Oscar Time Again

J and I are pretty big film buffs. We see almost a movie every week or two most of the time. For the past three or four years, we've been trying to see all of the films that get major Oscar nominations before the awards, and typically, it seems like we've got a ton still to see once the nominations come out. As an aside, I know there are probably people out there that are rolling their eyes about the oscars... yes, I know that they are over commercialized, and that there are other good films out there. Personally, I see the commercial aspect of film making one of the artistic challenges that needs to be overcome. It's like architecture; there is an artist in there, but he has to wait for someone to foot the bill, and his work is always molded by commercial concerns. It's just part of the nature of the art.

Anyway, usually we've got a lot to see, but this year we did really well in advance. I think it helps that there were a lot of really good movies this year, while last year kinda sucked a little. The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Notes on a Scandal, Pan's Labyrinth, Babel, Children of Men, Last King of Scotland and Blood Diamond were all really good. oh yeah, and Borat...

My personal favorites were Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth and Babel (all of which were Latino directors by the way). But really anyone of those ones I just named could probably be Best Picture in a less competitive year.

Letters From Iwo Jima was a little disappointing. I think I built it up too much. And Streep is always a good actress, but I didn't really feel that there was anything at all Oscar worthy about Devil Wears Prada. I would have liked to have seen the little girl from Pan's Labyrinth (Ivana Baquero) on that list.

We still need to see Volver, Little Children and the Queen for sure. I'd also like to see more of the foreign ones (especially the German one and the Canadian/Indian one) and the documentaries (although I don't think I can watch Jesus Camp, to close to home).