If I Were King of the Oscars…

You’ve seen the Oscars, I listed my top ten, now it’s time for my nominations. Some of these the Academy got right, others not so much. Here is what my personal ballot for 2010 would look like.

The Trouble with Quibbles: 2011 Oscars

It’s that time of year again, Oscar season. Bryan is a bundle of nerves, bursting with fruit-flavor and jonesing for any and all obscure nominations he can find, like a junkie going through withdrawals. I can just picture him now, mouth agape in abject terror as he sits in front of his computer, desperately trolling the interwebs for that last short that’s alluded him. And I take comfort in that. Is that wrong?

10 Quick Thoughts on Oscar Nods

I’m sure everyone has heard by now that Academy Award nominations were announced today, so I thought I’d list a few things that I found agreeable and a few I did not. A few notes before I start. This list is mostly for surprises so I’m not going to waste time expounding about Christian Bale’s much deserved first nomination or how mediocre The Kids Are All Right really is because it was widely expected that they would be nominated. Also, I have not seen everything (yet…although I don’t know if I’ll make time for Country Strong), so make of that what you will. If you want the best online awards coverage I suggest you check out In Contention. In the meantime, here are my two cents.

Top 10 Trailers – 2010

Think of this as a companion piece to my previous poster list. My top ten movies list is still forthcoming, so in the meantime I’ve compiled the ten previews that stood out this year. I watch a lot of trailers, and wouldn’t you know it, my day job is writing and creating trailers. So, you might say I know what I’m talking about (wow, can’t say that too often). The best trailers stand out from the pack, don’t spoil the movie, and most of all, make you want to see the picture. A few of these have some wonderful copy and structure, but really most of these trailers work so well because of their music selection, wonderful editing, and usually some decent source material.

One note, these are trailers for films released in 2010, so no Tree of Life or Cowboys and Aliens. And just like with the posters, I’ll keep comments to a minimum and let the clips do the talking.

The Trouble with Quibbles: Inception

I must preface this quibble with two warnings: 1) This film is far too dense to truly quibble about in one go, so I’m sure there are things we’ve left out, gleaned over, or touched on far too briefly, which might lead to the first multi-part quibble. We’ll see. 2) There be yon spoilers, but not for a bit. So, even if you haven’t seen Inception, you can read on, to a point. I’ll warn you again when we get to spoiler territory. Seriously though, you should go see this film… a sci-fi thriller from the acclaimed director of The Dark Knight, The Prestige, and Memento… what more do you need?

With Inception, Christopher Nolan offers a cinematic breath of fresh air in a summer blockbuster season chock full o’ watered-down remakes, superfluous video games adaptations, bedazzled vampires, and formulaic tent-pole franchises. Nolan’s mind-bending thriller is a wonderfully original blend of action and intrigue. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team of dream extractors, composed of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, and Dileep Rao, are presented with an even more challenging task than their typical dream extraction, planting an idea deep enough within a subjects subconscious that it redefines them.