More on the year in film

The award nominations and critics best of lists are coming so fast and furious that it is becoming difficult to keep track of them all. To shift through the nominations or critics lists, however, it helps to check out those nominations and lists that have traditionally been relatively good indicators of Oscar nominations and, ultimately, Oscar success, and one such nomination is the Golden Globes. The Golden Globes top prize for film is actually separated into two categories, one for drama and the other comedic or musical performance. And while the lists of films nominated in the aforementioned categories were not surprising, there were, I thought, a few interesting selections. For example, the films I had chosen as possible shoe-ins for Oscar nominations, namely The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Up in the Air and Precious, were all nominated in the Golden Globe drama category, but I did not expect Inglourius Basterds to get the nod as well. As for critics lists, two of the most respected are, I think, A O Scott and Roger Ebert. With the exception of Knowing, which I thought was okay but not great, I believe both their lists are terrific.

Based on the films nominated for Golden Globes, the “best of” films compiled by A O Scott and Roger Ebert, the aggregate ratings on Metacritic and my own humble opinion, I believe – and I could be wrong about a few of these choices – the ten films that stand a good chance of being nominated for the Best Picture Oscar include: The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Up in the Air, Precious, Star Trek, Bright Star, Coraline, District 9, Gommorah, Crazy Heart, An Education. I did not choose Up, the Pixar animated feature which received mostly stellar reviews, because I thought the story-telling was not nearly as compelling as Ratatoullie or, one my favorite films of all time, Wall-E. I also left off a few other noteworthy films, primarily due to their slightly below-stellar ratings on Metacritic: Inglorius Basterds, Public Enemies and Invictus. As for which film will win the Oscar for Best Picture, I believe it will come down to Avatar and Up in the Air. Of the two, I have only seen Avatar - a groundbreaking, even revolutionary visual spectacle, with a script that, while good for the most part, is the film’s only drawback. Most of what I have read about Up in the Air, however, leads me to think that it is the leading contender for the top prize. The subject matter might not be as enthralling and the visuals as sweeping as Avatar, but the story-telling and acting appear to be top notch. I will provide an update on my impressions of both films once I see Up in the Air this weekend.

Update: I saw Up in the Air over the weekend. It was everything I thought it would be – great plot structure, witty, tragic. Perhaps a bit uninspired. Nonetheless, a great picture overall. On my facebook move-rating application, I gave it a perfect five. On the other hand, I rated Avatar a four and ½. So, yes, if I were to make a judgment about which film I thought was the best film at this moment, it would be Up in the Air. But I have heard some good things about Avatar since I saw it on the day it was released (although not in 3D, which had been sold out at the time). I heard that James Cameron thought Avatar represented a historical allegory of humanity. I have also done some reading on where the term “Avatar” comes from and the various themes found in the film. There is definitely much more to Avatar than meets the eye, and I will see it at least one more time, this time in 3D, before I come to a conclusion of which I think is the year's best film.