Oscar madness

With the big awards show set for Sunday night, I guess I might as well chime in on the Oscars.

I wrote last month about The Blind Side, a Best Picture nominee I simply can't believe anyone would seriously consider Oscar-caliber material. But some are saying we might expect a surprise winner this year because of the new voting formula in the Best Picture category.

This WSJ article sums up my thoughts about the prospect of the new system of voting possibly resulting in an unthinkable Oscar upset:

Which wrist to slit first if "The Blind Side" wins?

Of the two favorites, Avatar and The Hurt Locker, I prefer the latter. But my favorite films of the year were quite different from the nominees. Oscar candidates that I did NOT include in my top 10 are Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, Precious and Up. Of those, the only one I might consider adding to my list is District 9, excellent on a second viewing on Blu-ray the other night.

As for Up, I agree with this critic that the best part of that animated feature is the amazing montage near the start of the movie. It makes you laugh, cry, breaks your heart... all in just over 4 minutes. Too bad the rest of the film is so pedestrian. Here is that brilliant, heartbreaking sequence. The score by Michael Giacchino should win him an Oscar Sunday night. I'll be watching.

Oscar voting algebra

Very interesting analysis piece in the New Yorker about the Oscar nominations.

In addition to expanding the best picture nominees from five to ten this year, there's been a big change in the way votes are cast for the top award. In the past, members voted for their favorite picture, and the nominee with the most votes won. Not so starting this year. Who knew you would need a degree in higher mathematics to understand the rules:

Members—there are around fifty-eight hundred of them—are being asked to rank their choices from one to ten. In the unlikely event that a picture gets an outright majority of first-choice votes, the counting’s over. If not, the last-place finisher is dropped and its voters’ second choices are distributed among the movies still in the running. If there’s still no majority, the second-to-last-place finisher gets eliminated, and its voters’ second (or third) choices are counted. And so on, until one of the nominees goes over fifty per cent.

The story also says the two frontrunners are Avatar and Hurt Locker, and it makes the case for why the Hurt Locker might actually win. Bottom line: most everyone likes it and a vote for this little war drama is a vote for the first woman (Kathryn Bigelow) to direct a best picture winner.

Where's Avatar?

By the way, Avatar didn't make my list of the year's best (see below), but that doesn't mean it wasn't a lot of fun.

Yes, it has a preachy political message and James Cameron brings his usual ham-handedness to the script, but Avatar does have some very cool CGI effects and the most immersive, least gimmicky 3D process ever. In fact, I'd recommend any movie fan see this film in IMAX 3D before it disappears from the big screen. Watching at home, even on the best HD TV, simply can't equal the experience.

Oh, and Zoe Saldana is the real discovery among the cast of this film... the lovely young actress was also seen in the 2009 feature Star Trek as Uhura.