Oscars 2011 Recap

It was far from the most exciting Academy Awards broadcast. The most surprising thing that happened was that Kirk Douglas stole the show from hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway.

As for my Oscar picks I got exactly the same amount right that I did last year - 13 out of 24.

Here are the ones I got wrong:

BEST PICTURE: THE KING'S SPEECH. For the first time in 4 years I got this one wrong. I picked THE SOCIAL NETWORK because that was what I was feeling, but the Academy voters felt differently. THE KING'S SPEECH is excellent and deserving so I'm not disapointed.

Funnily enough last September Bill Maher joked on his HBO show (Real Time With Bill Maher):

"New rule: If they are going to make a historic epic full of British actors in period costumes about Queen Elizabeth helping her father get over his speech impediment, why bother having the Oscars at all? You win."

He didn't get the plot right exactly, but he was dead on there.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Melissa Leo won for THE FIGHTER. I really thought Haileed Steinfeld would take it. Sigh.

BEST DIRECTOR: Tom Hooper for THE KING'S SPEECH. I picked David Fincher for THE SOCIAL NETWORK - I really should've seen THE KING'S SPEECH sweep coming.

These were pretty much stabs in the dark:

BEST FOREIGN FILM: IN A BETTER WORLD. Honestly can't remember why I went with INCENDIES.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Wally Pfister for INCEPTION. Was pulling for Roger Deakins for TRUE GRIT because he's been nominated 9 times and I thought it was his time. It wasn't.

BEST SCORE: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for THE SOCIAL NETWORK. The Academy got this one right, but I didn't with my pick of Alexandre Desplat for THE KING'S SPEECH.

BEST SONG: Randy Newman for TOY STORY 3. Another I was happy to be wrong about. I had choosen A.R. Rahman, Rollo Armstrong, and Dido for 127 HOURS which didn't win anything.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: INSIDE JOB - Man, I so wanted Banksy to win for EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP. However INSIDE JOB was a great flick too so I'm fine with it.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: STRANGERS NO MORE. My pick - KILLING IN THE NAME is another that I can't remember why I picked it.

Ditto on these 2:

BEST SHORT (ANIMATED): THE LOST THING.

BEST SHORT (LIVE ACTION): GOD OF LOVE.

My favorite line of the entire broadcast: "You've just been Inceptioned!" - as spoken by Alec Baldwin.

More later...

The Film Babble Blog Top 10 Movies Of 2010

Although there is still a slew of 2010 films I have yet to catch up on (films such as CARLOS, BLUE VALENTINE, SOMEWHERE, etc. have yet to come to my area) I decided to go ahead and make my list of the best of the year. Though in many ways a lackluster year, there were still a smattering of excellent films by film makers and actors at the top of their game. Here are my favorites:



1. THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Dir. David Fincher)

 Time Magazine's 2010 Man of the Year: Mark Zuckerberg - computer nerd visionary or just an arrogant asshole who ripped off his best friends? Whether Zuckerberg (played here by Jesse Eisenberg) is really Man of the Year or not, this scrupulous Aaron Sorkin scripted comic drama is my movie of the year because of its snappy narrative take of the phenomenon of Facebook. Read my review here.

 

2. TOY STORY 3 (Dir. Lee Unkrich) Pixar holds the #2 spot on my top 10 for the third year in a row and that's fine by me. This funny, exciting, and genuinely touching trilogy topper is a supremely satisfying sequel and another entry in the annual Pixar blows every other animated movie away sweepstakes. Take that HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, DESPICABLE ME, MEGAMIND, and TANGLED! Though some of those films had their moments. Read my review here.



3. TRUE GRIT (Dirs. Joel & Ethan Coen)

 Enlisting "the Dude" to take on the role made famous by "the Duke", the Coen Brothers make a Western epic that does grand justice to the genre. Jeff Bridges along with an ace supporting cast including Hallie Steinfeld, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin handle the humor and powerful pathos of this material mightily. Read my review here.



4. INCEPTION (Christopher Nolan)



I called this film "an incredible mind bender of a movie" in my rave review last summer and still stand by that. I also wrote "what wins out is that this film threatens to burst out of the screen into real life - just like the most lucid dreams." Read the rest of my review here.



For my reviews of the rest of the movies on the list please click on the highlighted titles:



5. 127 HOURS (Dir. Danny Boyle)



6. BLACK SWAN (Dir. Darren Aronofsky)



7. THE KING'S SPEECH (Dir. Tom Hooper)



8. EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (Dir. Banksy)



9. THE AMERICAN (Dir. Anton Corbijn)



10. THE GHOST WRITER (Dir. Roman Polanski)



I may make a revised list later if I get to a film from 2010 that warrants inclusion.



More later...

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP: The Film Babble Blog Review

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

(Dir. Banksy, 2010)

The identity of the infamous British graffiti artist Banksy is unknown to the public at large. Here he appears in his own film, a documentary narrated by Rhys Ifans, wearing a hood with his face darkened, and his voice altered by computer.

Banksy, sounding a bit like Karl Pilkington from The Ricky Gervais Show, isn't here to talk about himself though, he and many other renowned artists including Shepard Fairey (creator of the Barack Obama "Hope" poster) and Invader are on hand to discuss the curious case of Thierry Guetta.








The French born Guetta began his journey into the heart of art as a videographer. Always armed with a video camera, he taped street artists for years. The first half of this film contains tons of fun footage of various artists creating art all around their towns with stencils, stickers, tiles, or whatever works and some instances where they have to run from approaching cops. Guetta records everything he sees so his colleague Banksy encourages him to make a film out of it all.



The resulting film Guetta edits is a bombastic choppy unwatchable fiasco that even makes Banksy question his friend's mental health. Banksy offers to take the footage and see what he can do with it - which, of course, is the documentary we've got here - while Guetta decides to try his hand at making street art of his own. Almost immediately Guetta dubs himself Mr. Brainwash and starts putting together a mammoth gallery show called "Life Is Beautiful" in L.A. in the summer of 2008. He somehow has created canvas after canvas of art heavily derived from the screen prints of Andy Warhol, but also from much of his friends work.



This is where some chin scratching comes in about the pink elephant in the room (BTW Mr. Brainwash's exhibit actually features an actual pink elephant in the room) - is this odd man's work a massive put-on at the expense of the entire art market? Is Banksy not just an observer but a co-conspirator, possibly the mastermind of this ruse? One critic (Jeannette Catsoulis, NYTimes) even went so far to call this film a "prankumentary," but no matter what you call it, it provides more fascination than frustration at its riddles.



EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP is a vital addition to the genre of docs including MY KID COULD PAINT THAT and WHO THE #amp;amp;% IS JACKSON POLLACK that question the experts and expense of the world of fine and not so fine art. That is if you consider it a real documentary - I do because even the most fact driven documentaries can't help but have some fiction somewhere in their packaging.



If this one is the joke on its subject some think it is, it's still a worthy visual document; the movie equivalent of great graffiti. And it's a very good joke too. 


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