The 83rd Academy Awards are less than a week away and if you’re a movie nerd like I am, and see a shit load of movies, then it can be fun to get all wrapped up in the rumors and predictions. I won’t bore you with my thoughts on those categories that no one really cares about. I appreciate that lighting is important but talking about this is like talking about the importance of the water boy at a football game. Again, important, just not really a hot topic. As I write this, Hollywood is bustling with the sounds of faces getting pulled tighter and boobs getting lifted in time to shine on Sunday night. Over the next few days we’ll take a look at some of the more popular categories.
Let’s get started! We’ll begin with Actor in a Leading Role:
– Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
– Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
– Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
– Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
– James Franco (127 hours)
And the winner is…Colin Firth. He will win because his performance was tremendous. If you haven’t seen The King’s Speech, you really should. If you think it’s going to be some uptight British movie then you’re kinda right, but it’s one of the best. And Firth is really really good. Let’s keep in mind that many actors are not awarded an oscar based solely on their performance for the film of which they are nominated. Frequently it’s awarded for body of work (think Denzel winning for Training Day and not for Hurricane…just sayin). Firth has put in his time and was nominated last year for A Single Man. He deserves this. And he has the backing of the Weinstein’s. They don’t mess around, but we’ll get to that later. What about the others? Well as great as Jesse Eisenberg was, he’s young and has a long career ahead of him. I would also like to thank him for not being Michael Cera. One forever young emo is enough thanks. Jeff Bridges was great as usual but hasn’t he played this part before? It sorta felt that way. Javier is always amazing but this movie didn’t get the hype it deserved so he’s out. James Franco has plenty of time to win and even though he played the part of Aron Ralston probably better than Ralston can play himself, he’s just not gonna win. He will one day. Just not on Sunday.
Fun fact: Did you know that Colin Firth was once with Meg Tilly (no, not Jennifer) and has a 20 year old son? And they lived in Vancouver at the time. Oh, and his wife Livia is Italian and gorgeous. Well played Sir Colin, well played.
