Oscar Picks 2010

The great thing about being a movie critic is that you’re never wrong. A movie is good precisely because you think it is. It is bad for the same reason. People may disagree but they are always wrong to suggest you liked something you disliked or disliked something you liked.

Given that reasoning, the Academy, though always reasonably close, is wrong on a consistent basis. Thus, when I pick my Oscars I don’t particularly care to choose amongst the nominees. In other words, I do what I want. Neener neener. Bold indicates a winner.

I haven’t seen any of the Documentary or Live Action Shorts so I won’t bother saying which one I like best.

Animated Short

Day & Night by Teddy Newton from Pixar

I only saw one animated short this year but it was certainly good enough.

Original Song

???

Oddly enough, even though I saw both 127 Hours and Toy Story 3, I don’t remember the nominated songs from either of them. This has always been a throwaway category. Unfortunate because it would be nice to here some good music for a change performed at the Oscars themselves. 

Original Score

Inception

The Social Network

Trent Reznor’s “Hand Covers Bruise,” though simple was the year’s most memorable theme. Of course, “Black Swan” had the best score, but that doesn’t count because Tchiakovsky composed it over a 100 years ago.

Sound Mixing

The Social Network

What is Sound Mixing? I confess I don't know exactly how to notice it within a movie. But there was a good amount of talk about the club scene in “The Social Network.” Apparently the way the two people talking seemed to realistically hear each other in a nightclub was movie magic. 

Sound Editing

Inception

Same level of confusion here, but the consensus seems to think that the difference between the noises in all the dream levels was an exemplary use of this. Was it?

Makeup

127 Hours

Alice and Wonderland

The Wolfman

It sure looked realistic to me when James Franco hacked off his arm.

Costume Design

Alice in Wonderland

Black Swan

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

No real contest here. A Tim Burton movie will win this category for the zillionth time. Honorable Mentions go to the Black Swan Costume and Lisbeth Salander’s Gothic attire.

Art Direction

Alice in Wonderland

Black Swan

Inception

MicMacs

True Grit

Again, the best thing about a Tim Burton movie is the visuals. They make the movie worth seeing even if it is a completely misguided interpretation of one of my favorite books.

Visual Effects

Alice in Wonderland

Inception

Iron Man 2

TRON: Legacy
Shutter Island

Plenty of movies blow up buildings. Inception designed great architecture, folded it onto itself, and then blew it up. That’s what separates the men from the boys. I did not see Harry Potter or Hereafter.

Animated Feature

Toy Story 3

It’s an insult to Pixar for this category to even exist. As if it was sitting at the kiddies table or something. Oh well, maybe yet another Oscar will cheer them up. I did not see any other animated movies this year.

Best Documentary Feature

Casino Jack and the United States of Money

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Inside Job

Restrepo

“Exit Through the Gift Shop” is a cool movie to see. “Inside Job” needs to be seen.

Foreign Film

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

MicMacs

I didn’t see any of the nominated foreign films but I have trouble imagining any of them being better than “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” That omission of that movie is one of the biggest snubs of the year.

Best Film Editing
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
The Social Network
Shutter Island

The Social Network cut between two deposition hearings and a main storyline told from several Points of View. Were you ever confused? That's good editing.

Cinematography

127 Hours

Black Swan

Inception

The Social Network

True Grit (Roger Deakins)

I will be thrilled if Roger Deakins wins his first Oscar for “True Grit.” It is a great looking movie and an Oscar for that man is way overdue. This is his 9^th nomination. He has yet to win.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams (“The Fighter”)

Helena Bonham Carter (“The King’s Speech”)

Anne Hathaway (“Alice in Wonderland”)

Mila Kunis (“Black Swan”)

Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”)

This is decidedly a weak category with no clear deserving winner. I’ve chosen Amy Adams because she has done great work in the past and the good job she did here looked like nothing she had done in the past. I am not of the opinion that Hailee Steinfeld was an actress in a supporting role.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale (“The Fighter”)

Jeff Bridges (“True Grit”)

