Oh Oscar!


Went to see The Fighter. Trying to fight my anti-stereotypical Boston film bias. It's a stereotypical Boston film (set in Lowell) AND and a stereotypical boxing film AND it looks like it was shot on a flip cam through a lens dipped in clam broth. However, Russell, as ever, has wrought great performances from his actors including Amy Adams who looks great with a tummy but gets lost in the final act, Mark Wahlberg who creates the strong backbone everyone gets to hang their ham on, Christian Bale who canned the ham and Melissa Leo who smoked the ham and nailed it to the screen. There is absolutely not one false note in her performance. It is truly remarkable. If Leo doesn't win Best Supporting Actress, the quintet who played her daughers should.


As for Best Film, I have seen seven out of ten nominated pics. I have not seen The Social Network [for reasons discussed here previously], The King's Speech [if you think I have a anti Boston film bias, you should hear what I think of small, well wrought Britishy oh Brit films], or 127 Hours [I know how it turns out]. Of course either Social Network or King's Speech will probably win, but I'm hoping that either The Black Swan or Winter's Bone wins. Winter's Bone has no chance, but wouldn't it be wonderful if, as Beth suggested the hill women from Winter's Bone slugged it out with the Ward women from The Fighter? The Black Swan is the most complete film of the lot save one, but it probably turns too many people off on its face. The one film that was better than The Black Swan and better than any of others on the list, is the most complete of all ten, the richest, and most fully realized. The film also contains the most enduring characters, some of the finest ensemble work you'll ever see in a movie and it was, by far, with only Inception [the boys' pick] coming in second, the most well crafted and visually stunning of all the Best Film nominees. This movie will NEVER win, but it should because the best film of 2010 was Toy Story 3.