Best Actor 2018

05. John Cho in Searching - I wasn't expecting to enjoy Searching quite as much as I did, and a lot of that has to do with Cho's performance as a desperate father looking for his missing daughter. He experiences almost every emotion you can imagine during the running time of the film - from loving, to exasperated, to worried, to pleading, to angry. It's a wonderful performance that starts so subtly and continuously builds with power and emotion.

04. Ryan Gosling in First Man - This performance is a gem, and it might just slip under the radar and garner Gosling no recognition, which would be a shame. Gone is the movie star charisma that makes Gosling so lovable. Instead it's replaced with a singular silence to play Neil Armstrong, a man who shunned the spotlight, and was laser focused on one thing - getting to the moon. It may seem like Gosling isn't doing much with his strong and silent performance, but there are moments when his humanity will still rip your heart out.

03. Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born - Cooper seemingly did it all with this movie - he wrote it, directed it, co-wrote the songs, AND he gives his best performance ever as boozy folk singer Jackson Maine. This performance has an old Hollywood swagger to it, playing a deeply flawed individual with a warts and all intimacy. His chemistry with Lady Gaga is electrifying, and she might steal all the awards season love, but he gives one hell of a performance in his own right.

02. Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody - Say what you will about the movie (critics hated it, fans loved it, I was somewhere in the middle), but Malek's transformation into Freddie Mercury is spectacular. He not only looks and talks like him, but he moves like him too, with the sexy strut of a rock god. This isn't just play acting, this is is something much more. This is Malek completely becoming Mercury, someone we all know so well. His performance is mesmerizing.

01. Daveed Diggs in Blindspotting - Diggs' performance is great from the first scene, but it's that spectacular ending that left me breathless and wanting to re-watch the movie over and over again. Diggs starts out as a lovable felon. He's almost done with his parole, and while he's done something bad, we never think of him as a bad guy. He's kind and funny and hard working. Then he witnesses a police shooting of an unarmed black man, and it turns his whole world upside down. By the time we reach that explosive conclusion, Diggs has given one of the most compelling performances of the year. Diggs is a superstar. I can't wait to see what he does next.

December 2015 Pt. 2

The Hateful Eight
Stars - Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen
Plot - A group of nefarious crooks and criminals with lots of secrets are snowed in a cabin together.
Thoughts - No one needs a good editor more than Quentin Tarantino. His longtime editor died before the release if Django Unchained, and you can tell the difference. I love a good long movie but this movie, where very little happens until the last 45 minutes or so, doesn't need to be nearly 3 hours long. Still, the performances are great, especially Jackson and Leigh, and the script is killer.
Grade - B

Joy
Stars - Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Edgar Ramirez, Bradley Cooper
Plot - A broke single mother deals with her crazy family and invents the miracle mop.
Thoughts - Another movie that is too long... and feels it. And despite being nominated in the comedy categories at the Golden Globes, it isn't really very fun. Again, great performances, and parts of it are stellar. It just felt very hit or miss.
Grade - B-

Magic Mike XXL
Stars - Channing Tatum, Joe Magniello, Matt Bomer
Plot - Our lovable strippers go on a road trip to a stripper convention, which is apparently really a thing.
Thoughts - You know how good the original Magic Mike was? Because it wasn't just a gratuitous movie about male strippers, but rather a character study where the characters just happened to be strippers? Well, this is the other thing.
Grade -  D+

Spy
Stars - Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jude Law, Jason Statham
Plot - A desk jockey becomes a spy after the identities of all the other spies are compromised.
Thoughts - I didn't love this movie as much as other Melissa McCarthy movies, but she is the rare comedian who can make anything funny and she definitely elevates a movie that would have bombed with any one else in the lead.
Grade - B-

The Clouds of Sils Maria
Stars - Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart
Plot - An aging actress returns to the play that made her famous, this time playing the older half of the romantic couple.
Thoughts - Another movie that is way too long. Also, this one is pretty boring. So if you are going to watch it, come for the gorgeous cinematography, and stay for Stewart's award worthy performance (not even kidding!)
Grade - C

The Stanford Prison Experiment
Stars - Michael Angarano, Ezra Miller
Plot - Based on the true story of an experiment involving prison guards and inmates that went way too far way too fast.
Thoughts - This was almost a really great movie. I still highly recommend it, even if it is just for the stellar Angarano performance, and fascinating story. I had two pretty major problems with it though. The first was that some of the supporting actors, who were supposed to be playing college age kids, literally looked 12. The second was, apparently we can CGI dinosaurs, but can't figure out a way for fake mustaches to not look ridiculous.
Grade - B-

The Overnight
Stars - Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, Jason Schwartzman
Plot - Two couples spend a night together.
Thoughts - This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my entire life. Under no circumstances should you ever watch this.
Grade - F

Guardians of the Galaxy

Here is the biggest problem with any movie in general and Guardians of the Galaxy in particular - when the character you relate most to on a humane level is a giant, talking tree.

Guardians of the Galaxy is sort of the boozy, rowdy, more rough and tumble version of The Avengers. They are led by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), who calls himself Star Lord, and he's sort of like a poor man's Han Solo - a bad ass, cool, ladies man in space. He was abducted from Earth when he was 8 and has spent his formative years as a planet jumping scavenger. When he happens upon an orb that may or may not have the power to destroy the world, he must team up with a rag tag group of misfits in order to defeat evil and save the world. It's pretty much the plot of the Avengers, or any Marvel movie, really, but with different characters. This time around we've got Gamora (Zoe Saldana, who somehow has managed to get a part in just about every franchise or big budget movie of the last 8 years or so without really demonstrating any talent), a green skinned assassin, Draxx (wrestler Bautista), a red skinned, hugely muscled, very literal tough guy, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a foul mouthed, machine gun wielding raccoon, and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), the aforementioned tree who can only say "I am Groot" and is also, hands down, the best part of the movie. The rest of the highly eclectic cast includes Oscar winners Glenn Close (as the leader of a planet, or something) and Benicio Del Toro (as The Collector), and TV stars like Michael Rooker (as an interplanetary bad ass, obviously), and Lee Pace (whose otherworldly beauty is wasted, hidden behind make up and giant head dresses).

Now, I'm not saying Guardians of the Galaxy is bad, per se, but it's also not really all that good. I saw the movie a week later than everyone else and the hype was already fully formed. I'd read the reviews, saw my friends raves on Facebook and Twitter, saw all the commercials announcing it as the best movie of the summer. I have to say, I was thoroughly disappointed. I was expecting a non-stop thrill ride, a funny, exciting, non-stop comic/action movie. I didn't get any of that. The funniest parts of the movie were in the trailer, and the action is fine, if not terribly jumbled (it's possible to make a movie where you can film action scenes and still know what is happening - just ask the guy that directed The Winter Soldier). The movie takes quite a while to even get started, but there are fun moments, and Pratt is definitely deserving of his sudden thrust onto the A-List. Dude has great charisma and is charming as hell (also, those abs). But, like I said, we don't care about any of these characters, except for a giant, CGI tree who can only say three words. The soundtrack is fun and parts of the movie are enjoyable, but for the most part this movie just falls into the realm of so many other Marvel movies for me - a giant disappointment. This movie surely seems like a wasted opportunity for me and like I've said, the bar has been raised this summer. There are far better movies than this, which is merely mediocre, at best.

Grade: C

Best Supporting Actor 2013

For Best Supporting Actor, I have the exact opposite problem that I had for Best Supporting Actress. For Actress, I thought there were not very many options and I was not happy with my final list at all. For Actor, there are way too many options and I could make an entirely different Top Five list and still be completely satisfied with my choices. Let's call it an honorable mention: Barkhad Abdi for his soulful villain in Captain Phillips, Sam Rockwell for his hilarious father figure in The Way Way Back, Casey Affleck for his angry and broken soldier in Out of the Furnace, Woody Harrelson as a violent meth head in Out of the Furnace, and Kyle Chandler as a scene stealing dead beat dad in The Spectacular Now. Pretty impressive list, right? However, those are the also rans. They've got nothing on these guys:

05. Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street - Every once in a while, a movie comes along with a role that is perfect for a certain actor. This year, that movie / role / actor is Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street. This role seems tailor made for his strong points. If anyone saw Moneyball a few years ago, they know Hill is more than just some funny sidekick. He's got serious acting chops. And his role in The Wolf of Wall Street perfectly combines his darker side with zingy one liners. To say Hill nearly steals the show with his manic, wild right hand man role is an understatement. He's superb in the role, right down to the crazy accent, wild clothes and questionable teeth.

04. Ben Mendelsohn in The Place Beyond the Pines - Ben Mendelsohn is probably my favorite actor that is unknown by just about everyone in the general public. I fell for his volatile psychopath in Animal Kingdom (a really great Australian movie that everyone should Netflix immediately) and never looked back. As a mentor to a young bank robber, Mendelsohn gives a truly great, intense performance. I remember after seeing this movie, way back in March, I tweeted (@wonderfulscar) "Is it too early to start the Oscar campaign for Ben Mendelsohn in The Place Beyond the Pines?" Unfortunately that's not going to happen, but, at the very least, I can honor his scene stealing, manic work on my blog.

03. Bradley Cooper in American Hustle - In a movie starring Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner, Robert DeNiro and Jennifer Lawrence, I never in a million years thought I would walk away thinking Bradley Cooper was best in show. But that's where we are when it comes to American Hustle. I never took Cooper seriously as an actor until last year's The Silver Linings Playbook. Maybe working with director David O. Russell is good for him. It seems he does his best work for that particular director. And in this film, he's easily the MVP for me. He plays Richie, a ladder climbing FBI agent who maybe wants to be a part of the con a little more than he admits. His character is easily the most complex and Cooper pulls it off effortlessly. He even pulls off that ridiculous hair.

02. Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club - Here are a few things I have learned about Jared Leto in the last few months: He seemingly hasn't aged a day since his starring role on My So-Called Life way back when. He is prettier, skinnier and has better hair than me. Also, he's a crazy great actor, starring as an AIDS infected, transvestite junkie in Dallas Buyers Club. Leto becomes this character to the point where, if you didn't know who the actor was going into the movie, you would swear it was a woman, or an actual transgender actor. He is nearly recognizable and becomes the heart and soul of this movie, which tends towards the gritty and dark. In a few months, he'll probably be adding "Academy Award Winner" to the front of his name.

01. Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave - I've always thought it would be a cool thing to get to vote for the Academy Awards. (That's probably why I decided on the top five format this year - this is like my own personal ballot.) But I wouldn't want to be the person that has to decide between Leto and Fassbender for Best Supporting Actor. Both are in a league of their own this year. But, for me, I give the slight edge to Fassbender as the violent, hateful, angry, probably bi-polar plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave. He's a hateful character - a slave owner who treats his wife like dirt, attempts to murder at will, rapes the woman he really loves. But, somehow, beneath it all, his character also has a certain charm. Fassbender's performance is like a live wire. It is explosive and intense. He truly makes the movie better when he's in a scene. In my opinion, not only did he give the best performance by a supporting actor this year, he also gave the best performance. Period.

American Hustle & Saving Mr. Banks

American Hustle

I read an interesting story about director David O. Russell. It had to do with the fact that on this movie, American Hustle, he let his actors improv so much. The story has Christian Bale pointing out to his director that the way they just improvised an scene utterly changes the plot of the movie at a later point. To which, O. Russell supposedly replied (and this isn't a direct quote), "I don't care about plot. I care about characters." And perhaps that's really all you need to know about American Hustle, a movie that is so superficial, that cares so little about its plot, that it's utterly a disappointing mess instead of the masterpiece I was hoping for.

American Hustle is a fictionalized version of Abscam, in which the FBI enlisted real life criminals (con men) to help set up politicians in order to arrest the bigger fish. In O. Russell's story, Christian Bale and Amy Adams are the mid-level cons who go after mostly desperate men down on their times with a scheme in which the men give them a non-refundable $5000 deposit to take their money to some "connections" in London, who are supposedly going to turn their money in to $50,000. Of course, that never happens. All of this is going great until they try to con the wrong man, in this case, undercover FBI agent Richie (Bradley Cooper) who arrests them and then enlists their help. Their initial plan is to bring down a family man mayor (Jeremy Renner) who wants nothing more than to help build up the job market of his town - Atlantic City. This is all well and good, until Richie gets greedy and wants to go after even bigger fish. Then there's Jennifer Lawrence as Bale's unpredictable, unstable wife.

So, in a nutshell, that's the plot. The plot isn't so much bad, as it is too glossy for its own good. O. Russell is trying to make his version of Goodfellas, which there isn't anything wrong with. If you want to rip off a movie, you might as well rip off one of the masters at his best. But the problem is, the movie relies far too much on looking cool, with great actors playing outlandish against type characters, none of whom feel real in the least. For focusing so much on characters, these guys are more like caricatures. I'm not trying to say the movie is bad, because it isn't, necessarily. It's a good movie, it's just a disappointing one. I've been looking forward to this movie for months and it was such a let down for me.

