Here is my obligatory review of last night’s Academy Awards… yawn. The opening bit was funny but nothing spectacular and then it was all down hill from there. I found the whole thing unfortunately boring and predictable. That being said I was thrilled to see Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross win the award for best original score for “The Social Network.” The have already agreed to do the music for David Fincher’s next film which is an english version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” should be really interesting.
I was able to see 8 of the 10 best picture nominations (sorry 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone) and would have given my vote to Black Swan. Granted I’m a huge Darren Aronofsky fan and have always had a leaning toward the dark and twisted. I thought that as a film it was the most complete and developed of all the nominees. King’s Speech was good but I felt was severely lacking in original score and cinematography… great performances and screenplay but not up to the level as Black Swan as a complete work. Of all the movies I saw I was most surprised by The Fighter. I had pretty low expectations and was completely blown away by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo as well as how raw the film felt. Here is how I would have ranked the movies (that I saw):
1. Black Swan
2. The Fighter
3. The Social Network
4. True Grit
5. The Kings Speech
6. Toy Story 3 (did anyone else have an extreme emotional connection to this one?)
7. Inception
8. The Kids are Alright
Now that the awards are over I’m still going to try and see those movies I didn’t get to as well as the documentary Waste Land. Overall I thought it was a very strong year for movies and I wish that the award show would have lived up to the work it honored.
