Editor’s note: Welcome to the twentieth of a 24-part series dissecting the 81st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

By Nayana of The Center Seat.

As I’ve complained ad nauseum on The Center Seat, I’ve been a very bad film geek this year. I’ll spare you the gory details, but life has conspired… and I’ve actually had to make a conscious effort to see all the 2009 Oscar films. But still, I thought I was doing pretty well… until Fletch assigned me Best Actress, a category in which I had, at that point, seen only one of the nominated films!

Actually, it was a good thing. I got off my booty and went to the theater (and, in one case, Blockbuster), and now I can hold my head up in the LAMB’s distinguished company. So, here we go.

Melissa Leo, Frozen River

This was a gripping story about a recently single mother who resorts to border smuggling to pay the bills–and it’s the Canadian border. Cool twist, right? We’re saturated with Mexico border stories, so this was refreshing. And I have to say… maybe it was the snowy backdrop, or the northern accent, or the raw desperation to keep her head above water, but I saw a lot of people I know in Melissa Leo’s character. She’s real, frank, unadorned, the anti-glamour-puss. Of course a lot of the credit for that must be shared with the person who created the character: screenwriter Courtney Hunt, who is also nominated.

Leo is fairly unknown; a quick perusal of her IMDB page reveals lots of guest stints on Law & Order and CSI, and roles in various obscure films, perhaps the least obscure of which is Mr. Woodcock. Did you see that one? Yeah, me neither.

I’m actually really cool with Leo’s obscurity. How great would it be if relative unknowns were nominated at every Academy Awards? Of course she doesn’t have a chance in hell, but it’ll be nice to see her there Sunday night.

Meryl Streep - Doubt

Meryl Streep has gotten fifteen Academy Award nominations. Fifteen. That’s more than any other actor or actress in the history of the Oscars. I’m sure there’s a chair somewhere in the Kodak Theatre with Meryl’s ass-print permanently molded onto the seat.

Still, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Girlfriend can act. Overall, Doubt was a bit depressing for me (it’s the story of a priest who may or may not have misbehaved with one of his school’s young male students), but it was one of those movies that seemed custom-built as a showcase for great acting. And, naturally, Streep didn’t disappoint. She portrayed a harsh, militant nun who suspected the priest of wrongdoing and did all she could to prove herself right. That character had so much potential to be flat and uncomplicated, but Streep gave her flashes of humanity, with a fleeting look of uncertainty or a slight shaking of the hands. This is one case in which the actress seems to have made the character who she was. But, fairly or not, that’s what we’ve come to expect of Meryl Streep. Anything less than perfection in her would be a disappointment. Kind of a tough place to put her in, huh? Whatever. She’s got fifteen Oscar nominations.

Kate Winslet - The Reader

I came to this movie with the distinct disadvantage of having read the book. We all know that books tend to far surpass their movie adaptations. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this movie, with its raw sexuality and complicated morality.

It’s hard to think of a more complicated, conflicted character to challenge Kate Winslet. In this movie, she played an illiterate Nazi war criminal who has an affair with a 16-year-old boy. It’s kind of Summer of ‘42-meets-Judgment at Nuremberg-meets-…I don’t know… a Lifetime movie about illiteracy. Of course Winslet pulls it off. She is somehow able to portray vulnerability and pride simultaneously, but perhaps her greatest feat is that we forget about Kate Winslet and instead become wholly absorbed in the story. This is a case, in contrast to Doubt, in which the acting is merely a part of the experience of the film.

Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

This is it. We are officially no longer allowed to dismiss Anne Hathaway as Princess Mia. I think we all suspected she was awesome (how much ass did she kick in Brokeback?) but now, there it is in black and white. She is a contender for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

It wasn’t just handed to her either. In a film which was sometimes difficult to watch, Hathaway delivered a stunning performance as a recovering addict trying to fit in with her family upon her return from rehab. She’s the classic black sheep, but the issues go deeper than that. In fact, the myriad issues of this textbook dysfunctional family explode at perhaps the worst possible time: the days surrounding the wedding of the “good” sister.

