Success of the dork!

For the first time EVER, I, your fearless (besides zombies) movie-watching hero, have actually sat through ALL FIVE feature-length films nominated for the Oscar Best Picture.

ALL FIVE. WOO!

Why this excites me I'll never know. It's less a badge of honor and more a badge of dorkiness.

And having ACTUALLY SEEN all five, I feel I am sufficiently well-informed to express opinions on who ought to win, or who ought not to win. I am using many words for the sake of using them right now, by the way. No one is reading this for reals, right?

Here is, in ranked order, my preferences:

1. No Country for Old Men
   
2. There Will Be Blood
   
3. Atonement
   
4. Michael Clayton
   
5. Juno

That's right, Juno is at the bottom of this list. It tried and failed to be clever. It tried much too hard and too obviously, and while it was good enough for Sunday afternoon entertainment (god only knows I would've been watching some shitty Flavor of Rock of Tequila Love marathon otherwise), it lacks the qualities of a Best Picture.

Michael Clayton was decent, but a nonentity.

Atonement was beautiful, and actually I'd recommend seeing it in the theater if you're into that sort of period drama, and if it wins I won't hate on it. It felt like what it was: a book on film. The sets and costumes and makeup and cinematography were stunning. But it didn't make me cry or my heart swell or leaving me thinking, "Wow." No, friends, that honor is left to the #2 and #1 films.

Happily, if There Will Be Blood wins, I'll be pleased, assuming I am still awake by the end of the ceremony (go Jon Stewart!). It was pretty fucking great. But so was No Country for Old Men, and I give the Coens just a bit of an edge, because that movie made me forgive them for making shitty movies for the past few years when they are capable of attaining greatness. And while I would never suggest, say, my mom see these movies (violence is her least favorite thing, proclivity for crime procedurals aside), they have stuck with me in a very good way. Loved these movies. Really.

Thus ends an entry no one besides me gives half a shit about, and it's all thanks to the auto-save on Blogger. My X server (Linux windows) keeps crashing and I thought I'd lost the whole damn thing.