Archive Picks and Pans Main: Movies By Alynda Wheat Published on March 4, 2013 12:00 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Alynda’s OSCAR PICKS You’d have to be trapped in the secret hiding space under the Canadian embassy in Tehran not to know that the wind is at Argo’s back going into the 85th Academy Awards. I’m actually perfectly fine with that (particularly in protest of the unforgivable snubbing of Ben Affleck for a Best Director nomination). Still, I’m rooting for my sentimental favorite for Best Picture. Silver Linings Playbook is about as divisive and unsettling as family comedies get. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence’s characters are so disturbed you might overlook his codependent mom (Jacki Weaver) and dad (Robert De Niro) with OCD, rage issues and a gambling addiction. But the revelation is Lawrence, who showed such vibrance as Tiffany, the funny, brilliant, lying, trampy widow down the road. Her comic timing is impeccable, her range apparently unlimited, and her dancing skills, um, well, I said she’s funny, right? Thanks to bold direction from David O. Russell (who deserves Best Director in Affleck’s stead), she and the rest of the cast get a safe space to play with daring ideas, like that mental illness is something to live with, not simply endure. That’s worth applauding-even if Silver Linings doesn’t win. Best PICTURE Amour Argo Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Les Miserables Life of Pi Lincoln Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty Best ACTRESS Jessica Chastain Zero Dark Thirty Jennifer Lawrence Silver Linings Playbook Emmanuelle Riva Amour Quvenzhane Wallis Beasts of the Southern Wild Naomi Watts The Impossible Sally Field has said that when she met Day-Lewis as she prepared to be the Mary Todd to his Abraham, they spent the entire time chatting in character. I’ll wager that by then he didn’t have much of a choice. No one goes deeper into roles than Day-Lewis, transforming in what seem to be feats of sorcery. With direction from Steven Spielberg and a fresh, surprisingly funny script from Tony Kushner, Day-Lewis delivers a Great Emancipator who is principled and conniving, witty and subtle, gentle yet commanding. Most astonishing, though, is that he digs under the weight of all that history and brings us a man. Best ACTOR Bradley Cooper Silver Linings Playbook Daniel Day-Lewis Lincoln Hugh Jackman Les Miserables Joaquin Phoenix The Master Denzel Washington Flight Best SUPPORTING ACTRESS Amy Adams The Master Sally Field Lincoln Anne Hathaway Les Miserables Helen Hunt The Sessions Jacki Weaver Silver Linings Playbook While not as pithy as Judi Dench’s eight-minute sprint for the gold in Shakespeare in Love, Hathaway’s turn as a young mother left to wither in the streets of France is all the more poignant for its brevity. She conveys the tragedy of a life wasted in a choking sob of a solo, “I Dreamed a Dream,” that gives Les Mis emotional heft before it’s even finished introducing the cast. That, my friends, is how you seize a moment. Best SUPPORTING ACTOR Alan Arkin Argo Robert De Niro Silver Linings Playbook Philip Seymour Hoffman The Master Tommy Lee Jones Lincoln Christoph Waltz Django Unchained The movie is titled Lincoln, and Day-Lewis gave it the performance of his life. But Jones was so thunderous and aflame with rectitude as Sen. Thaddeus Stevens that I left the theater wondering when I could see his biopic. With Waltz and Hoffman dazzling voters in roles so substantial they nearly warrant Best Actor consideration, an Oscar for Jones is far from assured, but it is merited.