I have never seen Anne Hathaway like this. She knocked me on my ass. Frankly, she would absolutely get my vote for this particular Oscar, if it had not been for the final contender in this category…

Angelina Jolie - Changeling

I get a lot of flak from people I respect (Pistola, I’m talking to you) about my professional regard for Ms. Jolie. In this case, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish feelings about Jolie’s personal choices from judgment of her acting ability. Many people dismiss her as a skank/homewrecker/baby factory/whatever, and I’m not necessarily arguing with that. But I have always been a fan of Angelina Jolie the actress. From her first major role as a doomed supermodel in Gia, to her Oscar-winning turn as a sociopathic mental patient in Girl, Interrupted, to her heartbreaking portrayal of her own friend Marianne Pearl in A Mighty Heart, to this most recent role as a bereaved mother in Changeling, Angelina Jolie is a devastating actress. Her work speaks for itself.

I was shaking after I saw Changeling… Jolie is heartbreaking as a mother who tirelessly fights to find her lost son, even angering police and being thrown in a mental institution in the process. Of course she’s a great actress, but she brought something outstanding to this particular role. We all know, regardless of our personal feelings for her, that she loves her kids. In addition, she lost her own mother shortly before starting filming on Changeling. Perhaps it was this personal experience that allowed her to lay herself open on screen in such a raw way.

I am going to unabashedly throw my full support behind Angelina Jolie for this Oscar. But the truth is, no matter who wins this year, we can’t lose. The Academy has nominated five outstanding actresses, and whoever wins will do so because of merit, and not because of pity, or politics, or “it’s about time”, as in certain previous years (Halle Berry, I’m looking at you.)

Mmmm…tasty. Click on the banner to go to the Chop:

MovieZeal gives their review of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Submitted by MovieZeal:

“The film’s blistering power is owed almost entirely to the fact that it avoids politicizing one of the most hot-button issues in the world today.”

Fataculture rants against the MPAA (every fanboy’s favorite whipping post). Submitted by MovieZeal:

“In addition, all you anti-smoking lobbyists; people who do not want to smoke, do not and those who do, do. Not as if any of you are making the tiniest spec of difference. So stop wasting your time and get your nicotine-stain free hands off my goddamn cinema.”

Coosa Creek Mambo wonders what’s happened to all the good Asian cinema. Submitted by MovieZeal:

“Maybe it’s time to admit that free-market capitalism doesn’t work for art any more than it works for health care or air travel or any number of other things . . . what about subsidizing art theaters like communities do art galleries?”

Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob takes an in-depth look at Spirited Away. Submitted by R2D2:

“Believe it or not, Anime as we know it began because of Walt Disney. Japanese animators were impressed with the style of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, so they decided to try and mimic the style.”

The Center Seat is pissed off and wants you to know about it. Submitted by The Center Seat:

“The only thing I can think of is to raise awareness. So I guess that’s what I’m trying to do. Watch the doc if you get HBO… if you don’t, research the problem”

Finally, Tractor Facts was unimpressed by Borderland. Submitted by Tractor Facts:

“Unlike the recent set-in-Mexico gore film, The Ruins, you won’t take nary a cheap gooey thrill from Borderland. Its not just punishing in its trauma scenes, but in the exposition that sleeps in between the blood lust.”

Thanks to all who submitted their Chops, and especially to MovieZeal for submitting some from other sites. Submissions for next week’s Chops (April 13-19) are now being accepted and will be through Tuesday, April 22. The details:

* My email: blogcabins@yahoo.com
* Please send with a subject of “LAMB Chops Submission”
* In the email, provide your site name, the post title, and URL (post URL is preferred, if possible).

(Welcome to the fifth official face-off of Sirens of the LAMBs! If you have not done so already, please read the previous fights and cast your vote! Remember to base it on the narratives and not just a bias!)

——

By Nayana Anthony from The Center Seat.

The elegant Asian woman in the white kimono glides into the teahouse. After delicately removing her slippers, she lowers herself to the floor beside a table.

The staff at this teahouse knows O-Ren Ishii well; although soft-spoken, she is not a woman to be trifled with. Her tea is brought immediately.

Ever alert, O-Ren scans her surroundings, though she never seems to take her eyes from the cup in front of her. She savors her privacy, which is why she has chosen this teahouse every morning for the past several years. It is nondescript, off the beaten path… few outsiders know of this place.

Oh, no. She sighs almost imperceptibly. An American. How did she find this place? O-Ren surveys the slight girl in the red hooded sweatshirt. Although American blood flows through

O-Ren’s own veins, she views American tourists with disdain. They tend to be so loud and ignorant… but this one is fairly quiet. Even so, it’s only a matter of time before more start coming. Wait a second–is she watching me? O-Ren is startled when she realizes that the young girl has been fixing her with a cold stare since she first noticed her. Do I know this girl? O-Ren reaches for her sword, but she is too late–colors swim before her eyes, and the world goes black.

***

As O-Ren slides uneasily into consciousness, the fluorescent light suspended over her body is blinding. She can’t really see… everything is blurry… but something is wrong. Her kimono– where is it? She is naked! She struggles to move, but she is bound tightly. She is laying on a hard, smooth surface, and she can feel beads of sweat starting to trickle down her naked back. A gentle giggle from across the room sends a chill through O-Ren.

“Oh, please. Do try to get away. You’ll just make my knots tighter.”

O-Ren still can’t see clearly, but she can make out a red shape several feet away. The girl in the red hooded sweatshirt!

“What do you want? Do you know who I am?”

Another giggle…”Of course I know, O-Ren. And I know people usually tremble in fear around you. They know you can take their head off in under a second if they dare to cross you. Well… you can if you’ve got this.”

Hayley Stark draws the sword slowly from its sheath and admires it under the overhead light. It is a true Hattori Hanzō, she realizes. She’s heard of the Japanese sword maker’s masterpieces, of course, but she has never seen one in person. To face a Hanzō sword is to face the end of one’s own life — Hayley knows this, which is why she could never allow the situation to get that far. Her only chance of defeating the great O-Ren Ishii was not to be identified as an enemy, until it was too late.

But now it is too late… for O-Ren. The lithe, deadly martial artist had been ensnared by her own complacency. Now, bound naked to the conference table in her own boardroom, with no sword, no henchmen, no Crazy 88, O-Ren’s battle is over. But Hayley’s fun is just beginning.

“Here’s the deal, honey,” Hayley says conversationally, “It’s 8:45 a.m. In about ten or fifteen minutes, the main power players in the Tokyo mafia will be coming into this room for a meeting. Those guys don’t like you, do they, O-Ren? Something about a decapitation, right here, in this room? I’m kind of fuzzy on the details.”

O-Ren sighs, and closes her eyes. “He insulted my heritage. He deserved to die.”

“A lot of people deserve to die, O-Ren. Including you. But there are things worse than death aren’t there?” Hayley’s mouth curves into a sly grin. “Now what if I just left you here, tied to the table, naked. How do you think that would play out, sweetie?”

O-Ren’s eyes flew open. “You cannot do that! I would rather die. Please, no, you can’t!”

Hayley laughs. “Is this really the great O-Ren Ishii? I don’t really think of you as someone who begs. Kinda disappointing, actually.”

“What did I ever do to you? I don’t even know who you are!”

“What did you do to me?” scoffs Hayley, “You’ve done plenty. But this isn’t about me. Do you, or don’t you, want me to leave you here?”

“No, please don’t! I’d rather die!”

“Alrighty then.” With one deft motion, O-Ren’s sword finds its sheath… straight through its owner’s abdomen.

———-

By Pat from Lazy Eye Theater.

Pleasant music played over the loud speaker as O-Ren Ishii looked for some stylish flip-flops in the shoe section. She wanted something to match her latest Kimono. It was a little pricey, so she was looking for a steal on the flip-flops. And of course she came to Target. So the question was, should she go simple and elegant or something with a little bling? Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone with a red jacket on. Thinking it was a Target employee, she approached the woman to get a quick opinion. Only it wasn’t a Target employee; it was Hayley Stark, her sworn enemy at the time. O-Ren’s niece’s boyfriend had run into Hayley at a high school party and Hayley was talking shit about O-Ren’s Japanese/Chinese/American heritage and saying that O-Ren was not fit to be the big boss of the Tokyo Yakuza. Needless to say O-Ren added her to the assassination list right then and there. Unfortunately, the assassination list gets quite long this time of year and so Hayley was allowed to live a little longer than O-Ren would have liked. But what luck was this? A casual kill on a Saturday afternoon right here in Target. There would have to be no planning. No traveling. No overnights sleeping on uncomfortable beds in lousy motels while she waited for just the right time to kill her. This was perfect.

