Saturday, June 26, 2010

my Alex In Movieland awards, 2nd edition: Episode 1.



My favorites for 2009 will go down in 2 sets:
Episode 1: Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score.
Episode 2 (most important ones): Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress.

Let the Right One In was last year’s big winner. Some facts about this year:
- all the eligible films will be mentioned.
- no movie ranked higher than an 8.5/10 for me, so it was a pretty weak year, from that point of view.
- the men were far better (but more on that on Episode 2).
- lots of interesting Directing perspectives and lots to choose from. Directors were better than the films themselves.
- the screenplays were quite good.
- I don’t know much about Original Score, so it’s mostly based on impressions and feelings.
- on Episode 2 I will also add short impressions on the top performances. Here, I’ll just let the ranking do the talking. Obviously, all are my subjective choices.
- out of personal reasons I avoided seeing: The Stoning of Soraya M., The Maid, Paranormal Activities, Bruno, Me and Orson Welles and just couldn’t take all of Tetro. So they won’t be on the list.
- in case you are wondering about the cat on the right, it’s my fake trophy, I’m gonna fed-ex one to Kathryn Bigelow :P


List of eligible/seen films (60):


500 Days of Summer, Ajami, Antichrist, Avatar, Away We Go, The Blind Side, Bright Star, Broken Embraces, Bronson, Brothers, Capitalism: A Love Story, Cheri, Coco Before Chanel, Coraline, Crazy Heart, District 9, Il Divo, Duplicity, An Education, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hurt Locker, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, In the Loop, The Informant!, Inglourious Basterds, Invictus, It’s Complicated, Julia, Julie & Julia, The Last Station, The Lovely Bones, Mary and Max, The Messenger, The Milk of Sorrow, Moon, Nine, Precious, The Princess and the Frog, A Prophet, Public Enemies, The Road, The Secret in Their Eyes, The Secret of Kells, The September Issue, Seraphine, A Serious Man, Sherlock Holmes, A Single Man, Star Trek, Summer Hours, Transformers II, Two Lovers, Up, Up in the Air, Whatever Works, The White Ribbon, Where the Wild Things Are, The Young Victoria.


And here we go:


BEST FILM


1. Precious

2. The Hurt Locker

3. Public Enemies

4. An Education

5. (500) Days of Summer




6. Up

7. Fantastic Mr. Fox

8. Avatar

9. Ajami

10. Up in the Air

Almost there: The September Issue, In the Loop, Mary and Max, The Messenger, Cheri.
Also: Inglourious Basterds, Coraline, Summer Hours, A Prophet, Moon.





BEST DIRECTOR



1. Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker

2. Michael Mann – Public Enemies

3. Michael Haneke – The White Ribbon

4. Lee Daniels – Precious

5. Spike Jonze – Where the Wild Things Are


6. Wes Anderson – Fantastic Mr. Fox
7. James Cameron – Avatar
8. Jacques Audiard – A Prophet
9. Adam Elliot – Mary and Max
10. Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds


Almost there: Tom Ford – A Single Man, Duncan Jones – Moon, Mark Webb – (500) Days of Summer, Jason Reitman – Up in the Air, Lone Scherfig – An Education.






BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY



1. Mary and Max

2. Ajami

3. (500) Days of Summer

4. Up

5. A Prophet

6. The Messenger
7. Julia
8. Inglourious Basterds
9. The Hurt Locker
10. The Hangover




BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY


1. Precious

2. An Education

3. Up in the Air

4. In the Loop

5. Fantastic Mr. Fox


6. The Secret in Their Eyes
7. A Single Man
8. Where the Wild Things Are
9. Public Enemies
10. Coraline




BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY


1. Bright Star (Greig Fraser)
2. Where the Wild Things Are (Lance Acord)

3. The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

4. Public Enemies (Dante Spinotti)

5. The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)

Almost there: The Road, A Single Man, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, Cheri.





BEST ORIGINAL SCORE



1. Up (Michael Giacchino)

2. Public Enemies (Elliot Goldenthal)

3. The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders)

4. Where the Wild Things Are (Carter Burwell & Karen Orzolek)

5. Coraline (Bruno Coulais)


Almost there: Moon, Cheri, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Invictus, The Secret in Their Eyes


11 comments:

Malcolm said...

I didn't expect so much love for Public Enemies.

Can't wait for episode 2!

Alex Constantin said...

well, Public Enemies is imo the most underrated film of the year. Maybe if it had been launched in December it would've gained the speed it deserved.

i thought it was great, both entertaining and dramatic.

and still can't believe 0 noms, it could've easily received (because it had the shots) Original Score and Art Direction

Malcolm said...

I didn't LOOOOVE it, but I can say that it really has a shot for my Top 10 list this year.

It was really well-made, sometimes offbeat for a gangster film, but beautifully rendered.

Cotillard rocks the house!

Andrew K. said...

Hmmm, a good list (duh) of course you know where I stand on Precious. Honestly, not even a runner up for Nine's excellent cinematography or Avatar (but Bright Star, YEAH). But I'm keeping quiet for the important awards.

(PS. Blogger's giving me issues, so I'll just comment here. Still can't believe you hated Helen and The Last Station so much. Sigh)

Alex Constantin said...

Andrew, I hardly found Nine's cinematography interesting... not even a top 15, but Avatar WAS in a Top 10 at a point. I might just be discriminating computer generated stuff.
I prefer the natural look of Bright Star, Where the Wild, brilliance of White Ribbon... and even the digital experimental rough cinematography of Public Enemies.

Blogger often has issues :) I didn't hate Helen Mirren, I just wasn't charmed. I did hate the film :)

joe burns said...

Glad Precious won! I agree with you on it! I hope Carey is your personal choice for Best Actress.

Off-topic, but Sage told me that Theodora's Gone Wild will be on TCM on Tuesday, if you get TCM. I know you said that that was one of the movies you want to find.

Alex Constantin said...

i get a different TCM, as it has all kinds of regional areas.

Anonymous said...

pls get back with full contact details for a private discussion - office@telliso.com.

I didnt find any email/ phone in your profile.

tnx

Runs Like A Gay said...

I echo most of the other people here when I say it's good to see so much love for Public Enemies.

And your cinematography lists are superb (although I would perhaps argue for Tetro now...)

Anonymous said...

I would like to exchange links with your site alexinmovieland.blogspot.com
Is this possible?

Alex Constantin said...

as you might notice, I'm not ok with posting links here. and i have no idea who u are