My blog posts are few and far between, but I cannot resist the urge to continue my annual movie awards. Due to my increasingly worrisome obsession with movies, this post is going to be even longer, denser, and opinionated than my awards posts in 2016 and 2015.
However, it will be much more complete, because unlike past years I have actively seen the vast majority of the 2016 Oscar-friendly flicks. I’ve watched 45 movies released last year, ranging from terrible messes (Suicide Squad! Inferno! X-Men: Apocalypse!) to the recommendable films I’ll be mentioning below. While I understand upfront that this post will be viewed only by myself and a few random people who accidentally end up here, I still enjoy putting significant time and effort into it.
The structure is a little different than last year, because I have expanded my crazy to create the concept that I can understand technical aspects of filmmaking (I can’t really, I don’t really know what I’m talking about so these technical elements exist predominately as an opportunity to talk about additional movies). Last year I lumped all of the technical categories into one for my awards; this year I’ve expanded to categories including Cinematography, Production Design, Score/Music, Costume/Makeup, Visual Effects, and Film Editing. So, I now include all of the categories acknowledged at the Academy Awards except Documentary (film and short), Foreign Language film, Animated film, Short Film (animated and live action), and Sound Editing and Mixing.
My note to start – there are several movies nominated for awards (major and technical) at the Oscars that I have not seen. These include: Captain Fantastic, Elle, Florence Foster Jenkins, Allied, Hail Caesar!, Passengers, and The Lobster. 26 movies are represented on this list, aided by the Costume/Makeup and Visual Effects categories (which combine to feature seven films not nominated in any other category). The big winners? Arrival and La La Land. La La Land ended up with nine nominations (five wins), with Arrival following with eight nominations (and three wins).
Best Picture
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
Nocturnal Animals
Paterson
Sing Street
The biggest award of this blog goes to Arrival, which featured excellent writing, directing, and acting. I am always partial to science fiction films, as evidenced by my choice of Interstellar as best picture in 2015. But Arrival is more than just a typical sci-fi movie; it logically considers language as the key tool after humanity’s first encounter with extra-terrestrial life (giving a refreshing new take on that overused storyline), and forces the audience to think more deeply about the dimension of time and our understanding of it. The ending of Arrival, when all the pieces fit in place, is a truly astounding (and emotional) film experience.
La La Land falls to second place. It is going to win Best Picture at the Oscars, it deserves all of its nominations (well, except Ryan Gosling for Best Actor), and it really was a unique and phenomenally made movie. I never thought I’d enjoy a musical, but I thoroughly liked La La Land.
Lion, Moonlight, and Hacksaw Ridge were all very good movies, and certainly deserve a Best Pic nomination in any year. Lion‘s performances (especially those from Sunny Pawar and Dev Patel) and its incredibly emotional storyline make it instantly memorable. Moonlight provides such an astute insight into life in impoverished African-American communities, growing up while battling homophobia, and the effects of drug use. For that reason alone, it should be watched by everyone, but the screenplay and acting performances are similarly superb. Hacksaw Ridge, while much different than any other film on this list, provides a graphic and immersive look at the horrors (and heroism) of war. It’s no Saving Private Ryan, but it is the most interesting war movie I have seen in several years.
Hidden Figures and Nocturnal Animals both received some awards buzz, and deservedly so. Hidden Figures is the type of movie that should be a blockbuster, because it combines space travel (who doesn’t like that!) with an inspiring civil rights triumph. The story sat in obscurity until this film championed the heroic lead characters, and that is what great movies based on true events do. Nocturnal Animals was engrossing to watch and thrillingly scary, without resorting to gore or cheap frights. Jake Gyllenhaal gives an amazing performance, and that scene on the side of the highway was one of the most unforgettable moments in any 2016 movie.
The last two films on this list are the obscure ones, the movies that no one saw. The Academy members probably did not even contemplate including these on their shortlists, and that is a shame. Paterson and Sing Street are not fancy or especially assertive, but their characters are impeccably developed and the directing/writing is pristine and authentic. Paterson has limited plot, but you come to fully understand the three main characters (two humans and one dog). It is interesting and contemplative while retaining an innocence to the filmmaking. Sing Street is just a fun, boisterous, and surprisingly emotional musical ride, and is incredibly watchable.
Academy Comp: 6 of the 9 Oscar Best Picture Nominees
Also in Consideration: Sully, The Nice Guys, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Snowden, Hell or High Water
Best Lead Actress
Amy Adams (Arrival)
Annette Bening (20th Century Women)
Ruth Negga (Loving)
Natalie Portman (Jackie)
Emma Stone (La La Land)
In my opinion, this year’s Lead Actress race is the best (and is of the highest quality) of the four acting categories. I went back and forth between Stone and Adams, Bening or Portman could have been winners in previous years, and I grappled with several other great performances before choosing Negga for the fifth spot.
Amy Adams and Emma Stone are both aided by the excellence of their respective films, but it is impossible to think of anyone else so appropriately encapsulating their characters in Arrival and La La Land. I gave Stone a slight edge for her ability to act, sing and dance. Obviously, this is a acting award, but Stone deserves this award even without the additional entertainment methods. Adams deserves commendation too, because of the emotional toughness and resilience her character shows, and her acting range to augment the twists of the movie.
Jackie and 20th Century Women are both flawed movies that did not live up to my expectations, but Natalie Portman and Annette Bening provided stellar performances as the leads. Portman’s ability to perfect Jackie Kennedy’s public and private voices proved that her role was one of the best of the year. And Bening managed to convey a wide range of emotions through her facial expressions, while adding memorable quips that expanded her complex character.
Like Bening, Ruth Negga made this list primarily because of her ability to convey deep emotions without dialogue. The film Loving was a disappointment for me, because I felt that it glossed over hardships and climatic situations while spending too much time on unnecessary details. But Negga stood out for her stares and her silent strength, which made the movie much more engaging.
It was a tough choice between Negga, Jessica Chastain for Miss Sloane, and Taraji P. Henson for Hidden Figures. Chastain was such a fundamental part of every aspect of Miss Sloane, and Henson gave a much more memorable performance than her Hidden Figures costar Octavia Spencer, who received an Oscar nomination.
Academy Comp: 3 of the 5 Oscar Best Actress Nominees
Also in Consideration: Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane), Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures), Greta Gerwig (Maggie’s Plan)
Best Lead Actor
Paul Dano (Swiss Army Man)
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge / Silence)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Snowden)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nocturnal Animals)
Denzel Washington (Fences)
This is where I start getting really annoyed with the Oscars. It is certainly true that film companies campaign to help actors get nominations (and thus boost interest in their movies), and they tend to focus their efforts on specific actors in the movie to increase the chances that one or two will receive a nomination. Nocturnal Animals got a supporting actor nom for Michael Shannon, and another supporting actor nom (and win) at the Golden Globes for Aaron Taylor-Johnson. But I’d make the argument that the best performance by any actor this year came from Jake Gyllenhaal in this film, and he received exactly zero awards buzz. His dual role in Nocturnal Animals (or, more precisely, his single role) was dramatically impeccable, unidealized but ambiguously heroic, and assured that the audience was fully absorbed in every one of his scenes.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s role in Snowden has also been largely forgotten, and while the movie itself had some limitations in the screenplay, his performance was quite interesting and seemed true to his controversial character. Denzel Washington was predictably tremendous in Fences, although his character was extraordinarily unlikeable. And Paul Dano delivered a great performance in the weird (ok, bizarre) film Swiss Army Man. I never think Dano gets the credit he deserves as an actor (Ruby Sparks, There Will Be Blood, etc.), and his reactionary acting in Swiss Army Man role necessitated and excellent performance.
Andrew Garfield was equally good in both Hacksaw Ridge and Silence. He’s definitely a better actor than he was in those poorly acted Spiderman movies, and his ability to express the internal struggles of his characters in both 2016 films made him an easy choice for this list. Given Gyllenhaal’s and Gordon-Levitt’s absence from the Oscar ceremonies, I just hope Garfield or Washington overtakes Casey Affleck for this award. Affleck does not really provide much emotional range in Manchester By The Sea, but merely looks unbelievably depressed at every moment. I don’t think that is as difficult as any of the five performances I put on this nomination.
Academy Comp: 2 of the 5 Oscar Best Actor Nominees
Also in Consideration: Adam Driver (Paterson), Tom Hanks (Sully), Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea), Jesse Eisenberg (Cafe Society)
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis (Fences)
Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson)
Greta Gerwig (20th Century Women)
Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
Janelle Monae (Hidden Figures)
The supporting actress race is pretty much a done deal at the Oscars, with Viola Davis the heavy favorite for her role in Fences, and while I did choose her for the win, I think it is a much tighter race. Both lead roles in Fences are almost perfect for awards consideration; they are so heavy on dialogue and emotion, and it would be difficult for a good actress in Davis’ role not to be nominated. But it is still a great performance, and while I don’t understand her character’s decisions she is much more likable than Denzel Washington’s character. Fences is the epitome of a movie focused on actors and not necessarily enjoyable entertainment.
I could have picked Naomie Harris for the win and felt just as good about my decision. Moonlight suffers in the acting categories (at least in my opinion) because the film is broken up into three parts and no actors accumulate much screen time. Harris is the only actor who appears in all three acts, giving more weight to her fantastically upsetting portrayal of an impoverished drug addict mother.
Octavia Spencer was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Hidden Figures, but I did not find her performance to be out of the ordinary. Janelle Monae was the standout supporting actor in the ensemble movie. Greta Gerwig portrays interesting characters in all of her movies, and she captures the imperfection and idiosyncrasies of her 20th Century Women persona better than any other actress I can think of. And Golshifteh Farahani, in the little film Paterson, steals her scenes with her quirks and unrestrained enthusiasm. She is the perfect response to the stoic nature of Adam Driver’s character, which is what helps makes the movie so good.
One word of note: Michelle Williams is not on this list, not because her performance in Manchester By The Sea wasn’t subjectively Oscar nom-worthy, but her screen time was so short that I did not consider it appropriate. I don’t see why Viola Davis should have to compete with Williams when she exceptionally played her character for over an hour longer.
Academy Comp: 2 of the 5 Oscar Best Supporting Actress Nominees
Also in Consideration: Michelle Williams (Manchester By The Sea), Lucy Boynton (Sing Street), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them), Nicole Kidman (Lion)
Best Supporting Actor
Adam Driver (Silence)
Ben Foster (Hell or High Water)
Dev Patel (Lion)
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals)
Ashton Sanders (Moonlight)
The Supporting Actor category is where I really start disagreeing with the Academy. The films represented on this list correspond with four of the five Oscar choices in the category, but I picked different actors in three of those films. Still, the one that stands out the most is Dev Patel’s role as adult Saroo in Lion. His role obsessively searching for his biological family (and the hugely emotional ending) makes him an easy choice.
With the exception of Lead Actress, I thought this was the deepest category. It was apparently a huge surprise that Aaron Taylor-Johnson was nominated (and then won) at the Golden Globes for his role in Nocturnal Animals, but I thought his performance was much better than that of his Oscar-nominated costar, Michael Shannon. And, to reiterate, that dark scene on the side of the highway is never not going to give me a sense of dread.
While Jeff Bridges turned in a very Jeff Bridges-type performance in Hell or High Water, it was Ben Foster who took over scenes as a criminal with a thick Southern drawl. His character had more layers (and showed more acting range) than Bridges’ character. Adam Driver was predictably memorable in Silence, an underachieving, exceptionally longer than necessary vehicle from Martin Scorsese. While I had a lot of problems with this movie, the acting was not one of them. Driver and Andrew Garfield were stellar.
Lastly, Moonlight is full of great performances. The film is broken up into three different periods of the protagonist’s (Chiron’s) life. So, none of the male actors are in more than a third of the movie. As good as Mahershala Ali’s performance as Juan may be, he was a supporting actor in a 30 minute section of a movie. Besides, the most memorable Moonlight performance came from Ashton Sanders, who plays Chiron as a teenager. He deals with a lot of terrible things, and the emotion on his face amplifies the horrors he endures from family and bullies.
Academy Comp: 1 of the 5 Oscar Best Supporting Actor Nominees
Also in Consideration: Sunny Pawar (Lion), Jack Reynor (Sing Street), Woody Harrelson (The Edge of Seventeen), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), Hugo Weaving (Hacksaw Ridge), Daniel Radcliffe (Swiss Army Man), Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals), Jovan Adepo (Fences)
Best Director
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Garth Davis (Lion)
Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge)
Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)
Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)
This group of five was an easy call. La La Land is so unique, so well-made, so well-directed, that it would be a huge shame if Damien Chazelle did not win for this category. People can make up a whole list of reasons why La La Land shouldn’t win a lot of awards (mainly just because it is the frontrunner), but if it received only one Oscar it should be this one.
Directing Lion could have been incredibly difficult. Half of the movie centers on a child actor in his first screen performance, and much of the other half includes scenes where the main character stares at Google Earth on his computer screen. On paper, that shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, and Garth Davis played a big part of that.
Likewise, Barry Jenkins took a story demanding many major acting parts, and managed to shine a light on many different issues. He shot the film at the actual locations described in the screenplay. He made Moonlight as authentic and impeccable as possible.
Denis Villeneuve directed my favorite movie of the year, which typically is enough to ensure a nomination for best director, but his ability to ground the sci-fi Arrival in fact and a sense of reality pushed the film to even greater heights. Mel Gibson, as much as I cannot stand the man, successfully directed a good war movie. To my novice mind, war movies seem like some of the hardest to direct, given the sheer quantity of extras, explosions, and CGI, so Gibson deserves a spot on this list too.
Academy Comp: 4 (!!) of the 5 Oscar Best Director Nominees
Also in Consideration: Richard Linklater (Everybody Wants Some!!), John Carney (Sing Street), Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals)
Best Original Screenplay
Hell or High Water
La La Land
The Nice Guys
Paterson
Sing Street
Sing Street wins this category, thanks to its ability to fully immerse the audience into life in Ireland for a poor, creative teenager. La La Land and Paterson may not have a lot of depth to their screenplay, but their larger points and their attention to details give them a quality few films can claim. The Nice Guys was, in my opinion, the funniest movie of the year. It managed to stay fresh and funny throughout, instead of starting with a good concept and flailing through the third act. Finally, Hell or High Water was a straightforward Western that managed to be different from its genre predecessors thanks to a compelling and efficient plot.
Academy Comp: 2 of the 5 Oscar Original Screenplay Nominees
Also in Consideration: 20th Century Women, Hacksaw Ridge, Miss Sloane, Everybody Wants Some!!
Best Adapted Screenplay
Arrival
Hidden Figures
Lion
Moonlight
Nocturnal Animals
I’ve nominated all my Adapted Screenplay nominees for Best Picture (the Academy has done the same). I will always love an intellectual sci-fi thriller, and Arrival is an easy choice to win this category. It is so smartly written, with a mind-bending but realistic twist. The film’s ability to take an overused concept (contact with aliens) and use it in a completely original way makes it stand out from all other extra-terrestrial-related movies from the 21st century.
My praises to the other films equate to this category as well. Hidden Figures and Moonlight are made wholly interesting for being smart and educational while retaining entertainment and emotion. Lion is so emotionally powerful throughout the film, without losing any of its innocence and authenticity. And Nocturnal Animals kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end with its detailed plot and incendiary dialogue.
Academy Comp: 4 of the 5 Oscar Adapted Screenplay Nominees
Also in Consideration: Sully, Snowden, Jackie
Best Cinematography
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Lion
Silence
La La Land could sweep the technical categories and I would not mind. Emmanuel Lubezki, who has won in this Oscars category three years a row for The Revenant, Birdman, and Gravity (but did not work on a movie released this year), is finally letting other people have a crack at a Cinematography Oscar. Certainly, La La Land is incredibly well-shot, especially in the opening number (see above), the dance scene with the sunset in the background, and the dream sequence at the end of the film.
Silence is another one to watch for, I’d give it second place on this list. The movie itself had its dull moments and was far too long, unlike most of Martin Scorsese’s films, but the cinematography and production design is top notch with some amazing camera angles (ex. Christians on the cross in the Pacific Ocean, as seen in the trailer if you don’t want to watch the movie).
Academy Comp: 4 of the 5 Oscar Cinematography Nominees
Best Production Design
Arrival
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Silence
Sing Street
This is Arrival‘s fourth and last win in my Oscars. I just love the design of this film, from the alien ship to the military base to the short scenes that Amy Adams’ character envisions. It is hard not to choose La La Land or Silence as well, given their high quality of filmmaking.
Academy Comp: 2 of the 5 Oscar Production Design Nominees
Best Score/Music
Everybody Wants Some!!
La La Land
Sing Street
Swiss Army Man
20th Century Women
Well, this is a really easy category. I have combined the Original Score and Original Song Oscar categories, but I’ve warped the meaning. This category considers all of the music and its use in the movie, rather than exclusively original music. Everybody Wants Some!!, for example, is a great example of a Richard Linklater movie that uses songs (in this case from 1980) that transport you into that time period (just like Dazed and Confused). Quentin Tarantino is another director who is great at this, and they deserve some sort of commendation for their use of music in their films.
But, it’s hard not to pick La La Land for this category. Swiss Army Man‘s original score is bizarrely fascinating (just like the movie) and definitely underrated, and Sing Street is just as adept as La La Land in making the audience enjoy the music, even if it’s not exactly the genre they would normally listen to. The songs in La La Land and how they are utilized through the movie, however, place it head and shoulders over the competition. The songs “Audition” and “City of Stars,” in particular, are great representations of the movie itself and musicals done right.
Academy Comp: Just La La Land from Original Score and Original Music Oscar categories
Best Costume/Makeup
Café Society
Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them
Free State of Jones
Jackie
La La Land
Oh, the colors. La La Land wins this category thanks to the sheer brightness of its characters. Emma Stone’s dresses, the various bright shades of all the supporting characters and extras, and the elegant but simplistic style running throughout the movie make this one more easy choice for La La Land. The other four movies do a great job transporting the audience into their time period, purely through dress and makeup (again, I’m combining two Oscar categories).
Academy Comp: 3 of the 5 Oscar Costume Design Nominees
Best Visual Effects
Arrival
Doctor Strange
Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them
The Jungle Book
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
While there were no truly groundbreaking visual effects triumphs last year, I really enjoyed the effects in Doctor Strange. The weird meta reality of the Doctor Strange world does not really work without cool impossible visuals, and the film does a great job of making them look semi-realistic. The Jungle Book was also very interesting, as a live-action movie with almost exclusively CGI characters.
Best Film Editing
Arrival
Hell or High Water
La La Land
The Nice Guys
Swiss Army Man
Now, I don’t claim to know much about this category (or any of the technical categories, really). But I can see that a movie like Silence is the opposite of good film editing, while these movies utilize the best of filming to formulate the most streamlined and exciting movies possible. Hell or High Water does that; it never feels dull or unnecessarily rushed and each scene retains the style of the film. Swiss Army Man does the same, retaining its, uh, unorthodox manner without overdoing it. Arrival, La La Land, and The Nice Guys feature zero unnecessary or choppy scenes, are never dull, and are always entertaining.
So that’s it. Far too long, yes, but a long-planned response to the movies of 2016. If I’ve convinced you to watch one movie, than it will be worth it.
Music, Movies, and More! 