FILM REVIEWS: Movie award contenders

CBC film critic Eli Glasner's reviews of select film award-season contenders.

"This is a fascinating mistake. This is like Les Misrables, unplugged."

Lincoln

"Daniel Day Lewis is understated and remarkable as the 16th American president in Steven Spielberg's anticipated drama Lincoln."

"A feast for the eyes."

"A movie as audacious as it is eloquent."

"Unconventional and comedic, its portrait of two people who refuse to be defined by their condition is ultimately moving."

Anna Karenina

"In an audacious adaptation, director Joe Wright takes no prisoners with Tolstoy's classic novel Anna Karenina, adding a theatrical flourish to the story of love lost and found."

"Bond is back and renewed like never before in a movie that pays tribute to the past while making the case for 007's relevance."

"A breathless dash for freedom that takes some equally breathless liberties with the facts, Argo is a classic bit of Hollywood entertainment, a great escape set during the Iran Hostage crisis."

The Master

"Though undeniably linked to Scientology, Paul Thomas Anderson's masterful drama is ultimately an exploration of the attraction and the physics of the personalities who pull us in."

"In a movie packed with famous faces, it's a pair of young, unknown actors that make Moonrise Kingdom Wes Anderson's finest film."

"Brave is many things:a mythic fable, a Scottish comedy as subtle as a Billy Connolly monologue and a movie about princess who needs no rescuing."

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

"Director Peter Jackson appears to be so devoted to J.R.R. Tolkien's original, he's forgotten he needs to tell a story rather than just fit all those dwarfs on the screen."