I just saw Spotlight last night – it’s now available for streaming from Amazon.
It’s an excellent, powerful film. I’m no critic…I just know what I like; and I still like Big Short the most. But this is definitely the kind of film that the academy loves, and I would pick it in an Oscar pool.
I don’t know. Mad Max was creative and inventive in terms of world-building, and was an amazing spectacle of intricately choreographed mayhem. The fact that it was done almost entirely with practical, vs. CGI, effects adds to the amount of respect it deserves as a film-making achievement. Then you add the “political” stuff - strong female hero, environmental message - it certainly has an argument for being in the top 5.
While I adored Brooklyn, for all it’s charm and wit it’s still a rather sentimental love triangle / woman becoming independent story. Nothing groundbreaking that I would consider Best Picture-worthy.
If I had to narrow the list to five, I would exclude Brooklyn (sob!) and Bridge of Spies first. After that the decision gets a lot harder. Maybe Max, but only because it’s such a strong year for good movies. I’d be tempted to drop The Martian instead.
OK, I’m done.
Saw **Brooklyn **this evening. Extremely well-done in every aspect, the Best Picture nomination well-deserved. Not a sub-par performance on the screen, and a tight, entertaining, and believable screenplay.
My final scorecard:
(listed in order of preference)
The Revenant ****
Brooklyn ****
Room ****
Spotlight ****
The Big Short ****
The Martian ***1/2
Bridge of Spies ***1/2
Mad Max: Fury Road ***
It was a very good year. /Sinatra
mmm
Night two of AMCBPS.
Brooklyn: this was tough to evaluate, but 74. Saoirse Ronan and the production were fantastic, but the story was a bit meh.
Spotlight: 87. Really well done, other than Mark Ruffalo’s overacting.
The Martian: 70. I read the book, so no surprises; also, about the same score I would have given Gravity, a similar tale.
The Revenant: completely ambivalent here. Astonishing cinematography, amazing acting, and a large dose of torture porn (well, not like an Eli Roth movie is torture porn, but basically a barrage of unremitting pain, spurting blood, and Foley artists hard at work cutting into gristly things). All that said, there was more of Lubezki than I realized in Tree of Life.
Wait, was I the only one who didn’t realize that the Tom McCarthy who directed Spotlight was the same guy who played the skeevy reporter in the last season of The Wire? I mean, that’s kind of awesome.
Seen:
Spotlight (Should win Best Picture. It’s about a story no one wanted to mention, so I think the film about the story shouldn’t be forgotten about either.)
Mad Max (Silently rooting for this too. Why not have a fun film win for once?)
The Martian (A great adaptation with a great new epilogue)
I’m watching Room tonight and I know it will make me very angry, as these stories always do. Maybe I’ll switch to watching Brooklyn instead.
Didn’t see the rest of the BP noms, but saw many of the other nominated films. Hoping Ex Machina wins Original Screenplay.