Reading the Tea Leaves part 1 of 3857

Well since every critics group in the country has declared Alexander Payne's good but not great Sideways as the year's best film it has most certainly locked up nominations in all of the major Oscar categories (except supporting actress). It will face some competition from Million Dollar Baby, by all accounts another small film. Neither of these films are the kind of bait Oscar usually bites at, which leaves Martin Scorsese's The Aviator as the third contender that must be seriously considered. At this point it is a dead heat, but strong box office for Aviator will help that film. It will be very interesting to see how much the box office jumps for Sideways this weekend coming off a week better than they could have imagined as far as awards and year-end accolades go.


Hopefully next week will begin with reviews of Kinsey and Spanglish.