2010 Oscar Picks

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

While I didn't see "Crazy Heart" "A Single Man" or "Invictus" it isn't hard to see the writing on the wall with this one. Everyone is raving about Jeff Bridges performance in Crazy Heart, and from what I've seen they should be. Though personally I loved Clooney in "Up In the Air."

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

I'm in a strange position here. I haven't seen any of the competition but I cannot in a million years imagine any of the other performances matching the greatness that Christoph Waltz achieved. I would gladly throw any and all awards at him I could at this point. My deepest regret is that he isn't up for "Best Actor"

Best Actress

Carey Mulligan, An Education

I decided to be a little different here. I kind of think that the Academy is going to really like Sandra Bullock, but honesty she has done much better in the past. And I have no read on the performances from "Precious" since I missed it. Carey Mulligan on the other hand impressed me quite a bit. ..Plus as a Doctor Who fan it would be nice to see Sally Sparrow get some gold.

Best Supporting Actress

Mo’Nique, Precious

Another category where I've only seen one movie, and though I loved "Up in the Air" to pieces, it is hard to deny the attention that is being heaped on Mo'Nique right now. Were I choosing from "Up in the Air" though I would have picked Anna Kendrick.

Best Picture

A Serious Man

The big one. 10 choices, only 8 or 9 of them deserving. My fear is that "Avatar" is going to steal this one and piss all over what little credibility that gold statue has left. Barring that though there is a good race here. "The Hurt Locker" was my choice up until the e-mail debacle, but that shook me. My personal choice would be "Inglourious Basterds" followed closely by "Up In the Air" but I am having a tough time envisioning them going over "A Serious Man" (which I also very much enjoyed).

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

This was another tough one. I gave the nod to Bigelow because she did a fantastic job with "The Hurt Locker." I would love to say that Quentin was going to take this, but again I just can't see that happening. And again I fear that James Cameron is going to steal this one, which would be an absolute travesty, and a farce.

Best Animated Film

Up

Ok, full disclosure. "Up" is the only one I saw. But I was so surprised at how excellent it was I can't help but feel it is a real contender. I don't think I've talked to anyone who has seen it who didn't like it. ...SQUIRREL!

Art Direction

Avatar

Cinematography

Inglourious Basterds

This isn't really an area where I am an excellent judge (as opposed to my other wild guesses?) and again "Avatar" seems like a natural win here, but I really liked the look and feel of "Inglourious" so I'm kind of. At least I didn't have to wear special glasses to get sucked into the world of the "Basterds"

Film Editing

Inglourious Basterds

I was close to going with "District 9" because it was the 'unique' one out with the handheld look, but again my gut just pushes me to "Inglourious Basterds."

Makeup

Star Trek

I just wanted to say "Star Trek" I have no honest idea on this one.

Best Original Score

Up

I've seen "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," and "Up." This isn't a visual category so "Avatar" flies right out the window, and while "The Hurt Locker" may have an excellent score I don't remember it so much. "Up" to me really seemed to use the score in a memorable way.

Best Animated Short

French Roast

This one for me was very very close between "The Lady and the Reaper" and "French Roast" ultimately I went with "Roast" because "Reaper" felt like it was a minute or two too long for what it was. As a side note, I really loved "A Matter of Loaf and Death," but it wasn't anything new, it was just more awesome Wallace and Gromit action.

Sound Editing

The Hurt Locker

Sound Mixing

Star Trek

Best Visual Effects

Avatar

Just a quick note on this one. Even I wouldn't deny "Avatar" this award.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Up In The Air

Best Original Screenplay

Inglourious Basterds

Its been too long, but I have an excuse! (yeah thats the ticket) AKA my epic FGFC Fail

So right now you should be reading my thoughts on this months FGFC pick "L'Anticristo" aka "The Antichrist" aka "The Tempter." Well you should be reading that except Netflix had other ideas and didn't seem to have enough supply to meet demand so I couldn't get it from them, then I lucked out and was able to rent it locally, or I would have lucked out if the DVD had been playable. So a full review was just out of reach.

That meant plan B, make glib remarks and/or smartass comments about the trailer. Well you aren't seeing that right now because last week my trusty laptop decided it was time to part ways with its hard drive. That was bad, but not quite as bad as yesterday morning when I woke up to find my desktop giving me the stinkeye and refusing to do a thing. Can you believe it, cataclysmic failure on both of my computers in short order. I'm only able to type this up thank to a Linux Live CD on my hard drive free laptop... I can only blame a failure this complete on one thing....This must be the work of the fucking "Phantom Menace"...Curses!

Also lost (and I'm praying I can recover this) is the first leg of my project, a list. One favorite movie for every year I have been alive. It is a huge pain to go through IMDB by year choosing a list of movies to narrow down trust me. Damn you "Phantom Menace" damn you to hell!

So even though I can't watch youtube videos myself at the moment that doesn't mean I can't link them, so here you watch and you comment. Me, I'll be out searching for a new laptop....



Oh also XBox 360 users, I had a chance to get the NXE a day early. So I can tell you that it is a new experience, it is pretty. The UI isn't my cup of tea honestly, and the avatar thing is a little too Wii-like for my taste. But the menu on the XBox button lets you skip the new UI if you want so that is good, but where the update really shines for me is the Netflix streaming. It was completely simple to set up, the interface there works like a dream, and I actually ended up getting higher quality video on my XBox than I did on my computer. Fun could be had with the feature to sync up a Netflix streaming movie and watch with friends.

Now get off my lawn!