There were some mighty financial triumphs in 2013 in
theatres which lead the way to setting some all-time records, including highest
grossing year. A very popular format has
crept into movie production where big budgets are thrown around in the attempt
of achieving billion dollar success.
This format, while successful for some, has seen failures that have led
to massive changes. Sony, because of
suffering from a few flops in After Earth
and White House Down has decided
to distribute fewer movies in the coming years because of the money they
lost. I find it interesting that they are
looking at doing that but not looking at their production format, which is
ultimately the issue.
Financials aside, it really was a great year for
movies. Many times I find myself
questioning the legitimacy of some Best Picture nominations that have made the
list for lack of quality films, but that was not the case this year. The nominations for the Oscars came out
yesterday, and I thought I would take a few minutes to highlight some of the
wonderful things that were not able to gain recognition from the Academy. There were some ridiculous snubs that seemed
almost impossible for me to comprehend, but I will only glance briefly at those
and spend more time trying to encourage you to check out some content that is
Oscar worthy but never had the marketing and campaigning behind them to make
the cut. Trust me when I say this, some
of the stuff is every bit as good, if not better than what received nominations
(a sad testament to the nomination process).
The Snubs
Three big ones come to mind immediately for me, and shocked
me greatly when I read the list of nominees yesterday morning. First of all, Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips) did not just give a performance worthy enough of
a nomination, but one that was good enough to win. The last few minutes of the film were all in
Hank’s hands, and he delivered all of the concluding emotions completely by
himself. Hanks not making the ballot is
a major mistake as he performed better than some of the actors who made the
cut.
Emma Thompson was the major bright spot in Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks, and whatever issues I
may have had with the arrangement of the story, the content, and the delivery,
she is undeniable in the fact that she pulled off a high calibre
performance. I love Amy Adams (not like
that, my wife reads this), but Thompson delivered a lot more range and was more
deserving of the spot. That being said,
I am rooting for Adams and hoping for her to take it home.
The last of the big shocks I had was over Inside Llewyn Davis not making the list
for Best Picture. While the other two
that I mentioned happened because their spots got taken by other quality
actors, there is no such reason for the Coen brother’s latest movie from being
denied. It was a beautifully shot movie
whose visuals, people, and sounds all gave off the feel of a needle hitting the
vinyl in a movie about the New York folk music scene in the early 60s. From the wonderful cinematography to the soul
rapturing music, the movie was the complete package of talent. In the category of Best Picture there can be
up to ten nominations, and this year there was only nine which makes the absence
of the critically acclaimed Inside Llewyn
Davis very hard to understand, because there was an obvious spot for it to
hold.
Those are the three biggest ‘snubs’ that I could think
of. There are a number of others that
are less blatant, in my opinion, and I won’t really go into those because the
primary purpose here is to be positive about the great things from this year
that people may not know about otherwise (at the end of the article I talk a
bit about a few of the other ‘snubs’).
So let’s first talk about some of what happened this year that is on par
(or better) than what got nominated, but was left out of the discussion for
whatever reason.
Oscar Quality Martial
Short Term 12 is a
movie about a group home for extremely troubled teens and the people who work
there. It follows Grace (Brie Larson),
one of the employees at the group home, who through the movie seeks to overcome
the demons from her own past as she attempts to do everything she can to lead
these kids out of their shadows and towards a quality of life that they could
never imagine. It is a tear jerker, it
is a tough watch, but it is also heartwarming and touching right to the
core. The performance of Larson was one
of the best female performances of the year, and if the right distributor was
behind the movie and campaigning, she should have easily gotten on the
ballot. The movie, as a whole, is definitely
Oscar quality and is one of the best of the year. I whole heartedly recommend this movie with the
warning that it does deal with some very hard issues, but not in a way that is
to leave people crying, but to win them over to the side of hope and second
chances.
Fruitvale Station
is a movie about Oscar Grant, a man who was shot by transit officers in Oakland
on January 1st 2009. While it
is based on a true story, it filled out with a narrative of Grant at a
crossroads in his life and having to choose which direction he will be taking,
and acting accordingly. This story gives
us a personal attachment to the character, who we know will inevitably
die. Director Ryan Coogler does a
wonderful job of building the atmosphere and, even though we know a gunshot
will occur, delivers shock and pain with the tragedy that unfolds. It is a very powerful story that celebrates
life and faces the loss of death. Fruitvale Station could have easily been
more seriously in the talks for best picture, Michael B. Jordan’s portrayal of
Oscar Grant was worthy of awards attention, Octavia Spencer (who played grant’s
mother) is on par with anyone else in the Best Supporting Actress category, and
director Ryan Coogler deserved more serious consideration. The film could have easily fit into multiple
Oscar categories, but unfortunately it got lost in the shuffle, possibly
because of its earlier release date as well as being over shadowed by some big
name talent.
Poor Sam Rockwell, that’s what I have to say. He always turns in a great performance and is
largely underappreciated for his skills.
In The Way Way Back, Rockwell
had a career performance as an immature and unlikely father figure to a boy who
is suffering under the weight of lack of confidence and under the gun of his
mother’s jerky boyfriend. Rockwell
manages to completely steal every scene he is in as well as being able to
deliver every emotion needed for his role.
As far as I am concerned, it was easily one of the best supporting actor
performances of the year and if his name was Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp, he would
be enjoying the elation of receiving an Oscar nomination. With so much of the talent this year coming
from serious fare, Rockwell showed that comedic/heartwarming performances can
still hold their own.
The Place Behind the
Pines entered theatres fairly early in 2013, and perhaps that is what
caused it to be forgotten come Oscar time.
It is a very ambitious (some think to a fault) movie that explores
nature versus nurture in the relationships, behaviours, and choices made by
three different generations of fathers and sons. Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper hand out very
nuanced and powerful performances, with characters that lay the groundwork for
the philosophy and premise of the entire film.
I do believe that if this movie was released in October it would have
been in close contention for a number of categories, and is a solid case for
the release and marketing games that distributors play in order to give their
films the best chances at awards.
Missing from the Lead Actor category this year was the young
Tye Sheridan for his performance in Mud,
where he plays a rough kid from the southern swamps of America who has his
concepts of love challenged. The movie,
which came out in early May of 2013, did extremely well with critics and was
one of the better performing limited release movies of the year and was able to
make $24 million worldwide. Matthew
McConaughey garnered a lot of the attention for the film (for his performance
as Mud), and was rightly deserved of that attention. However, the real standout performance in the
movie was by the young Sheridan who showed multiple abilities and gives hope
for great performances to come. He was
supposed to be attached to the next Star
Wars movie, but then JJ Abrams wanted to focus more on the older characters
and Sheridan was no longer needed. Even
though he missed out this year, I am positive it will not be long before his
name pops up in awards and he gets the recognition he deserves.
One nomination that was seemed to be an accepted given was
that Before Midnight would be up for
Best Adapted Screenplay, which was written by director Richard Linklater, and
the movie’s stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.
The script should be a serious contender for winning the award, but even
better than the wonderfully realistic and flowing conversations in the movie
were the performances by Hawke and Delpy who gave life to them. As we watch Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy)
go through the issues of love that has grown formulaic and routine, we grow to
accept these characters as real, which is partly due to the script, but also
the to ease that their performances are delivered with. We lose the sense of watching actors on the
screen and begin feeling like we are peering in on an actual relationship, an
accomplishment that rarely happens and Ethan Hawke and July Delpy are deserving
of recognition for their near perfect performances.
Great Things From 2013
Not everything that is great from the year is Oscar worthy,
but there is still a lot of amazing things that need a little bit of attention
as well. One of those is Sarah Polley,
who has come a long way from her role in Road
to Avonlea, and is establishing herself as an Oscar calibre director. Her documentary, Stories We Tell, was in close contention for a nomination this
year, and some people (myself included) are surprised that it did not make the
cut. However, the important fact is that
Polley shows amazing talent and that we should get excited and pay close
attention to her future projects.
Speaking of female talent, Rooney Mara further established
herself this year with three amazing performances in Side Effects, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, and Her. She has already been
nominated for an Oscar, so the world is not surprised by her abilities, but the
three stellar roles she has this year go to show that her nomination was not a one-time
deal. She will be back in the awards
race again, and she has proven that she is someone that we should be watching
as an actress on the rise.
On the male side of up and coming actors (Tye Sheridan
aside), Dane Dehaan has emerged onto the scene and could be able to develop
into something special a few years from now.
This year he was in The Place
Beyond the Pines, Kill Your Darlings, Devil’s Knot (which will see limited
release in 2014), and brought life to the fictional narrative in Metallica’s
concert film, Through the Never. His name may not be well known right now, but
I am really confident that he is going to keep growing in his talents and
exposure and should not be far removed from landing some very key roles.
