IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS: 2013 Oscar Nominations - Reaction!

Yesterday, the Academy Award Nominations for the films of 2012 were announced...and let me just say: Whoa!!!  I mean, the prognosticators were thrown for a major loop.  And so were the Oscar record books!  So now, it is time for me to run through the major categories and give you all my (somewhat!) initial reactions to the names that appeared (and didn't appear!) on yesterday's list of nominees.

• Again with the 9 nominees for Best Picture!  I was fairly sure that six of the nine were guaranteed (Lincoln, Argo, Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Misérables and Silver Linings Playbook) and throwing one more in the mix was not a shock (Django Unchained).  I'm not even surprised by the momentum "outsider" films gained during this awards season (Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild).  But with this new "between 5 and 10 films nominated" rule the Academy has, if just 9 films get nominated again next year, it will truly feel forced!
• I am quite surprised that The Master's Joaquin Phoenix didn't ace himself out of a nomination with his very public and very graphic chiding of the process actors are "forced" to go through in order to obtain an Oscar nod (no matter how right he was!).  Unfortunately his inclusion means the exclusion of The Sessions' John Hawkes who, according to many critics, gave one of the best performances of the year (and he had scored both Golden Globe and Screen Actors' Guild nominations!).
• With 85 year-old Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) and 9 year-old Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), the average age of the Best Actress nominees falls somewhere around 40 - an age that, in Hollywood, is NOT considered "Lead Actress material!"  How Hollywood has changed!!!  Maybe not that much since either 35 year-old Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) or 22 year-old Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) will most likely be the eventual winner!
• For the first time (at least that I can currently recall!), ALL of the nominees for Best Supporting Actor are previous Oscar winners: Alan Arkin, Robert De Niro, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Tommy Lee Jones and Christoph Waltz.  As for a front-runner, it is still a toss-up (although both Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Tommy Lee Jones are the first names mentioned among the critics!).
• With Jacki Weaver garnering her second Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress, she helps put David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook into the elite club of films that had acting nominations in all four categories (this club includes films like Warren Beatty's Reds, Mike Nichols' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire).  Despite all that, Les Misérables' Anne Hathaway is still going to win!
• Jeffrey Katzenberg must be somewhere licking his wounds.  After the poor box-office performance and mixed reviews of the holiday-themed movie Rise of the Guardians, it was pushed out of the Animated Film category by not one...not two...but THREE Disney films - Brave, Frankenweenie and Wreck-It Ralph.  Good thing Dreamworks has Lincoln carrying the studio banner at this year's ceremony!
• In the writing categories, it is small consolation that Wes Anderson's critically lauded comedy Moonrise Kingdom got some recognition.  But it's still disturbing that original and creative genre fare like Looper (science-fiction) and Brave (animated fantasy) get ignored.  Also, is there some scientology-themed conspiracy in Hollywood against Paul Thomas Anderson?  Though The Master has lost some awards momentum, many thought he would at least get his fourth writing nomination.  I would also like to point out that I was one of the few people I know that correctly predicted each of the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay (Lincoln, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo and Beasts of the Southern Wild).  Just want to get that fact in there, folks!
• And lastly, what the hell is going on in the Academy's Directors branch!?!?!  Are they afraid of ticking off the CIA so they choose NOT to nominate Ben Affleck (Argo) and Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)?  Did the mixed reception that Les Misérables and Django Unchained each got from the critics dismay them from including Tom Hooper or Quentin Tarantino, respectively?  Entertainment Weekly's own Owen Gleiberman pointed out that it is odd that FOUR major Hollywood players are excluded from an albeit very crowded category.  Did the branch just clear the way for Steven Spielberg to obtain his third Best Director Oscar?  Maybe!!!

With all this and more going on in Hollywood, it will be an interesting month as the prognosticators try to figure out what the Academy is thinking and what film will be in the Winners' Circle at the end of February.  So let's relax now and listen to Adele has she sings her way to yet another award!

LET'S REVIEW: A Defense of Les Miz...

