Oscar 2013 Best Picture Nominees

Oscar has decided to come up with only nine films to compete for Best Picture trophy this year. While most award-giving bodies have unveiled their best movie of the year, The Oscars has yet to name their's come February 24th.

Let's take a look at the nine films that made it to the standard of the Academy Awards and the odds of taking home the gold as we compare these films to nominated films for past years.

1. Amour  - A French-language drama from Austria. The only non-English speaking film nominated, in fact the first since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon nominated last 2000. Like 'Crouching Tiger', Amour also nominated for 'Best Foreign Film' which is also expected to win in the said category. What makes the film a strong contender is that it's nominated for three other major awards; Best Actress for Emmauelle Riva, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director for Michael Haneke. Only four other films among the list received that type of nominations and for past ten years Best Picture winners emerge from list of films with acting, directing and writing nods.

2. Argo - a rescue movie from director Ben Affleck. Expectations for this thriller to win this year's Best Picture is very high as it won almost all the best picture awards there is. The only disadvantage of the film from winning is Affleck missing on Directing category and the last film recognized by the Academy without directing nod is Driving Miss Daisy and that was 1990. The film also scored a writing nod, a supporting role for Alan Arkin and a couple of technical awards. While these don't necessarily add up, still Argo is a winning piece from Affleck and with best picture trophies it collected, winning The Oscar is not really surprising.

3. Beast of Southern Wild - Grand Jury winner of Sundance Film Festival reaching its ultimate success as a finalist for this year's Oscar Best Film. While Winter's Bone reached the same point last 2011 it failed to win the gold. But with acting nod from amazing young Quvenzhane Wallis, an adapted screenplay and a directing nomination 'Beast' might be the first festival winner to win the Oscar's grand prize. 

4. Django Unchained. This is Quentin Tarantino's third entry as Best Picture finalist following Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds both written by him. With the same gory-style and filled with humor and wit,  Django Unchained might be his first best picture movie. Like Argo, the film is also missing in Directing category, but garnered nods for screenplay and acting award for Christoph Waltz.







5. Les Miserables - Exact ten years ago musical film Chicago won Best Picture and before that Oliver! in 1969. Moulin Rouge tried last 2001 but musical is really not an Oscar movie, at least after 1960s. Surely Tom Hooper's last film The King's Speech won but Oscar is not ready yet to give him another statuette this year. Acting award for Anne Hathaway is a sure bet and it might get some technical awards too but that's should be it.

6. Life of Pi - The only nominated 3D film this year and fourth since Avatar in 2010. This is Ang Lee's fourth Best Picture nominated movie following Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain. This child-friendly movie 'Pi' is like Hugo of last year that ended up with technical awards but it might pull up some surprises too. Chances are really slim that even Avatar didn't triumph a few years ago, but who knows Oscars might favor Lee and go for a 3D film this year.

7. Lincoln - Biopic movie is really an Oscar-prone movie, The King's Speech and A Beautiful Mind are enough proof. The film's boxoffice success helped a lot pushing this Spielberg's latest movie to a strong contender for this year's Oscars. It just has to climb a bit higher enough to knock down Argo though from the looks of it Lincoln is more of a showcase of Daniel-Day Lewis' talent. The movie leads this year with 12 nods including Directing job for Steven Spielberg (and will probably win), Screenplay and a couple for technical categories.




8. Silver Lining Playbook - Rom-com movie shows up rarely in the Oscars as among the best film finalists. Juno in 2008 and As Good as it Gets in 1998 both nominated for most major awards and 'Playbook' is most likely to end up with the same fate. The film seems to be locked in for acting award for its main star Jennifer Lawrence and maybe for director David O. Russell but that's gotta be it.








9. Zero Dark Thirty -the success of The Hurt Locker three years ago made this film a strong contender for this year best film, no to mention that the same people, director and writer made it. Kathryn Bigelow's absence from directing category hurts the movie a lot, and was overtaken by Lincoln and Argo in Best Picture race. The film's theme however is really important for most Americans and Oscars might consider it.




My top 3 movies to win this year's Best Picture are: Argo, Lincoln then Zero Dark Thirty

Les Miserables

I've seen many musical films but this one is the best so far. It was full of heart, entertaining, melancholic but very touching. Director Tom Hooper's movie adaptation of the oldest musical Les Miserables is an instant classic. His idea of having the actors singing live during the shoots has played very well, it added more tunes to the songs, allowing the audience to connect and easily follow the story and able to relate more to the characters.  

The movie follows the story of a convict Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) who has broken his parole and live at large with a new identity as the new Mayor of a town. The ruthless policeman Javert (Russel Crowe) has been hunting him for years. As a second life given to him by the priest that took him in, Jean Valjean has dedicated his life for helping people in need. One night he met the dying Fantine (Anne Hathaway) who has been raising her daughter Cosette. He promised her of taking care of the young Cosette and saved her from cruel couple. The two escaped and lived as father and daughter. The movies goes to another decade where Cosette has grown into a lovely lady (Amanda Seyfried) and met Marius (Eddie Redmayne) in the middle of a revolution. The two fell in love while Epinone (Samantha Barks) hid her loving flare for Marius and sacrificed for him. The film itself tells a lot of stories through singing, there were little dialogues unlike other musicals I've seen and it's really a good thing. It was tragic and melancholic but satisfyingly moving.You'll find  yourself looking for the songs and wanted it played over again.

