March (Web-only) 2002 2002 Commentaries

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You'll find predictions and preferences about next Sunday's Oscars on just about every entertainment Web site. Mainstream critics are making wild guesses for the closest Best Picture race in years. Hollywood must choose between the first of Tolkien's beloved Rings trilogy, Moulin Rouge's "re-invention" of the musical, Beautiful Mind's schizophrenia-to-Nobel-Prize biopic, In the Bedroom's grief and marital distress, or the murder mystery at Gosford Park's British manor. Roger Ebert is predicting a surprise: Moulin Rouge. You can peruse in-depth reviews of Best Picture nominees at Focus on the Family, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Film Forum, my own site Looking Closer, and other Christian film review sites. Instead of joining the chorus of predictions, Film Forum will wait until next week and post the official winners, along with various approvals and disapprovals from religious press critics.

If you do plan to watch the Oscars this weekend, you might find Peter Travers's guide to the Oscar ceremony an eye-opening read—it's published this month in the mainstream music and media magazine Rolling Stone. It's not Oscar propaganda. Travers explains who selects the awards, highlighting the ugly politics and popularity contests that prevent recognition of true excellence. Pop star Britney Spears plays an important part in his analysis, believe it or not. It might be enough to make you seek a second opinion to Oscar's.

Blue Sky Studios has entered the big leagues of animated features. Chris Wedge's Ice Age is the first feature-length CGI cartoon from the studio, which was recently acquired by 20th Century Fox after their own animation company folded following the disappointment of Titan A.E.

Ice Age is a story about a ...