#s 1-5

5. Winter’s Bone - This is why, despite all my complaining about the pageantry and self-importance of the Oscars, I’m still glad that they exist. Here’s a little known film that I had heard of but probably wouldn’t have gotten around to seeing if it hadn’t been for this. It’s a fact that year in and year out it’s easier to get nominated in the Best Actress category than the Best Actor, there’s just a dearth of good female leading roles that there’s a lot less competition. Well here’s one of the few very good ones, and Jennifer Lawrence nails it playing a 17-year-old that’s forced to deal with things no 17-year-old should have to. An excellent portrayal of poor, rural America, the things people have been forced to do, and the culture it has spawned.

4. True Grit – For better or worse I’ve never seen the original and thus can’t do a comparison. Here’s another really good female role that’s once again nailed by a young actress – Hailee Steinfeld. She gets a Supporting instead of Leading Actress nomination because, um, well I guess the studio decided she had a better chance of winning that. I don’t really understand how the individual with the most screen time in the movie is somehow a supporting role but there you have it. The comment I made earlier about Pixar could be said about Jeff Bridges as well. He always brings it and, Tron Legacy notwithstanding, as a rule he’s simply not in bad films. Like The Fighter, original concept is not this film’s strong point (it’s your pretty basic Western revenge tale) but is proof again that if you take a cliché and inhabit it with a good script and strong performances you can still end up with a memorable tale.

3. Inception – Let’s get this out of the way. Any film with a blatantly open ending is guaranteed to piss some people off. And the criticisms about the film making less than perfect sense and being overly complicated are fair. But I also think they miss the point. The way this film is meant to be seen is with a dream mindset, by which I mean that basically you’re Ellen Page’s character and it’s your dream. When you dream, each dream has its own logic and you don’t question it at the time. It’s only later when you think back and say “wait, that didn’t make any sense.” So it is here. This is a film to be experienced, not analyzed to death for every logical thread. No, that doesn’t mean that I give carte blanc to every film to make no sense because they can just say “it makes its own kind of sense.” This is a special case because of its subject matter, but to elaborate further would get into spoiler territory, and I don’t want to go there. Of all the films on this list, this is the one I had the most fun with and is probably the one that will have the most repeat viewings (well, technically it will probably be Toy Story 3 but they won’t all be voluntary). The last third of the film may be a bridge too far so to speak and is what keeps it from taking the number 1 spot. Finally, a quick word about the ending. Often, an open-ended conclusion is viewed as laziness on the part of the author. And speaking as an author of a screenplay who did choose to end it openly precisely because I couldn’t think of a good way to end it, I can say that it’s sometimes justified. But that is not the case here. This film ends in the best possible way. To end it any other way would have directly contradicted one of the main themes of the film.

2. The King’s Speech – This is the kind of movie people “expect” to see nominated for Best Picture. A period piece about the British royalty with lots of costumes and accents. But anyone who just dismisses it as that is missing out. This is a very accessible movie and one that anyone with even a passing fear of public speaking can relate to. Yes it’s true that the monarchy doesn’t have any actual power and didn’t then, but I wouldn’t suggest that it means what the king does or says doesn’t matter. The British monarchy is the one part of their government that remains constant. Prime ministers come and go as different parties come to and then leave power. That stability makes it a powerful symbol of the British Empire, particularly back then when Empire was really still the operative word. In fact, I think it’s precisely because the king has no actual authority that the speech carried so much importance. Figuratively, if you only have a pen and no sword, the pen becomes all important. I can only imagine the kind of fear that was being felt in England as Hitler marched across Europe. And I also can only imagine what the effect of a king seemingly shaking in his boots would have had on the morale of the nation. Would it have meant a different end to the war? That’s probably going a bit too far, but you never know. In any case, this film does a great job of setting up this story and then giving great performances to bring it home. Geoffrey Rush, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a performance of him that I didn’t enjoy immensely (whether or not the film he was in was any good or not). I think the best way to describe him is that he’s just eminently watchable. And Colin Firth, you really can’t say enough good things about the job he does here. Fleshing out a character in three dimensions whose precise problem is his inability to communicate has got to be the ultimate challenge for an actor and he not only pulls it off but makes it look effortless as well.

1. The Social Network - Another one that I’ve talked about previously on here so I’ll keep this one brief. Ebert often says how good a film is doesn’t depend on what it’s about but how it’s about it. That’s certainly applicable here. I could really care less about Facebook, so please believe me when I say that whatever your opinion of it is will have no bearing on whether or not you like this film. What this movie is really about is what happens when some very smart but inexperienced people have a good idea and try to turn it into the next BIG idea. And from that springboard an extraordinarily engaging story unfolds. Jesse Eisenberg does just a phenomenal job walking a real tightrope of a character. You’ve got a guy that’s brilliant but extraordinarily arrogant and the trick is to take both of these naturally alienating qualities and still create a character that the audience likes. And the way that Fincher chooses to tell this tale is pitch perfect. It’s one thing to read about how these giant companies start up with an idea and a few friends and end up with multi-million dollar lawsuits between them, but it’s another to actually see it unfold step by step. This is simply a captivating film with some great performances (yes, even including Justin Timberlake) and perfect direction.

Ranking the Best Picture Nominees

As promised (or at least, as hoped for) here’s my order and review of the 10 films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Keep in mind that I’m not agreeing that these are the top 10 films of the year; there’s too many that I missed for me to feel like I can make a solid list at this point. As a general point, all 10 are certainly good films and there’s none that I can categorically say have no business being nominated. However, in my opinion, this list has 3 tiers. #s 9 and 10 are clearly the weakest, #s 8 – 4 are a step ahead but are all very close in quality, and #s 1-3 are clearly in a separate class. As long as it’s one of those 3 that win the Best Picture I won’t be disappointed no matter which one it is. So without further ado, here we go with films 6-10, with 1-5 to follow in the next couple days. Don’t worry, the reviews have already been written, so I promise there won’t be a month-long wait for them.

