Room - 4 nominations

Best Picture - Ed Guiney, Producer

Actress in a Leading Role, Brie Larson

Directing, Lenny Abrahamson
Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Emma Donoghue

Room is the extraordinary story of a mother and her 5 year old son who are trapped by their captor in a 10x10 shed, which they refer to as room.  "Ma" is played so expertly by Brie Larson that I have to start this review by talking about her.  We feel her despair, we see her trying to keep up a normal life for this child, even as she is living through the torture of being kept as a sex slave by her kidnapper. She will do anything to protect her son from this insanity.  The bond between mother and son is impenetrable and as the son, Jack, turns 5, she decides to explain to him that there is a world beyond captivity, a world filled with possibilities.  To share more would only spoil the important twists and turns of the film, which I won't do because I deeply encourage you to see the movie.  

Don't get me wrong, it's a tough film to see and it certainly hearkens back to real life events.  But the beauty of the relationships, the powerful acting, and the incredible directing make the film a must see.  The injustice in this film is that Jacob Tremblay, the young actor who plays Jack, has received no recognition by any of the major granters of awards.  He is the real star of the film - he is on screen the most of any character, and the story is primarily through his lens.  Without spoiling the movie, I'll also offer that you should watch out for his final line of the movie which offers the most wise insight for those living through something so horrific.  In fact, that line alone would be enough for me to support the Adapted Screenplay nomination that was so well deserved for Emma Donoghue.

It's hard to call Room a favorite among the films I have seen this year because of the difficult subject matter.  But if I were choosing a limited number of movies that I could see from 2015, Room would be among them.