Sweet Land on DVD today: Check it out

I posted earlier about how I thought Ali Selim's Sweet Land was last year's best film not to be nominated for an Oscar.

The independently produced and distributed film scored a DVD distribution deal with Fox, and the DVD hits stores today.

The film, starring Elizabeth Reaser (left) and Tim Guinee, was met with near-universal critical acclaim and won Selim the Best First Feature award at the Independent Spirit Awards. On the other hand, a reviewer in this week's Entertainment Weekly gives the DVD a C-plus, calling it "a treacly story" (and, in the same issue, Red Dawn gets a B).

Check out Sweet Land on DVD and decide for yourself.

Knocked Up: A bundle of joy

During the past decade, writer-director Judd Apatow has assembled a sort of repertory company of his own actors, who reappear in projects such as the TV shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared and the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Now, Seth Rogen, who played wise-cracking supporting players in Freaks and Virgin, steps into the lead role in Apatow's latest film, Knocked Up -- which is, by the way, the funniest movie I've seen in a long time.

Rogen plays Ben, a guy in his early 20s living with his buddies whose main interests are smoking a lot of weed and launching a Web site about movie nude scenes. At a club, he meets Alison (Katherine Heigl of Grey's Anatomy), and despite his social haplessness beyond his circle of stoner dudes, they end up in a one-night stand and, wouldn't you know it, a few weeks later the stick turns pink. Unlike in a lot of films, in Knocked Up everyone pretty much Does the Right Thing -- Alison tells Ben about the baby and lets him be a part of the pregnancy; Ben agrees ("I'm on board") and stays by Alison side, at least most of the time. In other words, Ben got lucky -- but so did Alison in that Ben actually turns out to be a decent guy.

Along the way, there are laughs -- a lot of them. Many of the jokes are of the gross-out variety, and and a lot of the resulting laughs are the I-can't-believe-I'm-laughing-at-this kind. But the film and its characters are so irresistibly likable that you can't help yourself. They may be childish, but their hearts are in the right place. A lot of the best lines belong to the supporting cast -- Jason Segel, Martin Starr, Jay Baruchel and Jonah Hill as Ben's friends; Leslie Mann (Apatow's wife, who, one suspects, had a lot to do with this being more than just a guy movie) as Alison's sister, Debbie; and the pitch-perfect Paul Rudd as Debbie's husband, Pete. Apatow alumni James Franco (Freaks) and Steve Carell (Virgin) have cameos as themselves.

If the film has a weakness, it's Alison, although this is no fault of Heigl's. Alison is essentially the film's straight man, and we never really gain much insight into why she makes the choices she does. And if she has any friends other than her sister, we never meet them.

But this is a comedy, after all, and as a comedy it's a smashing success. Comedies don't do so well at the Oscars, but last year Little Miss Sunshine snagged best original screenplay. Knocked Up -- written as well as directed by Apatow -- just might crash the party this year.

Waitress: A colorful slice of life

For a few months after the Oscars, there just wasn't much out there at the ol' cineplex. That changed when Waitress came along. Initially released just in New York and L.A., it got good buzz and quickly got a national release later in May. It's got a great cast: Keri Russell, who we liked in the late '90s TV series "Felicity"; Nathan Fillion ("Firefly"); Jeremy Sisto ("Six Feet Under"); and Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm").

The premise isn't a shockingly original one. Russell plays Jenna, a waitress at a Southern diner married to an abusive nightmare of a husband (Sisto). She finds out she's pregnant -- news that she receives with horror because it means she's tied to her husband forever. In desperation, she launches into an affair with the town's hunky OB/GYN, Dr. Pomatter (Fillion, whose wide-eyed earnestness successfully defuses the inherent ick factor here).

What elevates the film beyond Lifetime chick-flick status are the sharp script and stylized (I'm trying not to say "quirky") direction of Adrienne Shelly, who also appears in the film as one of Jenna's fellow waitresses. Jenna's specialty is pies, and each pie she makes (which we see in sped-up video as if through Jenna's imagination) sheds light on her emotional state (I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie). There's also an irresistible sequence where Russell walks through her day in a starry-eyed, lovestruck reverie, set to the tune of "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake. It's a great scene, and one that makes subversive use of Russell's cutie-pie image. Andy Griffith also appears in a small but important role.

The end of the film has some added emotional resonance because of the knowledge that Shelly, in real life, was murdered in New York City shortly after completing the film. It leaves you wondering what might have been, but it also leaves you grateful that we have this heartfelt diamond in the rough to remember her by.

Another 9 (or 10) years, another 100 movies

The American Film Institute has released its new, updated list of the best 100 movies, nine years after releasing its original list in 1998 (although it's the "10th anniversary" list -- no one ever said moviemakers were good at math). No surprise that Citizen Kane is still No. 1 -- but there are a few eyebrow-raising big moves: Raging Bull up from 24 to 4, Vertigo up from 61 to 9, The Searchers up from 96 to 12.

Four newer films made the cut: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at 50 (big thumbs up), Saving Private Ryan at 71 (thumbs up again); Titanic at 83 (ehhhh) and The Sixth Sense at 89 (huh?).

Another new addition is one of my favorites and a major oversight the first time around, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (96).

Among the dropouts: Doctor Zhivago, Dances With Wolves and The Jazz Singer. I love Dances With Wolves, but I fear Costner's stock is really down these days.

On the other hand, Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull) is really reaping the goodwill associated with his Lifetime Achievement Award oops I mean Best Picture Oscar earlier this year. Hollywood just loves Marty right now.

As you can tell I'm a sucker for lists like this, although AFI has kind of turned these into kind of a cheap cottage industry. Let's see: "100 Years, 100 Stars," "100 Years, 100 Laughs," "100 Years, 100 Film Scores" -- it was either start over or they'd be down to "100 Years, 100 Fart Jokes."

UPDATE: Roger Ebert asks: "What? No Fargo?" It was No. 84; now it's off the list. Grrrr.

Jack Valenti: 1921-2007

We interrupt our post-Oscar hibernation to note the death at age 85 of Jack Valenti, for 38 years (1966-2004) the president of the Motion Picture Association of America. He was a controversial figure, and not everyone agreed with his stands on the ratings system and antipiracy technology, but there's no arguing that he was an effective spokesperson for the industry.

The morning after

Here's what critics had to say about last night's Oscarcast:

Newsweek: An "unusually warm and fuzzy Oscarcast."

New York Times: "For all the red carpet gowns and glitter, inside the Kodak Theater the evening was molded to DeGeneres’ low-key comic style."

Washington Post: The show was "a bore and a horror," but DeGeneres was "crisp and unpretentious."

Philadelphia Inquirer: "The pacing was off, and the intentional padding seemed egregious. It's not what people tune in to watch."

San Francisco Chronicle: "It was long. It was flat. And it was bloated. Worst of all, it was boring."

Chicago Tribune: "DeGeneres’ light approach made what can be a long night more enjoyable."

Roger Ebert: "The most elegant and somehow gentle Oscarcast I can remember."

Los Angeles Times: "Gospel singers, interpretive dance troupes, a sound effects choir . . . after being glued to the tube for nearly four hours, it felt more like we'd just watched a PBS pledge drive, not the 79th annual Oscar ceremony."

The scorecard

No dominant film this year -- but then we knew that going in. This year's multiple Oscar winners:

The Departed: 4
Pan's Labyrinth: 3
Little Miss Sunshine: 2
Dreamgirls: 2
An Inconvenient Truth: 2

On my Oscar ballot, I got 15 correct out of the 24 awards. I was 8 for 8 in the big awards, but there were too many upsets in the smaller categories. I'll get 'em next year!

Wrap-up: Winners and losers

The big winners at the Academy Awards:

The Departed: Four Oscars, the most of any film, out of five nominations. (The only loser: supporting actor Mark Wahlberg.)
Martin Scorsese: If you saw the surge of excitement when his name was announced showed, pretty much everyone in Hollywood wanted this guy to win this year. It was Marty's party.
Pan's Labyrinth: Five nominations, three wins -- although it did not, as expected, win best foreign film. That went to ...
The Lives of Others: Pan's was more widely known, but this critically acclaimed but little-seen German film benefited from the rule that voters in this category must see all five films.
Ellen DeGeneres: Not many killer jokes that got big laughs, but overall she did a fine job filling the shoes of Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg. She'll be back.

The losers:

Babel: Seven nominations, only one Oscar, for Guillermo Santaolalla's score.
Children of Men: Three nominations, zero Oscars.
Dreamgirls: Eight nominations, two Oscars, for supporting actress and sound mixing. Shut out for original song.

And a couple of mixed bags:

Little Miss Sunshine: It got best original screenplay and Alan Arkin scored a mild upset as best supporting actor, but it missed out on the biggest prize of the night.
The show itself: Producer Laura Ziskin's offbeat opening worked well, as did the decision to push the supporting actor awards further back into the show. The show was short on the pomposity that has marked many Oscars in the past. But: The show really seemed to lose steam in the second half -- and some of the later pieces, like Michael Mann's montage about what movies say about America, seemed pointless.

Best picture: The Departed

There wasn't really a favorite this year, but this was the safe pick. Compared with the electricity that would have run through the Kodak Theater with a win by Babel or Little Miss Sunshine, The Departed's victory seemed almost anticlimactic. but it completed a victorious night for Martin Scorsese.

The show's final running time was under four hours after all: 3 hours 50 minutes.

Best director: Martin Scorsese

It's the moment he's been waiting for ... for 30 years. He got a standing O from the house. He thanked all the people who had wished this for him over the years, "even strangers ... in elevators!" Congrats, Marty.

Best actor: Forest Whitaker

Wow. His speech on what acting means to him is the most powerful acceptance speech so far: Lots of tears in the audience, not just Whitaker's wife Keisha but also fellow nominee Will Smith.

Best actress: Helen Mirren

No upset here: "This is the biggest and the best gold star that I've ever had in my life." She also saluted QEII herself, ending with a topper that may or may not have been an homage to James Cameron as she held the Oscar aloft: "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the queen."

Philip Seymour Hoffman looks like he needs a nap.

Push comes to shove

Now we get down to brass tacks: the Big Four awards.

R.I.P.

OK, I'll admit it; I have a soft spot for every year's montage of recently deceased film figures. Jodie Foster, who introduced it, lent some unexpected poignance to it this year when she said (while choking up) that she lost a good friend herself recently.

No upset in this year's Applause-O-Meter winner: Robert Altman.

No Marty curse here

Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese's longtime editor, just won her third Oscar for film editing; her first two were for Raging Bull and The Aviator.

'Wake Up' wins it

The big question with original song was whether the Dreamgirls vote would be split among its three nominated songs. I guess the answer was yes -- Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up" took the Oscar. One more loss in my pool.

'Ewwww' moment

The announcer guy just called Jennifer Lopez an "excellent reason for high-definition television." Stay classy, Oscars!

J-Lo: Bad choice in dress, by the way.

It's Jennifer Hudson singing "Love You I Do." Gotta watch.

EDIT: Is it me or did we just come dangerously close to a wardrobe malfunction there?

No. 2 for Little Miss Sunshine

But everyone already thought Michael Arndt's screenplay would win, so it looks like best picture is still up for grabs.

First Oscar for Babel

I almost picked Gustavo Santaolalla's score in my pool, but went with the favorite The Queen instead. My bad.

You got that right

Clint Eastwood, after flubbing the introduction for honorary Oscar recipient Ennio Morricone: "Shoulda worn my glasses."

Uh oh ... it's Celine Dion. Good time for a bathroom break.

Most emotional acceptance so far

... goes to Davis Guggenheim of An Inconvenient Truth, who also waved Al Gore up to the podium with them -- which Al was maybe a little too happy to accept.

Supporting actress: Jennifer Hudson

Well, all is right with the world: Jennifer Hudson won, just as we all thought. But, you know, can the orchestra be not quite so strict about cutting off the winners' speeches? After all, it's why we watch. Even if it's not a great speech. She did squeeze in a shout-out to Jennifer Holliday, who was the original Dreamgirls' Effie White on Broadway.

I jinxed it

Well, no sooner do I say Pan's Labyrinth is on a roll than The Lives of Others just upsets it for foreign language film!

Pan's Labyrinth's night?

Pan's Guillermo Navarro just upset Children of Men's Emmanuel Lubezki in cinematography. I think it's won every award it's been up for so far. In a year with no blockbuster, it could end up with the most Oscars tonight.

Midterm report: The host

Ellen DeGeneres: I think she's doing a great job so far. Even when she's doing those goofy found-comedy bits with people and things don't go as planned, like just now with Clint Eastwood, she pulls it off -- largely, I think, because like Billy Crystal, she seems to be having a good time herself.

Score one for The Departed

Cryptic acceptance comment by screenwriter William Monahan: "Valium does work." Well OK then.

Best unscripted moment so far: Monahan with presenters Helen Mirren and Tom Hanks blundering behind Chris Connelly during a pre-commercial bumper. Chris: "... and there's more fun to come ... right Tom?" Tom, appreciating the surreal banality of the moment: "That's right, Chris! More fun!"

My wife nailed it: "Robert Altman would have liked it." Altman said that in mistakes you can find truth. Not sure what kind of truth this would be, though.

Animated feature: Happy Feet

Wow, a Pixar movie loses in this category! I didn't know it was possible.

But can we please dispense with the animated-characters-in-the-stands gag? It's getting old.

FIrst cheesy moment of the night

Well, we already knew from "Saturday Night Live" that Al Gore wasn't much of a comedian. Maybe that's why they kept cutting to Jerry Seinfeld -- once in mid-half-yawn. But that Leo DiCaprio looked maybe a little starstruck next to the ex-veep.

And perfect timing for a green/recycled-joke joke from Ellen -- and she actually carries it off.

Supporting actor: Alan Arkin

... well, not too far back in the show. First win of the night for Little Miss Sunshine! Bodes well for best picture, perhaps?

Wooden speech by Arkin, but you could sense he was just holding it together underneath. Congrats.

The sound effects choir

OK, that was pretty cool, and an original idea. This is shaping up to be a quirky show -- in a good way.

And non-traditional; it looks like they are moving the supporting-actor awards further back in the show. Traditionally they're at the front.

First upset of the night

Did anyone predict The Danish Poet would win for animated short? Me neither. Sorry, Little Matchgirl.

And West Bank Story was the most slick of the live-action short films, but not the best. Oh well. Classy acceptance speech, though. And the orchestra didn't even play him off -- that's tough to do in these minor categories.

Pan's Labyrinth 2, world 0

... and I'm no Will Farrell fan, but that musical number about the woes of comedy actors was actually more funny than campy!

... and they're off!

The opening montage featuring all the nominees -- famous or not -- was a nice, non-elitist way to start the show. (And if it reminded you of Apple Computer's "Switch" ads from a few years ago, that's no coincidence -- those were also made by documentary filmmaker Errol Morris.)

And wow, Ellen DeGeneres is a lot more at ease as host than Jon Stewart was last year. And funnier, too.

And Jennifer Hudson: thanks for losing the jacket.

First award: Pan's Labyrinth for art direction. I'm 1 for 1 so far!

Just bring out Ellen already

At 7 p.m., a cute little montage sequence segued into ... another half-hour of preshow babble, which is reminding me how much I'm not a fan of the cloying Chris Connelly. Apparently the REAL show begins at 7:30. I say again: Bring it on!

Little Miss Synergy

I've seen it twice in the past hour: A new ad (or at least this is the first I've seen of it) for HP printers starring Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin. It's online here.

Since she's only in the fifth grade, is it fair to ask whether becoming a corporate spokesactress will damage her indie cred? (Oops, just did.)

The interminable preshow babble

I'm not a fan of the red-carpet coverage, but of course I watch it anyway. I stuck with E! for the first hour -- Ryan Seacrest is watchable enough, but I can't stand the fashion chitchat -- then flipped over to the Barbara Walters special on ABC. (Joan and Melissa? No thank you.)

Ryan's flub of the night: asking Babel star Gael Garcia Bernal whether he knew Brad Pitt was one of the producers when he signed on. If Garcia seemed kind of confused in his response, it may have been because Pitt has a producer credit on The Departed, not Babel.

As far as the fashions: Penelope Cruz and Maggie Gyllenhaal looked great. Jennifer Hudson ... not so much. Lose the jacket, honey.

Bring on the show!

A white carpet for Oscar day

The big day has arrived, and to celebrate, we got about a foot of snow here in the Twin Cities overnight. As much as 13.4 inches was reported in St. Paul, but here at Oscar Central it looks more like 9 or 10. Hard to tell with all that blowing and drifting, dontcha know.

