2015 Oscar Nominations

Oscars 2015: Nominations list

A full list of nominations for the 87th Academy Awards, to be held in Los Angeles on 22 February.

Best picture

American Sniper

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Best director

Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Alejandro G Inarritu, Birdman

Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

Best actor

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher

Bradley Cooper, American Sniper

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Michael Keaton, Birdman

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best actress

Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night

Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best supporting actor

Robert Duvall, The Judge

Ethan Hawke, Boyhood

Edward Norton, Birdman

Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

JK Simmons, Whiplash

Best supporting actress

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Laura Dern, Wild

Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game

Emma Stone, Birdman

Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Best adapted screenplay

American Sniper

The Imitation Game

Inherent Vice

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Best original screenplay

Birdman

Boyhood

Foxcatcher

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Nightcrawler

Best animated feature

Big Hero 6

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Song of the Sea

The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best animated short-Did not pick

The Bigger Picture

The Dam Keeper

Feast

Me and My Moulton

A Single Life

Best cinematography

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ida

Mr Turner

Unbroken

Best costume design

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Inherent Vice

Into the Woods

Maleficent

Mr Turner

Best documentary feature

CitizenFour

Finding Vivian Maier

Last Days in Vietnam

The Salt of the Earth

Virunga

Best documentary short-Did not pick

Joanna

Our Curse

The Reaper

White Earth

Best film editing

American Sniper

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Whiplash

Best foreign language film

Ida (Poland)

Leviathan (Russia)

Tangerines (Estonia)

Timbuktu (Mauritania)

Wild Tales (Argentina)

Best live action short-Did not pick

Aya

Boogaloo and Graham

Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak)

Parvaneh

The Phone Call

Best makeup

& hairstyling

Foxcatcher

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Guardians of the Galaxy

Best music

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Mr Turner

The Theory of Everything

Best production design

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Into the Woods

Mr Turner

Best song

'Everything is Awesome', The Lego Movie

'Glory', Selma

'Grateful', Beyond the Lights

'I'm Not Gonna Miss You', Glen Campbell… I'll Be Me

'Lost Stars', Begin Again

Best sound editing

American Sniper

Birdman

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Interstellar

Unbroken

Best sound mixing

American Sniper

Birdman

Interstellar

Unbroken

Whiplash

Best visual effects

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Guardians of the Galaxy

Interstellar

Whiplash

*Whiplash

J.K. Simmons has received accolades and an Oscar nomination for his performance in Whiplash, all well deserved. He is better known for supporting roles as the father in Juno and the mercurial news editor J. Johan Jameson from the Spiderman movies. Currently he is the pitch man for the humorous State Farm Insurance ads. His role in Whiplash, as the brutish music conductor Terence Fletcher, is a powerful transformative performance.

The movie takes place in a prestigious music conservatory called Schaffer (aka Julliard). A music student named Andrew Niemen, played by Miles Teller, aspires to be the legendary drummer Buddy Rich. Fletcher sees potential in Niemen and allows him into the band. The atmosphere in the band in nothing short of a state of nature. Every spot is precious and the guy behind you is waiting for you to drop dead to hop into your chair. Fletcher stokes this environment through intimidation, humiliation and physical abuse. Simmons’ bald meaty face is the perfect drill sergeant mask. To halt a performance he raises his left arm in a right angle and fiercely clenches his fist as if squeezing a testicle.  He is a perfectionist and a sadist. Simmons’ performance is so strong it is almost uncomfortable to watch.  Neiman and the other musicians take this abuse to stay in the band and curry Fletcher’s approval.

The battle between Fletcher and Neiman escalates into a one man battle of the band. This is as much a psychological clash between these two antagonists as physical one. With his position as conductor Fletcher gets into Neiman’s head and pushes him to the brink. Rather than motivational, Fletcher’s method is tyrannical.  To get the best from a student he uses the worst of himself; without regrets.  Ironically Neiman transforms this pressure to his advantage.

The ending is no surprise, but it is great fun to watch. This is a boutique movie, not for everyone. But if you get out of your comfort zone you will not be disappointed. Plus the jazz is great.

*Hank Levy jazz piece "Whiplash

The Interview

The Interview

Of course I went, I had to. This film was a product of a brofest between James Franco, Seth Rogan and other writers sitting around a table eating Cool Ranch Doritos, drinking Mountain Dew and Blitz soda and saying the word “cool” one million times. Sony had a choice between artistic freedom and stupid; they chose stupid. The guy who green lighted this film was either color blind or just blind. This is an ego movie where to mollify their stars the studio acquiesces to the film’s development. At a production budget of $44m this was a moderate bet for Sony. Not understanding or caring about the geopolitical fall out of this film rests on Sony’s shoulders. If they sought advice, they ignored it.

The movie met my expectations. It was juvenile with gratuitous violence and an abundance of overacting acting. If Franco’s horrible acting were a generator it could light up the east coast for months. Franco was so hyper he could be the poster boy for ADHD. Seth Rogan played the usual laid back lumbering dude with the basso profundo voice. Acting was not a factor since this was farce. The writing was just to get from point A to point B. Point B was assignation of Kim Jung-un and everything leading up to it was not worth the price of admission.

The point of all this is not this silly movie, but rather our right to see whatever stupid movie we want to. Our right shall not be abridged by some pudgy dictator with a bad haircut. I have written too much for this piece and paid too much to see this flick. I want a refund!

Big Eyes

Big Eyes

You have seen these posters. Those kids with huge dewy saucer plate eyes on the verge of crying. I always thought it was kitsch, produced in some Philippine sweat shop. But in the 50’s and 60’s Big Eye paintings were considered art; big money art. They were praised by Andy Warhol and collected by Joan Crawford and sold for thousands of dollars. This is the true fantastic story of Walter Keane and his wife Margret. Margret was the artist of the Big Eye paintings but Walter convinced her art made by a man would sell better and he posed as the artist. Walter was a great con man and extremely successful in promoting Big Eye paintings and posters. The story is Margret’s journey from subjugation to liberation.

Christoph Waltz’s acting was a bit over the top. He played the megalomaniac well but his mood swings were abrupt. He is much more effective playing low keyed emotional roles with simmering fury as he did in Inglourious Basterds and Jango Unchained.

Walter was the consummate poser and Waltz captured his persona with a toothy smile and a charming manner. What he lacked in artistic talent he made up in chutzpa. His fabrications of his artistic prowess grew so wild they crushed him. Waltz’s enjoyed riding this emotional roller coaster, and it shows in his performance.

Amy Adams truly inhabited her character. Margret displayed a mix of confidence in her art and at the same time subservience to her husband believing his lies. Her rebellion was slow in coming but when it came she owned it. She was loathsome of herself for letting her husband take the credit for her art. Her liberation is the apex of the movie. Adams plays Margaret with steady confidence, but with a dose of underlying fragility. She always believed in her art.

My favorite cameo appearance was Terence Stamp. He usually plays evil characters with his deep dark eyes and pursed lips. Here he plays the senior art critic for the New York Times; evil personified. His dust up with Waltz was priceless, shedding Keane with his caustic critique.

This movie is a time capsule. The 50’s and 60’s were not so long ago. Some of us even went to the World’s Fair in Flushing Queens (I did). Attitudes towards women back then are foreign today. Posters we think as schlock were considered art. This whole movie is a bit odd. All this fantasy and weirdness is Tim Burton’s hallmark. See it, the ending is great.

The Imitation Game

Benedicit Cumberbatch brilliantly plays Alan Turing the English math genius and cryptanalyst who with a few men and a women changed the course of World War II. This is a great true story that modern day geeks can appreciate and Turing’s life makes fascinating drama. Turing was insufferable, but he was indispensable. He was humorless but inadvertently funny. He was not a people person. He was as good reading human emotions as Ray Charles was reading the morning paper.

Cumberbatch powerfully conveys Turing’s arrogance, loneliness, apprehension and fears. Turing was a man ahead of his time to the consternation naval intelligence and MI6 who could not grasp his genius. He was unorthodox and did not care for protocol or chain of command. Turing was not of their class but his intellect out ranked them. He was committed more to himself than King and country. Cumberbatch plays this emotional tightrope with drama. Burdened with impossible deadlines, fighting for material and personal, mostly without his superior’s support, these conflicts and resolution drive the movie.

Turing and his crew where trying to decipher the unbreakable Enigma code used by the Nazis. The codes changed every day and possible combinations were in the millions of millions. Turing took an unorthodox approach to break the code putting him at odds with his handlers. He broke away from conventional code deciphering instead using a machine he invented. Cumberbatch is very passionate in these scenes. His frustration at the narrow mindedness of his superiors is tangible.

Turing was gay and being gay in England then was a punishable offense. He kept his sexual preference secret, not out of shame but to avoid blackmail or prison. Turing deified society and willingly engaged in his homosexual affairs, but was deeply afraid of the consequences to himself and his work. This seesaw battle between who he wants to be and who he has to be torments him.

Keira Knightley is Joan Clarke the female code breaker.  Clarke is unequivocally confident, firmly resisting the push to the secretarial pool for her seat at the table with Turing. Her mathematical prowess impressed Turing. They liked each other; their relationship was more than plutonic and was complicated. Knightley did not overplay this role. She was very sincere for her affection to Turing.  Knightly and Cumberbatch had great chemistry.

Another character of note is Mark Strong who played Maj. Gen. Stewart Menzies, the MI6 liaison (one of the characters said, “there is no MI6 only MI5. To which Strong relies, “then we are keeping our secrets well”). He is so British he is almost brittle. He is Turing’s nemeses and champion, depending what he wants. He represents the government and the ends to which it will go to win.

