First Thoughts on Best Feature American Spirit Awards Nominees 2012

The following are the six nominees for this year's American Spirit's  Best Feature:
50/50, Beginners, Drive, Take Shelter, The Artist, The Descendants. 
Having viewed all the movies, I've divided the films into three tiers. The first are the two nominees who have a slim chance of taking home an award.
50/50 is a movie about a young man's struggle with cancer. It's a touching movie with a small but excellent cast led by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Beginners is a story about a young man who deals with his father after his father's diagnosis  of a terminal illness. Along with dealing with the diagnosis, he also has to be accustomed to his widowed father's revelation that he is gay. Christopher Plummer has received multiple nominations for his performance in the Supporting Actor category.
The next two are creative and original and have been recognized with positive critical acclaim. Drive is a vehicle driven by Ryan Gosling literally and figuratively. Gosling is a stunt driver for the movies by day, at night he hires out as a getaway driver for robbers. Gosling is a loner until he meets Irene, a young mother whose husband is in prison. Gosling forms an attachment to both the mother and son and puts his life on the line to help the family. This is a taut movie, Gosling is at his best as the loner. Take Shelter is a movie which I was very taken with. Curtis, Samantha and their deaf six year old daughter, Hannah are living in Ohio.  Curtis is hardworking but money is tight but still they are a happy family. Curtis starts having nightmares about approaching an environmental doom. He also starts having hallucinations, such as the sky is raining oil. Curtis is freaked out by the nightmares because he mother was diagnosed with mental illness at the age he is now. The entire movie has the viewer asking, is Curtis succumbing to mental illness or are his dreams are harbinger of an cataclysmic event. Although both movies are up against better known movies, I would be happy if either of them walk away with a Spirit award.
The two films which I see as the favorites are The Artist or The Descendants, And the winner is a toss up. I do predict the award will go to The Artist, the highly acclaimed black and white silent film. However, Payne's The Descendants may take home the award. Set in Hawaii, The Descendants tell the story of a man (George Clooney) and his two daughters struggling with the impending death of their mother, a victim of a boating accident. It is a touching and sometimes humorous look at how the "back up" parent deals with a family tragedy.