Nerd Movie Reviews

2014 Post-Oscarlyptic Review

This is my chance to show the world how much smarter I am than the Academy.  Sure, they have hundreds of thousands of collective hours in the film industry and actually saw all the movies nominated, but I have a blog dammit!  Plus an opinion and ego that would put most of Hollywood to shame.

Actually I didn’t have a lot of issue with the winners of the awards this year.  For the most part I agree with the Academy and am eagerly awaiting my invitation to join it.  However I did review a lot of these and as always have my opinions.  Based on my readership at least 14 humans in the world care what that opinion is.  Like the real Oscars I will skip most of the technical awards unless I can think of something really funny to say.

Best Picture-12 Years a Slave.

This is a category where I get to feel like an ass as I managed to not see this film.  I guess I felt I have enough guilt in my life already.  From what I hear it was a great film and I will try to see it soon.  Personally I would have chosen the Dallas Buyers Club.  It was one of those movies that was so flawless I really didn’t feel the need to review it.  My second choice would have been Her which I enjoyed tremendously.  American Hustle felt like they were purposely making a film to win best picture, Captain Phillips lacked in character development, and at the end of the story Gravity was about a woman falling for two hours.  The Wolf of Wall Street was great but honestly we’ve all seen it before from Scorsese.  All of these films I thought great.  I also managed to miss Nebraska (mainly because I thought it was a musical like Oklahoma) and Philomena never really surfaced at any of my local theaters.

Best Actor-Matthew McConaughey-Dallas Buyers Club

I totally, 100% agree with this.  I thought he was brilliant.  He starts off as such a reprehensible character and by the end of the film you are almost in tears for him.  My second choice was Leonardo DiCaprio for the Wolf of Wall Street, but it was a long second.  Christian Bale I couldn’t get over the bad 70’s clothes and comb over to notice him act (not really true, but  they were distracting).

Best Actress-Cate Blanchett-Blue Jasmine

Again no disagreement here.  She really pulled this one off in a way that amazed and stunned me.  Unfortunately my enjoyment of this film has soured due to the recent sex abuse allegations against Woody Allen.  I am going to have to seriously think about whether I need to keep supporting his film career by buying tickets.  I mean, Adolf Hitler was a painter.  Would I spend money to see an exhibit of his art?  Probably not, unless the money generated went to sticking more hot coals you know where for him in Hell.  I don’t know if the step daughters allegations are true or not but there seems to be a preponderance of evidence in support of it.  I’m not saying Woody is on the same level as Hitler but if these accusations are true I think I have seen my last Woody Allen film.  Too bad as I enjoy his work.  All that aside I think Cate was brilliant in this film.  None of the other candidates really stands out.  If I had the power I would award Amy Adams for the Best Almost-Nudity in an R Rated Film.  There’s another reason I’m glad American Hustle didn’t win best overall.  Am I the only one who has heard “In for a penny, in for a pound”?

Best Actor in a Supporting Role-Jared Leto-Dallas Buyers Club

Total agreement here.  I thought he was brilliant.  Now if only he could learn to shut his piehole with regards to the transgendered community that would make me happier with it.  Of course the whole thing about a straight guy playing a trans woman is insulting to my trans friends so I don’t know if there is really anything he could have done to keep his fat out of the fire.  It just seems he could have done something more than nothing.  I did really like Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips.  Great portrayal.  I don’t think Johan Hill deserved the win but I have to say I am a huge fan of his ability to play so many diverse roles.  I listened to him on the Howard Stern Show and it struck me that his acting range is pretty huge.  He could have kept doing more Superbad style roles for a few years and then been forgotten.  He also has a great sense of humor.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role-Lupita Nyong’o-12 Years a Slave

Yes I will go see this dammit.  I did like Sally Hawkins a lot and honestly thought Jennifer Lawrence did a better job than Amy Adams did in American Hustle.

Best Animated Feature Film-Frozen

This one category where I am sort of in disagreement with the Academy, except of the fact that I can’t think of a better film.  If this were 2012 and this film had beaten out Wreck It Ralph I would have called it a crime against cinema.  I found Frozen to be fairly mundane and formulaic.  Also the soundtrack sucked.  I’d say it was a toss up between this and Despicable Me 2.  This is a good example of a big fish in a tiny pond.  Had anything remotely decent come down the animated pike this one would have not even placed.

Best Cinematography-Gravity

Duh.  This film was almost exclusively a cinematographic exploration.  I’m not even sure how Prisoners got nominated, unless they are giving awards for the best Meteorological Control.

Costume Design-the Great Gatsby

Costumes was one thing this film had in spades.  Anyone else see any irony in naming a film called The Invisible Woman as a candidate for best costume?

Directing-Alfonso Cuarón-Gravity

All the candidates I thought were great in direction, but when I think of the pacing and development this film was pretty well done.  I agree.

Documentary Feature-20 Feet from Stardom

I don’t generally watch documentaries.  It is enough work to keep up on current releases.  Also if I wanted to see something on reality I would just watch my own life.  Movies are all about escaping reality, not examining it.

Documentary Short Subject-The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life

See everything I said about documentaries above, plus where the hell do you go to see a short these days?

Film editing-Gravity

All of what I said about Alfonse above is reflected in the editing.  No complaints here, although they all had great editing and pacing.

Foreign Language Film-the Great Beauty

Are you kidding?

Makeup and Hairstyling-Dallas Buyers Club

I can agree with that, although it would have been hilarious if The Lone Ranger had won it for it’s incredibly racially insensitive move of putting brown makeup on Johnny Depp and calling him a native American.  The makeup in Bad Grandpa was great but if you are going to give it this award you would have to go back in time to 2002 and give it to Jackass.

Music-Original Score-Gravity

Music is one thing I rarely notice unless it is particularily bad or good.  Since most of the songs in Saving Mr. Banks had actually been written for a different (better) movie I’m glad it didn’t win.

Music-Original Song-Let it Go-Frozen

Meh.  The mediocrity of the music in this movie is one of the things that really turned me off.  I suspect somewhere in the Academy floats a reminder that they need to brown nose Disney once in a while.

Production Design-the Great Gatsby

Fair enough, although Her was kind of brilliant.

I’m going to skip the rest as I have no exposure and not enough film knowledge to actually have an opinion.  The one thing I liked about these Oscars is there wasn’t one film that swept it all away.  I like it when different films win for different categories.

OK I gotta run.  Thanks for reading.  I did see Son of God and am on the fence about reviewing it.  I have mixed feelings and I don’t see how I can do it without offending one side or the other.  I guess I will chicken out unless there is nothing to see this weekend or I am really bored.  Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu and like us on FB.  If you have comments on my comments feel free to post them here.  Off topic questions or suggestions can be emailed to [email protected].  Talk to you soon.

Dave