Well, with another successful few weeks of blogging, we have finally reached the big day: the Academy Awards. In preparation for tonight’s show, I am providing all of you with a review of my blog from these past couple of weeks. This review includes all of the winners of the 10 categories in which I have seen each nominated film/performance and have subsequently blogged about, and it also includes my list of the “Top 15 Films of the Year.”
Get caught up on my picks, and feel free to look back over any of my past posts featuring much more in-depth commentary on each of these films and performances. And make sure to tune into the 86th Academy Awards tonight at 7:30pm (CST) on ABC, live from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, CA. Enjoy, everyone!
My Oscar Winners:
Best Picture: 12 Years A Slave
Actor in a Leading Role: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Actor in a Supporting Role: Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave)
Actress in a Leading Role: Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
Actress in a Supporting Role: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave)
Best Director: Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave)
Best Film Editing: Joe Walker (12 Years A Slave)
Best Production Design: Catherine Martin and Beverley Dunn (The Great Gatsby)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street)
This year, one of nine nominated films will be inducted into an exclusive society of movies when it receives the Academy’s greatest honor, the Oscar for Best Picture. Some of the films that this year’s winner will be joining include Casablanca, On the Waterfront, Rocky, Schindler’s List, The Departed, Argo, and many more; needless to say, this year’s Best Picture winner will be joining an elite collection of the world’s greatest films of all time. The following is my Oscars ballot for this category, Best Picture:
Captain Phillips is a film directed by Paul Greengrass, with a screenplay by Billy Ray. The film tells the true-life story of the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama container ship off the coast of Somalia. The film focuses on Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) and his courageous journey while taken hostage by Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) and his group of pirates.
Captain Phillips is a pulse-pounding thriller, but I honestly did not expect anything less from Paul Greengrass—he directed both United 93 and The Bourne Ultimatum, two well-made, award-nominated thrillers. The filmmaking style in this movie is quite similar to that of United 93, and here, Greengrass has created another instant classic in cinematic history. Each scene throughout this film is forceful in every way, and this terrifying tale receives a committed, marvelous exploration from Paul Greengrass.
Another factor of Captain Phillips that warrants its place in my Top 10 is the superb acting performances, including remarkable performances from seasoned veteran Tom Hanks and from rookie Barkhad Abdi. As Captain Richard Phillips, Tom Hanks brings his years of dramatic acting to the screen, and the result is something magical, even for a man with so many award-winning performances. With every passing moment, you truly feel both the fear and composure of Hanks’s character, and his display of acting greatness fully immerses you into the hijacking in a way that will keep you on the edge of your seat—it sure did for me.
Even with a dazzling performance from Tom Hanks, the greatest part of this film was Barkhad Abdi’s portrayal of the real-life Abduwali Muse, the leader of the Somali pirates. If you are not aware of Abdi’s story, he moved from Somalia to Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his family in 1999, and before auditioning for the film, he worked as a limousine driver. Before the film, Abdi had absolutely zero acting experience, and that fact alone would make anyone fawn over his performance in Captain Phillips. His character is menacing, yet weak at the same time, and Abdi delineates this character with such poise and refinement. Abdi is considered a serious contender for the Oscar this season, especially after winning for Best Supporting Actor at the BAFTAs.
The film takes you on a wild ride, and I did not see another film in 2013 that put me more on edge. It received six Academy Award nominations, which is definitely deserved, but I was surprised that neither Tom Hanks nor Paul Greengrass were nominated because this film is one of the highlights of each of their storied careers. Captain Phillips is rated PG-13 for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and for substance use.
Her is a film written and directed by Spike Jonze. This film, set in the not-so-distant future, tells the story of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a soon-to-be-divorced writer, and the relationship he develops with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), the voice of his artificially intelligent operating system.
