LeapBackBlog 2010 Film Awards – Part 4: Leading Performances

Film in 2010 was fantastic, full of great performances, great directing and great work behind the camera (or in post-production). More so than the last few years, 2010 had a greater number of excellent films, which made choosing the best films, performances, directors, and technical achievements very difficult. The LeapBackBlog Film Awards are comprised of what I think were the best and most interesting films, the strongest performances (taking into consideration who the actor is and what else they have done, and 2010 features a lot of amazing breakthrough performances), the narrative style that drew me in (best directing), and exquisite craftsmanship (best technical achievements). But really, these are lists of my favorites from the year.

Part 1: Technical Achievements
Part 2: Supporting Performances
Part 3: Directors
Part 5: Films

Leading Performances:

Jeff Bridges – True Grit

In True Grit, Bridges gives another fantastic performance as Rooster Cogburn, evoking feelings of “wow this guy is a bad-ass” and “wow this guy is totally worthless” sometimes in the same breath for the audience – and for Mattie Ross. He is incredibly funny and his line delivery and timing are just genius. He takes a line like “You are not LaBoeuf!?!” and turns it into comic gold. Yet, he is stern and proud while being fairly ridiculous. It is just marvelous work.

Claire Danes – Temple Grandin

In what is probably the best performance of the year (along with Christian Bale in The Fighter), Danes is simply amazing as Temple Grandin. The role required Danes to play an autistic woman, the most challenging role of her career to date. And, she just completely embodies the character and makes the film something quite special. I look forward to see what Danes does next, as she has certainly shown herself to be an elite acting talent.

Leonardo DiCaprio – Inception

Inception is such a big action adventure heist film that it really needed a strong emotional center for the audience to be fully engaged and care about the outcome (aside from just seeing how the plot plays out). DiCaprio fills that role perfectly. He is both very good at his work and in control, and yet broken emotionally. For many action films, drama is often an afterthought or not done well enough. DiCaprio’s performance is top-notch dramatically, as if he were in a tragic romance film (without all the amazing action) which in turn is what makes the ending so powerful. It was a good year for him as he was also very good in Shutter Island.

Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network

Eisenberg is very good at playing roles that are sort of nerdy, awkward and sensitive but determined young men, and this is very much that kind of role. However, what sets this particular performance in The Social Network apart is that it called for almost a complete lack of emotion (at least on the outside). Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg to be seemingly uncaring and almost cruel, but there is a deeper sensitive emotional core that drives his actions, which he does subtly and expertly creating an anti-hero – a character we do not like, but are intrigued by nonetheless. It is the best performance of his career to date.

Colin Firth – The King’s Speech

Firth has always been a good actor, but with his last two performances (A Single Man and The King’s Speech) he has shown himself to be a great actor. As King George VI, Firth must speak with a restrictive and damning stammer (which I imagine was quite difficult to master). But the performance is not great solely due to his ability to stammer, it is his ability to convey the emotions of a man that is put upon by tremendous pressure who takes it in and is able to overcome it and succeed. Firth is able to pull the audience in and make them feel true joy at his character’s triumph. It is a beautiful performance.

James Franco – 127 Hours

If there ever was a film that could be called a one-man-show, it is 127 Hours. And for such a film to be any good at all, its lead must be superb. Franco is even better than that. Playing Aron Ralston in the film is challenging as the character is stuck in one play for a large portion of the film with no interaction with other characters. Yet, Franco is able to entertain and draw his audience in –having them laughing, gasping and crying from moment to moment. It is an incredible performance, and one that should certainly see Franco getting bigger and better roles in the future.

Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone

One of this year’s breakout performances, Lawrence is perfect in Winter’s Bone, as if the film were a documentary merely following this young woman around as she tries to save her home. But Ree is a character and Lawrence an actress playing her to be strong and matriarchal, yet still childish and wanting more which is a delicate balance and was so important to the film working as well as it does. The audience is completely behind Ree and wants so much for her to succeed, making every twist and turn, negative and positive so meaningful. I think we all expect big thing from her in the future.

Chloe Grace Moretz – Let Me In

Moretz had really three great performances this year (being the best part of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, her breakout role in Kick-Ass and an amazing performance in Let Me In). What makes her performance in Let Me In all the more impressive is that she had a lot to live up to (almost too much to live up to), as there was so much love for the original film and actress. But, Moretz is even better playing the role forcefully and being quite scary, while also being sweet and loving. It is an astounding dichotomy. Maybe above all the other great young faces to emerge from 2010 (this also applies to Andrew Garfield), she has asserted herself as a star to watch.

