I’ve been obsessed with the Oscars for a ridiculously long time, but this is the first year where I tried seriously to see as many of the nominees as I possibly could. Considering that in the past month I also chose to do things like spend a week seeing 13 noir films, and catching the five hour version of Red Cliff, I think I did quite well.

The moral support of the Oscars Death Race on Twitter helped a lot!

I only missed two features which played in Seattle: Country Strong & Tron Legacy. I also haven’t seen four of the documentary shorts (one was available online) and three of the foreign language films (which haven’t opened in Seattle yet.)

My final tally was 47 of 56 nominated films, completing 20 of 24 categories. Not too shabby, and it left me Full of Opinions & with a burning desire for a corporate sponsor next year. And I don’t even buy popcorn.

Categories where I have seen all the nominees:

Actor in a Leading Role:

• Who Will: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech.
• Who Should: Javier Bardem, Biutiful
• Also: James Franco was awesome in 2010, in both 127 Hours & Howl, and I’m glad he got some Independent Spirit love this weekend.

Actor in a Supporting Role:

• Who Will: Christian Bale, The Fighter.
• Who Should: Well, Christian. But I’d give it to John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone.
• Also: I would have loved to see Andrew Garfield here for Never Let Me Go. Or, hell, for The Social Network, because he was the only thing I liked about that movie.

Actress in a Leading Role

• Who Will: Natalie Portman, Black Swan.
• Who Should: Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone. I also have a lot of love for Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine.
• Also: I’d trade Portman, Bening, and/or Kidman for Carey Mulligan, Never Let Me Go. Guys, she spends most of that film *listening* and is utterly compelling the entire time.

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Who Will: Tough call! Melissa Leo, The Fighter or Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit.
• Who Should: They’re both great. All the ladies here would make me happy, but I’d vote for Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom.
• Also: I finally saw Another Year, and I am feeling the Lesley Manville love.

Animated Feature:

• What Will: Toy Story 3.
• What should: The Illusionist, luminous and heartbreaking.
• Also: I would have been pleased if How to Train Your Dragon had gotten a cinematography nomination.

Art Direction

• Who Will: Inception.
• Who Should: Inception.

Cinematography

• Who Will: Roger Deakins, True Grit.
• Who Should: Roger Deakins, True Grit.
• Also: He’s a genius of light. That’s just a fact.

Costume Design

• Who Will: My impulse says Colleen Atwood for Alice in Wonderland.
• Who Should: Sandy Powell, The Tempest. So beautiful & original!
• Also: I resent that this category forced me to sit through I Am Love. Not all of the movies are for me.

Directing

• Who Will: David Fincher, The Social Network.
• Who Should: Danny Boyle, 127 Hours. But since they weren’t smart enough to nominate him, Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan.
• Also: Christopher Nolan, people! And this is a category that makes me relieved that Shutter Island was shut out.

Documentary Feature

• Who Will: I cannot call this category at all. I thought they were all very much worth watching. Inside Job has played longest & widest, I think. But Exit Through the Gift Shop is getting all the buzz. (Hooray!)
• Who Should: Exit Through the Gift Shop! My love for this movie is huge.
• Also: This was a great year for documentaries. I would have loved to see The Tillman Story in here. And even the Joan Rivers documentary.

Film Editing

• Who Will: The Social Network, as part of its inevitable ‘minor’ award sweep.
• Who Should: 127 Hours.

Makeup

• Who Will: Please, not The Wolfman. It’s bad enough that we have to describe it as Oscar nominated.
• Who Should: Barney’s Version for some of the best aging work I’ve ever seen.
• Also: I’d like to thank this category for preventing me from waiting for DVD for Barney’s Version.

Music (Score)

• Who Will: The Social Network.
• Who Should: 127 Hours.

Best Picture

• I wrote up my full rankings already over here a month ago, and I haven’t changed my mind on anything.

Short Film (Animated)

• Who Will: “Day & Night”.
• Who Should: “Day & Night”.
• Also: I would really enjoy it if “Madagascar, carnet de voyage” won, for the variety of animation techniques.

