Films seen so far this year: 60
Films seen last week: Obscene, Everlasting Moments, Is Anybody There?, Lesbian Vampire Killers, Diminished Capacity, Watchmen (second time, in IMAX)

2010 Oscar Predictions
This will be my last post about the Oscars till next year, honest, but I just had to share this article by Kristopher Tapley featuring his 2010 Oscar predictions. The stand-outs on his list for me are Michael Mann's Public Enemies (see trailer below), Clint Eastwood's Nelson Mandela project The Human Factor (starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela – surely worth a bet already for a Best Actor nomination?), Martin Scorsese's DiCaprio-starring 1950s gangster flick Shutter Island and Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones, though I wouldn't rule out Mira Nair's Amelia Earhart biopic either. In fact, when I saw the clip of Swank as Earhart at the end of this year's Oscar broadcast, I immediately thought she'd be nominated next year.

I would also fully expect Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces to pick up at least a Best Foreign Film nomination and I wouldn't rule out Penelope Cruz to follow up her Best Supporting Actress win with a Best Actress nomination either. The animation line-up is of course much easier to predict and I'm really looking forward to seeing Monsters vs Aliens, Up and Coraline (see previous blog entries) all battle it out for the little golden fella, possibly alongside Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff.

Films I'm Looking Forward To: Public Enemies
I have been eagerly awaiting this trailer for MONTHS. Every week when it came to researching this section of the blog, I'd trawl YouTube looking for it but I'd only ever end up with embarrassingly awful fan-made trailers (I'd include a link, but, trust me, you don't want to see them) made by Bale and Depp obsessives. Just the summary is enough to whet the appetite: Johnny Depp /films/johnny-depp-film-star-563.html plays notorious 1930s gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale is the FBI agent on his trail, with Billy “Doctor Manhattan” Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover. This is exciting enough on its own and then you realise that MICHAEL MANN is directing it. And also, something I didn't know before watching the trailer, that Marianne Cotillard is in it too. It looks utterly brilliant (I'm a huge fan of 1930s gangster movies anyway) and I just... can't...WAIT. It opens here on July 3rd.

Top 10 Films On Release This Week (as recommended by me):
Four new entries this week, with the long-awaited Watchmen, Old Joy director Kelly Reichardt's excellent Wendy and Lucy (starring Michelle Williams), young Queen Victoria biopic The Young Victoria (starring Emily Blunt) and high school documentary American Teen all making it into the top ten. Incidentally, check out our interview with American Teen director Nanette Burstein here, as she answers pretty much all the questions I raised about the film in my review.

1. Watchmen
2. Wendy and Lucy
3. Anvil! The Story of Anvil
4. Slumdog Millionaire
5. Revolutionary Road
6. The Class
7. The Wrestler
8. Milk
9. The Young Victoria
10. American Teen

DVD of the Week: Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter, featuring Under the Hood (out 6th April, RRP £9.99)
This week's DVD of the Week is Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter, featuring Under the Hood, which is being released in April. Tales of the Black Freighter is an animated story that represents a particularly gruesome pirate comic that a minor character (a young boy who hangs out with the news vendor on the streets of New York) reads throughout Watchmen, providing an ironic commentary on and counterpoint to the larger events of the book. The word is that the director's cut is eventually going to cut the pirate story back into the film, though I'll believe it when I see it. The animation is pretty good and includes one particularly nice touch that isn't in the book, which is that the blood-stained sail on the main character's raft of dead men resembles Rorschach's mask.

The DVD also includes a well made 1980s-style documentary on Behind the Hood, the tell-all autobiography written by the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason (played by Stephen McHattie). Presented as an interview with Mason, it also includes contributions from Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino), The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Moloch (Matt Frewer), as well as other minor characters such as Rorschach's shrink and the afore-mentioned newsvendor, whose part has been largely cut out of the film (though he appears at the end). The documentary will hopefully end up as an extra on the Watchmen DVD when it finally appears, but it's well worth seeing and there are some nice in-jokes and references for fans of the comic book.

And finally...
This is utterly brilliant: Watchmen reimagined as a Saturday morning cartoon: