The Invisible Counterpoint

Let’s just get this out of the way up front: Great job, Academy ! That the AMPAS found room for everything from Winter’s Bone to Toy Story 3 to the ferocious performance given by Movieline favorite Jacki Weaver means they deserve a bit of kudos. (If you’re one of those, “Yawn, I’m too cool for the Oscars!” people, just go back to bed today.) Of course that doesn’t mean many, many deserving nominees were left out in the cold this morning. Ahead, the six biggest from the major categories. (Christopher Rosen, “Your Favorite was Robbed: The 6 Biggest Oscar Snubs,” Movieline, 21 January 2011) - - - - - - - - - - I disagree. I thought the noms were fair and on the mark. I predicted that True Grit (this year's Blind Side) would be the sleeper movie and the Coens would get best director. There's an upset coming. I also predict that Colin and Jeff will split the best acting....or Jeff walks away with the best acting award. (response to post, Chicago48) - - - - - ...

Kutcher and Portman play Adam and Emma, two young people making their way in Los Angeles with varying degrees of success: Emma — an overachiever who admits that she’s not particularly emotional or affectionate — is a doctor; Adam — irrepressibly warm and affable, if a bit goofy — works as an assistant on a weekly teen-musical show, though he really wants to be a writer. Adam and Emma met years earlier, as kids at summer camp — the movie opens with that flashback, in which young Adam (played by Dylan Hayes) fires the first of the movie’s sexually explicit salvos when he asks Emma bluntly, “Can I finger you?” [. . .] Adam agrees, though of course we know that since he’s just a big mushbug, he’ll be the one to cave in first. And sure enough, he shows up at Emma’s apartment while she — along with two of her roommates, played by Greta Gerwig and Mindy Kaling — are all having their periods. Not only has he brought them cupcakes, which they descend upon with hormonally charged voracious...

Happy Oscar nominations , babies. You got what you wanted, though you have to throw those gold-plated, NSFW Andrew Garfield valentines in the trash. It could be worse. You could be living in 1994, when the Academy honored not Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, or my darling Quiz Show with a Best Picture victory, but a staggering sh*t fortress of offensive “whimsicality” called Forrest Gump . You saw it. It’s dumb. Loony. It’s got a lot of nerve. But here’s a secret you and I share: We’re both attracted to bastards, and Forrest Gump’s the slimiest john I know. Let’s love it. Synopsis: Tom Hanks plays Forrest Gump, a man with an IQ of 75 who assures the world that in order to be an inspiring mentally challenged person, you need only to act like Winnie the Pooh . Point to your head and say, “Think, think, think.” Cock your head when others are speaking. Don’t understand when you’re playing a football game. These things. [. . .] Here’s the key to loving Forrest Gump: Our hero...