King’s Speech | the m0vie blog

Oscar Fatigue and the Pain of a Predictable Race…

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Darren

You know what? At this stage I’ve seen nine of the ten Best Picture nominees this year, and I’m quite happy. There isn’t a stinker amongst them, and all I’m short is 127 Hours (maybe this weekend, before the ceremony). And yet, despite being happier with the field than I have been in quite a while, I have to admit I’ve grown somewhat tired of the Oscars this year. Usually there’s some element of surprise, but everything this year seems so sown up that there’s really no energy left in the race. One need only look at the overwhelming consensus at Awards Daily to get a feeling for how stale the race is. Admittedly there’s generally a frontrunner or two, but this year it seems that most of the major awards might as well be handed out before the ceremony begins (just to make things more efficient).

You'd have to be trapped under a rock not to see the way this race is going...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, academy award for best director, Academy Award for Best Film Editing, Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay), academy awards, david fincher, films, King's Speech, Million Dollar Baby, Movies, Oscars | 9 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Winter’s Bone

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Darren

In many ways, Winter’s Bone is the Best Picture nominee most typical of the modern Oscars (or, at least, the criticism of the modern Oscars). While The Fighter echoes the every man appeal of Rocky, The King’s Speech is the archetypal historical and “triumph over adversity” tale, The Social Network is classic morality tale with a modern sheen and True Grit is the nostalgic entry, Winter’s Bone speaks the “indie” attitude that we’ve seen become dominant in the past decade. It’s a film rich in atmosphere and mood, with a bleakness that threatens to escape the screen and devour the audience whole, but it favours this lush approach over pacing and engagement. To say it is glacial, is an understatement.

The road ahead is bleak...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, arts, best picture, Daniel Woodrell, Debra Granik, films, Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, King's Speech, Movies, non-review review, Ozarks, review, United States, Winter's Bone | 6 Comments »

Are the Oscars Still a Pipe Dream for Christopher Nolan?

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Darren

As I write this, the clock is counting down. The Oscar race is in full swing. And I look back, and I really haven’t written too much about it. There are two reasons for this. The most obvious is that I haven’t seen too many of the contenders. Of the headliners, I have seen both The King’s Speech and The Social Network. I have yet to see The Black Swan, 127 Hours or True Grit. Of the lower-tier Oscar films, I have really only seen Inception and The Kids Are All Right. It isn’t that I don’t want to see them, it’s just that it has been a busy January and things have gotten in the way. The other reason I haven’t been blogging about it is because – barring what the competition between The King’s Speech and The Social Network says about the Academy – it has been a pretty bland year. There are so many “locks” that the race has become almost boring. In fact, the only real question I’m at all concerned about is whether Christopher Nolan will finally get that Best Director nomination he so sorely deserves.

Could this turn the Oscars upside down?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, academy award for outstanding direction, best director, best director oscar, Christopher Nolan, coen brothers, Darren Aronofsky, David O. Russell, films, Inception, King's Speech, Movies, snobbery, The Dark Knight | 9 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The King’s Speech

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Darren

The King’s Speech seems like the perfect storm of awards buzz. Released as we enter the year of a big royal wedding, featuring a lead actor who was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar last year, it seems to have an edge. In fact, my inner cynic went into the cinema listing off all the standard stereotypical Oscar bait criteria that the movie met: person overcoming adversity; unlikely friendship across social class; beautiful period costumes; hint of class; historical true story; tied in some way to the Second World War; a cast of respected and veteran character actors. I don’t think it would have been possible to plan a movie that so perfectly designed to win prestigious awards. I guess we should be thankful that it’s really very good.