Oscar Predictions 2014

Brace yourselves, Oscar night is coming.

This year, I feel like I have no idea what is about to happen.  Yes, I’ve seen all the Best Picture nominees, but I haven’t seen much outside of that prestigious circle.  Life as a new mom has made seeing movies tougher.  A movie date is much more expensive when you add in the cost of a babysitter, so my husband and I don’t see as many as we used to.  All through Oscar season, I sped off the theaters to see the nominated movies when I got the chance, leaving my husband and son to fend for themselves many evenings.  They have been very supportive of my movie habits.  Perhaps I’ll make them little Oscars for best family.

But I digress, here are my predictions!  I wouldn’t take them to Vegas, but let’s have fun:

Film Editing

The editing in Whiplash is a huge role in the tone of the film. Who even voted American Sniper into this category?

Cinematography

I predict The Grand Budapest Hotel, but wouldn’t be surprised, or mind if Birdman won.

Adapted Screenplay

I really want to see Whiplash take this.

Original Screenplay

I’m torn. My head says The Grand Budapest Hotel, yet my heart cries Birdman.  The Academy is more likely to vote with their heads.

Animated Feature

The Lego Movie.  The fact that it wasn’t nominated just shows how out of touch the Academy has become.  Maybe How to Train Your Dragon 2, it was great too.

Supporting Actress

Stone and Knightley seem unlikely, as the Academy seems to favor age over beauty (Jennifer Lawrence excluded). I have yet to see Wild, but I feel Patricia Arquette’s performance is worthy.

Supporting Actor

J.K. Simmons better win that Oscar or I will be throwing a chair at someone’s head.

Actress

Sorry, I’ve only seen 2 of the nominations.  However, isn’t it about time for Julianne Moore?

Actor

Eddie Redmayne.  Even though it is total Oscar-bait, it is great.  I’d bet money on his Hawking performance.

Director

I think this is a toss-up between Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman and Richard Linklater for his 12 year devotion to Boyhood.  

Best Picture

What I think should win: Birdman.  Easily what I believe is best and just happens to be my personal favorite.

What will probably win: Who knows?  Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel lead the pack with 9 nominations each, so they seem most logical.  Boyhood could win in acknowledgment of its 12 year commitment to one beautiful movie.  I would love to see Whiplash win, but it is the underdog.  The Academy could just decide to love America more than movies and give it to American Sniper. Or they could pull an Argo and give it to Selma for snubbing Ava DuVernay out of a directing nomination, like they did to Affleck two years ago.

Sorry to rant.  One thing is for certain, I am going to be rooting for this Oscar nominated song: Everything Is Awesome.  Happy Oscar night!

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is one of the most unique and thought provoking films I have seen in years.  What’s even better is that it is also one of the most entertaining Oscar nominees in years as well.  Not a moment feels stale or boring.  The variety of characters feel real and raw.  The performances are full of power and energy.  Every second drew me in and by the end I knew exactly what to believe.

Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thompson, a Hollywood has-been known for his superhero movies turned Broadway newbie.  He is starring in, directing, and funding a play based off of Raymond Carver’s What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.  He sees this play as his last shot to contribute something great and artistic into the world.  But inside him, Birdman is trying to get out and he thinks this play is just a bunch of philosophical fluff and bullshit that rich white people will see before dinner.

Birdman is this amazing side of Riggan. He tells Riggan the truth, as unsavory as it may be.  As Birdman, Riggan can move objects with his mind and even fly.  One of my favorite scenes is when we see a physical manifestation of Birdman following Riggan around as he walks down the street after a rough night.  He is almost like a motivational coach, pumping up Riggan as he walks, “60 is the new 30, motherf*cker!”  And then, in a wonderfully surreal moment, he shows Riggan exactly what a red blooded Friday night movie theater wants, action, explosions, CGI destruction, “People, they love blood.  They love action.  Not this talky, depressing, philosophical bullshit.”  And then Riggan flies.  It’s wonderful.

Around Riggan are his castmates and daughter, Sam (Emma Stone).  Sam is a troubled millennial, out of rehab and keeping out of trouble by being her father’s personal assistant.  Her big rant to her dad is so raw and cuts so deep, we feel taken aback.  I think that is the scene that landed Stone her Oscar nomination.  Mike (Edward Norton) is a new cast member who ends up stealing the show many times and in many ways.  The friction and chemistry between Riggan and Mike is so entertaining and it can go from serious to hilarious in a heartbeat.

Birdman works with some very modern themes and leaves us to decide where allegiances should lie.  There are ideas on being a celebrity and the privilege and power that can come with it, especially if you can stay relevant.  Riggan is not in the movie theaters or the digital world, and is only somebody because of his past as Birdman.  It seems that everyone but him knows the equations: Money = power.  Celebrity = power.  A video of you walking through Times Square in your tighty whities = power.  But Riggan already has Birdman and he wants to give the world something he considers real art.  Will this play fulfill him, make him relevant again or just drain him of everything he has?

Birdman ties The Grand Budapest Hotel for the most Oscar nominations this year; a whopping nine.  They include three acting nominations: Michael Keaton (Lead Actor), Emma Stone (Supporing Actress) and Edward Norton (Supporting Actor).   Alejandro González Iñárritu is in the race for best director, his second nomination.  The other awards include original screenplay, cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing and Best Picture.

There is so much to say in praise of Birdman, I could go on for hours and hours.  The cinematography turns the cramped back of the theater into a mesmerizing labyrinth.  The music is just jazz drum solos (a nice theme for this year), that seem to portray Riggan’s emotions.  The lines between what is real and what is in Riggan’s mind are so blurred so perfectly that I do not want to know where the Birdman powers really stop.  All the performances are wonderful, from Amy Ryan to Zach Galifianakis, the Screen Actor’s Guild Award for best cast is so well deserved.  And when Michael Keaton flies, I lift my eyes to the sky with joy.

“Stop looking at the world through your cellphone screens.  Have a real experience!  Does anybody give a shit about truth other than me?”

American Sniper

I cannot in good conscience call Chris Kyle anything but an American hero.  He dutifully served his county, made it back to be with his family and his death was a tragic shame. I feel genuine sorrow for his family and can only wish them the best. I genuinely hope that American Sniper is something they can be proud of.

In Clint Eastwood’s film depicting Chris Kyle’s life, both in and out of the military, we see a man who struggles to juggle so many roles.  At first, Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is a cowboy with a cheating girlfriend.  Then he joins the navy SEALS, making it through basic training with recruits much younger than himself.  At the height of Kyle’s military career, he is known as the Legend, due to his fatally accurate sniping skills.  At home, he is a husband and a father.  Trying to fill all these roles, all these levels of masculinity, is exhausting, especially when the war is so hard to leave behind.

The bulk of the film takes place during Kyle’s four tours in Iraq.  As the man behind the gun, Kyle does not seem to take pride in the fact that he has so many kills, but that he has saved so many of his men.  Rather than lay on a rooftop waiting, at times he volunteers to help on the ground.  And as the film progresses, to give Kyle a more tangible enemy, there is an Iraqi sniper that he must take out, before he takes any more of his friends.

The heart of the film is at home.  Home is where Kyle becomes emotionally distant with his wife, where he visits injured friends and where he attends their funerals.  One of the greatest scenes, in my opinion, was where Kyle is sitting in a bar alone.  At first, it seems like a perfectly normal thing for a guy to do, just grab a beer and relax.  Then his wife calls and asks when he is coming back to the states.  He tells her he is stateside, his voice breaking and tears welling in his eyes.  He might be just down the street.  But the fact that he would rather sit alone in a bar than get back to his family as quick as possible breaks my heart.  Maybe he needs some time to think, reflect, get himself ready to see his wife and kids again, or maybe it is too much to bear.  Whatever the reason, that moment is what resonated with me the most.

