Christian Bale Wins Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:

Christian Bale for The Fighter (2010) WINNER

Michael Douglas for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Andrew Garfield for The Social Network (2010)

Jeremy Renner for The Town (2010)

Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech (2010)

I'm Semi-Live Blogging the Globes

I'm only interested in the winners in the film categories, so I'll post those results as they happen.

I know.  I'm late.  Jets vs. Steelers, baby!  I had to watch the Jets at Pats to see where and who my beloved Steelers would play.  Now, how's that Patriots Invitational Tournament turn out for the sure Super Bowl bet, huh?

Oh!  I'm supposed to be talking about the Globes!

68th Golden Globe Awards Movie Nominations

The Golden Globes Awards ceremony is tonight (Sunday, Jan. 16th 2011), beginning at 8:00 EST - Live on NBC. Here are the nominees in the film categories:

2011 Golden Globe Awards Nominations (For the year ended December 31, 2010)

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Black Swan (2010)
The Fighter (2010)
Inception (2010)
The King's Speech (2010)
The Social Network (2010)

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Burlesque (2010)
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Red (2010)
The Tourist (2010)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network
Colin Firth for The King's Speech
James Franco for 127 Hours
Ryan Gosling for Blue Valentine
Mark Wahlberg for The Fighter

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Halle Berry for Frankie and Alice
Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman for Black Swan
Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Johnny Depp for The Tourist
Johnny Depp for Alice in Wonderland
Paul Giamatti for Barney's Version
Jake Gyllenhaal for Love and Other Drugs
Kevin Spacey for Casino Jack

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right
Anne Hathaway for Love and Other Drugs
Angelina Jolie for The Tourist
Julianne Moore for The Kids Are All Right
Emma Stone for Easy A

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Christian Bale for The Fighter
Michael Douglas for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Andrew Garfield for The Social Network
Jeremy Renner for The Town
Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Amy Adams for The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech
Mila Kunis for Black Swan
Melissa Leo for The Fighter
Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom

Best Director - Motion Picture
Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan
David Fincher for The Social Network
Tom Hooper for The King's Speech
Christopher Nolan for Inception
David O. Russell for The Fighter

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
127 Hours: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
Inception: Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right: Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko
The King's Speech: David Seidler
The Social Network: Aaron Sorkin

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
Burlesque: Samuel Dixon, Christina Aguilera, Sia Furler ("Bound to You")
Burlesque: Diane Warren ("You Haven't Seen The Last of Me")
Country Strong: Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges ("Coming Home")
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Carrie Underwood, David Hodges, Hillary Lindsey ("There's A Place For Us")
Tangled: Alan Menken, Glenn Slater ("I See the Light")

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
127 Hours: A.R. Rahman
Alice in Wonderland: Danny Elfman
Inception: Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech: Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Best Animated Film
Despicable Me (2010)
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
The Illusionist (2010)
Tangled (2010)
Toy Story 3 (2010)

Best Foreign Language Film
Biutiful (2010) (Mexico/Spain)
The Concert (2009) (France)
The Edge (2010) (Russia)
I Am Love (2009) (Italy)
In a Better World (2010) (Denmark)

Cecil B. DeMille Award
Robert De Niro

68th Golden Globe Awards Television Nominations

The Golden Globes Awards ceremony is tonight (Sunday, Jan. 16th 2011), beginning at 8:00 EST - Live on NBC.  Here are the nominees in the television categories:

2011 Golden Globe Awards Nominations (For the year ended December 31, 2010)

Best Television Series - Drama
"Boardwalk Empire" (2009)
"Dexter" (2006)
"The Good Wife" (2009)
"Mad Men" (2007)
"The Walking Dead" (2010)

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
"The Big Bang Theory"
"The Big C"
"Glee"
"Modern Family"
"Nurse Jackie"
"30 Rock"

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
"Carlos" (2010)
"The Pacific" (2010)
"The Pillars of the Earth" (2010)
Temple Grandin (2010) (TV)
You Don't Know Jack (2010) (TV)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Idris Elba for "Luther"
Ian McShane for "The Pillars of the Earth"
Al Pacino for You Don't Know Jack
Dennis Quaid for The Special Relationship
Édgar Ramírez for "Carlos"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Hayley Atwell for "The Pillars of the Earth"
Claire Danes for Temple Grandin
Judi Dench for "Cranford"
Romola Garai for "Emma"
Jennifer Love Hewitt for The Client List

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Alec Baldwin for "30 Rock"
Steve Carell for "The Office"
Thomas Jane for "Hung"
Matthew Morrison for "Glee"
Jim Parsons for "The Big Bang Theory"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Toni Collette for "United States of Tara"
Edie Falco for "Nurse Jackie"
Tina Fey for "30 Rock"
Laura Linney for "The Big C"
Lea Michele for "Glee"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
Steve Buscemi for "Boardwalk Empire"
Bryan Cranston for "Breaking Bad"
Michael C. Hall for "Dexter"
Jon Hamm for "Mad Men"
Hugh Laurie for "House M.D."

