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.