Our Full Oscar Predictions 2011

Who we think will win

Who Matt wants to win

Who Ellen wants to win

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Melissa Leo, THE FIGHTER

Amy Adams, THE FIGHTER

Helena Bonham Carter, THE KING'S SPEECH

*Hailey Steinfeld, TRUE GRIT

Jacki Weaver, ANIMAL KINGDOM

*Just so you know, we think that the fact that Hailey Steinfeld 

isn't in the Best Actress category is just plain stupid

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale, THE FIGHTER

Mark Ruffalo, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

Geoffrey Rush, THE KING'S SPEECH

Jeremy Renner, THE TOWN

John Hawkes, WINTER'S BONE

BEST ACTRESS

Jennifer Lawrence, WINTER'S BONE

Nicole Kidman, RABBIT HOLE

Natalie Portman, BLACK SWAN

Michelle Williams, BLUE VALENTINE

Annette Bening, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

BEST ACTOR

Javier Bardem, BIUTIFUL

Jeff Bridges, TRUE GRIT

Jesse Eisenberg, THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Colin Firth, THE KING'S SPEECH

James Franco, 127 HOURS

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Toy Story 3

The Illusionist

How to Train Your Dragon

BEST WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

Danny Boyle and Simon Beeaufoy, 127 HOURS

Aaron Sorkin, THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Michael Arndt: Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich, TOY STORY 3

Joel and Ethan Coen, TRUE GRIT

Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini, WINTER'S BONE

BEST WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

Mike Leigh, ANOTHER YEAR

Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson; story by Keith Dorrington, Paul Tamasy, and Eric Johnson, THE FIGHTER

Christopher Nolan, INCEPTION

Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blunberg, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

David Seidler, THE KING'S SPEECH

ORIGINAL SCORE

127 Hours

How To Train Your Dragon

Inception

The King's Speech

The Social Network

BEST DIRECTOR

Darren Aronofsky, BLACK SWAN

David O. Russell, THE FIGHTER

Tom Hooper, THE KING'S SPEECH

David Fincher, THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Joel and Ethan Coen, TRUE GRIT

BEST PICTURE

127 Hours

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The King's Speech

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter's Bone

Unlike last year where Ellen and I had mostly differing opinions and those opinions differed from the mainstream opinion, this year we are in almost total agreement with each other and popular thought.  I don't know what that means, but there it is.  Ellen feels like The Social Network really might upset The King's Speech for Best Picture, but I'm not so sure.  Either way, we both liked The Social Network best, even though we truly love both films.  Until 2012...

The Top Ten: Ranked II

It's Oscar Sunday!  One of our favorite days of the year.  Like last year, we watched all the best picture nominees.  We both have to agree that this year's top ten didn't have a bad movie in the bunch (unlike last year's Blind Side or, on my end, A Serious Man).  Here are our thoughts on the films counting down from our least favorite to favorite of the bunch:

Matt:

*Let it be known from the start that I set out to see every nominee, and The Kids Are All Right is the only one I didn't watch.  So here is my ranking of the other 9.

9. 127 Hours: I enjoyed this movie much more than other Danny Boyle movies, but overall I just don't like his gimmicky directing style.  James Franco was fun to watch, though.

8. Winter's Bone: This movie sets a new benchmark in setting an appropriate tone, I think.  The feel of the movie was so consistent, dark, and suspenseful.  If you haven't seen this one, you really should.

7. Inception: Christopher Nolan has some great ideas.  Wow.  I'm not sure how I feel about Ellen Page as a casting choice, though.  I had a hard time believing her in that role, even though I think she's good.

6. Toy Story 3: Pixar is on another winning streak.  Let's hope Cars 2 doesn't break that.

5. Black Swan:  I loved the Hitchcockian suspense of this movie, but overall it didn't knock me down as a Best Picture winner.  However, the way Darren Aronofsky films directly into mirrors was insanely cool.

4. The Fighter:  When I saw this movie I hadn't heard a thing about it, which made the experience great.  I had no clue about the style of the movie, or the humor with which they treated the subject matter.  I really enjoyed it.

3. True Grit:  I love me some Coen Brothers, and this is one of my favorites by them.  It is so beautifully shot and the storytelling is so compelling.