Short Film (Live Action)

• Who Will: I have no idea.
• Who Should: Hmm. “Wish 143″.
• Also: They are all so depressing! How did that even happen? I swear they are not always so depressing.

Sound Mixing

• Who Will/Who Should/Also: The Social Network. Deserved, too, if only for the first club scene ever captured on film with accurate sound.

Visual Effects

• Who Will: Inception.
• Who Should: Inception.
• Also: This is another category where I had seen all of the nominees in original release. (Don’t worry — four of them I didn’t pay for.)

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• Who Will: The Social Network.
• Who Should: 127 Hours, for Boyle & Beaufoy’s well-deployed narrative restraint.
• Also: It just occurred to me that there is an entire piece to be written here comparing these two approaches to filming the story of a real person. In a nutshell: Sorkin threw out the truth in favor of what he felt was a better narrative, and Boyle & Beaufoy threw out expected narrative in favor of the truth.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• Who Will: Tough call. I’ll go with The Kids Are All Right.
• Who Should: Mike Leigh, Another Year.
• Also: That said, it’s always funny when Mike Leigh films end up here.

Incomplete categories:

Documentary (Short Subject)

• I saw: “The Warriors of Quigang”, which was interesting, but is not enough to make any sort of call on.

Foreign Language Film

• I saw: Biutiful & Dogtooth. Biutiful is now one of my favorite films of 2010. Dogtooth is so original and disturbing I’m amazed it was nominated. The direction was fantastic. I never need to see it again.

Music (Original Song)

• I saw: 127 Hours, Tangled, & Toy Story 3. I weep for Cher’s Burlesque snub*. *This is a lie.

Sound Editing

• I saw: Inception, Toy Story 3, True Grit, & Unstoppable. Yes, Unstoppable. Thanks, AMPAS. Thanks a lot.

So, what do you guys think? Did you finish any of the categories I failed at? Did I really miss out not seeing Country Strong?

I will, of course, be live tweeting the ceremony tonight: twitter.com/letterboxed. Join me!

This morning I read a piece from the NY Times Carpetbagger on this year’s Best Documentary race, which raised a question on Twitter about Academy voting requirements. Documentary is one of few categories which requires voters to have seen all the nominees.

It has long driven me crazy is that this isn’t a requirement for *all* the categories, so I spent a little time with the Rules & Eligibility for the 83rd Academy Awards to find out a little more about voting rules. If you’re looking for something exciting to do this Friday evening, you should go read through them. Then you’ll know why there are only three animated feature nominees, for example. You’ll be the hit of every Oscar party!

Each branch votes on their own nominees, and the variety in the eligibility requirements as well as the nominating process from award to award is pretty amazing. Some are pretty basic, where everyone gets a list of films that are eligible, and then there’s a vote. Some are quite complex, such as the animated feature nominating committee, with their 10 point ranking system, their 80% viewed requirement, and their guidelines for the total number of nominees. The makeup one is also fantastic, requiring artists under consideration to submit written descriptions of their process to the committee!

Any active member can vote on the actual awards, and for most of them, they aren’t actually required to see *any* of the movies. How depressing is that, Oscar Death Racers?

There are five categories that require voters see all nominees. Not only that, but they specify that they must be in a theatrical setting, sometimes specifically at Academy screenings. I think this is fantastic.

Those categories are the three shorts (Animated, Live Action, and Documentary) as well as Documentary Feature & Foreign Language.

This goes a long way to explain why many of the major awards read as career achievement awards rather than awards for specific performances. Voters aren’t really comparing performances, which is hard to do anyway. They’re comparing careers.

Inspired by Moira McDonald over at Popcorn & Prejudice, & not wanting to start a new project for the last half-hour of the day, I thought I’d do a little Best Picture ranking myself. I’m feeling sorta cocky this year because I saw all ten nominees in the theater & before they were announced. That will probably never happen again.

1. Black Swan
2. 127 Hours
3. Winter’s Bone
4. The Fighter
5. Inception
6. Toy Story 3
7. The King’s Speech
8. The Social Network
9. The Kids Are All Right
10. True Grit

That’s how I’d fill out my ballot, if I were an Oscar voter, which would never happen. Like McDonald, I’m not a ranking-movies sort of person typically. My year-end round-up is never as much a top ten than it is “here is a bunch of stuff I thought was cool this year”.

