My 2015 Oscar Ballot

We are going to do something a bit fun today, and will be doing so off-and-on for the coming weeks.  I started doing this blog daily about nine years ago, and five years into that time frame I started doing a full-fledged "If I Chose the Nominees" situation for the Oscars in all categories.  Since 2016 we've done this every year, including 2019, which we've been profiling this week and the past few weeks on the blog for the Oscars, but I thought as a companion to our Oscar Viewing Project that we'd do a compendium of all of the years we've profiled, and as an epilogue each time we do a year in the project, I'd put forward this list.  After all, if the Oscar Viewing Project is a list of all of the winners, it might be fun to at least attempt to (as I'm going) include a list of whom I'd nominate as well.

We're going to backtrack through only the years we've already done for the project, and we aren't going to do any of the years we've already profiled, so we'll start this "catch-up" with 2015.  If you'll recall, we finished this up two years ago, and if you want to see all of the past contests as Oscar presented them, click on that link & you'll have several hours of reading to do.  But today, we'll just do those traditional Oscar categories, and we'll only focus on whom I would've nominated (and the Gold/Silver/Bronze in each category).  Let's begin!

(Note: I'll be going back this weekend to edit past ballots so they're uniform, but we'll go ten-wide for the Best Picture only, and we'll do that in every year even the five-wide contests as I like clean lines...I'll also go back to edit a Gold/Silver/Bronze mentality as I think it's more fun to try & rank the Top 3, and not just pick a winner.  And like the OVP, I'll try to make this as much "about the year" as possible so as to not have "consolation" awards in the mix.)

Picture

45 Years

Brooklyn

Carol

Clouds of Sils Maria

Ex Machina

I'll See You in My Dreams

Mad Max: Fury Road

Room

Spy

Testament of Youth

Gold: I am such a sucker for a old-timey romantic triangle, and Brooklyn gives us the rare one that genuinely could go in either direction.

Silver: It is a tight race with Carol, which is a brilliantly-crafted movie, and the best that Todd Haynes has ever created.

Bronze: I have seen Spy more times than I can count, and cannot recall a time that I have laughed more in a movie theater.

Director

Olivier Assayas, Clouds of Sils Maria

John Crowley, Brooklyn

Paul Feig, Spy

Andrew Haigh, 45 Years

Todd Haynes, Carol

Gold: Haynes takes the trophy for bringing a director's insight into not just a May/December romance, but a romance with an enormous amount of pressure...Carol & Therese need to decide on forever & what that entails.  

Silver: Crowley's camera never lingers, always moving forward as we find a woman who is torn between her old life & the promise of a new one.

Bronze: Assayas has a difficult task before him, crafting a complicated story-within-a-story for Clouds of Sils Maria but he sets both of the movie's plots to work with thrilling, honest originality.

Actress

Juliette Binoche, Clouds of Sils Maria

Cate Blanchett, Carol

Melissa McCarthy, Spy

Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years

Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Gold: Rampling gives the performance of a lifetime as a woman who understands that much of her existence was predicated on a lie that she didn't know that she was being told (more than she ever could have dreamt).

Silver: Blanchett would've won in almost any other year, and certainly deserves such praise as a woman realizing love (true love) for the first time in middle age.

Bronze: Few child actors are able to move so effortlessly to the big screen without any growing pains.  That Saoirse Ronan does it without recalling any bit of the child star we knew her as in Atonement is a testament to what a brilliant star she was about to become.

Actor

Michael Caine, Youth

Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Tom Hardy, Legend

Michael B. Jordan, Creed

Jacob Tremlbay, Room

Gold: Fassbender has spent much of the past decade being so good it's easy to take him for granted in this role, but he fully inhabits the genius (and sociopath) of Steve Jobs.

Silver: Michael Caine is also an actor who is so consistent it's easy to dismiss him when he's hitting a triple, but his work here (looking at how we must move forward if we are to move at all) resonates years after viewing.  He knows exactly how to cash in on not only life experience, but the audience's years of movie memories

Bronze: Child actors are oftentimes the product of their directors, not their own work, so it can be a challenge in grading their performances, but that doesn't mean that Tremblay's acting here doesn't live up to the hype.

Supporting Actress

Rose Byrne, Spy

Miranda Hart, Spy

Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria

Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina

Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Gold: Vikander has become a point of derision in the years since, as she has not lived up to the promise of such a quick Oscar, but her work as Ava is still brilliant.

Silver: I think I'll go with Stewart next, who shed every corner of her "Twilight/can't act" persona here, going toe-to-toe with Juliette Binoche & finding dimensions in a seemingly commonplace assistant.