Rob Corddry (“Hot Tub Time Machine”)

James Marsden (“Death at a Funeral”)

Justin Timberlake (“The Social Network”)

Christian Bale should be getting his much-deserved Oscar this year. For those of us who thought he was incredible in “American Psycho” over a decade ago, it has been a long wait. And yes, I do think it is commendable that James Marsden spent half a movie freaking out on LSD buck-naked on a roof during a funeral. That was hilarious. Same goes with Rob Corddry. He gave the 2010's Best Comedic performance in what somehow turned out to be 2010's Best Comedy, “Hot Tub Time Machine.” They are definitely more deserving than Geoffrey Rush, who I believe did better work as a pirate. (Not that he was bad in “The King’s Speech.” I just really liked him as a pirate.)

Actress in a Leading Role

Dakota Fanning (“The Runaways”)

Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”)

Noomi Rapace (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”)

Noomi Rapace (“The Girl who Played with Fire”)

Michelle Williams (“Blue Valentine”)

I honestly thought it would be impossible to witness a better performance than Noomi Rapace gave in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” this year, but pleasantly surprised I was. Natalie Portman gets the top prize by a nose simply because she had to learn ballet to create the role, which by the looks of the movie is not the easiest art form to master. Unfortunately I never saw Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone.” I’m not too disappointed I didn’t see Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole.”

Actor in a Leading Role

Jim Carrey (“I Love You, Phillip Morris”)

Leonardo Dicaprio (“Shutter Island”)

Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”)

James Franco (“127 Hours”)

Ryan Reynolds (“Buried”)

Okay, I enjoy Oscar bait like everyone else. Colin Firth gets the top prize. Just as important though is the number of snubs in this category. For instance Jim Carrey was completely forgotten again. Something should be said of roles that only one person in the entire world can pull off. You tell me who else could have done a better job in “I love You, Phillip Morris,” or for that matter “Dumb and Dumber,” “The Mask,” “Man on the Moon,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” or even “Lemony Snicket.” Whatever Academy. Also I bet if Shutter Island came out in December instead of February than Dicaprio would have been nominated. Of course, the toughest role of the year belonged to Ryan Reynolds. People probably noticed him for the first time this year. Watch out if he ever gets another Awards-worthy role in the future.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

127 Hours (Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Nikolaj Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg)

The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)

Shutter Island (Laeta Kalogridis)

Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt)

This is an easy one. Aaron Sorkin made the real life geniuses sound like geniuses. You would have to be some sort of genius to pull that off. I’m not sure exactly what Toy Story 3 was adapting but hey if they want to put it in this category that’s their business.

Best Original Screenplay

Black Swan (Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John J. McLaughlin)

Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne, Joey Curtis)

Inception (Christopher Nolan)

Inside Job (Chad Beck, Adam Bolt)

The King’s Speech (David Seidler)

A tough choice here, made even more so because of the very different stories in “Blue Valentine” and “Inception.” Still “Inception” may have had a very good screenplay but still, that isn’t the movie's best feature. Whereas “Blue Valentine” derives its power from the almost poetic parallel storylines of an early romance and a breaking marriage. You normally wouldn't think of documentaries as having screenplays but what else would you call the clear and comprehensive explanation of a massive financial disaster. This is what “Inside Job” achieves.

Best Director

Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”)

Derek Cianfrance (“Blue Valentine”)

David Fincher (“The Social Network”)

Christopher Nolan (“Inception”)

Martin Scorsese (“Shutter Island”)

Far and away, Christopher Nolan is the most deserving of the Oscar. His absence in the category is indeed the snub of the year. The Academy has a hole in its head.

Best Picture

127 Hours

Black Swan

Blue Valentine

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Inception

The King’s Speech

Shutter Island

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

It may be true that “The King’s Speech” is a good movie but my main beef with that movie is that it could have been the Best Picture Winner like fifty years ago. Something like “The Social Network,” a movie just as good could only have been made now or sometime in the future. It defines a year. The Academy really has to get over its Nazi thing.

