Oscar Week in Review: October 2-9, 2010

Oscar News

Peter Weir’s The Way Back, featuring Oscar nominees Ed Harris and Saiorse Ronan, got an official release date of December 29, meaning it will be eligible for Academy Award consideration.
The New York Times ran an article this week stating that Disney is putting together a major push for Toy Story 3, believing they could have the first animated Best Picture winner on their hands.
In the never ending saga of The Hobbit, it was broken this week that Oscar winner Peter Jackson will actually return to the director’s chair for the long-awaited prequel.

Secretariat, Disney’s live-action push for major Oscar attention, opened to strong (but not wonderful) reviews. With a 61 Metacritic and a Rotten Tomatoes of 66%, Roger Ebert calls it one of the best films of the year.
Multiple Oscar nominee Stephen Frears returns with Tamara Drewe, which managed a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. It got a slightly less impressive 63 on Metacritic, and most of the critics say it is well made and entertaining, but nothing more.
The documentary Inside Job, with a Metacritic of 89 and a Rotten Tomatoes of 88%, looks to be a contender for year-end documentary awards. Variety calls the film “the definitive screen investigation of the global economic crisis.”

The Social Network was last week’s major release, and it took in a very respectable $22.4 million for first place.

127 Hours: The second trailer for Danny Boyle’s followup to Slumdog Millionaire continues to look like a fascinating film, and a major contender this winter.
The Tempest: No matter what the word-of-mouth says, Taymor’s films always deliver on the visual level, and this looks like a technical feast that could contend in several categories.
True Grit: For the second week in a row we get a trailer for the new film by the Coen Brothers, and this one makes an even bigger case for the film. Look for this to be a major player in the races this December.