Natalie Portman – Black Swan

We always knew Portman was a great talent, but we were just waiting for that leading role for her to really blossom – that role is as Nina in Black Swan. Psychological thrillers are often hard for actors to give great performances because they are so fractured, and the same is true with Black Swan. But, Portman is able to craft a whole character from the moment we first see her, making her unraveling all the more compelling and scary. She is both introverted and extroverted in the role, which I imagine is quite difficult playing different psyches of the same person. We truly feel her fall into madness (gripping our seats the whole way down), and that is due to the excellence of Portman in the role.

Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit

Talk about a daunting first major leading role, playing opposite Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon (both of whom are also excellent). Steinfeld did just that, and is just as good in True Grit as Mattie Ross (and maybe even a little better than her co-stars).  I cannot imagine a more perfect casting choice for the role, as her performance is wonderful – playing it just tough and all-knowing, bullying around adults and yet still letting moments of childish feelings sneak out. Having not seen her in anything else, I am quite interested to see what she does next.

True Grit (2010) – Review

True Grit is brutal, silly and really just a great western (with a bunch of Coen Brothers’ style thrown in). Westerns seem to be a dying breed in cinema – not only are few made, but even fewer are good (I can only think of six good westerns, from the last decade: Open Range, The Proposition, Broken Trail, 3:10 to Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and of course Deadwood). Thus, it is a real treat when a good one comes along. Writing-directing brothers, Joel and Ethan Coen, have taken a classic western story – men hunting down others for retribution of some sort, as seen in The Searchers and many others – and infuse it with their particular style, most notably in the dialog and performances they garner. The movie is silly, but not in a bad way. The characters, through the use of words and timing, come off as quite funny, which is a nice juxtaposition against some of the more graphic elements in the film, like the gun violence and terrifying nature of Mattie Ross coming face to face with the man who killed her father. The strange array of side characters and interchanges in the film also feel very much like a Coen Brothers’ film, and yet the film also feels like a classic western. This is the skill of the Coen Brothers – to both make it their own and in their style, but also stay true to the exalted genre (which is an important touch for fans of the genre and cinema, I think). The violence is also a necessary instrument in the film, because it makes the danger and drama real and striking – absolutely needed given the large about of humor and playful spirit amongst many of the characters. And a good western needs its shootouts – this film has a number of very good and well staged gunfights. The Coen Brothers get the genre right, but it is the characters and performances that make the film great. The audience is completely connected with Mattie Ross, the protagonist. She was vital to the success of the film, even more so than Rooster Cogburn, and the performance by newcomer Hailee Steinfeld is magnificent. However, the Coen Brother’s narrative style may confound some viewers, though it is nowhere near as prevalent (of exaggerated, if you will) as some of their other films. This does have a clear beginning and end, but the end has an escalating series of anticipated endings that may stymie the full impact and there is a epilogue that feels a bit unneeded, yet closes the characters well and rounds out the narration (plus the film has a beautifully short prologue with narration, it seems only right to have an epilogue, though the structure will not appeal to all). True Grit has all the elements of a classic western: the ugly bad guys, gunfights, campfires, heroes; but it is the Coens’ directing and performance that make this particular western special.

Technical and acting achievements: the Coen Brothers are among the best working directors. They use the same crew on every film, which enables them to have a clear overlapping style across their films. Their narrative style is unique, both enchanting fans and infuriating others. But certainly, cinema is better thanks to the Coen Brothers, and this is another great film in their catalogue. Their crew are also masters in their crafts – Carter Burwell’s score yet again compliments while standing out, Roger Deakins’s cinematography is beyond excellent in everything he shoots (the opening shot of the film is a clear case for how good he is) and Jess Gonchor’s production design is right on for the genre and story. The Coens and crew are always great, but with this story the characters and performances make the film. Barry Pepper has never been better in his supporting role and Josh Brolin is also very good in limited time creating a sort of bashful character, but terrifying in the same note. Matt Damon is really funny and charismatic and perfect in his role. Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld are the leads and standouts in the film; both are strong, funny and completely embody their characters (two of the best performances of the year).

