45 Years - 1 nomination

Actress in a Leading Role - Charlotte Rampling

45 Years is the story of a couple on the precipice of celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary when the husband, Geoff (Tom Courtenay), receives a letter about his long-dead girlfriend's body having been found on a glacier where they had been hiking nearly 50 years before.  This opens questions for his wife, Kate (Charlotte Rampling) about whether their marriage would have ever taken place if the girlfriend hadn't died.  She begins to feel like the consolation prize for Geoff's life and struggles to accept their love's authenticity.  Nonetheless, she needs for the anniversary party to continue publicly without a hitch, even while he insists that he loves her deeply and that he has had a wonderful life with her by his side.  Still, some surprising discoveries leave her with more questions than answers and very little resolved.

This is another of those British, methodically executed films that you either love or you hate.  But the characters are drawn extremely well, and while I couldn't quite find enough sympathy for Kate to really appreciate the film, I could see how certain key details left unshared could shake the fabric of a marriage - it's the information that goes unsaid that becomes powerful and overblown, when simple honesty could have prevented the feelings of betrayal at the outset.  At very least, there are very good lessons for life and marriage in the film, even if it felt a bit labored to get through the entire story.

Creed - 1 nomination

Actor in a Supporting Role - Sylvester Stallone

I'm a sentimentalist, so I'm predisposed to excitement when something that I loved as a younger person comes back for more.  At the same time, like most movie nerds, I get nervous when something I loved comes back just in time to ruin everything I loved about the original.  So with nervousness and enthusiasm, I saw Creed.  

This is the story of Apollo Creed's son, Adonis, who grows up to have a passion for boxing and no one who would take him seriously and train him.  He moves to Philadelphia and searches out the legendary fighter (and former best friend of his deceased father), Rocky Balboa.  Rocky is still a legend in the city, but has settled into a quieter life as a widower and running a restaurant, "Adrian's," his late wife's namesake.  Rocky is moved by Adonis' determination and also by his loyalty to the young man's father, and decides to help him train to become a serious contender.

Sylvester Stallone, in his Golden Globes acceptance speech, talked about putting Rocky's character on again as an old friend.  The is the most apt description of what watching this film is like.  They so beautifully honor the nostalgia, the history of Rocky, the original characters; even that iconic music is used so judiciously that it never feels like a cheap knockoff, and the whole story truly becomes the logical continuation of the saga.  I'm only mildly embarrassed to share that I (literally) sobbed toward the end of the film.  You may not recall that Rocky (the first) won the Academy Award for Best Picture - it was a film that was bursting with heart.  This film is an homage to that original without being a carbon copy.

After seeing this wonderful movie, I'm now officially rooting for Stallone to win it.  He was the older, wiser Rocky, and he got me.  He really got me.

Inside Out - 2 nominations

Animated Feature -Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
Original Screenplay - Screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen

Inside Out is the incredibly funny, moving, delightful tale of Riley, an 11 year old girl who moves to San Francisco with her family and the 5 emotions in her head who help her manage life.  Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust do their best from their Headquarters in the brain while Riley copes with such a difficult life transition. When an accident occurs at Headquarters, Joy and Sadness must go on a journey to preserve Riley's core memories.  A key message of the film is that life is complicated and while we should be positive and look through an upbeat lens, all of our emotions are valid and important, and denying those are to deny being human.  Not bad for an animated feature, eh?

Each member of the cast voicing the 5 emotions does it so perfectly, and as expected, Louis Black as Anger gets all the best lines.  The movie is so clever and such a new way to look at life, particularly noting that as one matures the complexities of our emotions evolve to include new combinations previously misunderstood by younger children.

It's thrilling to see Inside Out get a screenplay nomination and frankly, it would have made more sense as a Best Picture nominee than Mad Max did.  Still, for some animated films, you definitely need a child or two to act as your cover for why you are watching them, if you're like me and happen to love all things animated.  But Inside Out is not one of them.  It has maturity and an authentically funny script and you should see it - no child required.

Anomalisa - 1 nomination

Animated Feature Film - Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran

Anomalisa is a concept piece using stop motion animation from the out there mind of Charlie Kaufman.  The basic story is that a customer service expert, Michael Stone, comes to Cincinnati to speak and promote his book to a customer service convention.  Though he is an apparent expert on connecting with people, the irony of this character is that he himself seems to have a great deal of trouble seeing people as individuals and is no longer enthusiastic about the mundanities of life.  He hears every person in the world with the same voice (all voiced by a single actor, Tom Noonan). While showering, he actually hears a different voice, a woman's voice (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) and is immediately enthralled by finding something new, something different, in his world. Michael pursues this young woman, Lisa, and the anomaly of finding anything new in his belabored world sends him reeling.

