THE 2011 ACADEMY AWARD'S NOMINATION REPORT CARD!

The nominations are in for the 83rd Academy Awards, now let use view them and dissect the nominees with cruel attention.

BEST ACTOR

This is were every actor wants to be, well that is if he gives two cents about his career. We got a lot of contenders this year and also a lot of snubs in this category as well. Javier Bardem who gives a once in a lifetime performance in Biutiful. We also got Jeff Bridges playing the dude in a western with True Grit, a nomination that should have went to either Mark Wahlberg for The Fighter or Leonardo Dicaprio for Shutter Island. Then there is Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network, a much deserved nomination. Colin Firth got his for The Kings Speech and James Franco rounds out the top five with 127 Hours.

THE JUDEMENT CALL: Most likely it will go to Colin Firth for The Kings Speech, but in all reality it should go Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network. But if you go on just the power of raw emotion then Javier Bardem is the winner by a landslide.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTIN ROLE

Christian Bale got a nomination for fallen hero turned crack head in The Fighter, speaking that he is in my top five favorite actors living this is a well deserved nomination for him and his career. Though my heart thinks that John Hawkes for Winters Bone should win the category without a fight, his character has the most raw energy and heart break more so than any other performance this year. There is also Jeremy Renner, the only good thing about that movie called The Town. Also we have Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right and Geoffrey Rush for The Kings Speech.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: Christian Bale will win this award, but John Hawkes should be at the podium giving his thanks.

BEST ACTRESS

It has been a strong year for women, but out of the five nominated I am only impressed by two. The one who deserves to win is Jennifer Lawrence for Winters Bone, she gives a brave and original performance then any other female lead this year. The other is Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine, but she is such a talent she will win eventually. Then there is Annette Bening for The Kids Are Alright, she has never won an Oscar and this performance might help her get the trophy she has always wanted, the voters are saps for the long overdue Oscar. Nicole Kidman got a nomination as a mother who has to cope with the loss of her children, but she doesn’t have a chance at a win because Naomi Watts gave the exact same performance for 21 Grams and still walked away empty handed. Then there is the unstoppable juggernaut that is Natalie Portman for The Black Swan, a horrible mess of a movie and performance. Noomi Rapace should have been nominated for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a very underrated performance by any female lead this year.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: Natalie Portman will win this award, but it should be awarded to Jennifer Lawrence for Winters Bone.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

There are a lot of great women nominated in this category, this was a great year for women in general, at least when it comes to performance. We got Amy Adams and Melissa Leo both nominated for The Fighter, Melissa Leo gave the better performance but I think they will cross each other out. There’s also Helena Bonham Carter who for some reason has never won an Oscar, which is a surprise because she is such a good talent. This will not be her year though, but the most puzzlement I have in this category was Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit? To me it is amongst one of the worst films of the year, but audiences and critics alike are eating up this lifetime channel western. I have no clue why she is nominated or the film for that matter? But the women to place your money on for the award would be Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom. I have never seen a performance that engulfed the word evil with such ease and sinister happiness. Watching her over the course of the film you get goose bumps, name another actor that can do that?

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: Jacki Weaver will and deserves to win this award.

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Toy Story 3 got the luck of being nominated here and the best picture category, I think it should only be one but we all know it wont win Best Picture. I enjoyed How To Train Your Dragon more so than Toy Story 3, so it would be the one I think should win. Then again there is also the lushes The Illusionist, which looks like a walking painting. I still think they could add more films to the category besides three nominations. Did everyone forget about Despicable Me, Mega Mind, and Tangled?

THE JUDGEMETN CALL: Toy Story 3 DUH?! Give me a year that PIXAR hasn’t won outside of the cartoon Cars.

ART DIRECTION

Alice In Wonderland, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hollows Part 1, Inception, The Kings Speech, and True Grit. All of these films had great art direction, I would root for Harry Potter but Inception had a greater overall design, but in the end we all know who will win this.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: The Kings Speech sadly, history pieces always win in Art and Costume.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Hard to choose because the cinematography just like the editing is what ultimately gives the film its look and flow. We have The Black Swan, Inception, The Kings Speech, The Social Network, and True Grit. In a perfect world Inception would win but we know this is sadly mistaken.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: The Social Network will win and that I wont complain about, but Inception was filmed all over the globe?!

COSTUME DESIGN

I don’t read vogue or watch sex and the city so I guess my fashion sense is not up to task on this one. We have Alice In Wonderland, I Am Love, The Kings Speech, The Tempest, and unfortunately True Grit?

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: It will be a knock around between The Kings Speech and The Tempest, with The Kings Speech most likely taking the award.

DIRECTING

Um hum, will the real Christopher Nolan please stand up? Well he cant exactly cause the voters decided not to nominate him this year for the over all audience pleaser Inception. I mean this guy knocks it out of the park with The Dark Knight and then almost reinvents film with Inception. I wouldn’t be to sad though I mean they never honored Hitchcock or Kubrick in this category, and to be the best living director alive and also be in there company is not a bad thing. So who did they nominate, ugh! Darren Aronofsky for The Black Swan, David O. Russell for The Fighter, Tom Hooper for The Kings Speech, David Fincher for The Social Network, and one more ugh here, Joel & Ethan Coen for True Grit. Three of these directors deserve to be here, two do not, I’ll let you figure out which.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: David Fincher will win for The Social Network, because he deserves it.

