Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014): Written and directed by Wed Anderson.  Starring: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Léa Seydoux, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, Tony Revolori.  Running Time: 99 minutes. 

Rating: 4/4

            When looking at the general body of Wes Anderson’s work, it’s all too easy to see his strange mix of the outlandish and the dark as simply the strange, meaningless byproduct of a person too caught up in his own fantastical whimsy to be able to piece together something of genuine substance or deeper emotional importance.  And without a doubt, his methods and styles of telling his tremendously strange tales lend themselves to such misinterpretation, making no effort to bring uninitiated newcomers in on the joke.  Which is, for me, tremendously unfortunate, because when I look beyond the unabashed silliness in his movies, I find a treasure trove of interpretation, symbolism, allegory, and philosophical commentary that is clearly the product of a piercingly intelligent and sharply organized mind, albeit a partially insane one.  This became clear to me after seeing Anderson’s previous film, Moonrise Kingdom (which I still consider to be a minor masterpiece), and this impression has only been strengthened by his newest contribution to the world, The Grand Budapest Hotel.  

            The story begins in the future (relative to the main plot), working its way backward before skipping forward again.  A young girl, all alone, enters a graveyard to hang a key on the tombstone of a writer, obviously honored as a national treasure, made clear by the rows upon rows of shiny, gaudy room keys covering the stone marking of his final remains.  The girls opens the book (titled, of course, The Grand Budapest Hotel), and we suddenly jump back in time, seeing the writer as an old man (played by Tom Wilkinson), who begins to explain to us (and it is most definitely us, not some off-screen cameraman) how he chanced across the story of the hotel. 

            This leads to the next time skip, as Jude Law, playing the writer as a younger man, visits the hotel in questions shortly before it was torn down for being unprofitable (and, let’s be honest, for having become a massive, Soviet-esque eyesore).  During his stay, he encounters Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), the mysterious owner of the hotel and a number of castles around Europe.  After meeting him in the baths, Zero agrees to tell the writer the story of how he came into possession of the old establishment. 

            We are now led once more into the recesses of time to the main story.  Zero, a young refuge, successfully wins the confidence and respect of Gustave H. (a magnificently comical and boyish Ralph Fiennes), the concierge of the Budapest when it was still the go-to, gloriously tacky resort for all manner of aged, wealthy clientele.  Gustave rules this establish as a benevolent dictator, exacting in his standards, yet given over to composing his own, God-awful poetry and reciting it at every staff dinner.  Zero is a slight wisp of a lad, soaking in every word Gustave tells him, determined to make his mentor proud. 

            While not necessarily the focus of the story, it is the relationship between Zero and Gustave that provides most of the film’s emotional center.  At first, it looks like their characters and interactions will be nothing more than skin-deep farce- Gustave is overweening, pompous, and demanding to a ludicrous extreme.  Zero is wide-eyed and innocent, merely seeking to become a carbon copy of Gustave.  Thankfully, Anderson very quickly moves to dissuade such notions almost from the get-to.  Gustave strives so very hard to be the model of a respectable, “civilized” gentleman, yet he sleeps with nearly all of his regular clientele (the gender of a given client being of no apparent concern).  He is unfailingly polite even when threatened with death (which soon becomes a regular occurance), but when his patience runs out, few sailors in the British navy could hope to match his verbose swearing.  A working-class background is hinted at, but never explored, leaving the man an enigma wrapped in a mystery.  Zero is equally complex, although we do get a bit more of his backstory.  He has seen tragedy and war, but never allows its terrors to prevent him from seeking love in the form of a village bakery girl.  And his determination and resourcefulness soon win him not only the respect, but eventually the deep love and friendship of Gustave.  Instead of staying in rigid, master/apprentice roles, the two become a dynamic team in every sense of the word, and seeing this change wrought over time is not only funny, but also immensely touching at times. 

            Zero’s love for said bakery girl, Agatha, deserves special mention, even though it is not a terribly large part of the film.  This is not deliberate ignorance on the part of Zero, or even Anderson, since it is quite clear that the focus is on Zero and Gustave.  Her few moments are, however, suffused with a love and a reverence that few protagonists manage to show for their significant others.  They may not be on-screen together for long, but their few scenes together, along with a minor reveal concerning the future of Zero’s ownership of the hotel, provide some of the more genuine romantic moments I’ve seen in theaters in recent years.  

            To briefly return to the aforementioned story- the second act of the movie kicks in when one of Gustave’s favorite elder female guests, Tilda Swinton looking unrecognizable in old-lady makeup, dies under suspicious circumstances (a failure to resolve this part of the story is one of the film's few flaws).  He immediately falls under suspect, primarily because the woman willed to him an immensely valuable painting, which her vicious son (Adrian Brody) is determined to regain.  To this end he lets loose his vicious attack-dog of a lackey (a wonderfully evil William Dafoe) to keep the family lawyer quiet (Jeff Goldblum) and to make sure Gustave meets a brutal end before he can discover the secret of the woman’s horrible murder.  What follows- a serious of chase sequences, prison happenstances, an encounter with a secret society of hotel managers, enchantingly beautiful cakes, and the takeover of the Budapest by an SS mock-up called the “ZZ”- is not something I can delve into without spoiling the whole, wonderful affair.  Suffice it to say that it is a wonderful journey well worth every minute spent in the theater. 

            The constant theme woven throughout the story is the paradox that is humanity’s ability to be both beautiful and brutal, and how the two are never fully reconciled with each other, and perhaps never will be.  And if I had to sum up the film in one sentence, it would be in the form of a question related to this very conflict- are our efforts to hold back the base, the rude, and violent in ourselves noble and brave, or pathetic and hopeless?  Is Gustave a tragic hero for striving to desperately to maintain his tiny little oasis in a sea of darkness?  Zero himself, as an old man, confides to the writer that he’s never sure Gustave’s world existed in the first place, or if it did, “it died long before he was born.”  He then adds an afterthought, which only adds to the ambiguity of what the answer to my question is, if such an answer is even relevant; “He certainly did his best to maintain the illusion.” 

            The Grand Budapest Hotel is every bit as wacky, zany, and whimsical as we’ve come to expect from Wes Anderson.  Like with Moonrise Kingdom though, the silly is permeated with a sense of nostalgic sadness, whispers of things lost, and things that never were, and never could be.  Its outer appearances to the contrary, it is a weighty film, another wonderful accomplishment from one of the most unique filmmakers alive today, and a resoundingly strong start for another year in film. 

-Noah Franc 

Why Zoe Saldana needs to be Wonder Woman

                I was in the middle of watching the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer for about the third time when it hit me- Zoe Saldana needs to play Wonder Woman. 

                I can’t be the only one thinking this, right?  I can’t be.  It seems too obvious.  And yet, I’ve heard nothing from anyone else suggesting this.  And before you try to interrupt me, yes, I am aware that Gal Gadot is currently cast as Wonder Woman for the (supposedly) upcoming Batman/Superman combo act.  You’ll have to forgive me for being skeptical, at least for the immediate future, that that will actually pan out.  The movie has already been pushed back another year to avoid the space-time-continuum-obliterating singularity that would have resulted had that film really ended up duking it out for box office dominance with Avengers 2 and Star Wars 7 in 2015 (just thinking about even the possibility of that happening gave me the shivers).  And Nolan’s Batman trilogy aside, Warner Brothers has had a terribly troubled time of it making any other efforts of theirs stick, capped by the ongoing debate over whether or not Man of Steel went way too far, so for now, shut up and let me fantasize about that particular casting choice getting flushed down the tube somewhere down the line. 

                Look, there’s no getting around a very uncomfortable truth when you look at a lineup of the main characters of each superhero/comic-book film that’s come out since this current age roughly began with the release of Batman Begins and Marvel’s launching of the Avengers project; all of them (at least the ones to get prominent, successful releases) have been about white men.  All of them, without exception.  No main female characters, no main characters of color other than Greek yoghurt.  The lone African-American characters of note thus far have been Idris Elba’s Heimdall (granted, an AWESOME bit character), and War Machine, and anyone who’s been following this blog long-term already knows how I feel about his on-screen treatment.  Same goes for Pepper Pots (worst waste of a superpower EVER), and while I proffer my hat to Scarlett Johansson for her considerable efforts as Black Widow, there’s no use pretending her existence on screen is not purely a product of the studio wanting a token fan-service character on screen to kind of balance out the gender factor (but NOT the race one).  Case in point- the very first shot of her in The Avengers is literally a 3D breaking-image of her boobs threatening to burst out of the screen.  There is also Nick Fury, but he barely counts, because Samuel L. Jackson is not bothering to create a character or give a performance for that role. 

                Granted, it does look like this will be partially remedied this year.  The Winter Soldier will introduce Falcon to the Marvel movie universe (also a side role, but still), and Guardians of the Galaxy will feature a female co-lead (possibly two?) duking it out right alongside the guys.  A female co-lead who, coincidentally, is being played by Zoe Saldana. 

                Which brings me back to my original point; we need, in a very bad way, a superhero movie starring a female hero.  We need, in an equally bad way, a superhero movie played by a minority, be it black, Hispanic, Asian, or (my personal preference) Native American (ahem, Lone Ranger is racist horseshit, ahem).  An African-American (or Hispanic, or Native American) Wonder Woman is the perfect, kill-two-birds-with-one-stone solution for both problems. 

                As far as a need for a female comic book hero is concerned, Wonder Woman is the obvious choice, because she is easily the most well-known female comic figure currently in existence, and honestly, she’s every bit as pervasive and recognizable a part of our culture as Batman and Superman are, so it’s really nothing short of a federal crime that the latter two have a combined 13 movies between them (no, really), and Wonder Woman has…..none.  No, the direct-to-video one doesn’t count, I’m talking about a big-screen, summer release with full studio backing.  So, yeah, there’s no good reason this to not have already happened. 

                Now, as far as having a lead of color is concerned…..okay, obviously, the big issue here is that, since comics started out within the white domain, there really aren’t any mainstream, instantly recognizable superhero figures who are “traditionally” portrayed as anything other than white.  Hence the inexplicable outrage over Idris Elba being cast as Heimdall in the Thor series, even though he has been nothing other than amazing in both films thus far.  There was the black Green Lantern in the Justice League show (which is the version I actually grew up with, it’s still the only image I can conjure up when you say the words “Green Lantern” to me), but again, that’s a show, and it’s a lone example among dozens of Green Lantern incarnations.  So in order for this very pressing issue to be properly tackled, a studio, any studio, is going to have to gird their loins, get in a good stretch, pick a character, making a daring, all-balls-to-the-wall casting pick, and just stick with it to the end, taking on all the pain and, to be polite, utter bullshit that will inevitably be piled on them as a result.    

                Alright, alright, I’ve extrapolated long enough.  That the first movie featuring a female hero will be Wonder Woman goes without question.  And I think most people (that is, most people with functioning frontal lobes) would be perfectly fine with her being cast by a woman of color, provided, obviously, that it’s a smart casting choice.  So why do I think that perfect choice is Zoe Saldana? 

                Well, to be blunt?  Why the hell not?  What isn’t there to like about that?  First off, her action chops should not be a question mark in anyone’s eyes, given her roles in 3 massively successful summer action blockbusters (Avatar, Star Trek, Star Trek Running Into Darkbrain), and her role in Guardians looks like it will be even more fighting-heavy than her previous films.  Granted, the sequences in Avatar were done almost solely with a massive special effects department, which included CGing nearly all of the actual fighting, but there’s no use pretending for a second that the eventual Wonder Woman movie will be any different.  The days of Bruce Lees, Jackie Chans, and Keanu Reeves dominating major summer action pieces will likely be a thing of the past before too long. 

                Second, and most importantly, the woman is a damn, damn good actress, evidenced by the fact that, although the previous movies of hers mentioned above were primarily visual spectacles with mostly shallow characters and tired plot devices, she was able, in each and every case, to give a performance on which each of the films end up turning.  She’s the most interesting character giving the most heartfelt performance in Avatar (where nearly every other performance was just as phoned in as the effects), and she has been the soul of a Star Trek reboot that is starting to stretch itself thin attempting to hide how little service it does to nearly every other member of the crew.  It is an impressive feat to be able to shine through even the laziest Abrams screenplay, one that far too many people seem to be underestimating (although plenty are not). 

                In short, she is a gorgeous and immensely talented woman, I’d argue one of the most underrated actresses in the business today, and her own personal record in summer blockbusters thus far has been impeccable.  She has all the needed chutzpah to give us a Wonder Woman worth remembering, regardless of how the rest of the movie ends up being.  It’s worked for Marvel thus far, there’s no reason it can’t work for Warner Brothers, if they would only see the light. 

