Then And Now: Best Picture 2011

Movies are an art form of the times. Some produced in the 80s regarded as would-be-classics would be unfathomably panned, boycotted or even shelved nowadays (i.e. Driving Miss Daisy, What Women Want); other similarly-pitched films nowadays would have also been scoffed at back then, either because of political complications or gender inequality (i.e. Green Book, What Men Want). Movies surpass its pic-and-sound boundaries to deliver a statement, to signal a change in the world, whether we would like to admit it or not.

The "Then and Now" series is a recollection of the Best Picture lists, years following their respective ceremonies. At the time of said ceremonies, some Best Picture nominees were considered superior, while others felt arbitrary in filling out the remaining slots in the category. However, with Hollywood culture, the world's political views, gender biases and contemporary interests changing by the day, it is important for us to be reminded how it has changed, as well as to avoid the pitfalls that past Best Pictures have escaped with.

4 categories will be considered:

- The Snubs: fantastic films that are either still culturally relevant or just a worthy watch, despite its omission from the nominees.

- The Whatevers: the nominees that have faded from memory, leaving little to no impact whatsoever.

- The Misjudged: the nominees that are considered bad, offensive, or unworthy nowadays.

- The Classics: the ones that prevailed and have enshrined itself into the ranks of the greats.

A grading system is also present now, for those who need the general opinion, but not on any scales or grades: it's just how audience would recommend the film.

Another category will also be added: The Year Consensus: an overview of how films in the calendar fared from graveyard January to blistering December.

Let us revisit what is perhaps the strongest Best Picture nominees in recent memory. Without further ado, the 2011 Best Picture Nominees:

2010 Consensus: 6/10

2010 was, all things considered, a mediocre year for film. The 2010 Best Picture nominees were deserving movies with stature and class to spare; the blockbusters ranged from astoundingly brilliant (Toy Story 3, Inception, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 1) to aggressively horrible (Shrek Forever After, Grown Ups). 3D enjoyed its last good quarter, riding on the back of carryover performances, before its official burial with the release of Clash of The Titans. Cult classics were aplenty (we'll get to that in a minute) and so-bad-it's-worse movies were a dime a dozen too (don't ever watch The Nutcracker in 3D).

*Fun fact: 2010's box office was so bad, the highest grossing film of the year domestically was a movie released in 2009.

Yes, it was Avatar, and no one even put up a fight: the behemoth grossed 477 million dollars in 2010, 60 million more than Toy Story 3.

What a year!

- The Snubs:

Buried: "I would have loved it if this happened to Ryan Reynolds in real life."

An impressively taut, bottled thriller, whose setting is entirely inside a coffin alongside Ryan Reynolds, a phone and some water, Buried is much better than it has any right to be. Reynolds turned in his career-best work here as Paul, encapsulating the desperation and utter horror that any human would exhibit in this situation; Rodrigo Cortes' direction is superbly creative in such a limited setting, utilizing every angle from top-to-bottom to bring out the character's claustrophobia and in turn, the audience's.

It's a tense sit for the faint-hearted, but I would definitely recommend you checking it out.

Shutter Island: "The more you watch it, the better it gets."

A lot of Oscar buzz surrounded this film when it was dated for October 2009, mainly due to Martin Scorsese-Leonardo DiCaprio's reunion. A director and an actor of their calibers just don't collaborate over so-so material, so justifiably, Shutter Island was massively hyped as the next Scorsese classic.

But then Paramount pushed its release from the Oscar-friendly October slot to the more audience-friendly Valentine's window. Consequently, the masses panicked: Is the movie bad? Are the two maestros aware that they have a dud on their hands, financially and critically? The hype died down, and so any award buzz the movie might have had collapsed.

In the end, it was a good film.

A nerve-wracking thriller, Shutter Island was neither as good or as bad as people had speculated: the script was rough, the twist was predictable, and it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a mystery or a romance-drama; but where it shone, it excelled. Anchored by DiCaprio's committed performance and Scorsese's deft direction, the so-so material turned out to be an impressively designed, beautifully shot contemplation of the human mind and gaslighting, and its harrowing ending will leave you utterly speechless.

How To Train Your Dragon: "Better than Toy Story 3."

Hold. Your goddamn. Dragons!

Hear me out.

Perhaps the best that DreamWorks Animation has to offer, How To Train Your Dragon needs no introduction. A lovely tale about a scruffy Viking and his pet dragon in the midst of animosity between their kinds was exactly the uninspired premises that DreamWorks had put up for years before (Monsters vs. Aliens, Madagascar). But while Dragon exhibits DreamWorks' usual quirky, expository dialogue and bring little surprise by way of plot, it more than deserves its place as the best animated movie of 2010 (bite me!) with exuberant visuals, charming performances, and Toothless!

