Will This Be Scorsese's Oscar Year?

I'd rather see Martin Scorsese win for "The Departed" than the self-consciously arty stuff like "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator." Roger Friedman of Fox News 411 says it looks good for Marty. But I just saw the film -- which is a fun remake of the Hong Kong actioner "Infernal Affairs" -- and it just doesn't strike me as an Oscar movie. It's very much a mainstream, commercial movie with lots of fun performances - but it's got a slightly deflating finale with one too many twists in it. Yuo're almost forced to remember you're watching a "movie" rather than "art." He deserved to win long ago for "Raging Bull" or "GoddFellas" or "The Age of Innocence." But Scorsese doesn't need any pity awards; his career win will be sweet enough. Mind you, I'm happy to encourage him to keep making the kind of movies he's best at. Another complicating factor: both Leonardo DiCaprio (w Blood Diamonds) and Matt Damon (w Robert DeNiro's The Good Shepherd) have two huge movies coming out that are in many ways more typical Oscar movies and so their performances here will be lost a bit in the shuffle. That should dilute momentum a bit. And they won't be struggling to find worthy Best Picture nominees -- not with "Bobby," "Volver," "Dreamgirls," "Flags Of Our Fathers," "The Queen," "The Good Shepherd," "Blood Diamonds" and many others fighting for space. The sheer commercial fun of "The Departed" will keep it off that list. It's not "noble" enough.