I have written how ‘No Country for Old Men’ marked a return to form for the Coen Brothers and is a perfect partner to their debut and one of my favourite films ‘Blood Simple’. This excellent article from the New Yorker works its way through each of the brothers work, examining their style, influences and tries in vain to capture what they are about. (When I say each, it does of course omit ‘Intolerable Cruelty’ - an underappreciated movie in my book.) The article does capture what I love about films such as ‘Blood Simple’ and ‘No Country’ - the stories are of little actions, stupid actions through which the characters bring about their own down fall.

“What interests the Coens is how foolishly people behave, and how little they understand of what they’re doing. The lovers keep misreading signs, misperceiving what’s going on. The Coens may be the first major filmmakers since Preston Sturges to exploit the dramatic possibilities of stupidity. In Sturges’s movies, however, you don’t feel that the rubes and yokels are being put down. Sturges was an affectionate satirist of gabby democratic vitality, but the Coens can be sardonic, even misanthropic. In their world, stupidity leads to well-deserved disaster.”

Now people for whom such things are important are giving much thought to who will take home Oscar on Sunday night. In the spirit of statistics being used to predict the future here are some probably useless facts from Film Jerk:

1) As long as you’re not the lowest grossing nominee at the time of the nominations, you’ve won 29 of 29 times (100%). Advantage: “Atonement,” “Juno,” “Michael Clayton,” “No Country for Old Men”

2) Best Picture winners have had a nominated director 28 of 29 times (96.55%). Advantage: “Juno,” “Michael Clayton,” “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood”

3) Best Picture winners have had a nominated screenplay 28 of 29 times (96.55%). Advantage: All films

4) Best Picture winners have also been nominated for Best Editing 28 of 29 times (93.10%). Advantage: “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood”

5) Best Picture winners have had at least one acting nomination 26 of 29 times (89.66%). Advantage: All films.

Read here coverage by Variety of who the public would like to see win. Johnny Depp for best actor - I think not foolish masses!

Finally Empire have a comprehensive minsite devoted to the Oscars with 80 of the Best Oscar moments and lots of such information to fill the hours between now and finishing work.