Two equally brilliant sequels have been released in the 9 years since, with the trilogy capper 'The Hidden World' storming theaters in North America this Friday.

- The Whatevers:

Winter's Bone: "Jennifer Lawrence's first Oscar nomination. What, you didn't know?"

The unfortunately forgotten little one of an otherwise award-breaking family, the Academy's decision to nominate Winter's Bone for Best Picture in 2011 was genuinely surprising: a little seen indie mystery starring a pre-Hunger-Games Jennifer Lawrence had debuted in Sundance to rapturous reviews, but went largely unnoticed in the campaign months.

Winter's Bone is undoubtedly a good film: a morally-crushing film set in Ozarks about familial bonds under extreme tension when they get involved in the meth-lab underworld (Walter White approves!), it is riveting from start-to-finish, anchored by Lawrence's breakout performance, as well as John Hawkes' as her meth-infused uncle (who was also nominated). The film's only fault is its lack of 'oomph': it trudges from one scene to another without the necessary gravitas, and overall, its emotional heft doesn't ring quite as loud as its fellow nominees.

It doesn't hold up anywhere near the other films on the list, but it's certainly worth a watch if you got the time.

- The Misjudged:

True Grit: "You have got to shut up about how good this movie is!"

This is where it gets complicated.

True Grit, directed by the Coen Brothers, taken on its own merit, is an entertaining film: beautifully shot, masterfully directed and stupendously acted, the film is the Coen Brothers at their most comfortable and arguably, most powerful. Their straight-genre craftsmanship is surprisingly well-oiled, and was no doubt boosted by Jeff Bridges' scenery-chewing deliverance from God alongside rookie Hailee Steinfeld and he's-playing-a-sheriff Matt Damon.

But that's the problem: the film isn't funny.

Whereas the Coens thrive in their existential comedy and deadpan banter, True Grit surprisingly has little to laugh at or with. The film is a sombre product of a lifeless script that borders on "utterly, completely fine" and "howlingly aimless". There's no need for LOL moments in a film about a girl seeking for revenge for her dead father, but this is why it was such a wasted opportunity: The Coens delivered a comedic masterpiece from a dead person in 'Fargo'.

It's still an easy sit, but it's the encapsulation of the phrase "I don't remember a single thing about the film".

The King's Speech: "The King beats Facebook."

The King's Speech was the prestige biopic of the season: A comfortable riches-to-king story about a literally stuttering heir to the throne and his speech defect therapist, based on a true story, set during the war, made up of the most British cast in the history of film.

It was superbly scripted, well-made, well-acted, averagely-directed, and overall, exceptionally fine. So what went wrong, you might ask?

Best. Picture. Winner.

The King's Speech is not a bad film, far from it even. But it's also not a deserving winner of the golden statue. Many films in the past have fallen into this pit fall, when a prestige, Oscar-bait product winning over other sensational films (Forrest Gump triumphing over Pulp Fiction, Crash dumping Brokeback Mountain, Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas). None of them were bad films either, but nowadays, no one talks about The King's Speech as much as they do The Social Network or Black Swan, and that speaks volumes on the film's stature.

- The Classics: We're in for a treat.

The Fighter: "Look at Christian Bale."

Look at him.

The Fighter in and of itself is nothing special, but no boxing movie is after Rocky. It's a well-worn formula of the underdog challenging the Man, and there's only so much you can do in such an established frame.

But where this movie succeeded, was in the cast.

Christian Bale's Oscar-winning performance as drug addict brother Dicky Eklund is the stuff of folklore: he dropped 30 pounds from being Batman, worked his face fat to the bone, did a bunch of coke, and adopted a Boston accent. The last one might not seem as impressive, but have you heard Benedict Cumberbatch's interpretation of it? Call it a gimmick all you want, but there's no denying Bale's dedication and performance was a deserving winner.

The rest of the cast were no slouch either: Melissa Leo rode her boxing mother vehicle all the way to the podium on Oscar night, Mark Wahlberg proved that he could do more than look exasperated in his roles, and Amy Adams was quietly superb as Charlotte. David O'Russell broke the cast down to their cores, and the palpable chemistry and interaction on screen heightens this film's so-so script.

Come for the reputation. Stay for the performances.

The Kids Are All Right: "Broke my heart every time."

