First Posted: 2/18/2015
How many of the eight Academy-Award-nominated movies for Best Picture have you seen? Six, for me. So – if I were a member of the Academy, which would get my vote for Best Picture? Best Director? Best Actress? Best Actor? Etc. Here are my choices, organized by, in alphabetical order, the six Best-Picture films I’ve seen. (Haven’t seen “The Theory of Everything” and “Whiplash.”)
American Sniper
Bradley Cooper, nominated for Best Actor, smartly underplays title character, Chris Kyle, in this tense, Best Picture-nominated Iraq War biopic, and famously bulked up, gaining 40 pounds for the role. Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film keeps a tight focus on Kyle and his wife Taya (well played by Sienna Miller), as they deal with personal consequences of Kyle’s four tours of duty as a Navy SEAL sniper in Iraq and his efforts to adjust to civilian life. Scriptwriter Jason Hall is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. He gets my vote.
Birdman
A critical favorite, it’s mine, too: “Birdman” gets my votes (if I had them) for Best Picture, Best Director/Writer Original Screenplay (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), and Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki). It is that good. Michael Keaton — whose performance is also excellent, and nominated — is movie actor Riggan Thomson whose only claim to fame is playing comic-book hero Birdman in three blockbuster films twenty years back. His efforts to stage a comeback and prove himself an artist by writing, producing, directing, and starring in a serious Broadway play is the setting for this extraordinary picture. If you haven’t yet, see it soon. I saw it twice.
Boyhood
“Boyhood” is another excellent and truly memorable film. Twelve years in the making, director/writer Richard Linklater (also nominated) follows, with the same actors in lead roles — Ethan Hawke (nominated for Best Supporting Actor), Patricia Arquette (Best Supporting Actress), Ellar Coltrane — 6-year old Mason’s coming-of-age, from elementary school to university, filming a segment every year for a dozen years. What an amazing accomplishment — and gamble. It’s fiction with a documentary feel and engaged me emotionally in a way few other films ever have (except, maybe, “Bambi,” which I saw when I was 5). Patricia Arquette, as Mason’s mother, gets my vote for Best Supporting Actress. Saw this one twice, too.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
If there were an Academy Award for Most Entertaining Picture of the year, Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” would get my vote, hands down. (Yes, I saw TGBH twice, as well.) Like Tim Burton’s and Woody Allen’s films, Wes Anderson’s are quirky and almost immediately recognizable. And if they’re an acquired taste, I’m happy I have it. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is Anderson’s eighth and is deservedly nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography — among other categories. If I hadn’t voted them for “Birdman,” TGBH would be a strong contender. So, instead, I’m casting three votes for Best Costume, Makeup/Hairstyle, and Production Design to the smart, stylish and artful “Budapest Hotel.” It is grand. See it if you haven’t.
The Imitation Game
Like “American Sniper,” Best Picture nominated “The Imitation Game” is a wartime biopic. The subject here is brilliant, but difficult English mathematician Alan Turing. The war is World War II. The assignment is to decipher Enigma, the unbreakable German code. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Turing. His Best Actor-nominated performance is restrained and complex – alternately annoyingly confident and heart-breakingly vulnerable. It’s a star turn in the best sense. Keira Knightly is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of tough-minded mathematician Joan Clarke, also a strong contender. Cumberbatch gets my vote for Best Actor. I’ve already voted Patricia Arquette Best Supporting Actress.
Selma
Hollywood loves biopics. “Selma” is one of the very best, perhaps the best of this year’s Best Picture nominees in this genre – the others being “American Sniper,” “The Imitation Game,” and (one I haven’t seen) “The Theory of Everything,” Stephen Hawking’s biography. British actor David Oyelowo and director Ava DuVernay ought to have been nominated for their work in this important and moving film. It tells of the three months in 1965 leading up to the epic march, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Oyelowo) from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, for federal voting rights legislation. Like “Lincoln” (2012), “Selma” tells the public, political and private stories of issues and players. We see King as husband and father, as well as public figure, as we also saw Lincoln. My vote for Best Original Song goes to Common and John Legend for their splendid song “Glory.”