We're still shoveling our way out, but that's not to say we won't be ready for The Big Show. Let's go over the preflight checklist:

Sony LCD widescreen HDTV: Check.

Comcast/Motorola DVR, key for rewinding after those "Oh no you didn't!" moments: Check.

Remote control with two fresh AA batteries: Check.

12-inch PowerBook with Wi-Fi for live in-front-of-the-TV blogging: Check.

OK. Good to go. Check back here about 6:30 p.m. and we'll get it cranked up. See you then!

Now back to shoveling...

United 93: A powerful experience

Stayed up late last night to watch United 93 on DVD. It's a riveting film and a courageous film on the part of director Paul Greengrass in that it's shot almost cinema verite style -- no Hollywood-style character back stories, no overwrought climax. You just see what happened, as it happened (Greengrass acknowledges on the DVD commentary that they don't know the whole truth about what happened up there; he just wanted to construct what he called a "believable truth.") In most cases you don't even know the characters' names -- and it doesn't really matter. What matters is what they did.

If you saw United 93 in the theaters, rent the DVD anyway. It's worth if just for an hourlong extra feature that deals with the families of the victims, what they went through, and how they felt about the making of the movie. For many of them, this movie wasn't made "too soon" -- it wasn't soon enough.

If the best-director Oscar doesn't go to Martin Scorsese, I hope it goes to Paul Greengrass.

Life on the red carpet (or next to it)

The Sunday New York Times has a nice piece by David Carr about the surrealness of the red carpet. At one New York awards event he encountered Garrison Keillor:

Garrison Keillor, hardly a usual suspect, was there too, to honor Robert Altman, the recently departed director of A Prairie Home Companion. Spotting a familiar face — we are both from Minnesota — I buttonholed him.

“There seems to be a rope between us,” Mr. Keillor said dolefully, pointing down to the velvet barrier. “What is the purpose of that?”

Borat's Azamat speaks

The L.A. Times interviews Ken Davitian, the actor behind Borat's (mostly) loyal sidekick, Azamat. Little-known fact: He and Sacha Baron Cohen often had no idea what they were yelling at each other because Davitian was speaking Armenian and Cohen Hebrew.

On his infamous nude-wrestling scene: "You are in a room with what you consider geniuses, and if the genius is gonna get naked, I am following the genius."

Borat is up for best original screenplay tonight.

Spirit Awards: Sunshine's in

The Independent Spirit Awards wrapped up about an hour ago, and Little Miss Sunshine walked away with the top prizes: best picture, best director, best first screenplay and best supporting actor for Alan Arkin.

Sweet Land, the prairie love story filmed in Minnesota, went 1 for 2 on the night: It won best first feature for director Ali Selim, but Elizabeth Reaser lost out on best actress to Shareeka Epps of Half Nelson.

Cringe-inducing moment of the night: presenter Felicity Huffman mispronouncing Epps' first name as "Shakeera" -- twice! (At the end of the program, host Sarah Silverman said next year's show will be hosted by "Facility Huffman.")

Funniest moment: During a generally moving tribute to the late Robert Altman, Lily Tomlin turned to Robert Downey Jr. and said, "You remember what he used to say ... or, maybe you don't." (To which Downey reacted with a spot-on arched-eyebrow take.)

For a full list of winners, click here.

And the presenters are ... (reprise)

The Academy's final list of presenters is out. Philip Seymour Hoffman has signed on, and An Inconvenient Truth star Al Gore will be on stage to add a little political polarization to the mix. Classy move: Inviting Ken Watanabe, who really should have been nominated for his work in Letters From Iwo Jima.

Cue the dancing penguins

LA Weekly's Nikki FInke offers a look behind the curtain at Sunday's show. But be warned: Over at the Envelope they quickly shot down one of her spoilers. Oh the drama!

The picks you've been waiting for

OK, you can finally fill out that Oscar pool sheet now: Sir Elton John's Oscar picks are in. (Yes, apparently there are still some U.S. newspapers that just have too much space to fill.)

Calling the races: Best picture

This is the one major Oscar that is truly up in the air. Most prognosticators are pretty evenly divided among The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine and Babel, with some saying that Letters From Iwo Jima and The Queen have an outside shot. Here's how I see the race shaping up:

Letters From Iwo Jima: If I had a ballot, I just might vote for Clint Eastwood's finely crafted film, which comes the closest of any of the nominees to the word "masterpiece." But among Academy voters, the fact that it's almost entirely in Japanese hurts it, and Eastwood has had his share of honors in recent years. I know: Not fair, but that's how it works with the Academy.

The Queen: Don't get me wrong: This is a good film, deserving of its nomination. But it's pooh-poohed (unfairly) in some quarters as being better suited for BBC America than for the big screen, despite the standout performance by Helen Mirren. Scratch this one off the list.

Babel: This may be the most ambitious film of the five, and it has a strong contingent of supporters. But it also has too many turn-offs to prevail among Academy voters. For example, the fragmented, nonlinear plot -- I know, if didn't hurt Crash last year, but that was set in L.A., and there's a disease that the Academy hasn't been entirely cured of yet, and that's xenophobia.

Little Miss Sunshine: Is it me, or has the Sunshine buzz faded a bit? Even more so than Babel, it has a dedicated core of supporters, but also plenty of detractors: It's a feel-good movie, it's a comedy, it's got a cute kid. Too many reasons for too many Academy members not to vote for it.

The Departed: In a fragmented field like this, it might come down to the film that has the fewest strikes against it, and this year that film is The Departed. There's a lot of pro-Scorsese sentiment in the Academy this year -- Gee, Marty, sorry we stiffed you all those years -- and with no favorite in the field, this brisk, tight, crowd-pleasing thriller will be the default choice for a lot of voters. No, The Departed isn't a great film, but it's a good film, and in a year like this it's going to be good enough.

