28 February 2011

2011 Oscars - My Views on the Ceremony

This years Oscar ceremony was completely predictable, King's Speech won big, Social Network won a few, Inception should have got a lot more and True Grit was completely snubbed. Here are my views on the categories that I thought were the most interesting.

  • Best Supporting Actress - Melissa Leo got great reviews for her performance in The Fighter but she did not deserve an Oscar, not in the same year that Hailee Steinfeld was up for True Grit. Steinfeld completely stole the show in that film and really deserved an Oscar for that role, especially for stealing scenes from both Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, at the same time.
  • Best Director - Tom Hooper did a good job directing The King's Speech, especially for such a low budget, but David Fincher had the much tougher task of making a movie about Facebook seem both intelligent and funny and he made computer coding seem as compelling as a gunfight. Still neither of these people would have deserved the award if Christopher Nolan got nominated for this award, Inception was the best directed film from last year.
  • Best Original Screenplay - This category has baffled me this year with the inclusion of The King's Speech, not because it's not a good script, it is a great script, but because it is based on a book as such this means The King's Speech should be up for adapted screenplay instead. So what film deserved this award, Inception. Inception was really smart, invented new technology, seamlessly weaved exposition into the narrative with Ellen Page's character, a brilliant script all around.
They are the three main categories I had a problem with in terms of what won, but what about the actual ceremony. Well James Franco was good as a host, Anne Hathaway really wasn't. Randy Newman, Natalie Portman, Colin Firth and Christian Bale (who has grown a magnificent beard by the way) made good acceptance speeches. Billy Crystal made a good reminder of the benefits of a good host and, based on his award presentation for Best Original Song, Kevin Spacey would make a brilliant host for the Oscars. Those are my thoughts on the Oscars, lets hope that next years ceremony isn't as predictable as this years.

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