2010

Best Picture Nominees:

127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech *
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

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127 Hours - Gritty story of hiker Aron Ralston who saved his own life when he amputated his own arm caught under a boulder using a crappy pocket knife.  The entire film (with a few odd snippets) is carried by James Franco.  Entertaining, but hard to watch.

Black Swan - Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman play ballerinas competing for the lead in Swan Lake in the ultra-competitive world of ballet.  Nudity and weird psychological visuals made this a must-see, but I found it odd.

The Fighter - This biographical boxing picture about half brothers is engaging, especially with the portrayal of Dicky Eklund, a has-been crack-addicted former boxer, by Christian Bale, and overbearing mother Melissa Leo, plus Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg, is engaging and fun to watch.  Bale and Leo won the Supporting Oscars, deservedly so.

Inception - Christopher Nolan "follow-up" to Memento with a genre-bending film about dreams inside of dream inside of dreams.  Hard to follow, but a fun idea.

The Kids Are All Right - The "gay" nominee for 2010.  This was probably the best bet for a win in recent years, because it is a good story, and really well acted, but did not win any Oscars (boo, hiss).

The King's Speech - The story of English King George VI who had a terrific stutter and needs to make a speech, and how he took classes from an unconventional therapist and make a speech to his British subjects.  Colin Firth does a great job and this was an acceptable Best Picture winner.

The Social Network - The "true" story of Facebook, which was possibly stolen from the Winklevoss twins and the shenanigans and anti-social behavior of Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg.  Jesse Eisenberg does a masterful job and Armie Hammer should have received a nod for his portrayal of twins.

Toy Story 3 - Third animated feature film to be nominated for Best Picture (easier now with up to 10 nominees).  The original Toy Story was best, but Pixar always does a good job.

True Grit - A remake of the 1969 film of the same name, directed by the Coen brothers. The standout performance is Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, and is she actually portraying someone her actual age (in the 1969 version, Mattie Ross is played by 22 year-old Kim Darby).  She got a well-deserved Supporting Actress nod.

Winter's Bone - Previous Disney Channel actress Jennifer Lawrence received acclaim for this dark indie film about survival in the meth-ridden Ozark woods.  Good film not seen by many folks (but enough to meet the 8.9% threshold apparently).

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My ranking of the Best Picture nominees:

1.  The Social Network
2.  The Kids Are All Right
3.  The King's Speech
4.  True Grit
5.  The Fighter
6.  Inception
7.  Toy Story 3
8.  127 Hours
9.  Winter's Bone
10. Black Swan