You should've done it last year when he said the little girl from True Grit was the "lock of the century".

LooGAR also swore up & down that The Blind Side would, well, blindside us all & win out for Picture with Avatar & Hurt Locker bloodying each other enough. Granted, the TBS pick might have been as part of one of the many acts GAR assumes, as "man of the people" with his pulse on "the middle", but, well... Didn't happen. Wasn't going to happen. (Call it the Rocky Effect -- has any sports movie won BP since Stallone whupped Taxi Driver (I think that was it)?.)

& by losing, now we know Li'l Hailee Steinfeld will never grow up to be as hot as Anna Paquin. Or Jodie Foster.

i expect the artist to win unless there's a current of voters who are tired of harvey weinstein and/or thinking longterm about what people 10, 30, 50 years from now would say about a black/white silent film winning best picture and what that says about filmmaking in 2011.

The irony would be coalescing about Hugo, though. I think that's the one with the best (only?) chance to take down The Artist.

I'm in if you want to, Doc.

And my sagacity is all based on the media coverage. On this one, I'd say Artist has it, but maybe they'll give it to Hugo just to make people think back in 50 years and wonder what the fuck was in the water whenever Marty got nominated?

Bring it, Senator.

If I better you, you owe me a Mac Gruff cosplay outfit. If you better me, I owe you an aged scotch.

dont bring me into this you bastard

In his defense, pretty much all of these are lifeless dribble masquerading as good --> you know like your usual taste in music?

Ok, mr avant garde

me neither. not one.

The only movie I saw from 2011, was the Muppets and I thought that was pretty terrible.

Tree of Life was my favorite film of 2011, so I'm happy that it was at least nom'd. Will it win? Only if voters are atoning for past Mallick injustices. In truth though, this isn't even my favorite of his films, but hey, if it gets people to see it--that's great.

So, Loog, what were your favorite flicks of 2011?
Curious, because I really liked Hugo and Midnight in Paris. Also thought that The Help was pretty good, if only for the performancesl

I think he only liked Margin Call (topical!) & Ides of March (solipsism!).

Actually wouldn't you expect me to hate Ides?

But yeah, I'd put Margin Call at the top of the films I've actually seen.

The Help was even more facile than the book, which is a feat, really. It's just too clean and informed through the lense of time to really depict Mississippi in the 1960s. MS right now is a fucked up bassackwards place - you couldn't fathom it in 1964.

You didn't give an unqualified thumb-up, but you certainly didn't trash it as you have pretty much everything else released this year.

is about as unqualified a thumb up I give unless it's a whole-hearted "I fucking loved this"

So, you're saying, Ides of March doesn't compare to Sticky Fingers, Some Girls, & Casino.

(First two Stones albums, obviously; last one, not a Stones album, but a Scorsese film.)

& that means you have offered a qualified endorsement.

Don't READING COMPGREHENSKENG FAIL me on that score, Loo.

It honestly terrifies me to even think of Mississippi in '64.