Sunday
is the Oscars, our greatest date with illusion. We know, deep down, that the
odds are not in our favor in terms of the Academy picking true works of
cinematographic art, based on its eight decades-long track record. We painfully
remember how Rocky was chosen over Martin
Scorsese’s Taxi Driver; The Sting was selected over Ingmar
Bergman’s Cries and Whispers; The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King
defeated Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River;
The King’s Speech won over Daren
Aranofsky’s Black Swan and Debra
Granik’s Winter’s Bone; Argo beat Amour just last year! There are too many more examples to
mention. But there are always those little rays of hope based on the “upsets”
that keep us glued to the set on Oscar night, mentally crossing our fingers
that we’ll see something like when The
Hurt Locker beat Avatar in a
David and Goliath-type battle.
Industry
vs art is the annual clash we face at the Academy Awards ceremony. And I must
say that I agree with many film critics that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences should begin by sticking to five nominees for the Best Picture
category, mainly because we all pretty much know that arbitrarily adding four
or five more is done basically to boost movie ticket sales.
This
year, in this cinephile’s humble opinion, the five films that I would have
loved to have seen competing for Best Picture are (in order of preference): Nebraska, 12 Years a Slave, The Dallas
Buyers Club, Inside Llewyn Davis and Fruitvale Station.
 |
| Inside Llewyn Davis / Fruitvale Station |
The
Coen brothers’ wonderful movie about the randomness of luck, Inside Llewyn Davis, was
incomprehensively not included among the nine films nominated and neither was
Ryan Coogler’s tremendously heart wrenching film, Fruitvale Station, about the real-life racist murder of Oscar Grant
(see post A Day in the Life).
However,
the films that made the cut this year all have something noteworthy about them
that merits an Academy Award nomination, even if not for Best Picture, with the
dishonorable exception of The Wolf of
Wall Street (see post: Despicable
Him).
Of
the remaining eight films competing for Best Picture, my least favorite films
are Her and Gravity. Her is probably
most noteworthy for its inventive story about the future of our iWorld and that’s
what has it on the list of films nominated for original screenplay (although I
hope The Dallas Buyer’s Club beats it
in that category). Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity
has the new technology and photography that have been hailed by critics the
world over, and it is nominated for cinematography, visual effects and film
editing in recognition of these qualities. Best Picture it is not (see post Lost in Space). Philomena has the moving story behind it and Judy Dench’s very good
acting (she would be a wonderful “upset” to Cate Blanchet!). Captain Phillips was powerful in its
story and, in my opinion, Tom Hank’s best acting to date. Astoundingly, he wasn’t
even included among the Best Actor nominees, while Leo Di Caprio was! American Hustle has a little bit of
everything, like very good acting, a story that is captivating, but it is overall
a bit too light, not “strong” in any one aspect, it sort of reminds me of The Sting.
 |
| Bruce Dern and Will Forte in Nebraska |
That
leaves my top three pics for Best Picture. I would be exceedingly happy if Alexander
Payne’s Nebraska took home the Best
Picture award (see post Small Town Folks
Like all of us) or if Steve McQueen’s 12
Years a Slave won (see post A Time
of Reckoning). And, while not in the league with the former two, I would
most certainly not mind if The Dallas
Buyers Club won due to its phenomenal acting, for I’m pretty certain that Matthew
McConaughey and Jared Leto will be taking home the Best Actor and Best
Supporting Actor awards (see post All
the Lonely People).
12 Years a Slave has won the Golden Globes, the BAFTA,
AFI Movie of the Year and other awards already. American Hustle won the Screen Actors
Guild award and the New York Film Critics award, among others, so they seem to
have a chance at the Oscar this year. However, if industry wins on Sunday, Gravity will be taking home the Best
Picture Oscar. In the chart that follows, Gravity
occupies first place in box office grosses among the nine nominated films, with
a whopping 268 million dollars grossed in the US alone; a far, far cry from Nebraska’s 15 million, making Alexander
Payne’s beautiful film the true underdog of the night. Bruce Dern won Cannes
for his acting in the film and Alexander Payne has won best director in a
number of international film festivals, but Nebraska
beating out Gravity would certainly
be the David v Goliath of the night of illusions. Fingers crossed.
|
Nominated Film
|
Box
Office Millions of $ (US)
|
Critics Top 3
Oscar Pics
|
||
|
Rolling Stone
|
Entertainment Weekly
|
Surviving by Film
|
||
|
Gravity
|
268
|
2
|
1
|
|
|
American Hustle
|
141
|
3
|
3
|
|
|
The Wolf of Wall Street
|
111
|
|
|
|
|
Captain Philips
|
107
|
|
|
|
|
12 Years a Slave
|
48
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
|
Philomena
|
31
|
|
|
|
|
Dallas Buyers Club
|
24
|
|
|
3
|
|
Her
|
23
|
|
|
|
|
Nebraska
|
15
|
|
|
1
|
N
| ||||