Here are things I thought were interesting about that exercise:

1. I didn’t have to think about the top five at all. Just bam bam bam straight through. Slots 6-10 shifted around a bit before they settled.
2. Even though I famously hate The Social Network, it didn’t rank last because I can’t argue with the quality of the craft. Sorkin’s script is excellent: it’s also bullshit.
3. I haven’t been excited about The King’s Speech winning the various Guilds, except insofar as it’s perceived as a snub to TSN, and now I see why. (Also, I really wanted The Fighter to win best ensemble last night. SAG, why you gotta hate?)
4. And at the end of the list, I think no one would care about The Kids are All Right if it wasn’t about a lesbian couple, and I feel like everyone else is seeing an entirely different movie than I did when I went to a cold & forgettable True Grit.

What do you guys think?

I mentioned on Twitter last night that I had tried to watch A Very Long Engagement, but failed because the subtitles were so awful. Today I provide y’all with pictorial evidentiary support.

First, the italicized subtitles for voiceover:

Second, the only very slightly better regular dialogue subtitles:

Click through for the 1024×575 versions, which might actually be harder to read.

Now, here’s the thing. I get that my wee TV is not exactly the ideal situation for watching any film, let alone a subtitled one, but better there than not at all. And not infrequently subtitles are just small, so I have to watch a film up close on my laptop. But seriously. Bubble letters? The manufacturer could at least make an effort.

If anyone has suggestions as to a version of the film with legible subtitles, I would appreciate it!

1) The leftmost seat in row H at SIFF Cinema is sort of broken, definitely squeaky. Avoid.

2) If you’re getting concessions at an AMC theater, go for a kid’s combo. Manageable sized soda & popcorn, and! Fruit snacks! Plus, a game on your box, all for six bucks. What a deal.

3) There is a lot of awful local film. In fact, if there’s any good local film, please let me know, since I have yet to find it. Maybe I am just really bad at choosing.

4) My favorite theater to attend & volunteer at is the Harvard Exit. Not just because it’s close to both my apartment & Joe Bar, although both of those things help.

5) I have a fondness for the Egyptian (Secret represent!) but I dream of a day where I see a film there and the projection is in no way fucked up. Hey, it could happen. Also, it’s a shitty place to work Will Call.

6) I really like working Will Call. Who knew?

7) I must take all three weeks off next year. Must dooo eeet.

8 ) The Hong Kong Film Office montage makes me desperately want a Tony Leung retrospective. Get on that, people. I’d kill to see In the Mood for Love on the big screen again. And Hard Boiled, which I’ve only seen on video (and a shitty print at that.) Oooh, and Infernal Affairs (which, hey, I saw at SIFF back when it came out, and the projection was fucked up. At the Egyptian, so no surprise there.)

9) There are people who buy popcorn to go. This had never occurred to me. And not that I’d do it now, because hey. Expensive. And I’m not that into theater popcorn anyway. White cheddar, though, that is an entirely different story. Om nom nom.

10) I really cannot handle the sun. 40 minutes standing outside the Egyptian and I thought I was going to throw up or pass out. Or possibly both.

(Sorry to say this is not my last #SIFF10 post. There’s a film at the volunteer appreciation party on Wednesday, and then next weekend I am attending the hell out of the Best of SIFF, so that’ll be another eight films at least. I am so excited about Best of SIFF I can’t even express it properly. Anyway. Fair warning.)

PS EXTRA BONUS LEARNED THING: William Shatner’s amazing linguistic abilities! As displayed in the cinematic masterpiece Incubus! I am choosing to believe the Esperanto is Bill Shatner’s native tongue. Dear SIFF Cinema: I would totally come to a screening of that. No lie.

Something new at the Festival this year is regular showings of trailers before features. It’s been miss more than hit, though. At Prince of Tears one ran for Bodyguards & Assassins (starring the *other* Tony Leung), which I promptly added to my schedule.

