Is this 10 Best Picture nominations such a good idea?

These 10 Best Picture nominations are all well and good but don’t they kind of de-value getting one?

Look at this year’s 10. Can anyone honestly say half (arguably more) of these films will survive in people’s memories beyond this year? I really enjoyed An Education, but Best Picture? A Serious Man feels like it’s there because it’s the Coen brothers rather than really deserving the place. Blind Side, what’s that about?

The main reason I got thinking about this though is the presence of Up.

Pixar churns out a masterpiece so often we’re going to have to invent a new word for them because they are devaluing the concept of masterpieces. You want a masterpiece every so often across the industry not every damn year from the same studio! But many people I know, and I think I’d include myself in this, would argue Up isn’t the best animated film of 2009 – Coraline is.

Others may disagree with that assessment but even so, doesn’t having Up in the Best Picture category (as surely WALL-E would have been last year if there had been 10 and Pixar films going forward may become a regular fixture of) kind of make the Best Animated Feature category a foregone conclusion?

Many think this about the BAFTAs where they have both a Best Film and Best British Film category. Frequently one of the 5 nominations for Best Film is British but this same film fails to win Best British Film. For example the past three years has seen a British film, nominated for Best British Film, win the Best Film category: 2008 – Slumdog Millionaire, 2007 – Atonement, 2006 – The Queen. And yet despite winning Best Film not one of those three managed to win Best British Film! These instead went to: 2008 – Man On Wire, 2007 – This Is England, 2006 – The Last King Of Scotland. This leads to perfectly reasonable queries of “how the hell does that happen?”

But there is actually an explanation for this phenomenon. It’s not a great explanation, but it is at least, well, one. The whole Bafta membership votes to decide both the 5 nominees for Best Film and the eventual winner. However a select committee awards Best British Film so the general consensus of the membership need not be reflected. It may be a bit daft but it explains the disparity.

However, if such a disparity happens at the Oscars such an explanation will not stand. The Best Picture nominations and eventual winner, as I understand it, are the same – selected by the whole membership – so it stands to reason Up is considered the best animated film since it is the only animated film up for Best Picture. However the whole membership also votes for the winner of the Best Animated Feature nominees. Therefore is there anyway in which Up can lose, and if it does it has to leave everyone scratching their head and going “How?”

But the extension of the category to 10 and the inclusion of Up brings up a bigger issue of de-valuation of the category. It was inevitable that the very first report I read about the Oscar nominations after they were announced yesterday would state (and it did) that Up was “only the second animated feature ever to receive a best picture nomination”.

Doesn’t this de-value the nomination for 1991’s Beauty And The Beast. This is truly the only animated film ever to receive a best picture nomination.

Sure the odds were stacked against it happening again once the Best Animated Feature category was introduced. Too many voters would see that as award enough and not consider an animated feature for the big prize – although they have always been allowed to. The Golden Globes exclude animated features from being considered for Best Film, but then they segregate everything. Their Best Film is split into Drama and Musical/Comedy so it seems fair enough that Animation’s own category is essential just a third version of the big prize. But Oscar doesn’t do that and nor should it.

Yet animation has consistently been overlooked since the creation of its own category (well, and before, but still).

You can argue the same for Foreign Language. They have their own category after all and yet over the years they’ve been far more likely (Life Is Beautiful, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Il Postino, Letters From Iwo Jima) to get a Best Picture nomination, as well as consideration is other categories (City Of God and Talk To Her both received director noms although they missed out on Best Picture).

But this isn’t really the seen as being the same. The foreign language films category is only open to a single film from each country and that whatever the country submits. The rules of the category often exclude multi-country co-productions like Michael Haneke’s Hidden or Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries and a film like Letters From Iwo Jima could never be considered because despite being entirely filmed in Japanese it’s an American production. Politics play a big part. The Spanish industry, not wanting the world to think the Spanish film industry consists of nothing but the Oscar and Bafta friendly Pedro Almodovar rarely selects his films as the Spanish entry. Hence the year Talk To Her was nominated for the Best Director Oscar and won Best Original Screenplay it wasn’t eligible for Best Foreign Language Film. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s A Very Long Engagement was funded by Warner Bros France and so the French refused to consider it French (a marked difference from the UK Film Council which considers pretty much any film that has even contemplated hiring a British gaffer as a British film!) and so no selection for Jeunet.

