Best Picture
Winner: Interstellar
Other Nominees:
- Birdman
- Boyhood
- Gone Girl
- Whiplash
Best Popcorn Flick
Winner: Guardians of the Galaxy
Other Nominees:
- Captain America:
the Winter Soldier - Edge of Tomorrow
- The LEGO Movie
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- Big Hero 6
- How to Train Your Dragon 2
- The Tale of Princess Kaguya
- Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)
- David Fincher (Gone Girl)
- Christopher Nolan (Interstellar)
- Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
- Tom Hardy (Locke)
- Michael Keaton (Birdman)
- Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar)
Best Animated Feature
Winner: The LEGO Movie
Winner: The LEGO Movie
Other Nominees:
Best Director (a tie!)
Winners: Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Winners:
Alejandro G. Iñarritu (Birdman)
Alejandro G. Iñarritu (Birdman)
Other Nominees:
I couldn't leave one out. They both accomplished something that Hollywood thought was possible. Linklater used time devotion to tell a story in a whole different manner with the best kind of message to it, while Iñarritu used artistic illusions (one enormous take trick) to make the audience feel like they were apart of the experience. I also gave Interstellar the Best Picture award and I thought it would be bullshit to not have Boyhood or Birdman get one of the top 2 awards. Problem solved.
Best Actor
Winner: Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)
Other Nominees:
Best Actress
Winner: Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
- Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin)
- Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
- Reese Witherspoon (Wild)
- Shailene Woodley
(The Fault in Our Stars)
I'm not gonna lie, but I was very close to giving the award to Julianne Moore since she gave the best performance among any character with Alzheimer's that I've ever seen. In the end, Rosamund Pike deserved it more because first off, she's British and pulls off a great American character without breaking accent once. The second reason is that her character is ten times more complex and isn't suffering from a disease that the Oscar voters tend to vote for anyways. The last reason is that the better performances always seem to come from the villainous characters because it gives the actor more to provide instead of hold back like most of the heroic characters do (until the climax happens).
Best Supporting Actor
Winner: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
Other Nominees:
- Adam Driver (What If)
- Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
- John Leguizamo (Chef)
- Edward Norton (Birdman)
Once again, another villainous character gets awarded. I really did want to give it to Ethan Hawke since he was the best part about Boyhood for me, but J.K. Simmons knocked this one out of the park that it would feel VERY wrong not to award him for it.
Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Other Nominees:
- Laura Dern (The Fault in Our Stars)
- Kim Dickens (Gone Girl)
- Rene Russo (Nightcrawler)
- Emma Stone (Birdman)
When I saw Boyhood, I didn't see Patricia Arquette from Medium or any of her other known roles in this movie, I saw a struggling parent. That's the closest thing to real life I've seen in a performance that wasn't played by Ethan Hawke, the other great half of the movie. She obviously won this in a landslide, but the other nominees are still well deserving. I thought Kim Dickens and Rene Russo were very overlooked and I thought Laura Dern was nominated for the wrong movie. Thankfully the Academy got Emma Stone right, but sorry to say she just wasn't as good as Arquette in comparison. That's what not devoting a role for twelve years will do to you I guess? lol
Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Nightcrawler
Other Nominees:
- Birdman
- Boyhood
- Chef
- Locke
Nightcrawler for sure takes the top spot when it comes to originality. The other nominees are great, but this one felt the most refreshing.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: Gone Girl
Other Nominees:
- The Imitation Game
- Men, Women & Children
- What If
- Whiplash
It was almost a coin flip between Gone Girl and Whiplash because both writers adapted from their own material. I ended up going with Gone Girl in the end because there were more twists and fantastic written female characters we the audience definitely don't see much of today.
Best Cinematography
Winner: Birdman
Winner: Birdman
Other Nominees:
- Enemy
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Ida
- Interstellar
They all look great, but Birdman was a pretty obvious choice. Moving onto the next one already.
Best Production Design
Winner: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Other Nominees:
- Big Eyes
- Foxcatcher
- The Giver
- Snowpiercer
It might not seem like it, but this was actually a very hard decision for me to make. I was heavily debating between this and Snowpiercer from the way they make that train look. I eventually caved in and gave it to this because there were more sets and designs involved with this production. Plus it's a friggin Wes Anderson film for crying out loud!
Also for those questioning the Foxcatcher nomination, it had one of the best replicas of the Du Pont estate and wrestling rings that I've seen when comparing it to the original footage.
Also for those questioning the Foxcatcher nomination, it had one of the best replicas of the Du Pont estate and wrestling rings that I've seen when comparing it to the original footage.
