The awards are only a few days away! I finally got a chance to watch Brooklyn, and thus i've now seen every film nominated in the Best Picture category. Here's how I rank each movie:
8. Bridge of Spies - The weakest of the 8 nominated, but it's not a bad thing. Spielberg's latest film is a moving tribute to American values at their finest, and an examination of the idea that even though we might be separated by political differences or by national borders, we're still all human beings. Tom Hanks shines on the screen, per usual.
7. The Big Short - It's a very good film, but I'm still puzzled as to why this is a Best Picture frontrunner. Its full of fantastic acting performances, especially by Christian Bale, but the arrogance of the screenplay and some of the directing choices pulled attention from the story being told. At times, it feels as alive and vital, attempt to remind viewers of the mass chaos of the financial crisis of 2008.
6. The Martian - Like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian is a entertaining crowd pleaser with a lot of meat on it's bones. It's charming and odes to the wonders of science. Matt Damon is just fun to watch, as he MacGyver's his way into surviving on Mars. This is Ridley Scott's best film in many, many years. I mean really, many years.
5. The Revenant - This movie seems like it will be the one to win Best Picture, and while I can see it because it has all the momentum of Alejandro González Iñárritu and Leonardo di Caprio wining big in their respective categories in other film and critics awards, it's not the best out of the eight in my opinion. The most impressive thing about the movie was the cinematography. The camera movement rivals what Iñárritu and his partner Emmanuel Lubezki did in Birdman. Leo's performance is captivating, but I loved Tom Hardy's performance even more. The storytelling construction wasn't my cup of tea, as well as the pacing, but what those elements lacked was shadowed by how incredible the film looked.
4. Brooklyn - One of the best Romantic Dramas that I can think of from the past several years. The movie stars Saoirse Ronan (I still don't know how to pronounce her first name) as a immigrant from Ireland in the 1950s as she tries to establish a new life for herself. The movie perfectly blends the period piece, immigration tale, and romance aspects of the story to speak to the audiences of learning to be yourself and choosing the life your want to lead. The movie has my pick to win Best Adapted Screenplay.
3. Spotlight - This newspaper drama about the 2000 Catholic Church sex scandal investigation under the Boston Globe grows in sheer power over the course of its running time. Beginning with a few small snippets of information, the Boston Globe's team that consist of Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Liev Schrieber zeroes in on massive, systemic problems within the Catholic Church, meant to cover up the crimes of pedophile priests. It's a beautifully written film about how hard it can be to take on deeply entrenched systems. It's picking up steam to win the Best Picture category, even though it might have to wrestle The Revenant for it.
2. Room - This is can be a tough watch for some people. The first half of the film takes place primarily in a suffocating shed, where a woman and her son, the result of a sexual violence, live in captivity. Brie Larson is incredible in this movie, and I hope she wins the Best Actress category. I also with that Jacob Trembly, the young boy, would've received recognition as well. What's amazing is how life-affirming this story ends up being, and how wise it is about the perils of both being a parent and of being a child. Another film that I think will be overlooked for the Best Picture spot.
1. Mad Max: Fury Road - Honestly, I haven't seen a better film all year. When a movie sticks with people for a better part of the year (It was a May release), you know it's a great film. There's a lot of narrative heft in this action driven movie. George Miller gave us storylines that we couldn't help but get invested in, ones that involved much more than the black and white simplicities of life and death. We learn the about the characters through the action and the circumstances that they are put in. The thematic overtones of saving sex slaves from a controlling alpha male, to free independent women I think is valid in today's society (Google whats going on Kesha for details). It gives the movie much more heart without trying to hitting your head and shoving them into your face with "Theming! Theming! Theming!" The world building in the production design is absolutely stellar. The music just absolutely compliments the film. The acting is great, and absolutely is aesthetically pleasing to this weird, crazy world George Miller created in 1979. The directing and editing is great! I can't think of more pristine action sequences in the past 5 years than the ones in Mad Max: Fury Road, especially the chase with the dirt biker gang. Mad Max: Fury Road is not only absolutely deserving of all the critical acclaim and awards it's been getting this year, but it's the best film of the year. I
Even though I hope Mad Max wins Best Picture, it will be overlooked because of it's genre, since Oscars tend to lean on more prestige-y movies. Science Fiction is not always accessible for all audiences especially when presented in such an intense format. In the 88 years of the Academy's existence, The Lord of the Rings is the only Fantasy movie to ever win the category.
Topic: 2016 Academy Awards Thread (Read 7870 times)
