Academy Award Nominations: Lots of Love for "Gravity" and "American Hustle"

It's like Christmas for cinephiles; the Academy Awards nominations were announced this morning. Gravity and American Hustle lead the way with 10 nominations each, "12 Years a Slave" is just behind with 9 nominations. Coming off a strong showing at the Golden Globes, "Dallas Buyers Club" has proven formidable with Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor wins. Surprisingly enough, Tom Hanks was not nominated for either major appearance in a film this year, for Best Actor in "Captain Phillips" or Best Supporting Actor in "Saving Mr. Banks." Speaking of, Emma Thompson who portrayed Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers in the Disney film was not nominated either, and had been considered a lock at a nomination. It seems the Academy told Disney to "go fly a kite." Other snubs include "Fruitvale Station" and "Lee Daniel's The Butler," a Civil Rights drama about a butler who served seven presidents. I'm happy that "The Great Gatsby" got some love in costuming.

2013 Oscar Reflections and Official Picks

This is a very unique Oscar season for me; it’s the first in several years that I’ve actually seen almost half of the movies that were nominated for Best Picture. Being in a new town and not knowing a lot of folks, I’ve turned to seeing movies probably more often as I should. (Seeing movies in this market is muy expensivo!) But it’s been nice to get caught up, because between going to the theater  and Redbox I’ve seen a lot of flicks that I’d missed in the last year or so. With the Oscar broadcast later this evening, I thought I’d reflect on the movies that I’ve seen. Because I haven’t seen all of the nominees, my picks will be biased, but you’ll just have to bear with me. First, a reflection/ mini-review of each film, since I haven’t been able to do a full review of them all.