87th Academy Awards: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) came out of the 87^th Academy Awards as the big winner with victories in Best Picture and Best Director.  A full list of winners can be found here.  I ended up going 18 for 24 (75%) predicting the categories, which is a solid if unspectacular performance.  The ceremony as a whole was quite the disappointment as too much familiarity seemed to set in.  Here were some of the ceremony’s highlights:

THE GOOD

-Emmanuel Lubezki has turned from one of the most overdue artists of any nature to being a back-to-back Oscar winner.  It’s hard to deny what an achievement his work on Birdman was, and it was great to see him win once again.

-It was nice to see Julianne Moore finally win.  She is one of the greatest actresses of her generation, and with Still Alice she won for a genuinely great performance.

-The original song performances were for the most part the best segments on the show.  The performance of “Everything is Awesome” was chaotic in an AWESOME way, and the performance of “Glory” might be the most memorable part about the entire show.

-The speeches were for the most part great with especially memorable ones coming from J.K. Simmons and The Imitation Game screenwriter Graham Moore.

THE BAD

-It’s hard to think of anything to fit into this category.

THE UGLY

-Hopefully, this show marks the end of the reign of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.  According to these two, the only film genre that has ever existed and will ever exist is the musical.  We get it.  You LOVE The Sound of Music, but maybe you should have cast Lady Gaga (who was legitimately great during the ceremony) for your live musical performance of the show instead of making the poor choice of casting Carrie Underwood and saving Lady Gaga for a completely superfluous segment on an already overlong show.  Watching other genres get dissed in favor of musicals and seeing these two hawk their own crap numerous times during the three ceremonies they have run has been downright embarrassing.  Enough of these two, please.

-The Oscars in the past few years have become way too predictable.  It’s time to move the ceremony up and avoid having all of the guilds tell us who is going to win everything.  Either the frontrunner or what was considered a close second place ended up winning every category this year.  The closest thing to an “upset” was Big Hero 6 winning Best Animated Feature, and even then we knew that the category was in a state of major flux without The Lego Movie there.

Kingsman: The Secret Service Review

            In 2010, the Matthew Vaughn directed Kick-Asswas released.  The spunky film was part deconstruction of the superhero genre and part Tarantino-esque action film.  It certainly was an acquired taste, and it didn’t come without controversy, but it was an entertaining and energetic entry into the superhero genre.  Matthew Vaughn’s latest film, Kingsman: The Secret Service, is very much in the same vein of Kick-Ass.  Instead of tackling superheroes this time, though, Vaughn is covering the world of spies and James Bond films.  While the deconstruction this time isn’t as sharp and the film doesn’t go to the dark places that Kick-Ass went to, Kingsman never stops being fun while proving that Vaughn is one of the best directors of action currently working.

            Kingsman: The Secret Service follows the troubled Eggsy (newcomer Taron Egerton) as he tries to deal with a life without much to look forward to.  That is until Harry Hart (Colin Firth in an against type role) comes to recruit him as a replacement for the Kingsman, a top-level spy agency in England.  Just as Eggsy is put through a series of rigorous tests, a major threat to the safety of the world comes to the forefront in the form of the Steve Jobs-esque innovator, Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson in fine form with a funny but purposeful lisp).

            This film isn’t breaking any new ground, especially among the films already in Matthew Vaughn’s catalogue.  However, it does go to show that Vaughn is really good at what he does.  The action is fantastic (with a scene set in a church being one of the best action set pieces in recent memory).  The humor is used at a solid rate and in most cases actually is funny.  The characters are around the board memorable enough to make the conflicts and twists of the final act really work.

            As good as Vaughn’s direction is, though, the cast is just as good.  It was great to see Mark Strong, Michael Caine and Mark Hamill make the most of their small roles.  However, the performances from the two leads are the real highlight.  Colin Firth gives one of the best performances in an already storied career.  Harry Hart is essentially just another character from the Gandalf/Obi-Wan Kenobi archetype, but Firth brings so much freshness to it.  It’s also quite surprising to see how much physicality Firth brings to the role.  Meanwhile, Taron Egerton is fantastic in a breakout performance.  The emphasis of the film is put almost entirely on him in the final act.  Whereas, many newcomers would crumble under this weight, Egerton continued to bring his unique charm to the role.

            Kingsman: The Secret Service is a blast as it features a director and cast at the top of their game and just having fun.

8.5/10

Final 87th Academy Awards Predictions

BEST PICTURE=Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

BEST DIRECTOR=Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

BEST LEAD ACTOR=Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

BEST LEAD ACTRESS=Julianne Moore, Still Alice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR=J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS=Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY=The Imitation Game

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY=The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE=How to Train Your Dragon 2

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE=CITIZENFOUR

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM=Ida

BEST ANIMATED SHORT=Feast

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT=Joanna

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT=Boogaloo and Graham

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY=Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN=The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST FILM EDITING=Boyhood

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING=The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE=The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST ORIGINAL SONG=”Glory”, Selma

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN=The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST SOUND EDITING=American Sniper

BEST SOUND MIXING=Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS=Interstellar

2014 Cinema Awards

Best Visual Effects

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri & Erik Winquist)

Best Sound Mixing

Interstellar (Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo & Mark Weingarten)

Best Sound Editing

Godzilla (Erik Aadahl & Ethan Van der Ryn)

Best Production Design

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Anna Pinnock & Adam Stockhausen)

Best Original Song

"The Last Goodbye", The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Billy Boyd, Philippa Boyens & Fran Walsh)

Best Original Score

Godzilla (Alexandre Desplat)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Noah (Judy Chin & Jerry Popolis)

Best Film Editing

Boyhood (Sandra Adair)

Best Costume Design

Into the Woods (Colleen Atwood)

Best Cinematography

Interstellar (Hoyte van Hoytema)

Best Original Screenplay

(Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolas Giacobone & Alejandro G. Inarritu, Birdman of (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Damien Chazelle, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor

Ethan Hawke, Boyhood

Best Lead Actress

Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin

Best Lead Actor

Tom Hardy, Locke

Best Director

Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Picture

Boyhood (Richard Linklater & Cathleen Sutherland)

WINS LEADERS

5-Boyhood
2-Godzilla

2-Interstellar