2011 Academy Award Winners

2011 Oscar winners

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Director:  Tom Hooper, The King's Speech

Actor:  Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Supporting Actor:  Christian Bale, The Fighter

Supporting Actress:  Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Adapted Screenplay:  The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin

Original Screenplay, The King's Speech, David Seidler

Animated Feature:  Toy Story 3

Art Direction:  Alice in Wonderland, production design by Robert Stromberg, set decoration by Karen O'Hara

Cinematography:  Inception, Wally Pfister

Costume Design:  Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood

Documentary Feature: Inside Job

Documentary Short:  Strangers No More

Film Editing: The Social Network, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film:  In a Better World, Denmark

Makeup: Wolfman

Original Musical Score: The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Song:  We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, music and lyrics by Randy Newman

Animated Short Film: The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhermann

Live Action Short Film, God of Love, Luke Matheny

Sound Editing:  Inception, Richard King

Sound Mixing:  Inception, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick

Visual Effects:  Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, and Peter Bebb

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Barney's Version

"Barney's Version": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

Novelist Mordecai Richler, a caustically brilliant observer of the human condition — especially when it was Jewish, Canadian or politically incorrect — was never one to spare himself or his loved ones. So I have to believe that somewhere in the great beyond, he is chuckling over a single malt and a Montecristo at the sublime, dark distraction of "Barney's Version," the screen adaptation of his final and most autobiographical work, starring Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman.
Read Sharkey's full review of "Barney's Version" at the LA Times

Barney's Version
Opened January 14, 2011 (Limited 1/14/11) | Runtime:2 hr. 12 min.
R Language and some sexual content

Based on Mordecai Richler's award winning novel -- his last and, arguably, best -- "Barney's Version" is the warm, wise and witty story of the politically incorrect life of Barney Panofsky. The film spans three decades and two continents. There is his first wife, Clara, a flame-haired, flagrantly unfaithful free spirit. The "Second Mrs. P." is a wealthy Jewish Princess who shops and talks incessantly. It is at their lavish wedding that Barney meets, and starts pursuing, Miriam, his third wife, the mother of his two children, and his true love. Not only does Barney turn out to be a true romantic, he is also capable of all kinds of sneaky acts of gallantry, generosity, and goodness. His is a gloriously full life, played out on a grand scale.

Cast: Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Rachelle Lefevre, Scott Speedman
Director: Richard J. Lewis
Genres: Comedy Drama, Slice of Life

Movie times and tickets for "Barney's Version" from Fandango

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Carancho

"Carancho": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

Intensely dramatic as well as socially conscious, "Carancho" is powerful stuff. This bleak and gritty Argentine film plays hard but fair as it investigates the personal and societal implications of a story of corruption that is ripped with a vengeance from that country's headlines.
Read Turan's full review of "Carancho" at the LA Times

Carancho
Opened February 11, 2011 (Limited 2/11) | Runtime:1 hr. 47 min.

Sosa and Lujan fall in love while trying to achieve their personal goals.

Cast: Ricardo Darín, Martina Gusman, Carlos Weber, Jose Luis Arias, Fabio Ronzano
Director: Pablo Trapero
Genres: Post-Noir (Modern Noir),Thriller


Movie times and tickets for "Carancho" from Fandango

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Blue Valentine

"Blue Valentine": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine," starring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, is a  beginning and an ending, an intensely intimate rendering of love that limits itself to that first falling in and that last falling out.

Without a middle, the writers — Cianfrance, Joey Curtis and Cami Delavigne — have still put in everything we need to know about a relationship that is fraying faster than either Cindy (Williams) or Dean (Gosling) grasps. It is painful and moving to watch as they lose hold of the few threads still connecting them, including 5-year-old daughter Frankie (a soulful young Faith Wladyka). 

Read Sharkey's full review of "Blue Valentine" at the LA Times

Blue Valentine
Opened December 29, 2010 | Runtime:1 hr. 54 min.
R Strong graphic sexual content, language and a beating

BLUE VALENTINE is a story of love found and love lost told in past and present moments in time. Flooded with romantic memories of their courtship, Dean and Cindy use one night to try and save their failing marriage. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this honest portrait of a relationship on the rocks.

While Cindy has blossomed into a woman with opportunities and options, David is still the same person he was when they met, and is unable to accept either Cindy’s growth or his lack of it. Innovatively structured, the narrative unfolds in two distinct time frames, juxtaposing scenes of first love and youthful sexuality, with those of disenchantment and discord.

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Mike Vogel
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Genres: Marriage Drama, Drama

Movie times and tickets for "Blue Valentine" from Fandango

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True Grit

"True Grit": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

Clearly recognizing a kindred spirit in novelist Charles Portis, sharing his love for eccentric characters and odd language, the Coen brothers worked hard, and successfully, at serving the buoyant novel as well as being true to their own black comic brio. Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and vibrant newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

Read Turan's full review of "True Grit" at the LA Times

True Grit
Opened December 22, 2010 | Runtime:2 hr. 8 min.
PG-13 Some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images

A 14-year-old girl (Hailee Steinfeld) joins an aging U.S. marshal (Jeff Bridges) and another lawman (Matt Damon) in tracking her father's killer into hostile Indian territory in Joel and Ethan Coen's adaptation of Charles Portis' original novel. Sticking more closely to the source material than the 1969 feature adaptation starring Western icon John Wayne, the Coens' True Grit tells the story from the young girl's perspective, and re-teams the celebrated filmmaking duo with their No Country for Old Men screenwriting partner Scott Rudin. Josh Brolin co-stars.

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper
Director: Ethan Coen
Genres: Western,Traditional Western

Movie times and tickets for True Grit from Fandango

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2010 Movies Worth Watching

Now that we have well and truly rolled over into 2011, being February and all, here's a link that will give you all our posts for 2010 movies worth watching. Enjoy!

Movie times and tickets from Fandango

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Biutiful

"Biutiful": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

Javier Bardem is an actor who seems to walk with sorrow, an unspoken pain ever pooling in those eyes. Yet never has that vein of sadness been mined so deeply or so richly as in Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Biutiful," an ethereal yet visceral meditation on living and dying.

Read Sharkey's full review of "Biutiful" at the LA Times

Biutiful

A man tries to reconcile his desire to be good with his lawless ways in this dark drama from Mexican auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu. Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is a man with a bright side and a dark side. Uxbal is a caring father but Uxbal is also a criminal who oversees a small underground empire alongside fellow crime boss Hai (Taisheng Cheng) and Uxbal's impulsive brother, Tito (Eduard Fernández). Uxbal's dealings range from drugs to construction, but unlike his partners in crime, he tries to treat those around him with dignity even as he trades in human misery. Uxbal's precarious world begins to collapse when he's diagnosed with a serious illness and told he has only a few weeks left to live; he tries to put his affairs in order in the time he has left, but realizes that few around him have any sense of responsibility.

 

Opened January 28, 2011 | Runtime:2 hr. 27 min.

R For disturbing images, language, some sexual content, nudity and drug use

Cast: Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez, Eduard Fernández, Diarytou Daff, Cheng Taishen

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Genres: Psychological Drama, Drama, Family Drama

Movie times and tickets for "Biutiful" from Fandango

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