I'm going to start calling them the Academy of Motion Pictures That Do Not Challenge Our Preconceptions of What Makes a Good Film.

Two... TWO of the best movies last year snubbed for Best Picture. Forget the fact that they only limit it to five nominations, these were snubbed outright. And for what? Frost/Nixon? REALLY??? The movie that both the public and the critics said that, while very well executed and with some fantastic acting, failed to do anything beyond recount historical fact.

Heaven forbid we imply through film and storytelling that people know and have experienced nothing of merit in all their years.

Meanwhile, we had REAL history in the making: a superhero-action film and a computer animated feature that stood poised to take the Oscars by storm.

This year's heir apparent (TCCOBB) is a story about fictitious human drama set in the real world, while TDK is about real human drama - real pain, real suffering, real emotions - set in a fictitious world. I never realized that modern artwork could still be denounced because it pushed boundaries. I thought we had outgrown that. I was wrong.

(Okay, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on TCCOBB. I've heard it was quite good.)

We also have WALL-E, Pixar's latest in their line of magnum opera. It was the second animated feature, ever, that stood to be nominated for Best Picture, only to be shot down. Funny, the first was also made / distributed by Disney.

No no no. We can't have this. The quote-unquote "good" films must be those that display the dignity and brilliance of film making without descending into the harrowed black pits of gimmick, action, and... dare I say it... cute.

No, despite the praise the unwashed masses see fit to lavish upon films like TDK and WALL-E, we must stand true to convention and policy... and relegate them to the realm of "technical achievement."

It was Chaucer who first said that all human nature is within the artist's examination.

Now I understand why the Academy knows nothing about good writing.