O-Ren quickly dropped her flip-flops and reached for her side where her Hanzo Sword always is. But she remembered that Target has a strict No Hanzo Sword Policy which, by the way, is a bunch of crap. So she had to check it at the front counter. And now here she was. Face to face with this little shit who honestly was such an unworthy opponent that it was an insult to O-Ren that she would even have to lift a finger to kill her. This wasn’t even a job worthy of her weakest Crazy 88 (that one guy with the slight limp and the inner-ear infection that made him fall all the time). But he was a brother of a friend and she owed him and well, let’s just say it’s a long story and not worth going into here.

Hayley saw the red hate in O-Ren’s eyes and reacted a bit quicker than O-Ren had thought she would. Hayley swung her brand-new-not-yet-ready-for-school backpack at O-Ren and swiped her across the face. It was empty so it was not so much a weapon as a diversion while Hayley ran away into the men’s clothing section where she could get lost among a sea of Mossimo shirts and Merona pullovers. O-Ren casually followed her into the section and walked calmly along the clothes. It’s true she was without her Hanzo, but it was also true that O-Ren’s body was her deadliest weapon. She had been trained by Pai Mei in the multiple arts of Kung-Fu. She was not called Cottonmouth because of her skill with the sword. But unlike a Cottonmouth, O-Ren would not kill her prey quickly today. Instead she would have some fun.

O-Ren shot her hand through the hanging pants display and struck Hayley in the neck. Hayley fell out of the clothes grasping for air and struggling to get to her feet, but O-Ren was already there. Picking her up by her little red hood and dragging her along the floor. Hayley managed to choke out a couple of sorrys. But the sorry bus had already left a long time ago. O-Ren grabbed a woman’s top off the sale rack as she continued to drag Hayley towards the snacking section of Target. By now, O-Ren’s actions had spooked some customers and the store was beginning to clear. At the snacking section. O-Ren ordered the oldest hotdog they had on the turning grill and the largest Icy cup they could find. Hayley sat at a table still trying to breathe while O-Ren presented her with the shriveled hot dog, no mustard or ketchup, and the large Blue Cherry Icy. And then she revealed a god-awful woman’s top to Hayley. I mean one of those that you can’t believe someone thought was a good design. It was frilly and lime green with some purple and shit it was terrible. Seriously, someone should have been fired for designing this turd. So she made Hayley wear it while eating that nasty hot dog and O-Ren took pictures. She told Hayley that she was going to post them on her Facebook page and then she was going to discover who all of Hayley’s friends were and then she was going to invite all of Hayleys friends to be her friends so that everyone would see the photos of Hayley eating this nasty-ass, shriveled up, sure-to-be-crawling-with-e-coli hotdog while wearing a top that looked like a drunk clown threw up on her. The cruelty was unbearable.

Then O-Ren told her to drink the large Icy as fast as she could. This surely would give Hayley one heck of a headache. But Hayley had regained her breath and her strength and she threw the drink in O-Ren’s face and ran past the checker aisles and into the house-cleaning section. O-Ren welcomed the chase. Was hoping for it, in fact. She followed Hayley as she ducked into one of the aisles. O-Ren turned into the aisle and was immediately sprayed in the face with Windex. The burning was bad, but O-Ren did not need her eyes to kill. She did a round house upside of Hayley’s face and pushed her into some cleaning supplies. O-Ren then took her by the hood again and dragged her to the cosmetic section. Through her stinging eyes, she was able to find a bottle of peroxide which she poured all over Hayley’s hair turning her from a smart and witty brunette to a dumb bleach blonde instantly. And then she made Hayley stand up and grab a bottle of Massengale and act like she was really excited to get it, while O-Ren snapped some more photos for her Facebook page. Her torment knows no boundaries.

Hayley was a complete mess by now, but O-Ren was not even close to finishing her. She took her to the electronics’ section and challenged her to a game of Madden Football. She let Hayley play as the New England Patriots while O-Ren chose the Miami Dolphins and even with her bad eyes and one of the shittiest teams in the history of football, she still schooled her 52 to 3. It was an embarrassing loss. An unforgivable loss really. And definitely worth some photos for the Facebook page.

