Seven Out Of Eight Ain't Bad!

Stopping just short of the finish line has always driven me crazy. Why start anything if the intention is not to finish?

Although, there are circumstances when certain conditions are out of your hands and a goal can't be completed - sometimes that 1,000 piece puzzle (that you spent DAYS completing) is missing a few pieces (curses!), or your legs cramp up before you can scale the top of that mountain (and you have to scoot back down the incline on your butt), or a certain movie leaves the multiplex before you can see all the Best Picture nominees.

Yeah, I get it Regal Cinemas, you had to give like a zillion screens to Gods Of Egypt 3D, but there are some people who still want to see The Big Short! (Those theaters would be better suited for an Oscar movie, since **COUGH** no one is seeing Gods anyway...)

With endless movies coming out every week, nothing is guaranteed to be out for months, so it's really a "snooze you loose" situation. I snoozed and thus continued my tradition of never seeing all of the Best Picture nominees before The Academy Awards. It's almost become a joke now, because every year since I could get into R rated movies on my own, I tend to either see almost none of the nominees or get ridiculously close to seeing them all.

It looks like I've come this close only one time before - in 2011 I saw nine out of ten best picture nominees. Wooo five years ago me, you deserve a pat on the back!

Even if The Academy Awards are always striving to give statues to the best of the best for any given year, it is more likely that all the nominees will not be loved by everyone. In other words, just the Best Picture category alone is bound to feature one real stinker; something that is a real bore to many people. These may be controversial choices, but don't even get me started on having to slog through watching previous nominees like, Inception, Lincoln, Babel, Sideways, Gangs Of New York, and Gosford Park, just to name a few.

That's why it is surprising that for the first year that I can remember, I found every Best Picture nominee that I saw very enjoyable in their own way! It's difficult even to rank them because I loved them all almost equally. Each one has different strengths, but they all feature amazing storytelling and are worthy of representing the year of film in 2015.

The Academy Awards are often viewed as frivolous, but what people forget is that acknowledging specific moments of our culture makes it so we take note of certain things in the time that we are living. It is important to use the arts as a way to keep track of how we were feeling, looking, and thinking. That's what makes the Academy Awards entirely fascinating to me - it's a very specific record of what people enjoyed, who we were as people, and also, partly, what issues we found to be important.

Looking back through Oscar winning movies through time you will notice that this has always been the case. Just as an example, during WWI and WWII, many of the winning movies were focused on the fears of war or people fighting in the war (All Quiet On The Western Front, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years Of Our Lives). Much like those movies,  a win for Spotlight or The Big Short this year would secure acknowledging a story that mirrors timely issues and fears, and also what kinds of injustice people are angry about in today's world.

In the end, if we think of the Academy Award as historical record, which  movie should represent the year 2015 in history? Which is the one you'd be obnoxiously yelling about in the streets and telling everyone to jet out and see?

My answer to this question keeps shifting back and forth, because I am an indecisive person when there are too many great options. But, I am still forcing myself to make a final decision. Based on my love of journalism and heart for social justice, there is really no other choice I can pick for Best Picture:

• SPOTLIGHT

This movie features a remarkable cast who suffered through unglamorous 2001 hairstyles (the George Clooney Julius Caesar haircut on Mark Ruffalo was a highlight) and fashion (a sea of khakis) to tell, what should be, the unbelievable true story of Boston Globe journalists uncovering the details of child abuse in the Catholic church.

In a world where people would rather read Top 10 lists than long features, we've come to a time when this form of journalism depicted in Spotlight, where small groups of people dig into a stories for years, is sadly dying out. I'm hoping that what comes with the acclaim of this movie is more people realizing the importance of unbiased journalists out there working to uncover the secrets that we all need to know. This is a job that we all should fight to support, since biased propaganda is not positive for anyone.

Spotlight should be the movie to represent 2015, but the six other nominees that I saw also had important, emotional stories to tell. I've ranked the other nominees as follows (I'll have to wait and see where The Big Short falls in line):

Room
The Revenant
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Bridge Of Spies

I've already said a lot about my appreciation for Room (see previous post). 

The Revenant is the most beautiful looking movie I've ever seen and shows all the guts and glory of Leo.

Brooklyn features a lovely,  emotional story (I cried through almost the whole thing, including a moment featuring the performance of a haunting traditional Irish ballad), that also shows us (through amazing costumes) how glamorous the 1950s could be (and how much I want to go to Ireland).

 Mad Max: Fury Road proved that even when you think you've seen it all, a guy playing a guitar is strapped to the front of a truck and a two hour car chase becomes the most visually stunning and imaginatively told movie this year - movie creativity is far from dead.  

The Martian reminded me why Matt Damon became a charismatic movie star, as he, delivering the lines from a wonderful script, had us all laughing and crying while trying to make it back to Earth.

Lastly, Bridge Of Spies was a movie that I had zero expectations for, so I ended up genuinely enjoying sitting through almost all 142 minutes of it - the surprisingly magnetic supporting performance by a guy I've never heard of, Mark Rylance, totally helped make up for the literal bridge...of...spies that actually pops up in the movie.

These nominees really do represent many of the great movies I saw in the last year. However, I did watch another one recently, that could have qualified, and should have featured a nominee in the Best Actress category.

The movie, Grandma, featuring a fiery and hilarious performance by Lily Tomlin, is one of those movies that is all talking and story, but it never hits a boring moment. That might have something to do with the short, yet perfect 79 minute running time. More movies should just be short and sweet. 

No moment is wasted as a grandma (played by Tomlin) drives off with her granddaughter on an odyssey type mission through L.A., visiting old friends and partners trying to drum up some needed cash for an important medical procedure.  It's a real gem. Tomlin earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role, but this is just another example of non-showy, more "comedy" leaning movies getting overlooked by The Academy. 

The Oscars  won't ever be able to cover it all, but hopefully, with the tweaks that are being made after the #OscarSoWhite controversy this year, a different range of films will be acknowledged. That way a wider voice will be represented as films captured in this type of historical record. 

To see if those changes have an impact, we will have to wait until next year, but until then we can focus on this year's nominees. Which movie will win Best Picture? Is Leo REALLY going to win? Will someone go streaking? All will be revealed tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. Eastern/5:30 p.m Pacific on ABC. Or tune in all day (like I will, duh) for that red carpet coverage. Here's hoping some ladies really go for some wacky ensembles. The only guarantee is that Cate Blanchett will slay.

Better get those ballots filled out soon! I've sure got some guessing to do, since I just calculated an even more staggering statistic. There are 57 films nominated for at least one award -  I've seen 15. And I thought I saw a lot of movies! Sheesh. Well, I have way more watching to do - how about you?

Until next time.

Why It Would Be Refreshing For Room To Win Best Picture

Trapped between four walls with never an opportunity to breath fresh air sounds like the worst possible form of existence. Knowing that must have been what caused people to invent prison and specifically solitary confinement. The worst form of punishment is forced on those who have broken the rules - living, without a life. 

You lose freedom. You lose choice. You lose everything except for whatever has been left behind in the walls that make up the enclosure.

But this isn't just for prisoners. Some people may even choose to live this way intentionally, which, as their choice, all the power to them. However, this can happen to people who are innocent of their crimes or have just been forced into this confinement.

Through the Best Picture nominated film, Room, the story of two people sentenced to this type of life is told. It's an intense situation for a woman, only referred to as Ma (played by Brie Larson), but the beauty of her creativity comes to life once she must invent a sense of an entire world for her son Jack all between the walls in a single room.

This year is jam packed with emotional Best Picture nominees. And it's a tough choice, but if forced to choose, Room is the most heartbreaking, inspiring, and moving story out of the Best Picture race. It's effortlessly directed by Lenny Abrahamson, the dialogue perfectly captures all the humor and anger of the characters (by Emma Donoghue, which she adapted from her bestselling novel), and it also features two outstanding performances from the lead actors.


