Handicapping the Best Picture Nominees

The Oscars® are just around the corner so I figured I’d give everyone my 2 cents about the movies nominated for Best Picture. The Best Picture category expanded to 10 nominations this year to give more exposure to the year’s best films (i.e. sell more movie tickets and force people like me to see The Blind Side). My hope is that over the long haul it will give exposure to smaller movies that previously got screwed by the Academy (Spike Jonze’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes to mind as well as this year’s Where The Wild Things Are), and not lame cliché-filled blockbusters (I’m talking about Avatar and The Blind Side), but only time will tell.

Best Picture – my ranking from best to worst:

1. Inglourious Basterds – by far the most enjoyable and entertaining movie I saw all year.

2. The Hurt Locker – great movie and will most likely win Best Picture.

3. An Education – a solid performance from newcomer Carey Mulligan.

4. Up In The Air – Jason Reitman does it again.

5. Up – fun.

6. Precious – gritty.

7. A Serious Man – amusing and weird in that Coen Brothers way.

8. District 9 – Sharlto Copley is great as the bumbling Wikus.

9. Avatar – groundbreaking special effects but not Best Picture worthy.

10. The Blind Side – Best Picture? Really?

I will make my picks for the other major categories next weekend before the Oscars.

Editor’s note – this is Ragnar Danneskjöld’s first contribution and when he is not busy hijacking shipments on the high seas to Peoples’ States the world over, he enjoys reviewing films of all genres. We hope his sloop remains capable of outrunning the Navy so more contributions will follow.