Best Pictures #39: 2016 Academy Awards, My Pick for Best Picture

by A.J.

Best Pictures #39: 2016 Academy Awards

My Pick for Best Picture

The 2017 Academy Awards ceremony for films released in 2016, held on February 26th, will go down in history for its unprecedented, weird, wild twist ending. La La Land, with its 14 nominations, was the front runner in nearly every category according to betting markets, critics, insiders, and amateur prognosticators. The night started out with some surprises, most notably Hacksaw Ridge winning two Oscars for Editing and Sound Mixing--giving veteran sound mixer Kevin O'Connell his first win after a record 21 nominations without a win. Though it took home the most awards of any film at the 89th Academy Awards with a total of six, La La Land unexpectedly underperformed and, most surprising of all, did not take home Best Picture.

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were the presenters of the Best Picture award at the end of the night. Beatty opened the envelope looked at the card, looked confused, then checked the empty envelope again, hesitated for a moment, then checked the envelope again. After a long awkward moment, he handed the card to Dunaway who read: La La Land. Two of the three producers of La La Land had gotten through their acceptance speeches and the third was about to speak when there was commotion on stage. The expressions of people on stage in the background were of confusion and disbelief. It was La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz that announced to everyone that, in fact, Moonlight had won Best Picture. Some of the La La Land cast and crew on stage were visibly, and justifiably, upset, but Horowitz was the epitome of class and dignity and graciously turned over the Oscar to the producers of Moonlight. 

The accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers counts all the of Oscar ballots and tabulates the winners, which are placed in the official envelopes and put in a locked briefcase handcuffed to a representative from the firm. For practical reasons, there are two sets of envelopes. Should anything happen and an envelope is missing, there is a backup. A close up freeze frame of the envelope in both Beatty and Dunaway's hands reveals that category on the envelope is: Actress in a Leading Role.

They were simply handed the wrong envelope. Beatty said that he opened it, it said "Emma Stone-La La Land" and he didn't know what to do, so when he showed it to Faye Dunaway she just read the name of the movie. Host Jimmy Kimmel tried graciously to take all the blame for the mix up saying that it was his fault and he won't be back next year. In reality, Kimmel was one of the best and liveliest hosts the Oscars has had in quite some time.

Early on in the night I thought: wouldn't it be nice if an independent film with no big name stars, about a troubled gay black man wins over the big Hollywood musical about the greatness of Hollywood? Then it didn't happen and La La Land won...then it did happen! I would not have voted for La La Land, but it would by no means be the Best Picture winner with which I most disagreed. It is a fine movie, but, frankly, I've seen it before, and I've seen it done better before. La La Land is simply another musical. Moonlight is filmmaking that approaches poetry. It takes a step back from the events happening to its main character, Chiron, allowing you to experience what he is experiencing. Moonlight is an art film, but it is open with its emotions and thus engaging. It is a special film that I've grown to like more and more.  

I'm very glad that Moonlight won, but it is still not the way I would cast my vote...

My Pick for Best Picture of 2016: Arrival

I didn't respond to any of the 2016 Best Picture nominees the way I responded to Arrival. It's rare that a science fiction film actually focuses on science instead of using the genre as a more interesting background for an action/fantasy story-- exactly what is the science in Star Wars? And, too often, when a science fiction film does focus on science it is to the detriment of the human aspect of the story. This is not the case with Arrival. It is a science fiction film brimming with pathos and thought provoking ideas.

There's so much to enjoy in Arrival: a new take on alien invaders, solid and even restrained filmmaking, and an excellent performance from Amy Adams. I was just as moved when I saw this film a second time as I was the first time I saw it in theaters. Perhaps the main reason for that is Adams' performance. The written language of the aliens is inventive and intriguing, as are the ideas it raises about language and time. The ideas it presents are interesting to ponder and move the story forward. Arrival is a serious science fiction film but it is also very entertaining. Genre conventions and references to other sci-fi movies are in the background, not the foreground, letting audiences enjoy this movie without constantly being reminded of other films in the same genre. Director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Heisserer have crafted something poetic and profound.

Best Pictures #33: 2016 (89th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, La La Land

by A.J.

Best Pictures #33: 2016 (89^th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
La La Land

La La Land is one of best reviewed, most lauded, and most loved movies of 2016. It has already won several awards and is very likely to win more. It received 14 Oscar nominations, tying the record set by All About Eve (1950), though All About Eve’s 14 nominations was done with fewer categories, which seems slightly more impressive. La La Land is the front runner to take home the Best Picture Oscar. Let’s get one thing straight: I like La La Land. I might even really like it, but I did not love it, at least not the way everyone else did. 

The plot is simple enough: Struggling jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) meets and falls for aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone). Together they sing and dance through some of the loveliest scenes of Los Angeles on film. This is a side of L.A. not often seen movies. The center of American filmmaking is most often the setting of action and crime movies or it is meant to be a nonintrusive background. In La La Land, Los Angeles is stylized and romanticized. It is a city of purple sunsets, cool, blue nights, and hills and canyons and highways for song and dance numbers. I would not say that Los Angeles is a character because sets aren’t characters, but it is at the forefront of La La Land.

It’s no surprise that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have good chemistry; this is their third movie together after all. Each does a fine job in their respective roles. They sing and dance well enough, though they sing and dance like nonprofessionals that have been taught specific, not too challenging choreography. Each has a signature song: Sebastian has the melancholy “City of Stars” and Mia’s “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” serves as the film’s climax. Both songs have been nominated for the Original Song Oscar.

La La Land takes place in a daydream world and writer-director Damien Chazelle seeks to transport the audience to this wonderful musical world. He succeeds, to a point. La La Land is meant to be a loving, enthusiastic tribute to the musicals of the 1950’s and 40’s. The misstep it makes is this: instead of taking inspiration from the great musicals of the past to create a new, fresh take, it simply lifts from and imitates those films instead. Action and science fiction are the genres most often criticized for being derivative, but musicals can be derivative too. There are numerous visual references to other musicals (enough for a side by side video comparison). Some are indirect: the bold, bright color pallet of costumes and sets is reminiscent of the musicals of Jacques Demy. Others are more direct: Gosling jumps up on a lamppost just like Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain. Unfortunately, since I’ve already seen most of the movies La La Land references (Jacques Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherourg, Young Girls of Rochefort; Fred Astaire musicals: Shall We Dance, The Band Wagon, Funny Face; and, most of all, Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, and every other Gene Kelly musical), subtly and not so subtly, it comes off less as a tribute and more as a hollow imitation.

There’s a lot to like in La La Land. It’s a nice story about aspiring performers falling in love and trying to achieve their dreams. From the pink and purple sunsets to Stone’s bright, yellow dress, La La Land is filled with bold and vibrant solid colors that cannot help but catch the eye. The songs are pleasant and enjoyable, even if you don’t like jazz (and I don’t). Some of the musicals numbers are very visually appealing—I’m thinking of Sebastian and Mia’s dance at the observatory specifically—but others never open up to be as grand as I was expecting. The opening number plays like generic tableau of what someone that hasn’t seen a musical thinks a musical is like. I suppose I just can’t help but be reminded of the classic musicals with undeniably better performers and songs and wonder why I’m not just watching one of those again. I didn’t get the feeling of unabashed joy and love and wonder that I get whenever I watch Truffaut’s Day For Night, Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain, or even Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (all about performers in the entertainment business). But still, I enjoyed this movie.

Nominees: Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, producers

Director: Damien Chazelle

Screenplay: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend

Production Companies: Black Label Media, TIK Films Limited, Impostor Pictures, Gilbert Films, Marc Platt Productions

Distributor: Summit Entertainment

Release Date: December 9^th, 2016

Total Nominations: 14, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Damien Chazelle, Screenplay-Damien Chazelle, Actor-Ryan Gosling, Actress-Emma Stone, Cinematography-Linus Sandgren, Editing-Tom Cross, Costume Design-Mary Zophres, Production Design- David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (set decoration), Sound Editing- Ai Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou, Sound Mixing- Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, Steven Morrow, Original Score-Justin Hurwitz, Original Song-Audition (The Fools Who Dream): music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Original Song-City of Stars: music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul