For the past two years, Flyer film writers Chris Herrington and Greg Akers have held palaver over the ultimate #FirstWorldProblems: who will and who should win the Oscars, and who got snubbed. Well, those kooky members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences went and nominated a whole new slate of movies and performances from 2010. This demands our attention.
And if it demands our attention, it demands it in a five-part series, running through Friday, rounding up the major Oscar categories.
Let’s start with the screenplays.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominees: 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter’s Bone
GREG AKERS: Since there may be no bigger slam dunk of the night, I’ll keep this short: Will Win: The Social Network (by Aaron Sorkin).
Should Win: Co-sign with the lock. The Social Network‘s script is dynamite. It’s but one element that makes the movie great, but it deserves the lavish praise it gets. Of the other nominees, 127 Hours is the weakest, though it at least tries to contextualize what brought a man to get his arm stuck in the earth. Toy Story 3 was another wonderful Pixar film, though I don’t know that what makes it work is its script so much as some kind of alchemical emotional voodoo. True Grit has grown on me the more I’ve thought about it, and much of what I attribute its success is in the Coen brothers’ script. Two long scenes of dialogue — Rooster in the courtroom and Mattie bartering about horses — are classic Coen entertainment. Winter’s Bone was an excellent film that I’m happy to see get recognized. Jennifer Lawrence is great, but she gets the cues for her steely resolve from the script.
The audacious opening of The Social Network:
