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Movie Quote of the Day – The Fighter, 2010 (dir. David O. Russell)
Alice Ward: Hello.
Mickey Ward: Alice, this is Charlene.
Charlene Fleming: Hi.
Alice Ward: I’ve heard a lot about you.
Charlene Fleming: Really? I’ve heard a lot about you, too.
Alice Ward: What’s that supposed to mean?
Charlene Fleming: Same thing you meant.
Cinema Fanatic’s Favorite Fifteen Films of 2010
So we’ve gotten to the end of the year, which, of course, means end-of-the-year lists. I don’t think 2010 was the worst year ever, but it pales in comparison to 2009. Last year I was in love with so many films – starting very early in the year and continuing into January of this year with the films I wasn’t able to see before ’09 ended. I really just think 2010 will go down as a mediocre year. I did, however, still manage to come up with a list of my 15 favorite films of the year. I’d like to emphasize that this list is based on my favorites and not necessarily a “best” list. I’d also like to note that, unlike last year, I was able to see almost all of the 2010 releases I was interested in seeing before the New Year. There were three, however, that I missed that I wish I could have seen before making this list: The King’s Speech, 127 Hours and Blue Valentine. There’s no guarantee those would have made the list anyhow, but I still wish I could have seen them. Regardless, I did manage to see fifty-five 2010 releases this year, a personal record for new releases. I’d also like to note that I’ve seen over 500 new-to-me films this year, but I’ll make a proper round-up post for that tomorrow (I’m watching movies til Midnight tonight!).
The list is after the cut, because I think my #1 is a little shocking and I want to keep up the suspense.
Updated Precursors Chart, A Look At Best Supporting Actress
I’ve added a few more winners to the precursors chart. The Social Network, Fincher and Sorkin still lead their categories. Colin Firth leads Best Actor, Natalie Portman leads Best Actress and Christian Bale leads Best Supporting Actor.
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What has recently become interesting is the Best Supporting Actress category. At first Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom seemed to be primed for the award, with a win at the National Board of Review and a Golden Globe nomination. But she failed to receive a SAG nomination and that could hurt her chances. Melissa Leo in The Fighter has been picking up steam, with five critic awards wins, a Golden Globe and SAG nomination. Recently joining the race and picking up major momentum is Hailee Steinfeld from True Grit. Although she didn’t receive a Golden Globe nomination, she also have five critic award wins and a SAG nomination. With all the other acting fields relatively predictable (as well as most of the tech categories), Supporting Actress seems to be the most interesting race of the year.
State of the Race, Updated Precursors Chart
Still seeing several frontrunners – The Social Network for Best Picture, David Fincher for Best Director and Christian Bale for Best Supporting Actor in The Fighter. Best Actress seems to be split between Natalie Portman in Black Swan and Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. Toy Story 3 seems to be the one to beat for Best Animated Film (no surprise there). A lot of the critics groups only have one screenplay category and Aaron Sorkin continues to dominate there. The SAG and Golden Globe nominations really help us get a shortlist of what actors will compromise the nominees for the Oscars, though they sometimes throw us a curveball. Once the PGA, WGA and DGA release their nominees we’ll have a better idea of what we might see Oscar nomination-wise.
click picture for higher resolution.
“The King’s Speech” Leads Golden Globe Nominations
The King’s Speech leads with seven nominations, followed by The Fighter and The Social Network with six each.
Best Motion Picture – Drama
- Black Swan
- The Fighter
- Inception
- The King’s Speech
- The Social Network
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
- Alice in Wonderland
- Burlesque
- The Kids Are All Right
- Red
- The Tourist
Precursors Chart and Some Frontrunners
It’s that time in Awards Season wherein I start maintaining a Precursors Chart, a handy chart that lets you know what films have won what awards. So far the char only has the Washington D.C. Film Critics, National Board of Review and Hollywood Film Award winners. But I’ll update it once a week or so as the various critics associations and guilds announce their winners.
(Click on the picture to see it full-sized)
So far the main frontrunners are The Social Network for picture, director and adapted screenplay, Christian Bale in The Fighter for supporting actor and Toy Story 3 for animated film. The rest of the categories are still pretty spread out, although we do have a pretty good look at possible nominees.
The National Board of Review – Awards Season is Officially Open
Like I said on my earlier post, winning at the NBR doesn’t necessarily mean winning come Oscar night. But it does help jump-start a film or a performance into the race and often is a good look at what the nominees could look like.
For example, Winter’s Bone‘s inclusion on their Top Ten list is a big push for a little film. So is Jennifer Lawrence’s win for Breakthrough Performance. Last year the NBR gave that award to two performances: Gabby Sidibe in Precious and Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker. Both performances wound up with Academy Award nominations.
New Poster For “The Fighter”
I love Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams, so I’m pretty much sold on this movie sight-unseen.
The Fighter is directed by David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees) and is due in theaters on December 10th.
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