There’s not a lot to get excited about in late January. The weather sucks, your credit cards are maxed out on things that no one wrote you a thank you note for, and the endless Republican debates are making us fear for society. But here at flicksthatmakemesick, we’re as happy as Demian Bichir because it’s Academy Award time!

If you have no idea who Demian Bichir is or why he’s happy, then you need to carefully study the list of nominations to get ready for the big event.

I’ve seen six out of the nine films, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get caught up before the big show on Feb. 26.

Here are the Best Picture nominees

The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

I have a few complaints with this list: with ten potential slots, why are there are only nine nominees? And since there was an extra one, they couldn’t find a way to stick Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in there? It could never win, but it was the best reviewed film of 2011 and you would think that Hollywood might at least want to acknowledge the accomplishment of producing eight films that made billions of dollars and kept theatres filled for the last ten years. Or at least give Alan Rickman a Best Supporting Actor nod; something besides make-up to recognize these films. And where is Cave of Forgotten Dreams in the Best Documentary category? There was no better use of 3D to bring the past alive than this magnificent film about the cave paintings of Chauvet.

To keep this on point, last years nominees had a total of NINE BARF BAGS collected between the ten films. Of the six that I have seen for this year, we have only ONE so far. Has Hollywood cooled on shaky-cams? Have all the directors been through rehab and their hands are feeling more steady? Is the demise of the hand held film a direct response to this website? I’m suddenly feeling very powerful and intend to take full credit for exposing this cheap technique for what it was and bringing on reform!

Course now I have nothing to write about. Damn.

Coming Next: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!