Best Actress. Final Notes

My favorite category didn't disappoint this year, offering up the strongest overall lineup in quite some time. In fact, though these 2010 Best Actress roles won't prove as iconic in the long run as 2006's primo batch, I actually think as an entire range of performances, it might be that year's equal. Would you agree?

Should Natalie Portman be nervous about her chief rival? Or is it all in her head?

The question in terms of who will win is whether Natalie Portman's long lead is going to pay off or if a recent arguable passion / mood to finally crown The Bening has grown enough in the industry to yank that shiny gold man away. If that happens, Natalie, not Annette, will be the one yelling "Interloper!"

But I don't think it's going to happen. The Bening can console herself with the knowledge that she is one of my 33 all time favorite actresses. ;)

THE UPDATED BEST ACTRESS PAGE
includesPOLL "Who Should Win?" and the reader requested "how they got nominated? silliness. Which is actually not ever entirely silly even though it's meant for fun. We all know Oscar is not only about the performances. And if you don't know that, you must have slept through Sandra Bullock's win last year.

Leon, Angel, Adam, Edward and Andrew

This post is titled by the middle names of Oscar's BEST ACTOR nominees because here at The Film Experience we are always trying to find ways to keep things interesting. It would be much easier to title this blog post "Javier Bardem, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, James Franco and Colin Firth" but where's the fun in that? If you enjoy a challenge, try to guess which middle name goes with which best actor, before you click over to the BEST ACTOR PAGE.

I include the trivia (and more) because this race is a done deal yet we have to stay interested for nine more days. Colin Firth's Coronation is proceeding exactly like Helen Mirren's a few years back, isn't it? It's like I was saying in that Tribeca Film article, each year there's generally one candidate who is granted immunity about whom no one ever bitches and who just sails through like it was always meant to be their year and their prize.

UPDATED: Includes Reader Poll "Who Should Win?"

Best Picture & Best Director. Final Notes

David FincherWith the Oscars just nine days away it's time to finalize the Oscar pages. I started with Best Picture and Best Director. I'm betting on a split with David Fincher taking the gold for The Social Network but The King's Speech taking Best Picture. Splits are not common as you know, but the BAFTA reaction could be telling. And could The Social Network really have burned through ALL of its awards pull before Oscar night? It's got to win something beyond Screenplay right?

The Best Picture page also has updated box office results and extremely useless trivia like number of animals abused, limbs lost, batshit crazy mothers and sex scenes and more that can be found in the ten-wide Best Picture field.

On the director's page I've theorized about what got Tom Hooper, Darren Aronofsky, David O. Russell and Joel and Ethan Coen nominated (for entertainment purposes only... though I'd love to hear if I missed any reasons for the nods). Useless trivia: If you fused all of the directors together statistically you've got a 48 year old white American guy with 7 fairly cerebral films under his belt enjoying only his second adventure at the Oscars.

Super Glut

Entertainment Weekly introduces Henry Cavill, our new Superman, on the cover of their Oscar prediction issue. Cavill, for what it's worth, has been in the running for several super-people but this is the first time he's actually been cast. But shouldn't the cover be something more Oscariffic?

The hit whores were out in force this morning labelling this photo Official First Photo of Cavill as Superman. Hilarious. Especially since they haven't even started filming -- and rumors abound that the studio is still not happy with the script -- and there's no way the new superhero costume is a pre-faded t-shirt ;)

It's always this way with superhero films. There are generally about 731,000 "exclusive" everythings and 11 or so "first official" everythings. For example, we've already had two instances of "official first photo of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man." and I'm willing to bet we get a third given that the other two are more promotional and not "actual" shot from the movie! The first he was in the costume with the mask off. The second also labelled "first official photo of Garfield as Spider-Man" is the one where he's masked. If all things are cyclical when is the superhero craze going to die down? Right now it seems infallible. Even movies people don't end up liking open well and get sequels. Will the upcoming barrage finally be overkill?

Here's what's (supposedly) coming our way after this new Thor trailer which is quite a bit different than the original sneak and seems to be leaning more comedic (Hi, Kat Dennings!)

May 2011 Thor
June 2011 X-Men: First Class (further reading)
June 2011 Green Lantern
July 2011 Captain America: The First Avenger (further reading)
May 2012 The Avengers (not filming yet. I have always doubted this movie will ever happen. Too many contracts. Too many characters. Too many schedules having to lined up. Too much. Too much.)
July 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man (filming)
July 2012 The Dark Knight Rises (in casting mode)
Dec 2012 Superman: Man of Steel (pre-production)
TBA 2012 The Wolverine (pre-production)

Nine in the next 24 months. And that's just the high profile ones. I have a feeling I've forgotten something. There are umpteen more in development not to mention superhero projects that are coming to the small screen like Wonder Woman (which sounds completely confusing/messy). But can the market really sustain all of those at the grosses they've become accustomed to? If it can't -- and I doubt it can; no "Most Popular Genre" lasts forever as any perusal of screen history will tell you --  expect several of the other ones in various stages of development including but by no means limited to The Flash, Iron Man 3, Luke Cage and Doctor Strange, to be aborted.

The only one of the future maybes after 2012 that I would be thrilled to see is Doctor Strange, IF and only if Pixar does it as has been rumored. Still dying to see Pixar try a different genre altogether than the adventure comedies for families.