Oscars Pool Cheat Sheet 2014

Need help filling out your Oscars pool ballot? Tuesday Night Movies has you covered!

oscars statues

Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o from 12 Years a Slave pulls a win over Jennifer Lawrence.

Supporting Actor: I feel like Jared Leto has a lock on this one.

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Actor: See what I wrote about Leto for Supporting Actor, but replace his name with Matthew McConoughey.

Actress: Oscars 101: Never bet against Meryl Streep. Except this year. Bet against Meryl Streep. August: Osage County has been panned, and everyone seems to adore Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine. Cate Blanchett with the win as the David to Streep’s Goliath.

Adapted Screenplay: 12 Years A Slave, though I’d personally like to see Philomena take it.

Original Screenplay: Her. This seems to be as much a lock as the male acting categories.

Director: Cross out all choices except for Cuaron and McQueen. Now flip a coin. Or go with Cuaron. I’m going with Cuaron.

Best Picture: Again, I think it’s Gravity vs 12 Years a Slave. While I think Cuaron will beat out McQueen in the directing category, I think 12 Years a Slave will take home Best Picture. As long as American Hustle doesn’t win, I’m happy.

12 years a slave poster

Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezski – Gravity

Editing: This is another one that I think will come down to either 12 Years a Slave or Gravity. Like Director, I think this one will fall to Gravity’s side.

Score: Gravity

Song: I LOVE Pharrell’s Happy, but Let it Go from Frozen is a juggernaught that can’t be stopped. Let it Go – Frozen.

Foreign Language Film: The Great Beauty – Italy.

Documentary Feature: 20 Feet from Stardom

Animated Feature: Frozen with a lock.

Documentary Short: The Lady in Number 6

Live Action Short: Just Before Losing Everything

Animated Short: Get a Horse! – More like get a broom; Disney sweeps animation this year.

GET A HORSE!

Make-Up: Dallas Buyer’s Club, though I would love for Bad Grandpa to be able to call itself “Oscar Award Winning Movie Bad Grandpa!”

bad grandpa

Costume Design: The Great Gatsby

Production Design: The Great Gatsby

Sound Mixing: Gravity

Sound Editing: Gravity

Visual Effects: Gravity

GRAVITY

Dallas Buyers Club – Review

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Like almost every other Best Picture nominee this year, Dallas Buyers club is a very dark movie. Also like many of the other of this year’s Best Picture nominees, this movie is based on true events.

Dallas Buyers Club tells the story of Ron Woodroof, a good ole boy from Texas. Ron is one hard partying homophobe. When he’s not hustling at the rodeo, he’s busy having sex, drinking and doing drugs. Unfortunately, his party boy lifestyle lands him with HIV.

Ron contracted HIV at a time when it was still widely misunderstood to be a disease that only infected homosexuals. Ron even flies off on his doctor, taking his HIV diagnosis as an affront to his manhood, which Ron really ties with his heterosexuality.

Given a 30 day death prediction from his doctor, Ron’s hustler instinct takes over, as he bribes his way into stolen AZT, a then experimental drug. When his AZT supply dries up, Ron makes a trip to Mexico that alters his life and sets him on a new direction of supplying medication to HIV patients (for a tidy profit, of course).

dallas buyers club ron woodroof

It’s amazing how much weight Matthew McConoughey lost to play Ron Woodruff. The man is gaunt! It’s jarring to see McConoughey this skinny. McConoughey really disappears into the role of Woodruff. McConoughey was fantastic in The Wolf of Wall Street, but that was McConoughey being McConoughey being someone else. But here, he seems like a completely different person. I know McConoughey seems to be the favorite for Best Actor heading into the Oscars, but after watching Dallas Buyers Club, I’d give the award to Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave. That”s not a knock against McConoughey at all. I just liked Ejiofor so much in 12 Years a Slave.

Likewise, while Jared Leto is amazing as Rayon, but I’d give the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Michael Fassbender for 12 Years a Slave.

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My favorite scene in Dallas Buyers Club is when Ron, while shopping with Rayon, runs into Tucker, his former best friend, in the supermarket. Tucker pretty much abandoned Ron when Ron was diagnosed, and is shocked to see Ron still alive. Tucker’s nice enough here to Ron, but then makes a disparaging homophobic comment about Rayon that sets Ron off. Ron grapples Tucker and forces him to apologize to Rayon. This scene was great because who doesn’t like to see a bigot gets his comeuppance, and also it showed Ron’s growth. The Ron a the beginning of the movie would have been making the same homophobic digs at Rayon that Tucker did. But Ron’s grown. Rayon’s not just his business partner. Rayon’s his friend, which is awesome when you think about who Ron was at the start of the film.

Overall, Dallas Buyers Club is a very good movie, but for me, Mud remains the 2013 Matthew McConoughey movie to watch.

12 Years A Slave – Review

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Before I saw 12 Years a Slave, I did not know that it was based on a true story, and I’m suspecting I’m not alone. Because of this, this movie is doing the American public a service, bringing to light once more a terrible story that needs to be told.

Chietwel Ejiofor is simply amazing in 12 Years a Slave. He brings gravitas to every scene. His vocal inflection in every line of dialog carries so much meaning. He is my pick for the Best Actor Oscar.

12 Years a Slave is a great movie, though it can be very hard to watch at points. I physically winced during Eliza’s whipping. At the same time, it was such a great scene. Epps can’t bring himself to whip Eliza, so he forces Solomon to do it. It turns Epps into a weakling and a monster all in the same scene. Michael Fassbender should win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar on the strength of this scene alone.

My favorite scene in the entire movie is when Solomon has to talk his way out of being killed by Epps in the middle of the night. Solomon is ratted out on a plan to escape to freedom, but instead of fighting or fleeing, he uses his wits to stay alive. He even turns the table on his accuser, causing Epps to mistrust that man. Part of the strength of the scene came from the proximity of the actors. Fassbender literally has his arm around Ejiofor for the length of the scene. Solomon is a turn of the knife away from being in the grave the entire time he’s pleading his case.

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I think part of what makes 12 Years a Slave works so well is that it humanizes even the vilest of villains. By humanize, I don’t mean it excuses their behavior. But the movie does an excellent job of showing the origins of their motivation. Paul Dano’s Tibeats is an out and out racist, there’s no denying that, but the movie shows him also operating out of jealously. When he turns his malicious attention to Solomon, it’s because Solomon managed to impress Tibeats’s boss more than Tibeats could.

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Between the one-two punch of There Will Be Blood and 12 Years a Slave, Paul Dano might be the most effective movie villain out there. I’m fairly certain that going forward, my skin will crawl the minute he appears on screen. It’s weird that he played such a quiet character in Little Miss Sunshine, because when I think of him, all I can picture is him howling in There Will be Blood or 12 Years a Slave.

With the exception of Brad Pitt’s character and the doctor that comes to rescue Solomon, every white person in this movie is an asshole. Some are better than others, but the best of them, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Ford, while easily the most genial slave owner in the movie, turns out to be a coward, and let’s not forget, still a slave owner.

When I walked into 12 Years A Slave, I worried that the movie would be another Hotel Rwanda, a great movie but one I’d never want to watch again. However, after watching 12 Years A Slave, I’d gladly watch it again, because it is a masterpiece. I keep going back and forth on which I think should win the Oscar, 12 Years A Slave or Gravity. Today it’s 12 Years a Slave.