2011 Academy Awards etc

[cinemabon]

There is a reason the "Oscars" represent so much and so little to so many people. To film critics, they represent "Main Street" America and common public opinion. To film fans, they represent frustration when their film does not win. To ordinary people, they represent those "show business people" flaunting their riches in front of everyone else. Love them or hate them, they are the ultimate salute to an industry we love to write and blog about on this site. In recent years, TMC (Turner Movie Classics) has presented the finest uncut and commercial free presentational salute to the Academy Awards of any channel on broadcast television. Host Robert Osborn is not only intelligent and knowledgable, but witty, insightful, and a joy to watch. As a film historian, he is extremely well versed. Here is a link to their website. Starting today, every single film for the entire month has been nominated or won an Academy Award. Some are great. Some are brilliant. Some are controversial. But all are above average. Just as history is required to understand the present, so is this homework if you wish to understand the current state of cinema. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Watch TCM this month!

TCM:http://www.tcm.com/index.jsp

[oscar jubis]

I am hooked on TCM, especially in the summer when school is out. You're right about Osborne too. I wish they would show more films from the 20s and 30s than they do, for instance, Hollywood films from the 60s which don't interest me as much. But I think that's a personal preference, and TCM meets the needs of America's film buffs very well.

[cinemabon]

Yesterday watched, "Five Easy Pieces." I hadn't seen it in over thirty years. I had forgotten why Jack Nicholson was considered such a great actor. The scene where he had the one sided conversation with his father must have been very difficult for him, considering it was one take (or one cut). I also remembered why I loathed Karen Black (a great human being but not my cup of tea on the silver screen). I felt relieved when Jack leaves her.

Watched, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" this afternoon. I had never seen it all the way through. DP by Ray Rennahan (also Duel in the sun and many many other) is so sumptuous. I felt as if I were eating a hot fudge sundae and filled up on too much technicolor.

"Streetcar names Desire" just started. Seeing Vivian Leigh, a washed up has-been with that disheveled white hair, just 12 years after she played a ravishing beauty in "Gone with the Wind" trying to pick up a young sailor at a bus stop, must have felt like a huge fall in grace to the wife of Lawrence Olivier.

So many great films... so little time.

[oscar jubis]

Sounds like good fun to me, man. I love FIVE EASY PIECES, by the way. Last movie I watched on TCM is Terms of Endearment, something I would not have picked for re-watch on my own but TCM was showing it and I just "got into it". In the past couple of days: Pygmalion (1938) which features Wendy Hiller's debut performance as Eliza Doolittle, and the original True Grit (the first western I ever saw and not one of the best of the genre despite surface pleasures).

[cinemabon]

I thought the Wayne version ok, not "The searchers." I still haven't seen this year's version of "True Grit," nor did I read our site's reviews I confess. It's on my list. I love the new nitty-gritty version of life back then. It was a hard life and they had to get by with less... a great deal less. Jeff Bridges is a terrific actor. However, if I did see the film, I would have to compare performances... and I want Colin Firth to win. Like Bridges, he's been in manyfilms through the years. But this role as king was outstanding. Reminds me of Derek Jacobi's work in "I, Claudius," where he played the emperor with a studder. Ironically, Derek Jacobi played Archbishop Lang in "King's Speech." I wonder if they compared notes.

[Johann]

Nice thread guys.

I finally have TCM included with my cable. I saw True Grit the other day (the John Wayne) and I managed to get a poster for the Coen brothers version from a theatre manager here in Ottawa (as well as ones for Tron: Legacy and THOR to be released in may- awesome poster- Thor looks like Superman!)
I couldn't get a free poster in Toronto to save my life. I got one for Clash of the Titans and that's it.
I move back to Ottawa and I get 4 right away. And more will follow. I'm a movie poster nut. Love 'em.

The big story today in Ottawa is how the National Library Archives was pressured by Iranian officials to NOT screen
IRANIUM,a controversial film that is critical of Iran's nuclear weapons program. I didn't get out to see it last night, but apparently there were lots of police at the Library before the screening. The Library pulled the film earlier last week, and after a big brou-ha-ha they decided to show it. Wish I'd seen it. I hate censorship. Even if I don't agree with something, let it be what it is.


As for the Oscars, I think they have chosen two interesting hosts. I'd rather see Hathaway and Franco than others who come to mind.
They are smart and talented. I'll be tuning in that night.

Predictions? How about 1 for now and I'll sleep on the others tonite:
Natalie Portman

[Johann]

And who watched the SuperBowl last night?

