Oscars: The rat race

Oscars are my favorite televised event. It's a popularity contest. If you want to celebrate great cinema, Oscar is not the place. Barring a few times when they do get it right (recently No Country For Old Men).

I'm saying all this but every year since 1999 I've been avidly watching them. Not missed a single one. Not even when I had exams the very next day. Why? Because it's a fucking good show! Seriously. These guys know how to put up a great great show.

My favorite part of the show is predicting who will win. Its fun to predict and know who may win what. It becomes boring watching it if you don't know. Every year I try to predict them and I get better at it every year. But all through these years I've realized that NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING.

Predictions after the jump

My favorite films of 2010 (Part Two)

TOP TEN INDIAN FILMS OF 2010

  10. BREAK KE BAAD/ I HATE LUV STORYS

(tie)

Since the past few years we have seen a wave of films for the “urban” audience, films for the “youth”. People like you and I. One scene involving the actress getting drunk toh banta hai. (This is to show that the youth of today, especially the female Indiane, is very "advanced" and "modern", you see)

There is a common thread running through these movies and some conspicuous attributes: 

My favorite films of 2010 (Part One)

I needed a place to rant and ramble about movies I watch. I wanted to start blogging. What better way than to start blogging about my favorite films of the past year. 2010, that is.

Now I use the word favorite and not the word "best" because it is anyway what "I" think is best not what actually IS the best. Whatever I think is best inadvertently becomes my preference, my opinion. One question that has bothered me for long now is who decides BEST anyway? Objectivity when it comes to films or any form of art is completely futile. A collective opinion, either an awards body or an audience (read box office) may decide what is best and worst. Not me. I can only tell you what I enjoyed, what appealed to me the most/ least. Ironically enough, this also is a mere opinion of mine which you could completely disagree with. Albeit, I would like you to read on.

I decided to break this into categories (just so that I can include more and more films and not just do one Top Ten sort of a thing). The categories are thus: English, Indian, Foreign, Animated, Documentaries and one for all the bad ones. (English also is a foreign language for us but in my defense - 1. The English colonized our country 2. I want to include more movies)

Here I go.

TOP TEN FILMS OF 2010 (ENGLISH)

1. 

Christopher Nolan's masterpiece. This picture combines almost everything I want to see when I enter the theater. An original, awe-inspiring, daring, entertaining, genre-bending masterpiece. Hans Zimmer's music is one of the best film scores ever created. The last half hour is most riveting final moments you will see all year at the movies. The thing that makes Inception a great film is the yearning Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has to return home. It's what we all want. Everyday. Subconsciously, home is real. It is the most real place on this planet. (Ask E.T. or Dorothy if you don't believe me)

Detailed review already published here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/note.php?note_id=428951644500