Last night, after quite a long period of relating to nameless strangers, a movie star once again showed up in my dreams. Helena Bonham Carter was playing a distant relative and being, well, pretty nice, I'd have to say. There was no immediately obvious reason why she was there. I certainly wasn't consciously thinking of her yesterday or even any time during the last week or more. But she showed up anyway, giving quite a good performance. I'd have nominated her for Best Supporting Actress based on last night alone. For my part, however, I was less than convincing. So I guess I'm out of the Best Actor running this year.

The Oscar nominations came out last Tuesday morning, and, as usual, the Academy members got it part right and part wrong. It's my job, as a talking head of the cyber kind, to blather about it. And since I even review movies for money every once in a while, I even have a little background in this. Of course, I haven't seen all the movies nominated for Best Picture. I never do. But this year I'm three for five, so I'm in the majority, so to speak.

Before all the predicting and chastising, however, let me illuminate a few movies/films/pictures that were left out. It's pretty easy to figure out the Best Pictures because for about three-fourths of the year, all the movies are crap. Nothing that comes out before August counts (although there are occasionally dark horses like Fargo, Saving Private Ryan and Ace Ventura). This year was no different. As a matter of fact, I can't remember anything good that came out before August this year. And even though I saw the new Star Wars five times, I'm not deluding myself into thinking it was anywhere near the best picture.

So my pick for the best picture of the year (who noticed the foreshadowing earlier in the column?) is Fight Club. An extremely polarizing picture that left many queasy and uneasy and others completely exhilarated. Obviously, I am one of the latter. Let me give you a piece of dialogue from a young couple I sat next to during one of the times I saw Fight Club:

Girl: That was the weirdest fucking movie I've ever seen. Guy: I gotta see this again.

I liked this movie so much, I bought the book--something I haven't done in years. Great book, great movie--but I give the nod to the movie because the ending is much better. The basis of Fight Club is the two basic sides of males: The sensitive guy and the asshole. Edward Norton plays the sensitive guy, Brad Pitt is the asshole. Helena Bonham Carter is the girl they love. All of us guys (gay and straight, by the way) have these two sides. It's how we use them that makes the difference. There are other themes that run through the film, but this is the central and most defining aspect. This is the movie most likely to cause me to buy a DVD--so that's why it's my Best Picture nominee.

Coming in a close second (a tie with the actually-nominated American Beauty) is Being John Malkovich. Taking celebrity worship to totally unimaginable levels, people are allowed the opportunity to be inside John Malkovich's head for fifteen minutes. And it becomes the new drug. It's really creepy, thoughtful, hilarious and ugly. Which is why American Beauty got the actual nod, because it's beautiful rather than ugly. We are talking about Hollywood. By the way, can anyone give me a good reason why the director, the screenplay and one of the actors from Being John Malkovich were nominated, but the movie wasn't? Just another one of those strange Academy things, I guess.

I also have to mention Three Kings, which surprised me. And, although there never was a shot at all for this one, the South Park movie was the funniest movie of the year, hands down. And in the good, but not great movies category are Run Lola Run, Go, and American Pie (by the way, Mena Suvari's breakout movies both have American in the title--what's up with that?). And while The Matrix was good, I guess I wasn't as astounded as everyone else.

Which leads me to the other movies actually nominated for the big prize. The Insider is a good (and beautifully photographed) flick, my number 2 pick from the list. The Green Mile was nice, but I never thought it was great. The other two, I don't know. People really liked The Sixth Sense, which could be why I haven't seen it (hasn't hit the cheap theaters yet). And Cider House Rules? I think someone paid quite a few people off for that sucker. This one's the obvious set up pick--y'know, the one where the Hollywood Mob broke a couple of kneecaps to get it nominated.

And so we wait until late March to see how the dust settles. I'm pulling for American Beauty, which I saw again this weekend just to make sure. Here's a question I have: why do people laugh at the notion of a 40-something-year-old lusting after a 16-year-old, but gasp in shock over the appearance of a swastika? Things to ponder for the next month, I guess.

Matt Worley favors Ryan Phillippe as the next Anakin Skywalker, if only because Ryan gave up his amateur status to impregnate and marry Reese Witherspoon.