Best Picture - Drama
Winner - Lincoln
Runners Up - Skyfall, Django Unchained, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Commentary - In a year of great movies, none really stood out to me as much as Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. Maybe it is the history buff in me, or maybe it was the real sense of the care and work that was put into this political epic, but for me there was none better.
Best Picture - Comedy/Musical
Winner - Moonrise Kingdom
Runners Up - Silver Linings Playbook, 21 Jump Street
Commentary - For me, it is really hit or miss when it comes to Wes Anderson films. But in my humble opinion, Anderson knocked it out of the park. He managed to aptly combine his quirky style, with a genuine love story and lots of warmth to create his most accessible and best film to date.
Best Picture - Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Comic Book/Horror
Winner - The Dark Knight Rises
Runners Up - Looper, The Avengers, Chronicle
Commentary - Was The Dark Knight Rises as good or better than The Dark Knight? No. But despite some obvious plot holes, and the lack of Heath Ledger, Nolan's dark and incredible vision of Batman and Gotham City was still an incredible film, and was a great capper to one of the best film trilogies in recent memory.
Best Picture - Animated
Winner - Wreck-It Ralph
Runners Up - Frankenweenie
Commentary - A really close race between two really good films. Frankenweenie was an adorable and wonderful pet project, but Wreck-It Ralph was just pure awesome. Fun, emotional, and beautifully animated, Wreck-It Ralph wasn't just one of the top animated films of the year, but one of the top twenty films, period.
Best Actor - Drama
Winner - Daniel Day-Lewis "Lincoln"
Runners Up - Denis Lavant "Holy Motors", Joaquin Phoenix "The Master"
Commentary - In a great year for lead actors, there were too many names to pick from, in terms of nominations. But in terms of the win, only one name popped into my mind. Daniel Day-Lewis fully embodied Abraham Lincoln, so much to the point that you forget that there is an actor underneath there, and continued to prove why he is possibly the greatest actor working today.
Best Actress - Drama
Winner - Quvenzhane Wallis "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Runners Up - Jessica Chastain "Zero Dark Thirty", Anne Hathaway "The Dark Knight Rises"
Commentary - This was also a tight race, as Jessica Chastain's performance in Zero Dark Thirty showed so much skill and power. But since the first time I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild (four times so far), the tiny powerhouse Quvenzhane Wallis literally had me cheering, and astoniched me with her blazing performance. People can make up as many excuses as they want to as to why I am wrong about this (and they have tried), but I dare you to not become completely enthralled with her performance.
Best Actor - Comedy/Musical
Winner - Channing Tatum "Magic Mike/21 Jump Street"
Runners Up - Jack Black "Bernie", Bruce Willis "Moonrise Kingdom"
Commentary - I said this at my Halfway Awards this year, but I never thought in my life that Channing Tatum would win, let alone be nominated, for anything involving the phrase "best of the year". But in both 21 Jump Street and in Magic Mike, Tatum finally proved all of us who doubted him wrong, giving charming star performances that proved he is more than just a stripper. If this year was any indication of future projects, they we all have a lot to look forward to.
Best Actress - Comedy/Musical
Winner - Leslie Mann "This is 40" and Jennifer Lawrence "Silver Linings Playbook"
Runners Up - Meryl Streep "Hope Springs"
Commentary - Jennifer Lawrence was a pretty easy choice for her star turn in Silver Linings Playbook, where she presented emotional maturity far beyond her years. But every time I thought I was done, I kept going back to Leslie Mann. This is 40 is not a film for everyone, as proven by its mixed reviews. But I personally thought it was Apatow's most mature work to date (which I know is not saying too much), and that Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann both did a great job. And Mann is one of those actresses that continually delivers (in good films and in bad ones), and doesn't get much recognition for her work. So this year, Mann is finally getting some love for a well-developed and incredibly funny turn.
