More Oscar Talk for Silver Linings Playbook

According to Steve Pond over at The Wrap, David O. Russell would like his movie to be thought of as an underdog. But that’s not going to happen. According to Anne Thompson, Dave Karger has now joined the list of those calling it a major contender and Steve Pond opens his column this way:

David O. Russell may not want to have this announced publicly, but Saturday’s Toronto International Film Festival brought us a new heavyweight in the Oscar race.

“The Silver Linings Playbook,” Russell’s first movie since the Oscar-nominated “The Fighter” two years ago, came to Toronto without much buzz but debuted on Saturday night in Roy Thomson Hall to a roaring ovation.

Featuring a career-changing performance from Bradley Cooper (Ieft with David O. Russell and producer Jonathan Gordon) and another brilliant one from Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings” is a perfectly calibrated comedy that is also deeply moving; it’s another major step in Russell’s comeback from movie limbo, and a mainstream film with enough heart and clout to immediately figure into a number of Oscar races, definitely including Best Picture.

But Pond does caution:

That much, at least, seems unlikely, though the Academy’s bias against comedy may prevent “Silver Linings” from becoming a frontrunner.

Meanwhile, the Huffpo got in on the Oscar talk too.