Our Movie Critic's Weekend Selections

2015 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animated and Live-Action Separate programs of the Academy Award-nominated short subjects. For the first time in quite a few years, the live-action selection is the stronger of the two, with three standouts, Aya, Butter Lamp, and Parvaneh, but the cartoons, rendered in hand-drawn, stop-motion and CGI, are well-worth watching, too. No MPAA rating

Still Alice Shot through with piercing detail, and devoid of cheap sentimentality, the sad, beautifully realized story of a linguistics professor, a mother, a wife diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. One of the defining performances of Julianne Moore's career, rightly nominated for an Academy Award. With Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, and Kristen Stewart. PG-13

Two Days, One Night Marion Cotillard, nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, stars as a laid-off factory worker who can reclaim her job if she can persuade her colleagues to forgo a bonus. So she goes knocking on doors, entreating, begging. An almost biblical parable about compassion and community, from the Belgian kitchen-sinkers, the Dardenne Brothers. R