With the Golden Globe nominations on tap for Tuesday morning, you’ll want to go ahead and bookmark Dave Karger’s OscarWatch blog now. In addition to video interviews with folks like Colin Firth (A Single Man), Viggo Mortensen (The Road), and Jason Reitman (director of Up in the Air), you’ll get his ongoing coverage of awards season, which, so far, has been quite kind to The Hurt Locker. Over the weekend, it took Best Picture from the Los Angeles and Boston critics, and was named one of AFI’s Top 10 films of the year. (The New York Film Critics Online went with James Cameron’s Avatar, but still recognized The Hurt Locker‘s Kathryn Bigelow as Best Director).
Is The Hurt Locker your current pick for Best Picture?
Photo credit: Jonathan Olley
New Moon is! Taylor’s abs sexy!
I have yet to see recent releases like ‘Up in the Air’, so for now, yes, ‘The Hurt Locker’ is my pick for Best Picture.
I’m gonna say that for now, “Couples Retreat” has the edge. But watch out for “Sorority Row” and “The Goods” Live Hard, Sell Hard,” both of which have been picking up momentum. Ultimately, I think “Miss March” takes home Oscar gold.
Do you mean Razzie gold?
“Fantastic Mr Fox” is my year favorite so far… but until they start releasing more of these “critical favorites” in my area, I’m going to stick with the stop-motion movies (“Coraline” is also up there for me)
AVATAR!!! JAMES CAMERON!!! MERYL STREEP!!!! COLIN FIRTH!!!! WOODY HARRELSON!!!! M’ONIQUE!!! Leona Lewis’ I SEE YOU!! JAMES HORNER!!!
Hurt Locker was overrated. It was good but not great and nowhere near deserving of all the orgasms it’s inducing among award committee voters this season.I just don’t get all the adulation. Anybody with me?
Agreed, but to realize how great it was you have to understand what the producers/directors went through to get it made. It was made on a shoe string budget (less than $11m, out of their own pocket i was told) with NO support from the military whatsoever and shot on a foreign land. And yet it came out 150% better than a US military supported/sponsored (our tax money) suckfest Transformers:ROTF. For that alone i believe it belongs in the best picture category.
That’s not entirely true. Jeremy Renner, at least, consulted with real bomb squad soldiers about what their experiences are like. And I’m pretty sure there were plenty of military consultants that helped make the film so authentic. It certainly got the seal of approval from the Iraq war vets I know…
Laura, having official U.S. military support and having a few technical consultants are drastically different.
JamesTKirk:
So what if they didn’t have official support? They still had support of people in the military, which means they had insider information. Which means the movie was authentic, which is the most important thing here.
And that is what makes this country great is that we can agree to disagree. I however thought the movie was awesome and over 68 years overdue (since the beginning of the U.S. military’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal program). Although not an entirely accurate portrayal of current EOD techniques and procedures (thank god), it was entertaining, gave an actual sense of being in Iraq, and gives focus to the men (and women since the 70s) that have served as EOD technician in every conflict since World War II. Whether it wins best picture or totally gets snubbed, I would highly recommend checking it out.
Adventureland is my personal favorite of the year.
It seems like Adventureland is neglected. Didn’t EW give it a good review (A-)? It has an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating and an 89% Top Critics rating.
I’ve seen most of the films listed on National Board of Review’s list and none really topped this one. I haven’t seen Up in the Air, though, or A Prophet and Hunger which I’ve heard are extraordinary. Don’t neglect Adventureland from any lists though.
Lisa P makes my list any day of the week.
I think this was a bad year for movies. Sure I had my favorites (A Serious Man, The Education, Inglorious Basterds, In the Loop) but it says something that two of those movies won’t even be up for consideration for Best Picture because they weren’t American-made. I’d be hard-pressed to name you 5 movies this year that I could say were REALLY deserving of a Best Pic nomination and that speaks volumes about the mediocre dreck that Hollywood has been mass-producing with a cynical vigor this decade. I’m only hoping that the 2009 movies I have yet to see like Up in the Air, Invictus and Avatar add some kind of gravitas to an award season that is so sadly and blatantly lacking.
I have yet to see all the major contenders (most notably Up in the Air), but so far I think I would agree that The Hurt Locker was one of the best of the year, if not the best.
Guess Cameron and Bigelow would be quite the power couple right now if they’d stayed married.
Nothing against “The Hurt Locker,” by any means…but, as far as American films go, “A Serious Man” is, as of now, my pick for Best Picture.
I haven’t seen many (I’m in the same boat as Maserda, though I’ve been fortunate to catch a few biggies in my travels), but my top 3 are Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. I’d rank Up and An Education in the Top 10 as well. Haven’t seen Hurt Locker or Up in the Air, but I expect them to be included as well.
Doesn’t feel like there’s a clear-cut “big” Oscar movie this year. Maybe Invictus?
I really wish it would be Precious…but I think the movie has lost a lot of buzz. It’ll still get the nominations…but I think Monique will come out the only winner for that movie. Right now, there doesn’t seem to be a clear front runner. I would have to say…Up in the Air has the best chance at this moment.
I agree 100%! Mo’nique could totally take it for Supporting Actress.
Best Picture-Hurt Locker
Favorite Picture- Star Trek
I hope there are others out there who appreciate the difference.
My Top 10 Of The Year (so far, havent seen Nine, Invictus, Lovely Bones, Avatar, A Prophet, White Ribbon, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Parnassus):
1. Up In The Air
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. The Brothers Bloom
4. A Serious Man
5. Up
6. The Hurt Locker
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Precious: Based On The Novel “Push” By Sapphire
9. In The Loop
10. Black Dynamite