Cooper’s Oscar nominated performance and transformation into Kyle is astounding.  His physique from last year in American Hustle into this role is a dramatic change.  Here, Cooper has gained a great deal of weight, muscle, a beard and a voice that makes him sound like a Texan good ol’ boy.  In Silver Linings Playbook or American Hustle, I am never unaware of Mr. Cooper under that trashbag or perm, but here his image is nearly lost in this incredible transformation into Kyle.  This makes three acting nominations, three years in a row for Bradley Cooper.  Well done, sir!

American Sniper is nominated for six Academy awards, including Cooper’s latest lead actor nomination.  The others include best adapted screenplay, film editing, sound mixing, sound editing and best picture.  I’m sure Clint Eastwood was considered by much of the Academy for best director, but this year other directors simply shined brighter.

That being said, I don’t think American Sniper is far from my favorite film this year.  At times, this film feels like a modern-day Sergeant York.  There are so many firefights, by the time we get to the climactic point in Kyle’s military career, I was bored of all the gunfire.  Worst of all, this film seems way too unsympathetic toward the Iraqi people and it does not feel like Kyle and the other soldiers are really helping the peaceful civilians there, but making their lives much worse.

American Sniper has already broken box office records and millions more will see it.  The film honors a great soldier and Cooper’s performance is worth the watch.  However, it is a tough film to stomach, due to a lot of gritty, realistic war violence and profanity.  Watch responsibly and leave the kids at home.

“I wanted to be a cowboy, but I did that and felt I needed something more.”

The Imitation Game

The Imitation Game is a surprisingly thrilling biopic about Alan Turing’s remarkable top secret work during World War II.  He and a small team of mathematicians are hired by the British government to crack Germany’s enigma code.  The code was considered unbreakable.  It could be one of over five million codes and reset every twenty-four hours.  Against all odds, Turing built a massive machine, a first computer, to crack the code and named it Christopher.

Turing seems like a very unlikely hero.  Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, he is a scrawny man who seems too smart for his own good.  His social skills are small to none, yet his intellect and code breaking skills are through the roof.  Plus, he is harboring a secret that could ruin his life.

As Turing becomes the leader of this code breaking team, he seeks out new recruits.  He does this will a crossword puzzle in the newspaper, and one of the few people who can solve it quickly enough is Joan Clark (Keira Knightley).  The scene where the men in charge are sure she is in the wrong room, is annoying to every feminist instinct inside me.  Oh little girl, the secretaries are in the other room.  Ugh!  But Joan is as much a badass as she is intelligent and becomes a key member of Turing’s team.

I’ll admit, I almost dreaded seeing this film.  I mean, another biopic about a nerdy white British guy in the same year?  However, I really enjoyed The Imitation Game and felt very involved in every step and turn throughout the film.  This is not just a straight up biopic, but a war film mixed with a spy thriller with a strong message about tolerance and the amoral justice that faced any homosexuals in Britain.  Plus there are moments that will make any nerd who has ever attempted to build his own computer drop their jaws in awe.  Turing was indeed a visionary, a master and the father of the modern computer.

The Imitation Game is nominated for eight Academy Awards.  Morten Tyldum is up for his first Oscar for best director and Keira Knightley for supporting actress.  Benedict Cumberbatch is in the running for lead actor, and while his performance is worthy of the nomination, I fear he will leave without an Oscar. The film’s other nominations include film editing, adapted screenplay, production design, original score and best picture.

The Imitation Game is the biopic I most recommend seeing in this Oscar race.  It has moments that make you think, make you laugh, make you hold your breath and cheer.  It’s a moment in history that has been tucked away for too long, come to life beautifully.  See it and marvel at the grand daddy that became your modern computer and smartphone.

“Now, if you wish you could have been normal…  I can promise you I do not.  The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren’t.”

