Bryan Singer, USA, 1995, 106 min.

The story involves a group of criminals brought in for questioning regarding the robbery of a truck full of weapons. The cops can’t pin it on any of them, but this fortuitous meeting brings about a string of prosperous jobs for the group.

On their way up they seem to have warranted the attention of an almost mythical crime lord who makes them do a dangerous job for a potentially grand pay-out. We see in the opening scene that this does not go very well.

Most of the film is told by the last surviving member of the group, a low-life cripple con-man played by Kevin Spacey. The story of what happens to everyone else he tells to the cops, who think they have figured out the case.

This film is like a magic trick. It is designed to deceive. What we think is happening, may not be the truth. When the end of the film comes along, we find out what really has been going on and realize that we have been fooled.

99% of the film is flim-flam. Sleight of hand. And like the lead-up to the magic trick, it is purely there to make the audience think of something else so the ending will come as a surprise, and when it is over, is instantly forgotten.

The film is a below-the-belt cheap trick. Without any real substance or style, the whole thing just doesn’t feel worthwhile. If you take away the twist ending, is there anything left? Not really.

In no particular order:

• Pomp, circumstance and fashion are lost on me. I’m just here for the movies, dammit! Ebert derisively put it best in his live twitter:

“They pose the actresses in their gowns, ask them to pose, and let the camera lick them from toe to head.”

• I don’t pretend to understand cinematography (anyone who has seen my films can attest to that), but does lighting generated on a computer count? I’m surprised Avatar won.

• 10 Best Pictures? Including more films makes the category less important.

• Sandra Bullock did a decent and forgettable job in The Blind Side. She didn’t deserve the Oscar but she seems nice and had a good speech so good for her.

• The White Ribbon, my vote for best film of the year, did not win Best Foreign Language Film. I’m ashamed that was the only one I saw in that category.

• Pixar has done no wrong in the past few years, and the Academy has thankfully recognized that.

• Bigelow wins for best director! The Hurt Locker was directly very well, and she deserves recognition, but in my mind more for Point Break and Strange Days then for her most recent film.

• District 9 did not deserve any nominations, let along Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay? I don’t care what LCD says.

• I was voting for Carey Mulligan. Her performance was subtle and true.

• I happened to catch all of the 10 Best Picture Nominees and I give them a 60/40 good to bad ratio. The best of the lot was A Serious Man, which I saw too late to put on my Top 10 of the Year.

• I don’t really like John Hughes.

• If the Academy allows Foreign Language Films and Animated Features to be nominated for best picture, they are logically saying that all the Best Picture Nominees are better than all of the nominees from those other categories. That is why I don’t like the Oscars.

Roman Polanski, France, 2010, 128 min.

Ewan McGregor stars as a ghost writer hired to help write the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) after the first ghost writer died of mysterious circumstances.

Shuffled off to Martha’s Vineyard in secrecy and high security, he becomes a fish out of water in the Minister’s household. The manuscript that he was hired to edit is horrible, and the recently discovered news of some less-than-legal dealings in the Minister’s past combine to make this job rather a rather difficult one.

It gets even more difficult when it becomes apparent that the recent news about the Minister’s past may just be the tip of the iceberg. There is more going on than he is led to believe.

This film is refreshing. It is refreshing to sit back and be taken on a ride by a filmmaker who knows what he is doing. The film builds nicely, revealing information and developing the characters along the way.

The estate and its assorted denizens provide much intrique, humor and drama, all without resorting to cheap tricks. Hitchcock would have loved this film. The acting by McGregor and Bronson is strong, and the cast is rounded out by some great performances by Kim Cattrall and Olivia Williams.

I have a minor quibble with the ending, but the film is great for almost its entire length. The story is realistic, but even more important, the character’s and their actions feel real as well. So if the ending is imperfect, that can be forgiven. In real-life, nobody is perfect.