Many Oscar hosts weave their monologues out of story lines from the nominated movies in ways both informative and entertaining. Here are some of the common themes and potential parallels they may want to explore this year.
Young Heroines with Dead Fathers
True Grit
Smart-mouthed, gutsy teenage girl searches for her father's killer with the aid of a grizzly lawman. She loses her hand as the result of a snakebite.
Winter's Bone
Smart-mouthed, gutsy teenage girl becomes a bounty hunter in the search for her missing father. The bounty is no less than her family's home and property which her father (a methamphetamine cook) had put up as bond with the county prior to his disappearance. He turns up dead. She cuts the hands off his submerged corpse and brings them to lawmen for identification.
Honorable mention in the Severed Hand sub-category - 127 Hours.
See Also: Self Mutilation
See Also: Self Mutilation
Bank Heists Gone Wrong
The Town
Childhood buddies controlled by an aging Godfather-like florist, stage a series of bank robberies. One man wants to quit the business, but the Godfather demands that they do one last job. It goes right - they get the money and no one is hurt, not even the bank manager who was temporarily taken hostage. Then it goes really wrong. Bank robber falls for bank manager and ends up having to protect her and eventually himself from his cohorts and the Godfather, somewhat thwarting his exit from a life of crime.
Animal Kingdom
Four brothers, controlled by their Godfather-like mother, stage a bank robbery that is alluded to in the opening credits. Soon after, one brother is killed by the police, then the remaining 3 brothers kill two cops in revenge. Then another brother is killed by the police. With two brothers dead, the dynamic darkens. The mother finally starts to grieve and turns her anger on to the eldest brother who has gone off his medication and becomes increasingly menacing.
Controlling Mothers
The Fighter
The story of two brothers pimped out for prize money by their mother,who had long since neutered their father. She is the whole shebang - trainer, promoter and decider of everything, and is backed by gaggle of crone-like daughters who all depend to some degree on their brothers' earnings. The story takes a happy turn after their father finds some cohones.
Animal Kingdom
Mother demands kisses on the lips from her four sons, and after the killing of the first son by the police tells her remaining sons (one freaking out and the others catatonic from shock) "Calm down."
See also: Bank Heists Gone Wrong.
Self Mutilation
127 Hours
Adrenaline junkie goes on a desert hike without telling anyone. Gets his hand caught between a rock and a very hard place and spends 127 hours taking inventory of his backpack (which does not include a cell phone), making farewell video recordings to his parents, practicing extreme water conservation by recycling his urine, finally getting around to amputating his arm just below the elbow. It's an uplifting story of survival, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of miscalculating one's independence.
Black Swan
In this movie, we get to see the ugly underbelly of ballet - split toenails, broken ankles, bulimia, restricted diets, and the perfectionism typical of dancers taken to its grotesque extreme by this ballerina who literally would give her life for the role.
See also: Dubious Lesbian Sex Scenes.
Dubious Lesbian Sex Scenes
Black Swan
Earnest 'goody-two-shoes' ballerina digs deep for dark qualities to bring to the role of the black swan in the ballet Swan Lake. She digs so deep that she splits her personality, indulges in activities of which she has limited recollection, blurs fantasy with reality and generally speaking, loses her mind. The lesbian sex scene which earns the movie a spot in this category may not even have happened - since her lover's face morphs eerily into her own just before she blacks out.
See also: Self Mutilation
The Kids Are All Right
In this movie, the alleged lesbian sex scene takes place under the sheets while one partner watches a pornographic video featuring gay men. Go figure. Julianne Moore's character later goes on to have very uninhibited heterosexual relations with the couple's sperm donor, devastating her wife and I 'd bet, confusing the entire viewing audience.
In the words of an incredulous Annette Bening: "Are you straight now?"
I would add, "Or what?"
Marriages in Trouble
Blue Valentine
The story of a married couple who fell out of love. She was a nurse who bumped into an old boyfriend in the grocery store, he was a quasi-employed moving man with anger issues. There were questions of earning power, division of labor, switching of allegiances etc.
The Kids Are All Right
The story of a lesbian married couple who fell out of trust. She was a doctor, she was a quasi-employed landscaper with a thing for her sperm donor slash only client. There were questions of earning power, division of labor, switching of allegiances etc.
Confusion of Fantasy with Reality
Inception
The futuristic tale of a dream-walker, an operative who can enter into someones dreams and steal ideas, or plant them there. Problem is, he spends so much time on the job that he has difficulty distinguishing between dreams and reality. His plight is further complicated by the attempts of his dead wife to hijack any dream he is having or participating in, with the aim of keeping him asleep with her permanently.
Black Swan
See also: Dubious Lesbian Sex Scenes
Teamwork, of a Sort
Toy Story 3
Woody and the gang escape the incinerator by linking arms in a 'human chain' to the strains of 'We Belong Together' (best original song nominee).
The Social Network
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg proves that there is indeed an 'I' in team, and that through strategic share-splitting, one's rival (er, friend and financier) can be swindled out of his place on the masthead.
Coronations, of a Sort
The King's Speech
Stammering blue-blood takes a crash course in elocution to prepare for the throne which is being thrust upon him, and for the speeches he is expected to make as King. In due course he and his linguist become friends. True Story.
The Social Network
Socially inept Ivy League student dreams up (steals the idea for) a social network in an attempt to gate-crash a prestigious campus clubhouse. In due course his network garners 500 million users, he and his one friend become enemies, and he is crowned Time's Person of the Year. True story.
See also: Teamwork, of a Sort.
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