10. 127 Hours – Guranteed to be the best film you’ll ever see about a guy who cuts his own arm off. All credit to James Franco, who gives a great performance, and to Danny Boyle, who does a terrific job of directing what had to be considered an unfilmable project. But at the end of the day, it’s a 10-minute intro, a 10-minute wrap-up, and an hour of watching a guy slowly die and hallucinate while he’s standing in one spot. Considering that, they did as good a job as can be done with that story, but there’s just a limit to how good that kind of story can be.

9. The Kids Are Alright – This was the last one of the 10 I saw, and the one I was looking forward to the least. This film can best be summed up as 105 minutes of awkward conversations. Those who enjoy psychoanalyzing every scene and bit of speech will love this film. Every line of dialog or look from one character to the other is loaded with text and subtext and it just gets exhausting after a while. In a drama, you usually try to alternate between building up and releasing tension (so you can build it up again) but here they don’t do a very good of releasing. Good performances all around, interesting subject matter, and it’s certainly never boring, but it’s also a film I never see myself watching again.

8. Black Swan – I already posted most of my thoughts in the comment section, and I don’t want to repeat myself too much. This is a very good film that I just didn’t like very much. Just as it’s hard for a lot of people to understand how I can be so into the Cubs/Bears/Illini, it’s hard for me to understand how someone could be so obsessed with ballet. The result is that I found it very difficult to connect with Natalie Portman’s character. So let me just state explicitly (to save others the trouble) that I willingly admit that’s a flaw with me and not with the film. Again, great performances; Portman is well deserving of a nomination. It’s incredible that she basically started from scratch and learned everything in 8 months. But Vincent Cassell gives a really fine performance as well. Aronofsky’s direction, as usual, is excellent as well. Somehow, though, everything together just didn’t quite work for me.

7. The Fighter – This one surprised me a bit. All I knew going in was that it was a “boxing movie” and really how excited can you be about one of those? And really that’s basically all it is, but it’s just done very very well. Christian Bale gives a phenomenal performance and despite the fact that it is an acclaimed performance I still think it’s underrated. Playing a crack addict can be challenging. Playing a boxer can be challenging. Playing a character that’s both simultaneously and pulling it off is a real accomplishment, and Bale does it perfectly. I’d recommend anyone who watches this movie to look up Dicky Ecklund on You Tube and see just how good of a job Bale did at nailing his moves and mannerisms. The actual boxing in this movie is some of the best I’ve ever seen; it really looks like you might be watching Saturday Night Boxing on HBO. None of the Raging Bull dinosaur noises and slo-mo and none of the “what’s blocking?” you see in the Rocky films. And Wahlberg looks like he belongs in the ring and does his best work in the fights, so credit to him as well, even though outside of the ring most of the time he’s just kind of there. But I’ll also be honest; put Amy Adams in as little clothing as she’s wearing in this film and you’ve already got me.

6. Toy Story 3 – A bit ironic that what is arguably the weakest entry in the series is the only one to be nominated for Best Picture – pretty obviously a beneficiary of the expansion from 5 to 10 films. The public has gotten so used to Pixar constantly turning out one great film after another that it’s easy to overlook how big of an accomplishment that is. And this series stands out as a shining exception to the “sequels suck” rule. When you take the series as a whole you see a lot of common themes which are explored really well. Where most animated series are happy to take advantage of the fact that you can make time stand still, the beauty of Toy Story lies in its acknowledgement of the passage of time and the changes it creates. I know that I haven’t said much about this particular film, and I don’t think I need to. It’s another Toy Story that’s as good as the other two.

Preparing for the Massive Raging Insane Storm of Mega Super Death

That's what I've taken to calling the impending blizzard (which should be arriving in the next couple hours). Trademark pending. I think that the media has just lost their creativity in naming these things. I mean if you really want to strike the fear of god into someone, you've really got to step it up a notch.

I'm ordering my "I Survived the Massive Raging Insance Storm of Mega Super Death" t-shirts now. Naturally I put it on my credit card. I figure if I do survive I'll have a nice little memento and if I don't then I won't have to worry about paying for them. Pretty clever, huh?

In all honesty, I'm not terribly concerned. I'll most likely work from home tomorrow but that's more because I have the option to and not because I expect to have to. The only thing I'm worried about is losing power, particularly because we've got an electric stove. It'll be a lot of PB&J if it does happen, though if I really get desperate I can go out to the garage and fire up the gas grill. Really happy that we invested in our snow blower; should really get tested tonight.

In other news (but potentially related if we get snowed in for a few days), Christy and I are attempting to watch all of the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars. I know that a lot of them aren't available for rent yet but that's not much of an obstacle in this day and age. In any case, right now I'm ahead of her (I've seen 6 and she's only seen 2). So far, of the 6 I've seen (The Social Network, The King's Speech, True Grit, Winter's Bone, Toy Story 3, and Inception) I think that The Social Network is the best. And this is coming from someone who has doggedly refused to join the Facebook revolution. On the other hand, I am a big fan of both Jesse Eisenberg and David Fincher. Next would probably be a tie between Inception and The King's Speech. All of them were good though. Next up will probably be Black Swan; I have the distinct feeling that will be a movie I'm either going to completely love or absolutely despise. If I'm successful in getting through all 10 of them, I'll try to post a review of each.