O-Ren again pulled Hayley by the hood, past the music selection, and into the candy section where she made Hayley eat an entire bag of those nasty marshmallow Peeps that they sell every year for Easter. All that super-sweet sugar coating that grits in-between your teeth and they say its marshmallows but seriously who really knows what that shit is made of and what it does to your insides and it was sure to give Hayley one hell of a zit right in the middle of her forehead.

Time was of the essence. O-Ren’s casual kill was taking a bit longer than she had anticipated, so she dragged Hayley to the recreation section with all the bats and mitts and soccer and footballs. O-Ren grabbed a baseball and bat and had Hayley swing while O-Ren pitched to her. But every pitch was a beam right in the back because O-Ren said that Hayley was crowding the plate and she was asking for it, even though Hayley said that that wasn’t true and that there wasn’t even a plate to crowd and O-Ren was doing that on purpose. But O-Ren declared her innocence and Hayley was just mad because now she was a food-poisoned bad dresser Massengale loving dumb blond who got her ass handed to her by the worst football team in America which was being controlled by someone with Windex in their eyes and holy shit I can’t believe you ate those Peeps because those things are nasty and by the way you suck at baseball.

This was too much for Hayley. She collapsed to her knees, her steely armor once used to torture grown men to kill themselves now completely gone in only a matter of minutes. Her fast-talking mouth was no longer useful as it only let out loud, uncontrollable sobs. It was sad really. O-Ren stood over her in pity as Hayley begged to be put out of her misery. A chore in which O-Ren was happy to carry out. She picked up the bat and held it high above her head. It was not sharp like her Hanzo and it was not swift, but it would certainly do the job. Just as O-Ren was ready to bring down the bat, a janitor came around the corner. O-Ren knew that if she carried through with her swing, there would be brain and blood everywhere and that janitor would have to work really late cleaning up all that debris and O-Ren was cruel, but not that cruel. So instead she brought Hayley to her feet and she performed the five point palm-exploding heart technique as taught to her by Pai Mei. Five steps later Hayley Stark was dead and O-Ren had purchased her flip-flops with some bling on them which, by the way, were on sale so that made O-Ren very happy.

Just a couple quick things to share…

Nayana from The Center Seat went and nominated the LAMB for a Blogger’s Choice Award. The category is Best Entertainment Blog (and a few other categories. Sounds like a difficult category to win, but every vote counts! I believe registration is required, but I could be wrong…the voting page is here.

Also, it appears as though there’s a new sheriff in town, as there was no contest for the top spot in this week’s LAMB Leaderboard. LAMB #53, Final Girl, who was inducted here just a few days ago, must have herself some (well deserved) high traffic, as her post (and link) about the LAMB sent 95 visitors here in just about 4 days, easily setting the record in the short history of the Leaderboard. I haven’t been saving the chart each week, but I believe the previous high was 63. LAMBs, the gauntlet has been thrown down - let’s see someone crack 100! Also, another “record” in that 4 or the top 5 spots have created and sent in their site banners to me - coincidence??? (Yeah, probably.)

Lots more going on this week, as Sirens of the LAMBs heads towards the end of the first round, and many more new LAMBs on tap (I like to space them out so as to give every new one it’s fair shake at the top of the page). The only thing hurting? My own movie blog, which is feeling somewhat like the ugly stepsister right about now. Such is life…

With the LAMB growing to almost 50 sites, it’s high time we take a weekly look at some of the best posts from the last week from our impressive, highly diverse group. I’m going to kick it off this week, but in the future, I’d like to get your thoughts on which posts (not from your site) should be the LAMB Chops for the given week. So, if you’d like to nominate anyone for the week of February 27 - March 4, please send me an email with the subject “LAMB Chops nomination.”

As this progresses, perhaps we can start thinking widgets and/or any other ways to publicize these posts - I’m open to your ideas for this and any other LAMB projects (I’m specifically looking for cool alternatives to presenting the posts; I’m not sure I like the format you see below). For now, here are the Chops for February 20 - 26 (in no particular order).

To read the particular post that’s been Chopped, just click on the picture.

Spaghetti Sauce and Sweet Peas has some words for Ethan Coen.

