As for Matthew, 44, this is just his first nomination but most critics agree he nailed his role as hustler and AIDS patient Ron Woodruff perfectly, even losing so much weight to look emaciated like the real life character he plays. He transcends the role and his is the more attention-getting performance, so we won’t be surprised if academy voters would think that he’ll be the one more deserving to win. Aside from this, he also gives a very arresting performance in just three scenes as Leonardo’s mentor in “Wolf of Wall St.”
For best actress, Cate Blanchett would be hard to beat as the Blanche Dubois character in “Blue Jasmine”. That Oscar-worthy final scene where she talks to herself while seated on a park bench, after losing all her marbles, shows the kind of mesmerizing acting that can be used as a model for future generations of actresses. This is also to compensate for her losing the Oscar in 1998 for “Elizabeth”, where her tour-de-force title-role performance is definitely much more stunning than the one to whom the Oscar was given to that year.
As best supporting actor, it’s also a lock for Jared Leto as the doomed transvestite Rayon in “Dallas Buyers Club”. Nobody else comes close. For best supporting actress, our personal choice is Jennifer Lawrence as the loose cannon of a wife in “American Hustle”. But we won’t be surprised if newcomer Lupita Nyong’o would win as the oppressed slave in “12 Years a Slave” as the Kenyan-Mexican actress seem to be getting a lot of sympathy votes (well, she suffered from a lot of beatings in the film) and Jennifer, after all, has just won as best actress last year.
For best director, no doubt the honor will be given to Alfonso Cuaron for the technical marvel that is “Gravity”. But for the best picture award, our personal choice is David Russell’s “American Hustle”, truly a wonderful piece of filmmaking as a comedy-drama-crime-caper film rolled into one, based on the real life Abscam scandal in the 70s that sent some politicians to jail. The characters are all flawed, just like the rest of us in real life, and they’re all portrayed with so much energy by the actors who play them.
But then again, we won’t be surprised if the best film prize is handed to British director Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave”, the adaptation of the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, a freeman who was sold to slavery. It’s one of the most acclaimed films last year and has the more noble subject matter concerning slavery that ignited the American Civil War.
