For the past eight weeks, I’ve been spotlighting nomination-worthy names, in all major Ocar categories, from the first half of the US release calendar. Today, we close out the series with an alternative January-to-June Best Picture 10, though it comes a week after ballots closed — timing was never my strong suit.
A look at this category on the Oscar side of things proves why I felt this series of columns necessary in the first place. Of the films currently being mooted for a place on the Academy’s Best Picture list, only two — “Toy Story 3” and “Winter’s Bone” — were released prior to July 2010. If the latter does wind up making the cut, it raises hope that small-scale indies can override voters’ perilously short memories. If it doesn’t, well, we must just accept that the first six months of the year contained no Oscar-worthy adult drama. Or, you know, not.
There’s no doubting nine of the films on my list below are wild long-shots to show up in Tuesday’s nomination announcement — indeed, several of the titles aren’t present on the Academy’s list of eligible productions.
They all, however, make the case for awards voters paying more attention earlier in the year, and also point up what a robust six months it was for both documentaries and female filmmakers. Meanwhile, after glancing over my Best Director lineup from a fortnight ago, I was intrigued to see I’d created my very own “lone director” spot.
As usual, chime in with your own responses and suggestions in the comments section. Here’s my own first-half slate:
“Dogtooth”
A veritable antonym for the phrase “Academy-friendly,” “Dogtooth” amazingly impressed enough folks on the foreign-language committee to remain in the Oscar hunt. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Beneath its brutality, Yorgos Lanthimos’s film isn’t so very alien: a despairing family drama about the parental impulse to protect one’s children taken to obsessive measures.
“Everyone Else”
I already made it clear in my Top 10 list just how hard Maren Ade’s exhaustive anatomy of a relationship hit me, but it bears repeating: like Bergman or Allen at their most punishing and precise, Ade knows how to excavate heady drama from the subtlest shifts in human behavior and interaction.
“Exit Through the Gift Shop”
The “is-it-or-isn’t-it” conversation around Banksy’s playful but pleasingly ungimmicky documentary on the commercialization of street art really seems of secondary importance when you consider what the film has to say about the corruption of creativity in the 21st century; that it’s also funny, tightly assembled and unexpectedly touching is all gravy.
“The Father of My Children”
Not just a richly humane and finely detailed portrait of a family in crisis, but also one of the most clear-eyed studies yet put to screen of the trials of independent filmmaking, Mia Hansen-Løve’s sophomore feature is a fictionalized elegy to one of her artistic mentors that winds up as a moving plea for its own artform.
“Fish Tank”
With the film having already having been singled out in these columns for its direction, screenplay and cinematography, as well as three of its performances, you probably knew this one was coming, but it’s worth hammering home the merits of Andrea Arnold’s sinuous, sexy take on British working-class ennui.
“How to Train Your Dragon”
DreamWorks’s rousingly old-fashioned animated fantasy didn’t promise much, only to emerge as one of the year’s most pleasant surprises: visually crisp and enlivened by genuine concern for its characters, the film also boasts as tight a command of structure and storytelling as anything their more lauded rival Pixar produces these days.
“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work”
Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg’s witty but surprisingly severe character study of the legendary comedienne has proved a stealthy grower in my mind over the past few months, but what lingers isn’t its subject’s crabby charisma and well-stocked arsenal of quips so much as Rivers’s unnerving addiction to her own celebrity.
“Lourdes”
Possibly the 2010 film I found myself recommending more than any other to those who hadn’t heard of it, Jessica Hausner’s fiercely clever but judgment-free fable of both the potential powers and limitations of religious faith is capable of uniting believers and atheists alike in conversation, and gifted with a streak of bone-dry humor.
“Restrepo”
The most artless of this year’s high-profile documentaries is also one of the most carefully considered: first-time filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington use their journalistic tools to vividly convey the fraught day-to-day existence of US soldiers in Afghanistan, but wisely eschew politicking to foreground ruptured human experience in an environment we could previously only imagine.
“Winter’s Bone”
The one film here with a fighting chance at a Best Picture nomination has hung in the conversation not just because of Jennifer Lawrence’s star-making performance, but because its wily fusion of macabre genre tropes and gritty social consciousness continues to surprise those encountering it for the first time.
Agree? Disagree? Have at it below. Hope you’ve enjoyed the column these past few weeks.
[Photos: Roadside Attractions, Kino International, The Cinema Guild, Producers Distribution Agency, IFC Films, DreamWorks, Palisades Tartan and National Geographic Entertainment]
Comments
23 responses to “FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Picture”
Bless you for including Restrepo. And I’ll have you know, I’m having a helluva time getting my hands on Fish Tank, but after listening to you blather about it for so long, I just have to see it.
oh Guy.. if you were a girl I’d ask you to marry me…
“Winter’s Bone”, I didn’t LOVE but, like you said, it would be a meaningful nomination – and it IS a very good film.
“Exit…”, “Un Prophete” (even though I consider it from last year, it deserves a break because it’s so good), “Dogtooth” (freaked me out – my definition of a “scary movie”) and, especially, “Restepo”, which would make my nominees list in a 5-Contender field; ALL deserve more recognition than they’re likely to get.
major props to you for this article!
and, yeah, can’t believe I forgot my favorite among these: “Fish Tank” is one of the best acted films I’ve seen in a while…
Cyrus.
And I was pleased to see Chad liked it too.
I saw “The Father of My Children” at Cannes two years ago and reading all of the reviews and good press it has generated since has me feeling like I watched a completely different film. I couldn’t even muster up enough emotion to actively dislike it… I just felt kind of indifferent. Maybe I need to revisit the film outside of the festival atmosphere.
I caught A Piece of Work on DirecTV. The best part of the documentary was being introduced to the photographer Flo Fox. Joan Rivers’ hypersensitivity to criticism of her plastic surgery and age really annoys me. You’re old and you went too far with the facelifts and whatever else you had done to your face.
Winter’s Bone is definitely one of my favourites of the year. Jennifer Lawrence ‘s performance is definitely star-making, but i think one of the best parts is the supporting performances from John Hawkes and Dale Dickey. Very dark and compelling from the both of them. I hope it gets nominated for Best Picture come Tuesday!
It’s not just that I’m a huge Tim Burton but Alice in Wonderland is, IMHO, the most under-rated studio movie of 2010.
Great voice work for the animated characters — Fry, Rickman, Sheen… and more).
Beautiful art design and a clever sense of humor.
And — Helena Bonham-Carter’s best performance of the year — by far.
For me, the outstanding film of the first half of the year was “The Ghost Writer.”
I’ve taken Winter’s Bone off my predictions list. It’s one of my favorite films of the year, and Jennifer Lawrence should (but won’t) win Best Actress, but I think the PGA 10 are too far ahead, and I don’t want to get my hopes up.
I agree with Exit Through the Gift Shop and Winter’s Bone. I’ve seen Fish Tank and though I agree that Katie Jarvis’ performance is not to be missed, the film as a whole didn’t rank in my best of 2010.
Guy, I wonder if next year Incontention might hold its own First-Half FYC awards that mimics the Oscars and where the visitors of this site as well as Incontention admin. vote in all of the categories to see what would happen? Just a thought, could be fun.
Guy – have you seen Catfish?
Dogtooth and Fish tank are amazing. I also loved Restrepo and Exit Through the gift shop.
JFK: That’s a nice idea. We’ll give it some thought. I hit on the idea too late last year to do anything terribly inventive with it.
Patrick Walters: Yes, I’ve seen Catfish and briefly wrote it up here. Not a first-half film, though.
This is easy. These 5 are still in My top 20 for the year, as well:
Shutter Island, The Ghost Writer, Toy Story 3, How To Train Your Dragon, & Restrepo.
Shutter & Ghost, in particular, would be making my Top 10 of the year (still have to see Another Year & The Way Back).
It would be so awesome if ‘Dragon’ gets into the Top 10, let alone a screenplay nod. It’s my favorite movie of last year. ☺
Is it just me or are the acting races (well that fifth slot) completely up in the air?
Definitely, A.J. ……
5th spot in Actor floundering between Duvall, Bardem, Gosling, & Wahlberg. I think Bridges is in. And wile I’d bet on Duvall, I’m not sold.
4th and 5th in Actress seems iffy: Kidman, Williams, Steinfeld, Moore, Rapace, Swinton, Swank (SAG nom), Manville, etc..
5th in Supporting Actor seems between Renner, Hawkes, & Matt Damon; unless Andrew Garfield is susceptible, too.
And Supporting Actress? Clusterf*ck: Adams, Leo, HBC seem safe. Then for the last 2 it’s between Kunis, Hershey, Manville, Steinfeld, Weaver, or more.
Thanks to BAFTA, I’m happy that nothing is dead set in stone yet (actingwise). I really think we’ll see no less than 2-3 slight surprises come Oscar nom morning.
I am quite surprised The Ghost Writer did not make your list.
Thanks Guy, if you need an extra hand getting the idea off the ground, just let me know. I left-off that it would be a virtual thing, but I figured that went without saying.
Jim
“If the latter does wind up making the cut, it raises hope that small-scale indies can override voters’ perilously short memories.”
Didn’t The Hurt Locker already do that?
Of course, but said hope needs to be maintained from one year to the next.
The thing I really like about Lourdes is that it’s prepared to let its actors’ expressions and movements say something and doesn’t feel the need to then underline it with dialogue. (And I just love that perfectly choreographed disappearance close to the beginning.)