Wilnervision!

My latest MSN DVD column is up, looking at “Up in the Air” in light of its recent Oscar shutout and wondering if perhaps the Academy missed its point.

Though I do have to consider the possibility that the older members of the Academy thought they were voting for George Clooney’s character when they gave Ryan Bingham the Best Original Song prize for “The Weary Kind”.

Is that a first, by the way? An actual person up for an Oscar in the same year as an actor who plays a character with the same name goes up for an acting prize?

Did that even make sense? I’m awfully tired this morning.

Okay, so this morning’s CTV News Channel hit fell through — these things happen, though they don’t usually happen when one is already standing outside the studio — but I’m a pro, so I’m rebounding with an appearance on CBC Radio’s “Ontario Today”.

I’ll be on the air (and taking calls!) from noon to noon-thirty, EST. Check it out, if you’re able; if you’re not in broadcast range, you should be able to stream it via the “Listen Live” option here.

UPDATE: One more booking! Turn your TVs back on! I’ll be appearing on CBC News at Six this evening, talking about — yes — Oscars. Amazing what’s possible when you’re already in the building, huh?

So “The Hurt Locker” took Best Picture, huh? Wow. Seriously, wow. I was sure “Avatar” would steamroll everything else for the top prize, simply because it was too big to fail. Well, I suppose James Cameron can content himself with that giant pile of money.

If you’re near a TV, I’ll be back on CTV News Channel around 9:15am EST to pick through the wreckage. Rogers cable 62 — tune in, if you dare! And then sidle over to the NOW home page this afternoon for Susan’s and my post-mortem podcast. I’ll have it linked as soon as I can. UPDATE: Linked!

Also: Boy, “Alice in Wonderland” sure made a hell of a lot of money this weekend. $116.3 million, according to the AP. Which is bigger than the “Avatar” opening weekend, therefore confirming (in the minds of studio heads, anyway) that the 3D epic is here to stay. Suddenly, next month’s “Clash of the Titans” has to be a world-beater just to stay relevant.

It’s just a matter of time before someone remakes “Bwana Devil”, isn’t it? The Earth is doomed.

I’m live-tweeting the Oscars tonight — and you can join the fun by following @nowtoronto once the ceremony starts. Or a little bit before, because I’m sure I’ll have something snarky to say about the pre-game show. All that schmoozery just makes me so testy.

And if you missed my epic appearance on CBC Radio’s “Go!” yesterday, it’ll available for streaming on the show’s front page all this week, and archived for a year in the audio gallery.

I thought our stuff went well. And Zeus was awesome, so it’s worth hearing just for them.

… if you’re in Canada, and you’re near a radio, tune into CBC Radio One this morning at 10:30am to catch my appearance on “Go!“, discussing the Worst Movies Ever with Adam Nayman and Jennie Punter. Musical interludes will be provided by the rockers men call Zeus.

Don’t worry about time zones; thanks to some special Corp magic that I can’t even begin to understand, the show airs at 10:30am wherever you are in the country. And if you’re not near a radio, you can stream it live here.

(If you’re reading this later in the morning, just wait until 10:30am PST and select one of the British Columbia feeds. Simple, eh?)

We’re not likely to spend too much time talking about the Oscars — this is more of a Razzies kind of show — but if you absolutely must have some Academy insight, I offered my quick picks yesterday in my NOW Daily column.

Okay, I’m heading down to the studio. I can count on your support, right?

What, the Oscars are just two days away and the studios are still releasing more movies into the market? Doesn’t that seem counter-intuitive to anyone else? Aren’t we all supposed to be staying home or watching “Avatar” for the third time? Sheesh. Anyway, let’s break it down:

“Alice in Wonderland“: Tim Burton’s take on the Lewis Carroll classic is a movie that only Tim Burton could have made. That is not, in itself, a compliment..

“At Home By Myself … with You“: Kris Booth’s comedy about a Toronto shut-in is a little on the wobbly side, tone-wise, but a terrific performance from Kristin Booth (no relation, apparently) as the shut-in in question will keep you watching.

