Oscar, America’s favorite naked golden statuette, bestowed its shiny favor on a handful of films this morning, honoring the fighter in all of them, their true grit. From their inception and through the more than 127 hours of their making, they’ve inspired us, enthralled us and occasionally even depressed us. They’ve toyed with us, told us stories and cut us to the bone. But whatever their purpose, Oscar has now told them that, hey, you’re all right.
The King’s Speech was the “all rightest” of the bunch, pocketing 12 nominations. True Grit, the Coen brothers’ retelling of the 1968 book and subsequent John Wayne film, snagged 10. Other Best Picture nominees included 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, Toy Story 3 and Winter’s Bone. (Our review of that last one will be available before the week is out.)
Outside Winter’s Bone, (I expected Ben Affleck’s well-crafted but very violent The Town to sneak in), the nominees didn’t hold many surprises for me. And when you look at the list, we see an interesting convergence of artistic merit and commercial success that, in past years, has been something of a rarity. Toy Story 3 is the highest-grossing film released in 2010 ($415 million), and Inception is fifth ($293 million). Four nominated films are in this week’s box office Top 10 (The King’s Speech, True Grit, Black Swan and The Fighter).
An interesting paradox: Four of the nominees are based on true stories, while three are practically fantastical fever dreams (I know Toy Story 3′s Lots-o’ will haunt my subconscious for years). Also interesting: While none of the year’s top grossing movies was rated R, six of the Best Picture nominees are. Nine of the 10 are heady, adult-driven pics, filled with some serious content concerns.
We’ve come to expect that. Very often, films that pass Oscar muster delve into some heavy-duty subjects and dive into heavy-duty content, sometimes needlessly. But when you really get down to parsing the list, there’s a lot of good stuff here. The King’s Speech, an inspiring look at a king who overcame his own struggles with stuttering, could’ve snagged a PG rating had it not been for a bevy of f-words. 127 Hours is a visceral reminder of the joy of life—even as the story itself features a guy cutting off his own arm. This year, Oscar largely punted the bleak grit we’ve seen lauded in years past and saw fit to honor cinematic heroes, be they boxers or adolescent girls or animated playthings. And that, I think, is kinda cool.
Still, I’m a little sad that How to Train Your Dragon, one of 2010’s most delightful and, I think, dramatic stories of heroism, didn’t make the cut. What about you? Are there films you wish would’ve been honored with a nom? Are you pleased with the list? And will you be watching the Oscars come Feb. 27?
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