Oscar Nominated Shorts - Animation ****

The animated short features nominated for an Academy Award this year are a sumptuous visual feast.

"Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage," from France presents an animated scrapbook of images and encounters from a visit to Madagascar, complete with a village reburial ceremony and honking city traffic. Wonderfully realized, and the most arresting visually. By Bastien Dubois.

"Day & Night," from the U.S., and quite likely the only one you saw, since it preceded "Toy Story 3," by Teddy Newton is a bit of a one-note work with some hackneyed ideas. Not my favorite.

"Let's Pollute," also from the U.S. presents a '50's boosterish exhortation to do your part to keep wasteful consumerism flourishing. Cute and mercifully short. By Geefwee Boedoe.

"The Lost Thing," from Australia and the UK, presents the most original vision of all as it follows a boy's quest in a Kafkaesque world to find a place for a forlorn lost thing he befriended at the beach. By Andrew Ruheman and Shaun Tan. My favorite.

"The Gruffalo," by Max Lang from the UK and Germany illustrates the story told by a mother squirrel to her kids about a clever mouse. The longest and most conventional, it's very well realized and the likely winner.

Oscar Nominated Shorts - Live Action ****

A rich and varied collection of five live action short features are nominated for this year's Academy Award, once again collected and in limited release this award season:

"Na Wewe," from Belgium, is set in 1994 Burundi, where the Rwandan genocide and Hutu/Tutsi war has spread. A ragtag militia, including child soldiers, stops a bus in the countryside looking for Tutsis. A very tense interrogation ensues as the passengers must think quickly to escape execution. Ivan Goldschmidt director / writer / editor. Very good.

"God of Love," from the U.S., is a black and white fantasy about a singer who gets an unexpected aid in his quest to woo the band's beautiful drummer. Luke Matheny director / writer. Original, cute, and funny, but not the winner in my opinion.

"Wish 143," from the UK focuses on a 16 year old terminal cancer patient and his unconventional last wish. Directed by Ian Barnes. There were some unexpected, real moments in this piece, but it failed to move me.

"The Crush," from Ireland, is a well-crafted story about a school boy who has a crush on his teacher, but who is engaged to someone who doesn't appreciate her the way he should, and what the school boy does about it. Michael Creagh, writer and director. Suspenseful and surprising.

"The Confession," also from the UK, is a mini-horror movie about how the schemes of two school boys to come up with something original for their first confession goes horribly awry. Directed by Tanel Toom. Very well done, and I think the current favorite.

Blue Valentine ****

Sometimes when you see a couple heading for a breakup, you wonder how they got together in the first place. "Blue Valentine"shows us the before and after of love, from the heady warmth, support, fun, and transcendent sex of love awakening to the cold remains of a love lost, when it's too painful even to go through the motions of love making. Cutting back to the early days, and back to today, this movie shows us how a couple started out, even though there were signs of a mismatch from the beginning.

We see dreams deferred, dreams abandoned, and a lovely child that both adore. There are no easy answers about what happened, but many clues to consider. Often painful to watch, this ultra-realistic portrait of a working class couple coming apart is searing, with two truly outstanding performances from the principals. I think Ryan Gosling deserves the same recognition that Michelle Williams has received for her work. Cinematography is up close, expressive, and often inventive.

Rated R (originally rated NC-17 for sexual content, changed after an appeal by The Weinstein Company). 112 minutes. Derek Cianfrance - Director / Writer, Cami Delavigne - Writer, Joey Curtis - Writer, Lynette Howell - Producer, Alex Orlovsky - Producer, Jamie Patricof - Producer, Andrij Parekh -Cinematographer, Inbal Weinberg - Production Designer, Jim Helton - Editor, Ron Patane - Editor. Produced by Hunting Lane Films. Distributed by The Weinstein Company.

Principal actors: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Mike Vogel.

Michelle Williams is nominated for the Academy Award for best performance by an actress in a leading role.

The Illusionist ****

A lovely, unhurried, witty and warm animation drawn with the style and hand technique of the old school, "The Illusionist" presents a gentle parable about growing up and putting away childish things. Clearly a labor of love, director/writer/composer Sylvain Chomet has produced a beautiful tribute to famed French comic Jacques Tati, who wrote the original screenplay as a love letter to his daughter. The story, told in images with indistinct vocalizations standing in for dialogue, follows an illusionist down on his luck, who travels from France to Scotland, where a young girl, enamored of his magic, adopts him. Their life and small adventures in Edinburgh make up most of the movie, as he struggles to live up to her fantasy, and she matures into a young woman. Bittersweet yet satisfying, "The illusionist" is a welcome respite from the surfeit of slick computer-generated superheroes we've had of late.

Rated PG. 80 minutes. Sylvain Chomet - Director / Writer (adaptation) / Composer, Jacques Tati - Writer (original screenplay), Sally Chomet - Producer, Bob Last - Producer. Priduced by Pathe. Distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Sony Pictures Classics.

Principal voices: Jean-Claude Donda, Eilidh Rankin, Duncan MacNeil.

Academy Award nominee for best animated feature of 2010.

Another Year ****

In a Mike Leigh film ("Secrets and Lies," "Vera Drake") you not only get to know the characters, you start to feel like you're there with them. Sometimes you cringe for them, and wish you could interrupt or change the subject before they can do more damage. The lady behind me in the theater today couldn't stop herself from exclaiming or tut-tutting whenever someone would start to embarrass themselves in this latest superb work from the master of intimate storytelling.

Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and husband Tom (Jim Broadbent) have reached their mid years happy and content with their lives and each other. Over the course of a year, as they work their rented garden plot and invite old friends over, we see that they may be the exception in their happiness. There's their unmarried son, Tom's old drinking buddy, Tom's taciturn brother, and above all, Gerri's co-worker of 20 years (Leslie Manville), whose single life seems to be going seriously off track. Much like Christian Bale in this season's "The Fighter," where Mark Walhberg is the rock and Bale the soaring aerialist, this is Leslie Manville's picture. It's her story that bounces off all the others, and her performance that will bring the accolades.

Rated PG-13. 129 minutes. Mike Leigh - Director / Writer, Georgina Lowe - Producer, Dick Pope - Cinematographer, Gary Yershon - Composer, Simon Beresford - Production Designer, Jon Gregory - Editor. Produced by Film4 and Focus Features. Distributed in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics.

Principal actors: Jim Broadbent, Leslie Manville, Ruth Sheen, Oliver Maltman.

Black Swan ****

"Black Swan" sneaks up on you. What at first seem to be a ballerina backstage rivalry drama becomes increasingly fractured, bizarre, and engrossing as rising star Nina (Natalie Portman) loses her grip on what is real as she prepares for the dual roles of Swan Lake: the white swan heroine and the evil black swan twin who steals her love and dooms her life. This film manages at once to portray the hard life of a dancer, the psychological challenges of performing in a troupe, the hidden and welling desires of the heroine, and the frightening but sensual world of her mind. Often it's not clear until later what is dream and what is reality, but there are subtle clues: red eyes, crawling skin, shouts that turn into screeching bird cries.

Director Darren Aronofsky ("The Wrestler") has once again produced a small masterpiece with the most limited of budgets. And the performances he elicits, especially from Portman, as the ice queen melting, and Mila Kunis, as her sensual rival, are nothing short of astounding.

Rated R. 108 minutes. Darren Aronofsky - Director, Mark Heyman - Writer (screenplay), Andres Heinz - Writer (screenplay) (story), John McLaughlin - Writer (screenplay), Scott Franklin - Producer, Mike Medavoy - Producer, Arnold Messer - Producer, Brian Oliver - Producer, Matthew Libatique - Cinematographer, Clint Mansell - Composer, Therese DePrez - Production Designer, Anbdrew Weisblum - Editor. Produced and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Principal actors: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassell, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder.

The Fighter ****

I saw "The Fighter" today in advance of tomorrow's Golden Globes Awards, whose four top actors are all nominated. This unlikely but true story of light welterweight champion "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his older half-brother Dickie (Christian Bale), who helped train him for his shot at the world title in the '90's is a fascinating and rewarding movie. Unflinchingly set in working class Lowell, Massachusetts, Micky's drive and Dickie's tutelage after a bout with drugs and crime are well presented. Melissa Leo as their domineering mother/manager turns in an Oscar-worthy performance, as does Amy Adams in a foul-mouthed departure from her Disney roles as Micky's bartender girlfriend. Thankfully the focus is on the lives much more than the carnage in the ring. I have to say the hype for the movie is deserved, and all, especially Bale, are a joy and wonder to watch.

Rated R. 115 minutes. David O. Russell - Director, Scott Silver - Writer (screenplay), Paul Tamasy - Writer (screenplay) (story) / Producer, Eric Johnson - Writer (screenplay) (story), Keith Dorrington -Writer (story), Dorothy Arufiero - Producer, David Hoberman - Producer, Ryan Kavanaugh - Producer, Todd Liegerman - Producer, Mark Wahlberg - Producer, Hoyte Van Hoytema -Cinematographer, Michael Brook - Composer, Judy Becker - Production Designer, Pamela Martin - Editor. Distributed in the U.S. by Paramount Pictures.

Principal actors: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Mickey O'Keefe, Jack McGee.

1/16/2011 note: Christian Bale won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor drama, and Melissa Leo won for best supporting actress drama. They are the ones to bet on for the Oscars.