Sean Baker’s Anora is the most recent Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards! Anora dominated the evening, winning five Oscars including Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing, along with Best Picture. Sean Baker became the first director since Walt Disney in 1953 to win four total awards for the evening, as Baker acted as the film’s director, writer, producer, and editor. It was an overall solid telecast with great speeches and…

The final entry of the “Best of the 2016 Oscar Nominees” series concludes with the best performances from this year’s Best Actor nominees.  Let’s have a look.     BRYAN CRANSTON (Nominated for Trumbo) BEST PERFORMANCE – TRUMBO (2015) Cranston is a television icon for his performance as Walter White in Breaking Bad.  However, this isn’t a list for television, it’s for movies, so that didn’t qualify.  Cranston has had some good supporting performances in some really…

2015 was a great year for actresses, and the nominees are a great mixture of newcomers and veterans.  Let’s have a look at the best performances from this year’s Best Actress Oscar nominees.     CATE BLANCHETT (Nominated for Carol) BEST PERFORMANCE – I’M NOT THERE (2007) It could be argued that Cate Blanchett is the best actress working today.  Every performance she does is great.  No role is a stretch for Ms. Blanchett, making her…

Continuing a look at the best performances and movies from this year’s Oscar nominees, here are the best performances from this year’s Best Supporting Actor nominees.     CHRISTIAN BALE (Nominated for The Big Short) BEST PERFORMANCE – THE FIGHTER (2010) Christian Bale is one of the best actors working today.  His chameleon-like style to lose himself in every role, both physically and emotionally, along with coming out with a movie almost every year, makes him…

Continuing our look at the best films from this year’s Oscar nominees, here are the best performances from this year’s Best Supporting Actress nominees. JENNIFER JASON LEIGH (Nominated for The Hateful Eight) BEST PERFORMANCE – THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015) I am not really knowledgable with Jennifer Jason Leigh’s filmography.  I remember her in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), The Machinist (2004), and her spectacular voice work in 2015’s Anomalisa, among some others.  But her role…

Continuing with Oscar week, I am going to look at the best movies or performances from this year’s nominees.  First, I am going to look at this year’s Best Director nominees.   LENNY ABRAHAMSON (Nominated for Room) BEST MOVIE – ROOM (2015) I didn’t see Abrahamson’s feature debut What Richard Did (2012), but I did see his second, Frank (2014), which I thought was a surreal, yet fascinating musical indie.  With Room, Abrahamson elevates himself to…