                So there you have it.  I believe quite firmly that the smartest move any American movie studio could make in the immediate future would be to throw their weight behind a Wonder Woman project that makes the bold, courageous decision to make her a woman of color (perhaps getting a female director to take the helm?), and I further posit that Zoe Saldana is, at present, the perfect actress in the game to take on such a great and laudable challenge.  Disagree?  Don’t care, it’s my blog, but feel free to lambast me in the comments either way. 

                Let’s do this people.  Zoe Saldana for Wonder Woman.  Make it so. 

-Noah Franc 

Reflections on the 2014 Oscars:

                Another awards season has come and gone, and now we can finally dive into the long, long waiting period until the really good stuff of 2014 hits theaters.  That’s sarcasm, obviously, since some good stuff has already broken through early; I am eagerly awaiting the German release of The Lego Movie, and The Grand Budapest Hotel won’t be too far behind.  For now, though, let’s take one last opportunity to look back at the past year of film and the ever-controversial awards seasons. 

                Looking back, I’m surprised at how free of vitriol, controversy, and bad choices this year’s Oscars ceremony was.  True, the awards were not spread around as liberally as last year, when 8 of the 9 Best Picture nominees had at least one trophy to take home (granted, the fact that the lone one left out in the cold was the ferociously beautiful Beasts of the Southern Wild was its own special travesty).  Only 4 of the Best Picture nominees won anything at all, and with the exception of the documentaries, shorts, and foreign films (whose ghettoization will one day be another hurdle for the Academy to clear), only Frozen, Blue Jasmine, and the Great Gatsby walked away with anything out of the rest of the nominees.  Also, there were really no surprises to speak of, other than Great Gatsby’s second award for Production Design, which I felt should have been given to 12 Years A Slave to give it a leg up over the significantly less-powerful Dallas Buyers Club. 

                Before I go further, a breakdown of the winning films:

Gravity- 7 (Visual Effects, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Soundtrack, Cinematography, Director)

12 Years A Slave- 3 (Picture, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay)

Dallas Buyers Club- 3 (Actor, Supporting Actor, Makeup)

Frozen- 2 (Animated Feature, Song)

The Great Gatsby- 2 (Production Design, Costumes)

Her- 1 (Original Screenplay)

Blue Jasmine- 1 (Actress)

20 Feet From Stardom- 1 (Documentary Feature)

The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life- 1 (Documentary Short)

The Great Beauty- 1 (Foreign Language Film)

Mr. Hublot- 1 (Animated Short)

Helium- 1 (Live-Action Short)

                In a way, however, the lack of surprise was a pleasant change this time around, since Oscar-related surprises tend to be of the more disappointing, “they-gave-the-Oscar-to-THAT-instead?” variety.  The Wolf of Wall Street will simply join the ranks of influential, highly-regarded Scorsese fair that also didn’t win (still disappointing, but hardly surprising), Inside Llewyn Davis will become another ahead-of-its-time cult classic for the Coen brothers, and while most of the other films nominated were nearly all deserving of being talked about last night, no others were really so powerfully overwhelming as to absolutely demand getting something, unlike the powerhouse lineup from last year. 

                Before I go into the performances and show itself, as well as the speeches, I will devote one final line to American Hustle.  I do sort of understand why lots of people liked the movie.  But really, it is still baffling to me that two such alright movies, from the same director and involving the same cast, could ever combine for more nominations than Inside Llewyn Davis, Zero Dark Thirty, Her, and The Master combined.  This has been an odd two years, and I sincerely hope this phase of David Russell’s career is over and he can go back to making genuinely great movies like The Fighter.  And that Jennifer Lawrence finally starts to grow as an actress by taking on roles that she can actually play. 

                Now, about the show itself.  There are, supposedly, people who found it boring.  Why, I cannot imagine, because the show was a far, far sight better than the past few telecasts, especially considering the drab jobs of the past few years.  Ellen kept it loose, as always, and while she kept the humor light, she at least found a few ways to literally keep the audience on their toes.  Everything was as mercilessly drawn-out as always, but at least there were more, better performances that were much better spaced this year.  It was a pleasant change to actually hear ALL the songs performed, even in shortened versions.  Shockingly, Idina Menzel was the worst of the bunch.  Why, I can’t fathom, but I couldn’t help but feel that she was a) holding back a cold, or b) really, really nervous about that mike she kept smothering her mouth with.  Why did she even have one?  Pipes like hers, she shouldn’t need to be amplified in a space like that. 

                I really have nothing to offer in regards to the presenters or the montages.  Bill Murray’s shout-out to Harold Ramis was easily one of the night’s most moving moments, the kind of personal, off-script addition that ceremonies like this are always in desperate need of.  More of that would have been appreciated, but as it stood, there were no major issues or hiccups that broke my enjoyment. 

                Looking at the speeches themselves, I would have to select Steve McQueen’s as my favorite, partially because it ended with him pouncing upon his crew like Shere Khan, but largely because he used the historic chance to provide the single-greatest argument for his film winning Best Picture (aside from the fact that it was, you know, one of the year’s best films); not only is American slavery still an indelible and unavoidable part of our society to this very day, the film is also powerfully and viscerally relevant because slavery just as bad (and in many cases, worse) as that depicted in the film still happens to this very day.  And we cannot allow ourselves to forget that, even if we need such stark reminders every so often. 

                Cuaron’s was my second favorite by a close margin (oh Lord, he nearly made ME cry), followed by McConaughey’s (which I found hilarious), Lupita’s (gracious and heart-warming as ever), and Blanchett’s (the world IS round, Fox News).  The word that I can use to describe the night as a whole, really, was pleasant. 

                There is, of course, the usual debate that gets brought up this time of year; are the Oscars really relevant, and is there any value left in holding something up that so, so often, merely reinforces the limited and narrow worldviews of a tiny sliver of the population of a single country in a world of 7 billion people?  This argument is given particular weight when one considers the slew of important, ground-breaking, and damn-bear revolutionary films that are inevitably ignored by nearly all awards ceremonies, not just the Oscars.  The Wolf of Wall Street is no less an incredible cinematic achievement (and is no less relevant and important to our society) than 12 Years A Slave, but only the latter will have any awards attached to its name.  Cloud Atlas, 2001, Citizen Kane, Psycho, and many, many other highly regarded, influential, and ground-breaking fair have no awards attached to their name, and yet their legacy is undeniable. 

