By my count, Avatar and District 9 are only the 3rd and 4th sci-fi films ever to be nominated, if we stretch and count Star Wars and E.T. as science fiction. While some of those latter nominees are obvious pandering so that the telecast gets higher ratings (Blind Side, I'm looking in your direction), it's great to see the nomination lists expanding to included movies that audiences actually saw. My own favorite is easily District 9, though if there was a category for "Best Use of a David Bowie Song" (and why in God's name isn't there?) I'd go with Inglorious Basterds all the way.
District 9 is proof that there is tons of creativity still out there in the film industry. I was too busy to blog about it when it came out, but trust me, I was through the roof for several days. Ditto Inglorious Basterds, but it was more zany than serious. Sure, District 9 was zany, but there was real emotional and intellectual depth there as well. Avatar and Up sit less well with me--they're both great movies, but there's not a lot of originality there compared to some of the others. Up shouldn't be nominated for Best Picture and Best Animated Feature. I hate to say it, but Pixar films are starting to feel a little rote to me--Up was just a very touching short film about a couple growing up and growing old together accompanied by a fun but silly adventure that was nothing special. Coraline was, for me, a more inventive and exciting animated movie, and The Secret of Kells, so far seen only by the makers of The Secret of Kells, looks like nothing I've ever seen before. It's too bad most of us won't get to see it until March. (Maybe that's just the medieval history geek in me talking.) I say this with love, but Pixar films are starting to look too much like committee filmmaking to me--a little too neat, a little too predictable.
And Avatar? Good old Avatar. Where would we be without you? It's about to topple Titanic, yet it isn't half the cultural phenomenon that movie was. I can't say it's a bad movie, or that I didn't enjoy it, but it's one of the most predictable movies out there right now. (So was Titanic, I guess, but that was my generation's predictable James Cameron blockbuster!) Technically it's a masterpiece, but the story never gets anywhere beyond Dances with Smurfs. Again, it's a great movie, but I think the money and accolades it's raking up are a little excessive.
As for the others, well, I guess I need to see more movies, but movies about things that could just happen in real life never excites me the way fantasy nonsense does. So I haven't see the other five. Maybe I should. Hmm...
How about those Grammys, though? Lots of great performances there. That crazy Lady Gaga, right? You just never know what she's going to do next.
