FINAL SCORE: Sarah 54, Death Race 2; 22 of 24 categories completed
None of the documentary-short nominees really caught fire for me. I didn’t hate any of them, not something I could say for my fellow …

Sarah 49, Death Race 7; 21 of 24 categories completed
(Stay tuned through the weekend for a Documentary Shorts roundup; a predictions entry, whose prognostications you should do the opposite of in your Oscar …

I’m hoping your bibliophile readers can help me come up with the title of a book I read as a kid in the ’70s.
It’s about a boy who goes on a camping trip/hike up …

Sarah 48, Death Race 8; 20 of 24 categories completed
The 2011 crop of animated shorts, like their live-action brethren, also came off less turgid than last year’s; I liked almost all of them. But I …

I’m writing to you today about a very delicate situation. I’m totally lost as to what, if anything, I can do. I really need your help.
Here’s a little background: I have a sister who I …

A more entertaining, less self-serious crop than last year’s, or at least I felt that way when the lights when up Monday. It helps that the program chose its order well, and ended with a …

Sarah 43, Death Race 13; 19 of 24 categories completed
…Wow. How to describe Incendies without giving away anything. How to describe it, period, really, but I will try not to tip anything here (if you’d …

I spent the bulk of the episode buoyed by one fact and one fact alone — the next episode is the last! YAAAAAY! — and then I realized OH NO we haven’t had key-party awkward …

Sarah 42, Death Race 14; 18 of 24 categories completed
“Barney’s Version” is not a movie to be loved from start to finish. I was annoyed by it, then I liked it, then it irritated me, …

Sarah 37, Death Race 19; 17 of 24 categories completed
I liked it more than I’d expected to, but the guiding structural principle — the three plot strands that converge at the end — felt like …