To List-Make Is Human
by HELEN GEIB
Best of year lists are inescapable this time of year. The newspapers start printing their critics top tens in mid-December; critics societies, guilds, groups film-related and not film-related seemingly ad infinitum confer their honors beginning in January; the Academy’s nominations dominate the popular discourse on movies through February; movie blogs and non-movie blogs comment on the foregoing, publish their own picks, and poll their readers for theirs. The mania is compounded in years divisible by ten: throw a stone and you’ll hit a best of decade list. Read more 
82nd Academy Awards (for 2009): Nominations
by HELEN GEIB
Oscar season officially re-opened today with the announcement of the Academy Award nominations for films released (officially) in 2009. The nominations are the usual mix of the deserving, the less deserving, the suspect, and the that-movie-hasn’t-opened-where-I-live-yet. (To be fair, the proportion of “the suspect” might be unusually low this year.) Meanwhile, the people who pushed for the best picture category’s expansion from five nominees to 10 were rewarded with the nominations of surprise popular hits The Blind Side and District 9 plus this year’s Pixar film Up, a double best picture nominee with a second nom for animated feature.
Speaking of the animated feature category, it also expanded (from three back to five), decidedly a good thing considering the overall high quality of 2009′s slate of animated films. Finally, the Academy made me personally happy by nominating Un Prophete for best foreign film, thus significantly increasing my chances of seeing it in the theater.
The nominee list for the big 10 categories (a/k/a the combination of categories most talked about and categories which the Commentary Track staff predicts the winners of) follow after the break: picture; animated feature; directing; the 4 acting categories; the 2 screenplay categories; and foreign language film. Read the full list of nominees at Oscar.com’s nominations page. The awards broadcast is March 7; check back a week or so before the awards show for our predictions and “should win” picks. Follow the title links to read our reviews of the nominated films. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – The Anderson Tapes (1971)
by RICHARD WINTERS
In Sean Connery’s long and storied career playing in a wide variety of films, The Anderson Tapes somehow always gets lost in the shuffle, which is unfair as it is really an offbeat gem waiting to be discovered and appreciated. Fortunately in October it was finally released to DVD and the print is excellent. There is now discussion of a remake, but see the original first. I highly recommend this movie not only to fans of Connery or director Sidney Lumet, but also to those who enjoy movies with an offbeat story and approach. Read more
