Tomorrow's the big day!

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it's Oscar nominations time! Tomorrow! Oh boy! And I have watched only three films this month. Boo hoo is right. This is a result of my being in Korea and being unable to run out and watch 2 or 3 movies (in English) every week. The three films I did watch this month were Eat Pray Love (love it!), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (liked it, I think because I never watch any HP so everything was interesting to me but old hat for everyone else), and The Green Zone (I freaking loved this movie and highly, enthusiastically recommend it to everyone right now!)

So. Oscars. The big contenders that I need to see are True Grit, Blue Valentine, Another Year, Rabbit Hole and Toy Story 3. Nor have I seen Biutiful or Conviction, which may well give us some acting nods. Overall, though, I had a good November-December of movie watching and think I am poised to be over 50% when the nominations come out tomorrow.

My story, to which I am sticking, is that 127 Hours is the best film of the year, along with Inception. If either misses out on one of the TEN Best Pic nods I will be incredibly frustrated. It is sort of depressing to see how many people have foregone-concluded that it is between The Social Network and The King's Speech for what will actually win. I want to see a 127 Hours surprise! That said, I liked TSN and TKS a lot. The King's Speech is more than another British piece with people flouncing around to get Academy attention, really. It is dynamic, funny, touching, and an interesting history lesson/thoughtful look at humanity. It was amazing to me what Helena Bonham Carter can do with, like, five seconds of screen time, by the way. As for Black Swan? Sigh. It was entertaining, but it was just so...self-aware. I tend to hate that in everyone-loves-me Oscar contenders.

Actress-wise, I am loving the whole BAFTA thing, that is to say, the whole putting-Hailee-Steinfeld-from True Grit in the LEAD actress category. Every year, people. Every year some actress' performance is called supporting when it's clearly not. Some years, though, the Academy (and other Award-giving bodies) get it right and make that actress a Lead Actress nominee in spite of a Supporting Actress campaign. (See also: Kate Winslet, The Reader) I love it. Since I haven't seen the movie, I can't comment on her over Jennifer Lawrence, whom I did like in Winter's Bone. Nor have I seen Noomi Rapace in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Men Who Hate Women. But I can say this: we do not need to nominate Julianne Moore for The Kids Are All Right. Annette Bening should win (yes, win) (yes, over Natalie Portman's swan) for TKAAR and that's all we need for that.

I thought Christian Bale's performance in The Fighter was one of the most marvelous things I've seen in quite some time. He'll get a nomination, for sure.

I don't really have any surprise predictions or secret thoughts on what's in store...I would like to see an editing nomination for 127 Hours...and Jeremy Renner was the best thing about The Town, in my opinion. It would be pretty bad-ass if Hye-ja Kim, the Korean star of Mother - which we watched at the fantastic cinema across the street from us in Chicago - gets an actress nomination! But I'm not counting on that. Jacki Weaver for supporting in Animal Kingdom is a more likely foreign-actress-in-a-movie-United-Statesians-never-heard-of-much-less-saw bet.

Oh boy! Oh boy! I'll be back tomorrow or the day after to talk about the big announcement!