Redoing the 2010 Oscars

The Academy rarely gets it right. Most years the Academy awards Best Picture to a movie that is easy to like, or to a movie that is a spectacle or a technical achievement. Looking back over the last ten years, there’s not a single Best Picture winner that I haven’t liked a lot, but few that seem like they will last long into the future as important films. For sure Moonlight, and maybe 12 Years a Slave. But that’s about it.

2010 was one of the years in which the Academy got it right. For once, they recognized a movie that will likely be remembered as one of the great movies of our time. The Hurt Locker was fully deserving of Best Picture. The movie stands as a document of America’s perpetual warmongering and of our culture’s broken masculinity. At the time, I was rooting for Avatar, given my own personal preference. I still love Avatar, but after a decade of underwhelming, uninspiring Best Picture choices, I’m so glad I was wrong that night.

Of course, this being the Academy, just because they got one thing right doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other things that need correcting. I went through all the main categories and chose new nominees and winners. You’ll find that some stayed the same, but even in a standout year for the Oscars, things could have been even better.

Cinematography

My nominees: 500 Days of Summer, Eric Steelberg
The Hurt Locker, Barry Ackroyd
Inglourious Basterds, Robert Richardson
A Serious Man, Roger Deakins
A Single Man, Eduard Grau

Real nominees: Avatar, Mauro Fiore
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Bruno Delbonnel
The Hurt Locker, Barry Ackroyd
Inglourious Basterds, Robert Richardson
The White Ribbon, Christian Berger

I’m not going to be getting into most of the craft awards in this exercise, because what do I know about production design or makeup? Cinematography though is the most fundamental of the cinematic disciplines, and if I can’t tell good cinematography, what am I doing writing about movies?

One could ask the same of the Academy though, because I don’t think they understand what cinematography is. Avatar and Half-Blood Prince are movies that look good on the screen, but that isn’t an achievement that lies in the construction and lighting of each individual scene but in the visual effects and production design as a whole. And the Academy is full of suckers for black-and-white photography (see The Lighthouse‘s nomination this year), so it makes sense that they nominated The White Ribbon.

The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds deserve to remain; I can still remember specific shots from each movie that are now iconic. A Single Man and A Serious Man are the big snubs; both movies look great but also feature shots that are very specifically constructed to their movie’s style. The wild card I would throw in would be 500 Days of Summer, which is sort of a forgotten movie from 2009, but, if anything, was a major technical achievement. As a send-up of romantic comedies, Marc Webb’s debut feature depended heavily on the way the staging and lighting change throughout that movie, and in my world, Eric Steelberg would be honored for his work.

Foreign Language Film

My nominees: 35 Shots of Rum (Germany)
About Elly (Iran)
A Prophet (France)
The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina)
Sin Nombre (Mexico)

Real nominees: Ajami (Israel)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
A Prophet (France)
The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

I have to be honest, I haven’t seen Ajami or The Milk of Sorrow. I have seen The White Ribbon, but I found it to be one of director Michael Haneke’s more inscrutable movies (which is saying something), and it doesn’t quite rise to the level I wanted it to. I loved both A Prophet and The Secret in Their Eyes and would keep the winner the same. However, About Elly is an incredible film from Asghar Farhadi, an Iranian director who has subsequently made two Foreign-Language Film winners in A Separation and The Salesman. I’m also cheating a bit and having Germany submit the Claire Denis film 35 Shots of Rum, which takes place in Paris but is partly in German, because Denis is a master filmmaker and captured something pretty remarkable in this movie’s relationships. My last nomination would go to Cary Joji Fukunaga’s debut feature, Sin Nombre, which is a forgotten gem about a Honduran girl and Mexican boy attempting to get across the American border. I imagine too many players in this movie’s production were American for it to qualify as Mexico’s submission, but in my world those rules are bent to allow for great stories to be highlighted.

Documentary Feature

My nominees: Burma VJ
The Cove
Every Little Step
Food, Inc.
Tyson

Real nominees: Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Documentary Feature tends to reward issues-oriented films rather than intimate dramas, which explains every actual nominee. I haven’t seen Which Way Home, but it sounds like the documentary version of Sin Nombre. The Most Dangerous Man is fine but made up mostly of talking heads, a trope in documentaries that I get but don’t find particularly award-worthy. Burma VJ and The Cove are both exciting, on-the-ground tellings of their respective stories, the pro-democracy revolution in 2007 Burma and the uncovering of illegal dolphin hunting in Japan. Food, Inc. is a standard-issue look at the vagaries of the food industry in America, but it’s effectively educational. I would also include the wonderfully complex Tyson, which is built around an interview with the man himself but doesn’t shy away from the things that make him weird and complicated. My winner would be Every Little Step, which chronicles the auditions for a new production of A Chorus Line and includes some interviews with the show’s original cast and crew. The movie captures the way people’s hopes and dreams are refracted through the world of the theater as well as the lengths we go to achieve excellence. It’s emotionally affecting in ways a lot of documentaries don’t dare to be.

Animated Feature

My nominees: Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ponyo
The Secret of Kells
Up

Real nominees: Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

As you can see, I don’t have strong feelings about the animated nominees from this year. This category is generally drawing from a weak field, though that has been changing ever since, as the Academy shortlist begins to better reflect cinema around the world. The only substitution I would make is Ponyo, which is genuinely magical if not Studio Ghibli’s best, for The Princess and the Frog, which is middle-of-the-road 2D Disney. The Secret of Kells is a wonderful Irish fable from Cartoon Saloon, one of the more underrated animation studios of the last decade in terms of popularity, though they’re 3 for 3 on Oscar nominations (the other two being 2014’s Song of the Sea and 2017’s The Breadwinner). Fantastic Mr. Fox is weirdly underrated now as one of Wes Anderson’s lesser movies, but I think it’s quite clever and definitely better than the more recent Isle of Dogs. Up needs no explanation from me; it’s great, though I’m not high enough on it to make it the winner or include it in the Best Picture nominees. My winner is the superb Coraline, which is fantastical and dark in the way all the best children’s movies should be.

Actor in a Supporting Role

My nominees: Peter Capaldi, In the Loop
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Peter Sarsgaard, An Education
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Red West, Goodbye Solo

Real nominees: Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

This may be the worst category of the year, featuring a nothing Matt Damon performance, a kooky old man Christopher Plummer performance, and a terrible Stanley Tucci performance from a terrible movie. At least Woody Harrelson and Christoph Waltz were deserving, and I would keep Waltz as my winner. However, to fill out the category with some better quality, I’d add the hilarious Peter Capaldi, who really makes In the Loop as sharp as it is; the unsettling Peter Sarsgaard, who manages to be both likable and slimy as the grown man interested in Carey Mulligan’s high-schooler; and the heartbreaking Red West, who never quite got his due in his lifetime but deserved it for this performance as a suicidal man.

Actress in a Supporting Role

My nominees: Zooey Deschanel, 500 Days of Summer
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Kirin Kiki, Still Walking
Vinessa Shaw, Two Lovers
Kristen Stewart, Adventureland

Real nominees: Penélope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious

I changed more in this category, but I’m actually pretty happy overall with the performances the Academy recognized, with the exception of the winner. Mo’Nique is good in Precious, but she’s a symptom of what’s wrong with the movie overall; it’s too unsure if it wants to be a docudrama or a hyper-stylized exploitation film. Mo’Nique works in the latter and not so much in the former. Ten years later, I’m most impressed with Anna Kendrick’s performance, which has her crossing through a lot of emotional territory without ever feeling forced. Vera Farmiga and Maggie Gyllenhaal are both deserving. Penélope Cruz is as well, though I’d have chosen her performance in Broken Embraces rather than Nine. I like Zooey Deschanel and Kristen Stewart in two roles that both play into and subvert female stereotypes in rom-coms. Vinessa Shaw is wonderfully vulnerable in Two Lovers, stealing the audience’s empathy away from Joaquin Phoenix’s main character. And Kirin Kiki is a titan in Japanese cinema, nominated 13 times by the Japanese Academy and never by ours. I’d fix that for sure.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

My nominees: Coraline, Henry Selick
An Education, Nick Hornby
Julia, Roger Bohbot, Michael Collins, Camille Natta, Aude Py & Erick Zonca
Up in the Air, Sheldon Turner & Jason Reitman
Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers

Real nominees: District 9, Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell
An Education, Nick Hornby
In the Loop, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche
Precious, Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air, Sheldon Turner & Jason Reitman

This was the first year that the Best Picture field was expanded to include up to 10 possible nominees, and you get the sense that the Academy was happy to finally include a movie like Precious. While I’m a big fan of movies like Precious getting attention, I don’t really think Precious is that good. So while my nominees are less diverse for this year, I think that’s more a result of the quality available to me in this year. And this year the quality of the adapted screenplays lay more with children’s book adaptations like Coraline and Where the Wild Things Are than the one movie from 2009 trying to tell a black story that got singled out for awards attention. I also don’t think as much of In the Loop as the Academy clearly did; I’d rather give that zany movie slot to the Tilda Swinton-starring Julia, which has a story that constantly keeps you on your toes. My winner would be An Education, the movie that signified a turn in writer Nick Hornby’s career. Up to that point, he had been known as the writer of male-focused novels like High Fidelity, About a Boy, and Fever Pitch. But with An Education and his subsequent screenplay for the divine Brooklyn, Hornby showed that he was quite adept at writing stories about the female experience in the UK as well.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

My nominees: Big Fan, Robert D. Siegel
The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
A Serious Man, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Still Walking, Hirokazu Kore-eda

Real nominees: The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger, Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
A Serious Man, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Up, Bob Peterson & Pete Docter

Again, it’s hard to argue with the Academy honoring The Hurt Locker, which was probably the best war movie of the 21st century until Dunkirk came along. I also have no complaints about the rest of the actual nominees, which are arrayed over a nice spectrum of the kinds of movies Hollywood can make really well. But I’d rather see the kind of bold screenwriting in Big Fan get recognized, which is full of the kind of empathy for real-life misfits that Joker thinks it represents. And this is where Kore-eda’s Still Walking begins its domination. In my world, would have won Foreign-Language Film as the Japanese submission the year before but only qualified for the rest of the awards with its 2009 release in the U.S. The screenplay for this Japanese drama demonstrates to the world that good writing doesn’t always tell you what it’s doing.

Actor in a Leading Role

My nominees: George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Ben Foster, The Messenger
Patton Oswalt, Big Fan
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Real nominees: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Going along with the theme of this year, this is a pretty good category! I’m not sure how Morgan Freeman got in here, since his Nelson Mandela performance doesn’t actually give him much to do except be Morgan Freeman with a Mandela accent. But everyone else is great. I’m happy Jeff Bridges has an Oscar, though I would have given the slight edge to Ben Foster, who is just electric in The Messenger. And my pick for the winner would actually be Patton Oswalt, whose loser in Big Fan is never less than the most human performance of the year.

Actress in a Leading Role

My nominees: Abbie Cornish, Bright Star
Maria Heiskanen, Everlasting Moments
Michelle Monaghan, Trucker
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Tilda Swinton, Julia

Real nominees: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

My winner in this category, Carey Mulligan, will not come as a surprise to anyone who read my recent feature on 2009’s Bummys. But in case you didn’t, I’ll just reiterate that her breakthrough performance in An Education earns that overused superlative: a revelation. Clearly I was not a huge fan of the Academy’s nominees, given none of them appeared in my 2009 Bummys or in these nominations. I’d much prefer to see the underrated Michelle Monaghan and Abbie Cornish get recognized for their best performances. Tilda Swinton, who already had a Supporting Oscar at this point for Michael Clayton, brings an entirely different energy to her manic role in Julia. And the Finnish Maria Heiskanen gives Everlasting Moments an extraordinary depth that deserved recognition here in the States. That phrase, extraordinary depth, is why Sandra Bullock doesn’t feature in my nominees. I like her just fine in The Blind Side, and she carries that movie to relevance, but it’s the kind of role that doesn’t lend itself to extraordinary depth, so it’s just not my preference.

Directing

My nominees: Avatar, James Cameron
An Education, Lone Scherfig
The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow
A Serious Man, Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Still Walking, Hirokazu Kore-eda

Real nominees: Avatar, James Cameron
The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
Precious, Lee Daniels
Up in the Air, Jason Reitman

I’m sure by now you’ve seen that I don’t care that much for Precious, but it’s hard to argue with the rest of their nominees. Of course, since Hirokazu Kore-eda made my favorite movie of the year, he wins in my world. I’m a little sad that that means in my world I’m taking this award away from a woman and giving it to a man. The world we live in is better for Kathryn Bigelow having won in 2010. But in my world the Academy has already given the Directing award to several women in the past, so that makes it a little bit better, I guess. Also, I’d nominate another woman to compete in this category, Lone Scherfig, for the perfectly modulated emotions that fill An Education.

Picture

My nominees: Avatar
Big Fan
Coraline
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Still Walking
Up in the Air

Real nominees: Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

I’ve already given you what my favorite movies from 2009 are in a past post. But my Best Picture nominees don’t look exactly like my Top Ten did. Thinking about the movies of 2009 from an Oscar perspective made me choose what might have the support of different branches of the Academy. So while 500 Days of Summer, the Austrian film Revanche, and Where the Wild Things Are made my personal Top Ten, even in my fake world they don’t have broad enough support in the Academy. Big Fan and Coraline, on the other hand, have multiple nominations among these top awards (both for writing, which are important Best Picture indicators), so they squeak into the race. An Education and Inglourious Basterds make it in as well, though they weren’t in my personal Top Ten, because they both feel too essential with distinct visions to leave out.

But the big takeaway is that Still Walking is the winner over The Hurt Locker. In the real world, this competition was seen as being between Kathryn Bigelow’s action-packed masterpiece and James Cameron’s Avatar, which had the added drama of their past divorce from each other. In my world, this competition is between an American masterpiece and a Japanese one. In the real world, Parasite is a legitimate contender this year as the first international Best Picture winner ever; I wish this was less of an achievement. In my world, Best Picture winners from other countries happen quite often.

My hope is to do one or two of these posts redoing old Oscar ceremonies every year, and I want to present what a different story the Academy could have told about the movies over the years. I want to present what a diverse slate of great movies there is every year: diverse in terms of the focus of the stories, diverse in genre, diverse in country of origin, diverse in the gender and race of the artists. I don’t think my nominees for 2009 fully present that as well as I’d like. I did a fair job on the different nationalities represented here, and a fair job on gender. But my acting nominee pool is very white, with Kirin Kiki being the only performer of color. I hope I do a better job of improving from here than the Academy has.

Movie Bummys 2014: Best Movies of 2013

I find myself explaining this every year, but it seems necessary. The reasons I wait till September to do the Bummys are these:

• It gives me some space from the hype cycle that inevitably colors everyone’s year-end lists in the middle of awards season.
• It gives me a chance to watch everything I want to watch, though I never actually get to watch everything.
• Hindsight is 20/20.

I realize in this Internet age, everyone reading this forgot we had a 2013 last year, and so these posts are borderline irrelevant to everyone’s life. I missed the window by about 10 months. But I don’t care. Hopefully you’ll see something on this list that interests you, something different from the kind of movie you usually watch. Maybe you’ll seek it out at your local library or Netflix or Blockbuster (R.I.P.), and you’ll find you like it. That would be the greatest success for me.

Top Ten

10. The Past: Asghar Farhadi, Iran’s premiere filmmaker, knows melodrama better than any American director. If The Past were an American movie (even an independent film), all the little holes in the backstory would be filled in early on, and we’d be waiting for the cathartic ending that reminded us why life is worth it. I’m not saying that would be a bad movie, but The Past as it is will always be the better version. Farhadi knows that the hook of the movie (Why is Marie’s daughter, Lucie, really against her mother getting married to Samir?) isn’t the ultimate point. He knows it’s all in that final shot, the shot of a hand we’re all waiting on to move. Sometimes life doesn’t have cathartic endings, and we just keep waiting.

9. American Hustle: In my review of American Hustle I complained about the cop-out of an ending. I don’t think I was wrong, but in looking back at 2013, American Hustle, in all its imperfection, stands out as one of the most exciting movies of the year. I want to pin it all on the spectacular cast, but then I remember the stomach-flipping pop music and David O. Russell’s hyperkinetic camera movements, both matching the chaotic nature of the characters and the story without removing you from either. You could dwell on the fact that literally none of the movie is believable as a story, whether it had been fiction or truly non-fiction. But in dwelling, you’d miss the sheer audacity of everything onscreen. So just sit back and enjoy the bullshit in all its coiffed glory.

8. Short Term 12: I’m learning all too well and all too quickly at my job in the Oklahoma City school system that you can’t help everyone. There are too many kids that come through your school, and they’re going to leave, so you love them the best you can with the time you have and you let them go. Short Term 12 is the story of a woman coming to terms with this reality at the group home she helps run. Brie Larson gets the starring role she deserves, and the teenage actors they chose for the kids at the group home deserve starring roles of their own someday. But the kicker of Short Term 12 is that maybe the best way to come to terms with having the kids only for the short term is to fight as hard as you can against that transience.

7. The World’s End: One of several comedies last year about the apocalypse, The World’s End stood head and shoulders above the rest. This Is the End had an equally wacked out ending, but The World’s End is far nuttier throughout. As the end of an ostensible trilogy, you’d expect some measure of closure for the man-child Simon Pegg has played in all three. And director Edgar Wright does get to some lesson-learning, but you end up caring a lot less about that than the uncharted directions he takes the story. Comedies are so often limited by the need to please the audience; Wright and Co. know the best way to please the audience is to forget about them and make something totally and completely different.

6. Captain Phillips: Paul Greengrass’s movies are simple, finding fascinating the routine processes we go through before our lives are thrown into chaos. And once a wrench is thrown into the mix, Greengrass is methodical in showing you how his characters fight to maintain an even keel. Tom Hanks gives perhaps his best performance as the titular captain, fighting to protect his crew and maintain peace when Somali pirates (led by Muse, played by the remarkable Barkhad Abdi) board his ship and take them hostage. True to Greengrass’s M.O., it’s all fairly straightforward, until it’s not. At some point, you have to grapple with the fact that the Somalis come across onscreen just as human as the Americans; it’s a good time to remember this, in light of ISIS and the terrible stories we’re hearing from Iraq.

5. Gravity: Space is the final frontier, so it only makes sense that the most pioneering movies should take place there. Even so, Gravity was a wholly unexpected delight last year. Sure, we’d known Alfonso Cuarón was making it, and we knew it would be good, because Children of Men. But we didn’t know it was going to be this good. Sure, the critics can’t help but bring up the simplistic screenplay, but aren’t you nitpicking at that point? Gravity, as an experience, swept me up utterly and completely, and I don’t think my feet have touched the ground since.

4. Inside Llewyn Davis: It’s about the cat. I’ve been trying to come to some sort of conclusion as to why I like this movie when its protagonist (and, come to think of it, most of the cast) is pretty loathsome. Yes, it’s beautifully shot by the Coen brothers; its circular plot is rich with themes about art and death and accomplishment; and the music is sublime. But still, Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) is a total jerk. It’s the cat; he takes care of it the whole movie, so he must be okay, right?

3. Her: Frankly, the trailers sell this movie short. They make Her out to be a twee romantic comedy between a dweeb and his iPad. I’m not saying that’s not true, but Her contains so much more. There’s a moment in Her when Samantha (the AI operating system that Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore falls in love with, as voiced by Scarlett Johansson) interjects into an otherwise normal conversation between humans a comment about how she’s glad she doesn’t have a body and won’t be limited by death. The other people (humans) in the conversation look around at each other, and Chris Pratt’s character says, “Yikes,” while we watch Theodore cringe and look as if he’s about to defend Samantha or maybe chastise her. Her isn’t a comedy, so much as a detailed study of how relationships dissolve after one of the parties has changed and the other hasn’t.

2. Before Midnight: Richard Linklater’s Boyhood sounds amazing, but Linklater already did this trick, and arguably more effectively, since he had three movies to really let the passage of time sink in rather than one. Going back to watch Before Sunrise or Sunset is like stepping in the time machine of someone else’s life. Before Midnight brings us Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) in middle age, after we’ve already seen them in their hopeful early 20s and their beaten down late 20s. Now they are both disillusioned and married with kids (Yes, those two are mutually exclusive), though Jesse is more apt to adopt a devil-may-care attitude than Celine’s more cynical approach. Midnight gives us the same kinds of deep, philosophical conversations as the first two, but more people are included, which is a nice change. But the climax is just Jesse and Celine in their hotel room, fighting the same fights they’ve fought both out loud and in their minds when they bite their tongues, wondering if they were really meant to be together or to stay together.

1. 12 Years a Slave: Sometimes the most awarded film really is the best; it may have been recognized for the wrong reasons, but it still deserves that recognition. Sometimes decisions made to be on the right side of history are still the right decisions. Sometimes it takes a Brit to tell America’s most shameful story. Sometimes it’s worth sitting through a story that induces such shame in order to confront your own prejudices, to find your place in a drama that forces you to make decisions about your own morality. Sometimes keeping the camera still while your black star hangs from a rope is the right choice, so the audience can confront what our country allowed to happen over and over and over again. Sometimes black people should be allowed to direct movies, because white people aren’t the only auteurs in the world. But let’s not make any hasty judgments here- this is only sometimes. Most of the time white people should direct, because most of the great movies have been made by white people. Most of the time we shouldn’t let our cameras linger on hate crimes, because it’s upsetting. Most of the time we should avoid movies like this, because they’ll be hard to sit through. Most of the time Americans should make movies about race too, higher-grossing movies, about white people saving black people, like The Help or The Blind Side– those were hits, let’s make more of those! Most of the time people don’t want brilliant movies, they just want to see what they’ve seen before. Most of the time these kinds of movies are just made for the awards, anyway. 12 Years a Slave is the exception, not the rule. We wouldn’t want to learn any lessons here, would we?

Another Fifteen (alphabetically)

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints: I wish more movies were bold enough to tell their stories through their visuals as much as through their dialogue. But that’s what makes Ain’t Them Bodies Saints so precious. Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, and Ben Foster are unforgettable as, respectively, an outlaw, his bride, and the man that enters her life after her husband goes to prison.

Blue Caprice: Chilling in its sober depiction of the Beltway snipers. Last year, my wife began watching a series of CNN documentaries on the most horrendous American crimes of the 20^th century, and we both watched the installment on this 2002 incident. Blue Caprice and its star, Isaiah Washington, give far more insight into the thoughts that go through a killer’s mind than any documentary ever could.

The Conjuring: A fairly standard horror film that’s far more than the sum of its parts due to an attention to detail, particularly when it comes to its character development. The Conjuring is plenty scary, thanks to James Wan’s direction, but it’s scarier because Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, and Lili Taylor give us plenty of reasons to care about the characters. These aren’t your typical horror movie bimbos; these are real people whose lives are threatened.

Fruitvale Station: It’s a testament to how strong the performances were this year that Michael B. Jordan’s in Fruitvale Station didn’t make my Top 5 Best Actors. But he’s stupendous in this movie, as real as real gets. There’s never a bad time to revisit this heartbreaking movie about the day that Oscar Grant III was shot by a confused cop, but now may be the best time.

The Great Beauty: It’s easy to see why critics compared The Great Beauty to the Fellini classic La Dolce Vita. They share similar predilections for excess and ennui. But Paolo Sorrentino’s masterpiece is more concerned with admiring the beauty of Rome, eventually finding some sort of meaning within it; Fellini’s enjoyed aspects of Rome’s beauty, but it was far too jaded to find any meaning.

The Great Gatsby: Did anyone else love this movie? My affection for Gatsby is big and unabashed. You could never mistake it for the masterpiece of the book, but director Baz Luhrman does capture something of the American dream and all its perils, helped mightily by Leonardo DiCaprio’s best performance.

Lee Daniels’ The Butler: Did anyone else love this movie either? The Butler is a joy to watch, putting aside the fact that half of the movie is completely fabricated for the sake of the movie. You forget the movie’s backstory and just focus on the brilliant product on the screen, scenery-chewing performances by all the star cameos as 20^th-century political figures, pulpy plot developments, and grounding performances by the great Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey.

Let the Fire Burn: Anyone surprised by Ferguson hasn’t heard the story of MOVE. In 1985 (a short 29 years ago), the City of Philadelphia dropped a bomb on the cult organization’s headquarters in the middle of the city and allowed the resulting flames to spread and kill members of MOVE, as well as a children inside the building. The director Jason Osder takes the refreshing approach of using only archival footage; no annoying talking heads here.

Monsters University: Another underrated mainstream gem. Apparently this is on the lower end of Pixar’s output, but I loved Monsters University, maybe even more than the original. It starts as a typical college movie, albeit with monsters, but it takes a more creative turn in the third act that elevates it among Pixar’s best.

Much Ado About Nothing: To go from The Avengers to a black-and-white Shakespeare adaptation set in his house was quite the magic trick by Joss Whedon. But the real magic is how natural the whole cast is in one of Shakespeare’s best comedies. Whedon finds clever ways to use his house to aid in the development of both the plot and the characters, giving us a small delight of a film.

No: Released near the beginning of 2013 and included in the nominees for that year’s Academy Awards, everyone seems to have forgotten about No. Telling the story of a 1988 advertising campaign in Chile to get people to vote against the incumbent president in Chile’s first election in decades, director Pablo Larraín made one of the year’s most visually interesting movies. You see the potential of advertising to fight to influence people’s minds, and Gael García Bernal gives the movie its human center.

Room 237: Admittedly, this movie probably won’t appeal to most people, unless you have a genuine appreciation for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and have a desire to listen to slightly delusional people illuminate their theories on what it all means. Their ideas range from intriguing to downright ludicrous, such as the one that posits that Kubrick made The Shining to apologize for helping to fake the Apollo II moon landing. Room 237 is a fascinating deep dive into how we interact with great art and an ode to Kubrick’s meticulous eye for detail.

Star Trek into Darkness: Much maligned by fanboys and critics alike, Star Trek into Darkness was actually the best action movie of last summer. I get the idea that J.J. Abrams and the filmmakers might have borrowed a little too much from the original Wrath of Khan, but it just didn’t bother me. The new versions of these characters are so well-established, and the movie was paced so well, that I easily overlooked their reliance on the earlier story’s beats to revel in the exciting action sequences.

Stories We Tell: The theme of this documentary is right there in the title: we tell stories for a variety of reasons, but a main motive is to make sense of our lives. Filmmaker Sarah Polley interviews her family to tell the story of her childhood and her complicated relationship with her father. I won’t spoil any of the revelations she includes, but I will say that if this film is any indication, along with her first fiction feature Away from Her, Polley is already a master storyteller.

These Birds Walk: Another stellar documentary. 2013 was the year for non-fiction films to break from the documentary’s usually rigid formats in order to more fully tell their stories. These Birds Walk shows us the children who seek shelter at the Edhi Foundation in Pakistan, presenting a visual poem of sorts about their broken lives.

Previous Top Tens

2012

Zero Dark Thirty
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Dark Knight Rises
Silver Linings Playbook
Amour
Chronicle
Django Unchained
Moonrise Kingdom
Holy Motors
Life of Pi

2011

Rango
Take Shelter
Kinyarwanda
The Tree of Life
The Artist
A Separation
Warrior
Battle Royale
Drive
Super 8

Movie Bummys 2014: Best Performances of 2013

Every year has great performances, but this year you’ll notice some themes. There were several films as a whole whose performances I couldn’t deny either. You’ll see that I favored 12 Years a Slave, Before Midnight, Captain Phillips and American Hustle. It’s no coincidence that most if not all of these movies will end up in my “Best Movies” post next week. Maybe my love for those movies is coloring my perception of the performances’ quality. Or is my love for those movies compounded by my love for the performances? I haven’t figured out which yet. But, regardless, I can say for certain that these are the year’s great performances.

You may also notice that the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor  Oscarwinners aren’t on my lists. It’s not because I didn’t like those performances- both McConaughey and Leto are great. But I liked the ten performances I chose better. It may be because I thought Dallas Buyers’ Club as a whole was a bland, misleading movie, so my perception of the performances is as bland, misleading performances. Who knows?

You’ll find links to clips of each actor’s performance in their name.

Actor

Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave (winner): 12 Years a Slave was never about just the one man. And I understand the arguments against Ejiofor, the same that could be used against Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump or Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button: they’re all passive, and the events of the movie just sort of happen around them. But there’s more to Ejiofor’s Solomon than that. Solomon’s spirit of survival is the fulcrum of the movie, and Ejiofor, alternating from fervent determination to desperate helplessness, embodies that spirit. He’s essential to 12 Years‘s success, and it will be remembered as an iconic performance.

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby: The Academy nominated Leo for his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, but I haven’t seen that, and I won’t. Leo as Gatsby was enough Leo for me last year, but only because it might have been his best performance yet. That’s saying a lot after the career he has, but Gatsby is everything great about DiCaprio distilled into pure, honest desire.

Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips: It was absolutely wrong that Hanks wasn’t nominated for the Oscar last year. Shaky Boston accent aside, no one gave a better performance that the one in the scene in that clip. As he tries to keep it together while uncontrollably falling apart as he comes out of his crisis- I don’t know how you do that as an actor.

Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight: Hawke has always been underrated as an actor. Not dashing enough to be a leading man, too boyish to play the straight man in comedies; it’s only been under the direction of Richard Linklater that he’s found much praise. Before Midnight gives us a glimpse of the piercing, knife-like wit and empathy we’ve been missing.

Joaquin Phoenix, Her: Phoenix has a totally thankless job to do as Theodore- he spends most of the movie just listening. But watch the clip in this link; as he listens to Samantha, the AI who is now Theodore’s girlfriend, you see him go from true excitement about her to mild embarrassment to quietly worried about the implications of what she says. Only someone who lives in his characters as much as Phoenix does could pull this off.

Actress

Julie Delpy, Before Midnight (winner): Maybe it’s not fair to choose a woman who has had three movies and a virtual lifetime to perfect her character, but Delpy makes fairness a moot point. There’s no way she could have played this version of Celine 9 years ago. The maturing and jading she’s endured over that time is evident both in the way her body has aged and in the way her conversation has almost lost its hopefulness. Both Jesse and Celine were old enough in Before Sunset to have become disillusioned. In Before Midnight, Delpy’s disillusionment is full and realized, but it’s the glimmers of hopefulness that stick with you.

Bérénice Bejo, The Past: You may recall Bejo from The Artist, but she’s in a much heavier role in The Past. She’s no less delightful though, just in a different way. The Past deals with broken relationships and suicide, so it’s not a walk in the park exactly, but Bejo’s performance lends the journey much-needed soul.

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine: This clip is the perfect example of Blanchett’s brilliance. She’s never condescending toward her character, treating her with the utmost seriousness. But she also makes sure the inherent ridiculousness isn’t lost; without her, Woody Allen’s dramedy would have been totally tone-deaf.

Sandra Bullock, Gravity: It should have been impossible to get noticed in a movie like Gravity. The actress Cuarón chose to fill the edges of his star-studded screen should have been expendable, easy to miss. But Cuarón chose Sandra Bullock, so all should-have-beens went out the window, and Bullock turned in a full performance that went beyond meer desperation into catharsis.

Brie Larson, Short Term 12: Compassion is a difficult emotion to convey without sinking into corny earnestness. Telling the story of a group home with troubled teens would be the perfect opportunity to fall into this trap. But Larson finds the precarious line between compassion and cheesiness, as her character tends to the kids’ bodies and hearts while struggling to be vulnerable with her own.

Supporting Actor

Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave (winner): Fassbender isn’t doing himself any favors if he’s trying to make people like him. After breaking through with his charming English soldier in Inglourious Basterds, he’s really only played villains and/or despicable men. For reference, see his sex addict in Shame, his impersonal android in Prometheus, and this role, as a sadistic slavemaster. I have no desire to write about the kinds of things his character does in 12 Years a Slave; it makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it, and I suspect this is part of why he didn’t win the Oscar- an Oscar for Fassbender must have felt like giving a prize to Master Epps. Epps isn’t evil though; it’s thanks to Fassbender’s performance that we know Epps is simply corrupted by his power. It’s also thanks to his performance that it’s hard to tell the difference.

Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips: Many actors have portrayed the thankless role of the dark-skinned foreigner attacking the Americans. Most haven’t been given the opportunity to make that foreigner into a real person with relatable desires and flaws. Abdi benefits from a filmmaking crew that set out to make the kind of movie that does provide that opportunity, but he colors the role’s lines in so completely that you may forget who you’re rooting for.

Bradley Cooper, American Hustle: Bradley Cooper already showed us his comedic best as a leading man in Silver Lining Playbook, so it’s a delight to see him double down on neurosis with a character who seems confident and confidently unaware of his own compulsive nature. Cooper’s FBI agent is so inept, it’s no wonder (spoiler alert, sort of) the con artists win in the end. Cooper’s the kind of guy you know is going to lose, but it makes him all the more lovable.

Bruce Dern, Nebraska: Bruce Dern got the Best Actor nomination from the Academy, but Dern’s Woody really belongs in the Supporting category; Will Forte’s David is the real starring turn. But Dern is certainly worth singling out for praise. Woody doesn’t seem to be all there for the majority of the film, but Dern gives all his actions a certain matter-of-factness that is so characteristic of people “of a certain age”.

Jake Gyllenhaal, Prisoners: Hugh Jackman got all the attention for Prisoners, but his performance was overblown. Gyllenhaal paints the more fascinating portrait of a loner detective struggling to do his job among incompetent bureaucracy and desperate victims. In what turns out to be a disappointingly standard crime story, it’s Gyllenhaal’s cop that ends up being the emotional and moral center.

Supporting Actress

Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave (winner): I don’t really take actors seriously when they talk about the ordeal they go through when they take on a hard role. If they complain about the conditions or the grind of the shoot, it never fazes me; I always think, well, you get paid to act, so I don’t feel bad for you. I don’t know that Nyong’o has ever made such comments about her experience shooting 12 Years a Slave, but I’d believe her. It’s dangerous to see this role, and by extension this movie, as IMPORTANT, because that misses the artistry involved and over time steals the film of its raw power. Beyond the importance of her role, Nyong’o is captivating as a her master’s favorite slave, which comes with more problems than that designation might suggest. But it is the most important performance of the year, and the best; and it’s not close.

Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle: Jennifer Lawrence is the closest thing we have to a nuclear bombshell in Hollywood right now. The scene in the link shows the full gamut of how messed up her character is, but it also shows Lawrence’s full range as a dramatic and a comedic actress. I don’t know what’s going on with that accent, but it says a lot about how brilliant her performance is that I don’t care.

Emma Watson, The Bling Ring: I wanted to find a clip of a full scene of Emma Watson in this movie, but there aren’t any appropriate ones out there. Besides, the trailer gets the job done. It helps her case that she gets the best lines (For example: “I want to lead a country one day for all I know.”) and has the most outrageous character. Watson, after pulling off extremely earnest in 2012 with The Perks of Being a Wallflower, projects a different kind of earnestness, one mixed with a vapid lack of self-awareness, and she totally steals the movie.

Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels’ The Butler: Why isn’t Oprah in more movies? It’s almost a shame she’s had so much success with her own (Haha, or OWN! Man, I kill me…) brand, because it interferes with taking on great roles like this. The Butler is full of scenery chewing, which is part of its appeal, but Winfrey (and Whitaker, of course) gave it much-needed, deeply felt class.

Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now: Woodley has had quite the year, what with her movies about teenagers with cancer and unbelievable post-apocalyptic societies making bundles of money. And she’s given great performances before (see: The Descendants). But in The Spectacular Now Woodley plays a girl that doesn’t stand up for herself, a new trick for her, one that she totally pulls off and one that elevates the movie past its plot-driven faults.

Previous Top Performances

2012

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, Skyfall
Best Supporting Actress: Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

2011

Best Actor: Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
Best Actress: Viola Davis, The Help
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life

The 2014 Academy Awards

I have seen so few of this year’s nominees, I don’t feel qualified to write a blog post about the 2014 Academy Awards. But, lucky you, I’m doing one anyway.

The narrative around this year’s Academy Awards is that the races are wide open. I think that’s true in theory, but the vast majority of the Oscar prognosticators are buying stock in the same group of likely winners, and I won’t be the one to rock the boat. I think some pop culture arbiters are hungry for a night of surprises, and since this year feels like more of a powder keg than any other year (what with the controversies surrounding Woody Allen, The Wolf of Wall Street, and 12 Years a Slave), the media feel like there’s more open races than there really are. We don’t really know anything, but we kind of know everything.

I would love for there to be some surprises. If Leo wins Best Actor, I’ll be ecstatic. If Amy Adams bests Blanchett for Best Actress, I’ll applaud. If Barkhad Abdi upsets Jared Leto, I’ll be overjoyed. But I expect none of those things to happen. Last year was far less decided before the awards were announced, so I really hope Ellen DeGeneres is a good host, because there won’t be much entertainment coming from who wins what.

What I’m honestly most looking forward to in this year’s Oscar broadcast is how they’ll handle Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s tribute. Will they just include him in the “In Memoriam” segment with all the other film figures that passed away this past year? That seems respectful toward all the other people, but dishonest about the level of grief that Hollywood (and movie lovers in general) feel about losing Hoffman. It was so recent and so sudden and so tragic, and it seems as if the Oscars would be the perfect place to pay tribute to him and to provide some level of catharsis. I’m hoping they do something special.

* denotes a movie I haven’t seen

Best Picture

Nominees: 12 Years a Slave*
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club*
Gravity
Her*
Nebraska*
Philomena*
The Wolf of Wall Street*

Will Win: 12 Years a Slave. There’s been talk of American Hustle coming in from behind and unseating 12 Years and Gravity as the obvious frontrunners, but that has slowed down. No, this is a two film race. Gravity has a lot of love in the industry, for good reason, but I can’t help thinking that a vote for Gravity is a vote against 12 Years a Slave, and I don’t think the Academy wants to look back on this year like 1999, when Shakespeare in Love bested Saving Private Ryan. Both were great movies, but one was obviously the more important movie, and the Oscars would benefit from having Ryan as a feather in its cap. That seems to be the case this year. I think the Academy wants to be on the right side of history.

Should Have Been Nominated: Before Midnight. Richard Linklater’s Before series has been severely underappreciated by the Academy. Before Midnight was one of the best written, best acted, and best directed movies of the year. I’d say it’s just not flashy enough for an Oscar, but is Nebraska flashy? Is Philomena flashy? Before Midnight deserves more attention.

Best Directing

Nominees: 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen*
American Hustle, David O. Russell
Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón
Nebraska, Alexander Payne*
The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese*

Will Win: Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón. Cuarón isn’t the first director to make space look beautiful, majestic, and terrifying; but he’s the first to truly make you experience its beauty, majesty, and terror. It’s inarguably a remarkable technical achievement, but it works well as a piece of art too. The combination of the two and the degree of difficulty should be more than enough to secure this award for Cuarón.

Should Have Been Nominated: Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass. After United 93, we were all impressed with Greengrass’s ability to make a real-life situation gripping and intense while respecting his subjects. He does the same here. Characters like Barkhad Abdi’s Muse are so often poorly drawn stereotypes of the African savage, but Greengrass treats the Somali pirates with delicacy, never requiring the audience to choose one side over the other but to root for peace and morality.

Best Actor

Nominees: Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska*
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street*
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club*

Will Win: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club. Haven’t seen this one, but seeing how “McConaissance” is all but officially canonized in the next edition of Webster’s, I think it’s save to say he’s got this one wrapped up.

Should Have Been Nominated: Tom Hanks Tom Hanks Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips. I can believe he got left off the list, because this was such a strong year for actors, but I’m still aghast. It’s not his most iconic performance by any stretch of the imagination, but it might be his best.

Best Actress

Nominees: Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine*
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena*
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County*

Will Win: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine. The Woody Allen controversy is terrible and sad, and I hate it. No doubt many Academy members agree. But Cate Blanchett is not Woody Allen, and giving her the award, especially since it appears there’s no love lost between the two, is not the equivalent of giving him the award. She’s a lock.

Should Have Been Nominated: Julie Delpy, Before Midnight. I’ve already praised the movie, so I won’t rehash that. Delpy, however, would alone be worth the price of admission. With a role like this, as a wife coming to terms with her husband’s imperfections, the risk is that people would interpret your character as shrewish or as an “angry woman”, two terrible stereotypes of women that are unfortunately still common today. But Delpy easily keeps them out of the conversation and presents a woman so real and funny and hurting, she stands out in a movie that is superb on all levels.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave*
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street*
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club*

Will Win: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club. I haven’t seen this movie, but everyone keeps calling this a brave performance. I mean, what did he have to lose? I don’t know; sort of seems like a brave performance would have been by an actual transgender person, openly sharing their struggles with the audience. Well, hopefully he’s given this award for the right reasons and not just because he “bravely” bends gender expectations.

Should Have Been Nominated: There’s honestly no one I can think of that I would put here. Maybe Tom Hiddleston as Loki? It’s certainly a performance that deserves awards attention and will never receive it.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine*
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave*
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County*
June Squibb, Nebraska*

Will Win: Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave. Haven’t seen this movie…which is beginning to be a theme…but her only competitor here is Jennifer Lawrence, who won last year.

Should Have Been Nominated: Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Seriously one of the best, most humble performances of the year by one of the most powerful people in America, and it’s overlooked. The Oscars don’t make any sense.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominees: 12 Years a Slave*
Before Midnight
Captain Phillips
Philomena*
The Wolf of Wall Street*

Will Win: 12 Years a Slave. This award will be a part of the 12 Years haul I’m predicting.

Should Have Been Nominated: Nothing to add here.

Best Original Screenplay

Nominees: American Hustle
Blue Jasmine*
Dallas Buyers Club*
Her*
Nebraska*

Will Win: American Hustle. Others are saying Her, but since Hustle isn’t likely to win anything else, I think they’ll give it this award to compensate.

Should Have Been Nominated: The Bling Ring. This movie was roundly ignored during awards season, but I thought its script in particular was incisive and damning toward American culture, exposing us to our modern sins.

Best Cinematography

Nominees: The Grandmaster*
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis*
Nebraska*
Prisoners

Will Win: Gravity. How do you deny one of the greatest technical achievements in film that also happens to be beautiful?

Should Have Been Nominated: American Hustle. The camera says so much about the characters in this movie. I guess I’m fuzzy on what this category is supposed to reward? Cinematography to me is less about how beautiful the movie looks and more how the pictures are composed. American Hustle is a master class in shot composition.

Best Animated Feature

Nominees: The Croods*
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine*
Frozen
The Wind Rises*

Will Win: Frozen. It’s a good movie, better than most cartoons, I’d wager. And it’s incredibly popular right now.

Should Have Been Nominated: Monsters University. This, to me, was the best animated movie of the year. I thought it was a really creative take on the Animal House narrative with an admirable, moral twist. Frozen has been overrated, in my opinion. Tangled has stronger characters and a better plot.

Best Documentary Feature

Nominees: 20 Feet from Stardom*
The Act of Killing
Cutie and the Boxer*
Dirty Wars*
The Square*

Will Win: 20 Feet from Stardom. Docs about showbiz don’t always win, but this one is apparently really crowd-pleasing.

Should Have Been Nominated: I saw zero documentaries this year, with the exception of the exceptional The Act of Killing.

Best Foreign Language Film

Nominees: The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium*
The Great Beauty, Italy*
The Hunt, Denmark*
The Missing Picture, Cambodia*
Omar, Palestine*

Will Win: The Great Beauty, Italy.

Should Have Been Nominated: The only foreign movies I saw this year were nominated for this award last year, No and War Witch, both great.

Gravity

I love the Alamo Drafthouse.  It may be because there aren’t any theaters like it in Oklahoma.  The Warren Theatre in Moore is wonderful and classy, and it sets the standard in a state that is starved for quality cinema experiences.  But Drafthouse offers a unique experience unlike any other.  Sure, they serve food, but who doesn’t these days?  No, what Drafthouse offers is an open appreciation for all things off-kilter, an unabashed love for the weird and wacky.  They host quote-alongs of classic movies (Ghostbusters and Spaceballs are coming up in Austin), they have a studio that creates genre movies that seem destined to become cult favorites, and they feature independent movies nearly every day. While you wait for your movie to start, you’re treated to clips both famous and obscure (mostly obscure) from movies, TV shows, music videos, advertisements, etc. that match the theme of the feature presentation.  On my last trip to one of the Drafthouses in Austin a couple weeks ago, the movie was Gravity, so there were a lot of clips of people falling down, things falling on people, space movies, and Wile E. Coyote falling from cliffs.

These clips were funny and head-shakingly strange and out of the blue, and little did I realize it was the most relaxed I’d be for the next two hours.  I ordered a pizza to share with my friend, Kevin, and a vanilla shake for good measure, since the shakes there are quite tasty.  Then the movie started and I forgot my food and drink and that my hands and mouth were even moving.

“Gravity is an experience” was probably the most overused line in all critics’ reviews of the film, but I can’t blame them.  My friend Thomas leaned over to me before the movie started and quoted a tweet that said, “Gravity restored my faith in American cinema,” and we both laughed, both because it’s a ridiculous statement and because Gravity’s director, Alfonso Cuarón, is from Mexico.  But that’s the kind of genuine enthusiasm Gravity engenders.  I’ve seen space movies before, and goodness knows I’m a sucker for science fiction (I liked Oblivion, if that tells you anything), but the space in Gravity was different from other movies.  Space in Gravity is a character, a villain, a force that may not be with you, thanks, but will always be against you.

There are plenty of scientific reasons to take issue with Gravity, I’m sure, but it certainly looks realistic.  Gravity concerns two astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) that are stranded in orbit around Earth when their shuttle is torn apart by satellite debris sent careening around the planet by a freak Russian accident.  Given the nature of the story (it’s in space- would you shoot on location in space?), it’s natural that they got a few things wrong.  But that didn’t bother me, either at the Drafthouse viewing or at a second viewing in the balcony of the Warren a week later.  Cuarón’s approach to shooting space includes a lot of CGI and camera/lighting trickery, but no interstellar movie comes close to the realism he achieves in Gravity.  Part of the appeal is that scenes develop at a slow pace, and Cuarón allows us to see what calamity is about to take place and why, which creates a real sense of intense dread and frustration at being powerless to stop it.  The slow coiling of a parachute rope, a piece of wiring aflame floating by the camera in zero gravity, satellite debris dismantling a space station in the background while Sandra Bullock works obliviously in the foreground- all become portents of the intensely choreographed disaster sequences that make up the entire movie.

This would all make Gravity a fine movie on its own, an unparalleled technical achievement that changes the game for other effects-driven movies, much like Avatar.  But Gravity is a much deeper film than just a tech triumph.  Cuarón’s movies have always carried a deep symbolism, from the poetic imagery in A Little Princess (still his best film…) and the political allegory of Y Tu Mamá También to the adolescent angst at the core of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the doomsday musings of Children of Men.  Gravity isn’t any different.  Even if it weren’t for the backstory of Sandra Bullock’s character centering around a daughter she lost in a freak accident, her and Clooney’s struggle for survival would still read well as a simple image of recovery and rebirth.  It’s hard to argue with that when there are blatant images of Sandra Bullock in the fetal position (a call back to 2001, perhaps?) and of Bullock shedding a placental astronaut suit at the climax of her fight to live.  And what to make of Sandra Bullock’s last line?  Who do you think she’s directing it to?

When the movie finished, I looked down and wondered where my pizza and shake had gone.  Apparently I had eaten my meal, but, for all I know, the waiter stole it out from under my face while it grimaced in the tension that had settled collectively on the entire theater.    There’s a lot of talk about Gravity’s Oscar chances and what it all means, but some movies transcend their own buzz and last long after awards season ends.  Gravity will be one of those movies, for the indelible images of astronauts floating about untethered above a gorgeous Earth; for the life-affirming balance Cuarón strikes between imagery/art and professional achievement; for the simple, perfect ending.  Go read about all the naysayers debunking the physics and science behind it all; I’m still thinking about the way the sun looked on the Ganges.

Movie Bummys 2013: Best Performances of 2012

It’s okay to mourn- 2012 was a long time ago, and we’re well into 2013, which is not the year that 2012 was.  Indeed, 2012 was the best year for pop culture in a long time- at least since 2009.  There wasn’t a runaway favorite in the music scene like Adele’s 21 in 2011,  but that’s because there were so many great offerings from 2012.  There wasn’t a clear favorite in Hollywood like…well, there wasn’t a clear favorite in 2011 either, was there?  But that was for lack of quality, whereas in 2012 we were inundated with quality movies the entire year.  Ah, the good old days.  Excuse me while I take out my teeth and reach for my prune juice.

2012 was a banner year, and what better time to look back at it than 9 months later?  No, seriously.  You don’t think so?  That’s okay.  Honestly, if I could, I’d do these Bummys lists right at the beginning of the year, but when January rolls around, I still have so many movies to watch and so much music to listen to, I can’t make a year-end list.  So I have to settle for what in our culture of immediacy amounts to a retrospective, akin to those montages at the Oscars for the celebrities that passed away that year.  We look back in fondness on the historic year of 2012; may the entire cast of Cloud Atlas rest in peace.

As far as performances go, 2012 was the year of the actress.  Whereas we knew who would win Best Actor from the moment Abraham Lincoln was born, the actress field was a tantalizing competition filled with talent both young and old.  And some of those great actresses weren’t even nominated for anything!  I know Quvenzhané Wallis was awesome (literally, she had me in awe and near tears at some points), but we couldn’t find room on the ballot for actresses who were legitimately acting, rather than 6-year-olds who were being 6?  Whatever.  The ballot is only so big, which is why you won’t find Wallis on mine, as well as other people that I desperately wanted to include but didn’t match up with my objectively amazing choices.  Read on:

Top Performances of 2012

Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Winner: Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Oh, to be a kid again.  At the ripe old age of 24, I’m in the perfect position to remember my high school years with the appropriate combination of nostalgia and scorn.  But Emma Watson’s Sam brought up neither of those feelings in me.  Instead, she reminded me of the real girls that were my friends in high school.  They had their moments of melodrama* but were tinted with the genuine pain that inevitably comes between childhood and adulthood.  The fact that Watson pulled this off after playing Hermione Granger eight movies in a row- a job that would numb anyone’s acting chops- made this simultaneously the most underrated and most valuable performance of the year.

Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Michael Fassbender, Prometheus
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Winner: Javier Bardem, Skyfall

I’m sure you could argue there were more subtle performances last year, but watch Skyfall again and tell me there’s not something magnificently layered about Bardem’s villain.  It wasn’t his first performance of pure evil; in fact, Silva may not even be pure evil.  Maybe opportunistic would be more accurate, or vengeful.  The first conversation between Silva and Bond solidified him as a terrifying psychopath.  The entire movie that follows hinges on Silva committing atrocity after awful atrocity, and Bardem grounds it all in a convincing pathos.  Or maybe Bardem is just pure evil.

Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Noomi Rapace, Prometheus
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed
Winner: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Is it possible to separate any Jennifer Lawrence performance from the outsized personality that’s taken over the pop culture word?  For me, it’s hard to remove the image of Lawrence tripping over her dress on the way up the stairs to accept her Best Actress award at the Oscars.  I already loved her as an alternative to the Hollywood fakeness, but that slip was an overwhelming confirmation of her humanity.  It’s impossible for me to view any performance of hers with an unbiased mind.  But even so, her role in Silver Linings Playbook will be remembered not only as Lawrence’s coming-out party but as one of the great, all-time romantic comedy turns.  Watching her Silver Linings Playbook arc is like watching a cat playing with string.  The cat is acting crazy, but if you know cats, it’s just that: acting.  Sooner or later, the cat is going to show you that it’s a couple steps ahead of you, something Lawrence does a million times over as Tiffany.  She had already proved to be one of the smartest young actresses in the business; in Silver Linings Playbook, she proved to be the smartest actress period.

Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Dane DeHaan, Chronicle
Denis Lavant, Holy Motors
Denzel Washington, Flight
Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Forget the Method stories about disappearing into his roles on set.  Forget the deserved Oscars he’s already won (for My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood).  Forget even that Lincoln was directed by a director with one of the most reliable records in Hollywood.  When Day-Lewis is on screen in Lincoln, it’s not really about strategy or performance or art.  There are two things that above all else make Lincoln such a decisive portrait of our greatest president: the beyond intelligent screenplay and Day-Lewis.  I’d call it an embodiment, but we don’t really have a way of knowing what Lincoln was like.  So I’ll say instead that the closest we’ll ever come is watching Day-Lewis inhabit the man so fully that he comes off as a human being rather than just an icon. The clip is bad quality, but the scene is essential nonetheless.

Top Performances of 2013 (So Far, in alphabetic order)

Gael García Bernal, No: This Chilean film was underseen, which is a shame, because it’s divine, especially Bernal’s anchoring turn as a prodigious adman.

Chadwick Boseman, 42: Could anyone else have played Jackie Robinson?  Sure.  Could anyone else have brought the proper mix of restraint and frustration to the role that Boseman did?  Probably not.

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby: Words are not needed for Leo’s performances.  Only gifs.

Carey Mulligan, The Great Gatsby: Ever since The Education, Mulligan has delivered one knockout performance after another.  Her turn as Daisy is no different, and perhaps the best she’s given yet, since she’s asked to carry so much of the movie on her shoulders.

Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels’ The Butler: I did not expect to be blown away by The Butler (sorry, Warner Brothers…Lee Daniels’ The Butler: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire), but I was.  This is in large part due to Winfrey basically backhanding the audience with her lived-in performance as Gloria Gaines.

Most Anticipated Performances of 2013 (in alphabetic order)

Sandra Bullock, Gravity: Her Oscar-winning performance in The Blind Side is a tad overrated (not her fault), but her part in Gravity has the potential to be the best thing she’ll ever do.  It’ll be all her the whole movie, a la James Franco in 127 Hours.  And no actress is more likable, so I doubt we’ll be anything but over the moon for her.

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street: Gifs on gifs on gifs.

Chloë Grace-Moretz, Carrie: Grace-Moretz is one of the best teenage actress around.  The trailer is terrifying.  The stage is set for a powerhouse performance.

Hugh Jackman, Prisoners: I’m always game for more Jackman.  His Jean Valjean was pitch perfect last year; I can’t wait to see him take on a more modern role that doesn’t involve adamantium claws.

Joaquin Phoenix, Her: In The Master, Phoenix was a live wire with convincing moments both normal and neurotic, but the movie was two aimless to provide a workable foundation for him and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Her looks like it will mirror The Master’s boldness but give Phoenix the right vehicle for his understated genius.

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*Didn’t we all.

Trailer of the Hour: Gravity

Why I’m pumped: This isn’t even a full trailer and it’s got me more excited for Gravity than almost any other trailer.  Even if the trailer didn’t feature breathtaking shots of astronauts in space being thrust into nail-biting peril that had me on the edge of my seat in a teaser, this movie is directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who directed the perfect A Little Princess, one of the 3 best Harry Potter movies, the beautiful if incredibly inappropriate Y Tu Mamá También*, and his masterpiece Children of Men.  That output speaks for itself; Children of Men alone would be enough to draw me to his next movie.  This teaser seals the deal- I’m seeing it.

Why I’m worried: Two actors alone in space could hardly…who am I kidding, I’m not worried at all.  This will be incredible.  Don’t try and tell me any differently, or I’ll let go and let you drift off into space.  You know, figuratively.

Bold move: It’s a testament to the power of this teaser that you only see George Clooney’s face for like 2 seconds (at the 0:50 mark), and you honestly can’t even really tell it’s him.  It might be Sandra Bullock.  Come to think of it, you almost barely see her face either.  Two of the biggest stars in movies right now, and they are hardly in the trailer.  Yet the movie still looks amazing.

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*I’ll never watch it again- way too much nudity.  I wish I hadn’t seen it.  I can’t recommend it for that reason.