25 Movies To See Before Oscar Night (2016) 

February 28, 2016, the biggest and final award show of award season will air. Every year, I try to put out a list to help guide and have you prepared for your Oscar ballot or just to know what is going on during the show. As you may know, award show movies can be so tedious and I don’t think this (last) year was any different. But I am nice, so I have suffered through most of them so you don’t have to. I base the list based on the nominations, so most of the movies have nominated actors, actresses, directors. I sprinkled in 2 documentaries and 2 animated movies. ALso included is a little blurb on how I felt about the movie. Enjoy the list and have fun watching!

1. The Big Short : Could get complicated but they try to break it down. Good performances by all involved. Wouldn’t say my enjoyability factor was high

2. Bridge of Spies: Very serious movie and as expected from Tom Hanks, solid performance. Mark Rylance delivered and earned his best supporting actor nom

3. Brooklyn: Sweet movie. An elevated rom com

4. Mad Max: Fury Road: Didn’t quite get the hype like everyone else. It was like some moving concert on acid. I could appreciate the action scenes though

5. The Martian: In hindsight, the movie is better than I initially thought.

6. The Revenant: It was pretty aesthetically. Tedious to watch

7. Room: Absolutely my favorite movie among the award bait movies. Loved it

8. Spotlight: It has an important message and will probably win best picture. That’s about all I can say

9. Trumbo: It really wasn't as bad as I thought. Bryan Cranston is legit as an actor

10. Steve Jobs: If I had to summarize my thoughts after seeing it it’ll probably be “okaaaay. And…?”

11. The Danish Girl: This movie could have been so much more than it was but I think it stayed surface level. I fell asleep for a lil’ bit but the performances by both leads were great.

12. Carol: I think it was just okay. Costume design on point. Great performance as expected from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara really was a great choice as Therese Belivet (don’t you just love that name? I do)

13. Joy: I read only negative reviews about this but dare I say... I like it. I mean David O Russell gonna David O Russell and try to do too much and be all over the place but overall I liked.

14. 45 Years: I get its thing. I know it was a deep topic dealing with an unknown detail popping up in your 45th year of marriage but honestly if you have a choice between watching paint dry and this movie, might as well pencil in paint drying

15. Creed: Loved.

16. The Hateful Eight: I couldn’t do it. Between the gazillion number of times the N-word was used and the heavy blows Jennifer Jason Leigh was getting. The gush of blood from some blow had me jumping ship early. I tried.

17. Inside Out: Had me in the feels. I liked it.

18. Anomalisa: Haven’t seen it but really want too and will

19. Amy: Loved it. See my review here

20. What Happened, Miss Simone: Loved it. See my blurb about it here

21. Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Haven’t seen it

22. Mustang: Haven’t seen it

23. Sicario: If you ever watched “The Bridge” how you feel about that show would be how you feel about this movie. Solid performance from Benicio Del Toro

24. Straight Outta Compton: Enjoyable movie with solid performances all around

25. Ex-Machina: Haven’t seen it.

Well, that’s it folks. What’s your number? How many have you seen? and which of the movies would you like to see?