VoML Guide to the 85th Academy Awards - Best Picture

This is the first year that I’ve seen every single film, not only for best picture but for every major acting category, best director, and even the live action and documentary shorts. I'll say it now since I won't get a chance in the Best Picture section, The Master was the best film I saw this year.  In fact, prior to the nominations I said I would never watch the Oscars again if The Master wasn’t nominated, which of course happened, but I talked myself down from the ledge once Joaquin and PSH got their respective nominations. I never would have stopped watching. I love movies, and while I seldom agree with the Academy's decisions, it is great to watch actors be rewarded and occasionally show real emotion.

Best Picture

The Great

The last time Kathryn Bigelow was on stage at the Academy Awards, she walked away with two Oscars.  By not awarding Bigelow a Best Director nod for Zero Dark Thirty, the Academy ensured that history will not repeat itself.  It's a shame because Bigelow was the front-runner in my book.  The team behind The Hurt Locker has once again given us a tense film concerning the war on terrorism.  Combining Bigelow’s antecedent effort and the depiction of the search for and assassination of Osama Bin Laden was enough to make me extremely excited for this film.  The ensemble cast was quietly one of the best of the year.  In addition to my favorite for Best Actress, Jessica Chastain, the film stars the eternally underrated Jason Clarke (Lawless, Chicago Code), Joel Edgerton (Warrior, Animal Kingdom), Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Super 8), Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation, Moneyball), Mark Strong, James Gandolfini, and Mark Duplass. Going into a film convinced that it will be your favorite film of the year often ends in disappointment, however I walked out of the film with those feelings affirmed.

More than almost any other filmmaker, David O. Russell is a director of outstanding performances.  Christian Bale and Melissa Leo won Oscars and Amy Adams earned a nomination for their work on The Fighter (my favorite film of 2011).  Silver Linings Playbook is the first film since 1981’s Red to earn nominations in all four acting categories.  Ostensibly about a man’s struggle to overcome his inner demons and regain the life he once had, Silver Linings Playbook delves into the tragedies and monotonies that cause people to lose their mental capacity and how companionship and support can play a role in getting it back.  This was a film very close to Russell's heart (his son suffers from a mood disorder); every bit of that passion made it to the screen.

This year’s resident little film that could, Beasts of the Southern Wild, is at its foundation, a coming of age story.  Hushpuppy (played by best actress nominee Quvenzhané Wallis) and her father Wink (Dwight Henry) reside in a community called "The Bathtub", located outside the levees of New Orleans.  The combination of a community threatening storm and Wink's declining health threaten to tear Hushpuppy's world apart.  As the community recovers, Hushpuppy learns about survival, comraderie, and the strength of the human spirit.  Fittingly, with little in the way of resources and a cast of inexperienced actors, director Benh Zeitlin superbly composes a virtual mythical hero's journey with his 6 year old protagonist.  Keeping up with the egregious slights, the exceptional score, which greatly contributed to the film's emotional resonance, was not nominated.

The Good

Argo provides Ben Affleck's best shot at an Oscar to date.  He did not receive a Best Director nomination, which usually means the film won't win.  Award season has been kind to Argo which should indicate it has a good shot.  While I liked it, I wasn't as enthralled with this as the three films above.  In fact, I'm a bigger fan of his previous two films, Gone Baby Gone and The Town.

Lincoln was a good film and very well may win this award but will probably be remembered more for being a Daniel Day-Lewis Best Actor vehicle.  The sheer amount of great actors at some point became a huge distraction for me.  A Steven Spielberg film used to be a very exciting event for me, but emotion inducing swells of music mostly just fill me with annoyance.

Quentin Tarantino is a masterful filmmaker.  He cannot help but make entertaining films, occasionally he makes a great film.  Visually, Django Unchained looked great, the acting was superb (everyone without the initials QT), the music was good, and the dialogue was snappy.  Chalk up another in the entertaining category. 

I read Life of Pi early in my college years, I'm not sure I was willing or ready to truly understand it.  I wanted to see the film but had no idea how they would adapt it to the screen.  I must say Ang Lee did as perfect a job as could have been done. 

The OK

I was positively terrified to see Amour.  As you can imagine, I'm not a fan of death and viewing the decay of a person's mental and physical capacities is about the worst subject matter there is.  While this was a good film, I was more invested and frankly more emotionally crushed by the short montage at the beginning of Up than I was of Amour.

For me, Les Misérables, Tom Hooper's follow up to Best Picture winner The King's Speech, didn't pack as big an emotional punch as the great films this year.  What did I like?  Hooper made a great decision by recording the actors actually singing on set, Hathaway and Jackman were outstanding, and Hooper succeeded in giving an epic feel.

More to come...

-PSon