The Wintry Wasteland/Wonderland

As we roll into a new year, lots of critics, bloggers, and random people are posting their lists for the Best of 2010.  You may wonder, then, why I'm not doing just that.  It's quite simple: I live in Ohio.  While critics and city-dwellers have the privilege of seeing most everything at the earliest possible date (especially those lucky Los Angelesians... Los Angelans?  The people who live in LA whose ranks I will hopefully join in a few years' time), we Ohioans aren't so fortunate.  In my little town, we haven't had an "interesting" movie since Pan's Labyrinth graced us with its presence for one whole week a couple years back.

While January and February are known for the dismal fare being released, I actually enjoy these winter months because it's my chance to play catch-up.  Finally, the rarer filmic fare that others have been writing and raving about for months on end are coming to a theater near me.  (Of course, this wouldn't be true if I weren't a proud Buckeye.  Columbus is so good to me.)

So in the next month or two, I'll be checking out The King's Speech, I Love You Philip Morris, Four Lions, My Dog Tulip, Biutiful, Blue Valentine, Somewhere, Another Year, and Rabbit Hole.  By the time the Oscars roll around, I should be ready to declare my picks for the best of the year, and I like to think I do so in grand fashion.  After announcing my nominees (yes, I even make a list of nominees), I'll announce the winners, and finally a Top 10 list, which I'm already slaving away at in my mind.  In the meantime, all those New Yorkers and LA-ers can wallow in The Rite and The Green Hornet with the rest of us.