The Academy rarely gets it right. Most years the Academy awards Best Picture to a movie that is easy to like, or to a movie that is a spectacle or a technical achievement. Looking back over the last ten years, there’s not a single Best Picture winner that I haven’t liked a lot, but few that seem like they will last long into the future as important films. For sure Moonlight, and maybe 12 Years a Slave. But that’s about it.
2011 was definitely not a year in which the Academy got it right. Celebrating a year full of wildly adventurous and entertaining movie, the Academy did what the Academy often does and picked a middle-of-the-road crowd-pleaser, The King’s Speech. On its face, there’s nothing spectacularly wrong with that. The King’s Speech is good. But given the choice between exciting, forward-thinking masterpieces and an ordinary, low-stakes period drama, the Oscars went ordinary.
Well, have no fear, I’m here to fix this travesty. I’ve gone through all the main categories and picked new nominees and a better winner. We’re going to right these wrongs and rewrite history, starting with…
Cinematography
My nominees: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Eduardo Serra
Inception, Wally Pfister
Monsters, Gareth Edwards
A Prophet, Stéphane Fontaine
Winter’s Bone, Michael McDonough
Real nominees: Black Swan, Matthew Libatique
Inception, Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech, Danny Cohen
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins
…well, maybe history is okay in this case. It’s hard to argue with Inception‘s Wally Pfister as the standout cinematographer from 2010. Cinematography is more than just cool shots, though Inception has those in spades. The coherence of a movie’s relationships and plot are dependent on the individual images in the frame making sense, and a multi-layered plot like Inception‘s only works because Pfister frames the physics-defying spectacle with precision and clarity.
The rest of the new nominees are here for similar reasons. There’s nothing wrong with the choices the Academy went with (though I don’t think of The King’s Speech as having striking visuals- quite the opposite, actually), but I preferred a more eclectic group. The first Deathly Hallows is noticeably more carefully composed than its predecessors. Monsters is a showcase of Edwards’s sense of scale. A Prophet is starkly shot, much like The King’s Speech, but only one of them is set in a prison. And McDonough imbues the gray landscape of Winter’s Bone‘s Arkansas with thrilling contrasts of dark and light.
International Feature Film
My nominees: Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Incendies (Canada)
Last Train Home (China)
Lebanon (Israel)
Real nominees: Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Algeria)
Okay, I have to be honest, I haven’t seen any of the real nominees. They look great though. And because I haven’t seen enough international films from this year, I’ll go ahead and keep the three that seem to be the most prescient about the decade to come with directors that would all go on to big things in 2010s cinema: Dogtooth, directed by The Favourite‘s Yorgos Lanthimos; Incendies, directed by Blade Runner 2049‘s and Arrival‘s Denis Villeneuve; and Biutiful, directed by Birdman‘s and The Revenant‘s Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
But I think it’s worth honoring the two international features that I did enjoy from 2010. Lebanon is a brilliantly staged tank movie set during the First Lebanon War. It has all the claustrophobia and horror of the best single-setting war movies. It’s everything you may have wanted David Ayer’s Fury to be and more. And Last Train Home is an affecting documentary look at China’s vast population of migrant workers, focusing in on one couple traveling home for Chinese New Year after being separated from their daughter for the sake of their job in a textile factory. I almost wish I could nominate this movie for two awards…
Documentary Feature
My nominees: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Inside Job
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Last Train Home
Restrepo
Real nominees: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land
…and I have! While the first movie nominated for both these awards was 2019’s North Macedonian Honeyland (a feat repeated this year with Romania’s Collective), I would start that trend earlier with Last Train Home. The rest of my field wouldn’t look much different than the Academy’s. The eventual winner, Inside Job, is a pretty standard, talking-head documentary about the 2008 financial collapse. It’s the kind of format I’m glad the Academy isn’t rewarding as much these days, but it’s still an effective movie. And Restrepo is a chilling, boots-on-the-ground document of the War in Afghanistan in all of its confusion and tragedy. I haven’t seen Waste Land, but Joan Rivers is a fascinating portrait of one of the most interesting comedians of the twentieth century. It’s a pretty warts-and-all picture of her, setting the standard for these kinds of movies and eschewing hagiography.
But my winner is real nominee Exit Through the Gift Shop, which is one of the most fascinating experiences I’ve ever had watching a documentary. Ostensibly a Banksy-directed feature about one of his contemporaries in the street art scene, the movie eventually unravels to a point where its veracity has to be doubted. The producers have maintained ever since that it is 100% factual and not staged at all, but I remain unconvinced. Whether or not it’s a hoax, the movie ends up being a fascinating deconstruction of what art is to the people that consume it and pay money to experience it.
Animated Feature
My nominees: How to Train Your Dragon
Tangled
Toy Story 3
Real nominees: How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3
Not much to report here. Animated Feature is usually one of the more sparse categories in any given year. Hard to argue with the delightful How to Train Your Dragon, and Toy Story 3 is just the pinnacle of Pixar’s storytelling. But Tangled has to be in here for me. I understand that the Animated Feature award has some arcane rules about the number of nominees being reduced to three if there are less than sixteen films submitted, but Tangled is probably in my top ten Disney movies, so I have no trouble replacing The Illusionist with it.
Actor in a Supporting Role
My nominees: Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Ben Mendelsohn, Animal Kingdom
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
Real nominees: Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
Another category where not much changed. Christian Bale still wins in our redone Oscars for his strung-out portrayal of a volatile brother to Mark Wahlberg’s boxer. This is more of a narrative play. Is this Christian Bale’s best performance? Probably not (I’d pick Ford v Ferrari, personally), but his stature suggests he should have an Oscar, and no other performance from this year stands out enough to overtake him. Hawkes somehow projects both strength and creepiness in Winter’s Bone, and Rush is the best and most entertaining part of The King’s Speech. I replace Ruffalo, who is good in The Kids Are All Right as the male interloper in the central relationship, with Mendelsohn, who is better as the negative influence in the protagonist’s life. Mendelsohn’s role feels like the peak of what he is capable of: a twitchy, go-for-broke performance that keeps you guessing at his next move.
The closest to usurping Bale is probably Renner, who is a delight to watch in The Town. Ben Affleck’s crime film was one of my favorite movies of the year at the time, a perfectly calibrated thriller with Renner as the movie’s engine. At times you can tell that all the movie’s energy is coming from Renner, and that his high level is raising those around him. If Bale gets the edge on him, it’s because they’re doing the same thing and you can see Renner’s work. Bale makes it look easy.
Actress in a Supporting Role
My nominees: Mila Kunis, Black Swan
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Lesley Manville, Another Year
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Real nominees: Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Leo’s win for The Fighter isn’t an egregious error; the performance as Wahlberg’s feisty mother in The Fighter is memorable, but even more memorable was Leo’s campaign for the win, which she paid for herself. I admire her authenticity and audacity in the midst of what can often be a dog-and-pony show behind the scenes masquerading as serious consideration of art in the public eye. She was a journeyman actress given a moment in the sun. I wouldn’t take that away from her.
Except for another journeyman actress who hasn’t had her moment in the sun yet. Another Year, director Mike Leigh’s eleventh feature film, stars Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen as the central couple followed over the year’s changing seasons, but Manville, playing their single friend, steals the movie. At first, you see her as a batty woman, a little bit of a nuisance to her friend group. And then you see, through Manville’s slow and compassionate revelation, that her Mary is hiding deep wells of loneliness. It’s a fascinating portrayal with layers that should have been considered for and awarded an Oscar.
