TNH picks the Oscars: Hurt Locker could win big

The 82nd Academy Awards, hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, is on Sunday. Over these past couple weeks I have been catching up with the Oscar nominees. I have had plenty of time to screen all of the films due to the recent lull in decent film releases. The relentless onslaught of February romantic comedies and other god-awful syrupy mush has claimed countless victims. For those unfortunate enough to have seen Dear John, my unsympathetic heart goes out to you. In the interest of full disclosure, I actually have yet to see Valentine's Day. To all the boyfriends who were painfully dragged to this one: it is much less painful sitting through Valentine's Day than it is having no one to sit through it with. Swallowing my sadness, I present my picks for the main Oscar categories.      

Best Picture

And the nominees are:

Avatar

The Blind Side

District 9

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Inglorious Basterds

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

A Serious Man

Up

Up in the Air 

And the winner is: The Hurt Locker

I was blown away after seeing Hurt Locker. After barely getting a nationwide release, the film went unnoticed by most due to a relatively short stint in theatres. The Hurt Locker is packed with tension filled, anxiety driven action, and anchored by a pivotal performance from Jeremy Renner. The film offers a remarkable look into the psyche of an American soldier assigned to a bomb disposal unit. The director of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break), is up against her ex-husband James Cameron's Avatar for Best Directing and Best Picture. The Hurt Locker is my pick, not my prediction. I have a feeling that the big blue guys are taking home the statue.

This is the first year since Casablanca won in 1943 in which the Academy decided to allow for 10 nominees. In prior years, only five films have been nominated. The question is: Were 10 truly deserving films released this year? Although the old five-film format allowed for a speedier show, many deserving films went unjustly ignored. Films like Psycho, Vertigo, and Some Like It Hot are revered as some of the greatest films of all time despite never getting so much as a nomination.