Oscar Warm Ups

This morning, the Golden Globe nominations came out. The complete list is here. I am not going to bother discussing the TV nominations because the big deal involves the movies.

First, I am happy to say that even with the arrival of Isaac, Jr., back in April, Mrs. Bartender and I have seen a pretty good number of the nominees including The Departed, Borat, Little Miss Sunshinine, and The Queen. (Every year, Mrs. Bartender and I try to catch all of the best picture Oscar nominees, and we have seen all of them since at least 2000. We do not plan to let Isaac, Jr., break our streak.)

I am thrilled but not surprised to see the success of The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, Helen Mirren, and Forrest Whittaker in receiving numerous nominations. Martin Scorsese may finally win an Oscar this year for his outstanding film (even if it is not as good as Goodfellas or Raging Bull but those are pretty hard standards to equal). Moreover, the two nominations for Borat for best picture (comedy/musical) and best actor (comedy/musical) for Sacha Baron Cohen are well deserved, and I would love to see the film or him receive an Oscar nomination. It was amusing to see Jessica Biel and the audience laughing as she said, twice, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

As for films I haven't seen, the one seemingly certain to receive an Oscar nomination is Dreamgirls, which my sources (along with almost everyone else's) say is fantastic. I also would like to see Little Children if for no other reason than to see Kelly Leak's performance that may get him an Oscar nomination. Chico's Bail Bonds must be so excited. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you really need to watch the Bad News Bears. Yes, the movie was made before the version with Billy Bob Thornton.

A few surprises: First, that Bobby received a best picture (drama) nomination shocks me and is unlikely to be repeated next month. The reviews were mediocre to poor and our own Laura Holt concurred in this bleak assessment. Second, I was surprised by the massive success of Babel, which received 7 nominations despite mediocre reviews. However, the awards are voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the film's director, has a lot of attraction overseas. (I'm not trying to criticize him, only to point out that his influence may be greater over the voters of these awards than the Academy.)

My greatest disappointment was that the outstanding United 93 received no nominations. That the film won the NY Film Critics award for best picture a few days ago made me optimistic, but it was not to be. This film, by the way, while difficult to watch is extremely powerful and done in a realistic and non-exploitive way. I urge you to rent it if you have not seen it.

Of course, all of this is just a warm up for the Oscar nominations next month.