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama
Julianna Margulies for "The Good Wife"
Elisabeth Moss for "Mad Men"
Piper Perabo for "Covert Affairs"
Katey Sagal for "Sons of Anarchy"
Kyra Sedgwick for "The Closer"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Scott Caan for "Hawaii Five-0"
Chris Colfer for "Glee"
Chris Noth for "The Good Wife"
Eric Stonestreet for "Modern Family"
David Strathairn for Temple Grandin

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Hope Davis for The Special Relationship
Jane Lynch for "Glee"
Kelly Macdonald for "Boardwalk Empire"
Julia Stiles for "Dexter"
Sofía Vergara for "Modern Family"

Review: Pixar-Like "Despicable Me" is a Pleasant Surprise

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Despicable Me (2010)
Running time: 95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
MPAA – PG for rude humor and mild action
DIRECTOR: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
WRITERS: Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul; from a story by Sergio Pablos
PRODUCERS: John Cohen, Janet Healy, and Christopher Meledandri
EDITOR: Gregory Perler and Pam Ziegenhagen
COMPOSERS: Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams

ANIMATION/FANTASY/SCI-FI/COMEDY/FAMILY with elements of action

Starring: (voice) Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher

Despicable Me is a computer-animated film from Illumination Entertainment, an arm of NBC Universal that creates computer-animated (CGI) animated films. Despicable Me is a sci-fi/fantasy comedy about a criminal mastermind who uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns in his evil plot and then, finds himself profoundly changed by his growing love for them.

Once upon a time Gru (Steve Carell) was the world’s number one supervillain, but a younger supervillain, an egotistical nerd named Vector (Jason Segel), has replaced Gru by pulling off the audacious theft of an Egyptian pyramid. Gru believes that he needs to do something big, really big, to be on top again, so he decides to pull of the heist of the century – steal the Moon. As part of his grand scheme, Gru adopts three orphan girls: Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher), under false pretenses so that he can use them to steal a shrink ray device. Once, Gru gets to know the girls, however, their innocent love begins to change him.

The animation in Despicable Me is beautiful, at least to me. It was not often that I could take my eyes away from this gorgeous looking film. The art direction, set design, and even some of the character designs are similar to the visual style of early Tim Burton films like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the Henry Selick-directed The Nightmare Before Christmas. This dark, but quirky visual design and pop Gothic graphic sensibility, which also recalls Charles Addams macabre cartoons, makes Despicable Me less sci-fi/fantasy and more like a dark fairy tale. The film also has the sensibilities of Looney Tunes cartoons and offers neat slapstick comedy with smartly conceived chase and heist scenes.

The film also offers a lot of cuteness in the form of Gru’s minions, his capsule and pill shaped lab assistants and lackey/employees. The most important elements of cute are the orphan girls. Little Agnes’ cute countenance could melt a planet of icebergs, but the girls aren’t meant just to be cute. The animators make the girls’ faces capable of showing a wide range of emotions that make them more expressive than many live actors. This helps to sell the story’s focus on love and attachment.

But for all the cuteness of the girls and the minions, Despicable Me is about Gru and both the animators and Steve Carell bring the character to life. Between the expressive character animation and Carell’s delicate voice performance, Gru develops as a layered character, one that will perplex and engage the audience. He is despicable as a villain, but not in the sense that he is exceedingly evil and full of hysterical pronouncements about world domination. In many scenes, Carell and the animators tell the story in a way that allows the audience to read how much Gru’s past hurts and disappoints shape his adult optimism and determination. We get to watch Gru grow.

