Academy Awards - The Oscars

OK, here we are again celebrating another year of film going. Some strong films this year, films that broke box office records, and films that failed. Here are my choices for the following awards and some thoughts around some of them.

• Best Actor - Nominees are:  Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Matt Damon (The Martin), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl). This is not as strong a field as it was last year. The obvious missing actors are Tom Hanks (Bridge of Spies) maybe because he made it look so easy, and Steve Carell who was so quirky and interesting you just wanted to see what he was going to do next. Both of these were strong performances, yet not in my top two of this listing. Although Cranston's  performance was good, I didn't like the character nor the interpretation. Fassbender was very good, however this role had been done too many times in the last two years. I did not see The Danish Girl therefore I don't have an opinion. However, Damon and DiCapiro's performances were fantastic - beyond amazing. I loved each of them. My guess is that DiCaprio will win the Oscar.
• Best Actress  - Nominees are:  Cate Blanchett (Carol), Brie Larson (Room), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Charlotte Rampling (45 Years), and Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn). This is a strong category although I didn't see 45 Years, the others were great. I also see a missing person from this list and that would be Rooney Mara in Carol as well. Between Cate and Rooney I would have picked Mara because I felt as though her evolution through the film was a more powerful statement. However, she is in the Supporting Actress listing. Out of the nominated list, it comes down to two outstanding performances: Ronan and Blanchett. Lawrence's performance was really good and I was fully engaged with her character, however it did not have the power of Ronan or Blanchett's. Larson was also very strong, however so much of her performance is linked to Jacob Tremblay the young boy that it took away from her own performance. For me I'd like Ronan to get this Oscar in an amazing performance in a  wonderful film.
• Best Supporting Actress  - Nominees are:  Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Rooney Mara (Carol), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), and Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs). As I mentioned earlier I think Mara's performance belongs in the Best Actress category. I didn't see The Danish Girl so I'm making my pick without full knowledge of the selections. However, without Mara I think the most interesting and performance is Leigh's. It was so hidden and yet over the top that I was mesmerized each time she opened her mouth and/or the camera focused on her. These are the top two and in my view either probably deserves the Oscar.
• Best Supporting Actor  - Nominees are:  Christian Bale (The Big Short), Tom Hardy (The Revenant), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), and Sylvester Stallone (Creed). The missing performance is Jacob Tremblay's in Room. He was phenomenal. But this is probably one of the strongest fields in years, so someone had to be left off the list. They were all great and my favorites out of this list are Rylance and Stallone. Rylance had such a small role yet it was so much impact on the film that it was unforgettable. However Stallone will get it for both this performance and his body of work as Rocky Balboa.
• Best Cinematography  - Nominees are:  Ed Lachman (Carol), Robert Richardson (The Hateful Eight), John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road), Emmaual Lubezki (The Revenant), and Roger Deakins (Sicario). Although Mad Max: Fury Road was big it did not grab me because I thought the film was more on the mindless side. Carol was elegantly shot and fully deserves the nomination. However, The Hateful Eight and The Revenant are over the top amazingly beautiful and powerful. The Hateful Eight deserves a lot of credit for doing so much in one room, while The Revenant wins this award for how shots were made and the perspective by which they were made. The winner - pick.
• Best Adapted Screenplay  - Nominees are:  Charles Randolph and Adam McKay (The Big Short), Nick Hornby (Brooklyn), Phyllis Nagy (Carol), Drew Goddard (The Martian), and Emma Donoghue (Room). Wow, what a list. All great picks. Any one of these could win in any given year. However, my final two would be Randolf and McKay for The Big Short and Hornby for Brooklyn. In the end I'm picking Nick Hornby for Brooklyn because it was a great screenplay and a wonderful film to watch.   
• Best Original Screenplay  - Nominees are:  Matt Charman and Ethan & Joel Coen (Bridge of Spies), Alex Garland (Ex Machina), Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley (Inside Out), Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), and Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton). Another strong set of contenders. All very different films. In the end I think I like Ex Machina and Spotlight as powerful screen plays for very different reasons. One reflects a horrible set of acts by Catholic Priests and the other about the obsessiveness and controlling nature of technology. In the end I select Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy for Spotlight.
• Best Director  - Nominees are:  Adam McKay (The Big Short), George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant), Lenny Abrahamson (Room), and Tom McCarthy (Spotlight). Missing are:  Ridley Scott (The Martian), J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Todd Haynes (Carol), Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight) and John Crowley (Brooklyn). To me this is the most messed up nominee listing. How is Max: Fury Road better directed than all my exceptions? It isn't and doesn't hold a candle to them. Also given my exceptions, I think Abrahamson's delivery is not quite there. Anyway, from the nominee list, I would say it is between McKay, Inarritu, and McCarthy. In the end I'd select McKay (with McCarthy a very close second) because he did the most to keep the film on track. Inarritu had too many long wistful shots. However this listing of nominees is really flawed.
• Best Picture  - Nominees are:   The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room, and Spotlight. Missing here is Carol and The Hateful Eight. Mad Max: Fury Road is nowhere in the league as these other nominees and, in my opinion, doesn't deserve to be listed. I simply was board stiff by the one long chase film filled with foolish philosophy. It is hard for me to pick as I loved "Brooklyn" as being a wonderfully executed nostalgic story. I thought "The Big Short" told a compelling story of how our economy tanked. "The Martian" was beautifully delivered and Damon made it happen. "Bridge of Spies" and "Spotlight" are both amazing stories about something that really happened. I was totally engaged and felt they delivered in all ways; education and story. The only thing I didn't like about "The Revenant" was that there were too many long scenic only shots which took away from the story.  In the end, of the listed I'd like to see "The Martian" win but can also see the others winning except Mad Max.

Some other thoughts about films this year:

• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was amazingly edited.
• "Ex Machina's" visual effects were very strong and so were scenes in "The Revenant".
• "Anomalisa" and "Inside Out" were both amazing Animated Feature films.
• "Carol" had perfectly detailed costumes and overall set design.
• "Writings on the Wall" the song for "Spectre" was dreadful.

Note: I'll be England sitting in silence for 30 days starting late next week. I may be able to see one more film before I go, but otherwise I won't be seeing any films or posting any reviews until the first week of March.

Thank you for viewing my site.

The Revenant

First Hit:  Strong in many ways because of DiCaprio's performance and in the beautifully interesting way it was shot, however, it also felt a little too long.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is an expert in creating wonderful visual pictures and scenes to watch.

Many of them are awe inspiring. Here, some of the long sequences enhanced the film and, in some ways, hurt the film. There were times that I just didn’t think I needed to sit through another sequence of seeing the rugged cold terrain.

After a couple of these I found myself thinking about something else instead of being totally involved in the film. However, on the converse side watching Leonardo DiCaprio being Hugh Glass was a treasure. It is very possible that his performance wins the Oscar and the film does not. This is because I really felt there were better films (see other recently posted reviews).

This story is about a man being betrayed by his fellow man in three ways: First, his son’s mother was killed by a group of Indian village raiders. Second, his son (Hawk – played Forrest Goodluck) was killed in front of him by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). And finally, Fitzgerald dumped him into a shallow grave, threw some dirt on him and left him to die in the middle of nowhere.

As you might imagine, Glass is pissed and filled with revenge. The bear mauling scene is amazing in that it isn’t just a short quick event, it is elongated just as one might expect as it would have happened.

This is what Inarritu is great at filming; long scenes shot eloquently that feel real. Just like the bear scene, the scene of the Indians attacking the fur trappers just felt real. The way the arrows just come into the picture frame hitting or missing their target is absolutely amazing.

Like Spielberg did with the scenes of the Normandy Beach landing in "Saving Private Ryan", these scenes are punctuated with a realistic sounds giving the audience a feeling as if you are there.

The other thing Inarritu is unafraid to do is to be creative in the story: The scene where Glass uses a horse carcass to warm and protect himself from the cold – ingeniously thought of and executed.

The palpable feeling of being in a subzero and cold environment came across clearly through the panoramic shots and close ups of the characters.

The only thing that didn’t work for me was that the film seemed long and I’d be hard pressed to say what could have been cut, except some long landscape shots .

Leonardo DiCaprio was amazing in this role and I also have to give kudos to the makeup artist because I believed every wound on his body seemed real. Tom Hardy was appropriately self-serving, mean and thoughtless as his role needed him to be. He was really strong. However I struggled to place or understand the accept he used. Goodluck was really good as the half white and Indian boy who loved his father. Domhnall Gleeson as Captain Andrew Henry, the leader of the tappers group, was effective and strong as the responsible person. Mark L. Smith and Inarritu wrote a very strong compelling script. Inarritu was masterful in his direction and used the camera effectively to portray this amazing story.

Overall:  This film was an amazingly visual adventure of a man's quest for revenge.

Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

First Hit:  One of the most amazing films I’ve ever watched.

What struck me and continues to strike me about this film was the way it was filmed. It is filmed like it all came from one camera with no edits.

Although I was amazed from the very beginning, there is a scene, where the camera is on a balcony ledge, looking up at a dark sky with a building in the background, the lights in the building change, the darkness of the sky changes to morning, and then the camera backs off the ledge moves down the building it was on and finally backs into Riggan’s (Michael Keaton) dressing room where the action picks up again.

The shot is phenomenal as are most of the shots in this film. What makes all this better is that the acting is also sublime.

This story about a man who wants to revitalize his acting career on Broadway after becoming famous as a superhero named “Birdman”. Not that the film is suppose to have a similar real life link to Keaton’s own acting life as Batman, - it does. But it is much more and deeper than this. It is about finding a place to be relevant and honest with oneself in some way.

Joining Riggan in the play he is putting on is Lesley (Naomi Watts) who has been striving her whole life to do an opening night on Broadway. Then there’s current girlfriend Laura (Andrea Riseborough) who wants to have a baby but struggles with Riggan’s inattention and is angelic in the play.

Lastly, on stage with him is Mike (Edward Norton) who is Leslie’s boyfriend and New York City stage actor supreme. His method rankles and enhances Riggan’s vision for the play. Although the story interacts with and at times becomes the story, the overall story is about Riggan becoming who he a man he likes and cares about.

Keaton is at his absolute best as Riggan and Birdman. He’s naked on the screen, we can see him. Watts is superb. Her execution of her role is perfect. Riseborough is great. The scene where she tells Riggan that she is pregnant is touchingly wonderful. Norton is beyond amazing. His command of the role is perfect. He shows just the right amount of arrogance and thoughtfulness. Emma Stone is truly a wonder. Her role as Riggan’s daughter is one of the most startling pieces of supporting work on the screen this year. Her hauntingly, desperate, and thoughtful view of the world is perfect. All of these actors gave Oscar worthy consideration performances. Zach Galifianakis as Riggans attorney and co-producer was also very, very strong. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Nicolas Giacobone wrote this amazing screenplay. Their use of words to make emotional points was spot on. Inarritu’s direction of the cinematographer, actors, and execution of the story will have him considered at Academy Awards time.

Overall:  An amazing piece of art, and that is what this film is, an outstanding and sublime piece of art.

Biutiful

First Hit: A sad story and beautifully acted.

Everyone in this film is superb.

This Spanish film is dark, engaging, asks deep questions and is wonderfully acted. Uxbal (played by Javier Bardem) is a hustler. He assists illegally resident Africans sell illegally produced purses and DVDs on the streets of Barcelona. He learns he only has months to live because of cancer.

He has custody for his two young children Ana and Meteo (played by Hanaa Bouchaib and Guillermo Estrella respectively), his former wife Maramba (played by Maricel Alvarez) is a part-time whore, and he accidently has a hand in killing 20+ Chinese workers. He also makes some side money by listening to dead people who are struggling to leave this life. By listening to them he passes information on to their family.

He is looking for redemption for his life. He has a heart which shows up with the compassion he has for his children and for some of the people who work with him. He does what he can to give his children a home and support as he begins to fade from life.

However, it appears that what he did in life catches up to him, and as he dies we know his children will have a difficult life, the kind he had.

Bardem is amazingly wonderful in this role. He compassion and deal making are equally transparent. Alvarez is amazingly wild and free flowing in her role as an unstable former wife. Bouchaib was excellent as the 10 year old daughter. Estrella is wonderful as the son. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu wrote and directed this very fine film.

Overall: This isn’t a feel good film but this is an outstanding film telling a very good story in a creative way.