Pre-Oscar post!

Well, today is Oscar day (Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will preside over the distribution of the gold statuettes beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern tonight), so in recognition of all the hoopla and fun coming up, here are my very own one-sentence mini reviews of the ten films nominated for Best Picture.

Avatar

Stunning visuals and lovely character moments eventually make you stop caring about the boilerplate, by-the-numbers story you've seen countless times before.

Inglourious Basterds

Viewers ultimately didn't mind that they were tricked into buying tickets to a heavily subtitled, foreign language art film once they saw that, hey, those could be great, too!

District 9

Effective shaky-cam mock documentary, top notch in its own right, further pays off with a moving third act about a boy alien and his dad trying to save each other, and the buffoonish yes-man human who finally develops a conscience and spine and helps them.

The Hurt Locker

Perfectly okay story of bomb diffusers in Iraq nevertheless still has me wondering what all the shouting is about.

A Serious Man

If you can take a little of the Coen Brother's trademark late-film artiness and ambiguity, you'll enjoy this funny, well told tale of a guy who recieves every kind of bad news possible and the various rabbis in his 1960's midwestern Jewish community who try to help him.

An Education

Story of a young girl learning the ways of the world is one you've seen many times before, but lovely acting and a few new twists to the old tune (such as parental characters who are in many ways as naive as their daughter) kick this up a notch.

The Blind Side

I'm a sucker for a moving story and a tour-de-force lead performance, but I'm in the minority on this one and feel this just-okay film doesn't particularly display exceptional qualities on either count, elements I realize everyone else is raving about.

Precious

Memorable, tough, take-no-prisoners movie doesn't sugarcoat a thing and only delivers the barest glimmers of hope (and those, grudgingly) to its central character.

Up in the Air

Engaging character study of a corporate downsizer and his dealings with the people around him is bolstered by sharp writing and effectively stylish direction.

Up

Spotlighting two refreshingly offbeat leads- a grumpy senior citizen and a shy, somewhat pudgy youngster- this is a terrific animated adventure that delivers everything one expects from Pixar.

Well, there you have it, my own thumbnail thoughts. And my own preferences for this evening? I'll be happy if either Avatar or Inglourious Basterds wins. The former deserves it for its truly historic box-office run and the latter because, well, it's pretty much my favorite of the bunch. But you won't see me booing if something else sneaks in, as long as it isn't The Blind Side or The Hurt Locker. On the former front, I just don't think it's a very good movie. Of the latter, I like Kathryn Bigelow a lot but I think she's done much better films than the one Hollywood has picked to finally notice.

But we'll all see what happens later. After all, that's the fun of it, right?