T.G.I.F. – Ten Boston Badasses!

So…they finally caught you, Whitey Bulger!

Imagine how peacock-like the FBI must feel now that two of their top ten have been taken care of. Whitey Bulger was captured after years in hiding, and whatshisname is swimming with the fishes, literally. (Or maybe not, conspiracy theorists!)

Of course, the FBI’s fast-acting publicity campaign that surprisingly ended the two-decade manhunt raises two questions: (1) Umm…why didn’t you try that sooner?, and (2) what is the fallout going to be now that he’s in custody? I remember watching a fascinating documentary about the career criminal, his ties/deals as an FBI informant and the odd situation with his brother. Whitey Bulger is surely sitting on a powder keg of info that could bring the Boston politicians and police to their knees.

Of course, his story was background for The Departed, with Jack Nicholson playing a variation of the Bulger character. They changed enough details to prevent (ahem) character assassination, but those in the know, knew.

So this week’s TGIF is Ten Boston Badasses…must-see films if you haven’t!

(01) – The Departed

(02) – The Town

(03) – The Fighter

(04) – The Friends of Eddie Coyle

(05) – Southie

(06) – Whatever Doesn’t Kill You

(07) – The Boston Strangler

(08) – Monument Avenue

(09) – Gone Baby Gone

(10) – The Verdict

Academy Award Nominations (and Razzies, Too!)

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning with few surprises…

I don’t know why they do this at such an ungodly hour (5:30am PST!) unless it’s to capitalize on a full news cycle, including green rooms filled with likely nominees ready to haunt the set of AM YourCityNameHere or The View. Imagine being on set at a talk show and having your agent tweet you to quietly slip out the side door since your name didn’t get announced.

(Hey…that’s Christopher Nolan slipping into that cab…)

Is Nolan so good that he’s being taken for granted? Even if Following didn’t make its mark until after the similarly structured Memento broke big, all the guy has done is make successful motion pictures that combine escapism with intelligence. I could see overlooking Batman Begins but The Dark Knight was a critical and popular success. His filmscapes are daring; for him to go from Insomnia to the world of Batman and Inception shows huge range. And he wrote and directed most of these films.

Two Academy Award nominations for screenplay, including this year. But not one nomination as Best Director; his omission for this latest masterwork is inexcusable.

The King’s Speech led all films with a dozen nominations; True Grit followed with ten and both Inception and The Social Network have eight. Roman Polanski’s film The Ghost Writer was blanked, as was Shutter Island. Black Swan might have been overtaken by The King’s Speech as the likely main competition for The Social Network.

Colin Firth is probably as close to a lock as there has been in recent memory, but the other acting categories have at least a strong two-way competition. The wild card could be True Grit’s Steinfeld stealing a win if Adams and Leo split votes for The Fighter.

Here are the six major categories – the full list can be found here.

Best Picture: “Black Swan,” ”The Fighter,” ”Inception,” ”The Kids Are All Right,” ”The King’s Speech,” ”127 Hours,” ”The Social Network,” ”Toy Story 3,” ”True Grit,” ”Winter’s Bone.”

Best Actor: Javier Bardem, “Biutiful”; Jeff Bridges, “True Grit”; Jesse Eisenberg, “The Social Network”; Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”; James Franco, “127 Hours.”

Best Actress: Annette Bening, “The Kids Are All Right”; Nicole Kidman, “Rabbit Hole”; Jennifer Lawrence, “Winter’s Bone”; Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”; Michelle Williams, “Blue Valentine.”

Best Supporting Actor: 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.”

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, “The Fighter”; Helena Bonham Carter, “The King’s Speech”; Melissa Leo, “The Fighter”; Hailee Steinfeld, “True Grit”; Jacki Weaver, “Animal Kingdom.”

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”; David O. Russell, “The Fighter”; Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech”; David Fincher, “The Social Network”; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “True Grit.”

My immediate hunch picks are in red, but I’ll revisit this in more detail as we get closer to February 25th.

On the other side of the coin, there’s always Ashton Kutcher, Megan Fox, Twilight and the Sex In The City movie franchise, all proud nominees for this year’s Razzie Awards. (I link you to the Wikipedia listing because the Razzie site is loaded with pop-ups.) Like their nominations, their ceremony also usually occurs one day prior to the Academy Awards.

Film Awards Keep Rolling In

Yesterday it was the Online Film Critics Society who handed out the hardware, and as these awards pile up, the Oscar favorites are starting to float to the top. In most of the major categories there are two strong contenders and a close field, although anything can happen, as we know.

So far I’ve not seen The Social Network. But despite my distaste for Facebook, it’s merely a coincidence; David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin are heavyweight names in my book. Much like my fever to see both The Town and The Fighter has far more to do with my love of crime thrillers and boxing films than my love of Boston. Although you’ve got to admit it – any Beantown film usually has a lot going for it. And I do love Boston.

The last two films I have seen – both within a week – are Inception and The Black Swan. Let’s just say that my mind feels like it was kicked around by a group of soccer hooligans, then trapped in a small room with Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch and Brian DePalma vying for control.

The winners of the 2010 Online Film Critics Society Awards:

Best Picture: The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Lead Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Best Lead Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Best Original Screenplay: Christopher Nolan, Inception
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins, True Grit
Best Editing: Lee Smith, Inception
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Foreign Language Film: Mother
Best Documentary: Exit Through The Gift Shop

And speaking of The Town and Inception, R.I.P. Pete Postlethwaite, who passed away yesterday. He had many great roles over the years, but I’ll always think of him as the mysterious Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects.

"One cannot be betrayed if one has no people."