Thoughts on the Oscar nominations

Avatar: For those of us who have grown increasingly appalled at the idea of this movie winning Best Picture -- pick your excuse: horrible dialogue, 2-D character development that is subordinate to the 3-D action, the truly discomforting idea that these big blue people are all fine and one with nature, but a white guy pretending to be one of them becomes their chosen one, or whatever he was -- there is some good news. Avatar did not get a nomination for its screenplay, which happens to very few Best Picture winners. The bad news, however, is that the last time it did happen was when Titanic won. The lack of enthusiasm from the major guilds for this movie does not bode well for its chances, particularly since the largest voting group -- actors, who make up more than 20 percent of the Academy -- didn't nominate it for a SAG award and might actually have a vested interest in it not winning Best Picture. Critics and film journalists (at least at those EW-level criticism) keep talking about how the movie could Hollywood's embrace of (or lack thereof) 3-D, but not much has been said about how buying in to James Cameron's technology changes acting itself. His stated goal is to create a motion-capture technology that also captures emotion -- but as Up proves, animation can capture emotion, too. While it can bring a dimension to the motion-capture performance that is missing in movies such as Polar Express, the "performance" is still distant, almost a performance of a performance. Whether it's the technology or the production, the end result is the same: Avatar doesn't really a performance people can connect with. On the other hand, for voters who likely will be seeing The Hurt Locker either again or for the first time in the next month, chances are Jeremy Renner's befuddlement at the aisle of multicolored cereal boxes is likely to resonate far more significantly than Cameron's multicolored world.

The Blind Side: This movie winning Best Picture would be like Sarah Palin winning the presidency -- time to just give up and leave the country. But just moving to Canada wouldn't be far enough to escape the knockoffs this movie would inspire. No, this would require Mongolia or Tuvalu, somewhere remote and third-worldy, the kind of place where the only movies you can see are pirated DVDs. I have nothing more against this movie than I do against, say, Transformers or Alvin and the Chipmunks. I have no interest in seeing any of them, and as long as I don't have to consider them as actual, you know, films, I'm fine because I get Hollywood isn't making the movies for me. The problem is that when movies like this start getting taking seriously as Best Picture material, it means there will be more of them, semi-serious, safe, white-people-as-savior movies, the sort of movies that let Hollywood pat itself on the back and think it's enlightened when it's actually missing the whole point. For every The Blind Side that gets made, an Up in the Air dies.

District 9: Next up on the Netflix list, I swear.

An Education: The anti-Blind Side. So, the movies really have nothing to do with each other, it's just nice see an actress whose style of Acting is not to emote more and put on southern accent. The ending was a bit trite, but it was based on a memoir, so what are you going to do? But what a thrill to see a movie that features a talented young actress playing a complex young girl who does things because she wants to do things, not because it's convenient for the plot or because it's what some 35-year-old male screenwriter thinks 18-year-old girls actually do. (OK, so this was still written by Nick Hornby, but come on, it's Nick Hornby.)

The Hurt Locker: Finally saw it on DVD it over the weekend. Nice to see a war movie that's about the war not an external, removed commentary of the war. It's more action movie than anything, and whatever it has to say about our involvement in Iraq, it is secondary and comes organically from the characters actions rather than the other way around. Of the movies considered real contenders for Best Picture, it's probably the best movie. One problem: I finally saw it on DVD over the weekend and saw no real urgency to see it before then, hardly even knew it existed until it starting winning critics awards. The movie has grossed less than $17 million and was released months ago. On one hand, that could help; many Academy voters probably haven't seen it or haven't seen it recently enough to really remember it, so they will watch their screeners and have it fresh on their mind when they vote. On the other hand, it has grossed less than $17 million and the Academy loves to honor money as much as, if not more than, film. When was the last time a Best Picture winner was not also at least a moderate box office success? All the way back to The Last Emperor, which had by far its best box office weeks after winning Best Picture. But at least movie was released in awards season.

Inglourious Basterds: Should it win Best Picture? Who knows, let's just all be grateful that Quentin Tarantino is out there making movies that few others would dare to make and is making them for more or less a mainstream audience. Hollywood loves to honor World War II and Holocaust movies, but as far as I can tell this is the first Jewish-revenge fantasy.

Precious: Haven't seen it yet so I have no opinion about it. Jim Emerson, whose taste I don't always agree with but whose opinion I always respect, has some interesting thoughts on his Scanners blog about finally watching the movie after resisting it.

A Serious Man: Whew. Thought Coen brothers would be overlooked for one of their better movies.

Up: With 10 movies up for Best Picture, it would have been a crime if Pixar didn't come away with its first Best Picture nomination. It might not be Pixar's best -- Wall-E, no contest -- but it's another in a lengthening line of somewhat risky animated movies. For anyone concerned Pixar would become even more Disneyfied once it became part of Disney (I was certainly among that group), a quick recap of their past three movies: Ratatouille, an exploration of the nature of art and artists featuring a rat in a kitchen handling food; Wall-E, a robot love story with sparse dialogue consisting almost entirely of the main characters' names being spoken with varying inflection; and Up, a movie whose first 10 minutes are its saddest and whose main character would be merely comic relief in a movie from DreamWorks (which almost certainly would focus the movie on the dogs and have one of them voiced by Ben Stiller).

Up in the Air: This is my movie, the one each year I connect with mostly deeply and that I root for even when I know it can't win. I like this movie the way I like Sideways, which has a lot to do with when and where I was in life when I first saw it. Up in the Air resonates with me -- as it does with many people -- because I lost my job and it questions -- as I am questioning -- what in life we really value. If a job or a company is ultimately going to screw us or let us down, why do we devote so much loyalty to one or the other. Up in the Air, like Sideways, works for me, too, because the characters who resist personal connections throughout the stories are ultimately proven somewhat wise in their introversion. Jerry Maguire, a fine movie by one of my favorite filmmakers and another movie about a man lost in the middle or past the middle of his life, focuses on someone who seeks another person to be whole. Sideways and Up in the Air are about people who need to be whole to be with another person, a distinction few screenwriters possess the wisdom and humor to understand, let alone write well.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart is a lock and far overdue for recognition.

Best Actress: With its history of sometimes awarding little-known actresses in small, little-seen movies -- Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose and, to a slightly lesser extent, Helen Mirren in The Queen -- it's a shame to see the Academy likely to fall back on one of its darker habits: giving this award to a mainstream Hollywood actress for her most obvious Oscar turn.

Supporting roles: These awards, like the lead roles, are pretty much foregone conclusions at this point, but it was nice see Maggie Gyllenhaal get noticed behind Jeff Bridges.

Best Director: The nominations were no surprise and fall right in line with the Directors Guild nominations. Kathryn Bigelow seems like a safe bet for he Oscar after winning the DGA, but it doesn't mean The Hurt Locker is going to win Best Picture. With no clear favorite and 10 nominees for the top movie, this is starting to look like a year when director and picture awards split.