***A Special thanks to my big sister, Brittany Elwyn, for helping me out with all of the lovely graphics featured below***
Best Picture:
And the Nominees are...
Attack the Block
Beginners
Hugo
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Melancholia
The Tree of Life
Young Adult
Just a few short days ago, I discussed all of these picks at length, so I won't bother kicking a dead horse. A small note, however: I think that, despite its near-deplorable first execution, the Academy's idea of nominating anywhere between 5-10 movies for Best Picture is a brilliant plan, so I adopted it. These seven are the flicks that represent the very top tier of filmmaking in 2011.
And the Collin goes to...
The Tree of Life
What can I say? The Tree of Life is beautiful, majestic, hypnotizing, and trail-blazing. Even if it's occasionally maddeningly imperfect, no other 2011 entry had half the ambition, and the fact that the film's staggeringly enormous scope was in any way realized, let alone gloriously, should be celebrated.
Runner-Up: Martha Marcy May Marlene
Best Director:
And the Nominees are...
Sean Durkin---Martha Marcy May Marlene
Terrence Malick---The Tree of Life
Mike Mills---Beginners
Martin Scorsese---Hugo
Lars von Trier---Melancholia
Sean Durkin is the definition of a natural, crafting an absolutely terrifying, spell-binding, and electric movie on his very first attempt. Malick is a mad man with an undeniable eye for beauty, and no other human being on earth could have concocted the cosmic opus that is The Tree of Life. Translating his own personal story without ever coming off as self-congragilatory, Mike Mills helmed a terrific cast in one of the most artistic and heartening films of the year. Scorsese pulled yet another rabbit out of his seemingly bottomless hat, showing us jaded film-goers just how revelatory and amazing 3-D can be, all whilst poetically expressing his boundless love for the medium. Melancholia might be one of the most powerful films ever made about depression, and it's thanks to von Trier that the audience not only understands how it arises, but comes to understand how it feels.
And the Collin goes to...
Terrence Malick---The Tree of Life
Malick, not pictured above due to his notorious avoidance of all things public, conceptualizes and executes movies like no one else in the history of film. The Tree of Life might be one of his messiest flicks to date, but it's also his most elating, transcendent, and purely awe-inspiring. His work here makes jaws drop.
Runner-Up: Sean Durkin---Martha Marcy May Marlene
Best Actor:
And the Nominees are...
Jean Dujardin---The Artist
Michael Fassbender---Shame
Michael Shannon---Take Shelter
Filippo Timi---The Double Hour
Jacob Wysocki---Terri
Jean Dujardin, previously unknown in America, and thought of primarily as a comic actor in his native France, pulls off what could have been one of the most obnoxious lead performances of the year with deft dramatic balance, and spectacular physicality. Eating up the screen every moment that he's on it, Fassbender's Brandon Sullivan is a spectacular mess, displaying both the charm, and the utter depravity that it took to get where he is today. I might not be the biggest fan of Take Shelter, but Shannon positively dominates the film, performing a rare feat of under acting on his part, displaying the confusion and fear of his character without ever over-doing it. Timi is the brooding, masculine center of one of the year's finest romances/mysteries, never showing his cards until the very end. In his feature debut, Wysocki is an understated natural, senses of pain, isolation, and even wonder crossing his face with complete believability.
And the Collin goes to...
Michael Fassbender---Shame
As fierce, committed, and breath-taking a performance as any given in 2011, Fassbender tops off his incredible 2011 by putting on an absolute clinic in Shame. He's the captain, MVP, and closer of one of 2011's best films, and his work towers over the competition.
Runner-Up: Michael Shannon---Take Shelter
Best Actress:
And the Nominees are...
