Oscar’s
night is nigh. It snuck up on me this year so I have been scrambling to view
all the nominated films for Best Picture. Just finished the last one and thought
I would put down a few thoughts. Strangely enough I really enjoyed all the
films this year. I can usually find at least one of the nominees that I truly
hate. Last year with Birdman and Boyhood I had two. No such luck this season.
To be honest I’m a little disappointed. It makes ranking them extremely hard. Oh
well, I’ll survive.
All
you can do is judge the films in front of you for how they made you feel. Every
year has its snubs. Is racism the reason “Straight Outta Compton” or Will Smith
weren’t nominated? Maybe, but I guarantee you that if Harvey Weinstein had
produced either of those films there would have been bundles of nominations.
The process is a little rigged. Some people do a better job marketing (BUYING
VOTES) than others. Way of the world I suppose but that’s where we are. Life goes
on. No movie has ever been snubbed as bad as “Color Purple” and they may have
been as much racism as it was that fact that the Academy didn’t really like
Spielberg for a long, long time. Truth is when your vote is subjective you get
results that can be suspect. Again, it’s the Way of the World.
Movies
based on true or actual events rule the day. This seems to be a pretty familiar
Oscar trend. The one truth to take away from all the pictures is that even with
the truest movie they are full of inaccuracies. Funny enough, Brooklyn, which
is a total work of fiction, came across more realistic than any of the actual “real
stories”. But here is the thing and it is hard to get around this fact… IT IS
JUST A MOVIE! Chill out.
Again,
I really liked all of the movies this year.
While there is no runaway film there is also no stinker. Does that make it a stronger or weaker crop
of movies? I don’t know but it can make for interesting conversation I suppose.
These
are listed in my personal order ranked by how I would vote if I were voting and
not what I think will win so I wouldn’t use this for betting unless you want to
lose your house.
Room:
No other way to describe it but HEART
WRENCHING. Imagine trying to explain the world to a child who has never known
anything but a 12x12 room. The film is at its best when showing us how much we
take for granted. Things like “outside” and “across the street” are not real if
you never knew they existed. The sense of loss and then the sense of awakening
that you see in the child is both heart breaking and life affirming at the same
time. That is not easy to pull off. Did I say this movie was heart wrenching?
Brie Larson should walk away with the
Best Actress award and deservedly so.
Spotlight:
There is a lot of anecdotal proof that investigative reporting is all but dead in American journalism. The story of Spotlight is the greatest argument for not letting it stay dead. There is a long list of classic films that have dogged reporters as the antagonists of the story. All the Presidents Men, Killing Fields, Salvador all come to mind. Spotlight easily belongs on that list. A true story of how a team of reporters at the Boston Globe unearthed one of the largest and most insidious conspiracies in history.
The reporters didn’t want to believe what they were learning. They were skeptical and questioning. The work was mundane and the odds were huge. They were going against arguably the most powerful force in Boston if not the world and doing so came with risk of professional ruin and worse. THAT’s drama and Spotlight does it well. A superb cast telling an unthinkable tale in a fine movie.
The Big Short:
As much as I like films as a release
and a getaway I really love films when I learn something. Whether that
something is about me, the world or the human condition it doesn’t matter. When
I get a film that does both then it is a homerun. The Big Short is a master
class in high finance and economics wrapped up in a sleek, funny and if you
think about it ANGERING film. It is a master class because it uses a half-naked
supermodel in a hot tub to explain some of the more complicated aspects of the
story in a simple way. Who could look away?
The movie does pull a little
switcharoo. It goes through great lengths to show you what happened with the US
economy in 2008 and how it was extraordinarily complex. Many, many smart people
missed it or at the very least willfully ignored what was happening. Then, almost
miraculously, you find yourself rooting for the handful of folks who figured
out the coming demise and made huge financial bets on the crash of the U.S.
economy. That’s right. People profiting billions as folks are losing their
homes are the heroes.
As I said this is a funny, fast
paced, smartly written and wonderfully acted film and if it doesn’t make you
madder than hell you weren’t paying attention.
The Revenant:
You will wince…..a lot. This movie is definitely “High Art” but it is also a little bit of “Torture Porn.” It very well may be the best picture of the year but PLEASE can we stop hearing about how hard everything was? I get it. You were cold and wet. Well, so were the masseuses and caterers.
Seriously, this film will take you on an emotional ride. DiCaprio deserves the Best Acting Oscar not because it was so hard but because he was that good. Showing the brutality of the life these men led is accomplished with every aspect of the film. The music, the cinematography, the costumes, everything adds to the story and doesn’t take away. Let’s be clear. This isn’t a new story. We have seen the movie many times. This is a tale of revenge plain and simple but it is told in an astonishingly, breath-taking way. That’s pretty impressive.
Brooklyn:
Any other year Saoirse (Seer-sha)
Ronan would have my vote for Best Actress. She’s going to be around for a long
time. Brooklyn is probably handicapped in the Oscar race because it doesn’t
deal with some unimaginable set of ridiculous events like Revenant or Room and
it isn’t set on another world like Martian or Mad Max. It is a more common tale
of a young Irish girl leaving her family for a chance at a better life. It is a
beautiful love story and no less dramatic, well-made or deserving in its own
right than the more outlandish films in the category. It does the most
important thing a film can do and that is to make you care for the characters and
what happens to them. What else do you want?
Mad Max: Fury Road:
With George Miller, Mad Max and Rocky Balboa
all on the big screen I feel like the 70’s are back! MMFR in a lot of ways is
what movies ought to be: an epic in
scale, visually stunning story of an anti-hero, outcast loner who overcomes all
odds to save the day. It is not typical Oscar Bait because fantasy doesn’t
always bode well with the Academy, some notable exceptions notwithstanding.
MMFR is violent, quirky, over the top and
it lacks subtlety but to be fair George Miller has never claimed it to be
subtle even in the original Mad Max in 1979. So now that he has a digital palette
to play with he has taken brash and bold to a digital level. It really is a
fascinating film to look view. I found myself wondering what the first movie
would have looked like if the technology had been available.
Oh and forget Tom Hardy. Charlize Theron owns this movie!
Oh and forget Tom Hardy. Charlize Theron owns this movie!
Bridge of Spies:
Spielberg / Hanks tell a cold war story of quiet espionage and backroom diplomacy. Seriously if it hadn’t been nominated the earth may have shifted on its axis. To be honest it is not Spielberg’s greatest but that’s a pretty high bar. It is thoughtful, temperate and deliberate telling more of a famous story that has been know till this point. The movie is not a genre changer or a ground breaking event. However, it is a film that is told with a steady and trusted hand by skilled filmmakers. In that way it is not unlike the hands that guided the events in the story it tells. It is a story of patriotism that is as concerned with idealism behind the acts as the acts themselves. It didn’t take place on a battlefield but in boardrooms and governmental office. It is a different type of patriotic tale but a patriotic tale none the less.
The Martian:
The greatest trick of “The Martian” is
how is took a painstakingly technical, high minded
sci-fi novel and turned it
into a highly entertaining and watchable film. You have to credit Ridley Scott
and Matt Damon. They know what they are doing. The Martian is a funny,
inspirational and uplifting film that while it was “unbelievable” it stayed “believable”.
You find yourself aching for this poor guy to finally get home. If I’ve got one
complaint, well two actually, is that the movie didn’t do a good job of showing
exactly how long he was gone. But it didn’t really matter because it would have
been impossible to root for him any harder. The second complaint was about the “science”
For the most part all of the science made sense. Until the end and that’s why
it dropped from my number 1. I’m still not over the ending. But on the whole it
is a great film.Don't let the rankings throw you. All these movies were superb. Again this was a tough year to rank.
Let me know what you think!