Her is by far one of the oddest concepts in any film I have ever seen, but in only a way Spike Jonze can, he makes it work in such an incredibly beautiful manner. I wrote about Her a few months ago in my fall preview, and I was very much looking forward to seeing this because I wanted Jonze to get back to making movies that I enjoy. In my opinion, Where the Wild Things Are (2009) was a boring movie, no matter how cool it looked on screen, and I was hoping Her would put Jonze back on my cinematic map. And indeed, he has. The script, Jonze’s first solo effort, was far more hilarious than I was expecting, and he made it come together on the screen through stunning colors and intricate detail. Even though a couple of scenes drag at times, Spike Jonze has created a film that is all the while memorable, refreshingly funny, and bitterly sad, and it will be exciting to see what he has in store next.
The film succeeds because of Jonze’s fantastic script and striking set decoration, but thanks to two amazing acting performances, it is one of the better movies from 2013. I have always been a fan of Joaquin Phoenix’s work, no matter how much of a peculiarity he is as a human being, and in his role as Theodore Twombly, he has created one of the best performances of his career, and by far one of my favorites. His character is quiet and introverted, but it was invigorating to see his transformation as a person after falling in love with Samantha; Phoenix’s innate ability as a performer makes this character thrive in every scene. It was also entertaining to see Joaquin Phoenix in a role that mixes equal parts of drama and comedy—I never would have thought of him as a “funny” guy, but in this film, he makes it work, and he makes it work well.
Another fantastic performance was given by Scarlett Johansson as Samantha. And before any of you that have not yet seen the film ask, yes, Johansson is only a voice actor in this film. Before Her, I would have been in an uproar if a voice actor were nominated for any major awards; however, even though Scarlett was not nominated, I truly believe her performance was well worth that level of critical praise. You never see Samantha, but you feel her presence every single time she speaks, and this is all because of Johansson. Throughout the film, there are times you forget Theodore is simply falling in love with an inanimate object because of Johansson’s fluidity. Never has there been a better performance from Johansson, and Samantha will forever be one of the greatest artificial intelligence characters in cinematic history.
This film takes such an interesting perspective on relationships and the ways in which we operate in a world dominated by technology, and even though Theodore is falling in love with his operating system, the way it is depicted on the screen is not that unfathomable given the way technology permeates our lives. No matter what you may think of Jonze as a filmmaker or the concept of this movie, it is well worth the watch. Her is rated R for language, sexual content, and brief graphic nudity.
Philomena is a film directed by Stephen Frears, with a screenplay written by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope. This film tells the true story of Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), an Irish woman who had her son taken from her while she was a teenager working at a Catholic convent. For fifty years, Philomena kept this part of her life a secret, but after her daughter happens upon Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a recently fired journalist formerly with the BBC, he agrees to write a human-interest story about Lee’s desperate attempt to locate the whereabouts of her long lost son. During the course of their search, Philomena and Martin endure moments of heartbreak and exhilaration, and in the process, they learn from each other about the true meaning of life.
Philomena is a wonderfully inspiring film, and it succeeds on more than one plane. For starters, it is directed by Stephen Frears, a popular British filmmaker with an established repertoire of films, including High Fidelity (2000) and one of my personal favorites, The Queen (2006). The movie looks similar to a lot of well-produced British films in terms of overt elegance and stylistic subtlety, and Philomena benefits from Frears’s graceful treatment. Also, the screenplay, adapted by Coogan and Pope from Sixsmith’s book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, is witty, sad, exuberant, and tear-jerking in ALL of the right places, and this story is given justice on the screen because of its terrific script.
Notwithstanding the well-crafted filmmaking and scriptwriting, the film features two gifted acting performances: a stellar display by Dame Judi Dench and a striking performance by Steve Coogan. Judi Dench has one of cinema’s most distinguished filmographies, and in Philomena, she gives another award-worthy performance in the titular role. The story is about a woman that is tormented for fifty years about where her son might be, and Dench elucidates the character in an unbelievably powerful way. She allows the viewers to see and feel each of her emotions, and this connection makes your heart break for Philomena in more ways than you could ever think possible. Also, Coogan’s role as Sixsmith is not to be overlooked one bit. I have only come across Coogan in the past in comedic roles, but in this film, his dramatic acting helps make the movie a success. It probably helps that Coogan co-wrote the film, but his careful construction of the character’s on-screen mannerisms is certainly superb.
