Matt's picks for the 2014 Academy Awards

With the 2014 Academy Awards just around the corner, people are making predictions and letting their predictions be known left and right. Not wanting to feel left out, I decided I should let my voice be heard on the matter. Neverheless, I should state that as usual, the list of nominees looks pretty 'underwhelming', particularly considering some of the stuff that was released through out this cinematic season. Still, I'm not here to moan and whine, so let's get down to business.
 
Here's the complete feature film award list. I should specify that this is not the list of people I think will win, but rather a list of people I think SHOULD win.
 
 
 
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
 
The Nominees - Nebraska (Bob Nelson), Her (Spike Jonze), Dallas Buyers Club (Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack), Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen), American Hustle (Eric Warren Singer and David O'Russell)
 
My pick - Spike Jonze for HER
 
A superficial reading of Jonze's Her would interpret it as a man falling in love with an OS system. Yet, there is much more tenderness and humanity than would originally seem implied. In fact, the most rewarding surprise about this feature - the first feature script entirely written by Jonze though seemingly still in the vein of Kaufman's existentialist flirtations with quirk and surrealism - is the way in which it seems like a truly poetic take on modern day relationships that are always more digitalised by social media and Skype. In fact, the central relationship could just as easily be the ultimate representation of a long distance relationship.
 
 
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
 
 
The Nominees - Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy), Captain Phillips (Billy Ray), Philomena (Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope), 12 Years a Slave (John Ridley), The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter)
 
My pick - Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope for PHILOMENA
 
Rarely do we see a crowd pleaser that achieves a perfect tasteful balance between comedy and drama. But this balance is also succesful in its dealings with its themes, that dares to take on a big Catholic Church scandal such as the Magdalene Sisters adoptions with its two leading characters' contrasting personalities and radically oppose behaviours towards spirituality. Heart warming and hilarious, yes - Philomena is a crowd pleaser, but the sensibility of the script is never obvious at all and Philomena never sells out to artificiality.
 
 
 
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
 
The Nominees - Gravity (Tim Webber, David Shirk, Neil Corbould), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric Seindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds), Iron Man 3 (Christopher Townshend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash, Dan Sudick), The Lone Ranger (Tim Alexandr, Gary Brozenich, Edison Williams, John Frazier), Star Trek Into Darkness (Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton)
 
My pick - Tim Webber, David Shirk, Neil Corbould for GRAVITY
 
Despite the fact that the effects of Star Trek Into Darkness were spectacular and created a particularly remarkable contrast with an art direction that still felt quite nostalgic and old fashioned (in an succesful attempt to pay tribute to the vintage cult TV show), it's hard not to praise a film like Gravity. With its more art house approach and wonderful atmospheric tension, its visuals are simply much more organic and artisanal, adding a different psychological layer of depth to the originally appealing experience of the film, as well as completing it with a perfectionist aura of realism.
 
 
 
SOUND EDITING / MIXING
 
The Nominees (Mixing) - Captain Phillips (Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro), Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Chris Munro), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, Tony Johnson), Inside Llewyn Davis (Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland), Lone Survivor (Andy Koyama, Beau Border, David Brownlow)
 
The Nominees (Editing) - Captain Phillips (Oliver Tarney), All Is Lost (Steve Boeddeker, Richard Hymns), Gravity (Glenn Freemantle), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Brent Bruge, Chris Ward), Lone Survivor (Wylie Stateman)
 
My pick - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro / Oliver Tarney for CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
 
In his precise and characteristic build ups of tension, Greengrass always makes sure to have the right sound to create the right atmosphere of intensity and suspense in his films. No exception is found in Captain Phillips, where particularly in the most claustrophobic of scenes the feeling of hopelessness extends to all senses including, most remarkably, the sense of hearing.
 
 
 
PRODUCTION DESIGN
 
The nominees - American Hustle (Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler), Gravity (Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woollard), The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverly Dunn), Her (K.K. Barrett, Gene Serdena), 12 Years a Slave (Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker)
 
My pick - K.K. Barrett (production design) and Gene Serdena (set decoration) for HER
 
The grandeur of The Great Gatsby's sets would make its win a no brainer in this caregory. Yet, I found Her a remarkable showcase in production design. From its IKEA emptiness to colour coded characteristics and a vivid contrast of old and new, the remarkable thing about Barrett and Serdena's work is that they convey the feeling of humanity that runs vividly in Jonze's feature, creating a collected and compact design-of-the-times look while at the same time tastefully underplaying an all too often exaggerated cinematic cliche of futuristic representation.
 
 
 
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
 
The nominees - "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 (Pharrell Williams), "Let It Go" from Frozen (Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez), "The Moon Song" from Her (Karen O, Spike Jonze), "Ordinary Love" from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen)
 
My pick - Karen O and Spike Jonze for "The Moon Song" from HER
 
It's time to reward the shameless musical romanticism of the man, woman and ukelele combo. Yes, it has been done, but if we look at this award as one given to a song that adds meaning and value to the story in a significant way, there is no doubt about "The Moon Song" in Her representing something special about the special loving and warm relationship shared by the two leading characters. The two will never have pictures of each other kissing and hugging, but they will always have that song.
 
 
 
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
 
The nominees - The Book Thief (John Williams), Gravity (Steven Price), Her (William Butler, Owen Pallett), Philomena (Alexandre Desplat), Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)
 
My pick - Alexandre Desplat for PHILOMENA
 
While it's true that Saving Mr. Bank pays a golden tribute to the style of music in the beloved Disney classics of the Mary Poppins era and in the process stands out on its own, Desplat's score in Philomena is so emotionally fulfilling as to provide a priceless and enriching punctuation to the poignance of the narrative developments while never completely forgetting its overall positive and warm good nature.
 
 
 
MAKE-UP AND HAIRSTYLING
 
The nominees - Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin Matthews), Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Stephen Prouty), The Lone Ranger (Joel Harlow, Gloria Pasqua-Casny)
 
My pick - Adruitha Lee and Robin Matthews for DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
 
It's easy to see that among the three nominees in this particular category, Dallas Buyers Club is the odd one out. Yet, it is now a relatively well known fact that Lee and Matthews did a fantastic job. This is not only visible on screen, with the accurate AIDS related skin marks and awareness of the style at the time, but it was also reported that they only spent $250 for the whole production. On top of that, they were required to make Leto and McCoughaney seem near-death to perfectly healthy several time during the course of a day to adapt to shooting schedule. The award should hence also go for the efficiency, versatility and overall professionality - the kind that all filmmakers dream of having on their own set.
 
 
 
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
 
The nominees - The Broken Circle Breakdown, The Great Beauty, The Hunt, The Missing Picture, Omar
 
My pick - THE GREAT BEAUTY by Paolo Sorrentino
 
Sorrentino's bunga bunga vision of decadence, broken dreams, emptiness, melancholia and regret is so visually stunning and compellingly drastic. It may even be his masterpiece, though much of the reason for its popularity is that it seems to flirt with elements of nostalgia in its stylistic tribute to the cinematic period in Italy known as the second resnaissance of Visconti and most prominently Fellini. Servillo's performance is nothing short of masterful and represents an undying enigma that conveys the nature of The Great Beauty, a film bound to offer the viewer a chance of re-interpretation at every single viewing. Mystifying in its worrying and quasi-satirical representation of modern morality and an extrovert look at the conscience of a country with a past of Michelangelos and a present of Berlusconis.
 
 
 
BEST EDITING
 
The nominees - American Hustle (Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten), Captain Phillips (Christopher Rouse), Dallas Buyers Club (John Mac McMurphy, Martin Pensa), Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger), 12 Years a Slave (Joe Walker)
 
My pick - Christopher Rouse for CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
 
Strange not to see Wolf of Wall Street and to see 12 Years a Slave among the nominees in this categories. I will, however, abide to the rules and give credit for Christopher Rouse's work in Captain Phillips. The editing here heightens the feeling of realism and almost documentary like approach, which in turn makes the film feel more authentic, intense and suspenseful.
 
 
 
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
 
The nominees - The Act of Killing, Cutie and the Boxer, Dirty Wars, The Square, 20 Feet From Stardom
 
My pick - THE ACT OF KILLING by Joshua Oppeheimer
 
Having been named last year's best film by Sight and Sound, The Act of Killing should rightfully walk into an Oscar easy for this category. Compelling in an original way, Oppenheimer and co. a widely disregarded evil page in world history by challenging an Indonesian death squad to re-enact their mass killings. The result is surreal and then surprisingly effective as the subjects begin to re-asses their place in history in what could be described as a totally unique cinematic experiment that reveals the absurdity and paradox of violent means with its trail of unanswered conscience, blood and disharming megalomania. Audacious - even fearless in many ways - this film is also characterised by sheer visual beauty the highlights the subject's madness and delusion.
 
 
 
BEST DIRECTING
 
The nominees - American Hustle (David O. Russell), Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón), Nebraska (Alexander Payne), 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen), The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
 
My pick - Alexander Payne for NEBRASKA
 
Probably unlikely to actually win, his victory would perhaps be the most righteous. Payne has been a darling of Oscar nominations, yet his delightful and quite possibly most plainly crowd pleasing film Nebraska stands out among the gigantism of the other nominees in this category. It's not just the collected black and white filmed nostalgia and melancholia that beautifully reveals a distinctive geographical and spiritual identification of the titular state in all its glory, but also the way in which the film is so entertaining and engaging on a human level with a praise-worthy soft spoken approach.
 
 
 
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
 
The nominees - American Hustle (Michael Wilkinson), The Grandmaster (William Chang Suk Ping), The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin), The Invisible Woman (Michael O'Connor), 12 Years a Slave (Patricia Norris)
 
My pick - Catherine Martin for THE GREAT GATSBY
 
Love it or hate it, The Great Gatsby is pure eye-candy. So, it's no wonder that the costumes should be getting the praise that they deserve. By conveying the lavishness of the roaring twenties, it its glorious mixture of decadence and elegance, Catherine Martin's costumes are very imaginative but also intriguingly flirt with a more modern taste in fashion. It's no wonder hence that after the film's release, there was an outburst of The Great Gatsby themed parties where people rushed to dress like flappers and dandies of the time.
 
 
 
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
 
The nominees - The Grandmaster (Philippe le Sourd), Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki), Inside Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel), Nebraska (Phedon Papamichael), Prisoners (Roger A. Deakins)
 
My pick - Phedon Papamichael for NEBRASKA
 
The use of black and white cinematography can certainly have a feeling of being a gimmick in modern cinema. This is certainky not the case with Papamichael's work that meshes modern filmmaking techniques with black and white in a way that doesn't give away to obvious cinematic nostalgia but rather reveals something truly and unique about every element of the film by conveying its soft-spoken approach. In this sense, it reveals hidden truths about the characters but also about the story's geographical identity, with its landscape appearing in fact as one of the characters of the film and even the cloudy skies taking on priceless human characteristics.
 
 
 
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
 
The nominees - Despicable Me 2, The Croods, Ernest & Celestine, Frozen, The Wind Rises
 
My pick - THE WIND RISES by Hayao Miyazaki
 
Even to someone such as myself who doesn't consider himself the biggest connossieur of Anime, The Wind Rises seems a truly ambitious and interesting film that naturally blends fantasy and period drama with the thoughtlessness of a dreamlike vision. Despite the film's often overtly melodramatic tones, its maker's farewell to cinema (or so it would seem) is a great film that on a side note should probably also have been considered for best original score. On top of all the film's wonderful qualities, there is also the fact that Miyazaki is long due Academy Award recognition anyways.
 
 
 
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
 
The nominees - June Squibb (Nebraska), Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave), Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
 
My pick - June Squibb for NEBRASKA
 
The lovable strong hold of the family, a mixture of die hard conservatism and surprising modern explicitness, June Squibb represents the woman who has slipped into the role of the tough and hardened lady of the house that nevertheless has an unquestionable endless amount of love for her sons and for her husband, despite the fact that he drives her crazy. There is much tenderness in Squibb's performance, and her often show stealing presence adds motherly warmth and inspired comedic gags.
 
 
 
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
 
The nominees - Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Jonah Hill (Wolf of Wall Street), Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
 
My pick - Jonah Hill for WOLF OF WALL STREET
 
Yes, Jared Leto put his body on the line and Fassbender will part of a 12 Years a Slave line of Oscar darlings that might win it for the back to back excellent performances he has been dishing out non stop recently. Yet, I can't help but think that it is really Jonah Hill who stands out. Playing the nothing short of obnoxious sidekick to an already obnoxious guy, Hill delivers the right performance that is needed to fit in a perfect puzzle of architectural frenzy and madness that is Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street. And yes, Leto dropped pounds, but Hill certainly had to put a certain level of brave physicality in his performance - and that is an element that should not be underlooked.
 
 
 
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
 
The nominees - Amy Adams (American Hustle), Judi Dench (Philomena), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Meryl Streep (August: Osage County), Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
 
My pick - Cate Blanchett for BLUE JASMINE
 
There's a little of Blanche DuBois and a little of Woody Allen himself in Blue Jasmine's leading character. Quite a contrast that hence also requires a certain balance within drastic tone and mood changes that take place in individual scenes. A delicate task that Cate Blanchett takes on flawlessly, as the woman who purposely chooses a world of fantasy over the drag of realism. As staunchly impenetrable as the heroine of a Greek tragedy, Blanchett embodies modern self-denial of vulnerability as well as a woman on the verge of an inevitable breakdown.
 
 
 
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
 
The nominees - Christian Bale (American Hustle), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), Chiwetel Ejifor (12 Years a Slave), Matthew McCoughaney (Dallas Buyers Club)
 
My pick - Bruce Dern for NEBRASKA
 
A deeply conflicting choice. I too would love to see DiCaprio win the coveted golden statuette that has escaped him so often. But bottom line is, my heart is with Bruce Dern's leading turn in Payne's Nebraska on this one. Cast against type, particularly considering the seventies classics he starred in, Dern plays a weakened man with a perpetually lost, disoriented and confused look on his face. He speaks little and when he does, he seems to have little to say. He is comedy and drama personified, and the pivotal point of a father and son journey full of surprises and humanity. Bruce Dern talked of the offer of this role as a once in a lifetime opportunity, and indeed at his age it challenged him to almost completely re-invent himself. The end result is magnificent.
 
 
 
BEST PICTURE
 
The nominees - American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, 12 Years a Slave, The Wolf of Wall Street
 
My pick - PHILOMENA by Stephen Frears
 
Judging from my earlier pick, all signs pointed to Nebraska, or Her. But Philomena had a surprisingly low amount of nominations, and unfortunately Judi didn't make my pick for actress. Nevertheless, before I get onto Philomena, let me say a thing or two about some of the other films. American Hustle is the year's overrated film for me. The fact that it is nominated alongside The Wolf of Wall Street is actually ironic, as unfortunately for Russell and despite his best intentions, the frenzied humour soaked crime drama is one of Marty's most characteristic styles and his top notch return in The Wolf of Wall Street showed him, everyone and the world how it should really be done.
 
12 Years a Slave to me is quite dull. Not only does Steve McQueen kind of betray his own atistic background in it, but as far as the theme of slavery is concerned, it was he next logical step in the big screen representation of this delicate topic - having been dealt with in a grandfatherly way by Spielberg and in eccentric post-modernist glory by Tarantino. Now, I still think it's very powerful, but I am ready for the next one.
 
Now, here is Philomena. A down and out reporter comes across an Irish woman named Philomena whose son, who would now be fifty, was taken away from her by the Magdalene Sisters. He decides to write an article about her as he helps her trying to find him. The screenplay, based on a true story, is solid gold, with its perfectly timed balance of humour and drama. Furthermore, despite the fact that it deals with the heavy issue of a Catholic Church scandal, it also remains quite balanced in dealing with it from the two different perspectives of the lead characters on faith and spiritualism in general. The acing is masterful. Judi Dench stars as the titular character with a performance that is full of sensibility and humanity – it is arguably her best performance of all time, sweetly melancholic and humorous. Steve Coogan opposite her is the perfect disenchanted cynic – he also deserves praise for co-writing the screenplay and producing the film. All in all, Frears’ film is a crowd pleaser but one full of meaning and purpose which aims to achieve the prose that most of its kind fail to accomplish and is successful at doing just that.