Oscar Nominations - Acting

Whoo, is this thing still here? I must have fallen asleep or something. Did anything important happen while I was gone? What's that? I already missed the Golden Globes? Meh, everybody just makes fun of those anyway. Oh! The Oscar nominations were announced recently. And for once in my life, I have actually seen ALL of the nominees for best picture. This year I will have a fully prepared viewing experience going into the awards. Therefore I have decided to give you, my loyal handful of readers my opinions. I was originally going to do this in one post, but there's a lot of categories, and I'm kind of lazy. So it will be broken up into a few separate posts. So without further ado, here are the nominations and my picks for who will win the acting categories.

Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem-Biutiful
Jeff Bridges-True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg-The Social Network
Colin Firth-The King's Speech
James Franco-127 Hours

Now I haven't seen Biutiful (I don't think it's playing around here anyway) but I think this one has to go to Colin Firth. He's the front runner, and I think he absolutely deserves it. At no point during The King's Speech did it ever occur to me that he DIDN'T actually have a stutter. If there was a second place prize though, it would have to go to James Franco. If you haven't seen 127 Hours you need to, if only for his performance.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale-The Fighter
John Hawkes-Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner-The Town
Mark Ruffalo-The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush-The King's Speech


Of these five I've seen all but The Town. This category is another two man race coming down to Christian Bale and Geoffrey Rush, both of whom gave excellent and memorable performances. John Hawkes was completely forgettable in Winter's Bone and Mark Ruffalo did fine in The Kids Are All Right but I don't think there's any chance either one of them wins it. My pick is Bale. Geoffrey Rush did an amazing job in The Kings Speech but between Bale's Boston accent and his stunning weight loss for the role, I think he's got it in the bag.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams-The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter-The Kings Speech
Melissa Leo-The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld-True Grit
Jacki Weaver-Animal Kingdom


First of all, let's get this out of the way. Hailee Steinfeld does not belong in this category. It's not because her performance was not good enough, quite the opposite in fact. Hailee Steinfeld belongs in the Best Actress category. She's on almost every frame of True Grit and is the main character to boot. Having said that, this is probably the single toughest category to call. I haven't seen  Animal Kingdom, but literally any one from this category could win and i wouldn't be upset. As for who I want to win, I have to go with Amy Adams. Because I'm in love with her. Also she gave an excellent performance in The Fighter. It was much more subtle than other rolls I've seen her in, and even though her character wasn't likable at some points, she always manages to be a sympathetic character.

Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening-The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman-Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence-Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman-Black Swan
Michelle Williams-Blue Valentine

For me, there's only one choice in this category. But before I get to that let's talk about the others for a second. I haven't seen  Blue Valentine or Rabbit Hole and to be honest, I don't really care to. I hear good things about Michelle Williams, but from what I understand Blue Valentine is brutal. Nicole Kidman gets the nod for being Nicole Kidman and being sad for 120 minutes. Jennifer Lawrence was the only good part I found in Winter's Bone, a film I found pretty boring (I'll get to that in a later post). That leaves Annette Bening  and Natalie Portman. I think there's a decent chance Bening wins this just because of Oscar politics, but for my money. Natalie Portman gave THE single greatest performance this year. Out of anyone in any movie. Through most of the movie, it might not seem like she's doing that much acting, but by the time you get to the last 20 minutes of Black Swan she cuts loose and gives it everything she has. And it's beautiful, terrifying, and sad but above all it's spectacular.


Well that's all the acting categories. Let me know if you have any different picks. Look out for another post tomorrow on some of the technical categories.