MovieJay

I think "Still Mine" is one of the unfairly neglected gems of 2013. I'm now starting my own "James Cromwell for Best Actor nomination" campaign. The Academy Awards twitter is @TheAcademy. I'm @MovieJay. Will now post regular gentle and cheerful reminders in the hopes that voters will not forget to at least consider his performance, his first lead in some 50 years. He plays an 87 yr-old New Brunswick man whose character is made of grit and sweat and self-determination. It's a full, rich, and captivating performance in a movie with characters we feel like we've met in our own lives. It's a perceptive story about how the indignities of aging and changing social values come in to sharp conflict with a proud, self-reliant man who has twice the vigor for life than most men half his age. It's a tough and crowded Oscar field this year. Ejiofor and McConaughey seem to have a lock on nominations. Elba as Mandela along with Dern and Redford seem to be the next three after that. And though I think Dern and Redford did fantastic work, I think THIS is the performance among the more mature actors that deserves the nomination. Hope you'll go to twitter and remind @TheAcademy to at least check out this wonderful movie.

Jim Carrey's best role and best movie since "Man On The Moon". I love movies that go for broke, and this one is brave enough to work without a safety net the entire running time. From the first shot to the last shot, it's captivates our attention with how alive it is. I think the screenplay is Oscar-worthy, but I think the performances are actually a little too ahead of their time for the Academy to care about. It's a pretty dark black comedy in terms of thematic elements to get much award attention, but Carrey and McGregor, in roles we had never imagined them to play are in top form here. This movie is razor sharp and dazzling, a dark comedy with a lot of soul underneath.

Sports dramas can fall either into "rousing entertainments" or more the way of a "character study". "the Fighter" belongs to the first group, where it sits about as high in my esteem as "the Boxer" with Daniel Day-Lewis does on the "character study" side: it's fair and has redeeming qualities, but in it's group it sits behind "Rocky" and just a notch passed "Cinderella Man" as "the Boxer" sits behind "Raging Bull" and "the Wrestler" in it's group. Mark Wahlberg is not quite comfortable yet as a leading man, and the movie considers too much of the archetypal blue collar behavior that surrounds him and drowns out his performance. Not a bad movie. It passes the time. But after the hype fades over the next couple of weeks, people will come to their senses on this one, I think. As far as rousing entertainments go, "Secretariat" beats this one by a length.

This is a movie for adults who are a little bit more curious and wiser than most in the movie-going audience. That's too bad, really, because Tilda Swinton between this movie and "Julia" has given us two of her very best performances. If she isn't nominated for Best Actress in this role, it'll be a travesty, she's just that good in it. I love movies that treat sexuality with the patience and thoughtfulness it deserves, rather than just throwing it in for effect. "I Am Love" is going to finish very high on my list of the best movies of the year.

At 80, Eastwood has made perhaps his most internal and thoughtful film yet. The movie is a meditation on the questions and the mysteries about death and the afterlife. Introspection is not really something we're accustomed to doing much of anymore, as our culture tends to reward idiocy and silliness more than anything else, so it's understandable to me why some audiences would find this to be depressing or lousy, but really it's not. It's a very moving film for viewers who appreciate something a little more intelligent than usual. One of the year's best.

I find metacritic users to be so fickle in their tastes. This movie is so enjoyable, and it has tons of repeat value. The cast is in top form, particularly Brad Pitt. So much better than the lackluster rating it's got on here.

This movie requires an attention span. It's a character study, not just another run-of-the-mill action movie, and if you know George Clooney, than you should come to expect a little more smarts in his films and observant writing, not just cheap effects. This is a terrific movie for a more mature audience.