2015 Best Picture Nominees - Ranked

After watching Selma the other day, I have now officially seen the eight films nominated for Best Picture. Here is how I rank them with links to my reviews of each and a few thoughts on why they either worked or didn't.


8. The Imitation Game

My Review of The Imitation Game

The good news is that I wouldn't call any of the Best Picture nominees a bad film. The Imitation Game was perfectly fine in many respects, but that is precisely the problem: perfectly fine isn't good enough when talking about the elite pictures from any given year. Essentially just a recycled set of biopic tropes with good performances to carry them, I was bored throughout most of the movie and have already forgotten a majority of what occurred. Except, of course, for Alexandre Desplat's score. As usual that was brilliant.

7. American Sniper

My Review of American Sniper


Clint Eastwood directs the hell out of this pretty darn good film, but it just isn't great. At times perfectly measured and compelling, but at other times it felt very much like propaganda rather than fair and balanced, especially during a sequence in which the opposing sniper plays like an evil villain while Chris Kyle wears the hat of hero. Also, a bit too much action and not enough focus on the PTSD side of his experience. It was there, I just wanted more.


6. The Theory of Everything

My Review of The Theory of Everything


The Theory of Everything suffers from many of the same problems I have with The Imitation Game except it was just a more engaging film to follow, and that is mostly due to the absolutely breathtaking lead performance from Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking and the perfect turn from Felicity Jones as the first real love of his life, Jane Wilde. I could watch them on screen together all day, which is what makes this a much better work than the previously listed biopic.


5. Selma

My Review of Selma

Powerful and important, Selma is a great film but a near miss in terms of reaching its full potential. Roughly an entire into it and it absolutely had me by the throat and wasn't willing to let go...until it did, and the experience cooled off with it. Regardless, a must see featuring an amazing lead performance from David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. 

4. Birdman

My Review of Birdman

Being #4 on a list of 8 total films may not seem that impressive, but the fact that Birdman rests at my #7 film of 2014 as of now tells you just how highly I regard the top half of this list. Featuring brilliantly clever writing, technical wizardry from one of the modern geniuses of film photography Emmanuel Lubezki, and amazing performances from the entire ensemble, most notably the man in the lead Michael Keaton, this is a special, stunning movie.

3. Whiplash

My Review of Whiplash

A film practically glowing with electricity, pulsing with intensity and dripping with enough sweat that you feel like the pressure is on no matter how comfortable of a seat you have while watching, Whiplash is absolutely dynamite. If it weren't for the soon to be Oscar winning turn by J.K. Simmons in this one, a bigger focus would be on the star making performance from Miles Teller. My heart was still racing a good half hour after this one was over, don't miss it.

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

My Review of The Grand Budapest Hotel

I have long been a fan of the work of Wes Anderson, but I always felt his films were a note or two short of being the masterpiece I knew he was capable of crafting. Earlier in 2014 when I got a chance to see The Grand Budapest Hotel, I realized it had finally happened. The aesthetic, the performances, the amazing screenplay, the level of artistry on display to make everything about the film feeling wonderfully nostalgic and full of life, even at it's darkest moments. A recent revisit elevated this even higher than I originally ranked it, pushing it all the way up to the number two spot.

1. Boyhood

My First Review of Boyhood

My Second Review of Boyhood

Boyhood is a film that seems to have a different effect on every single person who sees it, and some may not understand the widespread appreciation it gets. For me, it is a profound and beautiful experience, one that feels so much like reality, one that makes me look at my daughter and wonder where the time has gone already and worry about how fast it will continue to move. A joyous, remarkable piece of cinema, not only my favorite of the Best Picture nominees but my clear cut favorite of 2014 overall.

Citizenfour Review

I recently watched Jason Reitman's most recent work, Men, Women & Children, which seemed to be attempting a meaningful story that sold technology as scary and I laughed it off the screen. Sarcastic jokes came from these lips, telling my wife that the toaster was watching us or a colleague that the computer room would tell us what to do any day now. It wasn't the goal of such a narrative I mocked, as I am a believer that certain social aspects of life are being diminished thanks to sites like Facebook and that human intelligence is in danger of slipping thanks to a reliance on technology over learning. No, I mocked that film because the way it approached its thematic goal was unintentionally hysterical and about as well crafted as a Saturday evening Lifetime Network original feature. 

After screening the new Oscar nominated documentary Citizenfour, I think the toaster might actually be watching me.

All joking aside, I am going to get the aspects of the film that didn't work for me out of the way first, because I don't think it is fair for me to focus too much on the negatives. Why? Well, because I am not sure it is even fair to classify them as negatives. See, my problem with Citizenfour is that I didn't actually learn anything watching it, as I have followed the story of Edward Snowden closely enough that I knew most of what was unveiled, and I didn't learn anything about him personally either perhaps because I anticipated his personality to be, well, exactly what it is. I already knew about his journalistic relationship with Glenn Greenwald and the complicated implications this has had on Greenwald himself, a man simply doing his job and yet he was afraid of returning to American soil because of his first hand knowledge of Snowden (although he also cites marriage inequality as a reason for living in Brazil, and what it may actually have something to do with is unpaid taxes here in the United States). 

I think the only thing I learned while watching Citizenfour is the fact that they were making this documentary all along, filming these secretive private moments as Snowden was in hiding. I had no idea this type of film would ever exist, so that in itself was eye opening. The content, however, didn't feel very revealing and thus I had a difficult time being "entertained" by what was happening, although I am not sure that word is very appropriate anyways. The goal of a work like this isn't to entertain, it is to pull back the curtain and let us in on something that feels exciting in its illegality and unique in its importance, and without a doubt in that sense Citizenfour works in every conceivable way. 

Hence why I asked if my issues can really be considered negatives. I only encountered these bumps along the way because I had already done so much reading on the Snowden situation, but to a person who had remained mostly in the dark this whole time I imagine a film like this would be almost terrifying and unnerving, to learn what the most powerful government on the planet not only was capable of doing, but in fact they are still doing it right now: listening to our calls, reading our emails, and following where we go and who we are with while we are going. In a post 9/11 world where almost everything can be labeled as an anti-terrorism measure, privacy simply does not exist. 

Citizenfour is the result of bold and brave filmmaking by Laura Poitras as she was willing to put her own entire situation in jeopardy in order to document the Edward Snowden saga in real time. While not my favorite or even second favorite documentary of 2014, if they do happen to announce this as the Oscar winner on February 22nd I won't be disappointed by the decision. It is important to keep a film like this on the radar for as long as possible, as anyone who didn't appreciate the depth and big picture meaning of what Snowden was unveiling to the world should see Citizenfour and try to understand what it all really means. No, the government is likely not literally reading your emails as I am sure they have better things to do with their time, especially if you lead as boring of a life as I do, but the point is they CAN, even if you have done nothing wrong. If that isn't unsettling, I don't know what is.

While American Sniper dominates the box office and the debate over whether Chris Kyle was an American hero or just a pretty shitty human being rages on, a much better film that invokes a very similar debate will fly under the radar and be mostly ignored by the public. Not only a better film, a more important one as well, as the wealth of knowledge Snowden has about the scary modern reality of our lack of privacy is far more powerful than the capabilities of a man holding a gun. Find a way to see Citizenfour as soon as you can.

4/5

American Sniper Review

"It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have."

The above quote doesn't come from the film I am reviewing but rather the 1993 Best Picture winner Unforgiven, my favorite western of all time and coincidentally a work directed by Clint Eastwood, the man who crafted American Sniper which is nominated for 6 Oscars. Seems strange to quote an entirely different film, one that was released 22 years ago, but given the subject matter of this new Eastwood effort it seems appropriate.

American Sniper tells the true(ish) story of infamous U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, a man who is credited for having the most kills by a sniper in history. To be clear, I didn't include the (ish) as some sort of insult to this film as, to be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no idea what is true and what isn't. I have never read the details of the story of Kyle's life and frankly, I don't really care to. I don't need to understand the man Kyle was when he was at home with his family and I don't need to understand what Kyle did while leaving his indelible mark on american history. All I want to judge is the film itself.

At the age of 84, Clint Eastwood is at the top of his game here as he directs American Sniper with grace and confidence and a leveled sense of brutality when the story demands it, and it certainly does at times. How could you tell the story of a man who took so many lives without shedding a fair share of blood? It is a necessity of course, but I also find it amusing when I read so many say that a single film does a good job of showcasing the ugliness of war. Do we still need a single piece of cinema to teach us that war is messy and awful and traumatic? Shouldn't this be common knowledge with or without a look at a bearded Bradley Cooper?

Speaking of Cooper, his turn as Kyle marks yet another fantastic performance from an actor that I never envisioned could be so gifted back when I was introduced to him as a supporting one note character in Wedding Crashers. He plays the role of American meathead perfectly here when that aspect of the character is called for, a man who refers to his enemies as savages when moments later he could be using his own weapon to end so many lives in a manner of minutes, yet I was glad that Eastwood didn't merely craft a picture dripping in jingoism because at times it did feel like the narrative might be headed in that direction. It is clear that the intense negative impact of war is portrayed with some realism through other characters as well as the PTSD suffered by Chris Kyle.

However, I must now toss in a little bit of criticism to sour the delicious dish I was serving up until now, and the irony is the aspect I just complimented will be the focus. I admire that Eastwood attempted to portray the trauma caused by war, specifically in this case the misguided efforts in Iraq (I don't think this even qualifies as opinion anymore, it seems to be fact that the Iraq proved to be a troubling cluster fuck failure), but I feel as if he didn't go far enough in this regard. Sure, I got the whole after effects of combat thing, but that seemed to be heavily outweighed by the bro-tastic fist bumping of american pride and the idea that Kyle was a hero for saving lives rather than a villain for taking so many.

Was Chris Kyle wrong for killing so many people while in combat? Honestly, and this is going to sound crazy, but no, at least in terms of what was asked of him. I personally could never take a life unless I absolutely had to. I just don't have it in me, and I think even if I were to gun down the worst of the worst terrorist, knowing full well I just did humanity a whole lot of good, I would still have trouble sleeping at night knowing that a person took their last breathe because of my pulling of a trigger. Like the quote from Unforgiven above, it's a hell of a thing, killing a man. I can only hope it's the type of thing I will never have to understand. That being said, as a sniper in the U.S. military Kyle was doing his job, and he often times accomplished the goal of saving the lives of those fighting on his side which is precisely what he should have done. 

My problem is this: if Chris Kyle is a hero, why is the other sniper fighting for the opposition the villain? The film doesn't really explore this concept, or if it does than it doesn't do it all that well, but much like Kyle, the sniper gunning down american soldiers was also just doing his job, and as messy and depressing and horrifying as it may be, it is what was asked of him and therefore he carried out his duties. The film seems to portray this opposing sniper as evil and it seems to ask us, the audience, to celebrate his death as a victory, but at the end of the day he was a man fighting for his beliefs, serving those he promised to serve, shooting targets that threatened him and the men around him. Were his kills any more evil than the record number of bodies left behind by Chris Kyle? If so, why?

American Sniper does so much right, it is impossible for me to not recommend it, but I just don't see it as a game changing, Best Picture worthy piece of cinema. It is a very well made and brilliantly performed film, worthy of plenty of recognition but perhaps not the top prize.

3.5/5