This week was a bonkers week for me at work (in a good way & in a bad way...way too much stress, but ultimately satisfying), so we didn't get to our normal My Oscar Ballot feature on Thursday. However, as I mentioned on Friday it was my brother's birthday this week, and this is one of his favorite features on the blog, and so I am bound-and-determined to at least get this week's ballot out on the blog during his birthday weekend, so we're going to be moving into 2011 on a Sunday instead. As I mentioned last week, we still have three more to go (2007, 2010, & 2012) before I run out of these, and then we'll be doing them at the end of each "OVP Ballot" cycle (which will almost perfectly coincide with us finishing up our 2004 recap). If you're new to this feature, check out links below both to past "My Oscar Ballot" (where I pick who I would've nominated at the Oscars for a given year) and the races of 2011 (where I talk about every single nominated, feature-length/narrative category & how I would've ranked the Oscar nominees).
Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Drive
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
In Darkness
Jane Eyre
Melancholia
A Separation
Shame
The Tree of Life
Weekend
Gold: No film this decade has been such a profound meditation on the meaning of life, love, and where we are in the universe as Terrence Malick's magnum opus The Tree of Life, a true vision of a movie & one of the finest films ever made. I love it so much that the poster to the left is hanging in my house.
Silver: In virtually any other year Weekend would've been a threat for the gold. This is exactly the kind of movie that I love-a slice-of-life romance with a ticking clock in the background, where two people realize they're perfect for each other...but are they willing to acknowledge it before the buzzer?
Bronze: Lars von Trier's films are such a mix for me, but Melancholia is the rare one where we're totally on the same page. Similar to The Tree of Life, it finds a way to examine life & its preciousness under a microscope, but here it has a harder (but very real) lesson to learn from its study.
Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)
Andrew Haigh (Weekend)
Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life)
Lars von Trier (Melancholia)
Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive)
Gold: Malick stands apart in this group not just because I like his film better, but because he devoted decades of his life to making it happen. A total achievement, bold & willing to go forward by positing questions most director's would dare to ask.
Silver: Lars von Trier's work here is mesmerizing. All of the indulgences that challenge some of his other work (the deep cynicism, the cruelty inflicted in his characters) are checked mercifully by a sense of light...he makes sure we understand the preciousness of life before he pulls it from us.
Bronze: Andrew Haigh's Weekend might not be an obvious director's film, but that's part of the brilliance of what he's doing. He pulls the camera into such tender moments as to feel like we're part of this conversation, inviting the tender claustrophobia of getting to know a person intimately (in every sense of that word) for the first time.
Tom Cullen (Weekend)
Michael Fassbender (Jane Eyre)
Michael Fassbender (Shame)
Ryan Gosling (Drive)
Chris New (Weekend)
Gold: A tough call, but I'm going to go with Tom Cullen, given the more central focus of Weekend, and a role we don't oftentimes see in movies. He's asked to play a man who is out, but not necessarily proud. The rich inner frustration he clearly feels as he overcomes hurdles he's put to his own happiness is delicate, strong work.
Silver: Michael Fassbender is, of course, also a man who must deal with Shame. Lost in the conversations at the time about how Fassbender's supporting part was more of a lead (I wasn't going to make it through the whole article without at least one aside), was the way he gives us a raw, unflinching look at the ravages of unchecked addiction.
Bronze: Ryan Gosling continued his brilliant streak at the time with his unknowable lead in Drive. Playing this kind of part is tough-you have to instill enough knowledge to feel like the audience will root for you while still staying a mystery. Gosling does that here, emulating past icons like Alan Ladd in Shane or Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West.
Juliette Binoche (Certified Copy)
Viola Davis (The Help)
Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia)
Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene)
Kristin Wiig (Bridesmaids)
Gold: The politics of The Help have made it difficult to sing the praises of the picture in retrospect, but that shouldn't negate the work being done by Viola Davis here. She takes a character that Hollywood treated as "stock" for decades & gives her a voice, particularly during her powerful final showdown with Hilly.
Silver: It's not often that a former child star can truly rise above their beginnings and carve out a performance that makes you basically forget the prodigy they were. Kirsten Dunst does that with her brutal Justine, finding a character vindictive, annoying, & real in Melancholia.
