9. Tim's Vermeer
Grade: BMy Take: I have been a big fan of the magician/comedian duo Penn and Teller for some time. The outspoken (at least on Penn's part, considering the running gag with Teller is that he is a mute) atheist and libertarian pair had a terrific television program on Showtime called Bullsh!t where they would take on commonly held beliefs and debunk them for their fraudulent basis (it's the one show I wish was made mandatory viewing for citizens of the world). In Tim's Vermeer, the duo put the spotlight on Penn's personal friend (and apparent jack of all trades), Tim Jenison, who attempts to exactly replicate a Vermeer painting using a scientific and, "un-artistic", method. The documentary proved to be one of the surprise breakouts on the festival circuit (it played at Telluride as well), and it is a fascinating scientific and historical endeavor into how Vermeer may have achieved his unique aesthetic style. Perhaps because I have seen so much of Penn and Teller's previous work, of which I have found just as interesting (and on occasion more so), Tim's Vermeer didn't bowl me over as much as it did some others, and the movie by its very nature does have a bit of the "watching paint dry" issue, but Tim's quintessential scientific mindset is marvelous to behold, and the movie is quite the fine documentary.
Oscar Prospects: Being a documentary, the one shot Tim's Vermeer has at Oscar glory is in the Best Documentary category. Given the (relatively) populist groundswell there has been around the film, you would think Tim's Vermeer should have a more than decent shot of at least scoring a Best Documentary nomination. However, the Documentarians branch of the Academy has been notoriously counter-consensus in the past. The branch also tends to gravitate towards more politically oriented films, of which Tim's Vermeer is most certainly not. When you combine this fact with Penn and Teller's open political points of view in the past, which often run opposite the undoubtedly left-leaning outlook of the Documentarians branch, they may choose to snub Tim's Vermeer altogether. If this does turn out to be the case though, it would be a real shame, because Tim's Vermeer will almost certainly end up being one of the five best documentaries of the year.