Yes, they are strongly set in the "not-now." But they don't, imo, rise to the level of what you implied the collective Academy was sorta going for in making the nominations.

In fact, if they weren't tied to specific actual events that happened to have happened a decade ago, nothing about the movies would give away that they happened in the "past."


But it was your statement about "bias"; maybe I'm just misinterpreting it.

I simply meant that they picked a slate with a strong bias towards movies strongly focused on events and times explicitly not now.

I think that having 8 out of 9 movies with significant portions a decade (9 years for Moneyball) or more in the past is an interesting quirk. I see no conspiracy and would barely speculate on whether any zeitgeist among the Academy produced the result.

But maybe when I'm as old as you I'll scoff at the idea of a decade being a significant distance in the past.

That said, the result is decidedly meh. It wasn't a strong year but I'd be disappointed if Hugo, War Horse, or Midnight in Paris won. I suspect I'd be disappointed if The Help or Extremely Close won.

Moneyball is my favorite of the six I've seen but I'd be ok with The Artist simply for it having the balls to be so far outside of convention (even if it then manages to be a thoroughly conventional movie).

VAM

The only two nominated movies that I haven't seen and are available for streaming on Netflix are documentaries (If a Tree Falls and To Hell and Back) so I watched the first one last night (really want to see Pina before it leaves theaters but I don't know I'll ever have the time).

It is a fair documentary in that it is interesting to see the thinking and general normalcy of the Earth Liberation Front activist/terrorists. But I couldn't quite tell if it was trying to provoke a sense of outrage or sympathy over what happened to the main guy convicted. It didn't, but I'm not sure if that means it failed.

If anybody else has seen it, any thoughts?

Of the Best Picture noms, I haven't seen The Help - but it's in my Netflix queue. Whether I'll get it before the Oscars is anybody's bet.

I don't particularly want to see either War Horse or Extremely Loud and Close, but I'm mildly curious to check those out - so if they come out on DVD before the Oscars ... if not, I don't really care.

I haven't seen The Artist either, but I intend to remedy that. I think that covers the Best Picture noms. Interesting that of all the screeners I saw, only three (Tinker Tailor, Albert Nobbs and Moneyball) have received more than one nomination. So if I haven't seen any of the other noms once I cover The Help and The Artist, that's where I'm gonna be stuck for this Oscar season ... except that I hope to cover the nominated shorts in the same traditional manner as we have in years past.

Yes, if the climax of Moneyball with the A's being eliminated in the divisional round of the playoffs was supposed to make us forget Damn Yankees or The Natural, I'm looking forward to the movie version of the stalled Mayweather/Pacquiao negotiations to make me forget Rocky.

Stoat suggested Grindylows.

I watched "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" for the first time last night. Bette Davis was awesome, and the movie's ultimately worth it to watch her, but it basically stunk. Tedious chunks of exposition, ultimately gratuitous Victor Buono and a non-climax. I had also mistakenly assumed that the Joan Crawford character gave as good as she got, but it was not to be.

I watched "Say Anything" today. It's been at the top of my Netflix queue for ages but I keep kicking other things up to the top. Apparently it was annoyed at being snubbed for so long and tripped "Macbeth" on its way to the top of the queue. The acknowledgment email that said Netflix received the returned DVD said "Macbeth" was next in my queue but the next email said I would be receiving "Say Anything." Vindictive little movie.

It's just as well I got it out of the way. It wasn't what I thought which was something I'd seen before that was more a road movie, nerdy guy follows cool girl somewhere, finally wins her over. What movie was that?

Watched one of my favorites this morning- "Journey to the Center of the Earth" - the 1959 movie starring James Mason and Pat Boone. It's still one of my favorites.