Title: Gravity

Rating: PG-13

Cast: Sandra Bullock (Ryan Stone), George Clooney (Matt Kowalski)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

The Basics: Gravity is a story of survival in a world where life is factually impossible. After being detached from the space station she was working on as part of her first mission, NASA medical engineer Ryan Stone finds herself adrift in space, with a rapidly depleting supply of oxygen. Tethered to veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski, Stone must fight seemingly insurmountable external obstacles to get back to Earth, which mirrors her internal struggle to survive after the death of her young daughter. The way the themes of isolation, birth, death, and survival are developed and reflected in every moment of the film is nothing short of masterful. Technically, this film is like nothing that has ever been seen before, but the reason Gravity is so special—such a masterpiece—is that it never lets its technical achievements overshadow its emotional ones. Anchored by the best performance of Sandra Bullock’s career, this film is about so much more than the terrifying beauty of space; it’s about the struggle for a woman to survive in both a physical and emotional environment that would destroy most people.

M.V.P. (Most Valuable Performer): Sandra Bullock has been known as many things throughout her career—adorable, funny, sharp-tongued, relatable, and warm. But after seeing Gravity, I think the best word to describe her work as an actress is fearless. Her performance in Gravity is astoundingly brave in its vulnerability, its humanity, and its incredible mixture of strength and weakness. Ryan Stone feels like a real woman—not a superhero. For most of the film, she’s terrified, and Bullock makes that fear almost painfully palpable. We see so much of this film from Stone’s perspective; her voice is the only one we hear for most of it; her helmet is the one we see the chaos through. And in order for Gravity to succeed, the actress bringing Stone to life needed to be someone who could captivate audiences on her own for nearly the entire 91 minutes of the film’s runtime. Bullock is exactly that; she’s utterly captivating every moment she’s onscreen. Ryan Stone is a fascinating character, a woman whose strength manifests itself not in big moments of heroics but in choosing to live rather than give up, despite having every reason to want to die. We see Ryan as a hero because we are able to believe her at her lowest—in the quiet depths of her grief and the panicked extremes of her fear—and at her best. Her hero’s journey is a story of rebirth, and Bullock makes it resonate with an emotional intensity and honesty that should put her at the top of any Best Actress race this year.

Scene Stealer: From the very first moments of Gravity, I was in awe of its score. Steven Price’s work is unsettling from the start, and its hold on my emotions never let up. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, it made me hold my breath, and it even made me cry. Price’s score captures the grandeur and danger of space as brilliantly as it captures the grief and hope coexisting in Stone’s character. I don’t normally single out a film’s score as something worthy of intense praise, but this wasn’t any ordinary film—or any ordinary score, for that matter.

Bring the Tissues? I cried way more than I was expecting to during Gravity. Bullock’s fierce vulnerability has a way of getting under your skin and going straight to your heart. When she reveals how her daughter died, I started tearing up, but once she started talking to a man back on Earth (whom she reached while trying to unsuccessfully contact Houston), I started genuinely sobbing. Her loneliness—both in the vastness of empty space and in the grief-stricken life she lived back on Earth—moved me beyond anything else I’ve seen in a movie theater so far this year.

Most Memorable Scene: On a technical level, I’m not sure any scene in any of this year’s Oscar contenders will be more memorable than the opening minutes of Gravity. Filmed in one, unbroken shot, this scene builds spectacularly from awe-inspiring to terrifying. The way Cuarón captures the feeling of weightlessness is extraordinary; it puts you off balance just by watching the action unfold. And that’s all before the debris begins to rain down on Stone and Kowalski. In that moment, the strange serenity of space is turned into sheer panic, and the feelings it invokes are oppressive in their intensity. I felt like I was holding my breath through the entire sequence, and I know I was gripping my armrest with white knuckles. The direction, the sound mixing and editing, and Bullock’s performance all combined to create one of the most visceral experiences of panic I’ve ever felt while watching a movie. It was—at the risk of sounding hyperbolic—breathtaking.

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Title: Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Rating: PG-13

Cast: Forest Whitaker (Cecil Gaines), Oprah Winfrey (Gloria Gaines), David Oyelowo (Louis Gaines), Elijah Kelley (Charlie Gaines), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Carter Wilson), Lenny Kravitz (James Holloway), Robin Williams (Dwight D. Eisenhower), John Cusack (Richard Nixon), James Marsden (John F. Kennedy), Liev Schreiber (Lyndon B. Johnson), Alan Rickman (Ronald Reagan), Jane Fonda (Nancy Reagan)

Director: Lee Daniels

The Basics: The Butler is a sweeping portrait of the civil rights movement in America, told through the eyes of Cecil Gaines, who served as a butler in the White House from Eisenhower to Reagan. While the film highlights important moments in American history from inside the White House, the true heart of this film lies in Cecil’s house, where he struggles with an alcoholic but loving wife, a son in Vietnam, and another son making his voice heard as a Freedom Rider and later as a member of the Black Panther Party. This film takes the fight for equal rights—from a sharecropping field in the 1920s to the election of President Obama—and makes it intensely personal. This is a story that needs to be told, and its told through some truly fantastic performances. Yes, some of the presidential stunt casting was unbelievable to the point of taking away from the film, but, ultimately, what really mattered where the performances given by Whitaker, Winfrey, and Oyelowo. This trio of actors anchored the film with performances that were nuanced, powerful, and completely compelling.

M.V.P. (Most Valuable Performer): Without a strong actor taking on the role of Cecil, this film could have felt like a dry history lesson, jumping from one milestone to the next without any real emotional connection. Thankfully, Forest Whitaker gives his performance the quiet strength that we’ve come to expect from such a brilliant actor. Cecil never feels like a caricature or anything less than a real, three-dimensional person. We can feel the toll that years of hard work and suffering have taken on this man, but we can also feel the pride he takes in his job and the life he was able to build for his family. There is a quiet dignity to Whitaker’s performance that could get lost among the more flashy performances to come as “Oscar season” approaches. But his work should not be forgotten or lost in the shuffle because he is able to make you believe in this man and in the values by which he lives his life. It’s a testament to Whitaker’s performance that I found myself crying by the end of the film because I felt like I could understand what the election of President Obama would mean to Cecil Gaines. That ability to make the audience connect so strongly with a character in just a couple of hours is something only the best actors possess.

Scene Stealer: David Oyelowo might be a relative unknown (to me at least), but I walked away from this film incredibly impressed with him. There was such passion in his performance, and that uncontrolled fire of purpose worked so well opposite Whitaker’s more quietly powerful Cecil. The generation gap between Louis and Cecil is a driving force in this film, and it works because you are able to understand both sides of that gap. Whitaker makes you believe in Cecil’s reasons for acting the way he does (the murder of his father being the horrible foundation for his views on acting out too strongly), but Oyelowo also makes you understand Louis’s need to take action and to fight. He’s not just some rebellious kid; he’s someone who wants a better life for his future family the same way Cecil did. He doesn’t hate his father; he just doesn’t understand him. And that kind of universal struggle between generations takes on such a unique life in this film, a life that rings with authenticity because of the honesty Oyelowo gives to Louis’s journey.

Bring the Tissues? If you remain unmoved while watching Cecil react to the 2008 Election Night results, then I’m not sure you were really watching the movie. I was on the verge of tears a few times throughout the film, but that moment is what made me actually start crying because I could feel how much it meant to these characters, especially Cecil.

Most Memorable Scene: The generation gap that fuels the tension throughout the film comes to a powerful head in a dinner table confrontation between Cecil, Louis, Gloria, and Louis’s girlfriend. With Louis in his Black Panther clothing and his girlfriend sporting a huge afro while sitting with the modestly dressed Cecil and Gloria, the contrast is evident before any of the characters even begin speaking. And when they do begin speaking, it erupts into the best scene in the film. A discussion about Sidney Poitier turns from small-talk to fighting words when Louis scoffs at men like him and, by extension, his father. Louis’s inability to understand the pride his father takes in his job finally proves too much for the usually stoic Cecil, who explodes with a force we only see once in the film—but it’s enough.