Unfortunately nobody thinks “Inception” will win. That’s okay. Neither did “Citizen Kane,” or “Apocalypse Now” or “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” A movie like “Inception” suffers come awards season because the sheer originality of it makes it hard to compare or judge. You can watch “The King’s Speech,” and easily see how well it correctly complements all our knowledge of World War II, the English Monarchy, and Speaking Disabilities. How do you judge “Inception?” What will you compare it too? Did it get “Extraction” or “Inception” correct? If you could build dreams, would that be what it should be like? There really has been nothing quite like this movie before. Anyway it was the movie experience of the year for me. I didn’t think I was going to see a better movie this year than “Inception.” I didn’t.

Having said that, I believe there were three must see movies that came out this year: “Inception,” “Black Swan,” and “The Social Network.” Have fun with those. I’ll see you next year at the movies.  

There isn't a category for Best Scene of the year, but this was mine from "Shutter Island." 

Cedar Rapids (4/5 Stars)

What happens in Cedar Rapids, stays in Cedar Rapids.

There’s a tendency to think of insurance sales as a nondescript profession and insurance salesmen as stereotypical nondescript people. There’s also a tendency to think of Iowa as a nondescript state. Besides political primaries and corn what else is there? Cedar Rapids happens to be the second biggest city in Iowa. Des Moines, the capital, is top dog. (Although according to inside information I have from a Cedar Rapids native, it is definitely the better city as Des Moines is full of pretentious d-bags.) Enter Tim Lippe, played by Ed Helms, an insurance salesman who has never left his even smaller Iowan town of Brown Valley but is attending for the first time the big insurance sales convention in Cedar Rapids. His excitement is palpable. The hotel the convention is being held in has a pool inside of it. Wow! The best thing about this movie is that it takes all these people that we tend to have a preconceived notion of plain vanilla boringness with and crafts funny, likable, but nevertheless believable characters. I’ve always known in some vague speculation that there are insurance salesmen in Iowa. Well here they are cracking jokes, drinking in excess, and having sex. You know just like real ordinary people. Who knew?

What this movie is, above all, is a Coming-of-Age story. Forget that Tim Lippe is middle-aged; he has spent his entire life in the small town of Brown Valley and is experiencing the big city for the first time. He’s never been on a plane and takes it very seriously that he is in the emergency exit row. When the city’s sole prostitute, Bree (Alia Shawkat), approaches him outside the hotel, asks him for a cigarette, and lets him know that she is down for a party, he thanks her for her friendliness, explains he doesn’t smoke, and offers her a butterscotch candy instead. When he meets his roommate, Ronald (played by Isaiah Whitlock Jr.) he is legitimately surprised that he would be black. He also happens to be completely oblivious that most of the other conventioneers view the experience as a chance to take a vacation and let loose for a change. Tim Lippe on the other hand has a mission. He is on direct orders from his boss to give a presentation that will win the coveted Two Diamonds award. This award stands for ethics, good work, and godliness. In order to accomplish this, his boss gives him one more direction helpful direction: Stay away from Dean Ziegler. A glitch in the hotel room accommodations however allows Tim and Ronald to upgrade to a Junior Suite on the condition that they get another roommate. That third roommate is Dean Ziegler.

The “Deansy” (an affectionate nickname self-given), played by John C. Reilly, is a welcome invasion of constant one-liners and crass buffoonish behavior. You know this person from somewhere. He’s the type of immature loudmouth who makes up for his impolite garish persona with an extremely egalitarian view of friendship. Namely, he’s the type of person who will be friends with anyone who will take shots with him. These types of people, though immature and reckless, happen to lend life a certain sparkle. Who else will convince you to take a swim in the indoor pool (which closed at 11pm) at 3 am in the morning? This complete lack of self-consciousness is on full display in one great comedic scene when The Deansy decides to have a serious heart to heart with Tim and it never occurs to him to think of putting on a shirt first. As he is describing how to dance with the tiger (a loose metaphor for the insurance business) his ample gut his is in full view swaying as it were quite noticeably during his remarkably physical explanation. Here is a man eminently comfortable with himself. John C. Reilly should be commended for his self-less virtuoso performance. Rounding out the gang is Joan, played by Anne Heche, a married woman who is intent on letting what happens in Cedar Rapids stay in Cedar Rapids and Ronald, played by Isaiah Whitlock Jr. who is quite conservative but does have his guilty pleasures. For instance he collects antiques and does a pretty good impression of “Omar” from his favorite TV show HBO’s “The Wire.” Guess which one you get to see him do when the shit gets real.

