'Black Swan'...'The Fighter'... 'Inception'... 'The Kids Are All Right'... '127 Hours'... 'The King's Speech'... 'The Social Network'... 'Toy Story 3'... 'True Grit'... 'Winter's Bone'............. Who will win the 2011 Oscar race? Well, I must admit, I have seen 9 out of the 10 nominees....all except 'The Kids Are All Right', and here are my predictions.
To start off, there are 2 in particular that I think fit best the 'Oscar' bill. Years from now, when you go to the 'Oscar' section at the video store, or more likely, a catagory on your viewing pad in your hands, I see only a couple of the 10 worthy to be in the company of 'Ben-Hur','Gone With The Wind', 'Casablanca', 'West Side Story', 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'My Fair Lady', 'The Sound Of Music', 'The Godfather', 'The Godfather Part l l', 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest', 'Rocky', 'Amadeus', 'Rain Man', 'Driving Miss Daisy', 'Silence Of The Lambs', 'Unforgiven', 'Shindler's List', 'Forrest Gump', 'Braveheart', 'Titanic', 'Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King'... to name some of my favorite Best Picture Winners over the over 80 years.
As I look at the 10 this year...I just cannot see "Winter's Bone' taking the cake, or 'True Grit' (I did NOT like the ending).., or 'The Kid's Are All Right' (which I did not see, but have seen several clips, etc)... As much as I loved 'Inception'...about half of the movie-going audience didn't understand the concept, so I'll leave that one out because about half of the academy probably didn't understand it either. I loved its creative ambition and filmmaking, however. 'Black Swan' has a chance, but was kinda dark. 'The Fighter' was my 3rd favorite, so we'll see. '127 Hours' is a most memorable movie, but it doesn't have the large scope I think a best picture needs to have to win. It sometimes feels more like a documentary. Excellent movie though, and great lesson on life.
I'm very glad that animated films are included now, and while 'Toy Story 3' is worthy, it is NOT as good as Pixar's 'Up' which was nominated a couple of years ago and didn't win. I'm also very happy that they have gone back to the 10 movie nomination process.
My 2 personal favorites, and movies that I think are front-runners are 'The Social Network' and 'The King's Speech'... 2 totally different movies, but both with gravitas...you know... like the motion pictures I mentioned earlier that won in years past. 'The Social Network' is a movie for our time, a mostly true story about the circumstances surrounding the development of 'Facebook' ... an element in today's life that is changing everything. It's a gripping movie, edge of your seat film experience, and there are no boats sinking, car crashes, or guns. It is a great film, and it fits this year to a 'T'. It could win, however my top dog in the race is 'The King's Speech'... I absolutely loved this film, and think it has the pedigree to take 'Best Picture' over all 9 others. Colin Firth is probably going to take best actor, and Geoffrey Rush is outstanding as his speech teacher. For me, this movie harkened back to the great movies of the '60s'.
So, there you go. My 2 cents. By the way, 'The Hurt Locker' won best picture last year, and I thought it should NOT have won, especially over 'Avatar' and 'The Blind Side'. I couldn't believe it.. Going back over the years and seeing the movies that were nominated beside the winners is an eye-opening experience. On a few of them you barely remember the winner, but see movies that were nominated that year that are still wildly popular and respected today...like little 'Kramer vs. Kramer' won over 'Apocalypse Now' in 1979...or..'Midnight Cowboy' won over 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' in 1969...or 'Hamlet' winning over 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' with Humphrey Bogart in 1948. There aren't too many of those, and there are certainly some weak years...and some years where there were too many really good worthy movies unfairly competing, but for the most part, I think the academy has always picked them well.
So "The King's Speech' or "The Social Network'... go team!
