2014 Awards Thread- Page 7

[strummergirl]

Posted: 1/18/15 at 7:14pm

After seeing American Sniper, I think this is the sleeper. It late-crested and while Eastwood didn't get a director nomination despite hitting DGA, I'm just putting that as the Directors Branch marching to the beat of their own drum (see: Miller, Bennett lone director nomination). It is making a boat load of money, already the highest grossing Best Picture nominee but potentially could make the kind of money you'd expect from Marvel movies.

Eastwood isn't the most popular director on this board and this film is confrontational, at times, uneasy, difficult, and uncomfortable if you are in the perspective of being against the War on Terror/War in Iraq, but this film functions extremely well as an action film and character piece. I think Clint Eastwood's history is not of jingoism but, in fact, very pro-soldier. I think he took to Jason Hall's script, which seems to refine the real life Chris Kyle to somebody more accessible in that sense. That will cause the film problems with the accuracy police that recently plagued Selma, but given how anonymous Chris Kyle is to 99% of the population, I am only seeing a character and an interesting one at that.

This is easily Bradley Cooper's best performance of his career. Given his first Oscar nomination happened in a year where Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln was undeniable and his second was for a broad, comedic performance where he was overshadowed by his female co-stars and also had Jared Leto in a baitier, more dramatic role, I think with this being his third consecutive nomination: He has a shot. On merit, this is among the best performances of the four acting categories. Forget the physical transformation in bulk and Texan affect he has going, this is a performance where you are feeling everything this guy is going through even if a lot of it is unassuming and arguably underplayed to naturalistic effect. His character arguably belongs just as much in a Dardennes film as Marion Cotillard. It is really shocking to see Bradley Cooper in this next gear and have it be under the circumstances of Clint 'One Take Is A-Okay With Me' Eastwood, and I have come to like Clint in looking further into his body of work.

Anyway, Cooper is the spoiler to watch but in the 2 sound categories, I see American Sniper as easy wins there and a huge threat for Adapted Screenplay. Chris Kyle's casual racism, machismo, and PTSD are a matter of fact in American Sniper and is pretty good film classicism. The Imitation Game, the presumed front-runner in the Adapted Screenplay category, can barely deal with its own subject matter's sexuality and creates the fiction of him staying closeted even when faced with outing a spy whom he never met in real life. The Imitation Game is too anonymous in pedigree beyond Harvey Weinstein and for that reason, I think it is going to suffer most from American Sniper's rise.

Consider this the year of The Pianist being the 11th hour threat to Chicago. Had the voting been pushed back 2 weeks, it may have won the whole thing. Same situation here. I doubt American Sniper is your Best Picture winner and still think that is Boyhood's to lose, but it is going to win categories and make the Best Picture announcement a real event.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/18/15 at 9:47pm

Yeah, that SNIPER schlock looks like it is going to take home some record setting box office this weekend, it might just pick up some hardware on Oscar night. It's Eastwood, so you know it's simple, straightforward, makes no demands on the viewer, and is of no interest or importance in any way -- classic Oscar material.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 1/18/15 at 10:46pm

Re: Kyle's PTSD, it is pretty complicated and the action sequences and all of the war scenes are intense and messy, but finely controlled from a director's standpoint. If you wanted The Hurt Locker with more balance of character background and homefront scenes and prefer a man with a gun than a bomb diffuser who also gets mentally wiped out as the viewer, this is the film.

It falls flat in spots but the war scenes feel like re-energized Eastwood, with all of the political complications that involves. If anything it is like his older pre-Unforgiven Westerns.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 1/24/15 at 8:26pm

I saw American Sniper today. I thought it was terrific. With the exception of Boyhood, this is my favorite of the nominees. (Although I still need to see Selma). I also thought Bradley Cooper gave a powerhouse performance. He may sneak in and take the gold from Keaton. Sienna Miller was also terrific. Why she was not nominated for best supporting actress is a mystery. I agree with everything you stated, Strummergirl. I know I wrote this before, but I really enjoy reading your insightful posts, especially when it is about films.

Updated On: 1/24/15 at 08:26 PM

[Bucky Builder]

Posted: 1/24/15 at 8:35pm

I really wish Sienna got a nomination for American Sniper. I found her to be much more deserving than Knightley and Emma (as much as I love her).

[ArtMan]

Posted: 1/24/15 at 9:10pm

Totally agree. As much as I am a fan of the two, I didn't see anything special in their performances.

[Bucky Builder]

Posted: 1/24/15 at 9:14pm

I think they were both coattail nominations.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 1/24/15 at 9:22pm

Disagree regarding Emma Stone merely being a coattail nominee. I loved BIRDMAN and thought Emma just exploded off the screen, she was so good. The talent to maintain those high-wire scenes that went on 5-10 minutes long was staggering. Think what skill that takes compared to a conventionally edited film where the best bits from each take and each camera angle can be edited together into a whole performance.

Those actors in BIRDMAN were basically working with no net. Brilliant.

