Men on Film: If We Picked the Oscars 2011

Borrowing a page from Siskel and Ebert back in the good ol' days, Movie Dearest's very own Men on Film — Chris Carpenter, Neil Cohen and yours truly — are presenting our own version of "If We Picked the Oscars"! These aren't predictions, but what movies, actors, directors, et al that we would vote for if we were members of the Academy. This year, we're also chiming in with our picks for the "egregiously overlooked" non-nominees.

So without further ado, the envelope please...

The nominees for Best Picture are: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: The Tree of Life has garnered a love it or hate it reaction but I agree with Roger Ebert, who wrote that its millennia-spanning scale and often nebulous meaning(s) ranks it right up there with the now-classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Terrence Malick's film is a spiritual, moral and family odyssey, beautifully shot and acted, that I hope will gain greater appreciation from future generations.
NC: It is so rare for a film to surprise and amaze jaded critics, but the sheer exuberance and love of cinema of the French import The Artist threatened to make silent movies cool again.
KH: As a silent film enthusiast, I easily succumbed to the whimsical charms and pitch-perfect style of The Artist.
Egregiously Overlooked: Crazy, Stupid, Love, Drive, Take Shelter, Warrior, Win Win.

The nominees for Best Actor are: Demián Bichir in A Better Life, George Clooney in The Descendants, Jean Dujardin in The Artist, Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Brad Pitt for Moneyball.
And our winners would be:
CC: This is an unusually strong group of performances, and perhaps through a miracle of the Oscar fairy all five nominees will win in a tie! My own vote would go to Clooney. While I haven't admired all of his past performances (even those that have won awards), I was touched by his emotional authenticity as a hurting husband and father in The Descendants.
NC: While Clooney’s pained and almost schlubby performance in The Descendents was his best yet, DuJardin, as The Artist, overcame audiences’ resistance to an old-fashioned silent movie by being as dashing and romantic as Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn combined.
KH: I'm torn between the two above choices of my fellow critics, but in the end my vote would go to Clooney, who shed his dashing movie star image and transformed himself in to regular guy in an impossible situation.
Egregiously Overlooked: Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar, Ryan Gosling in Drive, Michael Shannon in Take Shelter.

The nominees for Best Actress are: Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, Viola Davis in The Help, Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady and Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn.
And our winners would be:
CC: Davis, despite my near-equal admiration for La Streep's ah-mah-zing turn as Maggie Thatcher.
NC: The hardest category by far, every woman gave an exemplary performance. But by sheer force of  Streep’s heartbreaking performance, The Iron Lady became watchable. It is time for the Academy to recognize her again.
KH: Davis grounded The Help with her innate grace, dignity and breathtaking talent.
Egregiously Overlooked: Vera Farmiga in Higher Ground, Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn, Jonah Hill in Moneyball, Nick Nolte in Warrior, Christopher Plummer in Beginners and Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
And our winners would be:
CC: I was very impressed by both Hill and Nolte in their respective films but Plummer (who has never won and has only been nominated twice in his long career despite many fine performances) gets my vote for his delicate, inspiring work as a gay man and father coming out late in life.
NC: This is the easiest category, since Plummer’s performance in Beginners overshadowed all of the others for many reasons: it’s “his year”, everyone in the Academy loves him and, most of all, Plummer perfectly captured the wonderment of his late-in-life coming out.
KH: It's a sign of a great performance in a (in my opinion) mediocre movie that when the character is absent from the screen, you yearn for his return. Such was the case for me with Plummer in Beginners.
Egregiously Overlooked: Jeremy Irons and Kevin Spacey in Margin Call, Ben Kingsley in Hugo, Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life, Corey Stoll in Midnight in Paris.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Bérénice Bejo in The Artist, Jessica Chastain in The Help, Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs and Octavia Spencer in The Help.
And our winners would be:
CC: Spencer, who so masterfully balanced fear and humor, dignity and remorse in The Help.
NC: Spencer gave an amazing performance, as did her Help co-star Chastain. McCarthy was delightfully vulgar in Bridesmaids and Bejo was the lovely heart of The Artist, but hands-down, my favorite supporting performance of the year was McTeer’s amazing cross-dressing role in Albert Nobbs.
KH: At first, I didn't even recognize McTeer, let alone catch the "twist" about her character until the "big reveal". Next to The Artist's Uggie, she was the biggest scene-stealer of the year.
Egregiously Overlooked: Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Emma Stone and Cicely Tyson in The Help, Shailene Woodley in The Descendants.