Movies that employ a good amount of believable, funny, and likable characters tend to attract an accomplished list of supporting actors. This movie is no different. Here we have Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Aliens, Alien 3), Kurtwood Smith (Red from That 70s Show), Alia Shawkat (Maybe from Arrested Development), Rob Corddry (Daily Show, Hot Tub Time Machine), and Stephen Root (No Country for Old Men, Dodgeball) filling in the background of the scenes. All of them have their moments. Nobody in this movie is a huge star but that’s almost required given the subject material. A-list stars don’t really look like insurance salesmen. This you can verify for yourself during the many funny scenes of bare-ass nudity in the picture. Even Anne Heche has some curves where Hollywood Producers usually don’t allow them to be (still good looking). The director Miguel Arteta doesn’t even seem to have any qualms about shooting Ed Helms in a way that captures his double chinniness. That too is kind of a rare thing in movies.   

One strength and weakness of this movie is that it never gets too wacky or surreal. Nothing happens during the weekend of craziness that couldn’t actually happen at a convention. In this way the Comedy never rises to that level of ecstasy, which occurs only when watching the truly ridiculous or shocking things happen. So even though the laughs are consistent, this really isn’t a top-tier comedy. However, because Comedy never overtakes Reality, the characters and story are granted a certain amount of gravity. The screenplay, written by Phil Johnston, is not a satire. The writer actually seems to know a good deal about insurance and Iowa and declines to directly make fun of either. One scene deals with Joan subversively signing up Tim to do karaoke. He decides to sing an insurance sales parody of ‘O Holy Night.’ It’s full of inside jokes and technical language that I’m sure only insurance salesman would fully understand and enjoy. But you should get the jist of it and it should still be quite enjoyable. (Ed Helms: not a bad singer by the way). Tim Lippe may be naïve but the movie is on his side and his Coming-of-Age is infused with a sort of simple dignity. I was reminded about all the best characteristics of “The Office,” and especially that one scene where Michael Scott comments on Pam’s painting at her first art show and simply states, “That is our building…and we sell paper.” Tim Lippe is from the small town of Brown Valley. He sells insurance.

Ip Man 2 (5/5 Stars)

The British Boxer has thrown down a challenge. In an “apology,” to the Chinese people of Hong Kong for having killed one of their grandmasters during a Chinese-Western Boxing Match, he announces in a brash snarling voice that he allow any yellow man with a wish of revenge to step into the ring with him. Be warned though he declares, he will not hold back as he did when he killed the first man. The British Boxer is a daunting physical specimen. He has the type of body that you would think is impossible outside of a video game or a comic book. He fights in boxer garb. Large gloves exaggerate his fists and advertise the power of his haymakers. Shirtless, he confidently tromps around the ring showing off to the audience that he is indeed the strongest man in the room. With a condescending glint in his eye he pulls out a very large incense candle. In accordance with Chinese culture, he mockingly explains, the challenge will be open for as long as the candle burns. And that is where he makes his first mistake. From the back of the room we hear a calm unassuming voice. It is of a man, certainly not the biggest in the room, dressed only in a simple full-length black robe. He respectfully explains that the candle is not used or meant to tell time. Instead, it is a symbol of the inherent modesty in Chinese Culture. And with nothing more than that, the Ip Man solemnly accepts the challenge. He will fight the British Boxer.

