Cinema Saturday [Oscar Time]

 There are two big events happening tomorrow that we can watch on TV: one is the Daytona 500, the other, of course, is the Oscars.

Airing on ABC Sunday night, the Oscars have some great nominees this year (but don't they always?). From Lincoln to Silver Linings Playbook to Les Miserables and Zero Dark Thirty, the year has been filled with movies noted for how fantastic they are.

While I haven't seen a lot of the nominated movies - but do plan to see quite a bit more of them - there are some I have seen . . .

Here's my:

Mini Oscar-y Cinema Saturday Post
(with a few of my pics + links)

Nominees

You can see the nominees here and/or here where you can make predictions (and share on Facebook)


Picture & Actress
While, I'm hoping to sneak in Life of Pi before tomorrow night, as of now, Beasts of the Southern Wild is the only film nominated for Best Picture that I've seen. Despite having not seen the others -- and very much wanting to see nearly all of them -- I do kind of want Beasts win.

Quvenzhané Wallis beyond good in Beasts and it is the only movie, of the Actress nominees films I saw . . .  [You can see my post about Beasts of the Southern Wild here]

I love Jennifer Lawrence (I need to do a post on House at the End of the Street) but haven't seen Silver Linings Playbook, yet so I can't say what she's like in that movie.

Then I also wanted to see Zero Dark Thirty even before I was sure about the plot because I do like Jessica Chastain lots. (From The Debt and The Help, so far.)

While I'd love Wallis to win this one, just behind that I'd love any of these three.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Such long nomination titles . . . Anyway. Out of these I have seen only The Sessions. I haven't done a post on this (yet?). Here's IMDB's synopsis:

A man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest.

Helen Hunt plays Mark's sexual surrogate, Cheryl, in the movie. It's not a movie that does quick cutaway shots, vague terms, avoids discussion or uses humor to avoid things. If sex -- or people talking about sex rather frankly, makes you uncomfortable, The Sessions may not be for you. In some ways, it does seem to almost push at the R rating. It's not as graphic as a lot of movies, but almost more explicit.

It does, thanks in no small part to Hunt and her performance, deal a lot and rather well with relationships, their complexities. I'm glad Helen Hunt has this nomination (and maybe a little surprised there aren't anymore from The Sessions.)

Actor
So, oops, I saw none of the films that those in either Actor categories are nominated for roles in . . .

Animated Feature Film
I very much want to see four of the five of these (they're always out when I go to get them!).  Brave, Franenweenie, ParaNorman and Wreck-It Ralph all look like really fun and enjoyable movies (with fantastic animation, as well). I do have to admit to not really knowing anything about The Pirates! Band of Misfits, though.

Costume Design
I'm thrilled that both Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman were nominated here. The costumes in Les Miserables and Lincoln also look great and I have a bit of a crush on those from Anna Karenina from the trailer and clips I've seen, but I love the evil-ness that was portrayed with Charlize Theron's queen character via her costumes. Three of them are period pieces -- almost four because Mirror Mirror is very fairy and has the pretty, big dresses -- but SWatH really has creative, unique to those characters and that movie costumes. (And that's all a bit unfair as I didn't see the other movies, I suppose.)

Makeup and Hairstyling
I need to see Hitchcock -- and I'm surprised there's no big, special effects movies in here this year -- but won't it probably be The Hobbit?  Or Les Mis? (I had to say that because if not, it'd be the one I didn't mention!)

Documentary
I haven't seen any of the documentaries this year. That's horrible. Usually I've seen one or two, at least. I need to find them. Anyone seen any of them yet?

Directing
I'm going back out on my limb and saying my preference is Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild. My preference may change after I see Life of Pi but only maybe as I'm still really loving how Beasts was made - possibly more than I love the movie?




So, I definitely need to see some more movies! I'm also pretty pleased with those that were nominated -- a lot of those that I haven't seen are ones that I want to see and those that I have seen were ones that I enjoyed a lot and I can see why they were nominated.

Were there movies you think should have been nominated -- or shouldn't have been?

Who's watching tomorrow night? Anything special planned?