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 

Best Pictures #12: 2015 (88th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee, The Big Short (2015)

by A.J.

2015 (88^th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Big Short (2015)

The Big Short is a sharp comedy that assembles a strong cast to tackle an important, but complicated true story. It stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt, but the actors share little screen time with each other. In fact, Bale’s storyline does not cross paths with any of the others. Bale plays Dr. Mark Burry, an eccentric fund manager whose bosses don’t take seriously because he wears shorts, goes barefoot in his office, and gets his hair trimmed at Supercuts. In spite of his appearance, Burry is smart enough to figure out, in 2005, that the housing market is headed for disaster…and that there is a way to profit from the impending collapse. Ryan Gosling, as Deutsche Bank bond salesman Jared Vennett, most closely resembles the stereotype of a slick Wall Street executive, but is still seen as an outsider by his co-workers; he is also our narrator. He partners up with Mark Baum, played by Steve Carell, another hedge fund manager and Wall Street outsider who is trying to maintain independence while working within the system and dealing with his loathing for the Wall Street way. He and his team (Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, and Jeremy Strong) also notice the housing bubble about to burst and see a way to make a profit. John Magaro and Finn Wittrock play two young investors from Colorado who are eager to make it big—and move their hedge fund out of their garage—so they seek out the help of a retired banker, contentedly approaching hermit-hood, played by Brad Pitt. There are good performances from the ensemble all around, but only Bale snagged an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I didn’t think that there was a clear stand out of cast, but I was impressed at how close all the actors came to going over the top without actually go over.

The Big Short has to explain a lot of dense, complicated exposition about credit default swaps, synthetic CDO’s, bonds, and other things that people take college classes to understand and finds some interesting ways to do that, some more effective than others. Gosling’s character tells the audience that explaining financial stuff can be boring and complicated, so in order to keep our interest we are shown scenes of celebrities explaining clearly and simply rather dense concepts. All of those expository segments are quick and fun and liven up the movie, in addition to actually explaining bonds and synthetic CDO’s. The first of these scenes, Margot Robbie in a bubble bath drinking champagne, is the least effective because unlike the segments with Anthony Bourdain making fish soup and Selena Gomez playing blackjack, Robbie’s actions and setting don’t help to illustrate the thing she is explaining. Several characters break the fourth wall and address the audience directly, sometimes explaining that a scene didn’t exactly happen the same way in real life; more often they tell us that a ridiculous, unbelievable thing really did happen.

Carell’s character is one most likely to strike a chord with audiences because his loathing for Wall Street turns to outrage when he uncovers the stupidity, corruption, and fraud rampant among the big banks and the complete lack of concern for how these actions will affect the country and the world. Carrell is also not afraid to say as much to the people he meets, no matter their standing, or even interrupt a speech at a conference with an annoying, but completely reasonable and legitimate point. He really did that, Gosling assures us. We can like these characters, despite that their goal is to profit from the collapse of the U.S. economy, because each one has a scene where they try explaining what they’ve discovered and are ignored by the people who should be most concerned. We can’t help but root for these guys because that is what we are used to doing when characters in a movie are smart or insightful, but are ignored by the stuffy, arrogant old guard. Pitt’s jaded ex-banker makes a point to damper the excitement of his young protégés by telling them that they “just bet against the American economy;” if they’re right, they will profit greatly, but many people will lose their jobs and homes as well.

Director Adam McKay has received an Oscar nomination for his direction of The Big Short and commentators cannot help but point out that this the same director who made the broad comedies Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. The Big Short is different in tone than his previous films, but it is ultimately still a comedy despite its serious and true subject matter. There are some stylistic choices in this film that didn’t quite work for me. There are montages of images from pop culture—a rap video, people buying iPhones, etc. that are meant to show what American culture was obsessed with while the economy was beginning to crack and crumble, but felt more like a failed passage-of-time montage. I understood the purpose, but I didn’t feel the intended effect. In a film where actors will look right at the audience and explain what everything means, these montages are the one thing which are not given a clear definition or purpose. Another thing that bothered me must be mentioned, minor though it is: the multitude of bad wigs. It seems like each actor was made to pick out a wig and apply it themselves. Pitt’s beard, real or not, looks like a wig on his face.

What The Big Short does well is deliver facts about an incredibly important and unfortunate chapter of American history in a high energy, entertaining movie; but it never gives us more fun than frustration over the absurdities which hold up the American economy. The Big Short at times feels like an episode of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which a fairly average person is confronted by an absurd, bizarre character or situation and can’t understand how this could be happening. Adding to the absurdity and frustration is that we already know the results; so when, as the perfect sour cherry on top, Gosling tells us that nobody learned anything and nothing changed, it comes as no surprise. The same material in The Big Short is covered in the documentary Inside Job (2010), which is a sharp, rage-inducing look at the financial collapse which also explains clearly and simply what happened and why. Inside Job won the Academy Award for Best Documentary and should be sought out by anyone who hasn’t seen it yet; however, if I ever want a refresher on the hows and whys of the 2008 financial collapse, I will revisit The Big Short. A little levity–and seeing characters share my repulsed reaction to the behavior of the banks– goes a long way to help digest such a stomach churning material. 

Nominees: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Producers

Director: Adam McKay

Screenplay: Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, based on the book by Michael Lewis

Cast: Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling

Production Companies: Plan B Entertainment, Regency Entertainment

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Release Date: December 11^th, 2015

Total Nominations: 5, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Adam McKay, Supporting Actor-Christian Bale, Adapted Screenplay-Charles Randolph, Editing-Hank Corwin