Gladiator 2 - 1 nomination

• Best Achievement in Costume Design

• Janty Yates 
• David Crossman

If you had asked me how many nominations Gladiator 2 was going to get before the announcement date, I would have told you probably in the area of 6-8. The original, which I disliked, got 12 noms, just short of the record 13, and won 5.

This film serves as a true sequel, many years later, and as the movie progresses, we see the familial and generational connections to the original. It's a trope we see over and over again - Luke Skywalker is no coincidence, that's Darth Vader's son! Again in this version, there are two (not one) tyrannical rulers who love watching the blood sport, there are two strong warriors (not one) fighting for what's right, and there is one unknown son coming back and discovering his true identity. This one was much more interesting, much more compelling, and even the gladiator scenes in the arena were much more creative (I'll leave you to discover the sharks for yourself).

This is not a movie for everyone - I probably could have given it a pass without  the Oscar noms, but I was shocked to discover how much I enjoyed it. I felt this one had more depth to the characters and more intrigue that keeps you on the edge of your seat, rather than just the choreography of fight scenes. Worth it for a Saturday night streamer when you can't find something else to watch. Between Denzel, Paul, and Pedro, it's nice eye candy if nothing else.

All The Money in the World - 1 nomination

Actor in a Supporting Role - Christopher Plummer

All the Money in the World is based on the true story of the kidnapping of J Paul Getty's grandson, and the family's desperate attempt to recover the victim alive.  Michelle Williams plays Getty the third's mother, who is desperate to get her son back, and who has never inherited any money from her ex-father in law, the richest man in the world.  Plummer plays J Paul Getty who doesn't negotiate with kidnappers on principle, and is equally desperate to win at any cost, who measures his life by how much money he makes, for whom there is no number high enough to satisfy his competitive nature.  He knows that his son, Getty the second, has totally ruined his own life as an addict, but still begrudges his former daughter in law for having divorced his son.  The kidnappers themselves are basically inexperienced bunglers who never planned to hurt anyone, and for whom the situation quickly gets well beyond their control.  It is a game in which a real person's life hangs in the balance, though most of the players in the game seem emotionally removed from that fact.  Mark Wahlberg plays Fletcher Chase, an ex-CIA operative who Getty sends to Michelle Williams to help negotiate with the kidnappers, and who is loyal to Getty until he sees Getty for the man he really is.  

If all of that sounds complicated, let me sum it up for you - if only money could cure family dysfunction, there would be no movie to have here.  This supporting actor role was clearly a set up for an Oscar nomination, and Kevin Spacey would surely have played the part to a nomination, as well.  Post Spacey's unceremonious ousting from Hollywood, Ridley Scott made the risky decision to completely reshoot all of the scenes Spacey was in with Christopher Plummer as Getty.  All of this reshooting and editing was done in literally 3 weeks, which means that some of the story editing likely fell by the wayside in a mad dash to get the movie released in time.  It was a little bit long and definitely could have lost an additional 15 minutes from the film, at least.  

Having said that, I still enjoyed it, found the story compelling, and the acting superb.  It is a story of reason versus emotion, of rational thought versus familial love, where both sides make perfect sense.  It is almost hard to know who to root against, even when one clearly knows who to root for.  Very well done and well worth seeing.

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.