One Category at a Time: Actress

All of the acting categories seem more or less set in stone at this point in the season, but none more so than Best Actress, which features a career-best performance from a previous Oscar winner who is all but assured of winning her second. It's somewhat a shame that this race is such a done deal, considering how exciting it could have been. Think about it: Four previous Oscar winners and a beloved five-time nominee hungry for her first win, among whom three Best Picture nominees are represented... sounds on paper like it should be a nail-biter, but instead it's one of the biggest locks in the top categories. But we can really bellyache so much when the winning performance is this good? I don't think so.

My Award nominations: Actress

Let's hear it for the ladies! This year boasted a wealth of outstanding performances, and even though the race for the Oscar is foregone, in any other year we could have had a real tight race due to the glut of quality acting. Behold the five Actresses I feel are the best of the best this year:

Critics Choice Awards

So the critics choice awards have been announced, and as usual, they're up to their old anticipatory ways, opting for whichever titles (at this point in the race at least) appear to be the leading contenders in their respective categories. I was astonished at just how many winners I was guessing right mere seconds before they were called, but with a group this predictable that's hardly a significant feat.

One category I was happy to guess wrong was Supporting Actress. It did not go the way of Golden Globe victor Jennifer Lawrence, but instead went to the only contender in that field who I think should even be uttered in the same breath as the word "Oscar", the lovely Lupita Nyong'o. She gave a beautiful speech to boot. It may be down to the SAG Award to break the tie.

In addition to Nyong'o, the film picked up Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture, but Gravity ruled the trophy tally with seven wins, although two of them were for dubious genre categories Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie ("Sci-fi" my ass) and Best Actress in an Action-Movie (which Sandra delightfully poked holes in during her acceptance speech by thanking the likes of Jackie Chan and Sylvester Stallone for teaching her everything she knows -- heehee!).

One more random thought... I can totally see Dallas Buyers Club winning it's semi-surprising Best Makeup nomination. Besides my own bias in thinking that the work in the film is really quite good, it struck me that every time McConaughey and (especially) Leto take the stage this season -- and they may do so again at SAG -- viewers will get to see just how different they look in real life. Plus it's the lone Best Picture nominee in a category where its only competition are two critically dismissed movies that are really not in the Academy's wheelhouse. How many of them saw Bad Grandpa or The Lone Ranger?

Anyway, check out all the Critics Choice winners (and my rambling commentaries) after the cut.

Review - Gravity

220 miles above the earth and with little chance of coming back down. That's not only the basic premise, but also the way one feels after having just watched Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron's long gestating follow-up to 2006's Children of Men. After literal years of hype and ecstatic festival buzz, the question for me was whether Cuaron's magnum opus could possibly meet my out-of-this-world expectations. The answer is a resounding YES. Gravity is a triumph; A groundbreaking invention of pure cinema that captivates from its awe-inspiring start to its potent final images.

The opening title card ominously warns that life in space is impossible, before cutting to the still serenity of Earth, glowing blue against the infinite blackness. A white dot creeps into view, slowly growing in the frame until we can recognize it as the space shuttle Explorer. Veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney doing his best George Clooney impersonation) and rookie Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) are making repairs to the Hubble telescope. Matt makes jokes and regales mission control with amusing anecdotes while he putters around on his mobile thruster pack. Ryan is nervously tethered to her work, trying hard to keep her breakfast down on this routine mission. But of course, nothing about space travel is routine. With little warning, a field of satellite debris tears through the shuttle and leaves the space walkers stranded. From here, Gravity takes off on a dazzling roller coaster ride that rarely lets up, as Ryan must learn to defeat her traumas (past and present) and muster up the courage to make it back home.