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I saw five of the best picture contenders over the week here are some reviews from worst to best

Revolutionary Road is the story about a family falling apart... normally this type of story is fertile ground for telling great stories American Beauty, The Ice Storm, and Ordinary People were all recent films that covered the same plot points as RR with excellent results. But Revolutionary Road is not as good as those earlier films, Revolutionary Road is unfortunately a shallow episode of Mad Men. The trailer for the film is great, it comes off as a romantic and exciting film.... unfortunately those are the two elements missing from this film. Every plot point is telegraphed you actually know how the film is going to end around the 30 minute mark which can be okay if it takes an interesting direction (In the Bedroom) but this film doesn't. I would go so far as to say that the film has the look and feel of a Lifetime film. The good news is that Kate Winslet saves the film from being bad, she's the only thing original or interesting in the entire film. I did not like Tom Shannon's two scenes in the film, a lot as been made of his role but I found the whole idea of a mentally unstable guy coming for lunch to be both pretentious and artificial, an opportunity to move the plot along or to give the audience a voice. Maybe if he were given another 15 minutes of screen time to get an actual story out of him the film would be okay but they don't and its not. Film Grade C

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a real film, its a nice long actual movie. What I mean by that is it doesn't play to a genre or retell a historical event or remind you of any other film. Well some would say Forrest Gump but Gump was a nostagia piece, you didn't give a shit about Gump you cared about the 60's and 70's which was the real star of the film. Benjamin Button is a good movie, its romantic, sentimental and imaginative. Brad Pitt gives a fine subtle performance its almost a supporting role to every other actor in the film which I find refreshing and admirable. The film has a number of excellent scenes, whenever Cate Blanchett or her character are in the story the film is cracking on all five cylinders, I also found the scenes with Tilda Swinton to be excellent. The film has its drawbacks though, at three hours in runtime you feel like their should be more really good scenes in the first two acts, but the films power is in its last 30 minutes, those last 30 minutes will break your heart. Film Grade B

Like him or hate him the one thing you can't deny is that Clint Eastwood has made a lot of movies over the past 8 years and not a single one of those films has been bad. Gran Torino is his latest and one of his riskiest film to date. Eastwood plays a racist war vet living in a neighborhood that has been taken over by the people he used to kill... thought techinically they are Hmong so they just look like the people he wanted to kill. Eastwood's wife is dead, he's pushed away his children who obviously don't want to put up with the man and he's living a life of quiet desperation. It's not until the gang violence comes to his front lawn that he starts to connect with the world outside. His neighbors are a pair of Hmong teenagers, Thao who the gang wants and Sue who is the leader of the family. What I like about the performances of those two is that neither are the articulate teenages you are used to seeing on the screen some have called these performances poorly acting I found them to be realistic and touching. Sue whose played by Ahney Her gives a very powerful performance, she plays off of Eastwoods Wally they have great chemistry and you almost worry that they will wind up sleeping with each other.... spoiler fortunately they don't. The film makes no secret that its not going to end well for Wally, the film is a nice long buildup to Wally's confrontation with the gang. I liked this film a lot, it had great chemistry, humor and it was suspenseful Film Grade B+

Ghost Town just came out on video and its gotten a little regonition from the AFI as one of the top ten films of the year. Its the story of a Dentist (Ricky Gervais) who is killed by (Kristen Wiig) only to be brought back and now he can see ghosts. Greg Kinnear plays the lead ghost who wants Gervais to break up the wedding of his wife (Tea Leoni) to her creepy liberal lawyer (Billy Cambell). Its really just a film of Kinnear and Gervais ripping on each other but it has a sweet tone to the film. The chemistry really works during the course of the film so much so that even though it doesn't really go anywhere you didn't think it was going you still get a little choked up watching it. It's an funny little comedy that has a really good heart to it, a really good pallet cleanser after all the depressing films released this year. Film Grade A-

The final film I saw this year is also one of the best films of the year, when you go into seeing the film The Wrestler you think you know what you are getting yourself into. It seems like its going to be an hour long touching story of a guy whose trying to put his life back together, and in a way it is that, but its also so much more. Micky Rourke play Randy "The Ram" Robinson a washed up pro wrestler making his way on the indy circut just trying to live. Marrisa Tomei plays Rourke's closest friend a 40ish stripper in a trailer park strip club living out a cliche'd life. Randy is a soft spoken, polite man whose trying to connect with anyone around him, Rourke gives one of these amazing performances that sticks with you long after the movie ends. The film is filled with characters who make heartbreaking decisions, extremely touching moments, and very different scenes then you typically get in a film. In a lot of ways its the Anti-Slumdog Millionaire its the story of an old poor white guy whose at this place in his life but you don't get to see how he get's there you don't get the flashbacks of his life or even the full story. It may not sound that effective but it did for me. The wrestling scenes in the film are brutal, it exposes the business for what it is fake but not really you can't fake a stable gun in the back. It may not be the best film of the year but its one of my favorites Film Grade A+

Top Ten Films of the year (so far)

1. The Wrestler
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. The Dark Knight
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshal
5. Frost/Nixon
6. The Duchess
7. Changeling
8. Milk
9. Iron Man
10. Ghost Town

Joaqenix wrote:

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Wow I guess I just totally disagree with people on Benjamin Button. Its definitely a love it or hate it kind of movie, but thats art I guess.

For both lovers and haters: can someone tell me why Brad Pitt has more Oscar buzz than Cate Blanchett? I never even really like her that much, but I thought she was great in this. And she looked freaking gorgeous. Is the actress field just more competitive this year or something? Not to spoil it, but in the most dramatic scenes of the movie, she does all the heavy lifting and hes either not there or just standing around looking hot...not that theres anything wrong with that.

For the first time in years the lead actress field is more crowded then the lead actor's field. You have Streep, Hathaway, Hawkins, Jolie, Knightly, and Winslet I have Keira Knightly as the best performance of the year for The Duchess over the other contenders (but I have yet to see Doubt and Happy-Go-Lucky), but I would/should have Cate Blanchett in my final five for actresses this year.