2015 Calvin Awards: Best Picture
By David Mumpower
February 13, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Some life coaches take their jobs more seriously than others.

Last year’s race for Best Picture basically came down to one question: Have you voted for Gravity yet? After everyone did that, they moved along to the rest of the potential contenders. In 2015, the polar opposite occurred. On the last day of voting, five films were still in contention and a sixth feasibly could have been if all of the stragglers had supported it. Meanwhile, the films that had been in first and second place for most of January suddenly fell behind as a surprise champion came from behind to win on literally the last vote.

To the surprise of everyone who voted early, Whiplash is our staff’s selection as the Best Picture of the year. How did this happen? Well, are you familiar with the concept of woodshedding? It applies to Whiplash in a notable way. Jazz legend Charlie Parker later became known as Bird as a tribute to his natural gifts as a musician. His iconic status does not paint a true picture of what he had to overcome to become a legend. He was frequently laughed out of clubs during his early days. He simply lacked the skill to play with the best jazz musicians at the time. One day, he determined to take his craft seriously, and he basically vanished off the planet for a time. He spent months on end practicing in his woodshed, attempting to master his craft. Whiplash is the movie version of this concept.

Andrew Neiman is a freshman musician at the vaunted Shaffer Conservatory. Simply by getting accepted to this school, he has been acknowledged as having natural ability as a drummer. He is still stuck as second chair behind someone more experienced and thereby more skilled. One day, the most famous teacher at the school, Terrence Fletcher, challenges Neiman to demonstrate his gift. Soon afterward, Neiman is promoted to the school’s jazz competition group. There, he must “woodshed” in order to prove that he belongs with the best musicians in his age group.

What follows is a battle of wills between Neiman and Fletcher, as the latter gentleman uses every tool at his disposal to motivate the gifted drummer whom he believes has not achieved his potential yet. The combustible nature of the tutor/protégé dynamic has never been so skillfully and plausibly examined onscreen before. Actors Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons hammer at each other for a full hour of the movie and yet it is never clear whether their goals are mutually exclusive.

Whiplash proved so popular with our staff that it even triggered a previously unknown clause in the voting rulebook. Whiplash also won the award for Best Overlooked Film, but such a victory is negated if the winner in that category also emerges triumphant in Best Picture. It also claimed victory in Best Use of Music, Best Scene, and Best Supporting Actor. So, it’s fair to say that Whiplash was our staff’s favorite film in a lot of different ways.

In the post-superhero movie era, our second place entry resolved to take viewers back to the beginning. By casting Michael Keaton, the original star of the superhero blockbuster, this film explored what it’s like to be on top of the celebrity pyramid for a time, only to tumble once replaced by the new hotness. Know thy future, Robert Downey Jr.! Birdman is an oddly experimental AND experiential exploration of the events preceding (and following) the debut of a Broadway play starring a has-been. It’s an inimitable, electric sensation that somehow provides the viewer with the vicarious thrill of a live performance. BOP has previously named Michael Keaton as the Best Actor of the year along with Alejandro González Iñárritu as Best Director. For a time, Birdman appeared certain to win Best Picture, but its title was usurped at the last moment, ultimately causing it to lose by a mere four points. It is the closest race in the 14-year history of Best Picture at The Calvins, meaning that Birdman is effectively 1A to Whiplash’s 1.

Gone gone gone, she been gone so long, uh gone gone gone so long. The soothsayers known as Chilliwack provided the prophecy for Gone Girl in 1981, and it came to pass in 2014. Lousy husband Ben Affleck (can I get an Amen, Jennifer Garner?) treats his bride like a doormat despite the fact her family’s wealth paid for his residence. Then, Amazing Amy vanishes one day and the police begin to investigate. At least, that’s one version of events. The truth is much more unsettling, and that is why vaunted director David Fincher gravitated toward the project. His last two adaptations, The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, won Best Picture and finished 13th, so no one should be surprised by the lofty placement of Gone Girl. Even allowing for our bias toward his projects, this is a gloriously subversive movie that you must prioritize if you haven’t already watched it.

The BOP staff’s fourth and fifth selections involve a story that takes place over 13 years and one that may take as long as a century or as little as five minutes. We’re still a bit puzzled by the math of it all. Yes, Interstellar, a realm whose fifth dimension is love, earns a place in our heart as well as fourth place for its heartfelt yet science-intensive tale of a world on the brink of extinction. Thankfully, one family’s struggles prove to be enough to say the day in the end, which feels a bit random when you think about it. Still, Interstellar actually received more first place votes than any other title this year, meaning that the BOP folks who enjoyed it experienced a tremendous personal attachment. The rest of us admired it more than loved it, which is the primary reason it “only” finished fourth. In our defense, the science is pretty wonky.

Boyhood represents the most personal of projects to Richard Linklater, and that explains why he has spent the last 15 or so years of his life trying to get it made. To be clear, that is over 25 percent of his life, which sounds impressive until you consider the situation from his daughter’s perspective. As an important co-star in Boyhood, the 20-year-old has spent the last 14 years filming and then promoting the feature. That’s 70 (!) percent of her life. Boyhood is all she has ever known, a strange thing to say about a girl. And it’s all thanks to her dad. Then again, the glowing reviews speak for themselves, and our staff was equally dazzled by this overly long but amazing exploration of a child’s formative years. Any long time reader of this site is all too aware that Linklater does little wrong in our eyes. Even so, every sane person understands that Boyhood is his masterpiece.

Sixth and seventh place are claimed by a couple of whimsical titles that remembered that the entire point of making movies is to provide escapist entertainment to the audience. The LEGO Movie did just that by hurling the viewer into a land where LEGOs are real and Batman is kind of a douche. Then, it pulled back the curtain to reveal that the real location of the LEGO universe is anywhere someone imagines it to be. The Grand Budapest Hotel has a more specific location in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka. There, a dedicated concierge with the fabulous name of Monsieur Gustave H. seduces the elderly while teaching the young how to offer five-star service while keeping one’s clothes on. The work of Wes Anderson has never been more accessible and rarely as entertaining.

Our finally three selections are an awards contender, the second most popular film of the year, and yet another great Tom Cruise action flick. Selma has proven to be a divisive film during awards season since its overwhelming quality creates a sense of depression for the viewer. Our staff was undeterred as demonstrated by our recognition of the film’s crew in several categories. As for Guardians of the Galaxy, what more can be said? Ostensibly a Serenity clone, it was treated like the box office love child of Star Wars and The Avengers. And our staff adored it for its whimsical nature and fantastic cast.

Edge of Tomorrow evolved from being a box office disappointment over the summer into a film whose overriding quality provided it a second life on home video. More than once, we heard a fan ask, “What’s Live. Die. Repeat.? And how did I miss it in theaters?” Many of our staff, myself included, wound up placing it in our top five for the year. In combination with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, it’s fair to say that Tom Cruise is officially out of our doghouse.

Take a gander at the table below to see the films our staff selected as the best 25 of the year. Films worthy of nomination that just missed qualification for the attached chart include Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Under the Skin, Snowpiercer, Big Hero 6, Foxcatcher, American Sniper, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Imitation Game, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Nightcrawler, 22 Jump Street, Stranger by the Lake, The Theory of Everything, Begin Again and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

2015 Calvin Awards
Calvins Intro
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture