By breaking the formula barriers, “The Dark Knight” set new monumental territory. It has paved the way of promise that the new blockbuster can be multi-layered and complex and psychologically multi-faceted. The film is loud (thrilling to the best sense of that word) but it is also embedded with compromises and priorities, in-depth with shedding personal ideals for public digest. Also, when was the last time a movie this entertaining had so many great characters in it? Some detractors complained about Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Two-Face being one character too many, as if there aren’t enough villains to go around for the next Batman sequel. Besides, he’s needed as Bruce Wayne’s romantic adversary and as a precursor Batman’s ultimate dilemma: Will it be Rachel Dawes or the Public’s Interests? I’m also enthralled by not only Heath Ledger’s Joker, but by all the other baddies’ and henchmen sociopathic rot which haunts the entire film.

Of the Best Picture nominees, I rated “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with the lowest rating of three stars. I liked the film as much as I was baffled by its few misguided notions and misplaced decrees (“Nothing really lasts” is not a profound statement really, it’s the same for peoples forward lives, too). But it is a marvelously filmed movie and I understand peoples’ enthusiasm for the film with its romantic spell.

In an odd way, I think “The Reader” is a better film but will not have as much memorable endurance ten years from now. Even with mixed feelings, I think I’ll still remember “Benjamin Button” more, equally for its goodness and for its flaws, a testament that even a film’s imperfections can spur thinking and contemplation. I’ve dreamt better scenarios and outcomes for “Benjamin Button” that I think are better than the film itself, but the fact that a movie has me dreaming is a positive response that has kept me absorbed.

But the thing is, “The Dark Knight” belongs in a pantheon of cinematic milestones and will be a film remembered past ten years and probably fifty years. I don’t think “The Reader” has the legs for it. As for the remaining two, “Frost/Nixon” is a remarkable and thought-provoking film and “Milk” is an accomplished film with revolutionary content. I am not surprised by their inclusion, I endorse them. But “The Dark Knight” absence shouldn’t be a surprise either: “Citizen Kane,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and “Raging Bull” were ahead of their time, too, and as a punishment, overlooked at Oscar time.

Besides the major ten nominations showing for “Slumdog Millionaire,” the nomination I’m happiest about is Robert Downey Jr. as Best Supporting Actor for “Tropic Thunder.” I am amazed viewing after viewing the way he immerses comically into his satiric racial stereotype and summons nobility out of it, the way he slides between Australian and African-American personas in the later key scenes. The late but emblematic Heath Ledger erases any memory of Jack Nicholson’s Joker in “The Dark Knight,” creating a legendary performance within, say, his first three scenes. The other nominees are Josh Brolin in “Milk,” Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt,” and Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road.”

I am also very happy about Josh Brolin’s nomination, an actor who has been overdue. I’ve been watching him ever since he knocked my socks off in “No Country for Old Men,” and he also did stand-out work in small roles in “American Gangster” and “In the Valley of Elah.” But I would have liked Brolin to get a Best Actor nomination for playing our recent president in “W.” where he played a brave range between reckless George Jr. youth and (quasi) mature president.

The Best Actor nominees were Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor,” Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon,” Sean Penn in “Milk,” Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler.” I am surprised of the reach-out for Jenkins, a good low-key character actor really, but shocked that he probably got the nom over Clint Eastwood’s career summation performance in “Gran Torino.” And while Langella is noteworthy as our disgraced president Nixon, I have to say I would have preferred Michael Sheen as a nominee, whose David Frost was one of my favorite characters of the year.

My choice for Best Actor is selected in a heartbeat. Rourke’s performance as a down-and-out brawler in “The Wrestler” is probably the best performance I’ve seen this decade and is worthy in comparison to the best of Brando or DeNiro in their heyday. The entire conclusion of the film, by the way, has embedded into memory and locked itself in their permanently – one of the most powerful endings in recent years.

The Best Actress nominees are Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married,” Angelina Jolie in “Changeling,” Melissa Leo in “Frozen River,” Meryl Streep in “Doubt,” and Kate Winslet in “The Reader.” What a year for Winslet considering she could have just been likely nominated for “Revolutionary Road,” it’s tough to choose Winslet over one of the other. Yet I’m torn. I think Hathaway is just as worthy too in “Rachel Getting Married,” and I guess my preference edges towards her as Best Actress. But I could almost equally surrender my choice to Winslet who gave two fantastic career-apex performances.

The Best Supporting Actress nominees are Amy Adams in “Doubt,” Penelope Cruz in “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” Viola Davis in “Doubt,” Taraji P. Hensen in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler.” My choice is Tomei as a fazed stripper who would prefer not to be a salvation idol to Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a frequent strip club customer who beckons her more than he should.

I would like to see “Wall-E” win not only Best Animated Film but Best Original Screenplay. I would like to see “Frost/Nixon” win for Best Adapted Screenplay. As you look down the list on secondary categories you see “The Dark Knight” and “Slumdog Millionaire” listed often.

Which leads me to Best Cinematography. I can’t decide whether I want “The Dark Knight,” for its noirish blue-grays and rippling-electric motion, or “Slumdog Millionaire,” for its splendid crowd shots and rippling-electric motion to win more. I find it nearly impossible to decide. Let’s just say that both films, feverish and spellbinding in their visual styles, belong in a hallmark of all-time great cinematography jobs.

I look down the list and see that “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Dark Knight,” and “Iron Man” are the three nominees for Best Visual Effects. Which I’m reminded of Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man” who should have been nominated for giving a human pulse to a special effects blockbuster, also one of last year’s best pictures.

And finally, in one of the least popular categories, I am thrilled to see “Man on Wire” and “Encounters at the End of the World” as two of the Best Documentary nominations, two visually astonishing films that are more beguiling than anything you’d find on the nature channel. And even more curious, I’m glad to see “Slumdog Millionaire” nominated twice for Best Original Song (along with song for “Wall-E”) and although I can’t tell the difference between nominee “Jai Ho” or nominee “O Saya” my vote would be for whichever one played in the closing credits. I am bewildered by my lack of knowledge in this category and am still waiting to be informed as to which song is the one I liked.

The list of nominees:

BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Gus Van Sant, Milk

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

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, Milk
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Frozen River, Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh
In Bruges, Martin McDonagh
Milk, Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E, Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth
Doubt, John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan
The Reader, David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory — Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

BEST ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306

BEST EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
The Class (France)
Departures (Japan)
Revanche (Austria)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

BEST MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, James Newton Howard
Milk, Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
''Down to Earth,'' WALL-E
''Jai Ho,'' Slumdog Millionaire
''O Saya,'' Slumdog Millionaire

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man