Now that said (you know what they say, any given Sunday ...), if you can hedge your bets in your Oscar pool by putting in more than one entry, this is the year to do it. I know I will.

Best picture: The Departed

The picks are rolling in

New York Times Oscar maven (and Minnesota native) David Carr, a.k.a. the Carpetbagger, has weighed in with his picks. In the best-picture free-for-all he goes with The Departed; otherwise he sticks mostly to the favorites.

And the L.A. Times' Tom O'Neil lays it on the line as well -- he also goes with The Departed but goes out on a limb for Peter O'Toole and Alan Arkin.

Two days and counting ...

Good Oscar-watching weather

The National Weather Service says we could be in for 8 to 12 inches of snow here in the Twin Cities this weekend. I say: Bring it on! We'll just batten down the hatches and hunker down in front of the TV for the Academy Awards broadcast Sunday night.

Calling the races: Best director

For me, the race for best director is a tough one to figure. I know what movies I like and I have a pretty good idea what makes a good acting performance, but let's face it: I don't know the first thing about directing a movie.

Used to be you could bank on the best director trophy going to whoever directed the best picture, but not anymore: the two awards have gone splitsville four years out of the past eight.

This year, Martin Scorsese is seen as a lock for his work on The Departed, but it feels more like a lifetime achievement award. It's a good movie, but most agree that it's not Scorsese's best.

Of the other nominees, The Queen is more notable for its script and Helen Mirren's performance than for Stephen Frears' direction. Babel is too polarizing of a film, and the Japanese storyline connects to the rest of the film by only the slenderest of threads. Letters From Iwo Jima might be the most finely crafted film of them all, but Clint Eastwood has been honored before, and this isn't his year.

It won't happen, but the critics' darling for an outside chance for an upset is Paul Greengrass for United 93. I haven't seen it yet, but I will by Sunday -- it's burning a hole in its Netflix sleeve atop my TV stand, but the fact that my wife won't watch it makes for TV-scheduling difficulties.

Best director: Martin Scorsese

Tomorrow: Best picture

A three-way race for best actor?

On his Gold Derby blog, the L.A. Times' Tom O'Neil posits that it could be a three-horse race for best actor, with Leonardo DiCaprio attracting votes for his work in The Departed even though he's nominated for Blood Diamond. There's already been a lot of buzz that Peter O'Toole could upset Forest Whitaker, but I'm sticking with Last King of Scotland star Whitaker as my pick.

Calling the races: Best actress

This will be short and sweet: Everyone, and I mean everyone, says Helen Mirren will win best actress. And she will. Her performance as Queen Elizabeth in The Queen is that good.

My favorite moment comes as the buffoonish Prince Philip was holding forth on what's expected of a woman in a marriage. He's talking about Diana, but he unwittingly reveals how he views his own marriage as well. The queen shoots him a look -- just a split second, blink and you'll miss it -- that just hints at the anger and resentment underneath. Then the facade goes right back up again. Brilliant.

Whether or not you're interested in the British royalty or Diana's death, go see The Queen just for Mirren's performance. It's that good.

Best actress: Helen Mirren

Tomorrow:: Best director

Calling the races: Best actor

The popularity of ensemble films created an anomaly this year: None of the best-picture nominees has a best-actor nominee in it. This makes things tough on your humble Oscar blogger: that many more movies to see. I've made it to all five best-picture nominees, but of those nominated for best actor I've seen only one: The consensus favorite to win the Oscar, Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland.

A bit of a mini-anti-Whitaker backlash has been building since he began sweeping the best-actor awards. His depiction of Idi Amin is just a caricature, they say; you don't see the depth of Amin's evil. I disagree. The childlike enthusiasm and ruthless control were two sides of the same coin; that is what makes him so scary. He attracts and repels at the same time.

The most likely candidate to pull off an upset: Venus' Peter O'Toole, who has never won an Oscar (except for an honorary one) despite his many nominations. But any sentimental groundswell for O'Toole will be at least partly canceled out by the fact that Whitaker is also extremely well-liked as one of the nice guys in Hollywood.

Best actor: Forest Whitaker

Tomorrow: Best actress

Six days to go: What's the buzz?

Over at the L.A. Times' Buzzmeter, it remains The Departed by a nose over Little Miss Sunshine -- but with Babel coming up on the outside.

Elsewhere, predictions are trickling in:

The Chicago Tribune's critics think it's up for grabs between Little Miss Sunshine and Babel -- although both prefer Little Miss Sunshine. No love for The Departed, apparently.

Over at the Boston Globe, both critics agree that Little Miss Sunshine will win but that Letters From Iwo Jima should win.

Calling the races: Supporting actor/actress

So we finally made it to Dreamgirls last night (albeit a 9:30 p.m. showing out in Apple Valley). I wasn't sure about all the Jennifer Hudson hype going in, but there's no question about it: She owns this movie. When she leaves the screen, you feel like you're just biding your time until she returns. Her powerful performance as the headstrong Effie White gives the film much of its energy.

The movie has its flaws -- the stitching between the musical numbers doesn't always hold up as well as it should, and as for the songs themselves, I'm no expert but my wife noted that "the lyrics were wretched" -- but it's worth it just to see Hudson's performance. And it's not just the singing; her acting is impressive, too.

Best supporting actor is a little tougher to call. Eddie Murphy hits the right notes as James "Thunder" Early -- both in acting and in singing. (And forget "Party All the Time"; the man can sing.) But only in one or two scenes do you get to see behind Early's bluster. No knock against Murphy, but it's just not a role that's cut out for an Oscar.

