Once again, apologies for the
lateness of this, but such is life. It’s
finally time for me to go through each individual category of this year’s
Academy Awards and offer you my personal pick for each one (excepting the
categories for which I did not see anything nominated, and thus cannot fairly
choose one). This year, 56 movies and
documentaries (both short and feature-length) were nominated for a total of 24
awards.
As with last year, remember
that these are not my predictions.
Trying to predict what the Academy will do has proven toxic to my
physical well-being. These are the films
that I personally would vote for, were I a member of the voting pool.
I won’t do a specific run-down of
who really does deserve to be here and who should be here- others have already
covered that pretty darn good. There
will, however, be sporadic rants as merited by the category.
Alright, that’s it for an intro,
since this too will be a long, long post.
Let us begin!
Writing,
Original Screenplay
Nominees:
American Hustle (Eric Warren Singer,
David O. Russell), Blue Jasmine
(Woody Allen), Dallas Buyers Club
(Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack), Her (Spike
Jonze), Nebraska (Bob Nelson)
My Vote: Her
(Spike Jonze)
Nothing on the other films here (American Hustle excepted of course), but
the story and dialogue of Her blew me
away, so for me, this one should be no competition, especially since it’s one
of only two categories where Her (for
now at least) stands even a remote chance of winning.
Writing, Adapted
Screenplay
Nominees:
The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence
Winter), 12 Years A Slave (John
Ridley), Philomena (Steve Coogan,
Jeff Pope), Captain Phillips (Billy
Ray), Before Midnight (Richard
Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke)
My Vote: 12 Years
A Slave (John Ridley)
12
Years is not without its flaws, but it very effectively adapts a book in a
way that captures its essential tone and theme and story, but without
romanticizing it to the degree that this movie would have been in lesser
hands. Wolf of Wall Street is also a possible winner, but I’m not picking
it here because I feel the movie’s strengths lie more in its editing,
cinematography, and acting, and not so much in the writing department.
Best Visual
Effects
Nominees:
Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence,
David Shirk, Neil Corbould), The Hobbit:
The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric
Reynolds), Ironman 3 (Christopher
Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash, Dan Sudick), The Lone Ranger (Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams,
John Frazier), Star Trek: Into Darkness
(Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton)
My Vote: Gravity
(Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould)
Really, no contest. At all.
Smaug was a wondrous visual achievement, easily the coolest-looking
dragon yet put to film, but Gravity
was a powerful reminder that effects are about far more than just action.
Best Sound
Mixing
Nominees:
Captain Phillips (Chris Burdon, Mark
Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro), Gravity
(Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Bernstead, Chris Munro), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
(Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanik, Tony Johnson), Inside Llewyn Davis (Skip Lievsay, Greg
Orloff, Peter F. Kurland), Lone Survivor
(Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, David Brownlow)
My Vote: Gravity
(Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Bernstead, Chris Munro)
There are cases to be made for each
of these movies, but they will not win, and honestly, the use of sound was one
of Gravity’s biggest strengths, more
important (I’d argue) that its use to special effects.
Best Sound
Editing
Nominees:
Lone Survivor (Wylie Stateman), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
(Brent Burge, Chris Ward), Gravity
(Glenn Freemantle), Captain Phillips
(Oliver Tarney), All Is Lost (Steve
Boeddeker, Richard Hymns)
My Vote: Gravity
(Glenn Freemantle)
And Gravity gets this one too.
Really, the technical awards will be the least-surprising of the
night.
Short Film, Live
Action
Nominees:
Aquel No Era Yo (Esteban Crespo), Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Xavier
Legrand, Alexandre Gravas), Helium
(Anders Walter, Kim Magnusson), Do I Have
To Take Care Of Everything? (Selma Vilhunen, Kirsikka Saari), The Voorman Problem (Mark Gill, Baldwin
Li)
My Vote: N/A
Sadly, I was not able to see a
single one of the films on this list, so I cannot cast a vote for it.
Short Film,
Animated
Nominees:
Feral (Daniel Sousa, Dan Golden), Get A Horse! (Lauren MacMullan, Dorothy
McKim), Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz,
Alexandre Espirages), Possessions
(Shuhei Morita), Room On The Broom
(Max Lang, Jan Lachaur)
My Vote: N/A
Get
A Horse! is the only film on this list I was able to see (as it was shown
before Frozen), and as such, I can’t
in good faith pick a winner here, having nothing to compare it to.
