Impressions so far:

- I would like to thank the Academy for increasing the number of Best Picture nominees to 10 films. This will recognize more deserving films, while silencing any whiners like me that, for example, animated features aren’t included. Case in point: Wall-E should have been nominated for best picture in its day. The jury’s still out as to whether foreign films like my favorite La Vita e Bella (Life Is Beautiful) would have been nominated in a 10-film field, but I’d like to think it would.
- That said, where the heck is Star Trek on the list of Best Picture nominees??
- I thought District 9 was a really good film, but sadly (if deservedly) it will be overshadowed by Avatar in the categories it deserves to win (the technical ones).
- The Hurt Locker probably deserves to win most of these awards, but Avatar will rule. Avatar wasn’t that good, but it was good enough (and far too much of a game-changer) for the Academy to give it the sweep.
- I would also like to thank the Academy for not just taking the 10 Golden Globe nominees for Best Drama & Best Comedy for their Best Picture nominees. I was dying to think that The Hangover might have been nominated…
- This is the year for Avatar, Precious, and Sandra Bullock. Really. Crazy, huh?

***Updated 3/7/10 at 6:18pm CST to reflect the nominated films I have seen since these predictions were first published.***

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
82nd Annual Academy Awards Nominations

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Best animated feature film of the year
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”

Achievement in art direction
“Avatar”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“The Young Victoria”

Achievement in cinematography
“Avatar”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The White Ribbon”

Achievement in costume design
“Bright Star”
“Coco before Chanel”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“The Young Victoria”

Achievement in directing
“Avatar” -James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” -Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” -Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” -Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” -Jason Reitman

Best documentary feature
“Burma VJ”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
“Which Way Home”

Best documentary short subject
“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”
“Music by Prudence”
“Rabbit à la Berlin”

Achievement in film editing
“Avatar”
“District 9″
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Best foreign language film of the year
“Ajami” -Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos”  -Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow” -Peru
“Un Prophète”  -France
“The White Ribbon”  -Germany

Achievement in makeup
“Il Divo”
“Star Trek”
“The Young Victoria”

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Avatar”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“Up”

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog”
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog”
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36″
“Take It All” from “Nine”
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart”

Best motion picture of the year
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Best animated short film
“French Roast”
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
“Logorama”
“A Matter of Loaf and Death”

Best live action short film
“The Door”
“Instead of Abracadabra”
“Kavi”
“Miracle Fish”
“The New Tenants”

Achievement in sound editing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Up”

Achievement in sound mixing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Achievement in visual effects
“Avatar”
“District 9″
“Star Trek”

Adapted screenplay
“District 9″
“An Education”
“In the Loop”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“Up in the Air”

Original screenplay
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The Messenger”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”

**Note: If you want to remain totally spoiler-free before you watch the film, please note this review contains none of what I would call significant spoilers. I also intend to keep the comments to this post spoiler-free, so if you don’t want your comment to be removed, please follow my lead. **

Oops. Wrong Avatar.

What? It’s the other Avatar movie that everyone’s been talking about? Well, let me see here…

Ah, much better!

If I would allow myself to be a little less descriptive with the “Bottom Line” above, it would say, “As good as it needs to be.” But that’s a bit cynical, based on the complaints of an unoriginal story (some of them mine) being bandied about today. The real bottom-line, however, it that Avatar is a game-changer: it changes the way we will view much of our content from here forward, and it also changes the way film reviews need to be written.

The 3D is SO MIND-BOGGLINGLY GOOD compared with anything that I have seen before, especially in a feature film, that it will sell many people on 3D technology that heretofore were highly skeptical. We will have 3D televisions in many home theaters this decade, mostly because of the influence of Avatar. The fact that it has already reached a billion dollars will support more 3D feature films to be made, as well as promote the success of upcoming Blu-Ray 3D technology and 3D televisions and TV content. The Discovery Channel and ESPN have already announced they will have 3D content within 2 years; the overwhelming appeal of Avatar will guarantee that the viewing population will be clamoring for 3D content everywhere, as soon as it’s ready. The revolution will be televised, and it will have three dimensions.

