Though the Academy Awards is far from its scheduled date, it never seems too early to begin Best Picture, Best Actor/Actress, and Best Director predictions. Even though it is still early, the movies below have received an uproar of buzz relating to the Oscars, and you can catch them all this month at Lowe’s or at Kendall Square. It’s never too early to start prepping for the biggest night in Hollywood; let’s not forget, last year’s Best Picture Winner, Argo, premiered in early October!
Nebraska
This quirky black-and-white film is directed by Alexander Payne, whose previous works, The Descendants and Sideways, were both honored at previous Oscars. For any SNL fans, this film stars funnyman, Will Forte, and revered character-actor, Bruce Dern. Dern plays a “tempestuous” father who’s convinced he has won a million dollar magazine sweepstakes, and Forte plays his son who hesitantly agrees to drive him to Nebraska to claim the winnings. Top film critic, Todd Gilchrist of The Wrap wrote of the film, “Alternately a poetic tale of personal affirmation and a plainspoken metaphor for tenacity in the face of meager hope, “Nebraska” is not just a beautiful or great film but an essential one for our time.” The film was already nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where Bruce Dern won the Best Actor Award. My nomination predictions: Bruce Dern, Best Actor; Best Original Screenplay (Bob Nelson); and Best Picture. See it November 15th!
12 Years a Slave
The movie that has everyone talking and crying in the theater. Steve McQueen’s third full length feature is the frontrunner of all things Oscar. 12 Years a Slave is based on Northup’s memoir, tells a story of a New York citizen captured and made to work on a plantation in New Orleans in the 1800s. A true ensemble film made up of some of Hollywood’s leading actors and debut performers (Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Quvenzhane Wallis, Lupita Nyong’o, and Paul Giamatti). The true hero of the film is that of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance of Solomon Northup. An exciting piece of trivia about Ejiofor is that he played Keira Knightley’s husband in Love Actually. Anyways, 12 Years is regarded as the predestined winner of the Best Picture award, an ultimate Best Actor nomination to Ejiofor, and a Best Supporting Actor nomination to Michael Fassbender (McQueen’s muse). See this “Tour de Force” of a film, it is always playing at Lowes!
Dallas Buyers Club
Remember when Matthew McConaughey was the “Romantic Comedy Guy” appearing in nearly a dozen romances costarring Kate Hudson or a Kate Hudson lookalike. Now, he is a marvel of serious dramatic acting. According to the Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus of the film, “Dallas Buyers Club rests squarely on Matthew McConaughey’s scrawny shoulder, and he carries the burden gracefully with what might be a career-best performance.” This is the story of a real-life Texas cowboy Ron Woodroof, whose arbitrary life choices came back at him in 1985 when he was diagnosed with HIV and give 30 days to live. Definitely not a film for everyone, but it’s telling of the early days of the AIDS epidemic and the division in the US between the sick and the well are worth of film. McConaughey lost a whopping fifty pounds for the role, so if that dedication, alone, doesn’t deserve him a nomination, I don’t know what does! The movie was released nationwide yesterday.
Inside Llewyn Davis
Technically, this film comes out in early December, but maybe I am just so excited that I want to share it! Inside Llewyn Davis is the first Coen Brother’s movie to come out in three years (since True Grit). The Coen Brother’s are Oscar royalty, especially in the Screenplay categories. This film is about a down-on-his-luck aspiring folk singer who navigates through the Greenwich Village “folk scene” of 1961, but is befuddled by a myriad of obstacles (some of his own accord). Another terrific cast of talented acting-folks, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, and Oscar Isaac. See what Jordan Hoffman of FIlm.com is calling “One of the best and most understated movies about the grieving process of art.” Come on, does this not scream Emerson? If not, then listen to the movie’s theme song in full (performed by Marcus Mumford and Llewny Davis, Oscar Isaac). Take all of November to get excited for December 6th, the film’s scheduled release date.