Let it begin.
#6: The Social Network
Now I said a whole lot of nice things in last post about the script of The Social Network. It is without a doubt the best script of the year and that certainly aids it significantly in being one of the best films of the year. In addition to the script, however, this film has a whole armload of things going for it. Let's start with David Fincher's direction. It's dark and moody. It sets the tone for the whole film. He understands that the dialogue is the action in this film and shoots that to full effect. Next we have the spectacular performances. Now, like Michael Cera, Jesse Eisenberg is often criticized as playing the same character over and over again. Also, like Cera, Eisenberg broke out of that in a huge way this year in this film. Yes, he still speaks rapid-fire and yes he's still quite dorky, but here he's also disinterested, sarcastic, mean, and awesome. Mark Zuckerberg is a killer role and Eisenberg knocks it out of the park. Andrew Garfield has some great moments throughout the film, Justin Timberlake makes me forget that I pretty much hate him he's so good in this movie, and finally we have Armie Hammer who played both Winklevos twins in this movie thanks to a little technical wizardry. He gives two great performances. And even beyond the performances we have the score. What a wonderful score it is. Composer Trent Reznor should also expect a Oscar come February and it is more than well deserved. Overall The Social Network is an exceptional film that, under risk of sounding cliche, kind of defines our generation. At least it's this and not Repo Men
#5 True Grit
I can't say enough about this film. Or maybe I just can't say it well enough. Now I am no connoisseur of Westerns, in fact I have seen only a handful, but this is by far and long the best western I've ever seen. First of all it places you in the Old West. I immediate felt like I was watching something authentic. This is achieved by the sets, costumes, accents, etc but a large part of this is the dialogue. It sounds like what I would imagine those in the Old West to sound like, but at the same time it never looses the Coen's sense of humor. How can oddball obscure, and Old West lingo go together? Incredible writing that's how. I would easily say that this film has the runner up for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Dialogue is superb. This is also a highly beautiful film, taking full advantage of New Mexico's landscape. Cinematographer Roger Deakins is a master at what he does and he's in full form here. The score adds a lot too. It is simply old hymns played on piano that accompany this film but sometimes simple is better and it, too, helps add to the authenticity of the picture. The acting is superb from everyone. Jeff Bridges is great as the usually drunk Rooster Cogburg. Matt Damon and Josh Brolin add two more terrific characters to their repertoires. The revelation here is Hailee Steinfeld as the girl Matty Ross. She's really the star of the film. It's her story. The Coens are splendid film makers. This further proves that they can leave behind their own signature brand of film and just make a spectacular genre picture. In the end that's really what this is. Just a spectacular Western, which is something we rarely get anymore.
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Not to cheapen this win for Mr. Bale ( he's an avid reader of this blog and I know he'll be just ticked by this), but this is an incredibly weak category this year. There were few, if any, supporting male performances that really stuck out. Not that Bale wouldn't have won if there were such performances, but this just made the decision process all the easier. Bale has always been a chameleon. He has not only changed his appearance, but he's morphed his body for every role he's been. In The Fighter he is a charismtic drug addict who believes he should be the only one helping his brother to victory. He is riviting. He is odd, and loud, and goofy, and you can't keep your eyes off of him. It's a spectacular performance to add to a spectacular career. I don't know how he can continue to go up, but I have no doubt that he's going to.
Runner Up: John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
The only other male supporting performance this year that really connected with me was this one. Hawkes is electric in this role. He's the kind of character actor that you never realize is in everything until they explode in something. This is his explosion.
Best Supporting Actress: Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
This was by far the hardest one to choose for me, but I settled on Barbara Hershey. She's is incredible in this role. So clearly emotionally abusive and manipulative with the guise of love. She plays it perfectly. She's dark and scary. She does love her daughter, but almost too much. She's the villain of the film. Or is she? How much of what we see of her is how she really is and how much is Nina's perception? Is Nina this damaged because of how controlling her mother is or is her mother this controlling because she knows how damaged Nina is? The film doesn't give us an answer. What it gives us is an incredible and terrifying performance from a fantastic actress.
Runner up: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit and Leslie Mannville, Another Year
Steinfeld really isn't a supporting performance. She's lead. But she wouldn't have made my lead list and she's so terrific she deserves to be cited somewhere. Mannville has the difficult task of taking someone innately annoying and off-putting and making her human. This is much more difficult than it sounds. It's easy to take a character like that, pump them full of cliches and play it. Sitcoms can do that. Children on the Disney Channel can do that. Mannville creates someone who we all know and lets us see beneath the vail to the broken person underneath. We even understand her to an extent. We feel for her. It's a pretty tremendous piece of acting.
Well that's it. Come back soon for the next post which will include by picks for Best Actor and Best Actress. Until then,
Soupy Twist.
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