The performances are (almost) all spectacular. In a movie starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, it's as much a shock to me as it might be to anyone else, but best in show goes to Bradley Cooper. His out of control, cocky, power hungry FBI agent is so wildly entertaining, that you can't keep your eyes off of him. Adams is fantastic as well, slipping in and out of different characters with such ease (and those low cut dresses!!! Girl looks gorgeous!). Renner is fine but his role is so limited that it barely matters. Bale is great, as usually, playing the second most outlandish characters, a role that could have easily slipped into over the top, craziness. But Bale is such a great actor that this never happens.

Now here is where my review will become very, VERY unpopular. I don't think Jennifer Lawrence is as good of an actress as everyone thinks she is. I don't think she's a bad actress, just not deserving of quite so much praise. Just think about this fact: Come March, she's going to be a three time Oscar nominee (with one win) in just four years. That's INSANE. Here are some people (off the top of my head) who have never even been nominated: Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Kirsten Dunst, Donald Sutherland, Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Kevin Bacon! But that's besides the point. I think this movie just proves my point, because Lawrence isn't good in it. In fact, I think she's most of the reason why I didn't care for the movie. She, like Bale, is so over the top, that it's distracting. Unlike Bale, Lawrence doesn't quite have the chops to reel it in, keep it from going over that line into campiness. So, it just makes me want to roll my eyes anytime she's on screen, which takes me completely out of the movie, which is not something you want to happen.

It doesn't matter what I have to say anyway. This movie will keep getting nominated for all kinds of awards. Sure, the movie is greatly entertaining at times, but it's no Oscar worthy movie, in my opinion. Jennifer Lawrence will probably win a book end for last year's Oscar. This is a movie about conning people, after all, and maybe the best con of all is conning the audience that it's a better movie than it actually is.

Grade: B-

Saving Mr. Banks

Just a few words about Saving Mr. Banks - it's a nice movie. I don't watch enough nice movies, and that's sort of a shame. The story is about Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson, killing it!) who very reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to meet with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) about selling him the rights to her books. However, she is VERY opinionated. Anyway, the scenes with Hanks and Thompson are absolutely wonderful. The movie suffers from pacing problems - too many flashbacks, not evenly dispersed. It also suffers from the fact that the flashbacks are sort of on the boring side. I mean, they serve a purpose, to further the story along, but they also are not nearly as entertaining as watching Hanks and Thompson go toe to toe. I could watch that forever.

Grade: B

Friday Top Five: Most Anticipated of 2013

The movie year is more than halfway over. That means it's almost time to be done with these disappointing summer movies and finally get to those Oscar hopeful / prestige movies. So, this week, I will be counting down my top five most anticipated movies for the rest of the year. Just as a disclaimer, I would like to say that a few of the movies I'm very excited about are either already in theaters or opening very, very soon. (Examples: I'm planning on seeing Fruitvale Station and The Way, Way Back this weekend and The Spectacular Now, Blue Jasmine and Elysium all open in the next few weeks). So, I'm mostly going to focus on fall / early winter releases with this list:

5. Oldboy (Spike Lee)
Release Date: October 25, 2013
Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharlto Copley
This is Spike Lee's remake of the super violent, super amazing Korean movie of the same name. The original Oldboy is bad ass in every way you can possibly imagine, featuring a ballsy story line and brutal violence. I'm not opposed to film makers remaking foreign films (especially when that director is Lee), because most Americans won't even give movies with subtitles a chance. Here's hoping the remake, and maybe even subsequently the subtitled original, will find a whole new audience.

4. American Hustle (David O. Russell)
Release Date: December 25, 2013
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Robert DeNiro
Umm... look at that cast! O. Russell has been pretty flawless lately, going 2 for 2 with his last two efforts the flawless The Fighter and the sweet Silver Linings Playbook. This is the story of a conman who is forced to work with the FBI to help take down the mob. So, it pretty much sounds like everything you want out of a movie.

3. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
Release Date: October 18, 2013 (limited)
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, Alfre Woodard, Garrett Dillahunt, Quvenzhané Wallis
Besides this, McQueen has made two movies. Those two movies (Hunger, Shame) are damn good. So, the combination of McQueen and star Fassbender (who appeared in his previous efforts) is already cause for excitement. Again, look at that cast! This movie is the story of a free black man sold into slavery during pre-Civil War times.

2. Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Brothers)
Release Date: December 6, 2013
Starring: Oscar Issac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund, John Goodman, Adam Driver
As far as I'm concerned, the Coen Brothers are the closest thing to flawless in the context of making movies. This is their take on the 1960s folk scene and based solely on the trailer, I think they already have the most beautifully shot film of the year (Will there be a better shot than that cat starring at himself in the window of the subway? Probably not).

1. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
Release Date: November 15, 2013
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Kyle Chandler, Shea Whigham
This trailer was released a few months ago and it pretty much blew me away. Not only does it look like a less brutal version of American Psycho, but also it features DiCaprio dancing to Kanye West! What more could you want from a movie? Scorsese barely makes a mistake, and this cast is on point. If I made a list of my top five movies of 2013 so far, this trailer would be number 1. Looking forward to November!

The Place Beyond the Pines

This isn't going to be a very long review. I feel like the less you know about The Place Beyond the Pines, the better. I read a review in Entertainment Weekly before seeing the film and I wish I hadn't. It sort of ruined a few plot points for me and I wouldn't want to do the same. I will say that I think The Place Beyond the Pines is a flawed masterpiece. It's fearless filmmaking, although, at times, it is on the frustrating side. Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance reteams with his star Ryan Gosling for this film about a carnival stunt man who takes to robbing banks in order to support a son he was unaware of until very recently. And that's all I'm going to say about the plot. Like I said, the less you know, the better.

One thing I will talk about are the great performances. Ryan Gosling is electrifying. He is raw and intense and it is an absolute joy to watch him command the screen in this gritty drama. Dane DeHaan, who is one of my very favorite new actors, shares Gosling's electricity, although his role is more moody and angsty. Even Eva Mendes, who I don't think is the greatest actress, shines as Gosling's baby mama. The real scene stealer, for me, was Ben Mendelsohn, who all but stole the whole movie away from Gosling and DeHaan. Is it too early to start a Best Supporting Actor Oscar campaign for him? Because he is that good. He is all weird ticks and subtle emotions. As someone who pretty much worships the ground he walks on since discovering him in Animal Kingdom, I love seeing him making interesting decisions and stealing movies from more famous co-stars (see also: Killing Me Softly). Unfortunately, then there is Bradley Cooper. I think Cooper is a good actor (although, like Jude Law, I never fully trust him in any thing, even if he is playing the nicest guy ever), but unfortunately he is stuck with the most bland story line in the film. I'm not saying his scenes are bad or terrible. It's just that compared to his co-stars who light up the screen, he sort of fades into the background.

And thus concludes my second shortest review of all time. (The shortest went a little something like, "My mama always said if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all." It was about the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie). The Place Beyond the Pines is definitely a great movie, and more than worth checking out. It's the first truly good movie of 2013. Thank God. I was getting worried.

Grade: A-

Silver Linings Playbook

I know that Silver Linings Playbook is flawed. Perhaps it's because, when I saw it, I still had a bitter taste in my mouth over Les Miserables. Or maybe Silver Linings Playbook is just a very likeable, very sweet, well meaning movie. But I sort of loved it.

Directed by David O. Russell, the story is about Pat (Bradley Cooper), a man who went a little nuts after he found his wife Nicky cheating on him in their home and was committed to a mental health institution in Baltimore. At the start of the film, his well meaning mom (Jacki Weaver) takes him out of the hospital and home to Philly, where he struggles to assimilate to normal life, while trying to win back his cheating wife who has a restraining order and zero interest. His father (Robert DeNiro in a refreshing role) is an Eagles loving bookie and his brother (Shea Whigham!!) is successful in every way he is not. Eventually he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), and she's a mouthy widow who speaks her mind and doesn't take any of his crap. The two eventually team up to perform in a dance contest.

It may sound cheesy, and parts of it are, but it's also a lot of fun, and just a really well meaning, sweet movie. The screenplay is great - it's equal parts hilarious and heartfelt. The chemistry between Cooper and Lawrence is so damn good, it's truly a pleasure to watch. My biggest problem with the film is that Tiffany being caught up on Pat seems like a major character flaw. She's this strong, independent woman who wastes her time and half of the movie chasing a man who couldn't possibly be less interested in her. He's in love with someone else, and uses every single opportunity to let her know that. Why would a young, beautiful girl waste her time on a man like that? I know, I know. I guess the answer is love, or whatever, but I just found that part of it sort of insufferable. I also didn't like how the movie started out so strong and became more cliched and commonplace as it went on. But the positive things about the film (like, it's not Les Mis!) and the performance, and just the overall likeability definitely outweigh these small problems.

I read this article from Paste about the 25 best performances of the year, and Jennifer Lawrence was on the list. And she deserves it! But I really liked what they said about her, which was something to the effect of, She can literally do anything she wants right now. And I think that's true. Post Hunger Games, she's probably the biggest star not named Kristen Stewart under 25 in Hollywood. Plus, unlike Stewart, she's got the talent to back up the stardom. Plus, she's drop dead gorgeous. She absolutely can do anything in the entire world next. As Tiffany, she comes on the screen like a bat out of hell, and elevates every single scene she's a part of. I hope she wins the Oscar in a few months because she's that good in this movie. Cooper is pretty impressive as well. I've never seen him play a character so well rounded before. He's been good in other movies, but this is his first real, fleshed out character with ticks and nuerosis, and Cooper nails it. Weaver, who WOWED in Animal Kingdom a few years ago, makes a meaningless part feel real and sweet. And DeNiro is back to form, playing the sort of character he should have spent the last decade playing. He's absolutely a joy to watch, and if Meet the Fockers made you forget what a great actor he is, this movie will remind you.

Overall, Silver Linings Playbook is definitely a crowd pleaser. It's sweet and funny, fun and just plain cute. In a year of dark, depressing, divisive movies, Silver Linings is a rare feel good love story.

Grade: B+

Screen Actors Guild Awards - Nominees and Thoughts

Critics groups have been announcing their nominees and winners for weeks now, but today marks the real start of award season as the Screen Actors Guild Awards announced their nominations. I'm told that Zero Dark Thirty and Django Unchained did not get their screeners out in time so that may be why there isn't a lot of love for them (disappointingly). Anyway, here are the movie nominees along with my thoughts on the whole things.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
John Hawkes - The Sessions
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
Denzel Washington - Flight
Thoughts - Right off the bat, the big omission is no Joaquin Phoenix for The Master, a performance that some thought early off would be an Oscar winning sure thing. While I liked his performance a whole lot, I prefered the other performances from that film so maybe his weirdo ticky warts and all performance was more divisive than people first thought.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard - Rust and Bone
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Mirren - Hitchcock
Naomi Watts - The Impossible
Thoughts - I've seen NONE of these movies. I would like to see at least 4 of them (well, really, all of them) but unfortunately I live in the sticks so it's going to take a while. Based on my eagerness for Zero Dark Thirty, however, I'm rooting for Jessica!

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin - Argo
Javier Bardem - Skyfall
Robert DeNiro - Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
Thoughts - Kinda shocked and surprised to see Bardem for Skyfall. I thought he was great in the movie but not award worthy great. Sort of like Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises. The two male performances I'm most eager about this year failed to make the cut too - Jason Clarke in Zero Dark Thirty and Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained. Hopefully, it was just because a lot of people didn't get their screeners and these two can still gain some Oscar traction.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Sally Field - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Nicole Kidman - The Paperboy
Maggie Smith - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Thoughts - Shocked by the inclusion of Kidman. I guess all these awards nominations and critics groups are really trying to make me sit through The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, huh? Fine, I'll do it!

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Argo
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Thoughts - Les Mis and Silver Linings have the star studded casts, Marigold has the respected older actors, but literally every working character actor in Hollywood was either in Argo or Lincoln, so I'm pulling for one of those two.

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Bourne Legacy
The Dark Knight Rises
Les Miserables
Skyfall
Thoughts - Anyone this awards season who includes The Dark Knight Rises in anything at all is okay in my book.

Mini Reviews: The Hangover Part 2, The Dilemma, X-Men: First Class

The Hangover Part 2 - In the sequel to the super hilarious The Hangover, the wolf pack is back and this time in Thailand. It starts out much the same - a terrible phone call - and then flashes back to a few days earlier and shows you how things play out. This time around, Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Allen (Zach Galifianakis) attend Stu's (Ed Helms) wedding in Thailand. Stu is still a bit stunned from the events of the first film, so he doesn't want a bachelor party. Still, things get crazy and the three guys wake up in a dive motel one morning and can't find Stu's fiancee's little brother. Then they must retrace their steps and try to figure out what happens. Much like the first, they find the brother in the eleventh hour and relive their crazy night via pictures at the end. That's just the thing. It's sooo much like the original. And, I mean, to a certain extent that's great. Don't fix it, if it's not broken, right? But this is pretty much just a shot for shot remake in a different city with slightly different events. Is it funny? Sure. But it's nowhere near as laugh out loud crazy as the original. It's got it's moments but sequels can never really live up to their predecessors. They are inferior films by definition alone. The Hangover Part 2, unfortunately, is no different.
Grade: C+