“Brooklyn’s Finest“: Antoine Fuqua goes all retro with this brooding cop drama. Until he gets restless, and decides what the movie really needs is a whole lot of gunfire. Don Cheadle’s pretty good, though, and it’s briefly fun to see Ethan Hawke as the worst-case-scenario version of his “Training Day” character.

“The Ghost Writer“: Roman Polanski reminds us of his considerable talent with this polished — if not entirely convincing — adaptation of the Robert Harris novel about a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) hired to finish the autobiography of a disgraced British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan). Is it heresy to suggest you wait for the unrated DVD, which will presumably feature the undubbed audio?

“Helen”: Ashley Judd fights depression in the new film from Sandra Nettelbeck, who seems a world away from her endearing “Mostly Martha”. Susan liked it, but apparently she’s in the minority.

“A Prophet“: Jacques Audiard’s tremendous study of a young man (Tahar Rahim) staring down a six-year stretch in a French prison is so much more than a jailhouse movie — but you really don’t want to know any more than that. Just go see it, whether or not it wins the foreign-language prize on Sunday night.

“Zooey and Adam”: Sean Garity’s drama casts Daria Puttaert and Tom Keenan as a couple trying to cope with the aftermath of an assault and an unexpected pregnancy. Susan thought it worked really well; Kieran, not so much. I’ll wait for the DVD, thanks.

And thus begins a day that has me zipping around town doing all sorts of things, including a stop at CTV News Channel for the requisite Oscar chat. If you’re near a television set around 1pm, flip it to Rogers Cable 62 to see what I look like without makeup. It’s not for the squeamish.

And don’t forget about tomorrow morning’s appearance on CBC Radio One — “Go!” gets going at 10:30am EST. I may not have time to put a post together before heading down to the studio, so set your alarms now.

The latest issue of NOW offers some entertaining diversions, including my interview with Don Cheadle, co-star of “Brooklyn’s Finest” and the impending “Iron Man 2″, a look at the World of Comedy Film Festival and Benjamin Boles’ cover story on the band Zeus, who — as it happens — will be the musical guests on CBC Radio One’s “Go!” this weekend.

Why am I mentioning a band you’ve (probably) never heard of? Why, because I too will be appearing on “Go!”, for a very special episode, “The Worst Movie Ever!“. I’ll be appearing with Adam Nayman and Jennie Punter on the program, which airs Saturday morning at 10:30am on Radio One.
Want to be part of the live studio audience? Tickets are still available here.

Or you can stay indoors and listen from the comfort of your nice, warm bed. Not that I’m trying to sway you one way or the other.

I’ve banged out a Spring Movie Preview for MSN, tracking the March-April release slate; if you’re trying to plan your moviegoing for the coming weeks, you might want to take a look.

But this is interesting: The Nicolas Cage medieval thriller “Season of the Witch” has disappeared from the schedule just weeks before it was slated to open.

What’s the deal, Lionsgate (in the U.S.) and Alliance (in Canada)? After “The Wicker Man”, “National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets” and “Knowing”, a Nicolas Cage vehicle has a long way to go before it can be deemed unreleasable.

In more encouragng news, Conan O’Brien is tweeting. And his first post is funnier than anything Jay Leno’s done in, like, a decade.

That ginger fella’s going to come through this just fine, you’ll see.

My latest MSN DVD column is up, focusing a much-deserved spotlight on Spike Jonze’s tremendous adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are”.

You may remember that I loved it quite without reservation last fall. And yes, I love it still.

Have you caught up to it yet? Isn’t it time you did?

Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” held on to the top spot at the box office over the weekend, pulling in another $22.2 million for a cumulative gross of $75.1 million. But close behind it were “Cop Out” and “The Crazies”, with $18.6 and $16.5 million, respectively.

I’m finding myself more and more troubled by the success of “Shutter Island” — not just because it’s Scorsese’s weakest picture since “Gangs of New York”, but also because it’s likely to enable Leonardo DiCaprio in his quest to use that ridiculous Bahstan accent in more movies.

And then there’s this: Craig Simpson finally identified the weird tugging I experienced at the back of my brain while watching “Shutter Island” — turns out we’d both seen it before, in a different but much more thematically successful configuration.

Spoilers abound, but if you’ve seen the film, you’ll want to check this out.