I greatly enjoyed this film, and as an independent production from England, it has not received its deserved attention; however, I was undoubtedly pleased with the number of Academy Award-nominations it received. It is most definitely a hidden gem, but it is one that affected me emotionally while watching it in the theater. Philomena is one of the most moving films I have seen in quite some time, and if you have not seen it yet, it will definitely be worth every minute of your time. Philomena is rated R for some language.
Silver Linings Playbook is a film written and directed by David O. Russell. The movie follows Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper), a man suffering from bipolar disease, who returns home to live with his parents, Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) and Dolores (Jacki Weaver), after spending eight months in a mental health institution. The violent episode that landed Pat in the institution is uncovered early on, and it was the reason he lost his job, house, and wife. Pat is destined to get his life back on track and hopes to reunite with his wife after she sees his positive improvements; however, things get complicated when Pat meets Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence), a woman with some serious issues of her own. Tiffany agrees to help Pat get back together with his wife but only if he agrees to help her in a dance competition. Pat and Tiffany form an intriguing bond, and each of their lives are forever changed.
From the moment I watched this movie in theaters, I knew immediately that it was the best movie I had seen all year. After continuing to watch other Oscar-nominated films, it sustained its position as my personal favorite of 2012. David O. Russell’s film features everything I could possibly want in a movie: mesmerizing drama, clever humor, intriguing love, and of course, sports. The combination of all of these factors creates one of the year’s most enjoyable motion pictures. Russell adapted this screenplay from Matthew Quick’s novel of the same name.
The film has received a considerable amount of acclaim, both critically and commercially. It has already been nominated and won for a handful of major movie awards, and it will be up for eight Academy Awards at the Oscars on Sunday. One of the most noteworthy accomplishments the film has already attained is being nominated for the “Big Five” Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay). This feat is momentous because it is the first movie since The Remains of the Day (1993) to be nominated in all of the five major categories at the Oscars. The film is also up for each of the four acting categories, the first movie to conquer this achievement since Reds (1981).
Speaking of those four acting performances, each of the nominated actors and actresses deliver portrayals that are quite worthy of the critical praise they have received. Bradley Cooper gives the performance of his career, and the ways in which he fully engrosses himself into his character are nothing short of spectacular. There is never a moment you doubt Cooper’s character’s condition because of the heart and soul he puts into making the character authentic to the story. Jennifer Lawrence, a young actress that has already been nominated for Best Actress before (Winter’s Bone, 2010), shows us that she is destined to become one of the film industry’s most powerful actresses. This role is much more demanding in regards to emotional complexity than her role in Winter’s Bone, and Lawrence gives everything she has to a depiction that may earn her the Oscar for Best Actress.
Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver each provide astounding supporting performances as Pat’s parents, Pat Sr. and Dolores. Pat’s father has fallen on hard times after losing his job, and he resorts to bookmaking in order to raise enough funds to ultimately open a restaurant. The two-time Oscar winning De Niro gives a veteran performance and provides some of the movie’s brightest scenes. Weaver gives a remarkable performance of her own as Pat’s mother. As the matriarch of the Solitano family, Dolores must continue being the glue that holds the family together as their personal issues threaten to tear the family unit apart, and Weaver plays the role to a tee. Silver Linings Playbook is rated R for language, some sexual content, and nudity.
Academy Award nominations for Silver Linings Playbook:
Best Picture (Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, Jonathan Gordon, Producers)
Actor in a Leading Role (Bradley Cooper)
Actor in a Supporting Role (Robert De Niro)
Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Lawrence)
Actress in a Supporting Role (Jacki Weaver)
Directing (David O. Russell)
Film Editing (Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers)
Best Adapted Screenplay (David O. Russell)
Previous movies on the countdown of the Top 15 Films of the Year:
This year, one of nine nominated films will be inducted into an exclusive society of movies that have received the Academy’s greatest honor, the Oscar for Best Picture. Some of the films that this year’s winner will be joining include Gone With the Wind, The Sound of Music, The Godfather, Rain Man, Gladiator, The Artist, and many more; needless to say, this year’s Best Picture winner will be joining an elite collection of the world’s greatest films of all time. The following is my Oscars ballot for this category, Best Picture:
Zero Dark Thirty is a film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, with a screenplay written by Mark Boal. The film tells the story of Maya, a CIA operative who, for over a decade, is dedicated to a single mission—to find Osama bin Laden. She spends every waking moment interrogating detainees and doing intense research in order to track down the world’s most wanted man. After years of devoted work, some clues to the whereabouts of bin Laden emerge, and even though most high-ranking officials in the US government do not fully trust her about his location, Maya remains steadfast in her belief that she has finally found the infamous terrorist.
