I still have trouble with 10-pictures being nominated. It feels like pandering in an effort to get more viewers.

Nope, iSm. Up was nominated last year.

Excepting the shorts, docs, and foreigns (of which I've seen only Dogtooth)... and the minor tech awards... we only need to catch up on the following:

Winter's Bone
The Fighter
The Illusionist
Biutiful
Rabbit Hole
Blue Valentine
Another Year

We have Winter's Bone on DVD already - just haven't watched it yet. We'll catch The Fighter and The Illusionist with our ArcLight points (I knew we were saving them for a reason!) and then we'll rely on the mercy of our screener-collecting friends. I'm looking at you, mp and iSm.

I forgot that Up was nominated last year. How cool.

The only nominated film my bro-in-law got via screener this year was The Rabbit Hole. Bunch of others, but no noms. (Oh, The Social Network, but I'm just gonna rent the DVD when it comes out next week instead of borrowing the screener).

Of the screeners I did get, I was most pleasantly surprised by The Hereafter, which was far better than I'd heard - though with a structure I can understand didn't go over well with mainstream audiences.

I'm also kinda ashamed to say I really liked the Ridley Scott / Russell Crowe / Cate Blanchett version of Robin Hood. Oh, and I Love You, Phillip Morris was a hoot.


Let's see, of the noms, I'm going to have to find time to see The Fighter, The King's Speech, Winter's Bone, Blue Valentine, and Biutiful.

Oh, plus 2 films I've never even heard of - Animal Kingdom and Unstoppable if I want to be uber-inclusive of everything theatrical in English.


Edited to add: Oh, I see The Hereafter was nommed for visual effects. So technically, I saw 2 nommed films via screener this season.

The Social Network is out on DVD already. I got it last week at Costco.

Oh, thanks.

Just saw Kings Speech tonight.

Some good nominations. I'm still not a fan of the 10 best pictures but there are some good films rep'd. Toy Story 3 deserved it more that UP IMHO. I'm sure it's a shoe-in for Best Animated. I'm sorry Nolan got snubbed. Didn't think the direction in Kings Speech was anything special and was kind of annoyed during the hallway/stairs scene where they use a fish-eyed lens or whatever they call it.

To bad THe Ghost Writer was released so early in the year. Was hoping for that...

Yep, I think The Ghost Writer was my favorite movie this year. But, heh, Inception was from last summer ... I think it's the "earliest" nominated film of the bunch. Besides, I bet there's some sort of political taboo in nominating a Roman Polanski film. Too bad. Wonderful script and great performances to recognize, quite apart from the great directing skills and the fantasticness of the picture as a whole. Oh well. It's just the Oscars.

Doubt there's a political taboo about Polanski - he was nominated for Tess and won for The Pianist (both since he fled the US).

As far as Inception goes - I've noticed that even though I was excited to talk about the movie and conjecture on its meaning when it was first released, I have no real desire to watch it again. I wonder if that means anything...

(Meanwhile, I just watched a super-cool thriller that didn't even get a US theatrical release. It's a movie that I want to watch again immediately. I ordered the UK blu-ray and should have it in days. There will be an unofficial movie night (and a brief break from Oscar viewing) soon.)

Yeah, but Polanski had a flair-up in the news this year. I think that may have worked against him. Of course, the fact that it was released sometime before Christmas 2010 makes it typically ineligible for a 2010 Oscar. :p

Inception is a big exception to this rule. I, too, really don't care to see it again. It didn't hold up so well on the 2nd viewing. But there was no other film this year that inspired so much conjecture and conversation and philosophical flights of fancy, at least for me. So I continue to hold it in very high regard.


I admire Tron for being one of those films where, apparently, you either like it or hate it - even though I'm on the hate-it side. I expected the story to be stupid, but not nearly as stupid and unforgivably DULL as it was. And to my surprise, the costumes were meh (so inferior to the first film) and the much vaunted score by Daft Punk was typical and boring when it wasn't in their better mode of electronica (which it wasn't for most of the film). So while I went in with low expectations, the movie -er - exceeded them on the downside.

BUT - I love the Tron disc I got for Christmas - so I'll give points to the merchandise offshoots. Oh, and the lightcycle race was rad.