The Bob Award Nominations

Once again it is that time. A few years ago I decided I was tired of just complaining about how the Oscars, Baftas, Golden Globes, etc. always got it wrong. So I did something about it. I continued to complain. But, I also created the Bob Awards.
Is it incredibly nerdy? Yes. Am I overthinking things? Probably. Do they have any bearing on the film industry? No. Will I continue to do this year after year? Absolutely.
I'm a little concerned this year as I'm more in line with the Oscar nominees than usual. Does this mean I'm becoming stodgy and bland or that the Academy got it more right than normal this time? I'm going to just assume that it's the latter.
As always the eventual winners will be receiving mailed Red Robin gift certificates and for the first time ever all nominees shall be recipients of a sample size box of Tide laundry detergent. When it's got to be clean it's got to be Tide! And now here they are in all their glory. The Bob Award nominations:

Art Direction:
Despicable Me
Inception
Micmacs
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
TRON: Legacy

Cinematography:
Inception
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
TRON: Legacy

Costume Design:
Kick-Ass
The King's Speech
Micmacs
Scott Pilgrim
TRON: Legacy

Film Editing:
Blue Valentine
Inception
127 Hours
Scott Pilgrim
The Social Network

Makeup:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I
Never Let Me Go
Nowhere Boy
TRON: Legacy
True Grit

Original Score:
Inception - Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech - Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours - AR Rahman
The Social Network - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
TRON: Legacy - Daft Punk

Original Song:
127 Hours: "If I Rise" by AR Rahman and Dido
Scott Pilgrim: "We are Sex Bob-Omb" by Beck
Tangled: "I See the Light" by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater
Tangled: "Mother Knows Best" by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater

Sound:
Inception
Micmacs
127 Hours
Scott Pilgrim
TRON: Legacy

Visual Effects:
Inception
Scott Pilgrim
Shutter Island
The Social Network
TRON: Legacy

Supporting Actor:
Christian Bale - The Fighter
Vincent Cassel - Black Swan
Andrew Garfield - The Social Network
John Hawkes - Winter's Bone
Tom Hughes - Cemetery Junction
Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech

Sup. Actress:
Amy Adams - The Fighter
Marion Cotillard - Inception
Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Chloe Moretz - Kick-Ass
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom

Actor:
Jeff Bridges - True Grit
Robert Duvall - Get Low
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Colin Firth - The King's Speech
James Franco - 127 Hours
Ryan Gosling - Blue Valentine

Actress:
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
Carey Mulligan - Never Let Me Go
Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit
Emma Stone - Easy A
Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine

Monty Python Award for Ensemble Cast:
Easy A
Get Low
The King's Speech
Scott Pilgrim
The Social Network
True Grit

Animated Film:
Despicable Me
How to Train Your Dragon
Tangled
Toy Story 3

Adapted Screenplay:
127 Hours - Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
Scott Pilgrim - Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright
The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin
Tangled - Dan Fogelman
True Grit - Joel and Ethan Coen
Winter's Bone - Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Original Screenplay:
Blue Valentine - Derek Cianfrance & Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis
Despicable Me - Ken Daurio, Sergio Pablos, Cinco Paul
Get Low - Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell & Scott Seeke
Inception - Christopher Nolan
The King's Speech - David Seidle
Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich

Director:
Derek Cianfrance - Blue Valentine
Christopher Nolan - Inception
Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
Danny Boyle - 127 Hours
David Fincher - The Social Network
Joel and Ethan Coen - True Grit

Best Picture:
Blue Valentine
Get Low
Inception
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Tangled
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

"The Fighter" and "Blue Valentine"

Movie watching wise it seems I've been on a bit of a role lately. Just about everything I've gone to in the past couple of months has been very good or even great. The wave continued this weekend with a one-two punch of deeply emotional films. I'm very close to being able to finally put together this year's Bob Award Nominations (still have to rent "Winter's Bone" and "Easy A," and "The Illusionist" just needs to come out in Seattle already).

The Fighter - In 1993 Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is a Lowell, Massachussetts boxer who has potential but has been turning into a "stepping stone" for younger fighters. Time is running out and if he's not careful he could go the way of his crack addicted half-brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale). Eklund, still living off of knocking down "Sugar" Ray Leonard in a fight he ultimately lost in 1978 is being followed by an HBO film crew documenting his "comeback." Dicky's self-interest and self-destruction have long prevented him from being the kind of trainer that Micky needs and Micky's loyalty to his family is getting him nowhere.
Knowing he has to start winning meaningful fights as soon as possible, Micky desperately needs dedicated trainers and management, an idea echoed by his new girlfriend Charlene (Amy Adams), but vehemently opposed by virtually his entire overbearing family, the lone exception being his supportive father George (Jack McGee). As his domineering mother Alice (Melissa Leo) is his manager making the change won't be easy.
Directed by David O. Russell ("Three Kings," "I Heart Huckabees"), "The Fighter" is yet another late 2010 release that tells the true life story of a man striving to overcome incredible adversity in one form or another ("127 Hours," "The King's Speech"). Like those "The Fighter" is also one of the best movies of the year. The actors make an already great script come to exceptional life.
Wahlberg delivers an uncharacteristically low key performance that is one of his all-time best. We feel Micky's frustration with his family and hope he will be able to break away. Bale is simply amazing as Dicky, a character who remains sympathetic in spite of his many shortcomings. Film of the real Eklund demonstrates just how fully Bale really captures the man. Leo and McGee are both excellent as a mother and father at opposite ends of the parenting spectrum. Alice could have been a very one note character in the hands of a scenery chewing actress but thankfully Leo gets it just right. Finally, there's Amy Adams. If you've seen "Junebug," "Enchanted," "Miss Pettigrew," "Doubt," etc. and then this you realize that there really is nothing that she can't do. She plays a tough and strong woman who openly speaks her mind as well as she plays anything else. She's making a strong case for being the finest actress of her generation.
About the only false note in "The Fighter" regards some of the moments with the larger Ward/Eklund family. The obnoxious Boston "clan" has become the new stereotypical mafia family and there are a couple of moments where the movie suddenly becomes a broad comedy that doesn't flow with the rest of the film. These moments are rare though so it doesn't sink the ship.
Going into this film I knew it was based on a true story but I knew almost nothing about it nor did I know what the outcome of Micky's quest would be. This is probably the best way to view it to really feel the impact of this powerful and well told story. 9/10.