But the true “scene stealing” moment belongs to Oprah. I know it’s been shown in every commercial and trailer for the film, but the moment when she slaps her son and tells him that everything he is and has is because of “that butler,” I still got chills like I was hearing it for the first time. And I wanted to cheer when she kicked his horrible girlfriend out of her house. I was worried going into the film that Oprah wouldn’t be able to disappear into this role as much as she would need to, but this scene was the moment when I knew my concerns were unfounded.

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Title: The Impossible

Rating: PG-13

Cast: Naomi Watts (Maria), Ewan McGregor (Henry), Tom Holland (Lucas), Samuel Joslin (Thomas), Oaklee Pendergast (Simon)

Director: Juan Antonia Bayona

The Basics: The Impossible offers a harrowing “based on a true story” account of one family’s struggle to survive and reunite in the wake of the 2004 tsunami that caused unfathomable amounts of death and destruction in southeast Asia. Separated from his father and two younger brothers, Lucas is forced to grow up far beyond his years as he journeys with his mother through the wreckage to an overcrowded hospital in order to get her the help she desperately needs to treat her life-threatening injuries. Although its subject matter renders it almost impossible to watch at times, The Impossible is ultimately a beautiful film about the strength of family and love in the wake of unspeakable tragedy. Much of the film’s beauty and poignancy comes from its core cast, especially its incredible group of child actors.

M.V.P. (Most Valuable Performer): I know that Naomi Watts is the one getting so much of the credit and recognition for her work in the film, and there’s no denying that her performance is one of the best I’ve seen by an actress this year. However, this film belonged to young Tom Holland.

Just 16 years old, Holland acted with a maturity and depth far beyond his age. This role required him to do so much without words—to show fear and the struggle to compartmentalize that fear with just the slightest change in his expression or the way he carried himself. The naked vulnerability he showed is such a rarity for an actor that young. His panic felt real; his grief felt real. And ultimately his relief felt beautifully real as well. Holland had incredible chemistry with the younger boys playing his brothers as well as with Watts and Ewan McGregor. In many ways, his performance was the glue that holds the film together; his were the eyes we saw the story unfold through. I walked out of the theater genuinely upset that Holland didn’t get any award-season recognition for his revelatory work in this film, and days later I still stand by that assessment. His was one of the most incredible performances I saw all year, not just from a young actor but from any actor.

Scene Stealer: Once again, Ewan McGregor gave a performance that left me sobbing into my hands in a movie theater. And once again, he’s getting criminally little recognition for it. Henry’s journey to reunite his family is the most inspiring part of the film. His inability to give up on his wife and son gave the film a layer of love that’s palpable and heartbreakingly genuine. That steadfast faith could have led to a one-note performance, but McGregor wasn’t afraid to show the emotional turmoil behind Henry’s resolve to find his family. There’s a scene in the film where he’s given the chance to make a call back home, and the way the scene evolves into a gut-wrenching breakdown made it one of the most devastating in a film loaded with devastating moments. It was hard to watch Henry’s façade shatter in such an unflinchingly painful way, but it was right. No one can be strong forever in the face of so much tragedy. Every emotion McGregor showed the audience was so visceral it was as if you could reach out and feel it—his desperation, his guilt, his anxiety, and his incredible love for his family that gave much-needed warmth to such a heavy film.

Bring the Tissues? If the sobbing I heard (and participated in myself) throughout much of the movie is any indication, then yes. You’ll cry with sadness, and you’ll cry with relief. The moments that will make you cry might be up for debate, but one thing that’s not up for debate is this: You will cry, and you will cry hard.

Most Memorable Scene: The Impossible is a film that could have almost been unbearably sad—if not for one scene filled with such pure joy, love, and relief that it made all of the tension and heartbreak of earlier scenes worth the tears. Watching Lucas reunite with his little brothers filled me with such a sense of hope. Once again, Holland stole the show in terms of his reaction. The way he kissed and held the little boys felt so beautifully real, so earned in terms of the emotion of the moment. And the catharsis only intensified watching Henry gather his lost son into his arms. In that moment, I forgot I was watching a movie and truly got lost in this father’s love for his oldest little boy. As the scene continued and Henry was reunited with Maria, I held my breath the entire time. When he took off the oxygen mask to kiss her, it felt more romantic than any fairytale kiss I’d ever seen. It was the very picture of the idea that love is meant to last in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. As Henry held Maria, whispering that he was sorry if he let her down, I cried so hard I lost every bit of eye makeup I had on. And it was worth it.

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Title: Argo

Rating: R

Cast: Ben Affleck (Tony Mendez), Bryan Cranston (Jack O’Donnell), Alan Arkin (Lester Siegel), John Goodman (John Chambers), Victor Garber (Ken Taylor)

Director: Ben Affleck

The Basics: In the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis, CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez is tasked to come up with a plan to bring home six U.S. embassy workers who escaped to the Canadian ambassador’s residence. Mendez, with the help of friends in Hollywood, devises a plan to enter Iran under the guise of scouting locations for a film, giving the six trapped Americans cover identities as his crew. Argo somehow manages to give a true sense of suspense to a story in which the ending is already known. Its tight direction, breathless pacing, and solid performances make it the first real contender of the early Oscar-buzz season.

M.V.P. (Most Valuable Performer): Ben Affleck is enjoying a career rebirth as a director, but Argo also reminded me what a great actor he can be when given the right material. Tony Mendez is the glue that holds this film together, and Affleck wears that responsibility well. His performance is wonderfully understated; there are no theatrics, no “badass, tough guy” moments. Instead, there are quiet scenes where a close-up on his face speaks volumes about the incredible strain this man is under. Mendez has six lives in his hands, and that is never lost on the audience because Affleck makes certain it is never lost in his performance. He moves and blinks and breathes as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders, and that’s because—in a very real sense—it is. The humanity that he gives Mendez is exactly what is necessary to make us care about this man’s fate as much as we care about the fate of the six he’s trying to extract. The scene where he unsuccessfully attempts to call his wife and son before getting on the plane to Iran broke my heart, and that’s all because of Affleck’s eyes. This is the kind of film that could be undone with an overblown performance at its center. Instead, Affleck’s quiet power and undercurrent of humanity keep it perfectly grounded.

Scene Stealer: Alan Arkin is brilliant in everything he does, and he was the perfect casting choice for veteran producer Lester Siegel. His sharp sense of humor and biting line delivery are like a breath of fresh air in this very tense film. While his character mostly provides much-needed relief from the suspense, he never takes over the film with his performance. He maintains a level of gravitas that shows that even this fast-talking Hollywood suit understands the urgency and importance behind what he’s being asked to do. I wouldn’t be surprised to see his name on the Best Supporting Actor Oscar ballot once again this year.

Bring the Tissues? This isn’t really a tearjerker, although I did find myself a little choked up when the plane carrying Mendez and the six Americans left Iranian airspace. The genuine feeling of relief was palpable, and a lot of it had to do with the fact that each actor played their reactions uniquely—some with hugs, some with tears, and some with silence. Also, the final scene of Mendez coming home to his wife and son was incredibly moving without being cloyingly sentimental.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Stay through the first part of the credits to see photos of the real people and events put side-by-side with their cinematic counterparts. It’s a great reminder of how much care Affleck took to show the reality behind such a fantastic kind of story.

Most Memorable Scene: While the airport scenes are probably the most taught and suspenseful in the film, the most memorable scene for me boils all of the tension in the entire film into one breathtaking sequence. When Mendez is driving the six to the bazaar to maintain their covers as location scouts, they run across a demonstration in the streets. As their van slowly works its way through the angry, violent mob of Iranians, the tension is so high I found myself holding my breath. The lack of dialogue besides the chanting and shouts of the protestors adds to the feeling that even the audience has to be silent and still while watching—an experience I’ve never had so intensely during a film before. Affleck does a masterful job of keeping the camera tight on the people in the van and their reactions to the mob surrounding them, giving the scene a claustrophobic kind of intensity that only a very strong director and group of actors could achieve.

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