And the Mitchie Goes To....

It's Oscar night tonight, or as most people know it, Sunday night. For those of you who do care (Mandy is not one of those people), I figured I would give you our picks for who should win. Or, more accurately, my picks with some brief commentary by Mandy.

First, a disclaimer. Since I don't live in Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles and since the Academy has once again not gotten around to getting me DVD screeners of all the movies for some reason, I haven't seen all of the films or performances nominated. The most egregious examples are A Serious Man, the new Coen Brothers film, which has not come to Savannah, and Precious, which I couldn't bring myself to go see. Alright, on to the Mitchies:

Best Supporting Actor

I've only seen two of these performances, Matt Damon's in Invictus and Christophe Waltze's in Inglourious Basterds. And Matt Damon shouldn't have been nominated since he was pretty forgettable. One more note, I think Anthony Mackie from The Hurt Locker should have been nominated in this category. Watch that performance and Damon's and there is no comparison. So the nominees for the Mitchie for Best Supporting Actor are:

Christophe Waltze, Inglourious Basterds
Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
The Talking Dog From Up, Up (Mitch's Vote)
Peter Capaldi, In the Loop
Peter Sarsgaard, An Education

And the Mitchie goes to...

Christophe Waltze, Inglourious Basterds! Easily my favorite performance of the year, and arguablly one of the best movie villians of all time.

Okay, I realize if I do that for each award this post will go on forever, but I just had to correct the egregious nominations in the this category. The rest of the picks will be quick.

Best Supporting Actress: Monique will definitely win, but since I haven't seen Precious the Mitchie goes to Vera Farmiga from Up in the Air.

Best Actor: I think Jeff Bridges will win the Oscar, and deservedly so. He is brilliant in Crazy Heart. Colin Firth is also fantastic in A Single Man. The Mitchie, however, will go to Jeremy Rennar from The Hurt Locker since Jeff Bridges gets an honorary Mitchie every year for The Big Lebowski.

Best Actress: I am sure Mandy would go for Meryl Streep here for Julie and Julia, but I am giving it to Carey Mulligan for An Education. Absolutely fantastic performance in a much, much, much better movie than Boring and Julia.

Best Director: The Mitchie here goes to Kathryn Bigelow, although I am torn between her and James Cameron. Just kidding, I am torn between her and Tarantino.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Nick Hornby, An Education. This man has given us two books that became great movies (High Fidelity, About a Boy), and now gives us the best screenplay of the year.

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds. Could have one for the first twenty minutes alone.

And finally, the nominees for the Mitchie for Best Picture are:

An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Up in the Air
Up

So you can probably tell from how the awards have gone thus far that this is a 3 horse race, although Mitch insists Up should win. Mandy voted for, and I quote "The Hurt Locker even though I haven't seen it, the first 30 minutes of Up, and anything that isn't Avatar". Well said. An Education was incredible, but comes in a very close third. I am having a very hard time deciding between The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds. I think if you asked me a year or two from now I would probably go the other way, but for now I have to give the Mitchie for Best Picture to...

The Hurt Locker!

Alright everyone, have fun tonight not watching the Oscars. I will be watching all four hours and loving it because I am a sick, sick man.

Who do you think should win?