[Bucky Builder]

Posted: 1/24/15 at 9:28pm

You make a good point, Someone in a tree. Apparently AGI is incredibly difficult to work with because he is so technical with actors moving to the right cues exactly on point. I believe Emma gave an interview where she said filming was very demanding and that AGI kept yelling "You are ruining my movie".

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 1/25/15 at 12:40am

I think that Emma fully deserves his nominee, although I agree the film's popularity and her rising popularity helped. I also think that Keira Knightly did some great work this year. I would have loved to see Sienna Miller to get recognition.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/25/15 at 9:39am

BIRDMAN won the Producer's Guild Award which makes it suddenly the front-runner, it seems. Makes perfect sense, actually. BIRDMAN is just completely useless in every way, and you know how the Oscars just love that, and after last year's Serious Movie On A Serious Theme (12 YEARS A SLAVE) they're perfectly likely to give the Big Prize to an Empty Movie About Nothing At All -- BIRDMAN is this year's SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
Producers just LOVE them some BIRDMAN

[Bucky Builder]

Posted: 1/25/15 at 9:48am

Though Birdman won PGA, I still have a feeling Boyhood will go home with the main prize on Oscar night. AGI still has a chance at a Director win though.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/25/15 at 11:00am

I enjoyed Birdman ten times more than Boyhood.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 1/25/15 at 11:25am

Meh.

Birdman appealing to producers as a 'behind the scenes' production of a play where a number of things are going wrong. I get that appeal. Now, can it win big at SAG and can it make a substantial impact at BAFTA or the DGA? I think SAG is more probable, but I also think the Ensemble could be like American Hustle last year where the # 3 film with the most visible ensemble wins. So maybe this is where The Grand Budapest Hotel gets a big boost?

Let me just say Birdman is rare and when you think about it, should be extremely rare in the expanded field era of Best Picture nominees. No Best Picture winner since Ordinary People has won without so much as an Editing nomination.

AGI has always done well at the awards- Bardem got nominated for Biutiful for crissakes- but Linklater has some respect in corners of the Academy for his work on the Before films screenplays. Same for Wes Anderson who is also enjoying a breakthrough. One of those three is getting Original Screenplay. But it would be just plain too cheesy if all three got an award (AGI- Picture, Linklater- Director, and Anderson- Screenplay). It was weird enough last year when McQueen (and Pitt) got awards the same night as Cuaron and Spike Jonze.

The expanded field was more of a ploy to get more populist, audience-friendly films in the race to get more viewers and now it appears its biggest legacy was that it has turned into exactly what it was when there was a large field in the 1930s: A split of Best Picture and Best Director.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 1/25/15 at 12:15pm

"I enjoyed Birdman ten times more than Boyhood."

I'm certainly on the same team as Dramamama. If splitting the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director slows the Boyhood juggernaut just a little, and gives Inarritu his deserved award one way or another, I'm all for it.

[east side story]

Posted: 1/25/15 at 1:10pm

I too feel like the Oscar will go to Boyhood. If anything, Birdman's PGA win solidifies Keaton's win. Ever since American Sniper was released wide, there has been all too much chatter about Cooper taking the lead at the last minute. But that race is still sewn up. All four acting categories, I believe. But the PGA surprise definitely turns Best Picture into an actual race, which aside from last year, never happens.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 1/25/15 at 1:24pm

Mark Harris tweeted earlier today this:

Mark Harris @MarkHarrisNYC · 44m 44 minutes ago
I have actually heard a couple of AMPAS voters say "Give me 12 years and I could make Boyhood." But they didn't, did they?

Mark Harris @MarkHarrisNYC · 45m 45 minutes ago
Also, nobody "gave" Linklater 12 years. He made Boyhood for a pittance and directed seven other movies during its production.

@MarkHarrisNYC · 36m 36 minutes ago
So it's stunning to me to hear film professionals dismiss Boyhood as a stunt that benefited from special circumstances. Olympian pettiness

Mark Harris @MarkHarrisNYC · 19m 19 minutes ago
Consider the astonishing degree of difficulty in shaping a story that feels both planned and intuitive around the life of a growing boy. 1/2

Mark Harris @MarkHarrisNYC · 18m 18 minutes ago
That is what Linklater did in Boyhood, and it isn't a stunt; it's an artist working to meet a steep creative challenge with great care. 2/2

Now this could just be typical pre-Oscars panic. Like, the notion that Academy screenings of 12 Years a Slave were half-empty and that voters stated in interviews of their ballot that they didn't even see the film because they didn't want to feel 'depressed' or 'guilty', ultimately amounting to nothing. Or, it could mean something. Often jealousy of an artist's opportunity in what they made causes that film to be dismissed. 'I could've done that'- Except the only fictional, narrative filmmaker who did something like this in the realm, of capturing a child grow up into adulthood, was friggin' François Truffaut with the Antoine Doinel series. Just typical Academy pettiness, but perhaps there is something there in Boyhood being more respected than loved, and that respect also also doubters.