Bronze: Kate Winslet is a chameleon of an actress, someone who folds into every role, and while never disappearing, brings both herself & that character to light.  This is more evident than ever with her going against type in Steve Jobs.

Supporting Actor

Emory Cohen, Brooklyn

Sam Elliott, Grandma

Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina

Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Jason Statham, Spy

Gold: Sly Stallone is not a great actor, but he is able to harness a memory with his beautiful, nostalgic work in Creed, and thus shows why he's been a star for nearly fifty years.

Silver: Oscar Isaac kicked off a run of career-topping performances as a megalomaniac intent on destruction, even if it comes at his own peril.

Bronze: I don't entirely know if it's fair to include Jason Statham here, but few actors have more gamely skewered their own personas for the fun of audiences everywhere, and every time I watch this I'm struck by how perfect his comic timing is.

Original Screenplay

Clouds of Sils Maria

Ex Machina

I'll See You in My Dreams

Spotlight

Spy

Gold: It's obviously a writer's movie, one that moves with a lot of twisty turns & operates on several different levels, but that doesn't mean that Clouds of Sils Maria doesn't deserve the "W" in this bunch.

Silver: Spy is the most quotable movie of 2015, an uproarious laugh riot that is not only helped by ace comedians, but terrific writing.

Bronze: The inventive, machiavellian genius of Ex Machina is a total win-it gives us not only the expected but the unexpected answers.

Adapted Screenplay

45 Years

Brooklyn

Carol

Room

Testament of Youth

Gold: I mean, how do you argue with the crisp dialogue of Carol, Phyllis Nagy totally going for broke with brilliance in every scene?

Silver: Again, Brooklyn (this was a tight race in virtually every matchup when I did this in 2015) cannot be denied, as Nick Hornby's work just barely misses against Nagy.

Bronze: I think I'm going to lean toward Room, a difficult story to adapt and one that requires a lot of character work between Ma & Jack, but Emma Donoghue nails it.

Animated Feature Film

Inside Out

The Peanuts Movie

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Gold: I only believe in three-wide in this category (there's too few contenders to give it five), and while I'm not as beholden to Pixar as the Academy is, I'm not denying Inside Out is the obvious favorite here.

Silver: I'm leaning toward the sweetness of The Peanuts Movie, even if nostalgia is helping the cause there a little bit (I love the Charlie Brown holiday specials so much).  Still, it's the rare movie that modernizes its characters without ever losing the original charm that made it iconic.

Bronze: Wordless but filled with lovely site gags, Shaun the Sheep is a sweet, adorable little movie that shows why Aardman has stayed at the top of its game.

Sound Mixing

Carol

Mad Max: Fury Road

Sicario

Son of Saul

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Gold: It's rare that you leave a film saying "that had great sound design," but when you do, you make a mental note of it, and man did Son of Saul do something special with its immersive aural work.

Silver: I'd go with the more traditional Mad Max here, with thundering vehicles & specific villain music hallmarking an entirely new chapter in this dystopian franchise.

Bronze: While the scripts & acting vary in quality from film-to-film, there's no denying that Star Wars continually amazes in its tech department, and does an ace job (while using John Williams appropriately).

Sound Editing

Creed

Ex Machina

Inside Out

Mad Max: Fury Road

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Gold: Is there any way to deny the gadgetry & next-level robots of Ex Machina?  Well, there is because Oscar did, but I have more foresight than that.

Silver: Star Wars has a tricky business in modernizing an old franchise while staying true to the sound effects that made it classic-The Force Awakens does that well.

Bronze: The "brain station" gizmos of Inside Out give us an insight into Riley's imagination, and show that even if Oscar doesn't notice anymore, Pixar still has it when it comes to Sound Editing.

Original Score

Brooklyn

Carol

The Hateful Eight

Room

Testament of Youth

Gold: 2015 is probably the best year for cinema of the 2010's, and it's easily the best for screen music (all five of these are home runs).  This is why I can say with confidence that even though Ennio Morricone's win that year at the Oscars read as an "old age" award...it was actually cause it was just that good.

Silver: I'm going to go with Brooklyn here, which has a melodic, almost lyrical tone to its score, and works just as well as standalone music.

Bronze: Perhaps Carol?  The music gives us some of the desperation of the film, and Burwell knows how to mix elements of traditional romance & noir into his work.

Original Song

"Cold One," Ricki and the Flash

"Crazy Youngsters," Pitch Perfect 2

"I'll See You in My Dreams," I'll See You in My Dreams

"Manta Ray," Racing Extinction

"Who Can You Trust," Spy

Gold: This is a big step-up from the Oscar lineup, and still I feel like it's not a great sampling (the one disappointment in the 2015 categories).  Still, Spy goes straight Bond with its nomination, and grammar aside is the best song here.

Silver: The sweet, near the end movements of "I'll See You in My Dreams" in the confines of the movie don't diminish that the song is also quite catchy.

Bronze: It's not remotely vital to the plot, and honestly the movie it surrounds is pretty bad, but..."Crazy Youngsters" is a bop that I cannot get enough of.

Production Design

Carol

Crimson Peak

The Danish Girl

The Martian

Room

Gold: Sometimes you give this prize based on a cascade of strong work, and sometimes you give it based on one set-piece.  The latter is the case for 2015, which gives us iconography in all four corners in Room.

Silver: The Martian has the difficult task of making a realistic space station on Mars (and one that can feel like home for two hours)-it does that perfectly...another in a long line of recent A+'s for space decorating.

Bronze: The Martian might play with literal space, but if you're going to talk about how an empty chamber can add depth to the screen, few movies did more with high-ceiling rooms than The Danish Girl.

Cinematography

Carol

Creed

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Sicario

Gold: Carol gives us a dreamlike world, finding touches of Douglas Sirk but remaining original.  The outdoors shots (particularly at twilight) are frame-worthy (seriously-someone buy me Rooney Mara under a lamppost for my wall).

Silver: John Seale was pulled out of retirement to make Mad Max, and this was the correct decision-no DP alive can make a desert have the kind of fire & personality he brings to the colorful showmanship of Fury Road.

Bronze: The crazy amount of natural light that Emmanuel Lubezki brings to The Revenant is bonkers, as he transports back 300 years with his steady, unflinching camerawork.

Costume Design

Brooklyn

Carol

Cinderella

The Danish Girl

The Man from UNCLE

Gold: The year of Sandy Powell vs. Sandy Powell produced no wins for her with Oscar, but I am less-inclined to resist, and her gorgeous pastels (and tight trousers) in Cinderella takes the cake.

Silver: I'm also giving Powell runner-up, as she gives us both realism & character-driven personality in the costumes of Carol.

Bronze: A tight race between the remaining (such a fun year for costumes), but I'll go with the mod hipness of UNCLE, as they find good looks for both the women (our love affair with Elizabeth Debicki began here) as well as the men (has Henry Cavill ever looked more ridiculously "Henry Cavill?").

Film Editing

Embrace of the Serpent

Ex Machina

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

Room

Gold: One of the weirdest movies I've seen in recent years, Embrace of the Serpent has to find a way to visually impart a story while not always focusing on the story...that doesn't make sense, but when you see it you'll understand how careful the editing on this movie needed to be.

Silver: I'm going to go with Mad Max, which makes action films feel new again with its roaring, unceasing march to the inevitable showdown.

Bronze: I still don't get how The Martian missed with Oscar, as it is so clever with its light comedy & mix of dire space urgency, but I'm not making that mistake here.

Makeup & Hairstyling

Carol

Crimson Peak

Legend

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Man from UNCLE

Gold: I mean, yes it's got "more" makeup than any of the other films, but this is the case where more & best can be pretty much synonymous.  Mad Max: Fury Road is an all-timer for this category.

Silver: I'll probably go with Carol, as while the makeup is ordinary, the hairstyling is period-perfect & made to match each of the character's personalities.

Bronze: Legend does a better job than I've seen in a while of taking an actor playing dual roles, in this case twins, and making them look both similar & yet totally recognizable as each other.

Visual Effects

Ex Machina

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Tomorrowland

Gold: I know it was done on a budget, but Ex Machina is proof that you just need artistry in your visual effects & the rest will come together perfectly.

Silver: I'm a sucker for a throwback practical effect, and Mad Max: Fury Road finds a way to make the audience feel the heat of its explosions & oil rampages.

Bronze: It's impossible to deny Star Wars (particularly that giant chase scene near the film's opening), and it doesn't rest on its laurels, adding lovely touches like Kylo Ren's handled lightsaber.

There we have it-I'm definitely going to keep doing this as I had a blast (we'll catch up on all of the years that we've already done & then have it be part of our OVP wrap-ups as we do ballots), so I hope you like this...if you have some favorites from 2015, share below!

Also in 2015: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, Animated Short, Previously in 2015

OVP: Picture (2015)

OVP: Best Picture (2015)

The Nominees Were...

Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, & Jeremy Kleiner, The Big Short
Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt, & Kristie Macosko Krieger, Bridge of Spies
Finola Dwyer & Amanda Posey, Brooklyn
Doug Mitchell & George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, & Mark Huffam, The Martian
Amon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Mary Parent, & Keith Redmon, The Revenant
Ed Guiney, Room
Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin, & Blye Pagon Faust, Spotlight

My Thoughts: We are finally finishing off our look at the 2015 movies.  While of course there will inevitably be first time viewings of pictures from that year that will be discussed in the future, in terms of our Oscar Viewing Project, we are now complete with this post.  On Monday, we'll be investigating a new year, one that based on the work I've already done it should be roughly a 10-week exploration of 2016, but for now I've made you wait long enough-it's time to discuss the eight pictures that the Oscars deemed the most worthy for its highest honor.