                Does such inevitable snobbery make the Oscars irrelevant?  Does it mean they are ultimately worthless, and that any honors they bestow on a movie should be treated, at best, with utter disregard, and at worst, with contempt?  Does the fact that Oscar glory ultimately has no impact on the long-term legacy of a film (other than perhaps being road markers in the careers of particular figures in cinema) make them useless? 

                Those questions have never been more relevant than today, where the number of great movies made outside the traditional studio system  vastly exceed those made within it.  I don’t pretend to have any new, groundbreaking arguments either way up my sleeve.  All I have is my opinion, and in my opinion, no, the Oscars are not irrelevant, nor do I want them to be.  I believe that it is important to at least try to have a regular method of selecting, praising, and formally honoring the best of each year’s crop of films, just as its important to have awards and honors for music, literature, sports, scientific achievements, peace movements, and anything else where good can be done.  What’s crucial, of course, is to remember that all such efforts to laud and applaud the worthiest of human achievements will always fall short in some ways.  There will always be great works that don’t get their due until much, much later.  And while that can be sad, and sometimes heartbreaking, I am of the opinion that our efforts to the contrary are still worthwhile. 

                In a way, the proliferation of film outside traditional, white-male-dominated power structures has also allowed awards systems to break out of said molds as well.  The Oscars no longer stand alone as THE definitive awards of the year.  The Globes, the BAFTAs, and a slew of guild awards and critic’s choice awards of all possible stripes have it more possible than ever for deserving films to be recognized by someone, somewhere.  My beloved Inside Llewyn Davis may have only been tossed handful of Globe and Oscar nods, but it received over 70 nominations from other associated voting groups and awards associations, and won 20 of them, including the Grand Prix award at Cannes. 

                Maybe those awards don’t make the same impact that the Oscars do, since those awards are really the only ones people outside diehard film circles pay the slightest bit of attention to, and that has been and is a problem, but at least it’s something.  I fully admit that the Oscars are problematic, as much now as they have ever been.  But the last 5 years have actually provided me with much more hope that I would have had otherwise for the future of mainstream film.  Since 2009, we have seen the first female (Kathryn Bigelow), Asian (Ang Lee), and Hispanic (Alfonso Cuaron) to take home Best Director, and the first movies to win Best Picture that were directed by a woman (The Hurt Locker) and a black man (12 Years A Slave).  The expansion of the Best Picture category, while allowing some lesser fare to sneak in, has also allowed a broader interpretation of what constitutes a “best movie” and has inspired some great debates, and has allowed the kind of small-budget indie and sci-fi fare to get Best Picture nods that otherwise would have never been allowed near the red carpet (Beasts of the Southern Wild, Her, District 9, and Inception, to name a few). 

                It’s a work in progress, make no mistake.  But then again, we all are, and so are our stories and movies.  I’m just happy to be part of the process, in my own, small way. 

                Here’s to another great year in film.  It’s already looking like a good one. 

-Noah Franc 

American Hustle- By The Numbers

            I realize I never devoted any space to this last year, so for those of you who do not know me personally, allow me to be clear- I did not like Silver Linings Playbook.  At all.  I didn’t think it was bad.  Granted, the Indian Curry Racism Scene upon whom the entire third act is based was blindingly stupid, but for the most part, though bland and far too hammy, it was a fairly harmless movie when all was said and done.  What upset me was seeing it get 8 Oscar nominations over the ground-breaking and revolutionary Cloud Atlas.  THAT got me mad. 

            However, I accepted Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar as an apology for stiffing her for Winter’s Bone, still the girl’s best role to date, and I resolved to move on and not let the negative feelings over the movie’s absurdly overly-positive reception drag me down and spoil a new year of cinema.  In fact, prior to the announcement of the nominations, my biggest worry was the The Butler would manager to get nominations despite being its own special mess.    

            Then came American Hustle.  Once again, I found myself sitting down to watch a David Russell movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper that had garnered nearly endless critical praise, and had already beaten out several of my favorite films of the year for a number of major awards.  Once again, I tried to remove the hype from my mind, and just enjoy the film for what it was so as to form my own opinion.   And having now done that, I have come to one conclusion-

            I don’t get it.  I don’t get it AT ALL.  Why?  Why have I now seen two stunningly average and okay movies combine for an incomprehensible 18 Oscar nominations?  Why have Inside Llewyn Davis and Much Ado About Nothing joined Cloud Atlas in the ranks of genuine artistic accomplishments that will have next to no prestigious awards attached to their names?  WHY does everyone love this movie so much?  HOW can this be considered a serious contender for Best Picture?  How can anyone not be frustrated by Jennifer Lawrence’s increasingly questionable career choices?  Just……WHY?  WHYYYYYYYY??????

            Okay, okay, sorry, give me a minute.  Need to breathe.  Okay. 

            The degree to which American Hustle- both the film itself AND its astonishing hype- frustrates, angers, and upsets me is a topic that I could spend hours on.  I will not do that, mostly because I’d rather not speed up the inevitable hair loss on my temple.  Instead, in order for my critique of the movie to be more pointed and focused, I am merely going to list all the categories for which this movie was nominated this year, and will list all the other movies, actors, and actresses, who were far more deserving of a valuable nomination spot.  I will not bother to go into greater detail than that, because I expect this movie to fade every bit as much as Silver Linings will eventually fade, so more effort on my part would just be a waste of my time. 

            Original Screenplay

More deserving film:

Inside Llewyn Davis

            This one is particularly aggravating to me as a writer, because the script, story, and plot of Hustle is a gargled, rambling, utterly incoherent mess.  I’ll give this to Silver Linings, it may have been bland as decades-old margarine, but at least it told a cohesive, tight story.  I never knew what was going on Hustle.  I watched this with my girlfriend, and every 15 minutes we found ourselves asking each other what happened, only to realize neither of us had a clue. 

            I am told they deliberately did a large chuck of the scenes on an ad-hoc, improvised basis, and it shows, because the movie absolutely gives up towards the end, throwing in the kind of stupid, way-out-of-left-field, totally nonsensical plot twist we’ve come to expect from the likes of Shyamalan.  Some have defended this to me by saying that the story isn’t the focus, the characters are.  That’s its own barrel of problems, but we’ll come to that presently.  All I can say to that is, “Okay, so the story and writing isn’t supposed to matter.  SO WHY NOMINATE IT FOR WRITING???”

            Production Design

More deserving films:

Inside Llewyn Davis

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Pacific Rim

To The Wonder

Wolf of Wall Street

Much Ado About Nothing

            I suppose the movie does at least feel like it’s in New Jersey, but given that it was FILMED there it would take an act of stupendous anti-talent that even David Russell doesn’t have to mess that one up.  I can think of nothing about the sets, lighting, or shot composition that deserves even the slightest bit of notice.  Seriously, what is memorable about the sets here?  How do they add to anything?  I do not know.  And I hope I am never capable of knowing. 

            Film Editing

More deserving films:

Wolf of Wall Street

Inside Llewyn Davis

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

To The Wonder

Much Ado About Nothing

           

            I suppose I should be grateful that, unlike Linings, this one did not get nominated for cinematography, but that doesn’t make the Editing nomination this got any less strange, especially given how the editing in Wolf is one of the key reasons why it’s such an emotional powerhouse, and should have been the one award that it waltzed away with.  Like with the screenplay, the editing of Hustle only serves to make the story even less coherent and its’ characters motivations even less easy to follow. 

            Costume Design

More deserving films:

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Much Ado About Nothing

            This is actually one of the few categories where, yes, I can actually see the reason behind the nomination, because those 70’s area outfits are hilariously outlandish.  But is that really a compliment when the costumes are far, far more interesting that the actual people wearing them?  If I wanted all terribly unneeded style and no substance I’d go to a fashion show.  And The Hobbit had better costumes anyway.  Seriously, why all the Hobbit hate? 

            Best Directing

More deserving directors:

Joel and Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Spike Jonze (Her)

Joss Whedon (Much Ado About Nothing)

Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)

            Yes, it was a tight year for good directing.  All the more reason for Russell to be nowhere near this list for yet another lackluster job.  All the above films are far better products than Hustle, and are all the distinct works of smart and immensely talented and skilled directors.  Words that I used to use to describe Russell as well, but Lord knows where he’s heading if he can’t discover the same pool of ability that helped him crank out The Fighter. 

            Best Supporting Actress

More deserving actresses:

Amy Acker (Beatrice, Much Ado About Nothing)

Léa Seydoux (Emma, Blue Is The Warmest Color)

Carrey Mulligan (Jean, Inside Llewyn Davis)

Amy Adams (Amy, Her)

            Oh hi Jennifer Lawrence.  Fancy seeing you here.  Again. 

            Look, to a certain extent, I can understand the hype over Jennifer.  Her lack of pretension is really great to see in a profession that usually takes itself waaaaaaay too seriously, and she is genuinely talented.  But guys, come one, we are pushing her to a level of sancitifed glorification that NO public figure, no matter how genuinely nice or skilled, comes down from without at least some scarring.  We need to stop pretending that every word that tumbles out of her mouth is some glorious new prophesy of New Age, Fixing-Everything Feminism.  We need to stop treating her like she’s the perfect answer to every problem with gender representation in Hollywood.  And, above all, we need to STOP praising her and handing her oodles of awards for doing roles that she’s not fit for and cannot pull off at this point in her career.  Other actresses just as talented have worked far harder and far longer just to get one statue.  She has done nothing, thus far, SO incredibly special as to merit earning two in a row before she can legally rent a car. 

            Please, Jennifer, darling, once production of the last Hunger Games movies is over, leave.  Go far away.  Take a two-year hiatus so everyone here can calm the hell down and wipe the froth off their faces.  Then feel free to come back and do whatever you want. 

            Best Supporting Actor

Alexis Denisof (Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing)
Will Forte (Woody, Nebraska)

           You know, this particular nomination, like with costumes, I have no problem with.  Alexis Denisof and Will Forte would have been better choices; Will's turn in a serious role was an immensely pleasant surprise, given that I grew up watching him on SNL.  However, I have to give Cooper credit for succeeding in being the only person on screen who looked like he was having fun with his role.  His character actually came across as a real person, an overly-eager puppy-dog of an FBI agent with a bit of a sadistic streak (and yes, the scene with the curlers did pull a laugh out through my disapproving lips).  Everyone else just looked like they desperately needed more fiber in their diet.  Carry on Bradley.  Carry on. 

            So that’s two nominations now that I’d give this movie.  Congratulations American Hustle, you are officially slightly better than Silver Linings Playbook. 

            Best Actress

More deserving actresses:

Scarlett Johansson (Samantha, Her)

Adèle Exarchopoulos (Adèle, Blue Is The Warmest Color)

Emma Thompson (P.L. Travers, Saving Mr. Banks)

            Screw everyone who says otherwise, voice-acting IS real acting, and Samantha is one of Scarlett’s best roles to date, and the girl already has a great track record (so why hasn’t she been gift-wrapped an Oscar too, HUH???).  Furthermore, out of all the performances I saw this year, no one gave it their all more than Exarchopoulos did for Blue.  Love it or hate it, the weight she brings to the role is overwhelming to witness.  And do I really need to provide anyone with a reason why Emma Thompson should be on this list?  

            Best Actor

More deserving actors:

Oscar Isaac (Llewyn, Inside Llewyn Davis)

Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips, Captain Phillips)

Robert Redford (The Man, All Is Lost)

Michael B. Jordan (Oscar, Fruitvale Station)

Joaquin Pheonix (Theodore “Best Name Ever” Twombly, Her)

            If you have seen ANY of the movies above, you should be as bewildered as I am that Christian Bale managed to slip into this category.  Yes, his character was amusing, but are we really going to set the bar that low for someone who’s already won an Oscar to get a nomination OVER lesser-known superstars who could use the career boost being nominated provides?  That is a fair argument for keeping Robert Redford and Tom Hanks from the list, but not Isaac or Jordan.  And while Pheonix has been nominated before, his haunting, haunting turn in Her is more than enough of an argument for him to have been the one actor to get a second straight nomination this year. 

            Bale, I love you, but this should not have been an awards year for you. 

            Best Picture

More deserving films:

Inside Llewyn Davis

Much Ado About Nothing

All Is Lost

Fruitvale Station

            American Hustle is an hour shorter than Wolf and Blue, and yet feels like it’s an hour longer than either of those marathons.  And when that happens, there is a problem with your movie.  There are some decent parts, even some great scenes (the best one, rather pathetically, brought by Robert De Niro giving as little effort as a man can possibly bring to a role), but none of them coalesce.  The fault of that lies in its many disparate parts, and the result is that the combination of everything- the writing, acting, directing, shooting, editing, and tone- is so garbled and contradictory that, while the film is certainly a spectacle, it’s not the kind of spectacle I’m comfortable seeing garner award after award after award.  It is not a bad movie.  Sometimes, it succeeds in being good.  But great?  Best of the year?  No.  No no no no no NO.  

