Each month I will be rounding up the most likely Oscars 2015 and Razzie nominees. This month’s focus is Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest effort Inherent Vice, and Ava DuVernay’s chances with Selma. Also studied is I, Frankenstein, a definitive attempt to end any chance of considering Frankenstein as a potential movie franchise, and Aaron Eckhart as a once-bankable star.
Paul Thomas Anderson may be one of the most talented, and ingenious, directors working today. From his exceptional early hit Boogie Nights to later Oscar contenders Magnolia, The Master and There Will Be Blood and his extremely excellent Adam-Sandler-in-a-serious-role hit Punch Drunk Love, Anderson has consistently hit the mark of excellence. Alongside the late, great (and sorely missed) Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Anderson also had a constant collaborator who truly understood his vision. Inherent Vice – like There Will be Blood – is a film made without Hoffman’s presence, and like There Will be Blood, it is somewhat unusual at first to see the director without his star (much like Big Eyes – the Tim Burton film without Depp or Bonham-Carter, which is actually a nice change from the ever-present, ever-disappointing Johnny Depp freight train).
Based on a novel by Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice is, like Magnolia, an ensemble-cast film of heavyweight proportions. Featuring Anderson’s recent muse Joaquin Phoenix, Hunger Games star Jena Malone, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson and Benicio Del Toro, each actor serves up a distinctly unusual character in the paranoia-soaked haze of Pynchon’s 70’s California.
Reviews have been mainly positive, yet have contended with a series of critical and negative reviews. There is no doubting Paul Thomas Anderson’s talent, but Inherent Vice looks as if it wil have a lot to do if it expects to win an Oscar at all, especially in such a packed year. Anderson has too much competition to break into the Best Director category, and with the other categories already full, only Jena Malone really stands a great chance of being nominated. Which is not a slight on the film at all (Fincher’s Gone Girl is another great film from an exceptional talent this year that looks to be set to miss out) but rather a slight at the Academy’s desire to plump for a specific criteria of film.
As somewhat of a surprise contender, Ava DuVernay’s Selma has garnered the all-encompassing ‘awards season buzz’ that typical film critics look to, however, this buzz was particularly interesting as the film was only planned as a 30 minute preview at the AFI Film Festival, before scheduling changes allowed it to be shown in its entirety. DuVernay’s film expertly weaves around the obstacles imposed on usual big screen biopics and instead finds a human warmth in Martin Luther King that previous attempts have failed to capture.
Played by British actor David Oyelowo, Matin Luther King is portrayed in almost perfect fashion whilst also displaying the fragilities and cadence that make us all human, and it’s for those reasons that Oyelowo is likely to find himself nominated for Best Actor. Scriptwriter Paul Webb has a solid chance of nomination, whilst director Ava DuVernay has a spectacular chance of being the first African-American female to receive a Best Director nomination.
This year’s attempts to create a franchise included teenagers running through Mazes (the surprisingly good The Maze Runner), monsters fighting monsters (the superb Godzilla) and a futuristic Frankenstein (the awful I, Frankenstein). Over-reliant on CGI and under-reliant on Bill Nighy and Aaron Eckhart’s actual acting ability, this mess of a film follows Frankenstein’s attempts to overcome a series of plot-holes and poor directorial choices all the while battling demons to uncover the truth about his immortality. I, Frankenstein? I give up.
NEXT MONTH: Cake and Whiplash
Best Picture: Selma, Foxcatcher, Birdman, Boyhood, Interstellar, The Imitation Game, Inherent Vice, Wild, Boyhood, Still Alice
Best Director: Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), Ava Duvernay (Selma), Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman), Richard Linklater (Boyhood), Christopher Nolan (Interstellar)
Best Actor: Michael Keaton (Birdman), David Oyolewo (Selma), Steve Carrell (Foxcatcher), Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
Best Actress: Julianne Moore (Still Alice), Reese Witherspoon (Wild), Jena Malone (Inherent Vice), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl),
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton (Birdman), Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher), Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern (Wild), Emma Stone (Birdman), Particia Arquette (Boyhood), Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year), Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
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