Did you see that awesome trailer for Captain America???
The First Avenger??? With Tommy Lee Jones???
Hell Yeah son!!!
:o


It made me sick to see George W. Bush and Laura and Condosleeza Rice enjoying box seats in Arlington.
They should be enjoying 4 blank walls and a toilet with no fuckin' seat or toilet paper.
Bread and water for those war criminals. No fucking NFL games for traitors and sacks of shit.
You get your bowl of GRUEL and go stand in the fucking corner!
ASSHOLES.
And BRAVO to Christina Agulerieaaa. You proved once again how much you SUCK.


Can't wait for that Captain America flick. And Cars 2 looks good for the kids... enjoyed that trailer..

[Chris Knipp]

During the superbowl I went out to a nice Italian restaurant. It took me away from my main preoccupation over the past two weeks, the revolution/uprising/intifada in Egypt, the most exciting series of political events I have witnessed in many, many years, if indeed there has been anything like the wave of uprisings against repression across the Arab world that is happening since the Sixties. Check out my new thread in the Lounge section. I started a new blog a month or so ago and I found a subject in this.

Look here: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/

and find out what this means:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZohqVSR_X8/TU78LEZBalI/AAAAAAAAAOA/JngLI1ES7f0/s320/Freedom+has+a+price.jpg

Really, guys, there is something more involving that movie posters or whether The King's Speech will beat The Social Network.

[cinemabon]

In addition to the superbowl, I also watched "Pride of the Yankees" on TCM which happens to be one of my favorite Gary Cooper movies.

Johann, you might interested to know that several years ago (we're talking decades), I filled in for a friend of mine as manager of a theater in Los Angeles while he toured Europe for a month. It was a great month - I met Bette Midler, Carrie Fisher, William Katt, and many others. When he returned, he offered to give me some movie posters as a gift (I accepted them, of course!). Last month, I opened my storage and found all of the movie posters he gave me. One of them is the original "Tron" poster (This is an actual lobby poster, not a reproduction). I offered it up on Ebay, but no one bought it. Oh, well...

As to Egypt, we could go round and round here, Chris. I spent three days glued to the television; where I followed the story both on MSNBC (which had the best coverage in my mind) and on the internet, where some of the personal blogs had links to footage not seen on the networks (such as the video of the local hospital that held the bodies of one hundred protestors killed by the police during the first two days of the protest, a fact no network broadcast. My Arab friends moved out of my building, so I cannot translate the sign. No doubt it says, "Down with or/death to Murbarak"

The word on the street in Cairo, from what I gather, is that as long as the protesters have "middle class" support, they may succeed in having the government implement their demands. While concessions are easy, implementation is another matter.

[Johann]

The situation in Egypt is indeed exciting.
I didn't really want to comment on it as it's still unfolding.
That's how you do it, kids.
That's how you get rid of a dictator.
YOU DO IT YOURSELF.
You don't wait for a hail mary from a magic leprechaun.
You get out in the streets FOR WEEKS if you have to.
You make your point so fucking clear that the rich fuck has to flee his own house.
I applaud the REAL Egyptians who're getting it on and banging the gong.
I only hope they're smart enough to get a new government in power who realize the historical and worldwide example it would set.
VERY exciting. They haven't backed down. I learned a few days ago that this "uprising" was brewing for several years and that when it would hit, it would hit BIG. And it sure did.
It rearranged people's heads! Fuckin' Love It!

Cinemabon- frame that Tron poster! cinema history right there..

[Chris Knipp]

I should think somebody would want the original TRON poster. I'd like it myself. Give it time.

I would love to discuss Egypt, but could we movei ti to the Lounge thread I started for the subject? Please see my personal blog entries. They are what I found to say about this huge subjject so far. The discussion goes on and on. I have hardly scratched the surface. But the public intifada itself is a very moving experience, one that I and many of us even who observed it from afar, will never forget.

I am in NYC now, and will be attending the screenings of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, some of Film Comment Selects, and New Directors/New Films at Lincoln Center (and IFC--ND/NF seems to be there and at the Walter Reade and not shared with MoMA this year). So I will be more focused on that with just one eye on Egypt, but it won't be out of my sight. I read about it and check Al Jazeera every day. But it won't be 24/7 now, and that's best for my mental and physical health. However when I told an Arab friend last week i was coming to NYC today, his first question was, "Will you be able to get Al Jazeera?"

[oscar jubis]

In addition to the superbowl, I also watched "Pride of the Yankees" on TCM which happens to be one of my favorite Gary Cooper movies.

I like PRIDE OF THE YANKEES too. But I would have to say that my favorite Cooper movies are : Peter Ibbetson, Ball of Fire, Mr Deeds Comes to Town, Man of the West, Meet John Doe, and The Fountainhead.

[cinemabon]

What about "High Noon?" Fred Zinneman!

[oscar jubis]

Enjoyable movie, no doubt. The problem is indeed Zinnemann. I still subscribe to what Andrew Sarris wrote about him in 1968, in the most widely read book on American Cinema:

"His neatness and decorum constitute his gravest artistic defects.It is the payoff films, High Noon, From Here to Eternity, A Nun's Story, and A Man for All Seasons, that most vividly reveal the superficiality of Zinnemann's personal commitment. At its best, his direction is inoffensive; at its worst, it is downright dull. In cinema, as in most art, only those who risk the ridiculous have a real shot at the sublime."

Hawks was really angry that High Noon got so much recognition by the Academy. His exceptionally rich Rio Bravo is a kind of retort to it.

[Chris Knipp]

God comment. Maybe a bit unfair to HIGH NOON, though, I don't know...

[oscar jubis]

Well, I do find it "enjoyable" for a lot of reasons. Rosenbaum thinks that "after many years of being vastly overrated, this liberal western of 1952 may be underrated in some quarters today." Perhaps those are "my quarters".

[cinemabon]

I don't regard Robert Bolt's script and Zinnemann's production of "A man for all seasons" as a "superficial...personal commitment." I just watched it a few days ago as part of the 31 days of Oscar tribute. I find Zinneman's direction very personal. When we see long held shots of Thomas walking home alone, I found this point of view very revealing of Zinneman's take on More's character. Once surrounded by large groups of friends (opening scene), More must make his way alone as the boatmen reject his overtures. He is even shunned by his wife. Ted Moore's stunning cinematography and the exception set design by John Box add to rich tapestry along with Paul Scofield's outstanding performance (which he also did on stage). An all star cast that included Orson Welles, Susanna York, Leo McKern, Wendy Hiller, and Robert Shaw (the last two nominated for their supporting roles). Winner of six golden statues including the screenplay, Scofield, and Ted Moore's sumptuous photography; Zinnemann won both direction and producer Oscars.

[Chris Knipp]

Pretty solid stuff to be tossed off as illustration the superficiality of his personal commitment. Maybe Sarris' pontification needs some reconsidering. If Zinneman is middlebrow he's middlebrow of a high order. Same can be said for Bolt's play. The idea of being too schematic and neat might apply better to HIGH NOON than to A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS?

[oscar jubis]

I don't regard Robert Bolt's script and Zinnemann's production of "A man for all seasons" as a "superficial...personal commitment."
Andrew Sarris' book reflects an approach to film criticism called auteurism which, as you probably know, was developed in the 1950s in the French publication Cahiers du Cinema and spread like wildfire around the world.However, perhaps the first major American director to insist that he was the sole "author" of the films he directed was Griffith, who insisted on putting his initials on every intertitle used in his films.
Auteurism goes something like this: even though film is a collaborative art that demands the creative input of many people from different specialties and even though classic Hollywood films were produced within a studio system with a clear sets of codes and conventions, certain directors managed to put a personal stamp, to reveal something of themselves, to channel their deepest concerns in their films. The basic assumption is that, generally speaking, the work of these directors is artistically more satisfying, richer, than the work of directors who simply preside over the films they make and work strictly within established codes/conventions. One may choose to disagree with this assumption. Close analysis of films and their production history reveal that some directors are more the primary authors of their films than other directors. A clear uncontroversial example: Hitchcock vs. Curtiz. Certainly the degree to which the film director is the author of a film varies from film to film. A clear, uncontroversial example: Rebecca vs.any Hitchcock film directed after WWII. High Noon and Rio Bravo, for instance, were both produced under the aegis of a studio system but it is generally agreed, at least by film scholars, that the latter is more Hawks' film (and less of a studio film) than the former is Zinnemann's film. Whether that matters or makes a difference is debatable. Basically if I thought High Noon was a masterpiece, I could not give as much credit to Zinnemann (I would mention Bolt's scrip as you have, and perhaps the DP, or the studio in general) as I would give credit to Hawks when discussing Rio Bravo. That stance would be based not only of my experience with the specific films but also on my familiarity with the filmography of both film directors. I hope this makes sense.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for this discussion. Not being in film graduate school like you, and mostly involved in the day to day business of watching and reviewing new movies, I haven't studied auteurism, really, though I know what it is, the Cahiers du Cinema story. I know a NYC cinefile who declares himself an auteurist. Sometimes his decisions to eschew movies by directors he doesn't know seems peculiar. How can he discover new "auteurs"? Sarris' declarations of who's in and who's out show the necessary limitations and virtues of all such pontification.

On the face of it though, auteurism is only common sense. A good director must show he's good at least partly by leaving a distinctive mark on his work -- doing more than just supervising the collective effort. Orchestra leaders are a good analogy. After all they don't play the instruments. But the great conductors shape orchestras and performances that are very distinctive.

Maybe Zinnemann is a good but not great director. He took on some very fortunate projects.

As for Bolt's "script," the thing is, Bolt wrote a very famous play, on which this was based. I remember the play well. It began in London, then was one of the great plays of the New York season, ran for a year. Like Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woold? it was a play of the early Sixties made into a film in 1966 (the Zinnemann one more cinematic?). Contrast them: Bolt I'd say is a highly accomplshed middlebrow writer. Albee is a brilliant playwright, that play a searingly original and hugely influential work. So Bolt's play was a good source but not a great one. Albee's play overwhelmed the film version. It could only be a duplicate of the stage version with more famous actors.

Another thought; maybe even movie directors who are basically hacks can be distinctive? Tony Scott?

[Johann]

Stanley Kubrick said that High Noon wasn't a very good movie.
I saw a great double feature this weekend on TCM: The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind.
Great movies.

[Chris Knipp]

Kubrick. Now there's an auteur.

[cinemabon]

Since you brought up a Mike Nichols' film, we could add him to the list of auteurs, certainly. He brought a very personal touch to his films. He burst onto the scene in 1966 with "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe" and somehow managed to tame Burton and Taylor on the set (a feat in itself). He followed that up with "The Graduate" for which he won his only Academy Award (although he's been nominated five times). He's had a string of hits and misses, but each one has a definite "Nichols" touch, similar to Hitchcock, that is easily noticed. I was very fond of "Silkwood" and "Working Girl" for which he was also nominated.

[Johann]

The Graduate is fine entertainment. It'll always be a classic.

I read today that the Oscars envelope is being changed. They are getting rid of the white envelope and going with a custom-designed card and envelope.

I think The King's Speech will win at the Oscars. It just seems like a perfect Oscar winner, even though I haven't seen it.
Colin Firth is finally getting recognized.

[Johann]

My predictions for this years' Oscars:

Best Picture: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Best Actor: COLIN FIRTH
Best Supporting Actor: CHRISTIAN BALE
Best Actress: NATALIE PORTMAN
Best Supporting Actress: AMY ADAMS
Best Animated Feature: TOY STORY 3
Best Art Direction: INCEPTION
Best Cinematography: INCEPTION
Best Costume Design: THE KING'S SPEECH
Best Directing: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Best Doc Feature: RESTREPO
Best Doc Short: POSTER GIRL
Best Film Editing: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Best Foreign Language Film: INCENDIES
Best Makeup: BARNEY'S VERSION
Music Original Score: THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Reznor!)
Music Original Song: WE BELONG TOGTHER (Toy Story 3)

[oscar jubis]

I watched the Oscar nominated shorts in live action and animated categories. I am disappointed in the Live action shorts this year. Last year, I loved an Irish/Russian film titled The Door (which did not win). There is nothing in this year's selection that, in my opinion, deserves an Oscar. I know there are better shorts made every year than the ones that get nominated.

[Chris Knipp]

I could see them at the IFC Center here in NY but haven't had time, and your comment doesn't motivate me, when I have so many other films to watch.

The Door is on YouTube and begins here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYfyh2E4Y-4)

[oscar jubis]

Now that you've posted the link, anyone can watch THE DOOR and comment. What did you think? I think it was the NYTimes review of the Oscar shorts I read, which agrees none of the 2011 live action nominees is special.

[Chris Knipp]

I can't comment on relative merits because I didn't see the other nominees. I think it's handsome, but conventional and sentimental, and not at all up to that very short Spanish short you recommended once.

