Unreality Companion: 10 Movies You Need to See Before Oscar Night

In which I expand on the content from my weekly Unrealitymag.com article.

So I hit the ground running for Oscar Season at Unreality this week, delving into my thoughts on the nominees and potential winners (which I'm planning on going into even further depth concerning here).  But while everybody scrambles to watch as many of the nominated films as they possibly can before the February 22nd deadline, I figured that I could help narrow the field.  Here are the ten films that, above all others, you need to see before the Academy Awards ceremony next month.

10) Wild - Although this film only earned two nominations at this year's Oscars, they're two big ones (and in categories that are two often overlooked): Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.  This is Reese Witherspoon's Birdman: a film to skyrocket her back to the top after generally falling off of people's radar in the mid 2000s following her Best Actress win for Walk the Line.

She gives one Hell of a performance as Cheryl Strayed, a woman who solo hikes over one thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail in an attempt to conquer her depression (itself stemming from her divorce, her mother's death and coming down off of years of self-destructive behavior).  Although she has a lot of ground to cover before winning her second Best Actress Oscar, she is in a fairly dead heat with Gone Girl's Rosemund Pike and is steadily gaining momentum from a lot of the the Pre-Oscar awards.

9)  Foxcatcher - Although not nominated for Best Picture, Foxcatcher did succeed at picking up five nominations, including Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay.  And what's more, it has a reasonable shot winning any of those (although it does have a lot of ground to make up before winning Oscars against Michael Keaton or J.K. Simmons).

The film follows the bizarrely unsettling real-life story of John du Pont: a man born into money who, struggling against his own sexual identity, creates a Olympic wrestling camp with the hope of bringing dignity back to the United States (or at least his minute, incredibly privileged slice of it).  Much has been made of Steve Carell's transformative role at the film's title character, as well as its strong supporting cast in Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo.  Don't quite rule out Foxcatcher upsetting the established front-runners just yet.

8)  Selma - With Selma already embroiled in controversy over its supposedly race-motivated snubbings for Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay nominations, it's easy to forget about the awards that it did manage to get nominated for, especially its nod for Best Picture.  And while it really is a shame that it didn't manage to pick up any more than it did, what it has is enough, when all is said and done.

Selma is one of the three Best Picture nominees that I have already had the pleasure to see (expect full reviews for it and the other 7 nominees in the coming weeks), and I can whole-heartedly say that it is an exceptionally good historical biopic (especially when compared with dull Award Season letdowns like Unbroken).  It features an emotionally charged trio of performances from David Oyelowo, Tim Roth and Tom Wilkinson in a riveting story expertly told.  While its two nominations won't likely amount to much now, expect to see great things from director Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo.

7) American Sniper - It's no secret that the Academy loves Clint Eastwood.  His films are frequently up for Bet Picture and he frequently up for Best Director.  One out of the two here isn't bad - and additional nominations for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Edited, among others - certainly helps.

Even though missing out on a Best Director nod will certainly prove to be the death knell of its Best Picture aspirations, it stands to clean up on the technical awards that it's nominated for, and Bradley Cooper makes a fine dark horse for Best Actor.  Expect this film's name to crop up more in the coming weeks, after people have had time to see it in theaters.

6)  The Theory of Everything - I never would have thought it before, but The Theory of Everything really cleaned up when it came to Oscar nominations.  It earned five in all, including ones for Picture, Actor, Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Original Score.

While it does see to be in the rear of the pack in all of these categories, it's not a total wash for consideration, especially with Best Actress being as open as it currently is.  It might just surprise some people on Oscar night, given that it earned a good deal of support from so many branches of the Academy.  It may just be the inoffensive movie that everybody likes (at least a little bit) and nobody hated enough to win Best Picture.

5) The Grand Budapest Hotel - As I have previously mentioned, Wes Anderson's support within the Academy has historically come solely from the writing branch, and even then not especially often.  The fact that it earned nine nominations from so many different segments of the organization might make it more of a contender than people (myself foremost among them) had initially thought.

It stands an outside chance to win Picture and a more than fair chance to win everything else that it's nominated for.  I would consider this a front runner for Original Screenplay, given Anderson's previous nominations and the amount of excitement that this particular film's script has generated since its release.  It is a considerable contender in every one of its nine categories.

4)  The Imitation Game - The Academy does love its social issue films.  Although not quite as good as Selma overall, it is better in the specific areas where it matters most.  This is where its eight nominations came from, especially those that Selma missed out on: Actor, Director and (Adapted) Screenplay.

Although admittedly a dark horse in every category it is nominated for, The Imitation Game is not going to be leaving the discussion any time soon.  It is immaculately rendered on screen and prominently features the best performance of a young, ambitions and incredibly popular actor that has been garnering a massive following around him.

3)  Whiplash - Whiplash strikes me as this year's Tree of Life: a film with a fairly narrow support base that so fanatically energizes them that you cannot help but admire it (even if you dislike it).  So while five nominations might not seem like much compared to its competition, they are all ones that it will likely, if not inevitably, win.

J.K. Simmons is a virtual lock for Best Supporting Actor for his energized performance as the abusive mentor of a prodigy drummer.  Its following is so fanatical  in its devotion that I wouldn't rule it out from winning anything, especially if the categories' front runners end up splitting their support between them when the votes are all tallied up.  If anything is positioned to upset this year's Oscar front runners, it's this film.

2)  Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - Of what I have currently seen from the Best Picture nominees, Birdman is far-and-away my favorite.  It features the return to form of one of the great American actors of the 20th (and now 21st) century and blurs the lines of reality and fantasy (or, more appropriately, delusion) with greater skill and to greater ends than either The Wind Rises or Fight Club.

Birdman ties with The Grand Budapest Hotel for the most number of nominations with a total of nine.  It's essentially guaranteed to win Michael Keaton an Oscar, is currently leading for Cinematography and comes in near second and third places for its remaining seven categories.  Edward Norton is posed as the only likely upset to Whiplash's J.K. Simmons.  Whether you want to see likely award winners or just miss seeing Michael Keaton in good, challenging and visible roles, this is a must see from this year's prestige films.

1) Boyhood - This is the elephant in the room: the current film to best for Best Picture and as likely as not Best Director.  Its six nominations all fall squarely in the major (or upper-tier secondary) categories and would be a reasonable choice for any of them.  It really just depends on how seriously in love Academy voters are with the central gimmick of the film: that it was shot intermittently over twelve years to allow its cast (and particularly the young focus of the film) to age in real time.

As it currently stands, however, love for the film is high and is likely to remain such until the awards ceremony next month.  If there's one film to see between then and now, it's this likely Best Picture winner.

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