Jessica Chastain Age: 35 Film: Zero Dark Thirty Role: Maya, the driven CIA operative who after being recruited out of high school spends the better part of a decade (and her entire professional life) actively searching for Osama bin Laden until she finally finds him and convinces her superiors to …
Runtime: 1 hour, 38 minutes Rating: PG-13 Directors: Jonathan Levine Quick Impressions: I’ve never liked zombies. Nobody with a brain should date one. They’ll fall apart on you! Okay that was zombie humor. But seriously, zombies do nothing for me. Vampires are seductive. Werewolves are tormented. Ghosts are haunted. Zombies …
Alan ArkinAge: 78 Film: Argo Role: Lester Siegel, the veteran Hollywood producer who agrees to help CIA operative Mendez make a fake movie in order to rescuesix Americans who escaped from the Iranian Embassy during the Hostage Crisis. Nomination History:Won Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2007 for Little Miss Sunshine …
Runtime: 2 hours, 7 minutesRating: PG-13 Director: Michael Haneke Quick Impressions: All day long, the Hopkins poem “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child” has been running through my mind (probably because I took a long walk with my daughter who kept pointing out that the trees and stiff reeds …
Bradley Cooper Age: 38 Film: Silver Linings Playbook Role: Pat Solitano, a thirty-something man struggling to make sense of a new diagnosis of bipolar disorder after a violent episode and attempting to reconcile with his wife despite her restraining order against him. Nomination History: This is Cooper’s first nomination. Why …
Amy Adams Age: 38 Film: The Master Role: Peggy, the devoted (and controlling) wife of charismatic, up-and-coming cult leader Lancaster Dodd, the thinly veiled fictional equivalent of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Nomination History: Previously nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Junebug (2005), Doubt (2008), and The Fighter (2010). Why She …
Runtime: 2 hours, 37 minutes Rating: R Director: Kathryn Bigelow Quick Impressions: I’ve got to say, sitting in a darkened movie theater watching CIA operatives interrogate terrorists while all around me my fellow Americans munch popcorn and slurp drinks is a pretty surreal experience. Even putting aside what Zero Dark Thirty is trying to …
Runtime: 1 hour, 43 minutes Rating: PG-13 Director: Juan Antonio Bayona Quick Impressions: The tsunami of December 26, 2004, made a profound impression on me. I always associate it with the death of my grandmother. Even though Grandma died at home in bed months earlier, the two events got mixed …
Runtime: 2 hours, 38 minutes Rating: PG-13 Director: Tom Hooper Quick Impressions: I first saw the musical Les Misérables on the stage in London in the summer of 2000. To be honest, it was a slightly disappointing and, at times, bewildering experience. The show seemed very rushed (as if they were trying …
Runtime: 2 hours, 21 minutes Rating: R Director: Quentin Tarantino Quick Impressions: We saw this movie in a packed house (at 9:20 pm) with an exceptionally responsive audience, and I was very excited about the whole thing. I love that Quentin Tarantino these days seems to have the freedom to …
