Oscar Bait Season

It's been a while (moving, traveling, going back to college to work on finishing my degree have all been keeping me busy) but I'm back with some new movie viewing habits and just in time for Oscar Bait Season.

What is Oscar Bait Season you ask? Well, it's that time of year in the Fall, usually starting in October or late September after the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), when many of the movies hoping to snag Oscar Nominations are released. Especially those looking for nominations in the "big six" categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor. I personally appreciate all the different categories (even if I still don't know quite know what to look for in good sound editing/mixing--I'm determined to figure it out though) and look for potential nominees all year round. Yet, despite the fact that the Oscars reward the best in artistic achievement in film throughout the entire calendar year, it's rare that Best Picture nominees, let alone winners, are released earlier than October. In the past five years only 10 of 45 Best Picture nominees were released before the TIFF (only 3 of those in the past three years) and none of those have won. Thus, we are in the midst of Oscar Bait Season when all the prestige biopics, epics and "based on a true story" films hoping for a chance at the big prize are coming to a theatre near you.

So, thanks to our super awesome AMC Stubs Card (no, they aren't paying me to advertise, but they should), which gets us half price tickets on Tuesdays, my husband and I now have a weekly movie night and I get to enjoy my second favorite movie season, after Awards Season naturally. In the last few weeks we've seen four films falling firmly in the Oscar Bait Season firmament (Black Mass, The Walk, The Martian and Bridge of Spies).

My husband and I were in Boston on vacation in mid August so we were very excited to see Black Mass and return to the city through film. Of course, the Boston we visited is far changed from the gritty, violent world of the 1970s & 1980s presented in the movie. I love a good gangster flick (The Godfather is one of my all time favorites) and Black Mass did not disappoint. It's full of brutal mob hits, politics, and the added bonus of corrupt FBI agents. Part of the allure of the film is it's stranger than fiction, based on real events story. There must have been something in the air in the late 1970s that made FBI agents think it was a good idea to work with criminals and something in the air recently inspiring filmmakers to tell those stories; with director Scott Cooper's Black Mass this fall and director David O. Russell's American Hustle in late 2013. While the two films live in the same world and have extremely similar themes they do tell their stories in different ways. Cooper's film is darker and more menacing where Russell's is more stylized and has a black humor about it. Yet, much as I enjoyed Black Mass, the dark, menacing gangster tale has been told before and it lacks the "fun" that American Hustle gave us. Unfortunately this may keep Cooper's film from going the distance for any Awards Season nominations. I think Black Mass's best hope for any nominations would be in the Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor categories. There's been a lot of hullabaloo about Johnny Depp's performance as James "Whitey" Bulger and there were times in the movie, especially his scene with Julianne Nicholson as the terrified wife of corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, where I forgot it was Depp and believed it was Bulger. However, most of the time I was a bit distracted by the makeup, focusing on "this is Depp transformed by makeup" much in the same way that I was distracted by Nicole Kidman's prosthetic nose in The Hours. Granted, that performance did land Kidman an Academy Award, so there's always a chance Depp could get a nomination for his transformation. My favorite performance in Black Mass though, was Joel Edgerton as  John Connolly. His is a subtler performance than Depp's but it is fantastic. As his character becomes more and more seduced by his association with Depp's gangster and the decadent world it opens up to him, Edgerton alters not just the way Connelly talks and interacts with others but the way he moves and walks. I doubt it will happen, but if Black Mass receives only one Oscar nomination I hope it is goes to Joel Edgerton.

