It’s Oscar Season! The nominations have come in and despite a few expected turns, there were some surprises, but even more snubs. It’s also apparently the Whitest Academy Awards in quite some time, but let’s not flip out just yet---the minority pool had not been very deep in 2014. Although we do indeed have a Hispanic director (probably winning it too) being nominated, there really wasn’t anything too powerful coming from other sources. The entire ranking of top-rated movies according to Rotten Tomatoes were predominantly Caucasian-led films. So although I do know and acknowledge the racial divide happening in Midwest/Northeast America (don’t deny it New York City), in the Oscars it’s mainly because there wasn’t the variety in good films we have seen in years past. But the Oscars shouldn’t just pat itself on the back for 12 Years a Slave winning the whole thing last year---you still did snub David Oyewolo for his role as Martin Luther King Jr.
We are going to break down each category, and I will announce my personal pick, who I think will win, and what snubs have occurred in the field. Let’s go:
Best Picture
DIAC Pick: Whiplash
My Prediction: Boyhood
Snub: Gone Girl, Nightcrawler, in a smaller scale The Raid 2 and The Lego Movie
Best Picture belongs to Whiplash, no questions asked. It was the top film of 2014, and combines superb directing and flawless acting from J.K. Simmons and company. It was indie without containing the self-indulgent flavor, while telling a great story that never swerves away from the main themes of art, competition, and consequences of perfection. Whiplash will not win, but it definitely deserves the win. If Gone Girl had tightened its editing ever so slightly it would have been the best mystery/thriller in years. But it still should have gotten at least the nomination for dominating the cinematic conversation for the entire Fall season.
Boyhood is a cinematic achievement, even if it has a very weak final 20 minutes. It is going to run with the prize because of the sheer collaborative effort required to make the movie and the insane amount of guts needed to pull off the stunt. Too much could have gone wrong on the way to filming the final scenes, and by movie miracle it worked out. The Raid 2 has no Oscar flavor, but is one of the best action movies in the last 30 years----seriously. The Lego Movie was my personal pick for runner-up in the Best Picture category, so being snubbed from the main prize personally affects me.
P.S. Stoked that the overindulgent Interstellar lost out on almost everything. Good job guys.
Best Actor
DIAC Pick: Ralph Fiennes
My Prediction: Michael Keaton
Snub: Ralph Fiennes, David Oyewolo
Ralph Fiennes got snubbed. Badly. That man was perfect in his quirky role in Grand Budapest Hotel, and there are few actors that could have pulled off that role with such sincerity. The category upsets me royally, although Michael Keaton does deserve his place in the sun after all these years. After all, Keaton gave life to Bruce Wayne and Beetlejuice in the 80s without much praise. After a consistently good career its his time, its his turn. But darn it Fiennes should have AT LEAST gotten the nomination.
Best Actress
DIAC Pick: Rosamund Pike
My Prediction: Julianne Moore
Snub: Jennifer Aniston (believe it or not)
Pike will not win mainly because the Oscars have all but looked the other direction in terms of Gone Girl. Pike deserves this win because of reasons I can’t describe without spoiling the movie. Just know that she lost lots of weight, and took turns and made moves that few actresses today could ever dream of pulling off. Not to mention, its not an easy role to pull off. Won’t say any more.
Aniston has tried egregiously hard to shake off her Friends image with roles in We’re the Millers, Horrible Bosses, and Cake. She at least deserves the nod for campaigning so hard to prove her worth in terms of acting after the decade in the popular sitcom. Might have to wait another year honey.
Best Supporting Actor
DIAC Pick: J.K. Simmons
My Prediction: J.K. Simmons
Snubs: Doesn’t matter
If J.K. Simmons doesn’t win this one, I am going to flip out. This man is phenomenal at character acting, doing flawless small-time work in Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Juno, Up in the Air, I Love You Man, among other television roles. I am not kidding, I will flip over a table if he loses. I am guaranteeing this. There will be a tweet and everything. Give it to him. Please. His performance was the BEST of 2014.
Best Supporting Actress
DIAC Pick: Patricia Arquette
My Prediction: Patricia Arquette
Snubs: Carrie Coon and Kim Dickens from Gone Girl
Try playing a role for 12 years for one movie. Not going to be an easy task. Arquette has the toughest role by taking up the most adult screentime and having to play off two kids with no acting experience for a majority of the movie. She convincingly plays a mom who makes a series of bad decisions that affects her, the kids, and her future. Her final moments were the most heartbreaking, and probably would have made for the superior ending. Ugh, the ending……
P.S. The females of Gone Girl deserve more attention.
Best Directing
DIAC Pick: David Fincher
My Prediction: Richard Linklater
Snubs: David Fincher, Damian Chazzelle, Gareth Evans
The top 3 directing jobs of the entire year were snubbed. You’ve got to be kidding me. With the Chazzelle snub, there’s less of a chance for Whiplash to win Best Picture. With the Fincher snub, its more evidence that his film material is far too dark for the Academy to recognize, even though he is one of the best in the business. After Fight Club and Social Network, one would hope he someday gets his due.
Finally, Gareth Evans deserves at least a nod for spending his painstaking months making the action ridiculousness that is The Raid 2. Seriously watch it, and name me 5 directors that can pull off what he did. Truth is, besides Fincher, Tarantino, and maybe a younger Jackie Chan the options are severely limited. Linklater will win this Oscar no questions asked because of the task he tackled.
Best Original Screenplay
DIAC Pick: The Grand Budapest Hotel
My Prediction: Birdman
Snubs: The Lego Movie
Budapest Hotel is one of the best movies of 2014 that lacks the Oscar-winning flavor. Nonetheless, it has the best screenplay by far. It will not win, but if I had things my way I would at least give Wes Anderson the Spike Jonze treatment by giving him the creativity points with the screenplay nod. Birdman has a chance of winning the entire thing, but at the very least it will earn the Oscar for writing the script that gives the 1989 Batman his Best Actor prize.
Best Adapted Screenplay
DIAC Pick: Whiplash
My Prediction: Whiplash
Snubs: Gone Girl
Gone Girl is the best adapted screenplay, but Whiplash was the superior screenplay over---however it should have gone for Original Screenplay. Slight issue aside, Gone Girl should have at least gotten the nomination. But I am pretty sure the dark Flower Power flavor of Gone Girl prevented the old folks from voting it in. Whiplash on the other hand is a great script, an Oscar-worthy script to boot.
Best Animated Film
DIAC Pick: The Lego Movie
My Prediction: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Snub: The Lego Movie, The Lego Movie, The Lego Movie, The Lego Movie, The Lego Movie, The Lego Movie
We will not discuss this any further. The Lego Movie is the second best movie of the year. No nomination means the terrorists won.
Best Foreign Language Film
DIAC Pick: The Raid 2
My Prediction: Ida
Snub: The Raid 2
Let me tell you a story. I saw The Raid 2 in theaters by myself, and was joined by 5 other strangers scattered in the cinema. Amongst the 6 of us, the tension could still be felt. By the time we reached the final action sequence, there was no breathing. By the time the final fight began, it felt like there was a shortage of oxygen in the room. The Raid 2 is the greatest non-American film of 2014, and the best action movie since Legend of Drunken Master. It is an experience that every action fan must encounter. And I honestly couldn’t care less about who wins this prize.
Best Cinematography
DIAC Pick: Grand Budapest Hotel
My Prediction: Grand Budapest Hotel
Snub: Nightcrawler, Gone Girl
Aesthetically, Grand Budapest Hotel is the film of the year—and yes, even more so than the space opera Interstellar. Filmed over in Europe, Grand Budapest Hotel does a superb job giving each locale lots of pop, lots of color, lots of quirk. No location here looks like anything you had seen in celluloid before, even the prison visually springs at you like an adult pop-up book. Your goal as a director is to make a movie that allows the viewer to immediately know that it came from you, without a doubt. Few directors today can achieve this (Tarantino and Edgar Wright) but Wes Anderson belongs on that list.
That being said, Gone Girl and Nightcrawler ONCE AGAIN gets snubbed as the camerawork enabled for simple settings to have a dark, mysterious, and foreboding look. No love for the dark pulp movies this year.
Best Editing
DIAC Pick: The Raid 2
My Prediction: Boyhood
Snub: Nightcrawler
One of the greatest sequences of editing in the history of the art was the 15 minute showdown Jackie Chan had against everybody (I mean everybody) in the factory in the climax of Legend of Drunken Master. But since this is a martial arts movie, it won’t get the golden acclaim it truly deserves. Fight scenes are some of the toughest feats to edit coherently---a simple sequence can take months to film and splice together thoroughly.
Taking 12 years of filmmaking and managing to condense it into an entertaining and tight story is an editing miracle. But The Raid 2’s final fight sequence is a masterpiece of filming, scoping, and editing. To be able to deliver such intensity in such a small package and have it flow flawlessly from one short spurt to the next was nothing short of brilliant. But it won’t win. Boyhood is good, and worthy of this Oscar at least, but the best of 2014? The Raid 2: the fight against Hammer Girl, Bat Boy, and The Assassin.
Best Production Design
DIAC Pick: Gone Girl
Prediction: Grand Budapest Hotel
Snub: The Lego Movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier
If I liked ties more often, I would give both Gone Girl and Grand Budapest Hotel the same Oscar for excellence in different ways. From beginning to end Gone Girl spins down a totally different direction, far off of the normal missing woman film. Every detail, every word, every note booming from the speakers gave the movie an addicting personality that became the talk of the fall.
Grand Budapest Hotel on the other hand is a dark adult fairy tale of a story that is comically bright, whimsically paced, and detailed down to the very cake that was being consumed in the prison. In a year full of well-produced films these two stood out like sore thumbs.
Best Makeup
DIAC Pick: Grand Budapest Hotel
Prediction: Grand Budapest Hotel
Like I said before, it’s the prettiest and most aesthetically pleasing film of 2014. Nothing more to see here, move on.
Best Original Soundtrack
DIAC Pick: Interstellar
Prediction: Interstellar
Snubs: Gone Girl, Nightcrawler, The Lego Movie, The Raid 2
This one is toughhhhhh. I have flipped between Gone Girl and Interstellar but went with the latter because the latter kept the movie afloat. Gone Girl was doing fine without the soundtrack, and actually could have benefited from less music. Interstellar on the other hand was struggling storywise and needed the technical to keep everyone from dying inside. Hans Zimmer threw the kitchen sink on this one and the result is his finest work since Dead Man’s Chest.
But the snubs, my goodness. Nightcrawler also had an intense soundtrack that deserves praise, while Lego Movie 2’s music was unique and very fitting with the rest of the hyperactive instant classic. Last but not least, The Raid 2 took pages from Hans Zimmer’s skillset and provided a booming score that climaxed with the final battle that sounded like a Batman/Joker battle.
Best Original Song
DIAC Pick: Everything is Awesome
Prediction: Everything is Awesome
…………………………enough said……………
Best Sound Editing
DIAC Pick: Whiplash
My Prediction: American Sniper
Snubs: Lego Movie, Whiplash, Big Hero 6, Captain America
Not even sure what anyone was thinking in this category. Whiplash sounds flawless, no questions asked. It is a musical movie and with that you need for the production to be just as stimulating to the ears as to the eyes. And with a movie with such a meticulous nature, the instruments, the notes, and the music altogether needs to be perfect. Whiplash should have at the very least gotten the nod.
I am moving away from this category, because it just makes me mad.
Best Sound Mixing
DIAC Pick: Whiplash
My Prediction: Whiplash
See previous explanation.
Best Visual Effects
DIAC Pick: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
My Prediction: Interstellar
Interstellar may seem like the obvious choice the obvious answer. However, Captain America had the tough task of translating a comic book character, persona, and storyline into modern day culture and blend it without causing too much visual jarring. The fights, the explosions, the larger than life climactic sequence in Captain America were actually a step up from The Avengers, and that’s saying a lot.
Interstellar loses points because the visually-superior Gravity happened the year before.
Final Notes:
Best Costume Design
DIAC Pick: The Grand Budapest Hotel
My Prediction: Mr. Turner
Best Documentary
DIAC Pick: Citizenfour
My Prediction: Citizenfour
Snub: Life itself
If it were up to me, Whiplash and Grand Budapest Hotel would win 5 Oscars each, and Whiplash would latch the Best Picture prize, while we give Grand Budapest Hotel the Best Actor and Original Screenplay nod. Best Director however should go to David Fincher, with his movie walking away with 3 Oscars altogether.
That being said, I see Boyhood winning it all, Grand Budapest and Interstellar splitting the technicals, and a nice emotional Oscar for Michael Keaton.
We shall see what February 22nd will bring us…
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