Despite the fact that many of the results of this year’s Academy Awards seem pre-destined, the discrepancy between many Oscar pundits (myself included) and the actual nominations gives me hope for some excitement in the next month. Some of these nominations overjoy me. Others… leave me notably displeased. Here are the nominations, along with the surprises that please me, the surprises that don’t, and the performances and films with realistic nomination chances that ended up snubbed.

Best Picture
“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer
“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer
“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
“Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
“Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
“The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined
“War Horse“ Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

Most pundits predicted eight at most, so the number of nominees itself is pretty stunning. Most stunning of all is the inclusion of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which many had all but counted out of the race. I have yet to see it, but an interesting bit of trivia: no Best Picture nominee in the history of the Oscars has so low a rating on Rotten Tomatoes (interesting follow-up: the second lowest film was also directed by Stephen Daldry). The inclusion of Tree of Life is somewhat exciting– I think it’s imperfect but it’s certainly bold and creative cinema in a category with many “safe” picks. I’d hoped Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or even Drive would have snuck in here, and Tinker Tailor did have a good amount of support judging by the other categories– just not enough under these new voting rules to make the cut.

Directing
“The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius
“The Descendants” Alexander Payne
“Hugo” Martin Scorsese
“Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen
“The Tree of Life” Terrence Malick

The inclusion of Malick is nice. Pretty much everything as expected here. Again, an inclusion of either Tomas Alfredson or Nicolas Winding Refn would have been a pleasant surprise, but everything in this category is fairly par for the course.

Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
George Clooney in “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

Two very pleasant surprises in Gary Oldman and Demian Bichir– I haven’t seen A Better Life, but I’ve been wanting to, and a lesser known actor winning out over bigger names like Leonardo DiCaprio is always nice. Michael Fassbender not collecting a nomination here is a pretty big shock, since he had a hell of a year in three well-received films. I’m happy to see that Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t make it for J. Edgar, and that J. Edgar was snubbed in general, after a long history of the Academy overrating Eastwood’s films.

Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis in “The Help”
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”

Pretty much as expected here, with the only quasi-surprise that Tilda Swinton was snubbed in favor of Glenn Close and Rooney Mara. Tilda Swinton gave in my humble opinion the most daring and engaging female performance of the year, so it upsets me to see We Need To Talk About Kevin snubbed entirely. I’m not surprised or upset by any of the nominated choices, however.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

No Albert Brooks for Drive is both a massive disappointment and a massive surprise. He was considered a front-runner at one point, and now he fails to make the ballot. It reminds me of the Jim Carrey in The Truman Show snub, and the losses of Eddie Murphy and Bill Murray in their respective years– ain’t no love for comics turned serious, I’m afraid. Max Von Sydow is a pretty big surprise, because the film had been counted out, but he was praised as the best part of the film in reviews. (I can’t believe I have to see this movie now… sigh.) Jonah Hill isn’t a total surprise, I was just really hoping to see someone like Patton Oswalt, Ben Kingsley, or Andy Serkis slip in in front of him. On second thought, Jonah Hill is a surprise, considering Albert Brooks isn’t on this ballot.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

I think a lot of pundits had predicted that Shailene Woodley would get the snub here, but I thought since love for The Descendants was high that she would still slip in– not so. Doesn’t really bode well for The Descendants having any chance in the Best Picture race, but there’s a long month ahead. Nothing else here is a surprise. I’m glad to see Melissa McCarthy got in for her comedic performance.

Animated Feature Film
“A Cat in Paris” Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
“Chico & Rita” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
“Kung Fu Panda 2″ Jennifer Yuh Nelson
“Puss in Boots” Chris Miller
“Rango” Gore Verbinski

I guess Tintin wasn’t considered animated by enough Academy members– kind of a shame. I love the fact that there are five nominees here, and I’m now really excited to try to hunt down the other two films. Rango should win this award. I’m praying and hoping.

Art Direction
“The Artist”
Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2“
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
“Hugo”
Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
“Midnight in Paris”
Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
“War Horse”
Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

No Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy here is pretty surprising– it would easily make my Top 3 of the year. I didn’t imagine Midnight in Paris would make this list… perhaps it shows how strong support for Woody’s flick is?

Cinematography
“The Artist” Guillaume Schiffman
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Jeff Cronenweth
“Hugo” Robert Richardson
“The Tree of Life” Emmanuel Lubezki
“War Horse” Janusz Kaminski

The lack of nomination here for Tinker Tailor is also pretty baffling. Everything else in this category is as expected.

Costume Design
“Anonymous” Lisy Christl
“The Artist” Mark Bridges
“Hugo” Sandy Powell
“Jane Eyre” Michael O’Connor
“W.E.” Arianne Phillips

I don’t think anyone expected W.E. to get a single Oscar nomination anywhere, but Academy voters do love a good period piece. Pretty glad to see The Help not on here, since I thought its costumes were fairly hideous.

Documentary (Feature)
“Hell and Back Again”
Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”
Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Pina”
Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
“Undefeated”
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

No Project Nim, the new doc by James Marsh, is very surprising to me– it was one of the best received films of the year. I’m seeing Pina tomorrow and hoping to see Paradise Lost 3 and Undefeated in the coming weeks. The major surprises in this category came when the shortlist arrived and there was no Werner Herzog or Errol Morris or Steve James to be found, so this nominee list is what it is.

Documentary (Short Subject)
“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement”
Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
“God Is the Bigger Elvis”
Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
“Incident in New Baghdad”
James Spione
“Saving Face”
Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”
Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Don’t know anything about either of these. I do love the title God Is The Bigger Elvis though. That’s as deep as my commentary goes here.

Film Editing
“The Artist” Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
“The Descendants” Kevin Tent
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
“Hugo” Thelma Schoonmaker
“Moneyball” Christopher Tellefsen

No surprises here. Sad that deserving films like Drive and Tinker Tailor, and maybe even artfully crafted indies like We Need To Talk About Kevin or Martha Marcy May Marlene don’t get love in this category, but whatever.

Foreign Language Film
“Bullhead” Belgium
“Footnote” Israel
“In Darkness” Poland
“Monsieur Lazhar” Canada
“A Separation” Iran

A Separation will win this. I don’t know enough about the other nominees, but I know a lot of people are passionate about Bullhead and happy to see it nominated today.

Makeup
“Albert Nobbs”
Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Iron Lady”
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

No Hugo or The Artist here are somewhat surprising. I was kind of hoping one or the other would get nominated to point us towards which was the front-runner going into February. At least there was no J. Edgar here.

Music (Original Score)
“The Adventures of Tintin” John Williams
“The Artist” Ludovic Bource
“Hugo” Howard Shore
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Alberto Iglesias
“War Horse” John Williams

No Trent Reznor for Dragon Tattoo I know is going to leave a lot of people gobsmacked today, especially considering how hard he was campaigning for the nomination. It’s likely due to the fact that the music is moody and not particularly melodic– not many tunes you can hum from that soundtrack, whereas I’ve been humming War Horse since I saw the film. I’m happy Tinker Tailor and Tintin were both able to sneak in here.

Music (Original Song)
“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
“Real in Rio” from “Rio” Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Only two nominations here is a huge surprise, and while it’s great to see Man Or Muppet on here, I would’ve campaigned for Pictures In My Head, the more emotional and less outwardly goofy song. No song from The Help or Albert Nobbs, both of which feature very typical Oscar ballads, is a huge stunner.

Short Film (Animated)
“Dimanche/Sunday” Patrick Doyon
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
“La Luna” Enrico Casarosa
“A Morning Stroll” Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
“Wild Life” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Don’t know any of these, but I always love finding them online and watching them. I strongly suggest you do the same.

Short Film (Live Action)
“Pentecost” Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
“Raju” Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
“The Shore” Terry George and Oorlagh George
“Time Freak” Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
“Tuba Atlantic” Hallvar Witzø

No clue about these either. Titles like Time Freak and Tuba Atlantic are enticing.

Sound Editing
“Drive” Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Ren Klyce
“Hugo” Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
“War Horse” Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

While it’s not surprising to see Transformers here, I was hoping something sophisticated and artfully crafted like Hanna would make it, or even something like Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol or Super 8, over the noisy clutter in Transformers 3. Nice to see Drive get a single nomination somewhere. Sigh.

Sound Mixing
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
“Hugo”
Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
“Moneyball”
Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
“War Horse”
Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Kind of surprising that something animated like Tintin or with a ton of CGI like Super 8 or Rise of the Planet of the Apes would be snubbed here in favor of something like Moneyball, but I’m historically bad at predicting what will be in the sound category.

Visual Effects
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
“Hugo”
Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
“Real Steel”
Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

To me, a snub of Captain America, whose effect of shrinking Chris Evans’ body is second only to Caesar The Ape, is inexcusable here. I really liked Real Steel, but let’s get serious here, there is nothing new or exciting about the effects in that film. Pretty baffling. Even if something like Pirates 4 had gotten it over Captain America, at least it’s a typically flashy effects film… I liked Real Steel more than Pirates 4, so I guess I mustn’t grumble.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“The Descendants” Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
“Hugo” Screenplay by John Logan
“The Ides of March” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
“Moneyball” Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin Story by Stan Chervin
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Nominating Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy over The Help is great news, as it’s both deserved and it indicates that The Help has very little chance of winning Best Picture. The rest of these nominations are as predicted.

Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Artist” Written by Michel Hazanavicius
“Bridesmaids” Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
“Margin Call” Written by J.C. Chandor
“Midnight in Paris” Written by Woody Allen
“A Separation” Written by Asghar Farhadi

Glad to see Margin Call snuck a nomination into the field– would’ve hoped Kevin Spacey had gotten more shine in the Supporting Actor race (especially over Jonah Hill!). A bit disappointing that very deserving films like Win Win and especially 50/50 got no writing nomination, but it’s not the biggest surprise in the world.

There you have it. The nominations, the surprises, the snubs. Thoughts? Leave comments below!

BEST PICTURE:
The Artist
The Descendants
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Tree of Life
War Horse
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Possible upset: Moneyball, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

BEST DIRECTOR:
Martin Scorsese
Michel Hazanavicius
Alexander Payne
Woody Allen
Terrence Malick
Possible upset: Steven Spielberg

BEST ACTOR:
George Clooney, The Descendants
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
Possible upset: Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

BEST ACTRESS:
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Viola Davis, The Help
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin
Possible upset; Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Albert Brooks, Drive
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Ben Kingsley, Hugo
Possible upset: Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Possible upset: Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Midnight in Paris
The Artist
Bridesmaids
50/50
Win Win
Possible upset: A Separation

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Moneyball
The Descendants
Hugo
The Help
The Ides of March
Possible upset: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Tree of Life
Hugo
Tinker Tailor
The Artist
War Horse
Possible upset: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

BEST ART DIRECTION:
Hugo
Tinker Tailor
Anonymous
The Artist
Harry Potter 8
Possible upset: War Horse

BEST SCORE:
The Artist
War Horse
Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Possible upset: Tintin

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
Rango
Tintin
Kung Fu Panda 2
Possible upset: Puss in Boots

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
Rise of the Apes
Captain America
Hugo
Tree of Life
Harry Potter 8
Possible upset: Transformers 3

