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Oscar Takeaways
12 thoughts from the big night

 

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The 11th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards celebrating the films of 2010

traditional: Pictures, Traditional Acting, Aurals, Visuals, extra: Special Acting, Fun Extras

Best Action Sequence

for the adrenaline junkies
 HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
INCEPTION
A PROPHET
SALT
TOY STORY 3
 Despite the peaceful plotline this movie sure nails its epic fiery destructive final battle. The moment that behemoth takes wing (yikes). Exciting and superbly animated.
The bulk of this film's action sequences are way too imagination-deficient given the dream setting but the dizzying Zero Gravity setpiece is A+
This prophet's first murder is coerced and sadly rehearsed. His second act of violence, a van massacre ia a 180 -- he's now improvising and possessed (amazing sound work)
In an effort not to say "the whole movie" I've chosen the big freeway escape because it's absurd and fun with so many great touches (the tazer), the car crash -hair whipping...
One of the year's most inventive setpieces is The Great Escape. Despite the exciting action, there's plentiful room for character moments (nearly everyone gets one), drama and comedy.
 
Finalists: THE TOWN (Fenway Park) | HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (Flight Trainings) | SALT (First Escape)

Semi-Finalists: HEREAFTER (Tsunami) | TRUE GRIT (Rooster Rides) | IRON MAN 2 (Introducing... Whiplash) | TANGLED (Flynn vs. Maximus) | SALT (anything else) | SCOTT PILGRIM (they all blur together for me. Pick an ex, any ex... though my favorite showdown is probably with the Brandon Routh character - nominated for cameo.)

 

Best Musical Sequence (in a Musical)

[this category is only held in years in which there are musicals]
Bran Nue Dae
"I Want To Be An Aborigine"
Rocky McKenzie & Cast
Burlesque
"Show Me How You Burlesque"
Christina Aguilera
The Runaways
"Cherry Bomb"
Dakota Fanning
Tangled
"I See The Light"
Mandy Moore &  Zachary Levi
Tangled
"Mother Knows Best"
Donna Murphy
What this musical comedy lacks in polish it sometimes makes up for in sheer exuberance. And this sing-a-long pride anthem is the best example. Bonus Points: Comes with a reprise.
 The closing number and what a showcapper... glitz, glamour, dancing, huge sets, iighting, costumes. This club will be bankrupt again in no time... BURLESQUE 2 !?
Plentiful young actresses had made marks lately. Dakota throws another bomb there way, cherry flavored. She won't be dethroned so easily.
One of the most beautiful scenes in multi-princessed Disney's Kingdom. Pity that the happy ending means the end of the need for this gorgeous display.
A big funny villain number, delivered with excellence by a true Broadway star and imaginative visualized. The reprise only adds to its potency.
 
Finalists: "Welcome to Burlesque" (Cher) in BURLESQUE

Semi-Finalists: anything else from BURLESQUE | anything from SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD though like the action sequences all the musical numbers blur together in memory

 

 

Best Musical Moment (in a non-musical)

 BLUE VALENTINE
"You Always Hurt the Ones You Love"
Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams
EASY A
"Pocketful of Sunshine"
Emma Stone
FISH TANK
"Life's a Bitch"
Katie Jarvis and cast
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
"Blue"
Annette Bening & Mark Ruffalo
SOMEWHERE
port-a-pole
Kristina & Karissa Shannon
 The entire date sequence from bus to backwards run through this tap number (Michelle) with ukulele accompaniment (Ryan) is absolutely inspired.
Just after the opening credits, Emma Stone OWNS your heart by giving hers over to this earworm hit. She'll be this exuberant and funny for the whole 92 minutes!
"Life's a bitch and then you die... ♪ " a note perfect set up for that final backwards farewell. Anti- sentimentality finds the perfect abstract display of sentiment.
In the middle of Bening's best sequence, this wonderful soul connection through song. That unknowningly ironic  exit line "I like this guy"  just kills.
This is Somewhere's funniest recurring bit, with strippers pressing play and doing their "sexy" routines for the bored & horny. Hilarious without derailing the melancholia.
 

Finalists: KITES The dance competition is the highlight. It's so lame that they thought i'd want to see Hrithic dancing for 3 minutes and shooting guns and car chasing for 45. Other way around filmmakers * CONVICTION's 'My Sharona' and CYRUS 'Don't You Want Me' scenes both perform the same magic trick, getting you back on teh side of a character who is basically embarrassing everyone through drunken rages (Sam Rockwell) or drunken uninhibited antics (John C Reilly)

Semi-Finalists: DATE NIGHT's faux sexy number with Carrel & Fey works pretty well for laughs, WINTER'S BONE has fine music throughout but one scene gives it more play, GREENBERG -if you combine both of Greta Gerwig's musical moments I'll take them but one is too comatose and the other is super super brief.

 


Best Kiss

ANIMAL KINGDOM
Jacki Weaver & Everyone
THE FIGHTER
Mark Wahlberg & Amy Adams
I AM LOVE
Tilda Swinton & Edouardo Flaventi
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS
Jim Carrey & Ewan McGregor
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD
Michael Cera & Mary Elizabeth Winstead
 Smurf just can't stop kissing her boys in one fo the film's finest running details. It's easy to chart the favoritism and it's through line to her teary breakdown.
The Fighter and his girl both risk their soft sides on their delayed first date. You immediately see she'll be good for him. The family still intrudes in the conversation.
Their first kiss is wonderfully ambiguous, filmed out of a focus (did it even happen?) and the second, is passionately real... you're in doubt no more.
And extravagantly planned romantic evening ends with a slow dance and kiss. It's a sweet romantic drama in the foreground and frisky comedy in the background with prison ruckus as soundtrack.
Scott wins his dream girl (at least temporarirly) Bonus Points: all the blown kisses from others in the movie. I'm a sucker for this movies mixed media joy; Cartoon hearts are joy.
 

Finalists: BLACK SWAN is over in sex scene else it would it apply here | CHLOE (experiment) | ALL GOOD THINGS (wedding) |

Semi-Finalists: THE TOWN (criminal and hostage later on) | RUNAWAYS (joan & cherie)

 

Best Sex/Love Scene

BLACK SWAN
Natalie Portman & Mila Kunis (& Natalie Portman)
BLUE VALENTINE
Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams
FISH TANK
Michael Fassbender & Kate Jarvis
I AM LOVE 
Tilda Swinton & Edouardo Gabbriellini
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Julianne Moore & Mark Ruffalo
This famous sequence trades on everyone's favorite sex scene tropee: girl-on-girl action and ramps it up with its uniquely hysteric imagination: Sweet Girl.
The couple's first date and follow up sex scene keeps brushing up against their angry weekend at a hotel. So many conflicting emotions, such a powerfully evoked relationship.
One of the year's most disturbing scenes is this inevitable seduction. You know it's going to happening but it still hits with gale force. Brilliantly acted, too.
Two sex scenes, one in a dark room, that's beautifully hazy and the second, out doors, artfully freeing Emma into true nature
 "Oh... WELL!" Julianne sees her first giant cock since Boogie Nights in her comic scene with Ruffalo
 

Finalists: THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (any of the others: Annette & Julianne or Mark & Yaya) | CHLOE (Julianne Moore & Amanda Seyfried) |

Semi-Finalists: UNDERTOW (beach roll) | MOTHER (voyeurism from the closet) | NEVER LET ME GO | LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS

Almost... CYRUS has a hilarious ending of a sex scene without the sex scene "you're an angel.. a sex angel" and EASY A has a funny fake sex scene and finally APPLAUSE tries to have a sex scene but the participants are just too uncomfortable in a very memorable scene.

 

Best Credit Sequence / Title Design

BLACK SWAN
BLUE VALENTINE
BURIED
I AM LOVE
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

(closing credits)
visually subdued but still stark and haunting. The right choice after such a swirling mindbending finale

(closing credits)
Fireworks... That relationship had them in more ways than one.
(opening credits)
Gimmicky like the film sure, but it's a neat effect, you're falling deeper and deeper as the credits help you join the protagonist
(opening credits)
That wintry palette. The melodramatic type. The statuary. The city. "I Am Gorgeous" is what it's always saying.
(opening credits & closing tag)
Love the old school effects, a perfect visual equivalent for their garage band noise.
 

Finalists: (none) I did not see ENTER THE VOID due to the scarring that remains from the last Gaspar Noe I saw (Irreversible) but I understand the opening credits are supposed to be remarkable.

Semi-Finalists: SPLICE | NIGHT CATCHES US

 

Best Opening Scenes

First impressions are everything
ANOTHER YEAR
BLACK SWAN
THE FIGHTER
MOTHER
 THE SOCIAL NETWORK
This strangely dour opening of a generally warm movie informs and challenges the rest of the film. How much of happiness is contentment with what we have and how much is fighting to change our circumstances?
"I had the strangest dream last night..."

What better way to invite you into the nightmarish headspace of this crazy girlish ballerina?
Movie within a movie: Delusions of biopic grandeur literally kick off a biopic that likes things small-town sized. Great editing, energy and music choice. This eccentric movie starts hypnotically with the title character breaking the fourth wall and dancing for you. It's already entered the imagined Hall of Fame of Great Movie Openings with its arrogant banter and even sharper confidence
 
Finalists:
Semi-Finalists:

 

 

Best Ending

SPOILERS
 THE GHOST WRITER
THE ILLUSIONIST
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
MOTHER
TOY STORY 3
A thrillingly unveiled twist, and a negation. Bonus Points: the politician's face in photograph haunting each shot.

That final crushing hand scribbled note. The film is already so watercolored it's as if it knows you'll be soaking it with your tears.

A pitch perfect college drop off, a rude line to cut the sentiment and a couple mending. We  just love this movie.

Brilliantly mirroring the prologue without repeating it. That score and that fluttering light through figures in the bus bring the magic. The needles and star turn sting.
One of the most perfect wrap ups to any film series. Part of the reason I was balling is I knew they'd ruin this perfect farewell by returning to the characters again.
 
Finalists: BLACK SWAN "I was perfect" | ANIMAL KINGDOM "new man of the house"
Semi Finalists: I AM LOVE "vanishing" | TRUE GRIT epilogue

 

Top Dozen Scenes of the Year

(excluding previous scene categories)
127 HOURS
CAIRO TIME
THE FIGHTER
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PT. 1
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
 Talk Show
Pyramids
Porch
Three Brothers
Making Friends
I AM LOVE
I AM LOVE
MOTHER THE SOCIAL NETWORK
SOMEWHERE
Stalking
  Tasting
 Cel Phone
 Lawyer Up!
Mask
     
TOY STORY 3
WHITE MATERIAL
     
 Chuckle's Story
 Haircut
     
 

Finalists: ANIMAL KINGDOM "bad things" | THE GHOST WRITER "ferry escape" | THE TOWN "lunch" | SOCIAL NETWORK "full attention" | MOTHER "final prison visit" | CATFISH "title monologue" | EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP "Disneyland | RABBIT HOLE "park bench" | TRUE GRIT "night time race"

Semi-Finalists: WINTERS BONE "livestock" | PLEASE GIVE "double date" | TRUE GRIT "courtroom intro" | THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT "confrontling laser" | THE SOCIAL NETWORK "caribbean night" | RABBIT HOLE "comic book"

 

back to beginning?


NOMINATION & MEDAL TALLY BY FILM
in all (Oscar adjacent AND Extra) categories
Medal Counts are Incomplete as not all medals have been handed out yet.


16 nominations
BLACK SWAN (6 gold. 5 silver. 2 bronze)

15 nominations
THE SOCIAL NETWORK (8 gold. 1 silver. 3 bronze)

13 nominations
I AM LOVE (5 gold. 4 silver. 1 bronze)

10 nominations
THE FIGHTER (1 gold. 3 silver. 3 bronze)
SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (3 silver. 1 bronze)

9 nominations
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (3 gold. 1 silver. 3 bronze)

7 nominations
BLUE VALENTINE (2 gold. 2 silver. 1 bronze)
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2 gold. 2 bronze)
TANGLED (2 gold. 2 silver. 1 bronze)
TOY STORY 3 (2 gold. 2 silver. 1 bronze)

6 nominations
INCEPTION (3 gold. 2 silver)

5 nominations
ANIMAL KINGDOM (2 gold. 1 silver. 1 bronze)
THE GHOST WRITER (1 gold. 1 silver. 1 bronze)
UN PROPHETE (2 bronze)
THE RUNAWAYS (4 bronze)
TRUE GRIT (2 bronze)

4 nominations
FISH TANK (1 silver. 1 bronze)
MOTHER
WINTER'S BONE (2 silver. 1 bronze)

3 nominations
127 HOURS
BURLESQUE (2 silver)
FOR COLORED GIRLS (1 gold)
THE ILLUSIONIST (1 silver. 1 bronze)
NEVER LET ME GO (1 bronze)
SALT (2 bronze)

2 nominations
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
ANOTHER YEAR (1 silver. 1 bronze)
APPLAUSE (1 silver)
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS (2 bronze)
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (1 bronze)
MADE IN DAGENHAM (1 silver)
RABBIT HOLE (1 gold. 1 silver)
SOMEWHERE
SHUTTER ISLAND

single nomination
BRAN NUE DAE
BURIED
CAIRO TIME (1 silver)
CHLOE
CONVICTION
EASY A (1 bronze)
EAT PRAY LOVE
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PT. 1 (1 bronze)
JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK (1 gold)
THE KING'S SPEECH
LET ME IN (1 silver)
MOTHER AND CHILD
ONE TOO MANY MORNINGS
PLEASE GIVE
SPLICE (1 silver)
THE TOWN
TRON LEGACY
THE WAY BACK
WHITE MATERIAL