Ferdy on Films’ Rod Heath breaks down the history of the Best Picture (previously posted here on the LAMB).

The Center Seat counts down the best moments from Sunday’s Academy Awards.

I’m cheating as this was posted on the 19th, but Dave’s Movie Reviews takes an in-depth look at Run Lola Run (one of my favorites) as part of it’s Foreign Film February.

Karlhungus.com has had it with anti-pirates (anti-piracy ads, that is).

Editor’s note: Welcome to the twenty-third (and final!) of a multi-part series dissecting the 2008 Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every weekday leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category (or more) of the Oscars (there are 24 in all). To read any other posts regarding this event, please just click on the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

By Nayana of The Center Seat.

Best Documentary Short is a frustrating category for me. Like this year’s foreign film nominees, these films have not been available to the average viewer who can’t make it to the myriad film festivals (Nayana’s world tour is still several years away). Therefore, you should maybe keep in mind while reading this that I haven’t seen any of these films.

2. La Corona

This is the story of Salim, a 55-year-old man in Kolkata (most of us remember “Calcutta”), India, who supports his wife and five children in a unique way. He splices together discarded scraps of film from movie theaters, as well as trailers and other bits of movies, and shows them on an ancient hand-cranked projector which he inherited from his father. Salim entertains the children of his neighborhood, and apparently makes a living at it; he hopes to leave the projector to his children so that they, too, will have a viable livelihood. There has been a bit of controversy with regard to this particular film: as reported by Vanity Fair, a reporter from a major Indian newspaper claims that Salim, the subject of the film, was misled and underpaid. The charges seem to be without merit, and Salim himself has retracted some of his claims, but the controversy may make Oscar a bit gun-shy with this one.

Editor’s note: Welcome to the seventeenth of a multi-part series dissecting the 2008 Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every weekday leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category (or more) of the Oscars (there are 24 in all). To read any other posts regarding this event, please just click on the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

By Nayana of The Center Seat.

Best Animated Short Film is the coolest Oscar category ever! Anyone know why? Well, aside from a lack of the usual bitchiness and intrigue that plagues many of the other awards, this is one of the few categories in which a movie-phile like me (or you) has the opportunity to sit down and watch all the nominees… in under two hours!

That’s right: if you’re lucky enough to have an arthouse cinema in your town (or a theater chain that passes for one, like Landmark), you can see a feature film which is just a compilation of all the nominated shorts, in either the Animated or Live Action category. I watched both, but the all-knowing, all-seeing Fletch has assigned me the Animated Shorts. So, here’s the rundown, in the order in which I saw them:

Même les pigeons vont au paradis (Even Pigeons Go To Heaven) - France
This film (available on YouTube) is part silly slapstick, part dark social commentary. An enterprising priest tries to scam a feeble old man into buying a machine that will take him to heaven. The animation is exquisite and engaging. There are a few twists and a satisfying (if ironic) ending, and the film is definitely good for some hearty laughs. Underneath it all, however, there are dark themes of death, bad karma, and the masses getting screwed by religion. Of all the short films on the list, Even Pigeons is the most user-friendly, and earned the most out-loud laughter from our audience.

Moya lyubov (My Love) - Russia
The most startling thing about My Love is the animation. It was rendered with oil painting on glass, and it comes out looking like a fluid Monet painting come to life. Visually, it was stunning; honestly, though, after a few minutes, my eyes started to water. And as masterful as the animation was, the story seemed to be slapped together with Play-Doh. The film follows a teenage boy in pre-revolutionary Russia. He’s yanked around by his libido: one moment, he’s passionately in love with a family servant, and the next moment, he is utterly devoted to a mysterious neighbor woman. The boy lurches back and forth between the two women, and is ultimately disappointed, as neither fantasy is what he had hoped for. It is worth noting that My Love’s director, Aleksandr Petrov, has been nominated three times before in this category, winning once for The Old Man and the Sea in 1999.

Madame Tutli-Putli - Canada
This short is a seamless integration of computer and stop-motion animation. We follow the title character as she takes an eerie late-night train ride with all her worldly possessions. The film starts out light and mildly funny, but it soon morphs into suspense, horror, and eventually metaphysical whacked-out-itude. Technically, it’s marvelous. Madame Tutli-Putli’s huge eyes alone are an animation masterpiece (according to Wikipedia, Jason Walker came up with the idea of using composited human eyes and adding them to the stop-motion puppets). The detail is amazing, from the veins in Madame’s legs to the endless collection of odds and ends she hauls with her. Personally, though, I just found it gross. And weird.