2. The King's Speech: I thought Tom Hooper knocked it out of the park with this one.  People were complaining about his use of wide angle lenses, but I think it worked perfectly.  And it was so refreshing to see a film about good people, fidelity, and friendship.  Well done by everyone involved.

1. The Social Network:  I saw this movie 3 times.  Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score was more than perfect.  Aaron Sorkin's script nailed that dialogue style.  David Fincher told the story amazingly.  The cast was everything I aspire to be.  I will show this movie to my kids as an example of great filmmaking of this decade.

Ellen:

10. Winter's Bone:  Just because this sits at #10, it doesn't mean I didn't think this was a great movie.  I really did.  Jennifer Lawrence was great.  It was just very slow and pretty depressing, so it probably was the one on the list I least enjoyed watching.

9. The Kids Are All Right:  I liked this movie.  And I definitely think Julianne Moore should be nominated over Annette Bening.  The reason this is #9 is because I just don't think this is an Oscar worthy movie.  It wasn't that special to me.

8. 127 Hours:  I thought James Franco was so so great in this movie.  I think his performance might even be better than Colin Firth.  Like Matt though, I just can't get over Danny Boyle's directing style.  It's just not for me.

7. Black Swan: This movie was so dark and suspenseful!  It was a fun ride and I felt like I had to keep up with Nina's crazy mind games the entire time (a good thing).

6. True Grit:  I am so not a fan of the Western genre but this was such a good surprise.  This BEAUTIFUL movie was the perfect mix of humor, action and emotion.  And when Mattie Ross fell into the snake cave!  I had to hold my mouth to keep from screaming.

5. Inception: Wow this movie was fun.  I didn't really get the Ellen Page casting either but give me Leo, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt any day.  And that ending!  Christopher Nolan can do no wrong it seems.

4. The King's Speech:  Ok now the ranking gets really hard.  The top 4 are all deserving of the #1 spot. The King's Speech was so refreshing.  A compelling story about good people.  I cried a whole lot of tears in this movie.  Most people are guessing this one is going to take the big prize tonight, and ya know what, I'm ok with that.

3. The Fighter:  I love The Fighter! This movie was filled with 4 performances that deserve an Oscar, but Christian Bale stole the show.

2. Toy Story 3:  I can't wait for the day when Pixar finally wins an Oscar for Best Picture.  If any studio deserves it, they do.  Unfortunately, I'd be willing to bet a whole lot of money that they will not win it this year.  Toy Story 3 was a wonderful original story.  Something that almost never happens in the third movie of a trilogy.  Pixar's standards are high and it shows.  With them, story always comes first.

1. The Social Network: Aaron Sorkin, David Fincher, Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer, Rooney Mara, and, yes, even Justin Timberlake were all part in making the best movie of the year.  I really hope there is an upset and this wins!

Glee

Matt and I hate Glee and haven't watched it since the end of season one. We think it is a poorly written and executed show (even though they sure can sing).  However, I thought you readers (especially the non Angelenos of the bunch) would find it interesting that Glee has been filming down the street for the past two weeks.

We live right behind the Saban Theatre.  This theatre is actaully where we went to see the Lost Panel for Paleyfest last year.  Who knew we'd be living a mere 50 steps from the place one year later?  The theatre is used for plenty of concerts and events, but it is also used for filming on a regular basis.  In fact, a couple of months ago Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, and Adam Sandler were filming the movie Jack and Jill there and the production closed down our street.  It was actually more annoying than it was exciting because Matt and I park on the street and we ended up parking a couple blocks away from our house as a result.

Anyways, we are pretty sure they are filming the finale there because that is where they filmed regionals last year.  They are trying to be secretive too because the directional signs say WMHS intead of GLEE (directional signs are yellow and black signs that direct crew members to set).  We are guessing WMHS stands for William McKinley High School.

We can tell how accustomed we are to living in LA now because a year ago we would have been waaay more curious and excited about all this.  This sort of thing really becomes normal after living in LA for so long.  For instance, I was late to work a couple of weeks ago because The Cape was filming along my regular route to work and I had to take a detour.

These are just things that come with living in LA.  Over time they become commonplace or even annoying, but we are constantly reminded how cool our city is.

Our Stay at The Grand Californian

Little did I know that when I got married I would also be sucked into the odd parallel universe of Disney Fandom.  From the outside it looks like a dark, scary place full of only creepy people wearing Mickey Mouse ears and fanny packs, but from the inside it's somehow different.  Disneyland actually saved our butts when we first moved to LA and didn't have anyone or anywhere to hang out, and I really enjoy spending time with Ellen there.  And Disney truly is an amazing entertainment company that I'd love to work with one day.  And frankly what the Imagineers do in those parks is amazing.  But I do not and never will own Mickey ears and a fanny pack.  I'm not that guy.

Staying in a Disney hotel is something Ellen and I have wanted to do for a while now, since they really are some of the nicest hotels out there.  Disney knows how to do a vacation.  So, thanks to a really awesome Christmas gift from my parents, we spent last weekend at The Grand Californian in Disneyland.

The hotel was everything we wanted it to be.  We started off our stay with an amazing nap (aren't we fun?).  We opened the balcony door and the smell of the cotton candy in the park and the sound of the music and monorail outside put us right to sleep.  Then we got ready for dinner at Napa Rose, where our great friends Tanner and Molly met us.  This restaurant is always wonderfully reviewed, and the food lived up to all the hype. 

The next morning we headed into the park for some fun, and then sadly had to go home.  Our stay was really wonderful, but rather than placate us for a while I'm afraid it just made us want to spend a whole week there.  Maybe we'll go back soon.

Matt's Surprise

I just got these pictures back, and that, my friends, is the face of a very surprised man. 

Matt's 25th birthday was January 9th and I threw him a dino themed surprise party (see that dino tattoo on Cory's hand?).  One of Matt's favorite movies is Jurassic Park so I thought it was fitting.

I really don't think Matt suspected a thing.  The morning of Matt's birthday, we took my family back to the airport and that day we were both sick with a cold so by the time we finally dragged ourselves out of our nap, I'm sure he thought his birthday was a bust. 

Our friend Tanner "wanted to have some guy time with Matt" so around 5:00 Tanner came and picked Matt up so I was able to then prepare the house for the party.  Molly (Tanner's wife) and I met the boys for dinner at 6:30. In the mean time, 30 of our closest friends were arriving at our home. 

When we finally arrived at our place, Matt was shocked!  And from these hilarious picture, I am sure you can tell.

My Goal Sheet

When we moved to LA (almost 2 years ago....wow!) one of the first things I did was start acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.  The place was kind of kooky and I ran away quickly, but I learned some good stuff there too.  One of the biggest things was from BHP alumnus Jorge Garcia, who said that you should write out your biggest goals and dreams on a piece of paper.  It makes them concrete and helps you to actively remember what you're pursuing.  I took his words to heart and made my own version of a goal sheet, combining goals and people with whom I want to work.  It's short, but lofty.  I hope in blog posts in the years to come I can update you as I achieve them.

Goals:

1.) I want to work on a long-running, smart, respected TV show.

2.) I want to voice a character in a Disney/Pixar movie.

3.) I want to spend plenty of time with my family.

People I Want To Work With:

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright

Steve Carell

That's it.  Let's see what happens!

Picture Post: Ben Came to Visit

And it was way fun!  We are trying to convince him to move here when he is done with that whole Teach for America thing.

Bootie LA

When you think of Matt Godfrey you probably don't think of dancing.  Or if you do, it's probably in the same way you think of great acting and David Hasselhoff - as in, "Wow, he really can't do it."

Well, regardless of my talent level, Ellen is my witness that I tore up the dance floor of Bootie LA this past Saturday night with moves so ridiculous only a grasshopper/grandaddy-longlegs hybrid could replicate them.  Sadly, there is no existing video of how much we rocked that club and lit it up like dynamite.  I did, however, take some video of Bootie LA's resident dance crew, "R.A.I.D.", or Random Acts of Irreverent Dance.  And it was irreverent.  Really irreverent.  This little gem is only a tiny taste of the irreverence (or as I like to call it, obscenity) that was R.A.I.D., but it's still pretty funny.

Oddly enough, I actually had a great time.  Ellen is a great dancer, so it's no surprise that she had fun.  I've never been a club person, but Bootie LA was the perfect place for a non-clubber like me.  The dancers onstage were acting like idiots which made me feel right at home, and no one there was really into the club scene.  It was just a really eclectic group of people having fun.  Bootie LA is once a month, and I think we'll be back in March.

Guess what we are doing tonight?

Bootie LA.  Yes you read correctly.

I'll let you know how it goes.  But with these moves, what could go wrong?