Oscar viewing guide: Prep for best picture
Haven't seen but a handful of the Academy Awards best picture nominees? We watched them all to help get you ready for the big night. (The show airs Feb. 28 on ABC.)
'THE BIG SHORT'
**½ (out of four)
Plot: A group of money managers and brokers try to make millions before the inevitable collapse of the housing industry.
Director: Adam McKay
List: And the Oscar nominees are ...
Rating: R
Upside: Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell impress as financial wheel-and-dealers.
Downside: Not even A-listers and celebrity cameos can make banking exciting.
'BRIDGE OF SPIES'
***
Plot: At the height of the Cold War, an insurance lawyer (Tom Hanks) is tasked with defending an accused Soviet spy (Mark Rylance).
Director: Steven Spielberg
Oscar shockers: Who got snubbed?
Rating: PG-13
Upside: Rylance is a revelation to mainstream audiences.
Downside: Spielberg's latest isn't phenomenal, though it hits the spot.
'BROOKLYN'
***½
Plot: An Irish girl (Saoirse Ronan) travels to 1950s Brooklyn to find love and a new life away from her family and homeland.
Director: John Crowley
'The Revenant,' 'Spotlight' shine in Oscar nominations
Rating: PG-13
Upside: Ronan turns in her strongest performance to date as the funny, heartwarming central lass.
Downside: The plot flirts ever so closely with treacly melodrama but never gets too sweet.
'MAD MAX: FURY ROAD'
***
Plot: Lone wolf Max (Tom Hardy) escapes a tyrant with the help of Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and her crew.
Director: George Miller
Oscar best-picture field full of box-office hits
Rating: R
Upside: Hardy and Theron add exciting new dimensions to the franchise.
Downside: Too many extended chase scenes.
'THE MARTIAN'
***½
Plot: An astronaut (Matt Damon) stranded on Mars has to use his knowledge as a skilled botanist to stay alive until NASA can mount a rescue mission.
Director: Ridley Scott
'Star Wars' nabs 5 Oscar noms, misses best picture
Rating: PG-13
Upside: Damon's nearly one-man show is humorous and compelling.
Downside: No space botanist is this good at his job.
'THE REVENANT'
***½
Plot: After a vicious bear mauling, a frontiersman (Leonardo DiCaprio) is left for dead and has to go on a mission of survival to avenge his son's death.
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Best picture: 'Revenant,' 'Max' lead Oscar charge
Rating: R
Upside: Iñárritu's Birdman follow-up is brutal and beautifully filmed.
Downside: A number of violent scenes are not for the faint of heart.
'ROOM'
***
Plot: A young mom (Brie Larson) and kid (Jacob Tremblay) are held captive in a small room and have to deal with going on with their lives when they're free.
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Photos: 2016 Oscar acting nominees
Rating: R
Upside: Larson is exceptional at playing a woman forever changed by her circumstances.
Downside: The latter part of the film is shakier storywise than the emotionally charged first half.
'SPOTLIGHT'
****
Plot: A group of Boston Globe investigative reporters put together a major expose on clergy sex abuse in Boston and the church cover-up that followed.
Director: Tom McCarthy
Oscars: Acting races are an all-white field
Rating: R
Upside: The whole cast is top notch, but Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton especially shine.
Downside: It serves as a reminder that this kind of dogged journalism has gone by the wayside.
Contributing: Claudia Puig
