A blog currently wondering which of the One Direction boys will take him home. Other obsessions: hot boys, Britney Spears, the Disney pop princesses, French New Wave cinema.
As you may have noticed, 2010 has been over for nearly eight months, yet I'm still rolling out my Diva Cup Awards honoring the best in film from that year. I'm not one for deadlines, especially when it comes to this, but it's time to finish this up. The problem is, I don't really have the time or the energy to do a long write-up defending my choices at the moment. So, what I'll do is give you my nominees for Best Actor & Actress and my Top 10 Films of the year with the promise that I will write about these more in the future. I realize only a few people will actually care about that but it would be more for myself than anyone. Without further ado, here are the final awards:
Best Actor
Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
Édgar Ramirez, Carlos
Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter
And the Diva Cup Award Goes to: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Best Actress
Katie Jarvis, Fish Tank
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Lesley Manville, Another Year
Emma Stone, Easy A
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
And the Diva Cup Goes to: Emma Stone, Easy A
Top 10 Films of 2010
10. Catfish (Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman)
09. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg)
Ever since her breakthrough in Junebug, Adams has spent the last half decade typecast as wide-eyed innocents confronted by jaded people and situations which require her to rethink her naivety. With The Fighter, the normally perky Adams plays a hardened, seen-it-all bartender who falls for Mark Wahlberg's boxer. Quite a 180, but Adams is talented enough to make it work without raising any eyebrows. Ultimately, she's the supportive girlfriend, the one who urges her man to carry on with his work when he has given up and nearly all hope is lost. Adams resists the easy conventions of the role, playing up the ambiguity of her motivations in helping Wahlberg's Micky. Bale's and Leo's characters are, as the traditional narrative goes, the baddies of this piece, urging Micky to continue fighting for all the wrong reasons (to relive his former glory and to pay her bills). Adams would normally be the unequivocal voice of reason, but after awhile, it appears that she has her own motivations--getting even with Micky's family, for one, and trying to alienate Micky's affections--in motivating Micky. She's not a bad guy by any means, but the dark shadings to her character are a nice change of pace.
Marion Cotillard
Inception
Speaking of stock in trades, Cotillard has recently taken a liking to "woman scorned" roles. I wasn't as taken with her work in Nine as many others were, mainly because the film was an absolute mess. Inception, with its icy coldness and clinical, cerebral approach to its sci-fi narrative, needed an emotional center to make the whole film worthwhile. Cotillard provides that missing heartbeat and then some as Mal, the woman of Cobb's (DiCaprio) nightmares. She starts off as a vague, looming threat to our protagonist's main mission, but over time, Cotillard reveals Mal's motives for haunting Cobb. There are two things about about Cotillard's performance that ultimately fascinate me. First of all, I love the way she uses Mal's sexuality as a threat against anyone who tries to invade her and Cobb's world. When Ellen Page's character makes her way to the lowest level of Cobb's subconscious, against his wishes, Mal is there to fight her off. She saunters over to her in a tight-fighting dress, showing off all her curves and getting right in Page's face. It's a new and interesting way to play a basic scene. Secondly, her final scene, when Cobb finally reveals to her the truth about their past, is an unexpectedly emotional wallop. Cotillard brings clarity to a moment many actresses would have played for simple melodrama. How does she do it? I don't know, but I was considerably more invested in her emotional journey than the actual inception taking place in Inception.
Kimberly Elise
For Colored Girls
By now, Tyler Perry is well known for providing good, meaty roles in films for African-American actresses often ignored by mainstream Hollywood. For Colored Girls is Perry's most epic undertaking in this regard, as he adapted the famous choreopoem by Ntozake Shange with spectacular roles for 10 African-American women. One of these roles, a tired working mother who is balancing a demanding job with a demanding boss, raising her children and keeping her PTSD-effected husband from going off the deep end, went to Kimberly Elise and she absolutely nailed it. Given the above description of her character's life, Elise doesn't make her a victim of her circumstances. She doesn't wallow in self-pity about her tough life. She deals with it, whether that's doing something as ordinary as taking care of her children or putting on a brave, supportive (although she's secretly doubting him) face for her husband when he tells her he wants to change his ways. Elise wears her melancholy as if it's an ill-fitting bra; it annoys her all day, every day but it's something that must be tolerated. I do say, brilliant choices all around.
Mila Kunis
Black Swan
Like Black Swan's constant dualities between dark/light and good/evil, Kunis' persona is built on a struggle between her striking good looks and her varied talents as a comedienne. Her work on That 70's Show and Family Guy makes her look like an odd choice for a major role in a psychosexual ballerina thriller, but her comedic skills are precisely the reason her casting is such a triumph. Kunis' realness and the down-to-earth vibe she exudes are a stark contrast to the rest of the film and, ultimately, become Black Swan's lifeforce. I've seen Black Swan twice now and on the second time, after the initial mystery surrounding the film's "is she or isn't she insane?" narrative became stale and repetitive, Kunis' performance as the enigmatic Lily is the only remaining unresolved mystery. Lily's openness and levity becomes far more offputting than Barbara Hershey's calculated coldness simply because we have no idea where she is coming from. Is she just a friendly girl reaching out to a lonely, confused comrade or is she intent on stealing Nina's role and is only playing nice to get on her good side? We never know the truth and the film is all the better for it. Kunis is smart to not play into Black Swan's above mentioned dualities because by remaining a friendly cypher, she becomes a much darker and more imposing figure.
Thandie Newton
For Colored Girls
Between scores and scores of forgettable films, every half a decade or so, Thandie Newton reminds us why she is one of the most potent, alive and freshest actors around. She plays Tangie, a young woman who sleeps with random men as an outlet for her anger towards her super-religious mother (Whoopi Goldberg). Tangie is loud, angry and aggressive, automatically making her role baity and "look at me" attention grabbing. Sure, Newton does chew an awful lot of scenery, out shouting Phylicia Rashad, Tessa Thompson and Whoopi Goldberg on separate occasions. Underneath the loudness, however, Newton does fine work underscoring the hurt girl underneath. During a highly charged argument with her mother, it becomes clear that Tangie sleeps around as a way of punishing her unforgiving mother. Newton does fine work in this scene because she understands and shows that emotional abuse takes all forms and affects people in different ways. She openly hates her mother and everything she stands for yet she continues to seek her approval. Newton could have let the bigness of the role carry but she does a lot of heavy lifting to give the role more depth.
For an actor considered to be one of the best working today, I must admit that Bale often leaves me cold. Apart from Empire of the Sun, American Psycho and The Prestige, Bale's predilection towards grungy roles in often times grungier movies and his Method-tics that have lead to much-publicized weight gains and losses for the sake of his art do very little for me. I often feel like Bale is an actor who prefers to work on the surface so much he forgets to work on the internal character. The Fighter, on first glance, certainly appears to be another Bale performance in the vein: all loud showiness, no grasp of subtlety. And when Melissa Leo appears, it's like a competition to see who can be the loudest at any given moment. Over the course of the film, however, you realize that without Bale, there can be no Adams or Wahlberg. They need each other, much like good and evil, in order to survive; Bale is the showman, the one who must build up Wahlberg while Wahlberg is the one who must back up Bale's taunts and big words. Bale is the yin to Wahlberg's yang and becomes an essential part of The Fighter's enormous success.
Michael Fassbender
Fish Tank
Fish Tank, in part, is a film about deceptive appearances with no character being more deceptive than Fassy's Connor. On the first go-around with the film, Mia (and the audience) can't help but to be attracted to this figure of both emotional and sexual fulfillment. He takes an interest in the hard, impenetrable Mia when no one else in her life can be bothered. Connor makes her feel like an important person for probably the first time in her life. The second time watching Fish Tank, however, makes it abundantly clear that Connor is not Mia's savior in any way. At first, we want to excuse his behavior (He's in love! He couldn't help it! He was drunk!) because of the (positive?) impact he has made on Mia's life up to that point. Eventually we see that Connor has been setting Mia up for this since the beginning of the film. All the classic signs of sexual abuse are there: his potential victim is an isolated young woman, he makes her feel important and loved, he slowly seduces her before making the big move. Part of the brilliance of Fassbender's performance depends on the fact that, like in real life, we often cannot tell who the villains are until much later. Fassbender doesn't hit us over the head with the fact that he's The Villian; his evilness comes across organically, constantly shifting to Mia's erratic moods. Fassbender's performance is a reminder that evil-doers sometimes come in pretty, charming, sexually attractive packages.
Andrew Garfield
The Social Network
Is Andy the greatest actor of his generation? If not, he's certainly the most versatile, hopping around between styles and genres with an ease that contemporaries like Efron and Pattinson can only dream about. Despite his ability to bounce around, it appears like Andy already has a "type": the socially awkward young male who barely manages to function in everyday society. The reason he has been so successful, however, is the fact that he has been able to bring a little something different to each of his characters in Boy A, Never Let Me Go and The Social Network. The last of these, which was this close to netting him his first Oscar nomination, is interesting in the fact that it allows Andy to play with the comedic part of his awkwardness. My first thought whenever I think of his performance is the scene at the beach party where he's wearing that ridiculous straw hat and, upon seeing Mark enter, he does this funny little dance as his way of greeting him. The most fascinating part of his performance, however, is watching Andy's Eduardo slowly come to the conclusion that he will probably never "know" Mark in the way he would like. No matter how hard he tries, Mark will always have some walls that won't come down. This realization on Eduardo's part manifests itself in many forms: paranoia, anger, hurt and confusion, among others. It's to Andy's credit that these conflicting emotions never once feel at odds with each other; if anything, these compliment and flow into each other perfectly. When Eduardo's big moment happens, confronting Mark about being forced out of the company, all his emotions come out at once and he doesn't even care if he makes sense. It's the perfect exclamation point on a career-changing performance for Mr. Garfield. Oh Andy, indeed.
James Marsden
Death at a Funeral
The actor who has had the biggest career reinvention of the past five years is not someone who normally comes to mind. Between the 1-2-3 punch of Hairspray, Enchanted and 27 Dresses in a six month span and this year's Death at a Funeral, James Marsden continues to surprise those of us who thought of him as nothing more than a generic pretty boy. But, at an age when most former boytoy actors find their careers floundering, Marsden has finally found his niche as a character actor with a flair for over-the-top comedy. In Death at a Funeral, a slightly generic if not totally unwatchable remake of a British film of the same name, Marsden plays the boyfriend of Zoe Saldana, nervous about spending the day with her strict, dominant father. He takes a pill to help him relax, it turns out to be acid, and Marsden spends the rest of the film in a hilarious drug-induced haze, having conversations with flowers and seeing dead people move inside a coffin. The centerpiece of his performance involves him getting naked on a rooftop and it's every bit as glorious as you'd think it is. Some of the jokes are duds but Marsden sells them like the pro he is and winds up stealing the entire film from an impressive cast.
Mark Ruffalo
The Kids Are All Right
For a film as tepid and straining-to-be-relevant as The Kids Are All Right ultimately is, it's impressive that the ever reliable Ruffalo manages to give one of his best performances under such unfavorable conditions. He plays Paul, a 40-something man-child who has certain parts of his life finally figured out but other areas that could definitely stand improvement. Paul is at an impasse when he's contacted by two teenagers who were conceived via his sperm donation from back in the day. He meets them and things suddenly start to fall in place for Paul. Maybe this is what he meant for? But even with this newfound "maturity," Ruffalo is keen on letting us know that Paul has a long way to go. For every good thing he does with the kids, there's a "I like lesbians!" punchline or an even bigger plot twist that reveals Paul hasn't grasped this adult thing yet. He's still a child who wants what he wants when he wants it. Ruffalo, like the Godsend he is, conveys all this while remaining ever likeable and sexy eye candy to boot.
And the Diva Cup Goes to: Michael Fassbender, Fish Tank
[Micheal Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Alisson Pill, Ellen Wong, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons, Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Brandon Routh]
The Social Network
[Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, Justin Timberlake, Max Minghella, Rooney Mara, Joseph Mazzello, Brenda Song]
And the Diva Cup Goes to: The Social Network
Best Scene
Blue Valentine
The "Sex" Scene
I wrote about this scene more in depth right after seeing the film. Dean wants to have sex with his wife but only wants it if she's a willing participant. A scarily intense moment.
Easy A
Sharpening Your Pencils?
There are far more clever moments in Easy A, but this is the scene I watch repeatedly on YouTube and laugh my ass off at every time.