The other problem is to vote for the foreign language nominees an Oscar member has to have seen them all on a big screen so often this falls to older, retired members and harsher-themed movies lose out to windy-sentimentalism. City Of God was Brazil’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002. It should have won. Instead it failed even to garner a nomination, while the likes of Dutch rom com Zus & Zo did! This balance was redressed somewhat following its proper US release in 2003 which led to 4 Oscar nominations for Director, Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing (although it didn’t win any).

Therefore considering a foreign film for best picture may be seen as redressing an imbalance that can, and frequently does, exist it that category.

Animated Feature doesn’t have that luxury. The nominations and eventual winner process are as straight-forward as those for any of the other big categories. So logically there’s no imbalance to address and no need to give them a seat at the big table.

But now we have 10 nominees so why not throw them a bone? Why not include that animated film you enjoyed so much. Two simple reasons:

1 – it makes a mockery of the Best Animated Feature category. If only one of them makes the Best Picture nominees then the teams behind the other four might as well just turn up. And if they do miraculously win then it surely suggests there’s something wrong with the selection of the 10 Best Pictures!

2 – it de-values Beauty & The Beast’s nomination. In 10 tens when we have 10 more (probably all Pixar) animated Best Picture nominees Beauty & The Beast’s status will be diminished.

Okay, so Beauty & The Beast’s nomination for Best Picture (along with the special award for Toy Story in 1995) probably paved the way for the 2001 introduction of the Best Animated Feature category but more than any of the other 9 films in this year’s Best Picture nominees (well, okay maybe District 9 and The Blind Side) Up feels like it wouldn’t be there without the expanded category.

After all The Incredibles didn’t make the Best Picture 5 when that category agve slots to the likes of Finding Neverland and Ray; Spirited Away didn’t make the 5 for Best Picture in a year that gave noms to The Hours and Gangs of New York, and was won by Chicago!; last year WALL-E didn’t make the Best Picture cut in a year when the category was filled by the underwhelming likes of Frost/Nixon, The Reader, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

The inclusion of an animated film in an expanded field of Best Picture nominees (much like a genre one for the likes of District 9) therefore feels like a consolation prize.

Until an animated film actually wins Best Picture or at least receives a Best Director nomination their inclusion seems both pointless and a de-valuation both of the category and that one film that made it to the heralded 5.

10 Best Pictures? Might boost the ratings but it seems a bad idea to me on reflection.

Top 20 Films of 2009

Been a bit absent on here last couple of weeks but have now returned with the run down of the top 20 films of 2009. The list of the top 10 will remain at the bottom of the blog but here is the full list (plus a few runners-up with reasoning).

It should be noted that this is as of today (Dec 29) and some of these have only been seen the once. It is naturally easy to favour those seen multiple times so perhaps the fight in my head over number 1 vs 2 and Coraline vs Ponyo might change in time. But for now this is the list. Only qualifying factor to get in the list is i had to see a finished version in the cinema for the first time in 2009. (Special mention: although i have seen a finished version of Shutter Island i have not included it here and am saving it for next year's list - competition permitting - as it doesn't officially screen until Berlin).

1. Up In The Air - I have gone back and forth on my number 1 (vs number 2) for a few days but Jason Reitman's bittersweet comedy just nabs it. Clooney has never never been better as an instantly relatable and appealing guy in a assholes' job. This film could have been mishandled in so many ways but Reitman nails the tone, Vera Farmiga is the sexiest love interest in film for years, Anna Kendrick manages to match George beat-for-beat (no mean feat for this sort of role) as a character you should loathe but can't help but love. It should leave you bummed out but instead fills you with a warm glow. Brilliantly done. The film of the year.

2. The conundrum over number 1 was caused by Kathryn Bigelow's superb Middle East-conflict bomb-disposal movie The Hurt Locker. You can't get much more different a movie from Up In The Air so comparison is hard and i'll admit Hurt Locker has the disadvantage of only having been seen the once and some months ago. Nonetheless the visceral impact of Bigelow's triumphant return (her best work hands down) remains with you long after seeing it. Jeremy Renner gives a superb performance as the cock-sure lead and gets sterling support from Anthony Mackie. The tension is palpable and it is an astonishing achievement, let alone for a film that cost just $11m to make. The best war film of the current/recent conflict without doubt and one of the best of the past 3 decades.

3. Avatar - It could all have gone hideously wrong, but then this is James Cameron, hasn't he earnt our trust after fantastic, imaginative spectacular after fantastic imaginative spectacular. And they don't come more imaginative and spectacular than Avatar. Certainly it has some cheesy dialogue, stock characters and blatant lifts from other films (the plot is essentially Dances With Blue Aliens! and a lot of moments makes you think of Cameron's own Aliens and The Abyss) but the majesty of the world he has created here is extraordinary. It's not just the visuals and the 3D (which are astonishing and totally immersive - i've seen it twice so far and was as wowed the second time) it the fully realised world. Cameron fills every frame with the most minute details and has thought through every detail of Pandora. I don't remember when a blockbuster's environment was so perfectly thought out. Of course this does highlight the issue that the plot could have been better thought out but it almost seems greedy to ask for more when Avatar offers so much. And the effects? Holy cow. Zoe Saldana's character in particular demonstrates just how impressive this is, every emotion, every thought behind the eyes registers. That achievement alone makes Avatar deserving of a good ranking in year best lists but it's also damn entertaining fun.

4. Coraline - it's been a hell of a year for animation. The very enjoyable Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Fantastic Mr Fox and Ice Age 3 all failed to make my top 20 and three did. Best of the bunch though was Coraline. Finally giving director Henry Selick the chance of truly shine, out from under the name of Tim Burton (who, due to marketing misrepresentation, most people still think directed The Nightmare Before Christmas) this was a wonderful dark treat not afraid to scare the bejesus out of kids (and more than a few adults). Genuinely creepy, always imaginative Coraline was the must-see animation of the year (and it wasn't even Pixar!)

5. Ponyo - close behind though was another stunning film from Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki, Ponyo. Close to rivalling My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away amongst Miyazaki's best films (who knows on repeated viewings perhaps it may even surpass). Miyazaki's ability to think in the scatterlogical way of a child, letting his imagination run away with him and the movie is what so delights in these movies and Ponyo does exactly that. You can't sit and analyse the story of a fish who becomes a girl (initially with chicken feet!) and befriends the young boy she was previous the pet of. Or why adults are happy to instantly accept the young girl was formerly the fish. In an American film there would have to be nay-saying adults not believing their "head in the clouds" children but this is Miyazaki's world and he understands not only is there nothing wrong with imagination it is actually a beautiful thing. And therefore so is this movie. A glorious escape into a world of imagination too rarely seen.

6. An Education - a good year for British films was headed by this wonderful little period piece from Danish director Lone Scherfig. You know you're in good movie hands when Nick Hornby's involved (heck, they managed to make good films starring both Hugh Grant and Colin Firth out of Hornby novels!) Here he adapts Lynn Barber's memoirs into a well judged screenplay of wit and pathos, innocence and intelligence. And he's matched moment-for-moment by a flawless cast. Carey Mulligan's takes her first lead with assurance making Jenny both wise and naive, self-assured and nervous, smart and short-sighted. She is expertly led astray by Peter Sarsgard who, with flawless English accent, treads the fine line between sleazy predator and charming rogue with aplomb (no doubt Hornby and Scherfig's hanlding of his character also was a major factor here). Then there's Alfred Molina's heartbreakingly old-fashioned and well-intentioned father. Plus a plethora of other fine support. A delight.

7. Crazy Heart - While this boasts probably the best performance of the year in Jeff Bridges' superbly realised, and completely believable washed-up Country & Western singer "Bad" Blake, it is also much more. It is a charming, funny and poignant drama. It sees a career-best performance from the always solid Maggie Gyllenhaal and strong support in small roles from Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell. It has just about the best soundtrack of a movie this decade. The cinematography is stunning. There is so much that's great about Crazy Heart but it all comes back to that first thing - Bridges. Bridges is an actor who is always great. Whether playing a corpse in Tideland, a president in The Contender, a machievelian villain in Iron Man or perfectly emboding cool and slovenliness as The Dude he is always a joy to watch, but he has truly never given a better performance than here. As far away from The Dude as he could be but every bit as convincing this should be the film to net him a long overdue Oscar. Here's hoping.

