Bizarro Oscars: 89th Academy Awards – Dream Ballot

I have seen 120 of the 336 films the Academy deems eligible for the big prize this year. That’s about a 4% increase on last year, despite seeing fewer total 2016 movies than I had seen 2015 movies the year before. Take from that what you will.

The Bizarro Oscars is my alt-awards where I play by Academy-rules eligibility to select my ideal nominations and winners.

The Academy definitely overcompensated this year in full-tilt diversity nominees and, while it would be easy to call it disingenuous for taking the bait on pictures like Hidden Figures and Fences, it’s no worse than the less-diverse bait they take any other year (except for maybe Lion aka Google Maps: The Movie). The fact of the matter remains: there are not a lot of lead roles being offered to non-white men. Moonlight is far from my favorite film of the year (sitting, currently, at #45), but it is my favorite Oscar-eligible narrative film starring a non-white male. I’ve said it before: the Oscars can only do so much, though it should be noted that, it seems they are at least trying.

What follows is nothing nearing predictions, only an alternative universe where everything is perfect.

ACTOR –in a Leading Role

I’ve been on the Casey Affleck bandwagon since Gerry and, while not all of Lonergan’s film resonated with me as I would have hoped, Manchester by the Sea’s nuanced performances can’t be denied. This category gives something of the Heath Ledger treatment to Yelchin and insists the LaBeouf nod is irony-free.

Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea

Adam Driver – Paterson

Anton Yelchin – Green Room

Christian Bale – Knight of Cups

Shia LaBeouf – American Honey

ACTRESS –in a Leading Role

It was real easy for me to call shenanigans at the Oscar website replacing Amy Adams’s accidental nomination with Ruth Negga in hopes that #OscarsNotSoWhite2017 on the day nominations were announced. That is until I was left trying to trim my list from six and Adams lost out again.

The Academy made is somewhat easier for me as Margherita Buy is ineligible for Mia Madre. So is Lauren Ashley Carter for Darling, Sonia Braga for Aquarius, and Ruth Wilson for I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House.

Some may find the real surprise here being Isabelle Huppert getting a lead nod and a supporting nod, neither of which for Elle. C’est la vie.

Natalie Portman – Jackie

Hailee Steinfeld – The Edge of Seventeen

Royalty Hightower – The Fits

Rebecca Hall – Christine

Isabelle Huppert – Things to Come

ACTOR –in a Supporting Role

The narrative structure of Moonlight leaves these awards with no good way to deal with its fine performances. There is no “lead,” but Sanders’s exceptional work hardly seems appropriate for the “supporting” category. I normally despise the political vote, but awarding Sanders here not only satisfies awarding a deserving movie, but rewards an excellent performance in the only way the rules might allow. With apologies to true supporting stars (Hayden Szeto in particular), I’m going against my normal tendency this year.

Ashton Sanders – Moonlight

Mahershala Ali – Moonlight

Billy Crudup – 20th Century Women

John Goodman – 10 Cloverfield Lane

John Travolta – In a Valley of Violence

ACTRESS –in a Supporting Role

I have never considered myself a Natalie Portman fan yet, here I am in 2017 nominating her in both lead and supporting categories. Huh.

She was helped by Déborah Lukumuena being ineligible for Divines.

The real shame is I couldn’t find room to acknowledge Kristen Stewart or Greta Gerwig’s banner years. Hopefully Personal Shopper will be Oscar-eligible next year and it will be everything I hope it is.

Lily Gladstone – Certain Women

Michelle Williams – Manchester by the Sea

Isabelle Huppert – Louder than Bombs

Laura Dern – Certain Women

Natalie Portman – Knight of Cups

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

The Red Turtle reads like a gospel parable that is more deeply rewarding the less you try to anticipate its message. It’s a strong year when Pixar gets bumped from the top five.

The Red Turtle

Your Name

Kubo and the Two Strings

April and the Extraordinary World

Zootopia

CINEMATOGRAPHY

And while we’re at it, let’s give Emmanuel Lubezki next year’s cinematography award for Song to Song, too.

Knight of Cups

Green Room

Jackie

The Witch

The Love Witch

COSTUME DESIGN

Beyonce: Lemonade is ineligible, so who really cares?

Jackie

The Neon Demon

Christine

Sunset Song

Love & Friendship

DIRECTING

Going up against Terrence Malick is always a tall order in my book. And what we’re met with this year is a Jim Jarmusch picture that doesn’t blow me away in terms of cinematography or production design. Yet, the picture is so fully-realized that, by act three, I had completely fallen into its universe.

I viewed Paterson on a Monday evening and, by the time its central character reached his Friday, I was making plans for the creative work I was about to do that weekend. I was taken aback when I realized that it was still only Monday. This rare spatial immersion is a product of Jarmusch’s rhythms and auteur sensibility.

Paterson

Knight of Cups

20th Century Women

Green Room

Louder than Bombs

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The number of outstanding documentaries that came out in 2016 which didn’t even make the Oscar shortlist is astounding.

O.J.: Made in America

Zero Days

Cameraperson

13th

Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience

FILM EDITING

By my count, Woodstock is the only documentary to ever receive a film editing nomination. That the eight-hour O.J.: Made in America is formed into a coherent (and politically relevant) thematic and historical expose is a miracle.

But is it poetry? Again, it’s hard to argue with Malick.

Knight of Cups

Green Room

O.J.: Made in America

Elle

Arrival

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Academy rules here are weird, and I don’t understand why each country should be limited to one potential nominee. And Under the Shadow being a U.K. submission seems almost a cheat. Rules are rules but I’ll always see many more foreign language films in a given year than the sample size shows in eligibility.

Elle

Under the Shadow

Toni Erdmann

Fire at Sea

Julieta

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Here are three movies of whom I may be the only fan.

The Neon Demon

X-Men: Apocalypse

The Legend of Tarzan

MUSIC –Original Score

I’ve undertaken a role of film editor this year with a local production company. It’s a worthwhile, humbling and fulfilling creative endeavor, no matter how small. It has opened my eyes to things we’re trained to not see as film viewers and, often, success comes in the sublime.

Score, however, is something I’m still not good with. I rarely find film scores memorable and, furthermore, don’t particularly think they should be if they’re doing their job. Not that it isn’t an art, only one I don’t feel informed enough to opine on. The many Oscar voters do is strange to me.

Jackie

Knight of Cups

Arrival

Rogue One

Silence

MUSIC –Original Song

It sucks that Common has had to become the guy to recite pedantic, accessible sermons to Ava DuVernay’s choir as the by-design broad appeal of his verses throws something of a fire blanket on the choleric edge of conscious hip-hop. “Letter to the Free” is important, well-crafted and affecting but is delivered with an Obama “when they go low, we go high” stoicism—now synonymous with defeat—that I just want to listen to Killer Mike’s “That’s Life” from ten years ago.

P.S., did Sia score the end credits to eight different films this year? Statistically, one had to end up here.

“Loving” from Loving

“Letter To The Free” from 13th

“The Ballad Of Wiener-Dog” from Wiener-Dog

“Drive It Like You Stole It” from Sing Street

“Waving Goodbye” from The Neon Demon

PRODUCTION DESIGN

It’s a shame I couldn’t find room for Hail, Caesar! here, leaving it completely snubbed this year. Sorry.

20th Century Women

Green Room

Jackie

The Love Witch

The Neon Demon

SOUND EDITING

Technical categories are a pretty crummy area for Green Room to win its only awards, but at least I get to spread the love around.

Green Room

10 Cloverfield Lane

Arrival

Rogue One

X-Men: Apocalypse

SOUND MIXING

Green Room

Arrival

The Nice Guys

Blood Father

Rogue One

VISUAL EFFECTS

Don’t be fooled, Rogue One is more than just a pretty face. If cinema was nearly as dead this year as the memes wanted us to believe, this could have been a contender.

Rogue One

X-Men: Apocalypse

Arrival

Midnight Special

The Legend of Tarzan

WRITING –Adapted Screenplay

Adapting Ted Chiang’s seemingly un-cinematic work to feature length is no small feat and, although the third act of Arrival came off a little cold and too on-the-nose for me, it still expounds on central themes in brave ways. I don’t see in Villeneuve the visionary for whom many have already lined up to carry his robe’s train, but Arrival—which is, at times, great—proves he is only as good as his writer. How does that sit with those waiting with bated breath for Blade Runner 2049 from the writer of Green Lantern?

Certain Women

Elle

Arrival

Silence

Blood Father

WRITING –Original Screenplay

Jarmusch’s Paterson is nearly an adaptation just as his Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is an adaptation of the Hagakure (or, for that matter, Malick’s Knight of Cups is an adaptation of Pilgrim’s Progress). It’s an adaptation so infused by its influences that it becomes an autonomous universe celebrating the sublimity and grace of mundanity.

Paterson

Knight of Cups

20th Century Women

Louder than Bombs

The Edge of Seventeen

BEST PICTURE

According to the culture, 2016 sure didn’t seem like much of a year to celebrate. I felt particularly low on April 21 when I followed the news of Prince’s death with a screening of Green Room only to find it unintentionally edifying when a punk names Prince his desert island artist. How quaint “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” seemed in April of last year, no? I don’t think many of us expected Nazi punks to become a nearly daily news occurrence as threat to American democracy by the new administration.

And now even our NEA is endangered. If Green Room seemed brutal, I hate to forethink what brilliance the America’s horror grindhouse is going to churn out in four years’ time. The best films of the year are impressionistic poetry—some even about poetry—in an era in which the culture could use a mirror held up to itself.

A lot of things may have died in 2016. Cinema isn’t one of them.

Paterson

Knight of Cups

20th Century Women

Green Room

Louder than Bombs

The Edge of Seventeen

The Witch

O.J.: Made in America

Jackie

The Fits

Click Here, Nimrods...

Summary only...

Every Oscar Best Picture Ranked (Part 3 of 3)

Now that all the technical awards have been handed out at earlier ceremonies, we’ve reached the crescendo of this pomp and circumstance.  The top ten: 

10. Unforgiven (1992)

Credit the success of Unforgiven that, nearly 25 years on, it looks less revisionist by comparison.  Not that it hasn’t been done better before (Boetticher) or since (“Deadwood”), but I think where it looks tame today is largely due to the now well-tread path it forged. 

It’s hard to think that the Academy didn’t anticipate it was Eastwood’s, as well as the traditional Western’s, dusk and—while I wouldn’t trade A Perfect World or Letters from Iwo Jima for anything—I could have largely done without the geriatric tour.  I’m not refusing to take responsibility for my cynicism that has come with age, but I think I would have preferred a romantic end for The Man With No Name instead of a world where Clint makes the empty-chair speech at the Republican National Convention.  Unfair to the art, probably, but it can’t exist in a vacuum either.

Click Here, Nimrods...

Summary only...

Every Oscar Best Picture Ranked (Part 2 of 3)

In the first installment of Every Oscar Best Picture Ranked, we learned that I have little patience for prestige pictures marked by under-representation.  #OscarsSoWhite?  Oscars white by design.  In this installment I blaspheme Audrey Hepburn and deify Bing Crosby.  I wouldn't have guessed it either.

Actual fake concept art for the real fake Argo by Jack Kirby

45. Argo (2012)

A vastly enjoyable suspense film bolstered by the fact that its primary message seems to be that (even imaginary) movies can literally save lives.  It doesn’t amount to much more than empty calories and resonates like tin can, but it’s a ride I’d take again.

44. My Fair Lady (1964)

It’s difficult for me to pin down what I like about My Fair Lady.  I never really buy its romance because Higgins and Pickering are such great closeted characters.  It looks beautiful, but never escapes its staginess which makes it nigh irrelevant.  I love Audrey Hepburn despite being left with a great amount of uncertainty as to whether she can act, dance or sing.  On paper, it should add up to an unholy mess and I’m reminded that I also love The Lizzie McGuire Movie.  The heart has its reasons something something.

43. Schindler’s List (1993)

A thesis titled How to Shift Your Paradigm could be written using, as its exclusive example, my relationship with Schindler’s List.  I vehemently argued against this film as a young man and, while I still believe the tenets I stood for, I don’t trust my intentions.  I went through a spell where Spielberg films were verboten as the anti-indie.  I later distrusted the film as a product of a blockbuster wunderkind wanting another key to the city.  Later, as a prestige picture that garnered the most praise of a decade for its subject and presentation rather than by being prestigious. 

Only, after years of back and forth, I have to admit it is prestigious.  No matter the kind of film Spielberg makes, I can’t diminish his unparalleled gift for visual storytelling.  What’s more, Spielberg doesn’t have a reputation of working with—but creating—big stars.  Neeson, Fiennes and Kingsley are all great. 

My biggest problem with the film is the life it took on as the historic representation of arguably the biggest event of the 20^th Century—a film made by a Jew, lauded by a largely Jewish Academy, supposedly about the Jewish experience—yet it has no central Jewish characters.  It’s like the old trick of the Western which makes its heroes both conquerors and victims; I’m not certain that we need what would become the Holocaust story to be about a golden-hearted Nazi.

Click Here, Nimrods...

Summary only...

Every Oscar Best Picture Ranked (Part 1 of 3)

A friend was shocked to learn, about ten years ago, that I hadn’t seen all of the Academy’s Best Picture winners.  Like the IMDb 250, it’s a benchmark of quantitative substance to many but means absolutely nothing to me.  I’m not here to gripe about snubs or give tiresome arguments about who should have really won.  I’m the sort of rare pretentious populist who not only thinks the Academy was correct in selecting Annie Hall over Star Wars, but also thinks Rocky is better than Taxi Driver. 

No, my beef with the Academy isn’t that a group of insiders rarely pick the best movie of any given year (by my count, this has happened once ever; odds so poor it must indicate we’re simply not judging the same merits), it is that the barometer by which they judge is rarely film for the sake of film.  This is not the same as films about film (which they love), or films which emulate an air of prestige (something they love even more).

Only this year have I seen every Best Picture winner and, trust me, the last few films I begrudgingly got to like a tattered honey-do list I’d correctly judged sight unseen.  These aren’t all great films.  Hell, I’d only call about two-thirds of them decent, but that’s not really a fair point.  The first Academy Awards, held in 1929, might indicate why this is. 

That year, two different “Best Picture” awards were handed out, though neither was called such.  The first award went to box-office hit Wings which won the award intended to honor “the most outstanding motion picture considering all elements that contribute to a picture’s greatness.”  The second award, given to F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Story of Two Humans, honored “the most artistic, unique and/or original motion picture without reference to cost or magnitude.”  This states, in no uncertain terms, that artistry, uniqueness of vision, and originality apart from box-office success or in-house production are not really considered “elements that contribute to a picture’s greatness.” 

Both of these films find their way onto my rankings, and we will see where my metric and the Academy’s might not jibe.  The more I see these films (as the fact I continue to follow the awards every year might indicate) the more I understand how the intention to honor films which make statements about the human condition get confused with films that make statements about the industry’s condition.  Film has, from its inception, been relegated to the kiddie table at the banquet of the Seven Arts despite incorporating all seven into its recipe.  The Academy would do well to honor its medium’s fluidity rather than continuing to fall into the trap of dressing up in big sister’s clothes, failing to recognize it reached maturity long ago.

On rare, inspired evenings, it’s done this at least a dozen times.  Bear with this doggedly unabridged list which is more cultural pastiche than cinematic milestone.  These titles are by no means essential viewing.  Many would not be remembered were it not for the catch-22 of the Academy both handing out these awards and, worse, by the template the Academy has created which suggests these are the type of films deserving of them.  A toast to when the snake doesn’t eat its own tail!

Click Here, Nimrods...

Summary only...

Bizarro Oscars: 88th Academy Awards – Dream Ballot

Bizarro Oscar™

I have seen 97 of the 305 films the Academy deems eligible for the big prize this year. It would have been 98, but I accidently watched Shyam Madiraju's Eden instead of Mia Hansen-Løve's Eden. I regret it too; I'm only one man! This is the second year of my Bizarro Oscars™ in which I choose what would be my dream ballot and winners within the Academy's limitations.

That is to say, these are neither traditional projections nor snub-talk but a mostly useless, Kanye-inspired take on awards which insists there are correct answers in the liberal arts and acknowledging merit should be more reverent than business or spectacle.

A few inevitable words about diversity: nothing on this list is deliberately affirmative action. The concept of participation awards is insulting. That these nominations are more diverse than the actual nominations speaks less about the opportunities of lead roles for minorities and more about the fact that, upon seeing 97 films, your worldview changes. That's the power that should be celebrated with film: its visual language galvanizes the human spirit.

How powerful is it to see representation in something like Tangerine that it makes a liberally didactic film like Boys Don't Cry seem tone-deaf by comparison? Hollywood (and the Academy at the elite end of the establishment) has an unquestionable problem with representation. How much of this is perpetuated by voters not watching more films? How much is inflated self-importance failing to recognize that great films change us and not the other way around?

Speaking of inflated self-importance, here are my humble nominations if the Oscars were my one-man show: the 88th Academy Awards as given by FlickdomDictum.




ACTOR –in a Leading Role

I've been on this Ruffalo bandwagon so long, here's where the rubber hits the road. While I don't feel entirely comfortable with Ruffalo in this category as Spotlight is more of an ensemble piece and he doesn't dominate screentime the way Fassbender or Sarsgaard does, I also can't deny that everything I liked about Spotlight's perfectly acceptable but mostly pedestrian nature had to do with Ruffalo's understated performance. Not bad for a film poised to take home Best Picture.

Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight

Michael Fassbender – Macbeth

Peter Sarsgaard – Experimenter

Kurt Russell – Bone Tomahawk

Kevin Corrigan – Results

ACTRESS –in a Leading Role

As with last year’s Listen Up Philip, Elisabeth Moss is again ineligible for her role in Queen of Earth. Alex Ross Perry must not play this Oscar game. Honorable mention to Rooney Mara who is the true, unrecognized lead in Carol, a film in which the populace has largely misunderstood her projection onto the title role. I had a worse problem choosing between Chiara D'Anna and Sidse Babett Knudsen in The Duke of Burgundy and couldn't.  Lots of great female roles this year.

Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years

Rinko Kikuchi – Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Juliette Binoche – Clouds of Sils Maria

Kristin Wiig – Welcome To Me

Karidja Touré – Girlhood

ACTOR –in a Supporting Role

This category sees two Star Wars actors in non-Star Wars roles.  Tom Noonan gets a nod, but I'm not sure exactly what the role is.  Caveat on Paul Dano who isn't so much an actor in a supporting role as an actor as a supporting lead.  Love & Mercy isn't great, but Dano kind of is.  How much of this is by comparison to the film's odd casting of John Cusack remains to be seen. The real shame is that John C. Reilly is ineligible for his role in Entertainment.

Adam Driver – While We’re Young

Tom Noonan – Anomalisa

Oscar Isaac – Ex Machina

Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies

Paul Dano – Love & Mercy

ACTRESS –in a Supporting Role

Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth is close to category fraud as a supporting role, but she's so damn good it gets a pass.  2015 was a great run for Jennifer Jason Leigh, though the Academy picked the wrong role.  Girls Just Want To Have Fun, indeed.  Still, if anyone has the right to boycott because #OscarsSoWhite, it's Jada.

Jada Pinkett Smith – Magic Mike XXL

Kristen Stewart – Clouds of Sils Maria

Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina

Marion Cotillard – Macbeth

Jennifer Jason Leigh - Anomalisa

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

There is little beef to be had with the Academy's picks this year.  I realize I'm the oddball in where I diverge here.

Anomalisa

When Marnie Was There

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Boy & the World

The Good Dinosaur

CINEMATOGRAPHY

This is where things get weird for me.  Hao Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin was submitted as Taiwan's selection for Best Foreign Language film, but didn't even make the shortlist.  Not only is this egregious, it is then not considered as an eligible production in the other categories despite having a theatrical U.S. run.  Is this a clerical error the equivalent of Cash Money not filling out the right paperwork to get "Hotline Bling" considered for the Grammys, or did Hou's team simply not care?  That's pretty punk now matter how you cut it, but it's a shame as I would have nominated The Assassin in several categories. 

Macbeth

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Mad Max: Fury Road

Experimenter

‘71

COSTUME DESIGN

There was a strange stretch in December where I inadvertently watched Fresh Dressed, Saint Laurent, Iris and Yeezy Season 2 within 24 hours.  I realized how people must feel when they vote in these categories.  Again, The Assassin is ineligible and I probably would have given it this award.

Carol

Macbeth

Far From the Madding Crowd

Crimson Peak

Bone Tomahawk

DIRECTING

Despite this year's deluge of young, impressive talent, it's hard to root against George Miller here.  For a veteran who Hollywood relegated to directing Happy Feet movies, to have the vision to not only see this genre spectacle through, but capture critical imagination is no small feat.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Anomalisa

Macbeth

‘71

It Follows

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Another awards show, another year of having no idea as to the process behind what is eligible for documentary awards at the Oscars.  Both What Happened, Miss Simone? and Winter on Fire are nominated for Documentary Feature yet are ineligible for other production awards.  I can't say I fully understand the acclaim for Amy, especially as this year saw the best music documentary since The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

Seymour: An Introduction

3½ Minutes, 10 Bullets

The Look of Silence

Call Me Lucky

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

FILM EDITING

I'm not being deliberately contrarian here, but the disparity between my picks and the Academy's in this category speaks volumes.  Spotlight and The Big Short?  Certainly industry people know that editing is more than stitching together multiple storylines.

‘71

Mad Max: Fury Road

It Follows

Macbeth

Creed

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

I don't particularly hold great fondness for Goodnight Mommy and I imagine it would have easily been bumped by Rams if I were able to have seen it. Then again, I still haven't seen Oscar favorite, Son of Saul, so what do I know?  I know I say it every year, but, this category is broken.

The Assassin

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Theeb

Mustang

Goodnight Mommy

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

I mean, I probably pick Fury Road even if there was no Doof Warrior.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Carol 

Macbeth 

MUSIC –Original Score

If you would have told me at the beginning of 2015 that I would only pick The Hateful Eight as a nominee in one category, I would have assumed that's because the Oscars changed formats.  That the category is Original Score is even more depressing despite Ennio Morricone's fine work here.  I'm confused by the term "original," as the "song" category makes it very clear that variations on existing themes is a no-no.  That this score was salvaged from a previous work seems fishy in terms of eligibility.

Either way, the point is moot as the real force Star Wars has awakened is John Williams who brings to the project a vitality long dormant in the master.  The bookends of Rey's theme were already playful, when I discovered THIS happened, I couldn't believe it!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The Hateful Eight

Macbeth

Carol

The Good Dinosaur

MUSIC –Original Song

I can't NOT throw shade at this category and have long held to the adage "if we can't expect the Academy to pick the right films, how can we expect them to have any authority over another of the arts?"  Perusing the 79 songs vying for nomination, a sequel should be written to the much maligned Save The Cat! which instructs the LEGO®-musician equivalents of hack screenwriters how to write an Oscar-nominated song.  

That is to say, of all the talk about Oscar diversity, why is there no outcry over how plunking three-somber piano chords against a hired string section and hottest (if disinterested) set of pipes works every time.  I try hard not to be contrarian in these pieces, but I'm kinda contrarian here.  So I picked a dated Swedish pop star singing Swedish, a diegetic piece that sounds like FKA twigs, a song that– since the Oscars are always 15 years behind the times– sounds like 1998-era Heather Nova, and that Weeknd song because I respect the guy for the most part and it's funny that Fifty Shades of Grey was nominated for an Oscar.  Give the trophy to the guy from Ash, I don't care.  This category is the pits.

Shaun the Sheep Movie; Tim Wheeler "Feels Like Summer"

Ingrid Bergman – In Her Own Words; Eva Dahlgren “Filmen om oss”

Altered Minds; Erin Sax "Happy"

Creed; Tessa Thompson "Grip"

Fifty Shades of Grey; The Weeknd "Earned It"

PRODUCTION DESIGN

A few notes about Carol: I've long admired Todd Haynes and the writing of Patricia Highsmith, the acting is top-notch and Haynes has always excelled at emulating period.  That said, Carol is nowhere near the top of my list of favorite films on the year.  It just happens to excel at a certain pedigree of categories that win film awards.

The same could be said of Far From the Madding Crowd, the difference being that one looks deliberately literary and is the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of filling out costume or hairstyle nominees.  

Like the work of a gaffer, this fine-tuning can go unnoticed.  These aren't fill-in-the-blank selections and I hope this is evident by the absence of films like The Danish Girl and Woman in Gold.   I do care about my nominees.

Macbeth

Far From the Madding Crowd

Mad Max: Fury Road

Carol

The Duke of Burgundy

SOUND EDITING

It really is bizarre that Stallone's bid at supporting actor is the only nomination Creed got.  I think that speaks a lot about what it does well and how it does it.  The breathtaking choreography of the two-round one-take is so kinetic it doesn't draw attention to itself with a self-reflexive smugness of Iñárritu falling into his own navel.  The cinematography and editing are unpretentious by design.  Its everyman affectations are no different than Rocky's were in 1976, only those formal and thematic decisions must look as passe as Rocky looks square to the cynical New Hollywood idolaters still crying about Taxi Driver.  Yet Stallone, the most archaic element of the film, gets the kudos.

But still, not even a sound nomination?

'71

Creed

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Mad Max: Fury Road

SOUND MIXING

It sucks that I only have Yann Demange's '71 winning technical awards because of the insinuation that the technical awards aren't poetic.  Not so here as the sound design is a proud example of form following function both narratively and thematically.

'71

Mad Max: Fury Road

Creed

Macbeth

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

VISUAL EFFECTS

I'm the kind of guy who has Pan and Tomorrowland nominated instead of Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron. This is not, as you might think, because I lean toward less being more in terms of visual effects, it's more that I admire earnest garishness.  I'm the kind of guy that, eight years on, cheers the Indiana Jones fridge nuke. The Eiffel Tower scene in Tomorrowland is extraneous and clumsy.  That it is also salient and iconic is one of those ineffable miracles of cinema.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Ex Machina

Pan

Tomorrowland

WRITING –Adapted Screenplay

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, The Assassin is ineligible in this category, but the point is moot.  Most of the year's best films had no previous source material and my nominees in the adapted category largely resort to instances where source material is its own franchise.  Macbeth wins this, hands-down, turning what is wordy and stagy by nature into the visually arresting.

Macbeth

45 Years

Mad Max: Fury Road

Creed

Ned Rifle

WRITING –Original Screenplay

Calling Charlie Kaufman "original" sounds dismissive: as if relegating his cinematic universe to quirk distances our experience from his uncomfortable truths.  Like Wes Anderson post-Darjeeling Limited, I feel like Kaufman has to resort to Kickstarter because public perception is that he is a child daydreaming in a turgid corner.

Anomalisa speaks to the artificiality of the medium and, in doing so, traverses the uncanny valley.  The puppets have hauntingly lifelike expressions which are tempered by deliberately visible seams to accentuate the drum-tight tale of chronic disconnect.

Anomalisa

‘71

It Follows

The Clouds of Sils Maria

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter

BEST PICTURE

In which I give the world's most biarro-Oscar to an animated film.  A non-Pixar animated film.  A stop-motion puppet film.  Where its two principals have a one-night stand and everyone else looks like Tom Noonan.  It's weird.  Yet what is most bizarre is that it is the most human picture of the year.

Anomalisa

Macbeth

‘71

It Follows

45 Years

Ex Machina

Mad Max: Fury Road

Clouds of Sils Maria

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter

Bone Tomahawk

Click Here, Nimrods...

Summary only...

87th Academy Awards – Dream Ballot

Despite seeing nearly 300 features and shorts which I qualify as being 2014 releases, the Academy has much stricter rules.  Due to the evolving landscape of cinematic exhibition (and the proclivity of genre films being rushed to VOD) many of my favorite films of the year weren’t even given the chance at contending as a dark horse:  I have seen only 87 productions that Oscar™ deems eligible for the big award.  I don’t expect these percentages to get any better as it seems doubtful the Academy will seek to accommodate for films which circumvent the box office.