It's a brand new year and I thought it would be time to introduce a brand new column.  Occasionally, I will give my readers a review of a Movie, TV Series, Play or Book that is bouncing around in our Pop Culture consciousness.  And to begin, I thought I would open with the long-awaited film adaptation of the mega-hit stage musical Les Misérables, directed by The King's Speech's Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper.  The overall critical reaction to the film has been mixed.  But what I am seeing in most of the reviews, both negative and positive, is a not-so-surprising trend in the critics reviewing it.  The ones who really loved it (and there were quite a few!), were already in love with the musical from it's previous stage productions.  The ones who really loathed it (and there were quite a few!), did not like the stage musical already (which then begs the question as to why their respective publication would have them review the film version, but I digress!).  Now granting the fact that I am enamored with the stage musical already, it is not too far of a leap to believe that I was equally impressed with the film version.  I was.  But that is not to say I do not understand or disagree with some of the criticisms thrown at Hooper's adaptation.  In some of the cases, I see their points.  But in most of those cases, it comes down to typical critical nit-picking.  Is it the greatest stage-to-screen musical adaptation? No; not when films like My Fair Lady, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Fiddler On the Roof and Chicago exist.  But is it the most disappointing stage-to-screen musical adaptation? Certainly not; not when films like Annie, The Wiz, A Chorus Line, Hair and The Phantom of the Opera exist. These are truly sad when you think of the talented directors behind each of those films: John Huston, Sidney Lumet, Richard Attenborough, Milos Forman and Joel Schumacher, respectively (I know Schumacher can be quite awful, but he's also had some good films!).  So LET'S REVIEW!

First and foremost, let's go through the most crucial thing when adapting a successful stage musical to the big screen: casting.  Casting a big brassy musical like Les Miz is made even harder these days particularly because of the expectations of the audience, the "non-acceptance" of lip-syncing (sorry Marni Nixon!), the boldness of the difficult score and the lack of truly talented "A-List" actors.  All that being said, Hooper could not have found a better Jean Valjean than Hugh Jackman.  For Les Miz (any production!), the strength of it ultimately lies on the shoulders of the actor playing Valjean.  As the central role of the story (which has been adapted more times than any Shakespeare play, thanks to its several French adaptations!), the actor playing Valjean has to run a gamut of emotions from convict to respected factory owner to unexpected father to man-on-the-run to willing revolutionary.  In the musical, add singing difficult songs like "Who Am I?" and "Bring Him Home" and you have a character that is extremely difficult to cast.  But in Hugh Jackman (known to audiences as Wolverine from the X-Men films), Hooper got an actor who uses every piece of himself as both an actor and a performer (he is, after all, a Tony Award-winning musical star!).  His voice is strong, his acting is perfect and his looks (which change throughout the film, spanning 20 years!) match every time.  It is truly the performance of his career.

But Valjean is not the only character crucial to the casting process of Les Miz.  As with most musicals, the female characters become the thing that Broadway purists and fans become obsessed over.  And thanks to the likes of a cherubic singer (and YouTube sensation) named Susan Boyle, the casting of Fantine is almost equally crucial to the casting of Valjean (even though the character only appears in 30 minutes of the entire 3 hour musical!).  Fans love this character (partly because the original 1985 London production cast Broadway legend Patti LuPone as Fantine!).  But once again, Hooper cast the proper person giving the performance of her career.  Anne Hathaway, who has shown her musical chops here and there on film before, truly transformed herself to play the tragic character that is Fantine.  And her rendition of the iconic "I Dreamed a Dream" is overwhelmingly impressive, especially when  you hear she completed the scene in one take (take that Sinatra!).  She IS the front-runner in the Supporting Actress category at every Awards this season (and should obtain an Oscar nod come Thursday!).

With Jackman and Hathaway taking most of the praise (albeit deserving!), most of the critics take their "vengeance" out on some of the other actors in the principal roles.  And in Russell Crowe, unfortunately, they have rather an easy target.  Unlike Jackman and Hathaway, Academy Award-winner Crowe is not extremely well-known for his musical "talents" (he has a rock band, folks!).  He also has never had the friendliest relationship with the press (he's had incidents with papparazzi that make Sean Penn look like a Care Bear!).  And in a role like Javert, expectations are very high (and in Crowe's case, almost unfairly high!).  You see, Crowe is obviously not used to or comfortable with this style of singing (usually known as "recitative").  He uses all of his intense method-acting skills to try to cover his discomfort and sometimes it works (other times...not really!).  But then I think to myself: Who else really could have played this role in this adaptation?  You see, there are certain criteria the studio, the creatives and the audience has in the casting of Javert...and each one's criteria is very different from the other!  Every adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel has a Javert that is of equal caliber in both ability and star quality to the man playing Valjean (since most versions are French, you're just going to have to trust me!).  You  need an "A-List" actor to play opposite Hugh Jackman's "A-List" casting of Valjean.  So run through the list of "A-List" actors in your mind who could: 1) Act the role of Javert (cause let's face it, he needs to be a quality actor!) and 2) Actually sing! And not just sing, but be willing to step outside a "comfort zone" and sing this style of music.  In that last respect, Crowe stepped up.  He's not perfect, which is unfortunate, but he is not so-bad-you-want-to-forget-he-was-cast-in-the-first-place (Gerard Butler, I'm looking at you!).

The rest of the principals fit their roles well.  Eddie Redmayne, who plays the lovelorn Marius, was the biggest surprise with a sweet and lush tenor voice and an emotional quality I rarely get out of most guys who have played Marius.  In the role of Eponine, Hooper took a chance and cast the unknown Samantha Barks (who has played the role on stage in the UK).  She is not only talented but extremely beautiful (which might sometimes work against the Eponine that exists in Hugo's novel, but who cares?!?!).  As the treacherous Thenardiers, Helena Bonham-Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen are well-cast.  I mean, they would be on my list if I were casting (so if you had problems with them, that's on you!).  Broadway star Aaron Tveit gives the Tony-winning role of Enjolras a mix of pretty-boy good looks and strong musical chops.  And as Cosette, Amanda Seyfried is fine (with what she has to do!).  I always feel Cosette gets the short end of the stick in the muscial as far as material goes.  I think that is why I have rarely seen a Cosette that can match the quality of either the original London Cosette (Rebecca Caine) or the original Broadway Cosette (Judy Kuhn).  So with that said, Seyfried (whose voice is surely not as strong as Caine's or Kuhn's) is pretty good and very pretty to watch.

And now on to the criticism that is at the forefront of most of the nay-sayers out there.  In The King's Speech, Tom Hooper used close-ups and the wide-angle lenses to give us the "fishbowl" quality of a royal life.  And even there, some people didn't like it.  In Les Miz, Hooper once again uses a ton of close-ups and strange angles to give us an intimate quality that he feels balances against the epic quality of the original story (and stage production!).  But I am going to venture another theory as to why this technique works and why Victor Hugo himself would have loved it.  With all the close-ups and strange tilted angles, we the audience feel extremely like a fly on that "fourth wall" that exists in both the theatre and the movies.  The audience is shoved right into the action and is right up close to the peasants and convicts and thieves and revolutionaries and whores of Hugo's world.  And Hugo would have wanted it that way.  The point of his original novel, Les Misérables, was to shove this world of poverty right in the faces of the bourgeoisie he so loathed in many of his works.  These close angles are supposed to give intimacy and a certain level of discomfort.  Hugo would have wanted nothing less.

So to all the negative critics out there, I say this is a great musical film adaptation that should be viewed by both fans of the original and those who are not familiar with the material.  I would love to see it on Oscar's list of Best Picture nominees come this Thursday!

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL! - The 12 Days of Pop Culture

For my final post of 2012, I thought I would do something special for Christmas (as it is in two days!).  I wanted to go through some of the things our wonderful Pop Culture has given us that are influences in my life.  Some of them are franchises, some of them are TV shows and some of them are just good plain fun!  So without further adieu, here is my special:

THE 12 DAYS OF POP CULTURE!

ON THE 12TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

12 Star Trek Movies

There is a theory that certain Star Trek films (Wrath of Khan, Undiscovered Country, First Contact) are better than others (The Motion Picture, Generations, Insurrection).  And though I don't really disagree, overall I would say this franchise has certainly made me quite happy (flaws and all!).  And with the 12th Trek film (Star Trek Into Darkness) coming out in Summer 2013, I will certainly be one of the "Trekkies" standing in line on opening day!

ON THE 11TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

11 Disney Princesses

Growing up with Disney as a major influence in my life, I certainly cannot ignore the numerous Princesses they have in their film line-up.  It was in the early 2000s though that someone in the Disney Marketing Department decided to turn these singing ladies into a diabolical money-making franchise.  They started with six initially (Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine).  They soon added Pocahontas and Mulan to the mix (despite the former only "technically" a Princess and the latter not being one at all!!!).  With the recent releases of The Princess and the Frog and Tangled, in came Tiana and Rapunzel.  And now with the Disney/Pixar flick Brave, lead character Merida will be added to the group come the new year.  (For those who agree with me and don't like counting Mulan, you can throw Enchanted's Gisele in her place despite that being mostly a live-action Disney film!)

ON THE 10TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

10 Seth MacFarlanes

It seems like Seth MacFarlane is everywhere now!  He had a hit movie over the summer (Ted) and will be hosting the 2013 Academy Awards (censors be on guard!!!).  And, of course, we cannot forget his immensely popular TV empire: his FOX Animated sitcoms Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show.  Within this empire, MacFarlane himself voices 10 regular characters on all three shows together.  On Family Guy, he voices Griffin family members Peter, Brian and Stewie along with neighbor Glenn Quagmire, Carter Pewterschmidt (Peter's father-in-law), newsman Tom Tucker and Quahog's resident physician Dr. Hartman.  On American Dad!, he voices lead characters Stan Smith and alien Roger; while over on spin-off Cleveland Show, he voices neighbor Tim the Bear (if you've never seen the show, don't ask!).  That's a lot of personalities for one man to have inside him (and yes, I know what I just said!).

ON THE 9TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

9 Christmas Specials

In my childhood, Christmas was a time to watch some great Holiday TV.  And there were 9 Animated ones that were musts in my family.  There was A Garfield Christmas and A Claymation Christmas Special that were new during my childhood.  There were always the Rankin/Bass specials, of which 3 were the best: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and Frosty the Snowman.  There were two very important Animated versions of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: Mr. Magoo's and Mickey Mouse's. But the two that were the most important were Dr. Seuss' classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas (not the Jim Carrey one!) and the beloved A Charlie Brown Christmas.

ON THE 8TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

8 Harry Potters

He's protected a stone, escaped a secret chamber, hidden a prisoner, "gobletted" his way through a tournament, joined an order, studied a half-blood prince and even faced death itself.  No matter how you cut it, we're just wild about Harry Potter!  Though J.K. Rowling only wrote 7 books, the people at Warner Brothers decided to split the final book into two installments.  Therefore, they gave audiences 8 chances to put the boy wizard with the lightning scar and his friends in film franchise history as the biggest money-making movie series of all time.  However, this has now spawned a bunch of copycats in that they want to split a book (or a series' final book) into two or three films (see Twilight, The Hunger Games and The Hobbit!).

ON THE 7TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

7 Star Wars Movies

Growing up, George Lucas' first three Star Wars films (Episodes IV through VI, if you're counting!) were like a religion in my household (thanks to my brother!).  And while the prequels have gone down as paling in comparison to the glory that is the original trilogy, I was still there on opening day of all three of those bastards!  And even though the Animated Clone Wars film made me want to throw an Ewok off the Endor moon, I'm still excited by the possibility of yet another Star Wars movie now that Disney has picked up the franchise and future development rights.

ON THE 6TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

6 Different Bonds

I already spoke this year about my appreciation for the James Bond films.  And on that list, there was at least one film of each of the six actors who have taken on the role of the superspy (especially in George Lazenby's case!).

ON THE 5TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

5 Muppet Show Seasons!

This one is fairly self-explanatory (and if it isn't, you can all brush up on your Googling!).

ON THE 4TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

4 Jack Sparrows

Who knew Disney could manage to make a lot of money and some pretty exciting films (though the fourth one is kind of a tedious vehicle!) based on a singular Disney ride?  The popular attraction has now resurrected Johnny Depp as a bankable movie star and produced some very interesting characters (from Orlando Bloom's Errol Flynn-like Will Turner to Keira Knightley's lovely Elizabeth Swann or Geoffrey Rush's opportunistic Barbosa to Ian McShane's wicked Blackbeard!).

ON THE 3RD DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

3 Frodo Films

With the first of Peter Jackson's three Hobbit prequels out this month, I was greatly reminded of Jackson's brilliant trilogy which basically began the 21st Century.  All three films got nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award in their respective years and the final installment triumphed in winning all 11 of the categories for which it was nominated (including Best Picture!).

ON THE 2ND DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

2 Brothers Grimm

This one has a double meaning!  It is true that there were two Grimm Brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm) who helped to popularize the classic folk and fairy tales for Western Culture.  And it has been said that the two brothers were completely different in personality.  It is believed that elder brother Jacob, the philosopher, had an affinity for the darker side of the tales; while younger brother Wilhelm had a yen for the romantic side of them (as Romanticism was becoming quite popular throughout Europe at the time!).  And now it seems that things have come full circle as two extremely popular and extremely different drama series air on TV.  On NBC, Grimm modernizes the tales and fits them more into a dark and gritty crime procedural that Jacob might have enjoyed.  Meanwhile over on ABC, Once Upon a Time's modernization is mixed with the romanticism (and serial soap opera-style) of the fairy tale world that would have appealed to young Wilhelm.

AND..

ON THE 1ST DAY OF CHRISTMAS, POP CULTURE GAVE TO ME...

A Road Made of Yellow Brick!

And what Holiday season would be complete without a trip over the rainbow?  During my childhood, L. Frank Baum's glorious and magical land of Oz was quite a favorite of mine.  It was brilliantly showcased on the big screen in 1939's classic movie musical (a gem for all to see!) and has been adapted in several ways from books (novels and comic books!) to the stage (see Wicked!).  Sometimes I feel all I need is a walk down a Yellow Brick Road to make me feel in good spirits.  Perfect for any season (Holiday or no Holiday!).

HAPPY CHRISTMAKWANZUKUH!

AND SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR!

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS: Finding Our Humanity

Sometimes things happen for which there are really no words.  And when such things occur, that's when everybody (and their brother!) has something to say.

Usually it is always some form of blame.  Over this weekend, I have watched and read and heard (as has most of all of you!) as TV pundits, newspapers, my friends, my family and (of course) the Internet have theorized, accused, opined and grieved over the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT that killed 26 people (including 20 children) on Friday, December 14, 2012.  Amid the cacophony were people looking for a solution to such tragedies.  But the ultimate answer to that is that there is none.  And I don't mean we should let things like this happen, because they shouldn't and we shouldn't.  But what I mean is that there isn't just one solution to the multiple problems that led to a horrible crime against nature like the one on Friday.

Of course there are the legal and medical questions.  How did such a young man obtain so many assault rifles?  Why was this young man, who was said by those who knew him to have a "severe personality disorder," not under a physician or therapist's care?  Several articles have been written about renewing the Gun Control argument and several politicians have spoken about the issue.  Blog posts have been dedicated to chiding the mental health community and health care in general.  There even has been the point made (and it is not the first time!) that the Media is in part to blame for such an event.  And while I don't agree that Media is entirely responsible, I will say our 24/7 "need-to-get-the-story-out-first" Media outlets (run by the "dreaded" Corporations!) do not help in such matters and oftentimes make certain things worse.

Ah, the Corporations!  They run our insurance companies.  They control our TV Networks, Hollywood Studios and Publishing Houses.  And they even lobby our government to let them have such monopolies (no offense to Parker Brothers!).  And I would even agree (to an extent!) that the overall Corporation-ing of our culture has made us lose a bit of ourselves.  I mean, when I think of how much certain companies own in this society, I am reminded of the great Benjamin Franklin quote:

• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

We have given a lot of things up in the name of safety, convenience and even (ironically!) communication.  But, with all respects to Dr. Franklin, I don't think it is just liberty or freedom we have "given up."  I think we have, in several ways, sacrificed our humanity.

And yes, I know I am not the first person to say such a thing, but I feel at this time (more than ever) it is important for people to remember.  We need to take back our humanity.  And it begins with us...on the individual level.  We need to check-in with each other, talk to each other and be there for each other.  We have all these things at our disposal - Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), E-Mail and all kinds of cell phones! - and we are not using them to communicate.

So I charge you, my readers, to go out and actually communicate with the people in your lives.  Find out about them.  See how they are.  If they have a problem, listen to them or help them if you're able.  Use the mediums at your disposal if you need.  And don't just do it over the Holiday season.  Do it all year round.  We cannot let people slip through the cracks in our society.

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS: Oscar Season Begins!

Clockwise: Sally Field and Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln; Alan Arkin and Ben Affleck in Argo; Stephen Dillane and Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty; Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables

Well readers, it's been a month since my last post and it was a very well-deserved vacation!  And now that we are heading into Winter, there is one thing that is on everyone's mind in Hollywood: The Oscars and who will be nominated this time around.  The nominations will not be announced until the morning of January 13th and it is during the month of December that those ballots will be filled out by Academy voters as to which of this year's films deserve the top prize.  Because the Oscars have moved their schedule up an entire month, all the other awards on the circuit have tried to accommodate that with the Golden Globes (the most high-profile Oscar precursor) announcing their nominees next Thursday.  So which films are the front-runners in the race to be nominated for the biggest award?  Well there are certainly a few.  And with the Academy's new rule that allows for anywhere from 5 to 10 films to be nominated for Best Picture, the race has become that much harder to predict.

However, amid all the predictions are 3 films that are definitely going to be in prominent contention come Oscar night.  When Argo was released in September, Ben Affleck received the best reviews of his career (as a director, actor and co-screenwriter).  His thrilling and suspenseful adaptation about a secret CIA mission to retrieve American Embassy workers during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis was far and wide considered a surefire bet for Best Picture.  In addition to Argo, critics then lauded the most recent Steven Spielberg film, Lincoln.  In this stunning political biopic, two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis has received raves for his role as the 16th President of the United States and is in definite contention for a third Best Actor statue.   But the buzziest film of 2012's Oscar season has yet to be released for audiences.  Academy Award winner Tom Hooper's adaptation of the iconic stage musical Les Misérables has been receiving Oscar buzz ever since the first trailer appeared in theaters over the summer (especially for Best Supporting Actress contender Anne Hathaway) and will not be released until Christmas Day.  So at this time, I have seen both Argo and Lincoln and can assure you that both deserve the attention they are getting.  I will soon be seeing Les Misérables (thanks to a perk, I'll get to see it a week before Christmas Day!), so I will be able to let you know if the buzz is correct in placing it alongside the other two.

But in the last few days, another film has been getting attention that most likely would have belonged to the three films mentioned above.  Kathryn Bigelow, who two years ago made history when she became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker, has made yet another topical film that has captured awards attention.  And that film is Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow's adaptation of the operation that took down Osama Bin Laden.  Over the weekend, the New York Film Critics named Bigelow's movie the Best Picture of the year with the National Board of Review following suit just a few days later.  The National Board of Review also named Bigelow Best Director and star Jessica Chastain as the year's Best Actress.  However, my father pointed out that these wins may have more to do with the movie's subject matter than with the merits of the movie itself (even if it is a great film!).  But with these new developments, I would not be surprised to see Zero Dark Thirty (a film I have yet to see and now have more interest in seeing!) among the top contenders come Oscar time.

There are two other films that are getting mentioned (at least by the critics) when it comes to the contenders for Best Picture.  One is David O. Russell's dark relationship comedy Silver Linings Playbook which stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as two people with deep personal problems who connect with each other despite several differences.  The film is being hailed across the board and Lawrence is considered the top front-runner for Best Actress.  And Bradley Cooper shouldn't be out of the mix either having won the National Board of Review's Best Actor award (over Daniel Day-Lewis!).  The other film being mentioned is Ang Lee's sweeping Life of Pi, which garnered much praise after being viewed at the New York Film Festival.  Several critics pegged it as a surefire Best Picture contender.  And with Ang Lee's previous Oscar pedigree (winning Best Director in 2006 for Brokeback Mountain and Best Foreign Language Film in 2001 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), it has a pretty good shot with the critics behind it.

Now I could leave these predictions at six films, but what kind of Oscar predictor would that make me?  There are several other films that are being mentioned on message boards (and by a few critics).  There's Paul Thomas Anderson's faux-Scientology drama The Master (which won at the Cannes Film Festival) and Benh Zeitlin's critically-lauded Beasts of the Southern Wild (which won at Sundance).  The Denzel Washington-led Flight and Quentin Tarantino's new film Django Unchained (which is an homage to "Spaghetti Westerns") are also audience faves (even though Django Unchained is yet-to-be-released!) Let's not forget the Foreign Film Amour, which won Europe's top Film prize and is on several critics' top 10 lists.  And among all these typical awards-fare, three franchise films (or genre pics!) are being thrown into the conversation.  Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Sam Mendes' Bond film Skyfall are all on some lists when talking about Best Picture.  All this said, it shall be a very interesting mix of movies being lauded at the Academy Awards this time around.