Larson is wonderfully supported by the actor playing her young son, Jacob Tremblay. If there was a Best Duo award at the Oscars (for on and off screen badassery), they would take that award without question. Neither performance works without the other. Much of the movie is from Tremblay's point of view, a boy who was born within "room", and has never seen the outside world . [It's completely mind boggling!] He is the narrator, which is a beautiful touch, since his innocent voice is all the audience needs to hear in order to understand Ma and Jack's vulnerability. His voice leads the audience through both his joy and terror about the life they are facing.

As a whole package, this is the kind of movie that hits you right in your emotional core. After leaving the theater you want to both hug every single person you've ever cared about and also head out on an extensive road trip, because having freedom is the best and the world is such a big unknown place that needs to be seen.

In a form of pure "snub rage", Tremblay was sadly left off the Best Supporting Actor (or Best Actor, really) list this year at the Oscars. But the movie rightfully earned four nominations total, including a Best Actress nomination for Larson.

If Room (and no, not The Room, which I overheard people calling it at the theater) walked away with the Best Picture and Best Actress award this year it would join the ranks of only 11 other movies in history. What might that list be, you ask?

As someone who watched (all but one) of the Best Picture winners from throughout history there is a trend I quickly noticed. [I reviewed them all! Check out the Best Picture Challenge label!] It is rare for a movie to win both Best Picture and Best Actress. Like I mentioned above, it has only happened 11 times out of 87 years. Here are the movies that have that accomplishment:

Million Dollar Baby
Shakespeare In Love
The Silence Of The Lambs
Driving Miss Daisy
Terms Of Endearment
Annie Hall
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Mrs. Miniver
Gone With The Wind
The Great Ziegfeld
It Happened One Night

(All must see movies - by the by.)

In comparison, 26 Best Picture winners have also featured the Best Actor winner: 

The Artist
The King's Speech
Gladiator
American Beauty
Forrest Gump
The Silence Of The Lambs
Rain Man
Gandi
Kramer vs Kramer
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
The Godfather
The French Connection
Patton
In The Heat Of The Night
A Man For All Seasons
My Fair Lady
Ben Hur
The Bridge on The River Kwai
Marty
On The Waterfront
All The King's Men
Hamlet
The Best Years Of Our Lives
The Lost Weekend
Going My Way
It Happened One Night


These stats give off the impression that movies which feature impressive female performances are not deemed as an overall amazing movie going experience. For example, this year, Carol, was excluded from the Best Picture category, even though the two leads are up for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress (Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett).

When looking back on history, there were many opportunities for the Academy to award the Best Picture prize to the movie that also featured the Best Actress winner. When comparing the winners with the movies that could have won, it is easy to see that movies with more male dominated casts often rule the category.

First of all, A Streetcar Named Desire (with Best Actress winner Vivien Leigh) is a better film, top to bottom, than An American In Paris (the Best Picture winner from that year). As well as, Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf (Best Actress winner Elizabeth Taylor) over the bore that is A Man For All Seasons, Funny Girl (with Best Actress winner Barbara Streisand) over Oliver,  and Moonstruck (with Best Actress winner Cher) would be a more memorable Best Picture winner over the long dredge that is The Last Emperor. I would also choose Fargo (with Best Actress winner Frances McDormand) over The English Patient any day.

Sometimes though, amazing movies with almost completely female casts are pitted against each other. In 2003, The Hours (which includes Best Actress winner Nicole Kidman) lost to Chicago. This is an interesting comparison, since these were two hugely nominated movies and were also dominated by women - this does not happen often in one year.

It seems like the only reason this disparity continues is because there are not enough movies being made that focus on women. I've written about this before, but in 2013, it was reported that only 15% of movie protagonists were women.

This year is at least better than last year, where not a single Best Picture nominee featured a woman in a leading role. (Still crazy, I know).

It turns out that five of the nominees this year include a terrific lead or supporting performance by women - Mad Max: Fury Road has Charlize Theron (my pick for the other big Oscar Snub this year), Spotlight has Rachel McAdams (who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress), The Martian has both Jessica Chastain and Kate Mara, Brooklyn has Saoirse Ronan (Best Actress nominee), and Room, of course, has Larson.

As much as I loved the other movies mentioned above, I'm rooting for Brooklyn, and even more so Room, to win Best Picture. Since Larson is a shoo-in for the Best Actress win, a little bit of hope for the double win is in my mind just so more movies featuring Best Actress winners can be added to the list, but in the end, it's just because Room deserves it. 

Until next time.

Home Is Home

Home. It can be the dwelling where we lay our head down at the end of the day, but home also has to do with identity.

Home can be the houses we grew up in, the place where our families/friends are located, the cities where we were born, and the countries we find listed on our passports. This idea of home can create a sense of history and center us to a concrete destination in this wild and large world.

No matter how old we get, these various forms of home are ever changing, and yet, can still be places or feelings that are never lost, even if it is a location that we will never see again.

Through it all, the word home is made up of whatever you decide it to mean.

The Best Picture nominated film, Brooklyn, finds a young woman searching out exactly what home means to her.

Is it a place or a feeling? Or both?

Eilis (pronounced AY-lish), with the help of her sister pushing her, decides to leave her home of Ireland in order to pursue an adventurous life in a new place, Brooklyn.

It is 1951 and she boards a boat to cross the Atlantic, leaving behind her older sister and widowed mother, who will now only have each other.

How bold this must have been to venture to an unknown place. Especially in an era where air travel wasn't accessible to all and knowing, deep down inside, that you may never come back. Or if you do, it will be years before enough money can be saved to make a return trip on a rocky boat.

With only letters from her family to comfort her while navigating the world of living in a boarding house and starting a new job, Eilis battles with homesickness and wonders if this new country will ever feel like home.

Father Flood (played by the always lovely Jim Broadbent), a priest in Brooklyn who sponsored Eilis's trip to America, tries to comfort her through this adjustment. He tells her that, "Homesickness is like most sicknesses - it'll make you feel wretched, and it'll move on to somebody else."


How then do you make a new place feel like home? Once Eilis changes her attitude, she begins to embrace the growing opportunities that are everywhere. It also might help a little that she meets the sweetest fella that has been seen on the big screen in decades. These two meet at 1951's answer to bar hopping and online dating - local area dances. These innocent gatherings featuring guys and gals sipping soda with paper straws might look boring and tame at first, but upon further reflection these forced mixers look rather refreshing in comparison to how we all mingle in today's world. Let's have a nice chat and a dance!

Of course, just when everything seems to be going right in the world, and the hope of being settled in a new home is looking bright, reality comes to sweep dreams away. Eilis is faced with the choice of sticking with the home she has always known or reaching for the metaphorical home of her future.

She professes that, "you'll catch yourself thinking about something or someone who has no connection with the past. Someone who's only yours.And you'll realize that this is where your life is."

Best Actress nominee Saoirse Ronan, who is Irish just like her character Eilis, also has a name that constantly needs pronunciation explanations here in the states (it's Sur-Sha by the by). And even though Ronan is a modern Irish girl and many of us watching this movie are only tied to immigration through the stories from our ancestors (I too had Irish relatives come through Ellis Island), this story of breaking out on one's own is purely timeless. Traveling might be easier now, so there is more of a chance to reconnect with loved ones that you leave behind, but moving from childhood to adulthood and breaking out on your own is always going to be one of life's biggest transitions.

Finding that sense of  home will take time and adjustment, but knowing that this struggle happens to everyone is just another way that human existence can be constantly tied together. Home is home, wherever that might be.

Seek out Brooklyn, hopefully playing in a theater near you, especially before The Academy Awards on February 28th.

Brooklyn is nominated for three awards - Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay for the wonderful writer Nick Hornby. Divine 1950s costuming, sumptuous cinematography, superb acting, and heartbreaking story telling, make Brooklyn, top to bottom, well deserving of becoming the Best Picture of 2016. This sweet and moving story will not be soon forgotten. 

Awards season - it's the best time of the year!

Until next time.