Your ranking of the nominated Best Films

There have been a couple of Oscar threads, but I don’t think we’ve had one asking people to rank them. I’ve seen 8/10 so far, so to be fair I’ve excluded the ones I haven’t seen yet. This is kind of difficult since I pretty much liked all eight of the movies I saw.

But here is how I rank them:

  1. The Social Network
  2. The King’s Speech
  3. True Grit
  4. Toy Story 3
  5. Inception
  6. The Fighter
  7. Black Swan
  8. The Kids Are All Right

Haven’t yet seen 127 Hours or Winter’s Bone, although WB is next in my queue. And although Social Network and King’s Speech are my 1-2, they could go either way. Same with 4-6.

The only movie I was really underwhelmed with was The Kids Are All Right. I didn’t think it was bad, I just didn’t think it was that special (although the acting was good).

King’s Speech
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Social Network
Inception
The Fighter
The Kids are All Right
Black Swan

I didn’t include Toy Story, as I don’t think it belongs in the best film category. Haven’t seen 127 Hours. Black Swan beat us over the head with the plot, and Kids and Fighter have been done and done again, although they weren’t bad films.

I’ve seen nine, as of today, and plan to get to *Black Swan *next week.

My preference:

  1. Inception
  2. The King’s Speech
  3. The Social Network
  4. 127 Hours
  5. True Grit
  6. The Fighter
  7. Toy Story 3
  8. The Kids Are All Right
  9. Winter’s Bone

I say Inception is my film of the year. Innovative, entertaining, maddening, intelligent … where were Nolan’s nomination for directing or Tom Hardy’s for supporting actor? Heck, where was Andrew Garfield’s for supporting actor in Social Network? I like Mark Ruffalo, but not in The Kids Are All Right, so he stole a nomination from somebody there. In my book, anyway.

In my opinion, spots 2-6 could really be mixed up in any order. If any of my top seven should win (of course they won’t, only two of them probably have a chance), I would applaud the choice.

Toy Story 3 is a great movie, but it just doesn’t feel right for tops of the year. Similarly The Kids Are All Right. Winter’s Bone didn’t click for me at all, I am not a fan.

  1. The Black Swan
  2. The King’s Speech
  3. The Social Network
  4. Inception
  5. Toy Story 3
  6. True Grit
  7. Winter’s Bone
  8. The Fighter

I haven’t seen *The Kids Are All Right *or 127 Hours.

Best Actor - Colin Firth - The King’s Speech
Best Actress - Natalie Portman - The Black Swan
Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale - The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress - Hailee Stanfield - True Grit
Best Director - Darren Aronofsky - The Black Swan

  1. The Social Network
  2. Winter’s Bone
  3. The King’s Speech
  4. True Grit
  5. The Fighter
  6. Toy Story
  7. 127 Hours
  8. Inception
  9. Black Swan
  10. The Kids Are All Right

The last three would not have been nominated, if it had been up to me. And my favorite movie of the year was The Town, which didn’t even get nominated.

  1. Inception
  2. The King’s Speech
  3. The Social Network
  4. 127 Hours
  5. The Fighter
  6. True Grit
  7. Black Swan
  8. The Kids Are All Right
  9. Winter’s Bone

If we’re ranking in the order that we liked them, rather than the order in which we think they should win Best Picture*, my list would be:

  1. Winter’s Bone
  2. Inception
  3. The Social Network
  4. True Grit
  5. 127 Hours
  6. The King’s Speech
  7. The Fighter
  8. Toy Story 3
  9. Black Swan

I loved all those movies and any one of them would make me cheer if it won Best Picture. What a great, great lineup. It looks wrong that Black Swan is way down there, because after the first 4, they’re even in my regard. As much as I love it, there’s a special place in my heart for Winter’s Bone that goes beyond the movie itself, in that it was responsible for me getting a membership at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and I met the director Debra Granik after a sneak preview showing.

There’s about a mile between those 9 and #10.

  1. The Kids Are Alright

It’s the only one I didn’t care for and while it’s a well-made and well-acted film, it pissed me off and it bothers me that it’s listed among all those other great films. I can think of so many other movies that should be in that spot, starting with Biutiful, Shutter Island and The Town. Anette Bening’s nomination pisses me off too. She’s taken Naomi Watts’s spot. Bening was far far better in a far far better film this last year, Mother and Child. She should have gotten a nomination for that. And yeah, Andrew Garfield should be in Mark Ruffalo’s spot.

  • the order in which they should win Best Picture would, IMO, be

The Social Network
The King’s Speech
True Grit
Inception

The order in which they are most likely to come in getting Best Picture will probably be

The King’s Speech
True Grit
The Fighter
The Social Network

though we’ll never know those rankings because AMPAS never releases the totals.

Equipose, I agree with you about there being nine great movies and about Kids being undeserving (although I don’t mind the nomination for Benning). And my intent was for people to list there preferred ranking, not what they thought would or should happen. I think Social Network SHOULD win, but The King’s Speech seems to have the momentum. Not that it’s a bad choice either; I loved them both.

  1. The King’s Speech
  2. The Social Network
  3. Inception
  4. True Grit
  5. 127 Hours
  6. Toy Story 3
  7. The Fighter
  8. Winter’s Bone
  9. The Kids are All Right
  10. Black Swan

The first two are nearly interchangeable for me, I loved both of them.

The Social Network
The Black Swan
Inception
True Grit

I’m lagging behind in watching all of them. Next up is King’s Speech and Biutiful (even if that isn’t nominated).

  1. The King’s Speech
  2. Inception
  3. Black Swan
  4. Winter’s Bone
  5. The Social Network
  6. 127 Hours
  7. Toy Story 3
  8. The Kids Are All Right

Wonderful films, all of them. I’d be happy with any of them winning, especially the first 5. I’ve been sitting here trying to decide on the order of those 5 for ages and have swapped them around a few times, but I think that’s about right.

Planning on seeing True Grit tonight. (Although Catfish is also playing and that looks intriguing too.)

As of one hour ago, I’ve seen all 10, so here we go:

  1. The King’s Speech
  2. True Grit
  3. 127 Hours
  4. Inception
  5. Winter’s Bone
  6. The Social Network
  7. The Kids Are All Right
  8. Toy Story 3
  9. Black Swan
  10. The Fighter
    While I don’t consider any of these bad movies, three were disappointments to me: The Social Network, Black Swan, and The Fighter.
    mmm
  1. Winter’s Bone
  2. 127 Hours
  3. Black Swan
  4. Inception
  5. The Social Network
  6. Toy Story 3
  7. The Kids Are All Right
  8. The King’s Speech
  9. The Fighter
  10. True Grit