The nominees for Best Director are: Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist, Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life, Alexander Payne for The Descendants and Martin Scorsese for Hugo.
And our winners would be:
CC: In an auteur showdown between Malick and Scorsese, at least in my mind, I would vote for the never-won Malick.
NC: The most unexpected pleasure of the year was seeing how Hazanavicius created a brand new silent movie with The Artist and made you actually feel real emotions. This year, he deserves the award for his efforts.
KH: And once again, it's a newcomer -- Hazanavicius -- who takes the prize over the star directors.
Egregiously Overlooked: David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin, Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive, Tate Taylor for The Help.

The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are: The Descendants, Hugo, The Ides of March, Moneyball and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
And our winners would be:
CC, KH: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash's lovely, sensitive adaptation of The Descendants.
NC: I'll go Hugo by John Logan.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, The Help, Jane Eyre, We Need to Talk About Kevin.

The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are: The Artist, Bridesmaids, Margin Call, Midnight in Paris and A Separation.
And our winners would be:
CC: I wasn't blown away by either The Artist, Bridesmaids or Midnight in Paris, and I haven't yet seen A Separation, so my vote would go to the incisive financial thriller Margin Call by newcomer J.C. Chandor.
NC: The absolute smartest script of the year was Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.
KH: Silence is golden, but dialogue alone doesn't make a script, as Michel Hazanavicius so deftly proved with The Artist.
Egregiously Overlooked: Crazy, Stupid, Love, Take Shelter, Weekend, Win Win.

The nominees for Best Cinematography are: The Artist, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, The Tree of Life and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: The Tree of Life, hands down.
NC: Hugo, with its magical 3D and amazing visuals, trumps all the others.
KH: A tough category, and while The Tree of Life felt at times like a string of jaw dropping images for jaw dropping sake, I'd give it to Emmanual Lubezki for his impressive body of work alone.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, J. Edgar, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The nominees for Best Art Direction are: The Artist, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hugo, Midnight in Paris and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: A train station with its giant clock tower, the snowy streets of Paris and Georges Melies' dream factory: it's hard to ignore the gorgeous Hugo.
Egregiously Overlooked: Anonymous, J. Edgar, The Tree of Life, Water for Elephants.

The nominees for Best Costume Design are: Anonymous, The Artist, Hugo, Jane Eyre and W.E..
And our winners would be:
CC: Jane Eyre is the standout for me here.
NC, KH: The Artist had sartorial style and elegance to spare... and in black and white!
Egregiously Overlooked: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Potiche.

The nominees for Best Original Score are: The Adventures of Tintin, The Artist, Hugo, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: As predictable and mushy as some of John Williams' themes for War Horse are, they also perfectly suited Spielberg's overlong but still-affecting tale of a boy and his steed.
NC: With no words, The Artist relied heavily on its music.
KH: The moody, jazzy score of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Tree of Life.

The nominees for Best Original Song are: "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets and "Real in Rio" from Rio.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: No contest: "Man or Muppet".
Egregiously Overlooked: Where to begin? "Life's a Happy Song" from The Muppets, "The Living Proof" from The Help, "Star-Spangled Man" from Captain America: The First Avenger...

The nominees for Best Film Editing are: The Artist, The Descendants, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo and Moneyball.
And our winners would be:
CC: Here's the one category I'll go with The Artist.
NC: While I'll go with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
KH: And one more for The Artist.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Warrior.

The nominees for Best Visual Effects are: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hugo, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: We would all be monkey's uncles if we didn't vote for the incredible, primate-friendly CGI in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Egregiously Overlooked: Captain America: The First Avenger, Take Shelter, The Tree of Life.

The nominees for Best Sound Mixing are: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, Moneyball, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: This isn't my area of expertise, but War Horse sure sounded great (at least when the people weren't speaking its leaden dialogue).
NC: Again, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
KH: Hugo, ironically considering it too celebrates the silent era.
Egregiously Overlooked: Drive, Source Code, Super 8.

The nominees for Best Sound Editing are: Drive, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and War Horse.
And our winners would be:
CC: War Horse, same as above.
NC, KH: The should-have-been nominated more Drive.
Egregiously Overlooked: Rango, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Thor.

The nominees for Best Makeup are: Albert Nobbs, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Iron Lady.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: The Iron Lady, in which Streep was aged more convincingly than Close was made to look like a man in Albert Nobbs.
Egregiously Overlooked: The Artist, Hugo, Green Lantern.

The nominees for Best Animated Feature are: A Cat in Paris, Chico & Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Rango.
And our winners would be:
CC: I enjoyed both Puss in Boots and Rango, but I love the steamy Cuban musical-romance Chico & Rita.
NC, KH: We dug the weird and wonderful Rango.
Egregiously Overlooked: Cars 2, Winnie the Pooh.

The nominees for Best Foreign Language Film are: Bullhead from Belgium, Footnote from Israel, In Darkness from Poland, Monsieur Lazhar from Canada and A Separation from Iran.
And our winners would be:
NC goes with A Separation, while CC and KH abstain.
Egregiously Overlooked: Potiche, The Skin I Live In, Tomboy.

The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are: Hell and Back Again, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Pina and Undefeated.
And our winners would be:
CC: Pina is spectacular but If a Tree Falls has a potent, timely message and thereby gets my vote.
NC: Me too with If a Tree Falls.
KH: I'll pass on this one as I was wholly unimpressed with the three I've see so far (Hell and Back, If a Tree Falls and Undefeated, a.k.a. Hoop Dreams Meets The Blind Side).
Egregiously Overlooked: Page One: Inside the New York Times, Project Nim, Semper Fi: Always Faithful, We Were Here.

The nominees for Best Documentary Short are: The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, God is the Bigger Elvis, Incident in New Baghdad, Saving Face and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: We were all moved by the devastating and poetic The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.

The nominees for Best Animated Short are: Dimanche (Sunday), The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, La Luna, A Morning Stroll and Wild Life.
And our winners would be:
CC: Out of all of them, I most enjoyed the century-long, chicken-zombie mash-up A Morning Stroll.
NC, KH: A heartwarming valentine to the timeless joys of the written word, we found The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore absolutely enchanting.

The nominees for Best Live Action Short are: Pentecost, Raju, The Shore, Time Freak and Tuba Atlantic.
And our winners would be:
CC, KH: Raju, dramatic and heartbreaking, featuring powerful performances and a timely story.

And now for our own special category of dishonorable mention, the Worst Nomination of the Year:
CC: This is a rare year in which I don't have a strong objection to a particular nominee, but I am highly critical of the Academy's Music Branch for somehow only finding two tunes worthy of inclusion in the Best Original Song category. If they continue to exclude so many contenders, they ought to scrap the category altogether. Loosen up, members! (Hopefully, things will change by next year.)
NC: No other film managed to be as both cloying and insulting to the memory of 9/11victims and survivors as the atrociously Best Picture nominee Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Talented though he may be, I wanted to slap young Thomas Horn many times during the film. And unlike my esteemed colleagues, count me as one of the haters of another Best Picture finalist, The Tree of Life, which I found ponderous and pretentious.
KH: I'm still flabbergasted by the acclaim and now Oscar nomination of Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, a crass caricature of a performance of a tired and slightly homophobic stereotype (the butch gal who, surprise!, isn't a lesbian). That other actresses (see above) weren't recognized instead of McCarthy is a travesty.

And finally, see the comments section below for how we would rank the nine Best Picture nominees, just like how Academy members are required to do when they vote.

Illustrations by Eda Akaltun for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Reel Thoughts: The Academy Plays it Safe and Weird

Is the Academy scared of genitalia and cross-dressing, at least when they involve men? It would seem so, at least when you look at who did and didn’t get nominated for Best Actor this year. Snubbed were the handsome Michael Fassbender, whose full-frontal performance as a sex addict in Shame drew raves about how he “endowed” the role, and Leonardo DiCaprio, whose coy cross-dressing was more Norman Bates than La Cage aux Folles, in J. Edgar. As I noted in my Top 10/Worst 10 List, this was a year full of pretty good, but mostly not great, films and more amazing performances than we have seen in many years. This makes it anyone’s race to win, so predicting the winners will be hard.

On February 26th, the suspense will be over and we’ll see if The Artist scores the big prize (it should!) and which one of the fantastic actors and actresses nominated will get the ultimate reward for their work.

Here are my somewhat fearless predictions:

Best Picture:
The cloying Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Steven Spielberg’s gorgeous but plodding War Horse have no business vying for Best Picture, and Terrence Malick’s pretentious drama The Tree of Life felt like it took a lifetime to watch. That these three films took slots that could have recognized the quietly brilliant Win Win, the hilarious Crazy, Stupid, Love and the riveting Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of the biggest crimes of the year. While Moneyball and The Help are popular hits, their nominations will be considered sufficient reward. The magical children’s film Hugo has the most impressive use of 3D ever, but even Martin Scorcese’s name isn’t going to earn a kid’s movie an Oscar. While Midnight in Paris was my personal favorite film last year, but it has faded from the voters’ minds. That leaves Alexander Payne’s touching family drama The Descendants and Michel Hanavicius’s amazing silent film The Artist.

My pick will be the Academy’s ultimate choice: The Artist.

Best Actor:
This category yielded the biggest snubs with Fassbender and DiCaprio being passed over in favor of Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the unknown but very deserving Demian Bichir for A Better Life. Brad Pitt’s nomination for Moneyball seems like a brazen attempt to draw in more male viewers with a sports-themed nominee, leaving the big decision between Jean Dujardin’s meticulously perfect and mostly silent performance in The Artist and George Clooney’s mature and subdued performance as a grief-stricken father dealing with a comatose wife in The Descendants.

Who should win: Dujardin’s old-Hollywood matinee idol performance was spot-on and deserves recognition for its difficulty and success. Who will win: I can see the Academy voters rewarding the popular Clooney for his performance in The Descendents, as well as for his sly work in The Ides of March.

Best Actress:
This is the most competitive race, and any one of these women deserves to win. And this is with Tilda Swinton’s snub for We Need To Talk About Kevin and Vera Farmiga’s transcendent work in Higher Ground overlooked. Rooney Mara as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will not win, since her film lacked nominations in most of the other major categories, and Michelle Williams’ touching take on Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn is losing a little steam with voters. Glenn Close’s amazing work as Albert Nobbs is not as popular as Meryl Streep’s uncanny work as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, an otherwise forgettable film. Viola Davis seems unable to give a bad performance (even in dreck like Extremely Loud) but her work as Aibileen in The Help was among her finest work yet.

Who should win: Streep anchored almost every moment of The Iron Lady, and she shows extraordinary complexity as a woman suffering from mental lapses who is holding on desperately to her past glories (and deceased husband). Who will win: Davis is the frontrunner, and The Help was much more popular than The Iron Lady.

Best Supporting Actor:
Max von Sydow was the best part of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, while Kenneth Branagh did a masterful job of bringing Sir Laurence Olivier to life in My Week With Marilyn. Nick Nolte won raves for the otherwise forgotten Warrior, while a newly svelte Jonah Hill surprised everyone with a toned-down but still comic performance in Moneyball. The best performance, however, came from Christopher Plummer as Ewan McGregor’s dying gay father in Beginners. His joy as he discovers the life he’d denied himself all his married life was wonderful to watch, even though we knew he would not have long to enjoy it.

Corey Stoll really should have been nominated as Ernest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris, but even then the person who should and will win is Plummer.

Best Supporting Actress:
This race seems to be The Help's Octavia Spencer’s to lose, although all five women gave vastly different and equally enthralling performances. Okay, so maybe Melissa McCarthy wasn’t exactly “enthralling” as the most obnoxious of the Bridesmaids, but Jessica Chastain in The Help, Berenice Bejo in The Artist and Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs were all highlights of their respective films. Chastain has had an amazing year, starring in The Debt, Tree of Life, Take Shelter and The Help, and Bejo was perfect as hopeful starlet Peppy Miller. McTeer’s performance as Hugo, a proud woman who lives a hearty and fulfilled life as a man in 19th century Ireland, was the finest supporting performance of the year, and one with special appeal to the LGBT community.

Who will win: Spencer. Who should win: My vote goes to McTeer.

Best Director:
Martin Scorcese charmed us with Hugo, Terrence Malick dazzled us while boring us silly with The Tree of Life, Alexander Payne touched us with The Descendents and Michel Hanavicius and Woody Allen took us back to 1920s Hollywood and Paris, respectively. All five directors transported us to perfectly revealed worlds (even if Malick’s was slumberland), but Hanavicius managed to succeed in a genre not seen since the late twenties.

The Artist was a masterpiece of a silent film, so as much as I loved Midnight in Paris, I think that Hanavicius should and will win as Best Director.

By Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reverend's Reviews: 2012 Oscar Shorts Round-Up

Flying books, last year's devastating Japanese tsunami, and an actress who famously kissed Elvis only to soon after become a nun figure into the unusual mix of subjects that constitute this year's Oscar-nominated short films. Thanks to Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International, moviegoers in Los Angeles, Orange County and New York at least have the opportunity starting today to view them prior to the Academy Awards ceremony on February 26th. Some are also available online.

Whereas each year's Live Action Short and Animated Short nominees have been released theatrically for several years now, this is only the second year that the candidates for Best Documentary Short have been made available. Alas, two of the latter -- God is the Bigger Elvis and Saving Face -- weren't available online beforehand for review. I am most interested in God is the Bigger Elvis, which recounts the vocational journey of Dolores Hart. Hart co-starred with Elvis Presley in 1957's Loving You and the following year's King Creole, and she made several other movies with such leading men as Montgomery Clift, Robert Wagner and George Hamilton. She left Hollywood, however, in 1963 in order to become a Roman Catholic nun. Today, Hart is better known as Reverend Mother and Prioress of her abbey in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Interestingly, she remains a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is therefore the only nun who gets to vote for each year's Oscar winners.

The standout for me among the 2012 nominees for Best Documentary Short and, I believe, the likely Oscar winner is The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. Directed by Lucy Walker, it opens with devastating, first-hand video footage of the tidal disaster that swept coastal Japan on March 11, 2011 and killed an estimated 23,000 people. As one family took refuge on a nearby hillside, they recorded houses, school buses and neighbors being washed away. Subsequent accounts by survivors and rescue workers reveal their still-fresh grief, less than a year later. As one man tearfully states, "I lost everything that I lived for," including the best friend he watched die.

But the film also shows the re-growth that has already begun even as bodies are still being recovered. Intriguingly, the local cherry trees (many of them well over 100 years old) weren't destroyed and bloomed as usual soon after the tsunami. The trees and their beautiful blossoms, gorgeously photographed here by Aaron Phillips, serve as a potent metaphor for the impacted communities' recovery. Also featuring a Phillip Glass-ish score by alt rocker Moby, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom is undeniably moving and impossible to forget.

Among the nominees for Best Live Action Short is Pentecost. I couldn't avoid checking it out, drawn as I was by both its religious-themed title and plot. It is a very funny tale from Ireland of potential redemption from a Catholic perspective, as a young boy wrestles with his love of soccer and his responsibilities as an altar server. When the local archbishop comes to town for the titular holy day, preparations for Mass are likened to an athletic competition. Catholic liturgists will especially enjoy this one.

Due to a sometimes-weak Internet connection, I was unfortunately unable to watch the remainder of the Live Action Short contenders by deadline. On the plus side, though, I did view all five of this year's nominees in the Best Animated Short category. Disney/Pixar scored their now-seemingly obligatory nomination for the charming La Luna, although the studios' 2011 feature Cars 2 was notably excluded as a Best Animated Feature candidate. La Luna (which will screen with this summer's Pixar release Brave) spins a dialogue-free fantasy in which a boy's father and grandfather teach him the tricks of their unusual trade. As usual with Disney/Pixar, it is beautifully animated.

A Morning Stroll is an enjoyable, stylized romp that spans 100 years and involves zombies (both a phone app version and the real deal) as well as a wily chicken. In the process, the film transitions from black & white to color as well as from hand-drawn to CG. Canada's Dimanche (Sunday), meanwhile, is hand-drawn in a fairly simple style as it follows a child's weekend drive with his parents to church and then to his grandparents' house. Before returning home, he receives an unexpected lesson in the value of life.

This year's Oscar winner will most likely be either Wild Life (also from Canada) or The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (which, the filmmakers proudly proclaim, was made entirely in the great state of Louisiana). The former, subtitled "A Western," follows an Englishman with dreams of becoming a rancher to Alberta, 1909. This bittersweet saga by the talented Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby features lovely watercolor work in addition to frequent usage of Gilbert & Sullivan's classic tune, "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General."

The CG exercise in surrealism that is The Fantastic Flying Books... plays like something Salvador Dali and Ray Bradbury might have dreamed up. A withdrawn young man finds himself whisked away in a storm to a magical land populated by, yes, airborne works of literature. There, he finds himself tutored in the ways of life and love by Humpty Dumpty (who, curiously, also has a major role in the Best Animated Feature nominee, Puss in Boots). Touching and nicely scored by John Hunter, the short might just fly away with an Academy Award before all is said and done.

Reverend's Rating: A-

Los Angeles Release Date: February 10, 2012 Animation and Live Action at Landmark’s The Nuart Theatre, West LA and Regency Theatres’ South Coast Plaza, Santa Ana.

Los Angeles Release Date: February 17, 2012 Documentary Shorts at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3.

New York Release Date: February 10, 2012 Animation, Live Action and Documentary.

Note: Separate admission required for each program.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

Reverend's Reaction: 2011 Oscar Nominations

Nostalgia will reign supreme at this year's Academy Awards, judging by the number of backwards-glancing movies announced Tuesday as nominees. The World War I boy-and-his-steed epic War Horse, the valentines to cinema's early years Hugo and The Artist, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (itself a tribute to/critique of nostalgia), and historical dramas The Help, My Week With Marilyn, Albert Nobbs and The Iron Lady fairly predictably dominated the nominations.

I was disappointed that Tilda Swinton's powerful turn in We Need to Talk About Kevin wasn't recognized, as well as by the Academy's neglect of Leonardo DiCaprio's closet-case incarnation of J. Edgar, which was shut out completely. I'm delighted that Terrence Malick trumped both Steven Spielberg and Stephen Daldry among Best Director finalists for his masterful The Tree of Life. Other pleasant surprises for me included the multiple nods for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Best Actor, Screenplay and Score), the phenomenal Jessica Chastain's nomination for The Help, Nick Nolte's inclusion in the Supporting Actor category for the criminally under-seen Warrior, the recognition of J.C. Chandor's smart Margin Call screenplay, and the wonderful Animated Feature nominee Chico & Rita.

But the biggest surprise out of this year's nominations for pretty much everyone is the incredibly weak Original Song category, which consists of a whopping two contenders. For the past six years, best song submissions have to score above a certain percentage as rated by the music branch's members in order to be nominated. Out of more than 80 songs from 2011 releases considered, only "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets and a song from the animated Rio passed muster. What about the delightful, instantly memorable "Life's a Happy Song" from the Muppets' big-screen revival, or the Glenn Close-penned lullaby "Lay Your Head Down" from the genderbending Nobbs, or -- perhaps the most egregious omission -- "The Living Proof" from The Help. With apparently so few qualifying songs in recent years, I believe the time has come for this Academy branch to either relax its criteria somewhat or (gasp) do away with the category altogether.

If the Academy is truly about quality and justice, The Tree of Life, Moneyball or The Descendants will win the Oscar for Best Picture over enjoyable but overrated front runner, The Artist. Well, maybe they'll get it right when next year's 85th annual Academy Awards roll around.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards will be held and televised on Sunday, February 26th.

By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.