If You Think "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Should've Been Nominated for Best Picture, You're Stupid and I Hate You

Okay, I don't hate you. I'm sorry. Sometimes I say things I don't mean in order to make a point. Do you forgive me?

Good. But seriously, you're stupid and wrong.

Look, I get it. It's been 10 years since the last disappointing prequel came out. You were hungry. You were jonesin' for a fix!

You just got your first taste! The high is still going strong and you're on top of the world! Then the make an announcement! The top 8 drugs of 2015! And your drug wasn't nominated…

Over the past week since the Nominations came out, there have been a few "controversies". Some of them legitimate. Most of them completely preposterous. But the one I find most annoying is the following.

Some blogger (Yes, much like myself) who takes themselves way too seriously (Not like myself) writes a post with a headline along the lines of, "The fact that 'Star Wars' wasn't nominated for Best Picture proves that the Academy is out of touch with their audience".

This is nothing more than click bait. Yes, click bait. At first I thought it was interesting, but then he said something and it blew me away!

The person who writes these are either trying to get more hits to their page, doesn't know how the Academy Awards actually work or both. The latter being the most probable.

They're just some casual movie fan who likes only what major studios tell them to like. Which is completely fine. I don't think I can be anymore clear about that. If you like something, don't let anyone tell you you can't like it!

But they're letting their fandom get in the way of logical thinking! They don't bother to actually figure out why it wasn't nominated or how the nominees actually work.

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat:

THE ACADEMY AWARDS ARE MEANINGLESS

We'll get into why Leo hasn't deserved an Oscar yet on another day.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Oscars. Ask anyone who knows me well and they will tell you that the Oscars are like my Super Bowl. I haven't missed a telecast of the award show since… at least 2005.

But come on. They don't mean a damn thing to anyone other than the people giving them out and the winners parents. Any self respecting Filmmaker doesn't need the validation that they made a great film. They will most likely have problems with it regardless. Or they'll love it regardless.

They Academy Awards are just a flashy commercial for smaller, passion project films that don't get the attention they deserve because they aren't formulaic and cliché. Of course, that in itself has become a cliché of it's own. 

The reason your favorite blockbusters haven't been nominated is because there is nothing special about them. They're all the same and are all half-assed and have a quick turn around time in order to make a quick buck. Many of the performances are phoned in and serve little to no insight into what can really be accomplished by an actor.

The fact that these films aren't nominated for anything other than technical awards does not say they are bad movies. But that's not to say they are good movies either. They are simply fun. There is a difference.

Fun movies are the ones you go to see when you don't want to think at all. When you just want to watch pretty women and men running around getting all sweaty and somehow surviving that giant fiery ball of death with no protective gear.

Sorry to ruin the illusion, but if this was done without green screen, she's probably

at least a quarter of a mile away. The focal length they used just made it look like she was close.

SCIENCE!

GOOD movies, as pretentious as it may sound (and it is pretentious) are the films that make you think. They show you something that truly leaves you in awe, whether it be a masterful performance, beautiful cinematography, or in the case of "Mad Max: Fury Road" is just an overall, meticulously crafted film filled with brilliance disguised as a dumb fiery explosion action movie.

These films, whether you like it or not, are undeniably better. It is not as subjective as you might think. There is a science to the art of film making. It's not just stories and pictures. Filmmakers, good ones at least, manipulate their audiences into feeling a certain way.

And, because I am all for fair arguments, I am going to completely contradict what I just said… Bare with me. If you're still upset, just remember this:

FILM IS 100% SUBJECTIVE

As previously stated, yes I am aware I just contradicted myself.

My point is, these awards shouldn't mean anything to you. In order to be nominated for Best Picture, a certain percentage (I believe 5%) of the Academy's 5,783 members have to list that film as their favorite movie of the year. That means 289.15 people have to say it was their favorite of the 305 eligible films.

Those 5,783 members are people in the film industry who watch WAY more movies than you and even myself, and have seen movies like "Star Wars" thousands of times. And while they definitely still enjoy them, you can see why they wouldn't think it was the best movie they had seen that year.

Hell, even several "Star Wars" fans cried that Episode VII was too similar to Episode IV.

And yes, "The Force Awakens" is the highest grossing film in North America of all time. But that was previously held by "Avatar"… and if you think "Avatar" deserved it's nomination, you're more of a lost cause than I previously thought.

My point in all of this rambling?

The Oscar's shouldn't mean anything to you. It doesn't affect you at all. Just because your favorite movie wasn't nominated doesn't mean that that movie can't be your favorite movie.

Also, "Star Wars" has made close to $2 Billion. They don't need the recognition. Let the smaller movies get recognized for how great they were without Disney handing the Director a blank check.

Also, Leo hasn't deserved an Oscar before this year. Matthew McConaughey was better in "Dallas Buyers Club" in 2014. Forest Whitaker was better in "The Last King of Scotland" in 2007. Jamie Foxx was better in "Ray" in 2005. And Tommy Lee Jones was better in "The Fugitive"… Subtlety is the name of the game folks! And to quote Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder". If he's going to win, I don't want it to be a pity award like so many actors and actresses have received.

I do think he should've been nominated for "Django Unchained", but he wasn't so it's pointless to argue. This year does look promising for him though. Even though Tom Hardy acts circles around him.

Carol (2015)

Directed by Todd Haynes
Written by Phyllis Nagy
Based on the novel "The Price of Salt", by Patricia Highsmith
Starring Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler and Sarah Paulson

Set in 1950s New York, "Carol" tells the story of forbidden love, as a young aspiring photographer finds herself infatuated with an older woman. As their intimate relationship develops, complications of living in their time see to it that their love is anything but easy.

From the beginning, this film has everything going for it. Top notch actors with brilliant director, a masterful cinematographer, a beautiful score and a gorgeous production design. The time of the story is encapsulated perfectly onto film and makes the world believable. Each shot keeps you engaged and keeps your eyes on the screen. But where it lacks, I'm afraid, is the most important part. The story.

While the the story isn't exactly overdone, it has been done before. And it's been done better. It is truly a heart breaking story, but the way it is told make it hard to connect. Drama seems to be forced upon the audience. It is as if the director is saying "feel this way because I told you to feel this way". We are not shown why we should feel a certain way.

Certain scenes in the film felt as though they were incomplete and needed more background than was given in order to truly connect with the characters. Everything seemed to jump around from one problem to the next with no real solution or conclusion. And not in a realistic way. It felt as though, perhaps there was more to the film, but for one reason or another it was cut.

This film will certainly garner some awards. And it should. As I said before, everything is set to have made this will great! But somehow, through it all, they failed to focus on the most important thing. Whether that was through editing or writing, I can't be sure. All I know is that it felt as if it insisted upon itself.

My Rating: 6/10

Macbeth (2015)

Directed by Justin Kurzel
Written for the screen by Jacob Koskoff, Michael Lesslie and Todd Louiso
Based on the Shakespearian play
Starring Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Paddy Considine and Sean Harris

Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.

This is Shakespeare. There is little more to say than that. This adaptation, or rather interpretation of the classic Scottish play is how I imagine it was supposed to be portrayed.

The acting, as expected from the brilliant cast, is top notch with no flaws in my mind.

The cinematography is beautiful and perfectly captures the bleak landscape of Scotland.

The original score is haunting and perfect.

This is certainly my favorite version of any play by Shakespeare. But simply due to the consistency of which Shakespeare is replayed, I feel everything else I could say about this film would just be redundant.

My Rating: 8/10

Anomalisa (2015)

Directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman
Written by Charlie Kaufman
Starring David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan

Perhaps one of the more creative examples of the mundanity of every day life, Charlie Kaufman once again proves himself as one of the most unique screenwriters in cinema. In this remarkably crafted stop-motion-animated film, a man crippled by monotony of his life experiences something that causes him to find the joy in life.

The very thing that makes Charlie Kaufman stand out in the crowd of thousands of countless nameless writers is his ability to create a world that is relatable and familiar, yet simultaneously adverse and outlandish. He uses experiences from his own life that most if not all of us share and displays it for us in own dark and humorous ways. "Anomalisa" is no exception.

At first, what seems to be an odd choice of storytelling using puppets and stop motion animation, and an even more bizarre decision to have one actor voice literally all but two characters (in-scene music included), immediately becomes clear as the only way this story could have been told. This decision proves to be brilliant as it completely enforces the idea that no one, in the mind of the protagonist, is unique. Giving all of the secondary characters the same face was also a nice touch.

One of the tag lines written by a critique that the trailer uses perfectly sums up this film to the point that I wish I came up with it.

Matt Patches of ESQUIRE writes:

"The most human movie of the year. And it doesn't star a single human." 

That, to me, is a perfect summary of this film. While the choice of animation does create for some odd situations, the underlying message and emotions that the protagonists feel are 100% universal. Everyone has felt them at some point in their life and it is captured perfectly within the tiny sets and small characters.

It is of my opinion that Charlie Kaufman has outdone himself with this film. And I am curious to see how he follows it up.

My Rating: 9/10

The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Written by Mark L. Smith and Alejandro G. Iñárritu,

based in part on the novel by Michael Punke

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter

What gives us the will to survive?

Most of us—Most people in the modern world have not needed to resort to very much in order to survive. We have been born into a world where a society has already been built for us and we need just minimal instincts to stay alive.

But what happens when you take that all away? How many of us would last?

In Alejandro Iñárritu’s follow up to his ground breaking and Oscar Winning “Birdman”, a film rich in thematic elements, both emotional and psychological, he breaks that all down and opts to showcase only one. The will to survive. “The Revenant” tells the story of Hugh Glass, an American Folklore hero who was less of a legend that one might think.

The internet has an annoying around of trailer reviews for this

and this was the only one I could find....

The scale of this film is so incredibly large, that I am literally struggling to find the words to describe it. While viewing the film in it’s entirety, it’s impossible to tell that the production was delayed so often. It flows seamlessly from one scene to the other thanks to the actors and the beautiful cinematography of Emmanuel Lebezki.

It’s easy to see that this film was shot with no artificial lighting. Each and every shot feels real and unaltered and showcases the beauty that can be created just in nature. I have never felt so strongly that a film should win an award for the cinematography category as much as I do for this one. I will be truly upset if anything, including “The Hateful 8” wins.

Unfortunately for DiCaprio, Tom Hardy outshines the internet favorite in their performances. While Leo’s role was obviously more physically taxing, the transformation of Tom Hardy to play Fitzgerald was complete down to every single nuance and pronunciation of dialogue.

It really is impossible for me to find anymore words without sounding more uneducated than I already do. In the end, it is a film that everyone has to see for themselves. Will everyone like it? I’m not sure. It’s 2 hours and 40 minutes running time doesn’t help it’s case for the casual moviegoer. But for me, it felt as though it went by in an instant. I was in awe from beginning to end with it’s intensity and un apologetic brutality.

Go and see it for yourself.

My Rating: 9/10

Goodnight Mommy (2015 - Austria)

(German Title: Ich Seh Ich She)

Directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz

Written by Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala

Starring Lukas and Elias Schwartz and Susanne Wuest

Throughout the world, different cultures make for different tastes in many themes and genres. For instance, a film that American’s might find funny and entertaining may fly right over the heads of audiences in Great Britain. It’s not that either is wrong or right, but rather than comedy is purely subjective. And what one person might find relatable, another person from another country might find it random. Comedy is not Universal.

On the other end of the spectrum is the horror genre. Horror transcends cultures and terrifies us all regardless of where we’re from or what language we speak. We are all afraid of what goes “bump” in the night. Regardless of one’s background, it is near impossible to not feel a sense of unease when presented with the unknown. And, apparently creepy little kids.

In this Austrian film, a pair of identical twin boys, Lukas and Elias, struggle to settle back home when their Mother returns home from having cosmetic surgery. Her face hidden by bandages, her increasingly odd behavior fuels the boys’ nightmares. Their fear and paranoia takes control as they seek to find out the true identity of the woman beneath the gauze.

In a film that could just as easily rely on loud noises and quick cuts to cause the viewers heart rate to rise, on the contrary, the filmmakers opt for slow moving shots and force you to listen to the silence for clues. A delicately constructed film, you more or less need to watch every frame in order to see and understand every little nuance created for the story. “Goodnight Mommy” won’t scare you, per say. But it will certainly make you feel uneasy straight away.

This film was very difficult to review because there is so much to say. Yet saying anything more would give too much away.

In order to understand the films true story and not just the one presented in the trailer, you need to see it for yourself. It is so much more than it lets on.

My Rating: 8/10