My Reaction to the Oscar Nominees

The Oscars are always one of my favorite events of year. Even when I don’t agree with some of the nominees and winners, it’s still a fun show and I love having a celebration of the year in film. Well, the nominees for the 87th Academy Awards were announced a few days ago, and I’ve finally gotten all my thoughts on them straight.

DISCLAIMER: All film is subjective, so just like my reviews this list will be completely opinion-based.

BEST PICTURE

American Sniper: This should definitely not be on here. Great lead performance, bad movie.

Birdman: Terrific. This belongs here, and is probably gonna be the winner.

Boyhood: This is my pick for most overrated movie of the year. It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t enthralled by it like most people.

The Grand Budapest Hotel: Sure, why not?

The Imitation Game: My favorite movie on this list, but it doesn’t have a strong chance of winning.

Selma: CONTROVERSY: It was just okay. Not worth a nomination in my opinion.

The Theory of Everything: Very nice to see this nominated.

Whiplash: Even nicer to see this nominated. One of the best movies of the year, and it gets better every time I see it. If I haven’t seen it I won’t comment.

Will win: Either Birdman or Boyhood

Should win: The Imitation Game

BEST ACTOR

Steve Carrell, Foxcatcher

Bradley Cooper, American Sniper: In a weaker year, I would’ve put him on here. But this was a stacked year, and I would rather have seen David Oyelowo or Jake Gyllenhaal in his spot.

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game: He belongs here for sure.

Michael Keaton, Birdman: So does he. One of Keaton’s best performances.

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything: Yet another extremely strong contender. This is Redmayne’s best performance to date.

Will and should win: Michael Keaton, Birdman

BEST ACTRESS

Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night

Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything: I loved her performance. She belongs her for sure.

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl: YES YES YES!! I would’ve freaked out if she wasn’t nominated.

Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Will win: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Should win: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert Duvall, The Judge: He’s got no chance, but he was the best part of that movie and deserves a nomination.

Ethan Hawke, Boyhood: He should be on here. The parents in Boyhood were much more compelling than Mason.

Edward Norton, Birdman: Another great performance in a movie filled with them.

Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

J.K. Simmons, Whiplash: This is a very strong category, but I don’t see how he doesn’t win.

Will and should win: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood: She and Ethan Hawke made the movie watchable for me. That enough is worth win.

Laura Dern, Wild

Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game: Knightley has come a long way in the last few years, and this is a vindication of all her efforts.

Emma Stone, Birdman: She was terrific.

Meryl Streep, Into the Woods: I didn’t like the movie. It was about an hour too long. But Streep was great, same as always.

Will and should win: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: I don’t like this category. It exists only to give the Academy an excuse not to nominate animated films for Best Picture. BUT HOW THE HELL DOES THE LEGO MOVIE NOT GET NOMINATED? I don’t use the term snub lightly, but this is a snub.

Big Hero 6: I loved it. Lots of fun, and yet another credit to Disney.

The Boxtrolls: I enjoyed it, and it’s nice to see it get nominated.

How to Train Your Dragon 2: Without The Lego Movie in competition, this is my clear favorite.

Song of the Sea

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Will and should win: How to Train Your Dragon 2

BEST DIRECTOR

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman: This is the first time that I can honestly say he did a great job directing. He did a truly amazing job.

Richard Linklater, Boyhood: I wouldn’t put him on here. I don’t think he did a very good job creating a compelling story. But I appreciate his ambition.

Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel: A good one for Anderson to get nominated for.

Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game: It wasn’t very showy direction, but Tyldum told this story very well and pulled good performances out of everyone.

Will and should win: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Jason Hall, American Sniper: No thanks.

Graham Moore, The Imitation Game: I’m surprised this is Moore’s first screenplay. He did a fantastic job.

Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice: I love PTA, but this screenplay was not a strong one.

Anthony McCarten, The Theory of Everything: A great screenplay. He deserves the nomination.

Damien Chazelle, Whiplash: Yet another great screenplay.

