Over the course of last week I changed my challenge, but I didn’t really mean to.  On Monday afternoon I came home from school with the mindset of meditation.  However, my “meditation” soon turned into a nap.  I woke up two hours later and realized that a nap was better for me than meditation.  I felt refreshed and ready to read my 20 pages of Ralph Waldo Emerson.  (Well, at least I felt refreshed.)  So for three days this week, I took a nap after school and it really got me through my homework!  If you did meditation this week, good for you, but I suggest napping instead.

Now for some exciting news!  In anticipation of February’s Academy Awards, my blog will be all about the Oscars for the next month, specifically the Best Picture race.  My personal challenge is to watch all 10 Best Picture nominees before the Feb. 27 show.  It’s an ambitious challenge, but I encourage you all to do it.  The coming month’s challenges will require you to watch one movie a week, but there will be a specific challenge dictating the movie you will watch.  Let’s take this week’s challenge as an example: watch the Best Picture nominee that you want to win.

To get you interested in the movies, I have included basic plot summaries and the chances each film has in winning the race.  The critical reception is based off of Entertainment Weekly magazine and Robert W. Butler of The Kansas City Star. The 2011 Best Picture Nominees are as follows:

• “Black Swan”: thriller about a ballerina who obsesses over her role in “Swan Lake”.  It probably won’t win for Best Picture, but look for Natalie Portman to win Best Actress.
• “The Fighter”: biographical movie about two brothers’ journey in the boxing world.  If it won, it would only be the fourth sports movie to ever win best picture, but two of those have been boxing movies.
• “Inception”: sci-fi thriller about the art of entering people’s dreams.  It’s a long shot partly because it was released so long before the voting period.
• “The Kids Are All Right”: dramedy about a lesbian couple, their kids and their sperm donor.  It’s doubtful that it will win considering the high caliber of movies nominated.
• “The King’s Speech”: historical drama about King George VI attempting to overcome a stammer.  This is the definite front-runner for most film critics.
• “127 Hours”: biographical adventure film about a man who goes climbing in the Utah desert and literally gets stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Many early projections didn’t even see this film getting nominated, so don’t expect a win.
• “The Social Network”: drama about the creation of Facebook, its founder Mark Zuckerberg, and the lawsuits he is up against.  It won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, but that is not always an indication of the Oscar outcome.
• “Toy Story 3”: the third installment of this story of toy box pals hardly needs an explanation.  If nostalgia played into who would win the Best Picture race, this movie would win hands down.  Unfortunately, it has lots of things working against it, including a G-rating and being animated.  However, expect it to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
• “True Grit”: western about a young girl who hires a U.S. Marshal to accompany her in the search for her father’s killer.  Westerns are rarely nominated (and even more rarely win), but the Coen brothers are the directors and they have a good history with the academy.
• “Winter’s Bone”: drama about a teenage girl’s search for her father in the drug culture of the Ozarks.  It is the least mainstream movie of the nominees so it is a definite underdog, but I’m rooting for it because it was filmed right here in Missouri.

It’s safe to say that these month-long Oscar challenges are the most excited I have been about this blog all year!  In fact, I have gotten a bit of a head start and have already seen “Toy Story 3”, “Winter’s Bone”, “Inception”, and “The Social Network”.  I highly recommend “Winter’s Bone” to you all, and I hope that you will share your thoughts and what movies you’re watching by commenting on this blog.

Another way to get involved in this Oscar excitement is to e-mail me short reviews of the movies you are watching at [email protected].  They might even be featured in my blog over the next month!  So let’s go out this week, watch our favorite Best Picture Nominee, share out thoughts and conquer this challenge!