Do not agree at all though this would apply well to the fighter, except the cast wasn't that great. In this both elements are battling a dull story.

Also, this is a shock to me. I would not think Social Network to be the movie appealing to small critical groups and King's Speech the one appealing to large guilds, I would think the opposite. I guess there are too many stuffy shirts to have a young person movie with so many young people doing old people stuff to award it?

Meh - - what do directors know about directing?!?

Considering the movies many of them direct, this isn't exactly the first sign of that.

Seriously. One of the other directors apparently laughed when he heard Hooper's name announced. As in it was neither Hooper nor Fincher.

Nolan is such a dick.

Aronofsky?

Where was this anyway? DGAs or Oscars?

Russell wasn't nominated at DGA, was he? Or did he attend anyway?

My short-term memory has been sandblasted lately.

By Tom Hooper's distracting camera angles?

Fincher still has a BD chance, DGA coorelates much more to Picture than Director

It looks like TSN never resonated as much with the older audience. Plus the King's Speech is really damn good

Really though, the critics reacting to TSN like it's a masterpiece just seems to stick out like a sore thumb. It seems like to the rest of us including the AMPA voters, it's a pretty good prestige film, no more no less. The critics just got on a wave of The Social Network sexing

Jeez. What about the King's Speech was world-shatteringly good? Nothing I saw. I liked it (more for the performances than anything else, which was all "good/really good"--nothing that special) but aside from it being not-The Social Network, which seems to be enough for some, what's so "best" about it?

From a filmmaking POV the Social Network kind of wipes the floor with The King's Speech. The screenplay, direction, score, editing and pretty much anything you can think of is either "really good" or "amazing" (being the screenplay, direction, and score I'd say. Maybe editing, too).

The King's Speech may have the upper hand in performances (which I don't really think) but what, seriously, was so awesome or atypical about it?

Simple, it is not the Social Network, and a generic safe Oscar pick.

Ummmmmmm no. In the history of the DGA, only TWICE has the winner of the DGA lost Directing while their film won Picture - Godfather and Chicago. This is not a comparable case.

King's Sweep has Picture and Director locked.

Ok maybe not, but if there's any case where it happens, it's a race of Tom Hooper vs David Fincher. I mean come on.

My latest facebook update:

At the King's Speech was good, and not abysmally awful like Slumdog Millionaire.

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Not having seen either film, but looking at the b.o. of the 5 more likely nominees in case there would be only 5 spots, I would say at the end TSN is the least favorite movie according to b.o. gross.

Grit, Swan and Speech have or will surpass TSN for sure.

Fighter probably too at the end, even if not by much.

I'd argue that in this very case, though, Chicago is a very apt comparison.

The difference is that The Pianist won BAFTA for Best Film and Director and was surging late with vocal campaign from people like Jack Nicholson. The Social Network is heading in the opposite direction, and there is simply no way it will beat The King's Speech at BAFTA for Best Film. If Fincher somehow wins Director there over Hooper, then it'll be a tight race for BD at Oscar, but it doesn't appear likely either.

Well, on the other hand, the directors of Shakespeare in Love, Atonement, The Queen and The Full Monty (all BAFTA Best Film winners, as far as I remember) all have not won the BAFTA for Best Director...so who knows?


And on a different matter...if, at this point, The King's Speech loses BP at the Oscars, would it be considered one of the biggest upsets ever?

Were you not saying that about The Social Network 10 days ago?

It would be from a statistical standpoint, but in term of public perception, I don't think it will come close to match Crash/Brokeback. In fact, many may still compare it to Shakespeare in Love/Saving Private Ryan and think somehow The King's Speech came from behind and won. The idea that The Social Network was the frontrunner has been embedded into people's mind long enough that for those who didn't follow the Oscar race and guilds that closely would still think it's at least close to an even race when the ceremony comes around. I mean, some media still only say "the tide has started turning" instead of "the tide has completely turned, 180 degrees", probably because everything happened so quickly. Also there remains enough uncertainty and debate on Best Director that casual followers will carry into the ceremony thinking the picture is undecided either.