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Maybe I'm forgetting something, but relative to the quality of films this year I would be surprised if this isn't the best selection of best picture nominees of my lifetime. Granted, it's marred by Schnabel relegated to a Best Director nomination while Atonement takes Diving Bell's rightful place in what I assume (although I haven't seen Atonement yet, so maybe even it's good) to be the Middlebrow Doorstop spot (although having only one is pretty amazing in itself.) Still, There Will Be Blood and No Country are both excellent-to-exceptional films, Juno very good, and while the enjoyable Michael Clayton is overmatched in this heat (and I would have preferred Lumet/Before the Devil) it's certainly better than most recent Best Picture winners (Crash, Shakespeare in Love, Beautiful Mind, Gladiator, I Can't Believe There is Soulessness and Homophobia In American Suburbia! American Beauty, ugh.) It's an unusually strong collection of pictures. I wonder how it happened?--Scott Lemieux
