I spent my Christmas weekend watching Oscar bait. They're the kind of movies that debut at film festivals so that they can intercut the trailers with superlative quotes. You'd think that every one of these films were the greatest thing since Citizen Kane.
I crossed quite a few off my list. They included Brooklyn, Carol, Spotlight, Room, Trumbo, Joy, Beasts of No Nation, The Danish Girl, Concussion, and among others,
The common thread between all these are Golden Globe nominations. It'll be interesting to see how the Oscars will shake out. The Golden Globes are my current road map to what's good. I've yet to see The Revenant, The Big Short, and The Hateful Eight.
I want to be able to make an informed prediction, and that's only possible by seeing everything. I'm still juggling judgement in my head, but so far, my front runners for best picture are Spotlight and Room. There were many fine films this year, but those two in particular are on another level.
