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.

Countdown to the Oscars: The Directors

I've been listening to interviews done by Terry Gross of "Fresh Air" with the five filmmakers nominated for Best Director in this year's Academy Awards - Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman, and Quentin Tarantino. After hearing each director discuss his or her films I realized that these five are a very diverse group, and not simply because they include a woman (the fourth one ever nominated for directing) and an African-American (only the second ever nominated).

There's a range of actual experience and body of work. Cameron and Bigelow are industry veterans who have both been directing major films since the 80s. Cameron has already won an Oscar for directing Titanic. On the other end of the experience spectrum, Jason Reitman has only made three films. However, this is his second nomination for Best Director; Reitman was previously nominated in 2007 for directing Juno. Lee Daniels has directed only two films after previously working as a producer and casting director.

Cameron, Reitman, and Tarantino are writer-directors, in fact Tarantino and Reitman are both nominated for screenwriting awards this year. However, their writing styles are quite different. Tarantino is known for his dense and witty dialogue. His signature scene is one like the tavern scene in Inglourious Basterds: several characters gathered around a table engaged in a lengthy conversation touching on pop culture tidbits, sociological insights, and intellectual one-upsmanship. Though Cameron is a writer, his films are known more for their technical merits than deft dialogue. In fact, that is a criticism leveled at the Oscar-nominated Avatar - the visuals are great, but the story sucks.

But to really get a sense of the diversity of this field, just look at the types of films for which they are best known. Cameron specializes in big-budget epics, often in the sci-fi/fantasy realm, such as The Abyss, Titanic, and Avatar. He seems uninterested in depicting things as they are in the real world; his films are total escapes into new realities. Bigelow has also become known for action, but, unlike Cameron's, her films are usually based in real-world dramas like the cops and surfers of Point Break or the bomb-defusing soldiers of The Hurt Locker.

In the two films he has directed, and in those he has produced, Daniels seems to gravitate toward dramas built upon the human relationships between people on the fringes of society. He does not shy away from the uglier sides of life. Reitman, on the other hand, seems to specialize in comedy/dramas about middle class America. In contrast to the often harsh and gritty images of a Daniels film, Reitman's films have an almost artificial sheen. There is something bright and clean about them, despite subject matter (teen pregnancy, tobacco lobbyists, unemployment) which is usually topical and true-to-life.

Tarantino seems in his own category entirely because his films are so identifiably "Quentin Tarantino films." He is drawn to subjects one could arguably call low-brow - heists, small-time gangsters, kung fu fighting. His influences range from Hollywood classics to cult favorites and exploitation films. And as I have already mentioned, he is famous for his dialogue; it is a dominant element in any Tarantino film.

So what makes the "best" director? Is it the effective use of groundbreaking technical innovations, a unique cinematic style, or the ability to achieve harrowing realism? Or, is it the person who directed the best film? When the choices are as varied as this year it is hard to pick one. I'll be making my predictions soon, and then we'll see if the Academy agrees.

You can listen to the "Fresh Air" interviews here.

BONUS: If you are wondering how Academy members choose the best sound editing (and aren't we all?), Slate.com has prepared this handy video primer. Check out this one for a look at film editing.