MY OSCAR PICKS & PREDICTIONS

MY 2011 . . . IF I PICKED THE OSCARS LIST...

BEST PICTURE (At least 5 & up to 10, if deserving of nomination)

I’ve got 5 because there were only 3 I thought deserving...

The BEAVER
The DEBT *
50 / 50
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
WAR HORSE

Apes & Beaver barely beat out- Horrible Bosses, Paul & We Bought A Zoo!

BEST ACTOR
DANIEL CRAIG (Dragon Tattoo)
MEL GIBSON (as The Beaver)
BRENDAN GLEESON (The Guard)
RYAN GOSLING** (Ides Of March)
JOSEPH-GORDON LEVITT** (50/50)

ACTRESS
VIOLA DAVIS (Help!)
ROONEY MARA (Dragon Tattoo)
HELEN MIRREN** (Debt)
EMMA STONE (Help!)
MERYL STREEP (Iron Lady)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
KENNETH BRANAGH (My Week With Marilyn)
JESPER CHRISTENSON** (The Debt)
GIOVANNI RIBISI (The Rum Diary)
ANDY SERKIS (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
SAM WORTHINGTON (The Debt)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
JENNIFER ANISTON (Horrible Bosses)
JESSICA CHASTAIN** (The Help! & The Debt)
ELLE FANNING (Super 8)
NAOMI WATTS (J. Edgar)
SHAILENE WOODLEY (The Descendants)

Keeping in mind I have not seen ‘Tree Of Life’, ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ or ‘Beginners’ I would have liked to but they never came to the South End.


OF THE ACTUAL NOMINEES...

Of the 9 Best Pictures, I’ve seen 6; loved 1, really liked 1, liked, but was disappointed by 1 was less-than-thrilled by 1, was annoyed by 1 & hated 1.
The only one I know I’ll never see is the so-called favorite, “The Artist” – This, & “Hugo” are the type of movies Hollywood likes to embrace because they’re about making movies when movies were sh--ty.
I’m hoping ‘Tree Of Life’ comes on HBO before the Oscars so I’ll know if it’s as bad as Sean Penn claims, or a masterpiece, as the snooty critics call it.
I have little desire to see ‘Midnight In Paris’ but will if it comes to HBO.
Why ‘The Debt’ & ‘50/50’ were not nominated baffles me about as much as ‘Moneyball’
& ‘Extremely Loud’ getting in instead.
‘The Help’ & ‘Descendants’ are good flicks, I have no problem with them being here.
Surprised that ‘Girl With Dragon Tattoo’ didn’t get a nod.
Glad that ‘Bridesmaids’ didn’t – if a pure comedy were to make it, ‘Horrible Bosses’ or
‘Paul’ should have been the choices.
My pick among the nominees; ‘War Horse’ is clearly the best.
MY PREDICTION, however, is ‘The ARTIST’

ACTOR; Saw 3 & have mixed feelings – I like Clooney but he was so MUCH BETTER in Michael Clayton that it seems a shame that he’s favored to win for ‘Descendants’. In fact, I would have preferred he get a Supporting nod for ‘Ides OfMarch’...
& Gary Oldman has NEVER been nominated??? But they give him one for what has to be his dullest performance ever? I guess I’m glad he’s in it because he’s long
deserved to have ‘Academy Award nominee’ next to his credits, but I can’t root for such a boring film... & Brad Pitt... REALLY? I’ve been warming up to him lately – ‘Benjamin Button’ was a deserved nomination & I liked him in ‘Burn After Reading’, &, of course, my favorite of his, ‘Seven’, but ‘Moneyball’ is a bottom 10 piece of yawn inducing junk. The only thing that would be more mystifying is if they nominated Jonah Hill for his extremely bland supporting role...
I don’t plan on ever seeing the other 2 nominees, ‘A Better Life’ or ‘The Artist’.
Me? I don’t have a strong choice here – any one of my 5 choices (none of which were nominated) would be deserving in my eyes. Heck, of my next 5 choices, only George Clooney is among the actual nominees (For the record they are; Clooney, Matt Damon (Zoo) Johnny Depp (Rum) Leonardo DiCaprio (J.Edgar) & Jake Gyllenhaal (Source Code)
My choice would be to call it a tie between Ryan Gosling & Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
My PREDICTION is The French guy that doesn’t say anything in ‘The Artist’

ACTRESS; I haven’t seen ‘Albert Nobbs’, don’t plan to – it just looks creepy. Surprisingly, I have no qualms with any of the nominees (3 of the 5 made my list)
The only reason Michelle Williams didn’t is because I saw Michelle, not Marilyn; though as I said, she had the mannerisms & voice down pat, so I’m okay with her getting a nod.
& honestly, Rooney Mara made my list only because my other selection was Jodie Foster for ‘The Beaver’ and I felt that she wasn’t in the film enough to warrant a Best Actress selection.
My selection here is Helen Mirren for ‘The Debt’.
MY PREDICTION is Viola Davis – but Meryl Streep wouldn’t be a shock.

SUPPORTING ACTORS; I wished I’d seen ‘Beginners’. Since I did not, my selection is Jesper Christenson (The Nazi doctor in ‘The Debt’) with a runner-up nod to Andy Serkis (Rise of Planet of the Apes) Neither of them were nominated.
MY PREDICTION one one Sure bet is Christopher Plummer for ‘Beginners’ – a revered 82 year old actor that’s only had one nomination? (also for Supporting) Add that he was pretty good in ‘Dragon Tattoo’ this year & he’s a shoe-in.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS; This category is almost always a farce because there never are 5 deserving performances. This year I at least found 5 performances that I liked, but
would I have called them Oscar caliber? Elle Fanning impressed me as a CHILD actress in ‘Super 8’, but I don’t normally recognize child actors because they are children. I also gave credit to Shailene Woodley for being the most impressive actress in ‘The Descendants’ & Jennifer Aniston for finally playing someone other than Rachel Green in ‘Horrible Bosses’. So that leaves the under appreciated Naomi Watts (‘J. Edgar’) & the busiest little actress of 2011, Jessica Chastain (they say ‘The Help’, but I’m adding ‘The Debt’ to the mix because she was superb in both) so Jessica is my pick.
MY PREDICTION is OCTAVIA SPENCER (Help!) I loved how she sang ‘Ticket To Ride’ while skiing down the Alps...

DIRECTOR; I’m going with non-nominated Steven Speilberg (“War Horse”) which is funny because I’m not a big fan of his – well, he’s made some good films but he’s also made a lot of crap that for some unreasonable reason became massively popular.
MY PREDICTION ... this is a tough one – will they heap the majority of awards upon a black & white silent film, or give some love to the ‘other’ film about crappy movies, “Hugo”? Martin winning his first recently might throw some votes in another direction...
All right, I’ll say they continue the lovefest for ‘The Artist’ & say Michael Hazanavicius.

NOTABLE SNUB; ‘J. Edgar’ NOT nominated for MAKE-UP? Sure Armie Hammer’s was crap, but Leonardo’s & Naomi’s were perfect!

BIGGEST MISTAKE; ‘The Debt’ not being nominated for Best Picture.

BIGGEST JOKE; A silent movie, ‘The Artist’ being nominated for BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY . . . & Hollywood wants us to take them seriously???