One of the great movies of this year was The Way Way Back, which was able to
stick out as a quality, heartwarming comedy when there has been a lot of
serious, ‘based on real life’ content dominating headlines. I would never say that the movie itself is of
Oscar quality, but it succeeds in delivering all of the emotions that it sets
out to, and shows the script writing and directing talents of Jim Rash and Nat
Faxon. It is a film that a wide range of
audiences could really enjoy, and I find it to be winner of my ‘Gem of the Year’
award (if such an award existed), following in the fun and touching footsteps
of last year’s winner, The Best Exotic
Marigold Hotel.
Last year also saw the emergence of Lake Bell, and all of
the talent that she has to offer Hollywood with her parody comedy, In a World… which is based on the very
competitive world of voice overs. Bell
wrote, directed, and starred in the movie, which carried with it a lot of
comedy, fun, as well as being able to deliver a message of female empowerment, something
that is pretty much missing from most movies.
This was the first feature film directed and written by Bell, who was
able to create a solid character for herself, as well as develop some very entertaining
and interesting supporting characters.
Plus, the film has an old-school music montage of people training and
prepping their vocal chords which is one of the parody moments from the year
that I will remember most. It is an all-around
solid film that, like The Way Way Back,
should be enjoyable for most audiences.
Shane Carruth, the director of Primer (a 2004 independent science fiction film) returned and
delivered Upstream Color, a movie
with science fiction elements woven into a relationship tale of healing from a
traumatic experience. That’s what I get
from it, at least, as it is a film that could be interpreted so differently
from everyone who views it. Turn off the
phone, send the kids to bed, and leave nothing of distraction in your life as
you will need all of your brain power for this movie that tells you very little
and leaves everything up to you to figure out.
There are aspects that I am not sure about from this movie, but it was
just so nice having to figure my own way through a quality movie as opposed to
how most movies feel the need to over inform you of everything and treat the
audience like they are too stupid to figure anything out on their own. It also had a wonderful performance from Amy
Seimetz, who I am hoping will have a breakthrough performance soon so we can
see her in more films.
Another great thing from this year that I would love to talk
about is the performances of first time actors Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave). They were both awarded with nominations for
their performances, which kind of disqualifies them from this article, but I
could not resist by bring them up. Both
were able to perform onscreen with well-established talent and marvellously held
their own. They are both interesting
stories that add some humanity to the Oscars, especially considering Abdi’s
profession prior to his Oscar nominated performance was driving taxis.
A Brief Look at Some
of Those Left Out of the Nominations
As I had said earlier, the point of this was to reflect
positively on the year, but I do want to mention some of the contenders that
were on the edges of nomination that did not receive their glory. The documentaries Stories We Tell and Blackfish
were both ones that I had easily assumed would be able to make the cut, but
shocked many people by having been left off of the ballot. The real interesting story of the documentary
category is The Square, which is
pushed by Netflix. The online streaming
company made ground with having their first Emmy nominated original programing
in 2013, and it is possible that they may soon have an Oscar to add to their credentials.
While I enjoyed Lee Daniel’s The Butler, I was not
shocked that it did not come up with a best picture nomination. I was, however, shocked that Oprah Winfrey
did not secure a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her portrayal as a
multi-dimensional wife of the White House butler. She had received a nomination from the Screen
Actors Guild (the people who would be able to vote her to an Oscar nomination),
but ended up losing her spot to Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) who had not received a Screen Actors Guild
nomination, but seemed to have some momentum building around her lately.
Left off of the Lead Actor nominations list was Robert
Redford who was the one man show in All
is Lost, a movie where his sailboat faces disaster in the open ocean. There are no other actors in the movie, and
Redford’s performance has been widely praised.
It was not to be, though, as he did not end up with the nomination. Redford figures that the reason for that
happening is due to the lack of promotion and campaigning by Roadside
Attractions, the North American distributor for the film.
A few snubs that happened in the Best Foreign Language Film
category happened before the nominations were even announced. Two movies that were expected to be nominees
never ended up making the voter’s short list for the category. Missing out was Wadjda, the critically acclaimed movie from Saudi Arabia, which was
not only the first Saudi film ever made, but it was also directed by a
female. Also missing from the short list
was The Past, directed by Asghar
Farhadi who had directed A Separation which
won 2012’s Best Foreign Language Film.
Missing out was Daniel Bruhl, who was in the running for a
Supporting Actor nomination for his role in Ron Howard’s Rush. His performance was
extraordinary and received a nomination for the Golden Globes. Because the Golden Globes are nominated by
the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, it was not surprising that they
nominated the Spanish actor. The real
surprise was when the SAG nominated him shortly after, giving real weight to
his chances of getting some Oscar loving for his depiction of Austrian Formula
One driver, Niki Lauda.
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