The Oscars

Every year I tell myself that I'm going to watch all the movies nominated for Best Picture, mostly because then I can complain more effectively. Not that I think most of the Best Picture winners aren't deserving, but I rarely feel they are most deserving. This year I managed to watch 2.5 of the movies nominated for Best Picture and I don't even see myself being able to finish The Reader before tomorrow night. Despite that, I am going to try to make a few observations.

Best Actor
The only two performances I have seen from these nominees are Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button was nothing special in my mind. I really enjoyed the movie, but his performance wasn't especially moving or great in my mind. I though Sean Penn did a good job as Milk and would rather see him win it than Pitt, but I hope it goes to someone else.

Best Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger has this won hands down. It's not even a contest.

Best Actress
I've only seen half a role in this one, but so far Kate Winslet did a very good job with the character. Her acting was subtle and even stoic, but very effective. And there were a lot of sex scenes, that's always a plus. Couple all that with the fact that she has six nominations and zero wins, I think this one goes to her.

Best Supporting Actress
Taraji P. Henson was good in Benjamin Button, but I'm not sure it was Oscar worthy, then again i haven't seen any of the other nominees, so who knows.

Best Director
Honestly, I have no idea. Everyone says Danny Boyle is going to run away with this thing, and if what I've heard about Slumdog Millionaire is true, he should. Making that great of a movie with untrained actors? That is a feat.

Best Picture
The category I tried so hard to be able to actually give an educated opinion on. Unfortunately I failed. Is saying Dark Knight or Wall-E cheating? I think both of those were better pictures than Benjamin Button, Milk or half of The Reader. If I had to pick between Button and Milk, I would go with milk. While I enjoyed Benjamin Button more, I didn't find anyhting particularly moving or important about it, which I think is an important consideration for best picture. Milk was a great movie and was very touching. But, from what I've read Slumdog Millionaire has this category and I've heard it's great.

While I'm disappointed that Dark Knight didn't get nominated for Best Picture, I'm even more disappointed that Wall-E did not. While I find it hard to fathom an animated movie ever winning, I think that it deserved a nomination at least. It was an amazing movie and deserves more than to simply win Best Animated Feature.

Well... there you have it. My awful opinions. I highly doubt I will be watching tomorrow night, but I'm sure I'll be bugging my girlfriend about who won what throughout.

If you want some better opinions on the Oscars, go here:
Careful with that Blog, Eugene
Nate Silver