Murphy's main competition is Little Miss Sunshine's Alan Arkin, who was good but in a largely one-dimensional role. (He does have one great scene -- the one usually used as a TV clip -- where he tells Abigail Breslin's Olive that "You're not a loser.") And Mark Wahlberg handled The Departed's crackerjack dialogue well, but his role was small, and wasn't he better in Boogie Nights, Three Kings and even A Perfect Storm?

Murphy is the favorite here, but if there's going to be an upset on Oscar night, this will be it. I'm not sure whether that yellow VW bus will have enough momentum to get the best picture gold, but it will be enough to get Arkin an Oscar.

Best supporting actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Best supporting actor: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine

Tomorrow: Best actor

Hey -- we were shorted one short!

Pixar's Lifted ... and this may be all I'll ever see of it.

For us laid-back St. Paulites, a trip to Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood is not undertaken lightly. The traffic is always nuts, and if the cars aren't bad enough there are people everywhere, most of them younger and cooler than us. For movie-watching, St. Paul's Grandview and Highland theaters are more our style: stop by, see a movie, no big deal. But Saturday afternoon, we braved the Uptown crowds to see the Oscar-nominated short films at the Lagoon Cinema.

Among the animated shorts, we liked the heartfelt and heartbreaking The Little Matchgirl the most -- in part because of the gorgeous old-school Disney animation. My runner-up was The Danish Poet, a sparely animated charmer about a lovelorn, well, Danish poet, told childhood-fable style. (The Scandinavian jokes had a special resonance with the audience here.) Her second favorite was Maestro, the shortest of the shorts, which was very clever, but for me it was essentially a one-joke piece. No Time for Nuts had some funny sight gags, but we agreed that it seemed like a lightweight DVD extra compared with the others.

I'd tell you what we thought of the Pixar short Lifted, but ... we didn't see it. The five nominated shorts they showed us included two Maestros and no Lifted. I complained to the theater manager -- no small move for us reticent Minnesota types -- but it was a tough conversation considering the manager neither knew the nominated shorts nor even how many there were supposed to be. It ended with "we just show what they give us on the DVD" and two free passes (good Sunday through Thursday only).

(Packaged with the five animated shorts were a few non-nominated shorts, varying in quality -- but be warned, one of them is not for the little kids.)

We stuck around for the live-action shorts, and we split on our favorites. I was partial to Helmer & Son, an insightful little story about the burdens of expectation that a father and son place on each other, and themselves. She liked Binta and the Great Idea, a Spanish film set in French-speaking West Africa based on the idea that First World and Third World each has plenty to learn from the other.

But whichever ones we liked best, there wasn't a dud in the bunch. Ten thumbs up -- er, make that nine.

In the news: Borat no make present Oscar

Borat's Sacha Baron Cohen says no to presenting at the Oscars; apparently reading Bruce Vilanch's jokes off the teleprompter isn't his kind of comedy.

Ellen DeGeneres on hosting the Oscars: "I've been hoping they would ask me for probably six years now." Academy President Sid Ganis on Ellen: "Her wit cuts to the truth of things, but in a wonderfully warm-spirited way." (Translation: She's not like that mean ol' Jon Stewart.)

The Washington Post asks: How do you judge "best picture," anyway? And their film critics reveal who they think should win -- but not who they think will win.)

Also: The Last King of Scotland premieres in Uganda.

An inside peek at three ballots

Sorry to pimp for Entertainment Weekly two posts in a row, but I love their annual feature where they get the inside scoop from three Academy voters: an actor, a producer and a screenwriter. Their comments are pithy and thought-provoking, and whether you agree or disagree they might just change how you look at some of the nominees. Check it out.

Also: today's New York Times offers a look at the foreign-language nominees, including the acclaimed Pan's Labyrinth -- which some say should have been up for best picture.

EW's predictions are in

The new Entertainment Weekly won't arrive in my mailbox until Saturday, but OscarWatch.com has the scoop on their Oscar predictions. They have best picture as a toss-up, with a slight edge to The Departed (numbers are projected percentages of votes cast):

The Departed 25%
Little Miss Sunshine 23%
Babel 20%
The Queen 17%
Letters From Iwo Jima 15%

The other major awards are as you might expect, although Forest Whitaker, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson all look vulnerable to upsets. My take: One of them will be taken down on Oscar night; it's just a question of which one.

Taking in the shorts

Disney's The Little Matchgirl

The Envelope today offers a slideshow look at the 10 nominees in two of the lesser-known categories: live-action and animated short films. Come on, admit it: When you're filling in your picks for the Oscar pool, you do what I do in these obscure categories. You wait until Entertainment Weekly's Oscar predictions come out, a week before the show, and you go with their picks.

Well, good news: Magnolia Pictures is giving all 10 short films a limited release nationwide this weekend. They'll be at the Lagoon Cinema in Minneapolis and the Times Cinema in Milwaukee.

A few of the animated shorts will look familiar: No Time for Nuts stars Scrat, the acorn-hunting squirrel from the popular Ice Age films; there's the obligatory Pixar nominee, Lifted; and Disney's The Little Matchgirl marks the end of an animation era: It's the last Disney project to use the studio's animation system where hand drawings were digitally scanned for compositing and rendering.

If you're interested, there's a more in-depth look at the short-film nominees over at InContention.com.

Fox's No Time for Nuts (apparently the unrated version)

And the presenters are ...

The Academy's list of presenters is starting to firm up. Confirmed so far are Cate Blanchett, Steve Carell, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Will Ferrell, Eva Green, Tom Hanks, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Rachel Weisz and Reese Witherspoon.

