Picky holiday movie picks

In theaters Friday: Seven Pounds, The Tale of Despereaux, Yes Man, The Wrestler (limited)

New on DVD & Blu-Ray: Mamma Mia! The Movie, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

So, a friend and I were talking last night about “awards season movies,” and he asked me what films I was looking forward to. I had to pause, because nothing really came to mind. I mean, there are movies I want, and most likely will see—this week’s Seven Pounds and The Wrestler, for starters—but when pushed I struggled to come up with one title that I was truly excited about. Sure there are what look like good films coming up, but none are movies I just can’t wait to see (and none that look as exciting as this one, yow!) Whereas the last couple years, my Decembers have been filled with tough decisions at the movie theater, this one is just not up to snuff.

So below are my cautious picks for must-see movies this holiday season:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (12/25). F. Scott Fitzgerald plus the guy who directed Fight Club must equal something spectacular. This looks like the best Tim Burton impression ever, and I’ve grown to admire Brad Pitt as an actor since his last outing with Fincher in 1999. Here’s the clincher: Cate Blanchett never goes wrong. Ever.

Doubt (out now in limited release, goes wide 1/9). I really love thrillers that don’t involve blood, guts and masked madmen. The unique tension of mind games, innuendo and suspicion can be even more unnerving if done well, and this drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as a priest who may or may not have abused a young student, and Meryl Streep and Amy Adams as the nuns who suspect him, looks fantastic.

Gran Torino (out now in limited release, goes wide 1/9). I bet when Clint Eastwood was developing his classic, tough-man persona at 30 he never imagined the effect the same modus operandi would have on his characters when he turned 78. He needn’t have worried. He’s more intimidating with age. Take this dialogue snippet, for example. Thug: “What you lookin’ at old man?” Clint: “Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t have messed with? That’s me.” Then the thug pees his pants. OK, I’m not sure if that’s what happens, but, yeah, more than likely.

Che (out now in limited release, goes wide 1/24). To some he’s just a ragged face on a $25 T-shirt they picked up at Gadzooks. To director Steven Soderbergh, Che Guevara is worthy of a four-and-a-half hour biopic, told in two parts. Benicio del Toro plays the infamous Argentine physician and leader of the Cuban Revolution, and he’s the only actor that could have pulled this off. Che looks to be a divisive and epic take on a larger-than-life figure, and it’s Soderbergh’s most ambitious project since his 2000’s Traffic, which netted both he and del Toro Academy Awards.

Sigh. I do hope these films turn out well, but they just remind me to pester a certain friend of mine till he returns that There Will Be Blood DVD I let him borrow seven months ago. So what about you? What movies are you looking forward to in the next month and which are your early picks for Oscar nominations?