Juliette Binoche---Certified Copy
Kirsten Dunst---Melancholia
Tilda Swinton---We Need to Talk About Kevin
Charlize Theron---Young Adult
Jeong-hie Yun---Poetry
As the center of Certified Copy's mysterious romance, Juliette Binoche navigates three languages, and some treacherous emotional territory without a single false step. Dunst begins Melancholia as a seemingly happy-go-lucky sort before slowly revealing palpable inner devastation. Swinton experiences similar pain, but her character's reaction is to bottle those feelings up, allowing subtle movements and flickers behind eyes to tell her story. The only actress of the bunch who gets to have genuine fun, Theron is the gloriously awful creature at the center of the monster movie that is Young Adult. Like Dunst, Yun travels from one emotional extreme to another, all bubbly and open-armed before the metaphorical storm comes, leaving her broken.
And the Collin goes to...
Juliette Binoche---Certified Copy
Binoche's face registers every emotion in the book, capturing the joy and excitement of good conversation, beautifully rendering the pain, confusion, and (potential) misery of her character with the utmost grace.
Runner-Up: Jeong-hie Yun---Poetry
Best Supporting Actor:
And the Nominees are...
Bruce Greenwood---Meek's Cutoff
Patton Oswalt---Young Adult
Brad Pitt---The Tree of Life
John C. Reilly---Terri
Corey Stoll---Midnight in Paris
Somehow, each and every, 'End of the Year,' list has completely forgotten Bruce Greenwood's theatrical, unrecognizable turn as Stephen Meek, but I won't let the gruff mountain man escape my list. Oswalt, in one of his largest acting roles to date, plays the self-effecing side of his character perfectly, burying his misery under a paper-thin veneer. As one of the two cosmic forces holding the key's to a young boy's fate, Brad Pitt gives the best non-hyper-showy performance of his career, his southern clenched jaw masking what might be a gentle man beneath the surface. Reilly does much of the strangely eager act that he's worked in many films, but Terri is savvy enough to linger on his insecurities for longer than most movies do, and what it finds there is fascinating. Finally, Stoll delivers Midnight in Paris's finest performance as a hilariously masculine Earnest Hemingway, offering life advise as he parties and scowls the night away.
And the Collin goes to...
Brad Pitt---The Tree of Life
In one of the most careful performances of the year, Pitt completely changes his body language and mannerisms, morphing into the iron-fisted southern Father figure than many boys idolized and feared in the 50's, alternating between friendly giant, and fearsome tyrant.
Runner-Up: Bruce Greenwood---Meek's Cutoff
Best Supporting Actress:
And the Nominees are...
Elena Anaya---The Skin I Live In
Bérénice Bejo---The Artist
Jessica Chastain---The Tree of Life
Carey Mulligan---Shame
Ellen Page---Super
Anaya lights up the screen in The Skin I Live In, sexy, wounded, and glamorous in just the way that her seedy, faux-noir flick needed. Bejo, like her co-star Dujardin, turns a potentially disastrous performance into one of the year's most memorable and endearing, her spark and pep radiating off of the screen. As a sort of surrogate for Mother Nature, Chastain delivers the most beautiful performance of the year, misting through her film, giving The Tree of Life's etherial concepts a face. No actor this year impressed me more with the sheer versatility of a performance than Mulligan, shedding her normally innocent, controlled shell to play a reckless mess of a woman with complete believability. Page, in one of 2011's most over-looked turns, morphs from intrusive comic geek to costume-wearing psychopath, gleefully reveling in every action.
And the Collin goes to...
Jessica Chastain---The Tree of Life
Malick uses Chastain as his explanation of grace in the world, and it's a testament to the illustriousness of her performance that she completely lives up to this calling.
Runner-Up: Carey Mulligan---Shame
Best Ensamble:
And the Nominees are...
A Separation
Attack the Block
Contagion
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
A really fun SAG category that has thus far escaped the glamour of Oscar night, I love this section. A Separation is littered with fine thespians, each doing their part to drive home one of 2011's biggest emotional roller coasters. The five youth's at the center of Attack the Block have a kind of chemistry that just can't be taught, and the way that they riff of of one another is the main reason that their movie is the funniest of the year. Contagion rallies together a handful of the planet's greatest actors, all believably employed in this thought-provoking examination of a world in crisis. Hugo is jam-packed with characters, each played with gooey nostalgia, perfectly expressive and sweeping. And what is Midnight in Paris if not an excuse to feature great performances from actors playing literary idols, though we'd be wise not to forget that it's Owen's charming innocence and naivety at the center of the film that makes the whole thing work.
