Oscar Countdown, Day 1: The Fighter

Counting down the hours until Hollywood's most golden of awards galas? So are we! Semi-obsessively. Join us at noon for the next ten too-long days as we mentally prep our Oscar pool ballots and give each of this year's Best Picture nominees a once over and half.

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

THE FIGHTER

THE RUNDOWN: "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is a welterweight boxer who wants to make it big despite the obstruction that is his washed-up, drug-addict, former boxer bro Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale). Alongside his struggle toward glory is the tense, explosive warfare of his home life.

WHY IT'S GOLDEN: The Fighter doesn't follow the rules of the standard boxing movie (Marky Mark hardly gets any time in the ring!). But as you soon come to realize, that's not really the point. And thank Jesus Bale! This David O. Russell flick and Darren Aronofsky reject brings a solid one-two-punch of it's own, thanks to it's down-and-dirty cinematography, salty scandal-driven script (Cake! Crystal! MTV girls!) and two of the best performances of the year (Melissa Leo and Bale). Micky and Dicky aren't just fighting for fame, they're fighting to keep their eccentric, way-extended (I'm talking SIX sisters!) fam together in the least ridiculous way possible. To use their truly winning vernacular, what's not to fackin' love? - Emily

WHY IT'S NOT: Aside from a tension-lacking final showdown (which is kind of imperative for great sports flick), there's something else far more apparent from the start. As a producer, lead actor and an overall driving force behind this film, there's a lot expected of Mark Wahlberg. That's not to say that a brilliant supporting cast couldn't bring this film to the win, but when the film is called The Fighter and Wahlberg is "the fighter" in more than one sense of the term, he needs to bring it. Or at least deliver a marginally above average performance. Unfortunately, Wahlberg as Micky Ward is Wahlberg as he was in We Own the Night. Or Four Brothers. Or The Departed. The titular role called for far more range. - Michelle

THE FINAL VERDICT: It may knock out the competition in the Supporting Actor and Actress categories, but in terms of the Best Picture race, it will most likely be seen as too much of a lightweight.

Check our Michelle's original review here! And check in tomorrow for more Oscar buzz!

Emily's Top 10 of '10: Part 1

10. Easy A / The Trotsky

Seeing as I am unabashed teen dramedy enthusiast, I just had to find a way to sneak these two, equally whip-smart secondary school selections on my list. And seeing as they both follow adolescent underdogs, who pretend to be someone they're not (Easy A has Emma Stone lying about being the school slut, while The Trotsky  has Jay Baruchel embodying the reincarnation - or so he says - of Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky) to get through the seemingly most indelible years of everyone's life, it seemed more than fitting that they share a much-deserved spot. Although they're clearly set in modern day California and Montreal, both films feel straight out of the golden era of teen movies: the 80s. And I don't know about you, but in my heavily doodled books, that shoots them to the top of the class.

9. Piranha 3D 

I know, I know. I'm not starting off this list on a very high-brow note. But I don't care. I truly believe a great movie is defined by how it made you feel, sitting there in the dark with your best friend, big-ass bucket of 'corn and jumbo-sized Diet Coke. And Piranha 3D totally hooked me - and my inner 13-year-old boy - in. Yes, it's awful. But it knows it - and flaunts it like a beached bimbo at a wet t-shirt contest. The result is a delicious mash-up of mass underwater murder, soft-porn subplots, Elisabeth Shue and Christopher Lloyd monologues. In other, fanboyish words - best worst movie of the year!

8. The Fighter

There were more than a few prize-worthy dramas to choose from this year. But this one really stuck with me. Part of it had to do with the gritty, documentary-esque cinematography. A lot of it had to do with Christian Bale's emotionally jarring jab of a performance, which I'm hoping will lead him to long-deserved Oscar glory. But the main reason I loved it was because it exceeded my expectations. Despite what the title and previous descriptions have suggested, this isn't your typical boxing film. Sure, it's based on the early career of Micky Ward, an aspiring prize fighter (Mark Wahlberg in the film) who wanted to follow in the footsteps of his once-famous, now-cracked out big brother, Dicky (Bale). However, we hardly see Mick in the ring. The main event takes place in the Ward household, where Micky, Dicky and their over-extended fam take turns beating each other down with words. Their verbal sparring and heated emotional battles will knock you out, especially when Bale and his screen mama, Melissa Leo, are front and centre.

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

With this, the latest adaptation of J.K. Rowling's stories about the boy wizard and his BFFs (and soon-to-be BF and GF), millions of Potterheads, including myself, were forced to face the beginning of the end of era. And boy was it magical. We laughed. We cried (multiple times!). We screamed. And most importantly, we totally loved. Because, unlike many of the other big-screen versions of the highly beloved books, this film rarely veered off-track. It gave us everything we were expecting (the forest-filled search for the remaining horcruxes, the still-fresh big death scenes) and much more (hello, Harry-Hermione interpretive dance party!). Let's hope next year's finale conjures up the same, effortlessly nostalgia-inducing feel. 

6. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Love or hate it's subject, it's hard not to fall for this hysterical (both in the knee-slapping and slide-me-some-Kleenex sense) documentary film. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work follows the oft-parodied comedic "semi-legend" (her words, not mine!) as she navigates the slippery slope of her long-coming comeback, including appearances at no-name casinos and The Celebrity Apprentice.  Rivers is a hoot throughout, throwing out completely un-PC assessments of everyone and everything, and pretending she doesn't give a bit of a shit about the consequences - when she TOTALLY does. But what's really fascinating about this real-life biopic, is that it treats her like the rest of the world refuses to, reminding us that behind all the make-up and plastic surgery  lies a remarkably dedicated workaholic who simply lives to make our lives more laughable. 

TO BE CONTINUED...

*All photos courtesy of allmoviephoto.com, except The Trotsky from tiff.net. 

The Fighter

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams. Directed by David O. Russell. 115 minutes. 14A

Mark Wahlberg looks like a fighter, doesn't he? Maybe not a boxer, but more like he should be the champ of some secret fight club. But he's a rapper turned model turned actor. Not so tough. And it's a distracting reminder throughout The Fighter, one of the reasons this film is just good, no better.

It's tough to judge a film already nominated for six Golden Globes and building Oscar buzz. You expect it to be amazing, or at least really good. And like I said, The Fighter is good. It's the story of "Irish" Micky Ward (Wahlberg), a welterweight boxer who wants to make it big, though is being held back by his washed-up, drug-addict, former boxer bro Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale). The story is compelling enough, the cinematography is creative enough and the acting is just believable enough. This film doesn't really fall short at much but it doesn't "wow" at much either, save for two brilliant performances: Bale and Melissa Leo.

Leo, playing Micky and Dicky's mother, is nagging and oblivious, trying to reinforce and destructive bond between brothers. She worries and smothers. Leo is so convincing that it's easy to forget this isn't a real person. Though even more captivating in this film is Bale. He's energetic, dark and explosive; he's almost scary.

What weighs this film down is lack of tension. It's almost mandatory for sports flick. After a few stumbles at the start, Micky seems to be on a paved road to success, which may or may not be a depiction of the true story, but this is a film, we need more intensity. Maybe a little more darkness, a little more pain, or a little more agony could have given this film more texture. B