Will win: Too close to call.

Should win: Graham Moore, The Imitation Game

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo, Birdman: With a movie this good, how can the screenplay not be nominated?

Richard Linklater, Boyhood: I wouldn’t give it to him, but I understand why he’s nominated. I was an ambitious effort.

E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, Foxcatcher

Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness (story), The Grand Budapest Hotel: I’m kind of surprised to see this get so many nominations, but I can’t complain.

Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler: A better movie than any of these, and yet this is its only nomination. Glad to see it get something.

Will win: All those unpronounceable names, Birdman

Should win: Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

So, there’s all the big ones. I might not agree with all the Academy’s decisions, but that doesn’t matter. Like all art forms, film is subjective, and it’s nice to see that people have varying opinions. I’m sure this year’s show will be a lot of fun, especially with all of the surprises. The Lego Movie not getting nominated is insane, though.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

Premise: When an OsCorp worker is mutated in a freak accident, Peter Parker must find a way to stop him. Meanwhile, his relationships with on-again, off-again girlfriend Gwen Stacy and childhood friend Harry Osborn are tested. Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davitz, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, and Sally Field. Directed by Mark Webb.

Pros: Once again, Andrew Garfield knocks it out of the park. After fantastic performances in The Social Network and the first Amazing Spider-Man, I’ve had high hopes for him. Well, after a two year break from the big screen, Garfield proves that his abilities haven’t slowed in the least. He captures the optimism, passion, and awkwardness that Peter Parker is supposed to represent, and in this film he’s allowed to show off more of his sensitive side, playing the role of the hero with a soft center perfectly. A better Spider-Man than Tobey Maguire ever was.

The relationships between Peter and everyone else are fleshed out even further. In the first film, I thought his relationship with Gwen was okay, but certainly no Tony/Pepper. Here, Peter and Gwen are a hundred times more believable, and there’s a lot of heartwarming and tearjerking moments with the two of them. The relationship with Harry Osborn is also presented very well, and Dane DeHaan was a solid choice. There’s also some great scenes with Aunt May, who Sally Field just owns.

One of the things that the Sam Raimi trilogy struggled with was creating convincing visual effects. Well, I’m happy to say that most (but not all) of the visual effects, particularly for Electro, are quite good, following the trend set by the first film. Also, the action is spectacular, some of the best

The music. In my opinion, the only thing the first Raimi Spider-Man beat Amazing at was the score. Not that I think James Horner is a bad composer, but it definitely wasn’t some of his best work. Well, getting Hans Zimmer for this one was an inspired choice. Like his scores for the Dark Knight saga and Man of Steel, the music in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 captures all the grandeur of superheroics and is a feast for the ears.

Cons: 

While I thought Jamie Foxx did a good job with what he was given, the character of Max Dillon was kind of lame. Until he gets to become Electro (where he’s much more interesting and pretty sympathetic), he feels like some out of a Schumacher Batman film, and his silliness leads to this…

The tone is all over the place. I dead serious when I say when one scene is dramatic and poignant, you should expect the next to be silly and over the top. Where the first film had a clear vision for what the tone would be, this one suffers from a major identity crisis that it never overcomes. One of my friends put it perfectly when he said it was probably even more goofy than the Raimi films. I will give the film this, though; when the really dramatic moments come, they are presented beautifully.

There are some visual effects (mostly early on) that are so cartoonish that they completely pull me out of the film. Also, much of the texturing on Spidey’s suit look unconvincing, but that’s a problem that all the films have had.

Paul Giamatti and the Rhino were both wasted. First of all, if the Rhino was cut out of the film, nothing would change. Second, why get an extremely talented actor like Giamatti to give a glorified cameo? LAME!

Some of the dialogue is kind of weak, but not worse than Spider-Man 3.

Verdict: 

Despite some drastic tone shifts, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a very fun film and a worthy sequel. I’m going to give it a safe 7 out of 10, because it’s a good movie, but I wish I could say it was better.