BEST EDITING:
Hugo
The Artist
Dragon Tattoo
Descendants
Moneyball
Possible upset: War Horse

BEST SOUND MIXING (note- I’m terrible at predicting sound every year):
Hugo
Mission: Impossible 4
Super 8
War Horse
Hanna
Possible upset: Harry Potter 8

BEST SOUND EDITING:
Hugo
War Horse
Harry Potter 8
Mission: Impossible 4
Tintin
Possible upset: Super 8

BEST COSTUME DESIGN:
Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
Tinker Tailor
Possible upset: The Help

BEST MAKEUP:
The Iron Lady
Hugo
The Artist
Possible upset: Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

BEST SONG:
two from The Muppets
The Help song
Albert Nobbs song
“Star Spangled Man” from Captain America
Possible upset: Gnomeo and Juliet song

The Artist is destined to be a victim of high expectations. I’m not referring to audiences who will see it inevitably clean up at the Golden Globes this weekend (and quite possibly the Oscars), but to those enticed by the allure of a return to the silent film era. I’m a big fan of silent film stars like Keaton, Chaplin, and Fairbanks, along with being a big fan of Astaire, Kelly, and Busby Berkeley– this film’s trailer was like cat nip for me. Ultimately, the constant allusions to great films like Citizen Kane, Vertigo, and Singin’ In The Rain (among others) serve mostly to inform the audience that this film isn’t great. It’s a charming, fun, but slight pastiche of cinematic history, with great performance, great production design, and a patchwork script.

George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is the biggest film star in Hollywood. He’s a Douglas Fairbanks-esque action hero and ladies’ man extraordinaire. One day on a red carpet he bumps into Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), and her picture ends up on the cover of Variety. Due to coincidence (fate?), she ends up on Valentin’s next movie set and they forge a bond. He insists she get a small role in the film and gives her some career advice. When the studio head (John Goodman) informs Valentin at the end of shooting that silent films are out and sound pictures are in, Valentin finds his star beginning to fall and Miller’s star begins to rise. Valentin is flabbergasted at this new medium and how quickly the world has lost interest– he puts all of his money into a silent film written, directed, produced, and funded by himself. Meanwhile, Miller still holds a candle to Valentin and hopes he succeeds.

The director, Michel Hazanavicius, has composed a really beautiful film. The cinematography, in adjusted silent film ratio, is memorable, as are the costumes, the production design, and the ever-present music– this is a movie that is going to be nominated for nearly every technical category at the Oscars. The Artist is at its best when it’s on set creating its films within the film. The most memorable scene is one in which we see Valentin fall for Miller, doing take after take, always spoiled by Valentin amd Miller smittenly giggling during their brief scene interaction. Other memorable moments– when Valentin dances with an anonymous set of legs, a finale musical number– all use familiar silent film archetypes to highlight the characters’ chemistry and connection. A terrific scene even incorporates sound in a manner so affecting that it audibly startled the audience I saw it with.

While my favorite scenes are unique to this film, Hazanavicius borrows heavily from other movies to make his film a loving patchwork to a bygone era. The plot points are directly from both A Star Is Born and Singin’ In The Rain, and there are blatant homages to Citizen Kane, Vertigo, and more. The problem with these references are that they’re purely diegenic, without direct reference to their origins. The Vertigo music (the source of a recent controversy with actress Kim Novak) is used in a similar circumstance– a person in love trying to rescue their suicidal love interest– but there’s no mention of the existence of Hitchcock or Vertigo in this world. It’s only a reference to those who know Vertigo; to everyone else, it’s original music for this film. The film’s goal seems to be to remind people of the value of this era in cinematic history, yet the actual history doesn’t exist– if The Artist doesn’t persuasively encourage casual filmgoers to seek out silent film, and its references to the era only play to film buffs, then it seems to me that it’s the film equivalent of preaching to the choir. It’s like any kiddie flick that uses the line “Say hello to my little friend!”: the audience laughs without really knowing why.

Even stranger is the fact that this film isn’t *really* in the style of a silent film. It’s a contemporary film in silent film clothing. The ratio is correct, true, and a few editing tricks here and there are accurate homages, but the acting style and comic sensibilities seem more akin to a Gene Kelly film. You won’t see Chaplin, Keaton, or Fairbanks here. You might see them in the amusing films-within-a-film– the movie shows us something closer to silent movie style in the silent movies George Valentin makes, but the rest of the film is unmistakably contemporary. There’s nothing wrong with this– it’s part of the movie’s charm, really– but it makes the movie all the more slight. It’s not committed to being a silent movie, it’s committed to being merely an amusing contemporary homage.

Dujardin and Bejo’s chemistry makes the movie seem more meaningful than it is. Their chemistry sparkles– they both have old-school Hollywood good looks and a vaudevillian sense of comedic timing. Dujardin is destined to cross over and be big in America, as his earnest sensibility and winning smile make him a credible leading man (or, more likely, a villain… or perhaps the leading man’s charismatic European confidant). Even as the movie starts to drag near the end, he keeps the proceedings very watchable. Bejo isn’t given much to do except to be charming and look longingly at Dujardin, but she makes the character of Peppy stretch a long way. The performances and technical achievement in The Artist are definitely praise-worthy, but the movie is ultimately cinematic cotton candy– it tastes great but doesn’t fill you up. Don’t go in expecting a Best Picture, because it’s nowhere to be found; just expect a pleasant charming diversion.

Note: I’m not really pleased with the tone of this review, as it focuses on the negative largely due to outside forces beyond the film’s control. If I’d never heard of this movie nor seen a trailer, I would have been delighted by the diversion and the clever gimmick. It’s sad but inevitable that a deluge of Best Picture buzz makes one compelled to accentuate the film’s shortcomings despite the joys it brings. I can’t talk about how I felt leaving the theater without emphasizing how the lack of euphoria disappointed me, despite still having enjoyed the experience. It’s one of those. See the film for yourself, and if you’re totally out of any and all loops, you may (rightly) find the tone of my 3-kernel review oddly negative.

The Golden Globes are awarded every January by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and it’s considered an important stepping stone in achieving Oscar buzz– win the Golden Globe, increase your chances at taking home an Academy Award. Tonight’s ceremony, hosted by Ricky Gervais, will likely serve as a precursor to some degree for what we will see come February 26th. I have provided within a helpful guide for who will likely win at tonight’s show, and perhaps more importantly, who deserves to win. (I’ll even throw in TV predictions at the end.)

BEST PICTURE (DRAMA):
What should win: Hugo, Scorsese’s most passionate and personal film to date, full of tremendous moments and the best use of 3D a live-action film has seen or is likely to see for some time.
What will win: The Descendants, Alexander Payne’s well-received family drama, which boasts a terrific script, a star at the top of his game, and some laughs sprinkled nicely throughout the heavy subject matter.

BEST PICTURE (COMEDY):
What should win: Either 50/50 or Midnight in Paris, both of which made me laugh the hardest and had plenty of heart.
What will win: The Artist, the front-runner for the Oscar, and outside of Midnight in Paris, the only film likely to score an Oscar nomination in this category. Folks are really taken by this silent film, which is slight in my opinion but charming.

BEST DIRECTOR:
Who should win: Martin Scorsese, by a landslide.
Who will win: While conventional wisdom says Michel Hazanavicius takes home the Globe, I’d be surprised if the Hollywood Foreign Press doesn’t reward Hugo at all, and Best Director is the most logical runner-up prize if it doesn’t surprise people and steal Best Picture. I think Scorsese takes it.

BEST ACTOR (DRAMA):
Who should win: Since Michael Shannon wasn’t nominated, a close race between George Clooney and Brad Pitt for who is most deserving.
Who will win: A close race between George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt might win based on the principle of wanting to reward Moneyball, but since Clooney’s films have been doubly nominated, and the HFPA is in love with him, he edges Pitt out and wins the Globe.

BEST ACTOR (COMEDY):
Who should win: Brendan Gleeson carries The Guard– he is the film, and his performance is terrific.
Who will win: Jean Dujardin has zero chance of losing this award. He is charming with great comedic timing in The Artist.

BEST ACTRESS (DRAMA):
Who should win: Tilda Swinton, whose work isn’t acknowledged enough frankly, and who gives one of the bravest performances of the year in We Need To Talk About Kevin. Rooney Mara would be a close second for her equally brave work in Dragon Tattoo.
Who will win: Meryl Streep. People love Meryl Streep, and since she’s so gracious, people love giving her awards every year. There’s an off-chance Viola Davis could play spoiler… but if I was betting, I’d put all my chips on Streep.

BEST ACTRESS (COMEDY):
Who should win: Michelle Williams, who captures Marilyn Monroe beautifully and is the most likely Oscar candidate of this group of nominees as a result.
Who will win: Michelle Williams, for reasons stated above.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Who should win: Christopher Plummer, for giving the performance of a lifetime in Beginners.
Who will win: Christopher Plummer. He’s got a long and illustrious career, giving a performance equally funny and sad, and perhaps most importantly, as we saw Thursday night at the Critics Choice awards, he gives one hell of an acceptance speech.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Who should win: Shailene Woodley holds her own against Clooney in The Descendants, giving an outstanding performance for her age. Chastain and Bejo also steal their respective films.
Who will win: Octavia Spencer, who wasn’t personally the stand-out of The Help to me, but who gives a good performance and has a great “character actor getting the role of a lifetime” storyline that makes voters feel good about choosing her.

BEST SCREENPLAY:
Who should win: Woody Allen, for his playful, nostalgic, and romantic script for Midnight in Paris.
Who will win: Woody Allen. The HFPA loves him, and he deserves the victory.

BEST FOREIGN FILM:
Who should win: I’m seeing A Separation this MLK weekend, but sadly haven’t seen the rest of these.
Who will win: A Separation has cleaned up every award known to man, but I wouldn’t put it past the HFPA, who loves sucking up to big stars, to give it to Angelina Jolie for In The Land of Blood and Honey. I wouldn’t bet against A Separation, but don’t be surprised if Angie plays spoiler.

BEST SONG:
Who should win: None of these– it should go to a song from The Muppets, which disgustingly wasn’t nominated because Bret MacKenzie isn’t as big a star as the nominees here.
Who will win: give it to the biggest star in the pool– either Elton John for Gnomeo and Juliet or Madonna for her W.E. I’d say Madonna, though Elton John is probably the safer bet.

BEST SCORE:
Who should win: War Horse, for its soaring score by John Williams.
Who will win: The Artist, which has non-stop music from beginning to end and is the front-runner for many awards. If anyone plays spoiler here, it’s Trent Reznor for Dragon Tattoo.

And now, for some TV awards… I don’t get to watch much TV, so I’ll say upfront I’m rooting for Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage, Bryan Cranston, and Amy Poehler. Below are who I believe will win tonight:

BEST DRAMA:
Homeland (possible spoiler: Boardwalk Empire, with its Martin Scorsese star power)

BEST COMEDY:
Modern Family

BEST ACTOR (DRAMA):
Kelsey Grammer

BEST ACTRESS (DRAMA):
Claire Danes

BEST ACTOR (COMEDY):
Matt LeBlanc

BEST ACTRESS (COMEDY):
Zooey Deschanel

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Peter Dinklage

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Jessica Lange (possible spoiler: Dame Maggie Smith)

BEST MINISERIES/MOVIE:
Downton Abbey

BEST ACTOR (MINISERIES/MOVIE):
Idris Elba

BEST ACTRESS (MINISERIES/MOVIE):
Kate Winslet

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy serves as a terrific reminder to American audiences just how inferior their government thrillers are. Usually our heroes make lame quips as increasingly frenetic action gives way to uncontainable explosions. The Brits, meanwhile, have Gary Oldman: silent, sophisticated, sly. The violence takes place in the shadows, off-camera. The explosions are nowhere to be found. Here, dossier files and telegraphs are the weapons in life-or-death pursuits. Think it sounds boring? Far from it– films like Transformers attempt to overwhelm audiences into feeling tension. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy quietly and intelligently earns it.

It’s the early 1970s. Great Britain, like much of the world, is teetering on the brink of Cold War, and its intelligence agency—referred to as “the Circus”—is focused on the Soviets. The head of the Circus, Control (John Hurt) sends Jim (Mark Strong) on a mission to Hungary, which goes awry, resulting in Jim getting shot, an international incident, and forced retirement for Control and his second-in-command, George Smiley (Gary Oldman). Years later, the new head of the Circus, Percy (Toby Jones), his second-in-command Bill (Colin Firth), and two other powerful members of intelligence, Roy (Ciaran Hinds) and Toby (David Dencik), desire to exchange intel with the Americans in order to move up in the scheme of things. Meanwhile, the government calls in Smiley– agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) has alleged that he discovered the existence of a mole high up in the Circus who reports to Karla, the head of Russian spy activities, and they want Smiley to find out who it is. With the help of agent Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), he investigates the Circus from the inside.

Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director of Let The Right One In, knows a thing or two about pacing. Periods of dreadful silence, stillness, and apparent inactivity were always Hitchcock’s weapons of choice. Smiley doesn’t shoot people or engage in physical combat; he sits, he listens, he asks the right question when necessary. The awareness of the presence of the mole is all the film needs: show what’s at stake, make clear the existence of the unknown obstacle. It’s storytelling 101. The common complaint I’ve heard regarding this film is that it’s “confusing”– in reality, I found it far easier to understand than most thrillers. Perhaps audiences are too trained to have directors hold their hand and dumb down their films with exposition or unnecessary violence.

Furthermore, this movie is gorgeous. Lock this in for nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design, and if it goes unnoticed in those categories, then the Academy’s screeners must have gotten lost in the mail. The internal and external imagery of the Circus is vivid– geography is yet another element this movie has in spades over the majority of American thrillers. The color palette, the placement of the camera, the layouts of the various offices, libraries, and hotel rooms in which the action takes place: all are fully realized in ways we don’t often see in this genre. The pattern on the wall in the Circus’s main meeting room is one of the more memorable images of 2011.

It really should go without saying that the cast, from top to bottom, is terrific. There’s a great sense of history between the characters developed, with even the smallest one-scene contributors making their monologues count. Standouts among the cast are Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy as two younger spies who find themselves deeper involved in the proceedings than they wanted– a scene in the Circus following Cumberbatch is heart-pounding. Gary Oldman does his usual great work, here most restrained, intense, and sympathetic than ever. Most surprising is Mark Strong, usually the villain, playing a charismatic and heartfelt role, giving maybe the best performance of his career.

Then there’s the ending. Is it me, or are the endings of movies increasingly underwhelming nowadays? I can’t think of more than a handful with endings that left me excited or emotional. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s ending manages to leave me excited *and* emotional, both capturing the sense of completion yet fanning the flame of desire for a sequel (if ONLY these were the types of films that spun off sequels; instead, trailers for countless Madagascar films flood my vision). The film can be cold and meticulous, much like its characters are required to be, but I found there to be a strong pulse of life and tension running through the admittedly quiet proceedings. Most movies rely on the big-budget crashes, explosions, and effects to produce thrills—- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy gave me the thrill of watching an intelligent and thoughtful film.

As an enormous Spielberg fan, and a fan of the Tony-winning Broadway adaptation of War Horse, it pains me to say that Spielberg’s film version War Horse neither moved me to tears nor impressed me as much as it has others. Perhaps my familiarity and admiration of the play’s plot points led to disappointment when the script changed a number of the most interesting and complex elements of the play into facile and overtly manipulative ingredients for consumption by the lowest common denominator audience members. The visuals are astonishing, the music soars, and the horses’ performances are first-rate among all-time animal performances. However, though the film successfully gallops in its visual moments, it slows to a trot when the script’s dialogue is spoken.

The film opens with young Albert (Jeremy Irvine) seeing Joey, a young horse owned by a neighboring farmer. Years later, Albert’s father (Peter Mullan) needs to buy a horse to plow their increasingly worthless land, but when engaged in a bidding war by their landlord (David Thewlis), he blows most of his money on Joey instead. Joey, despite not being a plow horse, must learn to plow, or he shall be sold and the farm will be lost. Albert is more than happy to train him, and he develops a deep bond with Joey. When Great Britain joins World War One, a young captain (Tom Hiddleston) buys Joey to use him in combat, but promises to return him upon the war’s swift completion. Of course, the war does not go as planned, and Joey finds himself encountering many people on both sides of the war, as Albert joins the Armed Forces in hopes of making a difference in the war that took his horse away from him.

For better or worse, this is a stagy melodrama, full of “type” characters that don’t really have dimension, with some being more affecting than others due to the strength of individual performances. Right from the beginning, the family’s landlord is a one-dimensioned, pointy-mustached rich jerk who seems to take pleasure in watching this family twist in the wind. In the play, it was a feud between brothers that led to the purchase of the horse, and the conflict was fueled by familial pride. Albert’s father was not likable—the actor had to earn the audience’s feeling not through manipulation but through the journey of the character’s realizations. Here, there is no such complexity. The father’s alcoholism is shamelessly excused with a thankless monologue by Emily Watson about the father’s war experience and the medals of heroism he won, and his pride regarding the money spent on the horse is forgiven when we see what a treacherous villain the rich 1%er in the village is, and how he mocks this old war hero’s plight.

Further complexities were exorcised from the play in order to aid Spielberg in dumbing down the material for the audience. At one point, Joey is saved by a German medical worker who goes AWOL with Joey. Here, instead of being an adult who leaves solely because war is hell, an act some may dismiss as cowardice, the German medical worker is replaced by two very young German boys, one of whom is desperately underage but dying to fight, the other of whom goes AWOL dragging his brother along to keep him out of war—by changing the character from an adult to two boys, and giving him a facile and familiar reason for running, the complexity and the real emotion are replaced by a controlling and forceful hand. Characters are constantly explaining exactly how they feel aloud, and while I didn’t love the dialogue in the play, even the play’s lines felt less stagy than the film’s.

While it may seem like the play has somehow infected me and ruined by moviegoing experience (although I submit the same patronizing exposition would likely bother even those discerning audience members who haven’t seen the Lincoln Center production), there are certain elements even the most cynical and heartless viewer cannot deny. The visuals are some of the best of the year, and despite feeling manipulated and grouchy by the dialogue, the cinematography by Janusz Kaminski sucked me back in every time. The final forty-five minutes boasts perhaps some of the most beautiful shots ever contained in a Spielberg film, which is really saying something. The John Williams score toes the line more gracefully between melodramatic and emotional than the script does; it is easily one of the most memorable of the year and perhaps his career. Spielberg’s intention of making a John Ford-esque old-school epic never is better than when it’s shots of the horses on rolling plains or running through trenches as Williams’ score blares.

I found myself unmoved at the film’s end. Pretty pictures and pretty music can be incredibly moving in real life, but only if the story works. Spielberg spends so much time dumbing down complexities to make everything as simple and palatable as possible in this film that I didn’t find myself engaged on an intellectual or emotional level. Kaminski, Williams, and the performers do their best, and there were moments where I felt myself being drawn in emotionally, but then the script would spoonfeed us another long explanation about how the characters got there and how war is hell, and I was immediately disenchanted once again. I spent these stretches of the film—you know, the stretches where people were talking—wondering if the film would’ve worked better with all of the actors speaking the language of their characters. One of the key elements of the play was that characters from other countries struggled to communicate with one another due to the language barrier, and the humanity the horse brought out of them helped bind them together, if just for brief moments. Here, everyone speaks perfect English; the communication is endless and needless. I’m a sucker for most emotional films. War Horse’s emotion just isn’t consistently earned.

For the first half of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Guy Ritchie’s sequel to 2008′s blockbuster franchise reboot, fans of the first will likely feel the familiar pleasures: the stylized action, the witty repartee, the homoerotic flirting between the two leads. However, the second half devolves into muddy, noisy slow-motion too often– the script never really disappoints, but if the action in your action blockbuster is annoyingly incomprehensible, that’s a problem. Ritchie succumbs to “sequelitis”: that inevitable desire to top the first one that then clutters up the very things that made the first one so enjoyable in the first place. It’s a fine sequel with many fun moments… it just doesn’t all gel.

Shortly after the first film, Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is still obsessing over Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), who played a big part in the criminal activity from the last film and who now seems to have expanded his horizons considerably. A series of bombings around Europe have been blamed on various radical groups and elevated tensions between countries, yet Holmes is convinced Moriarty is behind the lot of them. Meanwhile, Watson (Jude Law) is preparing for his wedding to his fiancee (Kelly Reilly), a ceremony that Holmes objects to in a massive way. Yet when Watson’s bachelor party is broken up by Holmes attempting to save a gypsy woman (Noomi Rapace) and his honeymoon is broken up by an assassination attempt from Moriarty’s henchman, Watson is forced back together with Holmes to try to solve this final case and bring down Moriarty before he brings down Europe.

Part of the fun of this series is just how blatant Ritchie makes the homoeroticism. “Unlike you, I repress nothing,” Holmes says to attack Watson’s desire to get married and end their “relationship” (“partnership,” Watson retorts). This film goes farther than the previous, making it pretty clear that Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes is our first mainstream gay superhero. He cross-dresses, attacks Watson’s fashion sense, invites Watson to lie with him in one scene, and asks him to engage in a slow ballroom dance in another– if his character was openly gay, one wonders if he’d be accused of fitting too many stereotypes. The best scenes in the film showcase the chemistry between the two actors, both in a train attack and during Watson’s bachelor party. Defeating villains while engaging in lovers’ quarrels– therein lies the magic of Holmes.

Unfortunately, the film gets away from that rapport too often. Jared Harris makes a charming Moriarty, and his rivalry with Holmes is moderately fun, but the “game of shadows” gets overly complex and needlessly dark after a very playful first half, culminating in a forest attack– featured heavily in the trailers– that had me checking my watch and yawning. The slow-motion is abundant, the editing is disorienting, and the sense of geography is non-existent. It’s like a Michael Bay World War I film. Noomi Rapace is absolutely wasted as a gypsy woman, whose role seems to only exist in order to have some sort of woman in a film that doesn’t need one in the slightest. Her scenes only serve to distract from the only reason we want to see the Sherlock Holmes films: to watch the banter between Downey Jr. and Law. It’s a lazy device.

Ritchie does a good amount of things right here, but ideally, the origin story in a superhero franchise is a point to build from, and the sequels get better in Round 2 (see: X-Men, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Hellboy). All you have to do is maintain the things that worked in the first film and raise the stakes, usually with a stronger villain. Ritchie achieves the latter but neglects the former: he gets lost in trying to get bombastic that the chemistry and charms eventually gets left by the wayside. In the end, it’s a little too effortful, a little too noisy, a little too… off. Full-blown fans of the franchise will still be completely satisfied, I have no doubt. I enjoyed the first one a great deal, but found myself left wanting by this sequel. The film ends with a couple of clever and unexpected moments, which leave me hopeful for improvement when this game advanced to its inevitable next stage.

If you’ve never seen an episode of Criminal Minds or Cold Case, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has a good shot at being one of your favorite movies of the winter. It is shot in a typically gorgeous and cold Fincherian fashion, its score is moody and tense, and it boasts one of the best female performances of the year in Rooney Mara as the titular character. I can’t speak on its faithfulness to the books or its comparison to the original Swedish film, as I’m familiar with neither. However, I can say anyone familiar with thrillers and procedurals will find nothing new here– it’s a well-executed but not especially original genre piece every time Mara is off-screen, and its imagery and events left my mind fairly shortly after leaving the theater.

Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is a Swedish journalist facing a libel suit from one of the richest men in Sweden. He and his co-owner/mistress (Robin Wright) are in a pickle– they can’t keep their independently-run magazine afloat after paying the damages from this suit. Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) is a hacker/researcher who has dug into Blomkvist at the request of Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), a billionaire who wants to hire Mikael, pay him a hefty amount, and give him material to exact revenge on the man who sued him. All Mikael has to do? Solve a mystery that has troubled Henrik for forty years– the disappearance of his grandniece, Harriet. The Vanger family are all extremely rich and extremely icy to one another. Some are former Nazis, some seem to be closet sadists, and absolutely none of them, save one (Stellan Skaarsgard), are interested in having an outsider stay on their estate and dig into their pasts.

Lisbeth is far and away the most compelling character, and Mara gives a performance worthy of Lisbeth’s expectation-shattering behavior. She’s neither the revenge-struck angry girl, the boyish “tough” cold girl, or the submissive typical female assistant. She certainly shows us elements of all three, but never at predictable moments. I was struck by her more sensitive and caring moments, since Fincher isn’t knowing for having too many of those in his films, especially not in these sort of prototypes. Lisbeth is the smartest person in the room at all times, and she’s the most on-edge person in the room at all times, which makes her both a valuable asset and a bit of a sociopath. A few scenes made me feel slightly uncomfortable at what could be read as exploitation– nudity on screen, especially in a movie in which men hate women, sometimes reads less as vulnerability and more like an invitation to ogle the naked body– but Lisbeth is at her sexiest with her clothes on. She’s strong, smart, and self-assured: everything that the old guard style men she encounters hates. The sentence “May I kill him?” is at once submissive and powerful, a very sexy balance. If you couldn’t tell from her pitch-perfect scenes in Fincher’s The Social Network, Mara is a young talent to watch.

It’s a pity that the rest of the story isn’t as intriguing. Plummer and Skaarsgard are charming, and Craig does his best, but the entirety of the mystery is set in the past, as is the libel lawsuit, so the overwhelming majority of the 2 hour and 36 minute run time is nothing but exposition. It’s people sitting around talking about what has happened in the past, people reading books about what happened in the past, people looking at photos and internet articles about the past. It’s to Fincher’s credit that the movie doesn’t really drag (several 90 minute films this year felt far longer), but it doesn’t really captivate either. Reznor’s work here is strong per usual, but the music is less memorable because the scenes being scored are less memorable, the exception being a fierce abstract opening credit sequence that sets up the film to be something epic and explosive. Unfortunately, it never lives up to the expectations it sets, and I even found it as an outsider to be quite predictable (any fan of thrillers or mysteries will figure out who the killer is immediately upon meeting him/her). Adaptations of well-known books often feel like they were made for the book’s fans, exorcising the seemingly-extraneous details that make the books so beloved in the first place and leaving those unfamiliar wondering what the hubbub was about. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo put me squarely into that camp: it’s a technically-savvy but overly-familiar crime thriller, no more, no less.

Tintin is the most fun I’ve had in a movie theater all year. I’ve seen it twice, and both times, as the closing credits rolled, I felt myself longing to immediately see a sequel. That never happens. Steven Spielberg has accomplished what the fourth Indiana Jones movie should have been: an earnest pulpy adventure with a clever script, easy-to-like characters, and non-stop action. Most impressively, this film breaks new ground in both 3D filmmaking and motion-capture animation. The 3D is as bright, colorful and fluid as any film that has ever been made, and every problem that anyone has ever had with mo-cap characters has been solved by this effects team. It’s Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets eye-popping technology.

The opening credits reveal Tintin (Jamie Bell) as a young journalist who, with his faithful dog Snowy, has garnered quite a reputation for exposing villainy and serving justice. He buys a model ship from a market, and immediately afterward, he encounters two men: an American (Tony Curran) who warns him that the ship brings danger, and Sakharin (Daniel Craig), the seer of the estate once owned by the family who captained the original ship the model was based on. Tintin immediately senses a story at hand, so he does further research to try to uncover the truth about the ships. Anything else I reveal could expose some of the film’s many surprises, but I can reveal that the hijinks involve a drunk sea captain (Andy Serkis), two bumbling British cops (Nick Frost and Simon Pegg), a rascally pickpocket (Toby Jones), and action sequence after action sequence.

Motion capture animation has never worked for me in an entire film. Individual characters, especially those in Peter Jackson films (Jackson is directing the Tintin sequel and produced this one), have been realistically created… but human characters have remained out of the grasp of filmmakers. The mouths move in strange unrealistic ways, and the eyes have looked lifeless– how can one create the windows to the soul in an inherently soulless computer creation? Well, the technology has caught up, and this team has created a series of human characters full of life. Tintin, the captain, and Sakharin are all unique in the way they look, behave, and carry themselves. The eyes and mouths didn’t bother me, possibly because instead of going for photorealistic character design, going instead for a more traditional level of exaggeration in the facial features. Most impressively, the characters don’t look like the actors who play them. In the past, the Tom Hanks characters all looked like Tom Hanks, the Jim Carrey characters looked like Jim Carrey, etc. Here, you will not recognize Craig, Frost, or Pegg at all. It’s a marvelous, unprecedented technical achievement.

It helps that Spielberg is the director, since no man in the history of cinema is as skilled an action director, and he sees in mocap a brand-new toy box to play with. He minimizes the cuts, allowing the camera to flow smoothly and to appear as “one take” as often as possible, to make the 3D as immersive as possible and to place you directly into the action. There is one sequence in particular, which takes place in Morocco, that I firmly believe will go down as one of the best and most ambitious action sequences in the history of cinema. It’s one uncut shot that tracks action as it goes throughout an ENTIRE CITY– the stakes, the geography, and the visual storytelling are unparalleled. The other sequences aren’t far off: on a boat, on a plane, and in a car, Spielberg has made a thoroughly kinetic film. Even Snowy the dog gets his own action sequence, making him the coolest cinematic dog this side of Lassie.

I read the Tintin books when I was a kid. I re-read the books recently, to try to compare this movie to the books, and I was struck by how much faster-paced the film is. They’ve combined action elements from three books to create one cohesive story. Yet despite the notably faster pace, it captures how I remembered the books were. When I was a kid, these adventures were exciting and grabbed your imagination. This movie, in a faster-paced, ADD-riddled society, manages to grab the imagination in an equal fashion. You don’t have to have ever read the books to enjoy this film though. Anyone who likes Indiana Jones will like this. Or Pirates of the Caribbean. Or movies. This is Spielberg doing what Spielberg does best, and his first animated movie is my favorite of his in a decade. He has harnessed a technology and used it to its fullest potential to date. If parents takes their kid to Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 and they skip Tintin, someone should call Child Protective Services. Give your child a gift this Christmas: take them to one of the best movies of the year.

If Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol had been released this past summer, critics and audiences alike would have named it the best film of the season. It’s genuinely exciting, clever, and full of stunts executed with such technical prowess that I couldn’t tell what was a practical stunt and what was assisted by computer graphics. Brad Bird, who is now a perfect four-for-four in creating brilliant cinematic entertainment, has created a world that showcases the strengths of its star, Tom Cruise, who at this point has to be considered the greatest action movie star of all time because of his remarkable consistency in selecting terrific vehicles to headline. Furthermore, it deserves to be seen in IMAX, not because of the underwhelming Dark Knight Rises prologue, but because no filmmaker has utilized so many epic shots that merit the IMAX ticket price. The Dubai sequence alone is worth the price in this case.

Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is in a Moscow prison at movie’s beginning– but not for long. Breaking him out are Agents Carter (Paula Patton) and Dunn (Simon Pegg, from the previous installment of the series). They need Hunt’s assistance in obtaining information about a person of interest identified as “Cobalt.” Their first impossible mission is to break into the Kremlin to steal documents about Cobalt. However, when that mission goes horribly awry, the president initiates “ghost protocol,” in which the entire IMF is disavowed and everyone within is officially a fugitive from justice. With the help of an IMF analyst named Brent (Jeremy Renner), they plan on stopping Cobalt from getting the codes to a nuclear device that he plans on launching. First stop is Dubai, since the handoff of the codes is supposed to take place at the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. And a massive sandstorm is rapidly approaching…

That doesn’t take us all the way into the plot, but it does take us to the most awe-inspiring live-action sequence this year, in which Cruise is free-climbing on the outside of the tower, agents are fighting on the inside of open windows, and Cruise is hunting down villains in the midst of the sand blinding everyone’s immediate vision. Someone (whose name I forget but I’d love to credit) recently said on Twitter, “Watching Tom Cruise run is like watching Gene Kelly dance.” The man simply makes executing high-speed intense action sequences into an artform. Plus, his desire to do his own stunts makes the action all the more thrilling– you are always acutely aware that you are not watching a stunt double run on the outside of the tallest building in the world, you are watching a millionaire movie star. This allows Bird to frame his action closely and inject it with a human element in addition to the thrills.

The villain isn’t the same sort of scenery chewer that has populated the first three films, and there’s no love story for character development– there’s not much need in a fourth installment to add superfluous scenes to further develop the series protagonist. The supporting characters have very basic storylines (Carter recently lost a loved one in the field, Brent has a mysterious past), but they are well-acted, as Pegg and Patton are charismatic, and Renner has the movie star presence and physique to serve as a nice counterbalance to Cruise. Plus, the addition of humor to the franchise nearly eliminates the need for major league dramatic developments– Bird more than any other director today possibly knows how to balance verbal wit with physical wit (see Pixar’s The Incredibles for Ghost Protocol’s predecessor). The stunts are the most sensational you’ll see all year, led by the best action star around, directed by one of the best young directors alive. It’s a spectacle, gorgeous in IMAX, enormously diverting and wildly memorable– the most fun entry of the series to date. The real impossible mission will be for the writers who have to top this one.