Posts Tagged ‘An Education’

It's neck and neck between Sandra Bullock and Helen Mirren for the Best Leading Actress Oscar, but Bullock slightly leads thanks to awards by Critic's Choice, Golden Globes, and SAG

It’s almost time! Going through the final few categories will hopefully help you get in the mood for tomorrow night’s festivities, which are sure to be as exciting as ever. Enjoy our newest analysis!

Also See: Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Leading Actor, Best Original Screenplay

Best Actress in a Leading Role

This year’s Best Leading Actress pool is filled to the brim with deserving talent and performances, arguably more so than usual. What isn’t unusual is that it’s a tight race for who is actually going to win the gold statuette. The competition is stiff, but it would appear that the two leaders are Sandra Bullock and Helen Mirren, followed closely by Meryl Streep. Bringing up the rear is, of course, the younger two of the nominees, Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe, respectfully. Helen Mirren’s performance is said to be the most powerful, however Bullock has earned the majority of the Leading Actress awards leading up to the Academy Awards. Read the rest of this entry »

According to Diane Garrett, "Up in the Air" is just one of this year's films that acknowledge the frequency of infidelity

Diane Garrett of Variety.com wrote in an article the other day how it seems the topic of infidelity is hot this year in Hollywood. The reason for this suspicion – 4 out of 10 nominated films for the Best Picture Oscar deal directly with the subject.

Up in the Air, Precious, An Education, and A Serious Man are those 4, and aside from these there’s still those films that weren’t nominated, such as It’s Complicated and Nine.

Garrett notes that, socially, infidelity is a topic that the country can’t seem to avoid, with news breaks about Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Mark Sanford, David Letterman, and John and Kate Gosselin flashing day and night. For something that’s supposedly so immoral, it sure seems to happen quite a lot. Could this be why it’s such a popular topic in recent films?

On the contrary, Garrett makes a different conclusion, chalking the timeliness of the subject up to its versatility in the field of writing.

“It’s interesting, it’s common, and it’s juicy,” says Wesleyan U. film scholar Jeanine Basinger. “You can tell it as comedy, drama, whatever.” – Variety

Infidelity is an issue that audiences seem to have a strange interest in. Strange, that is, because the negative effects of it are well known (scarred children, emotional pitfalls, birthed insecurities, etc.) but because it’s so common it’s traversed from being a serious taboo to fodder for entertainment. And beyond the incorporation of the topic in this year’s four nominees, Garrett insinuates they treat it as a common indiscretion like the most of us. This contrasts, she says, with films like Unfaithful which explicitly claim that such an act should not be tolerated.

To add to Garrett’s article, at least this year’s films aren’t in any way condoning the act of cheating.

With Oscar season now officially upon us, it is time to take a look back and see which films have made Movie-Thoughts’ Top 10 of the year. Granted we’ve only been around since last August, so our list isn’t as well crafted as it might be if we were around for a whole year. However, such lists are just meant to be fun anyways, right? So let’s get to it.

Our list is based solely on how writers Clifford Bugle and Marisa Carpico rated all the movies they reviewed on a scale of 1.0 to 10.0. There were lots of ties, but they were sorted out according to the suggestions of the writers.

1. Avatar -  9.0
2. A Single Man -  9.0
3. Inglourious Basterds -  8.5
4. An Education -  8.5
5. The Hurt Locker -  8.5
6. District 9 -  8.5
7. 500 Days of Summer -  8.5
8. The Book of Eli -  8.5
9. Precious -  8.0
10. The Merry Gentleman -  8.0

How does our list compare with yours? We’re excited to know, so send us your list of the Top 10 movies of the year via our Contact page or this post’s comments section.