The nominees are out. That means it’s time to start reviewing all the movies I’ve missed in 2011 and making a plan to see as many of the nominated films as I can before the winners are announced on February 26th.
That’s not a lot of time. I get myself into this mess every year (minus 2010, which I sort of took off). You can see my similar lists from 2009. I kept my lists of movies to see private the past couple of years, but they’re back!
It’s admittedly silly, but my goal is to see as many nominated films as I can. Not just the big nominees… ALL of them. The foreign films tend to be tough to pick up (oftentimes they don’t appear in theaters until after the awards are given) and documentary shorts tend to never be seen (at least the animated and live action shorts usually find release on iTunes and in theaters through the efforts of Shorts International. Then there’s the movies I simply do NOT want to see. (I’m looking at you, Transformers, you piece of shit!)
Without further ado, here are the 61 nominated films. The ones I’ve seen as of today have been struck through:
- The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
- Albert Nobbs
- Anonymous (DVD on 2/7)
The Artist- The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (short)
- Beginners (DVD)
A Better Life(DVD)Bridesmaids(DVD)- Bullhead
- A Cat in Paris
- Chico and Rita
The Descendants- Dimanche / Sunday (short)
Drive(DVD)Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore (short) (Free on iTunes!)
- Footnote
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo- God is the Bigger Elvis (short)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2(DVD)Hell and Back Again(Streaming on Netflix)The Help(DVD)HugoIdes of March(DVD)If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front(Streaming on Netflix)- Incident in New Baghdad (short)
- In Darkness
- The Iron Lady
- Jane Eyre (DVD)
- Kung Fu Panda 2 (DVD)
- La Luna (short)
- Margin Call (DVD)
Midnight in Paris(DVD)Moneyball(DVD)- Monsieur Lazhar
- A Morning Stroll (short)
- The Muppets
My Week With Marilyn- Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
- Pentecost (short)
- Pina
- Puss in Boots (DVD on 2/24)
- Raju (short)
- Rango (DVD)
- Real Steel (DVD)
- Rio (DVD)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes(DVD)- Saving Face (short)
A Separation- The Shore (short)
- Time Freak (short)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy- Transformers: Dark of the Moon (DVD)
- The Tree of Life (DVD)
- The Tsumani and the Cherry Blossom (short)
- Tuba Atlantic (short)
- Undefeated
- W.E.
- War Horse
Warrior(DVD)- Wild Life (short)
For those of you counting, this means I’ve only seen *seven* of the nominated films. In 2009, I had 42 films to catch and last year it was in the upper forties. Now I’ve got one month to catch 54 flicks.
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. But I’ll do my best to get as close as possible!
Wish me luck.
Updated 1/30: Marked The Help, The Artist, The Descendants and Rise of the Planet of the Apes as seen. Down to 50! Also added links to Netflix or iTunes for films you can watch at home, along with some notes about streaming or DVD availability.
Updated 2/3: Since the last update, I’ve seen two of the documentaries (Hell and Back Again and If A Tree Falls, the two available on Netflix streaming), as well as Warrior and A Separation. That brings me down to a total of 46 flicks left to see! My weekend plans include Hugo and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for sure. Might also suck it up and go get War Horse out of the way. Speaking of which, I can’t think of the last time there was a Best Picture nominee I wanted to see less than War Horse. I really hope it’s not actually as torturous as it feels like it will be.
Go Giants!
Updated 2/10: An amazing victory for the Giants in the Super Bowl seems to have foreshadowed a slowed pace in movie watching this past week. Only saw 5 more films: A Better Life (awesome), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (terrible), Hugo (average), Ides of March (also awesome) and My Week With Marilyn (underwhelming), which brings me down to one less than the Meaning of Life movies to see (i.e. 41).