Oh God, I could do better than that!

My life continues to spiral upwards and now I have a part-time job at a coffee shop. I had always hoped I'd get to revisit my barista years ...wham! another dream comes true. It's not all bad, actually; it shares ownership with the artsy-independant movie theater next door, so I get to see movies for free (something I didn't know when I filled out an application and it's a mixed blessing because now I'll NEVER quit).

I'm usually a pretty negative person, but I'm trying to not let things (like the Academy Awards) get to me*, so I wrote most of this yesterday morning beforehand. I figured I could pick my own winners instead of being annoyed at what actually won. (...but of course I'm not posting it 'til now, so once again everything's going exactly as planned.)

Anyway, I'm limiting myself to the movies I saw at the theater, which are (in the order I saw them):
The Rum Diary
J. Edgar
The Way
The Skin I Live In
My Week With Marilyn
Young Adult
The Girl With The Dragon Tatto
The Adventures of Tintin
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Carnage
Shame
A Dangerous Method
Hugo
The Descendants
The Artist

Best Picture: (I think nominating ten films is lame. People with taste agree with me.) (Also, I missed some movies I really wanted to see and probably would have changed my lists: Melancholia; Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene; and The Tree of Life.) The Skin I Live In; Young Adult; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Shame; and Hugo. A tough call, but even though I'm giving Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy all kinds of other awards, Young Adult wins and I'll give Best Foreign to The Skin I Live In.



Best Actor: Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)



Best Actress: Charlize Theron (Young Adult) (No contest.)



Best Supporting Actor: Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)



Best Supporting Actress: Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) (I'm breaking my own rule since this isn't on the list of ones I saw at the theater)



Best Director: Tomas Alfredson (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)



Best Original Screenplay: Young Adult



Best Adapted Screenplay: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy



Music: Shame (For that "New York, New York" scene mostly, but I really liked the music throughout.)





*Okay a quick negative Oscar observation: The Descendants won best adapted screenplay. Maybe the first half of the book is largely joyless and the two story lines (comatose wife and Hawaiian royalty land sale) never really meet? And when you finish it, you feel kind of dirty? Then the movie is a spot-on adaptation. And maybe Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is an awful novel and in making it into a good movie they did the novel a disservice?




Also, if I were giving out the Razzies, I would be torn--The Descendants or J. Edgar? I'd want to give it to The Descendants, but I'd have to be fair--J. Edgar was worse.