The madness of Oscar season is upon us! Bursting out the starting gate, the nine contenders for the Best Movie are running in a tight pack. Jostling for the lead, nipping at each other’s heels, they’re riding hell for leather, folks. ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ is trailing the pack right off but could we predict the winner of this tight race, the most feted victory in the Oscar line up? Nope! You’ll just have to wait and see.
That a Martin Scorsese film was nominated for Best Movie comes as no surprise but that he made a 3D ‘family movie’ does. ‘Hugo’ – the story of a wily and resourceful boy whose quest to unlock a secret left to him by his father will transform his life - might just have won a whole new generation over to Scorsese. Starring Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen and Asa Buuterfield, the film was praised by the New York Times as being “serious, beautiful, wise to the absurdity of life and in the embrace of a piercing longing.”
The story of another young boy on a quest, the thing that ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ has going for it is in essence Tom Hanks. And, yes, Sandra Bullock. Based on the book by the same name written by Joanthan Safran Foer, the film has been almost universally panned by critics and it’s a little surprising it made the nominations. Could it be its adherence to the ‘Oscar formula’? Regardless of how successful the sum of its parts, ticking off every element guarantees you a nomination at the very least.
Yet another movie based on a much loved book, ‘The Help’ is the story of three extraordinary woman engaged in a radical writing project. Exploring race relations in 1960s Mississippi, the film according to one critic is “As hard to dislike as it is to truly admire, this artfully manipulative issue movie knows where its strengths lie... and most of them lie in Viola Davis.” We’ll add that Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer deliver fine performances as well.
Woody Allen still has it in him and he proves it with one of his finest films in recent years. ‘Midnight in Paris’ is a romantic comedy set in the city of lights, featuring a dazzling cast that includes Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates and (surprise!) Carla Bruni. The movie won Woody a nomination for best director as well.
You’ll know the Terrence Malick, the director ‘Tree of Life’ for his previous work on films like ‘Badlands,’ ‘Days of Heaven’ and ‘The Thin Red Line.’ An ‘impressionistic’ story of a Midwestern family in the 1950’s, this film stars Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. It’s clearly the latter’s year. Not only does he get to wake up as Brad Pitt, he’s also scored a Best Actor nomination for his work in ‘Moneyball’ and seen two films he helped produce – ‘Moneyball’ and ‘The Tree of Life’ - claim nominations for Best Picture. Pitt and fellow ‘Moneyball’ star Jonah Hill are sensational together, hitting the film high and straight out of the park.
If Pitt were to lose the Best Actor Oscar to someone, it might be his good friend George Clooney. Clooney is the heart of ‘The Descendants’ directed by Alexander Payne (the creator of the Oscar-winning Sideways), the film is set in Hawaii and tells the tale of Matt King an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his life when tragedy strikes.
Steven Spielberg is riding one of the most promising beasts of the lot with ‘War Horse,’ a movie set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, the movie is about the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert. The film will compete in no less than six categories and stars Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan and Emily Watson.
There’s a lot to love about ‘The Artist’ but surely lead actor Jean Dujardin is at the top of the list. The extraordinarily brave movie is almost entirely silent, and made in black and white – a homage to a time before the talkies sounded a death knell to the stars of the silent film.
We’ll find out who the winner is on Feb. 26, 2012 but we won’t blame the fans of ‘The Artist’ for hoping, that for the first time in 83 years, the Oscar will go to a silent movie. |
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