Three of Five

I didn't get to watch all of the movies nominated for Best Picture before the Academy Awards. I watched three out of five, and watched Little Miss Sunshine more than once. I didn't see The Departed, so I don't know if it deserved Best Picture or not yet, but my guess is I'll still like Little Miss Sunshine better.
I wasn't really excited to watch Babel, and it was better than I expected it to be in some ways, but I didn't expect much. Throughout the movie I just kept thinking how lame it was that everyone hated each other and was afraid of each other, and why couldn't the Japanese girl keep her clothes on? The director said that he started to make a movie about hoe different we all are, and ended up with a movie about how we're all the same.
I think I would've been more interested if he hadn't stuck so tightly to the "typical" stereotypes: The Americans were greedy and didn't trust anyone else, the main Japanese character was obsessed with sex, the Mexican characters were always looking out for other people and then got punished anyway, and the people from the Middle East were peaceful and just wanted to look after their goats. I think there's more to people than this, and if you're writing a movie about how we're all the same, it might be a good idea to branch out a little.