Did anyone else find the 83rd Academy Awards a little lackluster? The 2011 Oscars went in a non-traditional direction by having movie stars, Anne Hathaway and James Franco, co-host rather than a comedian act as master of ceremonies. It was fine when Hugh Jackman did it, but can we get back to the comedy? And then there were the awards themselves, with The King’s Speech cleaning up, which was predictable. In fact, there were almost no surprises on Sunday night, which was the ceremony's biggest problem.

At the 83rd Academy Awards, this year’s big movie is The King’s Speech. The historical drama starring Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, and Helena Bonham Carter is up for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture. It’s a good film, but better than Black Swan, True Grit, and The Social Network? Let’s think about that.

Darren Aronofsky is a filmmaker on the rise. In 2008 he made the critically acclaimed The Wrestler, which snagged Academy Award nominations for stars Mickey Rourke and Maria Tomei, and won a Golden Globe for Rourke. At 2011’s 83rd Academy Awards, Aronofsky’s Black Swan is up for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director for Aronofsky, and Best Actress for Natalie Portman . But what are the odds that the mind-warping tale of ballet, insanity, and the quest for perfection will beat out juggernaut-esque favorites like The King’s Speech and True Grit, nominated for 12 and 10 Oscars, respectively? This might be a moment in Aronofksy’s career similar to what went down with Martin Scorsese in 1980, when what is possibly his greatest work, Raging Bull, lost in its Academy Award nomination.

I still can’t get used to the fact that the number of Best Picture nominees has doubled, but it’s hard to quibble with any of this year’s Academy Award selections, which include the Coen brothers’ True Grit and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan starring Natalie Portman. Of course, some of the year’s hottest movies were no-brainers to get nominated at the 83rd installment of the Oscars, namely The Social Network, Inception, and The King’s Speech. Do flicks like Winter's Bone, Toy Story 3, 127 Hours, or The Fighter have a shot at the big prize?

Joel and Ethan Coen have raised the bar sufficiently high, that whenever I step into the theatre to see their latest work, I expect to have my socks knocked off. I don’t know if that’s fair, but given that these are the filmmakers who delivered No Country For Old Men, The Big Lebowski, and Fargo, I’d say it’s understandable. So it was with some mixed feelings that I watched the credits roll at the end of True Grit, the latest movie from the Coens, starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin.

When Canadian-born actor and widely loved comedic genius Leslie Nielsen passed away this week at age 84 due to complications from pneumonia, I couldn’t help but wax a little nostalgic. What really surprised me was the overwhelming public reaction to Nielsen’s death. He seems to have been a personality who was nearly universally loved and revered. But then how could you not love Nielsen’s oblivious slapstick routine, best exemplified in his two most famous films, Airplane! and The Naked Gun?

Helen Slinger’s documentary, When The Devil Knocks, sheds light on a misunderstood mental illness, but more strikingly provides viewers with a deeply intimate and stirring portrait of a long suffering woman with multiple personalities. The film’s subject, Hilary Stanton, is a woman who has generated over 30 “alters” to help her cope with childhood abuse. Over a period of more than ten years, Hilary and Dr. Cheryl Malmo work to help her overcome her dissociative identity disorder.

Slinger relies on interviews but also uses home video footage from the decade Stanton spent in therapy. The result is an unusually intimate look at the characters that have occupied Stanton’s mind. As a coping mechanism, each of the five “alters” – the medical term for Stanton’s different personalities - highlighted in the film, serve a specific function in managing the trauma of Stanton’s childhood abuse at the hands of a neighbor.

Icelandic filmmaker Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s documentary A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism is a stunning examination of both autism, a condition we still know astonishingly little about, and human ingenuity. Fridriksson presents luminaries in the area of autism including Temple Grandin and Soma Mukhopadhyay, who is doing some of the most innovative and effective work in uncovering the inner lives of autistic kids and illuminating methods of communication with them. Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet narrates the film.

A Mother’s Courage follows an Icelandic mother, Margret, as she searches for help for her severely autistic ten-year-old son, Keli. Margret literally travels the globe talking to experts and looking for a program that can help her communicate with her son.

Mad Men's Jon Hamm stars in The Town, directed by Ben AffleckBen Affleck has had his ups and downs as an actor. After appearances in Oscar winning films like Good Will Hunting and Shakespeare in Love early in his career, Affleck starred in a series of colossal flops in the early ‘00s. Worst among them were Paycheck, Surviving Christmas, and the infamous Gigli, which co-starred Jennifer Lopez. Affleck had gone from Academy Award winner to Razzie winner in a decade.

Then something interesting happened. In 2007, Affleck took to the director’s chair to helm his first feature, Gone Baby Gone, which starred his brother, Casey Affleck. The film was a critical and commercial success, but more importantly, it made Ben Affleck relevant again.

Danish filmmaker Janus Metz’s stunning war documentary Armadillo provides insights into the nature of the war in Afghanistan and the lives of the people involved in it. The film is an aesthetic triumph, featuring both excellent cinematography by Lars Skree and powerful editing by Per Kirkegaard.

The story as a platoon of Danish soldiers a preparing to leave for a six month stint in Afghanistan. The camera follows some of the men in their homes, at their farewell party, and as they say goodbye to their families at the airport.

You may never have heard of Marion Woodman, but she’s a figure with something to say. Unfortunately, Adam Reid’s new documentary Marion Woodman: Dancing in the Flames isn’t the best vehicle to hear Woodman’s message. In fact, the Canadian film comes off as little more than idol worship, leaving viewers better off reading Woodman than watching this film.

First off, Reid seems to assume that his audience is intimate with and/or interested in his subject, and does little to entice us into Woodman’s world. Much of the film is Woodman in conversation with Andrew Harvey, who is presented as if he were a household name. He is called a mystic and seems to hold the status of guru, although his credentials are never clear. The filmmaker clearly reveres both figures and anticipates that the audience will share his enthusiasm simply because they are on the screen.

This summer, Sylvester Stallone attempts a return to glory with his latest action spectacular, The Expendables. Stallone directed and co-wrote the film, which assembles some of the biggest names in action cinema from the ‘80s and ‘90s, including Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Jet Li, and Dolph Lundgren.

The film also features Mickey Rourke, who has recently enjoyed a return to the spotlight, as well as a couple of names notable for their work outside the movie business. NFL star Terry Crews, former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, and WWE professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin round out the cast.

Woody Allen is one of the great American filmmakers, but for most of the past couple of decades or so it had seemed his best years were behind him. All that changed with 2008’s Vicky Christina Barcelona, which signaled a return to form. This Fall, Allen’s latest feature, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, promises to keep up the high standard. Ringers like Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts, and the uber-hot Freida Pinto can only help.

The once decidedly New York filmmaker has once again returned to Europe for the setting of the new film. Hopkins and Brolin play men with disintegrating relationships. Watts plays Hopkins’ daughter and Brolin’s disgruntled partner, while Pinto catches Brolin’s eye, helping complicate the situation.

Good comedy walks a fine line. Christopher Hitchens writes the following: “A rule of thumb with humor; if you worry that you might be going too far, you have already not gone far enough. If everybody laughs, you have failed.” Carla Zilbersmith, the subject of John Zaritsky’s documentary Leave Them Laughing, seems to get that rule of thumb and then some. Her self-deprecating jokes about her real life situation - slowing dying of Lou Gehrig’s Disease - are heart-wrenching, but reveal a strong woman staying vibrant as she approaches the end of her life. And when they hit, the jokes are hilarious.

She’s been on the pop culture radar for many years, but thanks to the 2010 Emmy Awards and a super successful biopic, Temple Grandin is the latest person of the hour in homes from coast to coast. The autism advocate and author is also well known for her work to improve the quality of life for food animals, particularly cattle. The HBO made-for-TV movie of her life stars Claire Danes and cleaned up at this year’s Emmys.