Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 476-477: 2015 Oscar Nominees Part Two

In this second look at the 2015 Best Picture Nominees I explore two films that I watched before Awards Seasons begun and have returned to them in order to compare them to the competition.

First up the movie that is currently just ahead of Birdman in the bookies' rankings to take the Best Picture prize. That film is Boyhood and is without a doubt the most ambitious of this year's nominees primarily as it took twelve years to complete. Director Richard Linklater's aim was to tell the story of a young boy and his parents from first grade all the way through to graduation. Rather than do this using a number of different actors; Linklater used the same actor to play Mason Evans Jr. from age six to age eighteen. The actor in question was Ellar Coltrane who thankfully was able to stay motivated enough to commit to a project that would loom heavy over the majority of his adolescence. Boyhood's other central players were Patricia Arquette, Linklater's daughter Lorelai and his regular contributor Ethan Hawke. It's achievement enough for Linklater to have completed this project but what makes Boyhood so special is the fact that it's a memorable film full of believable characters. With Mason's parents having separated before the film starts, he and his sister Samantha live with their mother Olivia whilst Mason Sr. appears sporadically throughout the story. Olivia's luck with men isn't great as she hooks up with her aggressive former professor and a similarly angry war veteran. Meanwhile we see Mason and Samantha grow up before our eyes with the former discovering a love of photography and finding love with his first high school girlfriend. One of Boyhood's strengths is that not every scene captures a big life event for Mason and instead some of the moments we witness are quite arbitrary. But at the same time it gives us a greater understanding of the character and as he grows up we see where he's got his inspiration from.

Although the dialogue in Boyhood isn't improvised, Linklater's discussions with the cast influenced his decisions of where to place certain scenes in order to ensure authenticity. The result is a film where you feel like you're eavesdropping on a family's life on a yearly basis. If I were to pick up an issue I have with Boyhood then it's in the performance of Coltrane himself who I found to be increasingly annoying as the film progressed. In the early part of the film Coltrane's natural innocence meant that Mason felt like any other boy and as a result you felt his pain during Olivia's marriage to the drunken professor. But as Coltrane became more aware of the camera I felt that his acting wasn't up to scratch and at some points I found Mason a little bit too whiny for his own good. Indeed, when his high school girlfriend split up with him I had very little sympathy for Mason due to the fact that Coltrane had done little to make me care for this older incarnation of the character. Luckily, Coltrane is backed up by brilliant on-screen parents; with both Hawke and Arquette nominated for Supporting Oscars. Hawke's manchild act totally lent itself to deadbeat dad Mason Sr. and I felt he and Coltrane brought out the best in one another. Meanwhile Arquette, currently favourite to scoop the Best Supporting Actress prize, gives a heartwarming portrayal of a woman just trying to do the best for her kids. As this is a Linklater film, the soundtrack is also incredible with each song summing up a different year perfectly. Linklater himself is more than likely to get the Best Director Oscar and with good reason as he deserves to be rewarded for pulling off this cinematic feat. Whilst I don't think Boyhood is as perfect as others do, it's an emotional rollecoaster that almost every audience member can relate to and it also brilliantly sums up what it's like to grow up in the early 21st century.

As I've basically watched every Oscar-nominated film now I feel that I know what sort of film the Academy normally go for. Therefore I was incredibly surprised when The Grand Budapest Hotel was one of the eight movies nominated for the 2015 prize. The film's director Wes Anderson is somebody whose films I've sometimes really liked and other times found overly quirky. Thankfully The Grand Budapest Hotel fell into the former category and is arguably Anderson's best film to date. I feel that the reason it may have found its way onto the Oscar shortlist is due to its caper-like plot and its 1930s setting. The focus is on Monsieur Gustave; a legendary consierge at the titular establishment who makes it his life's work to tend to his guests' every need. However he does overstep the mark sometimes and ends up bedding many of his wealthy, elderly clients. Told from the point-of-view of former lobby boy Zero, who in 1968 owns the hotel, we learn of what happens when one of these clients dies and leaves Gustave an expensive painting in her will. Gustave is soon charged with murder and art theft; eventually being incarcerated in the hellish Checkpoint 19 Interment Camp. Zero is then forced to use all of his skills, along with the help of his pastry chef love Agatha, to break Gustave out of jail. At the same time the greedy family's go-to assassin Jopling is on the hunt for anyone who may be suspicious of their motives and ends up bumping off several of the film's characters.

Like with most of Wes Anderson's films, The Grand Budapest Hotel is beautifully designed with the establishment itself feeling like more like a palace than a guest house. The characters are also designed to within an inch of their lives with every costume bringing out their distinctive personalities. From Gustave's resplendent purple attire to Jopling's evil leather get-up; every character has an outfit that suits their personality. Anderson's eye for detail also extended to the look of the film as each time period was awarded a different aspect ratio. Indeed the fact that Anderson wrote instructions to projectionists about the film was probably one of the reasons that he found favour with the old-fashioned members of the Academy. The Grand Budapest Hotel once again sees Anderson reunited with regular cast members Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzmann. However these three all have minor roles as the film really begins to Ralph Fiennes as the wonderful Gustave. It's amazing what a comic talent Fiennes is and he deals with Anderson's dialogue beautifully meaning that the script never feels overly quirky. Praise must also go to relative newcomer Tony Revolori who proves to be a great foil to Fiennes a the loveable Zero. Great support is provided by an almost silent Willem Dafoe as the growling Jopling and by Saoirse Ronan as the charming Agatha. If there's one category that I feel that The Grand Budapest Hotel may prosper then its that of Best Original Screenplay as Anderson's dialogue is nearly always a joy to listen to. Offbeat films such as this often end up winning awards for their writing and I feel that Anderson's perfectly paced script deserves that honour. But overall I'm just glad that The Grand Budapest Hotel was nominated in so many categories as it demonstrates that the Academy are starting to recognise films that were previously outside of their comfort zone.

Having said that the next two films we'll discuss are both biopics dealing with the type of issues that the Academy always seem to love.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 306: Come Fly With Me

Throughout the course of this challenge we've seen plenty of epics with recent offerings including David Lean's final film A Passage to India and the long-winded The Last Emperor. These films tend to look back at a historical event and feature brilliant cinematography, costume design and art direction. Arguably joining their ranks is The Right Stuff, Philip Kauffman's film about the first American men to go to space. The Right Stuff differs from a lot of these other films in that it deals with modern history and combines some wonderful art direction with some brilliant use of editing and sound. Like all epics, The Right Stuff is just over three hours long although I felt the opening sequence could've been significantly trimmed down. This opening sequence looks at a group of test pilots living in the Californian desert whose life is constantly defined by bettering the speeds set by their rivals. A small bar in the area honours those who have given their lives to aviation by hanging up pictures of the fallen pilots. A number of these test pilots are letter selected by government agents to be some of the first American men up in space. President Kennedy is keen to win the space race and is eager to recruit the first astronauts as soon as possible. However, arguably the best pilot in the area, Sam Shepard's Chuck Yeager, isn't given the opportunity to join his colleagues due to his lack of a college degree. Yeager's later attempts to become an astronaut are later documented but, due to a lack of preparation, are completely disastrous. Meanwhile the pilots are joined by John Glenn, a man already known to the media due to his numerous appearances on chat shows. The film then follows the men as they are selected for the programme and face numerous problems along the way. I found one of the most interesting aspects of the film was that the plight of the astronauts' wives was given prominence and their various dilemmas impacted on their husband's missions. Just as the film took a while to get going, it also took it's time ending but by that point I had really gotten to know the characters which was a testament to both Kauffman's direction and his well-written screenplay.

Despite not being a fan of the baggy opening, there's no denying that the black-and-white home movie sequence more than demonstrated that this film would be visually spectacular. Kaufffman's use of full-scale models added an authenticity to The Right Stuff and the visual effects employed throughout were truly spectacular. The culmination of all of these effects was the incredibly tense sequence involving Glenn's ascent into space and the problems he encountered whilst up there. Of all the films I've watched so far, The Right Stuff is the first to take me off the Earth's surface and it was a joy to watch this story of modern technology played out in this way. Unlike many of the epics I've watched so far, The Right Stuff was as interested in getting us to sympathise with the pilots as it was with visual splendour. The conflicting moral codes of these men were dealt with in some detail as was their problems dealing with the media. Kauffman also looks at how the camaraderie between the seven developed over time which was particularly evident in the scene where they helped Glenn stick up for his wife when she refused to open the door to Vice President Johnson. The seven actors who portrayed these men were definitely an ensemble group which probably explains why none of them were nominated for acting awards. This is a shame as I felt both Ed Harris, as Glenn, and Fred Ward as the unfortunate Grissom were worthy of nominations. In fact the only nomination the film received in the acting categories was for Sam Shepard's supporting turn as the unlucky Yeager which is odd seeing as he wasn't on screen too long. The film did triumph in four categories at the award, winning Oscars for sound, sound editing, editing and Bill Conti's original score. But I feel that the Caleb Deschanel's brilliant cinematography was deserving of an Oscar and soon I will reveal why I think The Right Stuff also should've won Best Picture that year.

Talking of Best Pictures the next post will be the final entry in the 1980s section as we take a monumental trip to India.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 263-265: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? Part One

Although Woody Allen, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford and Paul Newman were all still making films in the 1980s, the decade also ushered in a raft of new faces. In fact, surprisingly, the actor who starred in the most Best Picture nominees was William Hurt a man who won his Best Actor Oscar in only his sixth film. In addition he starred in another four films that were Best Picture nominees and went on to be one of the most recognisable faces of the decade.

Hurt's first appearance in a Best Picture nominee saw him star alongside a group of actors who would also go on to become big names in the 1980s. In The Big Chill, Hurt starred as Nick, a Vietnam veteran who was reunited with a bunch of college friends at the funeral of another of their number. Also among the group are married couple Harold and Sarah, popular TV actor Sam, successful journalist Michael, unmarried businesswoman Meg and Karen, a mother trapped in an unhappy married. The group are reunited following friend Alex's suicide in the holiday home of Harold and Sarah where he was staying at the time alongside his much younger girlfriend Chloe. Following Alex's funeral, these eight decide to stay the weekend at the house in South Carolina where old romances are reignited and home truths are thrown around. During the course of the weekend a lot of the characters are given the opportunity to re-evaluate their lives with Meg voicing her need to be a mother and Nick trying to figure out his place in life. More importantly the film explores how life doesn't always pan out in the way you expect it to and how the dreams you once had for yourself in college are vastly different from the reality of things more than ten years later. At the end of the weekend, though there are a few monumental changes, most of the group go back to their normal lives however mundane they may be. The message of Lawrence Kasdan's film is simple, no matter how you want it to change, generally life goes on. 

On one hand I really enjoyed The Big Chill and it was definitely one of the easiest films to get through so far on this list. Kasdan and Barbara Benedek's Oscar-nominated script was incredibly well-paced and gave us a mixture of pathos and humour. They created a group of characters who felt real and all of whom were trying to deal with Alex's suicide in a number of ways. However, at times, I felt everything was a little too choreographed and a little too scripted to the point that I started to question the realism of the film. Whilst it was no fault of the actors, The Big Chill felt too staged for my liking and this belief took some of my overall enjoyment away. That being said the performances, on the whole, were fantastic and really demonstrated why a number of The Big Chill's cast members would go on to have major success throughout the 1980s. Of all the central cast, it was Glenn Close as Sarah who would receive the sole Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Close had previously received a nod in the same category the previous year and did give a subtle turn as the woman who'd had an affair with Alex but whose marriage had survived nonetheless. However, I did feel that Hurt gave the best performance as the member of the group who had yet to figure out his life and could have easily have gone down the same road as Alex. As Sam, Tom Berenger gave some depth to the TV action hero who wanted to be seen as more than just his on-screen character. Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum were also on form, the latter adding some great comic timing as journalist Michael. Interestingly, Kevin Costner was cast as Alex but all of the flashback scenes involving his life were ultimately cut out, a decision that I agree with. At the same time, learning that Costner was cast in the film allowed me to put a face to Alex when the rest of the group were talking about him. One of The Big Chill's other major positives was the soundtrack, made up of songs that group would have listened to at college. These songs really punctuate the scenes and provide a backdrop to some of the film's most memorable set pieces. At the end of the day, The Big Chill was an enjoyable film with a talented cast and a great script, I just felt that the characters' movements weren't as natural as they possibly should have been.

Two years later Hurt would go on to win Best Actor in a role that was as far away from The Big Chill's Nick as you can get. In Kiss of The Spider Woman, Hurt plays gay window dresser Luis Molina who is currently serving a term in a Brazilian prison for having sex with an underage boy. Molina is sharing a cell with Valentin Arregui, a political prisoner who has been tortured due to his role in a radical left-wing group. The two men are definitely mismatched and Molina is being bribed with release by trying to get information from Valentin. But a bond develops between the two men over their time locked in together and the unlikely pair become incredibly close. What sets Kiss of the Spider Woman apart is that Molina often narrates part of his favourite film to Valentin to distract them both from the horrors outside of their cell. The fact that Molina's film is a Nazi propaganda movie doesn't seem to faze him primarily because he loves the love story. Life begins to imitate art when Molina is granted parole and has to decide whether to follow his head or his heart. The film's conclusion is fairly tragic in one respect, but in another it does provide closure for both Molina and Valentin.

Having watched a few prison films already for this blog I thought I knew what to expect, but Kiss of the Spider Woman was something completely different. For the most part it wasn't a film about a prison, but about two men drawn together due to similar circumstances. This odd couple dynamic is brilliant to watch and is well-played by both Hurt and Raul Julia. I personally feel that Hurt thoroughly deserved his Best Actor Oscar, as he played completely against type here. Hurt's portrayal of Molina was flawless as you felt every single emotion that he felt. His passion for narrating his film and for keeping himself near to Valentin for as long as possible was also brilliantly portrayed. Raul Julia, who will always be Gomez Addams to me, had the harder job as political prisoner Valentin. However, I thought he presented a balanced character who was incredibly angry but also had a caring side. Julia and Hurt together on screen were just gold and their scenes together really made the film what it was. That's why I struggled to enjoy the film as much when Molina left his cell and returned to the streets of Brazil. The final twenty or so minutes of Kiss of the Spider Woman felt incredibly generic and almost spoilt what had come before. Another great part of Hector Babenco's film was his incorporation of propaganda film 'Her Real Glory'. These scenes are highly stylised and Babenco really tries hard to capture the essence of what made these films so powerful. They are perfectly balanced with the scenes set in the harsh confines of the cell and really add another dimension to what could've been a bog standard prison movie. Ultimately, Kiss of the Spider Woman was at its best when it focused on a story about two men brought together by circumstance and the relationship that developed between them.

An unusual relationship was at the heart of William Hurt's third Oscar-nominated film - Children of a Lesser God. The film sees Hurt play a highly-regarded teacher who arrives at a school for the deaf and attempts to get his small class of pupils to speak. He does this by trying to connect with them be it getting them to swear or having them dance around and sing. But James' bigger challenge occurs when he tries to win over Sarah, a former pupil at the school who now works there as a cleaner. James' early attempts to get Sarah to speak are thwarted and he soon learns that her upbringing has had an effect on her views regarding her speech. Sarah's mother basically rejected her and she feels happier when she's signing, which initially creates a frosty relationship between the two. But later, and somewhat inevitably, the pair begin a romance which escalates quite quickly when Sarah moves in with him. Though they have several happy moments together, the issue about her not speaking is always in the background. Conflict quickly arises and eventually the two are arguing constantly, leading Sarah to return to her mother's house. Though I thought that the film could've done with an ambiguous ending Children of a Lesser God finished with the inevitable reconciliation between James and Sarah.

Of the three films in this post, I have to say that Children of a Lesser God was my least favourite. Though it does pose some interesting points about the nature of its key relationship, I found the romantic plot to be overblown and slightly trite. Similarly, James' attempts to engage his class felt incredibly clichéd and a little generic. In addition, this was the first film from the decade that felt very eighties, down to the fact that one of the final scenes sees the pupils dancing along to 'Jump' by The Pointer Sisters. Luckily, the film is bolstered by two fine central performers who try to make their characters rise above the fairly simple nature of the plot. Hurt tries to side step cliché in the 'inspirational teacher' role and actually makes James a flawed individual primarily because he doesn't understand anybody who doesn't want to speak. One of the scenes that best exemplifies Hurt's work is when James and Sarah attend a party where everybody is speaking in sign language. Hurt is able to convey how he's feeling just by a few looks and he allows the audience to feel his pain. Hurt also provides the connection between the sign language spoken on screen and the audience, almost acting as a translator at times. However, despite being incredibly powerful, Hurt is acted off the screen by the then 21-year-old Marlee Matlin. Matlin, who still holds the record for being the youngest ever Best Actress Winner, gives an incredibly expressive turn as the emotionally damaged Sarah. She more than holds her own opposite both Hurt and Piper Laurie, the latter of whom plays her mother in a handful of scenes. Matlin makes us really feel for Sarah and portrays as a fully-rounded character who has both strengths and weaknesses. I did feel that, in the hands of lesser actors, Children of a Lesser God would have been quite an ordinary film but thankfully it was an enjoyable due to the performances from Hurt and the Oscar-winning Matlin.

Next time we conclude the William Hurt retrospective with two more Oscar-nominated films. 

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 235-236: Altman's All-Stars

As regular readers of the Oscar Challenge blog will now, I often put together films from the same director that have been nominated in the same decade. This time it's the turn of Robert Altman whose movies M*A*S*H and Nashville were give nods in the 1970s. Both very different in tone, they are similar in the way that Altman employs his ensemble casts and the sprawling nature of the plot.

In the early 1970s, Altman had his first breakthrough with M*A*S*H, a film loosely based on Richard Hooker's original novel about medical personnel stationed at an army hospital during the Korean War. The main plot of the film sees three new surgeons arrive at camp and instantly stir things up. The first two of these troublemakers are 'Hawkeye' Pierce and 'Duke' Forest who regularly steal, drink and cause chaos. They instantly rub their new cam pmates up the wrong way especially Robert Duvall's religious Frank Burns who they're able to get rid of due to his inferior surgical abilities. Senior nurse Margaret Houlihan is similarly outraged by their sexist behaviour and their insistence on referring to her as 'Hotlips'. Joining their number soon after is 'Trapper' McIntyre another surgeon who is as insubordinate as Hawkeye and Duke. The film then becomes quite episodic in nature but does see Trapper and Hawkeye become medical heroes after saving the lives of a congressman's son. Despite seemingly uninterested in their work, our central duo are always concerned with doing the right thing, even if they have to resort to blackmail to do it. This theme about the working man sticking up for the people who can't defend themselves, spoke to the audiences of the 1970s who were experiencing political unrest at the time.

Altman quickly marked himself out as a maverick director by using very little of the original source novel for his book while in addition encouraging the actors to improvise in certain scenes. However, when the film was made in 1970, Altman hadn't earned the reputation yet to work in such a reckless way. This led to the film's leads Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland to try and get Altman sacked on numerous occasions. Obviously, the film today is hailed as a classic and went to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes as well as the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Altman's gambles all paid off here as I thoroughly enjoyed M*A*S*H and thought it was one of the best Oscar-nominated comedies of all time. As Hawkeye and Trapper; Sutherland and Gould were fantastic and they shared great on-screen chemistry throughout. Altman's script was packed full of great lines but there was plenty of social commentary hidden behind the laughs. Despite having quite a sporadic structure, M*A*S*H was held together thanks to the strength of its characters and the solid narrative that Altman provided throughout. This film fully put Altman on the map and, after watching it, it's not hard to see exactly why.

Five years later, Altman returned to the Best Picture list with another film that has a sprawling narrative - Nashville. Set in the musical city of Tennessee; Nashville follows twenty-four characters during five days which lead up to a political rally for vice-presidential candidate Hal Philip Walker. The film basically focuses on the country music scene and the measures some will go to to enhance their careers. There's the legendary Haven Hamilton, who has political aspirations of his home and whose fame is fading fast. Barbara Jean is one of the most popular country singers around but suffers from exhaustion and spends most of the film in hospital. As the country music business is a fickle one, Barbara Jean's manager eventually replaces her at several events with the inferior but beautiful Connie White. We also meet Tom Frank, a womanising member of a country music trio who attempts to break out on his own throughout the course of the film. Then there's Sueleen Gay, another aspiring country singer who has no talent what to speak of and gets exploited in one of the film's most memorable scenes. The film's climax brings the majority of the characters together at the aforementioned rally and sees one of the characters attempt to shoot two of Nashville's biggest stars. Despite this tragedy occurring Winifred, another aspiring country singer, takes to the stage and finally gets her big break.

Having enjoyed the sprawling, episodic narrative throughout M*A*S*H, I was dismayed that I didn't enjoy the same structure so much with Nashville. I believe part of the reason for that is due to the fact that it's a drama rather than a comedy so can't get away with being as fragmented as Altman's previous film. One of the other issues the film had is that there's far too many characters and interconnected plots for the film to work. At over two and a half hours, I felt the film dragged too much despite the fact that almost half of it was musical performances by various members of the cast. That being said some of these musical performances were incredibly entertaining and really gave Nashville a sense of place. In fact one of its more positive features is how it immerses the viewer in the culture and style of Nashville; including the religious nature of all of its inhabitants seen in the scenes set at various church services. There were some brilliant performances amongst the ensemble most notably from Lily Tomlin, Ronee Blakely and Henry Gibson. Throughout this voyage I have questioned why a few of these films are held up as classics and I'm afraid I'll have to add Nashville to this ever-growing list. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy parts of it, but as a whole it was overlong and incredibly dull in places.

Next time we have yet another comedy, the last of the genre to win the Best Picture Award.