Oscar Results 2016

It’s that time of year again, folks; the biggest event in every film-goer’s calendar, Oscar night. In the early hours of Monday morning (for me, at least), the 88^th Academy Awards ceremony began, and the world finally got to see who and what had been chosen as the supposed ‘best’ of 2015’s cinematic output. While I wasn’t able to watch the ceremony, I did keep up with the live results via social media and several different websites covering the event (unfortunately, the BBC’s live feed cut out around 2am, so yes, I basically spent several hours continually refreshing IMDb’s homepage). For those who missed it and for those who want to hear my opinion on the winners, here you go! I won’t comment on the ceremony itself, since I didn’t see it, and I probably won’t cover every category either: just the one’s I have an opinion on. You guys know the drill, on with the show.

Best Supporting Actress

I’m still bitter over Ex Machina being snubbed for so many awards that it should have at least been nominated for, so it made me happy to see Alicia Vikander win an acting Oscar. Ok, so it wasn’t for Ex Machina, but at the end of the day, she still has an Oscar, regardless what film she won it for, so what I’m saying is that I’m counting this as a win for Ex Machina, and there’s nothing anyone can say to persuade me otherwise.

Best Actor

The whole world waited with baited breath as the Best Actor winner was announced, everyone on the edge of their seat, the big question turning in their minds: “Will we have to put up with another year’s worth of memes about Dicaprio and his Oscar?” Thankfully not, as the Academy finally honoured Leo’s obvious talent and gave him the award we’ve been collectively coveting for him for the past couple of years, to the sound of a thirty second standing ovation. It was a very warm and emotional moment, and while Leo’s speech about climate change seemed a little off-topic, this will probably be one of the most memorable Oscar moments of this decade. Did he deserve the award? Yes. For this film in particular? Sure. While I wasn’t a massive fan of The Revenant (yes, I have finally seen it), Leo’s performance, while fairly minimalist, at least dialogue-wise, was still a tour-de-force of emotion and borderline-savagery. And when considering his other roles as well, it’s almost impossible to deny he is a versatile actor.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Mad Max: Fury Road swept almost all of the technical awards, with a grand total of six Oscars by the end of the night, more than any other nominated film, most notably The Revenant and it’s measly three. And while Mad Max: Fury Road was technically excellent, I am slightly hung up on makeup and hairstyling. It was great, don’t get me wrong, but I feel this is one The Revenant should have taken, in particular Leo’s grisly injuries and matted hair seemed particularly impressive. Let’s face it, the hair in Mad Max: Fury Road wasn’t exactly plentiful or particularly complex. On another note, it does make me happy to see the actual best film of 2015, one that was a genuinely impressive and memorable film and not Oscar bait, has gone on to win the most Oscars. It shows a positive step for the Academy, even if these were only technicals.

Best Music

I’ve snowballed two categories into one, here. First, original score, and it’s about damn time Ennio Morricone won an Oscar. One of my absolute favourite cinematic composers (arguably better than John Williams), Morricone has done hundreds of memorable film soundtracks, including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Tarantino’s latest string of films. Working since the early 60’s and still going strong, it’s about damn time someone handed this genius an Oscar. Secondly, original song. I’ve already stated my opinion of Writings on the Wall, but I don’t mind it winning. Could be worse: could’ve been Fifty Shades of Grey.

Best Production Design

As much as I feel Ex Machina should have received a nomination, I feel out of the nominees, The Martian should have snagged this one. Yes, I’ve seen that one now, too. It’s difficult to choose which one should have got the Oscar, since both had equally impressive and interesting looks, but judging on the juggernaut that Mad Max: Fury Road proved to be, it probably wouldn’t have hurt to give The Martian one of its seven nominations.

Best Visual Effects

EX MACHINA! WOOO! Ok, Nick, calm yourself. So yes, as you’d probably guess, I was very happy with this win. When choosing between Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s hard for me to say exactly which one I found most deserving. Partially, I think Mad Max: Fury Road’s use of mainly practical effects, with CGI just for backgrounds and environments makes it most deserving, and similarly for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in praise of a modern Star Wars film that actually has practical effects in it. In a perfect world, all three would have gotten the Oscar, but then in that perfect world, Ex Machina would have about six nominations, so back in reality, we just need to make sure Ex Machina actually gets at least one Oscar.

Best Cinematography

Lubezki won for the third year in a row, being his second year in a row working alongside Iñárritu, and he really deserves it. While I am in the minority in thinking that The Revenant’s cinematography wasn’t his best work, he is easily my favourite cinematographer at the moment, and I’m glad he’s getting so much attention. However, I do feel sorry for Roger Deakins. I didn’t see Sicario, but regardless of the quality of the cinematography in that film, Deakins desperately needs that Oscar. He’s the Dicaprio of cinematography, having worked on such films as Fargo, Skyfall, The Shawshank Redemption and No Country for Old Men, being nominated thirteen times yet still no win in sight. Now that everyone’s finished with Leo’s Oscar campaign, maybe we can now focus on Deakins. Next year, make it happen!

Best Documentary

Having recently watched and studied Senna in film studies (and it is a phenomenal documentary), I am excited to someday see Amy: it’s made in the same style, using only archive footage, and if its anywhere as good as Senna, it’ll be well worth watching.

Best Directing

I’ve figured out that Best Director is basically the Academy’s version of a Best Picture runner up. Which may go towards settling James Gunn’s angered tweet about the director Oscar going to a different film than best picture, but doesn’t quite explain why Whiplash didn’t get it last year (as that was easily at least the second best film that year). Anyway, with this in mind, it makes logical sense to me that The Revenant got it. Not only is Iñárritu a fantastic director anyway, but The Revenant was a very popular film that didn’t quite fit in the mould of conventional best picture, so the runner up prize allows them to still honour it, while leaving the top place open for….

Best Picture

…Spotlight! Told you so! In fact, not only did I mention in my last post that this was most likely to win after The Revenant, but in the days running up to the ceremony when discussing predictions with friends, I went so far as to make Spotlight my official prediction. What exactly tipped me off? Well, between this and The Revenant, this seemed much more in line with what the Academy usually vote for: it’s much more topical and current in terms of its story and subject matter, features slightly older actors and while both may be based on true stories, I think Spotlight is probably much closer to the events that inspired it. So, as you may have guessed, I’m pretty satisfied with that one. Haven’t actually seen Spotlight yet, of course, but I may rectify that in the coming weeks if I get the opportunity.

And there we go! That wraps it up for another year. A Muse Retrospective will resume shortly (Part 2’s been taking a while, since it just broke 2000 words). In the meantime, enjoy the best that cinema has to offer. No no, not the Oscar films; I was talking about The Room. Obviously.

The January Hiatus

Ok, I'm back. Phew. I'm a little behind schedule with the blog right now, for which I do apologise. Luckily, I managed to find the time to get the first of the Oscar posts up (and in a pretty timely manner too), but we are behind on the Muse Retrospective feature. I had intended for Part 2 to go up some time in January, but unfortunately that didn't quite transpire.

Three major things happened in January (that are relevant, at least). Thing no. 1: my computer broke down. The initial issue is still undiagnosed, but I suspect it was some kind of software issue. Anyway, my computer wouldn't log in to my user area, and then upon gutting the engine and plugging the hard drive, power supply, graphics card etc. into another motherboard, things only got worse, and after about a week of me basically Frankensteining two PCs together in various arrangements trying to isolate the problem and get a working machine of some description, I've managed to bugger up my hard drive instead. As you can imagine, this isn't the most ideal of circumstances, considering there's literally years (~600GB) of work, photos and videos that may have been lost, the majority of it not backed up, because I'm an idiot who rarely ever backs stuff up, despite being a former computing student.

Anyway, I've been stuck on my horrendously slow laptop for the past few weeks. Now, I could still have been getting posts out (albeit taking about three times as long as I wait for my laptop to register inputs), if it weren't for things 2 and 3: Film Studies coursework and University Interviews.

It's hard enough that I was working on a re-edit and a stop-motion project for my interviews and trying to write a deceptively difficult 1500 word research project for Film, without my computer melting down, leaving me without any of my film-making resources, and with only my laptop to try and finish my coursework on. You can understand that the blog wasn't at the top of priorities.

So that was my January: not the best month I've ever had, but at least the storm has passed. My coursework has been submitted and I've got a replacement computer (on a side note: fuck Windows 10) with pretty impressive specs which I'm not allowed to use for gaming in case it 'overheats' (which is what my mum is convinced killed my last computer for some reason), meaning that I can also get back to improving my portfolio for my remaining interviews (two down, two to go).  So now, slightly more relaxed, I can get back to blogging and watching films and just not being as stressed out as before. So there's my excuses out of the way; back to the schedule. You can expect to see the second part of A Muse Retrospective and the Oscar Follow Up post this month, along with a possible third post that I may reveal in due time.

Damn, look at me being all mysterious. Anyway, stay tuned for my regularly scheduled ramblings, and in the meantime, I bid you adieu.

(And while you're at it, fuck Windows 8, too)

Oscar Nominations 2016

Good news, everyone! Guess what’s back; it’s Oscar Season. The official nominations came through last week, and having a nose through them, my suspicion that I’ve barely seen any of them shines through. The picks for the 2015 ceremony just seemed much more interesting to me, and unfortunately I’m stuck with a  lot of work at the moment, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to go and do the big cinema roundup like I did last year. I will at least try and see The Revenant, though. That being said, we’re left in a tricky situation where I want to write my ‘traditional’ blog post, but haven’t seen very many of the nominations. So, as a divergence from last year’s review, this will be a ‘blind post’ as it were. I’ll have a look mainly at the Best Picture nominees, offering my groundless opinions where appropriate, and comment as I would normally on the film(s) I have seen, but for the rest, this will be a case of predicting the Academy’s moves, based entirely off of what I can skim from the nominations' IMDb descriptions.

