Margot Moreland has stood in front of glowing stage lights countless times in her acting career, but not every role has been as fun as the one she plays in “Menopause, The Musical,” coming to Hutchins Street Square on Sunday for a one-night event.

I always try to get as excited as possible about the Academy Awards, that time-honored annual tradition in which Hollywood enrages the nation’s cinephiles by consistently displaying the most remarkable lack of good taste and common decency imaginable.

Hope you all enjoyed my top 10 list last week, and gleaned some useful recommendations. This week I’ll take a very quick look at “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” which made my “most promising films I didn’t see” list but ended up being one of the most spirit-crushing disappointments of the year. I honestly don’t have much to say about such an empty film, so I suppose I might as well squeeze in my predictions for the Oscar nominations, set to be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at which point you will surely marvel at my peerless prognosticative abilities.

I could go on a rambling, ill-tempered rant about the shocking lack of worthwhile films released in 2011. I could easily wallow in righteous indignation, and throw up my hands in disgust and defeat as I impotently curse Hollywood’s artistic bankruptcy and offer my own theories as to why last year saw the worst theater attendance numbers in 16 years. And I’d be right to do it. But this time of year, I prefer to ignore the crazed, rampaging elephant in the room and instead celebrate the few diamonds in the rough that kept me from completely losing my mind over the course of the past 12 months. So let’s get to it:

Just one review this week, as I didn’t make it to “My Week with Marilyn,” playing in limited release. A look at that will come next week, along with reviews of the wide releases “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” and, time permitting, “The Sitter.” The studios’ insistence on conducting a take-no-prisoners December blitz with their prestige pictures has left things a tad crowded for the next few weeks, but I’ll do what I can…

How quickly things can change. Just a week ago, I was so desperate for a movie to review that I actually sat and watched “The Twilight Saga — Breaking Dawn: Part 1” for two hours. (I’ve broken bones, suffered through mono, gotten tattooed and had a wisdom tooth wrenched out of my head without Novocain, but honestly, all pale in comparison to the sheer unpleasantness of the “Twilight” experience.)

Right now, “The Muppets” and Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed family film/cinema ode “Hugo” are playing in theaters across the country. “The Descendants,” the triumphant return of director/screenwriter extraordinaire Alexander Payne (“Election,” “About Schmidt,” “Sideways”), is expanding in limited release.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m trying to brighten my attitude about life in general and the fall movie season in particular. After all, despite my bloviating, perhaps things aren’t so bad. It may not look like it judging by the current wide-release roster, but awards season is indeed upon us, and there’s actually quite a few promising titles to look forward to in the coming weeks  —  starting with “The Muppets” (admittedly not an awards contender, though I’m looking forward to it more than anything else this season), which opens Thursday. Nothing  —  I repeat, nothing  —  will brighten your holidays like the lovable antics of the Swedish Chef.

“In Time.” “The Three Musketeers.” “Footloose.” “Johnny English Reborn.” These are among the films now playing in multiplexes across the country. I find this roster to be strange and unsettling, as I have apparently been laboring under the misapprehension that we were supposed to be smack-dab in the middle of awards season. Silly me.

No review of “The Green Lantern” this week. I read from a trusted source that the movie is equivalent to a self-serious episode of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” in which Meatwad’s ability to transform himself into a hot dog or an igloo enables him to save the galaxy. That description —combined with the fact that the movie has been universally panned — made my decision to focus on more relevant issues this week pretty easy. Check back next time for a look at “Cars 2” — reportedly the first sub-par Pixar film, but at least it’s gotta be better than “The Green Lantern.”

I  spent much of 2010 bemoaning the sad state of Hollywood studio filmmaking. But looking over a roster of the year’s most worthwhile releases, it struck me that it might not have been such a bad year after all. If you’re simply looking at the number of good films released, then 2010 was certainly not one for the books — but if you focus on the quality of the very best releases, few as they may have been, things start to look a bit different.

It seems that I am prone to minor setbacks. These past few days, for example, I’ve been knocked flat on my butt by a flu that’s been going around, rendering me unfit to go out in public — much less sit in a movie theater for two hours, half-blind from NyQuil abuse, as all manner of improbably colored fluids are expelled from my every orifice. (Although I’ve been seeing most of my movies in Stockton these days, and such a spectacle is kinda par for the course down there.)

Time has flown by so fast these past few weeks that I’ve barely had time to savor the build-up to Halloween. No matter: This week I’m making up for lost time with a look at “Paranormal Activity 2,” along with a short run-down on some random horror flicks I’ve seen in the past week or so. (The old “Film Log” feature is returning, thanks to Battle Royale, so be on the lookout as I attempt to log mini-reviews for every movie I watch. I usually average about four or five a week. Also, please see the sidebar for a brief update on the blog goings-on.)

Before we jump into a brief, free-flowing discussion of auteurism — and how it relates to my lack of a review this week — I wanted to take a moment to remind my legions of adoring fans to drop by Battle Royale and contribute to the debate. We’re still discussing our favorite movie scenes of all time, and as soon as we get our assigned weekly updates worked out, you can expect daily-ish posts on all manner of movie-related nonsense.

1) Opening Sequence ("Gangs of New York," Dir. Martin Scorsese)

I gotta tell ya, it feels good to be right. I took a lot of flack a few years back when I absolutely flipped over Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, “Gone Baby Gone,” ranting wildly to anyone who would listen that it marked the emergence of a born filmmaker who would probably continue to knock us through a loop with each new movie.

“Inception” continues to rule the box office, and is now enjoying what should be its fourth consecutive weekend at the top of the chart — depending on how well “Step Up 3D” and “The Other Guys” open. (Next week I’ll be looking at the latter, just because I like to keep the torture to a minimum.)

I took the week off to celebrate graduation at Disneyland, so reviews will return next week with looks at both "Macgruber" and "Shrek Forever After."

You know how I love playing the role of curmudgeon, but I've gotta level with you: I'm getting pretty excited about the next few months' offerings.

"Shutter Island"