Lance Mannion:
I have seen the other four nominees, and reviewed three of them, The Queen, The Departed,Little Miss Sunshine---that's my latest post at newcritics. I think of it as my other review of Little Miss Sunshine. I plan to do a second review looking at a different aspect of the film here.
Babel is the most Best Picture-like movie out of all the nominees, except for probably Letters From Iwo Jima, which I really wish I'd seen. But because Eastwood already has two Best Picture Academy Awards, and because The Queen is a great character study but not all that exceptional a movie---it is an excellent piece of filmmaking, the way a bookshelf can be an excellent bit of carpentry but you wouldn't compare it to a Hoosier cabinet---and because and now Little Miss Sunshine, the movie I most loved and enjoyed, is actually fairly slight slight - right, that's the word for it, and because this is Marty's year for Best Director, I expect The Departed to win Best Picture.
But, still, don't be surprised, if the Academy looks at it, says, well, even so, it's not his best work and take away the blood and the profanity and it's kind of a run of the mill cops and robber picture and...the heck with it...there are no great movies up this year, let's go with the movie Lance Mannion most loved and enjoyed just because it was lovable and enjoyable.

newcritics - » The Eyes of Little Miss Sunshine:
Richard is the main character, and the story of the movie is his change from being the villain of his family to its hero. If that’s not obvious it’s because Kinnear is such a generous, self-effacing, a pitch-perfect actor; he blends into the ensemble the way individuals blend into their families.
Kinnear never makes a play for the audience’s sympathy, before or after he changes. When Richard is at his most self-centered worst, Kinnear doesn’t give us any signs to latch onto that Richard is at heart a decent and loving husband, a concerned and interested father, a loyal and helpful son. And when Richard does change and starts acting as if he is all those things, because that’s who he really is, Kinnear still makes no grabs for our heartstrings.
Richard is a hard-working and disciplined man. That’s his main virtue. That’s what convinced him he had something to teach people about becoming successful. He doesn’t let his feelings get in the way of what he thinks are his responsibilities, not when his feelings are all selfish ones, and not when he’s allowed his better nature to take over.
With each jolt Kinnear looks slightly more dazed, slightly less determined, but still closed off, still lost in himself, as if still thinking about how to save his dream, only now he’s thinking with more desperate speed, and it’s not until he’s forced to make a choice between doing the responsible, realistic thing and making his daughter happy that we realize that he has already changed.