| Title |
Year |
Rating |
Rank |
Review |
| Kings Speech, The | 2010 | 90 | 1 | | | Lincoln | 2012 | 90 | 1 | - Daniel Day-Lewis did what he always does: Gets crazy into a role and knocks it completely out of the park. He’s probably the favorite to win Best Actor, though I would like to see the Academy recognize someone else. Otherwise? There’s not much to see about this film. When Spielberg, Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and Tommy Lee Jones are all involved in a film, what do you expect? | | Silver Linings Playbook | 2012 | 90 | 1 | - Far and away the best acted movie of the year, and the nominations show. If anything, I think it was a snub to Chris Tucker not to give him a nomination nod. Given how stacked the Supporting Actor category is I’m not surprised, but it might have been nice. As for the leads, I was blown away. I have never seen a Jennifer Lawrence movie and, despite the fact that she was nominated in 2011 for Winter’s Bone, I had extremely low expectations going into this movie. Everything about her performance was flawless. She displays a range in her emotions and expressions far beyond someone of her age and experience. The star, however, if Bradley Cooper. I have long found him to be a quality actor, but he completely blew me away in this movie. I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology, have done some research into mental disorders, and have worked with and known several people that are bipolar and schizophrenic, and never have a seen a more realistic portrayal in film. These characters are not coddled and protected, but they are also not vilified. They are stigmatized by other characters in the film, but not by the film itself. They are real people with real emotions and real problems that just happen to have to adjust their world view around their illness. It was a beautifully done movie and, despite my desire to see Hugh Jackman take home the prize for Best Actor, I think that far and away the most deserving actor is Bradley Cooper. | | Toy Story 3 | 2010 | 85 | 4 | | | True Grit (2010) | 2010 | 85 | 4 | | | Inception | 2010 | 80 | 6 | | | Les Miserables | 2012 | 80 | 6 | - Let me start by saying this: I love this musical. I could (and do) listen to the soundtrack of the stage production over and over again. I was both extremely excited and hesitant when I heard about this movie. However, I think it was pulled off beautifully. Probably the two star performances in my eyes came from Anne Hathaway (a loss for her at the Oscars would be a travesty) and Eddie Redmayne (in my opinion a snub for a nomination, even if he wasn’t a likely candidate for the win). Both of them conveyed an extraordinarily amount of emotion in their voices and, especially for Redmayne, in their faces. You can visibly see the pain they are experiencing. As a fan of the musical, probably the most disappointing performances came from two people I thought would knock them out of the park: Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thenardiers. These are among the two most popular and well known characters from the play (and possibly all of Broadway), but I found the performances flat vocally and over the top visually. There was none of the subtlety that I was expecting and wanting out of the characters. As I side note, I love Hugh Jackman. I think he is a great actor and did very well in his performance as Jean Valjean. He is in a profoundly difficult category to win this year and, having seen many of the films nominated in the best actor category, he probably doesn’t deserve to win. However, I would love to see him win for one simple reason: this will probably be the only chance he gets. | | Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close | 2011 | 75 | 8 | | | Social Network, The | 2010 | 70 | 9 | |
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