Annual Oscar Rankings

A couple of years ago I made it a point to see all of the movies nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.  I did this mostly so that when someone tried to tell me how great their favorite movie was, I could look at them with disdain and say, "you idiot."

Some people look down on the idea of ranking movies, as it's a bit silly to rank pieces of art.  It's like trying to rank the top 10 best paintings of all time.  Still, we give out these awards - and someone has to win.

Now that the Oscars has gone to nominating 10 movies for Best Picture instead of just 5, one needs a small fortune and a strong tolerance for Sour Patch Kids in order to get through all of them.  $11 per movie + $10 for snacks x 10 movies = $200+ 

A couple of this year's nominees I might not have normally seen (I'm looking at you Toy Story 3), but pretty much all of them this year were movies I genuinely wanted to see.  In fact, I'd seen most of them before the nominations came out.

So once again this year I have seen all 10, and here are my rankings:

1.) Inception
2.) The Social Network
3.) Black Swan
4.) True Grit
5.) The Kids Are All Right
6.) The Kings Speech

7.) The Fighter

8.) 127 Hours

9.) Winter's Bone

10.) Toy Story 3

I waffled a bit on whether Inception or Social Network should sit atop my rankings, but in the end I think Inception was the most unique and visually stunning movie this year.  Social Network was a tour de force in terms of storytelling, but Inception won out for me in terms of having the whole package.  I think Inception is hurting a bit in the popular discussion due to the fact that it came out way back in July.  However, when I think back to when I first saw Inception - I distinctly remember it blowing my mind.

I won't go into details on why I ranked the rest how I did; again its like trying to describe why a Picasso is better than a Monet.

The Academy Awards air this Sunday, and it's hosted by two of my least favorite people - James Franco and Anne Hathaway.  Barf.  Can't Ricky Gervais just host everything?  I look forward to seeing all of young Hollywood all dressed up, but not Natalie Portman - pregnant chicks are gross.

And who do I think will actually win the award?  Social Network

Kings Speech?  G-g-g-go fuck yourself England