I was going to do my traditional “who will win”/”who should win” thing, but I don’t want my wife stealing all my picks in our pool so I’m doing something a little different.  Here are the nominations and wins if they were selected by me, but still holding to Academy rules (with one notable exception).  I saved this document on my hard-drive as “bizarro Oscars,” so please understand this format is weird, self-indulgent and that reader feedback is highly encouraged.

(For obvious reasons I have ignored the shorts categories.  I have no idea how a film becomes eligible in these categories and even less of an idea how they are effectively narrowed down such that an individual film makes an impact.  The short film has an incredible medium called the Internet, and the Academy’s failure to recognize this is a testament to their devotion to punctilio rather than innovative artistry.)

The envelopes, please:

Click Here, Nimrods...

Summary only...

Predictions, Shoulda-Beens and Other Oscar Musings

The 83rd annual Academy Awards air this Sunday on ABC.  Here are my picks in the Oscar pool and who I'm rooting for in spite of it.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Vegas is going with Melissa Leo, which would mean both retards from the abysmal The Fighter may very well walk home with the supporting hardware.  This is the same sort of overwrought performance the Academy loved in Sandra Bullock which would be a real tragedy for a few different reasons:

#1: Hailee Steinfeld.  It is a joke she was even nominated in this category as she has more screen time than Jeff Bridges who got a nod in a leading category.  Her character was adapted brilliantly by the Coens and performed flawlessly.  And, as everybody knows, she's 14.  This is a blessing in the category, and Paramount knows this.  She is not only who I think deserves this award, I'm going out on a limb and picking her to win.

#2 Amy Adams.  I'm hoping she'll split enough Fighter votes with Leo to give it to Steinfeld.  Adams has delivered bankable performances the last few years, which makes this a reasonable nod.  To call her the only likable thing about the film makes it sound like the film was likable, but, I mean, I also watched After.Life just because Christina Ricci was in it, so come on.

#3 Jacki Weaver.  It is a shame that I have to root for Steinfeld in what is clearly not a supporting performance because it takes away from a non-mainstream pick the Academy got right.  The criminally underseen Animal Kingdom will hopefully get some buzz based on the few seconds of a clip we'll see as Weaver is introduced.  In a lot of ways, that's the best we can hope for these days.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The hard and fast truth is that I have yet to see Mike Leigh's Another Year.  For the sake of this article, the point is moot.  The King's Speech wins this award in a category filled with a lot of fluff.  The Fighter is cliché at best. The Kids Are All Right is most memorable for stifled moments in the narrative progression.  Inception doesn't even belong in this category because it was adapted from a Scrooge McDuck comic.  Seriously, look it up.  The King's Speech will walk away with one of the easiest picks of the night.  It's a writing award for a movie about talking.


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

This is going to be a win for The Social Network which, while it wouldn't be my vote, I'm O.K. with.  My issues with the film I will discuss further in the "Best Picture" category, but the writing is partly responsible.  It is a dialogue driven movie and succeeds on that account.  As a depiction of "our generation"?  It reads like an outsider looking in, and I don't think the film will age terribly well for it.

True Grit is the best adaptation since No Country For Old Men.  No surprise who is responsible for that.  A reading that made the Coens produce an epic that is not only hopeful but non-cynical is no small feat.  True Grit captures the quirk and the style of the original and makes it relevant for 2010.  It would easily have my vote, but you can't always pick with your heart.

127 Hours and Winter's Bone are two big nothings, and Hollywood will never, no matter how juggernaut Pixar becomes, give a writing award to an animated film.  The Social Network is a pretty easy pick here.


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Let's be serious.  I'm not even going to waste your time here.  Remember when the VMAs gave Taylor Swift that award instead of Beyoncé and Kanye flipped out because there was no internal logic for picking "All The Single Ladies" for video of the year and not having it win the subdivision?  Kinda like this year when the Grammys had Arcade Fire losing to The Black Keys in the minor categories only to win Album of the Year?  Say what you will about the Academy, they typically don't pull that garbage.  RottenTomatoes is an unfair barometer here:  The differential between Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon is only 1%.  Instead, check out something like MetaCritic that widens that gap to 18%.  There is no second place.  Toy Story 3 FTW.


BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Last year I watched all the animated shorts but Logorama.  Oops.  Though mostly a throwaway category, this one is always pretty important to me.  And frustrating as they often nominate a lot of lightweights.  The selections this year are pretty strong, save for Let's Pollute.  This work by a former Pixar character designer might sound like a safe pick based on subject matter alone-- not an unfair criterion in the short categories-- however, not only is the film not very witty in its sarcasm, it's smug and crammed with sweeping generalizations to boot.  Next to its competition, it isn't much to look at either.

Pixar's Day & Night is easily the most recognizable here as it was in front of Toy Story 3.  This hasn't always meant that much in this category (see Presto, Lifted, One Man Band), but this film also distinguishes itself.  Day & Night is the most cinematic of the nominees and is brave in its own right-- emphasizing theme over narrative structure.  Expect this to be a popular pick in the Oscar pools, and it maybe even deserves it.

U.K.'s The Gruffalo is also a front-runner here, and brings with it a weight of length (27 minutes).  It is a film that takes its animation seriously yet approaches it in a childlike way.  The tone and color hearken to classic Disney (it avoids the common trend of nailing thematic elements home with ugly characters in grayscale) and is about an unpretentious as any nomination in any category.  It is to be praised for that.

I'm not giving much of a chance to either The Lost Thing or Madagascar, A Journey Diary, though both are highly enjoyable.  The former should be praised for its restraint of keeping its elements within their world.  The latter should be praised for the fantastic multitude of animation styles and allowing itself to be told through vignette within an already abbreviated genre.

Forced to pick here, I give a slight edge by both my mind and heart to The Gruffalo, but wouldn't be surprised or upset if Day & Night wins.


BEST ART DIRECTION

There are a few categories I wish came with a footnote.  For example, how does Avatar win for cinematography when I'm not sure how many cameras were even used in its production?  Art Direction is such a category that isn't just subjective, but often misunderstood.

