Have you heard of the Best Picture Showcase? No?! Well, you're in good hands because for the past two years I've been a surviving member of the AMC Theaters Best Picture Showcase club. (Also known as the I Survive Award Show Season club but I digress).
To celebrate what the Academy Awards select as the best of the best from the film industry, AMC Theatres screens the Best Picture nominees in marathons: either a two weekend marathon or over 24 hours (in select theaters)! Finding this little nugget in 2010 this event has become one of my favorite times of the award show season: sitting in a movie theater for twelve hours each for two days watching all the best nominees strut their stuff.
This year, unlike 2010 (my first year attending) I'm going into this Best Picture marathon pretty much blind. Of the nine nominees I've seen only three; one of them I really loved, the other one I loved, and the third almost made me black out.
In anticipation for the big weekend where I will haul my happy rear into the cinemas for two whole days, I'm listing which Best Pictures I'm most looking forward to watching (in somewhat of a particular order) in February! What did you think of the Best Picture nominees?
Zero Dark Thirty.Telling the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, I haven't had much excitement towards Kathryn Bigelow's second Best Picture nominated film. A big fan of The Hurt Locker the film exudes a tone too similar to her first big hit. Amazing, charismatic and fresh face woman of awesomeness Jessica Chastain is a huge drawfor the film but overall I'm just not a moth attracted to the film's flame.
Lincoln A history buff I ambuteven the DNA implantation from Abraham Lincoln to Daniel Day Lewis has me a little weary. Biopics can be a great source of bringing history to the focus of today's fast-moving world and remember where our country once was, and how far we came... but I worry that the script and structure of the film will lag too much I will mentally drift off like I used to in social studies class.
Amour Over the 2012 year there is was a lot of respectful buzz towards this film, and this is one of the movies I predicted in private conversations with my family that might get nominated. I'm happy to see this among the officially nominated. I don't think I'm ever one to shy away from tragic love stories and this one is fitting close to the top of the bill exploring its struggles after one spouse is paralyzed after suffering a stroke.
Life of Pi stars just a young man survives for 227 days after a shipwrecked voyage with a bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Though I wasn't really aware of the original material, the book by Yann Martel has ignited a passion for spirituality with its readers. A big fan of director Ang Lee and not one to shy away from the issues of spirituality, I'm most intrigued to be taken on its adventure.
Les Miserablesis not a movie that I felt lived up to its hype. Perhaps when I saw it, I wasn't as emotionally connected as I could have been. As my mom and sister sobbed great sobs, I was as cool as a cucumber and I wasn't so entranced by the soundtrack either. Try again I will to fall in love with the music, the romance, and the heartbreak of the world-renown-musical-which-continues-to-blow-the-worlds-mind.
Silver Linings Playbookis a movie I really loved with a book I really loved more. But, I am in complete adoration of Bradley Cooper's performance as well as the supporting actors. I hope to come away feeling the same way about Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Tiffany.
Django Unchainedsurpassed my expectations by leaps and bounds. Quentin's writing and direction is truly in top form as well as the cast as he assembled. Completely disappointed that Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't justly and rightly nominated for his performance, I'm happy to be seeing his amazing work again as well as Samuel L. Jackson's supporting role.
Argo George Clooney produced it. Ben Affleck directed and stars in it. So yeah, I'm behind it. But, in all seriousness, my family are definitely, infinitely sure that this one will walk away to be my absolute favorite. Not that Affleck's beautiful face and the films big wins at the Critics Choice Awards won't have a helping hand, its mix of drama, comedy, play on Hollywood and political events are factors I love in most of my favorite movies
Beasts of the Southern Wild While most audiences seem to shirk away from Terrence Malick's beautiful, stunning, and moving The Tree of Life, this is another tiny film I was so looking forward to during the film year and didn't have the opportunity to see. So thankful for the AMC Best Picture Showcase, I am truly anticipating this wondrous film about how life is truly connected in every way possible.