Best Scene is probably my favorite Calvins category year in and year out. I love the uniqueness of it, and the selection process forces me to examine films in a modular fashion I might not otherwise. This year was particularly brutal because several films such as Bolt, The Dark Knight, WALL-E, Rachel Getting Married and Cloverfield offered multiple scenes worthy of selection. In the end, I went off the board and selected the magnificent finale to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, partially because it's hilarious and partially because of my Angel-established vampire puppet fetish. To this day, I remain stunned that my second place selection, The Bank Heist, did not win the Calvin for best Scene. I am convinced that's the YouTube clip that made this film a $530 million blockbuster.

One of the most difficult categories for me to evaluate this past year was Best Use of Music. I had trouble deciding what to do with the concert films I saw last year, particularly Shine a Light, the Rolling Stones documentary by Martin Scorsese. Should a concern film be evaluated in the same light as a regular movie? Eventually, I decided no, and that made The Wackness the clear cut choice for best musical accompaniment of the year. Its celebration of 1990s hip-hop, R&B and other urban sounds perfectly punctuated the movie's tales of a teen angst among pushers. I'm convinced I wouldn't have liked this movie if not for its soundtrack, which is pretty much what this category's vote is for.





Best Overlooked Film is always a function of the Best Picture race for me as I simply look at my Big Board and determine which films have yet to earn $25 million. The top two films here, Frost/Nixon and In Bruges, are unsurprising. The presence of Meet Bill is probably the shocker. I recognize that most reviewers dismissed the film as pointless frivolity, but I thought it did an admirable job of telling a simple story well.

The Breakthrough performance category is always one that is somewhat arbitrary to determine. Jason Segel is not new to the industry and I have been aware of him since Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. While some now know him from How I Met Your Mother, it is his presence in Forgetting Sarah Marshall that has made him a recognizable face in the industry. Being the lead actor in a very funny film made Seth Rogen and Michael Cera and I think that another good movie could work similarly for Segel. You're tired of hearing about Dev Patel by now, so the other name I'd like to discuss is Rebecca Hall. She went from virtual unknown to the focus of Vicky Cristina Barcelona and a key figure in Frost/Nixon. That's two of the most accredited films of the year wherein she played a major role. A romantic comedy and a gritty indie film are all that is left before she is a star.
I am never a huge fan of the Worst categories. Going against the grain of the Internet, I never enjoy slamming something just to slam it. Keeping that in mind, The Love Guru and The Happening deserve every nasty thing said about them.

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