MOVIES: Best of 2005 -- a few comments

I saw roughly 80 movies released in '05, which is down a bit from the last few years. Didn't see many foreign-language movies this year, and am planning to make an effort to see more this year.

I've seen almost everything that's likely to be nominated in the major Oscar categories. The few exceptions: Mrs. Henderson Presents and North Country, both of which are likely to land Best Actress nominations (and both of which will no doubt come back to theatres when they do, and I'll try to catch them then); four films with outside chances of landing acting nominations: Memoirs of a Geisha, The New World, Hustle & Flow, and In Her Shoes, none of which appeal to me enough that I plan to see them unless they actually are nominated.

Interesting that most of my omissions land in the actress categories; certainly not a deliberate thing, but something to keep in mind, perhaps, when planning my movie-going during next year's December awards crunch.