The Theory of Everything

Prior to seeing The Theory of Everything, I’m hesitant to admit how little I knew about Stephen Hawking.  Campy characters from The Big Bang Theory might have described him more eloquently than I.  However, after seeing The Theory of Everything I agree that this was a story that needs to be told.  Hawking’s life is inspiring and amazing.

The film starts with Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) as a PhD candidate at Cambridge.  He is a plucky young man who seems surprisingly innocent and more of a dreamer than his colleagues.  He meets Jane (Felicity Jones) at a party, where the pickin’s are quite slim and nerdy for the girls.  Stephen and Jane hit it off immediately and their courtship is adorably romantic.

And then Stephen’s life is derailed.  He is diagnosed with with ALS (that thing everyone forgot the Ice Bucket fad was about) and told that he will eventually lose all muscle control and be dead in two years.  But Stephen has so much to do.  He has to figure out how time works, and black holes and sciency stuff.  And then there’s Jane.  Could he let his love weigh down her life?  But like a trooper, and a woman in love, she stays with and marries Stephen.  After all, he’s only got two years to live right?

Wrong.  We watch as Stephen’s condition worsens and becomes a constant burden for Jane.  She has to feed him, occasionally prevent him from choking to death, dress him, take him to the university and take care of their children.  Honestly, Jane is such a strong woman and Hawking owes her his life.  While Hawking is an accomplished man of science, this film is a drama drawing on our emotions rather than challenging our intellect.  The ups and downs in their relationship are the most poignant parts of the film.

That said, this film seems like the inevitable biopic of an amazing man against unbeatable odds that is always nominated for Best Picture.  I’ve seen this same film formula under different names: My Left Foot, Pride of the Yankees, Forrest Gump, you know what I mean.  However, I’d bet my left foot that Eddie Redmayne is going to win the Oscar for best actor.  It seems to fall in the simple equation: he plays a famous, great scientist who makes the best of his life despite his crippling illness and plays it convincingly and with charisma.  It’s pretty much in the bag.

The film’s other Oscar nominations include adapted screenplay, original score, best picture and Felicity Jones is up for best actress.  That brings the total nominations to five for The Theory of Everything.

Honestly, The Theory of Everything is really good.  It is smart, charismatic, emotionally heartbreaking and visually lovely.  But I do not think it is great.  If you’ve seen a few great movies that work like this one, then this one is just another to add to the mix.  See it if you are a Stephen Hawking fan, or you want to learn more about his life.  It is quite an interesting life he has lived.

“Your glasses are always dirty.”

Whiplash

Whiplash made me relive the recurring nightmares I’ve been having since I was a freshman in my high school marching band.  Nightmares where I show up to a competition without my instrument, or the music has been changed to something I’ve never heard of at the last moment.  And always, there are my old band directors looming over me, disapproving of my mistakes and pushing me harder.  But I never encountered a mentor as abrasive and brutal as Terence Fletcher.

Andrew (Miles Teller) is a freshman drummer at a prestigious music conservatory, where he is picked to be in the top jazz ensemble, run by Fletcher (J.K. Simmons).  The honor quickly turns into a nightmare, fueled by Fletcher’s abusive brand of teaching.  Through the course comments, screamed profanities, things thrown and even slapping, Andrew pushes himself to impress Fletcher and eventually earns a coveted part.  The lengths Andrew is willing to go to to keep the part makes us all question what Andrew is thinking and how being Fletcher’s pupil is affecting him.

J.K. Simmons portrays Fletcher, in what I believe is an Oscar worthy performance.  Wearing all black, he blends in with the shadows and can disappear quickly in the late nights where he first finds Andrew practicing.  Simmon’s gives Fletcher an air of intensity that can become explosive without warning.  We believe the fear in his students’ eyes whenever they are in his presence.  I completely understood how Andrew could fear this sadistic man, yet also want to earn his respect.

The film matches Fletcher’s intensity all around.  We watch Andrew practice for hours on end, pushing himself to the point of bleeding all over the drums.  The lengths he goes to in order to get to a performance on time are maddening and shows how much he is willing to sacrifice to keep the part he earned.  The editing is quick, changing our focus from one character to the next often, just as the music starts and stops quickly and often during practices with Fletcher.  The music as a whole, especially Andrew’s amazing performance, is so powerful and exhilarating.

Whiplash, this little amazing movie shot in only nineteen days, is nominated for five Oscars.  At the time of its nomination, it was one of the lowest grossing movies ever to be nominated for Best picture.  They other nominations include the awards for film editing, sound mixing, and adapted screenplay.  J.K. Simmons is nominated for best supporting actor and I am expecting him to take home the Oscar.

At the core of Whiplash seems to be a burning question whether Fletcher’s teaching tactics are worth it or not.  Does a musician, or any other artist, need to be pushed to their breaking points to unlock their true potential?  The film does not take a side, or even fully instigate viewers to argue.  Instead it ends on an amazing drum solo that left me gobsmacked.  But I think we can all agree we would rather not have a chair thrown at our heads for playing offbeat.

“Either you’re deliberately out of tune and sabotaging my band, or you don’t know you’re out of tune, and that’s even worse.”

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel may be his grandest work yet.  It spans four different time periods, each with their own color pallets and aspect ratios.  Yet, all these periods, points of view and fields of vision gel into one beautiful, energetic and whimsical story.

We are first introduced to what I believe is the present tense, where someone ventures to a snowy cemetery to read The Grand Budapest Hotel.  Then, the 1980s is where the author discusses why he wrote the book.  Then, the 1960s is where the author (played here by Jude Law) stays in the hotel (in an updated, less grand style), meets the owner and hears his story.  Then, 1933 is where the actual story takes place, with the hotel and the cast in their prime.

In 1933, Zero (Tony Revolori) becomes employed as a lobby boy at the Grand Budapest Hotel.  The meticulous concierge, M. Gustav (Ralph Fiennes) takes Zero under his wing and the boy becomes Gustave’s right hand man.  Upon the sudden death of Madame D. (Tilda Swinton), Gustav’s lover (one of many old, vain, rich, blonde women), and with the country on the verge of war, they set out for her funeral and will reading to learn, to her children’s dismay, that she left Gustav a piece of art.  Soon, Gustav is suspected of murder.  He, with Zero’s help, must set things straight, even as The Grand Budapest Hotel becomes the center of the action.

I believe this is Anderson’s most beautiful film yet, and completely deserving of its nomination for best cinematography.  So many of the scenes are filled edge to edge with rich details.  Every shot is laid out like its own standing work of art.  I always admire how Anderson focuses on the use of symmetry and here, with such colorful costumes and details to each scene, it becomes a work of art like never seen before.

While the film is lovely to look at, it is also very funny in its own quirky way.  Many of the film’s funniest moments are a bit odd, sudden and things that you feel a bit bad laughing at.  Like the hilarious picture of Madame D.’s body found dead printed on the front page of the newspaper.  Or when Willem Dafoe’s character tosses a cat out the window, or the unfortunate injury he gives Jeff Goldblum’s character.  These moments which could have a tearful tone in another story, are weirdly hilarious here.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is nominated for a whopping nine Oscars.  Wes Anderson is up for his first Academy Award as best director.  The other nominations include Best Picture, cinematography, original screenplay, film editing, costume design, hair and makeup styling, production design and original score.  Why Ralph Fiennes was overlooked for best actor baffles me, as his performance seems to move and lead the film. Until I become an Academy voter, I can only complain.

While I loved this film, I realize that The Grand Budapest Hotel may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  It is a bit odd, quirky and very fast paced for such a vast film.  However, in the right frame of mind, it is fun, funny and smart.  And for anyone with eyes, I believe this is one of the most beautiful and well shot films this year.

“You’re the first of the official death squads to whom we’ve been formally introduced.  How do you do?”