But this review isn’t about the 3D viewing experience, which brings me to my second point: Avatar changes the world of film reviews, too. Some films will be created especially with the 3D experience in mind, which affects how they will ‘play’ in 2D. As a result, you’ll probably start seeing some reviewers double up and have a 2D review and a 3D review. The best I can do right now is to split up my review to expose the difference when viewing in 2D versus 3D, but future reviews may have just a separate section for that. In my opinion, 3D technology will eventually become akin to Technicolor: that is, we’ll start seeing almost more and more films in 3D, and the closing of the technology gap in the home will mean that everyone watches 3D content in 3D, and never in 2D. This will make film reviewers’ jobs easier, but in the meantime, we’ll have to pull double duty. Since I want to make especially clear what the technological and experiential differences are between 3D and 2D viewing, I will have a second post reviewing just the 3D aspects of Avatar. Here’s a sneak peek: You’re crazy to see Avatar in anything other than IMAX 3D.

Especially with Avatar winning the Golden Globe this week for Best Drama (thus making it a near-lock for an Oscar nomination), many people who still haven’t seen the film (and many who have seen it) are asking: Is Avatar really worth the award attention?

I hope to use the ratings below to answer that question with a “yes”:

Production value: 5/5 stars. Give me a break. James Cameron has spent some of the largest film budgets in history, and Avatar’s budget (nearing half a billion dollars according to the New York Times) is largely spent on the 3D and CGI technologies underpinning the story. It shows. I may waffle about the return of Cameron’s investment on actors and screenwriters, but no one can ever say I didn’t like the pretty pictures. Everything from the futuristic computer screens to the feeling of life imbued by the fanciful creatures and vegetation on the planet Pandora (where Avatar is set) looks better than CGI: it looks real. A scene with CGI generally looks better when it is all CGI (that is, no real-life actors or objects spliced into the scene), but in this case, it’s all seamless.

If you want me to nit-pick, here it goes: The humans should remain human, and the aliens should remain alien. The humans who have blue Na’vi avatars (no spoiler here, this is how the film gets its title) were imbued with subtle characteristics in their avatar forms that make them appear more human. This may have made some sense to the science fiction junkies who want there to be a difference, but in my opinion, the real Na’vi looked more real than the avatars, especially that of Sigourney Weaver. Maybe it was the side-by-side comparison, but her avatar stood out like a sore thumb to me, and was more in the uncanny valley than Neytiri, the Na’vi huntress we see the most in the film. Also, some establishing shots at the start of the film (all typical James Cameron) were completely forced and took me out of the experience, but that’s the director’s fault more than the budget.

Later, when the action takes place exclusively in the CGI world Cameron and his art directors have created for us, I was completely engrossed. If I had seen this film instead of Star Wars at the crucially formative point in my life when I became a fanboy, Avatar would have been that geek-out moment for me. As it is, the film has been impressive enough for me to see twice in IMAX 3D. When my wife (whom I took to my second viewing) asked about seeing it again, I didn’t blink at a third viewing; I only wanted to make sure we see it again with someone else who hasn’t yet seen this gorgeous film.

Story: 4/5 stars. Really. No, the screenwriters aren’t going to win the big awards for this film, just like in Titanic or Terminator 2 or any other huge blockbuster CGI action film. But that’s not what drew me here. Granted, a case could be made that science fiction films will continue to not be taken seriously because of a focus on the visuals as opposed to dialogue and plot. But this film isn’t as much sci-fi as it is fantasy. The Wizard of Oz didn’t win any awards for screenplay, either (also didn’t win Best Special Effects, unbelievably). But in The Wizard of Oz and Avatar, the stories were both easy enough to follow along, and suspenseful enough that the viewer really wasn’t sure what would happen next. The characters weren’t believable in the strictest sense, but the viewer could identify with the main characters, hate the villain, cheer for the protagonists, and so on. This is where I say that while Avatar isn’t the best-written story out there this year, it is “as good as it needs to be.”