8. Let The Right One In (Lat Den Ratte Komma In) - In a time when vampire movies are everywhere (it isn't the only one in this list) this Swedish movie was more daring than any, more entertaining than any, more unnerving than any and more well thought through than any of modern times. Offering solutions for oft quoted and rarely explored vampire lores while creating a compelling narrative and an underlying potentially controversial edge this truly was filmmaking at its best. See it before the Americans ruin it with the unnecessary (and in production) remake.

9. Up - Who'd have thought a beautiful, hilarious, exciting new film from animation powerhouse Pixar, than had me crying first with sadness, then laughter than triumphant joy, would only rank at 9 on my top films of the year (and third in animation - which shows just how good a year it's been!). Despite this Pixar's latest was a perfect blend of everything they do best. The adventure story, particularly the all-action finale, was genuinely exciting. Dug the Dog was hilarious, with a brilliantly thought out way to justify the all-too-common-in-animation talked animal. The leads were perhaps Pixar's most overtly cartoony and yet believably human (except, ironically, WALL-E!). The the use of the depth of 3D to reflect the feelings of the characters and mood of the piece was ingenious. Another Pixar masterpiece.

10. A Prophet (Un Prophete) - A powerful prison drama, almost as compelling as The Hurt Locker in many ways, featuring an excellent lead performance. My review on the blog goes into all the whys and wherefores but Jacques Audiard's film should not be missed.

11. Mesrine: Killer Instinct - Another excellent French crime piece, but this is much more of a thriller. Vincent Cassel has never been better than here as the real-life criminal, while Gerard Depardieu reminds us just how good he can be with a memorable supporting role as a crime boss. Swift and exciting it was followed by the nearly as good, but slightly more langorous and dramatic Mesrine: Public Enemy Number 1.

12. Moon - An incredible debut from Bowie Jr (Duncan Jones), made all the more remarkable for a $5m budget that bought faultless effects (albeit with an old-school feel) and a career-best performance from the always reliable Sam Rockwell. It also boasts one of the smartest scripts of the year. A genre piece Britain can be proud of for once. I can't wait to see what Jones does next.

13. Star Trek - speaking of genre JJ Abrams' fantastically fun and exciting reboot of the tired Star Trek franchise was the triumph of the summer blockbuster season. Instantly wiping away memories of its over-serious predecessors this delivered a hugely emjoyable piece of escapism. From Chris Pine's cock-sure Kirk, to Zachary Quinto's astute Spock, to Simon Pegg's hilariously Glaswegian Scotty, Zoe Saldana's smoking hot Uhura and Karl Urban's scarily exact recreation od DeForest Kelley's Bones, the cast took over the iconic roles with ease. And the pacing and action was masterful from JJ. A script overly reliant on coincidence and a weak villain let it down a little but this was a promise of great things to follow as much as a fun ride shot-in-the-arm to a seemingly lifeless franchise.

14. Looking For Eric - Ken Loach's best film. Surprisingly whimsical and fun for Loach, yet with the expected trials and tribulations of a put-upon everyman at its centre this was the film that kick started a banner year for British film.

15. A Single Man - yet another career best, this time from Colin Firth, in a lyrical, touching film from fashion-designer Tom Ford. A few moments feel too designed (like we're in a commercial) but the film gets better and better as it moves along and ultimately leaves you with a sense of true beauty. Julianne Moore is magnificent in support as the boozy has-been Charley and Nicholas Hoult marks himself out as a potentially major player on the UK circuit as a student who may be a siren or simply getting in over his head. A major achievement for a debut film.

16. (500) Days Of Summer - how you could go wrong with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel (two of the most talented, charmed and likeable young actors working today) is a question this wonderful anti-rom-com thankfully doesn't have to answer. A tight funny and completely truthful (if marginally exacted for fun) script is matched by both leads giving their best. JGL has never been as likeable and Deschanel triumphs as a cold-hearted character you should hate but can't help but love. A final, too-perfect zinger may through the tone slightly but you don't begrudge this comedy a gag after a breezy lesson in how to make a rom-com well.

17. District 9 - Neill Blomkamp's apartheid-allegory turned sci-fi actionner boasted fantastic effects (for $30m, although Blomkamp does have an effects background), a smart script and dynamic action sequences. Plus a lot of laughs. Yet another great genre pic for 2009.

18. Thirst - the other great vampire flick of 2009 Korea's Park Chan-wook. More a tale of addiction, moral dilemma, conflicts of faith, greed and jealousy this fable about a priest who volunteers to risk his life as a guinea-pig for curing an infectious disease only to become an unholy creature of the night who must feed on blood to keep the disease away it uses the parallel of vampirism and human sexuality in a new and clever way. Park's best since Oldboy.

19. Inglourious Basterds - Tarantino's best since Jackie Brown saw a creepy, unnerving, and at times hilarious performance from Christoph Waltz as the highlight of an incredibly entertaining film. I don't understand the Golden Globes placing of it in their Drama category as this was one of the funniest films of the year in my book. Brad Pitt and co's masquerading as Italian filmmakers complete with Southern American accents was the greatest single moment, but from Diane Kruger to Michael Fassbender to the stunning Melanie Laurent everyone was firing on all cylinders. Scenes like the opening farmhouse scene and the underground bar-room stand out as vintage QT but the whole film, while silly, was effortlessly entertaining. Welcome back QT, we've missed you.

20. Zombieland - And speaking of incredibly entertaining, i expected to hate this film - yet another zombie film, that was surely just going to be an American Shaun of the Dead. But this was a very funny romp along with four actors giving their all while boasting the best cameo (and cameo one-liner) in years. I don't remember the last time Woody Harrelson had top billing in a theatrically released film but he was so much fun to watch here i hope it (combined with what i understand is a brilliant performance in The Messanger - which i haven't seen yet) puts him back on top.

Runners-up - 7 films I can't believe didn't make the grade, but it's been a pretty good year:

State Of Play

Drag Me To Hell

Gran Torino

A Serious Man

Precious

Frozen River

Synecdoche, New York

Latest screening: Precious

A very good film with a stunning central performance (and some excellent supporting ones too) Precious could well be the "little" movie that makes it big this awards season. It seems almost certain that newcomer Gabourey Sidibe will be nominated for Best Actress - the performance demands it - and also that Mo'Nique will pick up a Best Supporting Actress nod (she's currently considered the favourite, though i'm still giving it to Julianne Moore for A Single Man), but this could easily find itself seriously conpeting in Adapted Screenplay, Director and even Picture categories.

It's not an easy film but curiously it stands out this year in a lighter-weight line-up amongst the strongest contenders. Even those that are dramatic (like A Single Man) don't feel so gruelling, like last year's line-up where even the so called "feel good" film was the often tough going Slumdog Millionaire!

Precious tackles the abuse, both physical and mental, heaped upon an teenager who when given an opportunity in life will try her hardest to improve her situation but approaches most situations with a resigned gloom and a hard attitude because that is what she needs to survive. The film doesn't pull its punches either (well, my understanding of the what's in the book suggests it does a little but then it would likely be unwatchable). There are several brutal scenes that go beyond discomfort for the audience. So not a Sunday-afternoon crowd pleaser then, but a must-see none the less.

Gabourey Sidibe, in her first film, is simply tremendous as Precious. It could be tempting (since it is her first role and so viewers can't be sure) to think, oh well she knows it, she is it, it's not acting it's casting. Having been to a Q&A screening let me assure you it is acting of the best calibre. Sidibe in person is a sunny, smart girl with little seeming in common with the on-screen character. That she so inhabits the character with no training demonstrates how good a performance this is.

Much has been made of Mo'Nique's role as the abusive mother, and she is impressive. But i can't help feeling firstly that this is partly that people expected her casting is such a role and such a film to be stunt-casting (as with the cast's fellow players Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz) and were expecting her to be all wrong in the role. That she is so good (as is Carey for that matter, though Kravitz, while fine, has little to do) almost makes the performance seem even better. Secondly this is one of those gift roles. A superbly written monster. You feel the character created in the writing, the set-ups and shocking dialogue the script provides. I take little away from Mo'Nique, she does deliver the goods, but i feel this is one of those brilliantly written roles that a dozen actresses could have done just as well without missing a beat - much like Viola Davis' role in Doubt last year; a barn-storming scene-stealer that stays with you after the film, but really is it completely the performance or is it mostly the character?

Sidibe brings so much to her role she feels irreplacable. In comparison to Mo'Nique my vote for Supporting Actress this year (Julianne Moore in A Single Man) brings such a depth of character you can palpably feel beyond what's being presented you get a fully formed character that lives and breathes beyond her scenes and, indeed, beyond the story. Mo'Nique is giving her all to what is on the page, there's no doubt, but i get no sense of anything more. Of course the Oscars love a big shouty, unsubtle performance and favour them over delicacy and true character embodiment year after year so Moore will probably lose out (again!) but she shouldn't.

Paula Preston adds some much needed light to the film. She has little to really do beyond empathise and try to help Precious but once she is in the film it becomes more bearable. It doesn't hurt either that Preston much have a pretty good claim on "world's most beautiful woman", she simply is stunning.

Lee Daniels has delivered a thought-provoking and often harrowing film but it goes beyond strong performances and a tough story, Precious is a genuinely compelling film to watch. So often these kinds of films are lost behind a single strong performance (Monster) or get bogged down in their world (A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints) or feel like stunt-casting for a famous face known for alternate fare (Havoc), or are simply too full on to be really watchable (Johnny Mad Dog) - films are to some degree entertainment after all - but Precious, while often difficult to watch, is not a film you regret watching, or feel you wouldn't watch again, and what stays with you from it is so much more than the gruelling abuse episodes.

Precious is every bit as good as last year's Slumdog Millionaire (i would say easily better) and would deserve a Best Picture slot even if we were still done to 5 not 10. The test will be if Daniels can make the five directors. On the strength of what i've seen so far (most everything significant except Nine and Invictus) he deserves it.

Latest screening: A Serious Man

Ah, God bless the Coens. After No Country For Old Men and Burn After Reading they continue their stunning role in such style it is easy to imagine that The Ladykillers was merely a bad dream!

A Serious Man is at once hilarious, touching, intriguing and confounding – everything the brothers do so well.

After a funny, Yiddish-language parable shot in a different aspect ratio which opens the movie like a Pixar short film – connective to the main film but not really directly related – we launch into the story of college professor Larry (the excellent Michael Stuhlbarg).

Larry is a vintage Coen character. Like a 1960s, lead character version of Steve Buscemi’s Donnie character in The Big Lebowski. He is a somewhat hapless, put-upon character. A character going through life minding his own business who would happily avoid conflict or difficulty at every turn, but whom, like a cat to the allergic, conflict and difficulty is inexorably drawn. Problems beyond his control arise in just about every possible aspect of his life and he greats each one as best he can, while displaying the accumulating weight of this world on his shoulders.

Stuhlbarg is fantastic. As the film heaps more and more bad luck and misfortune on him you can see the despair in his eyes, the weight on his soul. You feel that sense of how close he could teeter on the brink of a breakdown, just hanging on as best he can, struggling for meaning in world that offers none. He is fair-minded, just, honest, hard-working, caring, practical, yet nothing he seems to do helps. The sense of his being overwhelmed grows so naturally that it is hard to believe more is not being verbalized, so clear is Stuhlbarg’s internal feeling.

But this is not a depressing film and it is not one of the Coen’s straight, more serious films. Tonally it probably has most in common with Barton Fink, but it is much funnier. A series of meetings with various Rabbis are highlights, especially the second which contains the relating of a story so brilliantly Coen in both imagination and delivery of dialogue that you kind of know how the joke is going to work but you’re enjoying getting there and so happy when it does.

It is very much Stuhlbarg’s film. Beyond Larry the world is the character. It is the Coens world, but also cinematographer Roger Deakins’ world. After skipping out on Burn After Reading Deakins is back with the Coens where he belongs and the world of A Serious Man is typically beautiful. Deakins has done period, suburban beauty with the Coens before in The Man Who Wasn’t There, but here he can also add a colour palette and the result is stunning visual that belie the unflashy setting.

Carter Burwell’s score is also deceptively well judged, to the point you almost forget it’s there but it resonates beyond the film. It’s no Fargo score, which really plays well divorced from image on CD, but it is another crucial part that makes the Coen world seem whole.

The best decision here though was to abandon their regular stock company, not just the “star” names like George Clooney but also the regular character actors like Steve Buscemi, Jon Polito, Frances McDormand, John Turturro, John Goodman, Peter Stormare, Michael Badalucco, etc. About the most recognizable name in the movie is Richard Kind (at least recognizable to fans of the Michael J Fox sitcom Spin City) and Barton Fink’s Michael Lerner does turn up ever so briefly. But Lerner’s brief appearance almost feels like it serves to say, “no, this is not one for the regulars”!

