It wouldn’t be the end of February without my annual ranking of the years’ Best Picture nominees. The entries this year are mostly forgettable, but with real quality at the top end of the scale. The novelty this year is that I was sick for a week at the start of the month and in my delirium managed to force myself to watch all 8 movies, a major departure from 2013 and 2014. To be clear, watching all these movies is not something I would recommend: most won’t make you smarter, and they won’t cure your flu virus. They will however give you a good insight into what type of movie members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences liked this year, which is always interesting. Anyway, from worst, to best, here is how I rank the 2015 crop of contenders.
8. The Theory of Everything
Life…
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The Grand Budapest Hotel is up for nine awards at this year’s Academy Awards, the joint most nominations alongside Birdman, and yet it’s seen as something of a surprise package amongst the Best Picture candidates. The surprise is mainly due to the fact that it was released almost a year ago – just after last year’s awards, in fact – which goes against the usual studio policy of releasing their award contenders in the months immediately preceding the awards season.
This film also doesn’t fit the standard mould of an award contender. They are usually powerful human interest stories, biopics, beautifully shot artistic films or feature powerful acting performances, this film is its own wonderfully unique creation and cannot be considered what has become known as “Oscar Bait”. It is wholly different to many contenders down the years, and that makes it all the more interesting.
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Released: 1960
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurrary, Jack Kruschen
Oscar Wins: Best Picture, Best Director (Billy Wilder), Best Writing (Original Screenplay) (I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder), Best Film Editing (Daniel Mandell), Best Art Direction – Set Direction, Black-and-White (Alexander Trauner, Edward G. Boyle)
Oscar Nominations: Best Actor (Jack Lemmon), Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Kruschen), Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) (Joseph LaShelle), Best Sound (Gordon E. Sawyer)
SUMMARY: Bud Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is an anonymous worker in a huge insurance company, but he gains favor with three superiors by letting them use his apartment for their extramarital activities. This leads to an epic misunderstanding with the neighbors, who assume that it is Bud who is bringing home a new woman every night. In reality, Bud is attracted to the elevator operator at the office, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). One day, Bud is promised a…
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It’s that time of year again! The time between the day the nominees are announced and the Oscar show airs is usually a mad race to watch as many as nominated films as possible. Since I do this every year, I often end up seeing films I may not have opted to watch otherwise. I also have a pretty good record on predicting who will win (I got 21 out of 24 last year). As of today, I have watched (or attempted to watch) all Best Picture nominees except Selma; the two I started watching but couldn’t get through were Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel. I appreciated Boyhood and the concept of the 12 year time period, but don’t see it winning Best Picture. I do see it winning for Best Director (keeping at it for that long and keeping the cast aligned with the vision) and Film Editing (imagine…
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