A Separation

 My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

(2011)
Language: Persian
Genre: Drama
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Writer: Asghar Farhadi
Producers: Negar Eskandarfar, Asghar Farhadi

  

Nominee

Synopsis: Set in contemporary Iran, A Separation is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage. Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh. Simin sues for divorce when Nader refuses to leave behind his Alzheimer-suffering father. Her request having failed, Simin returns to her parents' home, but Termeh decides to stay with Nader. When Nader hires a young woman to assist with his father in his wife's absence, he hopes that his life will return to a normal state. However, when he discovers that the new maid has been lying to him, he realizes that there is more on the line than just his marriage. -- (Written by Sony Pictures)

Cast:

• Leila Hatami
• Payman Maadi
• Sareh Bayat
• Shahab Hosseini
• Sarina Farhadi

IMDb - A Separation

My Week with Marilyn

My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

(2011)

Genre: Biography/Drama

Director: Simon Curtis

Writers: Adrian Hodges, Colin Clarke

Producers: Kelly Carmichael, Cleone Clarke, Mark Cooper, David Parfitt, Colin Vaines, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein

   

Nominee

Synopsis: In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of 'The Prince and the Showgirl'. The film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Aurthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Nearly 40 years on, his diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as My Week with Marilyn - this is the story of that week. When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work. -- (C) (Written by Weinstein)

Cast:

• Michelle Williams
• Eddie Redmayne
• Kenneth Branagh
• Emma Watson
• Toby Jones

IMDb - My Week with Marilyn

Hugo

 My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

 (2011)

Genre: Adventure/Drama

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writers: John Logan, Brian Selznick

Producers: David Crockett, Babara De Fina, Christi Dembrowski, Johnny Depp, Tim Headington, Georgia Kacandes, Graham King, Charles Newirth, Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff

  

Nominee

Synopsis: Throughout his extraordinary career, Academy Award-wining director Martin Scorsese has brought his unique vision and dazzling gifts to life in a series of unforgettable films. This holiday season the legendary storyteller invites you to join him on a thrilling journey to a magical world with his first-ever 3-D film, based on Brian Selznick's award-winning, imaginative New York Times best-seller, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." Hugo is the astonishing adventure of a wily and resourceful boy whose quest to unlock a secret left to him by his father will transform Hugo and all those around him, and reveal a safe and loving place he can call home. -- (C) (Written by Paramount Pictures)

Cast:

• Asa Butterfield
• Chloë Grace Moretz
• Ben Kingsley
• Sacha Baron Cohen
• Emily Mortimer
• Christopher Lee
• Helen McCrory
• Jude Law

IMDb - Hugo

Short Review: This film is utterly beautiful, and so so entertaining. Everything about it is exquisite, and I love the French Jazz style soundtrack. This is really so many of my favourite aspects of film, in one movie. The only criticisms that I have are the following: I feel Chloë Moretz overacts in some scenes, which I was surprised at, because I respect her and the parts she has played in past films. Secondly, I feel that it was wrong to promote this film as entirely a children's movie. Simply because the majority of the film explores specific areas of film history - something that I cannot imagine a child being interested in, and enjoying. Apart from these two points, the film is perfectly amazing.

The Skin I Live In

 My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

 (2011)

Language: Spanish

Genre: Thriller/Drama

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Writer: Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro Almodóvar, Thierry Jonquet

Producers: Agustín Almodóvar, Bábara Peiró Aso, Esther García

Nominee

Synopsis: Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig...-- (C) (Written by Sony Pictures)

Cast:

• Antonio Banderas
• Elena Anaya
• Marisa Paredes
• Jan Cornet
• Bianca Suárez

IMDb - The Skin I Live In

The Descendants

 My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

(2011)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Director: Alexander Payne

Writers: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, Kaui Hart Hemmings

Producers: Tracy Boyd, Jim Burke, George Parra, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

   

Nominee

Synopsis: From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning Sideways, set in Hawaii, The Descendants is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family's land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries. -- (C) (Written by Fox Searchlight)

Cast:

• George Clooney
• Shailene Woodley
• Amara Miller
• Nick Krause
• Judy Greer
• Matthew Lillard

IMDb - The Descendants

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

 My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

 (2011)

Genre: Drama/Thriller

Director: Thomas Alfredson

Writers: Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan

Producers: Tim Bevan, Liz Chasin, Eric Fellner, Alexandra Ferguson, Ron Halpern, Debra Hayward, John le Carré, Peter Morgan, Artist W. Robinson, Robyn Slovo, Alex Sutherland, Douglas Urbanski

 

Nominee

Synopsis: Based on the classic novel of the same name, the international thriller is set at the height of the Cold War years of the mid-20th Century. George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a disgraced British spy, is rehired in secret by his government - which fears that the British Secret Intelligence Service, a.k.a. MI-6, has been compromised by a double agent working for the Soviets. -- (C) (Written by Focus Features)

Cast:

• Gary Oldman
• Colin Firth
• John Hurt
• Mark Strong
• Benedict Cumberbatch
• Toby Jones
• Ciarán Hinds

IMDb - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Short Review: I was excited to see this film, but unfortunately it bored me. I definitely can appreciate the acting and cinematography, but the film as a whole is so bogged down by excessive dialogue. I also found it a little hard to follow because of this, as well as the lack of...well...anything else.

Beginners

 My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

(2010)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Director: Mike Mills

Writer: Mike Mills

Producers: Mirand de Pencier, Fran Giblin, Lars Knudsen, Geoff Linville, Joan Scheckel, Leslie Urdang, Jay Van Hoy, Dean Vanech

  

Nominee

Synopsis: Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Mélanie Laurent) only months after his father Hal (Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who - following 44 years of marriage - came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. (Written by IFC)

Cast:

• Ewan McGregor
• Christopher Plummer
• Mélanie Laurent
• Goran Visnjic

IMDb - Beginners

The Iron Lady

 My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

(2011)

Genre: Biography/Drama

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

Writer: Abi Morgan

Producers: François Ivernel, Damian Jones, Adam Kulick, Cameron McCracken, Anita Overland, Tessa Ross, Colleen Woodcock

 

Nominee

Synopsis: A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power. (Written by IMDb Editors)

Cast:

• Meryl Streep
• Jim Broadbent
• Alexandra Roach
• Olivia Colman

IMDb - The Iron Lady

Moneyball

 My Rating:

 IMDb Users:

 (2011)

Genre: Biography/Drama

Director: Bennett Miller

Writer: Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin, Michael Lewis

Producers: Mark Bakshi, Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Andrew S. Karsch, Alissa Phillips, Brad Pitt, Scott Andrew Robertson, Scott Rudin

 

Nominee

Synopsis: Oakland A's GM Billy Beane is handicapped with the lowest salary constraint in baseball. If he ever wants to win the World Series, Billy must find a competitive advantage. Billy is about to turn baseball on its ear when he uses statistical data to analyze and place value on the players he picks for the team. (Written by Douglas Young)

Cast:

• Brad Pitt
• Jonah Hill
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Robin Wright

IMDb - Moneyball