My annual run up to the Oscars is officially complete. For the third time in 4 years, I've seen all the Best Picture nominees, something I'm geekily proud of. I will freely admit, however, this year's "accomplishment" didn't really fulfill me in the way last year's did. I'll get into that after I present my list.
To create this list, I ranked all sixteen films I saw for this project in order, 1-16, ignoring what was actually nominated for Best Picture or not. I then went through my list to come up with my offical Best Picture nominee rankings, but opted to leave the list as-is when I looked at the results.
Without further adieu...
timmmc.com's Official Oscar Watch 2011 Rankings
Best Picture nominees indicated with an asterisk
- The Artist*
- 50/50
- Drive
- The Descendants*
- War Horse*
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- The Ides of March
- The Help*
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close*
- J. Edgar
- Midnight in Paris*
- The Iron Lady
- Moneyball*
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II
- Hugo*
- The Tree of Life*
Yes, The Artist is the best film of the 2011 for me, by quite a margin. Did I love it so much because of what it was, something so new and so fresh to me? Maybe. I'm only speaking the obvious when I say silent films just aren't made much anymore. But The Artist is more than just a silent movie: it's a very funny comedy with a whole lot of heart, something I happen to appreciate a ton. The performances were wonderful, the screenplay funny and unpredictable, the direction spot-on, everything. Without a doubt, to me, this is a film that deserves every accolade it's recieved and will recieve. And it will recieve quite a bit come the Oscars ceremony, I'm sure of it.
Looking through the rest of the list, I have to say... WTF, Academy? I understand nominations for some of the nominees, and, hell, I even understand some of the glaring snubs (in my opinion). But The Tree of Life or Hugo nominated? Really? I'm sure I could go back through 2011 and find at least 5 other films I'd consider nominating over either of those two. I'd also consider Moneyball to be in this WTF category. I find it disappointing how mediocrity is rewarded.
As I discussed in my open, I didn't find this year's project as fulfilling as year's past. Last year, I enjoyed comparing The Social Network and The King's Speech in my head, coming up with pros and cons of each, thinking over which film was better made, all that good stuff. This year? Not so much. The Artist was a clear winner for me. Last year, the project led me to watch a whole bunch of great films... this year was filled with disappointing mediocrity, or worse.
Some other predictions (only half-hearted, as I admit to not seeing all the nominees in most categories)...
- Best Actor: in a two-man race between George Clooney and Jean Dujardin, I have to go with Clooney... but I haven
- Best Actress: I haven't seen Albert Nobbs or My Week With Marilyn, but I love me some Viola Davis. That said, Meryl Streep was a force as Maggie Thatcher, and she's past due...
- Supporting Actor & Actress: I haven't seen enough of the performances to really judge. Of the ones I HAVE seen though, I'd go with Max von Sydow & Bérénce Bejo.
- Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
- Adapted Screenplay & Original Screenplay: again, I haven't seen all the nominees, but The Ides of March and Midnight in Paris of the ones I have seen.
But, anyhoo, there you have it. It's been real, 2011 film year. Here's to hoping 2012 is more like 2010!
