Academy Award nominations for this year were announced on Tuesday, so there's no better time to catch the selected movies you may have missed. This weekend's round of recommendations from Up To Date's indie, foreign and documentary film critics include movies nominated for best picture, best actor, best actress and plenty more. The clock is ticking: Cinephiles have just under a month before the Oscars are awarded on Sunday, February 26!
Cynthia Haines
Fences, PG-13
- An African-American trash collector in 1950s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, struggles to raise his family and come to terms with his own missed opportunities in professional baseball.
Moonlight, R
- A compassionate meditation on a young black man's struggle to find and accept himself while growing up in a rough Miami neighborhood.
Jackie, R
- A stirring portrayal of Jackie Kennedy in the moments before and after her husband's assassination, detailing the first lady's struggle to console her scared children and preserve her husband's legacy.
Steve Walker
Elle, R
- Isabelle Huppert cements her reputation as the most fearless actress working today by playing the CEO of a company specializing in violent video games who exhibits complicated reactions to the man who rapes her and the act itself.
Manchester by the Sea, R
- Kenneth Lonergan's keenly felt script and sensitive direction are bolstered by Casey Affleck's devastating performance as a man whose sealed off grief finds pockets of air after he becomes his teenage nephew's guardian.
Jackie, R
- Natalie Portman impressively channels the breathy entitlement and brutal traumatization of Mrs. Kennedy in the hours before and days after her husband's assassination.