I've been a fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt for over twenty years, starting with Angels in the Outfield and grew up loving him in Third Rock from the Sun and 10 Things I Hate About You. I've always liked how he can switch from drama to comedy and how incredibly charming he is in interviews. It is this charm that Gordon-Levitt exudes which kept Robert Zemeckis's The Walk from being a bit cloying at times (like a recurring "talking head" of Gordon-Levitt's Phillipe Petit overlooking New York from the Statue of Liberty and describing events). The Walk is a fun caper movie and Zemeckis succeeds in building the tension throughout the first 2/3 of the movie before the titular walk takes place. The colorful cast of characters who make up the accomplices helping  Petit complete his "coup" also contribute to the fun of the film (my favorite was "Jeff" the Frenchman who doesn't speak English and is terrified of heights). The film really begins to soar, though, when Gordon-Levitt's Petit begins his historic wire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. This wire walking sequence is breathtaking. Literally. I am dreadfully afraid of heights and had to remind myself to breath a couple times while watching these scenes. This may have been exacerbated by the fact that I saw The Walk in IMAX 3D but I wouldn't have wanted to see it any other way. Every film that shows up in the IMAX 3D format isn't necessarily worth the extra money but there are a few that should be seen on that sort of grand scale: Avatar, Gravity and now The Walk. And this is where the movie's best bet for an Oscar nod lies; in the Best Visual Effects category because beyond Gordon-Levitt and his wire the world around his walk was completely created digitally and it looked surprisingly believable. There's also a slight chance for a Best Cinematography nomination with the way the camera moves seamlessly glides around Gordon-Levitt throughout his wire walk.

I have to admit I was not sure if I would like The Martian before a friend, whose movie opinions I trust, highly recommended it. I've never liked "survival" tales and have a deep-seated dislike of Jack London stories, particularly "To Build a Fire", so the idea of watching a man try to keep himself alive on a deserted, barren planet for two hours did not sound like anything I would enjoy. However, The Martian is so much more than a survival story; it's a tale of human ingenuity and hope--a theme that has popped up in two other films about space exploration in as many years (Gravity, Interstellar). My hope is that this new trend of space exploration epics inspires us to do something explore more of the universe ourselves. The Martian seems even more prescient now, considering NASA recently found flowing water on Mars. It's also one of the best movie I've seen this year. Out of the four Oscar Bait films I've seen in the past month, The Martian also has the best chance of getting multiple Oscar nominations come January. Everything about the film is wonderful from Ridley Scott's direction to Matt Damon's and the rest of the cast's performances to the writing and cinematography. Scott expertly balances the drama of the story with a very human sense of humor throughout the movie. This balance of dramatic heaviness and comic lightness was very refreshing because rarely do we deal with the tragedies of life without humor seeping it's way in. And I have to add, that The Martian is the only one of these four films that had strong female characters who weren't there to just be either a cheerleader to the male main character or a victim of him. Jessica Chastain may only have a supporting role in the film but her character is fully formed.

Of these four Oscar Bait films, Bridge of Spies, was the one I was most excited to see before hand. I'll watch almost anything Steven Spielberg or Tom Hanks is involved in but I particularly love a good  Spielberg/Hanks collaboration (Saving Private Ryan might be my favorite WWII movie). Bridge of Spies is a good film even if it's not my favorite of Spielberg's historical epics (that prize has to go to Lincoln). The beginning was a bit slow, and I almost nodded off a couple times, but once Hanks' tenacious attorney begins actively defending Mark Rylance's Soviet spy the pace picks up and I was captivated until the end. Bridge of Spies is the most traditional Oscar Bait movie out of these four films. It's based on a true story, there are multiple Academy Award winners and nominees both behind and in front of the camera, and most importantly it is a historical epic directed by Spielberg. In the past ten years, all but one (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) of the seven films Spielberg has directed have been nominated for at least one Oscar. There's no denying the Academy loves them some Spielberg and I'm almost positive this movie will get some of their love. If Bridge of Spies only receives one nomination come January though, I hope it goes to the incredibly talented Rylance for Best Supporting Actor. He's a wonderful actor who has the miraculous ability to make seemingly unlikable characters appear relatable and human. This is the second time he's brought this arresting talent to the screen in 2015 (if you haven't seen him in the miniseries Wolf Hall stop reading this and go watch it) and what makes his Soviet spy all the more remarkable is that we not only like him but we root for him too.

I'm looking forward to what else is in store this Oscar Bait Season and while I'll be watching many of those films I'm also looking forward to the biggest movie this year: Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I'm headed to the theatre today to pick up my tickets to the all day marathon of all seven movies! As my favorite movie season approaches I'll hopefully have a chance to post more often (school schedule permitting) but until then go and see some awesome movies and put The Martian at the top of your list.