Oscar Nominee-a-Thon

If you take a look at the box-office grosses for this year's four Academy Award Best Picture nominees, it would seem likely that the average American hasn't seen many of them. But now is your chance to catch up before the envelopes are opened on Sunday, Feb. 22.

On Saturday, Feb. 21, the AMC theater chain is offering a nationwide all-day marathon of the five Oscar nominees (Utah's only location is in Layton). Beginning at 10:30 a.m., the theater will show Milk, The Reader, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaireand Frost/Nixon for one $30 ticket. And you'll get a bottomless bucket of popcorn to carry you through the day.

If you want to do even more prepping for the ceremony -- and get perhaps an unbeatable advantage in your personal for-entertainment-purposes-only Oscar pool -- check out the programs of nominated Live Action and Animated shorts beginning this Friday (Feb. 13) at the Tower Theatre. (Scott Renshaw)

Oscars: The Underdogs

[Music] Unlike the Grammys, this year's Oscars awards ceremony left little to be desired (save a win for Paul Thomas Anderson, without whom Daniel Day Lewis would never have produced the mind-blowing performance that snagged him a golden statue), with relative unknowns and newcomers emerging victorious.

For me, the most exciting moment occured when Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won Best Song for "Falling Slowly" from the film Once. I had the opportunity to interview the pair (now openly a romantic couple. At the time they kept their romance under wraps, ostensibly because Irglova was somewhere around 19 and Hansard in his 30s. I thought something was up, but chalked up their obvious chemistry to shared passion for music) two years ago when the unconventional love story debuted at Sundance. Humble, polite and down to earth, they were a breath of fresh air in a pretentious celeb-filled festival. Quality people making positive music! If you like what you heard last night, pick up a copy of The Swell Season and mark your calendars for May 2 when the duo hits Salt Lake City to play The Depot.

Here's a clip from the movie. Tell me this doesn't break your heart, just a little.



(Jamie Gadette)

Oscar: I've Got Your Prediction Right *Here*

[Film] This Sunday morning (Feb. 24) at 9:30 a.m., I'll be making my mostly-annual appearance as part of a pre-Oscars panel for Chris Vanocur's On the Record on ABC-4. I'm not sure why Chris keeps inviting me back, considering the way I inevitably turn into a curmudgeon about handicapping this film industry back-slapping party.

Don’t get me wrong--this year more than any other year, the Oscars ceremony served a useful purpose, in that the prospect of a picket line on the Kodak Theatre red carpet probably ended the writers' strike. But as I wrote a couple of years ago, I'm not the biggest fan of the emphasis placed on the Academy Awards. Additionally, I never win Oscar pools, for the same reason that sports writers never win NCAA basketball tournament pools: We know the subject too well, and over-think the bloody thing, so that we never pick the upset that someone else picks because they really liked the dress that Kiera Knightley wore in Atonement.

So I’ll join Chris’ panel because it will give me an opportunity to talk about the movies I love. And because my mother raised me to be a good guest, I'll answer when he asks who I think is going to win. I'm just not going to care too much when I'm wrong, so don't use me as the source in your pool.
Except for Live Action Short Film. Tanghi Argentini's got that one in the bag. Book it. (Scott Renshaw)

What's Up, Docs?

[Film] Every year, people ask me to predict the Academy Awards. And every year I resist, because I want nothing to do with furthering the legitimacy of this gold-statuette-dispensing gaggle of clown-shoes.

The latest example of the Motion Picture Academy's mind-boggling lack of artistic vision comes with this week's announcement of the 15 "short-listed" finalists for the Documentary Feature category. Since you may know little about the specific titles listed, let me offer some helpful Harper's Index-style statistics:

* Percent of finalists that are in some way about America's Middle East adventure: 26.6%
* Percentage of finalists that are in some way about war: 53.3%
* Percentage of finalists that are about a clearly and obviously "important issue" like slave labor, Chinese democracy, health care, abortion, etc.: 100%

So forget a shot for the year's most interesting and stylistically innovative documentaries: Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), Manufactured Landscapes, The King of Kong, My Kid Could Paint That, Protagonist. Always desperately concerned about putting on its serious face, the Academy ignores anything that doesn't come with Cliff's Notes thesis statements. Remember: These are the awards given by an industry to itself. Trust them accordingly. (Scott Renshaw)