We're actually going to go to a theater and see a movie! What a concept. Pina on Saturday. In 3D.

The new Wes Anderson movie, Moonrise Kingdom, looks interesting in a very Wes Andersonish way.

Well, not off to too bad a start for the Oscar season. Of the 42 nominated films (excluding the shorts and the foreign language category as many of those aren't yet readily possible), I've seen 21 of them. And 65 of the 99 nominations total for them (The Help is the most nominated that I haven't seen).

Complete whiff on Best Actress though. And I'm pretty resistant to seeing Extremely Loud and Dangerously Close (not because it is 9/11 but because it looks awful).

First time since the Best Animated Feature award was created that Disney/Pixar has been completely locked out. And with two foreign titles they had to go deep to do so. Cars 2 was pretty bad but I thought Winnie the Pooh might take a slot.

Hmm...was prompted into noticing that the best picutre nominees have a strong bias towards the past.

The Artist - Set in the late 1920s.
Extremely Lous & Incredibly Close - 2001.
The Help - Early 1960s
Hugo - 1931
Midnight in Paris - Half of it is in the 1920s
Moneyball - 2002
The Tree of Life - Half of it is in the 1950s
War Horse - The length of World War II

The Descendents is the only nominee rooted firmly in the present.

I haven't seen "The Descendants" yet, but it's my understanding that George Clooney is forced to rexamine his past.

I'm not buying that 2001 and 2002 are past-oriented.

Have you forgotten which way time runs again, Steve?

Here's something: Those kids that W was reading to when he got the news about 9/11...they can vote now. Does that make it feel like long enough ago to call it the past?

I disagree. They're set a decade ago, and that isn't a trivial amount of time (unlike last years The Social Network and 127 Hours which were set only a couple years in the past). Plus they are both not only set in the past but focused on specific past events.

They may not be set far in the past but they are strongly set in the "not now."

Also, it isn't true for the casual fan but to an Athletics fan (as I am) the period of them competing each year into the playoffs is a thing of the distant past.

Troy was set more recently.