Oscars 2015: 10 Movies That Should Be Nominated For Best Picture

8. Wild

While director Jean-Marc Valee's previous film, Dallas Buyers Club, served as a good vehicle for its actors, his latest release, Wild, is actually the superior work of cinema. Based on the true life story of Cheryl Strayed, Wild portrays Strayed's inspirational trek on the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail. A spiritually and emotionally destitute woman after the death of her beloved mother, Strayed abandoned the path of good living, taking up hard drugs and having sex with random strangers, and only through the arduous hike did she find her center again. This may sound like the cheesy inspirational synopsis of a Lifetime movie, but what Valee has proven with his last two films is how adept he is at taking what would undoubtedly be cliché in the hands of another director and making it feel real. Valee's low key style is exactly what is called for given the film's subject matter, letting the audience connect with it on their own terms instead of trying to carefully orchestrate every little emotion. With the help of two actresses, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, working on the top of their games, Wild is a surprisingly effective film. The warmth displayed by Dern's character, and the utter hole her absence leaves in Witherspoon's life, is a gut punch straight to the soul. If you have ever had any loving individual in your life who you have lost, it's hard not to relate to the beauty of the relationships displayed in Wild.