A Separation

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(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

Margin Call

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(2011)

Genre: Drama

Director: J.C. Chandor

Writer: J.C. Chandor

Producers: Sean Akers, Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Joshua Blum, Mishka Brown, Michael Corso, Kirk D'Amico, Neal Dodson, Cassian Elwes, Rose Ganguzza, Anna Gerb, Anthony Gudas, Daniel Hendler, Joe Jenckes, Lawrence M. Kopeikin, Susan Leber, Randy Manis, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto, Laura Rister

Nominee

Synopsis: Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, Margin Call is an entangling thriller involving the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When an entry-level analyst unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. Writer/director J.C. Chandor's enthralling first feature is a stark and bravely authentic portrayal of the financial industry and its denizens as they confront the decisions that shape our global future. -- (Written by Roadside Attractions)

Cast:

• Kevin Spacey
• Paul Bettany
• Jeremy Irons
• Zachary Quinto
• Penn Badgley
• Simon Baker
• Demi Moore
• Stanley Tucci
• Aasif Mandvi
• Mary McDonnell

IMDb - Margin Call

The Artist

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(2011)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Director: Michel Hazanavicius

Writer: Michel Hazanavicius

Producers: Jeremy Burdek, Antoine de Cazotte, Daniel Delume, Nadia Khamlichi, Thomas Langmann, Richard Middleton, Emmanuel Montamat, Adrian Politowski, Gilles Waterkeyn, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jean Dujardin

   

Nominee

Synopsis: Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies. -- (Written by Weinstein)

Cast:

• Jean Dujardin
• Bérénice Bejo
• John Goodman
• James Cromwell
• Missi Pyle
• Malcolm McDowell

IMDb - The Artist

**Note: This is a silent film.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

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 (2011)

Genre: Drama

Director: Stephen Daldry

Writers: Eric Roth, Jonathan Safran Foer

Producers: Eli Bush, Celia D. Costas, Tarik Karam, Scott Rudin, Nora Skinner

Nominee

Synopsis: Oskar (Thomas Horn) is convinced that his father (Tom Hanks), who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, has left a final message for him hidden somewhere in the city. Feeling disconnected from his grieving mother (Sandra Bullock) and driven by a relentlessly active mind that refuses to believe in things that can't be observed, Oskar begins searching New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he found in his father's closet. His journey through the five boroughs takes him beyond his own loss to a greater understanding of the observable world around him. -- (Written by Warner Bros)

Cast:

• Thomas Horn
• Tom Hanks
• Sandra Bullock
• John Goodman
• Viola Davis
• Jeffrey Wright

IMDb - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The 84th Annual Academy Award Winners

The 84th Annual Academy Awards have come to an end. All of the award winners are listed below.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best Animated Feature: Rango

Best Art Direction: Hugo 


Best Cinematography: Hugo 


Best Costume Design: The Artist

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist 

Best Documentary Feature: Undefeated 


Best Film Editing: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 


Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation 


Best Makeup: The Iron Lady


Best Original Score: Ludovic Bource, The Artist 

Best Original Song: "Man or Muppet", The Muppets
 


Best Sound Editing: Hugo 


Best Sound Mixing: Hugo 


Best Visual Effects: Hugo 


Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, The Descendants 


Best Writing - Original Screenplay: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris 

Best Picture: The Artist

Keep checking back to see more of the nominated and winning films reviewed here at jhunterfilmreviews.

My Week with Marilyn

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(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

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 (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.

Albert Nobbs

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(2011)

Genre: Drama

Director: Rodrigo García

Writer: Glenn Close, John Banville, George Moore, Gabriella Prekop, István Szabó 

Producers: Marcia Allen, Pierre-Francois Bernet, Glenn Close, Bonnie Curtis, John Eger, Susan Holmes, Julie Lynn, Alan Moloney, Patrick O'Donoghue

  

Nominee

Synopsis: Five-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close stars in this emotional and thought-provoking tale of a woman forced to live as a man in 19th Century Ireland. After thirty years of keeping up the charade, a new love threatens to destroy everything she's worked so hard to build.. -- (C) (Written by Roadside Attractions)

Cast:

• Glenn Close
• Mia Wasikowska
• Aaron Johnson
• Janet McTeer
• Pauline Collins
• Brendan Gleeson
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers

IMDb - Albert Nobbs

The Descendants

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(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