We're going to start with the movie I feel like we've discussed the most in this series, Mad Max: Fury Road.  Recent viewings have actually made me appreciate Fury Road a bit more, understanding just where the Mad Max universe started and how much it evolved through the years.  The film itself is an action-adventure visual smorgasbord, one that doesn't seem to mind its rather routine script because it's so full of a glorious feast for the eyes.  I am more a plot person than someone who can be swept up in the grandeur of what's happening on the screen, but I'm not immune, and by-far Fury Road is the movie with the most distinctive palette of these pictures, and likely the movie that will be best-remembered years from now when other people reassess this field.

The movie that might be the least remembered is the sturdy, but a bit dull, Bridge of Spies.  Late films in Steven Spielberg's career have all been in the sturdy-but-dull mode, in my opinion, visually impressive (he can afford the best production team in Hollywood), but lacking in the same emotional investment that his original works earlier in his career (Jaws, Raiders, ET) were able to achieve.  It's frequently as if he took the wrong message from Schindler and just thought the "historical" nature of the film was what made it great, not the emotional one.  That's clear here, where only the Francis Gary Powers scene above the earth equals anything similar to what Spielberg could make in his heyday, and frequently it's just staid, traditional drama that's elevated by two Oscar-winning performers (Tom Hanks & Mark Rylance).  Good, but hardly memorable.

Good, but hardly memorable is what you'd think I'd say about The Martian, but few films have reminded more that they were better than my old noggin retained than this Ridley Scott picture.  The film is actually quite strong, with solid work by Matt Damon (movie star magic there, his best movie star turn in about twenty years), and a compelling script.  The visuals are strong as well, as we wander through not only Mars, but our more earth-bound dwellings (notice how often it's raining on Earth to underscore the difference), and it's just the sort of fun, escapist fare that used to be a slam dunk over the summer rather than an endless array of dull sequels.  I liked it-it's not a heavy thinking film & it's not a movie that's breaking any new ground, but it's increasingly hard to make popcorn movies dance like this, and Scott was able to achieve just that.

Room is no one's definition of a popcorn movie, but here again I like it as well.  The movie's best half, the technically tricky first half, is mesmerizing; it's hard to get an audience to collectively hold their breaths for some forty minutes, but as we watch Jack & Ma try to escape from a tool shed in someone's backyard, the filmmakers are able to underscore the life-and-death stakes that they are undertaking.  I loved what the film had to say about the momentary celebrities we make of people (particularly women) who are only in that position because of unspeakable tragedy, and how we just as easily dismiss them when we take out our newspapers.  Along with career-defining work from Jacob Tremblay & Brie Larson, the movie is not one you revisit very often, but it's a powerful motion picture.

This is simply not the case for the other film that is trying desperately hard to be "serious and important," The Revenant.  Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, one year after his breathtaking and career-best work in Birdman, somehow finds a way to throw out all of that goodwill with The Revenant, a dull (but beautiful) look at an early 19th Century fur trapper and the brutal life he chooses to lead (and the revenge he undertakes for a wife we as an audience barely get to know).  At different parts sexist and occasionally just torture porn for the audience, the film seems more inclined in watching its characters suffer than letting us get to know them, and while it's surely a physical feat for lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio, we don't give out Oscars to marathoners just because someone set up a camera in front of the race.  The movie indulges all of the worst of AGI's impulses post his Oscar victory lap, and the collective universe was too busy screaming "Give Leo an Oscar" to notice that the movie he was winning it for was lousy.

The Big Short is going to be one of those movies that probably looks horrendous in hindsight if Vice is any indication, the way we all kind of collectively have downgraded our opinions of Inglourious Basterds somewhat in the wake of Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight showing that Tarantino has lost what made his first films so special.  The movie itself, though, is relatively good so don't let future failures confuse that fact.  The movie in the first two-thirds manages to find a way to make a complicated problem (the housing crash) come to light in a way that a thousand Vox articles almost certainly wouldn't, and there are some solid performances here.  The problem is that McKay's lack of self-awareness as a white, liberal millionaire who wants to make sure all of the white millionaires in the film that aren't clear villains are recused tanks the final third, when he tries to make Steve Carell & Ryan Gosling's characters seem like nicer guys than they actually were, while still getting to keep their entire fortune.  That problematic political angle was an indication of how badly-handled someone like Dick Cheney, a far more nefarious (and murderous) topic would be in McKay's hands, but we'll ring him over the coals for Vice when we get to 2018.  For now, I say mission (mostly) accomplished.

