The List Hero View: The Oscars

In case you haven't heard, the Oscars were held last night.  Ellen DeGeneres took a selfie that contained a celebrity net worth of over a billion dollars; a photo that was so popular, apparently, that it caused a Twitter meltdown.  Leonardo Di Caprio, yet again, had to put on a fake smile as somebody waltzed away with his Academy Award.  And Steve McQueen was robbed of becoming the first black director to win the top directing award.

So, here are the results, and whether or not I agreed....

Best Picture • 12 Years a Slave
Do I agree?  Yes.  Among a selection of great films, this was certainly a worthy winner.

Best Actor in a Leading Role • Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Do I agree?  Yes.  Sorry Mr Di Carpio but this was the performance of a lifetime.

Best Actress in a Leading Role • Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Do I agree?  Yes.  To be honest, nobody else came close.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role • Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Do I agree?  Yes.  This was easily the strongest acting category, with solid performances from Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street, Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave and Somalia's Burkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips. However, Leto's performance alongside Michael McConaughey as an aids-riddled transvestite is truly exceptional.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role • Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
Do I agree?  Probably.  Despite an outstanding performance in the year's best film, Jennifer Lawrence's performance in American Hustle went some way towards carrying that particular film and was my personal favourite.  However, it can't be denied that Nyong'o is excellent in 12 Years.

Best Animated Feature • Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho)
Do I agree?  Absolutely not.  Hated this movie from start to finish.  Anything else would have been preferable, especially the Academy-snubbed Monster University.

Best Cinematography • Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Do I agree?  Nope.  12 Years a Slave was the most beautiful film of 2013.

Best Costume Design • The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)
Do I agree?  No.  American Hustle did a fantastic job of transporting audiences back to the 70s and should have grabbed this award.

Best Directing • Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
Do I agree?  No.  Despite its admirable technical achievements, I cannot support a film that is so utterly boring.  Steve McQueen should have picked up the award, or Martin Scorsese (but I'm always biased towards Scorsese).

Best Foreign Language Film • The Great Beauty (Italy)
Do I agree?  No.  I could not get on with this film at all.  For me, it had to be Denmark's The Hunt.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling • Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews)
Do I agree?  Yes.  Although many would have wanted American Hustle (which, bizarrely, wasn't even nominated) to win, the detail on Jared Leto's make-up is outstanding, especially as the character falls deeper into the clutches of the Aids virus.

Best Original Song • Let It Go - Frozen
Do I agree?  No.  Cheese-on-toast.

Best Visual Effects • Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould)
Do I agree?  Yes.  Obviously.

Top 13 films of 2013

For once, I don't have an outright favourite movie from last year, which is surprising because it wasn't a particularly strong year for film.  There was, however, a strong selection at the top of the pile, all with different strengths, and I really can't separate them.  So my top 4 are all equal...

1. The Wolf of Wall Street.  The slickest, most fun film of the year.
=  12 Years a Slave.  A masterpiece that will go down as one of the all-time greats.
=  Captain Phillips.  By far the most tense film of the year.
=  Dallas Buyers Club.  An acting masterclass.

5.  Behind the Candelabra.  A brilliant character development with amazing acting.
6.  The Hunt.  My favourite foreign language film of the year.  Shocking and hard to watch at times.
7.  The Way Way Back.  The year's (if not the decade's) most uplifting movie.
8.  Blue is the Warmest Colour.  An amazing character study with (lengthy) scenes of a sexual nature.

9.  Monsters University.  Mike and Sulley return for more Pixar goodness.
10.  Despicable Me 2.  Minion madness.  I thought this was hilarious.
11.  Lovelace.  A decent biopic of seventies porn-star Linda Lovelace.

12.  American Hustle.  Jennifer Lawrence.  Enough said.
13.  Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.  Norwich's finest export finally hits the big screen. 

The 67th BAFTAs - I generally concur

The 67th British Academy Film Awards more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 16 February 2014 honouring the best national and foreign films of 2013.

Although I personally believe that some of the nominations were lacking some of the best films and performances, the awards generally appeared to go to worthy winners.

Here's my view...

Best Documentary:  The Act of Killing

One of the most creative, artistic and downright shocking documentaries I've ever seen.  A film that's will stay with you for days.  Documentary maker, Joshua Oppenheimer, put a lot on the line in the making of this film as he meets a former Indonesian killing squad who went on to establish a powerful right-wing political organisation.  A worthy winner.  Good to see that Black Fish was also a nominee.

Best Supporting Actress:  Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn Rosenfeld, American Hustle

The beautiful Miss Lawrence would certainly be my choice for the award this year.  Although I didn't particularly love American Hustle, Lawrence was the standout performance.  Bringing a huge dash of humour to the role of Christian Bale's neglected wife, Lawrence shows again that she is one of the most versatile acting ladies on the planet.  One of many gongs to come her way no doubt.

Best Supporting Actor:  Barkhad Abdi as Abduwali Muse, Captain Phillips 

Great to see a Somali on my blog!  I can't believe that I still haven't seen Captain Phillips!  However, in this category is a list of nominees that I'm really impressed with:

Daniel Brühl – Rush as Niki Lauda

Bradley Cooper – American Hustle as Richie DiMaso

Matt Damon – Behind the Candelabra as Scott Thorson

Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave as Edwin Epps

Abdi's fellow nominees are all excellent in their roles, although I'm disappointed that there's no Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) or Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), and I was particularly pleased to see Matt Damon in there (Behind the Candelabra is one of my favourite films of the year).  Thus, in such a tough category, Abdi must have given some performance!  I'm really looking forward to seeing Captain Phillips.

Best Actress in a lead role:  Cate Blanchett as Jasmine Francis, Blue Jasmine

Despite the controversy that has been surrounding Woody Allen since the Golden Globes, there can be no doubting that Cate Blanchett's performance in Blue Jasmine (written and directed by Allen) is outstanding.  Compared to her fellow nominees, there is not even the slightest competition.  Some may lay claim to the idea that Sandra Bullock's one-woman-show in Gravity is award worthy but, quite frankly, I found 2 hours of floating around in space a little dull.  On a personal note, I would have loved to have seen a little more love for Blue is the Warmest Color's Adele Exarchopoulos, who is quite excellent in the multi-award-winning French flick.

Best Actor in a lead role:  Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, 12 Years a Slave 

Very disappointed that there was no nomination for Matthew McConaughey for his work on Dallas Buyers Club.  However, if the award went to anyone else then it had to be Chiwetel or Leonardo Di Caprio for The Wolf of Wall Street.  With every one of Chiwetel's facial expressions you feel the pain or other emotion that his wrongly enslaved character is feeling.  A worthy winner.

Best Director:  Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Whilst I can't deny the artistic achievements of this film, I cannot agree with this award for one simple reason:  the movie bored the socks off me!  The film was produced in Britain so no great surprise that it won 6 BAFTAs (double the amount of its nearest rival).

Best Film:  12 Years a Slave

Beautiful direction, superb acting, and powerful music all add up to the fact that 12 Years a Slave is the best film of 2013.  Great stories are often told on the cinema screen, but can be let down by terrible scripts, poor acting, sloppy directors, or cheesy music.  This film isn't.  It's cinema perfection and a worthy winner.  Very disappointed with the list of fellow nominees for this award; no Wolf of Wall Street, Behind the Candelabra or Dallas Buyers Club, the two films that even come close to 12 Years a Slave, so this award was never really in doubt.

So, overall, good work British Academy.  You may have missed a few key nominations but your gang of winners is a respectable bunch.  Well done.