It's Oscars time again, and though I haven't got around to posting anything for a while, it seemed like a good time to weigh in again, because what you needed was more Oscars opinions, right? Especially mine, because my opinion is really important! Plus quotes, everyone likes quotes! And pictures! Look at all that great stuff that's waiting for you! So let's dive in...
But first, I'm gonna preface things by throwing out a strong recommendation for AMC's Annual Best Picture Showcase, which I attended for the sixth year in a row. Sure, it's not as good a deal as it used to be (2009 Cantera 30 in Warrenville, IL - The ability to bring in your own food plus free popcorn; 2010 Yorktown 17 in Lombard, IL - free popcorn; 2011 Yorktown 17 in Lombard, IL - A free ten dollar gift card/week; 2013/2014 Showplace Naperville 16 in Naperville, IL - Five dollars/week stubs members only) but it's still a great time hanging out with a bunch of like-minded people, watching a bunch of great movies. But enough about that, let's talk about a bunch of movies:
Best Picture: It's my intention to review all nine of the Best Picture nominees separately, I just ran out of time before the Oscars so this post will be amended in a day or so. Suffice it to say that, of the nominated films, I liked Philomena the best but don't think there's any chance that it's going to win. So what, then, will win? It seems to be a foregone conclusion it will be either Gravity or 12 Years a Slave. Of the two, there's no denying that 12 Years is the better written, better acted, and all around more socially-conscious film. More importantly, it's the type of film that usually wins the award. Gravity is not, though I like it better. However, just because something is more fun to watch, it doesn't mean that its more important. On the other hand, it would be so surprising if the Academy picked a film so far outside its wheelhouse. In the end, though we may all pretend that Gravity is an outside chance, if any of us had to put money on it I think we'd all go with 12 Years a Slave.
Leading Actor: My favorite performance of the year is Robert Redford in All Is Lost (2013), but again the Academy decided not to acknowledge it whatsoever so I've got to go with something else. Christian Bale in American Hustle had the best character (which he performed admirably in what is likely my favorite Bale performance) but that's neither here nor there. DiCaprio was great, yes, but personally I believe subtle performances are much more difficult than over the top ones. Certainly Matthew McConaughey was the most committed, losing 47 pounds for the role. On one hand, Chiwetel Ejiofor played his role with strength and dignity, on the other hand, Bruce Dern was fantastic - that is assuming he was acting and they didn't just grab some old guy with borderline dementia off the street. So I guess I'd have to go with Dern if I'm being objective (the hallmark of doing a good job being that you don't notice that they're doing it in the first place) and McConaughey if I'm honest. So McConaughey it is: his character changed the most over the course of the film and he showed the most range.
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Supporting Actor: Since there's already a precedent, I'm sure it'll surprise no one that my favorite supporting performance this year was not recognized by the academy, that being Louis CK in American Hustle - not that he would have won by any means, but I would have loved to have see a surprise nomination like Jonah Hill in 2011. I also would have loved to see Jeremy Renner who, for the first time in his career played a character I liked, someone I actually felt for. But of course that's not my call to make. Speaking of Jonah Hill, it seems the competition this year is between him and Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club. Bradley Cooper was good but not great, Fassbender is always good (even when playing a character that somehow makes me think of an evil Vincent Van Gogh), and I'd say that while good, I don't feel great about Barkhad Abdi's chances being a foreigner that no one's really heard of, playing the somewhat sympathetic villain in a kind of action movie, but the existence of Christoph Waltz proves me wrong, so who knows?
I was going to leave it at that but I realized I hadn't actually given an answer yet. So of the two front runners, Leto and Hill, I'm going to go with Hill: the old Academy would have gone with Leto but the Academy we have now, the one that seems likely to give Jennifer Lawrence an Oscar two years in a row (don't get me wrong, I feel like she deserves it for Hustle, I just feel like last year she was recognized for being generally awesome/Jennifer Lawrence instead of acting) will give it to Hill. The Academy, it's said, wants to appeal to a younger demographic so more folks will watch the Oscars -- which, if we're honest really shouldn't matter to them at all... Who cares about ratings? It's their job to recognize the most worthy artistic creations of the year, so why should industry politics figure into this at all? Why should ratings? To me, that sounds like what we call a Conflict of Interests.