Best Costume Design
Winner: The Giver
Other Nominees:
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Interstellar
- Maleficent
I think that due to the failure of this movie that its brilliant production was vastly overlooked. Even Harvey Weinstein who's the producer of this movie couldn't save it. Either way, I thought the costuming was really good when it came to the setting of a futuristic utopia. It's like they focused more on making the film look good instead of its screenplay or actors (with the exception of Jeff Bridges of course). I still liked the film for what it showed, but it really could've been much better. At least they got the costumes perfect.
Best Film Editing
Winner: Whiplash
Other Nominees:
- Nightcrawler
- The Raid 2
- Snowpiercer
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
Screw you movies of 2014! The fact that I had to pick only five nominees for Best Editing among MANY is excruciating! Thankfully, after seeing Whiplash's final sequence, I finally calmed down and declared it my winner. X-Men almost had it though with the Quicksilver sequence.
Best Sound
Winner: Godzilla
Other Nominees:
- Begin Again
- Fury
- Interstellar
- Whiplash
The roars and atomic breath sound effects still hold up after 8 months. Even though there wasn't much of Godzilla in the movie, it was still worth it the way they made him look and sound.
Best Visual Effects
Winner: Interstellar
Other Nominees:
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
- Godzilla
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
Pretty much any movie that uses practical effects for most of the movie gets an automatic win for me. I love that Christopher Nolan still respects old school filmmaking. My mind was blown when I first found out that the robot, TARS, was nearly all practical effects. Well deserved in this category for sure.
Best Makeup
Winner: Guardians of the Galaxy
Other Nominees:
- Foxcatcher
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Maleficent
- Snowpiercer
I always found that the Sci-Fi genre always seems to hire the best people in the Makeup department, and it really showed off in Guardians of the Galaxy. Foxcatcher almost had it though.
Best Score
Winner: Interstellar
Other Nominees:
- Birdman
- Gone Girl
- Jodorowsky's Dune
- Nightcrawler
This was the easiest pick among all the categories. Not only is this EASILY the best score of 2014, but probably the best score of the decade so far. This is Hans Zimmer at his best and probably most personal. When I first heard the music to the cornfield chase scene (which is presented in the video above), I was immediately hypnotized and awed by that sound of music. I listen to that track (along with nearly every other from the movie) at least once a week (sometimes once a day). This is like on John Williams scoring E.T. level of genius. I wouldn't be surprised if Christopher Nolan had to re-edit the film due to Zimmer's touching score like Spielberg did with the ending of E.T.
Best Song
Winner: Begin Again [Lost Stars]
Other Nominees:
- The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies
[The Last Goodbye] - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 [Yellow Flicker Beat]
- The LEGO Movie [Everything Is Awesome]
- Lucy [Sister Rust]
Every time John Carney makes a film, it just happens to have the best song of the year in it for me. First it was Once, now it's Begin Again. I like this one the most because it's the most poetic, and there's also other versions of the song performed in the movie which gives the characters the dilemma of which version sounds the most right. This version does of course, and that's why I'm giving it this award.
Best Ensemble
Winner: Birdman
Other Nominees:
- Begin Again
- Gone Girl
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Men, Women & Children
Another easy pick, giving that this is an actors movie after all. Having to perform 15 pages of script in one take for each scene of the movie sounds like a daunting task. Glad to see that Michael Keaton and his co-stars pulled it off perfectly.
Best Film Debut
Winner: Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
Winner: Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
Other Nominees:
- The Babadook (Jennifer Kent)
- Bad Words (Jason Bateman)
I wish there could've been more options for that year in this category, but I probably would've given this to Nightcrawler anyways. One hell of a great job for a first feature film.
Most Overrated
The Theory of Everything
Just for the record, I do not hate this movie. I think Stephen Hawking is an exceptional gentleman who deserves to have his story told from everything he struggled with and what he accomplished. I just thought the film was very dull in the second half and didn't make me want to stand up and clap for it in the end. The performances were good, it was well filmed, and even the above average score didn't emotionally impact me with what was going on in the movie. If you replaced the music in the movie with Hans Zimmer's Interstellar score, it wouldn't make much of a difference. It's still a good movie for what it could provide, but the nominations it's getting for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay?... no. I can't believe Eddie Redmayne could possibly win an Oscar for this in comparison to Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler who wasn't even nominated. It means to get in the Academy's club in winning, all you have to do is play someone physically handicapped, especially if that physically handicapped person is still alive today. I have massive respect for Stephen Hawking, and decent respect for this movie as well. Calling it one of the best of 2014 though seems pretty extreme in comparison to what else came out that year.
