It's Oscar Time

In light of the serious nature of my latest posts, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to do a light-hearted entry. I consider myself quite the movie buff - my DVD collection is near a half-thousand, and I'd like to think I'm somewhat of an amateur critic as well. The Academy Awards are perhaps the only entertainment award show that I even remotely respect at this point, and so it's the one time outside of March Madness and the NBA draft where I get excited to make predictions. Granted, I haven't seen all of this year's nominees, so I'll try to stick with commenting on movies I've seen.     Every year there is one nominee who you know, just by the sheer amount of hype, media coverage, and critical praise, is going to take home the Oscar no matter what. This year there's no question - it's Forest Whitaker. The soft-spoken journeyman's turn in The Last King of Scotland as dictator Idi Amin is said to be the stuff of legends (I have not seen it yet, sadly). Whitaker is a superb actor, with a long line of great films and roles, such as Good Morning Vietnam, Phenomenon, Ghost Dog, and Panic Room. I'd just like to say that I'm glad Hollywood is finally giving this man his due, regardless of whether or not he ends up walking away with the award.     Actor in a supporting role is a toss-up, but of the performances I've seen, I have to say that Mark Wahlberg of The Departed well deserves the award. The Departed was simply one of the finest acted cop dramas I've ever seen, second only to the legendary ensemble cast of Heat. Wahlberg's portrayal of the hard-edged good-guy cop was gritty, raw, and in your face. I have not seen any of the movies in either actress categories, with the exception of Abigal Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine. The movie was brilliant, and her performance was adorable. But Oscar-worthy? I'm not so sure.     Of the smaller awards, I'm rooting for The Prestige to win Best Art Direction and Children of Men to win Best Cinematography. Each were particularly spectacular in the given categories. Director Chris Nolan really captured the tone and mood perfectly with The Prestige, and it was perhaps the most artistically stunning movie I saw all of last year. Children of Men featured some very high-intensity camera angles and lots of continuous shots that really drew the audience in. Alfonso Cuaron's sci-fi masterpiece was one of the more recent movies I saw in theaters, and I was very impressed with it in all regards (especially Michael Caine's portrayal of an old stoner). It's also nominated for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) but may lose out in that category to this year's heavyweight; The Departed.     Thinking back to all the movies I saw last year, The Departed really was the most memorable. My roommate and I still talk about it to this day, as we eagerly anticipate its upcoming DVD release this Tuesday. Martin Scorsese's latest masterpiece is nominated for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and of course Best Picture. All the talk is that this is finally the year in which the Academy will give its first award to one of the cinema's five greatest directors of all time. How Martin Scorsese has not won an Academy Award up to this point, I'll never know. Jack Nicholson's return to the role of villain, coupled with gripping performances from the entire ensemble (Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen), really gave Scorsese infinite talent to work with and mold. His reputation as the master of the crime genre is well earned, and while The Departed may not be his best movie ever, it is easily good enough to win this year's Best Picture award and give the honored director his just due. If you haven't seen it, make the time to do so. And good luck to you, Marty. Here's hoping I'm right. To order a few of this year's nominees, including the ones I mentioned above, just click below.