Minions across the political spectrum, this post is politics-free! Because no one should dare refuse our Maximum Leader: these are the Oscar-nominated movies that I’ve seen, in personal order of preference from best to worst.

Note: I’m not judging them necessarily by the categories within which they were nominated; nor will I be using my preferences to predict winners (although hoping for my favorites to be recognized usually means that I lose my shirt when making selections in my oscar pool).

After the jump:

MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2005:

“The Constant Gardener” = favorite movie of the year

“Crash” = great film

“A History of Violence” = loved it

“Munich” = great, with some small flaws

“Syriana” = complicated but very well done (although no “Traffic”)

“The Squid and the Whale” = amazing film

Also in my top nine for the year but NOT nominated in any category: “The Matador” (#4), a German filmed called “Head-On” (#5), and “Jarhead” (#8). Put them on your Netflix.

Continuing with the Academy-nominated films:

“Walk the Line” = great performances, decent movie (I think ML will enjoy it more than he thinks, as a tribute to Cash if not a personal education)

“Good Night, Good Luck” = good, but not great; Strathairn, however, is great

“Brokeback Mountain” = competent, but not to the level of best picture; Ledger is way way WAY overrated

“Capote” = competent, but not best picture; Hoffman and Keener, however, are both amazing

“Match Point” = very good movie, but Johannson is out of her league by a lot

“Howl’s Moving Castle” = fantastic (although when Smallholder, the Foreign Minister and I saw it at the end of Jackfest weekend, I think Smallholder was kid of disappointed and the Foreign Minister was pleasantly surprised)

“King Kong” = Enjoyable sequences, but movie is too long

“Batman Begins” = decent reboot; probably deserves it’s nod for cinematography

“Junebug” = Amy Adams is great, and the movie is good, but in a way that’s hard to explain I wasn’t happy with how the film handled all of the characters

“Corpse Bride” = very good, but no “Nightmare Before Christmas”

“War of the Worlds” = beginning is great, ending is shockingly, unforgiveably horrible

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” == I thought it was fine

“Curse of the Were-Rabbit” = pretty amazing, but it gave me a headache

“Memoirs of a Geisha” = long, boring, and (very sadly) Ziyi Zhang does poorly (maybe because it’s her first major English role and she wasn’t ready)

“Harry Potter” = I think all of these movies are overrated, as are the books themselves

“Chronicles of Narnia” = three of the four children are horrible to watch

“Pride & Prejudice” = worst directed movie of the year, although Knightley is okay

“Star Wars III” = sorry, THIS is the worst directed movie of the year

I haven’t seen “Hustle & Flow,” “Cinderella Man,” “Mrs. Henderson Presents,” “North Country,” “Transamerica,” or “The New World”; nor have I seen any of the nominated documentaries, foreign films or short subjects. I’ve seen a bunch of other movies this year, some better and some worse than the movies listed here, but nothing that was outstanding enough to be mentioned again.

Okay, politics may have played some role in my choices . . .

Believe.