The Oscar Pick ‘Em system is done and I’ll be updating it live on Oscar night. At 6:30pm Central, there will be a new stats page showing the Oscar winners as they are announced plus the Rollerfeet.com Oscar Pick ‘Em players by rank, and the voting page will change to showing your pick against the Oscar Winner. Until then here’s a summary of the things I’ve seen lately…including a new (obviously) non-Oscar nominee.
The Drafthouse — our favorite theater in the world…in case you haven’t noticed — was one of the lucky theaters to show all of the Oscar nominated shorts. The first thing that strikes me is there is only one film in each category that could be considered American and the animated one is considered Canadian while the live action is a Western based on a US short story shot in the UK. My belief is that Americans have stopped making movies simply for the sake of connecting to the audience at a personal level. Michael Bay, Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth are the icons of American cinema, feeding on the visceral appetites of their LCD audience. Upcoming American filmmakers want to make an action movie, or a zombie movie, or a whatever movie. No one here wants to just make a movie and it’s sad to me.
Here’s a breakdown of the Live Action Short nominees and why I think the do and don’t have a chance at winning an Oscar.
| Nominee | It Can… | …But It Won’t |
| “At Night” | This slow sad story about female patients in a cancer ward is heartwarming. | …but maybe a bit too slow and sad. |
| “Il Supplente (The Substitute)” | Very funny tale about a substitute teacher who defies expectations. | Predictable, and the kids don’t act as well as the lead. |
| “Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)” | A pair of misfit pickpockets end up with mute child in their care. | Not as interesting as it could have been. |
| “Tanghi Argentini” | A man on a mission gets a co-worker to teach him how to dance so he can hook-up with a girl he met on the internet. | A little bit of an amateur feel. |
| “The Tonto Woman” | The academy loves a good Western. | Unfortunately I doubt anyone in the UK can make one that feels authentic. |
Here’s a breakdown of the Animated Short nominees with the same treatment.
| Nominee | It Can… | …But It Won’t |
| “I Met the Walrus” | Based on a real recording of a teenager doing an interview with John Lennon in 1969, the Walrus would be proud of the abstract art and the Academy could follow the Grammys with a Beatles award. | It may be too abstract for Oscar voters. |
| “Madame Tutli-Putli” | Incredible stop-motion animation about a woman (with very realistic eyes) taking a trip on an other-worldly train. | The story is almost purposely difficult to understand (and everything but the eyes makes the characters look diseased.) |
| “My Love (Moya Lyubov)” | A beautiful Russian water-color animation about a privileged boy who loves a servant girl and the cougar floozy down the road. | Middle Ages set Russian love stories aren’t that exciting. |
| “Peter & the Wolf” | More incredible stop-motion telling a brief take on the classic tale of a compelling Peter taking on the wolf in the wild. | The story deviations may be hard to swallow, and two stop-motion short could steal each other’s votes. |
| “M’me les Pigeons vont au Paradis” | A clever CGI tale of a priest trying to sell an old man a heaven-traveling machine. | CGI is starting to lose it’s luster and the story may be too cutesy for the Oscars. |
This week’s escape from Oscar was the chick flick Definitely, Maybe, and I use the term “chick flick” because the power behind this film definitely lies with the women, even though the draw for women in the crowd maybe Ryan Reynolds. The media (and his publicist) want you to think of Reynolds as the new Tom Hanks, but he’s just not that good. Isla Fisher, on the other hand, is the next Meg Ryan — funny, talented and beautiful — and Abigail Breslin demonstrates that she’s good for more than one movie. Great film, especially for families that need to explain to their children about divorce.
