Oscar Night/Predictions 2015

Happy Oscar Day Everyone! It's only a couple of hours until the show begins and I can't wait.

This year, I started out with 44 nominees to see before tonight and managed to see all but 9 of them! That's an improvement from seeing all but 12 last year. Which, I figure isn't too bad considering I wasn't able to see any movies the past two weekends because of the flu. Hopefully next year I can improve on those numbers.

Despite seeing more nominees than ever before there are quite a few categories that could go either way so my predictions could be way off this year but I'm hoping they're not. Let's see if I can beat predicting 21 winners last year. So here they are.

Category	Who will win	Who I want to win
Best Picture	Boyhood. There’s a chance this could go to Birdman because it won at the big guild awards, and I might regret this choice at the end of the night but I think the Academy as a whole will go with Boyhood. I don’t think they’ll be able to resist the fact that it took 12 years to film and that there’s never been a work of fiction like it.	In a perfect world, The Grand Budapest Hotel would win. For now I’ll have to hope that the next Wes Anderson movie wins Best Picture.
Best Actor	Eddie Redmayne. This is another close race, with Michael Keaton being the other possible winner. And again, I might be wrong about this one but I think it’s going to be Redmayne at the end of the night since he won at both the SAGs and the BAFTAs.	I really liked Steve Carell and Benedict Cumberbatch this year but I’ve said since the Golden Globes that I hope Eddie Redmayne wins this one. I adore him.
Best Actress	Julianne Moore. There’s no doubt that Moore will win this for Still Alice.	I just saw Still Alice this morning, and much as I liked all of the other nominated performances this year, I’ve got to say I’ll be rooting for Julianne Moore tonight.
Best Supporting Actor	J.K. Simmons. This is a sure thing.	J.K. Simmons is electric as the sadistic music professor in Whiplash. He was absolutely mesmerizing in the role.
Best Supporting Actress	Patricia Arquette. This is another sure thing. She’s swept all of the other awards this year.	I thought Patricia Arquette was great but if I was able to have a ballot, my vote would have gone to Meryl Streep. I thought she was the best thing about Into the Woods.
Best Director	Richard Linklater. This is another close race between Boyhood and Birdman and even though, as with Best Picture, Alejandro G. Inarritu won at the DGAs, I think Linklater will come out on top with the Academy as a whole.	Of course I think Wes Anderson should win. He’s my all time favorite director.
Best Adapted Screenplay	The Imitation Game. I really don’t know with this one. It seems like there’s a chance Whiplash could win too, but I’m going to go with The Imitation Game since it took the prize at the WGAs.	I really just hope that anything other than American Sniper wins. But I like Paul Thomas Anderson so I’m hoping there’s a chance he’ll win for Inherent Vice.
Best Original Screenplay	The Grand Budapest Hotel. Wes Anderson is gonna win an Oscar!	I repeat, Wes Anderson is gonna win an Oscar! Of course I want The Grand Budapest Hotel to win.
Best Cinematography	Birdman.  I don’t think the Academy will be able to resist Emmanuel Lubezki’s extra long takes, even if they made me dizzy and sick.	This may come as a surprise since I’m rooting for The Grand Budapest Hotel in every other category it is nominated for, but I thought Ida had the most stunning cinematography.
Best Animated Feature	How to Train Your Dragon 2. I really don’t know who will win in this category. With The Lego Movie getting snubbed it opened up this category. Big Hero 6 might also take home the prize.	My mom might kill me for not rooting for her beloved Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon 2, but my favorite nominated movie this year was Song of the Sea. The animation is gorgeous and I’m a sucker for an Irish selkie tale. After seeing the movie I wanted to go home and watch The Secret of Roan Inish.
Best Documentary Feature	CitizenFour. I’m pretty sure this is a lock.	I was able to see 4 of the 5 nominees this year and really liked Last Days in Vietnam and Finding Vivian Maier, but CitizenFour was gripping.
Best Documentary Short	Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1. This might go to Our Curse or Joanna too.	I was able to see all of the documentary shorts this year and they were overwhelmingly depressing. Several people got up and walked out of the theatre during The Reaper and Our Curse because it was too much to take. My pick would be Our Curse though because at least it ended with a glimmer of hope.
Best Live Action Short	Boogaloo and Graham. All of the nominated short films had a tinge of melancholy to them this year except this tale of two boys growing up with pet chickens.	I loved Boogaloo and Graham.
Best Animated Short	The Dam Keeper. I might be wrong about this and it will go to Disney’s Feast, but Disney hasn’t fared well in this category over the past 10 years.	Again, most of the nominated shorts had a melancholy tone, but I really liked The Dam Keeper. The animation was beautiful and the story very sweet.
Best Song	“Glory”. I thought maybe “Everything is Awesome” would win but at the end of the night I think the Academy will give the award to Selma since it had the bigger snubs in other categories.	I kind of want “Everything is Awesome” to win but I’d be happy with “Glory” winning too.
Best Score	The Grand Budapest Hotel. Alexandre Desplat is nominated twice in this category so it may split his votes and could then go to The Theory of Everything but I’m betting on Desplat.	I wrote last year about how much I love Desplat’s scores and of course I’ll be hoping he wins for The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Best Costume Design	The Grand Budapest Hotel. The costumes are wonderful.	I’m staying loyal. The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Best Production Design	The Grand Budapest Hotel. Wes Anderson’s films always have the most detailed and amazing sets.	Again, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Best Makeup & Hairstyling	The Grand Budapest Hotel. Foxcatcher impressively transformed Steve Carell, but The Grand Budapest Hotel had so much more going on. Plus Tilda Swinton looked like a real old woman.	And again, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Best Foreign Language Film	Ida. Leviathan might overcome Ida but I don’t think it will in the end.	The only nominee I was able to see was Ida and it was a beautiful movie so I’m hoping it wins.
Best Visual Effects	Interstellar. I really don’t know here, but Interstellar made space exploration seem real.	I’ll be rooting for Guardians of the Galaxy because it was one of my favorite movies of last year.
Best Editing	Boyhood. Editing 12 years of film was probably quite a feat.	I never know with this category so I’m going to keep rooting for The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Best Sound Mixing	Whiplash. The sound categories always confound me but the mixing of the instruments in Whiplash should win.	I really like the movie so Whiplash it is.
Best Sound Editing	American Sniper. This might be the only win for this movie.	I’ll root for Interstellar since it was my favorite of the nominees in this category.

Well, the red carpet is starting so it's time for me to put away the laptop and get to watching the most glamorous night of the year! And I promise to actually write an Oscar re-cap this year, just probably not tomorrow, I'll be too tired. ;)

Oscar Night Eve with the Flu and a Snowstorm

It's Oscar Night Eve! Typically on this day I would be rushing out to see as many nominated movies as possible, but today central Ohio is being pelted by a nasty snow storm and I'm just getting over the flu so I'm stuck at home. Instead, I'm going to spend the day watching what movies I can here at home (Begin Again on DVD and Ida on Netflix streaming), watching the Independent Spirit Awards and catching up on some reading about the Oscars (Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, etc.). Considering the weather and the fact that I've been in bed for the past 9 days I thought I'd write a quick post before I finalize my predictions tomorrow.

I wanted to write a bit about American Sniper since I finally saw the movie just before getting sick. I really did not like the movie and don't think it should have been nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, or Best Adapted Screenplay. I know that I am among the minority in this opinion, but I don't want to pretend that American Sniper is some great piece of art. The movie came across to me as a piece of propaganda for a pro=stance on the War in Iraq. I have read that Clint Eastwood meant the film to have an antiwar message, and I will grant that in the last 20 minutes or so of the movie the focus became more about veterans and their struggle coming back home, but that wasn't the lasting message of the movie. Eastwood shows the attacks of 9/11 and then Bradley Cooper's Chris Kyle going off to Iraq. This felt so problematic to me because in hindsight we know that we entered Iraq not because of 9/11 but because of George W. Bush's own agenda. Multiple times in the movie, the Iraqis are called "savages" or "evil" by characters and it made me sick. Eastwood portrayed the War in Iraq as a very black and white thing, where the Americans are good and the Iraqis are evil, when in reality there are always many shades of grey in war. I'm glad the movie is getting people to talk about veterans' issues (check out the roundtable discussion from the Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Youtube for a good dialogue about this--thanks Pam!) but I think there are better films nominated this year that can do that. The Best Documentary Short nominee, Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, illustrated the struggles that our veterans are dealing with and the fact that they don't have enough resources at home more succinctly and with less bias. And for a more honest view of the grey aspects of our involvement in a foreign war there is the Best Documentary Feature nominee Last Days in Viet Nam. Yes, these other films are documentaries, but American Sniper touts itself as a true story so I feel the comparison is justified. I will say, that Bradley Cooper gave a somewhat emotional performance portrsying the struggle of having others' lives in his hands, but I still think David Oyelowo should have been nominated for Best Actor over Cooper.

Well, I'm looking forward to the big day tomorrow and might try and run out to see Still Alice in the morning if the roads have cleared. For now though, I'm still recovering and need a nap. Until tomorrow...

Oscar Nominations 2015 and More

The Nominations have been announced! I held off on writing about them right away because there were some "controversial" snubs. I wanted a chance to see some more of the nominated movies including Selma and Foxcatcher before commenting. Also, it's winter and seasonal depression makes writing, much as I love doing this, difficult to do.

So the biggest snubs that the media talked about were David Oyelowo not getting a Best Actor nod, Ava DuVernay, and to a lesser extent, Angelina Jolie missing out on Best Director nominations and The Lego Movie being shut out of Best Animated Feature Film. I do agree that Oyelowo and The Lego Movie were snubbed, but have mixed feelings about the other two. I've been a fan of Oyelowo since watching him on the British series MI-5 (or Spooks in the U.K.) and he was great as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma. Granted, I have not yet seen American Sniper, but I wish Oyelowo, would have gotten nominated over Bradley Cooper. Maybe I'll eat these words after watching American Sniper in the next week or so but I doubt it. The Lego Movie was really wonderful and I was shocked it didn't get nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. Admittedly, I have only seen one of the nominees (Big Hero 6) so far but I've heard mixed things about The Boxtrolls. As for the Best Director snubs, I'm fine with no nomination for Angelina Jolie. Her direction of Unbroken was very "meh"; it wasn't horrible but it wasn't anything special either. It seemed like she was just running through the motions of what a "prestige" film should be, but it fell flat. I notoriously cry when watching movies and I didn't even tear up during Unbroken despite it being a sad, harrowing story. So, no, Jolie did not deserve a directing nomination, especially if she couldn't elicit an emotional reaction from this sap. On the other hand, Ava DuVernay's direction of Selma was very moving.  The morning the nominations were announced I heard one commentator on Good Morning America say "I guess Selma directed itself" because the film was nominated for Best Picture but not Best Director. However, because there are only five Best Director nominees and eight Best Picture nominees there are going to be at least three movies that don't get director nominations because of math. My dilemma with DuVernay's snub, though, is that when I saw the movie I could understand why she was left off the nominees list because there were a few times the movie felt a little slow and I think a movie that has a Best Director nominee shouldn't ever feel slow or long despite the actual running time. But then, I saw Foxcatcher and I think Bennett Miller had the same issues where there were times that the movie felt slow and I was aware I was watching a movie instead of being completely caught up in the story. So now, I don't know. I think DuVernay and Miller directed at the same level and it's likely that Miller had the edge with the director's branch of the academy because, unfortunately, they are mostly old men.

The other snubs that didn't get as much media attention but that I was bummed about were Nightcrawler and Gone Girl being left out of Best Picture. Both were wonderful dark thrillers but I really loved Nightcrawler. I also wish Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo had been nominated for their performances in that film. For me the bigger snub for Selma that no one talked about was Carmen Ejogo's performance as Coretta Scott King. She gave a powerfully emotional performance and it got no attention this awards season. And finally, I was surprised that Gillian Flynn didn't get a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for adapting her own book for Gone Girl. It was one of the best adaptations of a book I've ever seen, and it's difficult to adapt a beloved book to the screen without failing or letting down fans.

Moving on from the negative of who didn't get nominated, let's talk about the excitement of who did get nominated. I was most excited about all the love for Grand Budapest Hotel. I've written before about how much I adore Wes Anderson's movies and it was so satisfying to see his work get some recognition from the Academy. Come Oscar night it will most likely win in the more technical categories but I'll be rooting for it to win for all nine of it's nominations. Other films I was happy to see get nominations were Boyhood (great performances and a very true portrait of what it's like to grow up as a child of divorce), The Imitation Game (my husband and I called it "a perfect movie" when we walked out of the theatre) and Whiplash (a fascinating look into an intense music school experience). I also adored Meryl Streep in Into the Woods. She is a national treasure. 

Since I last wrote there have also been a couple of awards shows that have aired. First was the Critics' Choice Awards and I have to admit most of those awards are a haze for me. It's the only movie award show to air on a week day and this may show that I'm getting older but it was very difficult for me to stay awake and alert enough to pay attention. My general impression of the night was that it was less awkward than it has been the past couple of years and the writing had gotten better because there were some funnier bits with the presenters. The SAG Awards have also aired and there were a few good moments throughout the night. The ceremony always starts with various actors and actresses in the audience turning towards the camera and telling a story about how they became or why they are an actor. It's usually incredibly awkward and doesn't flow well, but this year it wasn't as annoying and ended with Zach Galifianakis humorously exclaiming, "I'm and actor?!" Patricia Arquette gave a moving acceptance speech and talked about being a 4th generation actor and gave shout outs to all of her siblings. My favorite moment of the night though was when Carrie Fisher presented the life time achievement award to her mother, Debbie Reynolds. They are both a little nutty but I LOVE it. I've read both of Carrie Fisher's autobiographies and the SAGs felt like a little window into her crazy relationship with her mother. Amazing.

One of my favorite things to do when the nominations are announced is to make a list of all of the nominated movies I have to see and challenge myself to see them all before Oscar night. The day the nominations were announced I had 44 movies to see and as of writing this I have 27 to go. Which means I need to wrap things up for now because I made a deal with myself that I couldn't go see any more movies until I finished this post and my husband and I are having a date night double feature tonight. So adios for now, I promise to update more in the next couple of weeks!