So, we all good for a completely inconsequential post about my unjustified feelings towards films I haven’t seen? What? I did that last year too? Well, what can I say, this blog is just a cornucopia of misinformation.

The Big Short

I hope you don’t think you’re clever because of that title. The Big Short is giving me a very strong Argo and American Hustle vibe, the kind of dramatized adaptation of real events that looks like it might be a fun and interesting two hours, but out of place on the Best Picture nominees. And while Argo did win (despite its “meh” reception), I have doubts that The Big Short will stand tall above the other nominees.

Bridge of Spies

Bridge of Spies, as I have briefly alluded to before, appears to be pure, concentrated Oscar-bait, to the point that I imagine its production process taking place in a chemistry lab rather than on a set, being concocted by filling a test tube with ‘Essence of Historical Biopic’, a dash of ‘Tom Hanks’ and just a drop of ‘Long Runtime’ before simmering over a Bunsen burner. My friend has been to see it and thought it was alright, (7-8/10 he said), which pretty much confirms my suspicion. I don’t expect this to be a top contender, and will probably be just washed into the obscure depths of Spielberg’s catalogue. Seriously, Steve; you made Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. They got twelve Oscars between them, including two Best Pictures. You can stop with the war films now.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is a period piece about an immigrant. Next.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road, which I have talked about before, was fantastic. And yes, this is the only one of the Best Picture nominees I’ve seen. But it was damn good, and was still my fave film of last year. It certainly isn’t what I’d call traditional Oscar material. But considering how universally loved this film was, by critics and audiences, I will be very interested to see how the academy reacts to it.

The Martian

I unfortunately never saw The Martian, because my family, having read the book, wanted to see it too, and trying to get the three of them to all go to the cinema for the evening is like herding kittens, only less adorable. However, it looks great, and I’ve reserved a copy on rental for when it comes out. Again, surprised about the nomination, it might win but I’m certainly not expecting it.

The Revenant

The Revenant, I have been informed by many sources, is very good, and while I do feel like this is Iñárritu’s attempt at a home run rather than a sincere production, I am nonetheless interested to see it (I’ve heard good things about a bear fight). I feel this is the most likely one for the academy to pick, but you never know.

Room

Room is not The Room, and you’d be surprised how often I make that mistake when hearing people talk about it. From the description, this sounds like the poignancy film: the one whose sole intention is to make you cry. Like the Oscar equivalent of Marley and Me, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m much more interested to see this than I am Brooklyn for example, so take that as you will.

Spotlight

I’ve heard decent things, and while I’m not a hundred percent sure it’s my kind of thing, I may give it a look if it plays at my local ciné. I would accuse it of being Oscar bait, but considering it tackles the subject of child sex abuse, something that’s normally a little too risqué an issue for mainstream cinema to cover, I can’t help but feel supportive of it. It may be Oscar-bait, but it looks like high-end Oscar bait, if only because it’s about something other than racism for once. If The Revenant doesn’t win, this probably will.

And now quickly, a look at some of the other categories.

Best Animated Feature

Inside Out will win. Hands down. As intriguing as Anomalisa looks with its stop-motion approach, and despite the Ghibli name on When Marnie was There, I cannot imagine any of them winning over Inside Out. I’m not necessarily saying its better, just that it's Pixar and so critically favoured that they’d be mad to snub it.

Best Music (Original Score)

Sorry in advance if this sounds stupid, but surely the score for The Force Awakens is pretty similar to the rest of the Star Wars films? If not then fine, if so, then questionable.

Best Visual Effects

Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Force Awakens are all here. Of course: they had to be. And The Martian and The Revenant seem like reasonable competition. But hang on a moment. What the actual fuck has happened to Ex Machina? Two nominations? At least it’s got visual effects, but nothing for Sound Editing or Sound Mixing? Production Design? Perhaps Best Actress for Alicia Vikander? Even Best Picture? I can guarantee that whatever Bridge of Spies is like, Ex Machina is more deserving of its nomination. Ex Machina is one of the best science fiction films of recent years, and definitely one of the strongest films this year, even as good as Mad Max: Fury Road. Maybe even better (I can change my mind on these things). And even the argument that it’s not Oscar material doesn’t hold up, because Mad Max: Fury Road also is not Oscar material, as previously mentioned, and that has ten nominations. Ten! Including Best Picture. OK, rant over. But seriously, Hollywood; get your head out of your arse.

Well, that’s about everything I wanted to say for now. Stay tuned for the Oscar Follow-Up in February (I’ll be writing and posting it as soon as I can after hearing the results, in a rare effort of punctuality on my part). In the meantime, I’m sure some of these films are better than I make them out to be, but just remember to exert a bit of critical thinking and don’t get too sucked in to the hype. A lot of these film’s campaigns exist primarily to get more box office receipts on opening weekend (see American Sniper from last year for reference). Otherwise, have fun at the cinema and I’ll see you back here for more baseless film rants. Next week: Why Clockwork Orange is the Root of All Evil.