Despicable Me works so well because it is different from standard computer-animated films. Its adorable sweetness, peculiar look, and a quirky turn of the lead character are the heart of this strangely captivating movie. Despicable Me is a thoughtful take on the idea that even a bad guy can find room in his heart for someone else, and though this is a fantasy, the film really sells that idea.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, January 16, 2011

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"The Social Network" the Big Winner at Critics' Choice Awards

With the announcement of the winners of the 16th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards last night (Friday, Jan. 14th), the movie awards season has kicked into high gear. The awards are put on by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada, representing about 250 television, radio and online critics.

The Social Network won the best picture, director, adapted screenplay, and composer awards, but Inception was the night’s biggest winner with six awards, all of them in “technical categories,” except for “Best Action Movie.”

Last year, the Critics' Choice Movie Awards essentially predicted the winners in the four major acting category, although the Critics’ Choice featured a tie at best actress between Meryl Streep and eventual Oscar winner Sandra Bullock. The Critics also chose The Hurt Locker for Best Picture and its director, Kathryn Bigelow, as Best Director, and both won those awards at the Oscars. So is The Social Network on its way to Oscar gold?

16th Critics’ Choice Movie Award winner:

Best Picture: 'The Social Network'

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 Young Actor/Actress: Hailee Steinfeld, 'True Grit'

Best Acting Ensemble: 'The Fighter'

Best Director: David Fincher, 'The Social Network'

Best Original Screenplay: 'The King's Speech,' David Seidler

Best Adapted Screenplay: 'The Social Network,' Aaron Sorkin

Best Cinematography: 'Inception,' Wally Pfister

Best Art Direction: 'Inception,' Guy Hendrix Dyas and Larry Dias & Doug Mowat

Best Editing: 'Inception,' Lee Smith

Best Costume Design: 'Alice in Wonderland,' Colleen Atwood

Best Makeup: 'Alice in Wonderland'

Best Visual Effects: 'Inception'

Best Sound: 'Inception'

Best Animated Feature: 'Toy Story 3'

Best Action Movie: 'Inception'

Best Comedy: 'Easy A'

Best Picture Made For Television: 'The Pacific'

Best Foreign Language Film: 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'

Best Documentary Feature: 'Waiting for 'Superman" '

Best Song: 'If I Rise,' performed by Dido and A.R. Rahman/music by A.R. Rahman/lyrics by Dido Armstrong and Rollo Armstrong; '127 Hours'

Best Score: 'The Social Network,' Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

http://www.bfca.org/

42nd Image Awards Motion Picture Nominations

The nominees for the 42nd Annual NAACP Image Awards were recently announced. The press release is long, so I’m breaking it up over several posts:

MOTION PICTURE

Outstanding Motion Picture
• "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• "Just Wright" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• "The Book of Eli" (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features)
• "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" (Lionsgate)

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
• Anthony Mackie - "Night Catches Us" (Magnolia Pictures)
• Common - "Just Wright" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• Denzel Washington - "The Book of Eli" (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• Jaden Smith - "The Karate Kid" (Columbia Pictures)
• Morgan Freeman - "Red" (Summit Entertainment)

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
• Halle Berry - "Frankie & Alice" (Freestyle Releasing)
• Janet Jackson - "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" (Lionsgate)
• Kerry Washington - "Night Catches Us" (Magnolia Pictures)
• Queen Latifah - "Just Wright" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• Zoë Saldana - "The Losers" (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
• Don Cheadle - "Brooklyn's Finest" (Overture Films)
• Idris Elba - "Takers" (Screen Gems)
• Justin Timberlake - "The Social Network" (Columbia Pictures)
• Michael Ealy - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• Samuel L. Jackson - "Mother and Child" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
• Anika Noni Rose - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• Kimberly Elise - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• Phylicia Rashad - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
• Jill Scott - "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?" (Lionsgate)
• Whoopi Goldberg - "For Colored Girls" (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture
• "Conviction" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
• "Frankie & Alice" (Freestyle Releasing)
• "La Mission" (Screen Media Ventures)
• "Mother and Child" (Sony Pictures Classics)
• "Night Catches Us" (Magnolia Pictures)

Outstanding Foreign Motion Picture
• "A Barefoot Dream" (Showbox/Mediaplex)
• "Biutiful" (Roadside Attractions)
• "Four Lions" (Drafthouse Films)
• "Mother" (Magnolia Pictures)
• "Outside the Law" (Tessalit Productions)

DOCUMENTARY

Outstanding Documentary (Theatrical or Television)• "For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots" (PBS)
• "Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel" (Metaphor Films)
• "If God is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise" (HBO)
• “Waiting for "Superman" (Paramount Vantage)
• "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe" (POV)