For Colored Girls
Opera/Rape
Tyler Perry gets a lot of flack for not being a "real" artist, a minstrel show creator who caters to the lowest common denominator. I disagree strongly and would point anyone to this masterful scene in For Colored Girls. Perry crosscuts between a woman have a dramatic moment of catharsis while watching an opera while another is raped by an acquaintance. In a movie full of heavy moments, this is both the heaviest and the one that has the biggest impact on the film.
The Social Network
Eduardo's Bad Night
Andy Garfield is at his best when he's juggling 14 emotions at once, so watch him deal with a lack of sleep, a stalker girlfriend, an angry Mark on the phone berating him for freezing their bank accounts and a small fire all in a matter of two minutes.
Toy Story 3
Pit of Hell
I may or may not have laughed completely inappropriately during this moment in the theatre. Looking back, I realize that this happened not because it was a cheesy or over-the-top moment. Rather, seeing the toys face their own mortality in such an honest and straightforward way was such a dark, twisted and unexpected moment that I started laughing in shock.
And the Diva Cup Goes to: Blue Valentine
Best Musical Scene
Blue Valentine
"You Always Hurt the Ones You Love"
Cute and fun in the moment, a dark foreshadowing once the movie has ended.
Burlesque
"Welcome to Burlesque"
It's Cher, motherfuckers.
Easy A
"Knock on Wood"
I think a better question is how I can't not nominate a musical sequence that involves Emma Stone in a red feather boa and Penn Badgley covered in blue body paint?
Easy A
"Pocketful of Sunshine"
Everyone has had a moment in their life when they couldn't get a song they hated out of their head and ended up loving the song. This was a hilarious slice-of-life moment.
The Runaways
"Cherry Bomb"
If you didn't take Kristen and Dakota seriously as legitimate rockers before this scene, you certainly did afterwards. Captures the fun of the girls while proving they could rock as hard as the boys.
And the Diva Cup Goes to: The Runaways
Best Quote/Line Reading
Black Swan
"I'm the Swan Queen!"
I'm 95% sure Portman and Aronofsky didn't mean for this line to turn out as campy as it sounds hurling out of Portman's mouth, but I can't help but giggle every time I think about this scene. And you don't know how many times I've resisted shouting this out loud for no reason.
Blue Valentine
“So there’s a child molester and a little boy walking into the woods. The child molester and the boy keep walking further and further and it is getting darker and darker and they are going deeper and deeper into the woods. And the little boy looks up at the child molester and says, ‘Gee, mister, I’m getting scared!’ The child molester looks down at him and says, ‘You think you’re scared, kid? I gotta walk out of here alone!’”
To say this was unexpected would be an understatement. Both Dean and the audience are left to re-evaluate Cindy after she drops this joke; who knew she had it in her? And I'd be lying if I said I didn't laugh inappropriately at it.
Easy A
"He got a Coke Zero again? Oh that Roman. Incorrigible!"
It's an inconsequential one-liner, but besides the sharpening the pencils scene and her facial expression when her lobster comes at the restaurant, it's my favorite Emma Stone moment in the film. With her tinge of sarcasm, I feel like we would be great friends.
Inception
"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling."
The sexual tension between Eames and Arthur was one of the few sparks that made Inception's 2-D characters come alive. It's rather fitting that this quote is said during a "Who's got the bigger gun/cock?" contest between the two.
The Social Network
"You better lawyer up, asshole, because I'm not coming back for 30%. I'm coming back for everything."
The Social Network is full of snappier one-liners, but I absolutely love the way Andy reads this line. He's so fucking fed up and revenge is the only way to satiate that anger.
And the Diva Cup goes to: Easy A
Breakthrough Performance
Cam Gigandet
Burlesque
Gigandet has been on my radar for a couple years now, but, sadly, it has never been for his acting. The boy has a body to die for, yet his personality has never been as fascinating on-screen. However, in Burlesque, of all films, Gigandet finally proved that he could turn up the star mojo while saving the film from complete unwatchability. The Famous Amos scene, rightly so, became the most notorious scene in the movie and will hopefully turn this pretty boy's career around.
