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| Grief counseling will be available after the awards program... |
With 14 unique categories, I have chosen to separate the winners' posts into several parts, as I'm low on precious free time due to the strange disease known as college. So starting backwards, here are this year's winners. (To review the nominees visit here)
Best Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
For nearly a decade now, Warner Bros. have set a high standard for fantasy film with it's Harry Potter saga, and a myriad of elements have made each and every Potter film a success. While a bevy of talented British character actors and 7 deft adaptations from screenwriter Steve Kloves have all made this magical world rich, nothing brings the wizarding world to life like the franchise's amazing special effects. DHPt. 1 was no different whatsoever. Both the source material and the film act as a "hey I remember that character/thing from the other books/movies" and the creatures and locales have never looked more realistic. Dobby and Kreacher are made all the more real as intricate veins and skin structure are clearly visible, Lord Voldemort's venomous pet Nagini slithers to life, and the seven Potters/Sky Battle sequence is exhilarating to say the least, as evidenced by the clip below.
Best Original Song
"If I Rise" by Dido and A.R. Rahman from
127 Hours
With his film Slumdog Millionaire, it seems that director Danny Boyle made a lasting partnership with Bollywood musician A.R. Rahman. Rahman won two Oscars for the film, one for the song Jai Ho, and another for his pulsing original score. Boyle dialed Rahman in again this year for his Aron Ralston biopic 127 Hours, and the results are nothing short of amazing. The Indian mega-producer enlisted Brit songbird Dido (who had been generally quite as of late, with her last hit record being White Flag)to create the hypnotic, trance-like "If I Rise." From the first sleepy guitar riff, to the quite and ethereal performance by Dido, the song easily carries on the films uplifting message, all while looping constantly on you MP3 player.
Best Original Score
Daft Punk - TRON:Legacy
I remember when I first heard that Daft Punk would be scoring Disney's new TRON film, I knew it was the perfect match. The French duo delivered on my expectations and then some. In what was honestly an enjoyable but rather mediocre film, the beats kept Sam Flynn and company in my attention, even while the digital Jeff Bridges was the most horrible looking thing movies this year. While their single "Derezzed" is a highlight of the score, which includes songs ranging from standard House music fare to Hans Zimmer Orchestrations, another high mark for the film's music is "Son of Flynn" which is showcased below.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt
I'm just going to be forward and say it...if your eyes didn't at least well up watching Toy Story 3, then you are a stone-hearted baby murderer. Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh, but it is sincerely one of the most emotionally poetic films of all time. John Lassiter, Lee Unkrich, and Andrew Stanton chose Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt to carry the mantle of Woody and company, and they couldn't have chosen a better writer. TS3 has everything you would want in a sequel, throwbacks to the previous films, more of the characters we love, and new characters who create interesting dynamics inside a formula which should be stale by now. But that's the magic of Lasseter and his colleague's original concept. Arndt would not have accomplished this without the foundation they laid nearly a decade ago. Below is not only the best scene from the film, but what may be one of most gripping scenes in film history.
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS IN THE CLIP BELOW FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN TOY STORY 3!
Best Original Screenplay
Christopher Nolan - Inception
How do you out-Matrix The Matrix? Simply ask Christopher Nolan. As ambitious as it is layered, Inception was a thriller/sci-fi tour de force this year. I'm still amazed at how Nolan created a script that was so busy with multi-dimnensional plot intricacies, yet it never fell flat or stumbled over its own complexity. Strong deliveries from Leo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, and Tom Hardy didn't hurt the film either, and these Nolan regulars are used to his writing style style by now. I really still can't understand how the above pictured hallway scene was fleshed out in pre-production. I would imagine that such a sequence would be hard to construct on paper, but Nolan handles it effortlessly.
And thus ends part one of my year end film coverage. Check back next week as we delve into Best Director and the acting categories. As always, if you enjoy the blog bookmark it and share with your friends.
-CP
