Hello dear readers, I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween weekend. It’s Week 5 of Oscar Watch, and I have two great movies to talk to you about this week—one that you can watch right at home, and another that is more than worth your trouble for tracking it down. Shall we begin?

“Beasts of No Nation”: http://ragingfilm.com/2015/10/25/beasts-of-no-nation-review/

“BoNN”, for those very few people who don’t probably have Netflix, is the streaming site’s attempt at getting into the Oscar game. This might not be the case, but considering its October release date, it’s hardly a coincidence. What we have here is a harsh, beautiful movie about a brutal reality—children soldiers in Africa. Directed by “True Detective”’s Cary Fukunaga “BoNN” is led by a tremendous performance from Abraham Attah, who probably won’t be nominated since he is so young, but it’s a wholly memorable performance and certainly one of the best child-actor performances ever. The cinematography, set-design, and an immense supporting performance from Idris Elba (“The Wire”) will all hopefully get nods.

“Room”: http://ragingfilm.com/2015/11/01/room-review/
“Room” is that type of small movie that not many people will see until it gets nominated for all of the big stuff, and then everyone will be talking about it as if they had known about it since day one. Brie Larson plays Joy, a woman who was kidnapped seven years prior, locked in a garden shed in the backyard of her captor, and now has a 5-year-old son, Jack. Larson will surely get nominated. She is a magnificent young actress who has a great career ahead of her. Supporting her is the incredible little Jacob Tremblay, who at the age of 9 is already giving better performances than some older actors. He could very well be nominated, but I doubt it. However, if marketed and campaigned properly, “Room” will surely be one of the movies you must be seeing this year because it could be nominated for all of the big ones.

That does it for this week, I cannot encourage you enough to go find “Room” wherever it is playing (Lincoln Square in Bellevue is where I saw it). “BoNN” is also worth your time, and you can watch it right now at home. Until next time…

Happy Watching!

Coming soon….”Sicario” and “Suffragette”.