FINALLY...And The "Reggies" Go To...

Greetings Earthlings!

Today, February 27th, is that magical day for film buffs around the world when they hand out the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars. (That term is trademarked, so don't toss it around too much, okay?) One could do a pretty good thesis about what it really means to win an Academy Award and whether or not the Best Picture winner really represents the top film from the previous year. You could then hand that thesis paper into a French film professor who could expound at length about auteur theory and the schism between commercialism and art in cinema all while sipping mutliple glasses of French cabernet while getting a blowjob from his mistress/teaching assistant under the desk.

What was I talking about? Oh yes...the Oscars. Look, we are Americans and we subscribe to that ridiculous Vince Lombardi hokum about how winning isn't everything, it is the only thing, so a lot of attention will be paid to who wins the big categories tonight and why and, of course, people will remind you that no one remembers who came second. (We don't know who came second of course, because the mysterious Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences doesn't rank the Best Picture nominees--they just hand the naked gold guy to the producers of the top picture and skip merrily away into the night to attend one of the glamorous after-party/schmoozefests, while secretly hoping they run into Charlie Sheen and one of his hookers.)

Here's a question for you...without looking it up you have five seconds to name who won best picture last year. Do you give up? Here's a hint--it wasn't the Most Successful Motion Picture of All Time in terms of box office, AVATAR. (Answer at the end of this post.) My point is that Oscar history is littered with movies that won big on Oscar night but which proved historically irrelevant as the years went by when compared to other movies that year which didn't win or might not have been nominated. My favorite example of this for all time was the mysterious victory of HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY over CITIZEN KANE. Even in 1941, anyone who saw CITIZEN KANE must have been blown away by how different it was, by the extraordinary acting, writing, cinematography and editing. So of course...it didn't win. Even with ten nominees that year (yes, this is nothing new), it wasn't even NOMINATED for Best Picture. But what movie do you remember better? Which one is more important to American film history? All of which just proves my point that the Academy Awards are more sport than artistic measurement, more spectacle than anything significant.

Frankly, that makes them more fun.

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This Year's Reggie Awards - My Ten Favorite Films of 2010

After hemming and hawing for two months about whether to post a ten best picture list from last year, or pick my seven favorites or not post anything at all, I finally decided (with some "gentle" prodding from Dr. Z.) to counteract the Oscar's Ten best picture nominees (really, aren't four or five enough? What is this, 1941?) with ten of my own.

Out of sheer laziness and a desire to try and make brevity my friend instead of a passing acquaintance, I will limit myself to a dozen words or less about each of my Top Ten. I will also further break down the best movies I saw from last year in different subcategories. And of course, it wouldn't be me without noting that there were some darn good movies from last year I just didn't get around to seeing--I make no apologies for my list, but if you want to know why say, TRUE GRIT, isn't on it, well, I haven't seen it yet. I don't rate by reputation.

Without further adieu, from bottom to top, The Reggies go to:

10. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - In pure visual storytelling, the second most innovative film of the year.

9. The King's Speech - A tad overrated? Maybe. Uniformly brilliant performances? Absolutely.

8. Winter's Bone - A triumph of atmosphere on a shoestring budget. Jennifer Lawrence = star.

7. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Maybe the book's better. Hard to imagine Fincher's American adaptation will be.

6. The Kids Are All Right - Sublime acting in a subversively clever satire of SoCal hipster family life.

5. 127 Hours - The real Aron Ralston bugs me. This fake one had arguably the most gripping single scene of the year--and not the one YOU'RE thinking of. (OK, I had to cheat here with the twelve words, but I'll be better going forward, I promise.)

4. The Fighter - Fantastically directed, compellingly acted tale of dysfunctional Lowell, Mass boxing family.

3. Inception - The most visually innovative piece of storytelling all year, hands down.

2. Black Swan - It was close...Swan flirts with camp, but haunts your dreams.

1. The Social Network - Whatever wins Best Picture, this film will be remembered better over time.

CANDIDATES THAT I DIDN'T SEE WHICH MIGHT FORCE ME TO REVISE THIS LIST: True Grit, Toy Story 3, The Town.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Salt, Shutter Island, Exit Through the Gift Shop.

BEST ACTION/THRILLERS
Inception
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Salt
Iron Man 2

BEST COMEDIES (Intentional Division)
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Due Date
Death at a Funeral

BEST LEAD ACTOR: James Franco, by a hair over Colin Firth. Firth is sublime (isn't he always?), but consider the challenges confronted by tonight's Oscar co-host--he is the only person on screen for most the movie's 89 minute running time, he has to convey cockiness, resourcefulness, sexiness, despair, resolve and desperation without the aid of co-stars, special effects or makeup and for most of the movie he really can't move. Sounds easy, doesn't it?

BEST LEAD ACTRESS: Natalie Portman deserves it, but surely Annette Bening must win one of these days, shouldn't she? A special shout out goes to Noomi Rapace who played Lisbeth in THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and the other "Millenium" thrillers--this Swedish actress has set the bar very high for Rooney Mara in the American adaptations.

MOST MEMORABLE SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE/MALE: Christian Bale, THE FIGHTER. If he doesn't win tonight it will be a sign that a) Oscar voters don't like Bale's cockiness and occasional recalcitrance and want to give it to Geoffrey Rush, who is the safe choice or b) not enough people saw THE FIGHTER--or realized that this was the same guy who is also currently Batman. On a side note, where's Justin Timberlake? He practically walked off with THE SOCIAL NETWORK.

MOST MEMORABLE SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE/FEMALE: Its hard not to pick Melissa Leo, also from THE FIGHTER, although Julianne Moore did some nice work in THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT--but it could be argued she's the second lead in that movie.

Am I done yet? You betcha...done like the NFL's labor negotiations.

Oh wait--last year's Best Picture was THE HURT LOCKER. A great choice, but will it be remembered all that well in ten years? We'll see.

Peace...