The Dilemma - What the hell was Ron Howard thinking? He's made some pretty great films but this is sooo not one of them. Vince Vaughn and Kevin James star as besties. Vaughn is dating Jennifer Connelly and James has somehow manages to snag himself Winona Ryder. One day, Vaughn's Ronny discovers that Ryder's Geneva is cheating with a hottie named Zip (Channing Tatum). Hence, the dilemma. Should he tell his best friend? Should he wait a few days until the stress of a big work project passes? Who gives a crap? You don't care about these awful, hateful, unlikeable characters. They are all liars and cheaters. Plus, the movie is not funny at all. I didn't laugh once. And Vauhgn is someone I generally find funny. Also, I'm sorry, but if Kevin James manages to marry someone as hot and out of his league as Winona Ryder then I'm pretty sure he should allow her to cheat on him with Channing Tatum. (Just kidding!). Still, I don't have a single good thing to say about this movie and I clearly found my first possibility for Worst Movie of the Year.
Grade: F

X-Men: First Class - By no means am I a huge X-Men fan. I saw the previous trilogy. I guess I can say, overall, I enjoyed them. They had their positives and their negatives. Still, I wasn't hopping out of my seat to see this prequel. Let's just say - I was pleasantly surprised. X-Men: First Class is fun and exciting. It's got a ridiculously talented and hot young cast (James McAvoy as Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Zoe Kravitz as Angel). The story line was a bit confusing but interesting. It seems Erik / Magneto was raised and tested by a Nazi doctor and he's now all grown up and seeking revenge. Turns out the Nazi doctor is also a mutant named Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) who is hell bent on starting World War III. Erik teams up with Charles who is now helping out Rose Byrne and the CIA. They start finding a bunch of young mutants and train them to stop Shaw and the Bay of Pigs AND the potential World War III. The movie meanders a bit, and could have lost about 20 minutes or so on the editing floor, but overall I can't say too many bad things about it. It's fun and enjoyable and what else do you want out of a comic book summer movie? Fassbender is a total bad ass as Erik / Magneto. Remember his name because he is going to be HUGE. Bacon gives a great performance as the villain of the film. There are also two really great, well done cameos in the film. All in all, X-Men: First Class is surprisingly and refreshingly damn good.
Grade: B

Limitless

Okay, so there is this little pill called NZT. If you take it, it completely opens your mind up to a world of new possibilities. Instead of only using 20% of your brain, you use all of it. You can recall facts that the normal you wouldn't even realize you knew. You can learn languages in a matter of a weekend. You can teach yourself to play the piano in three days. Oh, and you can learn all kinds of algorhythms that will help you crack the code of the Wall Street world and make you a millionaire in less than a month. Would you take it? What if you found out, after the fact, that all the other people who took the experimental drug are now either dead or very sick. Would you still take it? That's the dilemma that Bradley Cooper's Eddie Morra is faced with.

Eddie starts off the movie a hot mess. He has long strangly hair. He starts drinking at noon. He'd just been dumped by his publisher girlfriend (Abbie Cornish). He's a writer with a book deal but he sits and stares at the computer for hours before writing a single sentence (I know how that feels!). Then he bumps into an old friend, Vern (Johnny Whitworth). Vern was a one time run of the mill drug dealer but now he's better dressed and maybe into something a little more... prestigious. He introduces Eddie to a pill called NZT which Eddie immediately takes. He goes home and he writes 90 pages of his novel in an afternoon. He's feeling better, seeing things differently, having sex with a woman who used to hate him. So, he wants more.

That's just the beginning of Limitless, which is a damn good movie - exciting, adrenaline inducing, thrilling, intense. It's just a fast paced movie, it sort of takes your breath away with its frenetic pacing which only serves this movie about a man whose brain is working faster than yours ever will. The paragraphs above? That's only the first 20 minutes or so of the movie. There are plenty of twists and turns (some of which you see coming a mile away). Limitless has such a fast pace, that it's almost hard to nitpick, but nitpick I will. Like I said, there are particular plot twists that you see coming almost immediately. There are certain big action sequences that get resolved through very implausible ways. The movie focuses almost entirely on Cooper (which is fine because he's great) but almost wastes Robert DeNiro and completely wastes Abbie Cornish. Some of the hokier filmmaking choices I could have done without (letters falling from the sky as he's writing his novel, etc.).

