Quick Oscar Picks – Live from San Antonio :)

Well, Mom and I have our spread all laid out, the newly inaugurated traveling trophy is overlooking it all, and we just filled out our ballots.. so I’m posting my choices for posterity.

We’ve gone to a more “weighted” points system this year, so that random choices on Live Short Film or Sound Editing don’t sway the results overmuch — Mom’s friend Sue had to bow out this year so it’s just the two of us. We’ve resolved to make this a bigger thing next year, but with my travel schedule and Mom being sick all this week, we’re happy that we got the snacks together.

Been watching the red carpet some this afternoon, so far Jennifer Lopez has the best dress – Sandra Bullocks looks very Oscar-worthy, too!

Ok, the picks, then I have to run back to the living room:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique
Best Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker
Best Adapted Screenplay: Precious

That’s not my whole ballot, but those are our highest weighted categories

Hope you’re watching and enjoying the show! Good Luck Kathryn Bigelow!

Two-Movie Saturday

I checked two off my list this weekend, and they were both as good as advertised. One now, and one later, after the Super Bowl!

The Hurt Locker is an intense film. Set in Iraq in the middle of the war, it follows a 3-man team of bomb squad technicians. After a mission that results in the death of their leader,  the team is taken over by Sergeant Will James (Jeremy Renner), and his seeming recklessness and disregard for protocol and procedure shocks Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldrige (Brian Geraghty).

Kathryn Bigelow delivers a suspenseful look at this little-seen part of the war in Iraq, where Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are responsible for many more casualties than combat. The opening quote: “The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug,” is from a book by journalist Chris Hedges called War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. Mark Boal (In The Valley of Elah) gives us a script, and a lead character, that exemplifies that quote. Renner’s Sgt. James at first comes off as cocky, a swaggering cowboy that only cares about the rush. He both bewilders and awes his teammates, who aren’t sure if they can make it through their final 38 days in rotation with this crazy man at the helm.

Renner is captivating as Will James. Bigelow and Boal never explicitly state why James is so driven to defuse bombs. You understand, though, that it’s just what he is good at, what he thinks he is on the earth to do. He isn’t interested in just making it through his rotation and going safely home to family, he is a man obsessed with understanding explosives and the people who build them. People who are often watching him as he defuses their bombs, a fact the movie makes clear at almost every point. Never has an insurgent populace been shown more vividly in film.

The movie is probably the best one of the 2009 batch. It tells an honest story without taking a political stance. It’s not about whether the war is right or wrong — plenty of other movies have tackled that question — it is about the motivations of the men who fight, about what they do every day in order to get up and face another day in the desert. Bigelow has earned whatever honors the Academy bestows upon her next month.

Oscar Noms Announced

While I was mostly incoherently asleep for the nominations this morning (Tuesday is my flex day, and I didn’t HAVE to wake up, and I’m averse to 7:30am even on my best days), I have since had a chance to digest and I’ve got to say, I’m actually pretty pleased. Things to note:

In a Break From Oscarmania, We Bring You…

Click to visit the film’s website

… a review of a movie you probably have never heard of, unless, like Filmista, you are a fan of the TV show Greek (Monday night, 10 pm/9 central, ABC Family). Specifically, you would probably need to be a somewhat-rabid fan of one of the stars of said show, Scott Michael Foster.

The movie is Teenage Dirtbag, and I downloaded it from iTunes recently. It deserves a little bit of love

20 Movies, Part The Rest (Delayed)

This is admittedly a less effective list when I publish it the day of the Oscar nominations, but oh well, there it is. I’ve had it done for weeks, just something about actually logging in to post it has eluded me.

In the interest of moving right along to discussing the nominations, I’ll spare you the review-babble and just give you the list.

11) Young Victoria

12) A Single Man

13) Nine

14) (500) Days of Summer

15) Avatar

16) It’s Complicated

17) Julie & Julia

18 ) The Blind Side

19) The Lovely Bones

20) The Road

21) Where the Wild Things Are

Moving on!