9

     “Philomena” Starring: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, and Sophie Kennedy Clark Directed by: Stephen Frears Runtime: 98 minutes Rated: PG-13

     Philomena is good, but I wouldn’t really consider it Oscar-worthy in the category for Best Picture. The reason for that is it’s just a simple movie. Judi Dench’s performance is upright, but the other categories for which it was nominated could’ve had other films take its place. For best picture, I think “The Place Beyond the Pines”, “Inside Llewyn Davis”, or “Blue Jasmine” should have taken its place. This is also based off of a true story. A very religious woman named Philomena Lee (Dench) has been searching for her only son for years. She entered a nunnery when she was a teenager. While she was practicing to be a nun, she met a boy at a carnival and she conceived a son. When her son was born, the nuns put him in a daycare for adoption. When a family adopted her son, she was heartbroken. She searched for him for years, but never found him. She dropped from the nunnery and started a family. In the early 2000s, she and her daughter hired an athiest journalist (Coogan) to help Philomena track her son. Through this long, but short journey to find the whereabouts of her son, Philomena and the journalist become close. This movie is a nice, somewhat wholesome comedy that shows the terrible horrors that existed in the world at one time.

8

     “Captain Phillips” Starring: Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi Directed by: Paul Greengrass Runtime: 134 minutes Rated: PG-13

     “Captain Phillips” is a controversial story (depending on who you ask), which is adapted from a true event, which took place off the coast of Somalia nearly 5 years ago. Tom Hanks plays Captain Phillips who’s ship, the MV Maersk Alabama, is captured by Somali pirates in a two hour heated battle between Captain Phillips’s crewmen, Navy Seals and three Somali pirates. Overall, the film is decent. It feels like every moment of the movie is action packed, which actually functions well in this type of story. The directing is very good and the acting is decent, but the best part of the film is the tone in which it is shot.

7

     “Gravity” Starring: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón Runtime: 91 minutes Rated: PG-13

     “Gravity” is essentially an entertaining and fascinating movie. It follows the struggle of survival in the atmosphere of space. The movie has exceptional cinematography and is graphically incredible. The film I always like to imagine space as is Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”. I don’t think any film about space can top the imagination and imagery of Kubrick’s masterpiece. Gravity is good, but there are two major elements of the film that bother me. #1 is the casting of Sandra Bullock as the main character. Sandra Bullock is very good in dramatic movies like, “The Blind Side”, but she cannot scream very well in action movies. That being said, the entire film is filled with her screaming. It gets very overwhelming at many points of the film. My #2 complaint is the screenplay for the film. This movie is more a visual film in my opinion. In visual films, the writer must make the best of the rare speaking parts. It is not the case in this movie. The dialogue is pretty ridiculous and annoying. I have heard mixed reviews of the movie from many people and mostly positive reviews from critics. I enjoyed the film for its cinematography, story and directing, but the acting and writing did not appeal to me at all.

6

     “Her” Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, and Scarlett Johansson Directed by: Spike Jonze Runtime: 126 minutes Rated: R

     This is a very original storyline; a man falls in love with a woman’s voice in a computer. Spike Jonze can make just about any story work in a film. When I first read the storyline to this movie, I thought that it was going to be a train wreck. Then I found out that it was a Spike Jonze movie. I then thought differently. Phoenix plays a socially awkward man in the future, who has just recently broken up with his girlfriend (Mara) and downloads new computer software that has a voice (Johansson), more intelligent then the current “Siri”. Phoenix’s character shares a lot in common with her and he falls in love with the voice. His friends oppose his decision and the film takes off from there. The movie is very good, very weird, but also very sad. I commend Spike Jonze for making this film out of such a bizarre subject. This film rightly holds the title of an “incredible movie”.

5

     “American Hustle” Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner Directed by: David O. Russell Runtime: 138 minutes Rated: R

      In this wild film, David O. Russell captures a hilarious, entertaining, and dramatic story about corruption, greed and adultery. The story is loosely based on several events that took place in New Jersey during the 1970s. In this film, Christian Bale plays a conman, who struggles with relationships both at home with his wife (Jennifer Lawrence) and in the office place with his mistress (Amy Adams). An FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) infiltrates the con man (Bale) and his mistress (Adams) and gives them an alternative instead of going to jail, which is to help find corruption through politicians and union bosses. One of these politicians is Carmine Polito (Renner). In these captivating performances, each actor gives the performance of their lives. Through watching this film, you can see that David O. Russell is the best actor’s director currently in Hollywood.

