Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Best Picture category at the Oscars 2011

Although I’m still not a big fan of the Academy doubling the number of Best Picture nominees (I think it’s mostly so people like me will go out and see more movies), I am happy to see that genre films are definitely being represented again this year.

Black Swan: I actually went and saw this movie last Sunday, and believe me, it is definitely a psychological horror film. It’s kind of funny, because on the surface, it’s just a story about a ballet dancer who may be in over her head with her next role. The thing is, this movie moves pretty quickly into some pretty messed-up visuals. Considering I’ve only seen a few ballet films (The Red Shoes was my favourite until this one), I’ve got to say I was impressed that it both kept and transcended the style of the traditional ballet film.

Inception: Having already reviewed this SF mind-bender of a film, all I can say now is that the nomination gives me a good reason to rewatch the movie. Although I’m pretty sure this year will either go to Black Swan or The King’s Speech, I am really happy to see that this amazing film was nominated.

Toy Story 3: Honestly – I haven’t seen this one yet, and the fact that it is also nominated for best animated feature effectively kills any chance it has in the major category. I will say that considering the second of these films was originally going to be a direct-to-DVD release, this series has done exceptionally well for itself. I do have a copy on hold at the library, but as I’m number 57 in the hold queue, I’m not entirely sure I’ll see it before the big night.

So there you go, my final impression, Black Swan has the best chance of the genre pics nominated to win, but we'll see in March.

1 comment:

  1. To be fair, I think True Grit is also a "genre" pick (just not a sci-fi/fantasy genre), but the fact that it's the Coens kind of blinds people to that fact. However, I'll agree: Black Swan has the best shot of those three. My money's on King's Speech or True Grit, though

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