Welcome to the second annual I’m Right awards, we’re so delighted to have you! There are going to be a few changes from last year. For one, I’m abandoning the whole “random order” gimmick, on account of the fact that it was dumb. Instead, I’m replacing it with a new, better gimmick—original categories! I’ve dispensed with some categories, and will be replacing them with new and better ones. The eliminated categories: the three Shorts categories*, Best Documentary (I might have an opinion on this one in a few years, but I have yet to see any 2011 documentaries), Best Foreign Language Film (ditto), Best Original Song (stupid category), and Best Makeup (ditto). That’s seven eliminated categories, so I need to come up with seven new ones. We’ll see how I do.
*Although I actually did see the live-action shorts this year, I just don’t think they belong in the show with the feature films. For the record, my pick would be The Shore.
Also, this year I’m going to ignore what the Academy did altogether, and instead present my nominees in each category and the winner. That should make the presentation less messy. A few categories might have less than five nominees, if I just haven’t seen enough films that qualify. In roughly descending order of importance (interspersed with my new categories), as determined by Wikipedia:
Best Visual Effects
The Nominees:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Thor
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Tree of Life
I complained last year that the Academy tends to confuse the word “best” with “most”, and I’m afraid that I might be following in their footsteps this year. While Malick and Scorsese utilized effects the best in terms of artistry, I just can’t ignore how amazing the work was throughout Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which is our winner. Frankly, I don’t think Michael Bay gets enough credit for the technically innovative and impressive Transformers series. Of course, this is also probably the only award going to Transformers tonight. Or is it?
Also, this is probably where I should mention that there will be a list of potentially relevant films that I have not yet seen at the very end. You can bet that Rise of the Planet of the Apes will be on it.
Best Performance by an Animal, Idea, or Inanimate Object
Our first new category! The title is a little glib—obviously none of aforementioned nouns can “perform”, at least not in the same way as a person. To qualify for this category, something must be more or less indispensible to the film in question, preferably in an interesting way. It can be important for the plot (a MacGuffin), to a character (most animals in films), or simply to the tone or theme of the film. Bottom line, it has to be something very memorable from the movie.
The Nominees:
Jack the Dog—The Artist
The Automaton—Hugo
The Burj Khalifa—Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
The Universe—The Tree of Life
Joey the Horse—War Horse
Inarguably the weirdest of my original categories, but I stand by it nonetheless. Although it is tempting to go with The Universe here, I’m going to stick with the obvious choice and pick Joey from War Horse. Joey is pretty clearly the lead performer in the film (as the name suggests), and probably leaves the strongest impression of any character other than maybe Niels Arestrup’s Grandfather.
Best Film Editing
The Nominees:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
The first two nominees simply had really good editing, while the last three had editing as a particularly important part of what made the films work (the editing and Pitt’s performance were about all that I really liked about Moneyball). It really comes down to scope; Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Tree of Life both had subtle, dreamlike editing as a huge part of what drove the films, but I’m going to go with the movie that used its editing to achieve something more grandiose. The winner, then, is The Tree of Life.
Best Sequel, Remake, or Rip-Off
The next original category is inspired by the Razzie category of a similar name. And to be clear, it doesn’t have to be a sequel so long as it’s clearly coming from the same continuity. A prequel like X-Men: First Class is perfectly qualified, as will The Hobbit be next year.
The Nominees:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Muppets
Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows
X-Men: First Class
I’m sure that some would argue that it isn’t really a remake because it’s based on the book and not the prior movie, but to that I say bullock. The winner then in a fairly strong year for the category is David Fincher’s atmospheric and gripping The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Best Costume Design
The Nominees:
The Artist
Drive
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Thor
This category in real life almost always goes to a period piece movie, usually one with elaborate dresses and powdered wigs. While I’m not going that far back, I’m still following the period trend here and giving the award to Hugo, mostly for the sequence towards the end of the film that follows the narrative “twist”, such as it is. I won’t spoil it for anyone who has yet to see the movie.
A quick note: Thor makes the list by virtue of the almost miraculous success of the costume department in making the comic book’s costumes not look totally ridiculous, and Drive makes it almost totally on the virtue of the main character’s awesome scorpion jacket, which almost got a nomination for Best Performance by an Inanimate Object (unfortunately splitting the vote with the hammer and the Clipper’s game from the same movie).
Best Cinematography
The Nominees:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
The Tree of Life
War Horse
A strong category, but still one of the easiest for the Paul committee to decide. The winner is Emmanuel Lubezki’s amazing work in The Tree of Life. Even the (distressingly large number of) people who hate this movie still acknowledge the film’s utterly breathtaking camerawork.
Now for a trio of connected original categories, which replace the Shorts.
Best Opening
Pretty self-explanatory, this category rewards the best intro to a film, which can (but usually does not) include the credit sequence. It could be a great self-contained scene or just a particularly good introduction to the movie at hand.
The Nominees:
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Moneyball
Thor
While TGWTDT pretty indisputably has the best (or at least most memorable) title sequence of the year, Drive’s first scene could legitimately work as a stand-alone visual short. It does that good a job of establishing the main character and the themes of the movie. And it is our winner.
Best Ending
As with the last category, this can encompass the credits if they are particularly memorable. Obviously the exact cut-off of the “ending” is pretty subjective, but…hey look over there!
The Nominees:
The Artist
Martha Marcy May Marlene
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Warrior
I cheated a little bit with War Horse, as I’m including much of the auction scene and what surrounds it, which I think is the strongest in the whole film but isn’t exactly the ending (though it is close, and I did like the actual ending). Still, I’m going with the delightful end of The Artist, which—due mostly to sneakily spoiler filled publicity campaign—is already becoming iconic, and which also provides a very mild twist that helps close a potential plot hole.
Best Scene
And wrapping up the original trifecta here is probably my favorite new category. I’ll try to be fairly vague with what I call the scene to avoid giving away anything. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll know what I’m talking about.
The Elevator Scene—Drive
The Second Visit to Martin’s Home—The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
The Toyshop Owner’s Past—Hugo
Life, the Universe, and Everything—The Tree of Life
The Final Fight—Warrior
I also feel like I’m cheating just a little bit with The Tree of Life, as the part that I’m talking about is probably more of a “sequence” that one individual “scene”. So even though it was my favorite moment in a movie this year, I’m still going to go with The Elevator Scene from Drive. Without going into too much detail, it managed to be simultaneously one of the most beautiful and horrifying scenes in any movie I saw this year, and it’s going to be a very long time before I forget it.
Best Art Direction
The Nominees:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Thor
War Horse
Another of the easiest to pick, the art direction in Hugo absolutely made the movie, and was far and away the best of the year.
Best Sound Mixing
I actually asked an expert what the difference between this and editing is, and the answer I got was that editing is the creation of sound effects while mixing is the actual placing of them (as well as the score and dialogue) into the final film. Or whatever.
The Nominees:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Martha Marcy May Marlene
The Tree of Life
Warrior
In contrast with the last category, this is one that I really don’t know where to go. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to reward the subtlety and ambiguity of Martha Marcy May Marlene over the “bigger” efforts of the other nominees. But I’m pretty lukewarm on this one.
Best Sound Editing
The Nominees:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse
X-Men: First Class
I’m going in the exact opposite direction here, and again going with Industrial Light and Magic’s impressive work in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. While it isn’t serving a good screenplay, the effects really are top-notch.
Best Original Score
The Nominees:
The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
Midnight in Paris
The Tree of Life
I’m going with the obvious choice here again, and so the winner is The Artist. A silent movie absolutely has to have good music to succeed, and Ludovic Bource’s work here is much better than good. Of course, it is a little ironic for The Artist to win Best Original Score on account of its wholehearted pilfering of parts of the Vertigo score, but I actually liked that. It showed—wait for it—originality.
Best Animated Feature
I only saw one animated movie this year worthy of a nomination, so I considered scrapping the category entirely. But I wanted to make sure that the winner got at least one Paul and there really isn’t anywhere else that was going to happen, so…our only nominee and winner is Rango
Best Comedy
I really think that comedies are overlooked by the Academy…and by me. It’s just really hard to bump a “serious” movie from a category in favor of a comedy, even if I genuinely like the latter better. Though to be fair, comedies rarely strive for the same kind of depth as their dramatic cousins, so maybe it isn’t all that unreasonable.
The Nominees:
Cedar Rapids
The Hangover Part II
Horrible Bosses
The Muppets
Rango
Not a great crop this year, but still I’m faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, Cedar Rapids is probably the best movie on the list, with legitimate character development and a narrative arc as well as some real emotional depth. But while it is also quite funny, in this category it’s hard to overlook the fact that Horrible Bosses had me as close to rolling in the aisles with laughter as anything I’ve seen in a while. So there you go.
Best Writing—Adapted Screenplay
The Nominees:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and Deathly Hallow Part 2
Hugo
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
War Horse
While I have two pretty clear favorite movies from this group, Hugo and TGWTDT’s successes aren’t really because of their writing. So I’m giving the award to a movie that shattered the cinematic record for important plot developments per minute, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which could have been utterly incomprehensible (or 10 hours long) in the hands of a lesser screenwriter.
Best Writing—Original Screenplay
The Nominees:
The Artist
Drive
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Midnight in Paris
Warrior
Although I admit to being rather tickled by the notion of selecting a silent movie for best screenplay (which is not to say The Artist isn’t deserving on its own merits), I really think the best writing of the year is in first-time director and screenwriter Sean Durkin’s little-seen but impressive Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Although this is a category in which I have some particularly egregious holes in what I’ve seen so far; from what I’ve heard A Separation is pretty formidable.
Best Ensemble
The last original category, this one is to celebrate the overall casting in a film before we get to the individual awards.
The Nominees:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Ides of March
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
With all due deference to the all-star lineups in HP and Ides, I’m going with the absurdly deep roster from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. When John Hurt isn’t even in the top five best performers in a movie, you know you have a pretty good cast.
Best Supporting Actress
The Nominees:
Berenice Bejo—The Artist
Anne Heche—Cedar Rapids
Carey Mulligan—Drive
Evan Rachel Woods—The Ides of March
Jessica Chastain—The Tree of Life
A very solid group here, any of them could win. Which also means I’m having a tough time coming up with who actually will. After changing my mind about twenty times, I think I’m going to end up choosing Carey Mulligan for her understated but incredibly moving work in Drive.
Best Supporting Actor
The Nominees:
Viggo Mortensen—A Dangerous Method
Albert Brooks—Drive
Ben Kingsly—Hugo
Brad Pitt—The Tree of Life
Nick Nolte—Warrior
Another strong group, and there were some very difficult cuts here, particularly Michael Fassbender from X-Men: First Class (no, really) and Niels Arestrup from War Horse. But once I had the field, the choice of the actual winner was not nearly as difficult. For as great as the rest of these gentlemen were, the subtle and completely indispensable performance of Viggo Mortensen in A Dangerous Method is the one that stuck with me the most. His interpretation of Sigmund Freud was easily the best part of a movie that otherwise teetered on the edge of dullness.
Best Actress
The Nominees:
Keira Knightely—A Dangerous Method
Rooney Mara—The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Elizabeth Olsen—Martha Marcy May Marlene
Knightley’s inclusion here is mostly so I don’t have to admit that I only saw two films this year with female leads—hers is really more of a supporting performance, albeit a large one (pretty comparable to Bejo’s role in The Artist, actually. Why is Bejo in the previous category and Knightely in this one then? A reasonable question, the answer to which is….hey, look over there!)
Still, the two real nominees were both amazing in their first major roles, and as good as Mara was it actually wasn’t that hard a decision for me to choose Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene. Before hearing about the movie, I didn’t even know that Mary Kate and Ashley had a younger sister. Now I think she’s the more talented.
Best Actor
The Nominees:
Jean Dujardin—The Artist
Ryan Gosling—Drive
Hunter McCracken—The Tree of Life
Joel Edgerton—Warrior
Tom Hardy—Warrior
Unfortunately for Leo DiCaprio, Gary Oldman, and Hunter McCracken (to whom my inner snooty film hipster was itching to give the award), I saw Warrior at the last minute before finishing writing these awards. The two lead performances by Edgerton and Hardy in that movie were both incredible, and forced their way onto this list. But one of them did even better than that, and as a result, swooping in from nowhere for the win is Tom Hardy from Warrior. Just incredible work by Mr. Hardy, who is set to play Bane in the The Dark Knight Rises later this year. I can’t wait.
