Celebrating OSCAR's Best Actress

Marion, Reese, Julianne, Rosamund and Felicity

All year there's been talk that this is a very weak for the best actress category at the Oscars. Bullshit! There were many fantastic performances, most of them in many movies not considered by Academy members but even the 5 Oscar agreed on are a worthy bunch. Give or take a Jones. Let's look at why this is a fantastic lineup:

Marion Cotillard as Sandra 

 A performance for the ages from an actress at her peak at exactly the time when she's starting to be acknowledged as best of her generation.

Rosamund Pike as Amazing Amy

A star making performance and a character that we will be talking about for years in Amazing Amy.

Julianne Moore as Alice Howland

Another arguable best of her generation capping off years of fantastic character work and finally winning awards that have eluded her so far.

Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed

 A major star cementing her comeback with a critical and commercial hit that announces her as an influential producer.

Felicity Jones as Jane Hawking

Oh and one more. While I didn't like the movie or the performance it is not an embarrassing inclusion as would have been with that other one we avoided. Ahem Aniston.

The top 2 two in this list are my favorite of the year. All hail the continued reign of Cotillard as the best screen actress nowadays and Pike coming into full movie stardom. And I liked Moore and Witherspoon and would be so happy when as expected Moore wins on February 22. The woman behind Cathy Whitaker, Laura Brown and Amber Waves deserves to be an Oscar winner. 

As for other performances I liked, maybe Scarlett Johnasson (Under the Skin), Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow/Into the Woods), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beyond the Lights) and Essie Davis (The Babadook) will be nominees one day.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler

Wow. The marketing for Nightcrawler (2014) is genius. Look at that poster. Fantastic.  Retro, modern and enticing all the way.

And that wasn't even the first piece of marketing that we saw. This past weekend a one of kind clip of Jake Gyllenhaal in character looking all scrawny and desperate while trying to find a job, surfaced. Check it out below. "Hard Worker Seeking Employment" indeed!!




And riffing on the same theme we get the first teaser. Astonishing. Good job marketing people.



Everyone is talking Reese Witherspoon comeback this year. Rightly so with Wild and Inherent Vice coming later this year. But the biggest comeback story might be her ex, Jake. He has been steadily choosing excellent showcases for his talent the last couple of years. I loved both End of Watch (2012) and Prisoners (2013), liked Enemy (2013) but he was great in all three. Could Nightcrawler be the one that finally brings him back to bonafide stardom. Judging by this evidence it just might be. He's come a long way from Prince of Persia. We want the Brokeback Jake!!

What do you think? Tell all in the comments.

Mud

For some reason I'm excited by the trailer for Mud, the new movie from Take Shelter's Jeff Nichols and starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon. Maybe its the buzz from last May's Cannes where the film was warmly received, maybe because it continues McConaughey's stellar year into 2013. Maybe I'm just hoping Witherspoon finally made another good movie.Can't really say why.

 Check it out below. Will you be in line April 26?