Now that all is said and done, 2014 was a pretty great year for cinema. David Fincher made his best thriller in years, Phil Lord and Chris Miller started getting box office clout, Darren Aronofsky questioned how far we should go in the name of religion, Damien Chazelle questioned how far we should go to earn the respect of our superiors, Tom Cruise got cool again, Wes Anderson made his magnum opus, Marvel Studios made both the funniest escapist fantasy and the smartest escapist fantasy, Ava DuVernay stripped away the secular saint image of Martin Luther King - proving that Oscar bait can have a brain in the process - and super-intelligent apes conquered the uncanny valley. There was a lot of good stuff.
That makes it all the more frustrating that the Academy seems to have lost their damn minds and been far more snobbish than usual. Host Neil Patrick Harris summed it up best. "...honoring the best and whitest - sorry, brightest." He is of course referring to this being the whitest Oscars since 1998. This is proof that the Academy doesn't have a PR department, otherwise they would have never let every acting nominee be white. I'm not going over the big prizes, you can find plenty of people doing that, instead I'll be looking at categories that I don't think most press covers.
But I'll get the Big Six out of the way first. Best Picture went to Birdman because it's about a semi-retired actor having a sad over not being famous anymore, it should have gone to Selma because it's the most important film of 2014 and blows almost everyone else out of the water, but at least it didn't go to Boyhood, which is what I was fearing. Best Director went to Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman because, as The Artist proved in 2012, the Academy loves themselves some gimmicks. David Fincher was snubbed for Gone Girl and Ava DuVernay was snubbed for Selma because both films were simply too brutal and/or intense for the Academy's delicate sensibilities.
As for the four acting prizes, Best Actor rightly, sort of, went to Eddie Redmayne's portrayal of Stephen Hawking, David Oyelowo's expert portayal of Martin Luther King should have been nominated. Best Actress went to Julianne Moore, it should have gone to Rosamund Pike's career redefining turn as the bats*** insane Amy Dunne in Gone Girl. J.K. Simmons actually deserved to get Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash, they got something right for once, even if Channing Tatum's sutble turn as a washed up Olympic wrestler in Foxcatcher was snubbed. Meryl Streep did not deserve to be nominated for Into The Woods and only was because she's "magic Meryl f***ing Streep", as Neil Patrick Harris put it during the show.
Best Original Screenplay
- Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
- Boyhood
- Foxcatcher
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Nightcrawler
Wes Anderson was robbed. I know he isn't for everyone, but I can't see it for any of the other nominees, except maybe Nightcrawler, I didn't see that one. Boyhood is over three hours of nothing, and the closest it gets to a theme is "Time sure does fly, don't it?" Foxcatcher is a very good actor's showcase, but not much else. Birdman only got it because the story of, again, semi-retired actor that isn't famous anymore, speaks to most of the Academy's ancient voting base. Phil Lord and Chris Miller's script for The Lego Movie should have been nominated for the miracle of turning what is essentially a toy commercial into a cutting satire of feature length toy commercials without becoming a jaded cynical mess, and there's an argument to be made that Selma should be there for telling the story of Martin Luther King when they couldn't use any of his speeches.
Best Adapted Screenplay
- The Imitation Game
- American Sniper
- Inherent Vice
- The Theory of Everything
- Whiplash
Damien Chazelle was robbed for Whiplash. Sure, it's no masterpiece, but it's better than anything else here. The Theory of Everything is a paint-by-numbers biopic that just happens to be backed by a great performance from Eddie Redmayne. American Sniper at least has an idea, i.e. telling the late Chris Kyle's story as that a simple man caught up in the waves of history, but it fails to execute that idea and falls apart as a result. Gillian Flynn should have been nominated for Gone Girl because it's the greatest Lifetime movie ever made.
Best Animated Feature
- Big Hero 6
- The Boxtrolls
- Song of the Sea
- How To Train Your Dragon 2
- The Tale of Princess Kaguya
This category isn't worth talking about because the best animated film of the year wasn't even nominated.
 |
| Darn darn darn darn-y DARN! |
In all seriousness, of the nominees, Big Hero 6 deserved to win. It's a damn good superhero movie, animated or otherwise, and as far as kids movies go it's phenomenal, but The Lego Movie still should have been in there, period. It should have won because it is a great film, no qualifiers necessary. (Incidentally, I also think it would be awesome for Phil Lord and Chris Miller to win an Oscar because then those mad geniuses could do whatever the f*** they want for their next movie, and I want to know what that looks like.)
The Technical Awards
- Cinematography, Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Ida, Mr. Turner, Unbroken
- Costume Design, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inherent Vice, Into The Woods, Maleficent, Mr. Turner
- Film Editing, Whiplash, American Sniper, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game
- Makeup and Hairstyling, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Foxcatcher, Guardians of the Galaxy
- Production Design, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Interstellar, Into The Woods, Mr. Turner
- Sound Editing, American Sniper, Birdman, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Interstellar, Unbroken
- Sound Mixing, Whiplash, American Sniper, Birdman, Interstellar, Unbroken
- Visual Effects, Interstellar, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past
Snubbing aside, these are actually some pretty good lists. As much as I've panned American Sniper, it genuinely deserved to be up for Sound Editing, kudos to that crew. Whiplash is an editing masterpiece, it deserved to be up there. The Grand Budapest Hotel was rightly kicking ass in the decoration awards, Wes Anderson's signature handmade style is unquestionably a labor of love and it looks beautiful. Visual Effects, on the other hand, is kind of a mess. Noah had the best use of visual effects this year, Edge of Tomorrow brought pre-Call of Duty video game war zones to life, neither was nominated, and there's room if you switch a couple of the nominees out. Days of Future Past is nothing special, and Winter Soldier would be more comfortable in Film Editing or Cinematography. As for the actual winner, I can appreciate the attention to hard science that went into Interstellar, but Dawn of the Planet of the Apes deserved it more.
The Music Awards
- Best Original Score, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Interstellar, Mr. Turner, The Theory of Everything
- Best Original Song, "Glory" from Selma, "Everything is Awesome" from The Lego Movie, "Grateful" from Beyond the Lights, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glenn Campbell... I'll Be Me, "Lost Stars" from Begin Again
Holy s***, they got something right again. The Grand Budapest's score perfectly fits the quirky fresh-out-of-art-school nature of the film, and Glory's fusion of gospel with rap fits Selma's drawing parallels between the Civil Rights movement and the protests in Ferguson. These were good picks.
Have a nice day.
Greg.B
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