But that changes nothing. Does Hill deserve the award? In my opinion, yes, but it could easily go either way.
Leading Actress: Carrying an entire movie by yourself is hard work, so Sandra Bullock gets mad respect for Gravity. Then there's Amy Adams who was great in American Hustle and really, when you think about it, was the fulcrum around which the whole story operated. Though I felt more for Bale, Adams was the entire reason I wanted him to succeed in the first place. Of all the performances this year, Meryl Streep's was the one that stayed with me for the longest (I think I was depressed for a full week and a half after seeing August Osage County). Judi Dench was brilliant in Philomena which, contrasted wonderfully by the stoic Steve Coogan, was warm and charming and is probably my favorite this year. Maybe there should be a Best Ensemble award? Cate Blanchett will probably win though, by all accounts, and I can't deny her performance in Blue Jasmine was a good (though unsympathetic) one but I found Streep's to be in a similar vein and altogether more compelling.
Supporting Actress: I just realized that if I keep writing this much there's no way that I'm going to finish in time. So, Julia Roberts was fine, but not my favorite. June Squibb was my favorite but isn't going to win. Sally Hawkins did a good job, but I don't feel like she stood out. Lupita Nyong'o stood out and was great and very sympathetic in the role, but I feel like Jennifer Lawrence truly embraced the insanity of her role and is the big standout this year. When people reference American Hustle in years to come they'll remember two things: the second is Christian Bale's hair, the first is Jennifer Lawrence.
Animated Feature: As a fan of animation and animated features, I'm ashamed to say I did a terrible job this year and managed to see none of these films. Sigh... At least I'll have something to do when Oscar season is finally over.
Cinematography: I haven't seen The Grandmaster so if it contains the best cinematography you'll have to forgive me. Prisoners was a well-crafted film that looked good too. You should definitely see it, but it's not my winner. Nebraska was beautifully shot and I don't know if the Coen Brothers have made a bad looking film yet but I'm going to have to go with Gravity. Sure, you'll say, a lot of it was computer generated but a surprising amount wasn't and someone still had to decide what the audience sees.
Costume Design: Again, I can't speak for the two films I haven't seen (Grandmaster and Invisible Woman) but the clear winner is American Hustle - which is a shame because in a year without it I think Gatsby would have won.
Directing: This is a tough one. As I've said before, I haven't been the biggest David O. Russell fan in the past but I thought American Hustle was great. Wolf of Wall Street was similarly fantastic to behold and under my usual criteria of authorship, I think we might have to give it to Scorsese. However, when it really comes down to it, I've got to give it to Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity. The film took four years to make and Cuarón had a hand in every aspect of it. When it really comes down to it, Gravity has been fine-tuned into nothing more than it needs to to tell the story in the best, most efficient, most visual way possible. From the beginning to the end, you're riveted to your seat. Hustle and Wall Street were both great but Gravity was better.
Editing: To me neither American Hustle or Wolf of Wall Street felt like three-hour films, which is really saying something. Obviously again the best editing is the editing you don't notice, and that means that Dallas Buyers Club, Captain Phillips, and 12 Years a Slave were great. But once more they can't defeat the fine-tuned beast that is Gravity, a film that knows when it's time to eschew convention and use a seventeen minute continuous shot. Gravity is so highly thought out, so tightly planned that it's hard to beat.
Makeup and Hairstyling: Though the makeup in Bad Grandpa was impressive indeed, and though I liked The Lone Ranger in general (though it didn't really stand out to me in the makeup department), I'd have to give it to Dallas Buyers Club. Dallas Buyers Club did a fantastic job with a minimal budget - the whole thing felt very raw and real. Though who knows how much of that was makeup and how much was the actors themselves? In the end, though, if we can't tell isn't that what counts?
