Attention, all procrastinating Oscar- pool participants: You have 1,127 minutes of best-picture contenders to watch before Oscar’s big night, Feb. 27.
And what charming, uncanny, muscular pleasures await moviegoers who haven’t yet dipped into the art house and multiplex.
A stammering monarch. An Ivy League code monkey with a great, possibly stolen idea. An unhinged ballerina, a boxer and his crack-addled brother, a lesbian trysting with her children’s sperm-donor pop.
What have you been waiting for?
Four of the 10 best-picture nominees were released last summer: Studio pics “Toy Story 3” and “Inception,” and indies “The Kids Are All Right” and “Winter’s Bone.” (The only spring release that had a shot at a nomination was Martin Scorsese’s stylish thriller, “Shutter Island.”)
The good thing about the late-season contenders is that the films you still need to see, you can. And you can experience them the way they were meant to be: in the dark of a theater, taking them in with friends but also strangers, watching our communal cave drawings tell their tales.
For most film lovers, seeing all of the contenders isn’t a matter of catch-up or cramming. It’s a ritual, not unlike the one “Harry Potter” fans observe when they rewatch the filmed versions of man-child wizard saga — all of them! — before each new installment.
And no doubt, some of the Academy’s 5,755 eligible voters will be doing their own refreshers before their ballots, due Feb. 22, are tallied by PricewaterhouseCooper — which has been counting those votes for 77 years now.
The sorry thing about fall’s default as the serious season will become apparent quickly enough as studios lard the rest of the year with the sequels, the knockoffs, the overpriced 3-D and IMAX flicks, and the bonehead guy comedies.
Is a little balance so much to ask for?
For the moment, let us praise the good stuff by seeing it in a movie theater.
And if you’re looking to prioritize your viewing, consider starting with the five of the 10 “bests” that also won nominations for cinematography: “Black Swan,” “Inception,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Social Network” and “True Grit.” Then add the two not represented in that bunch but celebrated for their editing: “The Fighter” and “127 Hours.”
Starting today, the Denver Film Society begins showing Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” and continues exclusive screenings of David Fincher’s “The Social Network” at the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax. (Perhaps revealing his own best-pic bias, film society programming manager Keith Garcia also will launch a month-long Fincher series on March 1.)
Of the best-picture contenders, there are three that would have been available only on DVD/Blu-ray or download — “Toy Story 3,” “Inception” and “The Kids Are All Right” — were it not for the undaunted commitment of AMC Theatres.
In 2010, when the Academy boosted the number of movies competing for best picture from the disciplined five to the we’re-not-yet-sold-on-it 10, the Kansas City, Mo.-based chain didn’t blink. Its annual “Best Picture Showcase” takes place on consecutive Saturdays, Feb. 19 and Feb. 26 (AMC Highlands Ranch 24 and AMC Southlands 16). The hard-core and bleary-eyed film fanatics still have a 24-hour marathon-pass option at the AMC Westminster Promenade 24. For more info, go to .
Of course, all Oscar-pool partyers know that the pot of gold is never won guessing correctly the best-picture winner — or, for that matter, any of the other high-profile prizes.
It swings on divining the craft categories, on picking what festival-circuit, live-action short or documentary will triumph. Thank goodness, then, that we live in a movieburg where audiences can view the shorts nominees.
Collections of the live-action and animated shorts open at the Chez Artiste on Feb. 11. And after a prolonged absence, the documentary shorts are back.
Though the final lineup hasn’t been determined, some, if not all, of the documentary shorts will unspool at the Denver Film Society’s FilmCenter/Colfax beginning Feb. 18.
There has to be a fly, though, in our sweet Oscar ointment: The only contender for best foreign film that local audiences will have a chance to see in the theater before the ceremony is the Javier Bardem showcase, “Biutiful,” which opens today.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com. Also on blogs.denverpostcom/madmoviegoer
BEST PICTURE SHOWCASE.
AMC Theaters’ annual nominee festival on consecutive Saturdays, Feb. 19 and Feb. 26 (AMC Highlands Ranch 24 and AMC Southlands 16).
