Thursday, February 18, 2010

82nd Academy Awards - My Personal Picks

The Oscar nominees are in, which means it is time for me to judge them based off my limited experience and biased views. I while review and make my picks for the rest of the awards, but these are the major categories. Be sure to tune to the 82nd Academy Awards Sunday March 7th at 8:00 ET on ABC to see who wins.

Best Picture - The Hurt Locker

Best Director - James Cameron

I’m clumping Best Picture with Best Director because they are inexplicably linked. I believe whoever doesn’t win Best Picture will win Best Director. Picture could be going to go to either The Hurt Locker or Avatar. Despite expanding the field to ten movies there is still, and will be in the future, only one or two frontrunners. I believe that The Hurt Locker will win. Big budget does not guarantee a win, especially recently.

I’m sure there are a lot of Academy members who would want to award Kathryn Bigelow the Directing Oscar, and make her the first female to receive it. Though I believe James Cameron deserves the Directing Oscar more. I do respect how much effort goes in to creating such a luminous, imaginary world. How difficult it must be for a director to get a quality performance out of actors in a blue screen environment. I do believe that if Cameron wins, The Hurt Locker should take Best Picture. It needs Best Picture more. Avatar will be fine without Best Picture. It will sell lots of DVDs, it will continue to sell tickets, and it will be talked about for many years for being a benchmark film. The Hurt Locker could really use the support. It is a great movie. It has done what no other Gulf War movies could. It had engaging characters, an emotional story, and a riveting story. The best part, it is getting attention, which is more than any other Iraq/Afghanistan based movie has done recently.

Best Actor - Jeff Bridges

Best Actor is a very busy category. Filled with veteran actors and good story lines. Jeremy Renner has the most compelling story. Morgan Freeman is the consummate veteran. Ultimately it comes down to two big contenders, George Clooney and Jeff Bridges.

George Clooney delivered an entertaining and rewarding performance. In Up in the Air he was smart, sexy, clever, and quick. This is not anything unusual for Clooney, but he is this was in nearly every movie. This plays hugely into Jeff Bridges’ hand.

Bridges has delivered a slew of quality performances. The Dude of The Big Lebowski being the most well known, but certainly not the finest example. This is his time to win. Throughout his career Bridges has done roles and movies to entertain his fans and he has some more on the way with The Giver adaptation on the way and a remake of True Grit. This performance, however, it is just deep and respectable enough to allow the high taste of some Academy members to give it to Jeff Bridges. I think he has a very good chance of taking this one home.

Best Actress - Meryl Streep

There are a lot of people out there who will root for Sandra Bullock to win this award. She gave a powerful performance as she ever has in her career, it may even stand as a pivotal performance in her career. It is also very uncertain how many more times Bullock may put up another Oscar-worthy performance. This will certainly weigh heavily on the minds of the Academy voters. These arguments are very valid, but the counter-argument is Meryl Streep. The movie she is nominated for, Julie and Julia, was pushed back because the producers felt that Streep gave such a strong performance that they wanted to give her the best shot for winning an Oscar. It is very nearly 50-50 between Bullock and Streep. Either one is very deserving of the award. My money is on Streep because she is portraying an icon, and she did an amazing job of doing so. The role of Julia Child is not necessarily a transformation that Streep makes regularly.

Gabourey Sidibe would be the dark horse to take this category for her performance in Precious, but it would take a huge force to knock both Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock off the lead. I would still go for Meryl Streep

Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz

Christoph Waltz did a phenomenal job as the evil-mastermind Nazi Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. His villain character is going in line with these new modern villains who are amazing to watch, along with Heath Ledger’s Joker, Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigur, and Daniel Day-Lewis’ Daniel Planeview. Waltz did a great job. He was menacing, malicious, and brilliantly subtle also. On top of the fact that he fluently spoke several languages without batting an eye, he was on top of everything. He was a few steps ahead of everyone and he had every angle figured out.

There are some other contenders in this category. Stanley Tucci really stepped out of his usual mold as George Harvey in The Lovely Bones. He created a very normal-looking but fear inducing character. Woody Harrelson is a dark horse candidate for his performance as Captain Tony Stone in The Messenger. Waltz has very nearly run away with this category. It would take a great surge of support for anyone to take this away from Waltz, and I don’t see that happening.

Best Supporting Actress - Mo’Nique

I am assuming there are a good deal of Academy members that would like to give Precious several awards. I do think that it will take Best Adapted Screenplay. Among the other major categories, Best Supporting Actress is its next best shot for a win. Mo’Nique is the most interesting choice to win this category, but then again, no one is really running away with it this year. Anna Kendrick would be my personal choice for her performance in Up in the Air. Vera Farmiga, also of Up in the Air, would be a good choice too, but I don’t see either winning this award.

Mo’Nique shines in a role that is out of her usual repertoire. She is certainly a performer who was stuck in smaller roles with comedic tones. This role really allowed her to break free and prove herself. She did a great job and she showed a lot of people what she could do.

Mo’Nique’s performance is great through an individual scope, but it also did a lot for the movie. The role of the mother is pivotal in Precious, playing both the part of role model and rival. She would be a savvy choice to win, it would appeal to the Academy’s liberal sensibilities, and it would be a great dark horse win.

Best Original Screenplay - Inglorious Basterds

There are a lot of solid contenders for this category. Up would be an interesting pick, it certainly has a very touching story and a vivid world. The Hurt Locker would also be an interesting choice also, but I don’t think it has the weight to it. The same goes for A Serious Man.

I am guessing that Tarantino takes this one for Inglorious Basterds. The characters are brilliant, the story is deep, and as always the story is unapologetic. As Tarantino himself has said, this movie has some of his best characters he has ever written. He believes that Hans Landa could be one of best characters so far, and maybe he will still be standing as his best at the end of his career. High praise of one’s own work is generally not difficult, but for Tarantino he is generally so objective.

Best Adapted Screenplay – Precious

Precious should win this award. This is a very crowded category though. There are several fantastic stories, and they all appeal to the Academy’s sensibilities. Up in the Air has a script full of quick, witty dialogue. In the Loop has more or less the same. Both have an apparent air of old school cinema to them also. An Education is a good pick, but it won’t win. Same with District 9, which is adapted from a short film. This would make it an interesting pick, but it won’t win either.

Precious should win this award because it is never easy to transfer a personal story to film. Let alone a personal story with this much depth and emotion. Plus, I am sure there is a great share of Academy members that would love to recognize and award Precious, this is their best chance to do so.

Best Animated Feature – Up

There is no way that Up is not going to win this award. Period. Pixar and the creators should clear out some mantle space right now.

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