'The King's Speech' Takes Top SAG Award

'the king's speech' is on a roll and now heads toward oscar night as the front runner. just weeks ago 'the social network' seemed unstoppable. but since the pga, the dga and now the sag has gone royal everything is in turnaround. a lot of pundits thought 'the fighter' might take ensemble cast award tonight. they were wrong. i was right. the king, his therapist and their supporting cast ruled. so now we move on to the last stretch toward the oscars. it's a race for sure but the royals are now ahead by a pretty long nose. but the sag's sometimes get ahead of themselves. remember just three years ago when christie and cotillard upset the betting odds.

i've been on the firth and portman bandwagon for weeks now and tonight they prevailed.

the winners of the 2010 sag awards are

for film

Best Ensemble: “The King’s Speech”
Best Actor: Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, “The Fighter”
Best Stunt Ensemble: “Inception” (presented on the red carpet)

and in television

Best Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries: Claire Danes, “Temple Grandin”
Best Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries: Al Pacino, “You Don’t Know Jack”
Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series: “Modern Family”
Best Actress in a Comedy Series: Betty White, “Hot in Cleveland”
Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”
Best Ensemble in a Drama Series: “Boardwalk Empire”
Best Actress in a Drama Series: Julianna Margulies, “City Island”
Best Actor in a Drama Series: Steve Buscemi, “Boardwalk Empire”
Best Stunt Ensemble: “True Blood”

'The Town' Releases Today on Blu Ray and DVD

the golden globes decided to ignore 'the town' except for a nod to jeremy renner in the supporting male category. you should not ignore it. when i first saw it i wondered if it would catch on. many film critic organizations got it right and it made more ten best lists than i thought it might. this is a nice surprise. it also appears to be getting rewarded in the ensemble acting category where that distinction applies. the credit for this goes to ben allleck. there is not a weak acting moment in this film.

mr. affleck also gave rebecca hall and blake lively their best roles to date. especially ms. lively. for those of you who only know her as serena on 'gossip girl', where she is actually wonderful, you ain't seen nothing yet. as the meth addicted krista she shines. and it seems that only the san diego film critics and i noticed. blake gives one of the best supporting performances of 2010. is it because of 'gossip girl' that she can't really be taken that seriously. have we forgotten that two time oscar winner sally field appeared in 'gidget' and 'the flying nun' before major film roles?

you owe it to yourself to see this film. this is just a reminder. i'll bet the farm it makes one of the ten nominations come oscar time. i'll bet the same farm the oscars ignore blake lively. they've made bigger mistakes in the past but don't get me started.

'THE TOWN' IS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF 2010

blake as krista

 with director affleck

It's Time for Serious Oscarbation to Begin

'Social Network' Appears to be the Juggernaut to Beat

based on the critics picks anyhow. but will the majority of oscar voters pick a well written, directed, edited and acted film about some of the most despicable people EVER for best picture. they might; i hope they might not. it will make my best of 2010 but not THE best of 2010. spending two hours with this group was almost as bad as being a guest when 'rachel getting married' got married. i said almost!

but hell i'm the guy who still can't figure out 'the hurt locker' over 'avatar', 'up in the air', 'precious' and 'the blind side' last year.

AFI Top 10 List 2010

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“The Town”
“Toy Story 3″
“True Grit”
“Winter’s Bone”

My Favorite Films of the Year

with a few films yet to see it's time to look back at some of my favorite films of 2010. are they the best films of 2010? well they are as far as i'm concerned. will they get oscar noms? not all of them but so what. they are films that in one way or another moved me, touched my spirit, made me laugh or cry or taught me something about real life, possible life or made up life. they all made me think. i would revisit all of them again and in some cases i already have and one of them more than twice revisited. they are the movies i've recommended over the past eleven months and still recommend. i am not a critic in the strict sense of the word although i am quite critical. i'm an opinionist. and i am damn opinionated. at some point after the new year i'll opinionate on my top films of the year. and the worst. and there were so many worst this year as there is every other year. but my worst are those that had the pretense to believe they could/would be the best.

a best:

'shutter island'

the first major film of the year starred the ever growing leonardo dicaprio. martin scorcese directed it and it was a whole new ballgame for him. i think it's his best film. i mean even he seemed to have had enough of gangsters and crooked cops. i'm glad he did. this is a masterpiece of storytelling. it opened in february so the short term memory of the oscar voters may forget it. they shouldn't.

besides the brilliant performance by dicaprio there is the wonderful michelle williams, mark rufalo in the first of two worthy roles this year ('the kids are alright') and the should be nominated as actress in a supporting role the always terrific patricia clarkson. 

simply put it's a story of madness. it's a mystery. i know it's a good mystery because i did not figure it out. therefore it went above and beyond the formular most films follow. not since 'the sixth sense' has a hollywood mystery caught me this much off guard.

i gave it ***stars when it came out. i should up it to ***1/2 stars as no other mystery surpassed it this year.
'shutter island' is available on dvd and blu ray.

i hope hollywood surprises me and gives this film it's due with noms come february. i just won't bet the house on it!