Two Tickets For... Our Oscars Analysis & Predictions: Best Actor & Best Actress

Andrew: Hello readers! We're back with day four of our analysis and predictions for this Sunday's 85th Academy Awards! Yesterday we discussed the supporting half of the actingcategories, and today we're going to tackle the lead acting categories. Just like yesterday, Sarah, one of these categories is far more of a certainty than the other one is, so let's get that one out of the way first. 

BEST ACTOR

The nominees for Best Actor are:

- Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

- Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

- Denzel Washington, Flight

- Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

- Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

A: Okay, Sarah, it's pretty obvious to people who have been following award season that there's only one nominee here who should be expecting hear his name be read from a card on Sunday. And that is...?

It's Not Bad, But We're Not Wild About It: Our Review of "Beasts of the Southern Wild" (2012)

Directed By: Bein Zeitlin

Starring: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry

Rating: PG-13 for thematic material including child imperilment, some disturbing images, language and brief sensuality

Run Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Synopsis: Hushpuppy (Wallis) is a 6-year-old girl living in a New Orleans-like area called “The Bathtub” with her father, Wink (Henry). Wink does his best to prepare his daughter for a universe where he’s no longer around, and when he falls ill and the area floods for numerous reasons, Hushpuppy starts to learn hard and fast about what her universe will be like someday.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Yesterday afternoon Sarah and I went and saw Beasts of the Southern Wild at a theatre in Hartford, since it has yet to come to our local AMC. This is a movie that has been making some noise because of its young star, Quvenzhane Wallis, who plays 6-year-old Hushpuppy. She’s being lauded for her performance – some even going so far as to say she should be nominated for an Oscar – in a film that’s a fantastical, fictional take on what happened in the New Orleans region and the flooding there.

So we finally checked it out, and I have to be honest…maybe it’s just that it wasn’t the right day for us to see it or I wasn’t in the right mood or frame of mind, but I just did not get it. I…I mean, I GET IT, but at the same time I did not like Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Sarah: Yeah, I’m not quite sure what we were missing that everyone has seemed to taken away from this movie. While Wallis does a FANTASTIC job for a 5-year-old, portraying a lot of emotion through her facial expressions, I didn’t quite see the appeal.