SiftPop

by Heath Lynch, Contributing Writer

It’s the height of the summer blockbuster season! There are dinosaurs, superheroes, race cars, and bad live action remakes all around us! What a time to be alive and enjoying the movies! But you’re not here to lament all of your summer box office predictions; you’re here for some nostalgia. So let’s jump right into things! 

As a reminder, with Oscars: What If…, I look at categories the Academy Awards should be honoring, but for one reason or another, they aren’t. So we’re going to imagine what could’ve been regarding past Oscar seasons. Hopefully someday the Academy will do right by these creative talents, but until then we must do the Academy’s job for them. Let’s look back at the year Chile celebrated the rescue of 33 miners trapped underground but suffered a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake, Eminem released the album Recovery, the Winter Olympics took place in Vancouver, Canada, Matt Smith debuted as the 11th Doctor, and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion led to the infamous BP oil spill. It is time to examine the films of 2010, celebrated at the Oscars in 2011. Let’s see what could have been!

Best Stunts and Choreography

Given to the best achievement in dance, stunts, related performances, and overall choreography.

And the nominees are… Burlesque, Inception, Jackass 3D, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Step Up 3D

And the winner is… Step Up 3D!

Look, you laugh at this, scowl at this, only because you haven’t seen it. How could this be better than the mind-mending wire-action in Inception? Or more insane than the stunts from Jackass 3D? Trust me, Step Up 3D gives you everything. From classic dancing duets down a New York street that’s filmed as a oner, to dancing in a fountain and making water splash in choreographed synchronized rhythms, all the way to massive dance battles with 50-plus people on stage at the same time, there’s a plethora of astounding dance and stunt choreography that will wholly captivate you. We’re not looking at the ridiculous plot, bas acting, awful editing, or nauseating cinematography. We’re here for the choreography, and no one did it better than Step Up 3D back in 2010.

Best Performance by Voiceover or Motion Capture

Given to the best off screen voice performance, or on screen motion captured performance.

And the nominees are… Ned Beatty as Lotso in Toy Story 3, Steve Carell as Felonious Gru in Despicable Me, Tom Hanks as Woody in Toy Story 3, Mandy Moore as Rapunzel in Tangled, Donna Murphy as Mother Gothel in Tangled

And the winner is… Ned Beatty as Lotso in Toy Story 3!

Oof, I’m not sure about this one. Frankly, all five of these nominees could take it. I’m particularly struggling with passing over Donna Murphy… but in the end, I feel I have to go with Ned Beatty. His warm, unassuming tenderness is so welcoming at the start of the film. The slow reveal we experience as the layers are peeled away, showing the horror underneath, activates a darkness that has Beatty completely transformed by the end of the film. It’s this shift in tone, attitude, and tenor that elevates Beatty’s performance beyond his peers. To be both heartfelt and inviting in the film, while also being so cold and sinister, makes for such a perfect painting on an elaborate voice acting canvas. For such a wide-ranging and memorable performance, Beatty takes the gold.

Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast

Given to the best overall ensemble cast performance.

And the nominees are… The Fighter, Inception, Shutter Island, The Social Network, The Town

And the winner is… The Social Network!

Damn, what a great year for ensemble performances. There are several other films that I felt bad about not even nominating. What a cornucopia of choices. But for as many choices as there to potentially nominate, to me there was only one choice to take home the Oscar: The Social Network. It’s not just that you had Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and (regretfully) Armie Hammer knocking it out of the park with their individual performances, it was the kinetic energy they displayed with each other. The chemistry on display with this cast was next level. Credit to Aaron Sorkin for delivering a script that gave everyone the opportunity to shine, full of biting and aggressive dialogue, because this group took that script and ran with it. Right from the opening of the film, with Eisenberg and Rooney Mara having a contentious conversation in a bar, the ensemble performance craft instantly surpassed every other film from this year. Outstanding, simply impeccable. There was no other option to take home this win — The Social Network is one of the best ensemble films ever made.

Best Directorial Debut

Given to the best achievement in direction by a debut directing talent.

And the nominees are… Banksy for Exit Through the Gift Shop, David Michôd for Animal Kingdom, Chris Morris for Four Lions, Lee Unkrich for Toy Story 3, Hiromasa Yonebayashi for The Secret World of Arrietty

And the winner is… Banksy for Exit Through the Gift Shop!

Let me just be blunt: Whether it was Banksy piecing together the incoherent mess that was Mr. Branwash’s archival footage, or whether the entire film is actually a spoof mockumentary making fun of the Hollywood elite as some suspect, Exit Through the Gift Shop is one of the most unique, captivating, and enlightening documentaries ever made. Banksy should be awarded as such. Whether it’s highlighting the culture behind street artists, the power in protest art, or the massive wealth machine that some of these artists generate, this is riveting stuff, and Banksy’s eye, approach to the subject, strong editing, and powerful way in which he explores a complicated narrative, is fascinating.

Now, I’m sure Banksy would love to come up on stage to accept this award. Right? Banksy, where are you, come on down! Banksy? Banksy…

Best Popular Film

Given to the best audience supported motion picture that earned a spot as one of the top 25 box office films of the year.

And the nominees are… Inception, How to Train Your Dragon, Tangled, Toy Story 3, True Grit

And the winner is… Inception!

Look, I hear you. If we’re being honest, this was a two-movie race. And now you’re sitting and yelling at your screen as you read this because you wanted Toy Story 3 to win. I know, I know. But suffice it to say, it’s my column, I get to pick, and you’re wrong. Inception is the Best Popular Film of 2010.

In past entries in this series, I’ve always argued that this category is about the best popular film, not the best popular film. Putting the emphasis on “best,” making sure the adjective takes center stage. Yes, Toy Story 3 was certainly number one at the domestic and worldwide box offices (and box office is the prime indicator we use to judge what was “popular” in any given year), but the story doesn’t end there. Because while Toy Story 3 raked in $415 million at the domestic box office, Inception still made $292 million. A PG-13 action thriller with weighty ideas and concepts that still confound audiences to this day making that much money is incredible. There are movies that come out today, with the benefit of inflation, that would still kill to make almost $300 million domestically. It was the sixth-highest domestic grossing film of the year. That gap narrows even more when you look at worldwide grosses, where Toy Story 3 brought in $1.066 billion against Inception’s $828 million, which was good enough for fourth place globally. A beloved Pixar franchise bringing in this much money in the early 2010s was almost… predictable, especially as the capstone in such an iconic trilogy. A standalone original film that would become a massive part of 21st century film conversations and pop culture at large… was far from predictable. Shocking, in fact, is an understatement. So these were two massively popular movies, but one really swept everyone up in a surprising whirlwind.

By the way, if you’re wanting to know what those other movies were hovering around these two in the box office charts back in 2010, you’re looking at the likes of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Iron Man 2, Shrek Forever After, and Tim Burton’s live action Alice in Wonderland. Not exactly the definition of “best” we’re looking for in this conversation.

It’s when we start looking at awards accolades from the era that we really start to hone in on what the “best” was this year. Simply put, while Toy Story 3 brought home an impressive 47 awards against 97 nominations across a plethora of awards ceremonies, the vast majority of those were for Best Animated Film. Not to minimize that achievement, but let’s just say the field isn’t quite as stacked when it comes to competition. For every How to Train Your Dragon, you had a Despicable Me. It’s just… not the same. To its credit, Toy Story 3 also got a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards, only the third animated film to ever receive such an honor, and it even took home a completely undeserved Best Original Song win for yet another Randy Newman snoozefest. So, you know, that’s something.

But Inception really knocked it out of the park. Taking home 102 awards against 223 nominations that awards season, it obliterated Toy Story 3. Snatching up gold like it was Goldmember circa 1975. Inception went on to take home four Oscars against eight nominations that year, virtually sweeping all the below-the-line craft technical categories. It also had a Best Picture nomination, just like Toy Story 3, so those seemingly cancel each other out. Inception also took home three BAFTA awards against nine nominations (including Best Picture), six Critics Choice Awards against 10 nominations (including Best Picture), had four Golden Globe Award nominations (including Best Picture), and even took home the coveted Best Scared-As-Shit Performance at the MTV Movie Awards — shoutout to Elliot Page. I mean, c’mon! What more could you ask for, huh?!

Yes, Toy Story 3 was an incredibly popular movie, but so was Inception. When we hyper-focus on which one is the “best,” however, one clearly stands out about the other. So despite the frustration and arguments it may cause, the Oscar rightfully belongs to Inception.

And that’s gonna do it! Thanks for joining me on another trip down memory lane to see what could’ve been! We got to talk about the secret life of street protest artists, the concluding chapter of Pixar’s greatest trilogy (that’s sadly no longer a trilogy, but that’s a different story…), and a dream-heist thriller whose Hans Zimmer score has been a meme ever since its release. Be sure to come back next time when we look at films like Fast Five, The Help, and Moneyball, as we’ll examine the Oscars of 2012, celebrating the films of 2011!

You can read more from Heath Lynch, and follow him on Letterboxd