Best Supporting Actor
Winner - (TIE) Leonardo DiCaprio "Django Unchained" and Samuel L. Jackson "Django Unchained"
Runners Up - James Spader and Tommy Lee Jones "Lincoln", Ezra Miller "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
Commentary - Like last year's dynamic duo of Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain, there are some performances that while great on their own merits, also click with another actor's performance. This year both Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo Dicaprio give crackling performances in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. But it is the combination of both of them that really makes the movie pop.
Best Supporting Actress
Winner - Anne Hathaway "Les Miserables"
Runners Up - Ann Dowd "Compliance", Judi Dench "Skyfall"
Commentary - This was probably the easiest choice of the year. Les Mis is in my top 20 films of the year, and while I liked some parts of it, I also thought that some of its components were not as great. But there was one thing that stood out so far and above the good/bad fray, and that was Anne Hathaway. In one song, she managed to tear our hearts, and showcase her acting and singing abilities. She was devastating, and a powerhouse. And throughout the rest of the film, all I could seem to think about was her. If that's not a worthy performance, I don't know what is.
Best Voice-Acting Performance
Winner - Catherine O'Hara "Frankenweenie"
Runners Up - John C. Reilly "Wreck-It Ralph"
Commentary - I love Catherine O'Hara is basically everything, and in Frankenweenie, she was able to provide emotion simply through her voice. I have advocated the recognition of voice acting for a while, but was being hypocritical by not honoring voice acting myself. So congratulations to Catherine O'Hara for being the inagural winner.
Best Ensemble
Winner - Lincoln
Runners Up - The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Moonrise Kingdom
Commentary - Lincoln's cast was a sprawling who's who of veteran character actors, all of whom brought passion and historical accuracy to their roles. And not just the big guns either, but even those with one lines made them count.
Best Director
Winner - Steven Spielberg "Lincoln"
Runners Up - Quentin Tarantino "Django Unchained", Sam Mendes "Skyfall", and Wes Anderson "Moonrise Kingdom"
Commentary - Some have been criticizing Spielberg lately for some of his choices in Lincoln. I agree the the ending left a little bit to be desired, but I will fully admit that I do not have enough authority to tell him what he should have done differently. What he did do is make a film that is intelligent, wonky, yet also highly entertaining, and the best film of the year.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner - Tony Kushner "Lincoln"
Runners Up - Stephen Chbosky "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and The writing team of "Skyfall"
Commentary - Having read Doris Kearns Goodwin's incredible Team of Rivals, I can tell you it takes a master adapter in order to make it into a concise and entertaining film. Tony Kushner's playwriting abilities proved to be the perfect match, and the result was fantastic.
Best Original Screenplay
Winner - (TIE) Quentin Tarantino "Django Unchained"; Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola "Moonrise Kingdom"
Commentary - Two very different films, both represent the best in original filmmaking. Both writers and directors, their fiercely independent and original scripts made both of these movies really pop. Anderson's script was magical, humorous, and nostalgic; Tarantino's was uproarious, ridiculous, and fierce. Either way you can't go wrong.
Best Cinematography
Winner - Roger Deakins "Skyfall"
Runners Up - Life of Pi, The Master
Commentary - Skyfall would have been masterly shot thirty years ago thanks to the talents of the great Roger Deakins. But you throw in his use of the new digital format, and Skyfall is one of the most beautifully rendered films of the year.
Best Visual Effects
Winner - Life of Pi
Runners Up - The Dark Knight Rises, Cloud Atlas
Commentary - Life of Pi may not have ranked as high on my list as it did on others, but it was still a great film (it just happened to be in a year of lots of great films), and most importantly, rivals the other great use of 3-D, Avatar, as the best use of the technology, and more importantly as the best effects on screen. Just the tiger itself was remarkable, and that is only a small part of the visual treat.
Worst Film of the Year
Loser - Twilight Series; Breaking Dawn Part II
Runners Up - John Carter
Commentary - So no, this film was probably not actually the worst film of the year, and will actually go down as a relatively well-reviewed entry in the Twilight canon. But for me it was just the icing on a huge crap cake. Sorry, but I am thrilled that this dreadful film series is finally over.
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