The Oscars Cometh

Oscar Style... more to it than crab meat, asparagus, & béarnaise. Announced in the wee hours of this morning, acting/directing/marketing hopefuls woke up to find themselves judged (don't we all). As is the annual tradition of evaluating the cinematic goods offered up to the masses, the Academy Awards look to be very interesting this year.

I won't bore you with reiterating the nominations (click here to see them all). I will, of course, give you my opinion. Brace yourselves...

Avatar and The Hurt Locker are neck in neck with a total of 9 nominations each. This should be interesting for the once married James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow come March 7th despite the fact they've mentioned they're each other's "cheerleaders." Gag me like a bulimic.

The brutal Precious and history-reinvensioning Inglourious Basterds follow closely with 8 nominations each, followed by the WASPy Up In The Air and treacly Up with 6 and 5 nominations each, respectively. Up managed to snag nods in both the Best Picture and Best Animated Feature categories (the first for any film). Additionally, Up is the second animated feature to receive a nomination in the Best Picture category, the former being Disney's own Beauty & the Beast (no doubt aided by the 10 film spread this year in lieu of the traditional 5).

While I did love Up, I feel it is getting a little too much attention whereas other great animated films (my condolences, Ponyo) were completely snubbed. Gotta love those xenophobic Academy voters with a hard on for ventures of the geriatric kind.

Avatar's wave of superstardom should crest soon as ticket sales trickle off since, by now, everyone on the planet has seen the film (at least once anyways). Again, love me some Avatar, but let's not get too enthralled with special effects - despite their groundbreaking and genre-changing implications - that we lose the art of storytelling.

While the populist in me wants Avatar to take home the little gold man come early March, the elitist in me wants either The Hurt Locker or Inglourious Basterds to out-pace the black hole of adulation that is Pandora.