Best Director
The Nominees:
Michel Hazanavicius—The Artist
Martin Scorsese—Hugo
David Fincher—The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Sean Durkin—Martha Marcy May Marlene
Terrence Malick—The Tree of Life
As with last year, the winner will go with the Best Picture winner. So let’s skip right to that.
Best Picture
The Nominees:
The Artist
Hugo
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
The Tree of Life
Warrior
Pending the results of further viewing, I think that 2011 was a pretty good year in film. Though not the best from the past decade or so (that would almost certainly be 2008), it had quite a lot to like. I’d put this list of five best picture nominees up against just about any year. So far three films from the year have managed to gain entry into the exclusive and very snooty club that is my personal Top 100; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Warrior towards the bottom and our winner towards the top.
And the winner for the Best Picture of 2011 goes to…Terrence Malick and The Tree of Life. One of the most polarizing films ever, I am very firmly on the side of those who maintain that Malick’s ambiguously autobiographical magnum opus is a genuine masterpiece. It’s incredibly beautiful, challenging, profound, and endlessly fascinating on about twelve hundred different levels.
And that, folks, is the second annual I’m Right awards. The final Tally is:
The Artist—9 Nominations, 2 Pauls (Best Ending, Best Original Score)
Cedar Rapids—2 Nominations, 0 Pauls
A Dangerous Method—1 Nomination, 1 Paul (Best Supporting Actor for Viggo Mortensen)
Drive—7 Nominations, 3 Pauls (Best Opening, Best Scene, Best Supporting Actress for Carey Mulligan)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo—12 Nominations, 1 Paul (Best Sequel, Remake, or Rip-Off)
The Hangover Part II—1 Nominations, 0 Pauls
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow Part 2—8 Nominations, 0 Pauls
Horrible Bosses—1 Nomination, 1 Paul (Best Comedy)
Hugo—10 Nominations, 2 Pauls (Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design)
The Ides of March—2 Nominations, 0 Pauls
Martha Marcy May Marlene—6 Nominations, 3 Pauls (Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Actress for Elizabeth Olsen)
Midnight in Paris—5 Nominations, 0 Pauls
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol—2 Nominations, 0 Pauls
Moneyball—2 Nominations, 0 Pauls
The Muppets—2 Nominations, 0 Pauls
Rango—2 Nominations, 1 Paul (Best Animated Feature)
Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows—2 Nominations, 0 Pauls
Thor—3 Nominations, 0 Pauls
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy—2 Nominations, 2 Pauls (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Ensemble)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon—2 Nominations, 2 Pauls (Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing
The Tree of Life—12 Nominations, 4 Pauls (Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Director for Terrence Malick, Best Picture)
War Horse—6 Nominations, 1 Paul (Best Performance by an Animal, Idea, or Inanimate Object)
Warrior—8 Nominations, 1 Paul (Best Actor for Tom Hardy)
X-Men: First Class—2 Nominations, 0 Pauls
24 Total Awards
See y’all next year. Will the first part of The Hobbit sweep all 24 Pauls, or just 16-18? Only time will tell.
Postscript—in the interest of full disclosure, here are a list of most of the potentially relevant movies from 2011 that I have not yet seen and that were not already covered earlier (I already admitted not having seen any foreign language films or documentaries yet from 2011, so those aren’t included. Nor are the many animated movies I missed).
Albert Nobbs
Attack the Block
Beginners
A Better Life
Bridesmaids
Carnage
Coriolanus
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
The Iron Lady
Jane Eyre
Margaret
Margin Call
Meek’s Cutoff
My Week with Marilyn
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Shame
Take Shelter
Weekend
pps: The Paul committee realized too late how similar a Paul statue looks to an Oscar. I suppose that's unavoidable when the model (and namesake of the awards) is so indistinguishable from a young Marlon Brando, the model for the Oscar statue.
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