New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

I was very happy to see Hans Zimmer’s dazzling Interstellar score getting in, as it seemed the movie was teetering on the brink of extinction, but it did manage five nods in the technical categories. Alexandre Desplat, as expected, got two nominations for his Grand Budapest and Imitation Game scores - he has never won despite brilliant scores like The Queen and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, not to mention Zero Dark Thirty. This may not be his year if his votes cancel each other out, and he faces stiff competition from the Imitation Game score.

The fifth score to get in was Mr. Turner’s, over my pick of Trent Reznor’s Gone Girl. Indeed, Gone Girl was essentially shut out of contention except for the deserved Rosamund Pike Best Actress nod. They just don’t like David Fincher that much, do they?

Looking Ahead

So there you have it, folks. Boyhood’s six nominations will face off against Birdman and The Imitation Game, with American Sniper and The Grand Budapest Hotel making a serious try for the top prize. It is hard to fault the Academy a lot of its choices. I have always felt that complaints about “they’re too snobby” or “they’re not snobby” enough miss the point in many ways - the Oscar race is not about quality first and foremost. It is about popularity, campaigns, politics, and buzz. Quality plays a part for sure, but it is hardly the major factor.

Indeed, even in the tech categories the Academy routinely rewards a less deserving movie that they like a lot but cannot find space for in major categories. Expect this to happen this year in categories from Score to Cinematography to Art Direction.

But, truly, complaints about “their” tastes really ignores that much of it is dictated by critics (so question their tastes too, please) and audiences (another group with questionable tastes). Perhaps it is better to simply recognize that we each have our own eclectic, individual tastes, and that the Academy’s choices are fun to watch and guess and even stress over, but in the end they’re just someone else’s (the industry’s? the moment’s?) snapshot of a second in time.

Despite all of my defense of the Academy, which I have kept up against doubters and naysayers for years, this year poses a particular challenge. In a year when so many movies were made across the country and across the globe that did not feature the usual narrative of the supposedly flawed hero overcoming his shortcomings to save the girl, or the world, or himself, or all of the above, the Academy’s choices - essentially all of them - stuck to that narrative.

Just look at the Best Actress and Actor races. Of the Actress nominees, one is in a Best Picture contender (and a third-tier one at that). Of the Acting nominees, four of them are, and, again, Foxcatcher narrowly missed. So it is.

In the next weeks, I will offer in depth analysis of each category and my thoughts on where they are going. I will also offer my own, very personal, list of top ten movies of the year. I expect a fun third and final phase.

Continued:       1       2       3