Review: The 83rd Academy Awards

Read on for my thoughts on the 83rd annual ceremony!
 The Opening: Well, the ceremony started out like year's past, with a comic montage of Anne Hathaway and James Franco, our hosts for the evening, placed into some of the Best Picture noms. While it was pretty run of the mill, the Alec Baldwin dream was pretty funny, especially because of his recent line in 30 Rock about the fear of falling asleep on airplanes as to not be "incepted". The best part, however, was the awesome Back to the Future nod at the end. The opening monologue was funny and appealed to both the younger demographics the Academy was probably aiming for with the hiring of the two, but also included some classic humor.

Best Cinematography-Inception
Awesome! It's nice to know so quickly into the show that Inception was already getting some love. All the nominees in this category were great, but it was fantastic to see Inception win an award that wasn't along more technical lines. To me, it said the Academy did realize what an amazing film Inception really is.

Best Supporting Actress-Melissa Leo for The Fighter
This one felt like somewhat of a surprise despite her Golden Globe win, as the buzz for Hailee Steinfled was quite big. Nonetheless, Leo's performance was great, especially when we saw her accept her award-she hardly looked and sounded like the same person. This was another category that was well put together this year. Steinfeld was very impressive, but she's only 14, and it seems obvious to me that she'll get one down the road. It was cool to see Kirk Douglas presenting the award, because despite his slow speed (the man's 94!), he was charming and funny and had the room in the palm of his hand.

Best Animated Feature-Toy Story 3
The presenters for this were Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake in an obvious ploy to reach out to a younger audience, complete with a "there's an app for that" joke. Kunis and Timberlake weren't bad themselves though, and they both proved they're quite talented in Black Swan and The Social Network. In any case, there was really no surprise for this one. I would've liked to have seen The Illusionist win, as I felt it's animation was very unique and beautiful (which makes it fit the category more). Still, I'm happy to see Toy Story 3 win, as there is no doubt it's an incredible film.

Best Adapted Screenplay-Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
No surprise here, and absolutely the right choice. Sorkin is an incredible writer and arguably the best writer in the business today. Sorkin took the story of Facebook and made it exciting, funny, and enthralling. The Social Network has all of the right ingredients, but none better than it's screenplay.

Best Original Screenplay-The King's Speech
An interesting choice, but not necessarily surprising given the (deserved) buzz and number of nominations for the film. The King's Speech was excellently written in that it's time period was merely a back drop for a deeper story of humanity and friendship. I would've loved to see Inception win, but I knew it wasn't happening given the Academy's usual denial of films that can be considered blockbusters.

Best Supporting Actor-Christian Bale, The Fighter
This one seemed like another lock, though the buzz for Geoffrey Rush's performance in The King's Speech was big too. Bale very much deserved the award, as his performance was a full encapsulation of the real man he was portraying. Seeing him bulked up with a full beard and his native Welsh accent, as compared to a scrawny, wild boxer from Massachusetts makes you really see what an incredible actor he is.

Best Visual Effects-Inception
This is a more minor category and I haven't been giving my thoughts on those, but I was really happy to see Inception win this (as well as the sound categories). The film had some of the most exciting visuals in a long, long time, and seeing how the hallway fight scene was created (it involved a giant spinning rig on a sound stage) was fascinating.

That's one crazy contraption!

Best Director-Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
The first big surprise of the night? A lot of people were saying David Fincher all the way for The Social Network. I can't honestly say I've seen much of Hooper's work, but I think his direction was part of a lot of things that made The King's Speech great. Still, no nominations for either Danny Boyle or Christopher Nolan? Major snub Academy.

Best Actress-Natalie Portman, Black Swan
This one was a lock, and rightly so. Portman continues to be one of the best working actresses today, and her performance (at least in my mind) took Black Swan from a pretty decent psychological thriller to a gripping, dark story about perfection and the madness it can create.

Best Actor-Colin Firth, The King's Speech
This too was pretty strong lock in, and like Portman, it was deserved. Firth's performance was really incredible and deep, and entirely believable. I found myself being moved even by the fifteen second clip shown during his nomination, in which he breaks down and tells his wife he can't ever be king. The King's Speech had a lot of great things going for it, but none better than Firth's performance.

Best Picture-The King's Speech
There was no real surprise here, as the film was nominated for all the major awards and has already won several awards. The great thing about it all is that The King's Speech absolutely deserved the award. There are definitely times that I find the Best Picture winner is absolutely the wrong choice (Crash, anyone?) It was certainly my favorite film of the year and I really think it deserves all the praise and awards it has received.

So that's it...another Oscars down. Overall, I was actually really happy with the winners all around this year, which is pretty rare. It helps that it was a great year for films, and there were no real nominations I didn't agree with at least somewhat. Anne Hathaway and James Franco did a good job as hosts, though it seemed they were hardly able to play around with the honor and were merely there to introduce people.

That's all folks...thanks for reading!