Most Underrated
Men, Women & Children
I honestly don't get why this movie was so hated if American Beauty was that much of a hit. It's like American Beauty for the next generation almost, and the audience missed the opportunity to wrap their minds around it. To be fair, it does address certain subjects that would be a little difficult to bring up in therapy even. It is also really dark on a Requiem for a Dream level, only the mental health is more at stake than physical health. Nevertheless, the film addresses the issues perfectly enough to understand, and it seemed like the attention span for most of the audience came up short. There were a lot of underrated movies of 2014 like Chef, Edge of Tomorrow, Bad Words, What If, Begin Again, Locke, and MANY others, but it was easy enough to list this as my most underrated movie because of the opportunities missed to discover what this movie really is. Now with the low rating on rotten tomatoes (since critics didn't get this either for some reason), it's just gonna be another ignored and forgotten piece of cinema that was made by that guy who made Juno, only he wanted to be "darker" with his films. When I hear that in times to come, I will say nothing but "bull fucking shit!".
My Most Guilty Pleasure
The Giver
To be fair, it did get plenty of things wrong, like making Meryl Streep's character too big a role; or making it seem really fast paced when it really didn't need to be; or turning the main characters from age 12 to age 17, pretty much nearly ruining the whole meaning of the book when it comes to discovering the true meaning of life! I digress though, because the movie did do plenty of stuff right as well. The actors were good with the roles they were given, the first half was completely in black and white like it was supposed to be, and the cinematography, sets and costumes were fantastic! It also was pretty entertaining to where I wasn't as bored as I thought I'd be. It's kind of funny on how I thought the talking scenes were less boring than the "action" scenes (when the whole movie should've been talking in the first place). I like this movie because it is beautiful looking and I hope to see more work by the people behind the scenes that aren't the writers, director, or producers especially. Overall, this movie is pretty all right if you're looking for some nice eye candy, which is what I look for when I'm bored.
Best Hero
Starlord
(Guardians of the Galaxy)
Some Guardians fans are probably shouting at me for not going with Groot or Rocket Racoon, but if your favorite character from the movie is the MAIN LEAD character, then he has to be a damn good protagonist to root for. A hero is great if he or she is funny, likable, kicks ass, charming/good looking (or both) and uses interactive pop culture references. Starlord does all that in his sleep, and that is why he is EASILY my top pick for Best Heroic character of 2014. Plus he uses a Walkman for his own entertainment. That's what already sold me in the first place. :)
Best Villain
Louis Bloom (Nightcrawler)
A character who is desperate for money but takes care of themselves very efficiently results in very good or very bad situations. That's what you see in Louis Bloom on screen. He gets too god at his job of night-crawling that he eventually alters the situations he films in order to get more money for the more accidents he films. He is very cutting edge, but also very polite to characters that decide to be on his side. He's so much of a villain that even the score of the movie is performed like you're supposed to be rooting for him, like HE IS the one who made the movie Nightcrawler. Such fun stuff.
Best Scene
Winner: Whiplash [Final Sequence]
Other Nominees:
- Begin Again [Dan's Epiphany]
- Interstellar [Cornfield Chase]
- Nightcrawler [Montage]
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- [Quicksilver Time Sequence]
I can't really explain too much why. You just have to watch the movie for it to impact you the way it did me. If you already have seen the movie, all I can ask is, WASN'T THAT A GREAT ENDING?!
Special Category
(Best Documentary)
Winner: Life Itself
Other Nominees:
- Citizenfour
- Jodorowsky's Dune
I will say that it was quite the year for documentaries, even though I only saw three of them. I can already be sure that a documentary about my favorite film critic of all time would've easily won this category anyways, had I even saw ten times more. It's great to see that Steve James still has it in him after making Hoop Dreams 20 years ago. Glad he could make one about the guy who honored that film as well.
Best Quote
Terrence Fletcher: "There are no two words
in the English language more harmful than good job"
(Whiplash)
There's a back story that his character tells about someone in the movie, which is why that quote makes so much sense after hearing it. It's what I consider to be the best quote because it makes me wonder if that's more truthful than I want it to be. Do I want it to even be true at all? It makes for a whole debating topic that would have so many different pros and cons to it. It also makes for a great proposal from the character of Fletcher, with him asking if they want to step into his world or not. I can't tell if it would make me a dark person or not by using this quote if I want someone to succeed at something. What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment