53 down, 4 to go. Well, not go.

Stumbling in the home stretch. I can relate.

My quest for Oscar-readiness has come to an end. There were 57 movies nominated, and I managed to see 53 of them. Of the remaining 4, two haven't been released yet (Ernest and Celestine, up for Best Animated Film, and The Missing Picture, Cambodia's nominee for Best Foreign Language Film), one is in that limbo world of "gone from theaters, but not out on DVD yet" (Mandela, up for Best Original Song), and one (All Is Lost, up for Best Sound Editing) is available online but I just don't feel like watching it. If I'd been able to see the other three, I'd watch it for the sake of completeness, but since I'm not going to get to the full 57, I just can't watch Robert Redford sail a boat around for two hours while saying almost nothing.

Does this look like a good time to you?

Still, 53 is a lot of movies, and while most of them were great, I did have to slog through some crap when it came to the technical categories. Sure, The Lone Ranger had great makeup and visual effects, but it was a terrible movie. Just bloody awful. Bad Grandpa was no prize either.

But I saw some very cool movies, including the final one I saw, Belgium's entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category: The Broken Circle Breakdown. Did you guys know there is thriving Bluegrass Music community in Belgium? Neither did I. This movie centered on a Belgian bluegrass band (alliteration!), and it was so strange to see. One moment the characters were speaking super Frenchy French, and then they'd pick up a banjo and a fiddle and start singing "Wayfaring Stranger" in perfect, Southern-accented English. They wore cowboy hats and everything. They named their child after Mother Maybelle Carter. I just stared in wonder for the first 45 minutes of the film. Then I promptly downloaded the soundtrack because it is good.

These people are Belgian. I am not even kidding. I love movies!

Until next February, when the 2014 nominees are announced...