I expect The King's Speech to take this category not only because I expect it to have a big night, its tone matches its imagery for this genre piece that Academy voters lap up.  If I were an Academy voter, I'd go with True Grit here because it is a contender.  If unbiased, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 is just as fair.


BEST COSTUME DESIGN

I'm half-willing to go out on a limb here with I Am Love, a film sometimes defined by its costumes, but I don't know exactly how many of the nominees the voters need to have seen.  I also don't even really know what The Tempest is, period.  As far as predictions go, I would count Alice In Wonderland out in any eligible category and probably bet voters are going with The King's Speech across the board.

I'll take the fairly dark-horse and little-known I Am Love.  As far as diversifying in Oscar pools go, there are much riskier options among the minor categories.


BEST MAKEUP

All I have within me is pulling for The Wolfman here.  Paul Giamatti always looks old and bald, and nobody saw The Way Back.  I love whenever a brilliantly fun mess like The Wolfman stands a legitimate shot.  Half lumbering makeup, half CGI, all entertainment.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

If True Grit is going to have any night whatsoever, this is its best shot.  Roger Deakins's Academy-approved record speaks for itself in this category.  He should have won in 2008, but split too many votes between No Country For Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.  I don't blame the Academy here:  I would have probably picked the latter as it is difficult to imagine the landscape of the contemporary Western without Deakins's eye.

Much like my beef with Avatar, I hope Inception doesn't win this category.  The remaining three nominations (The King's Speech, Black Swan and The Social Network) are all technically distinguished, but more showcases for performance.  I'm really hoping the Academy does the right thing here.


BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
and
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

I have not seen any of these nominations, and nearly everyone sitting in the Kodak Theater on Sunday night is in the same boat.  This category requires voters to have seen every nominee, so it's not a safe bet to opt based on subject matter.

This, however, is what I do the majority of the time anyway.  My pick in these categories are Ne Wewe and Strangers No More, respectively, based on little more than plot synopses.  For mostly student films, this isn't too terribly unfair.


BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Lots of blind spots for me here, but often times the household name wins over subjects that seem timely (The Cove and Man On Wire, the two most recognizable titles have won the last two years).  That being said, I have a difficult time seeing Exit Through the Gift Shop winning this year.  Restrepo and Inside Job probably seem more "important" to a lot of voters, and I would probably pick Inside Job here, though a personal favorite eludes me.


BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

It really sucks to have to check Christian Bale on a pool for playing Forrest Gump on smack.  Especially since, of the many things I do like about Bale, this will end up enshrining him.  He's the odds-on-favorite by a long-shot in a mostly boring category.  Geoffrey Rush would be a personal pick here as his understated performance was my favorite thing about The King's Speech.  Jeremy Renner is a nice nod that may receive, literally, three votes in a largely irrelevant category this year. 


BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
and
BEST SOUND EDITING
and
BEST SOUND MIXING

I expect Inception to sweep the technical awards, which, if it has to win something, it's fair enough that it should win these.  The Academy shows what these awards are truly worth by including TRON: Legacy and Salt amongst the nods.  As far as stupid popcorn movies go, I'll begrudgingly take a humorless Inception in these categories and not lose any sleep at night.


BEST FILM EDITING

Some may find it strange that, with as many layers Inception had, it is not nominated in this category.  I am glad as I looked at my proverbial watch many times wondering how much slo-mo stock could have been left on the floor.  I think Black Swan, The Fighter and Danny Boyle's style-over-substance gimmickry in 127 Hours are largely throwaways here.  I see this award going to The Social Network over The King's Speech for, in two movies largely centered on conversation, The Social Network moved very fluidly and (at least appeared) to have a lot going on.


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

I so badly want to see Trent Reznor take center stage here for The Social Network.  It will be more comedic and nearly as epic as Elliott Smith's performance in a real fish-out-of-water appearance.  I want this so bad I'm not even considering that Inception and 127 Hours have a chance here (which they do).


BEST ORIGINAL SONG

The most irrelevant award presented at the ceremony:  An Academy that rarely picks their own movies correctly now have to be experts on music too?  Randy Newman's "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3 seems an easy enough pick, but don't discount "If I Rise" from 127 Hours.  These performances will be bland and, honestly, it's only a matter of time before this category disappears.


BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

With all my gut I'm pulling for Dogtooth, though I realize it stands a large lamp's chance in shotgun.  The Academy notoriously opts for typical Hollywood narrative structure if not altogether warmer selections than the occasional pick from the Von Trier/Haneke school of thought.  By this logic, expect In A Better World to win, despite Bardem's nomination.


BEST DIRECTION

Although this award typically predicts Best Picture, I think they will differ this year and the Best Direction Oscar will be something of a consolation prize for David Fincher.  To call The King's Speech an actor's vehicle isn't altogether untrue, but there are directorial touches (Firth and Rush falling out of step in while arguing along a foggy path still stands out as a key moment to me).  I just think the things The Social Network does right are due more to Fincher than anything else.


BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Apparently there is some murmuring about Annette Bening being a dark horse, which I just can not see.  Natalie Portman's performance in Black Swan is the thing Academy voters salivate over:  years of training, strict physical regimen,  commanding placement in every single frame of the picture.

It's a real shame that Michelle Williams stands zero chance here, but I won't be upset with Portman's win.  And the fact that Portman was able to turn this performance from a career that was going nowhere for over ten years only favors her all the more.


BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Colin Firth wins.  Sorry.  There is no drama here.

I will say this:  It is too bad Bridges won for the wrong picture.  And as much as I like James Franco, I wouldn't even consider him the darkest horse, mainly because 127 Hours was all glitz.


BEST PICTURE

I am a huge proponent of the shift back to ten nominees in this category.  Sure, it's a little watered down.  Sure, I have to watch a few things each year that I never wanted to (lately they've been sports related: The Blind Side, The Fighter).  But instead of just one token Miramax pick every year, now we can have our animated dish, give a few bucks to some no-shot indies and split the lesser candidates so much that there is less confusion as to who should be the winner.  And guess what-- in its first year since the return of this format, it got it right against the highest grossing movie of all time.

* Winter's Bone -- this hollow nothing is an exercise in local color and confused about its philosophy.  I'm glad something like Winter's Bone can get a nomination, but it's too bad that it had to be Winter's Bone.  When all is said and done, it means nothing and stands to win nothing but a few Redbox rentals.

* 127 Hours -- Not nearly as obnoxious as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours sees Boyle returning to his old toilet tricks (this time, we see the perspective of Franco drinking his own urine through the water bottle) as a director that has always resorted to gimmick when hard-pressed for narrative.  Again, this stands zero chance.  Will be lucky to see any award on Oscar night.

* The Fighter -- Easily the worst of the bunch, The Fighter runs every cliché in the book and has its actors ham it up every step of the way.  The voters love garbage like this, and I'm only hoping that it gets nothing outside the supporting categories.  Shoddily written, a joke of a directorial picture, nothing to offer.

* The Kids Are All Right -- The few moments of sincere depth are often squandered by bad, obvious punchlines.  Bening stands a very outside chance, but is the best part of this piece.  Though understandable for its subject matter, it often tries too hard to feel indie and ultimately isn't too far displaced from Garden State.

* Inception -- The heavy fanboy favorite on every IMDb message board, the ten-picture format gives Nolan the opportunity he deserved for The Dark Knight.  Unfortunately, Inception is such a headcase, it miraculously managed to lead legions of fans into taking it even more seriously than the suffocating pretension of the film itself.  For the literate film viewer, this thing had little to offer upon repeat viewings and I will be staying away from the message boards for the years to come.

* Black Swan -- Remember when Mickey Rourke accepted his award for The Wrestler at the Independent Spirit Awards and he gave a little anecdote about Darren Aronofsky?  Rourke puffed him up so much as to say that directors as good as he only crop up every 25 years.  Apparently Aronofsky's response to that was "thirty".  Fast forward to this year's New York Film Critics' Circle award dinner when Aronofsky's ego tried sparring with Armond White of all individuals.  To me, Aronofsky has always been a very talented director with a little bit of an ego problem that wouldn't bother if it weren't for the fact that his films treat the audience like they are dolts.  I enjoy his films, I do.  It's just that I get it.  I get what he's trying to tell me without needing it continually pounded into my head.  Black Swan is about a familiar big theme: art and the artist.  He, alongside Portman, present this very well even with a somewhat kitschy horror model.  That worked for me.  He just doesn't know when to let up and allow the subject matter speak for itself.  It works for the Academy-- his most understated and best film was The Fountain which was largely ignored.  However, I just see Aronofsky in some sort of limbo that Hollywood will throw a bone to without ever considering a serious contender.

* Toy Story 3 -- Is it unfair to call Toy Story 3 a little overrated?  I mean, it's still in my top five for 2010, but the 99% at RottenTomatoes is a little unreasonable.  I mean, it's only the second best Toy Story movie.  The one shame of the ten movie nomination format is that it placates the animated film (as if "animated" was a genre rather than a medium).  Toy Story 3 is a great film that everyone accepts is great.  RottenTomatoes shows that nearly everyone agrees with this (hate to bring up Armond White twice in this article).  It is simply beyond Hollywood to accept an animated picture as its best.  I don't know if it ever will.

* True Grit -- My pick for best nominated picture in the bunch, though it stands little chance on Oscar night.  I do like that, after the late '90s indie rush at the Oscars, the Coens are somehow Academy staples in 2011.  Maybe they don't take the trophy every time, but they're a part of the public consciousness enough that I have hope that, sometimes, we get it.  Also something to consider:  True Grit has become the highest grossing Coen Brothers movie, and the second-highest grossing Western of all-time.  No small feat in a world that sees "Deadwood" canceled with little noise.

* The Social Network -- Although considered a main contender with The King's Speech for the top prize, to me, The Social Network has lost a lot of steam-- comparable to last year's Up In The Air.  And to me, a lot of the rhetoric is baffling.  This is the movie of "new Hollywood" and of "our generation".  Last time I checked, the writing was not only cynical of Internet culture, it treated it as something of an oddity from an outsider perspective.  For a movie supposedly about the social network, the Internet actually had very little to do with the movie.  Technically, to Fincher's credit, the elements come together to make a very good film.  I like Eisenberg's strange creation, I like the casting of Justin Timberlake, and I like the historic tweaks (like Eisenberg's relationship status) that made the film deeper thematically.  It is more than worthy of the award for best picture (more worthy than The King's Speech, for sure), I just don't buy the depth which is being argued, the scope being purported, or the legacy and timelessness being assumed.  A great film, but no masterpiece.

* The King's Speech -- This thing has picked up so much steam post-Golden Globes, it is difficult for me to see anything but it winning.  It is a film of great actors sitting in great rooms interacting with great dialogue.  It is in many ways a showcase for Firth (and for a overshadowed, but better Rush), but also a well-handled director's piece.  Tom Hooper's treatment of the material is never condescending and the picture is generally very placidly acceptable.  At best, the picture is very déjà vu of, if not openly nostalgic for, the Miramax of old.  To compare it to The Queen in subject matter alone is unfair.  The King's Speech evokes the picturesque of The Wings of the Dove, the weight of The English Patient, and the uplift of Shakespeare in Love.  It's a film your mom will love and, while that isn't necessarily a compliment, you could do a lot worse.

Click Here, Nimrods...

Summary only...