One Category at a Time: Supporting Actress

This category is the only interesting one in the major categories, with a shaky frontrunner primed for an upset by a couple of potential spoilers.

Said frontrunner is Melissa Leo in The Fighter. Not to take anything away from her hard-earned success this season, but I really don't see what makes her performance so special. She does a good job, but I can't say I'm as taken as everyone else appears to be. Having swept the Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, and SAG Award, the smart money's on her, but she feels very vulnerable. Her acceptance speeches always seem to come across as being a bit full of herself, and word that she's recently embarked upon her own personal FYC campaign may be the grain of sand that tips the scales in someone else's favour.

Someone like Hailee Steinfeld, whose terrific realization of Mattie Ross in True Grit is the best performance of the five. There's a lot of support for the film and the performance, and this may be the place the Academy recognizes it, if Deakins' cinematography doesn't come to fruition.

Or it could go to Amy Adams, who gives a superior performance to Melissa Leo's if you ask me, and who's at just the right point in her career to win an Oscar, but this strikes me as a less likely possibility, given how much support Melissa Leo is still pulling.

Helena Bonham Carter might (just barely might) shock us all if The King's Speech is really going to sweep, but probably not. As for Jackie Weaver, good for her! It's great to see unknowns get recognized for obscure films, even though you know they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning.

Will win: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Runner-up: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Should win: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Should have been nominated: Lesley Manville, Another Year

Review - Animal Kingdom

Mini-review for the Australian crime flick Animal Kingdom:

Animal Kingdom examines a family of armored car robbers being hunted down one-by-one by the cops, as seen through the eyes of the 18-year-old who is thrown into their world after his mother dies and he's left in their care. The film moves at a rather sluggish pace and struggles to maintain interest, probably because our young central character seems so passive and uninterested in everything that's happening around him. Scenes that could have been milked for suspense or surprise or drama aren't executed as effectively as they could have been. Frankly, they're kinda boring. Chief among the films few assets is Jacki Weaver, who casts a somewhat creepy presence as the family's nearly unshakable matriarch, but her performance is not exactly the awards-worthy performance several outlets have declared. She's good, not great.

As for her awards campaign, Sony Picture Classics was quick out of the gate with DVDs sent to Academy members, but I'd argue that the hype is the enemy. If voters watch their screeners expecting to see her “set the screen ablaze”, they may be disappointed by the relatively chilly nature of the performance.

** out of ****