Nerd in the 'Noke

This year marks the ninth year that I've made picks in one form or another for the Academy Awards.  Over those nine years, I have tweaked my process and presentation here and there, always with the goal of making informed picks in as many categories as possible.  In an effort to continue down that path, this year I have listed all twenty four categories being presented during tonight's ceremony, but I will only be sharing my personal pick for nineteen of them.  This is a smaller selection of categories for me than in recent years, but only because I have chosen to exclude categories from which I did not see any  nominees.  I figure that there's no point in wasting anyone's time with completely uninformed shots in the dark!  I have also decided to present my picks this year as though I were one of the people special enough to submit an official ballot.  So the picks that you see below are for the films that I would personally vote for if that were the c...

I had originally planned to get this list posted earlier in the month, but as you can tell, that didn't happen.  It's funny how spending the better part of two days shoveling snow sucks the motivation to do anything else right out of you.  There are still a handful of films that have been nominated for this year's Academy Awards that I would like to see, but seeing as though we've already made it to the last day of January, I figure I shouldn't delay my annual Top 10 list any longer! I've compiled such a list four of the past five years, so those of you familiar with the blog may remember the stipulations I use when putting this list together, but for those who are not, here are a couple of quick points before we get started: The list is pulled only from the movies released in 2015  that I actually saw  (a second list comprised of the films from 2015 that I would still like to see appears after my Top 10). These are the films that I  enjoyed or appreciated ...

The Martian (2015), PG-13, 141 minutes - I had originally hoped to see this film back in October when it first hit theaters, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I didn't have the opportunity until its recent blu-ray release.  So after having to wait (not so patiently) for that to happen, my wife (who has read the book) and I sat down this past week to see if The Martian was as good as everyone said it was. If you've read Andy Weir's book that was the source material for this film, then you already have a bit of an idea of what to expect (although my wife informs me that there are plenty of differences).  According to her, some plot points are more heavily focused on than others but fear not, the basics of the story remain intact!  If you're like me and were excited by the trailer but were too lazy to read the book first, it goes a little something like this: Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is part of the Ares III crew that comprises the first manned mission to Mars....