My Oscar Opinions

With the Oscars coming up tomorrow evening, I had to do a quick post about my thoughts on the nominees for Best Picture.  Especially since I busted my ass to make sure I saw all of them before the show.  To give you a little context, the Oscars are sort of the highlight of my year, television-wise.  They have been for a long time.  So here are my thoughts, and a prediction.

I am fairly certain, as are many other people, that The King's Speech will likely take home the Oscar for Best Picture.  It was, to be honest, a really great film.  Margo and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  If I got to pick, however, I would choose 127 Hours.  I really did not want to see this movie, and I cannot say that I enjoyed the experience of watching this movie, at least not all of it.  I was, however, amazed by how engaged and interested I was and by how much I enjoyed all but five minutes of the movie.  Now I'll give you my brief response to each of the nominated films.

127 Hours:  See above.  I really did not want to see this movie.  If it had not been nominated, and had not seen James Franco on The Daily Show, I probably would not have seen this movie.  That being said, I enjoyed the vast majority of the movie.  I was unable to watch the five minutes of the movie where the man was removing his arm.  It was far more gruesome and horrific than I was prepared for.  I also found it surprisingly inspiring.  And it gave me cause to spend some time thinking about whether I would be capable of enduring what he endured and of removing my own arm.  I think I probably would have just killed myself.

Black Swan:  I thought this movie was pretty well done.  It was disturbing, and there were a lot of elements (physical injuries) that totally grossed me out.  The sex scene was hot, and probably the main reason any straight men saw the movie.  I also thought it was a remarkable demonstration of the stress-vulnerability model.

The Fighter:  Another movie I wasn't particularly interested in seeing.  I'm not really into boxing and had been generally irritated by the fact that Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo had all been nominated for Oscars but Mark Wahlberg hadn't.  I'm a pretty big Mark Wahlberg fan, and have been sitting in judgment of Christian Bale, especially after seeing his hair and beard at the Golden Globes.  But we finally saw this movie last night, and it was really quite good.  And Christian Bale deserves his Golden Globe and I hope he wins the Oscar.  He was unbelievable.  Regardless of what I think of him as a person, that man is an INCREDIBLE actor.  The movie was inspiring and heartwarming and turned out to be about so much more than boxing.

Inception:  I saw this movie the first time at the IMAX.  It was a great way to watch the movie.  I enjoyed it.  It is a total mindf--k.  I've seen it again since, and enjoyed it the second time as well.  I don't know how I feel about Leonardo DiCaprio at this point (side note: I sent him an invitation to my high school graduation) but I enjoyed the movie.  And the visual effects are pretty awesome.

The Kids Are All Right:  This was a wonderful, although painful, movie.  I was appalled that it was nominated for a Golden Globe in the comedy category.  Occasional funny moments do not a comedy make.  The acting was superb and it was so real to life.  I could identify with both female characters and could imagine feeling the things they were feeling in their circumstances.  Excellent film.

The King's Speech:  Like I said, I think this one is going to win it.  This was a very enjoyable movie.  Colin Firth did an outstanding job of acting a speech impediment.  I've known a number of people with stutters, and he did it very realistically.  It was also heartwarming and inspiring, and I actually wound up doing a little reading up on King George VI when we got home, because I was more interested in the history than I had been previously.  I won't begrudge it it's Oscar.

The Social Network:  This was another movie I never would have seen if it had not been nominated and I did not have a secret love for Justin Timberlake.  I was pretty impressed at the way that they made what was essentially a deposition so engaging.  I left the movie feeling pretty sorry for the Facebook guy.  I also thought that the movie kind of made it seem like he has an autism spectrum disorder.  He reminded me of a guy I used to work with who had Asperger's.  I wouldn't have nominated this for a Best Picture.

Toy Story 3:  Another movie I definitely would not have seen without the nomination.  This nomination is one of the reasons I'm a little irritated that they increased the number of Best Picture nominees to 10.  It was cute, it made us a little faclempt, but it is not a Best Picture by any stretch.

True Grit:  I have to say that this is the movie that I enjoyed watching most out of all of them.  It was funny, it was compelling, I loved the actress who played the main character (Supporting Role, my ass!) and I always love Jeff Bridges.  In general, however, the Coen brothers are so hit and miss for me.  I find that I either really like their movies (The Big Lebowski is one of my all time favorite movies) or I am left feeling irritated, confused or feeling like I just wasted two hours of my life (A Serious Man, seriously?).  True Grit, however, is a big winner in my book.  I would watch that again, which is pretty unusual for me.

Winter's Bone:  This movie was depressing.  I did not enjoy watching it, although I thought it was good, if that makes sense.  It definitely confirmed for me that I do not want to cook meth, nor do I want to live out in BFE with all of my f--ked up relatives who cook meth.  There is no happy ending when that's your life.

So there you have it.  Hopefully I haven't given anything away.  I tried not to do that.  I'd love to hear what your pick is and what you thought of the movies.