The Best a Passion (of mine) Has to Offer

Two of my great passions in life are music and movies; I blog about them regularly. I enjoy the emotional connection I get from music when it’s done right; when I really get invested in the stories and the atmosphere of a song or a whole album. I’m a rock guy, so there’s usually not much room for bubbly pop stuff…but there are times when that music is certainly welcome…it’s almost a guilty pleasure.

Movies are the same way for me. When the story is engaging and the performances are so flawless that I’m drawn into the world of the film and experience the emotions the characters project, I consider it a home run. There is also room for fun-filled, mindless entertainment; Dumb & Dumber is still one of my all time favourite comedies.

But I still don’t like 3D.

*Mixing my two great passions can certainly make for an entertaining bit of video, too - more on this below*

Anyway, music has the Grammys – which are kind of a joke if you ask me (or The Simpsons); they tend to award based on popularity it seems – and movies have the Oscars. The Oscars, for the most part, award the industries best for doing exactly what I’ve described above: great acting, intriguing script, as well as some entertainment value – although popularity doesn’t always factor into it. For whatever reason, I watch the show every year – even though it always feels long – and I’m generally pretty satisfied with the outcome (How Shakespeare In Love beat Saving Private Ryan in 1998 is beyond me.)

This morning, the nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards (Oscars) were announced and I wasn’t really surprised by the list. There has been lots of talking leading up to it and the Golden Globes are usually considered a good indication of who will get the nod come Oscar time. I will say, though, I was surprised the Town didn’t get a little more love - Jeremy Renner got a much deserved Supporting Actor nod (which he’ll lose to Christian Bale) but that’s it – I was pretty impressed with it. (My Review). Also, Chris Nolan got snubbed in the directing category.

Anyway, I’ve included a list of nominees in the 8 major categories is below. I’ve also included links to my reviews of the ones I’ve seen…hopefully I’ll catch up on the rest before February 27^th. What are your thoughts? What was your favourite movie of 2010?

Best Picture:
Black Swan, The Fighter (My Review), Inception (My Revierw), The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network (My Review), Toy Story 3, True Grit (My Review), Winter’s Bone.

Best Actor:
Javier Bardem - Biutiful; Jeff Bridges - True Grit; Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network; Colin Firth - The King’s Speech; James Franco - 127 Hours.

Best Actress:
Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right; Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole; Jennifer Lawrence - Winter’s Bone; Natalie Portman - Black Swan; Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine.

Best Supporting Actor:
Christian Bale - The Fighter; John Hawkes - Winter’s Bone; Jeremy Renner - The Town; Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are All Right; Geoffrey Rush - The King’s Speech

Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams - The Fighter; Helena Bonham Carter - The King’s Speech; Melissa Leo -The Fighter; Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit; Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom.

Best Director:
Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan; David O. Russell - The Fighter; Tom Hooper - The King’s Speech; David Fincher - The Social Network; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - True Grit

Best Adapted Screenplay: Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy, - 127 Hours; Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network; Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich - Toy Story 3; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - True Grit; Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini - Winter's Bone

Best Original Screenplay: Mike Leigh – Another Year; Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson and Keith Dorrington - The Fighter; Christopher Nolan - Inception; Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg - The Kids Are All Right; David Seidler - The King's Speech

If you want to see a full list of the nominees, go here.

Cheers,
-Crash-

*My chocie fro best score would be Hans Zimmer 's score for Inception..that music is just killer...and goes well when used with other films too...case in point: Ghostbusters...Inception style; enjoy: