 |
| I think I'm using the same images with every Oscar post I do. |
Alright, I've slacked severely. In the past month, I haven't written a word on my site. Why? Because I just forgot. In the dead heat of the Oscar race, I lost interest. It's a three-horse race between
American Hustle,
12 Years a Slave, and
Gravity, with each one winning different prizes and hardly moving anywhere, I just lost interest in the Oscars. I love movies all the same, but this year is hopelessly exhausting.
PGA
Best Picture:
Gravity AND
12 Years a Slave
Gravity is so close to being a solid lock for Best Picture, but every BP prize it wins in the big shows are ties, as seen with the LAFCA and PGA. Okay.
American Hustle is probably the weakest horse in the three horse race, but it's still one of the strongest in the nine horse scheme of things.
WGA
Original Screenplay:
Her, Spike Jonze
Adapted Screenplay:
Captain Phillips, Billy Ray
The
Her love is strong for screenplay, because it also happened to take the Golden Globe prize for screenplay. Even Tina Fey, when heckling the film in her monologue, had to mention that she loved it. It's the weirdest thing of the year, but one of the most lovable. Come Oscar night, I'm crossing my fingers for
Her, but
American Hustle is still an undeniably strong contender. For Adapted Screenplay, WGA rule shenanigans eliminated
12 Years a Slave, which would have been the clear winner had it been nominated. The clear winner was Terrence Winter for his bonkers
The Wolf of Wall Street, but nope, the unspectacular
Captain Phillips had to upset. I quote
The Wolf of Wall Street in conversation now (...goes up, down, sideways, in circles...), but I can hardly remember a good line from
Captain Phillips (They'a R nawt heer to fish). Quotability doesn't determine the quality of a script, but let's leave it at this: I was never bored during
The Wolf of Wall Street, but one hour of
Captain Phillips put me half to sleep.
DGA
Alfonso Cuaron,
Gravity
Out of all the nominees, Cuaron was the only true visionary. Simple as that.
BAFTA
Best Picture:
12 Years a Slave
Best British Film:
Gravity
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron,
Gravity
Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofer,
12 Years a Slave
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett,
Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actor: Barkhad Abdi,
Captain Phillips
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence,
American Hustle
Best Original Screenplay: David O. Russell, Eric Warren Singer,
American Hustle
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jeff Pope, Steve Coogan,
Philomena
So this is a truncated list of winners, but these are the 'big' awards. And the BAFTA group is kind of painting an augmented picture, especially since
Dallas Buyers Club and
Her weren't nominated for anything (lack pf viewership can be easily blamed). So in a year where the love is being shared, do you think the shared love could be changed if
Dallas and
Her entered the picture? No matter. The Best Picture winner here only took two prizes, the other being Best Actor. And to think we all thought after Telluride, that
12 Years a Slave would sweep the circuits, a la
Return of the King!. It's a testament to the quality of filmmaking that sprouted from 2013, where all films were good if they weren't titled
Lee Daniels' The Butler, even
Captain Phillips has some admirable components. Notice how despite winning Best Pic,
12 lost the screenplay prize to
Philomena, a film with a British advantage called Steve Coogan. It won't translate overseas on the 2nd, and despite loving the script to
12 more than
Philomena, what Coogan and Pope did was make a safe, solid, sweet, and superb script that got some worthy recognition this year.
Gravity took home the most prizes of night, so it is still a formidable contender for the top prize.
Hustle took Best Original Screenplay, but
Her wasn't nominated, so Oscar night should be more interesting.
Expect my Oscar Opinions series to restart soon, especially since I haven't yet done reviews of best picture nominees like
Philomena and
Captain Phillips. Stay tuned.
