Review and Analysis of the 87th Academy Awards

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Review and Analysis of the 87th Academy Awards

The 87^th Academy Awards were satisfactory in some areas, but disappointing in others. The overall ceremony was poor, but at least many winners were much deserved. That is of course if you don’t count the big winner, which was very undeserved. It was an incredible year for cinema itself, but the Academy did not honor it well unfortunately.

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THE CEREMONY

This ceremony is among the worst and most boring ones of the entire decade. My biggest issue with the ceremony is the host itself. I am a fan of Neil Patrick Harris, but I found his performance here bafflingly mediocre. He is usually much funnier than he was here, which begs the question whether he backfired or the Academy itself. Most of his jokes were either too childish or too tame. The big gag with the envelope did not work and most of his other gags were directed at other actors, but they all felt very weak and uninspired. He did not make me laugh once, which was a real issue as he took up so much of this ceremony. The Academy should probably bring movie actors instead of television personalities more often.

The speeches were forgettable for the most part and there is the issue here of taking up too much time from the nominees in favor of silly jokes that didn’t work and the nominated songs. I don’t think that we need to hear all of the five nominated songs every year, but they still continue to do it.  But when talking about the songs, there is thankfully a silver lining here and that is of course the celebration of 50th anniversary of the classic The Sound of Music. Lady Gaga sang those songs really well and it was just a stupendous moment. And seeing Julie Andrews was just lovely. But other than that moment, this ceremony lacked the clips from past winners or crucial movies in film history. It was overall a safe, boring ceremony that nobody will ever remember in the future.

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BEST PICTURE

This slate was pretty good all things considered, but this was 2014 we are talking about, which is one of the best movie years in recent memory, so this list ended up being a bit disappointing overall. They just snubbed way too many great films, including all of the blockbusters, animation and foreign fare. Boyhood was the best movie of this year by far and one of the greatest and most sophisticated pictures of the entire decade, so the fact that it lost to the overrated and gimmicky Birdman still does not sit well with me. Of the other nominees, they range from the terrific Whiplash and strong Imitation Game to the overrated Grand Budapest Hotel and horrendous American Sniper. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST DIRECTOR

This year saw the first of two consecutive Oscars that the Academy decided to bestow on Inarritu. This is the more legitimate of the two wins, though far from deserving. The other nominees were for the most part not great, but there is one person here who most definitely should have won and that is Richard Linklater. The fact that he wasn’t rewarded for what is his magnum opus is extremely disappointing to me. It’s one of the best directorial feats of the decade undoubtedly.

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BEST ACTOR

This year the Academy decided not to even nominated the best male performance. Yes, Jake Gyllenhaal was snubbed for his incredible work in Nightcrawler. It ranks among his best roles and he played one of the greatest cinema villains of the decade. This was always going to come down between Michael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne and I am not at all mad that they went with the latter, though this was a standard historical figure choice by the jury. But he was excellent, so I have no qualms with his win.

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BEST ACTRESS

This was a stronger slate than the above one. All of the ladies deserved their noms here, though three of them stood out the most. One is Julianne Moore, who ended up winning. I am definitely glad that they gave it to her as this is one of her best and most heartbreaking performances. She was so good in Still Alice. But my personal choice this year would have to be Reese Witherspoon. She was just phenomenal and so natural in the wonderful, underrated Wild. Another actress worth mentioning is of course Rosamund Pike, who delivered one of the most chilling villainous roles of this era in the terrific Gone Girl.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

The supporting wins this year were so perfect that they stood out as the best choices by the Academy. J. K. Simmons is electric in Whiplash. He is the movie. It’s difficult to look away from his propulsive, incredible turn, so this was the only valid choice here. The other nominees not only could not compete, but they were miles below his level this time around.

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Everything that I’ve said above also applies here. Though her role is smaller, Patricia Arquette impressed everyone with such a touching, superbly realistic turn as the protagonist’s mother in Boyhood. That one iconic scene where she breaks down and cries about her life and the passage of time still hits me emotionally to this day. She was magnificent and I am so glad that she won.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

This slate wasn’t the greatest and Birdman ended up winning due to its strong themes that it has, but the execution there wasn’t the greatest. The movie only explored them on a surface level, so I wouldn’t have given it to Inarritu. The best scripts here were obviously the sophisticated and timeless Boyhood and the grimly realistic and relevant Nightcrawler.

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BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Imitation Game won here and it wasn’t the best choice. That movie had a very good screenplay, but clearly the better script was the one for Whiplash. It’s a simple, but powerful film that explored its main theme of ambition and success so well. On a side note, how the superbly adapted and richly layered Gone Girl wasn’t even nominated is beyond me.

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BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

2014 was a tremendous year for animation as well and that reflected on the Academy’s slate, which was pretty incredible. Three of the five movies are pretty much masterpieces. So it pains me to say that the Oscar went to one of the two lackluster nominees here. Big Hero 6 is one of the weakest Disney Revival movies. It has its strengths, but it’s too messy and flawed to deserve this award. Any of the three great movies should have won here and I would have been with it – Song of the Sea was just enchanting, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was artistically inclined and How to Train Your Dragon 2 is one of the best DreamWorks movies ever made. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Ida from Pawel Pawlikowski ended up winning the foreign movie Oscar this year and I have to say that this was a terrible choice. It was easily the worst nominee in this slight, a slight picture that is visually dazzling, but thinly plotted and familiar. Leviathan from Russia would have been a much stronger choice as that film has an important, strong story. Argentine Wild Tales is my favorite of the nominees as this wild anthology that is hugely entertaining. They had so many strong choices this year, but they went with the worst one, and they didn’t even nominated the great Force Majeure, which was a horrendous snub in my book. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Citizenfour ended up winning this award due to its important subject matter, which I do understand, but this film to me was not greatly made at all. It was insightful, but hardly engaging or technically intriguing. Of the nominees, Finding Vivian Maier was easily the most deserving film of this award – it’s mysterious, layered and fascinating in subject and themes.

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BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

I didn’t watch the other nominees, but I watched the winning film here and I thought it was a bit disappointing. Yes, The Phone Call is very moving and stupendously well acted, but it ended with a Hollywood ending that was too typical. It’s a solid, but far from great flick.

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BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

This was one of the best years ever for this category! Every single nominee here was worthy and it’s rare to see a slate where the Academy really chose the best movies released this year. Not a single film was snubbed. The Bigger Picture is dark and touching, Me and My Moulton is endearing and charming and A Single Life is brisk, but so original. The standouts of course were the adorable and irresistible Disney flick Feast that is a love letter to all dog lovers and superbly crafted, artistic and heartwarming The Dam Keeper. Choosing between these two is very tough, but they eventually went with a safe choice that is a Disney pick. I would have been happy with either of them winning. You can read my full ranking of nominees here.

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BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

I have to say that The Grand Budapest Hotel has a lovely score. I don’t care for that movie, but this decision was fine with me. With that being said, other nominees were also worthy it, especially the intense Imitation Game score and the uplifting Theory of Everything music.

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BEST ORIGINAL SONG

This was a very weak year for movie songs, so the winning song from Selma definitely deserved to take this one. Everything Is Awesome is fun, but too silly. It’s hilarious that they actually nominated The Lego Movie for this. But yes, Glory is important, soulful and wonderfully sung, so it deserved the win.

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BEST SOUND EDITING

This was the year when they split these two awards to different movies, which was a very good choice. I hated American Sniper, but its sound editing is admittedly superb. I would have given this one, though, to Interstellar. That movie had awful sound mixing, but strong sound editing.

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BEST SOUND MIXING

Whiplash won this award and it oh so deserved it. Literally the point of the movie is playing the instrument and they went with a bang at mixing all of these sounds so deftly. This is one of the most deserved and most obvious choices by the Academy this year.

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BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

I really don’t care for Wes Anderson, so The Grand Budapest Hotel definitely wasn’t for me, but even I have to admit that its production design was something else. It featured  mesmerizing artistry in the attention to detail, its colorful aesthetic and particularly imaginative and lavish sets throughout.

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the best-looking picture of the year wasn’t even nominated, so we ended up with a rather weak slate of movies. The winner was deserved of those five films, but I contend that Birdman, although clearly very well shot, could never quite compare in its one-take approach to Hitchcock’s Rope, which was its obvious influence.

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BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

The Academy clearly loved The Grand Budapest Hotel, so they showered it with all these technical awards. It’s difficult to argue with any of these wins and certainly this one was well deserved.

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BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Everything I’ve said above also applies here. It’s a solid choice from this pretty good slate, but I would have personally given it to Into the Woods, which had gorgeous costumes. That film had a fine showing in the nominees this year, but it earned no wins sadly.

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BEST FILM EDITING

I could have seen this one being given to Boyhood as that film was edited and paced beautifully, but it eventually went to Whiplash, which was the flashiest and most engaging movie in terms of structure and editing techniques. It deservedly won.

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BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

This was probably the biggest year yet for superhero movies when it comes to the VFX category. Three of them got nominated, but none of them were particularly memorable for their effects, so they all deservedly lost. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes could have easily taken it for its incredible motion capture technology, but eventually it went to Nolan’s Interstellar, which was the right choice by the Academy. That movie truly has impressive effects work.

 

In conclusion, this year was problematic for the Academy. The ceremony itself was beyond mediocre and the overall slates did not quite reflect on the best that this amazing year had to offer. Many winners were also undeserved, but some of the technical and acting categories were quite deserved. It was a mixed bag overall.