Original Score: I haven't seen The Book Thief. Though you can always count on John Williams to do a good job, I haven't been as impressed with his work of late, so who knows? Of the others, the only score that stood out to me - to the point I remarked to myself, 'I like what this score is doing' is Gravity. But, then again, that was the third time I was seeing the film, which is typically when I'll take the time to look around at a production and notice the individual bits and how they contribute to the whole. The rest of these films (Her, Philomena, and Saving Mr. Banks) were very emotional at their core and I know that music is a vital part of that experience. To me that means they all did their jobs admirably and deserve to be here. But again they didn't stand out, where as Gravity's score had to do a very different job, one of conveying fear, danger, and isolation, and in that way was unique this year, so that's the way I've got to go.
Original Song: I don't feel like I've got the right to make an opinion on this one only having seen half the films in this category and thus not really having an opinion. I will say though that I appreciate the original music in Her and how it contributed to the sensory experience of the film as a whole, existing in a way as a part of a character. "Ordinary Love" in Mandela was a good song, that I enjoyed listening to, but it didn't feel like a part of the film, it felt like the closing paragraph of an essay, summing up the whole thing for us, but not necessarily embodying it, if that makes any sense. Of the two, at least so far as being part of the film, I'd go with "The Moon Song" from Her.
Production Design: Alas, I've got to go with American Hustle again. Gravity was good, though nowhere near the amount of costumes and sets (though I realize that literally everything needed to be created for Gravity, since they didn't have any space stations hanging around the UK). Gravity did a great job portraying an event but American Hustle embodied an era. I have no doubt that every stitch of clothing in 12 Years a Slave was spot on, I really enjoyed Her's minimalist portrayal of a believable future not that distant from our own and, as much as I liked Gatsby and hoped it would win something, American Hustle just did a better job.
Animated Short: Again, I've got nothing. Maybe next year I've got to figure out how to get the Academy to send me one of those box of discs. From the sounds of it, there are plenty of people who actually get them that couldn't give two shits, so why not send them to someone who will actually watch them?
Short Film: Ditto.
Sound Editing: Here, I've got to go with All is Lost: for a movie with no dialogue (well, yes, if you want to get technical...) all the little sounds are all you've got, so they've got to be perfect. They were.
Sound Mixing: I'm really tempted to go with Inside Llewyn Davis because I wanted it to win something but the sound environment in Gravity is so well done I can't really say a bad word. Is there something to say for pulling all the sounds together to create a completely believable artificial environment? Or do I go with a movie about music, featuring several acoustic performances that was in its own right rich and flawless? I guess I have to go with Gravity because it created two distinct worlds of sound and transitioned back and forth artfully over the course of the film: the dangerous, deadly, vacuum of space, and the deceptively fragile but safe for a time sterility of the film's various stations/capsules. But it's a close call in my mind.
Visual Effects: As brilliant as Smaug was (and that can't be understated), without visual effects Gravity would just be Sandra Bullock in a queer assortment of seemingly random places: hanging from wires, underwater, tiny sets, etc. All with inexorable green backgrounds. Because it wasn't, because we instead got the oppressive, claustrophobic, murderous environment of space and that it was more importantly completely believable (and what's more surprisingly accurate) Gravity is the obvious victor.
Adapted Screenplay: So many of the best films this year are based on true stories, but my favorite screenplay in this category is the only one that wasn't: Before Midnight. Before Midnight counts as an adapted screenplay because it's based on the characters from the previous installments (Before Sunrise and Before Sunset). The film is escentially wall to wall conversation and, as such, the quality of the writing is the star. I'm a big fan of the series, especially of the collaborative nature between the director Linklater and the film's stars, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, and think it's wonderful that they all care so much that they come together to determine the ongoing fates of their characters together. I look forward to dropping in on these characters in another ten years and see how things are progressing.
Original Screenplay: I really liked Her but I can't say that I think it's going to win anything - except this. Her was one of the most unique films of the year and that all comes from the writing. Though wonderfully executed, it's the idea, the world and characters that Spike Jonze created that allow it to exist in the first place. As the most original film, in my mind at least, it by definition has the most original screenplay.
