UnMaggie: The Oscar Noms 2013

So it is Oscar time, and the nominations were released a little while ago. I just need to get my thoughts on these noms on paper (or on the keyboard lol) and my ranking based on what I have seen (which is mostly everything).

RANKING OF BEST ACTOR:

1. Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables: A passionate, heartfelt, intense and tender performance in a rather bore of a film. I'm a huge fan of him here, it looked incredibly demanding and he just gave such a brilliant/flawless performance. His voice is amazing.
4.5/5

2. Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook: Brilliant balance of drama and comedy. This is my favourite film of the year, Cooper is so charismatic and just nails every scene he is in (which is essentially every shot of the film). He comes of a bit of a looney (a diagnosed bipolar with anger and control issues) but his character's determination to find peace and stability is a joy to watch. His chemistry with lead actress Jennifer Lawrence is great (despite a huge age difference between the actors) and they just have amazing line delivery (thanks to a great script). A very close second.
4.5/5 

3. Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln: Who doesn't love DDL? He makes acting so effortless and sometimes thay may be a problem because against showy performances the rather subdued or restrained performances like this one can be kind of forgotten. Overall I was underwhelmed by the film, I hate to say it but it was rather boring and a drag. Historicall it was interesting and an amazing assemble of actors are present in every scene but I wasn't a huge fan. DDL's Lincoln has been getting enormous praise, but I hope he misses out on the gold man this year as I feel it's too early for him to get his third. A good performance, no faults and some good moments but I was expecting a little more from the material (not the actor himself which brings his performance down a little bit).
3.5/5

4. Denzel Washington in Flight: Hmm... Flight. A film advertised as a courtroom drama turns out to be an AA film. I wasn’t amazed here by Washington, it is a consistently good performance. He is engaging as his character struggles with sobriety and generally keeping his shit together before his hearing. John Goodman is great in his small part.

3/5

n/s: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master.