The First Annual "I'm Right" Awards

Welcome to the first annual I’m Right awards, wherein I second-guess the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I’m going to look over the 2011 Oscar race category by category, and reveal my picks. The Shyamalanian twist here is that I’m not going to limit myself to what the Academy nominates; if I think an aspect of a different film is more deserving than any of the nominees, then that’s my pick (which may not happen all that much, actually. By my count I’ve only seen 21 movies from 2010. So we’ll see). Also, whether or not my pick is from the existing nominations, I’ll give a quick rundown of the existing category and how I think they measure up to each other. There a few categorizations with which I disagree (like Hailee Steinfeld being nominated as a supporting instead of lead actress despite having more screentime than any other character), so where that happens I’ll note it and omit it from my order.

And of course, there are a number of nominated movies that I have not yet seen, so those I’ll just ignore.

Here are my arbitrary Oscar picks. In random order.

Paul's Cinema Chronology: The 1960s

What I’ve Seen

1960:

Pycho

Inheret the Wind

Spartacus

1961:

One Hundred and One Dalmation

Judgement at Nuremberg

1962:

To Kill a Mockingbird

Lawrence of Arabia

Dr. No

1963:

The Sword in the Stone

From Russia with Love

1964:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Neindeer

Mary Poppins

Goldfinger

Dr. Strangelove

1965:

The Sound of Music

1966:

A Man for All Seasons

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

1967:

The Jungle Book

1968:

Yellow Submarine

Romeo and Juliet

Barbarella

2001: A Space Odyssey

1969:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Age of Consent

24 Total

Paul's Cinema Chronology: The 1950s

What I've Seen

1950:

Cinderella

Rashoman

1951:

A Streetcar Named Desire

Ace in the Hole
Alice in Wonderland

1953:

Roman Holiday

Niagara

Peter Pan

1954:

Seven Samurai

Rear Window

On the Waterfront

1955:

Les Diabolique

Lady and the Tramp

1957

Nights of Cabiria

12 Angry Men

Paths of Glory

The Seventh Seal

1958

Vertigo

1959

North by Northwest

Ben-Hur

The 400 Blows

Some Like it Hot

21 Total

Paul's Cinema Chronology: Film Until the 1950s

Today I’m debuting a new feature, which I’ll call Paul's Cinema Chronology unless and until I think of something better. The idea is for me to write about the movies I’ve seen in a given year. If I have any specific thoughts on the year I’ll give them, although I doubt I’ll have many. The plan is to list all of the movies I’ve seen from that particular year, then give a top and maybe bottom five with a brief explanation (only a couple of sentences), and finally to mention any notable films from that year that I haven’t yet seen.

Obviously this will be a long-running series, but it won’t be quite as bad as it might sound. For the first few installments I’ll be conglomerating the years; until the late 90s I usually have seen only a handful of movies from any given year. The plan is to cover everything up to 1950 in this first (and probably shortest) entry, then have one each for the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I’ll probably do two to cover the 80s, and then one that covers the first half of the 90s before I get to year-by-year. Also, the point of this isn’t any sort of essay on how a particular time period affected film history. I might possibly write a few things, as I mentioned above (about a particularly interesting Oscar race, for example), but for the most part this is strictly about me. So there.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose (Film Review)

The Ballad of Jack and Rose

There are very few actors about whom I can honestly say I’d see anything that they appear in (a larger number of actresses, but that’s not exactly for the same reasons). Of that very small group, Daniel Day-Lewis surely tops the list. He is an incredible actor, one of the best working today, and has impressive screen presence to boot. His appearence in Gangs of New York is one of my top ten favorite movie performances by anyone ever, and he’s almost as good in There Will Be Blood. In addition, he’s one of the most selective actors, willing to spend five years as a cobbler in Venice if he doesn’t like a project.

Black Swan (Film Review)

Black Swan

A movie aptly described (by me) as a live-action version of Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue, Black Swan is a grand example of the ‘mind-fuck’ genre. It’s confusing, f-ed up, and very, very weird. But it’s also engaging, interesting, and visually very cool. And I’m not just referring to a surprisingly steamy scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.