Stuhlbarg is so convincing in the lead, and seems so suited to the Coens world (much like Billy Bob Thornton stepped so easily into the barbers shoes of Man Who Wasn’t There) that while this film doesn’t feature the Coen regulars it did leave me hoping Stuhlbarg becomes one of them.

Some will no doubt find the conclusion frustrating but it feels like the end the film deserves. The Coens have never strived to make a ‘Hollywood’ happy fit movie, they have consistently shown Hollywood what can be done.

A Coen film is also a must see but A Serious Man does not disappoint. It is certainly one of the highlights of the year so far and, given the Coens heightened awards profile post No Country, should at the very least garner strong awards attention for Stuhlbarg if not for the brothers and their behind camera colleagues.

Latest screening: An Education

To those of us who have been steadily tracking Carey Mulligan’s career for several years from her small but key, eye-catching supporting role in the BBC’s Bleak House, to a star-making turn in a one-off episode of Doctor Who title Blink (the best Who episode of the modern series) to a blink-and-you’d miss her scene in And When Did You Last See Your Father? right up to a small role in this summer’s Public Enemies as John Dillinger’s wife it comes as no surprise that in her first lead film role she delivers a stunning, assured performance.

For all the good qualities of Lone Scherfig’s An Education, and there are many, it would be nothing without the luminous, brilliant Mulligan at its centre. If her revelatory guest role in Doctor Who was key in catching eyes in Britain then this is her calling card for Hollywood, and given her upcoming projects is surely already proving so. Mulligan is simply sensational here in the role of 16/17 year old Jenny, a high-flying school-girl and Oxford hopeful who gets swept up by the charm and high-living lifestyle of an older man, who her parents are equally taken with, in the early 1960s.

Her performance is so real that you don’t see a false edge. The character doesn’t feel acted but lived, she so embodies the role. You never doubt the character and that is impressive as this is a character that could so easily have come off false. Jenny is at once, incredibly intelligent, self-assured and seemingly wise, yet insecure and unknowingly naïve. She is too young to be an adult but too smart to be seen as a child. As a girl teetering on the brink of womanhood it is simply one of the best and most believable portrayals I’ve seen. She is assured of a BAFTA nomination for actress and should bag an Oscar one too unless there’s a fix going on.

She is ably supported by Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour as her parents. The three have such a genuine rapport together that they feel like a real family. Molina is excellent and deserves supporting attention come awards season. As a conflicted man living in a time on the verge of great change, but from a generation set to be slightly behind the times he is utterly convincing. Molina is a consummate actor but I’m not sure he has ever been as good as here.

Peter Sarsgaard has the tricky role of having to appear both slightly sinister and yet charming and likeable, and manages to pull it off. He can feel a little stilted at times, and I wondered if it he having to get to grips with the accent, but it could easily be read as part of the period setting. That said, it doesn’t play as well alongside the naturalism of Mulligan and Molina.

Cara Seymour compliments Mulligan and Molina as the third point in their failial triangle, and merely on a visual level is smart casting for Mulligan’s mother. Dominic Cooper seems a little unsure of his role in early stages but finds his footing, while the Oxford educated Rosamund Pike enjoys sending up Oxford students and playing an archetypal ditzy blonde – vacant looks abound to great comic effect.

Nick Hornby’s script is as funny, heartfelt and knowing as you would expect from the man responsible for books like High Fidelity, How To Be Good and About A Boy. Here he has found genuine voices for his characters and created a completely convincing world, whether at school, at home or out on the town. The film rushes a little at the end but on the whole the measure of how the script handles each incident and plot point is well paced and smartly thought out.

Scherfig of course deserves praise for realizing these elements on the big screen as well, though I suspect Mulligan and Hornby’s script will be the focus of awards season attention for this film, though a lot depends on the year’s other offerings.

An Education is superbly crafted on every level and as a complete film stands with A Single Man this year as leagues ahead of anything English-language that was on offer in the last awards season.

Smart, funny and genuine a movie as you’ll find this year replete with awards worthy performances, including a star-making turn from Carey Mulligan, you’d be a fool to pass up An Education.

Latest screening: Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Finally! It's been a long time coming and i wasn't sure it would happen but we finally have a big, brash, epic, wonderful Hollywood movie in the awards season.

So far it's been all big performances in little-feel movies and character pieces, but Benjamin Button is glorious. It shares a distrinctly Tim Burton-Jean Pierre Jeunet feeling with its odd-people populated world and its quirkiness, but has the feel-good elements of writer Eric Roth's Forrest Gump. "Aargh!" I hear you cry. Don't worry, because this is David Fincher, not Robert Zemeckis, and you can rest assured the saccharine has no place in Fincher's world.

Benjamin Button is a superbly realised film on every level. The performances are spot on, especially a truly memorable turn from Taraji P Henson as Benjamin's adoptive mother; the visual effects are excellent; the score is complementary and beautiful; the photography is luxurious. I really can't find significant fault with Benjamin Button and it is unlike the rest of this year's pack on so many levels it will be a hard one to call once the nominations start flying.

Rest assured though Fincher has to be a front runner because here he has brought together a collective of faultless element into a seemless and damn entertaining film, while making something wholly different from anything he's done before.

Awards chances: Pitt and Blanchett are good (as usual) but work within the film's world rather than stand out from it - good for the film but unlikely to gain them the necessary attention for awards. The film though is a shoe-in in both major (Picture, Director, Screenplay) and technical categories. And i'm planting my flag in Fincher for Best Director right now.

Latest screening: Milk

Yet another case of performance over film here. Milk, like Doubt, is elevated as a film by uniformly excellent performances but the film itself is not great. Comparably to something like Monster or Capote, it is not that the film is bad per se, but that it is fairly forgettable. I challenge people that say it is a great film to remember much of the actual style and delivery of the film itself a month on. I'll bet they will remember little beyond the performances.

Of course such cases and dominating the awards season this year and an ensemble film like this could elevate it to best picture and best director status simply because there isn't a weak link in the actors on screen. See Crash for a recent example of this - the acting and the issue at its core drove its nominations and eventual win not it's actually being the best film of the year (which it plainly wasn't). With the recent hoopla over Prop 8 in California this is incredibly timely and so it does have the issue-ensemble angle that Crash had - it's also a better film.

It's not a great film though. The contrived way around of delivering narration Van Sant uses grated on me from the first instances and some of it was too laudatory i felt. I like me biopics with a sense of perspective and Milk was unashamedly in awe of its God-like (movie portrayal not opinion) subject. No doubt this will go down great in the US but i just didn't buy it, i wanted more from it.

Awards chances: It has the pedigree for Best Picture and Director noms in a slow year (which this is) but Sean Penn is electrifying and completely deserves the Best Actor nomination so is assured. It truly is a fantastic year for Best Actor possibilities this year (the one really hard to call category) and many deserving performances are going to miss out.

I am officially retracting my Josh Brolin prediction though. He's good here but he's just not in it enough. If he had already lost for a robbed central role (like Judi Dench) then it could happen, but his presence at the core of No Country and great turn in W. won't be enough for this.

Latest screening: Slumdog Millionaire

Now here's an interesting one. A film that truly has everything. It is funny and disturbing. It is emotionally charged and an easy watch. It has great performances but is never overwhelmed by any. It is, to say the least, memorable.

The winds seem to be suggesting Slumdog Millionaire could be a best picture contender this year and i have to agree. It is not that it is necessarily a film you watch thinking, "this is great, i must vote for it", nor just it entirely avoid cliche and predictability but it is a satisifying, well made watch and in this particular year that may be enough.

Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy and everyone involved has crafted an elegant, hard to dislike film. Can you find fault in it? Sure. But it lingers in the mind and scenes come back to disturb you, to make you laugh, to lift your spirit.

Where it stands such a good chance it that the film is one of the few this year where the film as 'package' is strong as opposed to one aspect. Most of the film's currently clamouring for awards voters' attentions (Doubt and Frost/Nixon - and i hear Milk - being prime examples) are cases where the performances are strong but not necessarily the film. Films that in most years would not see picture noms, just acting ones, are suddenly in contention. Slumdog Millionaire stands out because while Dev Patel and all the actors here are excellent it is not the performances that stand out, it is the film itself. It is uplifting but it gets (perhaps slightly eyebrow-raisingly melodramatically) there through a rollercoaster of shocks, laughs, violence and joy.

Added to this the fact that Fox Searchlight, the true masters of securing the "smaller indie slot" best picture nomination (Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine being just two recent examples) have the domestic rights.

Awards chances: A very good film that may not have been a best picture contender in many year's but may have found itself in the right place at the right time this year, where the overall 'package' really stands out. Expect Best Picture, maybe Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography nominations.