Posts Tagged ‘Sally Field’

It’s that time of year again – time to predict who will win the ultimate Hollywood prize at the grandest award show in the world. The 85th Academy Awards are going to be a place where young careers get made, long careers get rewarded, and viewers get incensed that their favorites didn’t win. We’ll get ready to hear, “I’ve never even heard of that movie,” “How could she win, she didn’t even deserve to be nominated,” and of course the old favorite, “Of course that would win. The Academy doesn’t know what people actually like.”

We must keep in mind two very important things: 1) “The Academy” is not some shadowy panel of a dozen or so anonymous judges, but hundreds of well-known industry participants. 2) The winners are not meant to represent what American culutre’s favorites are. If only box office favorites were ever nominated, we’d have The Avengers going up against The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games – none of which objectively deserve to be called Best Picture.

Figuring out who will win for which category takes a special sense of reasoning. So special, in fact, that all three of our writers – Dan Supanik, Marisa Carpico, and Cliff Bugle – claim to be the only one to have that sense. And yet, they disagree about who will in the six most important categories. Read on to see what the chances are of your favorites winning, and which of them will be left sitting in their seats giving disappointed claps of congratulations.

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Short Take: Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance will blow you away. And the tale of political intrigue surrounding it isn’t bad either.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Screenwriters: Tony Kushner, Doris Kearns Goodwin (book)

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Length: 2h 30m

Synopsis: It is four years into the Civil War. The country and its capital are in turmoil. President Abraham Lincoln has shifted his focus towards passing the 13th Amendment, which would illegalize slavery permanently. The Confederacy, which wants the war to end as badly as the Union, sees such an amendment as a bell tolling the death of the South’s economy. In order for Lincoln to succeed he needs enough votes in the House of Representatives, which he doesn’t yet have. Through coercion and political savvy, Lincoln works against the grain to pass an amendment that even his own cabinet questions. Should such a bill be fought for if the odds of its ratification are slim? Is Lincoln abusing his powers as Commander and Chief? The stakes could not be higher, and the pressure on the president to end the war as soon as possible is overwhelming. His faith is that the new law would actually help bring the fighting to a close, not exacerbate it. Indeed, with the costs of the war already so great, Lincoln sees the bill as the only way to save the very union he presides over.

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Short Take: A hairy mess that gets caught in its own web

Director: Marc Webb

Screenwriters: James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field

Length: 2h 16m

Synopsis: A reboot of Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy, this iteration of Spidey goes back to his origins. As a young child, Peter Parker’s (Garfield) parents run away for unknown reasons, leaving him with his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). As a teenager, he begins to discover secrets about his parents that lead him to Oscorp and cross-genetic experiments. This leads him to a room full of genetically altered spiders, one of which bites him, giving him spider powers. Upon receiving these powers, he must learn how to use them in truly responsible ways. Peter is suddenly faced with a powerful adversary in his mentor Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), who becomes the super-villain known as the Lizard after injecting himself with reptile DNA in the hopes of re-growing his missing arm. Connors then plans to infect all of New York with his affliction, giving Peter a challenge he may not be ready to handle.

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