Entertainment / Get Reel Digital: March – Oscars Edition

Get Reel Digital: March – Oscars Edition

Entertainment Mar 06, 2014

by Matthew Currie

The Academy Awards bowed earlier this March, meaning that this month’s selection of Blu-rays are, predictably, chock full of nominees. From the big winners to the heavily hyped goose eggs, here are some of the Oscar-nominated efforts coming to a Blu-ray/VOD library near you this month.

12 Years a Slave (Now available, Fox)

Pic Credit: www.historyextra.com/

The harrowing true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from the north who was kidnapped and sold into Deep South slavery in 1841 took home three little gold men — Best Supporting Actress for (newly minted style maven) Lupita Nyong’o, Best Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley and the night’s most prestigious prize, Best Picture.

And if not for the truly groundbreaking efforts of Gravity helmer Alfonso Cuaron, director Steve McQueen would’ve absolutely nabbed a Best Director trophy for his mantle, having used his singular artistic eye to craft a harrowingly immersive portrait of one of the ugliest — and all too often under explored — chapters in American history.

Inside Llewyn Davis (March 11, Mongrel Media)

Pic Credit: www.blogto.com

When it first made the rounds at the film festivals, pundits were predicting nods for Academy favourite writer-directors the Coen brothers and possibly even a Best Actor for Oscar Isaac. Instead, it had to settle for Cinematography and Sound Mixing nods.

Nonetheless, this funny, melancholic study of a down-on-his-luck musician trawling for success in the storied folk-music mecca of Greenwich Village, New York, circa 1961, is a more-than-worthy addition to the Coen oeuvre.

Isaac in particular, has earned raves as the abrasive, uncompromising singer-songwriter struggling to make it in a scene that is gradually passing him by.

American Hustle (March 18, eOne Films)

Pic Credit: i1.ytimg.com

Despite racking up 10 nominations, this crowd-pleasing, critically adored dramatization of the real-life FBI sting used to ensnare corrupt politicians in the late-’70s was completely shut out.

But that speaks more to the strength of this year’s field than the efforts put forth by Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists, Jennifer Lawrence as the former’s mentally unstable wife and Bradley Cooper as the FBI Agent who has everyone backed into a corner.

Cooper and Lawrence in particular make the most of this playful actor’s showcase, letting loose with bravura comedic performances. Meanwhile, with his infectiously playful, probingly authentic direction, David O. Russell continues making a case for himself as this generation’s Billy Wilder.

Frozen (March 18, Disney)

Pic Credit: disney.wikia.com

Though it wasn’t an out of the gate smash, Disney’s quirky musical take on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen has slowly but steadily raked in a cool billion internationally, culminating in a Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (for Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go”) win on Hollywood’s big night.

Venture back to the snowbound kingdom of Arendelle and join princess Anna (Kristen Bell), mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and bumbling snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) as they set out to take down the Ice Queen (Menzel) responsible for all the permafrost.

The Wolf of Wall Street (March 25, Paramount)

Pic Credit:/www.facebook.com

Martin Scorsese and go-to leading man Leonardo DiCaprio’s poor Oscar Night-luck continued, as their controversial biopic of ’90s stock broker Jordan Belfort and his sex, drugs, fraud and all-round debauchery-fuelled downfall ended up being an also-ran in every major category.

Dismissed by some who thought it was glorifying the behaviour of its subjects, most pegged it as a superbly acted and, as ever, singularly stylish final chapter in the venerable director’s “American Dream perverted” trilogy (along with Goodfellas and Casino), its chuckle-inducing exterior masking a scathing takedown of greed and excess.

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Matthew Currie

Author

A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...

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