(Oscar Contender) films Ive seen this year: - The Imitation - TopicsExpress

(Oscar Contender) films Ive seen this year: - The Imitation Game - Wild - Birdman - Selma - Gone Girl - St. Vincent - Whiplash - Nightcrawler - Boyhood - American Sniper Still need to see: - Foxcatcher - The Theory of Everything - Mr. Turner - A Most Violent Year - Big Hero 6 - The Book of Life - Citizenfour - Best actor is going to be seriously tough to call this year, Cumberbatch was a truly conflicted/tragic martyr or historical hero in Imitation Game Im sure the academy digs his personal specific dilemmas in the movie. Michael Keaton was just phenomenal in Birdman, that was one of the first big contenders I saw and I immediately thought hed be a no brainer, everything about that movie was just so well done - the cinematography of Manhattan, the directing (so many long cuts: my favorite filming style), and the music; and Keaton played a comical version of himself. JK Simmons in Whiplash completely took me by surprise. I always took Simmons as a simple character actor, or J Jonah Jameson, like I said he completely blew me out of the water with his performance in Whiplash, which is also easily one of my favorite films of the year, he basically played the R Lee Ermey of music teachers. Not sure if Ethan Hawke or Ellar Coltrane are going to pick up nominations for Boyhood, in my opinion really the film as a whole and as a project was great, but nothing about it specifically impressed me that much. As of right now, and after seeing the film last night the person I feel is in the strongest running to win best actor has to be David Oyelowo for playing Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, being nearly identical to the real life King in almost every respect, at times I forgot I was watching a movie - with a subject so massive as MLKs life they were wise to focus on the micro issue of the Selma marches that fought for voting restrictions to be removed during the Civil Rights movement, it helped the film avoid being too long and prevented it from spreading out too thin; it was focused and gut wrenching. - I still really need to see Foxcatcher, as a long time fan of Steve Carrel that movie looks absolutely terrifying - Im sure watching it I wont be able to recognize Steve Carrel nor ever look at him the same way again; Id also like to see Channing Tatum prove his prove his worth as an accomplished actor a little bit more. Other than that I absolutely cannot wait to watch A Most Violent Year, crime movies are my all time favorite genre of movies and Oscar Issac is becoming one of my new favorite up and coming actors, cant wait to see him play Apocalypse in the new X-Men and the new characer in Star Wars Ep VII