The Academy didn’t nominate Inside Out. They are obviously idiots.

I feel like this blog post should be titled ‘The Academy didn’t nominate Inside Out. They are obviously idiots’. Oh wait, it is.

Still, I will handle it to the, they did manage to nominate eight good films without nominating something as awful and racist as American Sniper. So you know, one in the plus column with one in the minus column for the Academy there.

My take in alphabetical order on the nominees is below , a bit of a whistlestop because I’m being last minute again! But if you really don’t want to read through it all, I guess I would rank them thusly:

Brooklyn

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

Bridge of Spies

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Big Short

Which means, we are starting with my least favourite, The Big Short. Least favourite is definitely relative here, because I really, really enjoyed The Big Short, even if they did give Ryan Gosling a stupid haircut and a bad fake tan. Oh wait, that’s not what I’m supposed to be factoring in is it….

The Big Short definitely has a lot going for it, good performances, a well-crafted, witty and interesting script and some fairly snappy direction. But somehow, despite taking its subject reasonably seriously at the same time as being very entertaining, it all feels a bit hollow and flippant. It styles itself as pulling no punches, but its maybe not as brave as it could be. It dazzles and sizzles but doesn’t really get to the heart of the matter, leaving a bit of an empty, helpless anger rather than landing a killer blow. But hey, it’s still a good film, and an interesting way to tackle the story, it just seems to make The Wolf of Wall Street have considerable emotional depth. A movie I would definitely recommend to people, but Best Picture of the year (which it has an outside shot for), hmmm let’s move on.

Bridge of Spies is proper good grown-up Spielberg, if not quite in the same league as Lincoln. This is a film that is perfectly crafted, exciting, morally interesting and dramatic. But it is in the bottom half of my list because what makes it so good is also what means it doesn’t feel particularly groundbreaking. The joy comes from a fantastic story brilliantly, rather than innovatively told. I’ve already described just how good Rylance is, and Tom Hanks is the perfect movie star in the lead role.  It does mean that there aren’t really any more characters that really stand out, but those two more than make up for that. It feels like this year’s Argo (it’s probably a slightly better film on balance) but I don’t really see it winning.

I can’t put my finger on why Brooklyn is my favourite film of all those nominated. I’m sure a good 80% of that is down to Saoirse Ronan’s utterly amazing performance. There isn’t anything overtly special about it. But maybe that’s the thing, of all the things it is most rooted in ordinary people having ordinary experiences, yet it brings to life how much these can be the most interesting stories. It is universally well acted, with particular shout outs to Julie Walters  and Eva Birtwistle who makes a brief and memorable impression. It is also beautifully scripted and filmed, subtle and gorgeous at the same time. Eilish’s story feels universal and unique and it brings out every little emotion and heartbreak from human life without ever being introspective or indulgent. It is high class film making to carve out something so perfect as Brooklyn, and I really need to read the source material as I can only imagine that it had to originate out of a truly special book. So yeah, I liked this one, but sadly it’s got no chance of winning.

I’m not sure I have words for Mad Max: Fury Road. I feel like I should just review it with words like Boom! And Wow! And Crikey! (ok not crikey, crikey is an awful word). It is a visual and audio experience like little else and if it doesn’t win Best Editing, the Academy are officially the wrongiest.  It is a massively impressive cinematic experience that is properly mind-blowing. I suppose the only problem was occasionally it has to take a breath (definitely needed) and the script is a little ropey at these points, but it doesn’t really matter when there is a big car chase or spectacular stunt five seconds later. Best Film of the Year, hmmm not sure what it would be like in repeat viewing, and it’s probably one for the big screen only, so maybe not. Visual achievement of the not just year but decade. Maybe!

Ah, The Martian, how fun you were, a proper Hollywood blockbuster, an overstuffed cast of fantastic actors (please in future give the likes of Kristin Wiig and Jessica Chastain something real to do….), a proper adventure of a story and an enjoyable central performance. I don’t really have much bad to say about it (well one thing, what was with all the random crowd back on earth shots? They were so cheesy!), but I have to say I can’t say it stayed with me in the way that Brooklyn, The Revenant or Room did, and it didn’t have the wow factor of Mad Max.

It looks like The Revenant is going to win Best Picture, and there are definitely worse films that have won in the past – this is not last year when a really very good Inarritu film beat an absolutely incredible film. Much as I loved Birdman, The Revenant is 10 times the film. Epic and wild,  at every level full of the danger and rawness of the wilderness depicted. Even if it really does stretch the ability to suspend your disbelief to the limits (it has a gritty realness, but frankly Leonardo DiCaprio should have hypothermia about 17 times by the end of the film!), it is utterly compelling. It is proper film making with flair. From that opening attack on the camp onwards, my heart was in my mouth and it was a gruelling endurance test in the very best way. I think rarely has a film brought its environment in such a tangible way and it was as visually stunning its own way as Mad Max. If it lacked something, it was perhaps a real emotional connection or hook, particularly if compared to Brooklyn or Room, but the ambition and scale of the film makes it hard to criticise this. If it is to win Best Picture, then it is really deserved.

The fact that the makers of Room made such a dark film not feel as grim or gruelling as the Revenant is probably one of the reasons that it is one of the best films this year. I don’t think it is quite as uplifting or life-affirming as some critics suggested, I think the reality of the story is just too awful for it to be that. But it is a film that manages to find the hope in the darkness without seeming shallow, disingenuous or schmaltzy. The two leads are utterly compelling, and backed up by a wonderful supporting cast. Instead of going for the hysterical take on such a story, it grounds it in a very convincing portrayal of a mother and son and their relationship, in a way that makes us really see both the small world of ‘Room’ at the beginning, and the bigger wide world later on, as Jack must see it.  To see the world from the eyes of a child is a hard thing for a film to pull off, and to do it so believably from the eyes of a child who is in a situation none of us have been in, is something really special instead. It has an outside shot, and would be a worthy winner.

Finally, Spotlight, another film about a difficult, dark subject and also one about an important contemporary subject that provides a compelling, dramatic and interesting story.  It’s a complicated story to tell, but one that the filmmakers tackle in a direct and fearless way making best use of an excellent ensemble cast (to me the standouts are Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci). I think what it does so well (perhaps unlike The Big Short) is show the inter-complicity of the different institutions and how institutions and individuals can come together to perpetuate evils, but still allows for complexity and for a belief that things can actually change if they are properly addressed and confronted. Its ability to look at things in a complex but clear sighted way is what makes it such a good film and an important one. It’s another that has an outside shot at winning in what is a much wider field that in most years, and although not top of my list, it would be hard to say it didn’t deserve it.