Armie Hammer
The Social Network
I didn't think Armie was anything more than serviceable the first two go-arounds with The Social Network. Suddenly, however, on my third viewing everything fell into place. This massively built, gorgeous young man with a hulking presence also had impeccable comedic timing (some guys really do have all the luck). The fact that he decided to follow up The Social Network's success with an Eastwood-directed biopic where he plays a gay-leaning man instead of a dumb action film, which he's well-suited for given his frame, is proof that Armie's in it for the long haul.
Josh Hutcherson
The Kids Are All Right
Although I'm unfamiliar with his work, Josh has been around for years as a go-to child actor in films such as Bridge to Teribitha and Zathura. The Kids Are All Right proved that he has the talent and drive to move into more adult roles. And it was this drive that landed him the role he so desperately wanted in the upcoming blockbuster Hunger Games. I can't wait to see what he chooses after that.
Jennifer Lawrence
Winter's Bone
Jennifer was a revelation as the tough, woman on a mission in Winter's Bone. What surprised me even more, though, was the fact that the same woman who played Ree was also this bombshell who showed off her ample bosom at the Oscars. If there was a role that would somehow combine these two aspects of herself, I have a feeling Jennifer would be unstoppable.
Tahar Rahim
Un Prophète
After such a brave and unassuming (meant in the best way possible) debut, I'll be interested to see if Rahim will stay in Europe or move on the Hollywood. Either way, I think he'll continue to pick interesting projects that will his unusual gifts to their full effect.
And the Diva Cup Goes to: Armie Hammer, The Social Network
Best Diva
Cher
Burlesque
Diva Moment: Cher, in all her Cher-ness, introducing herself and the theatre in the 'Welcome to Burlesque' number.
Marion Cotillard
Inception
Diva Moment: Continuously invading Cobb's sub-conscious, distracting him from accomplishing the task on hand.
Thandie Newton
For Colored Girls
Diva Moment: Throwing down with legends Phyllicia Rashad and Whoopi Goldberg.
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Diva Moment: The whole film really is a testament to what a diva Joan is. This woman has had so much shit thrown at her but each time she's rebounded stronger (and bitchier) than ever before.
Winona Ryder
Black Swan
Diva Moment: "Did you suck his cock?"
And the Diva Cup Goes to: Joan Rivers, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Best Sexpot
Michael Fassbender
Fish Tank
Fuck Me Moment: I have to pick just one?! That's impossible. But I can narrow it down to two key moments: his shirtless introduction to both Mia and the audience and the scene where he spanks Mia.
Andrew Garfield
Red Riding: 1974
Fuck Me Moment: Andy had me at the Sexhair, but the moment where he walks around in the smallest briefs possible after boning some chick didn't hurt.
Cam Gigandet
Burlesque
Fuck Me Moment: Lord knows I love Famous Amos cookies, but even I was saying, "Drop the box!" during that scene.
Jake Gyllenhaal
Love & Other Drugs
Anne Hathaway
Love & Other Drugs
Fuck Me Moment: The part where they lie around naked. Oh, right, that's the whole damn movie! Lucky us!
And the Diva Cup Goes to: Michael Fassbender, Fish Tank
Best Cameo/Limited Performance
Bianca Hunter, Jenna Lamia, Erica McDermott, Melissa McMeekin, Kate B. O'Brien, Jill Quigg and Dendrie Taylor
The Fighter
Without these ladies classing the film up, The Fighter would not have felt as authentic and true-to-life as it did and its success counted on. The casting director deserves major kudos for finding this classic "Army of Skanks".
Brie Larson
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
It was nice to see Larson move from the super-stylized world of Diablo Cody into the the different super-stylized world of Scott Pilgrim without missing a beat.
Juliette Lewis
Conviction
A full-blown performance in only two short scenes. Lewis adds on baity mannerism after baity mannerism, but she also manages to convey the hurt, anger, pride and smarts of this woman--all while in a drug-induced haze. Brilliant, brilliant work.
Winona Ryder
Black Swan
Another two-scene wonder with Ryder portraying the downfall of a vulgar, has-been, alcoholic ballerina with legitimate star power. Is her comeback imminent?
Douglas Urbanski
The Social Network
A hilariously unexpected treat. I never would have guessed this minor moment would bring so many laughs.
And the Diva Cup Goes to: Juliette Lewis, Conviction