Bronze: In a year of difficult roles, perhaps no actor cited here had it harder than Juliette Binoche. A woman who must not just create herself, but facsimiles within herself, sometimes without the audience entirely knowing what she's doing, Binoche makes Certified Copy's cerebral concept totally work.
Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2)
John Hawkes (Martha Marcy May Marlene)
Hunter McCracken (The Tree of Life)
Brad Pitt (The Tree of Life)
Corey Stoll (Midnight in Paris)
Gold: My favorite performance from one of my favorite working actors, Brad Pitt's Mr. O'Brien in The Tree of Life is a seismic turn. He must represent the wounds we carry from childhood, the missed expectations & the way we reassess our parents & understand their own hopes (without ever truly knowing them).
Silver: Hunter McCracken's wordless work in The Tree of Life is so expressive. The way that he seems to carry the burdens of his own parents' expectations, and the way he never lets go of those disappointments-a smart pairing with Sean Penn playing him as an adult, the older Oscar winner has to do very little heavy-lifting after such a stunning debut.
Bronze: John Hawkes got his Oscar due the year before, but it's in his creepy, intoxicating cult leader that we get maybe his best work-to-date. The hold he can have on Elizabeth Olsen's Martha you can feel reaching through the screen.
Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life)
Anjelica Huston (50/50)
Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids)
Carey Mulligan (Shame)
Octavia Spencer (The Help)
Gold: She became a movie star for a reason. Melissa McCarthy's Megan is so good not just because of the actress's flawless comedic skills, but also because she brings with her no sense of being in on the joke. Megan is a real person, a somewhat lonely one, but one who is confident she brings something to the lives of the people around her-McCarthy giving her respect is what sells this part.
Silver: A performance filled with grace (for obvious reasons), Jessica Chastain's Mrs. O'Brien brings instant, constant nostalgia to The Tree of Life, her work a reminder of the wonder of childhood, paired perfectly with Pitt's stern father.
Bronze: Similar to McCarthy, she became a star for a reason. Spencer doesn't get the plum emotional depths that Davis does, but she still makes Minnie someone the audience can see. The scene-stealing is perfect (and much needed against some of the other actors not quite knowing what to do with the film's midsection)...a character actress finally getting her due.
Drive
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
In Darkness
Jane Eyre
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Gold: High Noon as told from the perspective of a neo-noir? That's kind of the risky motif that Drive is going for here, where we are given a story with total confidence, bursting onto the screen with precision & total determination.
Silver: A compelling mystery is always catnip for me, and boy does Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy bring that to the screen. A densely-packaged whodunit, one that is unsparing in those it catches in its web, it delivers on John Le Carre's famed novel.
Bronze: How, exactly, does one take a story that is known by heart like Jane Eyre and make it feel fresh & new for the screen? By amplifying the gothic aspects of the story, and letting the smart leads have rich, felt backstories to accompany the strangeness of their romance.
Bridesmaids
Melancholia
A Separation
The Tree of Life
Weekend
Gold: A perfect duet of a script, Weekend is that rare film that feels so organic in the dialogue that you'd be confused into thinking that it was simply improvised. Conversational & romantic, a near perfect piece of writing.
Silver: A Separation is brimming with plot details, little asides that carry the story to its chilling, complicated conclusion. It is a script with a mystery so central that you cannot help but keep guessing how it will turnout, and what will happen next.
Bronze: Some may scoff at the concept of The Tree of Life having a "script," but that's what makes Malick's best films so good-you are led to believe that the sense of feeling you're getting from the tale onscreen is simply a result of your own emotions, rather than one you're being led on by the tale of the O'Brien's.
The Adventures of Tintin
Kung Fu Panda 2
Rango
Gold: For a movie that is focused on drawing out the ugliness of its character design, Rango is a weirdly gorgeous movie. Not remotely made for kids (not just because none of these are obvious plush novelties, but also because the Chinatown references are going to go totally over the young ones' heads), and its run time feels appropriate to tell its full story.
Silver: Aided by a brilliant Gary Oldman as a villainous peacock (if that doesn't get you to buy a ticket, we don't have the same cinematic inclinations), Kung Fu Panda 2 takes all of the whimsy & fun of the previous entry and adds on a sense of mystery and perspective to the characters that reads as "story confidence" more than "sequel insurance."
Bronze: Though it isn't quite as magnificent as it could've been (some of the jokes in it are a bit pedestrian compared to the more sophisticated Pixar, which it's obviously trying to compete with), The Adventures of Tintin is still a rip-roaring action movie, with terrific animation details & thankfully steers clear of the uncanny valley.
The Adventures of Tintin
Drive
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Gold: Malick's The Tree of Life has to combine the classical/modern score with natural sounds, as well as dialogue both in & narrated above a scene. That it pulls it off without it seeming like an aural mess is a testament to the vision that the director can bring to his projects.
Silver: It feels weird for a movie that is so focused on the apes & humans to instantly think of the trees, but that shows how in-tune Rise of the Planet of the Apes is with its background that nature, which is going to have a pronounced voice by the film's end, is brought to the front here.
Bronze: War Horse brings such majesty to the Joey character (think of the wind as he's on a gallop), but really the whole movie is about giving you goosebumps, particularly during the chilling war scenes from an animal's innocent perspective.
The Adventures of Tintin
Drive
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Tree of Life
Gold: I'm still a bit perplexed how The Tree of Life missed with the Oscars here, considering that they manage to convince you that they've created the whole universe from scratch in the movie's opening scenes. A jaw-dropping stunner.
Silver: Drive is an action movie that is about subverting your expectations. Told through car chases (always a good source of inspiration for this category), it's really the gigantic pop of guns and the way that it transports you through the shifting gears that makes this sing...you get great, realistic noises but never sugarcoated ones where what happens onscreen feels excessively glamorized.
Bronze: Rise of the Planet of the Apes has the challenge of having characters with little spoken dialogue, and trying to find distinguishing inter-species war cries to make a distinction amongst its cascade of characters.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Jane Eyre
Super 8
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Gold: Gothic howls mark Dario Marianelli's score in Jane Eyre, using a strong reliance on solo strings to move the audience, giving us a sense of what is hiding in plain sight in this mysterious tale of romance & secrecy.
Silver: John Williams is the correct choice for the grandeur of War Horse's epic tale, using muted trumpets and a sense of simplicity (this is, at its heart, a children's story about the adult tale of war), to get across perfectly the epic nature of this picture.
Bronze: 80's nostalgia has been a well that filmmakers go to so often that you'd be forgiven for forgetting Super 8, JJ Abrams' fine but little discussed thriller from 2011. What you couldn't be forgiven is dismissing the period-perfect wonder of Michael Giacchino's reaching music that brings the film together.
"Bridge of Light," (Happy Feet Two)
"It Will Rain," (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 1)
"Life's a Happy Song," (The Muppets)
"Pictures in My Head," (The Muppets)
"Pretty Bird," (Rio)
Gold: The Muppets have been part of the musical landscape for decades, but brought about by Disney's relaunch of the brand, they get a score that feels worthy of their unique talents. "Life's a Happy Song" is a burst of joy to start out the picture, reminding you why you love this gang to begin with.
Silver: Of course, the Muppets also know how to get you to reach for the tissues (who doesn't cry when they bring "Rainbow Connection" out to underline our history with these characters?). While not quite as iconic, Kermit refreshes the nostalgia for that ballad with "Pictures in My Head," talking about long ago friendships.
Bronze: Bruno Mars was nearing the peak of his fame when "It Will Rain" came out, another reminder that few franchises had their head closer to the pop culture heartbeat than the Twilight movies.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Hugo
Jane Eyre
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Gold: Oh how much I adore the over-crowded, winding offices of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In some ways it feels like this film kicked off a whole new level in art direction. We'd see such realism in this style of film, as if production designers were taking note of the elevated storytelling when it looks like you're actually in an office.
Silver: Hugo is a much more traditional choice for this category, as it has a large, expansive, & reimagined Paris for us to play in, but I think the best parts of the movie lie in the ways that the set designers hint at the brilliance of Melies' work & how it informed our perceptions of early cinema.
Bronze: With Jane Eyre, it's always about the castle. Gargantuan, this one imposes & emulates the stone heart of Mr. Rochester, which makes the inevitable fall of Thornfield Hall all the more meaningful.
Drive
Jane Eyre
Melancholia
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Gold: If you haven't been paying attention, you might have missed that The Tree of Life is not just my favorite movie of 2011, but perhaps my favorite of the decade. This inevitably comes with its crowning glory (Cinematography) getting the gold, coming together like a NOVA documentary lensed by Mark Rothko-limitless & felt.
Silver: Melancholia's effects team plays a part in getting that final sequence in order, but it's the wedding, with the floating lanterns & the desolation in the eyes of all of the actors to come that makes the film's camerawork stand apart.
Bronze: Has Los Angeles ever looked so magnetic in the humming neon lights that bring together Drive? If it has, I don't remember it-the car chases are obviously a highlight, but every frame in Drive feels like it's pulled out of a film school textbook on ambience & mood.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Drive
Hugo
Jane Eyre
Melancholia
Gold: I love when a period film seems like it's sporting clothes that haven't been bought-and-worn for the first time. That's the case with Jane Eyre, which sports clothes that match the rigidity of the main characters, but also feel like they've been pulled out of an actual closet, and aren't just sewn for one scene & then discarded.
Silver: It's always dangerous to give an award for a film largely based on one iconic look. That being said, Drive's bright white scorpion jacket and driving gloves are iconic in a way few screen costumes dare to be, and deserve adulation.
Bronze: The Captain America franchise is the best part of the MCU, and part of that comes from it not taking itself too seriously. The retro takes on superhero apparel is so full of whimsy, it's hard to not instantly root for our heroes in this tale.
Drive
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
The Tree of Life
Weekend
Gold: We've talked a few times about the "ticking clock" hanging over Drive, where doom or glory (or some bittersweet combination) are inevitable from the opening scene. That kind of adventure sequence requires meticulous editing, focused on trimming all of the fat so the adrenaline never leaves the audience.
Silver: It must be a nightmare to try & piece together the worlds of Terrence Malick, with a cerebral script and a story driven by mood & imagery just as much as the actors onscreen. That it ends up imparting such meaning onto its audience is in part the genius of (I'd imagine) a patient editing team.
Bronze: What is real, and what is simply a memory of the titular character(s)? That's the question that towers over Martha Marcy May Marlene, with us not knowing until the final frames what dangers wait in store for our inward-looking protagonist.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
The Iron Lady
My Week with Marilyn
The Skin I Live In
Super 8
Gold: Putting aside that Dick Smith's handbook wouldn't have even been out when Super 8 was set, it's rare that a movie genuinely puts movie makeup & its resident maestro at the center of a story, but in doing so it underscores the care a makeup team brings to a film of this nature.
Silver: Glamour requires work too, people. And that's certainly the case with My Week with Marilyn, recreating the iconography of several well-known film stars, including the titular doomed icon, fully transformed around Michelle Williams' breathy performance.
Bronze: Speaking of transformations, J. Roy Helland finally won his Oscar after decades of styling Meryl Streep for a bravura bit of work for Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. The best parts of this aren't just that he makes her look like Thatcher in her heyday, but the ways he keeps parts of her personality as she ages, the wear of age through hair & makeup.
The Adventures of Tintin
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Tree of Life
Gold: Douglas Trumbull, visual genius, uses his decades of experience in high-speed photography to emulate his magnum opus 2001: A Space Odyssey, as both are about the provocative evolution of man. Also, I liked the dinosaurs.
Silver: Revolutionary effects, a brilliant story to support them, and a visual effects team that knows "less is more"...Rise of the Planet of the Apes became a template for the next decade in motion-capture with its hyper-realistic ape characters.
Bronze: Animated films are hard to know how to classify in a field like this, but the sheer scale of Tintin's motion-capture technology, creating a cartoon genuinely from the actions of its voice cast, is massively impressive.
Also in 2011: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, 2011 Recap
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