Actors were really amazing, Anne Hathaway herself is one great reason to watch this great musical with her  rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream". Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe set aside their fighting fists and showed their vocal talents and they did good too. Amanda Seyfried,  Samantha Barks, Eddie Redmayne were of great support while Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Cohen Baron provided the comedic acts and added to tragic and melancholic plot. The film is adapted from Victor Hugo's novel of the same title, written for screen by William Nicholson (Gladiator, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) and directed by the Oscar winner Tom Hooper (The Kings Speech, Damned United). Les Miserables is nominated for this year's Oscar Award with 8 nods including  Best Picture and acting awards for Jackman and Hathaway. (rating 5/5)

Taken 2

Its first movie last 2008 brought back Liam Neeson's career making him one of the A-listers and starred in several actions movies since then. Because of that it was clear that another Taken movie will be made and it did come out last year. While it surpassed the boxoffice success of its predecessor the sequel has nothing to offer but ridiculousness. It doesn't have anything that the made the first film exciting. It was boring and got countless of funny scenes that made me almost hitting the stop button to not finishing it.

Neeson starred as retired CIA agent Brian Mills like in the first movie this time trying to make his relationships with his daughter (Maggie Grace) and his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) to work and went on a vacation in Istanbul. As he being chased down by the family of his enemies from the last film Brian Mills needs to rely once again on his skills to save himself and his family from being taken. This thriller is by far a mediocre version of its prequel. You will be surprised how bad the film is, the chasing scenes or fight scenes were poorly edited. There were even scenes that you can almost see Neeson's double. What I hate the most is when he and  his wife were about to get abducted and while the guns are almost at their heads he still able to make a phone call letting his daughter about their situation. It was really ridiculous.

Sequel is always difficult to make especially if the first film is supposed to be completed. But given the time and how broad the plot for this genre is, it could have been better at least of the same level of the first film or closer to it. It's just very disappointing that the film you like has been expanded and relived after a few years but it made you wished that it didn't happen. (rating 1.5/5) 

Zero Dark Thirty

I have finally seen the most controversial film of the year in Hollywood. Director Kathryn Bigelow and screen writer Mark Boal teamed up once again for another middle-east war drama this time with an espionage thriller hunting down OBL entitled Zero Dark Thirthy. Before its wide release '0D30' has been accompanied by controversies and dubbed as a pro-torture film  while government of America condemned it. Along with these controversies are the Oscar buzzes since the film is getting recognized as one of the best films and best actress for its lead star Jessica Chastain.

While the film has been informing people that this is a true story I must say that I don't belong to those group that believe everything in it. I however enjoyed the film, it's indeed one of the great movies of the year. It was gripping and an edge-of-your-seat thriller with great performances from the lead to the supporting actors. Jessica Chastain is continuously making her name in Hollywood after a breakthrough last year. I like the way she said 'Im the motherf*cker that found this place' while being unnoticed in a meeting with her bosses. Her determinations and her drives in this film can be seen, stealing the whole show and making you wonder what's gonna happen to her in the end. The film just revolved around her, although it's not really a good a thing for a movie in general but for some people THE story itself is the main selling point but not for me, at least after watching it. I give the credit first to Chastain, as she makes the movie worthy  and probably and in second or third or maybe fourth to the whole plot or to the film itself.

I also have to mention that the film got a smart title. I'm not sure if 'smart' is the right adjective to it but I guess it's something out of ordinary. The creators of it might have just gone for a controversial title or something that would people get so easily without going to Google it. Bigelow and Boal last film entitled 'The Hurt Locker' which put a lot of people who watched it in to question. I had to search for it my self too after seeing it and I had to do the same for the 'Zero Dark Thirty' which I found in Imdb.com and its defined as ''term commonly used by the military to refer to a non-specific time when it is dark outside, either very late or very early. However, the prevailing pronunciation is "oh dark thirty"".

Also starred by Jason Clark (who also co-starred with Chastain in two movies, Texas Killing Field and  Lawless), Kyle Chandler (Super 8, King Kong, Argo), Jennifer Ehle (Contagion, The Ides of March), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holms, Thinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom, Warrior), Chris Patt (Moneyball, The Five-year Engagement), and Mark Duplass (Safety Not Guaranteed, Your Sister's Sister). Directed by Oscar Winner Kathryn Bigelow and written by Oscar Winner Mark Boal. (rating 4/5)

Arbitrage

There's nothing really new about this drama-thriller film Arbitrage but it got all the right ingredients of becoming one of the best thriller films of all time. Mr. Robert Miller (Richard Gere),a  multi-millionaire who owns several companies desperately tried to complete a sale before getting noticed on his fraudulent act. He tried to weigh this with his infidelity to a young French-girl who later resulted to a tragic accident. The movie revolves around these two acts that he is trying to walk away from, sacrificing innocent people around him including his family. What I like most about the film is a strong script and genuine acting from the cast. It was unexpectedly moving too, the short scene of Mrs. Miller and her daughter Brooke touched me, and the life of the accomplice Jimmy Grants also added to the great story, creating twist and turn to Robert's fate.

Great mixed stories of infidelity and fraud in a Wallstreet-like setting has set this indie movie a total sold out for people loving its genre. The performances from the cast were outstanding, lead by Richard Gere who should really get an Oscar-nod this time. Susan Sarandon as always as one of the best actresses, she never fails to impress me even in this little role as Gere's wife. I've seen a completely different Brit Marling in this movie compare to her previous role in Another Earth, her work as Gere's smart daughter showcases her real versatility, I'd love to see more of her and hopefully in hugely-produced and widely-distributed ones. Also starred Tim Roth, written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki. This is surely one of my favorite movies of the year, I'm giving it a healthy rating of 4.5/5