For Your Consideration: The Fighter

By Karen Datangel

David O. Russell’s The Fighter is more than a sports drama; it’s a lesson in staying loyal to the ones who help you succeed, while fighting for yourself and for love. The portrayals in this film, plus the mere fact that it is all based on actual people, lives, and careers, make it a film with true heart and soul.

For Your Consideration: Winter’s Bone

By Stefanie Morris

In an era where Hollywood is filled with sequels and remakes, an overabundance of special effects and gore, and gimmicks such as 3D, a movie as minimalistic as Winter’s Bone stands out in stark contrast. This engages you in the silent, frozen world that the determined main character, 17-year-old Ree Dolly, is trying so hard to pry answers from. Indeed it is Ree’s strength of character, perseverance and fearlessness that give Winter’s Bone much of its depth and heart. Touching and stirring, this story stays with you.

For Your Consideration: Toy Story 3

By Janna Jeffrey

Toy Story 3 isn’t a movie that parents have to tolerate on a Saturday afternoon with their kids–it has charming characters and simple comical situations that kids will love, and yet jokes such as Spanish Buzz have comical undertones that adults can appreciate. The film also deals with the idea of growing up, moving away, and leaving behind the familiar world of childhood. It’s an emotional movie that strikes a chord within all of us; even though we’re just watching toys, we’re dealing with real, human feelings.

For Your Consideration: The Kids Are All Right

By MC Brickell

No, The Kids Are All Right is not about the children having two mothers, nor about lesbians trying to prove that they can have a better family than you. The movie is about family, pure and simple. While that family has two moms as opposed to one, it doesn’t present this to us as being ‘different’ or ‘wrong’. Instead, the film treats the family for what it is: average, normal, and about to face a huge issue.

For Your Consideration: Inception

By Karen Datangel

Inception has redefined the “summer blockbuster”; it is not only popcorn entertainment, but it also requires the audience to pay full attention. It’s more than just another action film; it’s multi-layered. Its story has sparked debate within ourselves and with those around us. It’s filmmaking at its most daring, and it’s unapologetic in its brain-bending.

For Your Consideration: True Grit

By Katie Hanges

True Grit is artwork and really succeeds in brilliantly acted, sympathetic, and likable characters. Jeff Bridges shows great vulnerability as Rooster Cogburn; one feels the sadness as he recognizes the fact that his youth has left him. Mattie Ross, played by up-and-coming actress Hailee Steinfeld, comes off as a very precocious and fiery young lady, an adult still in pigtails.

For Your Consideration: The King’s Speech

By Elizabeth The

What sets The King’s Speech apart from your typical period piece and makes it a standout candidate in this year’s pool of remarkable Best Picture nominees is the inspired way in which the film combines history with humanity in an engrossing and relatable manner. It succeeds in its quest to humanize a royal figure and directly appeal to the viewer’s pathos, creating a deep connection between the audience and the trials of King George VI. He isn’t portrayed as simply a monarch; he’s a real person going through real issues.

For Your Consideration: Black Swan

By Jorge Gomez

Black Swan takes the seemingly delicate and proper world of ballet and turns it on its side. Instead, the film shows a darker, more visceral side of the art. The performances, images, story, and score come together perfectly to create a tense portrait of the toll that striving for perfection can take on someone.

For Your Consideration: The Social Network

By Janna Jeffrey

Many film critics and entertainment blogs are touting The Social Network as “the film that defines a generation”. As Sean Parker says towards the end of the film, “We are going to live on the Internet”. We do, to some extent, live on the Internet. And The Social Network represents that. It’s a film about friendship, betrayal, power, and what happens to a bunch of nineteen-year-old kids who get themselves in way over their heads, and has gotten people talking.

For Your Consideration: 127 Hours

By Steven Venner

The overwhelming sense of emotion the last five minutes of this film provide should be what audiences discuss, not the five minutes of arm severing. They prove that Danny Boyle has done Aron Ralston’s story justice, as we walk away both happy for him getting a second chance, and reflecting on our own situations, and how we would react in such a position.