Oscar Nominations 2015

• 15 Jan 2015
• Posted by Christy
•   Uncategorized

First of all, I’m not sure why I care so much. I said this to my husband this morning after the Academy Award nominations came out and I was thoroughly worked up over how terrible they were. I’m not sure why any of us care so much, actually. Maybe it’s because we see movies to get lost in them and end up becoming emotionally invested in them. Maybe it’s just fun to make predictions and be right. In theory, it should be satisfying enough to see a film and be dazzled or touched or provoked or whatever. It should be about the art, not the congratulatory hardware.

Still, here we are on Hollywood’s Biggest Morning, waking up at 5:30 a.m. Pacific time, analyzing and agonizing over what went wrong and what went right. I have a few thoughts but then must dash off to write a review of “The Wedding Ringer.” We still have January releases to contend with, after all.

SELMA: It scored a well-deserved best picture nomination and one for Common and John Legend’s original song, “Glory.” But that is not nearly enough for this powerful, beautifully acted and passionately made picture. Ava DuVernay belongs in that best-director category — and she would have made history as the first female filmmaker of color. And it’s unfathomable that David Oyelowo didn’t get a best-actor nomination for his searing and sensitive portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He tore that role up but he also found the quiet humanity in this iconic figure. I’d like to think the paltry number of nominations had more to do with a late release date and a lack of screeners than an institutional racism and sexism within this extremely white, extremely male voting body. But it doesn’t look good. Maybe this will inspire more folks to go see it, though.

THE LEGO MOVIE: The biggest stunner of all and the one that made the Unikitty in me want to explode with rage. Heading into this morning, “The Lego Movie” looked like the favorite to WIN the Oscar for best animated feature. It didn’t even receive a nomination. Nothing about this makes sense. How is it possible that this gorgeous, detailed, lively, funny, crowd-pleasing and affirming film isn’t one of the five best animated features of the year? Was it just too different aesthetically — too edgy, too innovative? Did the brief mix of live action at the end throw people off? It did earn a nomination for best original song, though: the now-ironically titled “Everything Is Awesome.”

LIFE ITSELF: Steve James’ look at the life and last days of Roger Ebert, based on Ebert’s autobiography of the same name, seemed like a shoo-in for the documentary feature category. It’s resonated with audiences worldwide, earned rave reviews and drew strong ratings when it aired earlier this month on CNN. It’s a well-made and intimate look at a man who has influenced so many of us, one who remains a revered and adored figure among anyone who loves film. So not seeing “Life Itself” listed among the five nominees was indeed a shocker. But interestingly, “Finding Vivian Maier,” co-directed by Gene Siskel’s nephew, Charlie, did receive a best-documentary nomination. The rivalry remains strong in the afterlife.

BEST ACTOR: As I mentioned earlier, Oyelowo should be in this race.So should Jake Gyllenhaal, doing the best work of his life as a supremely creepy TV news videographer in “Nightcrawler.” Instead, we get Bradley Cooper, who is admittedly very good in “American Sniper” and earns his third consecutive nomination following “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle.” We also get Steve Carell, who was chilling in a rare dramatic turn as John DuPont in “Foxcatcher,” a movie that was too chilly as a whole. (Carell’s nose also got nominated in the hair and makeup category.) It was an extremely tight year. There are a good dozen actors who belonged in this race. The other three who did make it — Michael Keaton in “Birdman,” Eddie Redmayne in “The Theory of Everything” and Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Imitation Game” — have been major players all along.

SPEAKING OF “FOXCATCHER:” The film’s director, Bennett Miller, surprisingly received a nomination this morning. I’ve enjoyed his previous films — “Capote” and “Moneyball” — but this one just felt too emotionally detached, even though it’s based on a dramatic, real-life story. Miller takes the spot Clint Eastwood earned at the Directors Guild nominations for “American Sniper”; otherwise, the Oscars and the DGAs are aligned, as they so often are. And as usual, they are all men: Besides Miller, there’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (“Birdman”), Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”), Wes Anderson (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) and Morten Tyldum (“The Imitation Game”).

AND SPEAKING OF MEN: They’re the subjects of all eight of this year’s best-picture nominees: “American Sniper,” “Birdman,” “Boyhood,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game,” “Selma,” “The Theory of Everything” and “Whiplash.” And all but one of those, “Selma,” are about white men.

AND SPEAKING OF WHITE PEOPLE IN GENERAL: Every single acting nominee is white. All 20 of them across all four categories. There hasn’t been this complete lack of diversity since 1998. Way to shake things up, Academy.

I’M SORRY, WHAT WAS THAT?:  “Interstellar” earned nominations for both its sound mixing and editing? I couldn’t hear what you were saying, the music was too loud. (The overpowering score earned Hans Zimmer yet another Oscar nomination, by the way.)

AND YET, “IDA”: The subtly powerful Polish drama “Ida” from director and co-writer Pawel Pawlikowski was a lock for the foreign-language category. I was pleased to see it make it in there, but it also received a surprising nomination for its exquisite black-and-white cinematography from Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal. Every single frame is a work of art. This is my favorite nomination of the day. But! They’ll probably lose to Emmanuel Lubezki for his daredevil work on “Birdman.” This means my hero, Roger Deakins, also will lose once again — for the 12th time — for his dramatic work on “Unbroken,” which is the best part of the whole film.

AND “FEAST”: The adorable little movie that plays before “Big Hero 6” got a much-deserved nomination for best animated short. “Feast” does so much in such a small amount of time — which is appropriate given that its subject, a Boston terrier, is the kind of dog who thinks he’s much bigger than he really is. Now, maybe I’m a tad biased because we are the proud human companions of a Boston terrier ourselves, but this movie was a complete charmer. It also left me with tears streaming down my face and my 5-year-old son in my lap wondering what the hell was wrong with me. Go find it.

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: And finally, after all this bitching, I’m going to end on a positive by noting that this was a great day for Texas filmmakers. Linklater and Anderson — both born in Houston, with Linklater remaining a major force in Austin — scored their first best-picture and best-director nominations. This is sort of mind-boggling given that they’ve established themselves as such important, singular voices over the past couple decades. So maybe there’s some reason to celebrate, after all — with a Shiner Bock, even.