Best Original
Song
Nominees:
“Happy” from Despicable Me 2
(Pharrell Williams), “Let It Go” from Frozen
(Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez), “The Moon Song” from Her (Karen O and Spike Jonze), “Ordinary
Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
(U2)
My Vote: “Let It Go” from Frozen
I wouldn’t mind seeing “The Moon
Song” take this one, but there’s no getting around just how great a powerhouse
piece “Let It Go” is, the first not-villain Disney song in years to stay with
me for, quite literally, a whole month after first hearing it.
Best Production
Design
Nominees:
American Hustle (Judy Becker and Heather
Loeffler), Gravity (Andy Nicholson,
Rosie Goodwin, and Joanne Woollard), The
Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin and Beverly Dunn), Her (K.K. Barrett and Gene Serdena), 12 Years A Slave (Adam Stockhausen and Alice Baker)
My Vote: Her
This is a hard pick, because with
the obvious exception of American Hustle,
I see no reason for any of these nominees to not win. I’ll go with Her in my ballot though, because it’s unlikely to win anything
else, and it deserves to be a multiple winner.
Best Original Score
Nominees:
The Book Thief (John Williams), Gravity (Steven Price), Her (William Butler and Owen Pallet), Philomena (Alexandre Desplat), Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)
My Vote: Gravity
Again, no contest, although Her would not be unworthy of winning
this one as well. The swells of Gravity still haunt me, and is one of
only two soundtracks from this year I felt compelled to buy.
Makeup and
Hairstyling
Nominees:
Dallas Buyer’s Club (Adruitha Lee and
Robin Mathews), Jackass Presents: Bad
Grandpa (Stephen Prouty), The Lone
Ranger (Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny)
My Vote: Dallas
Buyer’s Club
Amazing. After last year’s terrible exclusion of Cloud Atlas from this category, I
thought this award couldn’t become any more of a joke. Unfortunately, it seems the academy was
determined to prove me dead wrong. I
look at this list, and the only thought that runs screaming through my head is an
endless, “WHAT THE HELL????” Bad Grandpa? You HAVE to be kidding me. No Hobbit? No Gatsby? Hell, no American
Hustle? Critics have been gorging
themselves on Bale’s toupee, I’d actually prefer to see that win all on its
own that to have to type two of these titles into an Oscar post.
And speaking of Lone Ranger, I have not seen it.
I will never see it. More
importantly, I do not need to ever see it, because it is offensive on a level
that boggles the imagination, thus rendering any need for anyone to ever see
this movie a moot point.
But how can I be that harsh on a
movie I’ve never seen, you may ask?
Simple. Johnny Depp as
Tonto. That is the only reason I need. And no, that is not unfair, for the exact
same reason that Depp playing Solomon Northrup in backface would be wretchedly
disgusting and offensive on every conceivable level. Native Americans have been dealt an even
worse historical hand than African-American slaves were, and have been treated
by whites just as poorly. The least we
can do- the VERY least we can do- is, when there is a major blockbuster film
with a Native American character in it, YOU CAST A F***ING NATIVE AMERICAN FOR
THE ROLE. PERIOD, END OF SENTENCE.
So, obviously, there is one- and
ONLY one- choice for this award.
Foreign Language
Film
Nominees:
The Broken Circle Breakdown
(Belgium), The Great Beauty (Italy), The Hunt (Denmark), The Missing Picture (Cambodia), Omar
(Palestine)
My Vote: Omar
I still find The Hunt unbearably boring.
Sadly, it’s the only film on this list I’ve actually seen thus far. However, Omar
sounds like my kind of film, so even if I can’t squeeze it in before Oscar
Night, I feel confident enough in giving it my vote.
Film Editing
Nominees:
American Hustle (Jay Cassidy, Crispin
Struthers, Alan Baumgarten), Captain
Phillips (Christopher Rouse), Dallas
Buyer’s Club (John Mac McMurphy, Martin Pensa), Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Sanger), 12 Years A Slave (Joe Walker)
My Vote: Gravity
For me, this one’s a toss-up between
Gravity and 12 Years, and both are worthy winners. Gravity will almost certainly take it
though. It's a shame that Wolf isn't nominated here, because otherwise that would be my pick.
Documentary,
Short Subject
Nominees:
Cave Digger (Jeffrey Karkoff), Facing Fear (Jason Cohen), Karama Has No Walls (Sara Ishaq), The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
(Malcolm Clarke, Nicholas Reed), Prison
Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall (Edgar Barens)
My Vote: N/A
See Short Films above.
Documentary
Feature
Nominees:
The Act of Killing (Joshua
Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sorensen), Cutie
and the Boxer (Zachary Heinzerling, Lydia Dean Pilcher), Dirty Wars (Richard Rowley, Jeremy
Scahill), The Square (Jehane Noujaim,
Karim Amer), 20 Feet from Stardom
(Morgan Neville, Gil Frieson, Caitrin Rogers)
My Vote: N/A
And again, see above. It would be cool to see The Act of Killing win though.
Directing
Nominees:
American Hustle (David O. Russell), Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron), Nebraska (Alexander Payne), 12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen), The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin
Scorsese)
My Vote: Gravity
This is actually the hardest
category for me this year. Even without
the Coen Brothers in the running, it’s tight.
Scorsese, Cuaron, and McQueen are all powerhouse cases for this
award. Alexander Payne did excellent
work with Nebraska, but his time to
win will come soon enough. Scorsese has
only won once, and has absolutely deserved more Oscar Gold, plus Wolf is his best film in years, so a
powerful argument can be made for him to win.
However, he HAS won, and since equally strong cases can be made for
Cuaron and McQueen, I’m inclined to vote for one of the younger artists who
have not yet gotten the trophy, and Cuaron is a little more established than
McQueen. Like with Payne, I’m confident
McQueen, too, will have his Directing Oscar day.
Costume Design
Nominees:
American Hustle (Michael Wilkinson), The Grandmaster (William Chang Suk
Ping), The Great Gatsby (Catherine
Martin), The Invisible Woman (Michael
O’Connor), 12 Years A Slave (Patricia
Norris)
My Vote: 12 Years A
Slave
The outlandishness of Hustle and Gatsby may make the films flashier, but there’s an added strength
given to a film when the costumes and set designs effectively recreate the
world and time period in which they’re set, and 12 Years fully immerses the viewer in the Antebellum South.
Cinematography
Nominees:
The Grandmaster (Philippe Le Sourd), Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki), Inside Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel), Nebraska (Phedon Papamichael), Prisoners (Roger A. Deakins)
My Vote: Inside
Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, Gravity is going to skip away with this
one, but I don’t care, because damnit, Inside
Llewyn Davis needs to win something, since it fell just shy of being this
year’s Cloud Atlas. Its complete lack of love still stings though
especially since I suspect it was knocked out of most categories by the Academy’s
heroin-related addiction to David O. Russell’s breakfast plates.
Animated Feature
Film
Nominees:
The Croods (Chris Sanders, Kirk
DeMicco, Kristine Belson), Frozen
(Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho), Despicable Me 2 (Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, Chris Meledandri), The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio
Suzuki), Ernest & Celestine (Benjamin Renner, Didier Brunner)
My Vote: The
Wind Rises
I am loathe to extend any
recognition to the dismal output from American animation studios this
year. Yes, Frozen was good, but it was not great. There are timing and pacing issues that make
what should be an epic journey feel rather shortchanged, and the soundtrack is
only slightly better than Tangled’s
terrible, terrible sequence of pop ballads, the effectiveness of “Let It Go”
and “Do You Want To Build A Snowman” notwithstanding.
I firmly suspect that a not
insignificant portion of the praise heaped upon it was influenced by how every
other animated movie release in the States last year added up to a big, empty ball of
nothing, which made people all the more receptive to Frozen’s genuine charms and far more willing to overlook its
glaring flaws. I don’t agree with those
who argue that it’s emotionally damaging to kids (it’s far tamer than most
classic Disney fare), and I also disagree with those who argue that it’s an
insidious step back for Disney in terms of how it portrays females, but I can’t
help but wonder how big it would have been had it been released a year ago,
where it would have been in competition with Wreck-It-Ralph and ParaNorman
(by the way, OH MY GOD LAIKA HAS A NEW MOVIE COMING OUT THIS YEAR HOLY
CRAAAAAAP okay I’m done).
Look, Wind Rises is, in all likelihood, Miyazaki’s last film, and he
should have gotten an Oscar for Mononoke,
which came out before the Best Animated Film Category existed, and since the
Academy is often big on “apology” Oscars (see Iron Lady and Jennifer Lawrence’s win last year), why not give
Miyazaki one? He’s earned it in a way
few others ever will.
Best Supporting
Actress
Nominees:
Blue Jasmine (Sally Hawkins), American Hustle (Jennifer Lawrence), 12 Years A Slave (Lupita Nyong’o) August: Osage County (Julia Roberts), Nebraska (June Squibb)
My Vote: 12
Years A Slave
I have refrained from going after American Hustle for the most part,
because I plan to tackle it in an entirely separate post. For now, however, because it cannot be
stressed enough, let me be clear; Jennifer Lawrence is a wonderfully talented
actress, and her humble demeanor and sense of humor about herself make her an
excellent role-model-in-the-making. And
she has absolutely no business being nominated for this award. She had no business being nominated last year,
and even less winning the actual award.
