Well, it’s that season again. The end of the summer movie season brings the new fall season. That means that important Oscar films are coming out, and blockbuster films are going to try and make bank. None of the movies that have come out yet this year could realistically have a shot at winning Best Picture. Even though Inception and Toy Story 3 are exceptional films, it would be unorthodox for an animated movie or a mind-bending thriller to win the big one.
So among the films slated for fall release, one of them has to win. No one film strikes out to me as a surefire winner, then again most years it is never clear.
Could it be for The King’s Speech, The Social Network, or 127 hours?
Just examining these eclectic films bodes well for the upcoming season, that the eventual winner for Best Picture won’t just be a typical “Oscar” movie, but instead an original and moving piece of art.
There are many films worth watching in the upcoming months, not just potential award-winners, and these are a few that you should look out for.
The Social Network – The aforementioned film, about the founder of Facebook, is getting some serious Oscar buzz. It may seem strange, given the youthful nature of the film, but it’s a film that is primed to hit the cultural zeitgeist at just the right time. Facebook is by all accounts the most popular website on the Internet, and it has defined the way our generation communicates with one another. A film about the creation of Facebook, without even necessarily being about Facebook but instead the loss of innocence that comes with rapid success, could become a real hit and be the hit movie of the year. It could even end up as a serious Best Picture winner. And it could get Timberlake an Oscar.
The Fighter – This upcoming gritty boxing drama, in the vein of The Wrestler, stars Mark Wahlberg as the boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward and Christian Bale as his troublesome half-brother Dick Eklund who is also Mickey’s trainer. The film, directed by David O. Russell, has some good buzz around it, especially because of Bale’s performance. The trailer for it was a bit melodramatic, but apparently that was just to make it more marketable and not just the standard sports biopic. This one could be good but no one has seen any of it yet and it doesn’t come out until December so it remains a wild card.
Black Swan – This film is a haunting portrait of a ballet dancer (Natalie Portman) who must fend off a rival dancer (Mila Kunis) who may…or may not…be a figment of Portman’s imagination. The trailer to this one is haunting and looks like it could end up being a super classy horror film. The film got rave reviews out of the Toronto Film Festival, especially for Portman’s role. It’s directed by Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler).
127 Hours – The true life story of Aron Ralston, a man who was hiking by himself when he fell, got trapped beneath a boulder and eventually decided to cut his arm off with a dull knife. I Directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), it will surely display his dazzling and kinetic style of filmmaking. Ralston, played by James Franco, is a tour de force for the actor, as for the majority of the film he is the only person on the screen. The film has been getting rave reviews coming out of the Toronto Film Festival, with much praise to Franco’s acting.
Due Date – The new comedy from the director of The Hangover, Todd Phillips, comes a story about a man (Robert Downey Jr.) who has to travel cross-country with a very annoying, bizarre wanna-be actor (Zach Galifianakis) in order to see the birth of Downey Jr.’s first child. The film reunites Phillips with Galifianakis, a pairing last time that was the basis for the funniest film of 2009, The Hangover. The trailer looked promising, and hopefully all the funny jokes weren’t already told. With no clear winner for the unofficial “best comedy of the year” award, this could wind up taking the non-existent gold.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I: The last Harry Potter book is being made into a movie that is being split into two parts so that the film can do justice to the final chapter of this internationally loved story and leave as little out as possible (And so that the Warner Brothers CEO can buy an island in the shape of his own face.) It will finally answer questions that fans have been dying to hear. What will happen to Harry and his friends? Will Voldemort be vanquished? Will Harry be able to pay his mortgage payments? (Kidding about the last one, but seriously that kid-err man- is old). The first part comes out this November, and it will most certainly be the biggest money-earner this fall, and quite possibly for the whole year. All the Potter films so far have been fun, enjoyable popcorn films that were fairly faithful to the book but had to skip large portions of the some of the books due to their War and Peace-esque thickness, but non-nerds will enjoy the spell put on them by the wizardry of this magical new film. (Just broke the record for magic-related puns in a sentence. Impressed?)
The King’s Speech – Tips for making a sure-fire Oscar Movie: British People? Check. British people played British actors Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush? Check. Film about British Royalty? Check. True Story about British Royalty? Check. True Story about British Royalty from the past? Check. True Story about the King of England who needed speech therapy to get over his debilitating stutter, with heart-wrenching moments of sadness mixed in with triumph? Check. And an unlikely friendship between a King and a speech therapist being formed along the way? Check. Harvey Weinstein as a producer? Check. Does it get anymore Oscar friendly then this? The film also won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival (basically the best picture winner for the festival) and got rave reviews, especially for Firth’s acting.
There are many other films to look out for in the upcoming season: Another Year, TRON: legacy, Conviction, The Company Men, True Grit, Yogi Bear. And one of those may very well end up taking home the Oscar gold. (My bet is on Yogi Bear). You have been warned.
