Column: Pass the Hot Dish by Alexandra Kloster

I’m not sure I should be talking about this. There are a lot of important things happening. I know because my Facebook news feed has looked like the MSNBC crawl for two weeks. While fracases from Wisconsin to the Middle East rage with no end in sight, should I really be talking about something as unimportant as the movies?

Who am I kidding? The Academy Awards are on tonight, and my bologna has only one name. It’s O.S.C.A.R.

New talent and celebrated veterans populate the 10 films nominated for best picture. They look at the past, the future and that place in between, pure imagination. As Billy Crystal used to sing, “It’s a wonderful night for Oscar …”

“Black Swan” is Darren Aronofsky’s stunning thriller set in the world of professional ballet. Natalie Portman wants to be perfect, but Mila Kunis has more fun being imperfect. We know this because she eats a cheeseburger and wears her hair down. Seeing Winona Ryder and Barbara Hershey as loony ex-dancers is even more fun. Apparently ballet makes everybody crazy.

“The Fighter” is Mark Wahlberg’s valentine to Lowell, Mass., and boxing brothers Micky and Dicky Ward. David O. Russell directs the film like a chess match in a burned out building. It’s all strategy and chaos among this family devoted to the sweet science and each other.

“Inception” asks what is real and what is imagined? It also asks you to go back three times to figure it all out. But the question begging is how many great films does Christopher Nolan have to make before he gets an Oscar nod for directing?

Lisa Cholodenko’s, family drama “The Kids Are All Right” gives Annette Bening another chance to show that she holds whole worlds within the crinkles around her eyes. She doesn’t have to evoke emotion; she is emotion. I don’t know how many times she can graciously lose to the whippersnapper with the flashier role (Bening lost to Hilary Swank in both 1999 and 2004.) before she grabs her purse and her Warren Beatty and storms out of the Kodak Theatre.

“127 Hours” is mercifully only 93 minutes long. It’s not that it isn’t a great movie. It is, but it’s intense. Director Danny Boyle and James Franco take what was essentially a static, albeit desperate, situation and turn it into an action film where the chases and fights are replaced by determination and true grit.

Ah, “True Grit.” The Coen Brothers put their stamp on this faithful telling of Charles Portis’ novel. The Big Lebowski’s, Dude rides again retaining his beverage and gaining an eye patch. That’s not a diss on The Dude. Jeff Bridges is, as usual, all kinds of wonderful, as are Matt Damon and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld. Steinfeld is the spunkiest thing in braids since Pippi Longstocking, and Damon is coming close to proving he can do pretty much anything. Someone please give this man an acting Oscar.

Hardly anyone has seen Debra Granik’s, “Winter’s Bone,” and that’s a shame. Jennifer Lawrence, in her first major film role, seems youthful and naïve one minute and burns a world-weary stare into the screen the next. Lawrence and this film noir meets the Ozarks are brilliant.

This year, some of the most honest emotional moments in film came from the animated “Toy Story 3.” Never sliding into precious sentiment, “Toy Story 3” was fun enough for kids and meaningful enough for adults. Maybe my Raggedy Ann and Holly Hobby don’t deserve to be in a bag in the garage.

As wonderful as all the those films are, the real contest for best picture tonight is between two movies, “The King’s Speech” and “The Social Network.”

When a story about a man’s struggle to overcome a speech impediment has you on the edge of your seat sweating right along with him, you know everyone on that film did their jobs. Director Tom Hooper, Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter indeed have a voice and a right to be heard in “The King’s Speech.”

I used to think New England had only one genius in a hoodie, but there’s another big brain joining Bill Belichick in that bold sartorial choice, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Directed by David Fincher, “The Social Network” recalls the creation of Facebook from several different perspectives. It is that rare film that captures a mercurial cultural moment while it is still germane to the conversation of its era. The redoubtable Aaron Sorkin, who could make a description of iceberg lettuce dramatic, should and will win for best adapted screenplay if for no other reason but that he wrote the line, “It’ll be like we’re dressed in skeleton costumes chasing the Karate Kid around the school gym.”

It’s interesting that a movie about that which allows us to communicate without having to talk to anyone or see another human face is up against a movie about the actual mechanics of speaking and how we struggle to find our authentic voices. They both entertained me, and they both made me think about how we communicate with each other and what we are really trying to say. Maybe that is important and worth talking about after all.

Woodbury resident Alexandra Kloster appears each Sunday. She may be reached at alikloster@yahoo.com, and her blog is Radishes at Dawn at alexandrakloster.com.