Best Picture

• Toy Story 3
• Inception
• Black Swan
• The Kids Are Alright
• The Social Network
• The King's Speech
• The Fighter
• 127 hours
• Winter's Bone
• True Grit

Okay, these movies are roughly in order, but I'm sure it's not quite accurate. In any case I'm going to do a bottom five and a top five because I happen to like the brevity of having five options in a category. I like that best picture used to be five instead of ten. Why? Because there aren't ten movies here that deserve to be nominated.

Bottom five:

• Toy Story 3
• The Kids Are Alright
• The Social Network
• The Fighter
• Winter's Bone

I will grant that some of these movies are okay, and some deserve to at least be considered for awards. I don't think any deserve a best picture award, and I would argue that none of them really deserve to be nominated. Like I said, I don't like expanding the field to ten only to clutter it up with movies that shouldn't be here.

Toy Story 3 was enjoyable. Let's get out of the way that I'm a big Toy Story fan. I meant to go see their re-release in 3D but my theater only did it for a very short time, and I didn't know until the last day or the day after. Toy Story 3, though, was, to me, when I saw it, the weakest movie in the franchise. I haven't gone back to rewatch the original entry in some time, so it's entirely possible TS3 had the strongest, most emotionally packed story with Andy going to college and a well-rounded villain in Lotso. Maybe, in retrospect, it will be the best Toy Story movie yet. To me, though, the franchise has lost it's luster. Maybe I'm getting old. Then again, maybe not - I absolutely loved UP and I enjoyed my rewatch of Toy Story 2. Whatever it was, this movie just didn't click for me. Pixar, as always, did a good job, but, for me, their pixie dust was a little stale on this title.

The Kids Are Alright. What can I say about this. I feel so split on this movie it's sickening. I really enjoyed the acting from pretty much everyone involved. I don't think anyone was outstanding; no one deserves an award here. Everyone was solid, though. On the other hand, this just wasn't that good of a movie to get all the press it's getting. This isn't even taking into account the premise of the story. We have a lesbian couple that has been monogamous for almost two decades we presume. I think it's reasonable to assume they've been monogamous even longer. Then comes along a guy, and, duh, a girl who has been into girls most, if not all, of her life suddenly falls for a guy. I mean, really, this is the insulting view of "there are no real lesbians, they're really just bi" that you see in, well, every facet of life except for that with real lesbians. As commenter Brian so aptly put it, "she doesn't like penis, but she'll like my penis!" Really? I mean, I get that some girls like girls and some girls like boys and some girls like more than just one gender. But to say that a lifelong lesbian is going to suddenly fall for a guy out of nowhere is not just a poor story and character development, but it's insulting to any real lesbian out there. Yes, lesbians, I am speaking for you. Story fallacies aside, I feel like this movie is getting press more because it is about a family unit comprising of two parents that are the same sex and gender than it is because it's a good movie. My opinion: this is Brokeback Mountain all over again.

If you've been following this blog so far, you'll know that I'm not a big fan of The Social Network. Jesse Eisenberg shouldn't have been nominated for best actor, and I didn't give the movie a single technical award in my miscellaneous awards post. This movie was good. I might even say it was quite good or solid. It was not, however, great. It was not even very good and thus was not a best picture contender. Everything was average to a bit above average, but nothing stood out. Nothing was phenomenal.

The Fighter falls along the lines of The Social Network for me but with more division between the good and the bad. I gave Christian Bale the photo finish for supporting actor but was overall unimpressed with any other performance. The boxing movie has grown a little stale, to be honest, and it's going to take a lot more than one excellent performance in an otherwise uninspired movie to make me think twice about it.

You'll also know from reading this blog that I'm not a big fan of Winter's Bone. I didn't particularly care for the acting. The story went something like this: Character A asks Character B for help. Character B says they can't help. An hour or so of plot goes by with Character A no closer to resolving the story. Character B returns and offers to help Character A without having much of a reason to change their mind. Movie ends. I felt so cheated for sitting through this plodding story only for it have spent the middle two-thirds effectively doing nothing toward resolving the film. The shooting locations were certainly the best part of this movie, giving the film its entire ambiance. The premise felt real, and most of the story true to life. In a sense, though, it felt too real as though they forgot to cut out the boring parts of life. I think I'll be able to come back to this movie in a year or two and enjoy it more, but I don't think I'll ever consider it a very good film.

Now, then, my picks for movies that I would actually consider for best picture. There are certainly weaker entries here, but every movie has a reason to be here be it a top-notch story or directing or acting. They all have something. Every film here save True Grit has taken home an award from me so far, and there are some very good second place finishes (Portman - Black Swan, Rush - The King's Speech, Steinfeld - True Grit). In contrast, the previous five only got close to one award, Bale's win for supporting actor.

Top five:

• Inception
• Black Swan
• The King's Speech
• 127 Hours
• True Grit

Inception is definitely a high-wire act. It did a lot of things right, but I think it had to, otherwise it would have lost the majority of it's viewers. For the layman, I think it's the sexy pick here. It grossed more than any other best picture nominee not titled Toy Story 3 - nearly twice as much as the movie just behind it, True Grit. It's the summer blockbuster everyone enjoyed. It was cerebral, artsy and well acted enough that many people (read: boys) just can't imagine there to be anything better than it. Well, it was good. It did do a lot of things right, but, like I wouldn't with Avatar, I'm not going to confuse computer magic with best picture qualities. Yes, it had a good story, and, yes, it was acted well, but the laurels here are on the imagery, then the story, then acting, directing and technical awards. I'm sure it will win an MTV movie award or something, but it shouldn't win an Oscar for best picture.

Black Swan had a very good performance from Portman as lead actress as well as solid acting from Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel. The editing was great. The music, being Swan Lake, fit wonderfully. The directing was, perhaps bias laden, top notch. I went into this movie with high expectations, and I was admittedly let down. That doesn't mean this movie was bad. Not at all. This was still a very good movie. It was dark and disturbing. I know more than one person that nearly had an actual panic attack just watching Portman spiral out of control. The character was real and the audience reacted viscerally. All that wonderfulness aside, it's definitely in the middle of this list. That's not a knock on Black Swan, but more a testament to the other films this year.

As James Franco did, so would 127 Hours. Fortunately Franco was fantastic. I can think of a few more f's I can throw in there, but I figure I probably shouldn't. Franco did a spot-on job, and, buoyed by great editing, a beautiful stage, and very good sound work, this movie also came out fantastic. All, that said, there is a little something missing for me to really consider it for best picture. Maybe it's the lack of complimentary actors to Franco, but I hope not. This movie was really very, very good, but it just didn't have enough of a mystery something to put it over the top.

True Grit, like a few other movies this awards season, gave me some trouble due to excessive mumbling and heavy accents. That will usually hold me back on a film, but I still enjoyed this very much. It had all the pedigree you could shake a stick at: the Coen brothers, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin. Then they threw in a show-stealing "supporting actress" performance by Hailee Steinfeld just to make it unfair. This movie had a ton going for it, but it did fall short in a few ways. For me, Steinfeld's character was clever to the point of annoyance for such a young character. The Coen brothers' staple is, in my opinion, more believable and enjoyable when acted as an older character like Tom Hanks' character in Ladykillers or George Clooney's in O Brother Where Art Thou. I also felt that the characters didn't quite connect on screen. There always seemed to be just a little lack of chemistry and never a complete comfort between actors. Maybe that's the problem of a major piece being so young. Maybe that's just the way it was. Maybe you thought they interacted famously. All told, though, this movie too lacked a little magic dust to really push it into consideration for me.

The King's Speech, then, is my movie of the year. I can hardly think of a thing to criticize about this movie. Helena Bonham Carter wasn't fantastic, but, let's face it, the movie hardly lived and died on her ability to act. Colin Firth was outstanding with an amazingly spot-on performance. Geoffry Rush was also fantastic in his interplay with Firth. These two actors had razor-thin second place finishes in best actor and best supporting actor respectively, and Firth will probably actually win best actor. I gave it best cinematography, and it also did well with screenplay and directing. This movie might not be taking home every award, but it represented extremely well in every category it was nominated in save for Carter in supporting actress. Pretty much everything in The King's Speech was simply top notch. My biggest complaint, might have been one of my favorite aspects of the film. The cursing to overcome the stutter scene lent a light-heartedness to the film, but was completely inaccurate. Unfortunately, due to the extensiveness of the scene, it makes it a little more awkward to recommend to, say, my parents. The King's Speech might not be the most important in a cinema sense, but if you were to only see a single movie on this list, I would definitely recommend this. I tend to believe that something that is widely enjoyed usually can't be too good, but that certainly isn't the case here. The King's Speech has broad appeal. Where I could never recommend Inception to my mother or Black Swan to the rube on the street (or to my mother for that matter), I could suggest The King's Speech to anyone. Anyone save Lion's head coach Jim Schwartz. Each movie in the top five is worthy of a watch, but this one simply performs a touch or more above all the rest.