A Look at Actors and Actresses...

This year, I perhaps went a bit overboard by not only watching all the Best Picture nominees (there were eight this year), but also watching the additional eight movies that had individuals nominated in the actress and actor categories.  To be honest, there were a couple of the latter movies (Trumbo and The Danish Girl) that I enjoyed a great deal more than most of those nominated in the Best Picture category!

Supporting Actress Nominees:

Rachel McAdams (Spotlight)
Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

*Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)*
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Rooney Mara (Carol)

I'll go ahead and just say that I wasn't a fan of Carol.  It was slow and boring.  And the story line was predictable and not very interesting.  Spotlight was great, but I didn't think McAdams performed in any particularly spectacular manner.  The other three nominees - Winslet, Vikander, and Leigh - were phenomenal.  Any of them would be more than deserving, but my vote goes to Leigh (with an extremely close second to Vikander).  Leigh simply blew me away in her role (and I actually really liked the story of The Hateful Eight, too).

Supporting Actor Nominees:

*Christian Bale (The Big Short)*
Tom Hardy (The Revenant)
Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)
Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)
Sylvestor Stallone (Creed)

I was unimpressed with many of these characters.  Hardy was good, but better in Mad Max: Fury Road.  Stallone was solid, but not spectacular.  Rylance and Ruffalo really weren't that special.  Bale was great in a difficult role so he takes this category fairly easily in my opinion.  If I could nominate a write-in candidate it would be Samuel L. Jackson in The Hateful Eight - he was fantastic!

Best Actress Nominees: 

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

*Brie Larson (Room)*
Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)
Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)

As I already mentioned, I wasn't impressed with Carol.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the worst performance in this category - Rampling was by far the least impressive nominee I've ever see.  I can't understand why she was nominated at all.  Her male counterpart was far more impressive than she in 45 Years - though neither did enough to hold my interest for longer than 45 minutes.  Easily my least favorite of all the movies I watched this season.  But back to the much more fabulous actresses in this category - Lawrence, Ronan, and Larson.  Lawrence wasn't super special, but she did carry the film.  Ronan and Larson were both wonderful.  I'm already looking forward to future films where they are cast. Ultimately, I selected Larson to win this year.

Best Actor Nominees:

 Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)
*Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)*

 Matt Damon (The Martian)
Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

Wow!  The actors in this category were each fantastic.  Damon is the weakest link by a pretty fair margin, but still did a fine job.  The other four - Redmayne, Fassbender, DiCaprio, and Cranston - were tremendous in four quite different and distinct roles.  First, The Danish Girl was a wonderful film.  I was disappointed it was not named a Best Picture nominee since it would have been in my top three without a doubt.  Redmayne is nothing short of phenomenal...and at this point I honestly wouldn't expect anything less.  Fassbender as Steve Jobs (what a complete jerk!) is amazing.  I haven't watched the other Steve Jobs movies, but this guy was on point.  And well supported by Kate Winslet and Jeff Daniels.  I've been a Cranston fan since my Breaking Bad binge days, but he really outdoes himself as Dalton Trumbo.  Trumbo is an absolute must-see movie.  Chris and I loved it!  Honestly, it was quite difficult for me to select a winner here.  I finally decided it was Leo's time.  He played an extremely difficult role with the majority of the lengthy film featuring his solo struggle to survive.  I'd be happy for any of these men to collect an Oscar, but I think it will be DiCaprio's night.

Do you have actor and actress predictions?

Andrea :)