If I Picked the Winners: Best Original Screenplay 2010

     Continuing my wrap up of the 2010 Oscar season, this week I rank this year's Best Original Screenplay category. An "original" screenplay has became a rare species in Hollywood these days. 2011 will reportedly be filled with more sequels, remakes, and spin-offs than any other year in cinema history. I believe the statistic I read somewhere stated that one in every four movies will be based on some previous cinematic material, although it may have been one in five. Either way, that's way to much rehashing than we need right now at cinemas. The things is, unfortunately, even when a film is not strictly a sequel, remake, or spin-off, it more times than not follows some predictable Hollywood formula that they must keep around in their back offices. True originality is probably an abstraction that doesn't really exist, but I think they can do a little better than what we are getting right now. Anyway, I'll stop the diatribe and get back on point. The Best Original Screenplay category is often an interesting one that can typically contain more films out of left field than your average category. Many times, a challenging film well regarded by critics and cinematistas, but far from the main stream manages to squeeze in a lone Oscar nomination in this category. In the past decade or so, this includes films such as "The Royal Tenenbaums", "Memento", "Dirty Pretty Things", "The Squid and the Whale", "Lars and the Real Girl", "In Bruges", and this year, "Another Year". Overall, this year's group isn't that bad, as there aren't that many alternatives that I personally would have substituted. The one major change that I would have preferred is the inclusion of the screenplay for "Black Swan". I would put ahead of a few of the nominees that actually made it, and it seemed like it had a decent shot at the nomination, but it didn't work out in the end, so I will just have to deal with the nominees given. On to the ranking.

Top 10 of 2010 and Top 5 Anticipated of 2011

     I know it is a little late to be doing a Top 10 of the year (since these lists are typically made around the end of the year), but since I didn't have the privilege of attending any film festivals or living in a city that gets early releases on the year's biggest awards films, I decided to wait to the end of the Oscar season before making my Top 10 of 2010. Even so, there are a group of films I would have liked to have seen before making the list ("Four Lions", "Somewhere", "Buitiful", and "Exit Through the Gift Shop" to name a few), but I felt I could not let the time tick into July before making this list. Overall, if I where to grade the year in cinema that was 2010, I would give it a B-. There were definitely some good movies, but the film had its fair share of disappointments as well. Even films I liked, such as "True Grit" and "Inception", the latter of which (spoiler alert!) made my Top 10, just did not meet my lofty expectations. As a reviewer, there was no film which I would give a perfect 10 (although the number 1 film would be extremely close), and only five films that I would give a 9. Compare that to last year, where "Inglorous Basterds" would have received the mark of perfection from me, and about 13 other films would have gotten a 9, and this year was definitely somewhat of a let down. 2009 though was well above par, and to expect every year to match it in quality is a bit of unrealistic expectations on my part. This year's ten best films are still a decent list of films as you will see, and in particular, the year's best film (which will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog), will be remembered as a classic for years to come.

     Now since I have written about some of these films ad nauseum, due to their status as Oscar competitors, I have run out of new words to say about them. For that reason, for the films that I have covered in depth with reviews and summaries of their award worthiness, I will use previously written summaries to express my love for the film. So while reading this, if you get the strong sense of deja vu, don't be alarmed, you have probably read this before. For some of this year's great films that were criminally ignored by the awards season, I will be writing new summaries to try to convince you to see them if you haven't already.

     This article isn't exclusively about looking back though, as after chronicling my favorite ten film's from last year, I will peer into the future and look at my five most anticipated films of 2011. If you read a lot of film websites or trade papers, chances are that you will have heard of these films, but if your not as savvy a film-goer then you have some interesting surprises awaiting you. At this point, 2011 looks to have some decent films from some big name auteurs, but that is usually the case every year. The question is how many of these films will really deliver on their promise. Hopefully, if enough of them can live up to the hype, and throw a few good under-the-radar surprises, and 2011 will shape up to be a fine year indeed. That's enough speculation for now though (I'll leave that up to the oil markets), it's time to countdown last year's ten best films.