My choices and the will wins.
2011 brought us the usual mix of good, bad, and indifferent movies that were
linked, inexcusably, by interminable barren stretches. There were far too many
weeks when the listings promised nothing to lure us to the multiplex. By
hoarding its best efforts for December, Hollywood continued to break the movie
habit for a lot of people who probably decided to go bowling instead. The good
news is that this year's Oscar nominations reflect a wide range of genuinely
good performances and stories. The absence of a popular blockbuster ensures an
interesting ceremony. My choices, followed by my predictions in
parentheses:
Best Picture: THE ARTIST catches old Hollywood in its disruptive
transition from silence to sound with a contagious soundtrack and two perfect
stars - Dean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo . In their hands, the story unfolds in
high style as Hollywood history. These two, in perfect tune with the mood and
the music, simply transport the audience to another time. (will win: The Artist)
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) who could have
made an awful hash of a black and white silent movie in 2011 and instead created
magic. (Michael Hazanavicius)
Best Actor: GEORGE CLOONEY (Descendants). Alternating between raw
emotion and considered action, Clooney captures the bewilderment that attends
life's toughest decisions. As a land owning patriarch in Hawaii, he threads his
way through the family thicket with great authenticity. (George Clooney)
Best Actress: MERYL STREEP (The Iron Lady). She is no less than
breathtaking while showing us fragments of Margaret Thatcher's life as they
surface in her fractured memory through the lens of Alzheimer's disease. Streep
gives us the emotions rather than the events of Thatcher's life in the intense
colors of an abstract painting. A performance of pure gold. (Meryl Streep/Viola
Davis)
Best Supporting Actor: Jonah Hill (Moneyball). He's the quiet guy
in the corner who has the tools in his head and on his laptop to implement the
demands of his boss in this terrific baseball movie. (Christopher Plummer)
Best Supporting Actress: Berenice Bejo. She plays a beautiful, smart,
warm-hearted starlet who crosses the new divide into stardom; and she
understands perfectly that silent movies demanded exaggerated physical
expression in the absence of dialogue. (Octavia Spencer)
Best Foreign Film: A Separation. This film speaks in a universal
language about marriage, family, and honor and does it in such a way that we
feel we are right there in that house, that car, that courtroom. The immediacy
is due partly to the absence of a villain. Without exception, everyone in this
story is struggling to hold onto honor in the face of circumstance. Honor may
spring from different cultural roots in Iran, but the issues are universal. With
four stunning performances, this film would be a winner in any language.
And so the
year produced some grand entertainment in this medium we love. But let's still
ask the big question: Can't Hollywood do something about summer, spring, and
fall?
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