Conspicuous by his absence (so far) is Philip Seymour Hoffman, last year's best actor, who by tradition would present this year's best-actress Oscar.

The list probably won't be finalized until a couple of days before the show.

The Departed: Bloody good

I finally made it to a showing of The Departed last weekend. If Martin Scorsese's recent epics like Gangs of New York and The Aviator were a little too high-and-mighty for your taste, then The Departed might be just your style -- and given that there's a good chance this film will walk away with the statuette on Feb. 25, that seems to go for a lot of people.

This time, Scorsese returns to the streets -- of Irish south Boston. This taut (despite its two-and-a-half-hour length) thriller grabs you from the get-go as it sets the hook: Matt Damon as a mob rat in the Massachusetts State Police, Leonardo DiCaprio as a "Statie" mole in the mob. (The sharp, Oscar-nominated script by William Monahan is adapted from the Hong Kong gangster flick Internal Affairs.) Soon, the rat is on to the mole and vice versa, although their identities remain hidden. Then, the hunt is on.

It's a great cast, starting with DiCaprio's bottled-energy performance as Billy Costigan. Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin have a great time with the dialogue in their supporting roles. Jack Nicholson goes a little too Witches of Eastwick on us in a couple of scenes, but he conveys the menace of the mob kingpin.

This being Valentine's Day, I should note that those hoping for a romantic subplot would be best served elsewhere. Vera Farmiga is good as Damon's psychologist girlfriend, but the role is more plot device than romantic lead.

Scanning today's movie listings, it looks like The Departed is starting to depart from theaters again -- which may have something to do with the fact that it's now out on DVD. Either way, it's worth a look.

In the news: Silver and gold; Oscar goes global

A Reuters story points out that if conventional wisdom holds up, Helen Mirren will join an exceedingly small club: Oscar-winning actresses over 50.

Also, AP observes that this year's nominees are truly a global bunch:

This year's lineup is the most ethnically diverse ever, with five black people, two Hispanics and an Asian among the 20 acting nominees. Best-picture nominee "Letters From Iwo Jima" is almost entirely in Japanese. Hispanics alone garnered a record 19 nominations, including three Mexican directors contending for some of the biggest prizes of the night.

12 days to go: What's the buzz?

The big pre-Oscars awards are behind us now, and Academy voters have one more week to get their ballots in. It's time for a buzz check. Unfortunately, Monday came and went with no weekly update to the Buzzmeter over at the Envelope (guess they're still hung over from the Grammys over there at the L.A. Times). Entertainment Weekly's buzz survey won't get an update till Thursday. Thursday?!?

So we'll have to settle for a report from that entertainment bellwether Reuters. They've got The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine as the definite front-runners for best picture, with Babel, which seems to have faded since its Golden Globes triumph, in don't-count-'em-out-yet status.

Another reason to keep an eye on Babel: The Big Man of Film Criticism himself, Roger Ebert, arose from his sickbed last weekend to lend his official endorsement to Babel -- as both "will win" and "should win." You may recall that last year Ebert picked Crash when everyone thought Brokeback Mountain would win -- and, well, just ask Ang Lee what happened there.

For best director, last week's Directors Guild award pretty much sealed the deal for Martin Scorsese. Does that mean The Departed will ride to best picture on Marty's coattails? Maybe, but don't bet on it; four years out of the past eight the Academy has split the best picture and best director awards.

Still not much suspense in the actress awards: A loss by either Helen Mirren or Jennifer Hudson would be a huge upset. But the actor awards could get interesting: Alan Arkin is gaining momentum against supporting actor favorite Eddie Murphy, and Peter O'Toole, Reuters says, has been "making the Oscar party rounds" in hopes of unseating Forest Whitaker. Hmmmm. Stay tuned ...

[UPDATE 6:45 PM: The Buzzmeter is now updated; they also have the best picture race as a toss-up between The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine.]

In other news: Best actress nominee Judi Dench won't be at the Oscars. Officially, the reason is knee surgery. Or maybe the Brits are just peeved Hudson blew off the BAFTAs to go to the Grammys.

Queen, Scotland rule British awards

The British Oscars, the BAFTAs, were handed out last night in London -- and let's just say the voters seemed to be rooting for the home team. The big winners were The Queen and The Last King of Scotland:

Best film: The Queen
Best director: Paul Greengrass, United 93
Best actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best supporting actor: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Best supporting actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Best original screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine
Best adapted screenplay: The Last King of Scotland
Best British film: The Last King of Scotland

Given the British bent, it's hard to say what this portends for the Oscars, if anything. Babel garnered just one award, for best score, and The Departed was shut out entirely.

Other highlights from the telecast on BBC America: Greengrass, in a somber acceptance speech, reinforcing the importance of cinema in the post-9/11 world; Whitaker dedicating his award to his grandmother, who died two days earlier.

Also last night, Stateside: the Writers Guild awards. Best original screenplay went to Little Miss Sunshine, best adapted screenplay to The Departed.

Little Miss Sunshine: Good, but overrated

Last night we watched on DVD this year's Little Movie That Could: Little Miss Sunshine. We liked it. It's a good film. The best film of the year? Not so sure.

It's a road film about a dysfunctional New Mexico family on a mission to get their daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California. It was snapped up by Fox Searchlight out of last year's Sundance Film Festival (although it did not win the top prizes there -- those went to Quinceanera). Despite their problems, they're a likeable bunch, even the cranky, heroin-snorting grandpa ("I'm old! It doesn't matter!") played by Alan Arkin. You find yourself rooting for them throughout the film.