Flash backs are like a pinch of salt, less is best. They are done right here. They augment the narrative at the right time and explain the present using the past. Here the flash backs concern Turing’s public school days where he was subjected to cruelties and where a great loving friendship blossomed.

Turing was truly a tragic figure, a label surely he would reject. The West owes him a great debt of gratitude for his contributions. His inventions were called Turing Machines. Now we call them computers. 

The Hunger Games-Mockingjay Part 1

The Hunger Games-Mockingjay Part 1

If this picture was not part of the Hunger Game franchise it would have less audience and less box office. Thanks to the HG devotees they flocked to this movie like moths to a flame. This movie lacks the Lord of the Fly motif of the prior two films. Instead of a hunt or be hunted movie with big brother watching it is just a rebellion movie. There are references to the prior movies and the roles of some characters but this movie can stand on its own. I think Part 1 was put in the title to distance this movie from the others and garner a broader audience.

Part 1 means this is the pen ultimate movie. This is movie is a place holder for the final movie. It keys up atrocities committed by the Capital and retaliations by the Districts. All of this conflict will be resolved in the final film. Unlike the other movies Katniss does relatively little fighting.  This is here least energetic role and she looks shabby and unglamorous.  There are no flaming dresses here, rather grey jump suits are de rigueur. Grey is the dominant color of the movie; it could be seen as a metaphor, “the grey before the dawn”. On the whole this movie is a set up for a hoped for mega box office in the final picture.

There are old and new characters. I think this is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last movie. He looked like a card board cut out of himself. The twinkle in his eye was gone. Woody Harrelson’s character was more fun drunk. Donald Sutherland returned with his evil Cheshire smile. He is basically Hitler with a white Santa beard. Stanley Tucci does not even stand up in this picture, he smugly reclines in a chair; he is still very annoying. Even poor Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), the over the top image consultant, with much chagrin is forced to wear a grey jump which she accessories with grey bandana.

Julianne Moore plays President Alma Coin, leader of the rebellion. Her personality is best described as akin to cold salmon. She too is grey all over. It seems she went to the same hair stylist as Morticia Adams. There are other new characters. One is a video journalist who is a propagandist for the rebellion. Her most notable feature is the half shorn haircut currently in vogue adorned with a flower tattoo on the bald side. Her body will be easy to identify on the battlefield.

I know you join me in my anticipation for the final movie. How will I fill the void?

Birdman

For best picture the Golden Globes has Birdman under the category of comedy. The category should be black comedy. The film is about a former movie star whose fame came from playing the superhero Birdman. Now in his sixties he wants to revive his career and find meaning for himself as a Broadway actor/writer, directing himself in his own play. He is a man looking for resurrection.

There are parallels between Michael Keaton and his character Riggan Thomson (aka Birdman). Like Thomson, Keaton was a big star in the late 80’s and early 90’s with two Batmen movies under his belt and playing the lead in the iconic movie Beetlejuice. Even his minor movies were watchable. Then lead roles stopped coming and his star faded. Keaton has firsthand motivation to play this role. He is nominated for best actor by the Golden Globes.

 Keaton’ reputation was as a lighthearted comedic roles. When he branched out as Batman the role was confident and in control. Playing Riggan, Keaton is in uncharted water. Riggan is an emotional train wreck due for a collision.  Keaton delivers an intense and very paranoid (psychotic) performance. The script plays with your perception. Keaton coexists in the fields of madness and sanity. His hallucinations are a product of doubt and insecurity. His alter ego, Birdman, eggs him on to go back to the big screen and leave the uncertainty and pettiness of Broadway. Keaton desperately wants the legitimacy of Broadway more than a big box office. His character has two personas, Riggan the actor and Birdman. Contrary to physics they occupy the same space. Managing this conflict gives Keaton’s performance tension and the chance for his own resurrection.

Edward Norton plays a huge prick. He is the matinee idol that sells ticks, but his conceit and self-centeredness make him loathsome. What is worse he is a good actor. Norton plays the role with aplomb. It takes him out of his comfort zone as being mild mannered and almost nebbish. With his thick ego he has no compunction standing nude in front of a mirror in a dressing room with his privates strategically shielded.  He steals scenes and infuriates his co-stars. There is a great fight scene between Keaton and Norton seminude in their Fruit of the Loom underwear; Yuk. Norton was a bit over the top, but he relished the role.

Emma Stone is super. I think she gave one of the best performances of the movie. She looks fragile and just came out of rehab. She is Riggan’s daughter and their relationship is on the mends after years of neglect and divorce.   Her anger is explosive and her deliverance is muscular; she is in your face. She also plays coy with Norton’s character and gets under his skin, maybe more. If not the femme fatale, she is the femme to watch.

Much has been said about Zack Galifianakis’s performance as being normal and not looney. Bravo for acting like a human. With his weight loss he looked good.

This movie is not for everyone. Keaton gives a forceful performance. I am rooting for him because I am big Beetlejuice fan. Good luck Mike