Blue Valentine - With so many great movies in theaters right now it's very easy for one or two to get lost in the shuffle. My hope is though that before it disappears quietly from theaters that people will discover Derek Cianfrance's story of a relationship's beginning and its painful downward spiral. This may not sound like an enjoyable experience and "Blue Valentine" is full of heartbreak but it is a truly incredible film.
Co-written and directed by Cianfrance, "Blue Valentine" is a terrific example of how to properly use non-linear storytelling rather than as a gimmick. We know up front that things are not going well for Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) and that things will get worse before they get better, if they get better at all. Even so there is a real sense of discovery when watching this film. Discovering what brought them together, kept them together, and what is driving them apart.
What Cianfrance and co-writers Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis have crafted is a series of conversations and arguments that are more engrossing than virtually any action sequence you could imagine. It's stunning how well written they are and equally impressive are the performances of Gosling and Williams. Much like life, each argument begins innocently enough either with a comment that is misunderstood or a miscommunication. One person is angered by the other and the offender simply can't understand why.
The true testament to how well written and acted the film is, is the feeling that we can always understand where each character is coming from at any given moment. Even if we find ourselves in agreement with one character or another (and it changes constantly which one you'll side with), we understand both points of view and why each character possesses the one they do. What makes it heartbreaking though is that we like Cindy and Dean as much as we do. We see and enjoy the lighthearted moments of their relationship and understand just how much love there is between them and how tragic it is to see it falling apart. When one makes a mistake, no matter how great, we still like them, we still want them to be forgiven by the other.
The dialogue is probably the best written in 2010 and not a word of it sounds as though it was concocted by a writer. It sounds natural, real, and unpretentious and the same can be said for Gosling and Williams in their performances. This is the best movie of the year that no one is talking about and it saddens me to think that it's being overlooked. Nothing this great should pass by unnoticed. It's slowly going into wide release so if it comes anywhere near your town get to it as soon as possible. Yes it is a deeply mournful film but there is a sense of humanity and yes, humor that make it unmissable. 10/10.

The King's Speech

Every December (sometimes not until January for those of us not living in New York or LA) we are inundated with Oscar contenders left and right. Sometimes though a film will go beyond that to the point where it's obvious that it was made specifically to be nominated for awards. Before a frame is shot everyone who's signed on knows it too. "The King's Speech" is such a movie. But the thing is Tom Hooper (the "John Adams" mini-series) has directed a film that actually deserves them. It's not challenging, mind-bending, or innovative by any stretch of the imagination but it's not pretending to be either. Really it's what "A Beautiful Mind" and "Cold Mountain" claimed to be. (Actually I take that back about "Cold Mountain." Nothing is what that claimed to be.)
It's 1934 and Albert, Duke of York (Colin Firth), is uncomfortable in the spotlight. His pronounced stammer makes delivering public addresses traumatizing experiences. Unfortunately as a member of the British royal family he has no choice but to speak publicly from time to time. The only support he receives comes from his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) and his young daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. His ailing father, King George V (Michael Gambon) feels the stammer is due to weakness, while his selfish older brother Edward (Guy Pearce) has used the stammer to taunt "Bertie" throughout their lives.
After George V's death Edward becomes King so Bertie needn't worry about becoming a stammering figurehead. However, Bertie's problem is in dire need of a solution, particularly as it becomes apparent that Edward may abdicate the throne to marry an American divorcee. Elizabeth hopes Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) is the man for the job. The sometimes rocky but very real friendship that develops between Bertie and Lionel as they go through their therapy sessions becomes the focus of the film.
The screenplay by David Seidler is full of witty dialogue that still manages to sound like real people talking. The interactions between Bertie and Lionel flow from funny to moving with the greatest of ease, while Firth and Rush make the most of their roles. Firth doesn't simply play the surface of a well known historical figure with a speech impediment. He makes Bertie a fully formed character, full of anxiety and given to bouts of anger. His frustration as he tries to overcome his stammer and his fears is very real. As England and the world march closer to World War II these things only become amplified.
Rush is outstanding as Lionel, a man who is often hard on Bertie (which he calls his patient in spite of Albert's position) but who ultimately cares very much for him. The interplay between the two actors is impressive not only because they are such excellent performers but also due to how easy they make it look. The rest of the cast provide nice touches but it's the Firth and Rush show and that is just as it should be. Carter may not have a lot to do in the role of Elizabeth but she is exactly what the film needs her to be.
Hooper's direction is notable for how he makes the period detail and filmmaking flourishes seem so simple. There is some very definite directorial style on display but it's remarkably low key. Just like virtually everything else about "The King's Speech" it's just what is necessary.
"The King's Speech" is a very good movie that knows full well it's a very good movie and doesn't feel the need to reinvent moviemaking. It's entertaining, classy, and yes, genuinely uplifting. One of 2010's finest. 9.5/10.