It's an excellent cast, but there's not a whole lot of depth here, neither in the story nor in the characters. Alan Arkin is a fine actor, but the character really requires just one note from him. Abigail Breslin is a good child actor, but not great. Mostly she's got a great smile, and her role is such that she isn't required to show a range of emotion. The best acting in the film is in the meatiest roles: Steve Carell as suicidal uncle Frank and Paul Dano as sullen brother Dwayne.

Don't mistake me: See Little Miss Sunshine if you haven't already. It's good. But an Academy Award winner? Not so much.

Will you be watching this year?

Turns out there's concern in some quarters that this year's Oscars telecast could be one of the lowest-rated ever. And I'll admit the reasons make sense: No mega blockbusters a la Titanic; many of this year's top contenders are limited-release films that most people haven't seen; the lead acting awards are thought to be suspense-free locks for Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren; and, at least for me, a special performance by Celine Dion holds about as much appeal as Rob Lowe and Snow White singing "Proud Mary."

No matter. I'll be watching no matter what. The Oscars are still maybe our greatest intersection of art and pop culture, and it also feels watching a bit of history -- "Academy Award-winning motion picture" carries more cachet than, say, "Grammy Award-winning song" or "Tony Award-winning musical." And although I don't get into the red-carpet fashion watch all that much, I do love the drama of the stars playing themselves, racing to thank their agents before their 45 seconds are up and the orchestra starts playing.

And, of course, don't forget to fire up the laptop during the telecast to join in the running commentary right here! 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25. Bring it on!

Best non-nominated film

My vote goes to Sweet Land, a little jewel of a film that was filmed right here in Minnesota (near Montevideo). It's a touching, personal film about Norwegian immigrant farmers carving out a life for themselves in the years just after World War I. And it's a beautiful film, with many shots drinking in the gorgeous, green western Minnesota landscape.

I saw Sweet Land here in October, shortly after it opened on only a few screens, and its release is slowly expanding nationwide. If it's in your town, check it out. (Here in the Twin Cities, it's at the Grandview in St. Paul, the Muller theaters in Rogers, the Mann in St. Louis Park and the Chaska Cinema. In Milwaukee, it's coming back to the Times Cinema next month.)

There were no Oscar nominations for Sweet Land, but it is up for two Independent Spirit Awards -- best first-time feature for director Ali Selim and best lead actress for Elizabeth Reaser. The Spirit Awards air Feb. 24, the night before the Oscars, on IFC.

And Reaser, by the way, guest-starred on last night's Grey's Anatomy -- although she was tough to recognize under all that latex.

Oscar movie marathon

If you're even more of a procrastinator than I am, why not see all five Best Picture nominees in one shot -- the day before the Oscars? That's what AMC Theatres is offering with its Best Picture Showcase promotion, starting with Babel at 11 a.m. and wrapping up with Little Miss Sunshine at 9:45 p.m. (And I thought those "Lord of the Rings" marathons were hard core.) The one-day pass will cost you $30 -- six bucks a movie. Here in the Twin Cities, AMC is offering the promotion at Southdale and Arbor Lakes. (Thanks to the Carpetbagger.)

So many movies, so little time

A confession: Out of Entertainment Weekly's "25 Movies You Need to See Before Oscar Night," I've seen ... seven. Not a good record. The good news is that with studios re-releasing films to pump up their Oscar buzz and DVD releases getting earlier and earlier, I've got a good shot at half by the big night, including all five of the Best Picture noms. Anyway, here's what I've seen so far:

Babel: A suspenseful movie in that I spent most of it squirming in my seat wondering who was going to make what bad decision next. Great acting turns as well.
The Queen: No question, a great performance by Helen Mirren; she's so good that I forgot I was watching an actress and became completely absorbed in the film -- even though in real life she doesn't look that much like the queen.
Letters From Iwo Jima: A great film. Clint Eastwood does a masterful job of seamlessly weaving the personal stories together with the historical big picture. That you know how it will end just makes it all the more heartbreaking. Great performance by Ken Watanabe as well.
Notes on a Scandal: A great role for Judi Dench, deserving of a nomination. But if you require a sympathetic character to root for in your films, you won't find one here.
Last King of Scotland: Forest Whitaker deserves all the awards he's been getting, and the film -- the Ugandan dictator as seen through the eyes of his Scottish doctor -- stands up as well.
Borat: You'll laugh, you'll squirm. But all in all, very funny stuff. Not for everyone though.
Thank You for Smoking: I saw this almost a year ago, but I remember it as wickedly funny.

On my must-see list the next two weekends: The Departed and Dreamgirls in the theater, Little Miss Sunshine and United 93 via Netflix. Then, if I have time: Pursuit of Happyness and Children of Men. We'll see.

What's on your still-must-see list? Here's your options:
In theaters now (at least here in the Twin Cities): The Departed, Dreamgirls, Babel, The Queen, Letters From Iwo Jima, Notes on a Scandal, Last King of Scotland, A Night at the Museum (just kidding), Little Children, Borat, Blood Diamond, Volver, The Pursuit of Happyness, Venus, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth
On DVD now: Little Miss Sunshine, United 93, Flags of Our Fathers, The Devil Wears Prada, An Inconvenient Truth, Thank You for Smoking
Coming soon to DVD: The Departed, Half Nelson, Marie Antoinette (Feb. 13); Babel, The Prestige, For Your Consideration (Feb. 20)

Welcome!

Congratulations: You are one of three people who will ever stumble onto this blog. Why are we here? I got the idea during last year's Oscar telecast, when I noticed several live blogs that were up and running during the telecast -- one on the Washington Post website was quite good (although I can't find it archived anywhere on their site; too bad). So this year, I'm trying it myself. I'll publish tidbits and links here and there over the next couple of weeks, but be sure to tune in right here on Sunday night, Feb. 25 -- it'll be a party.