4

      “The Wolf of Wall Street” Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey and Rob Reiner Directed by: Martin Scorsese Runtime: 180 minutes Rated: R

      Martin Scorsese perfects another one of his films through comedy, drama and crime in “The Wolf of Wall Street”. This film may disturb some due to its content but if you just look at the directing, acting and writing that is displayed in it, you will find the film to be superb. A true story based on the bestselling autobiography of Jordan Belfort of the same name, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the corrupted Belfort, Jonah Hill plays Donnie Azoff (DiCaprio’s partner in crime), Margot Robbie plays Belfort’s second wife, Naomi, Rob Reiner plays Belfort’s Father and Matthew McConaughey plays a drug infused stockbroker, who practically introduces Belfort into the animal-like nature of a bad, corrupted stockbroker. The film illustrates Belforts rise to fame, greed, and criminality in a three-hour epic. Belfort begins as a preppy college grad, who wants to do well in the area of stockbroking. Matthew McConaughey takes him into his agency of wild behavior and Belfort’s evil persona takes off from there. Once, he has some money, he starts an agency of his own called Stratton-Oakmont. Almost all of Stratton-Oakmont’s business leaders are low-life, childish and terrible men who make the agency into a no law zone. The rest of the film shows Belfort’s long story of struggling addiction to money, adultery, drugs and violence. Overall, the film is very good. Again, many may be against the disturbing content of the film, but I’m afraid most of it actually happened and its not just there to make the story better. The film, according to the FBI agents who infiltrated Belfort as well as brokers at his agency said that the film does depict the agency accurately.

3

     “Nebraska” Starring: Bruce Dern, June Squibb, Will Forte, and Bob Odenkirk Directed by: Alexander Payne Runtime: 115 minutes Rated: R

      Alexander Payne, the director of “Sideways” and “The Descendants”, brings a fictional, but very real-life story of family struggles onto the big screen. “Nebraska” is a two-hour film. An elderly father (Bruce Dern) with dimensia and a rocky past receives a flyer in the mail that claims that he won a million dollars and that he must go to Nebraska to claim it. He tries to walk to Nebraska on his own several times, but the police bring him home. His family convinces him that it is just a scam, but Dern will not listen. One of his sons (Forte), a manager at an electronics store takes his Father on a road trip to Nebraska, so his Father can claim his million dollars. Even though his son knows that the flyer is just a scam, he wants to become closer to his Father by going on this trip. During the trip, Dern goes to the town where he was raised and where many of his brothers live. Word gets out that Dern is going to become a millionaire and people begin to try to leach off of him This film is filled with humor, sadness, and quite an enriching storyline. The biggest advantage to this film was the choice to put it in black and white. Overall, Dern gives the performance of his lifetime and his nomination is worthy.

2

    “Dallas Buyers Club” Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner Directed by: Jean-Marc Vallée Runtime: 117 minutes Rated: R

      This is probably the most influential film nominated, besides “12 Years a Slave”, due to its toll on the modern-day world. The reason for that is due to the true story from which it was adapted. Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) was a homophobic, skin and bones electrician, who contracted the notorious AIDs virus in the 1980s, which still kills today. FDA approved drugs in the 1980s were useless and actually harmful to treating the virus. This film displays the fight that Ron Woodruff, a drag queen named Rayon (Leto) and a female doctor, Dr. Eve Saks promoted to make a drug that prolonged the lives of AIDs patients, legal. “Dallas Buyers Club” is a very low-budget movie, which in my opinion makes it even more exceptional than it already is. The film is extremely depressing and gives the audience a lot to take in. The hardest part of course is the amount of corruption in the U.S, which caused the drug to be illegal for such a long period of time.

1

     “12 Years a Slave” Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Fassbender, and Brad Pitt Directed by: Steve McQueen Runtime: 134 minutes Rated: R

      Solomon Northup, a free African-American violinist is separated from his family and is put into slavery in the South for 12 years. What an excruciating life! Based off of his Northup’s memoirs, Steve McQueen directs this film fantastically. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Northup. He displays Northup’s struggles with the life of slavery, his dealing with fellow slaves like Patsey (Nyong’o) and slave masters like Epps (Fassbender). Through this two-hour film, encompassing details exhibit the horrors of slavery and the many crimes against humanity. This is my favorite film out of all of the ones nominated. I was very happy when I found out that this won Best Picture.