Oscars 2015: The Results

And so this year's Oscars have come and gone. I doubt anyone would have expected it would go down the way it did. There's been a few surprises, to say the least. Who could have foreseen the definite favorite Boyhood would be left almost entirely out in the cold, with the second choices of most, Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, cutting up the pie between them for the most part? I sure didn't, which means my predictions of last month took quite a beating. Just when you think you understand the Academy, they go out of their way to turn the tables on you.

So let's compare my notes with hard reality, shall we?

Best Film:
First Choice: incorrect. Not so obvious apparently. While everybody had Boyhood on their mind, the Academy instead opted for a more off-beat candiate, seemingly applauding its criticism on the American movie industry and its satirical overtones. And thus, Birdman flew off with Best Picture.
Second choice: also incorrect. Of course the movie I preferred didn't win this category, what was I thinking?!

Best Actor:
First Choice: correct.

Best Actress:
First Choice: correct.

Best Supporting Actor: 
First Choice: correct.

Best Supporting Actress:
First Choice: correct.

And then the Academy goes and picks exactly the folks everybody anticipated would win, while for the other major categories they picked the less obvious candidates. Which means everybody is thrown off-guard even more by predictability's comeback in this whole circus. Good for me, as I at least got some categories correct.

Best Director:
First Choice: incorrect.
Second choice: correct. As is exemplary for American society, this show is usually a duel between two clear favorites, with one of them winning Best Picture and the other Best Director. Not so this year: Birdman got both. You'd think a 12-year project that got so much acclaim would qualify for Best Achievement in Directing, but apparently you'd be wrong.

Best Screenplay:
First Choice: correct. Say what you will about Birdman's execution, the script is for the most part top-notch, while Boyhood's is more of on-the-fly work and required less scripting. In that the Academy agrees with me, or vice versa.

Best Adapted Screenplay:
First Choice: incorrect.
Second choice: also incorrect. The straightforward narrative of The Imitation Game seemed to appeal the most to the Academy voters.

Best Animated Film:
First Choice: incorrect.
Second choice: incorrect. This one makes me mad. Laika is severely overdue in terms of winning Oscars. The tremendous craftsmanship displayed in The Box Trolls was nothing short of extraordinary, even though the story wasn't always that inspired. However, the same is true of Big Hero 6, but - apart from the terrific job they did on Baymax - its animation wasn't nearly as compelling. It seems the old styles of animation, be it hand drawn or stop motion, have fallen out of favor with the Academy. For shame. This is definitely the worst mistake of this year's Oscars.

Best Foreign Film:
First Choice: incorrect. Could it be the Academy swayed for Putin's condemnation of this movie critiquing the many flaws of his authoritarian regime? Is there a political game being played behind the curtains here, mayhaps? Or did the Academy simply not care about the film's statement, so the visual art of Ida was picked over poignant ideological content?
Second choice: correct.


Best Cinematography:
First Choice: incorrect. Seriously? A movie which suggests it delivers one giant long take but contains so many not so subtly hidden cuts is picked over a movie which displays its love for cinematography and its long history in almost every shot? Shenanigans!
Second choice: incorrect.

Best Editing: 
First Choice: incorrect.
Second choice: incorrect.

Best Production Design:
First Choice: correct. Well duh...

Best Costume Design:
First Choice: correct. See Best Production Design for details.

Best Hair and Make-up:
First Choice: correct. In case you didn't realize it, Tilda Swinton doesn't actually look like she's in her nineties, that's all make-up.

Best Score:
First Choice: correct. Alexandre Desplat finally gets his due.

Best Song:
First Choice: correct. And so the Academy avoids the discomfort of race riots that might otherwise have erupted across America, because Selma already got snubbed hard. Rap instead gets acknowledged by the Academy, which ought to cool them brothas down a bit.

Best Sound Mixing:
First Choice: incorrect.
Second choice: correct.

Best Sound Editing: 
First Choice: incorrect.
Second choice: incorrect.

Best Visual Effects:
First Choice: incorrect. The Academy once again fails to grasp the true pioneering that the FX industry is undergoing thanks to motion capture. Insanity triumphs as the visually rather dull Interstellar is picked against reason over Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. When the mo-capped apes truly take over the FX business in the coming years, the Academy members will be the first against the wall, mark my words.
Second choice: also incorrect. The Academy also doesn't like talking trees and raccoons. Bunch of speciesists...

Best Documentary: 
First Choice: incorrect.
Second choice: incorrect. And then the Academy suddenly embraces progressive thinking and social pioneering by picking a movie about Edward Snowden. You really can't get the hang of these people, can you?

Finaly tally

Correct: 10
Second choice correct: 3
Incorrect: 11
Oh my, I'm getting worse at this. More wrongs and less rights here compared to both last year and the previous one. But then, this year showed just how much of a guessing game these final Oscar results are, much more strongly than the last few years. The Academy is a fickle thing, and occasionally they need to reaffirm that fact. Too bad films so deservedly of a win, like The Box Trolls and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, are sacrificed to make that statement ring true.

Oscars 2015: The predictions

Time for the annual ritual! Determining which films will take home some of those much craved statuettes is a hard job as ever, especially if you haven't yet seen most of these films (many titles still need to be released in the Netherlands). So I'll freely admit a lot of it is a simple guessing game, but I'd like to think some of my expansive knowledge of and keen insight into the motion picture phenomenon serves me right in getting at least a third of these right. And as always, some wishful thinking works its magic, too.

Best Film:
First Choice: Boyhood. Obviously.
Second choice: The Grand Budapest Hotel. I'm rooting for this one, but I doubt I'd get my way.


Best Actor:
First Choice: Eddie Redmayne. I have yet to see (this movie and) a review that's not raving about Redmayne's stellar performance. Redmayne is one of those talented kids who finally seems to make good on that promise.
Second choice: Michael Keaton. Quite a comeback performance.

Best Actress:
First Choice: Julianne Moore.
Second choice: Rosamund Pike.There's not so much Gone Girl among the nominations as there ought to be. This one should have to make up for it.

Best Supporting Actor: 
First Choice: J.K. Simmons. The performance among the nominess I've heard the most positive feedback about.
Second choice: Mark Ruffalo.Because it's high time.

Best Supporting Actress:
First Choice: Patricia Arquette.None of these nominees seem convincing. So I'll go with Arquette, because Boyhood seems the safest bet.
Second choice: Emma Stone.

Best Director:
First Choice: Richard Linklater. Unique movie, so unique directing.
Second choice: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

Best Screenplay:
First Choice: Birdman.
Second choice: Foxcatcher.

Best Adapted Screenplay:
First Choice: American Sniper.
Second choice: The Theory of Everything.

Best Animated Film:
First Choice: The Box Trolls. It better be... Laika is long overdue in the Oscar department. And none of the others show this level of craftsmanship, be they good movies all.
Second choice: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

Best Foreign Film:
First Choice: Leviathan. Seems like a perfect time to peeve the Russian establishment some more with the social critique this movie displays.
Second choice: Ida.

Best Cinematography:
First Choice: The Grand Budapest Hotel. Considering the love for cinematography put on display in TGBH, it would be odd if it didn't win.
Second choice: Mr. Turner.

Best Editing: 
First Choice: Boyhood. A project cut together from bits of footage spanning over a decade, that's gotta be a worth an editing award or two.
Second choice: The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Best Production Design:
First Choice: The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Second choice: Into the Woods.

Best Costume Design:
First Choice: The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Second choice: Into the Woods.

Best Hair and Make-up:
First Choice: The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Second choice: Guardians of the Galaxy.

Best Score:
First Choice: The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Second choice: The Imitation Game.

Best Song:
First Choice: Selma. Okay, so I haven't heard any of these songs except for Everything is Awesome, and that's definitely not gonna be it. It gets obnoxious fast.
Second choice: Begin Again.

Best Sound Mixing:
First Choice: Birdman.
Second choice: Whiplash.

Best Sound Editing: 
First Choice: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Say what you will, the sounds wasn't at flaw here.
Second choice: Birdman.

Best Visual Effects:
First Choice: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It's high time this form of elaborate mo-cap and Andy Serkis' pioneering work on it got some major acknowledgment.
Second choice: Guardians of the Galaxy.

Best Documentary: 
First Choice: The Salt of the Earth.
Second choice: Virunga.

And there you have it. Time and Academy voting will tell whether I'm correct or incorrect in any or all of these.

The Best of 2014

As is expected of everyone with more than just a keen love of film - read: obsessive film nerds and the like - the last few days of December are marked by the obligatory lists of best films, worst films, etc. Why would this blog of mine be any exception to that rule? So here's my personal Top-5 of Best Pictures of the year.

5: Gone Girl

David Fincher's exploration of the darkness behind the facade that is the American Dream packs a mean punch. It's a very cynical film, filled with black humour, that shatters the hopes for wedlock of the uninitiated and might be painfully recognizable for those who have been married for a while. Nevertheless, it enlarges such fears and reservations of wedded couples to absurd extremes. No side is chosen in this battle of the sexes, which introduces a seemingly perfect married couple that is tearing itself apart as diabolical schemes to gain the upper hand between both protagonists, the pair of them positively horrible people, explode to national outrage as the relentlessly hungry media, also not spared the necessary critique, are drawn into this very personal little conflict. As usual, Fincher makes sure the ingenious narrative is always one step ahead of its audience, as he surprises us with more than just a few unexpected plot twists here and there and leaves the opening of the film intentionally ambiguous. You might decide against tying the knot after having seen this picture.

4: The Wolf of Wall Street

Though technically a 2013 movie in its country of origin, Martin Scorsese's latest masterpiece sure left its mark on Dutch theaters in the year that followed. Another magnum opus in an oeuvre that largely consists of those, Scorsese's j'accuse against the world of Big Money proves both a harrowing descent into utter debauchery and stupendous opulence, as well as an infectiously hilarious comedy, since it's all just too unreal to be believed. The veteran director once more gets the most out of his muse, Leonardo DiCaprio, in a rollercoaster ride of the life time that is Jordan Belfort's. Once simply an ambitious but caring man intent on looking out for his wife, he turns into a ravenous money monster once his position on Wall Street is secured due to his talents of outrageous scheming and charismatic persuasion. What follows is a near orgy of sexual escapades, trophy wives, excessively expensive vehicles and all the drugs large quantities of money can buy, including the Holy Grail of Quaaludes. You cannot help but both admire and abhor this man, but when you see him rolling out his Porsche half paralyzed from an overdose of opiates, drooling something fierce, while afterwards abusing his wife and kid, you know that all the money and power does not make this man someone to be envied. And you wonder how many thoroughly decadent people are still ruling the upper echelons of Wall Street thanks to Belfort's example...

3: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Star Spangled Avenger's second solo feature (sort of, since he's fortunately not without his allies) exceeds the level of its predecessor on every level, while doing a great job shaking up the Marvel Cinematic Universe to its core. Both a successful homage to political spy thrillers of the Seventies and a fabulous spy thriller in its own right, this movie marks Marvel's most intriguing plot to date. Poor Fourties' icon Cap (Chris Evans) still needs to adjust to the brave new world that is the 21st Century, but finds himself at odds with a much changed Home of the Free that in many ways is not his own anymore. To make matters worse, his worldwide peacekeeping employer S.H.I.E.L.D. turns out to be infiltrated by a villainous secret organization hellbent on world domination and marks both him and his friends as traitors to the American cause. To top all his misery, a painful ghost from his past returns to thwart the super soldier's attempts to save his country from shadow tyranny. A fantastic combination of explosive action, intelligent story telling and carefully crafted intertwining with the rest of the Marvel Universe makes the second Captain America movie the most wonderfully balanced Marvel movie to date.

2: Guardians of the Galaxy

And now for something completely different, Marvel must have thought. So rather than doing another superhero movie, as is all the rage in Hollywood, they decided to turn to one of their lesser known assets and delivered this delightful space opera. Infectiously setting up the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe, James Gunn's talents for quirky, off-beat humour are paired with an almost Whedonesque sense of writing dialogue for ensembles, as we are introduced to an unlikely bunch of interstellar outlaws who find themselves forced to rely upon one another to save a planet from destruction at the hands of a rampagingly zealous madman. Brilliant visual effects, enticing new characters and locations and an irresistable sense of the excitement to experience in the farthest reaches of space echo the enjoyment of the old Star Wars trilogy, but with a character distinctly its own. Though the plot may not be as strong as that of Cap 2, the genuine sense of fun Guardians of the Galaxy instills in its audience simply exceeds even that film. 2014 proved a great year for Marvel, so hopefully the company can keep up this momentum a while longer.

1: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson's latest turns out to be his finest as well. All his usual ingredients - quirky humour and characters, auteurist visuals, dysfunctional family issues and a top cast having an absolute ball - are thrown into the sweetest mix imaginable. The film looks like a wonderfully prepared cake and digests as such even more so. At the same time, Anderson turns total filmophile and utilizes every old trick in the book to acknowledge the equally rich history of the medium. Editing, sound, special effects and photography are all applied to their limits, making for a picture so thoughtfully stylized it might as well be a classical painting. If there is one director that is not to be missed by anyone who claims to love the cinema, it's Anderson. And if there's one movie on his resumé that is not to be missed by anyone, it's The Grand Budapest Hotel. The only downside seems to be it's gonna be next to impossible to top this film...