Steve Carell in Foxcatcher
Director: Bennett Miller
Also starring: Channing Tatum, Mark Rufallo, Vanessa Redgrave
What's it about?
Steve Carell is unrecognisable and chilling as wealthy heir John du Pont, who formed a wrestling team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. For du Pont, the arrangement is an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Winner: Best Director at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
Bradley Cooper in American Sniper
Director: Clint Eastwood
Also starring: Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner, Ben Reed
What's it about?
In this biopic, Bradley Cooper gives one of his best performances as Chris Kyle, a U.S. Navy SEAL, whose pinpoint accuracy saved countless lives on the battlefield in Iraq. But upon returning to his wife, Taya Renae Kyle (Sienna Miller), and kids, Chris finds that it is the war he can’t leave behind.
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Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game
Director: Morten Tyldum
Also starring: Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear
What's it about?
Benedict Cumberbatch plays English mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, who helped the Allies by cracking the Enigma code during World War II, but was unable to live as an openly gay man.
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Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Also starring: Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts
What's it about?
Michael Keaton goes meta in a role that echoes his own career, playing an actor who once found fame by playing an iconic superhero, and who attempts to reclaim his former success by mounting a Broadway play. He must overcome his ego and family trouble in the process, dealing with his fresh-from-rehab daughter, his insecure co-stars, including an aggressive method actor.
Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything
Director: James Marsh
Also starring: Felicity Jones, Tom Prior, Harry Lloyd
What's it about?
Eddie Redmayne plays renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking, in a physical performance that depicts the onset of motor neuron disease.
