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The Oscars are Sunday which means time is up on the Oscar challenge. I didn’t finish but I did pretty well. I saw seven of the nine best picture nominees. The only ones I didn’t manage to see were “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and “War Horse.” Here’s how I rank the ones I did get around to.

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1. “The Artist.” I loved, loved, loved it. It is just a lot of fun and the characters are super charming. I’m a little sad the dog didn’t get nominated because he was fantastic. I now want to see more movies with Jean Dujardin please.

2. “The Descendants.” It had some very sad and depressing moments but it also had some really nice moments. The film did a really great job of making George Clooney, a very handsome man, look super normal. And watching him run was worth the price of admission. Shailene Woodley did a great job as the rebellious teenager who bonds with her dad during trying times.

3. “Hugo.” This film had the best 3-D I’ve seen since “Avatar.” The scenery and cinematography were fantastic. And the story was quite beautiful, too. I know it is supposed to be a kids movie, but I think parents will appreciate it more.

4. “The Help.” This film had a nice mix of funny and heartbreaking. The acting was superb and the three acting nominations the film garnered were well-deserved.

5. “Midnight in Paris.” I’m not a huge Woody Allen fan but this one is OK. I had some plot problems with it, but Paris looks beautiful. I just wish Allen hadn’t taken the “Lost” approach with an ending that seemed rushed and provided very few answers.

6. “Moneyball.” This movie was good. I wouldn’t call it great, but a good movie. Brad Pitt is good in it. And I think I like normal Jonah Hill better than I like funny Jonah Hill. (Although I still don’t think he should have been nominated, it doesn’t seem that hard to not be funny.) It did make me miss baseball. Just a little more than one month Braves fans.

7. “The Tree of Life.” This one went way above my head. I know critics LOVED it, but it was just way too heavy for me. If you are distracted at all during this film, you will be hopelessly behind. I probably need to watch it again for clues and maybe I’ll like it more, but as it stands, I had to have the Internet help me out in understanding this movie. Any movie I need Cliff Notes for is not my kind of movie.