There is an interesting clue at the beginning of the film when he checks in to the "Fregoli Hotel" - the Fregoli delusion is a mental health condition in which a person believes that many different people in the world are actually secretly the same person and that person is either changing his/her appearance or is wearing disguises.  There is some belief that this delusion may be related to a brain issue which affects normal perception of faces.

The thing about this film is that the concept sound really interesting.  There are just too many really bizarre scenes in which the viewer really doesn't know what is happening.  It's slow - some would say methodical - but I would say slow.  It rests too much on the cleverness of the premise and so goes in directions that we should merely accept because we're already on such a strange journey that these pieces are meant to fit in with the crazy landscape.

The Hateful Eight - 3 nominations

Actress in a Supporting Role - Jennifer Jason Leigh
Music (Original Score) - Ennio Morricone
Cinematography - Robert Richardson

The Hateful 8 was a true surprise to me because the story is told so well, in some ways it felt like a Sherlock Holmes mystery or an Agatha Christie novel with much much more violence and bloodshed.  The premise of the film is that Jack Ruth (Kurt Russell), a bounty hunter, is taking outlaw Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to be hanged in the Wyoming town of Red Rock.  Along the ride, they pick up two characters - another bounty hunter and the new sheriff of Red Rock.  As a blizzard approaches, the four seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, but the proprietors are mysteriously missing while other surly and suspicious types are there with seemingly the same agenda of sheltering from the storm. Ever vigilant, the bounty hunter stakes his claim on his captive and then the chapters unfold in flashbacks and flash forwards, revealing everyone's true intents and true identities.

What a joy to see the amazing Jennifer Jason Leigh back in action.  Viewers who only remember her for Fast Times at Ridgemont High don't know the depth of her talent.  While I was watching the film I kept thinking, "I bet Jennifer was having a blast in this character."  She's funny and crazy and sarcastic and tough as nails.

While the music and the cinematography are beautiful, I'm truly surprised that the screenplay wasn't nominated.  The story was so clever and the dialogue so sharp that I could easily have replaced Bridge of Spies with this film.  If you do plan to see it, be forewarned - it is bloody, it is violent, and there is plenty of racism that makes me more uncomfortable than the blood or the violence.  If you're comfortable with those element, you're in for a fun night.

Joy - 1 nomination

Actress in a Lead Role - Jennifer Lawrence

"We got here from hard work, patience, and humility."

It's the annual reunion of Director, David O'Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert DeNiro, this time to tell the story of Joy Mangano - a smart housewife with tremendous mechanical abilities who invented the QVC darling, the Miracle Mop.  Joy's instincts as a business woman, her ability to believe in herself despite the negativities and jealousies from her family members, her laser focus on survival, all come together to tell an interesting story.  

I've heard lots of mixed reviews for this film but I really liked it and Jennifer Lawrence gives another wonderful performance.  Oscar trivia lovers will note that this is her fourth nomination and at the age of 25, she is the youngest actress to receive this many nominations at this young age.  There is no question this accolade was coming - in addition to being a great outspoken feminist, Lawrence has the ability to capture any character brilliantly.  

If I were picking three films to see all Oscars season, Joy likely wouldn't make that list, but I still thought it was a really enjoyable film and well worth the time spent.  Some people have gotten bogged down in the fact that some of the characters (like the sister who is always jealous and oppositional to Joy) are invented.  If you've followed this blog in the past, you'll recall that I often tell readers to interpret films as sacrosanct to the authentic real-life happenings at their peril.  Joy is a fictionalized version of real events, which some people like to call "a movie."  If you are interested in knowing more about the real Joy Mangano, a simple Google search yields lots of options for knowing her real background.

Carol - 6 nominations

Actress in a Leading Role, Cate Blanchett
Actress in a Supporting Role, Rooney Mara
Cinematography, Ed Lachman
Costume Design, Sandy Powell
Music (Original Score), Carter Burwell
Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Phyllis Nagy

I'll be honest.  I really wanted to love Carol.  REALLY wanted to, and I was all ready for a beautiful love story with character arcs and self discovery and outstanding actresses and beautiful costumes. That's why it was so utterly disappointing to be bored by most of the film, and relatively angry that two characters were boiled down to being nothing more than their sexuality.  Ok, if I'm being honest, Carol (played by Cate Blanchett) is a lesbian and she loves her daughter, so that's two things we know about her.  But those are basically the only two things.  Then, Rooney Mara plays Terese, and all we really know about Terese is that she is a lesbian who is discovering herself.

Why don't lesbians deserve character arcs?  Complexities?  Depth?  Sure, there are some interesting elements of the film, but I was truly disappointed that these characters don't get their due.

Yes, the cinematography is wonderful and the music is too.  Being a period piece focused on a wealthy woman, the costumes are exquisite.  But do these really matter when so little attention is focused on the story?

One more thing to say about Carol's nominees.  Those of you who have been reading the blog know how I feel about category shenanigans.  And Carol is the guilty party this year.  Rooney Mara is in almost every scene (certainly has the most screen time of any character) and is the lens through which the story is being told.  The film is named for Carol for her strong presence as a character, but to nominate Cate Blanchett as the lead actress and to nominate Rooney Mara as a supporting actress is absurd.  At best, they were both leads, but if anyone played a supporting role, I think it was Blanchett.  The Academy loves Cate Blanchett and let's face it, the movie studio was campaigning for these particular categories because it's better not to have two actresses competing with each other for the same film.  But when shenanigans occur I must call shenanigans.  And shenanigans have indeed occurred!

The Danish Girl -

Actor in a Lead Role - Eddie Redmayne
Actress in a Supporting Role, Alicia Vikander

Production Design, Eve Stewart (Production Design); Michael Standish (Set Decoration)

Costume Design, Paco Delgado

The thing about The Danish Girl is that it's such a beautifully simple story.  Eddie Redmayne plays artist Einar Wegener who discovers his true self and gender identity while posing for paintings done by his artist wife, Gerda.  As his journey unfolds to becoming a her, Wegener renames herself Lili Elbe and pursues a dangerous gender reassignment surgical procedure, long before the surgery had been perfected.

My first reaction after seeing The Danish Girl was, "looks like Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks are welcoming a new member to the club of people who won lead actor two years in a row."  He totally transformed himself and even without the makeup and the costumes, his movements and his demeanor changed so dramatically that you still believe him to be a transgender woman, that is to say, a woman.

Alicia Vikander also blew me away.  Struggling herself with her love for her husband combined with wanting to be supportive and wanting to protect him from harm, she finds her voice in the journey, as well, both as a woman and as an artist.

The costumes and the production design are clear nominees, in my mind.  They are all so beautiful and of course, period pieces always do well in these categories.  But when you add the grandeur of Paris in the 1920's and the incredible detail put into the costumes, you've got shoe-ins for these nominations.  You absolutely have to see them for yourself, if just for these elements, but you'll be dazzled by Redmayne and Vikander's performances along the way.

Steve Jobs - 2 nominations

Actor in a Lead Role - Michael Fassbender
Actress in a Supporting Role - Kate Winslet

"It's not binary.  You can be gifted and decent at the same time."  Seth Rogan's character, Steve "Woz" Wozniak captures the essence of the lesson learned from Steve Jobs' life.  Does it matter to us whether he was a good, kind, decent person when we are tapping apps and swiping right or left on our iPhones?  We probably don't and moreover, many of us idolize Steve Jobs, the visionary who changed the way we live our lives.  We have access to the sum of human knowledge in our pockets and purses.  But this very real biopic reminds us that Jobs was a more complicated person than just the stereotypical inspired genius.  

This film takes us backstage at major points in Apple's history during iconic product launches, and that's where most of the story unfolds.  It was a fascinating way to shape the triumphs and the flops that followed Steve's career and personal life, and Kate Winslet, as his Jiminy Cricket confidante and conscience portrays the role that a handful of close colleagues played in his life, even as he abused and pushed the people around him to achieve the unachievable.

Though it wasn't nominated, I thought the original score was a real highlight of the film, and I suspect that with more campaigning, it could have had a place in the top 5.

Now to the controversial.  I have expressed in prior blogs this year that I'm frustrated that a few key leading actor performances were snubbed in favor of these five nominees.  With that frustration, I believe that I have to own who I would replace in the top 5 and I'm sorry to say that I would replace Michael Fassbender in this category.  I suppose that biopics are great fodder for Oscar nominations as we seek performances that are neither caricatures nor dead on impressions of the real life person.  We want an actor to embrace the essence of the person.  In general, I think Michael Fassbender did achieve that goal but I still wouldn't put it in the top 5 performances of the year.

Still, I left the theatre very satisfied.  It was clear that the story was more inspired by real life events than a reflection of how events actually transpired, but the screenplay did an admirable job of interpreting Steve Jobs' official biography into a good solid story.

Trumbo - 1 nomination

Actor in a Leading Role - Bryan Cranston

Trumbo hearkens back to a time in America's history when people working in Hollywood were under investigation for sympathizing with or being a member of the Communist party.  While the Constitution placed no bans on being a member of any kind of political party, the government played on the fears of common people about the Communist threat and went so far as to jail people for their memberships.  In addition, members of the Hollywood community ardently supported rooting out commies from their midst.  Dalton Trumbo was a member of the Communist party because he believed in taking care of one's citizens, and he was one of many to be placed on the blacklist - meaning no one could hire him without putting his/her own reputation in danger.  To be blacklisted meant financial ruin and social isolation.

Having been placed on the blacklist, Trumbo had to write under a pseudonym, and won two academy awards while he was at it.

As I have mentioned in prior blogs, if you are outraged that some actors were snubbed for nominations, then you have to name names as to whom one would oust from the list of actual nominees.  Cranston is not one of those people - he deserves his place among his peers for this incredible performance.  Irrespective of how you view this period in our history, it would be hard not to be outraged for jailing anyone for an act that is legal under the constitution.  As Trumbo, he does such a superb job of capturing the righteous indignation any American would and should feel were he/she in the same situation.  You might not care for the politics, but you can certainly relate to an over-empowered government official ruining lives over political affiliation.

All of the performances are wonderful, and I suspect anyone seeing the film will learn a thing or two about this shameful period in American history.  If you're intrigued by this film, may I recommend the 1950 documentary about Trumbo and others called "The Hollywood Ten."  (available to watch on youtube.com) Upon its release, the filmmaker was, of course, immediately blacklisted himself.

I thought Trumbo was a terrific movie and I highly recommend seeing it.  Frankly, it had the chops to be a Best Picture nominee, but not the exposure required to make it to the top of the list.

The Revenant - 12 nominations

Best Picture, Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon, Producers
Actor in a Leading Role, Leonardo DiCaprio
Cinematography, Emmanuel Lubezki
Directing, Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Actor in a Supporting Role, Tom Hardy
Costume Design, Jacqueline West
Sound Editing, Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
Film Editing, Stephen Mirrione
Sound Mixing, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek
Production Design, Jack Fisk (Production Design); Hamish Purdy (Set Decoration)
Makeup and Hairstyling, Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini
Visual Effects, Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer

To understand the film The Revenant, we simply have to start by explaining the term.  A revenant is a visible ghost, an animated corpse, or a person who has come back from the dead.  With that definition in mind, there is likely no example more appropriate than Leonardo DiCaprio's character in this picture.  While serving as a tracker for a fur trading expedition, he survives an attack by local Native Americans, a bear, a homicide attempt by someone who is meant to be protecting him, and attacks from rivals in the area.  He metaphorically survives the loss of his wife, the murder of his son, and the affront of the near impossible surrounding elements and weather.  If there ever is a person who is truly "the walking dead," it is this man.  When he resolves to seek vengeance for the murder of his son, his body revives, even if his soul doesn't completely return.

While the film is extremely engaging, I still can't quite wrap my arms around whether or not I enjoyed it.  It has all the right elements - a clear good guy, a clear bad guy, continuing to fight against all odds - I could go on and on.  But I still keep coming back around to the question of what purpose this film serves in the world, and why it is such an awards darling this season.

There is no question that all of the elements that make up the film are good and period pieces often get Oscar love, particularly in the makeup/hairstyling and costume categories.  In fact, 13 of the winners in the costume category since the year 2000 won for period pieces and the other two were sci-fi films.  With all the fight scenes, sound and editing and effects are clearly outstanding.

But let's focus on the one category that seems to already have it in the bag, and that's Leonardo DiCaprio for his role as the lead actor.  People are certainly calling for him to win because of his body of work, but one can't ignore what he had to endure to execute this part, so we shouldn't overlook his incredible performance in this movie.  However, when they read the little envelope and say his name, I hope they say, "Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant.  Also for What's Eating Gilbert Grape since most people thought that he was actually a special needs kid who did a great job learning to act for that film." (For the record, Tommy Lee Jones got it for The Fugitive; huh???)

I suppose I also have to mention Tom Hardy, whose supporting role has been recognized here.  I guess if we're going to keep nominating Meryl Streep every time she learns an accent, we're going to have to do the same for Tom Hardy.  For some reason, I just don't connect with Hardy's character in this film, and that could be because he is drawn with such one-note dialogue that I find him hard to believe.  He can thank overall Revenant momentum for his nomination, and though I believe him to be an excellent actor, this is not the role for which he should be recognized.

The Martian - 7 nominations

Best Picture - Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam, Producers
Actor in a Leading Role, Matt Damon
Visual Effects, Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
Sound Editing, Oliver Tarney
Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Drew Goddard
Sound Mixing, Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth
Production Design, Arthur Max (Production Design); Celia Bobak (Set Decoration)

Another of our Best Picture nominees is The Martian.  In it, Matt Damon plays a botanist, Mark Watney, who is part of a NASA team exploring Mars. Presumed dead and left behind by his team escaping an emergency while on planet, Watney realizes he has been left behind.  He gets to work setting up systems that will keep him alive long enough to figure out how to let the world back on Earth know that he is there and that he needs to be rescued.  As he says, he needs to "science the sh*t" out of the situation.  Without adding too many spoilers, there are plenty of detractors on the ground questioning whether the effort and money should be expended to bring Watney home.

The film has taken a lot of ribbing for having won the Best Musical or Comedy Golden Globe (being neither a comedy nor a musical), but that doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve recognition.  The writing is smart but not alienating, the tension is clear but not pandering to the lowest common denominator.  I don't know what Neil Degrasse Tyson would say, but to the common movie goer, the science certainly seems plausible.

I loved The Martian.  It's not quite the 2015 version of Apollo 13, but it has all the elements to keep the viewer engaged throughout.  Candidly, while I loved Damon's acting, there are a handful of performances I would have chosen to put in the top 5 lead actors category over this role (Will Smith, Michael Keaton, among others).  Certainly top 10, but that's not how the Oscars work.  Hard to imagine that Ridley Scott didn't make it into the top 5 for Directing, but one never knows how these things will shake out - I was indeed disappointed that Scott didn't make it to the top 5.  He deserved it for this film and certainly for his body of work.

As I've explained, movies with lots of amazing visual effects are usually shoe-ins for sound categories, and this film is no exception.  There are lots of layers in every scene, and all of the technical execution of the film was outstanding.

Overall, a great movie filled with edge of your seat scenes and some great jokes about disco.  All of the actors in the film were outstanding and credible, with a special shout out to Donald Glover who plays a mean nerd.  I highly recommend it.

The Big Short - 5 nominations

Best Picture - Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Producers
Actor in a Supporting Role, Christian Bale

Directing, Adam McKay

Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Charles Randolph and Adam McKay

Film Editing, Hank Corwin

The Big Short attempts a difficult feat - how to explain the collapse of the world economy and still be entertaining - and it accomplishes that goal by all accounts.  The key characters in the film are by and large real people, particularly those who saw through the housing bubble and took advantage of the deregulation of the banking industry to ultimately great wealth.  One of the most charming parts of the script is that occasionally Ryan Gosling's character will break the fourth wall, look at the audience and say, "this really happened!"  In other words, this insanity seems like something that our screenwriter would have come up with for the purposes of decorating the movie with incredible scenarios, but no! You can't make this sh*t up!  Occasionally he also looks at the camera and says, "ok, this isn't exactly how this scene transpired, but you get it, this is poetic license."

The Big Short has a very strong chance in the Adapted Screenplay category because it more than achieved its impossible task.  It's certainly one of the 5 films I consider worthy of a Best Picture nomination, and has the ever elusive comedic elements that so rarely grace Oscar nominees.  There is no question that editing this story to be coherent, understandable, and interesting was a great challenge, particularly when most of the American public is not conversant in the technicalities of mortgages, CDOs, credit swaps, and valuation.

It's hard to single out just Christian Bale for recognition in this truly ensemble film but to be fair, his quirky, awkward, heavy-metal loving character is certainly a departure from his usual work.  I'm surprised that Steve Carell wasn't nominated in the acting category, but with a packed field of outstanding performances, getting the nomination was no easy task.

All of this is always a credit to the leader of the pack, Adam McKay who not only co-wrote the brilliant screenplay (which I'm assuming means that he really learned and understood the material) but directed, as well.  His work in The Big Short clearly speaks for itself and the nomination is well deserved.

Finally, if you were intrigued by The Big Short, I high recommend seeing the Oscar winning documentary from 2010, Inside Job, which explains this material even more thoroughly.  Inside Job does include more about the political landscape and how deregulating the banking industry contributed to the collapse, and how CEO's played a role, as well.  It's also a must see.

Spotlight - 5 nominations

Best Picture - Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust

Actor in a Supporting Role, Mark Ruffalo
Actress in a Supporting Role, Rachel McAdams
Directing, Tom McCarthyFilm Editing, Tom McArdle

Writing - Original Screenplay, Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy

"It takes a village to raise a child.  It takes a village to abuse one."

The are the powerful opening words to the film, Spotlight, arguably the most important and most powerful film of the year.  Spotlight is a modern day "All the Presidents Men" in which an investigative team from The Boston Globe unravels the decades-long systematic cover up of Priests' sexual molestation of children by the Catholic Church.  Particularly disturbing is the way in which the powers in the Boston community help to negotiate vulnerable families of the survivors away from prosecuting the offending clergy.  This is a rare Goliath versus Goliath story and one must come to terms with the heartbreaking truth that sometimes people love and protect their guilty institutions above protecting the vulnerable innocent.

The movie is outstanding by all measures.  Every performance was strong, and I think Michael Keaton was likely in the #6 or #7 spot when the final Best Actor votes were tallied.  Frankly, I was surprised by Rachel McAdams' nomination - she gave a strong but measured performance and I'm not sure that it stand out particularly among all supporting actress roles, but her work is not to be missed in this film.  On the other hand, Mark Ruffalo's performance blew me away - the thing about him is that he is different in every film.  Put this character side by side with his character in Foxcatcher, and you'd have trouble convincing me that this is the same person.  He has become particularly adept in crafting different speaking styles, different shapes for his face and his body, and becomes a totally different person in each role.

Of all the elements of this film, for me it all comes down to the utter brilliance of the screenplay. Every moment is well crafted, every line is well spoken, every scene is important.  In case you can't tell, I'm rooting for Spotlight to win this category and also Best Picture.  I have to think about the other categories more, but these seem clear to me.  

Were you especially intrigued by Spotlight?  I also recommend Oscar-nominated documentary "Deliver Us From Evil" that has particular strength for following the re-assignments of Priests from parish to parish; and "Maxima Mea Culpa: Silence in the House of God"that follows the stories of deaf children who were abused by a Priest who was faculty at a school for deaf children.

Room - 4 nominations

Best Picture - Ed Guiney, Producer

Actress in a Leading Role, Brie Larson

Directing, Lenny Abrahamson
Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Emma Donoghue

Room is the extraordinary story of a mother and her 5 year old son who are trapped by their captor in a 10x10 shed, which they refer to as room.  "Ma" is played so expertly by Brie Larson that I have to start this review by talking about her.  We feel her despair, we see her trying to keep up a normal life for this child, even as she is living through the torture of being kept as a sex slave by her kidnapper. She will do anything to protect her son from this insanity.  The bond between mother and son is impenetrable and as the son, Jack, turns 5, she decides to explain to him that there is a world beyond captivity, a world filled with possibilities.  To share more would only spoil the important twists and turns of the film, which I won't do because I deeply encourage you to see the movie.  

Don't get me wrong, it's a tough film to see and it certainly hearkens back to real life events.  But the beauty of the relationships, the powerful acting, and the incredible directing make the film a must see.  The injustice in this film is that Jacob Tremblay, the young actor who plays Jack, has received no recognition by any of the major granters of awards.  He is the real star of the film - he is on screen the most of any character, and the story is primarily through his lens.  Without spoiling the movie, I'll also offer that you should watch out for his final line of the movie which offers the most wise insight for those living through something so horrific.  In fact, that line alone would be enough for me to support the Adapted Screenplay nomination that was so well deserved for Emma Donoghue.

It's hard to call Room a favorite among the films I have seen this year because of the difficult subject matter.  But if I were choosing a limited number of movies that I could see from 2015, Room would be among them.

Mad Max: Fury Road - 10 nominations

Best Picture - Doug Mitchell and George Miller, Producers

Costume Design - Jenny Beavan
Directing - George Miller
Visual Effects - Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
Makeup and Hairstyling - Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
Cinematography - John Seale
Film Editing - Margaret Sixel
Sound Mixing - Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
Production Design - Colin Gibson (Production Design); Lisa Thompson (Set Decoration)
Sound Editing - Mark Mangini and David White

Oh, Academy, where to begin on Mad Max: Fury Road?  An edge of your seat, high energy, heart pumping, popular film finally to make it to the big show in the Best Picture category.  A cursory review of all Best Picture nominees since 1962 (when the category was renamed to "Best Picture" as we know it today) reveals that Mad Max is the first of its genre to achieve this high honor.  But if we're using this film as a benchmark, it's hard to understand how a film like this one makes it as a nominee for the top prize.

Mad Max is a movie about a car chase.  Seriously.  A car chase.  Yes, we are in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian world in which resources are limited, poor people's blood is mined to super charge the army of the despotic ruler, and women are kept in harems in service of this evil dictator, but still basically a car chase (with a really memorable electric guitar player strapped to a mobile speaker system whose job is presumably to provide hype and insanity to the troops).  Charlize Theron plays Furiosa who helps these victimized women escape in search of her homeland, where she remembers a flourishing landscape with sufficient water and resources for everyone who lives there.  Tom Hardy plays Max who escapes servitude and for the promise of freedom, he commits to aiding Furiosa in bringing these women to safety.

There is so much that is right with Mad Max, and I, like everyone else in the theater, certainly had a heart-pumping experience, even if at the same time I was thinking, "where's the plot? where are the characters?"  In some ways, it's entertaining enough not to matter, especially when one notes the excellence of the cinematography.

All of the design elements are brilliant and do deserve recognition - the makeup (the tattoos!), the hairstyling, the costumes, the production design, the visual effects, the sound effects - most certainly rise to the levels of excellence worthy of the Oscars. Mad Max has some serious competition in these categories but it sits comfortably with its nominated peers.  But for Best Picture?  I'm out, and I suspect you will be too.

Brooklyn - 3 nominations

Best Picture - Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
Actress - Saoirse Ronan
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - Nick Hornby

Brooklyn is the story of a sweet, young Irish woman who has been sponsored by a priest in America to immigrate to the United States.  He has arranged a job and a place to live, and she crosses the ocean to pursue a new life filled with opportunity.  In many ways, her story is the classic immigrant story - coming to America for better circumstances and a bright future, but still longing for home and the family she left behind.  After a bumpy transition, she meets and falls for a young Italian boy (with a little brother who steals the movie in two scenes), she begins to find her place in her new home. When tragic circumstances bring her back to Ireland, she finds unexpected opportunities that would allow her to stay where her heart was born, and so she must choose between the old familiar and the new frontier.

This was one of the loveliest films of the year.  The script has all the right elements - humor, drama, longing, love, and optimism.  Saoirse Ronan plays the lead tenderly and beautifully, she captures our hearts with emotional expressions and let's face it, the charming Irish accent doesn't hurt either.

I was so touched by the story, by the performances, and by the real human dilemma we all experience - whether we should look toward the future or we should cling to the familiar and the path with little risk that traps us in our past.

Bridge of Spies - 6 nominations

Best Picture - Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, and Kristi Macosco Krieger

Actor in a Supporting Role - Mark Rylance
Music - Original Score, Thomas Newman
Production Design, Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich (Set Decoration)
Sound Mixing - Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom, and Drew Kunin
Writing - Original Screenplay - Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Bridge of Spies is a film that takes place during the height of the cold war when spying between the Americans and the Russians was paramount among the two nations.  It takes place as the wall between East and West Berlin is being erected,  with no greater symbol of the deep divide between the countries' ideologies.  In short, America discovers and captures a Russian spy (Mark Rylance) and soon after, an American spy pilot is shot down and captured by the Russians.  It is at this point in the film when an insurance lawyer, James Donovan (Tom Hanks), is enlisted to defend the Russian spy in the American courts, as well as negotiate the swap of the two spies in East Berlin.  Naturally, tensions ensue as Mr. Donovan's family becomes the target of attack for Donovan defending the enemy.  As in any spy film, there are plenty of action packed, tense moments where everything seems amiss and you are confident that all is going awry.

Mark Rylance plays this supporting role expertly as he infuses calm, wisdom, and grace uncharacteristic of an accused spy, and the writing is superb not turning each person into a comic book caricature of spy versus spy.  These people have depth, are conflicted, they are whole.  The action sequences become background for the complex development of the narrative.

I know I've explained this in prior blog years, but it's worth reminding you that Sound Mixing is the art of layering all of the recordings that go into a moment on screen so that each can be experienced and heard (especially the dialogue), and it's a difficult craft particularly in musicals and action films, which comprise the majority of Oscar nominees for this category.  In Bridge of Spies, one imagines bullets being fired at the same time as footsteps running at the same time as dialogue being spoken at the same time as original score overlaid, etc.  In a category where special effects and space battles are happening, it is hard to envision Bridge of Spies taking home the gold, but we can still respect the craft required to achieve this feat in this film.

I enjoyed Bridge of Spies.  I appreciated the tension, the acting was wonderful, and the story was interesting.  Would I call it the Best Picture of the year?  Not even close.  Would I put it in a category of Best Picture nominees? Not if I got my wish to finally return to a list of top 5 choices.  I have nothing bad to say about the film in the least.  I simply question its placement in the Best Picture category.  Still, I highly recommend grabbing a box of popcorn (or something with no carbs, if you prefer) and hunkering down with a good, solid, enjoyable film.

Welcome Back for Another Oscar Blog Year!

Welcome back to the blog!  This year, we have a little more time between today and the day the winners will be announced, so we have a little more time to play.  By my count, there are 57 nominated films this year (down from 60 last year), but since I group into one blog for each of the short subject categories, that gives us exactly the number of days we need, plus one to release my predictions.

As always, here's my general observations about this year's list.

1. I'm still not a fan of more than 5 nominated best picture films.  It's usually pretty easy to pick out the top 5 from the list, and though I'd include six of the eight nominees pretty easily, I believe we should go back to the old system.  I could easily pick out 3 additional male leads who deserve acting nominations, but we don't do that.  We pick five and we go with them.

2. There are a couple of snubs about which I am deeply disappointed.

• Will Smith played possibly his most engaging and difficult role in the film Concussion, which didn't receive a single nomination.
• Jacob Tremblay (the child who was the lead actor in the film Room), gave one of the best and most difficult performances in a film this year.  He has not been on anyone's list, the studio doesn't seem to have been promoting him, and he could have taken down the whole list of lead actor nominees with any scene from that film.  His age only reinforces the quality of the work.
• Idris Elba was robbed of a Best Supporting Actor nomination for the film Beasts of No Nation (on Netflix).  I suspect that the difficulty of getting academy voters to watch a film about child soldiers combined with the ruthless nature of his character stood in the way.
• The Good Dinosaur was one of my favorite films this year and it didn't get nominated in the Animated Feature category.  (As a friend pointed out to me, only the second Pixar film ever not to be nominated.)
• Finally, I'd have to check the eligibility for Best Original Score, but I thought the score for the film The 33 was one of the best this year.  That category has some tricky rules (which I'll explain in a future blog), but if it met the criteria, it was a shame not to have been nominated.

3. There are a couple of nominations about which I am incredulous.

• At some point, the Academy is going to have to deal with category shenanigans.  Rooney Mara was the lead in the film Carol and Cate Blanchett was the Supporting Lead.  But each of the actress' stature in their careers and in Hollywood has them switched so that the former is nominated for Best Supporting Actress and the latter is nominated for Best Actress in a Lead. Ridiculous.  See the movie and you'll see what I mean.  Between the fact the Mara had more screen time and the fact that the film is about her, this makes no sense.
• Not to give away what I'm going to say in my review, but Mad Max: Fury Road is a spectacular movie about a car chase.  It has some cool makeup, sets, and special effects, but it is one long car chase.  Does that make it Best Picture?  No it doesn't.  If they wanted a populist film, Straight Outta Compton is the clear choice, and being a nerd, I would also take Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

4. #OscarsSoWhite

I've been thinking about this quite a lot over the last several months and at the risk of being internet threatened, I'd like to say that the problem does not lie with the Oscars.  It's like breaking a nail and blaming the nail polish.  The real hashtag should be #HollywoodSoWhite.  If you look at the Best Actor category, four of them are biopics or are based on true stories.  But did The Martian require a white male lead? Nope. Do all Directors need to be white (exluding Innaritu, of course)? Nope.  Guess what, people of color can direct stories that have nothing to do with ethnicity, but are they given the opportunities at the same rate?  I suspect not.

I do believe this is a serious issue, but I think the problem with blaming the Oscars is that when you review the 20 acting nominations, 12 of them are from biopics (you can't change the race of the actual people whose stories are being told), and one is about an Irish girl who would likely have been white in the context of the story.  We need to focus our attention on why opportunities for more diverse stories aren't presenting themselves in the Hollywood studio system, and solve the problem where it lies.  The fish rots at the head, so to speak.  You can't nominate what hasn't appeared on the screen, and the solution lies in more diversity appearing on the screen and behind the camera.  

So, those are my initial impressions, and stay tuned for reviews of the 57 films over the next 46 days. It can't help but be so much fun.  See you at the movies!