However, all the others have been awful: Princess Lillifee (a pink animated monstrosity), The Sentimental Engine Slayer (which just looks messy), & Night Catches Us (wherein everyone speaks in clichés, and I honestly thought it was a parody trailer, except that it has such a fantastic cast. It has a great IMDB score, so maybe it’s just an unfortunate trailer).

Something not new is the spotting of minor Seattle celebrities. At The Penitent Man I saw Sean Nelson & Lynn Shelton. I must admit I did not go up to Shelton and discuss with her how much I disliked the display of straight privilege in Humpday. This has less to do with any desire to be tactful than it does with the fact that I’m a chickenshit. (I do still have huge problems with that movie, though. Just sayin’.)

Also not new at the Festival is projection getting fucked up, particularly at the Egyptian. It took three tries to get the start of The Penitent Man with sound and not just picture (first time ever I was thankful for digital — if it had been on film we’d have just had to deal with it). A bonus is that it gave writer/director Nicholas Gyeney more opportunities to be be charming, including running to concessions & buying candy to distribute to the crowd. No, really. Feel free to let me know the last time that a director handed out candy at your local multiplex.

I’m also starting to compile my list of movies-wot-I-missed out on. Top of the list is Castaway on the Moon, a South Korean sort-of love story which I saw recommended a lot, but none of the times worked out for me. I also missed Alan Tudyk in Tucker & Dale vs Evil, a film about two rednecks who would very much like to relax, if spring breakers would only stop dying on their property. I gave it a pass because it’s the sort of thing where the tone is quite difficult to get right, but I am hearing that it totally works, and that it knows when a joke is finished and doesn’t drag it out. Amazing how rare that is.

I start volunteering this week, so I look forward to eavesdropping on passholders and getting the scoop. It’s almost more exciting than getting film vouchers. Almost!

Perhaps, dear reader, you are a little something like me. Perhaps you enjoy the occasional (or even frequent) bad movie. Perhaps you have a deep-rooted fondness for John Cusack & cheesy 80s movies. Perhaps you generally avoid trailers, which could have warned you off. Perhaps.

Lucky for you, in addition to all of those things, I am also willing to see a potentially terrible movie if I can see it for free. Which is how I wound up seeing the first half of Hot Tub Time Machine.

Yeah. The first half. For the first time that I can remember, I walked out of a movie. I don’t want to hear any bullshit about how we just didn’t get it, or how I am some kind of film snob because come on. I loved Legion! I am first in line for anything Apatovian! I even enjoyed Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and that came with its share of gross-out moments, but you know what it didn’t have? Endless rape jokes, for one thing. Or rampant homophobia. Or an utter lack of any redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I was particularly taken aback by how terrible Hot Tub was, since there were so many free screenings of it. Like, 5 times as many as a typical movie, which had fooled me into thinking it might actually be a fun dumb movie and they were trying harder than usual to drum up word of mouth.

It’s not fun. It’s appalling. It’s one of those movies where you’re sitting there, listening to the audience laugh, and wondering if you’re seeing the same thing. If we were seeing the same thing, I am judging them harshly.

Much to our disappointment, the utter suck of Hot Tub eliminated another terrible movie from our schedule: She’s Out of My League. Same situation: never saw a trailer, Jay Baruchel is adorable (and carries the Apatovian vibe), but the screenwriters? Are the same as for Hot Tub. So, you know. Don’t see that one either. Don’t even put it in your Netflix queue, thinking “It can’t be that bad”. It will be.

It’s a shame, too, because I think I finally learned the title. For a solid week, every time I tried to think of it, I wanted to call it He’s Just Not That Into You. I could never remember if it was My League or Your League. By the end we had morphed it into something like He’s Just Not That Into A League of Your Own.

Which is possibly a movie we’d see, though how someone could *not* be into A League of Their Own is beyond me.

Roger Ebert twittered/tweeted/whatever this addictive Netflix interactive map over the weekend.

It’s kind of fantastic, in the way anything that validates your choices is fantastic.

Because I know you all are fascinated, the top ten in my zip code, and more, after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »