2015 Oscar Watch

Everybody was mad about the 2015 Oscars.  People were upset that there were no non-white actors nominated.  For the record, not the fault of the Oscars.  Will Smith in Concussion was really the only person of color on any Oscar radar.  You can say Idris Elba in Beasts Of No Nation but I doubt the Academy would vote for a Netflix original film in 2015.  The LGBT community was upset that Carol and The Danish Girl were left off the Best Picture list.  I was upset because they were politicizing the Oscar race.  There are much bigger problems than what the Oscars choose to honor, how about making more movies with black actors or practice color blind casting.  If you're not going to tell stories about non-white people at least they can have a non-white friend.  They gave the Oscar to Moonlight the year after this and everyone's liberal white guilt was healed.
You can see my GABBY winners and nominees HERE

BEST PICTURE

8. Bridge Of Spies - This is a cold war spy thriller starring Tom Hanks, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by the Coen Brothers.  A more perfect Oscar template there isn't.  Hanks plays an American lawyer negotiating the exchange of a Russian spy for an American pilot.  I didn't connect with the film but it is entirely watchable, it definitely didn't need to be nominated in this category.  I keep finding that Spielberg dramas are overlong, don't exactly know how to end and meandering in focus.

7. Brooklyn - Nick Hornby wrote two of my favorite books, also two of maybe 10 books I've ever read, I'm a movie guy not a book guy, and now seems to write movies that everyone loves and I think are just OK.  He also writes young adult novels which I've never read.  Anyway, he wrote this movie about an Irish teenage girl who moves to America and falls in love.  It's a cute movie set in the 1950s and has certain charm to it.  I can see why people fell in love with it but the movie didn't stay with me.

6. The Martian - Half of this movie I really really liked and half of this movie I couldn't stand.  Matt Damon is aboard a spacecraft on Mars, he gets left behind and is presumed dead.  He wakes up and everyone is gone, he is in a station designed to last a month that he has to make last 4 years because that's how long it would take to get a rescue mission there.  He also has to figure out how to communicate with NASA so they know he's up there.  So, in his own words, he sciences the shit out of it.  Everything with Matt Damon in this movie works perfectly.  Damon is charming, funny and vulnerable so you root for him to succeed and you feel for him when he is in peril.  Unfortuantely there is another 45 minutes of this film which couldn't be anymore dull.  NASA is trying to figure out how to get him back and his fellow astronauts are plotting mutiny to turn around and rescue him.  This part of the movie feels like someone got drunk, watched Apollo 13 and tried to recall the dialogue the next day.  It's all just filler to the interesting stuff which is on Mars.

5. The Big Short - This and The Martian are interchangeable on my list because again, half of this movie I really liked the other half I couldn't care less about.  It's about the housing crisis but it's directed by Adam McKay who gave us Anchorman so it's hip, fun and ironic.  Celebrities break the fourth wall to explain economics to the audience.  It was a little too much of a hodgepodge for my taste.  We follow multiple characters and some are more interesting than others.  If it had a tighter focus and maybe a few less characters I may have enjoyed it more.

4. Mad Max: Fury Road - Do you want a 2 hour car chase with insane stunts, dazzling visuals and awesome action?  Then you need to watch Mad Max: Fury Road.  Do you want a story you can follow and characters you can identify with?  Oh, then this isn't for you.  This is way more style than substance but the style is incredible.  As I was watching it I was blown away by how great the movie looked but I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  I don't have a problem with it being nominated because it looks so cool but it's not something that should win.  It should clean up at the technical awards, which it did.

3. The Revenant - Speaking of style over substance, this movie has a look all it's own but is basically just a simple story of revenge.  Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Hugh Glass, a guy who gets mauled by a grizzly bear and is left for dead by his fur trapping group.  Leo survives and swears revenge on the guy who left him there and killed his son.  In any other director's hands this movie wouldn't be anything but Alejandro G. Inarritu directs every scene with purpose.  There are a lot long takes where the camera is spinning around the action and the whole movie is shot with natural lighting.  It looks gorgeous but there's just not a lot of story behind that gorgeousness.

2. Spotlight - It's like All The President's Men with pedophilia.  This is about the Boston newspaper team that ran the story that exposed the Catholic Church for hiding priests that were accused of sexual molestation crimes.  It unfolds like a good detective story where we already know the ending but watching them gather the clues is the exciting part.  It has probably the best acting ensemble of the year and has an incredible pace, nothing seems like filler, every scene is important to the story.

1. Room - The movie starts with Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay living together as mother and son in a single room.  We then learn that she was kidnapped, held hostage, gave birth and has been living in a shed in her kidnapper's back yard.  She tells her son that this is the world, the only thing he knows is "room".  When he gets to be 5 years old she starts plotting an escape and where most movies would end, this one just begins.  After the escape mother and son have to adapt to a world that she hasn't been a part of for 5 years and he has never known.  It's 2 separate films and they are both incredible.  Larson and Tremblay are fantastic.  No surprise about Larson, who has been cranking out consistently good performances to this point, but this little kid is a natural.  Child performances have a tendency to seem coached or edited together but Tremblay is either an incredible child actor or Lenny Abrahamson is an incredible director.  I think it's a little of both.

I have no problem with Spotlight winning, it's my 2nd favorite of the nominees, it just doesn't seem like a Best Picture.  The Revenant does seem like a Best Picture in its scope and probably would have won had they not given the win to Birdman the year before this.  I think a couple things happened this year, The Revenant seemed like "been there done that" and "Leo's Oscar movie" and probably split votes with Mad Max: Fury Road.  Spotlight on the other hand probably had the love of the writer's branch and the actor's branch.  It won Best Screenplay and had a great acting ensemble.  I would have much rather seen Room win but Spotlight is a good movie and probably also got votes because it was the most "important" film nominated.  It's a bunch of little guys fighting against a greater evil and exposing corruption.

Oscar Winner: Spotlight

My Vote: Room
GABBY Winner: Room

BEST ACTOR

5. Eddie Redmayne  - The Danish Girl - Redmayne plays a painter who, when his wife paints him in women's clothing, finds that he was born the wrong gender and living as a woman is who he truly is.  It's based on a true story about one of the first known patients of a sex change.  So you're telling me that this is a period piece biopic about the guy who got the first sex change?  This is going to be my favorite film of the year, no question.  That of course was sarcasm.  The story is better than the movie here.  Director Tom Hooper seems more concerned with art direction than pacing.  Redmayne is fine in the movie but he just won last year and he was in Jupiter Ascending this year, if that doesn't Norbit someone's Oscar chances I don't know what does.

4. Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs - Did Steve Jobs really need two biopics?  I think a lot of the critical acclaim for this movie stemmed from the fact that it was better than the Ashton Kutcher one.  It's also written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle so the dialogue comes at you hard and fast and the camera doesn't stay on the same shot long enough for you to remember that you're not really learning anything new about the man who is the subject of this film.  The movie follows Jobs during 3 public launches of Apple products and Fassbender does a good job of aging and growing with the character but the script and direction is doing the heavy lifting here.

3. Bryan Cranston - Trumbo - Cranston plays Dalton Trumbo, the eccentric and free speaking Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted for his ties to the Communist party.  Cranston is an actor I have always enjoyed, back from when he was Tim Whatley on Seinfeld.  This is a meaty role that Cranston appropriately chews.  He speaks eloquently and thoughtfully, he refuses to bow down to the man, he writes in a bathtub.  Cranston is so much better than the movie he's in.  The film is just your standard biopic script but Cranston elevates it.  If you really want to get info on Trumbo, watch a documentary, if you want to see Cranston playing an eccentric character, watch Trumbo.

2. Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant - I'm gonna preference this with my personal opinion, I don't like Leo, scratch that, he has the ability to be good but he is so terribly miscast most of the time that he takes me out of movies more than he does drag me into one.  He has a charm to him that works in movies like Catch Me If You Can or The Wolf Of Wall Street but when he tries to act in that glorious method way or disappear behind a phony accent like in Blood Diamond or Shutter Island, I just see him as a high school theater kid playing dress up.  Here his pretty boy looks are hid behind a beard and a wool cap and he doesn't talk that much so I liked him.

1. Matt Damon - The Martian - Damon plays an astronaut stranded on Mars who has to use all his skills to grow food, survive and contact NASA to send a rescue mission.  Damon is the whole show here, so much so that every time they cut away from him on Mars I lost all interest in the film.  He's charming and funny and the reason to watch the movie.  I can't think of many actors that I would like to see on a deserted planet for 2 hours but Damon holds this movie together.

There was no stopping Leo.  It's not that his performance in The Revenant was too big to be ignored.  It's that his Oscar story has been building since 1997 when everyone cried foul that he was overlooked for Titanic.  After that he has given Oscar nominated performances that I have found for the most part unbearable and every time he's nominated he rightfully loses.  But now he has people complaining that he has been robbed his whole career so this was the accumulation of all of that.  Honestly, even though I'm voting for Matt Damon, I'm glad Leo won, just so it can stop people's bitching and the next time he gives a crappy performance I don't have to pretend to care.

Oscar Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio
My Vote: Matt Damon
GABBY Winner: Leland Orser for Faults

BEST ACTRESS

5. Jennifer Lawrence - Joy - This is an actual conversation I had with David O. Russell in 2015.

"Hey, David O. Russell, I bet you can't get Jennifer Lawrence an Oscar nomination for anything."
"I probably could."
"Even a biopic about the lady who invented the miracle mop?"
"Yep."
"Do you think the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will mistake it for a comedy, even though there aren't any laughs, and she'll win a Golden Globe too?"
"Absolutely."
"Well you do that David O. Russell and we'll see who laughs last."
Well now I have egg on my face.

4. Cate Blanchett - Carol - This is about two women in a forbidden lesbian love affair in the 50s.  People cried foul when this movie didn't get a Best Picture nomination, I thought it had pacing problems and was fairly dull.  It definitely doesn't have the emotional impact of Todd Haynes's other film in the same genre, Far From Heaven.  Blanchett is completely fine in the movie, as she should be, she's Cate Blanchett, but this nowhere near a performance that gets a 3rd Oscar.

3. Saorise Ronan - Brooklyn - I either really enjoy Saorise Ronan or don't enjoy her at all.  In Brooklyn, she is very charming.  She plays an Irish teenager who comes to America and falls in love with a cute boy and learns different customs.  It's basically a fish out of water story and she handles it well.

2. Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years - At first I thought this was a complete veteran nomination.  Nobody saw this movie so they just voted for an old lady assuming she would be good.  Then I watched the movie and while I don't think her performance screams Oscar winner she definitely deserved a nomination.  Rampling and her husband are gearing up for their 45th wedding anniversary party when a mysterious letter about his ex lover makes both of them start acting suspicious of the other.  She's great and the movie reminds us that older people have stories too and older people can be compelling on screen.

1. Brie Larson - Room - One of the greatest lead female performances I have ever seen.  I'll leave it at that.

After I watched Room there was no competition for who my Best Actress would be, then the Oscar nominations came out and there was still no competition.

Oscar Winner: Brie Larson

My Vote: Brie Larson
GABBY Winner: Brie Larson

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

5. Christian Bale - The Big Short - Bale plays Michael Burry the guy who first finds out about the sub prime mortgage crisis and finds out that he can profit because of it.  On the one hand I understand why he got singled out for a nomination.  His character has the physical impairment, in this case a glass eye and possible Asperger's Syndrome.  You can tell Bale did research to accurately play the real guy.  Was it all worth it?  I say no.  Compare his performance to Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt in the same film.  They have an effortless charm.  Bale, and to a lesser extent, Steve Carrell are capital A "Acting!" and I'm more focused on the mannerisms and ticks than I am the story.

4. Mark Ruffalo - Spotlight - My same criticism with Christian Bale applies to Mark Ruffalo.  Ruffalo plays one of the reporters investigating the Catholic church and the allegations of sexual molestation.  He has the big monologue that crystallizes the whole situation, the one where he says this could have happened to any of us.  Ruffalo is doing the most acting here.  He gives his character facial ticks which may be accurate to the real life person he's playing but distracted me.  None of the other actors need to rely on this, they seem effortless.  Ruffalo, an actor I usually like a great deal, seems to be using this as a gimmick.

3. Mark Rylance - Bridge Of Spies - Rylance plays the Russian spy who is imprisoned and then part of an exchange to get an American pilot out of the Soviet Union.  This is a good solid performance which turned out to be a big career boost for Rylance.  He has all the best scenes in the film.  I think he's so effective in the film because you've never seen the guy before.  If a big name played this part it wouldn't have the same punch.

2. Tom Hardy - The Revenant - So The Revenant is about a guy surviving in the wilderness and thirsting for revenge on the guy who left him for dead.  Hardy is the guy who left him for dead.  Leo got all the accolades but Tom Hardy is the real star of the movie.  Where Leo fails to completely disappear into his character, Hardy succeeds.  Watching the two of them in a scene together is like watching Marlon Brando in a scene with Carrot Top.

1. Sylvester Stallone - Creed - This is the 7th film in the Rocky franchise and follows the offspring of Apollo Creed as he decides to get in the ring.  Stallone, of course, plays Rocky Balboa who is now age appropriate and out of the ring and taking on the role of trainer.  I've been a huge fan of Rocky since I was a kid, even having a soft spot for the crappy movies.  The 6th film, Rocky Balboa, was quite possibly the best in the series but director Ryan Coogler almost tops it with this spin-off.  Stallone is great here, it's a role he was born to play, he's been inhabiting it for almost 40 years now and since he didn't win in 1976 I have no problem voting for him here.

I know Stallone's career is a bit of a joke.  Do you really want to give an Oscar to Marion Cobretti?, but his performance here is exceptional.  He plays the character with the wisdom of someone who has been playing the same character for 40 years, which of course he has, but there's not a moment of the film that seems phoned in.  Stallone is Rocky and he is so good in this character.  I'm not saying that Stallone is a terrific actor but this is a beautiful marriage between actor and character that may not have been topped.  This goes beyond career achievement, Stallone deserves this on performance alone.

Oscar Winner: Mark Rylance

My Vote: Sylvester Stallone
GABBY Winner: Sylvester Stallone

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

5. Rooney Mara - Carol - This is a lead role, lead role, lead role.  The movie is as much about her character, if not more, as it is Cate Blanchett.  This is complete and total category fraud committed by the Weinstein company, there is absolutely no way I can vote for this.  She won Best Actress at Cannes for crying out loud.

4. Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl - Another bit of category fraud, this is a lead role, the movie is as much about her character as it is Eddie Redmayne, who got nominated for lead actor.  Vikander is fine in the role but I think her Oscar win here is more for an up and coming actress who had a strong year and less of a win for a good performance in a good film.  If she had been nominated for Ex Machina, a true supporting performance, I would be all on board.

3. Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs - Winslet plays Steve Jobs's marketing director and confidant.  She appears in all 3 time periods of the film and is the only person who knows the real Steve Jobs.  Her American accent is spot on and she does a great job in the film.  Thing is though, she already won an Oscar for a role she didn't really deserve it for so she really has to hit it out of the park to win a 2nd.

2. Rachel McAdams - Spotlight - McAdams plays one of the reporters at the Boston Globe.  That's all you can really say about her character.  She doesn't do much of anything special to warrant a nomination but she is a solid part of a great ensemble.  The thing I like about the movie is how the ensemble works together and nobody really stands out.  Giving her a win would be more of a win for the film rather than her.  I nominated her too but that's really just because it was a bit of a weak year.

1. Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight - Quentin Tarantino's 8th film is about a group of people in a cabin centered around a female fugitive.  Leigh plays the fugitive who is probably the craziest member of the ensemble.  She gets punched in the face a lot and it's hard to say you enjoy watching a woman get beat but Leigh is so good at making her character reprehensible that you smile each time it happens.  She's also a powerful character too so you know she can take it.

I kind of understand giving the win to Vikander but that's only because she had a breakout year.  Giving her a win for this particular performance doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Like I said, she is a lead role so I can't vote for her.  Mara is out for the same reason, Winslet is out because she won before, that leaves only McAdams and Leigh and since Leigh has been overlooked in the past I think this is the best chance to award her.  She's also super fun in the movie.

Oscar Winner: Alicia Vikander
My Vote: Jennifer Jason Leigh
GABBY Winner: Jennifer Jason Leigh

Best Director

Alejandro G. Inarritu wins his 2nd Oscar in 2 years for The Revenant.  I think any of the other nominees would have been a better choice, just because the guy just won last year.  George Miller brilliantly orchestrates the insanity in Mad Max: Fury Road, Lenny Abrahamson doesn't make Room feel claustrophobic at all, I also liked how he shot much of the film from the child's point of view, Tom McCarthy brings a terrific ensemble together and keeps a tight pace in Spotlight and Adam McKay makes a dry topic interesting in The Big Short.  My vote goes to Abrahamson because I liked his movie the best.

Best Original Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay
Spotlight wins Original which is the best choice of the nominees.  The Big Short wins Adapted which is fun because Adam McKay won an Oscar but for my money Room was the best screenplay of the year.

Best Animated Feature Film
Inside Out wins, which was to be expected.  I'm kind of surprised it was left out of the Best Picture lineup.  Anomalisa would have been a fun winner as would have Shaun The Sheep Movie or When Marnie Was There.  I have yet to see the final nominee, Boy And The World.

Best Documentary Feature
One of my favorite documentaries of recent years was The Act Of Killing, which failed to win this category in 2013.  This year they had a second chance with the sequel The Look Of Silence but instead went with Amy a collection of home movies from Amy Winehouse.

Best Original Score/Song
For some reason Ennio Morricone never won an Oscar.  They gave him an honorary award in 2007 but he wins his only competitive Oscar this year for The Hateful Eight which is by far not his greatest score.  The category was really weak this year so might as well give a long overdue career achievement Oscar.  I didn't care for any of the songs nominated this year but I think the best one was Lady Gaga's Til It Happens To You from the documentary The Hunting Ground about sexual abuse on college campuses.  I think the producers of the Oscars did too because they gave Gaga a big production number during the show and had Vice President Joe Biden announce the winner.  Joke was on them though as Sam Smith won for the song that replaces Skyfall as the new worst James Bond theme Writing's On The Wall from Spectre.

Best Sound Editing/Sound Mixing/Production Design/Makeup/Costume Design/Film Editing
Mad Max: Fury Road wins 6 technical Oscars and in all 6 categories was the deserving winner.  It's biggest competition in most categories was The Revenant and I will easily say that Mad Max is a better made movie, which is why I think they should have given Best Director to George Miller.

Best Cinematography
The Revenant wins which gives Emmanuel Lubezki his 3rd Oscar in 3 years.  Not even Roger Deakins's 13th nomination, for Sicario, which ties him for the record of most nominations without a win could unseat Lubezki.

Best Visual Effects
They decided to throw a curve ball here and instead of going with Mad Max: Fury Road or The Revenant or even Star Wars: The Force Awakens they went with Ex Machina which didn't have the most special effects but used special effects to help tell the story instead of just throwing them at the screen.

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