A second look

The Academy Awards are Feb. 22. While the five Best Picture nominees (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” and “The Reader”) are getting a lot of press, we thought we’d highlight a few of the lesser-visible nominated films along with their reviews by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office for Film & Broadcasting. Many of them are or will be out soon on DVD.

“The Class”

Nomination: Foreign Language Film

Thoughtful docudrama re-creating the experiences of an idealistic French literature teacher (Francois Begaudeau), over the course of an academic year, as he tries to connect with a class of ethnically mixed students in a depressed Paris neighborhood. Director and co-writer Laurent Cantet’s innovative approach — using actual students, and combining their stories with incidents recounted in real-life instructor Begaudeau’s fact-based novel to shape the script — yields an engrossing meditation on social and class divisions and on the possibilities, and limits, of an educator’s vocation. In French. Subtitles. Probably acceptable for older teens. Some rough and crude language, sexual references, at least one use of profanity. A-III (PG-13)

“Doubt”

Nomination: Leading Actress (Meryl Streep), Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Supporting Actress (Amy Adams), Supporting Actress (Viola Davis), Adapted Screenplay

Engrossing drama set in 1964 at a Bronx parochial grammar school where the nun (Meryl Streep) who serves as principal suspects a popular priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of impropriety with a 12-year-old black student, and together with a young teacher (Amy Adams), sets out to confront him. Writer-director John Patrick Shanley has successfully adapted his Pulitzer Prize-winning stage hit, deftly recreating the Catholic milieu of the era, with outstanding performances, including that of Viola Davis as the distraught mother of the putative victim. Though sexual abuse is part of the story, it is the balance of doubt and certainty in society at large that forms the principal thematic subtext. Discreetly handled sexual abuse theme. A-III (PG-13)

“Frozen River”

Nomination: Leading Actress (Melissa Leo), Original Screenplay

Two cash-strapped women in upstate New York — one (Misty Upham) a widowed Mohawk, the other (Melissa Leo) a white working-class mother of two sons (Charlie McDermott and James Reilly) abandoned by her gambling-addicted husband — are driven to smuggle undocumented aliens from Canada across the ice-bound St. Lawrence River into the United States for pay. Writer-director Courtney Hunt’s somber, understated but dramatically effective feature debut is an unflinching study of hard times, racial divisions, the plight of migrants and the lure of fast money, though it also ultimately celebrates barrier-transcending friendship, rediscovered decency and quiet, self sacrificing heroism. Human trafficking theme, some rough and crude language, and a brief strip club scene without nudity. A-III (R)

“Happy-Go-Lucky”

Nomination: Original Screenplay

Likable, nearly plotless comedy, about a persistently good-natured grade schoolteacher (Sally Hawkins) and her circle of friends, relatives and acquaintances: her longtime roommate (Alexis Zegerman), tightly wound driving instructor (Eddie Marsan), impassioned flamenco trainer (Karina Fernandez) and the school social worker (Samuel Roukin) with whom she falls in love. Hawkins’ mannerisms are sometimes grating, and the film, though never dull, is occasionally static, but the story builds and its heroine’s eccentricities become more tolerable as writer-director Mike Leigh’s film progresses, while its heroine’s unshakable optimism and deep compassion for others proves ultimately affecting. Some rough language and brief profanity, some crude expressions and sexual remarks, and an implied nonmarital sexual encounter. A-III (R)

“The Visitor”

Nomination: Leading Actor (Richard Jenkins)

Sensitive, intimate drama in which an emotionally repressed economics professor (Richard Jenkins) discovers a couple (Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira), both undocumented aliens, unwittingly squatting in his long-unvisited Greenwich Village apartment as the result of a scam and becomes involved in their travails, eventually also forming a bond with the young man’s mother (Hiam Abbass). Writer-director Tom McCarthy’s affecting film makes its political point with intelligence, subtle humor and a deep sense of compassion. Implied cohabitation and a few expletives uttered under extreme duress. A-III (PG-13)

“WALL-E”

Nomination: Animated Feature, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Original Song, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing

Beautiful and deeply touching futuristic fable about a soulful-eyed waste removal robot (voice of Ben Burtt), the last on an abandoned, garbage-strewn earth, who falls in love with a visiting search robot (Elissa Knight) and follows her onto a spaceship manned by an ineffectual Captain (Jeff Garlin) and populated by earth’s passively sedentary obese refugees. Using Pixar’s breathtaking animation techniques, director and co-writer Andrew Stanton has concocted a canny mix of sharp humor, honest sentiment and surprisingly potent romance with (for those adults looking deeper) an underlying indictment of our consumer-oriented society and a timely environmental warning. An instant classic. A-I (G)