2014 Academy Awards Post Mortem

“Please welcome the wicked-ly talented, one and only Adele Dazeem,” John Travolta, introducing Idina Menzel, 86^th Annual Academy Awards.

2013 Academy Awards Winner

✓ 1. Best Picture: 12 Years A Slave

✓ 2. Director: Alfonso Cuaròn, Gravity

✓ 3. Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

✓ 4. Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

✓5. Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

✓6. Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o

✓7. Animated Feature: Frozen

✓8. Documentary: 20 Feet From Stardom

X 9. Original Screenplay: Her

✓10. Adapted Screenplay: 12 Years A Slave

✓11. Cinematography: Gravity

X 12. Costume Design: The Great Gatsby

✓13. Editing: Gravity

✓14. Production Design: Great Gatsby

X 15. Score: Gravity

✓16. Song: “Let It Go”, Frozen

✓17. Visual Effects: Gravity

✓18. Sound Mixing: Gravity

✓19. Sound Editing: Gravity

X 20. Foreign Language Film: The Great Beauty (Italy)

✓21. Makeup: Dallas Buyers Club

✓22. Documentary Short: The Woman in No. 6: Music Saved My Life

X 23. Live Action Short: Helium

X 24. Animated Short: Mr. Hublot

Totals: 18 Correct; 6 Wrong (.750)

I thought the Academy Awards show was pretty solid this year. Host Ellen Degeneres did not have any gut-bustingly fun one liners, a la Tina Fey and Amy Poehler at the Golden Globes, but she provided a friendly, down-to-earth approach to the show. Nothing racy that would offend like Seth MacFarlane’s epic “I Saw Your Boobs” last year, but her “Hey let’s treat these gods like normals” approach worked well. The crowd wasn’t hostile, everyone chipped in for pizza, it was a winning effort.

Of her big moments, I thought that the Twitter selfie was stupid and annoying and took forever for no payoff (Oooh, they crashed twitter). The pizza thing took longer but actually was funnier to me and naturally Jennifer Lawrence was clearly seen on camera eating her slice.

It should also be noted that Ellen spent half the show dressed like Austin Powers.

I would have enjoyed it if Tyler Perry came out dressed like Madea in a formal ball gown.

While Bill Murray’s tribute to Harold Ramis was nice, I have to wonder if the actual cinematographer of CaddyShack and Ghostbusters was annoyed at not getting credit for his work.

It was a pretty predictable show, as evidenced that I got 75% correct, I think the best I’ve ever done (last year, I got 11/24). The only award that made me mad was Live Action Short Subject, which went to Helium, a sappy fantasy that was so dull I checked my watch TWICE in 20 minutes.

The best awards speech was hands down the duo who wrote Frozen and sang (rhymed) their acceptance speech in a snappy, fast, funny moment. A lot of people are praising Matthew McConaughey, but I found his speech to be kind of pompous (“My hero is me in 10 years but I’ll never reach that goal). At least he ended with a coy “Alright, alright, alright.”

And that’s really all I have to say about the 2013 Academy Awards. But fear not, loyal readers. I am bringing this blog back and will be back next week picking up where I left off in August (!) with 1947’s Best Picture, the obscure Gentlemen’s Agreement.

As a final note, here are the 2013 Razzie Winners for the worst in filmmaking. While it is out of the purview of Operation Oscar’s mission statement to cover the Razzies for many reasons (they weren’t started until 1980, many of the early winners like Inchon and the Lonely Lady are extremely difficult to find) I will note that I was one of the five people to see Movie 43 in theaters and it truly was a glorious train wreck of vulgarity and tastelessness. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Bring on Another Earth!

2013 Razzie (Golden Raspberry) Winners

1. Worst Picture: Movie 43

2. Worst Actor: Jaden Smith, After Earth

3. Worst Actress: Tyler Perry (in drag), A Madea Christmas

4. Worst Supporting Actor: Will Smith, After Earth

5. Worst Supporting Actress: Kim Kardashian, Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor

6. Worst Screen Combo: Jaden Smith and Will Smith, After Earth

7. Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel: The Lone Ranger

8. Worst Director: The 13 people who directed Movie 43

9. Worst Screenplay: Movie 43 (written by 19 “Screenwriters”)

2014 Oscar Picks

Although the Best Picture race is one of the tightest and most difficult to call in years, I actually had a fairly easy time making the rest of my predictions (not that I expect them to be right). As a general rule, if it was a technical category, I just checked off Gravity and moved on. The narrative of Alfonso Cuaròn’s technical marvels in producing Gravity, from inventing camera to tightly choreographing lights and shots to the marvelous finished product, makes it too big to lose, nor should it.

With the boring stuff out of the way, we get to a lot of exciting actors and actress races. Here then are my predictions, with a few thoughts besides some. Please note that I usually hit about 50% in terms of correct predictions, so don’t use this as a betting guide or anything. On a similar note, please feel free to use this to mock me after the show.

1. Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave. I just laid out my case in my last post, but basically I believe the social message will outweigh the spectacle of Gravity.
2. Director: Alfonso Cuaròn. A rare split between director and picture (although not as rare as it used to be). As noted the story of Cuaròn and how he made this movie like Georges Mèliès and his house of glass will carry him through.
3. Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club. McConaughey is riding a wave of goodwill, from the narrative of the guy who reinvented himself, to his self-deprecating Golden Globes speech, to his hot show True Detective. He’s the anti-Norbit.
4. Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine. Doomed by being released too early, I would have ranked this movie fourth if it had been a Best Picture nominee. Blanchett carries the film as a ruined, delusional socialite.
5. Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years A Slave. Even more than Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nyong’o is a tragic figure who captures the personal horrors of slavery.
6. Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club. I like Michael Fassbender more, but Leto has been the talk of the town from the day DBC was released.
7. Foreign Language Film – Omar (Palestine). I have seen the preview for two of these (Omar and the Great Beauty). Just guessing, based on Omar’s serious subject matter.
8. Animated Feature: Frozen – Disney’s biggest hit in many a year, and no Pixar to do battle with.
9. Documentary Feature: 20 Feet From Stardom. No World War II/Holocaust documentary features this year (see Documentary short) and this was apparently a rare feel good documentary, with a showbiz slant.
10.  Best Original Screenplay: Dallas Buyers Club. This is the hardest one for me to guess. The lack of Gravity is interesting (and should ring alarm bells in the Best Picture category). Her is too out there, Nebraska too small. People like this movie and the based on a true story angle behind it.
11. Best Adapted Screenplay: 12 Years a Slave. Pretty much a no-brainer.
12. Film Editing: Gravity
13. Cinematography: Gravity
14. Production Design: The Great Gatsby – the movie was a bore, but those sets were fantastic!
15. Costume Design : American Hustle. Even if you didn’t like this movie, everybody remembers the dresses! I actually heard a story about how the 12 Years a Slave designer traveled to the south and analyzed dirt samples so she’d could adequately smudge and sully the slaves’ clothing. So she deserves credit, but I still think the glitz will carry the day.
16. Makeup and Hairstyling: Dallas Buyers Club. Even though it would bring me boundless joy for Bad Grandpa to win (and I think it should), crotchety old voters are not voting for that movie and the Lone Ranger is pretty much considered toxic, so process of elimination rules here.
17. Visual Effects: Gravity (duh).
18. Sound Mixing: Gravity (see above)
19. Sound Editing: Gravity ( see above)
20. Original Score: Saving Mr. Banks. No Frozen? I don’t remember the score from Her or Philomena and even though I remember Gravity’s, that’s one of the few things people aren’t talking about. I assume Banks was Disney-esque.
21. Original Song: “Let It Go”, Frozen. It’s a hot song of the moment.
22. Documentary Short: The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life. Holocaust rules apply and it was a really inspiring documentary. I don’t think Alice’s death will affect voting one way or another because it just happened.
23. Live Action Short: Just Before Losing Everything. Amazingly tense and topical movie about domestic abuse.
24. Animated Short: Get a Horse. Who won’t vote for Mickey Mouse?

A good year for movies, all in all. Let the show begin!

2013 Oscars: Best Picture Analysis

The Best Picture Race this year is really a two movie contest: style vs. story; technical achievement versus monumental social statement; Gravity vs. 12 Years a Slave.

What should win? I guess it depends on what your definition of Best Picture is. Gravity has done things no movie has ever done before. Its director literally invented new ways of making movies in order to get it done. 12 Years A Slave is an incredibly moving true story that handles an ugly truth in a real way that has never been achieved before. Both are what you may call “cinematic achievement” for different reasons.

In the end, even though I personally ranked Gravity my number one movie of the year, I think 12 Years A Slave should win Best Picture. Do I think a Best Picture needs to make a profound social statement? Maybe not always, but unfairly or not, that does give it a leg up.  Maybe the Best Picture award wasn’t designed that way, and it’s certainly a moving target as to what a “Best Picture” should be, but I think that 12 Years a Slave says something important about our own ugly history and deserves to be recognized for it.

Will it win? Well, the Academy’s idea of Best Picture has changed over the decades. If this was the 30s or 50s, spectacles were more likely to be rewarded. In the 40s and 70s, social statement movies received their due (or course there is no way 12 Years a Slave would have been made in the 40s, but that’s another story).  Social message movies haven’t fared well in the last ten years, with only Crash, Slumdog Millionaire and Hurt Locker claiming the prize and even two of those are questionable in terms or really being about important issues (Slumdog is about Indian poverty and racial tension, Hurt Locker is about PTSD, sort of).  But flashy movies very rarely win. Return of the King won, but that was a rare exception of a very big movie making experience and was actually rewarding three movies. Avatar lost. I think in the end, 12 Years a Slave will eke out a narrow socially conscious win.

What does it take to be a Best Picture nominee in 2013? Actually, these movies had a lot in common. The majority was based on true stories and the majority dealt with some kind of socially conscious issue. Here’s a rundown of some similarities, I found. Only four crossed the $100 million dollar mark, continuing Oscar’s long trend of mostly honoring small-medium size pictures.

Here are a few other trends I noted. Very rarely will a movie win and not the director. Only twice has the movie won Best Picture without the director being nominated, but it happened just last year! Acting nominations are also important, especially this year. Only two movies NOT nominated for Best Picture received acting nominations (August Osage County and Blue Jasmine).

	True Story	Societal Ill	Block buster (>$100M)	Period Piece	Anti- hero	Director Nom	Acting Noms	Total Noms
American Hustle	X		X(144.6M)	X	X	1	4	10
Captain Phillips	X		X($102M)				1	6
Dallas Buyers Club	X	X	24.8M	X	X		2	6
Gravity			X ($269.5M)			1	1	10
Her			$24.1M					6
Nebraska			$16.6M			1	2	5
Philomena	X	X	$33.2M				1	5
12 Years a Slave	X	X	$49.2M	X		1	3	9
Wolf of Wall St	X	X	X($113M)	X	X	1	2	5

Here’s how the past ten best picture compare in similar categories.

	True Story	Societal Ill	Block buster (>$100M)	Period Piece	Anti- hero	Director Nom	Acting Noms	Total Noms
Argo	X		X($136M)	X		NO	0	7 (3 won)
The Artist			$44.6M			X-Won	2 (1 win)	10 (5 won)
The King’s Speech	X		X ($135M)	X		X- Won	3 (1 win)	12 (4 win)
The Hurt Locker		#	$17M		X	X-Won	1	9 (6 won)
Slumdog Millionaire		X	X ($141.3M)			X-won	0	10 (8 won)
No Country For Old Men			$74.2M		X	X-won	1 (1 win)	8-4 won
Departed		X	X ($132.3M)		X	X-won	1 (0 win)	5 (4 won)
Crash		X	$54.5		X	X – DID NOT WIN	1 (0 win)	6 (3 won)
Million Dollar Baby			X($100.4M)			X-won	3(2 won)	7 (4 won)
LotR:Return Of The King			X($377M)			X-won	0	11 (11 won)

# Hurt Locker tackling societal ills is debatable but I’d argue that war creating incurable adrenaline junkies is a serious issue

* Hurt Locker is the lowest grossing Best Picture Winner of all time

Basically, there’s not a lot previous winners can tell us about this year’s nominees. Not a lot of true stories have won. As noted, last year’s Best Picture famously didn’t have its director nominated and that arguable helped Argo’s momentum.

It’s a close race. I think both Gravity and 12 Years A Slave are deserving candidates. Let’s open the envelope….

Stay tuned for my complete predictions.

Best Picture Countdown #1: Gravity

“A-ha, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha”, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), hyperventilating on repeated occasions, Gravity.

Gravity is freakin’ amazing.

I am going to be blunt and put it all out there. Gravity is one of the most awesome movies I have seen in a long, long time. From the moment it started, I was utterly drawn in. I felt like I was floating in space. The story never lets up. You feel as overwhelmed as Sandra Bullock, flipping and flopping helplessly in zero gravity. You feel like you’re floating. You feel like you’re panicking. You wish you had paid attention in physics class so you’d know how the hell to get back in control.

You can feel the free-float feel even in this still

Gravity is the story of Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), a first time astronaut who is in space to make repairs to a satellite. She is joined by longtime astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), a real life Buzz Lightyear on his last mission. Stone hates space, particularly the inability to find her footing in zero gravity. A Russian satellite demolition goes awry, creating a moving mound of debris that destroys everything in its path and leave Kowalski and Stone stranded with about ninety minutes to get to a nearby space station with a return capsule to get back to Earth or die in the vast frozenness of space.

The “real” story of Gravity is director Alfonso Cuaròn. To recreate the experience of floating in empty space and zero gravity, Cuaròn invented new cameras and designed intricate choreography, staging and lighting to capture the effect of free floating. And it works perfectly. I am not a big proponent of 3-D technology, but this is a rare film where the 3-D really enhances the experience. The movie also appears to have several long tracking shots that follow the astronauts around although apparently they are actually skilled edits, which is pretty impressive in its own right. It is also a rare case where the movie won’t translate nearly as well to TV, where it is shrunk and flattened. In its own way, Gravity is as much a tribute to movies as past winners The Artist and Argo.

George Clooney, smooth even when facing certain death

Some have complained that Gravity’s story is too simple but I don’t think that’s true. Yes, you could sum up the story in one sentence “Woman is lost, floating in space with little hope of getting home.” But so what? What more do you need really? To be fair, Stone is also dealing with the loss of a young daughter and her space predicament mirrors her learning to cope with her grief (to float away into nothingness or face the pain of being “grounded”). But the movie is straightforward, to the point. It has no filler. It’s ninety tense minutes with minimal characters and minimal twists and it doesn’t need those. Bullock and Clooney are also really captivating in their role. They interact well with each other and provide the necessary exposition to what they’re doing without it feeling forced or obvious.

Should Gravity win best picture? Obviously, it’s not as socially significant or as profound as 12 Years a Slave. But Alfonso Cuaròn’s movie is an astounding triumph. It creates an entirely new film-going experience. Unlike James Cameron’s technical wonders, the effects serve the story instead of overwhelming them. This was my hand-down my favorite movie of the year. I knew many people who refused to see it because it looked too stressful, too realistic in its depiction of being lost and floundering in space, and frankly they aren’t wrong. No movie has captured such an (ahem) out-of-this world experience so perfectly and yet still delivered an engaging, real story. Now that’s a great movie!

Other Nominations: Best Actress (Sandra Bullock), Best Director (Alfonso Cuaròn), Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Original Score.

2013 Best Picture Countdown #2: 12 Years A Slave

The top two movies in my Best Picture ranking could not be more different and represent a clash of style versus story. Both are excellent films and equally worthy of winning Best Picture for completely opposite reasons. Gravity, my personal favorite, is about the spectacle of filmmaking and is great because of its inventiveness in making a movie that really appears to be set in space. 12 Years a Slave, number two, is the most moving story of the year and feels like the most important movie of the year for the way it examines America’s secret shame in a way never done in movies before.

12 Years a Slave is an ugly, powerful, profound movie about the experiences of slave life in the United States. To say the movie picks away at an ugly, nearly unforgivable piece of American History is an understatement.

12 Years a Slave is the true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free-born New York musician. With his family away, Solomon travels to DC with a pair of shady characters (one of whom is played by Saturday Night Live member Taran Killam!) to make a quick buck playing some shows. But Solomon is drugged and awakes in chains. He is savagely beaten and sold to a slave dealer (Paul Giamatti) who renames him Platt and sells him in the Deep South.

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and the maliciously evil Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender)

At first, Solomon is owned by the relatively nice William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), who he helps ford a river. But Solomon runs afoul of one of Ford’s cruel white laborers and Ford is forced to sell him to Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). Epps is brutal and savage, repeatedly whipping slaves who do not pick enough cotton and openly lusting after and eventually raping Patsy (Lupita Nyong’o), another slave on the plantation. Solomon looks for ways to escape to no avail and must play dumb and illiterate in order to stay alive.

The movie is about the dehumanizing effects on slavery on both the slave and the master. While it doesn’t take pity on the cruel Epps or the purposefully ignorant Ford, it does suggest they know what they are doing is wrong.  Living with their sins has torn the masters apart internally. Epps in particular becomes a wild man, frightfully administering beatings and whippings, which the film does not sugar coat.

The most comparable Best Picture in terms of unflinching depiction of injustice and man’s cruelty to man is Schindler’s List. But I found 12 Years a Slave to be even more horrifying and ugly. For one thing, Schindler’s List is told from Oskar Schindler’s point of view. While an excellent film, Schindler is actually outside the horror, looking in, and in some ways, this softens the blow for the viewers (relatively speaking). In 12 Years a Slave, the viewpoint is Solomon’s, and we watch and experience his tortures and horrors firsthand with him from the inside. Furthermore, Schindler’s List has a tinge of hope – there is at least one good guy in the world, willing to risk everything for what’s right. 12 Years a Slave lacks a hero. Solomon is rendered almost powerless and there is nobody until the last 10 minutes of the movie (or 12 years in the story’s timeline) who is willing to help him. The movie’s coda adds additional levels of bleakness to the story.

Best Supporting Actress frontrunner Lupita Nyong’o as Patsy

This movie is not great because it is bleak, though. This movie is great because of its honesty about its bleakness. I think knowing it’s based on a true story helps because there’s no way to deny these horrors really happened. All the actors give terrific performances as well. Ejiofor is great as a man fighting to hold on to his dignity, but Fassbender is mesmerizing as a man of pure evil. Nyong’o is equally powerful as Patsy, who can never win or escape and falls into increased despair.

I decided to rank 12 Years a Slave number two because it is not a movie I am eager to watch repeatedly. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it and to soften its depiction of slavery would have been a disservice to the plight it chronicles. But it’s not a fun movie and for that reason I can’t claim it as my favorite.

Other Nominations: Best Actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Best Supporting Actor (Michael Fassbender), Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong’o), Best Director (Steve McQueen), Best Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Costume Design, Film Editing

2013 Best Picture Countdown #3: American Hustle

“When you are offered a favor or money, take the favor, not the money. Jesus said that, didn’t he?” – Irving Rosenfeld ( Christian Bale), American Hustle

From its poster, American Hustle appears to be about cool people doing cool things (a particular favorite of mine, we last witnessed cool people doing cool things Casablanca). On the contrary the characters of American Hustle are not cool. They are hustlers, pure and simple, scrounging to get by, willing to screw over anyone in their path because that’s the only way they know how to live. It sounds bleak, but the movie is soaked in a type of cinematic coolness. Even though the cast are basically scum, you can’t help but enjoy them and even cheer them on.

Very loosely based on an actual FBI sting operation on corrupt government officials, American Hustle is set in the late 70s, when morals were lax and bras were apparently illegal. Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale with an amazing comb-over) is a small time con artist and legitimate dry cleaner whose illegal activities get a boost from girlfriend/grifter Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams). Sydney gets busted by FBI Agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) also a small timer, but on the right side of the law. DiMaso, not unlike the con artists, is looking for one big score that will make his career and help him to be a big shot. DiMaso offers to cut the pair a deal – help him nab some bad guys and he’ll let them skate. Irving’s situation is complicated by his estranged and hysterical wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), and the pair’s young son.

These are some cool looking cats

Even though he initially was targeting other small time crooks, DiMaso soon forces Sydney and Irving to go after major politicians, particularly those involved with rebuilding Atlantic City. One particular target is well-meaning Camden Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who is wary of the illegal kickbacks and underhanded deals Irving and Richie coerce him into, but feels they are necessary to help his constituents. Irving is struck with a conscience of crisis for the relatively upstanding mayor who is getting caught up in the wave of scandals that the FBI is only helping to rile. DiMaso however become over-confident and tries to over-extend the reach of his undercover trap, which involves several congressmen, a fake sheik, and the mob, placing everyone involved in danger unless Irving can figure a way out.

Like I said, I liked the cool nature that the world of American Hustle resides in. Even if the characters are scummy, cowardly lowlifes, they operate in a way that is fun to watch. I liked the movie’s overall theme of a broken system – Carmine is really an honorable man trying to do good but the only way to get anything done is to play the dirty game. In the end, he does the least bad for the best reasons and yet is punished the most. How much wrong would he have even done if Richie had set up the sting in the first place?

Christian Bale disappears into his role

The movie benefits from amazing performances from all the actors. Jennifer Lawrence has been receiving the most attention, and she is great, but I thought Amy Adams really carried the movie as Sydney. She plays a very insecure woman who must wear a mask of unshakable confidence to escape mobsters and FBI agents. Christian Bale is equally awesome as he totally disappears into his character. Irving, unlike Sydney, is very confident in himself, which is why he can easily wear his bizarre comb over and paunch without a hint of shame.

I think that Director David O. Russell perfectly captures the feel of the 70s – the overdone glamor – from Bradley Cooper’s perm to Sydney and Rosalyn’s barely there dresses – but also the general distrust of the system brought on by Watergate. It also speaks to us now as we move further into an age of paranoia and disease with a broken system that feels beyond fixing. All we can do is hustle to get by.

Other Nominations: Best Actor (Christian Bale), Best Actress (Amy Adams), Best Supporting Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Director (David O. Russell), Best Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Costume Design, Production Design.

2013 Live Action Shorts

Before we start, I just wanted to mention the passing of Alice Herz-Sommer, the subject of the Oscar Nominated Documentary Short The Woman in Number 6. Alice was clearly an amazing woman and the movie does a great job capturing her incredible life and resilient, positive outlook. I was glad to have seen the movie while Alice was still alive because I think it’d be tinged with an added sadness now that was not the filmmaker’s intention.

The nominees in the Best Live Action Short category of the Academy Awards are a bi-polar bunch, ranging from the pits of despair to sitcom-style family hijinks. None of the nominees are from the U.S. (one is in English but is from the UK). A couple deal with relevant social topics, others diverge into fantastical flights of fancy. I didn’t like any as much as last year’s winner, Curfew, or collectively as much as last year’s group. When ranking them, I found I tend to put the lighter fare nearer the top (except for the very best one). I can’t say for sure that this is a bias against sad movies or if the lighter ones really were better.

Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me) falls on the far end of the sadness range. It’s the story of child soldiers in Africa who kidnap a trio of Spanish doctors trying to do missionary work. Despite its important, relevant subject matter, this movie suffers from being all over the map. It shifts back and forth from the doctors’ to the soldiers’ point of view (which is told in flashback) and veers strangely into a revenge story towards the end. I just didn’t think the movie addressed the topic all that well. Last year’s Asad took on a similar subject matter with a lighter touch and more personal story. This was my least favorite of the five.

Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything), on the other hand, tackles the subject of domestic abuse in a very personal manner with a deft, subtle touch that never hits you over the head with what’s going on. The movie is about a French woman trying to escape a violent husband with her two children and how she sets up her escape on the last day of her job. The movie is great because it never uses the term “domestic violence”. We just slowly figure out what’s going on from small things the characters say and how they respond to the wife as she tries to quit her job. The movie grows to a tense climax as her husband shows up at her job and she tries to avoid seeing him. A very powerful and intense 25 minutes. My favorite of the nominees.

Helium is also an incredibly sad movie about a dying kid (can’t get much sadder than that). This guy takes a job as an orderly at a children’s hospital and forms a bond with a sick child with an undisclosed illness. To help assuage the kid’s fear of dying, the orderly comes up with an increasingly complex story about where kids go where they die and how they get there. As the child grows sicker, the orderly goes to great links to finish the story. I thought this movie was just kind of dull, save for one pretty cool effects shot at the end that must have cost a pretty penny (how do these fancy short films get the money for their productions?). I put this at number four because it just wasn’t that interesting and moved very slowly for a twenty minute film.

Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) is a Finnish comedy, basically in the Modern Family vein. An urban family of four (a mom, a dad, two pre-teen girls) have to get ready for a wedding with a lot of comic hijinks ensuing. The movie is told from the mom’s point of view, as she is the only one really keeping the family together. On the one hand, this was a very funny little movie. On the other hand, it wasn’t really tackling any ground breaking subject matter. Did you know families are often messy and humorously slovenly? It was kind of a relief to see this light hearted material after the depressing African child soldiers and abused wives, but on reflection what did this movie really accomplish other than a couple jokes? I liked it but can’t really place it higher than third due to being so inconsequential.

The Voorman Problem is also a comedy but it definitely does not tackle common ground. Martin Freeman – Bilbo Baggins from the Hobbit movies – plays a psychiatrist called to a prison. An inmate has convinced the other prisoners he is a God and is wreaking havoc amongst the prison. When Freeman tries to interview him, he finds a very laid-back and totally convincing guy who may just be what he says. This movie was very surprising and funny with quite a twist ending. I really liked the cleverness of this movie and would place it second amongst the nominees.

2013 Best Picture Countdown #4: Her

“I feel like I can be anything with you.” – Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) explores romance with his computer in Her

Let’s get this out of the way: Her is weird. There’s no other way around it. Her is about a man who falls in love with his computer. And the computer loves him back. You can’t say that’s not weird.

Her’s director, Spike Jonze, is known for making weird (or “quirky” as we say in polite company). His other movies include Being John Malkovich, about a secret passageway that lets you enter the actor John Malkovich’s brain. So you should have some idea of the “quirkiness” you are getting into here.

But that’s not to say Her is bad. Quite the contrary, like the best “out of the box” stories, Her uses its bizarre starting point to explore very human ideas about love and humanity.

When I first heard about Her, I pictured a story where the hero would be forced to choose between becoming a social pariah because of his unconventional romance or accept the computer as his soul mate. I assumed there would be lots of public humiliation and discrimination because he dared to love a computer. But Her is not that kind of love story and is not that conventional. To the contrary, Joaquin Phoenix’s techno-romance is actually not that big a deal to anybody else, which is one of the neat ways Her is able to subvert our expectations and go in such an exciting direction.

Joaquin Phoenix, fearless in love and dorkiness

Phoenix plays Theodor Twombly (if your character has a silly name that no one comments on, it must be a Spike Jonze movie), a lonely, somewhat self-centered man in the near future. Twombly is going through a divorce and works writing personalized letters to other people, which is all kinds of metaphorical. Twombly buys the newest “OS”, which in real life stands for Operating System but here is really more of a digital assistant. Semantics aside, the OS is marketed as self-aware and able to communicate with his/her master like a real person.

Twombly’s OS is Samantha (voiced with real talent by Scarlet Johansson). As the two go through Twombly’s jumbled files, work on his letters and explore the world, they form a romantic connection. But as I noted, it’s not really that big a deal. OS romance is not commonplace but also not seen as deviant or dangerous in the universe of Her. What follows is a series of vignette’s chronicling their relationship – they have a honeymoon phase, worry about growing apart, attempt to recapture the magic. Just because Samantha lacks a body doesn’t make her and Theodore’s romance particularly different from other relationships.

Scarlett Johannson doesn’t appear in Her, so this is as good as it gets.

I think the movie is actually a metaphor for all romances, both doomed and successful. At first, there’s a feeling out period and people try to adjust to meet their partner’s needs and desires. Samantha is crafted to form a complimentary personality to Theodore’s own. But because she is also self-aware, she grows on her own. Plus, Theodore’s romantic ideal must paradoxically be independent. He can’t fall for the “perfect woman” who will change herself to his needs.

There is a LOT going on in this movie. It is not a cheeseball romance or just weird for the sake of weird. I liked this movie so much because it addresses really deep thoughts, probably more than any other Best Picture nominee. It’s also not on a soap box, like Dallas Buyers Club. What does Theodore’s job represent? Are we losing our genuine humanity to the easy automated nature of today’s society? How can you write love letters for someone else? Is Samantha programmed to love Theodore or does she really have emotions for him? More than any other movie in this year’s Oscar race I think you could watch Her repeatedly and see different things each time.

Other Nominations: Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (“The Moon Song”);

Best Picture Countdown #5: Philomena

 

“She told four people today they were one in a million. What are the odds of that,” Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), on his unlikely charge Philomena Lee (Judy Dench), Philomena

Spoiler Jam: Look, the producers of Philomena hide a couple of important twists in the story during the trailer and I don’t know how to talk about the movie without talking about at least one of those twists so if you haven’t seen Philomena and would like to, don’t read this. But please click on the link so I can get a page view out of it. I’m needy.

When I was a kid, my family went to see this movie called Men Don’t Leave and it has obtained a legendary status among us. The trailer made Men Don’t Leave seem like a jolly family comedy. It was not. Men Don’t Leave is about a family struggling, poorly, to get over their father’s death. Anytime we run into a situation that we think will be light-hearted and is not, we now use the Men Don’t Leave as shorthand.

Philomena is a total Men Don’t Leave. The trailer makes it look like a fun, odd couple road trip movie with a jaunty reunion implied for the end. Let’s watch shall we?

Looks fun right?  The story is pretty much what they advertise. Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a disgraced journalist decides to help Philomena Lee (Dame Judy Dench), an eccentric elderly woman track down a son who was taken from her 50 years ago.  But the tone is a lot different. Even though Philomena is kind of a wacky lady, her past is very tragic and the story is not a happy one.

It turns out Philomena’s son died of AIDS about ten years before the events of the movie, so the investigation, climaxing with tracking down the son’s partner has a very sad tinge to it. And there is one last horrible secret to be revealed.

All of this is not to say Philomena is not a great movie, because it absolutely is. Judy Dench delivers a terrific performance as the sweet, good-natured Philomena. She never gets angry about what having her son stolen has done to her or the missed opportunities of her life. She can be frustrating in her stubbornness, but so good-hearted I can’t help but like her. She’s also not “stupid” as she comes off in the preview, just a little naive as to the ways of the world, especially modern day journalism. One of the funniest parts of the movie is when she requests a pseudonym and tries to pick one out. Steve Coogan, usually a droll comedic actor is very good as Philomena’s straight man. Even though she exasperates him, he comes to care about her and take this unimportant human interest story to heart.

Judy Dench and Steve Coogan

 

Philomena is not a road movie or an odd couple movie. It’s a social statement movie about a horrible wrong that was inflicted on thousands of poor women more than 50 years ago. It also is a bittersweet tribute to one woman’s never-ending, but totally believable, optimism.

Best Picture Countdown #6: Nebraska

Receptionist: Does he have Alzheimer’s?

David Grant (Will Forte): No, he just believes what people tell him.

Receptionist: That’s too bad.

                – Nebraska

Trying to organize the next three films in the official Justin McClelland Best Picture ranking has proved especially difficult. All three Best Picture nominees are excellent and I liked them all about the same so how I feel today may not reflect how I feel tomorrow about them exactly. Interestingly, these are the three “quiet” films of the nominees, much less about social issues or flashy movie making and more about character study and ideas (which should give the observant some hint as to what they are).

Recently I have become fairly interested/concerned with Hollywood portrayals of Midwesterners. As a borderline Midwesterner myself, I take such representations personally and frankly the results aren’t great. Midwesterners are generally seen as fatty-food loving, small timers with small ideas or crushed dreams. I don’t love everything about the Midwest but I have really begun to see where our own bias of the coastal elite comes from.

In many ways, Nebraska does nothing to assuage my worries. Midwesterners don’t look great in this movie. They are almost uniformly overweight, borderline alcoholics and petty people concerned with their tiny fiefdoms of small town sadness, clueless of their own silliness. But if you watch this movie in a vacuum, away from other Midwest bashers, Nebraska is a really interesting movie. Its characterization, while maybe unflattering, is consistent and solid and what makes the film. The movie is really a character study of a small town man striving for one chance at being a big shot and his relationship with his own sad, quietly failing son.

Bruce Dern and his great sad/confused face

Woody Grant (Bruce Dern in the performance of a lifetime) is fading away from old age and dementia. He believes he has won a Publishing Clearinghouse-type sweepstakes, although he is constantly rebuffed by his bristling, bitchy wife Kate (June Squib, also marvelous). His son, David (Will Forte – yes, MacGruber!) is somewhat estranged from Woody, who isn’t exactly a ray of sunshine, but agrees to take his father to Lincoln, Nebraska and claim the prize.

Following a series of mishaps resulting mostly from Woody’s alcoholism and failing health, the two stop in Woody’s hometown of Hawthorne. There, they run afoul of Woody’s old business partner (Stacey Keach) and some of Woody’s family, all of whom claim they are owed a part of Woody’s fortune.  We get a greater sense of why Woody wants the fortune so badly – just to prove to the town of doubters that Woody Grant is bigger than they are. In the end, the hunt draws the entire family closer in understated and sweet ways. David’s final gift to Woody is particular touching.

Dern and the underrated Will Forte, playing it straight for once

Nebraska is a story of failed dreamers who refuse to give up on their dreams. Woody is the obvious example, but David too, whose life is revealed to also be going down the tubes in a couple of early, simple scenes, must want something for his father (even though he knows there is no fortune) and himself. Why else take part in the trip? Bruce Dern plays Woody as seemingly always confused with a tinge of sadness, as if he knows his time has run out and the confusion of his life only makes him sadder.  It’s the characters who make Nebraska more than anything else – Woody’s dogged determination, David’s ability to stand up for his father even while seeing his ridiculousness. Even Kate’s constant, at-times hilarious, put-downs of others are about a woman trying to make herself better.

Even though I may object to many presentations of the Midwest, the truth is Nebraska creates some very accurate characters who could exist anywhere. Their world seems small (despite the bigness of the land in the beautiful cinematography) and so they fight to be bigger in it. They have quirks and faults but come through for the ones they love. Nebraska is a sweet and very funny movie.

Other Nominations: Best Actor (Bruce Dern), Best Supporting Actress (June Squib), Best Director (Alexander Payne), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography,