IT'S OSCAR SUNDAY!

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Guys! It's here!! THE MOTHER LOVIN' ACADEMY AWARD ARE HERE!!

Some of you might remember me mentioning my Oscar Challenge, in which I planned to see all of the Best Picture nominees before February 24th (Oscar Sunday).  I did pretty well, but I didn't complete the challenge.  I did, however, get pretty far, so I wanted to update everyone with my thoughts before we all settled in to watch the show tonight.  By the way, I do plan on live tweeting the entire show, so be sure to follow me on Twitter here!*

Django Unchained

Really, really entertaining.  The story was compelling, and Tarantino did a brilliant job of balancing quirky humor with a serious tone that never let the audience forget the horrors of slavery and racism (warning: avoid if you don't like blood).  The combination of gangster rap and old-timey western music made for the most fabulous soundtrack! Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson were ALL completely brilliant.  This movie is super guy-friendly, too!

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Fairly artsy and poetic.  I laughed, I cried.  Quvenzhane Wallis is a star in the making.  One of those movies where you need at least a few hours after watching before you can decide how you feel about it.  I enjoyed it, but I think there's more entertaining films nominated this year.

Lincoln

Wonderful film that high school history teachers will be playing in classrooms for years to come.  Don't expect a ton of action -- the pace is slow, but the story is incredibly interesting.  As a lover of American history, I enjoyed the behind the scenes look into the politics that went into the passing of the 13th Amendment   Sally Fields was kind of whatever; Daniel Day Lewis is a god.  The man is truly one of the greatest actors alive.  Also, who knew Tommy Lee Jones played characters that aren't retired marshalls/federal agents?

Les Miserables

I went into the theatre with no expectations and came out a believer.  No wonder it's been called one of the best stories of all time!   Like Lincoln, it was visually stunning.  The casting was superb, with Hugh Jackman as my personal highlight.  He deserved every bit of the Best Actor nomination.   I'm not normally a crier, but this movie had me on an emotional roller coaster.  I literally felt my heart swell with emotion multiple times.  Bring tissues. Seriously -- I'm not kidding.

Argo

Great story, great acting, great directing.  The movie was based on a true story, which made it even more interesting.  I was 100%  invested the entire 121 minutes.  I'm not sure if I would give it the Best Picture among the other nominees, but it still deserves recognition for being an excellent, entertaining film.  I haven't respected Ben Affleck this much since Good Will Hunting (and the time he broke up with JLo, but that's a different story).

Zero Dark Thirty

I admit, I was extremely skeptical of Zero Dark Thirty going in to the theatre.  I adore the director, Kathryn Bigelow, but I truly didn't think that they could tell the story of Bin Laden's capture so quickly after it happened.  I mean, there had to be some top-level security stuff that the government wouldn't dream of releasing, right? Heck, it took almost 20 years for the story of Argo to be declassified, so why would all the details about Bin Laden's capture already be out in the open?   I was wrong.  My absolute favorite part about this film was that I never felt they tried to "Hollywood-ize" the story in any way.  No extra explosions, love scenes, or dramatic deaths to make the story more interesting for audiences in theatres.  By leaving out any extras, it gave this film a ton of integrity.  I loved it.

MISSING

Life of Pi

Amour

Silver Linings Playbook (actually going to see a matinee today, so I'll have this one finished before tonight!)

Did you see any of the nominees?  Did you have a favorite?  Any predictions for the win?

*My Twitter account is private due to professional reasons, but feel free to send a request.  I would love to tweet about all of the Oscar goodness with you all!