True Grit is a fabulous western with wonderful characters. 9/10

TRON: Legacy (2010), in 3D – Review

TRON: Legacy is a lot of flash but without much substance. The score, design and cinematography are all beautifully done and striking. Director Joseph Kosinski has done justice to the world of TRON and the original film stylistically, as the film does look amazing. There is a colossal feel the landscapes and the set design is modern and minimalistic, which fits the cyber world (the grid).  However, the story is subpar, which is disappointing. The narrative structure also drags in a few areas making the film feel a bit tedious and longer than its playtime would indicate. For all the visual mastery and entertainment, the flaws in the narrative are what ultimately leave the film feeling a tad boring and underwhelming. All the great action set pieces – the games, light-cycles races, and so on – do charm and captivate viewers, but only to an extent. Emotional drama and audience connection with the characters, even before plot, are the necessary elements to make a film that works and authentically mesmerizes viewers. The characters here feel more like stand-in clichés than real people (or fully formed characters) – completely hollow and void of genuine emotion. Now, viewers do not go into a spectacle-film like TRON for the characters and emotionally connection. They go for the action, the visuals and the sheer magnitude of the adventure. But even for the film’s intended audience, connection is still essential to the film’s overall success, and it is lacking. The visual style is very cold with blacks and blues, accentuated with bright reds and oranges. It reminded me a bit of Bladerunner both visually (but a lot cleaner) and tonally. There is a subtle tone of depression and sadness behind the action – stemming for the film’s fairly serious past events, like a utopian façade obscuring the corruption of power. The film tells a story of best intentions for controlling society (be it The Grid or our world) that ultimately crumble due to the conflict of freewill versus regulation. Thus, the film takes on the feel of a sci-fi dystopian narrative in which civilization corrodes in the grip of best intentions. These big story elements work well. Rather, it is the specific narrative points and the characters that are shallow, underdeveloped and feel false. Characters and situations are just overused and too much like tons of other films, this play as clichés. TRON: Legacy has a lot of good and should be seen in theaters, it is just too bad that the narrative could not match the visual and sonic excellence.

Technical and acting achievements: Joseph Kosinski has real talent for exquisite visuals (and I am excited to see what he does next, with the hope that he can improve his handle on narrative structure and character development). Daft Punk’s score is mesmerizing and exciting – mixing their classic style of electronic beats with big orchestration (which reminded me of Hans Zimmer’s work on Inception and The Dark Knight). It brings a wonderful impact to the imagery on the screen. Claudio Miranda (who is one of the best) also does phenomenal work. His cinematography and the score are the real reasons to see this film, in light of the poor narrative. Relative newcomer to production design Darren Gilford’s set fit the world completely (I especially love his set for Kevin Flynn’s Grid home). Michael Sheen and James Frain are generally brilliant in their films (and TV), yet here their character’s were just placeholders, thus their talents were for not. Olivia Wilde, while also playing a commonplace sci-fi/action character, brings spunk to the role, distinguishing her performance and being one of the more interesting and entertaining characters in the film. Jeff Bridges’s character is really the only one with any development and he is good, but it seems as though too much of Bridges is in Flynn. Along with Bridges, Garrett Hedlund does have some emotional work to do in the film, but he is flat and one of the main reasons the connection with the audience never happens. He is not bad – he just does not demand attention or an investment in the film and character.

TRON: Legacy is fun, cinematic and aesthetically brilliant, but purely spectacle. 5/10

Movie of the Week - The Big Lebowski

This week’s movie is The Big Lebowski (1998)

Directed by The Coen Brothers, The Big Lebowski centers on The Dude. The film plays as a detective piece structurally, with The Dude hired to find a missing millionaire’s daughter. Completely unprepared and unqualified for the task, hindered at ever turn by a fantastic group of characters, The Dude just sort of exists above it all, too cool for the world, yet constantly brought back into it by the chaos that surrounds him. The film is great due to the perfect performances (especially Jeff Bridges and John Goodman), great writing from the Coen Brothers, and just the odd world that it all takes place in, created by the style of the Coen Brothers mixed with the work their frequent collaborators, Roger Deakins and Carter Burwell. While the film may not get you on the first viewing, it is better and better with each. It is one of the best comedies and films of the 90s and the Coen Brother’s catalogue. The film stars: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Peter Stormare, John Turturro, and Sam Elliot.

The Big Lebowski [DVD]