Million Dollar Baby

On the hand, you have to be happy that Million Dollar Baby won this year's Best Picture Oscar. A fine motion picture from a film, dignified filmmaker (Clint!). The supposed elite group of five best picture nominees was overall fairly weak this year (where was Motorcycle Diaries? where was Hotel Rwanda? where was The Dreamers? these were interesting, exciting, political films passed over in favor of the pleasant but utterly pointless Finding Neverland and Aviator). Bringing me to the flip-side criticism of Million Dollar Baby - it was the best movie in a crowd of fluff movies. The movie flirts with pseudo-feminism and pple's right-to-die (previewing Terri Schiavo case) but ultimately it was more interested in pulling strings and making you weep than truly saying something deep and impacting about the American (or human) experience.