If Brie Larson doesn’t win best actress then the Oscars are a complete sham. Nobody outperformed her. “Room” is both emotionally exhausting and beautifully uplifting, often just moments apart. The journey isn’t easy, but finding the light never is.

Brie Larson stars as Joy Newsome and Jacob Tremblay portrays her 5-year-old son Jack Newsome, who are held captive in “Room.” (photo courtesy of Element Pictures)

At 17, Joy Newsome (Larson) was kidnapped by a man simply known as Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). Now at 24, she lives captive in a converted tool shed with her 5-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay).

Imagine trying to explain the outside world to a child who knows only one cramped bedroom. That’s but a small dose of the challenges of sleeping, showering and using the bathroom in the same room, next to your kid.

To call “Room” a heartfelt delight seems to downplay its significance. But it’s a special kind of tear-jerker built for awards season. That’s hardly a dig. Larson transcends the competition, and young Tremblay, our shining narrator throughout, has a fascinating point of view: seeing the world for the first time at an older age and searching for the best ways to articulate this newfound paradise.

Director Lenny Abrahamson is a virtual unknown – a Dublin-born director overseeing a Canadian-Irish production. He takes a film half of which set in one room, and transforms that small space into an entire world. That’s the wonder of working with child actors, but it’s also the sign of someone who knows that a premise like this can go very badly – or just be flat out dull – without proper care.

And let’s not forget the person responsible for this all, Emma Donoghue, who wrote the novel and screenplay. While she was inspired by the Elisabeth Fritzl case in Austria, this is hardly unfamiliar territory. Donoghue treads carefully, particularly when addressing rape, but never shies away from what should be difficult topics. Trust me, if you lack empathy, “Room” might set you right.

“The Big Short”

How did Adam McKay, the director of “Anchorman” and “The Other Guys,” concoct one of the most insightful films about the financial crisis in 2008? Following two weak films, he’s now an Oscar nominee for directing and adapted screenwriting. These are strange times indeed.

Steve Carell as Mark Baum and Ryan Gosling as Jared Vennett give compelling performances in “The Big Short.” (photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Trying to understand how exactly Wall Street screwed us all remains a confounding topic, and “The Big Short” knows that. To guide us through all the jargon and red tape that allowed criminal acts to go without prosecution, we have a splendid narrator, Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling). He comically explains all the shady dealings of the past decade and introduces key players, like hedge fund managers Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale) and Mark Baum (Steve Carell), who separately learned about mortgages’ impending doom just in time to bet against the market and score big.

It’s all fun and games, particularly when Vennett has Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explain mortgage loans and Selena Gomez playing blackjack, discussing what happens when investors bet on some else’s bet.

For a film based on actual events and people involved, it’s very self-parodying. But eventually the weight of it all, the horrifying realization that things are about to get very bad for the nation and world, kicks in. At those moments, Baum’s anger at everything he can’t fix – and a general disdain for how awful people can really be – resonates deeply.

Bale deserves his Oscar nom for depicting a man with a glass eye who likely has Asperger’s syndrome. The man is truly a chameleon. But this movie belongs to Carell for one of his most stunning performances to date. Yes, I say that considering his depiction of John du Pont in “Foxcatcher.”

As a comedy, “The Big Short” doesn’t evoke the laughs you might expect, but as a nuanced look into one of the most unsexy topics – one we all desperately need to better understand – it’s something of real consequence. And McKay tells this story in a truly original way that challenges what we all care about – celebrity news, mindless viral videos, etc. – instead of things that could actually make our lives better and our futures safer.