I'm still trying to recover from the horror of seeing Isild Le Besco's appalling but in its way very powerful film of suburban female squalor BAS-FONDS, which I reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3032-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2011&p=25787#post25787) on the Film Comment Selects- New Directors/New Films thread. I don't think I willl see any more FCS films. They go out of their way to be dark and unpleasant and the ND/NF series is of more value in showing new talents.

[oscar jubis]

I can't comment on relative merits because I didn't see the other nominees. I think it's handsome, but conventional and sentimental, and not at all up to that very short Spanish short you recommended once.


Check out the short that won last year, which hinges of a new tenant thinking that the bag left in the cupboard by the former one contains flour when it's actually high-grade cocaine. The Door seemed to me pretty good compared to the winner and all the other nominees (and all 5 2011 nominees).
The Spanish short, LIFELINE, is a masterpiece. Perhaps the best short of the decade.

[Chris Knipp]

I'll take your word for it. I think watching all the Oscar selections is an idiotic task because everyone knows the Oscars often are not given to the best movies.

LIFELINE is amazing. Such economy.

[oscar jubis]

Victor Erice manages to evoke and suggest so much within a mere 10 minutes.
By the way, there's a gorgeous, charming French short among the animated ones; a sort of travelogue to Madagascar, but Pixar's Night and Day (the one shown before Toy Story 3) will win.

[Chris Knipp]

I have seen The Lost Thing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnWMDD8ayGY&feature=related) It is really really good.

As you may know I don't like computer animation that much. I love the loose drawing of he Madagascar Carnet de Voyage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaWEzsLVGiA&feature=related). I didn't "get" the Pixar Night and Day at all when I saw it.

One thing about L'Illusioniste. It has a nice old-fashioned animation look.

[oscar jubis]

I think L'Illusioniste is not playing here anymore. I'm sorry I missed it. However, a friend already downloaded it onto DVD. And I have access to screening rooms at school. The problem is finding the time Chris. Currently working on essays on the classic Mexican epic Dona Barbara and the magnificent, influential Body and Soul, starring John Garfield. One of those "commie pictures", you know?
Thank you very much for the links to the animated shorts. I hope our fellow FilmLeafers check them out and post.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes. Indeed.

[cinemabon]

Well... we're not even to the end and I concede defeat... Looks like "Social Network" will take it... and I think it sucks, but who am I? This has to be the worst Oscars I've seen in a long time. I keep saying I won't watch and do it again the following year, but this year was one of the worst I can recall. Only the Kirk Douglas moment and Billy Crystal saved the evening. Hathaway and Franco were as exciting as drying paint. Ho hum...

[Chris Knipp]

I agree with you that this was a very dull, bland Oscar night. Hardly any real humor (the best jokes were from Bob Hope), or surprises, or politics.

Do not know why you got the idea Social Network still had a strong chance of beating The King's Speech for Best Picture. I think that was dead in the water quite a while ago. According to the NY Times reviewer Manohla Dargis answering a reader's question, the idea that The Social Network had a chance was a fiction that was only maintained to generate interest in the Oscars. It has long seemed to me obvious that The King's Speech would appeal much more to the Academy with its costumes, its disability, its heavy-duty acting, and its emotionally satisfying trajectory. I personally like both movies very much. I think The Social Network is more relevant in its subject matter to today, and I was dazzled by the fast-moving, smart dialogue. I could relate to the obnoxious east coast college kids more than to Thirties royals too. But I have to admit that Jesse Eisenberg's performance is not what the Academy calls "acting" at all. It's just fast talking -- like a lot of Aaron Sorkin's writing for The West Wing. Sorkin can pack an emotional wallop, but Social Network is more about cold competitiveness and brains triumphing over personality. Luckily the story also contains warmer characters than Eisenberg's, however.


Q. What do you think accounts for the seismic shift from the total dominance of “The Social Network” on the awards circuit to “The King’s Speech” replacing it as the front-runner over the last few weeks?

— Marina Fang, Pittsburgh

MANOHLA DARGIS The idea that “The Social Network” was ever an authentic front-runner for best picture is a nice idea and a total media fabrication. Every year entertainment journalists, aided and abetted by movie publicists, try to spin some kind of drama out of what has become an interminable “awards season.” The journalists do their part because, especially after the critics’ groups and guilds have doled out their tchotchkes, there isn’t much left to say about movies they’ve already covered ad nauseam. But the machine needs to be fed. Happily for them, the movie companies are furiously working to capture the imagination and, they hope, the support of the only people whose opinions actually matter here: the some 6,000 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In answering the same question, A.O. Scott wasn't quite so sure:


A. O. SCOTT The face-off between “The Social Network” and “The King’s Speech” can be interpreted in a number of ways: media-savvy youth versus Anglophile fogeys; a chilly chronicle of betrayal and ambition versus a heart-warming tale of adversity overcome; Scott Rudin versus Harvey Weinstein. How it will resolve remains to be seen. In recent years the Academy has belied its reputation for timidity and fuddy-duddyism, favoring violent, topical and exotic movies (“The Hurt Locker,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Departed”) over what seemed to be safer choices.

Will a victory for “The King’s Speech” reverse that trend, signaling a return to the tried and true? I don’t know if I’d go that far, but the movie does have the advantages of 1) being more an actor’s movie than its rival, with an established cast of non-American thespians; 2) being a costume drama set during the rise of Nazism; 3) being the story of someone struggling with a disability; and 4) being a hit with critics and audiences alike. To put it in mathematical if perhaps cynical terms: Hitler + handicap + Shakespeare + $100 million = best picture. Unless it doesn’t, of course.

You'll find this Q&A here. (v)

[cinemabon]

That's so funny because I read their (NY Times critics) blogs last night. I surrendered/capitulated too soon. I was bored and tired and thought I had lost the night to preppy yuppies. When I walked through the room and saw DGA winner Tom Hooper at the podium, it gave me hope. I loved his comment about "listen to your mother." (Based on his mother attending the play and bringing it to his attention) Colin Firth gave a most self effacing and humorous speech. At the end of the 60 minutes interview, he promised to "dance off the stage" if he won. He kept his dignity and walked off. However, what he did in the wings is anyone's guess.

[Chris Knipp]

What I quoted above is not a blog, and I don't know what they said in a blog if it was different. Anyway my point remains that your fear of losing the night to preppy yuppies was unfounded. You got your stammering king and everybody lives happily ever after.

Tue Social Network won the French César for Best Foreign film. Has the Academy moved back to more conservative focus? Maybe.

[oscar jubis]

I would have voted for The Fighter from the 10 choices provided. My favorite "normal" movie (I mean nomination-able) was GREENBERG, which made less money than Ben Stiller's salary and will be quickly and lamentably forgotten. Your loss, America! I'm a good sport, though. King's Speech and Social Network are fine and enjoyable movies. Based on a single viewing, and certainly not the last one, I don't see that Social Network is any deeper or more modern or daring than the period film. It's just more topical. And since I had more fun watching the King's Speech and fun is not to be taken for granted, I was happy with the final results. And The Fighter got 2 acting Oscars !

[Chris Knipp]

I liked Greenberg too, but you know that is not Oscar material. Neither topical nor containing a disability. Being a neurotic loser isn't deemed to be a disability, just a common failing. It's a surprise that Social Network was such a success critically. Its main character is so wonderfully mean, you'd think nobody would have anything good to say about him. I think the latter is more modern, obviously so even, as well as more topical, but as for fun, that's up to you to have where you can. For me Social Network was much more fun than the conventional but very well made King's Speech. I had fun in both, but more gleeful, wicked fun in Social Network, more my kind of fun. As I think many would agree, no matter how much one found Social Network to be the more original, smarter film, one did not feel the sense of outrage experienced when Crash won over the for me, very important Brokeback Mountain, which again I was surprised and glad was deemed Oscar material, an advance at the time. As for The Fighter, it did dramatically very well, and deservedly I would assume, with its Supporting Actor wins. Again I'd say that was luck to have it make it so far. It's interesting that imitating a brilliant, mean brat isn't considered to be really as good an acting feat as imitating a royal stammerer. But then, the eventual King George VI really is a very endearing character. I never believed Colin Firth's performance for a minute. He just was Colin Firth. But that didn't seem to matter because the movie swept you away. The music was great, the sweep-you-away kind of music, though not hip like the music for Social Network. I suppose it was a pleasure for me, though it would be again mean to gloat, that Inception, which was fussed over so much at the time, fell down so far out of the picture of top Oscar contenders. Not as great a pleasure, however, as seeing the hugely hyped and really very popular Avatar lose to The Hurt Locker, yet another surprise (nothing like that this year from the Academy).

[tabuno]

I couldn't even change stations, even during a commercial break. The humor, the pathos, the pacing, the increased emphasis on individual moments all came together for me as an entertainment event that I experienced with full engagement.

[cinemabon]

"True Grit" got the "Color Purple" treatment... nominated for ten Oscars, received none.