Heroes & Villains: From Hiccup to Hailsham

More Film Bitch Awards coming at'cha. The Snow White casting news last week got me to thinking of heroics at the movies. Snow White isn't really an active heroine is she? She's more like a pretty pretty princess waiting to be rescued.

None of my choices for hero of the year waited for rescue -- not even Rapunzel in Tangled --  though a few of them did need to be cajoled into action.  I can relate. Hero, rescue thyself! But in the end, it doesn't matter how you get to your heroics, so long as you eventually get there. The top ten in no particular order. [Edited to add: TOP ELEVEN. I forgot to list one of my intended medalists. An excel error!]

• Sally Hawkins as "Rita O' Grady" in Made in Dagenham
• Dany Boon as "Bazil" in Mic-Macs
• Colin Firth as "King George VI" in The King's Speech
• Angelina Jolie as "Salt" in Salt
• "Hiccup" in How To Train Your Dragon
• Hilary Swank as "Betty Anne Waters" in Conviction
• Jennifer Lawrence as "Ree Dolly" in Winter's Bone
• "Rapunzel & Flynn" in Tangled
• Mark Wahlberg as "Mickey Ward" in The Fighter
• Hailee Steinfeld as "Mattie Ross" in True Grit
• Michael Cera as "Scott Pilgrim" in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

There was less to choose from as villains go even if you get creative. Do you cite the financial institutions in Inside Job. I mean, come on, they were SCARY... like scarier than Jason or Freddie.  But I decided that was too diffuse to be a single entity... Sometimes though, if you narrow the lens, system do work as symbolic primary villain:. Hailsham haunts in Never Let Me Go. 

Elsewhere in 2010 villains were just no match for the heroes. I normally love Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper but True Grit was totally unbalanced; the villains had no performative spark in comparison to the heroes. I didn't like Kick-Ass but even there the villains didn't measure up the heroes. It takes two to make beautiful battle. Is it too much to ask for great heroes and great villains simultaneously?  I think only Tangled managed that this year. Finally, I was about to cite Jacki Weaver's wicked "Smurf" in Animal Kingdom but in the end the villain of the piece is really the family. Smurf is but a henchwoman, to use superhero vernacular, who fills in when the bosses are on vacation (i.e. jail, six feet under, etcetera). The top ten:

• "Gru" in Despicable Me
• "The Cody Boys" in Animal Kingdom
• "7 Evil Exes" in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• Helena Bonham Carter as "The Red Queen" in Alice in Wonderland
• "Mother Gothel" in Tangled 
• Hailsham in Never Let Me Go
• "Lotso Huggin' Bear" in Toy Story 3
• Niels Arestrup as "César Luciani" in A Prophet
• Mickey Rourke as "Whiplash" in Iron Man 2
• Justin Timberlake as "Sean Parker" in The Social Network

 HERE ARE THE NOMINEES & WRITEUPS

Which heroics thrilled you and which evil deeds made you grip your armrests last year?

Best Pictures: The Hit Parade of 2010

Let's test your memory. Do you recall those annual articles that popped up every single year decrying “The Academy is Out of Touch!” because of neglected blockbusters? No? Well, neither does the media. This year's Best Picture lineup is quite a popular field, but nobody is congratulating the Academy voters by writing reversal articles like “The Academy is Totally Relevant Again!” Sometimes you have to feel for the Academy. The truth is that people just like to complain.
 
Journalists lazily hit that "Out of Touch!" button each and every January until just recently. The hostility peaked two years ago when The Dark Knight (2008) and the classic Pixar WALL•E (2008) both performed spectacularly with audiences and critics, but were left out of Best Picture in favor of traditional Oscar bait like political biopics and Holocaust movies...

Read the rest at Tribeca Film...

In honor of The Fighter, I divvy up the Best Picture nominees into weight class divisions. Did you add to these theatrical grosses in the theater or were you stingy with your ticket purchasing?

Interview: The Editors of The Social Network

Meet Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter of The Social Network. They were my own gold medalists this year for Best Editing and they're Oscar nominated together for the second time for David Fincher's riveting classic. You won't know their faces but they've contributed significantly to major moviegoing pleasures in the last few years: their assembly skills kept all the difficult pieces of Zodiac's mosaic rubbing together; their attention to detail augmented those complex setpieces in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; their sense of rhythm and performance shaping kept The Social Network racing along without running roughshod over its dramatic soul. In short, they're quite a gifted team. 

Left: Angus Wall. Right: Kirk Baxter

Herewith some highlights from our conversation. 

When I spoke with them last week, they were on a wee break from working on the day's footage for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. 

Nathaniel: David Fincher has been shooting The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo during the awards season madness. How is this even possible? It must be exhausting.

Have you had any time to enjoy the accolades yourself or does Fincher keep you both locked up in the editing bay?

[read the whole interview]

Click to read more ...

Ada & Ruby. Look at them now.

How To Be Nice To Your Dragon

Here's an awards curveball for ya. We don't often hear about the Genesis Awards but this is their 25th year. They award media that promotes fair and kind treatment to animals. There are categories ranging from traditional news segments, to magazines articles, up to feature films and documentaries. Here are three major categories I thought might interest you, whether you're an animal lover, a committed vegan or just an awards junkie.

Feature Film
How To Train Your Dragon
The Switch

It's easy to see why Oscar nominee How To Train Your Dragon figured in as the whole plot revolves around learning to leave peacefully with another species. But the sperm donor comedy The Switch starring Jennifer Aniston? Is Jason Bateman turning into a wolf again? Goddamnit. I thought we were done with that in the 80s.

I guess you have to have seen that one to know why it's so honored. But I don't want to have to have seen it. Please explain in the comments if you have.

Feature Documentary 
The Elephant in the Living Room
Oceans 

I guess Banksy's Pink Elephant in the Gallery from Exit Through The Gift Shop was not a smart move if he wanted to win a Genesis. Painting or dyeing animals is usually not a good idea. I loved the "horses of a different color" in The Wizard of Oz but I'm guessing they didn't consult with them on how they were dealing with their makeup the way they had to deal with actors with skin rashes.

Television Series
Law & Order: Criminal Intent "Inhumane Society" -USA Network
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit "Beef" -NBC
True Blood "Hitting the Ground" -HBO

Okay. Someone who is up to date on True Blood (I'm behind since I don't get HBO) will have to fill me in on how this qualified. From what I've seen of the show don't animals get brutalized along with the humans in its dangerous swampy world? Last time I watched [Season 2 spoiler] Marianne, who liked to travel with a giant pig and was all into animal and human sacrifices and cannibalism was finally dispatched by the horns of a deified bull (not really. But she was ecstatically confused).]

And Kristin Davis of Sex & the City fame is getting a special prize.

Hug your pets! Bye.