Best Pictures #17: 2015 (88th) Academy Awards, My Pick for Best Picture

by A.J.

2015 (88^th) Academy Awards, My Pick for Best Picture

The 88^th Academy Awards for films released in 2015 was held on February 28^th, 2016 and the night went mostly as expected but still had a few surprises. The 2016 ceremony was mired in the controversy that became known as “#OscarsSoWhite.” From the moment the full list of nominees was announced the two became inextricably linked. No one could mention one without the other, and unfortunately the controversy was completely valid: for the second year in a row there was an incredible lack of diversity among the nominees, especially in the acting categories where all of the nominees were white. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced changes to the requirements for membership in hopes to increase member diversity. What, if any, effect the changes may have won’t be seen until the next batch of nominees are announced in January of next year.  

The eight Best Picture nominees for 2015 covered a wide range of subjects and genres but still encompassed many elements favored by the Academy. The nominees included: three movies based on true stories (Bridge of Spies, Spotlight, The Big Short) and one based on a novel which is partly based on a true story (The Revenant); a sweet, sentimental romance (Brooklyn); an independent, character heavy drama (Room); a thrilling adventure in a faraway land (The Martian); and, most surprisingly, an epic, big budget action movie (Mad Max: Fury Road). Room was the only nominee set in the present day. All of the other Best Picture nominees are set either in the past or the future. The Big Short was the most topical of the nominees with its events having taken place most recently (2005-2008) and the effects of its subject (the housing market collapse and resulting recession) still being felt by many, many people. It’s an entertaining and important film, and I’m interested to see how it will or will not hold up in the coming years. I think that despite winning no awards, the feel good, thrilling science fiction film The Martian will be a movie that audiences will re-watch and rediscover in the future.

Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Actor for The Revenant and while I’m glad he has an Oscar (he’s one of my favorite actors after all), I’m disappointed it’s for a simple one note performance in a rather unenjoyable movie. Alejandro G. Iñarrìtu won Best Director for The Revenant making him the third director to have back to back Oscar wins. The other two directors are John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Joseph Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950). I don’t feel like I’m going out on a limb when I say that Iñarrìtu, when included with the likes of John Ford and Joseph Mankewicz, pales in comparison. The Revenant is a technically well-made film, but that is all it has to offer. The films that Ford and Mankiewicz won for are true classics. However, Iñarrìtu will now forever be part of a very small club.

The big surprise of the 88^th Academy Awards involved the big award itself, Best Picture. Spotlight won the Oscar upsetting The Revenant, which seemed as sure as a sure thing can be. The Revenant had won several awards leading up to the Oscars and the odds were heavily in its favor. However, it is a film that no one seemed to enjoy (I don’t recall reading any wholly positive reviews of the film). In the end, the Academy’s preferential ballot may have worked against The Revenant since the second choice of the voters can add up and outweigh the apparent first choice. Spotlight does have the hallmarks of a Best Picture winner (ensemble cast, true story, an important and serious subject) but this shouldn’t diminish its accomplishments or its win. It is undeniably an important film but it is also a solid, well-made, and riveting thriller. Spotlight won the first award of the night, Original Screenplay, and the last award of the night, Best Picture, and nothing in between making it the first film since The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) to win Best Picture with only one other award (the other win for that movie was also for writing).

Spotlight is a great film and I’m glad it won, but my vote for Best Picture would go to…

My Pick for Best Picture 2015: Mad Max: Fury Road

If I picked the winner for Best Picture of 2015 I would have to pick the full throttle feminist action film Mad Max: Fury Road. As much as I loved this movie when I saw it in theaters back in May of last year, I would have thought it crazy that this movie would have been my pick for Best Picture or that it would have even been nominated. Fury Road took home 6 Oscars for the "technical categories" (Editing, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, Production Design, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing), all of which were well deserved wins. I’ve seen this movie three times so far and each time there is something new to notice or appreciate. This is an era when anything visually spectacular in a movie is automatically assumed to be done by a computer, but this is not the case with Fury Road. The stunts performed in this movie are performed by real people doing exactly what it looks like they are doing. The flame throwing guitar is completely real and works as a guitar and a flamethrower. The War Boys swinging on poles like pendulums to attack our heroes are stunt men really swinging on poles. The stunt team worked on perfecting this stunt to the point that it was safe enough to perform on moving vehicles. Director George Miller (who had my vote for Best Director) was even able to convince Tom Hardy to shoot a few takes on top of the swinging pole, despite his fear of heights.

All of these practical effects and stunts foster believability in this wild, post-apocalyptic world. Max and Furiousa are not superheroes; you believe everything you see these characters do. All of the characters in Fury Road are bound by the laws of physics. They hurt and bleed and have personalities that the movie showcases instead of glossing over. The setting may be a dystopian fantasy and the genre is action, but this is a movie about people. Charlize Theron was not nominated for any awards for her performance as Imperator Furiosa, but it is a great performance nonetheless that carries this movie and gives every action importance. As good as Tom Hardy is as Max, this film would not work without Charlize Theron in the lead.

Best Pictures #15: 2015 (88th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, The Martian

by A.J.

2015 (88^th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Martian

In real life, space travel is a very dangerous undertaking, but more often than not everything goes as planned. In movies, however, when characters venture into outer space, disaster is inevitable. I can’t think of any movies set in space where something does not go wrong. The Martian is no different in that respect, but in many other ways it is quite exceptional.

In the first moments of the film, the crew of Ares 3 must make an emergency evacuation from Mars as a dangerous storm heads toward their mission site. In the midst of the storm, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is struck by flying debris and thrown far from the escape vehicle. Presuming Watney to be dead, the rest of the crew launches and begins their trip back to Earth; Watney awakes to find himself injured and alone on Mars. He makes his way back to the mission’s living habitat and immediately starts figuring out how he is going to survive on a lifeless planet with very limited supplies until the next Ares mission arrives or a rescue mission can be sent, either of which would not be possible for at least three or four years.    

Though Damon is all alone for the scenes on Mars, The Martian is not entirely a one man show like the survival films Cast Away or All is Lost. Once Watney is able to reestablish communications with NASA and let them know he is alive, we see the scientists and administrators at NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) rally to find solutions to keep Watney alive and get him home. The team on Earth is made up of a great ensemble of familiar and lesser known actors including Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Kristen Wiig, Mackenzie Davis, and Benedict Wong. We also check in with the other five members of the Ares 3 crew: Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Michael Peña, and Jessica Chastain. Jeff Daniels, as the head of NASA, and Jessica Chastain, as Ares 3’s commander, are both stand-outs playing competent, pragmatic, and decisive leaders. Between his performances in The Martian and in Steve Jobs as Apple president John Sculley (for which he should’ve received a Supporting Actor nomination), Daniels had a pretty good 2015. Chastain, no stranger to playing strong, badass characters, might be a bit young to be a mission commander, but she is completely believable as a good leader with natural authority. I know that if I were going to Mars, I’d feel secure with her as my mission commander.

What sets The Martian apart from other science fiction movies is its heavy emphasis on science. It is based on a novel by Andy Weir which began as a blog in which Weir would present a problem facing an astronaut stranded on Mars, then research and post a solution. If one of his readers noticed something was incorrect or just seemed amiss, he would go back and fix the inaccuracy. The film adaptation’s scientific accuracy has received the approval of NASA’s director of planetary science, Jim Green, and for science enthusiasts (a.k.a. geeks) like myself, this is very exciting. However, whether or not everything in the film is 100% accurate is not as important as how problem solving and the scientific method are portrayed. Each life-threatening problem that Watney faces on Mars is entirely likely and the solutions are plausible. There’s no moment where a character just tries something dangerous and hopes for the best—all the dangerous behavior in The Martian is backed up by meticulous calculations. I’ve never heard so many lines in a movie about how the math “checks out.”

Perhaps most important of all, and most accurate to real scientific problem solving, is how Watney’s rescue is a team effort. Science is about solving a problem in the best and most efficient way possible, and the characters in The Martian know that means putting several minds to work and accepting help. Watney solves the problems of living on Mars with the help of the people at NASA and JPL and uses the things left behind by his fellow crew members to help him survive (like the wood from a crucifix to start a fire). In an act of international cooperation between scientists—not governments—the head of the Chinese Space Agency volunteers their rocket booster to help send Watney a delivery of food and supplies. And it is a young, eccentric scientist working in Astrodynamics for another NASA mission (Donald Glover) who comes up with the daring plan to get Watney home.

Matt Damon has no one to act against in his scenes on Mars, but he still gives an engaging, lively performance that fills out all of his scenes and keeps the movie’s pace flowing steadily. Through his video logs he indirectly addresses the audience which is an obvious, but effective, way to engage viewers and let us know what Watney is doing and why. His scenes on Mars are compelling and funny, too—demonstrating that having a positive attitude is important to persevering through any life-or-death situation. The Martian caught a lot of flak from critics for being submitted to the Golden Globe Awards as a comedy, but it is a pretty funny movie. Watney makes jokes and wisecracks throughout the film, which Damon is great at delivering. Perhaps in addition to raising interest in science, The Martian will also make people realize that science fiction does not always have to be dark and dour.

The Martian presents science fiction in a way we rarely see done successfully: as a non-esoteric, engaging blend of real science and entertainment. I loved the pro-science message of The Martian and I hope it does get people more interested in science and the universe. I enjoyed The Martian when I saw it in theaters, but when I watched it again recently…I loved it. I wish this movie were a stronger contender for Best Picture and I think I’ll always be surprised that Ridley Scott did not receive a nomination for Best Director. Every shot of The Martian brims with serious, honest effort and execution and at the helm is Ridley Scott. Damon managed to snag an Oscar nomination for Best Actor which he is unfortunately unlikely to win, but which he completely deserves.

In Interstellar, my favorite movie of 2014, Damon played an astronaut whom others believed to represent “the best of us;” however, when put to the test, he demonstrated the worst sides of human nature. The characters in The Martian, are truly the best of us because they are able to put aside selfish impulses and rise to the occasion when a fellow human is in need. It is an ideal vision of NASA, but an immensely satisfying one. Everyone snaps into action, puts their brains to work, and sets aside self-interests—even if it means accepting help from other countries--and works together. If there ever is a manned mission to Mars, I imagine that it will bear many similarities to the expedition presented in The Martian; and hopefully, unlike the fictional mission, the real mission will be disaster-free. However, if you were stuck on Mars, you’d want people like the characters in The Martian working to keep you alive and get you home.

Nominees: Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Mark Huffam, Producers

Director: Ridley Scott

Screenplay: Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir

Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels

Production Companies: Scott Free Productions, Kinberg Genre, TSG Entertainment

Distributor: 20^th Century Fox

Release Date: October 2^nd, 2015

Total Nominations: 7, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Matt Damon, Adapted Screenplay-Drew Goddard, Production Design-Arthur Max, Celia Bobak, Sound Mixing-Paul Massey, Mark Taylor, Mac Ruth, Sound Editing-Oliver Tarney, Visual Effects-Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence, Steven Warner