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
My nominees: 127 Hours, Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Secret in Their Eyes, Eduardo Sacheri & Juan José Campanella
The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3, Michael Arndt
Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik & Anne Rossellini
Real nominees: 127 Hours, Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3, Michael Arndt
True Grit, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik & Anne Rossellini
This is a good category. I don’t like True Grit quite as much as the Academy, but it’s an enjoyable enough movie that I’ve got no problem with the Coen brothers getting another nomination. But I replaced True Grit with an Argentinian feature that won Best Foreign Language Film the year before, The Secret Behind Their Eyes. Why is it eligible for this year if it was nominated for that category last year? It’s happened several times in Oscars history that a country will submit a movie for the Foreign Language category and then it gets nominated for other awards the following year when it’s released in the states. Weird bug in the system.
The winner is obviously Sorkin for The Social Network. It was Sorkin’s first nomination and only win, and in my eyes it’s the best thing he’s ever done for the movies. A screenplay like this, that’s simultaneously incisive and pulpy, is what Sorkin does best. He avoids the speechifying that’s so much a hallmark of his other work and instead puts his characters, Zuckerberg and his bitter contemporaries, in scenes that force them to reveal their nakedly bankrupt motivations. The contrast between this movie and his current contenders, The Trial of the Chicago 7, makes you wish he’d stick to letting other people direct his screenplays.
Writing (Original Screenplay)
My nominees: Another Year, Mike Leigh
Black Swan, Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz & John J. McLaughlin
Inception, Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
A Prophet, Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri & Nicolas Peufaillit
Real nominees: Another Year, Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech, David Seidler
I promise I don’t hate The King’s Speech, I just think there are more interesting movies worth celebrating. In this case, I’d rather see the other international film nominated for Foreign Language Film the year before and released this year recognized for balancing all the beats of its sprawling crime story. And Black Swan is one of the strangest movies to ever be nominated for Best Picture, a body horror movie that manages to stay above B-movie aesthetics and remain weirdly accessible to audiences that aren’t genre enthusiasts. I love this movie, and it should be recognized for its screenplay, especially over The Fighter, one of the less exciting scripts and stories David O. Russell has worked with.
I love that the Academy did recognize Leigh for Another Year and Nolan for Inception. This was Leigh’s seventh nomination, so he’s not exactly a stranger to the Academy, but his name continues to elude general audiences, so another nomination gives me one more reason to think he will be remembered in posterity. And Nolan is perennially dinged for bad dialogue, but I think the script for Inception, while endlessly mockable for its exposition, makes thematically clear what could have been confused by a complex plot. But my winner is The Kids Are All Right, Cholodenko’s masterpiece about navigating identities within the modern idea of what a family is. For all the ways we think we’ve redefined what family should be in this age, commitment and forgiveness remain the same as they ever were.
Actress in a Leading Role
My nominees: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Soledad Villamil, The Secret in Their Eyes
Real nominees: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
My impression of this pick for Best Actress is that it’s neither a no-brainer or a huge blunder. People generally think Natalie Portman is the caliber of actress that should have an Oscar, and no one else was impressive enough this year to overtake her. This is probably underselling her achievement though. Watching Black Swan in 2020, I was struck by how transformed Portman was from her usual confidence into a person unraveling at her seams. And she’s doing so much in Black Swan that it becomes hard not to award her, but the movie and the role are strange enough that it doesn’t feel like classic Oscar bait.
Kidman’s role of a grieving mother befriending the boy who killed her son is pretty classic Oscar bait. I’d rather see the steadfast Villamil get some love, making the acting awards more international. And I’ve never seen Blue Valentine (it’s one of my biggest 2010s blind spots), so Williams is out for me. I would have loved to have seen Moore get in the actual nominations, because the regret she displays in The Kids is so palpable. Her co-star, Bening, is still worthy though, as is Lawrence’s breakout role.
Actor in a Leading Role
My nominees: Ricardo Darín, The Secret in Their Eyes
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
Tahar Rahim, A Prophet
Real nominees: Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
I shouldn’t complain too much about Firth’s win for The King’s Speech. It’s one of the more convincing portrayals of stuttering I’ve seen in a movie, and Firth nails the way such a disability would affect a proud man. Also, the year before, Firth gave a truly moving performance in A Single Man, so it seemed like he was hitting some sort of stride. He remains nominated, along with Franco, who despite being an awful human gives an incredibly human performance as a man surviving being trapped under a rock in the desert in 127 Hours.
