Oscar nominated features: Documentary

I have seen all the films in this category, so I'll offer short reviews of each followed by my prediction in the category.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Well gee, how to describe this one? It's about guerrilla street art, a topic I don't care about. But as Roger Ebert has said, a film is not what it is about, but how it is about it. And this film's goofball approach, as the subject because the filmmaker and the filmmaker becomes the subject, is tremendously entertaining. What is real and what is not? Don't really know, which is part of the fun. But the spirit of guerrilla art is captured. Grade: A

Gasland

And boy is this film getting the full court press from the natural gas industry. The director sets out to learn more about gas drilling after an offer to pay him to drill on this family's property. The more he talks to people, the more worried he gets. The film is technically a bit amateurish, but that gives it an appeal, as the anger of the film isn't as much at the practice, but the fact that the industry is not even regulated by the US government. Grade: A-

Inside Job

Director Charles Ferguson approached as a journalist, trying to understand how the financial crisis of 2008 occurred and how we could avoid repeating the mistakes. His breakdown is enraging. And the lessons don't seem to have been learned. This is the essential document of how greed run amok is destroying our economy. Grade: A+

Restrepo

This look at a year in the life of a group of soldiers in Afganistan, focusing on the establishment of Outpost Restrepo, named for a comrade who was killed. The film does a good job of getting the feel of the service, but fails to do a good job of getting a sense of who these soldiers are as people. And that failure makes this the weekest of the nominees. But as a document of what the Afganistan fighting has been like, the film is invaluable. Grade: B+

Wasteland

A second documetary involving art, a second movie I really didn't care to see, and a second movie which was a pleasant surprise. This film documents an artist using materials from Rio's primary garbage dump to make art. He meets the pickers, who sort through the trash and get recyclable materials, and becomes wrapped up in their plight. The way several of the pickers, who at the beginning seem to have lost hope and how their outlook on life is changed, is truly inspiring. Grade: A

Oscar chances: I've seen a lot of predictors saying Exit Through the Gift Shop. I think some of them forget that the documentary branch chooses the winner, and when the top two contenders include a rule breaker and a rule follower, the rule breaker ususally doesn't win. And Exit Through the Gift Shop is definitely a rule breaker. Charles Ferguson lost last time he was nominated with No End in Sight, his excellent look at the causes of the Iraq War. Inside Job is even better, and he's due. I think Inside Job wins.

My choice: Inside Job.