This is the second collaboration between Bigelow and Boal, the first being their Best Picture-winning film The Hurt Locker (2008). After seeing their latest partnership at work, it is clearly evident that these two have an uncanny knack for creating spellbinding war-related movies. Even though there are stark similarities between the two films, Zero Dark Thirty is based around true events of the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The movie was met with controversy due to its take on torturing detainees, but I quite enjoyed the veracity of these scenes, and without those, I feel the movie would have been significantly lacking a punch. I truly believe this was one of the year’s most amazing films, and it will definitely be a top contender for the highest Oscar honors; with that said, it still does not quite meet the standards that The Hurt Locker originally set.
The story behind the creation of this film is fascinating. Bigelow and Boal had originally written a screenplay about the notorious Battle of Tora Bora, and they had planned to tell the story of the long, but unsuccessful hunt for Osama bin Laden. They were actually about to begin filming when news of bin Laden’s death broke. Immediately, they stopped working on their original film and began to work on a brand new original screenplay about the killing of bin Laden.
Just like The Hurt Locker focused most of the movie on one particular character and his life during the war, Zero Dark Thirty concentrates on the emotional and professional growth of a single character, Maya (Jessica Chastain). Even though there are some key supporting characters, like Dan (Jason Clarke), Patrick (Joel Edgerton), and George (Mark Strong), Maya’s character is the central figure the film uses to develop the plot.
Chastain is an actress who is rapidly gaining immense popularity due to some impressive performances in The Tree of Life (2011), The Help (2011), and Lawless (2012), and in this movie, she shows everyone why she is an Oscar-nominated actress. She begins the movie as a shy, reluctant character, but quickly she becomes a fiery force to be reckoned with. I was blown away by her portrayal of Maya, and this striking depiction may just earn her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Zero Dark Thirty is rated R for strong violence, including brutal disturbing images, and language.
Academy Award nominations for Zero Dark Thirty:
Best Picture (Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, and Megan Ellison, Producers)
Actress in a Leading Role (Jessica Chastain)
Film Editing (Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg)
Sound Editing (Paul N.J. Ottosson)
Best Original Screenplay (Mark Boal)
Previous movies on the countdown of the Top 15 Films of the Year:
Django Unchained is a film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film is set in the South before the Civil War, and the story follows Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave who is bought by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a German-born bounty hunter. Django teams up with Dr. Schultz to hunt down some of the most renowned, murderous men in the slave business. Django’s main goal, though, is to search until he finds his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) who was sold into slavery many years before. When Django and Schultz finally track her down, she is in the confinement of a sadistically ruthless slave owner named Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). The two men must put on an act in order to gain the trust of Candie, but when Candie’s house slave (Samuel L. Jackson) becomes suspicious of their intentions, all hell breaks loose.
To say the very least, I absolutely, unequivocally loved this movie. I have always been a fan of Tarantino’s work, and his creation of Django ranks right up there with some of his best of all time, including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Inglourious Basterds (my favorite film of all time). The film takes place during one of the most controversial periods of American history—the years of slavery before the Civil War. If you have seen the way Tarantino recreated the history of the Nazis during World War II in Inglourious Basterds, then you are in for an equally hilarious depiction of the racist slave owners of the 1800s.
His film has been met with both critical acclaim and controversy, but then again it seems most of Tarantino’s movies are met with this same mix of emotion from critics and the general public. He has been chastised by many, including the annoyingly outspoken Spike Lee, about his usage of the “N” word during the film, but in order to accurately depict this period of history, Tarantino would have been doing everyone a disservice by avoiding the word and sugarcoating the times. His script is violently gruesome, but honest, and like most of his films, it is downright hilarious—the scene with the white-hooded horsemen will forever go down as one of the funniest I have ever seen in a movie.
