2015 Oscar Awards

I had a tricky time of it this season.  I saw six of the eight best picture nominees, plus Into the Woods, Foxcatcher, and Gone Girl, but in my top ten categories, six awards went to films I haven’t seen yet.  As such, it’s hard to say too much about a number of the big wins.  Still, I can scrounge up a few cents to put in.

It’s interesting that each best picture nominee got at least one award.  In the recent supersized-category years, that hasn’t always been the case – there are usually a few that get the courtesy nods, acknowledgment as great films but no prizes to take home.  Not the case this year.  Sure, not all those awards were heavy hitters (American Sniper’s one trophy was for sound editing,) but there was a good deal of love spread around.  Even Selma, with only two nods, took home the non-best-picture award it was up for: best original song (well-deserved, in my opinion, and I appreciated the umbrage host Neil Patrick Harris took at its relative lack of accolades.)

It makes sense that The Grand Budapest Hotel swept the design categories, snagging best production design, costumes, and makeup, and best score to boot.  It looks and sounds amazing in a fastidiously-whimsical way, really creating its own world.  If I were giving out kudos, those are probably the awards I’d pick for it.  Meanwhile, I had qualms about The Imitation Game’s sole win for best adapted screenplay.  As I said in my review, the structure is disjointed, not entirely cohesive.  What’s more, this is an adapted screenplay based on a biography, and I don’t feel it did a good job adapting the story it sought to tell (I’m still reading the book, so I haven’t gotten into the dramatic licenses yet, but they’re legion.)  When Graham Moore waxed lyrically about Alan Turing in his acceptance speech, I couldn’t help but think that, if he wanted to honor the man, he could’ve written a movie that felt truer to Turing’s life and character.

I only caught half of the winning performances, since I’ve yet to see J.K. Simmons in Whiplash for supporting actor, and while I’d heard that Julianne Moore was the lead actress to beat, I didn’t prioritize Still Alice.  Patricia Arquette’s supporting actress win, the only award for Boyhood, surprised me.  I don’t know – it’s not to do with her performance, I just didn’t think there was enough to the role.  Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, however, was basically a lock for lead actor.  How very Hollywood that both the winning lead performances were for characters with degenerative diseases/disabilities, ALS for Redmayne and Alzheimer’s for Moore.  I don’t deny that Redmayne did some magnificent acting (as, I assume, did Moore,) but as I’ve said, it still rubs me the wrong way that able-bodied actors are so often lauded for playing disabled characters, especially when disabled actors rarely get to play these roles.

That leaves Birdman to scoop up four of my top ten categories:  best picture, direction, original screenplay, and cinematography.  I’ll admit, I didn’t follow much pre-Oscar buzz, but I was pleased to see it take home so many awards.  Though I still haven’t seen it, it strikes me as a creative-little-oddity nomination, this year’s Her, Juno, or Little Miss Sunshine.  Such movies usually pick up best original screenplay, and maybe an acting or technical/design award, but get passed over on the big-ticket items; as such, I loved seeing Birdman win big.  Also, while I’ve only seen one of the nominees for best cinematography, I gladly cheered when Emmanuel Lubezki won for this film.  I love his work so much, and I’m thrilled that his long-overdue and much-deserved recognition for last year’s Gravity wasn’t just a one-shot deal.