5 Movies to Rent Before the Oscars!

An awful lot of the films in the race are still in theatres, and there are quite a few you've already seen, but here's a few films that you may not have and should before the show on monday.

District 9 (Nominated for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Visual Effects, and Film Editing)- Avatar's surprise surgence in the past few months may have stolen recognition away from this film, but it's still by far the best science fiction film of the year. One of the striking aspects of the genre is originality, and this film delivers that in a swift gritty runtime of less than two hours.

A Serious Man (Nominated for Best Picture, and Original Screenplay)- The notorious jew film that's snuck into nearly every big awards show, the Coen Brothers' new film showed what they can do when they throw caution to the wind and tell a good story without fear of being judged on their risky, but hillarious screenplay.

Coraline (Nominated for Best Animated Feature)- Before Avatar swept the 3D market with its jump off the screen visuals, there was this humble little stop-motion film that spread the (as some percieve it) gimmick into new areas. Without being in your face, Coraline was able to add depth to an equally deep and haunting story that you could only expect from a master storyteller like Neil Gaiman.

In The Loop (Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay)- We've always had an open place in our hearts for the british sense of humor and this movie is full of it. Some of the most hillarious lines of dialogue of the year come from this clever little film that didn't get a huge theatrical release, but that didn't stop it from siezing a spot in the Oscar race.

Honorable Mention: Ponyo- Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greatest cinematic artists of the current age. Even his most recent and as some believe it his worst film stands miles higher than most of the other cliche's globs in the film market. It was regrettably snubbed for the Animated Feature race, which is a shame. I highly recommend this film for it's whimsical, and underlyingly dark take on the classic Little Mermaid story.