my main complaint with the lattes is that they're too indie. take shelter and shame made a combined $5 million at the box office, tree of life made $13 million and its audience demanded 89% of it back, hugo did an extremely modest (for a 3-D film) $69 mil and happened to not be that good, and then there's drive, which made a respectable $35 mil and mercifully won. i think the academy is having the same problem, but from the opposite side. we're too young and cynical, they're too old and sappy. a film like ELIC has no chance with us, drive never had a chance with them.

and i reiterate my belief from two years ago, during the avatar/hurt locker wars, that no film that made less than $40 million (i might push that down to 30 today) should be seriously considered for best picture. if it can't find an audience beyond a small niche group, then it just didn't resonate enough overall to be considered the best movie made that year. i don't know. then again, i had margin call ($5 mil) in my top three, so... it's an inexact science. we probably did as well overall as they did, certainly with picking the winners. at the end of the day, i guess there's no point complaining that an award called the spilled lattes is too snobby.