5 Best Picture Nominees in 5 minutes

For the past few years, I've had a slightly OCD habit of trying to see all the Oscar nominees for Best Picture before the actual Oscars. Until this year, it worked out perfectly - 5 films, 5 weeks to potentially go see them after the nominations were announced and before the ceremony.

So this year really f'ed with my perfectly organized schedule. Ten nominees, still five weeks, whatifIhavetogoseetwomoviesinoneweekendohmahGAH... you get the picture. I have no idea why I'm against going to movies on weeknights - except for most of the Oscar nominees, I end up going by myself because nobody will go with me and that's just slightly less pathetic on a Saturday afternoon than a Thursday night.  I attempted to go to some in advance this year, and it paid off although I guessed wrong on a couple - turns out I've seen five of the ten. Which gives me the usual amount of time to attempt to see the rest.

Anyhoo, here are my brief reviews of the five I've already seen:

District 9 - I'll give it a 6.5 out of 10. I went into it with big expectations, which it didn't quite live up to. The South African accents were interesting, the plot was potentially interesting, but like so many sci-fi type films it started well and then just sort of fizzled into one long chase/shooting scene. I predicted the ending long before we got there, which is always irritating.

Up - 7 out of 10.  It was good, but didn't totally blow me away as an animated film the way Toy Story did the first time I saw it.  I saw this on DVD in a very distracting room full of people which might not have helped. Points for having Captain Von Trapp himself as one of the voices. Loved the Cone of Shame.

Precious - 9 out of 10.  Brilliant and brutal at the same time. I'm pretty sure all the little old biddies who went down to that nice independent theater to get some culture on a Saturday afternoon and ended up seeing this film with us did not expect what they got.  It's not one of those films you'll watch over and over again, but I guarantee you'll never forget it. Who knew Mo'nique could act like that? Not to mention Best Actress nominee Gabourey Sidibe - wow. And nice to figure out halfway through the film that the cute hospital orderly was Lenny Kravitz .


The Hurt Locker - 7.5 out of 10.  A war movie which actually held my interest, which gets it points right off the bat. Ok,  it wasn't the normal endless shoot-em-up scenes of a regular war movie (although there was some of that), so that might have helped - it also didn't have the blood-and-guts shock factor of a Platoon or Saving Private Ryan. Yay.  However I have to say that I wasn't particularly emotionally invested in the characters. They were interesting enough, but I didn't like or dislike any of them enough to make me particularly care if they got blown up or not.

Up in the Air - 8 out of 10 - Interesting, witty, smug, self satisfied and very slightly annoying, much like George Clooney himself. Anna Kendrick (the only actress who actually acted in New Moon) stole the show for sure. I also figured out several parts of this before they were actually revealed - I hate it when I can see exactly where a story is going.

So far I'd say Precious is in the lead. I think of a Best Picture nominee as something I've never seen before - Slumdog Millionare fit the bill last year for sure. Out of all of those, Precious is the most original and best told story.  5 more to go...