If I Were an Academy Member: David Mumpower
By David Mumpower
February 20, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
With regards to the other half, all of them finished in the upper third of my grading system for the year. In other words, even if I am not crazy about the decision to exclude certain titles that deserved a better fate such as Begin Again, I still think this batch of contenders is solid, except for one notable exclusion. And I definitively have the minority opinion on that one.
1) The Imitation Game
At the end of the year, I vacillated between three titles in trying to determine which one was my favorite. I’ve watched Edge of Tomorrow more than any other 2014 title, and I am singularly obsessed with the relationship between Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley’s characters in Begin Again. In the end, I determined that the historical and cultural significance of The Imitation Game were not the reasons I was praising the film, which would have undid its candidacy.
Instead, I kept going back to the fact that as much as I love Knightley’s performance in Begin Again, she’s even better in The Imitation Game. And while nobody has noticed it, the entire film hangs on her. When Alan Turing stands up in support of a woman as a World War II codebreaker, it is a character defining moment as well as a hint of how poorly Britain treated some of its most talented people at the time. The necessity of that storyline has stayed with me after most critics and Oscar trackers have moved along to new topics. In a year with several quality nominees, The Imitation Game is EASILY the best.
2) Whiplash
As you know by now, BOP’s staff named this film as the Best Picture in the 2015 Calvins. While it did not garner my first place vote, I did select it on my ballot. The idea of a hard-ass mentor bringing the best out of a hungry protégé is nothing new in cinema, yet you’d find fans of Whiplash who are bothered by the lack of novelty. When JK Simmons hammers at Miles Teller, the world stops until one of the two men exits the scene. Forget romances and bromances. This coupling is the finest of 2015 and one of the most engrossing of the 2000s to date. Whiplash has virtually no chance of winning Best Picture at the Oscars, but I’m thrilled that the staff at BOP felt otherwise.
3) Selma
I fully understand why voters have fled in terror from the thought of Selma winning Best Picture. In the minds of many, 12 Years a Slave took home the title last year. Ergo, the outcries of racism are misplaced. The problem I have with that is simple. Selma is the vastly superior film. Selma features a pair of star turns by David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo plus a dynamic supporting performance by the perennially underrated Wendell Pierce. It is a more important and modern story whose timeliness borders on prescience. The real problem with Selma is that its content is so indescribably depressing. Once the movie ends, the viewer wants to forget what they just watched. I fell victim to this behavior myself.
4) Boyhood
We have now dropped down to a tier from exceptional to very good. Boyhood is a slight story told well. That is obviously not its most impressive accomplishment, though. Thanks to the vision of auteur Richard Linklater, it chronicles a dozen years in the lives of its three primary characters, a mother and her children. The kids basically have their formative years captured on film, which in hindsight should have been cause for his daughter Lorelei to sue for irreconcilable differences, Drew Barrymore style. As much as I enjoyed Boyhood, it did feel long and even to this moment, I’d be hard-pressed to describe the plot beyond “Mother overcomes financial struggles to raise children well.” I admire Boyhood more than I love it.
5) The Grand Budapest Hotel
Out of all the grandiose Wes Anderson productions, I’m bemused that this one has resonated for the longest with Academy voters. Perhaps the fact that it is the most extroverted of his films helps. It is also the most conventional, a point driven home by the exchange of gunfire in the third act. It’s like Michael Bay and Anderson swapped bodies for the day. Whatever the explanation, The Grand Budapest Hotel is an extremely funny movie that is a bit too self-indulgent for my tastes. I wouldn’t put it in the top three of Wes Anderson films. In case you’re wondering, that list would be comprised of The Royal Tenenbaums at the top, The Life Aquatic in second, and Fantastic Mr. Fox in third. The Grand Budapest Hotel is fighting Moonrise Kingdom for fourth place, which isn’t good enough for a potential Best Picture winner.
6) The Theory of Everything
I love the leads in this film, especially Felicity Jones. While Eddie Redmayne has received most of the awards attention including a Golden Globe, the movie hangs on Jones’ portrayal of doggedly determined woman in love with a man whose fate is sealed. I adore the way she projects a mix of unconditional love and support with a mix of frustration that her life is put on hold in order to accommodate her husband’s physical and emotional shortcomings. Still, there were two films telling the story of damaged British geniuses this year. The Theory of Everything was vastly inferior to the other one.
7) Birdman
Birdman is exactly the sort of film that this industry needs. It is a challenging examination of the struggle of post-celebrity acting. At one point during Lost in Translation, Bill Murray’s character laments that he’s currently selling out when he should be starring in a play somewhere. Birdman is basically that premise as an experimental film exercise. The entire cast absolutely nails their roles, especially Emma Stone, Lindsay Duncan and Andrea Riseborough. Despite the acting tour de force, Birdman is just too weird for me. I wanted to enjoy it so much more than I actually did.
8) American Sniper
This is the point where I lose everybody. American Sniper has earned in excess of $300 million domestically and actually has a solid chance to become the number one domestic performer of any 2014 release. Unfortunately, I hated it. Bradley Cooper’s attempt at a southern accent failed so completely that whenever he talked, I was taken out of the movie, a real problem since he’s in almost every scene. I’m also not a fan of the dogmatic direction of Clint Eastwood, who is one of my favorite movie-makers as a rule. The obsessive attempts to paint a cold-blooded killer slaughtering natives in their own country bothered me a great deal. American Sniper has all of the subtlety of a Three Stooges clip, and its popularity puzzles me. Then again, I always hated snipers in Halo, so maybe that’s my problem with it.