            Well, there you have it.  American Hustle should not have been an awards juggernaut, plain and simple, simply because in over half the categories in was nominated in, there were at least 3 or 4 other movies with much better cases for a nomination. 

            Maybe it really is me.  Maybe I just don’t operate on the right wavelength.  But who knows?  Maybe next year’s Russell piece will change my mind.  I can see it now:

            It will be called Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, and Jennifer Lawrence Wash David Russell’s Breakfast Dishes With A Rabid Dog Running Around Barking.  Bradley Cooper will be nominated for Best Actor, Bale for Best Supporting.  Jennifer will merely speak in broken Russian for the entire film, repeating the phrase “Vodka, da?” over and over, and will be nominating for Best Actress AND Best Supporting Actress (her character has bipolar disorder- the other personality will be called Simeona, and she will be a black South African woman with two heads who only speaks in Yiddish rhymes).  The rabid dog will have the only camera for filming strapped to its back the entire time, and will be nominated for Best Cinematography.  The script, consisting of 8 couplets on a single napkin, will get the Adapted Screenplay nomination.  Bradley Cooper will have a subplot wherein he makes a documentary short (which will, in and of itself, be nominated for said award) about his demented mother, whose acid trips will be nominated for Best Short Animated Film.  The Editing Team will consist of 5 apes wielding hammers, who will simply pound the cameras into a pulp.  They will, of course, be nominated too.  In the middle of the film, Bradley will wish a Rollie-Fingers moustache into existence, earning him the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.  And at the very end, instead of a credit role, Jennifer Lawrence will merely open her mouth and emit a series of erratic dubstep beats, and the Oscars for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing will be presented to her on a gilded platter by the Academy president wearing a banana-leaf toga the very next day. 

            And we will laugh, and shout, and sing, and rejoice.  And we shall repeat, over and over and over again, “All hail the Russell.  All hail the Russell.  All hail the Russell.” 

            All hail the Russell.  All hail the Russell.  All hail the Russell. 

            All hail the Russell. 

            All hail the Russell. 

-Noah Franc 

The 2014 Academy Awards- My Picks

            Once again, apologies for the lateness of this, but such is life.  It’s finally time for me to go through each individual category of this year’s Academy Awards and offer you my personal pick for each one (excepting the categories for which I did not see anything nominated, and thus cannot fairly choose one).  This year, 56 movies and documentaries (both short and feature-length) were nominated for a total of 24 awards. 

            As with last year, remember that these are not my predictions.  Trying to predict what the Academy will do has proven toxic to my physical well-being.  These are the films that I personally would vote for, were I a member of the voting pool. 

            I won’t do a specific run-down of who really does deserve to be here and who should be here- others have already covered that pretty darn good.  There will, however, be sporadic rants as merited by the category. 

            Alright, that’s it for an intro, since this too will be a long, long post.  Let us begin! 

Writing, Original Screenplay

Nominees: American Hustle (Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell), Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen), Dallas Buyers Club (Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack), Her (Spike Jonze), Nebraska (Bob Nelson)

My Vote:  Her (Spike Jonze)

            Nothing on the other films here (American Hustle excepted of course), but the story and dialogue of Her blew me away, so for me, this one should be no competition, especially since it’s one of only two categories where Her (for now at least) stands even a remote chance of winning. 

Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Nominees: The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter), 12 Years A Slave (John Ridley), Philomena (Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope), Captain Phillips (Billy Ray), Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke)

My Vote:  12 Years A Slave (John Ridley)

            12 Years is not without its flaws, but it very effectively adapts a book in a way that captures its essential tone and theme and story, but without romanticizing it to the degree that this movie would have been in lesser hands.  Wolf of Wall Street is also a possible winner, but I’m not picking it here because I feel the movie’s strengths lie more in its editing, cinematography, and acting, and not so much in the writing department. 

Best Visual Effects

Nominees: Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds), Ironman 3 (Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash, Dan Sudick), The Lone Ranger (Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, John Frazier), Star Trek: Into Darkness (Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton)

My Vote:  Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould)

            Really, no contest.  At all.  Smaug was a wondrous visual achievement, easily the coolest-looking dragon yet put to film, but Gravity was a powerful reminder that effects are about far more than just action. 

Best Sound Mixing

Nominees: Captain Phillips (Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro), Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Bernstead, Chris Munro), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanik, Tony Johnson), Inside Llewyn Davis (Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland), Lone Survivor (Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, David Brownlow)

My Vote:  Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Bernstead, Chris Munro)

            There are cases to be made for each of these movies, but they will not win, and honestly, the use of sound was one of Gravity’s biggest strengths, more important (I’d argue) that its use to special effects.   

Best Sound Editing

Nominees: Lone Survivor (Wylie Stateman), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Brent Burge, Chris Ward), Gravity (Glenn Freemantle), Captain Phillips (Oliver Tarney), All Is Lost (Steve Boeddeker, Richard Hymns)

My Vote:  Gravity (Glenn Freemantle)

            And Gravity gets this one too.  Really, the technical awards will be the least-surprising of the night.    

Short Film, Live Action

Nominees: Aquel No Era Yo (Esteban Crespo), Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Xavier Legrand, Alexandre Gravas), Helium (Anders Walter, Kim Magnusson), Do I Have To Take Care Of Everything? (Selma Vilhunen, Kirsikka Saari), The Voorman Problem (Mark Gill, Baldwin Li)

My Vote:  N/A

            Sadly, I was not able to see a single one of the films on this list, so I cannot cast a vote for it. 

Short Film, Animated

Nominees: Feral (Daniel Sousa, Dan Golden), Get A Horse! (Lauren MacMullan, Dorothy McKim), Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espirages), Possessions (Shuhei Morita), Room On The Broom (Max Lang, Jan Lachaur)

My Vote:  N/A

            Get A Horse! is the only film on this list I was able to see (as it was shown before Frozen), and as such, I can’t in good faith pick a winner here, having nothing to compare it to. 

Best Original Song

Nominees: “Happy” from Despicable Me 2 (Pharrell Williams), “Let It Go” from Frozen (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez), “The Moon Song” from Her (Karen O and Spike Jonze), “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (U2)

My Vote:  “Let It Go” from Frozen

            I wouldn’t mind seeing “The Moon Song” take this one, but there’s no getting around just how great a powerhouse piece “Let It Go” is, the first not-villain Disney song in years to stay with me for, quite literally, a whole month after first hearing it. 

Best Production Design

Nominees: American Hustle (Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler), Gravity (Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, and Joanne Woollard), The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin and Beverly Dunn), Her (K.K. Barrett and Gene Serdena), 12 Years A Slave (Adam Stockhausen and Alice Baker)

My Vote:  Her

            This is a hard pick, because with the obvious exception of American Hustle, I see no reason for any of these nominees to not win.  I’ll go with Her in my ballot though, because it’s unlikely to win anything else, and it deserves to be a multiple winner. 

Best Original Score

Nominees: The Book Thief (John Williams), Gravity (Steven Price), Her (William Butler and Owen Pallet), Philomena (Alexandre Desplat), Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)

My Vote: Gravity

            Again, no contest, although Her would not be unworthy of winning this one as well.  The swells of Gravity still haunt me, and is one of only two soundtracks from this year I felt compelled to buy. 

Makeup and Hairstyling

Nominees: Dallas Buyer’s Club (Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews), Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Stephen Prouty), The Lone Ranger (Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny)

My Vote:  Dallas Buyer’s Club

            Amazing.  After last year’s terrible exclusion of Cloud Atlas from this category, I thought this award couldn’t become any more of a joke.  Unfortunately, it seems the academy was determined to prove me dead wrong.  I look at this list, and the only thought that runs screaming through my head is an endless, “WHAT THE HELL????”  Bad Grandpa?  You HAVE to be kidding me.  No Hobbit?  No Gatsby?  Hell, no American Hustle?  Critics have been gorging themselves on Bale’s toupee, I’d actually prefer to see that win all on its own that to have to type two of these titles into an Oscar post. 

            And speaking of Lone Ranger, I have not seen it.  I will never see it.  More importantly, I do not need to ever see it, because it is offensive on a level that boggles the imagination, thus rendering any need for anyone to ever see this movie a moot point. 

            But how can I be that harsh on a movie I’ve never seen, you may ask?  Simple.  Johnny Depp as Tonto.  That is the only reason I need.  And no, that is not unfair, for the exact same reason that Depp playing Solomon Northrup in backface would be wretchedly disgusting and offensive on every conceivable level.  Native Americans have been dealt an even worse historical hand than African-American slaves were, and have been treated by whites just as poorly.  The least we can do- the VERY least we can do- is, when there is a major blockbuster film with a Native American character in it, YOU CAST A F***ING NATIVE AMERICAN FOR THE ROLE.  PERIOD, END OF SENTENCE. 

            So, obviously, there is one- and ONLY one- choice for this award. 

Foreign Language Film

Nominees: The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium), The Great Beauty (Italy), The Hunt (Denmark), The Missing Picture (Cambodia), Omar (Palestine)

My Vote:  Omar

            I still find The Hunt unbearably boring.  Sadly, it’s the only film on this list I’ve actually seen thus far.  However, Omar sounds like my kind of film, so even if I can’t squeeze it in before Oscar Night, I feel confident enough in giving it my vote. 

Film Editing

Nominees: American Hustle (Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten), Captain Phillips (Christopher Rouse), Dallas Buyer’s Club (John Mac McMurphy, Martin Pensa), Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Sanger), 12 Years A Slave (Joe Walker)

My Vote:  Gravity

            For me, this one’s a toss-up between Gravity and 12 Years, and both are worthy winners.  Gravity will almost certainly take it though.  It's a shame that Wolf isn't nominated here, because otherwise that would be my pick.  

Documentary, Short Subject

Nominees: Cave Digger (Jeffrey Karkoff), Facing Fear (Jason Cohen), Karama Has No Walls (Sara Ishaq), The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Malcolm Clarke, Nicholas Reed), Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall (Edgar Barens)

My Vote:  N/A

            See Short Films above. 

Documentary Feature

Nominees: The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sorensen), Cutie and the Boxer (Zachary Heinzerling, Lydia Dean Pilcher), Dirty Wars (Richard Rowley, Jeremy Scahill), The Square (Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer), 20 Feet from Stardom (Morgan Neville, Gil Frieson, Caitrin Rogers)

My Vote:  N/A

            And again, see above.  It would be cool to see The Act of Killing win though. 

Directing

Nominees: American Hustle (David O. Russell), Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron), Nebraska (Alexander Payne), 12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen), The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)

My Vote:  Gravity

            This is actually the hardest category for me this year.  Even without the Coen Brothers in the running, it’s tight.  Scorsese, Cuaron, and McQueen are all powerhouse cases for this award.  Alexander Payne did excellent work with Nebraska, but his time to win will come soon enough.  Scorsese has only won once, and has absolutely deserved more Oscar Gold, plus Wolf is his best film in years, so a powerful argument can be made for him to win.  However, he HAS won, and since equally strong cases can be made for Cuaron and McQueen, I’m inclined to vote for one of the younger artists who have not yet gotten the trophy, and Cuaron is a little more established than McQueen.  Like with Payne, I’m confident McQueen, too, will have his Directing Oscar day. 

Costume Design

Nominees: American Hustle (Michael Wilkinson), The Grandmaster (William Chang Suk Ping), The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin), The Invisible Woman (Michael O’Connor), 12 Years A Slave (Patricia Norris)

My Vote:  12 Years A Slave

            The outlandishness of Hustle and Gatsby may make the films flashier, but there’s an added strength given to a film when the costumes and set designs effectively recreate the world and time period in which they’re set, and 12 Years fully immerses the viewer in the Antebellum South. 

Cinematography

Nominees: The Grandmaster (Philippe Le Sourd), Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki), Inside Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel), Nebraska (Phedon Papamichael), Prisoners (Roger A. Deakins)

My Vote:  Inside Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel)

            Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, Gravity is going to skip away with this one, but I don’t care, because damnit, Inside Llewyn Davis needs to win something, since it fell just shy of being this year’s Cloud Atlas.  Its complete lack of love still stings though especially since I suspect it was knocked out of most categories by the Academy’s heroin-related addiction to David O. Russell’s breakfast plates. 

Animated Feature Film

Nominees: The Croods (Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco, Kristine Belson), Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho), Despicable Me 2 (Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, Chris Meledandri), The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki), Ernest & Celestine (Benjamin Renner, Didier Brunner)

My Vote:  The Wind Rises

            I am loathe to extend any recognition to the dismal output from American animation studios this year.  Yes, Frozen was good, but it was not great.  There are timing and pacing issues that make what should be an epic journey feel rather shortchanged, and the soundtrack is only slightly better than Tangled’s terrible, terrible sequence of pop ballads, the effectiveness of “Let It Go” and “Do You Want To Build A Snowman” notwithstanding. 

            I firmly suspect that a not insignificant portion of the praise heaped upon it was influenced by how every other animated movie release in the States last year added up to a big, empty ball of nothing, which made people all the more receptive to Frozen’s genuine charms and far more willing to overlook its glaring flaws.  I don’t agree with those who argue that it’s emotionally damaging to kids (it’s far tamer than most classic Disney fare), and I also disagree with those who argue that it’s an insidious step back for Disney in terms of how it portrays females, but I can’t help but wonder how big it would have been had it been released a year ago, where it would have been in competition with Wreck-It-Ralph and ParaNorman (by the way, OH MY GOD LAIKA HAS A NEW MOVIE COMING OUT THIS YEAR HOLY CRAAAAAAP okay I’m done). 

            Look, Wind Rises is, in all likelihood, Miyazaki’s last film, and he should have gotten an Oscar for Mononoke, which came out before the Best Animated Film Category existed, and since the Academy is often big on “apology” Oscars (see Iron Lady and Jennifer Lawrence’s win last year), why not give Miyazaki one?  He’s earned it in a way few others ever will. 

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: Blue Jasmine (Sally Hawkins), American Hustle (Jennifer Lawrence), 12 Years A Slave (Lupita Nyong’o) August: Osage County (Julia Roberts), Nebraska (June Squibb)

My Vote:  12 Years A Slave

            I have refrained from going after American Hustle for the most part, because I plan to tackle it in an entirely separate post.  For now, however, because it cannot be stressed enough, let me be clear; Jennifer Lawrence is a wonderfully talented actress, and her humble demeanor and sense of humor about herself make her an excellent role-model-in-the-making.  And she has absolutely no business being nominated for this award.  She had no business being nominated last year, and even less winning the actual award.  She is immensely skilled, but in Hustle, she was desperately and viscerally miscast.  More on this later.  

            Nyong’o is far and away the most deserving nominee for this award.  I can accept Jennifer’s win last year as an apology for passing her over in Winter’s Bone, but this year, she should be able to graciously take back stage for a change.  And hopefully disappear for a year or two once production of the last Hunger Games movies is over, because the girl is dangerously close to over-exposure at the moment. 

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: Captain Phillips (Barkhad Abdi), American Hustle (Bradley Cooper), 12 Years A Slave (Michael Fassbender), The Wolf of Wall Street (Jonah Hill), Dallas Buyer’s Club (Jared Leto)

My Vote:  Captain Phillips

            Barkhad was a powerful presence as the Somali pirate captain without even trying.  What a great debut performance for the guy.  I sincerely look forward to his next appearance, whenever that happens to be. 

Best Actress

Nominees: American Hustle (Amy Adams), Blue Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), Gravity (Sandra Bullock), Philomena (Judi Dench), August: Osage County (Meryl Streep)

My Vote:  Blue Jasmine

            Sandra Bullock would definitely earn winning this as well, but Blanchett really is in a class all her own this time around.  Addiction is a hard thing to really, truly capture, since only those who’ve fought it can fully understand it, and her ability to bring it to life, in all its complexity, was the glue that bound together Blue Jasmine’s disparate parts.           

Best Actor

Nominees: American Hustle (Christian Bale), Nebraska (Bruce Dern), The Wolf of Wall Street (Leonardo DiCaprio), 12 Years A Slave (Chiwetel Eijiofor), Dallas Buyer’s Club (Matthew McConaughey)

My Vote:  12 Years A Slave

            This is also a hard one, especially since (as a great many have pointed out), DiCaprio is still Oscar-less, despite the formidable filmography he’s put together over the years.  I suspect this role will be the primary inspiration for his eventual “apology” Oscar a decade or so down the line.  And as much as he would be win-worthy in any other year, however, I’d still rather see Eijiofor take this one, mostly because he’s almost as universally unknown outside really dedicated film circles as DiCaprio is known, and this would be a great boost to his career. 

Best Picture

Nominees: Captain Phillips (Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca), American Hustle (Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon), Nebraska (Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa), Philomena (Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward), 12 Years A Slave (Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Anthony Katagas), Dallas Buyer’s Club (Robbie Brenner, Rachel Winter), The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland, Emma Tillinger Koskoff), Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, David Heyman), Her (Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze, Vincent Landay)

My Vote:  12 Years A Slave

            My pick for Best Picture this year, like my pick of Lincoln last year, is by no means a perfect film.  It fiddles with the historical record a bit to suit its needs, the editing has its odd moments, and Brad Pitt’s Canadian accent is still terrible.  That’s not why it should (or shouldn’t) win.  It should win because it is the most consequential and important film to come out this year.  Gravity was a new technical revolution.  Wolf was a bitter and powerful rebuke of modern financial systems.  Nebraska, Phillips, and Her were emotionally engaging mood pieces.  American Hustle set the bar for the Academy lower than ever before.  None of them are as necessary as 12 Years A Slave, because it is the first movie in….well, ever, really, to tackle the nature of American slavery head-on and without restraint.  It is the Schindler’s List of American history- brutal, terrifying, hard-to-watch, but needed, because without reminders like this to keep our awareness of the evil in humanity intact, we merely condemn ourselves to repeating the same mistakes over and over again. 

            And that’s it!  All my picks for the 2014 Academy Awards.  To sum up, here are the films I think should win, along with the number of awards I think they merit:

Gravity- 6

12 Years A Slave- 5

Her- 2

Blue Jasmine- 1

Captain Phillips- 1

The Wind Rises- 1

Frozen- 1

Inside Llewyn Davis- 1

Dallas Buyer’s Club- 1

Omar- 1

            The Oscar telecast will take place Sunday night, March 2^nd, with Ellen Degeneres hosting.  Tune in to hear my screams of agony rippling through the airwaves. 

            Until next time. 

-Noah Franc