[Jesse and Jim are interrupting their conversation on the mid-season TV shows to talk about the 2009 Oscar nominations.  At the end of the conversation you will be invited to send in your Oscar picks, or you can go ahead and do it now. This is part four of five. Here is part one, part two, and part three.]

Best Sound Editing
The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Slumdog Millionaire, WALL-E, Wanted

Jim's take

Does anyone know the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing? I mean, aside from audio engineers and foley artists? This category, over the years, has been referred to as Best Sound Effects, Best Sound Effects Editing, and now Best Sound Editing. It is supposed to go to the film with the "finest or most aesthetic sound editing or sound design." It typically goes to big-budget effects movies with all kinds of whiz-bang noises and super surround sound type stuff.

Ben Burtt has won this award three times -- for Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and ET. As you so astutely pointed out in our last exchange, WALL-E is essentially a silent film. Well, it is in the sense that it does not tell its story through dialogue. Chaplin's "Modern Times" if often incorrectly referred to as silent, as well, and has a lot in common with our animated robot friend. Neither film is truly silent -- Modern Times, released in 1936, features an impressive synced soundtrack, chock full of effects and the occasional bit of dialogue.

So, with that pedigree in mind, I'm going to say that WALL-E rolls away with this one on his little tready things.

Jesse's take

Okay, all the bullshit awards are behind us, and its time to get serious with some SOUND EDITING MOTHERFUCKERS!!

Thank you for calling me out on my inelegant use of the word "silent film" to describe WALL-E. when what I actually meant was "dialogue free". THANK YOU SO MUCH JIM. Because the first part of WALL-E has no dialogue but is by no means silent so don't call it a silent film, any story that is communicated by the characters is with beeps and boops and blorps. And what blorps this movie had! Ben "I made the noises for the two most adorable robots of all time" Burtt wins.

Best Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, WALL-E, Wanted

Jim's take

I'd be better able to explain this category if I had a better grasp on what sound mixing was. I think it has to do with putting different sounds on different tracks and making sure all the levels are right so that you can understand dialogue while music is playing in the background and things are exploding.

At least, I hope that's what sound mixing is. Regardless, I'm dumb when it comes to audio. I did see all of the nominated films, however... and from my understanding of what mixing is, Slumdog Millionaire was the best. The soundtrack was very much a part of the film, in the grand Bollywood musical tradition. So I'm just going to go with that.

Jesse's take

I remember the first thing I thought when I saw the trailer for Wanted: "Damn that movie looks like it has some nice sound mixing."

I don't know what this award is, or what sound mixing is, or, really, what movies are, but I know this: If there is a musical in the category, then it wins Best Sound Mixing. Slumdog was the closest thing to a musical, so that is your winner.

Best Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire

Jim's take

This is one hell of an interesting short-list for film editing. I'm kind of perplexed. Of the nominated films, only Slumdog Millionaire is jumping out at me. Yes, the others were edited competently, but the story structure of Slumdog lends itself to this aware, no? Cutting back and forth between the present day, the hot seat, flashbacks, Slumdog relies on a series of transitions to tie its story together. So, I guess that's my choice.

Jesse's take

Slumdog also picks this one up as it builds up steam for the big finish...

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), Meryl Streep (Doubt), Kate Winslet  (The Reader)

Jim's take

Just wanted to say, that for the record, I loved Changeling with one caveat: Jolie seemed totally out of place in the film; it was as if her only job was to have really huge, shiny red lips and mutter "This is not my child. This is not my boy." ineffectually in muffled tones throughout. So I'm not going to pick her to win.

Melissa Leo, whom I've barely seen in anything since she left the cast of Homicide: Life on the Street, is a surprise for me. I know nothing about the nominated film, and I'm sure she's happy just to be invited to the Oscars. (Just looked it up, apparently she was in 21 Grams and The Three Burials of Tommy Lee Jones.)

Anne Hathaway. Yeah. Right. Next.

That leaves Meryl and Kate. The old (but still hot) guard and the newer (but also hot) bearer of that "Oh, she's such a wonderful actress torch." While Meryl will always be first in my heart (yes, even after Mamma Mia!), I think we all know who is walking away with this award.

