Commenting on the 2009 Oscar nominations...

Best Picture:

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

So the big thing this year is the 10 movies up for best picture. I think its a good thing just given that UP made best picture, hopefully this means that just because a movie is animated is won't be shunted to the Best Animated Film category alone. Of course this does allow in movies such as The Blind Side. Wade said that if this wins he will be boycotting the Oscars from now on. I'm just upset because we always see the films up for Best Picture, and I really didn't want to see this.

I don't have any big issues with the nominated films that I've seen. It's a nice mix of small film and crowdpleasers. Definitely pulling for The Hurt Locker, although as long as its not Avatar or The Blind Side, I'll be OK.

Best Director:

James Cameron - Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
Precious - Lee Daniels
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman

My vote would be for Kathryn Bigelow or Jason Reitman. I disagree with the nom for James Cameron, but it was expected.

Got to be Kathryn Bigelow here. I really hope its not James Cameron just so I don't have to listen to that blowhard give a speech.

Best Actor:

Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker

I haven't seen Invictus yet, but I really want Colin Firth to win this. I love him and he was amazing in A Single Man. The buzz is that Jeff Bridges is a lock, but I didn't think his performance was especially amazing.

I don't think Jeff Bridges and, from what I've heard, Morgan Freeman should be here. There are probably more deserving performances out there. Go Jeremy Renner.

Best Actress:

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
Helen Mirren - The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia

Not to be a snob, but Sandra Bullock? Seriously?!! Carey Mulligan was great in An Education, but we need to quite a few in this category. Congrats to Meryl Streep though on her 16th nomination. While I didn't especially love Julie & Julia, her performance was fantastic; I loved every minute she was on screen.

Here's hoping for a 2002 style split vote between Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock, with Carey Mulligan in the Adrien Brody role as surprise winner.

Best Supporting Actor:

Matt Damon - Invictus
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

We have a lot of work to do before March 7th...

This is probably Christoph Waltz's to lose. My main issue is who didn't get nominated, i.e. Anthony Mackie in The Hurt Locker or Stanley Tucci in Julie & Julia, not The Lovely Bones or Alfred Molina in An Education or, heck, even Alec Baldwin in It's Complicated. And yes, I am judging some of these films before I've seen them.

Best Supporting Actress:

Penelope Cruz - Nine
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious

I really disagree with both the nomination of Maggie Gyllenhaal (nothing special in her role/performance) and Anna Kendrick. Throughout Up in the Air, I though Anna Kendrick was the weakest player and her performance pulled me out of the film repeatedly.

Not much to say about this one, other than Vera Farmiga was probably my favorite here. It would've been really awesome to see either Melanie Laurent or Diane Kruger from Inglourious Basterds here, but what are you goin' to do?

Yay for Oscars!! Let hope those who deserve it win...

Waltz with Bashir

Waltz with Bashir is an Oscar-nominated animated film from Israel dealing with one man's recollection of the Israeli Army's involvement in the first Lebanon war of the early 1980s. Ari Folman discovers that he has no distinct memories of his involvement in that battle, so he seeks out old friends and comrades to fill in the blanks. A surreal portrait of war, youth, and the Middle East emerges.

This is the second year in a row that Kinsey and I have seen an animated film that involves strife in the Middle East. Last year, it was Persepolis, which deals with a young girl's youth during the Iranian Revolution. There aren't really many similarities between these two films, especially in tone. Persepolis is almost playful at times, while Waltz with Bashir takes a much darker approach.

The one item that seems to come up a lot with this film is whether or not the animation separates the viewer too much from the horrific events taking on screen. Can a war film have an impact on its viewers if it's animated? My answer would be yes and no. There are times when the animation in Waltz with Bashir is very obvious and makes you feel disconnected from what's happening. But its a credit to the filmmaker that this isn't always the case, especially at the end of the film. Not to spoil anything, but the ending does drive you back into reality and makes you reconsider all those animated images that you've seen.

Being a visual person, I was very fascinated by the animation style of this film, especially the separate treatments for character and scene. The characters are animated in a very stylized manner, high contrast with no grayscale shading, very 2D, almost in a comic book fashion. The scenes, meanwhile, are very highly rendered, and if it wasn't for some color choices, could be approaching photo-realism. This contrast in techniques tends to both bring the viewer into the scene yet keep them separate from the characters.

Kinsey and I both appreciated this movie, especially the way that it brought to light certain historical atrocities that we were not aware of. However, I don't think that either of us would ever want to see Waltz with Bashir again. The subject matter is just too depressing.

Kinsey: 4 stars

Wade: 4 stars