Saturday, February 21, 2015

If I Chose the Oscars

And yes, I have seen them all, sadly or not, depending on your view

Best Picture-BIRDMAN (Although my favorite picture of the year might be CALVARY, which was not nominated. Also snubbed were NIGHTCRAWLER and BABADOOK-the most original movie of the year.

Best Actor-Michael Keaton. Although these were all great performances, I liked his the most of the nominees. Jake Gyllenhaal gave my favorite performance in NIGHTCRAWLER but was not nominated.

Best Actress -Marion Cotillard-Although Julianne Moore was very fine, I never forgot who she was as I did with Cotillard in TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT. Reese Witherspoon was also totally believable in WILD.

Best Supporting Actor-J.K. Simmons - Ruffalo a close runner-up but in a much less showy role.

Best Supporting Actress-Patricia Arquette-who played a fairly complex mother in BOYHOOD. Nobody else impressed me nearly as much.

Best Director-Alejandro Inarritu (BIRDMAN)

Best Adapted Screenplay-Damien Chazelle-WHIPLASH

Best Original Screenplay-Inarritu et al for BIRDMAN

Best Doc. FINDING VIVIAN MAIER




18 comments:

George said...

My Oscar picks go up on my blog tomorrow. I'm with you on BIRDMAN but I think the Academy will choose BOYHOOD.

pattinase (abbott) said...

From day to day, the predictions change.

Jeff Meyerson said...

I like your choices, Patti, though I haven't seen them all yet. I was way more impressed with Birdman than I'd expected to b3, and I thought the direction was amazing, a no-brainer for Best Director.

Jeff M.

Deb said...

Even when I haven't seen all the nominated films (such as, oh, every year), The Oscars is always a fun evening at our house. We have our family contest for bragging rights and our dinner is catered by that fine dining establishment, Popeyes Fried Chicken (spicy, please). My picks:

Director: Inarritu

Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette

Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons

Actress: Julianne Moore (this will definitely be a "reward for a body of work" Oscar)

Actor: Bradley Cooper (I know, I know... But I had to throw some suspense into the family Oscar pool)

Picture: Boyhood

pattinase (abbott) said...

Cooper was fine in the part. Just didn't much care for the film. It used to be fun watching it as a family. Watching it at 5 leaves something to be desired. Yes, Julianne is a sure thing.

Jeff Meyerson said...

We thought American Sniper was well done but rather one note, repeating things over and over. I thought Cooper was more deserving in previous roles, as in American Hustle. I didn't think the movie was that good. It doesn't compare to either Birdman or Boyhood in my opinion.

Then there is the other critical darling, The Grand Babylon HOtel. I thought that was totally overrated, a mediocre film that was my least favorite of the Best Picture nominees that I've seen.

Jeff M.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I am tempted to see it again, Jeff, to see if we missed its charm.

Anonymous said...

I am terrible at taking the opportunity to see films while they're 'hot off the press.' I'll be interested to see who wins though.

George said...

It hasn't opened here yet, but I think CITIZENFOUR might win the BEST DOCUMENTARY. The reviews have been strong.

Charles Gramlich said...

I'm trying to remember a movie I liked from last year. Live, Die, Repeat. I liked that so I'd probably give it all the oscars

Rick Robinson said...

Since we saw none of them, any guesses I make would be from secondary sources. That said, Birdman for Best Picture, Theory of Everything for Best Actor. The rest, not a quess, except maybe the actress in ALICE could win Best Actress.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Charles-you got the title wrong. It's Edge of Tomorrow.
Citizenfour is on cable this week.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks, Steve. I was wondering how I missed it and I didn't. Good movie.

Hai Di Nguyen said...

Ha, glad to see that I'm not the only one to prefer Birdman to Boyhood.

MysterLynch said...

I would have loved to see Richard win best director for Boyhood, his vision deserved much credit.

George said...

Patti, you were right: it was BIRDMAN and not BOYHOOD.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I think a lot of it is about peaking and BOYHOOD peaked too early.
Although I liked BOYHOOD a lot, it depended so much on the use of a time span. The plot turned out to be rather ordinary beyond that.

George said...

Patricia Arquette gave a very convincing performance of a single mother. You're right: BOYHOOD peaked too soon.