As I said, the movie focuses almost entirely on Bradley Cooper and he is more than up for the challenge. In fact, he's superb in every aspect of this role - as the vulnerable, shy, sort of miserable man at the beginning and then as the confident, charming man throughout the rest of the film. His eyes even seem to shine a little brighter when he's on NZT. I think it's refreshing to finally see him carry a film, and do a damn good job doing it! He's been resigned to playing jerks in supporting roles for so long that it's nice to watch him be the star, and be someone who is more likable than not. Screen icon Robert DeNiro is very nearly almost wasted as a big shot Donald Trump-esque character. It's a shame that kids today only know him as that funny old guy from the Meet the Parents movie. There's an entire generation who don't know that he was once considered a living legend and one of the greatest actors of all time. I wish he'd do more films like this because when he actually has screen time he's damn good, like the DeNiro we all remember and want back so desperately. The same can't be said for Abbie Cornish, who I really am trying to like. I'm finding it hard though and this one note role isn't going to help her case with me. She's got one good scene and it involves her prowess as an ass kicking action star and not her acting skills. That said, I'm more excited to see her kick ass in Sucker Punch next week now!

Overall, Limitless certainly has it's flaws, but it's such a thrilling ride from start to finish that you almost won't even care. Plus, it can open a fun little discussion with your friends over whether or not you would take NZT.

Grade: B

The Hangover, Land of the Lost, Taking of Pelham 123, Up

The Hangover - It's been a pretty great year for comedies. There was the bittersweet Adventureland and the laugh out loud I Love You, Man. Now there is The Hangover. And guess what? It's probably the best of this year's comedies (so far... I mean, Funny People is still on the way!). The movie starts at the end with three guys in the middle of the desert all worse for the wear. It seems they had a bachelor party misadventure and now they can't find the groom. Flash back two nights. The four guys check into a swanky Las Vegas hotel. They get dressed. They have a toast on the roof. Then... crazy stuff ensues. None of which we actually get to see. Instead, the film reopens on a trashed hotel suite. The couch is on fire. There's a chicken walking around. Ed Helms' dentist character is missing a tooth. There's a baby in the closet... and a tiger in the bathroom. Bradley Cooper's character has been in the hospital and, of course, the groom is nowhere to be seen. The movie is pretty straightforward - it sets out to answer what the hell happened. And it's all sometimes silly but always funny. Everyone - the director, the writers, the actors - are all really better than they have to be. When a movie is genuinely funny, it usually doesn't need to look particuarly good but this one most definitely does. It's a surprising film and it's definitely worth checking out.
Grade: B

Land of the Lost - Chalk it up to my love for Danny McBride but I was actually surprised that I didn't hate Land of the Lost. I thought it was going to be typical Will Ferrell stupidity... and it was sometimes. But for every terrible plot point and silly joke, there was something actually funny. McBride is a scene stealer, for sure and he got most of the best parts. Ferrell, Anna Friel and McBride travel through time and space and end up in a mysterious land full of dinosaurs and sleestacks and who knows what else. They must find a contraption that will get them home. The scene at the motel is one of the funniest things I've seen all year and, dare I say, funnier than anything in The Hangover. However, The Hangover sustains the laughs for the entire film... Land of the Lost, unfortunately, does not.
Grade: C

Taking of Pelham 123 - This remake sure is exciting. It also tries to be edgy and raw and rough and dirty. It just doesn't succeed at that all the time. The film follows Ryder (John Travolta), a disgruntled ex-con and ex-Wall Street genius who hijacks a Subway car. His hostage negotiations fall in the hands of Walter (Denzel Washington), a disgraced MTA employee. Ryder makes some demands, the two have a verbal tug of war. The movie is pretty fast paced and remains exciting for much of the film with the exception of a pretty boring stretch near the end. And director Tony Scott (of True Romance fame) tries to make things raw and dirty but you can only push the edginess so far in a studio film. Overall, Taking of Pelham 123 is a pretty decent way to spend an afternoon.
Grade: B-

Up - Up may be the most depressing kids movie ever made. The moral of the story, for me, is this: You dream big as a little kid and then you grow up and realize none of your dreams are ever giong to come true and everyone you love is going to die and you're going to be miserable and alone and then stuck in the middle of nowhere being followed around by an annoying kid, a creepy bird and a talking dog. Not really a kids movie. And while Up did seriously depress me (I'm not even kidding. I was near tears and not because it was heartwarming but because it made me realize how much life - mine and in general - sucks), it's still a pretty cute movie. I don't think it's as good as Wall-E but it is sweet and enjoyable and funny. And I'm finally not the only person in America who hasn't seen it.
Grade: B