Quick 2011 Oscar Rant

- Did Christopher Nolan sleep with the Academy's girlfriend or something!? Why does he keep getting fucked? First the greatest movie of the past decade- The Dark Knight- doesn't get a Best Picture nomination and Nolan doesn't get a Best Director nomination for the movie. Now, Nolan doesn't get nominated for Best Director for Inception. I was talking with a co-worker of mine when the 2009 Oscar nominations came out and we were both discussing how TDK got screwed and he said to me, "The reason The Dark Knight made so much money was not because of movie hype or anything like that, but because it was good." And that's a great point. Movies like The Matrix 2 and Transformers 2 made so much money not because they were good, but because they had media hype and people loved their prequel (and to a lesser extent Avatar had this same effect- a not good movie making lot and lots o' money). But The Dark Knight made so much money because of the great quality of the movie.
- Not only do I think Nolan should have at least gotten a Best Director nod over David O. Russell (The Fighter), I thought Russell did a bad job directing the movie. That first scene where Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale are walking through the streets was piss poor directing and the whole first half of the movie I thought was so bad that it almost took me out of the movie.
- Although The Dark Knight absolutely would have gotten a Best Picture nod if the Academy had nominated 10 movies like they did last year and now this year, I hate nominating 10 over 5. I think it takes away from the prestige of getting nominated for Best Picture. Although I'm sure Nolan loves it because I'm convinced Inception wouldn't have gotten nominated with the five movie format.
- Inception deserved every single Oscar nomination except for the four acting awards (because the acting was pretty bad in the movie). Yes, it even deserved the nomination for Best Animated Short and Best Foreign Language Film.
- The Social Network is going to sweep the Oscar's this year. It's going to win Best Picture and Best Director (David Fincher). Now I liked The Social Network a lot. In fact, the first time I saw it I thought to myself "Hmmm, I don't know which one I liked more, Inception or this?". So the fact that's it's going to beat out the best movie of the year- Inception- is actually fine with me. And I like David Fincher a lot (Se7en, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) so I'm glad to see (fingers cross) him get an Oscar.
- I would have liked to see TSN gotten a Best Supporting Actor nomination. I thought Justin Timberlake (who played Sean Parker) was fabulous in it and I would have liked to seen him get critical support. Andrew Garfield (who played Eduardo) got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor so I thought for sure he was going to get the Oscar nod as well. Hell, I also would have been fine with Armie Hammer (the guy who played both Winklevoss twins) get the nod. Either way, SOMEONE from that movie deserved at least one of the nominations.
- Although I haven't seen The King's Speech and Colin Firth's performance, I absolutely loved Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network. He's such an asshole (as seen in the opening scene where he's bantering with his then girlfriend) but he put so much depth into Mark Zuckerberg that deep down inside this is a just a nerdy, socially awkward kid who just wants to be liked. And don't we all feel that way. (At least in the movie character of Zuckerberg).
- I'm really happy Despicable Me did not get a Best Animated Movie nomination. It was a really bad movie in general and I'm glad to see How To Train Your Dragon did get a nod.
- Back to my Inception rant, it didn't get every technical award. It didn't get Best Editing!
- I saw the documentary Restrepo- a movie about an American army unit deep in enemy territory in Afghanistan where early on a soldier named Restrepo died- and it was really bad. I normally don't watch documentaries but every Oscar nominated documentary I've seen in the past 7 years I've loved or enjoyed. I guess Retrepo is now the exception. I heard great things about the movie Waiting For Superman and although I haven't seen it so I can't fully judge, it probably deserved the nomination over Retrepo.
- I can't decide which score I liked more. Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor's score in The Social Network or Hans Zimmer score in Inception that kept you on the edge of your seat for the five hours that damn white van was falling off of the bridge.

Here's who I think will win
Best Picture: The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)
Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Best Screenplay (Adapted): Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)
Best Screenplay (Original): David Seidler (The King's Speech)
Best Animated Movie: Toy Story 3
Best Foreign Language Film: Mexico (Biutiful)
Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister (Inception)
Best Editing: Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall (The Social Network)
Best Art Direction: Inception
Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan (The King's Speech)
Best Make Up: Rich Baker, Dave Elsey (The Wolfman)
Best Score: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross (The Social Network)
Best Original Song: "Coming Home" (Country Strong)
Best Sound Mixing: Inception
Best Sound Editing: Richard King (Inception)
Best Visual Effects: Inception
Best Documentary: Lucy Walker, Angus Aynsley (Waste Land)

To me, the wild card in this whole race is The King's Speech. Not only did it garnish the most nominations, but it seems the Academy really loves lumping movies in with each other for wins. Let me explain via examples.

Last year, after Precious started building up steam, getting nominations, and Mo'Nique winning Best Supporting Actress, the Best Screenplay went to Geofrey Fletcher for Precious over the more deserving Jason Reitman an original leading front runner for Up In The Air. And with The Hurt Locker getting a nomination for Best Actor and winning Best Movie and Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow) it also stole the Best Screenplay Award from Quentin Tarintino (Inglorious Basterds).

In 2007, it was lock that Martin Scorsese was going to win Best Director for The Departed (which he did) but the movie rode that wave and took the Best Movie award as well over what was thought to be a lock for Little Miss Sunshine.

The point is, that The King's Speech is picking up steam at just the right time (as shown by its many nominations). However, The Social Network just won Golden Globes for Best Movie, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Luckily for these two movies one is an adapted screenplay and one is an original so both movies that can that award but I think either the Best Director and Best Movie locks for The Social Network will spill over into a win for Jesse Eisenberg but I think most likely will happen is this King's Speech steam will steal either a Best Movie or Best Director award. Or both.
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I guess this wasn't "quick" huh?