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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Personal Favorites for 2012

This list is NOT my official Oscar nomination predictions. This list is simply my personal favorites for the year. Official list to come!

Best Picture
I can't say I'm completely on the Lincoln bandwagon. Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing, but it's otherwise an overlong exercise in historical political talk. My favorite film is David O. Russell's dramedy Silver Linings Playbook, superbly acted, funny and touching. Flight, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables and Life of Pi are also favorites.

Best Actor
The Oscar will no doubt go to Daniel Day-Lewis for his stunning turn as Abe Lincoln in Lincoln, but my favorite this year is Denzel Washington for Flight, a strong tour-de-force performance as an alcoholic pilot that I feel is his career best, even better than his Oscar-winning turn in Training Day.

Best Actress
This is a tie for me. I loved both Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook and Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty. Lawrence was so charming and winning in Silver Linings, while Chastain was impressive in a very layered, complex role in Zero Dark Thirty. Good to see the rising of the next generation of great actresses.

Best Supporting Actor
Tommy Lee Jones wins this hands down in my opinion. He stole every moment he was in Lincoln and was as good or even better than Daniel Day-Lewis. A close second is Australian Jason Clarke, who gave the drama Zero Dark Thirty some verve as a crackling CIA agent.

Best Supporting Actress
Two words: Anne Hathaway. Though not all critics loved Les Miserables, we were pretty much all in agreement that Hathaway's performance as Fantine was simply breathtaking. This award is as much hers as Daniel Day-Lewis has the Best Actor category sewn up.

Best Director
I love Quentin Tarantino. A big fan of Spielberg. Enjoy Wes Anderson. But I feel the best director this year was David O. Russell for the affecting and superb Silver Linings Playbook. A lesser director could've easily down a much more sentimental route, but Russell went with the characters first, and it paid off greatly.


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