Awards Daily Readers’ Poll Best Films of 2011

Posted by Ryan Adams on Dec 31, 2011 in BEST PICTURE | 209 comments

Choose your 10 favorite films of 2011, after the cut.

Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo: What it Feels Like for a Girl

Posted by Sasha Stone on Dec 31, 2011 in David Fincher, featured, Reviews, Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | 76 comments

Men Who Hate Women. That’s what Stieg Larsson called his book, which then became The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. To know this story is to know Larsson. If you forget about him, the key to this story is lost. The story is about men who hate women and the women who fight back. Larsson was a bit of a hero in this and other battles he personally fought throughout his very short life. He was against the extreme right in Sweden, against racism and misogyny.  After witnessing the rape of the a 15 year old girl named Lisbeth, he never forgave himself for failing to help her.  This, it’s been said, was what motivated him to write his books.  A Swedish film did a great job of turning his book into a movie that was sold in countries all over the world. So why remake it at all?

Because a story about a female avenging those men who hate women is more relevant now that it ever has been. In fact, it’s downright revolutionary. The only kind of women we see are those who are unrealistic comic book heroes, or those who are trussed up as ultimate fantasy fodder for gamers. It’s getting worse, not better.

So, you could do as many a critic will no doubt suggest, not remake the movie. Let it just sit out there in Sweden as “their story.” Or, a popular American director like David Fincher can make Dragon Tattoo redux – he can take this well known story, render it with an obsessive’s eye, redefine its archetypical characters and most importantly, give a much wider audience the chance to experience the film’s gravitational center: Lisbeth Salander.

Oscar Confusion: Some Academy Members Befuddled by New Ballots

Posted by Ryan Adams on Dec 30, 2011 in OSCAR BALLOT | 60 comments

Nothing like kicking off the new year with Oscar befuddlement.

(THR) Most Academy members have now received their Oscar nominations ballots, which were mailed out on Tuesday, and THR is beginning to hear from some of them who are profoundly confused by the new voting system. The primary area of concern is over the number of best picture nominees.

Was there no better way to phrase that? Our most hallowed Hollywood tradition entrusted to “profoundly confused” hands?

Back on June 14, the Academy announced that, as part of an effort “to add a new twist to the 2011 Best Picture competition and a new element of surprise to its annual nominations announcement,” it would no longer guarantee spots for 10 films in the category, but would instead have anywhere from five to 10 depending on how many attain first place votes on at least five percent of submitted ballots.

Don’t panic. It’s all explained after the cut.

“Unwitting Feminist: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher”

Posted by Ryan Adams on Dec 30, 2011 in BEST ACTRESS, Meryl Streep | 43 comments

Sasha referenced this ripples of this great piece by Thelma Adams earlier today.  Well worth a read.

Meryl Streep has been raking in awards and nominations for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. But accolades for best picture, best director, or best script? Zip.

That’s the conventional wisdom on The Iron Lady: Streep deserves the Oscar for playing the British Prime Minister, but director Phyllida Lloyd does not craft a movie equal to the performance. That’s typically when someone snorts that Lloyd also directed the critically panned Mamma Mia! Reality check:

Not only did that musical showcase a bold, silly, sexy, singing Streep, it was also her all-time biggest money-maker, grossing $610 million worldwide.

Trouble in Mind – Diving Down Deep with Best Actress

Posted by Sasha Stone on Dec 30, 2011 in Elizabeth Olsen, featured, Kirsten Dunst, Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Rooney Mara, Tilda Swinton, Viola Davis | 154 comments

Three of the year’s strongest female performances threaten convention, the one that says females are usually cast as supporting, loving, noble characters who give of themselves in the service of the male lead.  It’s not always the case, especially not so in the Best Actress race; what better way to get attention from Oscar voters than to go dark.

But in a year of such uplifting, feelgood films with admirable male leads, it’s interesting that when you look over at Best Actress, the reverse is true. With the exception of Viola Davis in The Help, the females are either not likable, or existing in their own ways on the fringes of the norm.  However, because women are a minority, they are always going to be held to the good role model/bad role model test.  Men, unless they’re Black or Hispanic, don’t really get held to this restriction.  But women – the dark always turns to whether women can be unlikable and still be strong Best Actress contenders.  Such was the case last year with Natalie Portman who played a prickly dancer in Black Swan.  Her ability to drive the story, to earn our pity and to fascinate us with every turn of her head inevitably won out — the warm fuzzies didn’t.