Rachel Getting Married is the best films I’ve seen in ages so make sure you don’t miss that (I’ll post my review next week).

Changeling is the better film over Gran Torino but I still recommend you see it. The humour lies in the fact that Eastwood’s character is a bigot who says outrageous things. So while he makes racist jokes, you aren’t supposed to laugh along with him. Instead you are laughing at how ridiculously conservative he is.

Anyway, the core of the film is about friendship, community, overcoming differences, sacrifice and redemption. I recommend it.

Anyway, it doesn’t look like he is going to stop directing films and his Nelson Mandela film should hit the cinemas at the end of this year.

Since next week is going to be such a slow week for new releases, I’m hoping to do a overview piece on Eastwood’s career so look out for that next Wednesday or Thursday.

Don’t think that I don’t find the other Best Actor candidates worthy – I honestly think that if Rourke wasn’t getting all this buzz it would be VERY hard to pick from this year’s candidates. Very good year for male performances.

But you make an interesting point about Eastwood – however there’s been some speculation that he may actually retire soon, this being one of his last films, or possibly even his final one, so I thought they might take that as an opportunity to say “we love you, please don’t leave”.

The Reader is excellent so it deserves recognition. But it is also the type of film that the Academy loves so that’s why it is included to such an extent while The Wrestler, not a typical Academy film, is absent from several key categories. Let the Right One In has been hugely popular the world over but do you really think that a Swedish vampire film is going to go down well with the same people who thought Forrest Gump was a better film than Pulp Fiction?

I also think it is a pity that Leonardo DiCaprio got overlooked for the best actor award. However, Richard Jenkins, Frank Langella, Sean Pen, Mickey Rourke and I think even Brad Pitt are also worthy candidates.

Very good call on the absence of Sally Hawkins from the best actress category. I do think that Angelina Jolie deserves to be nominated, along with Kate Winslet and Anne Hathaway, but excluding Hawkins over Melissa Leo and Meryl Streep is very poor.

As for Eastwood – perhaps that by having two films eligible they both cancelled each other out? I don’t know. I’m not too upset as the guy has already won 4 Academy Awards for previous films. Also, he’s a living legend and honestly doesn’t need the endorsement of the Academy for people to recognise his greatness. He’s above all that.

Whilst I have not seen either films, I have heard a lot of anger towards the Academy for choosing to favour the not-so-critically-acclaimed The Reader over the almost unanimously loved The Wrestler for the Best Picture and Best Director categories. Also, it’s a bit disappointing to see Eastwood shunned for both Best Actor and Best Director.

But, in I think the biggest snub of the year due to technicalities, Let The Right One In, the swedish vampire film, has been completely shut out of the foreign film category. I completely agree with the rest of the nominations, but come on, it was both a critical success AND was popular in the American box office. A bit stupid if you ask me.