It's the Dinosaur Island season premiere tonight. I think you can understand if I keep things short and to the point. This show is the only vice I'm allowing myself during the school year.
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Let's do a quick once-over on the Academy Award Nominations, some of which were pretty surprising (in a good way):
Best Picture for 2009:
Okay, I'm still on the record that the "bumping the nominees from 5 to 10" doesn't really change anything. More exposure? Maybe. Does it make it harder to guess the "front runners"? I don't think so. Still, it did allow for one genuinely unexpected nomination:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
I'm very happy to see District 9 on that list. I can't imagine in a million years that it's going to be the Best Picture, but if Moon's not going to be anywhere come March, it's good to have another excellent science fiction film that's not the Highest Grossing Movie of All Time on the list. I don't necessarily get nominating Up when it's the front-runner in Best Animated Film, the category created so that this sort of thing didn't have to happen. Forgive me for not understanding The Blind Side's inclusion, as it is so not the kind of movie I'm going to watch.
What do I think is going to win? No idea.
Sorry gang, but I don't do the Acting Categories. That's total Neil territory.
Best Direction:
Avatar - James Cameron
The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
Precious - Lee Daniels
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman
Look, I don't know anything about Precious, but it certainly seems like the odds-on favorite if Bigelow doesn't win for The Hurt Locker.
Best Original Screenplay:
The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger - Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
A Serious Man - Joel and Ethan Coen
Up - Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy
I haven't watched The Hurt Locker yet, but I'm planning on getting to it soon. Inglourious Basterds was a very well written film, and I've heard nothing but good things about A Serious Man. Still, Up does manage to entertain, enthuse, and tug the heart strings effortlessly. Hard to say...
Best Documentary:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home
Don't know. I haven't seen any of these documentaries, but I notice that none of my favorite docs from last year are even mentioned near this list.
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There are more categories, but Avatar seems to have many (if not all) of the technical categories locked up, and I don't much care about the adapted screenplay (either Up in the Air or Precious), short subjects category, or even the Animated Picture (as I've said, I thought Coraline was very good but it's no Up, and I didn't see The Fantastic Mr. Fox). Over the last few years I've been increasingly off when it comes to predictions, but award season isn't really what I focus on. If there's an Oscar Party, I'll let you know.
In the meantime, I desperately need to convince myself to do homework and not watch Doctor Who: The End of Time or The House of the Devil.
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