Enjoyability: 5/5 stars: If you can only see Avatar in 2D, I feel sorry for you. However, the people I know who have only seen it in 2D absolutely loved it. There is plenty of eye-candy to satisfy any blockbuster-lover’s hunger for visuals (if you liked the Transformers films, you’ll love Avatar), and the story of the protagonist Jake Sully and the Na’vi is compelling enough to keep the non-cynic fully engaged to the point where you will feel the main characters’ fear, apprehension, exhilaration, and sorrow as they do. That said, I was captivated. I saw Avatar for the first time in the middle of the Christmas Eve blizzard, on a 6-hour break from working over 18 hours in 24–I was fairly sleep-deprived. As such, the film was likened to a waking dream, where I felt as though putting on the 3D glasses transported me to Pandora. When the end credits rolled, I effectively woke from the dream, walked out into the blizzard, and worked an overnight shift. The entire experience for me, then, let me emphasize with Jake Sully’s realization in transferring in and out of the avatar body: “Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream.” Any film that can make me blissfully forget my surroundings and personal troubles for two and a half hours is doing its job admirably.

This film is marketable to a large viewing audience, so the average seven or eight-year-old should be fine watching it, I think. That said, if you don’t like cartoon and/or warlike violence, this isn’t the film for you. Apparently people curse some in the future, but not nearly as much as in a standard action film, and smoking cigarettes is still a habit for a few. Also, the blue people are dressed like, well, like natives in a big hot rain forest. Things to consider if you’re sensitive to such things.

Dones’ Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Avatar is a ground-breaking film which must be seen in 3D to be truly appreciated. Even for those who can’t see it in 3D, it’s still worth seeing. Be sure to look for my upcoming review of the IMAX 3D experience.

As a child of the late 70′s/early 80′s, I first really noticed Michael Jackson when Thriller came out. Oh, sure, I think I probably heard “Rock With You” (still my favorite) and Jackson Five songs before then, but Thriller was a big enough pop-culture earthquake to reach me in small-town Kansas. And my, what an earthquake!

The Thriller album, video, etc. was all encompassed by this hoopla that changed our culture. We had the behind the scenes on HBO of the Making of Thriller, the music video that was more like a film, that gave us insight into the way all subsequent music videos would be created. Thriller is the Citizen Kane of music videos, and despite what Nirvana has to say about it, it will always be the #1 music video of all time. The album itself was really good, including more hits than I can count–and the rest are pretty much ingrained into my psyche, as well, as a function of how good they are. If Michael’d swapped out “The Girl Is Mine” for his other duet with Paul McCartney, “Say, Say, Say”, the album would have been freakin’ perfect. Then there was the jacket, the glove, Billy Jean, Beat It, the Moonwalk, the Pepsi commercial…all resonating in pop culture through movies like Beverly Hills Cop, to Corey Feldman dressing up like Michael, and so on.

I was in 2nd grade and had never heard of the Moonwalk until one morning I walk into my classroom early and some kid asks me if I know how to moonwalk. Caught off guard, I say, “Yeah,” and start doing my best Neal Armstrong impression. This was the first time that I can remember that Michael Jackson was known as ‘cool’ (this event also confirmed that I am a dork). It was all downhill from there, and my younger brother was even more into Michael than I was. This was one of two Michael Jackson posters he had on the wall of his room:

When Captain Eo came out, I was as pumped as I could be. Michael Jackson in a musical scifi fantasy, in 3d? We had the “making-of” for this movie, taped off the Disney Channel, and watched it repeatedly for years, such that when we finally went to Disneyland in ’89 we already knew 80% of the film and all of the music, but it was the fulfillment of the promise that the behind-the-scenes special had made years before.

Don’t forget ”We Are The World”. How many people who lived through the 80′s can’t sing that song all the way through, even imitating each artist’s unique singing style, and naming off each person in order (more or less). We liked it so much, we bought both versions of the album. Hey, it was for starving kids in Africa, and we did our part.  

I don’t know if it would have been obvious from the outside how much I respected this guy. Here he did charity work, and would hang out with kids, and he always had a big smile on his face, and his music and dance moves were SO COOL! He was wholesome, heroic and virtuous. People called him the King of Pop, and we all hailed him as royalty, devoting our time and treasure and heart to the king.

But this King’s hero journey had not yet ended. Things went Bad from here… Bad was kind of the beginning of the end of the honeymoon for me. The music was great, but some of it was darker and weirder: gone was this innocent 1950′s movie-house faux-horror of the song Thriller, and in was the nearly unintelligible but somehow threatening Smooth Criminal; out was the completely unbelievable fight song Beat It (unbelievable because Michael Jackson wasn’t a physical threat, just a coolness threat. He wasn’t going to kick your butt, but he could win hands-down in a dance-off), and in was the more deadly threat of Bad. No more We Are The World; now it was Man In The Mirror, which was less sympathy for others and more of a guilt trip.

At the same time, we started to hear about Michael hanging out with Bubbles the chimp, and buying the elephant man’s bones, and just doing wiggy-ass stuff. Not to mention the plastic surgery: he wasn’t the cute little black boy from the Jackson Five (probably wouldn’t even qualify to be in The Wiz without makeup, sorry to say), and he wasn’t even this cool black guy with the million-dollar smile from the Thriller album. He was bad, and white, and unrecognizable, and he grabbed his crotch for no reason. The music was great, but the King was a shadow of his former self, at least in my eyes.

I bought the Dangerous album on CD when I was in high school, and it was okay. About 50% good-to-great songs, but the rest were just so-so. MTV just kept on selling him as if nothing had changed, but just about everything about Michael had changed by then. Didn’t he marry Lisa Marie around that time? He had officially gone off the deep end by then, even though it wasn’t fully evident. In hindsight, maybe it was seeing him with Macaulay Culkin that started getting us wondering, but enough of the music was still outstanding, and the music videos continued to be innovative, so we didn’t worry about it.

Until he got in trouble. Officially. Some believe Michael that it was some celebrity witchhunt, but I think most of us could tell there was truth to the accusations. It was around this time that Michael started wearing masks, and I think he lost part of his nose for a while to plastic surgery. It was at this point that I really started mourning the loss of my hero, of my king. This is what I meant in the first paragraph above: the Michael Jackson I knew, loved, and respected in the 80′s had already died in the 90′s, so today I did not shed a tear.

Lately, I have been itching to finally get my collection caught up and buy his music on CD for ripping to my iPod, but I didn’t want any of my money going to that Thing that my boyhood idol had transformed into. Now I don’t have to shop the used CD racks for his music (unless I just want a deal), because now I know my money won’t go to feeding his shell of a corpse that still went by the name Michael Jackson.

That sounds very bitter, but I think it portrays quite accurately how my childhood hero has fallen in my estimation. I do not weep for the overly wealthy yet still hopelessly in debt, insanely weird and self-disfiguring pedophile who died this afternoon. Today, on the day of his passing, I remember and earnestly mourn the man who created iconic music, dance, and imagery that had such a major influence in the shaping of my own artistic and aesthetic tastes, as well as those of my generation. That is the one I remember, the one I mourned for when he fell from grace, and the one I mourn for today, in his own words:

He’s out of my life
He’s out of my life
And I don’t know whether to laugh or cry
I don’t know whether to live or die
And it cuts like a knife
He’s out of my life

Of course, cade got 16 right. But I suppose someone who has seen most of the films should be able to judge between them a little better. For the record (and despite my earnest intentions) I’ve still only seen Wall-E, The Dark Knight, Kung Fu Panda, Wanted, Iron Man, and Tropic Thunder. So basically the same as any non-film geek in my demographic, I suppose.

Some favorite Oscar moments this year:

- The opening number with janky ‘Be Kind Rewind’ sets
- Hugh Jackman’s hosting
- Heath Ledger’s family accepting his well-deserved award
- The one winner who said “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto”
- The new way of having previous winning actors personally telling nominees how great they are. This makes being nominated a true honor, and I really hope they continue this practice.
- Reaching a personal all-time high in predictions, and getting over 50% right. Great feeling, despite cade’s valid point that most of the front-runners won. I will take the new personal best with the only regret being my failure to see any of the main nominees before the ceremony.

CUTE
Originally uploaded by metamorphilia.

Eligible presidential candidate in 2044. Vote early, vote often!

This is my first attempt at a propaganda poster. I hope you like it.

Impressions so far:
- No Clint Eastwood, no Cate Blanchett, no George Clooney. No doubt they will be presenters at the ceremony since otherwise they’ll be greatly missed.
- Robert Downey, Jr, is getting hosed for an Oscar he deserves, this time by the late great Heath Ledger (who deserves it more). Why so serious, Mr. Downey?
- Doubt is going to be skunked.

**Updated with full list of nominees, and italicized a couple titles I forgot to.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
81st Annual Academy Awards Nominations

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
Sean Penn, “Milk”
Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”

One viewing of the trailer for The Wrestler cemented this pick in my mind.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Josh Brolin, “Milk”
Robert Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Doubt”
Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Michael Shannon, “Revolutionary Road”

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”
Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
Kate Winslet, “The Reader”

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams, “Doubt”
Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Taraji P. Henson, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”

Too much buzz for this film, not enough nominees, so I think she’ll get something for Mr. Allen.

Best animated feature film of the year
“Bolt”
“WALL-E”
“Kung Fu Panda”

WALL-E could have been a contender for Best Picture overall, just like many of the past Pixar releases. Since Beauty and the Beast scared the academy into creating the animated feature category, Pixar has won many deserved animated feature Oscars, while also getting the shaft for not being eligible for Best Picture.

Achievement in art direction
“Changeling”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“The Duchess”
“Revolutionary Road”

Achievement in cinematography
“Changeling”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“The Reader”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

Achievement in costume design
“Australia”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Duchess”
“Milk”
“Revolutionary Road”

Oscar is a big fan of period costumes; apparently it’s very difficult to design something to look like something else that’s already been made. Anyway, nothing’s more ‘period’ this year than The Duchess, but Australia might be a sleeper. I think Doubt is missing in this category.

Achievement in directing
Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Stephen Daldry, “The Reader”
David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Gus Van Sant, “Milk”

I’m reversing my statement for Best Picture here. It’s 50-50, and Gus is due.

Best documentary feature
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”
“Encounters at the End of the World”
“The Garden”
“Man on Wire”
“Trouble the Water”

Best documentary short subject
“The Conscience of Nhem En”
“The Final Inch”
“Smile Pinki”
“The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306″

Achievement in film editing
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Milk”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

Best foreign language film of the year
“The Baader-Meinhof Complex” (Germany)
“The Class” (France)
“Departures” (Japan)
“Revanche” (Austria)
“Waltz with Bashir” (Israel)

Japan is due. Plus “Slumdog” may pull favoritism for Asia into the mix here. No really, I’m grasping at straws on this one.

Achievement in makeup
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army”

This will be BB’s one Oscar, enabling a so-so film to still be able to call itself  ‘Academy Award-winning.’ It’s deserved in this one (curious?) case.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Defiance”
“Milk”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“WALL-E”

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Down to Earth” from “WALL-E”
“Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire”
“O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire”

Slumdog will cancel itself out here, giving WALL-E the edge.

Best motion picture of the year
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Milk”
“The Reader”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

This could go one of two ways: Milk or Slumdog. I’m picking Slumdog due to Oscar’s propensity for sweeps (though not in recent years), but due to Prop 8 pressures in the Academy’s home state, Milk may reach the tipping point for politics over Slumdog’s sentimentality.

What about Benjamin Button, you ask? First, I’m prejudiced against it: I think it’s utterly predictable, it was made solely to try to get Brad his Oscar, and I loved the comparisons to Forrest Gump (YouTube video redacted). This may actually backfire against me, but I’ll stand by my predictions. Second, Brad Pitt hasn’t been good luck for films reaching for Oscar gold. Third, I think Slumdog is just too hot, and fourth, I really don’t hear any buzz about The CC of BB, even though it leads in overall nominations. Go read the short story instead.

Best animated short film
“La Maison en Petits Cubes”
“Lavatory – Lovestory”
“Oktapodi
“Presto”
“This Way Up”

So beloved is WALL-E that the short cartoon preceding it in theatres and included on its DVD is a shoo-in. Plus it’s really, really well done.

Best live action short film
“Auf der Strecke (On the Line)”
“Manon on the Asphalt”
“New Boy”
“The Pig”
“Spielzeugland (Toyland)”

Achievement in sound editing
“The Dark Knight”
“Iron Man”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“WALL-E”
“Wanted”

Here in the sound categories is the major showdown between my top two contenders. I don’t think you can beat Pixar for mixing and editing all of those tracks on the floating space colony. How many individual voices did they have to mix in? A lot.

Achievement in sound mixing
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“WALL-E”
“Wanted”

Achievement in visual effects
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Iron Man”

At last, a true toss-up. I’m going with my gut and my personal favorite here (I think Christopher Nolan got ripped off for The Dark Night not getting nominated for more non-technical Oscars. Best Picture and Director could have been possible here.)

Adapted screenplay
Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire”
David Hare, “The Reader”
Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”
John Patrick Shanley, “Doubt”
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Original screenplay
Dustin Lance Black, “Milk”
Courtney Hunt, “Frozen River”
Mike Leigh, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Marttin McDonagh, “In Bruges”
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, “WALL-E”

On the other hand, robotic dinosaurs are always cool.

A quick preface with the info that may or may not be known to the readers of this blog: My son’s birth father is african-american. Which makes us a mixed-race family.

While race has never been the reason I voted for Barack Obama, I’d be lying if I said I’m not excited and greatly moved by tonight’s historic election of an african-american president. I have friends, neighbors, family members, and coworkers who are celebrating this victory on a far deeper level than I am, but I smiled and wept as I listened tonight to the black commentators who were awestruck at the moment Obama’s election was called. While I hope race was not the reason they voted for Obama either, I share with them the celebration that the same Constitution that once counted a black American as 3/5 the worth of a white one, has brought this nation to the point where a black man is now the president-elect.

Which brings me back to my son. Ever since my wife and I decided we would be open to adopting a non-white baby, I started thinking along with all the other fathers of this nation’s black children, that when my son is asked what he wants to be when he grows up, I will tell him he can be anything he wants to be. And we want to truthfully agree when he says, ‘I want to be president of the United States,’ that it can be so. Until tonight, however, we have had a big lump in our throat thinking about that prospect, because there’s been no evidence that a little black boy could ever become president. Until tonight. Now, when my baby boy learns to talk and says he wants to grow up to be president, I can tell him without a shred of doubt, ‘Yes you can.’

Thank you America, for giving my son this opportunity, and thank you President-Elect Obama, for being an example to my infant son that he truly can grow up to be anything he wants to be.

To all of you out there who are goign to complain about the outcome of the election, regardless of who wins, I say:

Don’t Vote!

That’s right. A long-time axiom I have held to in politics is “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.” This is a tenet I hold near and dear to my heart, because I prefer to reserve the right to complain if I don’t like what happens in government and politics. I can complain about Bush because I voted for him twice and feel betrayed. I can complain about Congressman Dennis Moore because I’ve always voted against him and I can’t stand that he’s still my representative.

But if all you’re going to do is complain about the system, I’d rather that you just stay home on Election Day and turn off the TV, and don’t even think about calling me. Because if you don’t vote I don’t have to hear you complain about how ‘the electoral college is crap,’ and ‘they’re all a bunch of crooks anyway.’ The electoral college may not be your favorite method of electing a leader, sir or madam, but it’s the one we have. And if you don’t want ‘crooks’ in office, why don’t you run for office yourself, or at least encourage your favorite prospective leader in your neighborhood to run for office, and support their candidacy?

I would be all for a new Constitutional Convention. I think the system is just about as broken as we can make it right now, and it’s not looking like Obama or anyone else will really be able to fix anything about the system as a whole. But I also don’t think we’re the right generation to go creating a new Constitution. Because all we’ll do is bring old partisanship and grudges into the discussion, and we won’t have made any progress.

If we’re to create a system you really can’t complain about, sir or madam, then we should start with the next generation, my son’s generation. We need to give these kids the best education possible, by supplementing public or private school learning with honest-to-God home-schooling. These kids should be out in the world getting to know their peers and elders, and learning all kinds of government-sanctioned stuff on the standardized tests; but they should also get after-hours tutelage by the best minds our generation has to offer (namely, you and me) by making these kids learn what’s Really Important. Maybe then they’ll be educated enough to be the Washington’s and Jefferson’s and Adams’s of tomorrow. Then you won’t be able to complain about the system, because in some small way, you had a direct hand in creating it.