winners:

Best Picture: The King's Speech (2nd: The Social Network)
Director: David Fincher (2nd: Tom Hooper)
Original Screenplay: The King's Speech (2nd:Inception)
Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network (2nd: Toy Story 3)
Actor: Colin Firth (2nd: Jesse Eisenberg )
Actress: Natalie Portman (2nd: Annette Bening)
Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (2nd: Helena Bonham Carter)
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (2nd: Geoffrey Rush )
Editing: Black Swan (2nd: The Social Network)
Art Direction: The King's Speech (2nd: Inception) Alice in Wonderland
Sound: Inception (2nd: The King's Speech)
Sound Editing: Inception (2nd: Toy Story 3)
Cinematography: True Grit (2nd: Inception)
Costumes: The King's Speech (2nd: Alice in Wonderland )
Documentary: Inside Job  (2nd: Exit Through The Gift Shop)
Foreign Language: Biutiful (2nd: In a Better World)
Animated Film: Toy Story 3 
Animated Short: Day & Night (2nd: Madagascar) The Lost Thing
Live Action Short: God of Love (2nd: Wish 143)
Documentary Short: The Warriors of Qiugang (2nd: Poster Girl) Strangers No More
Makeup: Wolfman
Score: Inception (2nd: The King's Speech) The Social Network
Song: "We Belong Together" (from Toy Story 3)(2nd: "Country Strong")
Visual Effects: Inception (2nd: Alice in Wonderland

OSCARS 2011: MadProfessah Predicts The Top 8 Categories

Here are my predictions for this Sunday's 83rd Academy Awards, known as the Oscars. This year I was 91% accurate in predicting the nominations in the Top 8 categories. Last year I correctly predicted 6 of 8 of the top categories and 17 of 24 overall.

Best Picture

“Black Swan”

“The Fighter”

“Inception”

“The Kids Are All Right ”

“The King’s Speech”

“127 Hours”

“The Social Network”

“Toy Story 3″

“True Grit”

“Winter’s Bone”

Should Win: The Social Network

Will Win: The King's Speech

Best Direction

Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan”

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”

David Fincher for “The Social Network”

Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”

David O. Russell for “The Fighter”

Should Win: David Fincher

Will Win: David Fincher

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”

Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”

Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”

James Franco in “127 Hours”

Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”

Should Win: Colin Firth 

Will Win: Colin Firth

Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”

Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”

Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”

Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”

Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Should Win: Annette Bening 

Will Win: Natalie Portman

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale in “The Fighter”

John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”

Jeremy Renner in “The Town”

Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”

Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”

Should Win: Christian Bale 

Will Win: Christian Bale 

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in “The Fighter”

Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech”

Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”

Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”

Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Should Win: Helena Bonham Carter 

Will Win: Melissa Leo 

Adapted Screenplay

Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy for “127 Hours”

Aaron Sorkin for “The Social Network”

Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich for “Toy Story 3″

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”

Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini for “Winter’s Bone”

Should Win: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Will Win: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Original Screenplay

Mike Leigh for “Another Year”

Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson for “The Fighter”

Christopher Nolan for “Inception”

Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for “The Kids Are All Right”

David Seidler for “The King’s Speech”

Should Win: Christopher Nolan, Inception

Will Win: David Seidler, The King's Speech 

MOVIE REVIEW: Black Swan

I finally saw Black Swan. The film has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and star Natalie Portman is the clear frontrunner for Best Actress. It was directed by Darren Aronofsky, who also made the films π and The Wrestler (see MadProfessah's review).

Black Swan is a bona fide hit, having been made for a mere $13 million and as of February 1 2011, grossed nearly $100 million.

I, however, was not so impressed. I can see clearly why Portman is a near-lock for the Best Actress Oscar, mainly because she is in nearly every frame of the film and it's impact is centered around her performance. She plays Nina Sayers, a beautiful, timid (but obsessive) ballet dancer who gets the lead role as the White Swan in Swan Lake. In this production one dancer will play the Swan Queen and the Black Swan. Nina apparently starts to go insane under the strain of trying to change her essentially innocent "White Swan" nature into the villainous, aggressive "Black Swan." Nina's alter ego Lily in the film is played by Natalie Portman's best friend Mila Kunis, another dancer in the company who has the risky temperament better suited to the Black Swan. Lily is either trying to loosen up Nina and admires her dancing or (as seen from Nina's warped perspective) Lily is stalking Nina and will stop at nothing until she replaces Nina as the star of the show.

Other actors in the movie are Winona Ryder as the bitter, over-the-hill ballerina who Nina is replacing as the star of the ballet company, Vincent Cassel as the main choreographer/artistic director of the ballet company and Barbara Hershey as Nina's mom. Hershey is particularly striking because she is very clingy, almost to the point of smothering. But what makes Hershey memorable is her appearance; her face is bloated (from excessive plastic surgery?) and many times when she appears on screen and the rhetorical question "What is up with her face?" comes unbidden into the viewer's mind.

Overall, the word that comes to mind to describe Black Swan is "overwrought." The film is described as a "psychosexual thriller" by some critics, but this assumes a very heterosexual male viewpoint (which is an odd thing to say about a film which is based in the behind-the-scenes milieu of ballet). Even watching the film as a gay man I can appreciate Natalie Portman's beauty and she clearly carries the film. However, what happens to her character has clearly been written by a straight man (let's just say there's a lot of shots of scantily clad dancers and a fairly explicit, nudity-free lesbian sex scene between Kunis and Portman). The film doesn't really have much to appeal to either gay men or straight women (apart from the fabulous ballet costumes); there are very few shots of any hot, athletic bodies of male dancers, for example. Are women who watch the film supposed to identify with Nina or Lily or just be appalled at what the effects of obsession-compulsion can be? There is no female character which has a positive sense of agency--except perhaps Lily, but she is fetishized as an outsider ("Just flew in from San Francisco"). Meanwhile the central male character  is clearly an asshole but this goes unchallenged because he's the boss--sexual harassment is assumed and normalized.

Black Swan is a film which is worth seeing for Natalie Portman's lead performance--in the comfort of your own home.

Title: Black Swan.

Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use.

Release Date: December 3, 2010.

Plot: B-.

Acting: A. 

Visuals: A-.

Impact: C-.

Overall Grade: B-/C+ (3.00/4.0).