The Oscars... Who really cares?

With the Oscars coming up in a few weeks, I thought it might be a good idea to discuss the best of 2009 and the Oscars. Do you think the Oscars represent the best in film or do you feel that it is biased to certain films. Should there be a category for what teenagers might see as the best of the year? In your opinion what is the best film of 2009? Give us your reasons why you think this and determine whether you think this film is Oscar worthy or whether you think it is just great in your mind.

Spirited Away was a brilliant film fillled with numerous themes and symbols, but could also be enjoyed on a surface level. When I introduced it to the class I did mention that I couldn't quite pinpoint what was so appealing about it. The reason for its appeal I have yet to decipher, it could have been the characters, the setting or perhaps the really big baby, I guess we'll never know. Or perhaps it was the fact that Spirited Away reminded me of something I had seen before? This film has been compared to two important english films, "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz".

A) Do you think Spirited Away is similar to either of these films, which one and why?

OR

B) Choose a theme in the film and describe what you think the filmmaker was trying to say with it. Themes could include: Water, Greed, Food, Gold, Growing Up or the Duality of Good and Evil (Who were the good characters, were they truly good?) etc.

Ill-concieved notion?

In February of 2008, I took it upon myself to create a course at the high school in which I work. I felt that in our current educational system that the needs of all our students were no being met and that apparently I did not have enough work to do. After studying film in University, I thought that a good idea to get students interested in writing and reading again would be to get them to read and write about film. Everybody watches movies, whether they are downloaded, on television or you actually get out to the theatre. I thought that this would be relevant topic that would unite students on some level and would give me the chance to teach something that I have always loved. This might have been more of a challenging prospect than I had first thought.