The Bagger (a.k.a., N.Y.Times Oscar David Carr) has written that he “has no idea what horse, or frog, to saddle up” as far as picking the Best Picture nominee most likely to win.

“His industry sources left him even more baffled than before, and while some of the comments he got from readers, whose predictions he solicited yesterday, where amazingly cogent and persuasive, they also tended to argue for different movies. Expect to hear much sound and fury for the rest of the week, signaling precisely nothing.”

It’s Babel, okay? It’s that old Crash magic plus the three countries and three languages plus the look on that young Tokyo detective’s face when he realized what was going on (and not going on) with Rinko’s deaf teenager character plus her very upset and concerned dad hugging her at the end. But if it turns out to be The Departed (i.e., my personal favorite), cool. And “yay, team” also if it’s Little Miss Sunshine.)