Here’s a way to end the year or start a new one on a strange note. The New York Times film critics have announced their desired Oscar choices–and snubbed “The Artist,” Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” and “Moneyball.” Instead, Tony Scott picked “Bridesmaids,” a gross out movie that has no place at the Academy Awards, and the confounding, incoherent “Tree of Life.” (Talk about the Emperor’s New Clothes.) Among Stephen Holden’s choices are the middling and ultimately not very effective “Margin Call,” and Jason Reitman’s off putting “Young Adult.” Manohla Dargis, of course, has the strangest choices, going for sleep inducements. “Poetry”? “Mysteries of Lisbon”? A Chinese movie about a woman with Alzheimers, and the Portugese version of “Babel.” Those wacky Times reviewers! I say ignore them, and get to “The Artist” ASAP, wherever you are.
A.O. Scott
Bridesmaids
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Warrior
Manohla Dargis
A Dangerous Method
Hugo
Melancholia
Mysteries of Lisbon
Poetry
Stephen Holden
A Dangerous Method
The Descendants
Margin Call
The Tree of Life
Young Adult