Thursday, December 16, 2010

2011 Golden Globe Nominations - Film (by Dave Machado)


Welcome to Part 2 of my amazing coverage of the 2011 Golden Globe nominations. Today I'll be taking a look at the film nominees and giving my take on who should win (but mostly complaining about who didn't get nominated). For the poor souls who missed out on my TV coverage, I direct you to Part 1.

Best Film (Drama)
  • Black Swan
  • The Fighter
  • Inception
  • The King's Speech
  • The Social Network
Thoughts: Out of these movies, my favorite is Inception. However, I don't think this is a movie that wins awards (except Score, which we will get to later). I also think The Social Network is out of the running to win, leaving it down to Black Swan, The Fighter, and The King's Speech. Of those three, I feel like The King's Speech is the easiest pick to win. Just for fun, I'm going to go for the long shot and call it for Black Swan though. Body horror for the win! Missing from this category? The American. Also? Piranha 3D.

Best Actress (Drama)
  • Halle Berry - Frankie and Alice
  • Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
  • Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
  • Natalie Portman - Black Swan
  • Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine
Thoughts: I would love to see Natalie Portman win this but I think Kidman will walk away with the Golden Globe. Portman will get the Oscar though so it's OK.

Best Actor (Drama)
  • Jesse Eisenberg - Social Network
  • Colin Firth - The King's Speech
  • James Franco - 127 Hours
  • Ryan Gosling - Blue Valentine
  • Mark Wahlburg - The Fighter
Thoughts: I was torn here between Franco and Firth. I'm going with Firth clearly because he has more buzz going into the awards season but it could go either way. I think Eisenberg's nomination is more of a "welcome to the club" nod and not an actual contender to win. Lastly, Gosling and Wahlburg don't have enough hype for them to squeeze out an upset. Clooney deserved a nod here for The American.

Best Film (Comedy/Musical)
  • Alice in Wonderland
  • Burlesque
  • The Kids Are Alright
  • Red
  • The Tourist
Thoughts: The Kids Are Alright needs to win this. Anything else is just a giant joke. Were there really no good comedies this year? Also, how is The Kids Are Alright a comedy? Who decides these things? Scott Pilgrim should have replaced Alice in Wonderland, Red, or The Tourist. Then two other movies should replace the other ones.

Best Actress (Comedy/Musical)
  • Annette Bening - The Kids Are Alright
  • Anne Hathaway - Love and Other Drugs
  • Angelina Jolie - The Tourist
  • Julianne Moore - The Kids Are Alright
  • Emma Stone - Easy A
Thoughts: It's awesome Emma Stone got nominated but she has zero chance at winning. I think it's down to either Bening or Moore. I'll give Moore the edge here. The other possibility is that Hathaway wins due to fans of The Kids Are Alright splitting the votes. Basically, just don't let Angelina Jolie win.

Best Actor (Comedy/Musical)
  • Johnny Depp - Alice in Wonderland
  • Johnny Depp - The Tourist
  • Paul Giamatti - Barney's Version
  • Jake Gyllenhaal - Love and Other Drugs
  • Kevin Spacey - Casino Jack
Thoughts: I almost don't care who wins this as long as it is not Johnny Depp. I flipped a coin and it landed on it's side so that means Gyllenhaal wins. No offense to Johnny Depp but those two movies look pretty terrible. They basically picked him because he is a big star and they shy away from actual "comedic" performances even though the category says it is for comedy. Who's missing from here? Cher for Burlesque.

Best Supporting Actress
  • Amy Adams - The Fighter
  • Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech
  • Mila Kunis - Black Swan
  • Melissa Leo - The Figher
  • Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom
Thoughts: Mila Kunis was great in Black Swan but I don't think she was good enough to win awards. I'm going with Carter on this one. At least they nominated her for The King's Speech and not Alice in Wonderland.

Best Supporting Actor
  • Christian Bale - The Fighter
  • Michael Douglas - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
  • Andrew Garfield - The Social Network
  • Jeremy Renner - The Town
  • Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech
Thoughts: This is a hard one to call between Rush and Bale. Bale is getting some pretty good buzz for this role and even seems more open when doing press and not being his usual quiet (or angry) self. I'm picking Bale simply because I think it would be better to see him win. I'm glad Garfield got a nomination for The Social Network though. I also wouldn't have minded seeing Timberlake get a nod as well. I'd be happy with anyone winning except Douglas. His nomination should have went to either Tom Hardy or Joseph Gordon-Levitt from Inception.

Best Animated Film
  • Despicable Me
  • How To Train Your Dragon
  • The Illusionist
  • Tangled
  • Toy Story 3
Thoughts: Normally I would call it for any Pixar movie without further comments. However Toy Story 3 didn't effect me as much as Wall-E and Up did the past two years. Save for a fantastic final act, I was a bit let down by Toy Story 3 and found it to be enjoyable but unnecessary. I liked Despicable Me a lot more and thought it had a great original story that featured the creation of the best side characters (Minions) in years. How To Train Your Dragon was also a big surprise and a movie that I respect a lot for how the story unfolded. Having said that, I still think Pixar will walk away with the award. Next year is when the Pixar winning streak is in real jeopardy (Cars 2).

Best Foreign Language Film
  • Biutiful
  • The Concert
  • The Edge
  • I Am Love
  • In a Better World
Thoughts: I feel a bit unqualified to even speak about this since I know nothing about the nominees. I'm going with Biutiful purely on that fact that it's the newest film from the director of Babel.

Best Director
  • Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan
  • David Fincher - The Social Network
  • Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
  • Christopher Nolan - Inception
  • David O. Russell - The Fighter
Thoughts: Nolan deserves this award for pulling off such a complex film like Inception. However, despite his amazing job, I don't think he will actually win. It's pretty much a toss up from there as far as I'm concerned. Despite him being my least favorite choice, I'm going to go with my gut and say Hooper wins for The King's Speech.

Best Screenplay
  • Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle - 127 Hours
  • Christopher Nolan - Inception
  • Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko - The Kids Are Alright
  • David Seidler - The King's Speech
  • Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network
Thoughts: Sorkin deserves this award simply for the opening scene of The Social Network. Nevermind that every scene after that is filled with continuously amazing dialog that moves at a fantastic pace without ever getting bogged down in unnecessary drama. No one else should even have a chance to win. As much as I loved Inception, I think the script was a bit too expository to win the award. The concept of the story is a masterpiece, but the actual words spoken no screen sometimes are a bit too explanatory (though in the movie's defense, the mechanics of the dreamworld are far too complex to have done it any other way).

Best Original Score
  • Alexandre Desplat - The King's Speech
  • Danny Elfman - Alice in Wonderland
  • A. R. Rahman - 127 Hours
  • Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network
  • Hans Zimmer - Inception
Thoughts: I am surprised at the lack of a nomination for Tron: Legacy as I have been hearing non-stop praise for Daft Punk's score. Also, I believe Scott Pilgrim vs. The World deserves a nod here as well. But none of that matters because regardless of who else was nominated, nothing would be able to top Hanz Zimmer's amazingly epic score for Inception.

Best Original Song
  • "Bound To You" - Burlesque
  • "Coming Home" - Country Strong
  • "I See The Light" - Tangled
  • "There's a Place For Us" - Chronincles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  • "You Haven't Seen The Last of Me" - Burlesque
Thoughts: Attention filmmakers, if you want to win Best Original Song from now on, you must have the word "Country" in your movie title. Last year's victory from Country Heart will be followed by this year's win for Gwyneth Paltrow's "Coming Home" from Country Strong. Someone better start making a movie called "Country Love." May I suggest Courtney Love as the singer/actress? Thought I guess you'd have to remove the "o" from Country if you went that route.

You're Welcome,
Dave

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