She is immensely skilled, but in Hustle,
she was desperately and viscerally miscast. More on this later.
Nyong’o is far and away the most
deserving nominee for this award. I can
accept Jennifer’s win last year as an apology for passing her over in Winter’s Bone, but this year, she should
be able to graciously take back stage for a change. And hopefully disappear for a year or two once
production of the last Hunger Games
movies is over, because the girl is dangerously close to over-exposure at the
moment.
Best Supporting
Actor
Nominees:
Captain Phillips (Barkhad Abdi), American Hustle (Bradley Cooper), 12 Years A Slave (Michael Fassbender), The Wolf of Wall Street (Jonah Hill), Dallas Buyer’s Club (Jared Leto)
My Vote: Captain
Phillips
Barkhad was a powerful presence as
the Somali pirate captain without even trying.
What a great debut performance for the guy. I sincerely look forward to his next
appearance, whenever that happens to be.
Best Actress
Nominees:
American Hustle (Amy Adams), Blue Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), Gravity (Sandra Bullock), Philomena (Judi Dench), August: Osage County (Meryl Streep)
My Vote: Blue
Jasmine
Sandra Bullock would definitely earn
winning this as well, but Blanchett really is in a class all her own this time
around. Addiction is a hard thing to
really, truly capture, since only those who’ve fought it can fully understand
it, and her ability to bring it to life, in all its complexity, was the glue
that bound together Blue Jasmine’s
disparate parts.
Best Actor
Nominees:
American Hustle (Christian Bale), Nebraska (Bruce Dern), The Wolf of Wall Street (Leonardo
DiCaprio), 12 Years A Slave (Chiwetel
Eijiofor), Dallas Buyer’s Club
(Matthew McConaughey)
My Vote: 12
Years A Slave
This is also a hard one, especially
since (as a great many have pointed out), DiCaprio is still Oscar-less, despite
the formidable filmography he’s put together over the years. I suspect this role will be the primary
inspiration for his eventual “apology” Oscar a decade or so down the line. And as much as he would be win-worthy in any
other year, however, I’d still rather see Eijiofor take this one, mostly
because he’s almost as universally unknown outside really dedicated film
circles as DiCaprio is known, and this would be a great boost to his
career.
Best Picture
Nominees:
Captain Phillips (Scott Rudin, Dana
Brunetti, Michael De Luca), American
Hustle (Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon), Nebraska (Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa), Philomena (Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan,
Tracey Seaward), 12 Years A Slave
(Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Anthony Katagas), Dallas Buyer’s Club (Robbie Brenner,
Rachel Winter), The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin
Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland, Emma Tillinger Koskoff), Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, David Heyman), Her (Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze, Vincent
Landay)
My Vote: 12
Years A Slave
My pick for Best Picture this year, like my pick of Lincoln last
year, is by no means a perfect film. It
fiddles with the historical record a bit to suit its needs, the editing has its odd
moments, and Brad Pitt’s Canadian accent is still terrible. That’s not why it should (or shouldn’t) win. It should win because it is the most
consequential and important film to come out this year. Gravity
was a new technical revolution. Wolf was a bitter and powerful rebuke of
modern financial systems. Nebraska, Phillips, and Her were
emotionally engaging mood pieces. American Hustle set the bar for the Academy
lower than ever before. None of them are
as necessary as 12 Years A Slave,
because it is the first movie in….well, ever, really, to tackle the nature of
American slavery head-on and without restraint.
It is the Schindler’s List of American
history- brutal, terrifying, hard-to-watch, but needed, because without
reminders like this to keep our awareness of the evil in humanity intact, we
merely condemn ourselves to repeating the same mistakes over and over
again.
And that’s it! All my picks for the 2014 Academy
Awards. To sum up, here are the films I
think should win, along with the number of awards I think they merit:
Gravity-
6
12
Years A Slave- 5
Her-
2
Blue
Jasmine- 1
Captain
Phillips- 1
The
Wind Rises- 1
Frozen-
1
Inside
Llewyn Davis- 1
Dallas
Buyer’s Club- 1
Omar-
1
The Oscar telecast will take place
Sunday night, March 2nd, with Ellen Degeneres hosting. Tune in to hear my screams of agony rippling
through the airwaves.
Until next time.
-Noah
Franc
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