Tropic Goes for Gold With
Four Oscar-Nominated Films
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Front Row at the Movies
Solares Hill
Take a sea voyage with a boy and a tiger, get some crazy lessons in
mental health, visit with top-hatted Abraham Lincoln, and witness tawdry
behavior among Danish royalty -- all at the Tropic Cinema.
And each of its scheduled films has been nominated for bright, shiny
golden Oscars in the upcoming 85th Academy Awards.
Ang Lee’s spectacular “Life of Pi” opens this week at the Tropic (in both
3D and non-3D). This is a movie they said couldn’t be made, but Lee has crafted
a visually stunning masterpiece that serves as an allegory about life, religious
beliefs, and survival. Based on the acclaimed same-titled book by Yann Martel, this is the story of an Indian boy marooned on a lifeboat
with several surviving zoo animals. Piscine Molitor Patel, or Pi as he is
known, witnesses the hyena kill the zebra, then the orangutan, but is shocked
when a tiger hiding under the boat’s tarpaulin emerges to kill the hyena. Now can Pi
survive alone on a drifting boat with a fierce tiger? Nominated for
a whopping 11 Academy Awards, “Life of Pi” is a movie you’ll not want to miss.
Up for 8 Academy Awards
is “Silver Linings Playbook,” David O. Russell’s wonky tale about a bipolar guy
just released from a mental institution and a crazy-with-grief young widow who
changes his life with a few dance moves. There’s lots of chemistry between
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, with Jennifer already picking up a Golden
Globes award for her funny performance.
Another Academy Awards
multiple-nominee is “Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s masterful look at the passage
of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in the United States. Holding onto
its screen at the Tropic, “Lincoln” has garnered 12 nominations (the most of
any contender), with Daniel Day-Lewis expected to win as Best Actor for his
iconic portrayal of Abraham Lincoln.
New to the Tropic
screens this week is “A Royal Affair,” a historical drama about Mad King Christian VII
of Denmark, his unfaithful Queen, and the German doctor who usurped both the
wife and country. Mads Mikkelsen (the villain in “Casino Royale”) stars as the
doctor who became the de facto regent of Denmark. A true-but-little-known story
from the pages of history, “A Royal
Affair” has been nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film.
It’s a lineup you’ll
definitely want to see before all those Oscars are handed out on February 24.
srhoades@aol.com
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