It’s been a year filled with silent screen stars seeking redemption, the 1920s coming alive in Paris, a young boy searching for the first great director, sex addicts in New York City, horses going to war, maids of dishonor, and skulls getting crushed in elevators. Now it’s time to celebrate all of those things and more with the 84th annual Academy Awards. They’ve come a long way since the Hotel Roosevelt in 1929 (although sex addicts have almost always been a fixture). Get to ready to smile, ball your fists with snubbed rage, or be generally unsurprised. Here they are. The 2012 Oscar nominees:

An old woman enters a small corner shop in London for milk and finds herself shuffled about, ignored and treated like just another no-name pensioner. What the clerk and other customers don’t know though is that this elderly lady in a head scarf, glasses and overcoat is actually their former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. She played an integral role in the shaping of the Western world due to her policies and length of time in office, and was at one time as reviled as she was revered. The Iron Lady is similar in that the film’s outward impression is far removed from the inner truth. The film should be, and by all accounts is meant to be, a look at the fascinating and historical life and times of the UK’s first and only female Prime Minister. But instead, the movie lets all of that fall by the wayside as it focuses on Thatcher as an old woman struggling to let go of her dead husband. Meryl Streep (and the film’s make-up department) brings the historical figure to life with an amazing and expressive performance, but it’s wasted on a film more interested in lost love and the onset of dementia than it is in telling an engaging and relevant story.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr looks at his list of New Year’s resolutions. However, since he was a little drunk when he wrote them and his handwriting is sloppy, he thinks it reads to “exorcise more” instead of “exercise more.” So, he hops a plane to Rome and sneaks out to the theater late at night to check out the latest first-of-the-year release, The Devil Inside. After waking up from a quick nap in the theater as a result, Kevin heads back to the states to catch some last-minute award films in limited release.

Is there really any doubt? With Meryl Streep‘s consistent successes and the added bonus of a win for The King’s Speech last year, all that The Iron Lady has to do is prove that it’s not a carbon copy with a female in the lead to make Academy voters happy. There’s a shot in the new UK trailer for the film where Streep, as former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher, stands tall with her chest out and her chin held out in the air. It’s followed immediately by a somber shot where she hangs her head low while seated in the shadows. I can only assume that the film will focus on both aspects of her life, the trials and triumphs, the personal and the political. She’s joined by the brilliant Jim Broadbent, and the whole basket of crumpets was directed by Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!, Macbeth). It’s a gorgeous trailer. Check it out for yourself:

The resemblance isn’t nearly as striking as Meryl Streep’s turn as Julia Child, but it’s a safe bet that the phenomenal actress will make The Iron Lady her own and sink right into the role as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This is definitely not the first time Thatcher has appeared on film (as herself or played by an actor), but it’s the most high profile to date. This is the second feature from Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd. No word yet on whether it will be a musical, but it is in its second week of filming. Check out Streep as Thatcher for yourself:

As the only literate Reject, it’s my duty to find the latest, the greatest and the untouched classics that would make great source material for film adaptations. I read so you don’t have to. A hospital full of doctors, nurses and patients looks out on a city under siege by the deadly force of a category 5 hurricane. The water level is rising, the electricity will give out eventually, and a group of medical practitioners that are exhausted by 40+ hours of work without sleep have to make the crucial decisions about who has a chance of living and who doesn’t. Sound dramatic enough? Of course it does. Because it happened. The hurricane is Hurricane Katrina, the hospital is Memorial in New Orleans, and the decisions were impossible. Yes, it would make one hell of a movie.

If there’s one thing that every single human being on the planet is talking about right now, it’s the Home Shopping Network. They just can’t get enough of the damned thing. All the cubic zirconium and credit card fraud and shiny inhuman smiles. It’s even more popular than Facebook. This message, of course, is brought to you by the 1980s and Uncle Jasper’s Removable Shoulder Pads For Women. Universal continues to stay on the cutting edge with a new project about said televised storefront that’s being written/directed/produced by Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2: Hot Flashes writer/director/producer Michael Patrick King. The parts (that haven’t been written yet) were developed specifically for Oprah, Meryl Streep, and Sandra Bullock. Fortunately, they have taken the roles. Unfortunately, Sandra Bullock took Meryl Streep’s role. Fortunately, Streep is playing Oprah. In other news, the Home Shopping Network still exists. [Cinema Blend]

The Streep/Tucci love affair rolls on… Per THR, Meryl Streep will be starring in the new film, Mommy & Me, for director Stanley Tucci. Streep will play the mommy, and Tina Fey will obviously play me. The story specifics haven’t been revealed yet aside from a general and generic description that it explores “the thorny and funny sides of mother-daughter relationships.” Hard to get excited based off that alone, but the pairing of Streep and Fey is actually pretty exciting. Streep has recently found a career resurgence (of sorts) in more comedic roles like Mamma Mia!, It’s Complicated, and Julie & Julia, and Fey is simply one of the funniest people working in TV and film right now. This is Tucci’s fifth feature behind the camera, but odds are it will be seen by more people than his other four combined. It’ll also be his third film with Streep. He played one of her underlings in The Devil Wears Prada and was most recently seen as her husband (and one of the film’s highlights) in Julie & Julia. There’s no word yet if Tucci with actually appear in Mommy & Me or just direct, but I can easily envision him in a small role as a perverted neighbor who kidnaps and kills Streep’s daughter. Or not.

Meryl Streep is in talks to re-team with Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd for Thatcher, a biopic of the former British prime minister. The movie will center on Thatcher’s attempts to save her career in the 17 days leading up the Falklands War in 1982. She was also, for those who don’t follow history, the only woman to ever hold the post of Prime Minister in Britain’s history.

The worst thing that can happen this week in the world of DVDs and Blu-ray is for your mom to call you up and invite you over to watch It’s Complicated. After all, who wants to watch old people doin’ it with their mom in the room? So, grab a bottle of wine and get your three sheets to the wind before the real jumbly bits start to show up in this senior citizen rom com.

This year has been a strange one for acting performances. In a big way, the only category to fully reflect the new diversity that the Academy seems to be going for is the Best Actress category in which we see a Southern mom, a famous author’s wife, a young girl finding her purpose, a young girl finding her purpose through intense hardship, and a former spy who wants to take cooking lessons.

Could this Tom Robbins journey through immortality and beets be Oscar-caliber? You’re damned right it could.

Merry Christmas from the Fat Guys! Kevin got Neil the gift of respect for just one episode, and Neil got Kevin the gift of seeing only one movie. The Fat Guys rip through the next Christmas movies, including Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, It’s Complicated and Sherlock Holmes.

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down and sees if Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Sherlock Holmes and It’s Complicated can make the grade.

Kevin Carr heads out to the movies this week, making a stop in a fox hole with the Fantastic Mr. Fox, and then moving on to the end of the world.

‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ is definitely a Wes Anderson movie; it’s full of whimsy and alienation, and it explores troubled relationships. It’s also animated and about a family of foxes. The combination makes for a unique experience.

Alec Baldwin is randomly crying. Meryl Streep is a little bit of a slut. Steve Martin, still crazy. And writer/director Nancy Meyers is back again for another round of romcom

Have you seen anything this year worthy of next year’s Oscars? If so, what? What do you think should get nominated? Who should win? Bethany Perryman wants to know.

Kevin Carr breaks down the week’s releases, looking at G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Julie & Julia, and A Perfect Getaway.

By the end of the movie you’ll probably find yourself hungry, and not just for that delicious looking bruschetta from earlier in the film. The movie itself fails to satisfy or feel complete in any way, and will probably leave you craving something more substantial. They learn to cook. They cook. The end.