Quickly now:

The MostImportantMovieAwardsShow will be on tomorrow night. I find myself in one of those rare moments of homesickness, for 'tis only in the Homeland (well, not ONLY) that I can see the Oscars for free, in English, at a reasonable hour. I'd like to see it. I usually watch the Oscars, though not the other awards shows, and since Chris Rock is hosting I expect this one will be particularly worth watching. Sigh.

It is, of course, a movie awards show. So here's what I know about movies. Of the nominated films, I have seen a grand total of three.

"Supersize Me" was nominated, right? I liked it a bunch. Good stuff. Check it out.

"Sideways" was nice, but unless the rest of the field just sucks donkey balls I wouldn't give it anything beyond best screenplay or some such. Everything is nice about it, but it was more "Seinfeld" than "Citizen Kane".

We saw "Ray" last night. Bearing in mind that I've seen a grand total of Zero other nominees in action, I would give Best Actor to Jamie Foxx. He was really impressive. His German was flawless! (heh) I mean, I saw a dubbed version, so I can only guess that the got the voice right, but he was physically very impressive. I liked all the other actors in that movie, too, come to think of it. Remind me to IMDB Bokene Woodbine. He played "Fathead" in "Ray" and I know I've seen him in something else and liked him, but can't remember what. Also, why is Larenz Tate not a huge star? (don't answer that until you read the link below)

Having said all that, biography pics aren't my favorite genre. I am therefore disinclined to root for it as best picture. This was better than most, I reckon, and certainly about an interesting person, but I'm not sure if it was "best picture" material.

This review, Race and 'Ray', makes a good case for the overall art of the film, however.

And, of course, I have seen none of the other nominated films. "Billion Dollar Babies" might suck ass ("Mystic Rhythms" was definitely overrated: and what is with Clint Eastwood and his rocksong movie names?).

Here's one thing that I may be wrong about but if I'm wrong it wouldn't change my overall opinion of Ray: several scenes take place in what I swear they said was Houston. Those scenes were filmed in New Orleans. So? I mean, there are swathes of the N.O. area which bear an unpleasant resemblance of the Houston area. Ahhhhhh, but here is my problem, and I'll state it in a form all potential or actual filmakers among my readership (!) might find useful:

IF YOU ARE FILMING IN NEW ORLEANS BUT DON'T WANT PEOPLE WATCHING THE MOVIE TO KNOW IT IS NEW ORLEANS, AVOID SHOTS OF WELL-KNOWN NEW ORLEANS LANDMARKS.

. . . such as THE FUCKING MISSISSIPPI RIVER BRIDGE! Which ain't in Houston. Cuz the San Jacinto River? Not really very big.

I hope I'm wrong: I hope the movie actually said New Orleans and it just sounded like Houston. They were speaking German, after all.



That took longer than I thought it would.