Perhaps a predictable choice, but the rest of my predictions (sans Bale) for the NBR results were totally shat on. And good thing, too. These are some of the more inspired NBR choices I've seen in a long time. Though The Social Network is not my personal favorite movie of the year, it still keeps me thinking about the things it achieved to this day and keeps my interest as piqued now as it did when it debuted — even after having seen it twice. It's endlessly watchable, and I think it's release date brought it to the point where there's no longer much question over its status as an American classic — which may well keep it steamrolling through the season to a deserved Best Picture Oscar.
You could say it's pretty inconsequential to win the NBR, considering none of the winners they chose last year ended up on the Kodak stage the March after. But this is a true sweep, even giving Best Director to Fincher (again) — which is a category they usually try to keep separate from Best Picture. Rewarding the young Jesse Eisenberg in the Lead Actor category ahead of bigshots like Colin Firth or James Franco proves he's one of the big boys in this race, and a force to be reckoned with. And truly, it's an inspired performance to reward. Eisenberg somehow managed the task of playing a character of contradictions. He has virtually no hands-on people skills, yet he still manages to understand the wants and needs of his entire generation. He is a genius and a visionary, but doesn't quite understand how to work people out emotionally. And I think the biggest testament to his brilliance is in the way we understand Zuckerberg's motivations and his side of the story — when he looks out the window, we understand that he'd clearly rather be working on facebook than sit in these legal proceedings — he communicates the emotions of his character that his character himself is incapable of expressing.
And where many expected Annette Bening to triumph in Lead Actress, indeed they went with one of the clear best performances of the year in Lesley Manville's Mary in Another Year. Manville's performance when placed against someone like Bening's shows far greater aptness for hilarity in the film's comedic moments and much more heartbreak in the film's sadder moments. A leading Leigh woman has never won in this category with the NBR before, and with a group so in tune with mainstream tastes it may be a precursor to her success in the category even beyond the critics awards she's expected to cleanly sweep next week. Despite questions of her placement, the category is getting more clearly defined to these five: Bening, Kidman, Lawrence, Manville, and Portman, and if Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right manage to fall flat with the Academy — then Manville's right next in line.
The other actress to get a boost from these awards is Jennifer Lawrence, who won the Breakthrough Performance category with ease. I just wonder why they decided not to separate the Male and Female categories for Breakthrough again this year as they usually do, where my beloved Andrew Garfield could have seen his fair share of the Social Network love NBR laid thickly today.
In Supporting Actor, Bale fits the bill of a proper supporting narrative — an overdue actor with much respect, especially in the mainstream, who has yet to even be nominated. So why not throw him a win for playing a drug addicted Bostonian boxing trainer? It seemed like a foregone conclusion for the NBR folk. The real surprise here is Jacki Weaver's win for Animal Kingdom. In a very weak year, NBR decided to again go outside the borders of the US to find a brilliant performance. Weaver plays the matriarch of an Australian crime family — stoic, statuesque and firm throughout the entire movie until one sequence where she completely unzips her heart and lets her character's richly maternal soul flow with no apologies. She gets right back to her former form, but now you think of her and remember her throughout the entire movie much differently, and much more fully.
Buried gets an oddball mention for its screenplay, and probably won't go much further than that. Glaring omissions from their top 10 include The Kids Are All Right, Black Swan and 127 Hours — by Danny Boyle, who they rewarded two years ago for Slumdog Millionaire. Last year they only had 5 of the top 10 correct, but it seems troubling for these films that seemed so safe for the Academy's 10.
The films don't even crack their top Independent list — which includes middling films like Youth in Revolt over modern masterpieces like Blue Valentine. But that's as far as my grievances with the rewarding body this year, goes. Otherwise the wins of Eisenberg, Manville and Weaver leave me as giddy as a schoolgirl.
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