I Met the Walrus - Canada
In 1969, a ballsy kid named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room with a reel-to-reel tape recorder and somehow convinced the Beatle/activist/music god to give him an interview. Holy crap, right? That kid’s got something to talk about for the rest of his life. But rather than rest on those fantastic laurels, Jerry grows up and produces a poetic animated short with the interview as the audio track. It’s like SNL’s “Fun With Real Audio”, but way, way cooler. The animation mostly consists of pencil-type drawings that illustrate Lennon’s words; sometimes humorously, sometimes poignantly, but always reverently. And the greatest thing about this film: forty years later it’s still completely relevant. Turn on CNN right this minute, and you can apply John Lennon’s observations on war, peace, and the ultimate futility of revolution. Please, please, please let this one win.

Peter and the Wolf - UK/Poland
I grew up loving this classic work by Prokofiev. My mom was a classical music buff, and she jumped at the chance to present this piece to my sister and I as a way to teach us about the different instruments in the orchestra. Most of the time, in fact, when Peter and the Wolf has been produced, it has been narrated for children, as an introduction to classical music. Personally, I was always enraptured by the story of a boy, his pet goose, a bird, a cat, a grandfather, and the Big Bad Wolf. This new production, however, goes much darker. We still have the basics of the story: Peter sneaks out of the gate into the forest and plays with his animal friends; the wolf attacks; and Peter and his grandfather are ultimately victorious over the predator. Before all that, though, the film introduces us to Peter’s hometown: a dirty, decaying industrial hole, crawling with bullies and miscreants. While Peter and the birds are playing, the cat and wolf mirror the human antagonists. Most strikingly, the film does not shy away from the darkest elements of the story, which have traditionally been whitewashed by Disney and other producers. This was probably the most well-rounded of the shorts, with moments of humor, suspense, and horror all blended in a modern update of the classic tale.

OK, if you made it through that whole write-up, you know who I want to win. For creativity, uniqueness, and sheer pluck, I Met the Walrus needs to take home the little gold man. Of course, Even Pigeons easily has the most mass appeal in this category (but when does Oscar ever reward mass appeal?) On the other hand, if Academy voters are going for technical impressiveness, Madame Tutli-Putli or My Love could take the cake. I suspect, however, that we’ll see Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman climb those steps for Peter and the Wolf: it’s got a great pedigree, and it’s a gritty take on a classic tale. The Academy will eat that right up.

URL: http://centerseat.blogspot.com/

Site Name: The Center Seat

What is the main focus of your site (reviews, editorials, news, lists, etc.)?
I’m a huge movie buff. I spend lots of time in theaters. I thought I’d start a blog about movies, but not just reviews and news; I also want to talk about my experiences at the movies. Like how cramped and hot it was in the balcony of the Uptown Theater when we went to see There Will Be Blood. Or how frustrating it is when the cleaning crew stands there and looks at you when you just want to sit through the credits without being bothered.

What are your blogging goals, personally and/or professionally? In other words, what, if anything, are you trying to get out your blog?
I am mainly just trying to enhance my movie watching experience. I would watch movies whether I could blog about it or not… but I hope this will expose me to other ideas about the movies, and help me connect with others that have the same passion I do for good film.

Do you prefer an interactive ‘community’ for your blog or are you the teacher and your readers are the students?
I definitely welcome lots of interactive comments. I want to learn from others as well as share my own thoughts with them.

How long have you been movie blogging for, and how frequent do you post updates to your site?
I’ve been a movie fanatic for about 3 years. I’ve been a movie blogger for exactly 2 [Ed.: now 3] days. :-) My goal is to post at least five times per week.

Name up to three of your favorite movies (and no more).
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Lord of the Rings (trilogy), Juno

How did you hear about the LAMB?
Blog Cabins.

Any additional comments.
I was super-excited when I saw there was an online group of movie blogs. I would love to know what I can do to promote it, above and beyond putting the link on my site (which I’ve already done).