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:

One Category at a Time: Adapted Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay was the only category I guessed 100% correctly for nominations this year, but given the how thin the field of contenders was, that's hardly worth bragging about. That being said, I think the final five are a perfectly respectable lineup; Naturally I would think that, having myself nominated all of them for my awards for writing. Still, it would have been nice to see the writing branch look outside the box at contenders like Short Term 12, The Spectacular Now, or Blue is the Warmest Color (The latter two of which I haven't seen yet, but have heard good things).

Anyway, on to the actual nominees, from whom the eventual winner looks to be fairly obvious.

My Award nominations: Original Screenplay

The adaptations may have been a bit sparsely populated this year, but the Original Screenplay race was dense with quality. Check out my five finalists after the cut.

Review - Before Midnight

Love is not perfect for Jesse and Celine. It lacks the romance that first sparked it when the pair met in 1995's Before Sunrise, and it lacks the instinct that reignited it during their not-so-random reunion in 2004's Before Sunset. And in Before Midnight, the third of Richard Linklater's exquisite trilogy, they're forced to question whether or not it can survive the erosive power of time. No, love is not perfect for Jesse and Celine. But it is real. And as in the two films that preceded it, that realism is what makes Before Midnight such an insightful and compelling drama.

For newcomers to this infrequently updated series, viewing the first two movies isn't necessarily required to appreciate the authentic conversation and naturalistic performance which the trilogy has built as its defining characteristic, but it does provide important context. The lovebirds first spent a romantic night in Vienna after a chance encounter on a train in 1994, but then fell out touch. They rendezvoused nine years later in Paris, where Jesse gladly let a plane ticket back to America burn a hole in his pocket, ultimately leaving behind an unhappy marriage but beloved son so he could stay with his “soul mate”.