Nothing more than an intimate family-drama, The Kids Are All Right is alright: the game cast, with Annette Benning, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo sharing top billing, is all too willing to be outstanding, not to mention Mia Wasikowska's and Josh Hutcherson's career-best performances and Lisa Chodolenko's quiet, loving direction.

But The Kids is even better when you consider that it's the first movie to be nominated for Best Picture to feature an LGBT couple raising children.

Its seismic nomination was unexpected, even with the expansion. But both the Academy and the audience connected to the small family drama that didn't shy away from asking the hard question or the heavy sexuality themes involved, and a criminally under-represented community were given their dues with the nomination.

Watch it, love it, cry with it.

127 Hours: "James Franco really wanted the Oscar, didn't he?"

There's no need to talk at length about the premise: A true story about an adrenaline junkie who had his hand stuck in a rock, and his subsequent breakdown over the course of the movie. It's the most conceptually genius movie of all time. To the general audience, it's an easy sell.

But to James Franco, this was his moment.

Few actors get an entire movie for themselves, and even fewer get meaty material for them to chew on. His Oscar hosting gig aside, 2010 was James Franco's turn for stardom, and he absolutely killed it. Alongside Ryan Reynolds' captivating performance in Buried, Franco's turn as down-on-his-luck Aron Ralston stood tall in the face of adversity: Franco hadn't been considered a leading man, and even with Danny Boyle at the helm, one-setting films can prove to be repetitive and boring. But on Franco's shoulders and Boyle's unflinching hand, 127 Hours went above and beyond its gimmicky premise to 6 nominations, and established Harry Osborn as Hollywood's next leading man.

It tried to, but still!

Black Swan: "I didn't enjoy it as much as Whiplash, but it was absolutely amazing."

This video from Lessons From The Screenplay explains the joke.

Something about movies where the main character loses their minds connect to the general audience: a never-ending strive for greatness, if only for the fear of failure and disappointment. Black Swan takes this to the extreme under Darren Aronofsky's nightmarish vision and Natalie Portman's harrowing performance as Nina Sayers, depicting ballet as a survival-of-the-fittest psychological warfare, where words are bullets and sexuality is a weapon of mass destruction.

Black Swan could have been pretentious and artistically full of itself. Instead, the film is subtle in its nightmare, gradually building Nina's world to the brink of collapse. Her final transformation becomes her true form, unyielding in its brutality. Aronofsky has a knack for the controversial: here, he dials it back to deliver one of the best films of 2010.

Come join the nightmare.

Toy Story 3: "THEY HELD HANDS IN THE FURNACE."

Toy Story 3 is not as great as its reputation suggests.

I could spend days arguing the validity of the claim: it's not as good as its predecessors, the second act is a slog, Woody is separated from the group for half of the movie, Ken and Barbie are walking product placements,...

But that would be a lost cause. Because "THEY HELD HANDS IN THE FURNACE."

Toy Story 3's ending was to many, myself included, the conclusion of their childhoods. Having grown up with well-worn DVDs of 1 and 2, the saga came to a fitting end, when Andy realizes that college is looming, and maybe there's no place for the gang to be in them. Audience connected to the movie's universal themes of friendship, fear of abandonment and adulthood, and in the end, left with tears and laughter to spare.

That is the magic of cinema, right there.

Inception: "You either really really love it, or you don't like films."

Christopher Nolan's actual magnum opus, Inception is the face of the thinking man's blockbuster: high-concept, deliriously entertaining, masterfully crafted and bites a bit more than it can chew.

Why do I need to over-explain the film? You've probably seen it, either loved it or hated it, and marveled at this scene. And this scene. And this scene. And they really did that.

It's Nolan at his peak, and it's amazing.

The Social Network: "I could do with pretending that it won Best Picture."

Goddamn it.

The Social Network's utter indulgence in brilliance is electrifying: from David Fincher's signature cold and distant direction, Trent Reznor's head-thumping score and Aaron Sorkin's signature walk-and-talk, to Jesse Eisenberg's magnetic performance and the movie's entertainment factor, the movie barely crawled before it could sprint a marathon.

Each component elevates the other: without Fincher's surefire direction, the movie could have looked like a Lifetime production; without Sorkin's barb-wired script, Mark Zuckerberg would come off as a blubbering asshole; without Eisenberg, Garfield or Timberlake, the characters would be at a disservice. No movie about the creation of a social networking site should be this rewatchable.

As for classic moments that would go down in history? Try making a rowing competition riveting.

It should have won. It could have won. It is an absolute masterpiece.

That is all for this Oscar season. See you all next year with another 'Then and Now' entry.