Off the Button

When the Oscar nominations came out, I was disappointed that The Dark Knight did not come up for Best Picture or Best Director, while The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up by the bushel. I have not seen Benjamin Button so this is a tad unfair on my part, but I felt that the commercial success of TDK was held against it while TCCOBB seemed to have been made with Oscars in mind, and it worked.

This is what Roger Ebert had to say on his blog today about the relative merits of the two movies:

Ebert: (...) And speaking of Oscars, "The Dark Night" was so much a better film than "Benjamin Button."

I may have had differences of opinion with Ebert in the past (notably for The Ghost and the Darkness and My Cousin Vinny) but I have always had immense respect for what he had to say. (Does that make sense?)

In this case, I am inclined to believe him even without watching TCCOBB.

By the way, here are Ebert's reviews of the three movies (highest rating - 4 stars):
The Dark Knight (4 stars)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2.5 stars)
Slumdog Millionaire (4 stars)