It’s once again Academy Awards time and you don’t want to be the one person who hasn’t seen the big movie that everyone is talking about. So here is a little cheat sheet going into Oscar weekend that should bring you up to speed on the Best Picture nominations.
“Amour”- “The Artist” might have opened the floodgates for a representation of French Cinema to be in the Best Picture consideration from here on out, but a love story about an elderly couple that nobody has seen but the French… not exactly appealing to most audiences.
“Argo”- Ben Affleck would be well within his rights if he were to pull a Kanye West and rush the stage during the presentation of Best Director at this year’s Oscar ceremony. His masterfully told true life story of the rescue of six U.S. diplomats during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis is turning out to be the only movie that truly stands a chance to knock off Lincoln for Best Picture after winning in the same category at the Golden Globes.
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”- Hushpuppy, who is beautifully played by the youngest Best Actress nominee at nine years old, Quvenzhane Wallis, fights off metaphoric monsters, extreme poverty, a sometimes-abusive drunk father and her ever eroding home on a Louisiana bayou. In his first major film, Best Director nominee Benh Zeitlin gives us a stark look at family and community through the eyes of a child that is both haunting and mesmerizing.
“Django Unchained” - A plot is really not needed when it comes to a Quentin Tarantino spaghetti western- all you need to know are the ingredients. You start off with Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington and Christoph Waltz. Season it with some cowboys, cotton, Mandingo fighting, humor, and top it off with some sweet revenge. Mix it all up in a big slave era atrocities pot and you have Tarantino’s newest masterpiece.
“Les Miserables”- Despite the loads of celebrities bashing the singing in Twitter world, it was still amazing. Hugh Jackman was powerful and Anne Hathaway was stunning. The movie was filmed on such a grand scale that it was breathtaking and the story is heartbreaking. But despite this, three hours is a bit too long to listen to Russell Crowe attempt to grunt his way through songs.
”Life of Pi”- Ang Lee has always had a flair for the visual. So of course he would be the one to take on the enormous task of filming an un-filmable novel about a young Indian boy who relied on his faith to survive while stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger. Truthfully, the movie’s looks is what landed it 11 Academy Award nominations. If you didn’t get to see it in 3-D, you really missed the boat. Pun intended.
“Lincoln”- If you were having a dream about Abraham Lincoln, he would be in the form of Daniel Day-Lewis. Steven Spielberg is once again in position to win it by having us sit in on the last four months of our 16th President’s life as he tries to get the Thirteenth Amendment passed before the end of the Civil War.
“Silver Linings Playbook”- If you are a Philadelphia sports fan, the term “bipolar” is just a synonym for normal. So to every other Average Joe, Bradley Cooper’s character who is just released from the hospital after being treated for bipolar disorder and is trying to reclaim his former life might seem a little seem a little off. That’s until Jennifer Lawrence’s girl from the neighborhood shows him what crazy really is and what love is really about.
“Zero Dark Thirty”- Even though we know the ultimate outcome of Kathryn Bigelow’s thriller about the CIA’s efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden, you still find yourself on the edge of your seat as SEAL Team Six handles their business during the intense climax of the movie. Jessica Chastain smolders like a fuse on a lit bomb ready to explode at any turn in her role as the CIA officer who is obsessed with finding at the time the world’s most wanted man.