I added Rahim and Darín, Rahim for his breakout performance and Darín for his soulful, veteran turn. They replace Bardem, whose movie I haven’t seen, and Bridges, who is good in True Grit, but is more entertaining than anything else and is even overshadowed by his co-star, Hailee Steinfeld. My winner is Eisenberg, who was born to play this role. The knock against Eisenberg as an actor is that he has only one note, but the best movie stars are often doing riffs on the thing that makes them unique, and it’s hard to argue that Eisenberg didn’t find the perfect role for what he brings in Mark Zuckerberg. He’s petulant, insecure, and arrogant, telling the Icarus story of Facebook’s beginnings in three adjectives. It doesn’t even matter if this is who Zuckerberg really is, Eisenberg makes you believe it anyway.
Directing
My nominees: Jacques Audiard, A Prophet
Banksy, Exit Through the Gift Shop
David Fincher, The Social Network
Debra Granik, Winter’s Bone
Christopher Nolan, Inception
Real nominees: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
David O. Russell, The Fighter
I’m always a fan of the Directing winner being different from the Best Picture winner. Spread the love, in my opinion, and it’s an acknowledgement that these categories are rewarding different things. The Picture award is for the best overall movie, and the Directing award is for a particular feat of directing. Sometimes they’re inextricably linked, but in other years a movie stands out for fulfilling a very specific directorial vision. Five of the ten winners of this award in the 2010s didn’t direct that year’s Best Picture winner, so this isn’t uncommon.
Banksy’s debut feature is exactly what I’m talking about. The questionable nature of Exit Through the Gift Shop makes it a singular feat of directing. To balance between plausibility and the possibility that it might all be a stunt takes true vision and will to achieve that vision. It may not be quite as significant a movie as the one that wins Best Picture in my world, but it’s the triumph of an auteur nevertheless.
Picture
My nominees: 127 Hours
Black Swan
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
A Prophet
The Secret in Their Eyes
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
Winter’s Bone
Real nominees: 127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Again, I don’t hate The King’s Speech. It’s a great movie, but it’s not particularly special in any way, give or take a couple of performances, and there are so many more interesting movies to celebrate. I would have preferred any of the real nominees I kept to The King’s Speech. 127 Hours is a fascinating exercise in making a movie set entirely in one place interesting. Black Swan is an expertly suspenseful and weird body horror masterpiece. Inception, probably my second favorite movie on this list, joins Toy Story 3 as pure pop confections that rise above their studio trappings, while The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone are indie fare elevated beyond their budgets. And Exit Through the Gift Shop, A Prophet, and The Secret in Their Eyes are all more eclectic fare, rounding out a slate of movies that are all more interesting choices for Best Picture than a mild period drama.
But there’s only one choice for Best Picture, and that’s The Social Network. I’m hardly the first person to say it. No movie released that year, and maybe no movie since, has painted so clear a picture of our present and future as Fincher’s The Social Network did. And it’s not even the Facebook-specific aspect of the movie, though that certainly feels prescient.
No, it’s the relentless pursuit of wealth eclipsing identity, the acerbic nature that the Internet bends to, the dominant role of male insecurity in our society’s ills. It’s Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) slamming Zuckerberg’s laptop down on his desk in a state of powerlessness. It’s Rooney Mara’s Erica, in what may be the single greatest scene of the decade, calling Zuckerberg an asshole from the bottom of her heart. It’s Zuckerberg refreshing Facebook endlessly, waiting to see if Erica accepts his friend request.
It doesn’t really matter if any of it is factually true, though Sorkin apparently based much of the story details on depositions. The fact is, it’s thematically true, as unflattering to modern America as could be possible. If it were just a portrait, maybe that would be okay and we could lie to ourselves about the state of our morality. But The Social Network isn’t a portrait of anything, it’s a mirror. It’s the movie we deserve, just as much as it deserves Best Picture.
Coulda Been a Contender 