We have a tendency in our Western Culture to categorize people either as Jocks or Nerds. You’re one or the other (and according to nerds there are plenty of clues as to which one you are). To those of us who would rather not be either, the lure of Eastern Culture is a strong one indeed. The Kung Fu master combines the best of both worlds. He is intelligent, educated, and polite, but not a pushover. He is strong and confident but not a dumb asshole. “Ip Man 2,” directed by Wilson Yip, is a biopic of sorts that heaps praise upon the real Ip Man, the guy who started the “Wing Chun” Martial Arts school in Hong Kong in the 1950s. You may not have heard of him or his school exactly, but you probably are familiar with his most famous pupil, Bruce Lee. Anyway the real Ip Man must have been one hell of a guy. He has almost certainly been exaggerated (especially his fighting skills) in this movie as the actor Donnie Yen has decided to portray him not merely as a great man, but as the Ideal Man. Whether this was true in real life is anyone’s guess, but I think this much we can assume: He probably was a really nice guy and he probably could kick your ass.

The story is very simple. Ip Man moves to Hong Kong with very little money and opens a Martial Arts school. He gets push back from other Martial Arts schools in the area and has to pass a test in order to teach. Then there is a subplot with a British Army Officer who is bullying one school in particular into providing a free boxing match. He gets very irate very quickly whenever the Chinese ask if they will get paid. He threatens to shut down the fish market if they don’t do it. The British Champion Boxer, played by Darren Shalavi, then insults Chinese Martial Arts (he describes it as weird dancing) and to save the pride of Chinese Martial Arts, the master of that school fights the boxer and is killed. That will take us to the beginning of this review. This may have been inspired by something in real life. What probably didn’t happen was how it happened in the movie. There are plenty of fight scenes and they are all ridiculously creative, elaborate, impressive, and spectacular. The exceedingly talented choreographers are the same guys who designed the kung fu from “The Matrix.” There is a scene where Ip Man takes on ten men with knives and poles in a fish market. Then there is a scene in which Ip Man has to accept challenges from the other grandmasters in order to open his own school. This fight takes place on top of a wobbly circular table. It gets really interesting when the fattest and oldest grandmaster jumps onto the table and it starts getting really wobbly. That fat old dude can really move. The last two fights take place in the ring with the boxer. Each subsequent fight is better than the last. There are about six main fights and they come at regular intervals. This is an exemplary Kung Fu movie. The best I’ve seen since “Ong Bak.”

There seems to be a large disconnect between movie critics and regular moviegoers when it comes to action movies. For instance, Transformers 2 was aggressively panned but made a huge amount of money at the box office. I would suggest that movies like “Ip Man 2” are the reason for this discrepancy. As movie buffs, movie critics see lots of movies. Every now and then they will see a movie like “Ip Man 2,” which raises their standards and expectations for action. I’m sure it was surprising to many people who saw Transformers 2 and loved it to then read numerous reviews that complained about how boring the fight scenes were. You wouldn’t understand why a Michael Bay movie is boring if you haven’t seen a great movie like this one. It’s like putting on glasses for the first time. You really have no idea how bad your eyesight is until you actually get a glimpse of how good your eyesight can be. In my review of “Tron: Legacy” I suggested that they should have gotten rid of the whole evil person taking over the world subplot and just focused on small motivations that made sense. Watch this movie and see what I mean made manifest. The final two fights are much more exciting and suspenseful than anything in Tron because the emotions behind them are based on not vague plans to take over the world but merely something as fundamental as an insult towards one’s culture and country. A disparagement directed at a person’s sense of identity is perhaps the most provoking type of insult there is. You don’t have to be Chinese to understand why it is so important for Ip Man to win the fight.

As it usually is in most movies, the bad guy has a tendency to steal the show. Here, Darren Shavali puts in what should be one of the great performances of the year. He’s got a screen presence (not to mention serious boxing chops) that is on the level of Al Pacino in “Scarface.” Surprisingly, this is his first main role. He’s been in other movies like “300” and “Watchmen,” but always as an unnamed extra in the background. I hope to see more of him in just as good movies in the future.

This movie is playing in only one theater. City Cinemas on 2^nd Avenue near 14^th Street. The original “Ip Man” is instantly streaming on Netflix.