OSCARS 2015

Usually I can find some type of narrative for a year in movies but 2014 proved elusive. I saw some good ones, a few great ones, but not a single one that stood out as the very best of the year. But here are a few thoughts: 

- The big action superhero blockbuster is on some level entering a level of supercompetence. I did not see one that was particularly bad this year. 

- I was inspired not only by the directiorial debut of a very young director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) but also a very old one, Clint Eastwood, who just made one of his best movies in his mid-80s (American Sniper). Both movies were pleasant surprises to me.

- 'Birdman' though not special to me in a personal sense expanded my idea of how a movie can accomplish certain things. The long shots called attention to the actors and allowed the acting to be bigger and more theatrical. Here they expanded the role of the actors sometimes to theatrical levels. What a revelation!

- Go Texas. Houston born Wes Anderson, Austin native son Richard Linklater, and the movie 'American Sniper' were all great movies with that connection. You can make it a TexMex year if you include Alejandro Innaritu. On to the awards.

There were a certain categories that I did not watch anything in. One was the short films which is not unusual. The other was the foreign language category which is unusual. It just did not happen this year. I don't know why. 

Then there a couple categories in which I only saw one film that applies. So they win automatically. Thankfully they were deserving anyway.

Best Animated Feature Film

 The Lego Movie 

I was struck by how the movie seemed to have been written by a ten-year-old, which was very appropriate and highly satisfying. Also Will Ferrell had a touching cameo at the end that summed up all that Lego stands for. This was the best commercial I saw all year.

Best Documentary
CitizenFour

Not a great documentary in art and craft but its newsworthiness makes it a very important document of our time and place.

Best Supporting Actor:

Kim Bodnia – Rosewater

Josh Brolin – Inherent Vice

Ethan Hawke – Boyhood

Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

Always a tough category but Josh Brolin's turn as a SAG detective with a flattop haircut of Flinstone proportions in Inherit Vice was the most memorable fictional character I saw all year. 

Best Supporting Actress:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood

Laura Dern - Wild
Eva Green – Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Jennifer Lawrence - X-Men: Days of Future Past
Emma Stone – Birdman

Always a very shallow category. Patricia Arquette gets it for her 12 year performance in 'Boyhood. Nobody else was close. The fact that Meryl Streep was nominated again shows that (and a very apparent lack of imagination in the Academy). 

Best Use of a Song:

“I Love You All” – Frank

“Come and Get Your Love” – Guardians of the Galaxy

 “Your Fault” – Into the Woods
“Everything is Awesome” – The Lego Movie

“Caravan” – Whiplash

I thought a lot about switching up Frank and Whiplash for this one but ultimately decided that I would give the Film Editing prize to Whiplash for its ending scene whereas the song that ends 'Frank' is not only original but the first original song in forever that actually deserved an Oscar. For some reason it was not nominated for an Oscar. That was the biggest surprise for me of the year in this pathetically shallow category.

Best Original Music Score:

Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Really the only Original Music Score that really stood out to me was the one from "The Grand Budapest Hotel." I am thinking of making this category just "Best Soundtrack" in the future. I would have at least nominated 'Chef' if that were the case. 

Best Sound Editing and Mixing

American Sniper

Birdman
Edge of Tomorrow
Interstellar

Whiplash

It seems like I say this every year but this is a category that is very hard for me to judge while watching the movie. Given that I had the same list of movies for Editing and Mixing and because a friend of mine basically told me that the people who do editing generally do the mixing as well, I combined the categories. Why American Sniper? Well, basically because I actually noticed the Sound Editing in that movie, particularly when Chris Kyle was back in the States and getting alerted by phantom sounds of warfare. It was effective.

Best Film Editing:

American Sniper

Foxcatcher

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Whiplash

Wild

The editing in Whiplash is truly extraordinary. It transforms the energy of a low budget first feature into the work of an accomplished director with many more millions of dollars to spend. This is cut like an action film and feels that way with nothing but jazz going on. 

Best Makeup:

Foxcatcher
Guardians of the Galaxy

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I generally don't go wild over makeup for Holy Mackeral this movie had Great Makeup. I especially liked blue robot woman.

Best Costume Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Guardians of the Galaxy

Inherent Vice

Yes, that Summer Blockbuster had the most awesome costumes ever too. Take a look at what Benecio Del Toro was wearing in that one scene. And yellow prison suits: Awesome. 

Best Production Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Interstellar

Into the Woods

A Most Violent Year

The Zero Theorem

Truly nothing else came close to the achievement of vision that is "The Grand Budapest Hotel." You could say that the movie was named after the production design.

Best Visual Effects:

Edge of Tomorrow

Guardians of the Galaxy

Interstellar

X-Men: Days of Future Past

The Zero Theroem

There is visual effects and then there is Visual Effects that you need astrophysicists to consult with to make right. This one is for the Black Hole. 

Best Cinematography:

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Interstellar

A Most Violent Year

Nightcrawler

Lubezski wins his second Oscar in a row and rightly deserves both. He is the master of the long shot and teaches a master class here in how they should be done and more importantly why they should be done. 

Best Original Screenplay:

Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Jon Favreau - Chef

Justin Lader - The One I Love

Alejandro Innaritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinares Jr., Armando Bo - Birdman

J.C. Chandor - A Most Violent Year

I don't think I have seen a movie with so many great vocabulary words interspersed effortlessly thoughout the entire picture. When Jeff Goldblum is perfectly cast it is because you got some delicious words for him to chew on. 

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Jason Hall - American Sniper

Paul Thomas Anderson - Inherent Vice

Jon Stewart - Rosewater

Nick Hornby - Wild

Simon Kinberg - X-Men: Days of Future Past

Paul Thomas Anderson gets this for the ingenious way he crammed so many visual jokes into a such a complex and convoluted storyline. It is a feat to behold. 

Best Actress:

Elisabeth Moss – The One I Love

Kristin Wiig – The Skeleton Twins

Julianne Moore - Still Alice

Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year

This was not a great year for the Best Actress category. It could be easily said that Julianne Moore won it because she is a great actress who had not won the award yet and you know who else would you give it to this year. Besides her performance in "Still Alice" probably reminded the voters of a performance she had twenty years ago that probably was good enough to this year. That movie was "Safe" and it too was about a degenerative disease. See that movie. 

Best Actor:

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher

Bradley Cooper – American Sniper

Michael Fassbender – Frank

Michael Keaton – Birdman

Channing Tatum – Foxcatcher

Three of these nominees (Carell, Cooper, and Keaton) had career milestones this year. I'm giving this to Carell because his role is the most against type and also because his movie 'Foxcatcher' arguably had the best acting in a movie this year. 

Best Director:

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice

Damien Chazelle – Whiplash

Alejandro Innaritu – Birdman

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

It just cannot be denied any longer. There is no other director like Wes Anderson and he just turned in his best work in an already very impressive two decade career. 

Best Picture:

American Sniper

Birdman

Boyhood

Chef

Foxcatcher

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Inherit Vice

A Most Violent Year

Whiplash

X-Men: Days of Future Past

The Grand Budapest Hotel was the first movie I saw in theaters in 2014 and although I felt it was unlikely that I would not see a better movie all year I also knew that it was entirely possible that I had just seen the best movie of the year. I loved this movie. It was a poem to civilization crafted with all sorts of love.