The Oscars

I realize I've been ranking the Best Picture Oscars since 2006 (I think I skipped a year or two though).

I thought 2013 was a good year for movies. It wasn't 1939 or 1994 by any means, but it was a good year.

For the first time since the Oscars expanded the number of Best Pictures from 5 to whatever it is now (I think it's now between 5 and 10), I genuinely liked all the nominees. This made it a bit difficult to rank them, but I'll give it a go.

I've found in recent years, maybe from listening to more film criticism podcasts than I used to, or maybe with age, story seems to mean more to me that it did in the past. While I can admire spectacle, the story carries more weight for me this year than it has in the past, and that will be seen in my rankings below. I'll go from worst to first here, and should note this is not how I think things will pan out (I actually think my #2 film will win best picture), but how I feel about the movies after seeing them and having some time to reflect.

9. Dallas Buyers Club - There was something about this film that just didn't click with me. I thought the performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto were both amazing (I think Leto should win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar) but I don't know what it was. Pacing, possibly? Or maybe I wasn't sucked in the story as much as I would have thought? Who knows. One thing that did bother me during the movie was the time stamps. There were time stamps through out. 'Day 1', 'Day 27', etc. then it would say something like '6 months later' then at the end went back to using days. That's a minor thing, but the lack of consistency bothered me (and Lauren, who also brought it up). Also, when they say '6 months later' is that 6 months from Day 1 or 6 months from what ever Day we were on? Again, a minor thing, but it did bug me. Lauren mentioned after seeing the film, that it was good but she didn't think she would remember it in a year. Ultimately, that's why it's my number 9; I'm not going to remember this film as a film, only for the performances.

8. The Wolf of Wall Street - Long movies (over 2.5 hours) bother me. There have been many a film that I would have liked better if they were only a bit shorter. This film squarely falls in that category. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was great (I don't think he'll ever be able to give as good as a performance as he did in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, but this was pretty damn good). The story was good, but there were some sequences that just went on for way to long for my taste. I was listening to a podcast where a guy who loved the movie was talking about the over 20-minute long sequence where two of the characters get high. He thought that amount of time was needed to get the point across; I remember looking at my watch during that sequence for the first time, wondering how much more of this we were going to see. It was the only film on the list where I checked the time during the film. I thought it was a great story, I thought the performances were really good, I just kind of wished that Martin Scorsese could have chopped off 30-45 minutes off the film. It would have been higher on my list if he had done that.

7. American Hustle - This is a fun movie. It's a performers' movie and the performances were great. A little over the top but not so much that they got annoying. What bothered me about this movie was I felt like it was giving off the air of being bigger, or more important, than it actually is. I felt like it was trying to be Goodfellas lite, and it just wasn't. I think it might a David O. Russell (the director) thing because I kind of had similar feelings about Silver Linings Playbook (a movie I liked significantly less than American Hustle). I feel like I'm putting down the film, but like I said, story has become more important to me as of late and what makes this movie good is not the story, but the characters. In the end, what they're saying didn't really matter to me but the way they said it, did.

6. Philomena - This movie caught me off guard. It opened months before the Oscar nominations were announced and I never even considered seeing it. It looked like a small, British, movie that wouldn't get much respect in the US, and therefore not get a nomination. I guess I was wrong. I was also caught off guard by how much I would like it. Going in, I was sure it was a movie I would not think much of, and I know there are a group of people who think it's a good movie, but not Best Picture worthy. I can't say I disagree with that statement; except for Judi Dench, it doesn't have the components that typically make up a Best Picture nominee. I think it also suffered from its advertising. From the trailers I saw, it looked more like a comedy than it actually is. It is a very touching movie, and that it's based on a true story makes it that much more touching. I liked it a lot more than than I thought I would and I'm hoping that the nomination will give more people (like me) the chance to see it.

5. Gravity - There is talk that this might win best picture. Gravity is possibly the most visually stunning movie I've ever seen, but the story is what brought it down a few notches for me. It gets a lot of points for being as short as it is (like I said earlier, I don't like long movies), but I felt like the characters were too simple, and that stuff was added that felt like it was being added for the sake of being added. There is a story line of the main character having gone through a serious loss back on earth but that didn't really add anything for me. It didn't make the story more compelling so it felt like it was added to pull the heartstrings, which I don't think need pulling in a movie about people lost in space - that's pulling the heartstrings enough. I also didn't like the George Clooney character. No one would be that calm in the situation they were in. I felt like it was George being George, calm, cool, and always under control. That being said, I do think Alfonso Cuarón should win Best Director. If Ang Lee can win for Life of Pie, Cuarón better win for Gravity.

4. Nebraska - I heard someone say that if some no-name director had directed Nebraska, and not Alexander Payne, there is no way it would have been nominated for an Oscar. I don't doubt that. The thing is, there was a no-name director who directed a movie that didn't get a Best Picture Oscar nomination back in 1999, when he directed Election. That director was this director, who has now made a name for himself. Election is my favorite Alexander Payne movie, and if you haven't seen it, you should. Nebraska, is my second favorite movie from him. I wasn't a fan of The Descendants at all, and didn't like Sideways as much as everyone else did. What I liked about this movie is what I liked about Election - the characters. Even though I've talked about story in this post, for me, it doesn't matter so much what the story is in Nebraska, but the people involved in it. I liked the side characters more so than the two main characters. The extreme side characters I liked even more. This movie grew on me the more I thought about it and I like it more now much more than I did when I walked out of it in December. I don't think this movie will win any major Oscars, but I do think it's the kind of movie, like Election, that I will remember scenes from, 15 years after it was released.

3. Captain Phillips - This was the first of the Best Picture nominees that I saw, and it really struck a chord with me. I don't know what it was, but it just really stuck with me. I was shocked - shocked - that Tom Hanks did not get a best actor nomination (even if he did have a bad New England accent). Last year, I posted my favorite scene from a movie. This year, my scene of the year is from this film. Alas, I can't post it because it's the very last scene in the movie, and I don't want to be a spoiler. One performance that I very much thought was impressive, but I'm hearing no critics talk about, is that of the 2nd hijacker. Barkhad Abdi, who plays the lead hijacker is nominated for Best Supporting Actor, rightfully so, but no one seems to be talking about the performance of Barkhad Abdirahman, who plays 2nd hijacker. The 2nd hijacker was the scarier of the two, in my opinion, and required a great deal more rage from the actor, which I thought he did a great job with. Yes, the lead hijacker needed to be more subtle, but I just kept waiting for the 2nd guy to go off (and he did a few times). I wish his performance was more recognized. I also thought Paul Greengrass was the perfect director for this movie. The unsteady camerawork he likes to use fit so well with the situation and the story, both of which were constantly in an unsteady state. I know this is not getting much love as a frontrunner, but I thought it was a great movie.

2. 12 Years a Slave - This film lost point for something that was entirely my doing; I read the book shortly before seeing it, so there was no element of surprise or suspense for me. This film does a great job of putting the viewer in the place of the main character, so it's best seen not knowing what is about to happen, because then you can relate to the actor much more. I didn't have that luxury, so I was a bit disappointed in myself for reading the book beforehand. That being said, it is a remarkable story and a remarkable film. I thought the performances were all great, but I think that of Sarah Paulson has somehow got lost in the nomination season. Her character comes off as loving and kind but also extremely evil. Like Barkhand Abdirahman, I do wish her performance would have gotten a bit more attention. This is a difficult film to watch and not one I would want to watch again because of this. But sometimes, the films you can't watch again are the ones that stay with you and stand the test of time.

1. Her - I loved Her. It hit all the right notes for me - the story, the directing, the music, the setting, the costumes, and Joaquin Phoenix. I think it must be very difficult to act against no one, especially when you're supposed to be showing tenderness, and I thought he did a great job. I'm also a Spike Jonze fan, back to when he directed this Weezer music video (although, I have to admit, I didn't really like Where the Wild Things Are). I just thought it was a very well put-together movie. On the surface, it's a very simple movie, but there was so many small details (like that none of the men wear belts) that may go unnoticed, but that add so much to the sense that we aren't quite in the normal universe of today, but some slightly fictional universe of the not-too-distant future. I've heard people say it reminded them of (500) Days of Summer, and I don't disagree with that. I liked that movie a great deal too, so maybe it's just that I like that type of movie, or I like Joaquin Phoenix, or I like Spike Jonze. Whatever it is, as soon as the credits started, I leaned over to Lauren and whispered 'Best movie of the year'. Several weeks after seeing it, I still feel the same way.

So that's my summary of the Best Picture nominees. This is the first time in a while where I saw all movies in a theater, and saw them with time to reflect, so I'm happy with my ranking, though I don't see any way that Her will win best picture.