BOYHOOD - 6 nominations

Best Picture - Richard Linklater and Cathleen Sutherland
Supporting Actor - Ethan Hawke
Supporting Actress - Patricia Arquette
Director - Richard Linklater
Film Editing - Sandra Adair
Original Screenplay - Richard Linklater

Boyhood is the simple story of a single mom and her two kids, their not quite a boy not quite a man father, and the ways that adult choices affect the growth of their children.  As everyone who's heard of the film knows by now, it was filmed over a period of 12 years with the same actors for one week a year, so we see the characters grow as people and we see them age, as well.  This is most pronounced for the two children who we meet when they are very young, and we watch them grow year by year.

The story isn't really one we haven't seen before, and I think that if this were any other movie without this unique approach to aging, we would call it a nice, vanilla story that is sweet and universal.  Some women make very poor choices in picking partners.  Some dads are unreliable but extremely loving. Kids go through stuff as they age and find their voices and their passions.  They become adults who leave their parents behind.

The aging is the heart of this film's acclaim.  The reason that we feel so connected is the same reason we marvel when a friend's child is about to learn to drive, go to college, get married - we watched that child grow up.  The same is true for this film, we literally watch the characters grow up, and the truth is, without that element of the film, this movie would not be an Oscar contender and it would just be a nice film about Richard Linklater's childhood.  It's a different movie entirely because of the novel approach, which is why I do recommend seeing it.  It feels like a more authentic story because of the maturation process, and that also makes the parents' journeys more real to us.  

That's why Boyhood deserves a nomination for Best Picture, but not Original Screenplay.  Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette are very good in the film, but not necessarily what I would call Oscar good (she had a juicier part, so maybe she more than he has a justified nomination, though they were both great in their parts).  Richard Linklater as the Director with the vision for this whole project is most deserving of recognition, and I believe that this may have an impact on future films in Hollywood.

I, too, am approaching a time when my oldest son will be off to college, so I'm not ashamed to admit that I sobbed like a little baby when Patricia Arquette struggled with this same life transition.  So that's where I land on Boyhood - authentic, representative of real life experiences, characters that you know.  But Oscar worthy?  The answer is 4 weeks in the making.

BIRDMAN (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - 9 nominations

Best Picture - Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole
Actor - Michael Keaton
Supporting Actor - Edward Norton
Supporting Actress - Emma Stone
Director - Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki
Sound Editing - Martin Hernández and Aaron Glascock
Sound Mixing - Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga
Original Screenplay - Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo

Birdman is the tale of an actor, known primarily for his portrayal of a superhero, seeking validation by mounting a serious production on Broadway.  At the start of the film he is in rehearsals just days away from opening as he deals with emotional actors,  a nervous lawyer, a recovering drug addict daughter, and a haunting voice of self-loathing and self doubt embodied by his former character, Birdman.  

Michael Keaton gives a vulnerable performance and we understand that this play means everything to him - financially, spiritually, and emotionally.  He has constant hallucinations of superhero powers that range from telekinesis to flight, and each setback in the play slowly chips away at his sanity.  His ex-wife very pointedly tells him, "you confuse love for admiration," and the most powerful Broadway reviewer says, "you're not an actor, you're a celebrity."  All of this while he deals with a nervous female lead (Naomi Watts), an insane but clearly brilliant last minute cast addition in Edward Norton (himself manic and unstable, but hilarious), and a confused and struggling daughter in Emma Stone, who is raw and emotional in her own right.

This is a completely different kind of movie, and that's a tribute to Director, Alejandro Iñárritu, who had a clear vision having produced, directed, and written Birdman.  The screenplay is sharp tongued and quick witted.  It is funny and dark and emotional.

For the technical categories, the cinematography is subtle - I had to watch the film a second time to really ingest the brilliance of the camera work.  Yes, there are lots of shots in dark places with interesting lighting that usually attract the attention of this branch, but the amazing work comes in taking a drama and shooting it like a superhero movie.  I'm not sure that any of the three technical awards will go to Birdman, but the merits of the nominations are clear.

Watch the trailer here:

THE BOXTROLLS - 1 nomination

Animated Feature Film - Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable and Travis Knight

Oy, The Boxtrolls is just so darn cute and adorable!  It was clever, creative, and delicious.

The city of Cheesebridge is home to trolls who take anything that humans leave outdoors and turn them into incredible inventions and works of art.  Each troll has his own wardrobe comprised of a box for a product that coincidentally dons his name - so the troll in the shoebox is called "Shoe," and the troll in the fish box is called "Fish."  They take in a human baby who they raise as their own, and the legend in the town begins suggesting that Boxtrolls will steal the town's children at night.  This gives license for a rich man in town to embark on a campaign to kill all of the Boxtrolls.

Their human child, Eggs, is the hero of the film, and he works to protect his Boxtroll family.  He develops a relationship with a young girl, and discovers his humanity through her.

As an aside, there is a particular obsession with cheese in the film, which frankly left me feeling hungry!  That cheese is certainly a prized possession of the town and I was ready to help them dig in. That's how great this movie is, even animated cheese looked delicious.

There is an incredible sweetness to The Boxtrolls even though there is plenty of dramatic tension and lots of crazy scenarios.  The animation was absolutely breathtaking, and the appearances voiced by Tracy Morgan and Richard Ayoade are both standout characters in the film.

Take a look at the trailer, you'll see a great snippet of the film and why it's so worth seeing:

BIG HERO SIX - 1 nomination

Animated Feature Film - Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli

Big Hero 6 is the story of precocious Hiro Hamada, a kid with a talent for robotics, who teams up with a group of smart scientist kids to fight evil in their city.  They are joined by Hiro's brother's invention, Baymax, a super puffy robot whose mission is to maximize the health of those under his care.  Baymax's protective instincts and kind "heart" make him ripe for coming to the aid of these young smarties who use their brains and scientific skills to equip themselves to be superheroes.

A particular standout in the cast (as always) is T.J. Miller who voices Fred - the goofy rich kid who gets the symbolism of what they are doing, noting training sequences as comic book references and has a particular glee in what the team is doing to fight crime.  He is the comic relief to Hiro's intensity, and he does it brilliantly.

Big Hero 6 was a standout in the animated full length feature genre this year.  I was truly delighted by it.  It's a movie that works as much for adults as it does for kids.  It's funny, it's sweet, and it approaches the super hero genre in a different way.  We have not seen this exact story a million times before.  From the day I saw it, I knew it would be nominated for this Oscar category.  Whether or not it grabs the gold, I highly recommend seeing it.

Watch the trailer (and don't forget to watch the movie until the end for a post-credits scene)

BEGIN AGAIN - 1 nomination

Original Song - Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois

Begin Again is the sweet, yet predictable, story of Greta (Keira Knightly), a young songwriter who has followed her boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine) to New York as his music career is taking off.  Dave is on the precipice of becoming a huge rock star, and she is seeing her songs (sometimes co-authored with him) taking center stage.  When he returns from his tour, she intuits that he has cheated on her and their relationship falls apart.  Meanwhile, music executive Dan's (Mark Ruffalo) career is on a falling trajectory, and his relationships with his ex-wife and daughter aren't exactly stable.  It is at the intersection of these two talents - producer and songwriter - where Begin Again heats up.  Dan and Greta agree to record a unique album together, and their fires are rekindled - bringing her out of her post break up funk, bringing him out of his creative lull.  The great surprise of the film is how beautiful Keira Knightley's singing voice is and I left the film absolutely certain that I would buy her album.  CeeLo Green has an adorable cameo that captures his persona and his sweet side, and he was a fun addition to the film.

Lost Stars, the nominated song, is at the heart of the conflict between staying with one's old life or pursuing a new road ahead; between losing oneself to live another person's dream and letting go to find one's own voice.  It's a great song, and there are multiple versions of it as a sweet ballad, as a pop song, and as a hybrid of the two.  Check it out, performed here by Adam Levine.

Haven't seen the film?  Watch the trailer here:

AMERICAN SNIPER - 6 nominations

Picture - Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper, and Peter Morgan, Producers
Actor - Bradley Cooper
Film Editing - Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach
Sound Editing - Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Sound Mixing - John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - Jason Hall


American Sniper is the story of Chris Kyle, real life Navy Seal who served and survived four tours of duty in Afghanistan, and who went down in history as the deadliest sniper in the service.  His brothers in arms called him "Legend" for his accuracy and his unparalleled bravery.  Kyle becomes obsessed with eliminating a sniper from the other side whose skill is equal to his own and who injures and kills marines from incomprehensible lengths.  Chris, whose protective instincts are central to his character, feels responsible to pursue his enemies to save the lives of marines in country - this he does almost without fail.  At the same time, his wife and family are at home, and coping with the challenges of life without him, and occasionally listening in via cell phone as his unit is attacked - not really knowing if Kyle is safe at the other end of the call.

American Sniper is a superb, but difficult, film.  Of the eight nominees for Best Picture, this is the one that I'm not sure belongs in the Best Picture category.  It's a very good war film with a strong lead role, but doesn't have the same gravitas as other war films like Saving Private Ryan or Platoon.  Bradley Cooper is wonderful, and this is a version of him that we haven't really seen before in his other movies.  Cooper stretches and demonstrates what makes him so good, as he uses his face, body, and being to convey the human side of being a killer, and does this even in cases where there is no dialogue.  

The screenplay was good but could have been tightened up to capture more tension, rather than showing much of the same story again and again.  To see the same fights with Kyle's wife, the same struggle to re-enter society, and the same high tension fighting scenes didn't move the story forward enough with each scene.  Unfortunately for American Sniper, I don't see this film being the winner of this category, or many of its nominated categories.

War movies do very well in the technical categories, because of the tremendous challenge to edit scenes and sound, and sound mixing, in particular.  American Sniper is a very strong contender in these areas, especially Sound Mixing.  (Stay tuned for my predictions blog at the end of the season to see if I think it will be the winner.)

Because Sound Mixing is a technical category, I'll explain it here, and in a future post will explain the difference between this and Sound Editing.  The challenge for the sound mixer is to take all of the sound elements - recorded sound effects, dialogue, music, ambient noise, etc. and put them together, and maybe adding additional effects or manipulations to each thing that is being mixed together.  Don't forget that when a movie is being made, there are several takes of a single scene - think about cutting a portion of one take where a seagull is cawing, and a portion of another take where it's quiet, and having to make sure that the whole sound is heard, all the while mixing the dialogue, music layers, etc. - this is a very meticulous job which is not an easy one. Musicals and action films tend to be the winners of this category, because there is just so much to mix, and American Sniper is emblematic of Sound Mixing done right.  

Bottom line, American Sniper is a very good film that I recommend seeing.  It deals with complex issues, and Bradley Cooper makes seeing the film worth it.  But if you don't like it, don't shoot me.  

Watch the American Sniper trailer below:

  

Oscars 2015 - Let's Get This Party Started!

Welcome back to the blog!

Last year, I began taking my crazy Oscars obsession to a new level by writing this blog.  I reviewed all of the films nominated (Every. Single. One.), and I had a blast doing it.  You all read, shared, and went on the journey with me.  Was I excited to get going again?  Well, I woke up at 3 a.m., well before the nominations were announced, so, yes, excited is the right word.

This year, the nominee landscape is very different.  There are only two films with 9 nominations each (Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel), and the nomination love is spread around much more than in the past.  Most of the Best Picture nominees have only 5 or 6 nominations total.  This means that I have many many more films to review and not quite enough days to do it in, so I hope you'll forgive me for a handful of days with multiple posts.

The Complete List of Nominees

Let's start with some overall observations, disappointments and controversies from this year's list, and then we'll get into the meat with the film reviews.

First, Channing Tatum (Foxcatcher) was robbed.  The Best Actor field was a tough field, and I've been reading about this tight race for the last two months.  I was hoping that the Academy would pull a Geena Davis (The Accidental Tourist) and nominate him in the Supporting Actor category, even though he was a lead.  (If you recall, Davis won Best Supporting Actress, even though her role was functionally a lead role.)  This fine actor changed the shape of his body and his jaw, altered his walk, and even his voice sounded materially different.  His performance deserves recognition far more than Mark Ruffalo's does (even though he was also superb.)

Second, I'm extremely disappointed for The Lego Movie.  It was a highly original, totally entertaining movie, and absolutely deserving of a nomination.  Everything is NOT awesome when a movie of this caliber gets overlooked.

Third, I can't help but comment on the placement of Whiplash in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.  As you may know, the difference between adapted screenplay and original screenplay is that the former comes from another piece - a poem, a short story, a documentary, a novel and the latter is written purely for the screen.  In this case, in order to raise money to make the movie, the filmmakers produced a short piece from the script as a teaser, and a way to interest investors.  This, says the academy, makes the full length feature an adaptation.  This, in my mind, doesn't really make sense.  But, until they appoint me honorary academy branch executive committee member (my phone has been oddly silent), I'll have to live with their thinking.

So, those are some initial thoughts, now let's spend the next 38 days celebrating the art of storytelling!  I'll see you at the Oscars!

P.S.  I know you'll not want to miss a single review, so be sure to subscribe by google+, yahoo, or by entering your email in the subscribe box.  It's easy, and you won't be sorry!