I’ve seen five of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture and, as usual, I have opinions on them. I will rank them here in increasing order of preference:

5. Inception. I read a lot of science fiction, so the dreams-within-dreams aspect of this movie was not so amazing to me. Once you take away that aspect of the movie, what is left is a typical thriller about people trying to kill other people, which is probably my least favorite movie genre. Give it a “C+”

4. Toy Story 3. Were I comparing this against other animated movies, I would give it a rave review for its plot and compassion, a truly outstanding animation. But when compared against other great movies, it is obviously a bit contrived. “B+”

3. True Grit. Except for the fact that I absolutely hated the scene when Rooster Cogburn shot the horse Blackie, this was a very enjoyable movie, largely because it was told from the point of view of the 14-year old girl. While not a classic per se, it was a classic western. Last night we watched the John Wayne version for comparison sake. The plot was almost exactly the same, as were many of the actual lines used, which means they were taken directly from the book. The three main characters in the new version were better than the three original characters, plus it was slightly more realistic as well. The original version was probably “cleaned up” a bit for the John Wayne audience “A-“

2. The Social Network. This was a wonderful movie best described by the title of its source book: The Accidental Billionaire. While Mark Zuckerberg was not a particularly likeable protagonist, and Justin Timberlake was totally despicable, the story about how a bunch of relatively clueless college students morphed into business tycoons was fascinating and very well-done. I give it an “A”

1. The King’s Speech. This was the best movie I saw all year. What made it slightly better than The Social Network was the combination of its historical setting and the fact that it told the story of how the king overcame adversity in order to succeed, which is always an inspiring plot. Not to mention that both Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush were fabulous in their roles. Another “A”.

While I would not be disappointed if either of my top two movies won the Oscar, were I a voter, The King’s Speech would be my choice by a narrow margin.