Sunday in Tinseltown

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

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