Top Ten: Most Deserving Oscar Wins of the Decade (thus far)
Tuesday, October 14, 2014 at 3:56PM It's a special "top ten day" to kick off fall film season. Lists all day long. Enjoy!
As we move into awards seasons it's a good time to think positively and hope for the best. Though AMPAS is too high profile to ever get an entirely fair shake (people will always take them to task because one man's treasure is another's junk and because it's easier to remember the gross dereliction of their duties more than their classy moments) they don't screw up all the time. Some Oscar wins are highly deserved no matter how you look at it. Though it seems weird to call this young decade "the Teens" already given that we've just left the pre-teens, that's what it'll surely be called when it wraps in December 2019
MOST DESERVING OSCAR WINS OF 'THE TEENS' (thus far)
2010-2013
Honorable Mention
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables (2012 Supporting Actress)
"I Dreamed a Dream" and its fearful preamble "At the End of the Day" had seismic emotional impact. Performances this raw are always risky (and usually divisive!) but I'll never forget her confrontational mix of anger, sorrow, memory and beauty; a woman staring into the abyss, still stunned she's at the brink of it.
MOST DESERVING OSCAR WINS OF 'THE TEENS' (thus far)
2010-2013
10ish Christian Bale, The Fighter (2010 Supporting Actor)
Christopher Plummer, Beginners (2011 Supporting Actor)
I couldn't decide which of these fine actors I wanted on the list and on an earlier draft I accidentally left both off as a result. Oops. Both are arguably leads, so it felt a bit strange to include them but they are two very fine instances of overdue actors finally winning the top gong. While they probably won at least in part as "whole career" honors, that much derided Oscar tactic that often gives actors Oscars for one of their lesser performances, doesn't always backfire; both were, happily, incredibly deserving.
09 Lupita N'Yongo, 12 Years a Slave (2013 Supporting Actress)
A close call, perhaps, with "It Girl" JLaw nipping at her barefeet. Or maybe not close at all given how much of its operatic sorrow the sometimes cerebral Best Picture owes to her proud wails and immeasurable pain. "I'd rather it be you"
8 more greats after the jump from Gravity to A Separation
08 Gravity (Visual Effects, 2013)
It was, of course, never going to lose this prize. Nor should it have ever. Whatever you think of the film, it's a major A+ technical achievement. All those years spent developing it, floating and spinning and abandoned right there on the screen as proof.
07 Anna Karenina (Costume Design, 2012)
There's no slinky instantly iconic green dress or gargantuan wig hats ala previous Keira-related nominees and winners (Atonement, The Duchess) but if you want to compete for the Costume Design Oscar, Keira Knightley will muse you right swift in that direction. Good god she is this movie is beautiful. 
06 Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (Best Actor, 2012)
Had this performance even been half as good as it was, this master thespian would still have won the statue; aint nothing Oscar loves more easily or as often as a biopic of an Important Man. But the sheer majesty of his portrayal of Lincoln, both as a man and as map of the icon he would become, justifies the American history win and even made us a part of Oscar history too, seeing the only Best Lead Actor winner in the history of the Oscars give a third acceptance speech.
05 The Social Network (Screenplay, 2010)
I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try - but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. Did I adequately answer your condescending question?
04 12 Years a Slave (Best Picture, 2013)
Discussed so often so recently we'll just say that we're still so relieved it triumphed in the end against the late surging Gravity. Challenging cinema like this rarely wins the top prize. Bonus Prize: Now people can no longer say that Hollywood won't give its top honor to a film about African-Americans.
03 Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (Best Actress 2013)
I withheld enthusiasm as much as I could in my first review of Blue Jasmine fearing that Cate had duped me as I've often felt she has tricked others into genuflection with that formidable technique which can blind you, like razzle-dazzle, to a lack of cohesive characterization or inspired choices. Further viewings removed all doubt to display the very very obvious: Cate Blanchett is Magnificent and The World is Round, people.
02 Amour (Foreign Film, 2012)
01 A Separation (Foreign Film, 2011)
After years of disappointing nominees and winners and high profile snubs the Academy reconfigured their procedure in this category and the results have been better than most of us had dreamed they could be both in terms of nominations and the eventual winners. Michael Haneke's funereal couples march and Asghar Farhadi's masterfully braided study of irreconcialible differences, not just between husband and wife, returned the category that once honored the likes of Kurosawa and Bergman and Fellini, to its rightful glory with back-to-back masterpieces.
Let's have your lists, people!
Reader Comments (54)
DJDeeJay: There is one less than all-out rave in the comments above as well. But I wouldn't think twice: DDL's performance was so freakily amazing that I get chills just thinking about it. And the Lincoln screener is lying next to my DVD player right this minute...
I'm another one who didn't much care for Day-Lewis in Lincoln. I still maintain that you drop any other "Method" actor into that role and you get the exact same performance. It's still a very good performance, mind you, but certainly not awe-inspiring.
I'm not sure exactly what my Top 10 would be, but my long list would include:
Paperman
Lupita Nyong'o
Toy Story 3
Gravity (Visual Effects, Cinematography)
Spike Jonze (Her screenplay)
12 Years a Slave (Picture)
Amour
A Separation
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network Score)
Inception (Visual Effects)
Argo (Editing)
Jacqueline Durran (Anna Karenina Costumes)
Catherine Martin (Great Gatsby Production Design)
Cate Blanchett's performance is my favorite in this current century. She's surrounded by Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood and Monique in Precious.
Miguel - what a trio, you know. people might well be still talking about these performances 75 years from now the way we do some of 1939's bests.