The Retort

The Oscars

February 19th, 2010 by Stephanie Miezerski Of The Retort Staff

Roll out the red carpet, Hollywood. Oscar is making his way back to the Kodak Theater, and he looks great for his age.

On Sunday March 7, 2010, the Kodak Theater in Hollywood will host the 82 annual Academy Awards ceremony. Movies, directors, actors, actresses, producers, and all others involved will be honored for their outstanding achievements in film during 2009.

Viewers across the country will tune in, whether to see their favorite films paid tribute, or simply to gawk and gasp at the attire of the stars.

However, this year, the celebrated tradition of the ceremony will be broken. Instead of five films being nominated for Best Picture of 2009, there will be ten nominees up for the title. Expanding the category has left the Academy with room to highlight movies that would otherwise be discarded, left to spend their days haunting DVD rental shelves and gathering dust in our home collections.

On March 7, you may be surprised at the titles you see popping up in the Best Picture category. Quentin Tarantino will have the chance to make his way back up to the podium with the film “Inglorious Basterds,” which, in true Tarantino fashion, chronicles a group of rowdy Jewish-Americans who brutally hunt Nazis.

However, 2010’s ceremony yields something for every taste. The pendulum swings from skull-bashing baseball bats and Hitler, to the uplifting, true story of a poor teenager who is taken in by a wealthy family and makes his way to the NFL, in “The Blindside.” If sports stories aren’t your thing, maybe sci-fi alien movies fit the bill. “District 9” (which was produced by Peter Jackson) takes you on a surprisingly poignant journey into a world where alien visitors are held captive, exploited, and forced to live in slums. While this is a film I truly enjoyed, I can’t help but express my surprise at this Oscar nod (there are multiple scenes of heads exploding, which usually doesn’t scream “Best Picture”).

As only the second-ever fully animated film nominated (Beauty and the Beast in 1991 was the first), “Up” also turned some heads, and leveled the playing field to include all ages. “The Hurt Locker” tells a gripping story of the war in Iraq that is all too close to home. The heart-wrenching adaptation of Sapphire’s 1996 novel Push gives us the film “Precious,” which dares you not to shed a tear at the actresses’ emotionally charged performances.

And who can forget “Avatar,” the revolutionary new film by James Cameron, whose costs have been estimated at up to $500 million? Cameron helped develop new technology specifically for the production of this movie, and his breathtaking animation has sent it ahead of the leviathan “Titanic” in box office revenue, reaching $1.86 billion worldwide. That deserves some recognition.

Rounding out the field are George Clooney’s comedy-drama “Up in the Air,” the Coen brother’s black comedy “A Serious Man,” and the unconventional love affair of “An Education.” Not to downplay these three fine films, they are just the more typically touted movies you would see on the Oscar nomination list.

While they may almost be encompassing too broad a spectrum, the Academy has definitely found a way to draw in a larger audience, and possibly span some age gaps. With a field so inclusive, and so versatile, they are bound to appeal to almost all genres and preferences. And who knows, maybe now I will finally be able to convince my dad to see “District 9.”