
The magic isn't gone: Amid a lot of predictable crowd-pleasers, Oscar honors Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist
Oscar voters nominated the lesbian family drama The Kids Are All Right in four major categories: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Screenplay for Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko even though she was overlooked in directing. Please note, this means the Best Actress race is a contest between straight women who played a real lesbian (Bening, Kids) and a fake lesbian (Portman, Swan). Both just won Golden Globes.
Julianne Moore (who was the first to join the project five years ago) was shut out for Best Supporting Actress but it's thrilling to see Jacki Weaver nominated for her blistering performance in the Australian crime scorcher Animal Kingdom. Likewise, kudos to the Academy for honoring the little meth indie Winter's Bone in four big categories. The greatest injustice of the crop is the absence in Best Foreign Language Film noms of I Am Love, though it was rightly recognized in Best Costumes. (It should also have been nominated for acting, writing, directing, editing, cinematography, and art direction; by far my favorite movie of 2010.) Also short-changed, Mike Leigh's Another Year, though it does have the BAFTAs.
The King's Speech earned twelve nominations, True Grit ten, Inception and The Social Network eight each. Very happy for reclusive literary star Charles Portis who wrote the wonderful novel True Grit in 1968, though his even better, more deserving book is The Dog of the South.
As for other literary stars, you must now refer to him as Sebastian Junger, Oscar Nominee.
Last year the Academy ridiculously expanded the Best Picture field to ten movies; this year they waste one of those spots nominating Toy Story 3 which also dominates the Best Animated Film category... against How to Train Your Dragon (not Tangled, not Despicable Me) and surprise nominee The Illusionist, from a screenplay by the legendary Jacques Tati reshaped by the director of The Triplets of Belleville. I saw it Saturday night in New York playing to an empty house [mirroring the scene above] and was charmed by its melancholy tone and stunning artwork of Scotland in 1959. See it on a big screen if you can, though two words of caution: Hope you don't need dialogue or a happy ending; it has neither.
Noticeably nowhere: Somewhere. Please Give. Get Low. The Ghost Writer. Waiting for Superman. The Pat Tillman Story. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. Fair Game. Christopher Nolan. Ryan Gosling. Mila Kunis. Andrew Garfield. Gwyneth Paltrow. Hilary Swank. Very little for The Town and Rabbit Hole.
Full list after the jump.
Best picture
“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter's Bone”
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine"
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”
James Franco in “127 Hours”
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”
Original screenplay
“Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
“The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson, Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
“Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
“The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
“The King’s Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler
Adapted screenplay
“127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
“Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt, Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
“True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini