Can Boyle beat 'Button'?

 

The best picture and best director categories don't always match up -- some movies just direct themselves? -- but this year they do, with the surprise being Stephen Daldry for a film ("The Reader") that most crystal ball viewers didn't see landing in the final five.

Here's how it stacks up:

David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"

Gus Van Sant, "Milk"

Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"

Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"

So, if the heavily-favored recent Globe and Critics' Choice award winner Boyle is on the road to a win, does that mean that "Slumdog" is, too? The joyous, heart-felt, brutal Mumbai rags-to-riches tale is a critical and populist favorite, but can it overtake the sweeping, epic quintessentially American Oscar film that is "Button?"

We're still betting on "Button" but we'd be silly to bet against Boyle. We're looking for a mismatch here come Oscar night.