Page 62 - The Peorian Vol 3 Issue 1 Winter

62 thePeorian.com
Competing for audience on
Christmas Day will be the new
Martin Scorsese movie, The Wolf
of Wall Street , which is based on
a New York banker’s meteoric
rise to success in the heady
days of the early 1990s. Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio, who may
gain a Best Actor nomination out
of this role, the file is getting a
ton of pre-release praise by those
in-the-know.
If you cannot wait until
Christmas Day for a most-likely
Best Picture nominee, you are in
luck: on Dec. 13 the newest film
from David O. Russell ( Silver
Linings Playbook, Three Kings, The
Fighter ) called American Hustle
comes out and has a cast that can
almost rival August: Osage County.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence and
Christian Bale, the supporting
cast includes Amy Adams, Robert
DeNiro, Bradley Cooper and
Jeremy Renner.
The story, set in the late 1970s
(and who doesn’t love those
costumes?), revolves around a
con man and his girlfriend who
are coerced into working for a
renegade FBI agent against the
New Jersey mafia. The buzz on
the street is that this could be the
one movie that pushes Russell
into the winner category.
Another likely contender is 12
Years a Slave. Written by Steve
McQueen (no relation), this
biographical movie chronicles a
free black man from New York
state who is abducted and sold
into slavery in the South. Of all
the released movies, this one is
getting the most press as Best
Picture nominee and it boasts a
remarkable 96 percent approval
rating from Rotten Tomatoes.
We are fortunate to have two
Tom Hanks movies in 2013,
including the already released
Captain Phillips, which may
well be Hanks best work since
Castaway and will most certainly
garner him another Best Actor
nomination. Captain Phillips tells
the story of a cargo ship captain
who abducted by Somali pirates
and eventually saved by U.S.
Navy Seals.
The other Hanks film is the
Dec. 20 release of Saving Mr.
Banks, which loosely tells the
story of how Walt Disney, played
by Hanks, convinces the author
of Mary Poppins to sell him the
rights to the story and let him
make the iconic film of the same
name. While Captain Phillips may
have a broader audience appeal,
rumor is that Saving Mr. Banks
may be the better film.
At The Movies