Brooklyn feels sort of out-of-place among these pictures, the sort of movie that was nominated for an honor like this twenty or thirty years prior to 2015, rather than today when we want more intimate biopics or male-driven ensembles.  Brooklyn feels like the type of film that would have played well with Merchant-Ivory, but perhaps it's a testament to how good it was that they still decided to include the film despite it having "gone out of fashion."  This is certainly because Brooklyn is a breathtaking movie, one that is gorgeous but also honestly felt, particularly by lead actress Saoirse Ronan, fully coming into her own as an adult with a mesmerizing Eilis.  Love triangles are the backbone of movie epics, but this one feels more urgent because you genuinely, even as the film ends, don't know what Eilis would have chosen left entirely to her own devices, and underscores how much technology plays a role in the way we interact with family and romance from a distance.  Understated, but masterful.

The final film that we'll highlight I chose to be the actual Best Picture winner, Spotlight.  The movie's studious devotion to journalism, showing how it can truly change the world, feels very different just a few years later, with Donald Trump routinely beating on the press, and the left frequently (and accurately) lambasting organizations like CNN and The New York Times for not being prepared to handle such a monster taking power in the United States.  One can only imagine what Spotlight would have done with such a story hanging over it in future years, but we have the film as it is, which is pretty good but nothing earth-shattering like All the President's Men.  We see largely nameless, personality-less performances from the journalists as they pour over decades of abuse, giving us insight into the process of a group of reporters investigating one of the most powerful organizations on the planet for decades of criminal activity (and coverup).  The film doesn't do as well when it takes the lens off of this reporting, which is fascinating and thrillingly methodical, trying to also morally grandstand (it seems weird that super-liberal actor Mark Ruffalo, a fine thespian, isn't the right choice to underline the importance of their work, but he isn't and nearly throws the film off of its rails).  The sort of Best Picture winner that won't embarrass the Academy, but one that few people will remember ten years from now.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes split their nominations between Comedy/Musical and Drama, so we have a full ten nominees here.  The Drama categories went nearly with a full Oscar lineup, having The Revenant triumph over Fury Road, Room, Spotlight, and (the snubbed) Carol while comedy had Oscar nominee The Martian best The Big Short, Joy, Spy, and Trainwreck.  The BAFTA's also went with The Revenant for their top prize, having it best The Big Short, Carol, Bridge of Spies, and Spotlight, while the PGA Awards (which go ten-wide) found room for all of Oscar's contestants save for, well, Room, and threw in Ex Machina, Sicario, & Straight Outta Compton.  Considering the SAG Ensemble (not a Best Picture nominee, so I'm only listing it in context of the ninth place because many people frequently treat it as such) also included Compton, one has to assume if they'd been ten-wide that Carol and the rapping biopic were the last two contenders, and it still feels odd that Carol didn't eventually make it into this race.

Films I Would Have Nominated: As I hate when people have a laundry list of snubbed films for the big prize, I'll try to only include movies here that I would have included in my Top 8 (since that's all Oscar allowed) even though this stands as one of the better cinematic years of the decade in hindsight.  It will still be a lot though as I'd only for sure keep two of Oscars' nominees.  For starters, Carol is a magnum opus & certainly deserved to be included on such a lineup (I still don't get why Oscar didn't have it there considering the universal praise & precursor support, not to mention the support the film got in various AMPAS branches).  I also would have found room for the under-seen romantic epic Testament of Youth, the cerebral acting drama Clouds of Sils Maria, the marital discord take of 45 Years, and the movie that made me laugh harder than any this decade, Spy.  For the final nomination, it's hard to debate between Fury Road and Ex Machina, both even in the Sci Fi/Fantasy sort of realm, but about as polar opposite in their approach to their subject as you can get.  Perhaps like the Oscars (which surely should have included Carol) I'd go with the ninth nomination option (which is sitting right there) and break my rule to include both, something the Academy should have considered.

Oscar’s Choice: Looking at the precursors, this was actually a bit of a tossup (if you count SAG Ensemble, Spotlight, The Martian, The Revenant, & The Big Short had all won major awards going into the Oscar race).  In the end, the Academy split the difference and gave this to the conventional Spotlight, a victory few people are going to remember but will play better in hindsight than some of the other options.

My Choice: Easy call for Brooklyn, a beautiful, tender love story that looks effortless in a way other people who tackle this genre simply cannot achieve over Room, which was a breathtaking acting triumph and by no-means a guaranteed nomination so well-done to Oscar for singling it out for the top prize.  I'll follow with Fury Road, Martian, Spotlight, Bridge of Spies, Big Short, & The Revenant.

Yes, we're done with 2015, but you can still join me for a discussion of the year in the comments.  Were you with me that Brooklyn was the best of this bunch, or are you more with Oscar & Spotlight (or more likely, picking films like Fury Road or Revenant which had more champions at the time)?  Was it Straight Outta Compton or Carol in ninth place?  And who ended up with a better lineup for Best Picture-Oscar or me?  Share your thoughts on anything 2015-related below!  We go into 2016 on Monday!

Also in 2015: Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, Animated Short, Previously in 2015

Past Best Picture Contests: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

OVP: Director (2015)

OVP: Best Director (2015)

The Nominees Were...

Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, The Revenant
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

My Thoughts: This morning we discussed the original Mad Max film, so it felt fitting that we show what that eventually culminated in due to one of the strangest journeys in Oscar history.  George Miller's bare-budget action film that catapaulted the career of Mel Gibson, one that could have so easily have been disposable & forgettable, ended up launching a franchise that eventually became only the eighth sequel to ever win an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and won Miller his first citation in this category.  Considering the time it took to get to this citation, I won't make Mr. Miller wait any longer and so we'll start our discussion with him.

Mad Max: Fury Road is not what you'd consider a writer's film or an actor's film, though there are elements in both of these camps that might deserve praise-it is completely a director's picture.  The movie unfolds with mesmerizing action sequences, and this is really why it was hailed as a landmark when it initially came out; George Miller deserves most of the credit for creating such a spectacle.  It takes a lot to be able to guide a film that has a host of ardent, obsessive fans of the previous installments while also creating something accessible to a new generation of moviegoers (myself included) who saw the picture without any grounding in the previous installments.  Miller's giant desert spectacles are mesmerizing, and I love the way that he creates a distance between this world and our own, but never a particularly giant distance to our own world, his environmental message very much on-display.  A roaring achievement, and one that more than earned its place here.

Arguably the person with the most similar challenge to Miller's is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who also has to create a universe that is entirely action-driven, one that doesn't rely in a meaningful way on plot, and instead is an action-adventure (though Miller has to do so within the confines of a specific filmic universe that already has three pictures to its name).  AGI doesn't equal Miller in any capacity other than getting out of the way of the cinematographer, though, as his film feels too-often directionless.  The opening sequences and the scene with the bear notwithstanding, the director's choices to limit our exposure to Leo's Hugh Glass as a person are poor, making the movie seem more like a nature documentary...that somehow wants you to invest personally into the travails of its main characters.  The film is occasionally stunning, but I give that credit more to Lubezki than Gonzalez Inarritu.

Another challenge, though on a different scale would be the one encountered by Lenny Abrahamson. Particularly the first half of Room requires in an incredible amount of intricacy, as we have to see the world from both the eyes of Joy and Jack.  Abrahamson does this very well, with an astute amount of technical prowess, showing us (without underlining it) the actual reality of living in a shed in the backyard of a kidnapper, and the expansive world that Jack has created since he knows nothing of what lies beyond it.  The film's second half isn't nearly as technically impressive, and it shows as the movie doesn't overwhelm with the possibilities of this new world in the same way that it did with the finite one, but that's only a small knock on Abrahamson's achievements, as the picture certainly wouldn't work without his care in the first half.

Care is not a word that one attributes to Adam McKay very often.  The Big Short is a movie that is loud, bawdy, and oftentimes too clunky.  There are moments in the movie that work (I stand behind the asides by Margot Robbie & Selena Gomez explaining to the audience in entertaining, layman's terms what is happening through a fourth wall-breaking trope), but the back half of the movie shows a complete lack in interest to what "McKay the Writer" was trying to achieve in the first half of the movie.  The film doesn't really have an interesting directorial achievement here, and it feels like the type that just happened because it was nominated for Best Picture (and was an option to actually win that trophy), so the Oscars just went with it here too.  A deeply misguided ending & a lack of originality other than the fourth well-breaking makes The Big Short arguably the biggest waste of a nomination here (at least AGI was creating something beautiful).

The final nomination in some ways is also a "well, we nominated it for Best Picture so let's put it here" and perhaps a little bit is a nod to the Directors' Branch's weird obsession with actor-directors (McCarthy you recognize up top from his parts in films like Meet the Parents, Syriana, The Lovely Bones, and Duplicity, as well as his recurring roles on Boston Public and The Wire).  However, I don't think this is entirely the case for Spotlight (which is also a better film than The Big Short or The Revenant).  He does a very strong job of unfolding the story here, methodically showing us the intricacies of the journalistic process without it ever feeling boring or like a lecture.  That's harder to do than you'd think, and while the film's back half never maintains the tightness of those earlier scenes, it's still an achievement, and Oscar has done a lot worse than honoring someone who makes a prestige film have at least something of an artistic angle.

Other Precursor Contenders: Best Director is one of those rare fields where the Globes, Guilds, and BAFTA awards all have the same number of nominees (aside from the supporting actor races, this is the only OVP category where this is the case).  The Globes gave their trophy to Inarritu, while replacing McKay & Abrahamson with Todd Haynes (Carol) and Ridley Scott (The Martian).  The BAFTAs went with Inarritu as their winner as well, but also found room for Haynes, Scott, and Steven Spielberg (Bridge of Spies), with only McKay joining Inarritu from Oscar's lineup.  The DGA's were the closest to the eventual AMPAS list, this time only skipping Abrahamson in favor of Scott (with Inarritu completing the trifecta).  Scott was almost certainly in sixth place, and quite frankly I am still stunned how he didn't get nominated considering his position in the directing branch as one of the few truly living (English-language) legends who has never taken home an Oscar.  I think, had he been nominated, he would've been the only person who came close to spoiling it for Inarritu.

Directors I Would Have Nominated: I'd honestly chuck most of this lineup and start from scratch.  Surely Todd Haynes deserved mention for Carol, as few people could have put such a distinctive style on a previously-written novel (and made it so beautiful).  I'd also throw in Andrew Haigh's specific work in 45 Years, and John Crowley's epic love story of Brooklyn.  Finally, I'd go with Oliver Assayas, one of the most interesting filmmakers working today, who created a cerebral mind game that still is a damn compelling movie in Clouds of Sils Maria.
Oscar's Choice: AGI dominated the precursors, and without the sentimental pull of Ridley Scott finally getting an Oscar (he's now in his 80's-there won't be many more opportunities to do this), his closest competition was likely George Miller (which is to say there wasn't much competition at all).

My Choice: An easy crown for Miller, who is the only one doing work that feels worthy of inclusion in such a list.  Follow him with Abrahamson, McCarthy, Gonzalez Inarritu, and finally McKay.

Those were my thoughts-how about yours?  Are you with me on it being Miller or does AGI have his ardent admirers here?  At one point does the fascination with Adam McKay wane or is he destined to win this one eventually?  And how the hell did Ridley Scott not get nominated here?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Also in 2015: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, Animated Short, Previously in 2015

Past Best Director Contests: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

OVP: Actress (2015)

OVP: Best Actress (2015)

The Nominees Were...

Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

My Thoughts: Despite some people's protestations, there are good years and bad years for films.  This is particularly true when you look at field-after-field of nominees from a given year for the Academy Awards.  The Best Actress race of 2015, however, is a really good year, and just staggeringly better than Best Actor, to the point where I wonder if this might be the biggest gap in quality ever amassed between the two fields.  Case in point, the least of these five nominees would place at least second in the men's field, and the remaining four would knock my Best Actor choice (Michael Fassbender, see links below for that race and a whole host of other 2015 contests) out of the field.  This might not be the best field of actresses Oscar ever assembled, but it's (in my opinion) the best field of performances we have yet to profile in this series after nearly a decade of write-ups, beating even 2010's Best Actress.

We'll start with, therefore, the woman who actually managed to win in such a field, Brie Larson.  Larson's work in Room is the type of performance that would win in most Oscar seasons.  Robbed of vanity for the first half, she has remarkable chemistry with young actor Jacob Tremblay, essential since they're the only two people they've seen other than a violent kidnapper in years.  Larson's best parts of her performance, though, come in the back-half of the movie, when she encounters the perverse celebrity of a kidnapping victim (the scene with the television interview, made necessary by her legal & medical bills, is unflinchingly hard to watch), and has conversations with her mother (played by Joan Allen) that she's been bottling up for years, not able to express them to anyone as she tried to create a world for her son.  It's a towering achievement, and a worthwhile winner in such a field.

On the opposite end of the "Oscar newcomer" list is Charlotte Rampling, 43 years Larson's senior but also enjoying her first nomination in 2015.  Rampling's work in 45 Years is (I'm trying really hard to avoid hyperbole but failing here) one of the truly great acting creations of this young cinematic century.  The way that she unfolds a thoughtful woman who never really pondered the beginnings of her relationship is stupendous, as is the way you can tell what she is thinking from the slightest of shifts in her gaze or the rearranging of her hands.  It's a soft, subtle performance, one filled with mystery (what will she do with her life?), but Rampling plays all of her cards.  One of the finest actors of her generation, she is that rare person to get an "old age" nomination for the best performance in their career.

We continue on this list of "best she's ever been" with Cate Blanchett, someone whose two decades of fame affords her lots of competition for that title.  But Carol (and Carol) is Blanchett firing on all cylinders.  The line readings, the way that she seems to be saying goodbye to the love-of-her-life from the moment they meet, is magical.  Carol is a romance with a ticking clock, but it's the rare one where the leading actress clearly knows that there will eventually be an ultimatum, because she's been there before.  Blanchett brings a layered calm to her Carol, knowing that she must speak in code not only for her own safety but also because she doesn't want to scare Therese away.  The scenes with Chandler & Paulson, where she lets some of her guard down and you see what's real and what's just there to entrance is brilliant.  It's the sort of role that potentially no actress of her era (or any era) could have played so well, and Blanchett never scenery-chews in order to steal a scene.  Flawless.

Saoirse Ronan is probably not giving her career-best work here (I'd give that nod to Lady Bird two years later in her young career), but that shouldn't be confused with her not giving a truly seismic piece-of-work in Brooklyn.  Given an introverted character still inclined to study the world, her Eilis is the rare character study at the center of an epic.  The way that she falls in love, first with Tony & then with Jim, is pure joy.  Perhaps the best scene of the movie, and one that only works because of what Ronan has done before, is when Eilis is confronted by her nosy neighbor over her marriage to an Italian-American even though she's been seen with the local Irish boy.  The way she states that she's proud of her husband, but leaves a shred of doubt in her voice (that perhaps, given the chance, she might just pick Jim to stay in the country she loves), is devastating and a tour-de-force of acting.

Which brings us, finally, to Jennifer Lawrence.  Lawrence got a lot of ire from me that year (and a lot from a lot of people in the wake of this nomination...worth noting she hasn't been back since) considering that there were better performances to cite that year rather than a 25-year-old getting her fourth Oscar citation.  However, her work in Joy is good, it's just not up to the level of any of these other women (or Lawrence's past nominations).  The scenes with Bradley Cooper are splendid, and I loved the ways that Lawrence hinted at the eventual magnetism that Joy Mangano would bring to her TV personality.  The script is more at fault than Lawrence, giving us a host of one-dimensional side characters and a meandering plot that should just be focusing on Joy's rise, not the inherent need to continually take her down.  But Lawrence is good, and this performance is better than you remember.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes of course split their nominations between Drama and Comedy/Musical, but even with that split we still are missing one of the eventual nominees (Rampling). Larson took on the Drama field, besting Blanchett, Ronan, and Oscar's Supporting Actress nominees Rooney Mara (Carol) and Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), while Lawrence took the Comedy/Musical over Melissa McCarthy (Spy), Amy Schumer (Trainwreck), Maggie Smith (The Lady in the Van), and Lily Tomlin (Grandma).  SAG took a weird tactic with a rich year by putting Helen Mirren (Woman in Gold) and Sarah Silverman (I Smile Back) for bad movies alongside Blanchett, Ronan, & the victorious Larson, while BAFTA also went with Larson, but substituted out Ramplin & Lawrence in favor of Smith & Vikander.  All-things-said, unless Alicia Vikander's The Danish Girl was in sixth place, my money is that it was Smith, who was at the height of Downton fever at the time, had just had massive hits with the Marigold Hotels, and normally gets in when she's a contender.  In 2014 or 2016, she almost certainly would have gotten her seventh nomination.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: Perhaps no year is better to illustrate the "snub" problem than 2015's Best Actress field.  Every year magazines will proclaim a field of "snubs" which are really just actors that were floated as potential nominees, rather than finding people you'd put in in place of someone else.  Melissa McCarthy, Alicia Vikander (Testament of Youth) & Blythe Danner (I'll See You in My Dreams) are definitely worthy of an Oscar nomination, but as they aren't better than these performances save Lawrence, I couldn't include them since I'd have to put in Juliette Binoche (Clouds of Sils Maria) as an aging, mourning actress in a complicated relationship with her assistant in the Top 5.

Oscar’s Choice: Larson won easily.  Second place probably would've been Ronan considering Lawrence & Blanchett had recently won (and Rampling's political comments had made giving her the trophy at the time impossible), but no one was beating Brie Larson.

My Choice: I have to go with Rampling, giving possibly the best performance of the decade.  Blanchett follows, with Larson, Ronan, & Lawrence at the back (but there are no losers here).

Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours!  Are you with me on Team Rampling or are you staggered I didn't follow the crowd with Brie Larson?  Despite being good work, anyone actually want to defend Lawrence's nomination being one of the year's five best?  And if not, who would you throw in her place?  Sound off in the comments!

Also in 2015: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, Animated Short, Previously in 2015

Past Best Actress Contests: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014