The tour de force that is Tarantino’s screenplay for Django Unchained is assisted by an ensemble of actors and actresses creating unique and illustrious portrayals of their dynamic characters on the screen. Jamie Foxx gives one of the best performances of his career, ranking behind only his roles in Collateral and Ray, in my opinion. Surprisingly, Foxx was not nominated for any of the major awards despite his excellent performance. Christoph Waltz once again collaborates with Tarantino, and like in his role as Col. Hans Landa in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Waltz brings his incomparable and articulate diction to the role, coupled with his fascinatingly comical wit. His performance makes him a strong frontrunner for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for which he is nominated.
Some other strong examples of exceptional acting are illustrated by Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen the house slave, Kerry Washington as Broomhilda, Don Johnson as Big Daddy, and Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie. I was quite upset when both Jackson and DiCaprio were snubbed for Oscars because after seeing nearly every nominated film this year, their performances stood out way above the rest. DiCaprio has turned in a very triumphant career thus far, but he has yet to receive an Academy Award, and before nominations were announced, I was sure this would be his year. Django Unchained is rated R for strong graphic violence throughout, a vicious fight, language, and some nudity.
Academy Award nominations for Django Unchained:
Best Picture (Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin, and Pilar Savone, Producers)
Actor in a Supporting Role (Christoph Waltz)
Cinematography (Robert Richardson)
Sound Editing (Wylie Stateman)
Best Original Screenplay (Quentin Tarantino)
Previous movies on the countdown of the Top 15 Films of the Year:
Life of Pi is a film directed by Ang Lee, with a screenplay by David Magee. The film follows Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, a teenage boy whose family owns a zoo in India. After Pi’s father decides to move the family and the animals to relocate in Canada, their ship becomes caught in a bad storm. Pi’s family dies, and he ends up stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with one of the Patel family’s Bengal tigers named Richard Parker. Over the next 227 days, Pi and Richard Parker must continually fight for survival. The movie is a magical tale of spirituality and extraordinary resilience.
A seasoned veteran in the filmmaking business, Ang Lee has created a visually appealing adventure film in Life of Pi, and it only adds to his already acclaimed directorial efforts. Over the course of his career, Lee has shown great range as a director. The diverse group of projects he has taken on, including Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Brokeback Mountain, has demonstrated this range in a manner that has already earned him eight Academy Award wins.
To be honest, when I first watched the trailer for this film, it looked like the type of movie that I most definitely wanted to skip—it just looked too fantastical and too much like an over-the-top kid’s movie. But when it was nominated for a vast number of Oscars, I finally decided to view the film. I was instantly surprised at how much I really liked this movie. Not only was it visually appealing with all of the high-tech special effects, it was also a well-made film with an amusingly humorous, but dramatic script. Quickly, it became one of my favorite movies of the year.
I cannot help but appreciate the intricate detail Ang Lee uses when directing his movies, and Life of Pi will most definitely go down as one of his best of all time. Ten nominations was previously Lee’s personal best for an Academy Awards ceremony (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000), but this year, Life of Pi is up for a remarkable eleven Oscars. Life of Pi is rated PG for emotional thematic content throughout, and some scary action sequences and peril.
Academy Award nominations for Life of Pi:
Best Picture (Gil Netter, Ang Lee, and David Womark, Producers)
Cinematography (Claudio Miranda)
Directing (Ang Lee)
Film Editing (Tim Squyres)
Best Original Score (Mychael Danna)
Best Original Song (“Pi’s Lullaby,” music by Mychael Danna and lyrics by Bombay Jayashri)
Production Design (David Gropman and Anna Pinnock)
Sound Editing (Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton)
Sound Mixing (Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill, and Drew Kunin)
Visual Effects (Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer, and Donald R. Elliott)
Best Adapted Screenplay (David Magee)
Previous movies on the countdown of the Top 15 Films of the Year:
The Reel Countdown 