2013 Oscar nominated Best Actor

This may be the toughest competition of the awards.
And the nominees are:

Christian Bale in "American Hustle"
Bale plays a 1970s grifter who, with his lover Amy Adams, is coerced by the FBI to participate in ABSCAM to bring down politicians. With a pot belly and the world's worst comb-over, Bale immerses himself physically and emotionally into his character. He is so good he is literally unrecognizable.

Bruce Dern in "Nebraska"
Dern gives the most pensive and restrained performance of his career as an elderly man who believes he won a million dollars, and who is determined to claim his prize despite his family's objections and disbelief. A movingly realistic portrait of a man hoping for one last shot at something big in his life.

Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Wolf of Wall Street"
A young Wall Street salesman builds his own company into a multi-billion dollar powerhouse through graft and corruption. While his company grows he careens out of control with drugs and sex. A bombastic, "balls-to-the-wall" performance from DiCaprio.

Chiwetel Ejiofor in "12 Years a Slave"
A successful free black man in New York is kidnapped and taken from his family to be sold into slavery in the deep south. This is the most harrowing, nail-biting, and heart-breaking performance of the year.

Matthew McConaughey in "Dallas Buyers Club"
A homophobic redneck is diagnosed with AIDS at the onset of the epidemic. Unable to obtain medication due to early FDA trials and tests, he teams up with a transgendered AIDS patient to bring unregulated drugs across the border from Mexico. Without a doubt, the performance of McConaughey's career. Looking haggard and sickly, he turns a character you despise at first into a hero you cheer for.

Who will win:
Matthew McConaughey
At the beginning of Oscar talk, this was to be Chewitel Ejiofor's win. However, McConaughey has changed his career over the last two years by leaving romantic comedies for more edgier roles ("Mud," "Killer Joe," "Magic Mike'.) This performance is the peak of the "McConaissance."

Who I would pick:
Bruce Dern
I admired every performance in this category, but I keep going back to McConaughey and Dern. And to celebrate his 50+ years in the business, I would go with the sentimental vote.

Honorable mention:
Tom Hanks in "Captain Phillips"
Why was he not nominated?! As the captain of a ship beseiged by Somalian pirates, Hanks is tasked with keeping his crew safe while trying to communicate and work with the pirates. The last 10 minutes of the film had me reduced to a pool of tears thanks to Hanks' performance.

Sunday night is fast approaching, so tomorrow I will post the Best Picture nominees.
Until then....keep it reel.