2011 Academy Award Predictions

I have a hard time understanding the amount of fascination the public and the media has with the Oscars. Maybe it's just the media actually, because I really don't know how seriously the casual movie fans take the Oscars. Super serious film buffs don't take the Oscars too seriously because they're always a bit more conservative than we'd like, but I don't think many casual filmgoers do either because the Academy's choices are still too obscure and serious for them as well. I could explore this issue in like a 5000 word article probably, but instead I'll just rant a bit about it below.

(Click "Read More" for more on this and my predictions for this year)

Filmcap: The week of Feb 13-20

A busy week made me post this weeks installment late and also watch fewer movies than average. I only watched three on my own, all of them interesting but flawed, and the fourth was a special movie I watched in theaters in Seattle with my family. 

Filmcap: The week of Feb 6-13

This week I watched a couple great foreign movies from the late 50's (Bergman and Kurosawa), what is known as the first ever film noir, a contemporary movie about an infamous African dictator, a fascinating documentary, and an also fascinating TV movie.

Filmcap: The week of Jan 30-Feb 6

This week somehow happened to a pretty good movie watching week with four legitimately great films, one Polish, one British set in Australia, one French in English, and one French and Austrian in French. The two not as great movies were (coincidentally?) both American and both big Academy Awards winners, though admittedly one of which, as you'll see below, was actually pretty good. Read all about it.

Filmcap: The week of Jan 23-30

(Could be a picture taken this week, but it's actually a still from a freakishly relevant movie made 40 years ago)

I watched two Italian films this week, one that features an American actress playing a Russian speaking Italian, and the other features no Italian at all, only French and Arabic. I also watched my third John Ford film thus far, the breakout dwarf movie, and a very unique addition to the growing neo-noir genre.