If I Picked the Academy Awards…2011 Edition
Now back to more Academy Awards from the past, and this time we’re diving into 2011. There’s a lot of good picks here, and we’ll run down my personal picks. Let’s not waste time and get started.
Best Adapted Screenplay Nominees:
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
The Descendants
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy
The Winner: The Descendants
My pick: The Descendants
Yeah, it’s kind of hard to disagree with this one, though I really enjoyed the script for Moneyball (2011), but the emotional story of Matt King and his family squabbles are not only compelling, but also just one that’s easy to gravitate to and enjoy.
Best Original Screenplay Nominees:
A Separation
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
Midnight in Paris
The Artist
The Winner: Midnight in Paris
My pick: Midnight in Paris
For the most part, I love Woody Allen films, and usually he has one or two films each decade that show off his talents. For me, it’s gonna be hard to have a film of his beat Midnight in Paris. It’s a cute idea for a movie, but one that is realized to its full potential. This is one that I really think stands above eventual best picture winner, The Artist (2011).
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominees:
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help
The Winner: Octavia Spencer, The Help
My pick: Octavia Spencer, The Help
I’ll admit, I haven’t seen every film that was nominated this year, naming names that includes Albert Nobbs (2011) and a couple other films coming up, but like Midnight in Paris (2011), The Help (2011) is already more well-remembered and more well-respected than The Artist, and that is thanks, in no small part, to its cast, including Spencer, who steals almost every scene she’s in.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominees:
Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The winner: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
My pick: Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
This is another case where I’m just kind of limited to what I’ve seen. Sue me, but I skipped Warrior (2011), Beginners (2011), and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011), so I can’t judge what I haven’t seen. So the only two I’ve seen are Branagh and Hill, and while I really like Jonah Hill in Moneyball, you can’t beat Branagh doing a great Laurence Olivier.
Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominees:
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
The winner: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
My pick: Viola Davis, The Help
Again, a lot of credit for the success of The Help goes to its cast, and perhaps the strongest performance not only in the film, not only in this category, but perhaps of that year, was Viola Davis. Her relationships with every character she interacts with is never uninteresting, and a lot of that also has to do with her being perhaps the most well-rounded character and one that we get the most perspective from.
Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominees:
Demian Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinkler, Tailor, Solider, Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
The winner: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
My pick: George Clooney, The Descendants
Going back to what I said about this film, I think relating to the character of Matt King is essential in this film, and of course George Clooney is one of the more charismatic performers out there, and this isn’t just him playing a doofus like in a Coen Brothers movie, or getting tortured in Syriana (2005), it’s a serious character study that shows the family dynamics between fathers and daughters, a man and his friends, and a man and the gentleman who was cheating with his wife.
Best Director Nominees:
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Terrence Malik, The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
The winner: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
My pick: Alexander Payne, The Descendants
This is definitely the hardest choice for me. There isn’t a bad choice here for many reasons, and I have no bones to pick with anybody picking Scorsese or Hazanavicius, or even Woody Allen, but for me Payne had the task of putting together this family drama, and he did it and made it look easy. Getting that cast together and pulling out the performances from great actors like Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard and the others, again, sounds like an easy task, but the way he pulls it off stuns me to no end.
Best Picture Nominees:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
The Tree of Life
War Horse
The winner: The Artist
My pick: The Descendants
I think just reading everything up to this point answers why I pick this one, but that being said, I really like a majority of these films. Hugo (2011) is one that I liked at first watch but loved every time since, Midnight in Paris is a wonderful film, Moneyball is great, The Help is very good, and War Horse (2011) gets an undeserved bad rep. At the end of the day, I really love two types of movies that usually get nominated at the Oscars: family dramas and ensemble casts. In short, three films did the ensemble cast part very well: The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, and The Help, and the family drama elements were very present in War Horse and Hugo, and especially The Descendants, and it pushed all the right buttons for me.
So there are my picks for 2011. Again, some of these films I haven’t seen, which is one of the more interesting parts of doing these kind of blogs and articles: over time, movies change. You might like a film, but years later you might have a new appreciation for it, or if you skipped one and see it later it changes what you thought should have won, so I’m not saying picking up with this blog and this particular entry later doesn’t mean everything stays the same.
