Award season is upon us movie fans. As you all probably saw, last week the nominations for the 88th annual Oscars were released. The big news is the lack of diversity in this years awards. It is such an issue that actor/director Spike Lee and actor Jada Pinkett Smith are both boycotting them this year. Diversity is a problem in this year's Oscars because I do believe that there definitely could have been some African-Americans nominated this year. Even with all the drama, I will be tuning in on February 28th to see who takes home which award. So for those of you who will be watching the Oscars with me, I will be breaking down the 5 major categories and giving you the people I thought were snubbed, and also I think should win. Without further ado, let's get started!
Best Picture Category
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Film Snubbed: Creed
My Winner: Spotlight
My Take: First and foremost, I have unfortunately not seen The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, and Room, so I cannot make a judgement on any of those films. But from what I am reading, they all mostly belong on there with maybe the exception of Bridge of Spies. I have seen the rest and all but one deserve to be nominated. I finally gotten around to see the supposed movie of the summer, Mad Max: Fury Road, and I was completely underwhelmed. Yes, the movie was beautifully shot, but is that all it requires to be nominated for Best Picture? After the film was over, I could not wrap my head around the love and praise of this movie. There is no plot, the action sequences are overrated, and Charlize Theron's character was the only interesting thing about the movie. I got really bored of Tom Hardy's mumbling real quick. For the record, I have not seen the originals so my opinion is based on this film alone. How Mad Max was nominated over a film like Creed is beyond me. Creed had the better plot, story, characters, and I would even take the 2nd boxing match over the action in Mad Max. Creed gave us a character to care about and told the story of Adonis Creed to near perfection. Okay, I am done whining now. Finally, my pick to win Best Picture is Spotlight. The movie was my 3rd favorite of 2015, and it did a perfect job of making this huge story easy to follow and always keeping us engaged. The cast was stellar and the direction of Tom McCarthy was brilliant. It is just a stunning film.
Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Michael Fassbenber, Steve Jobs
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Biggest Snubs: Will Smith, Concussion; Michael B. Jordan, Creed
My Pick: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
My Take: This is a tough category to try and predict. From what I am hearing it is a 3 man race between Fassbender, DiCaprio, and Redmayne. I would be perfectly fine with any of the 3 winning because all of them turned in tremendous performances in their respective movies. I went with Leo because his movie was the better of the 3. His performance was not that much better than the aforementioned 2 but the deciding factor was quality in movie, and hey, why not just give it to Leo already? It would be rather funny to see him win for a performance that was not even his best, and also for a film where he is possibly out shined by his co-star Tom Hardy. My snubs of Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan are for 2 completely different reasons. If you have been reading my blog, you will know Creed was my favorite movie of 2015, and the film simply does not work without Michael B. Jordan's performance. In Will Smith's case, he is the name I am hearing a lot when people talk about diversity in the awards. A lot of people think he could replace Bryan Cranston in this category. Honestly, I'd put Jordan in over Cranston and Matt Damon. But that's just me.
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Ramplings, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Biggest Snub: None
My Pick: Brie Larson, Room
My Take: I will openly admit I have only seen the film Joy out of all these films. But I have heard nothing but great things about the rest of the nominees in the category. Jennifer Lawrence will definitely not be winning an Oscar for Joy as all the buzz has been around Cate Blanchett for Carol, and Brie Larson for Room. In all the award shows leading up to February 28th, Brie Larson has been piling up the wins for her performance in Room. So that would indicate to me, that she is the favorite to win this award. The main reason I did not put my snub for this category is because I could not think of who to put in this list. Between Cate Blanchett and Brie Larson, no matter who wins, a very talented actress will be going home with a shiny new toy.
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Biggest Snub: Samuel L. Jackson, The Hateful Eight
My Pick: Sylvester Stallone, Creed
My Take: Is it really a surprise who my winner is? While I think Stallone will be pushed hard by Tom Hardy, I am hoping Rocky comes out victorious in the end. Not only did Stallone give the best performance of the year, it was his best performance ever. Now that he did not have to worry about writing and directing, he could just focus on acting. He delivers an epic performance and was the best part of Creed. Tom Hardy is going to be hard to beat; he did act toe-to-toe with Leo in The Revenant and was my 2nd favorite performance behind Stallone. His character was both chilling and gripping. Without a doubt, Samuel L. Jackson deserves to be recognized for his performance in The Hateful Eight. The tricky part with his character is he can be seen as both a lead or supporting. In the end, it doesn't matter to me because he should be on either list. He was just too damn good to be left off. His performance draws your attention and leaves the biggest impact on you in such a great film. It is really a crime The Hateful Eight is not recognized more.
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander. The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Biggest Snub: None
My Pick: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
My Take: Again, I think they did a great job with actresses categories this year. All nominated gave tremendous performances and would be really hard to take out for another to be put in. It is why I have no snubs for the category as well. My pick of Alicia Vikander is no sure thing thanks to the buzz Kate Winslet and Rooney Mara are getting for the respective performances. But to me, Alicia Vikander had by far the best performance out of the nominated. While The Danish Girl had its dull moments and pacing issues, Vikander's performance left no room for criticism. She and her partner Eddie Redmayne carry the film. In a way, The Danish Girl is her movie because she outshines her co-star in this one. You felt for her character and really cared about what she was going through. Her performance was attention grabbing and had such a big presence in a movie that was about such a big issue.
Best Director
Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro G. Inarittu, The Revenant
Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Biggest Snubs: Ryan Coogler, Creed; Todd Haynes, Carol; J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Quentin Tarrentino, The Hateful Eight
My Pick: Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
My Take: The Best Director category is a 3 horse race between Inarittu, Abrahamson, and McCarthy. I saw 2 of the 3 movies and I can tell you that while Inarittu, who won last year's Best Directing Oscar for Birdman, did a stunning job on The Revenant, it was just not a superior film to Spotlight. And while actors have a big stake in the outcome of a film, no one is a bigger reason and no one has the most pressure to make a film work than the director. While The Revenant is visually beautiful, there are dull moments in the story. Spotlight does not have a single boring moment and McCarthy does a fabulous job keeping the audience engaged throughout the film. As for my snubs, of course Creed's Ryan Coogler is a snub. What more can I say about Creed? Not many expected it to be a good movie, and Coogler made it great. A lot of people are clamoring for Todd Haynes to get the nod for Carol. I have not seen the film but many of those people clamoring are ones I trust. Tarantino deserves a nomination for his masterful job with The Hateful Eight. And finally, as you've read above, Mad Max being nominated is a joke. So if George Miller was nominated? Why couldn't J.J. Abrams be as well? He made the better movie and had a much more difficult task of successfully satisfying millions of Star Wars loyalists.
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