Winslet, whose work in Revolutionary Road was ignored by the Academy, is the glue that held The Reader together. Her performance -- which is the lead, mind you, despite what the folks at the Golden Globes might think -- bridges the three major timelines of the film. You see her in Michael's adolescence, his college years, and his adulthood. As I said as I left the theater "Wow, Kate Winslet was so naked in that film... and SO GERMAN." Seriously. She's really, really German.

So, she's my pick to win the award, and deservedly so. Sorry Meryl, I might change my mind when I see Doubt, but it would take a lot. You'd really have to do a duet of Super Trouper with Philip Seymour Hoffman for me to change my mind on this one.

Jesse's take

This feels like it might be Kate Winslet's "Hey you've been nominated a bunch of times but never won an Oscar, so, uh, here you go" award al a Scorcese and The Departed. (And yes, I LOVE THE DEPARTED so calm down, but if you compare it against the rest of his filmography, you kind of look at it and go, THAT'S the one he won the Oscar for? Really?) Anyway: It feels like that until you remember that Kate Winslet is only 33 years old. Yes you read that correctly. Doesn't it feel like she is well into her 50s by now?

I say Meryl takes this one home.

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), Sean Penn (Milk), Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Mickey Rourke  (The Wrestler)

Jim's take

Prior to the SAG awards, I was certain that I had this one figured out. Mickey Rourke all the way. And not just because he won the Golden Globe. Nope. The Wrestler is my hands-down pick for best film of the year, and Rourke is no small part of that. His performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson is just heartbreaking on every level. Here's a man who (very clearly) once had it all -- money, fame, fast cars, skanky wrestling groupies, hell, even a daughter.

This is all gone by the time we meet him. The Ram is living in a trailer park in New Jersey, driving a beat-up conversion van with his action figure on the dashboard, and spending his free time playing a NES wrestling game in which he stars. Not on an emulator, but on a real-life NES. The only scene missing is the one where he has to spend ten minutes blowing into the game to make it work.

And he's self-destructive as hell. He's still wrestling on weekends -- small shows for little money, his days working for Vince McMahon are over, not being able to pay his rent, scraping by with a part-time job at the local supermarket, and spending all of his extra money on a stripper. And he lives in New Jersey.

This is all setup in the first fifteen minutes, and things don't pick up for The Ram after that. And Rourke sells the hell out of it. Seriously, I was tearing up during the whole film, just from the watching The Ram go through his daily life. He's a fuckup, he knows it, and he can't change. He's still grasping at his 1980's glory, despite the reality of his daily life.

So yeah, Rourke should win this. Easily. Without question. Nobody else is close.

But then Sean Penn wins the SAG award for Milk, and you have to start thinking about the fact that The Wrestler was snubbed in the Picture and Director categories. And then there's the fact that everyone loves Brad Pitt, that Frank Langella may actually be a clone of Richard Nixon, and that everyone raved about Jenkins' turn in The Vistor.

Penn was really good in Milk -- actually fun to watch. Sean Penn! Sean freaking Penn was FUN in a movie. And he was seriously gay. So very, very gay.

So, does Sean Penn win another one? Does Pitt walk away with a statue? Does Langella actually reveal himself to be Nixon's illegitimate son? Does Jenkins come out of nowhere to win this one?

I can't answer that. I just know that every fiber of my being wants to see Rourke win this one. So, he's my pick. Good luck, Ram.

Jesse's take

The most competitive award of the night. Rourke had mad buzz coming into awards season, but obviously the Academy wasn't as high on the Wrestler as we all thought they would be. Plus, Sean Penn wins the SAG, and as we all know, the actors make up the largest voting bloc for the Oscars. Not to mention every other scene in Milk features Penn ramming his tongue into some dude's mouth, which is SO BRAVE(tm). Langella was great as Nixon, but I also wonder if the fact that Hollywood is a bunch of communists works against Langella portraying Nixon as a sympathetic figure. If he had won at the SAGs I would have called this race ovah, because he was the only reason I was able to stay awake through that whelming movie.

I just flipped a coin, and it came up head. That means Sean Penn wins. GET IT?!?