Cramming for the Oscars

The Academy Awards are coming up on Sunday and, while I know the best film of the year won’t win (since “Wall*E” wasn’t even nominated), I’ll still be tuning in to root for some favorites (Go “In Bruges” for Best Original Screenplay).

Only problem is, with all of the live entertaiment I’ve been seeing this year, I’ve missed many of the nominated films. So I’ve been playing catch-up not only in order to have a better shot at winning our Oscar pool but also because I’ll be talking about the Awards Friday on Fox 59 (circa 8:10 a.m.), WXNT (from 9-10 on “Abdul in the Morning”) and on Matt Socey’s new show Film Soceyology on WFYI HD-2 (from 5-6 p.m).

(FYI: Also joining us on Socey’s show will be former Indianapolis Star film critic Christopher Lloyd. Check out his new, independent Captain Critic movie review blog here.) 

To catch up, in the last few days, I’ve watch “Doubt” (even more effective than the play), “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (you, sir, are no Forrest Gump), “The Wrestler” (powerfully acted, but there seems to be about 15 minutes missing), and “The Dark Knight Returns” (Wow). And I’ve got at least two more to watch tonight.

So what are you rooting for? Do you have any special Oscar Eve rituals (When my daughters were younger, they used to create Barbie tableaux for nominated films. You should have seen their “Talented Mr. Ripley diorama)? And if a film wins that you haven’t seen, does that increase your desire to see it?

Your thoughts?