Pre-Oscar Awardus Interruptus

Okay, if you're still with us, by now you've figured out that the awards season for movies issues a staggering number of trophies; so far, twenty-four critics groups from around the country have handed out their accolades. In the previous post, we listed the most recent winners, and in this post, you can see an overall summary of all the wins so far.
.
(mark wahlberg in "the fighter")
.Best Picture: "The Social Network"-20 wins; "Winter's Bone"-2 wins; "Black Swan"-1 win; "127 Hours"-1 win
.
Best Actor: Colin Firth-11 wins; Jesse Eisenberg-6 wins; James Franco-4 wins; Mark Wahlberg, Colin Farrell, Edgar Ramiraz-1 win
.
Best Actress: Natalie Portman-11 wins; Jennifer Lawrence-5 wins; Annette Bening-2 wins; Halle Berry, Lesley Manville, Kim Hye-Ja, Michelle Williams, Noomi Rapace-1 win
.
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale-13 wins; John Hawkes-4 wins; Geoffrey Rush, Michael Ealy, Niels Arestrup, Armie Hammer, Mark Ruffalo-1 win
.
Supporting Actress: Jackie Weaver-7 wins; Hailee Steinfeld-6 wins; Melissa Leo-4 wins; Kimberly Elise, Juliette Lewis, Mila Kunis, Amy Adams, Lesley Manville-1 win
.Our thoughts:
Of the twenty-four awards given for Best Picture, "The Social Network" has won 20 of them. Wow. But does that assure an Oscar win? No way. Just remember: "Critics" do not equal "Oscar Voters".
.
It looks to be a two man race between Colin Firth and Jesse Eisenberg for Oscar's Best Actor. And to think, just a few months ago, Eisenberg was dismissed as a nerdy actor who only acted in second-rate teen comedies. Not any more.
.
In the Best Actress contest, it looks like Natalie Portman's race to lose. But as we've been saying for a few weeks, watch out for Jennifer Lawrence as a strong dark horse. And then, there's the strange case of Annette Bening. Bening is the favorite of the Academy voters, especially since she's suffered the heartbreak of losing the Oscar three times in the past, twice to Hilary Swank for what many considered sub-par performances. Strong sentiment could be on Bening's side.
.
Early in the season, many said Geoffrey Rush was the lock to win for Supporting Actor. But now, change that to Christian Bale. Look for John Hawkes of "Winter's Bone" to get a well-deserved nom, but as for many, his nomination will be his reward.
.

(armie hammer of "the social network"

.The Supporting Actress square-off is the tightest one of the four major acting categories. Any of these women, Jackie Weaver, Hailee Steinfeld or Melissa Leo could take it.

More Critics Choices

Two more critics groups have named their choices for Best Film of the Year, and "The Social Network" has picked up two more wins. Just a couple of months ago, industry insiders were predicting a big year for "True Grit", but so far, that threat has failed to materialize, instead it's "The Social Network that's crushing the competition.

.
Yesterday the African American Film Critics Association, (AA), and the Southeastern Film Critics, (SE) handed out their film awards, and although they agreed on the Best Picture, they disagreed on the four major acting awards. The AA named Mark Wahlberg as Best Actor while the SE went for Colin Firth.
 

.
In the Best Actress category, the AA went for Halle Berry in "Frankie and Alice", but the SE selected Natalie Portman, and named Jennifer Lawrence as the runner-up. We mentioned yesterday that we had our eye on Jennifer Lawrence as a possible dark-horse contender to take the Oscar, and so far, she's definitely been one of the favorites of the critics groups.
 

.
For Supporting Actors, the AA picked two from the film "For Colored Girls", Kimberly Elise and Michael Ealy. The SE selected Geoffrey Rush and Hailee Steinfeld from "True Grit".
.

.

.

.

.

Here is the overall summary so far:.
Best Picture: "The Social Network"-7 wins; "Winter's Bone"-1 win
.
Best Actor: Colin Firth-3 wins; Jesse Eisenberg-2 wins; James Franco and Mark Wahlberg-1 win
.
Best Actress: Natalie Portman- 3 wins; Halle Berry, Jennifer Lawrence, Lesley Manville, Kim Hye-Ja-1 win
.
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale-4 wins; Geoffrey Rush, Michael Ealy, Niels Arestrup-1 win
.
Supporting Actress: Jackie Weaver-2 wins; Melissa Leo-2 wins; Kimberly Elise, Hailee Steinfeld, Juliette Lewis-1 win

Oscar Grub

The race to pick the next Oscar winners starts earlier every year, but why not, the football world picks pre-season favorites, mid-season favorites, post-season favorites and winners for every season in between. So why shouldn't those of us who love movies not indulge our obsessions year round as well? With that said, here are some of the pre-season actors and films which are already getting major Oscar buzz. If you've seen any of them, let us know what you think!
.(mark wahlberg in "the fighter")
.
.
.
.
.MOVIES WITH BUZZ: The Social Network, Waiting for Superman, Inside Job, The King's Speech, Hereafter, The Fighter and True Grit.

.

PREDICTION: Expect "True Grit" to crush.

.

(stephen dorff and

elle fanning in "somewhere")

.

.

.

.

.

.

ACTORS WITH BUZZ: Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton for "Stone"; James Franco for "127 Hours"; Sean Penn for "Fair Game"; Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth for "The King's Speech; Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg for "The Fighter; Johnny Depp for "The Tourist"; Stephen Dorff for "Somewhere"; Jeff Bridges for "True Grit" and Ryan Gosling for "Blue Valentine".

.

PREDICTION: This year's group of male Oscar hopefuls are dominated by several actors who have turned in consistently good work for several years but have never been recognized by Oscar. So we're guessing this year's winner will be one of those guys who the Oscar voters decide that it's finally his "turn"; Wahlberg, Firth, Dorff, Bale, Gosling, Norton and Franco have all never won an Oscar. Unless, of course, Jeff Bridges turns the whole thing on its ear and wins for the second year in a row for "True Grit". Don't be surprised if that happens.

.

.

ACTRESSES WITH BUZZ: Milla Jovovich for "Stone"; Gemma Arterton for "Tamara Drew"; Minnie Driver for "Conviction"; Naomi Watts for "Fair Game"; Natalie Portman for "Black Swan"; Angelina Jolie for "The Tourist"; Elle Fanning for "Somewhere"; Hailee Steinfeld for "True Grit", Lesley Manville for "Another Year" and Michelle Williams for "Blue Valentine".

.

(naomi watts and sean penn in "fair game")

.

.

.

(milla jovovich and robert deniro at a press conference for "stone")

.

PREDICTION: Jovovich has been a consistently good actor for many years but with never a break-through role; this could be it. Naomi Watts will get the liberal Hollywood sympathy vote because she's playing someone who was wronged by one of the greatest real-life villians of all time, Dick Cheney. We've also got not one, but two, potential Tatum O'Neal-type child winners, Fanning and Steinfeld. This one's a real toss-up, we'll have to wait awhile longer to see who starts to get the most serious buzz.

.

Have you seen any of these films? Let us know what you think.

"Date Night"

Oddly enough, our second post today features another actor born in 1971, Mark Wahlberg, here pictured in a still photograph from the upcoming movie, "Date Night", which stars Tina Fey and Steve Carell.

Okay, we can already hear what most Americans will say when they see this photo,
"Wow, he doesn't look as good as he used to." Reality check! When Mark Walhberg did the Calvin Klein ads as "Marky Mark", that was almost 20 years ago! Wahlberg was barely 21 when he stripped for Calvin, now he's three months away from 39. So before you criticize Walhberg too harshly, just think about this: go to any Wal-Mart anywhere in the country, and take a look at most 38 year old men. Now, Mark Wahlberg, compared to 98% of the men out there his age, looks pretty damn good, right?