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 Giver Review

Starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgård, Odeya Rush,Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift, Cameron Monaghan and Emma Tremblay. Directed by Phillip Noyce. Rated PG-13 for a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action/violence. 94 minutes. 

Adaptations of young adult books tend to be hit-or-miss. Sometimes you’ll get a Harry Potter or a Hunger Games. Other times you’ll get something like The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. So, when the trailer for The Giver was released I thought it looked silly. It seemed like a bad sequel to The Host, with all the wooden acting, stilted action, and teen sci-fi movie cliches. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I figured that if it had Jeff Bridges it couldn’t be too nauseating. Turns out it wasn’t. In fact, it was actually somewhat watchable.

Premise: Jonas is a young man coming of age in a seemingly utopian community where pain and suffering are things of the past. But his new mentor, the Giver, reveals that their idyllic lives are not so perfect after all.

Pros: Given The Giver features Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep, I was at least hoping for some decent performances. Even if The Giver isn’t very memorable as a movie, it does have some killer acting. Bridges and Streep are great, of course, with the former playing a wise and caring mentor figure, and Streep playing the community’s emotionally detached elder. But the big surprise is Jonas himself, played by Brenton Thwaites. I’ve never been terribly impressed with Thwaites in the past. He was okay in The Signal, but I thought he was terrible in Maleficent. However, he does a solid job in this movie. He’s our emotional anchor, and he navigates the world he lives in with unexpected emotional depth. The remainder of the cast isn’t too bad either. Even Katie Holmes was okay. It was very nice to see good acting in a movie I had almost no hope for.

The cinematography is great. In the book, the setting isn’t really described much, letting the reader fill in the blanks. Here, the community looks a bit different than I pictured it, more technologically advanced. And they made sure that it looked really pretty. On the whole, this is just a visually breathtaking film. Phillip Noyce and company get full marks for their work. Also, a good portion of the film is in black-in-white, and for the first time in a while it actually adds something to the movie. 

Cons: The story’s not the strongest, even compared to some of the sub-par young adult films. Most of this has to do with the pacing. It’s definitely not the worst I’ve seen all year, but the movie usually seems slower than it needs to be. There’s also a bit of padding. For example, we spend a bit too much time with Fiona, a friend of Jonas’ that he desperately wants to save from community’s monotony. Most of her scenes, especially later on, could’ve been cut down, and overall she didn’t play as large a role as the movie thought she did. Some other characters have a similar role, but you get the point. When the film was focusing on Jonas’ relationship with the Giver, it’s great. The other material, while not all bad per se, clearly doesn’t measure up.

There’s also more than a few young adult movie cliches. Oh boy, another dystopia! Let’s make our main character a teenager for some reason! Oh look, he’s learning that the world he lives in is more sinister than it seems. And he’s got a crush on some girl that he can’t get for some reason. There were times when it became really generic.

Verdict: Overall, The Giver is a decent movie that’s carried by some great performances, particularly from our young lead, Brenton Thwaites. It doesn’t have a great story and has some annoying cliches, but you could do a lot worse.

Score: 6/10