Top Five Friday: An Oscar Edition

Tomorrow will mark my second year where the day before the Oscars is spent at my local AMC Theatre in the movie equivalent of a long endurance race - the Best Picture Showcase.  Starting at 10:30 AM, my ass will be planted in a theatre seat watching all five of the Best Picture nominees back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back.  Whew.

It's a long, somewhat grueling day that had me incredibly cranky at the ending of No County For Old Men last year.  In case you've forgotten, you can now relive my rage from that night.

But tomorrow is a new day and it's time to "run the mile" again.  With that in mind, I'm going into this Showcase with certain expectations and preconceived notions so I thought it'd only be fitting to run down in order what I think I'll enjoy the most tomorrow.

NOTE:  Much like last year when immediately following Michael Clayton, I proclaimed that Sweeney Todd got robbed - I fully expect to utter that a few times with The Dark Knight, The Wrestler, Doubt, and possibly Wall-E as this year's victims of choice.

5.  The Reader

Now, to be fair, I know very little about The Reader.  In fact, when the nominees were announced, I was absolutely clueless to what this was even about.  Soon enough though, I found things that made me cautious.  It's apparently sorta a Holocaust movie.  I've never seen Schindler's List and it's pretty much the standard-bearer for that "genre" so I'm not particularly excited about seeing this.  Then, I find out Kate Winslet's in it and since she was partially responsible for three of the most painful hours in a theatre I can recall...  

But there's slight hope.  I hear the Holocaust thing is an undertone and not the overreaching story.  Then, someone mentions that Winslet is naked through a large chunk of the movie.  I'm sure that's an overstatement and I'm not sure ordinarily that'd be enough to make me watch the film but hey... it can't hurt, right?  And finally, someone who has actually SEEN all 5 movies already told me this was the best.  I'm holding severe doubt on that one but I was magnificently surprised by Atonement last year so... we'll see.

4.  Milk

Reviews on this one from people I trust to do reviews all seemed to say the same thing:  Sean Penn's performance is amazing but the movie?  Well, that's not all that great.  And not to be the insensitive prick here but is anyone else getting the vibe from this one that people aren't allowed not to like it because of the subject matter?  It's like Philadelphia or any Denzel movie where he's a black guy put into [INSERT 'BLACK GUY FORCED TO DEAL WITH RACISM AND 'THE MAN' SCENARIO HERE!]  It's almost like if you see you don't like it, you're a bad person.  I'm hoping I'm wrong on this one but... well, I'm not hopeful that I am.

3.  The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

This is such a polarizing movie.  When it first came out, all I heard was how fantastic it was and that I was an idiot for not racing out to see it.  Now that people have had some time for reflection, this one is suffering some serious backlash.  I was kinda in the middle about seeing this when it first came out and my desire to see it has slowly slip-slided down the road since then.  But of the movies I've listed so far, this is the one I have the most hope for.  Besides, some say it's the same movie as Forrest Gump and I love that damn movie.

2.  Slumdog Millionaire

I've already seen this one and I adored it.  I have a hard time imagining that any of the others will come close to touching it.  I'm undecided if I'll skip out on this one to go grab dinner or not since it's the second to last movie of the night.  I'd really like to see it again, I think.  We'll see!

1.  Frost/Nixon

This is legitimately the only one of the Best Picture nominees that I actually WANTED to see when it first hit the cineplexes.  I'm not entirely sure why.  It's some piece of that former history major in me, I'm sure.  I have high hopes for this one and I think it possibly could be my favorite of the day.  But it's in the death slot - starting at 9:45 PM when I'll start thinking about how I have to be at work at 7 AM on Sunday.  This could easily put me down for the count if it starts to drift.

In the end, I'm pretty sure this is how my Top 5 will go heading into Oscar Night.

1.  Slumdog

2.  Frost/Nixon

3.  The Reader

4.  Benjamin Button

5.  Milk

And in the end, I'm pretty sure I'll be staring at the final closing credits wishing it was...

1.  Slumdog

2.  The Dark Knight

3.  The Wrestler

4.  Doubt

5.  Frost/Nixon

Just a hunch.

I might pop in throughout the day tomorrow with brief thoughts on each flick since it'll probably be my only chance to post tomorrow.