And the Collin goes to...
Hugo
It's such a big, flashy, show-casey kind of movie, with so many winning turns in what could have been cloying roles... this has to be the one.
Runner-Up: Midnight in Paris
Best Screenplay:
And the Nominees are...
Joe Cornish---Attack the Block
Mike Mills---Beginners
Kristen Wiig, and Annie Mumolo---Bridesmaids
Scott Z. Burns---Contagion
Alessandro Fabbri, Ludovica Rampoldi, and Stefano Sardo---The Double Hour
Denis Villeneuve---Incendies
Sean Durkin---Martha Marcy May Marlene
Woody Allen---Midnight in Paris
Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver---The Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Patrick Dewitt---Terri
And the Collin goes to...
Mike Mills---Beginners
There was hardly an Adapted Screenplay worth mention this past year, so I just picked the ten that I liked best, regardless of distinction. My favorite is Beginners, a film that finds an adorable, gorgeous way to tell a very difficult, personal story. The love letter to Mills' late father never misses a beat.
Runner-Up: Patrick Dewitt---Terri
Best Foreign Language:
And the Nominees are...
Certified Copy
The Double Hour
Incendies
Poetry
The Skin I Live In
And the Collin goes to...
Incendies
An epic that's Shakespearian in scope, Incendies is an enormous, captivating effort that keeps you guessing until the very end. One of 2011's most engaging entries.
Runner-Up: The Double Hour
Best Cinematography:
And the Nominees are...
Joel Hodge---Bellflower
Alwin H. Kuchler---Hanna
Robert Richardson---Hugo
Jody Lee Lipes---Martha Marcy May Marlene
Emmanuel Lubezki---The Tree of Life
And the Collin goes to...
Emmanuel Lubezki---The Tree of Life
What a year for camera men! Both Richardson and Lipes deserve a lot of credit, the former hurling us through a 3-D world beyond our imagination, the latter putting us in a trance with his images. But the award has to go to Lubezki, who, simply put, shot one of the most staggeringly beautiful movies ever committed to film.
Runner-Up: (tie) Robert Richardson---Hugo, and Jody Lee Lipes---Martha Marcy May Marlene
Best Editing:
And the Nominees are...
Guido Notari---The Double Hour
Paul Tothill---Hanna
Thelma Schoonmaker---Hugo
Paul Hirsch---Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol
Zachary Stuart-Pontier---Martha Marcy May Marlene
And the Collin Goes to...
Zachary Stuart-Pontier---Martha Marcy May Marlene
Martha Marcy May Marlene owes a ton of its power to Stuart-Pontier, who's mysterious juxtapositions keep the film's mystery moving, and audience members on the edges of their seats.
Runner-Up: Paul Hirsch---Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol
Best Score:
And the Nominees are...
Cliff Martinez---Drive
The Chemical Brothers---Hanna
Howard Shore---Hugo
Dario Marianelli---Jane Eyre
Hans Zimmer---Rango
And the Collin goes to...
The Chemical Brothers---Hanna
As far as which I'd most like to listen to on its own, I might choose Hugo, but the manner in which The Chemical Brothers power and color the year's greatest action movie is too stunning to be denied.
Runner-Up: Howard Shore---Hugo
Best Sound:
And the Nominees are...
Drive
Hanna
Hugo
Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol
The Tree of Life
And the Collin goes to...
Hugo
Hugo is a textural masterpiece, and its owes this as much to its lush visuals as its amazing sound design. The Train sequence is almost worth this award by itself.
Runner-Up: The Tree of Life
Hype Starts Here's Top 40 Movies of 2011:
Coming Oscar Week:
The Second Annual Elwyns (If Hype Starts Here was in charge of the Oscars)
Oscar Recap (Coming 2-27-2012)
I love the inclusion of THE DOUBLE HOUR and especially Filippo Timi's performance. In my opinion he deserved to win Best Supporting Actor last year for VINCERE.
ReplyDelete