BEST DOCUMENTRAY FEATURE

Exit Through The Gift Shop should win on principle, I mean when will we ever get to see the most wanted as in aka the LAW and best street artist nominated for an Oscar again. I think voters will choose it just to see if he shows up to accept it. We all know he most likely wont, but it will still be cool just for him to win. And the Oscar goes to…

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: Banksy and some French guy, not because it is better then the others nominated, just for the principle.

BEST EDITING

Cant believe Inception was locked out of this category as well, if a film works and runs smoothly it is because of the editing, two things Inception succeed at. Instead of that we got The Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kings Speech, 127 Hours, and The Social Network.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: The Social Network because it is the best edited film nominated.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

For some reason I think Animal Kingdom should be nominated here, but because it is in English many voters might have been turned off by the idea. There’s Biutiful from Mexico, Dogtooth from Greece, In A Better World from Denmark, Incendies from Canada, and Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) from Algeria.

THE JUDEMENT CALL: Biutiful of course, I mean it’s the only other foreign language film I’ve heard about this year seaside in a good way.

BEST MAKEUP

Barney's Vision, The Way Back, and The Wolfman. I know its a lot to choose from I wonder what will win?

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: They could give it to The Wolfman for nostalgia, but the makeup in The Way Back is outstanding. It will be a coin toss between those two films.

BEST MUSICAL SCORE

Well it should be easy I mean Hans Zimmer’s score for Inception is the most recognizable of the year, synth electronics with harsh occupying drums and horns. There is also How To Train Your Dragon, The Kings Speech, 127 Hours, and The Social Network.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: Hans should win but it will go to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network, only because the rock gods awards those who worship there awesomeness.

BEST SONG

Um well there's not a lot to be overjoyed about in this category. We got Coming Home from Country Strong, I See The Light from Tangled, We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, and If I Rise from 127 hours.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: If I Rise by A.R. Rahman, Dido, and Rollo Armstrong. Though lets be serious for a moment,  every song that Beck wrote for Scott Pilgrim VS. The World should be nominated in this category.

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Day & Night, The Gruffalo, Let’s Pollute, The Lost Thing, and Madagascar, A Journey Diary.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: The Lost Thing could win because of it’s visuals but Madagascar has more heart and soul, I would hope it could win.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Killing In The Name, Poster Girl, Strangers No More, Sun Come Up, The Warriors of Qiugang.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: I would go for Killing In The Name, a short documentary that follows Ashraf, a Muslim man who has devoted his life to opposing terrorism within the Muslim community ever since 26 members of his family were killed by a bombing on his wedding day.

SHORT FILM LIVE ACTION

The confession, The Crush, God of Love, Na Wewe, and Wish 143.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: I would go with Na Wewe, a short about a bus being attacked by rebels during the rwandan genocide.

SOUND EDITING

Inception, Toy Story 3, Tron: Legacy, True Grit, and Unstoppable.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: This really shouldn’t be that hard for voters, Inception all the way!

SOUND MIXING

Inception, The Kings Speech, Salt, The Social Network, and True Grit.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: This should go to Inception without a fight but I have a feeling that The Social Network will come in for the kill.

VIUSAL EFFECTS

I mean how did Hereafter end up with this nomination, what about Tron voters! Anyway we also got Alice In Wonderland, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows Part 1, Inception, and Iron Man 2.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: If you know 2+2=4, then it is a safe guess to say that Inception will win this victoriously.

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

This is obvious, I mean Aaron Sorkin has written one of the best screenplays of the decade with The Social Network. Yet it would be nice to see Winters Bone win this also, but there is also (ugh) True Grit, Toy Story 3, and 127 hours.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: This is not even a competition, The Social Network wins by a landslide.

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

This one would look obvious I mean you would think the academy would give this to Christopher Nolan for Inception just out of respect for his directing snub, well think again? They left him cold when Memento was up in this category, they’ll do the same here again, sadly. We also have Another Year, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, and The Kings Speech.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: The Kings Speech will win and so I feel very sorry for it’s writer David Seidler trying to keep a straight face and not stutter in his acceptance ssspppppeech.

BEST PICTURE

Now this is the biggest award of the entire night, the one film that will trump all others just because it has the Academy logo on it. There is the sequel to Jacobs Latter called The Black Swan, the lets get it done boxing film of the year The Fighter, the brilliant Inception, the lesbian love triangle of  The Kids Are All Right, The stuttering Stanley of The Kings Speech, The don’t look or you’ll miss it scene stealer that was 127 hours, greed is always good with The Social Network, the cartoon Toy Story 3, the do we really need another remake True Grit, and the great little masterpiece that is Winters Bone. Its ten films in all and half of them shouldn’t even be up there, but it is a simple and predictable year.

THE JUDGEMENT CALL: Winters Bone should win but The Social Network will rule supreme, but there could be a chance that The Kings Speech walks off with the big prize of the night, and it will leave everybody wondering how the empire really strikes back!

WHAT THE ACADEMY GOT RIGHT: Well nominating Winters Bone, giving some love to Animal Kingdom, and nominating Banksy. Also they made Javier Bardem the first actor to be nominated for a Spanish speaking role, plus they gave love to Inception when they really didn’t have to.

WHAT THE ACADEMY GOT WRONG!: Nominating True Grit for 10 Oscars, nominating The Black Swan for anything! Not giving Christopher Nolan his well deserved Director nomination, not nominating Animal Kingdom for all of the above statues, and confusing Toy Story 3 for an actual real film! Never giving the highest grossing franchise of all time a chance or best picture nomination, Harry Potter I'm talking about you! & finally for not nominating Leonardo Dicaprio for Shutter Island or Inception!

BUY OF THE MONTH!

Of course this is what I would tell you to shuffle out your money for this month. The Social Network on Blu-Ray! David Fincher always loads his films with great extra features and The Social Network does not disappoint. The making of the film alone is worth the cash, I turned it on thinking it was going to be at the most forty minutes long, turned out to be almost as long as the movie. Plus you can go behind the making of the music with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and that’s not even including what else the disc comes with. The clarity on an HDTV is crystal clear, you can notice the power of filming a movie on digital cameras while watching this on Blu-Ray. Everyone is probably picking this up already after the Golden Globe wins this past week, but I’m just here to remind you that it is worth the cash. If your David Fincher fix is still not satisfied with just this purchase I can also recommend Fight Club on Blu-Ray. Just as great and important of a film as the one mentioned above, and its also just fifteen bucks at Wal-Mart.

THE JUDGMENT CALL: Not only is it one of the best films of the year, it is almost as revolutionary a disc as Fight Club was when it was first released onto DVD! Do yourself a favor and pick this up, it will be on constant non stop play for at least a few weeks.

Do The Right Thing

What can be said about last weeks Golden Globes telecast? Well out of the films nominated the one that deserved to win actually did, that being The Social Network. Even though I think Winters Bone is a superior film it has been outsourced at the awards this year, with the exception of a best actress nomination for Jennifer Lawrence. I am hear to say that the Golden Globes actually got it right except in the best acting category.
I will admit I haven’t seen The Kings Speech yet and I am sure it is a wonderful feel good film, I tend to like those the most. Colin Firth has won every dam award known to man this year for his performance in the film, leaving Jessie Eisenberg trailing in second place every time.
To me this is ludicrous on a grand scale for many reasons, the main one being that Jesse Eisenberg has given the best performance of the year. His performance carries the entire film on his shoulders, without it the film would fall flatter than a suicide jumper coming out of a one story window.  So with that logic I cant understand why he has been shut out of every award he is up for, even the critics choice awards (a good bunch of self absorbed critic’s and film school drop outs) wouldn’t even give it to him.
I think when it comes to reality it might be because Jesse Eisenberg is so young, well not to young, 27 to be exact. A lot of people in the industry might think he has more to prove, and that Colin Firth has already proven himself enough with his body of work.
That is just me assuming, yet what still gives me hope and dread this year is the Academy Awards, for they are the ultimate film award that matters in any context, besides winning at Cannes. The academy for the most part tends to get it right on occasion, even though they have overlooked a lot of great films in the past. Last year proved that point when they decided to give best film to The Hurt Locker, a movie no one saw over a movie everyone saw which was Avatar.
So there is still hope for Jessie Eisenberg this year, the academy might actually go for the actual best performance of the year over what everyone else is doing just to be different and hip, and you cant get more hip than awarding someone who is young.
Though the Academy has screwed up far worse in the past, prime example of that was when Tom Hanks won his first Oscar for Philadelphia. It should of went to Liam Neeson for Schindler’s List, which would fit into the same position as Jessie Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg. Nesson’s performance carried the entire weight of the film, if his performance was not up to task that film would have failed, the same with The Social Network. Yet the Academy decided to go with Tom Hanks as an HIV stricken homosexual out for justice, and don’t get me wrong Philadelphia is an amazing film, but it was also a political statement. Tom Hanks should have won his second Oscar for Saving Private Ryan, yet they gave it to Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful? When was the last time you heard of him? I rest my case on that part of the subject.
So when the Academy decides to hand out it’s Oscars there might be a chance of hope that they make the right decision. They might even surprise people and give Leonardo Dicaprio a nomination for his riveting performance in Shutter Island, another actor everyone has highly overlooked this year. The man was the highest grossing actor of 2010 and both of his films were creditable among critics and audiences alike. I mean what can you do when you pull that off and your peers still slap you in the face without a single word of praise or nomination?
It would be nice this year to not know what the awards could bring, Jessie Eisenberg for best actor and even Jennifer Lawrence for best actress. Yet with dismay we know in our hearts that Colin Firth and Natalie Portman will most likely win, and to me there is nothing worse than predictability!