Five Observations from The 86th Academy Awards

There are few events throughout the year that take over social media the way the Oscars do. For better or worse, the memes align and the snarky comments fill our feeds. Last night’s telecast, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, was no exception. The show met the Oscars status quo with predictable winners, standard acceptance speeches and an incredibly lengthy show. Here is what we took away from “Hollywood’s biggest night.”

1. No Surprising Winners. After watching the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards and half dozen other award shows recognizing the 2013 crop of films, obvious trends occur. Sure, it has happened that someone comes out of left field to win an Oscar. But when someone’s trophy case is filled in January and February and the audience has their acceptance speech memorized, it’s likely that they’re going to win with the Academy also. That was confirmed with Matthew McConaughey winning for Lead Actor, Jared Leto getting Supporting Actor and Cate Blanchett for Lead Actress. The one slight question mark between Jennifer Lawrence and Lupita Nyong’o fell the way it’s been leaning for a while, with Nyong’o. The two favorites in the film categories were also predictable. Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for Gravity and 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture.

2. Safe, but Still Funny. Seth McFarlane had the execs sweating bullets leading up to last year’s show, so the safer bet, Ellen DeGeneres, was given the nod to host this year. She didn’t do anything too crazy and wasn’t terribly mean to anybody, except Liza Minnelli. She was still quite funny though and will be remembered for two moments in particular. After joking about ordering pizza, she followed through by passing out slices to Brad Pitt, Martin Scorsese, Jared Leto and the rest of the star studded audience. It made them all look very human, which doesn’t usually happen at the tuxedo and limo filled Oscars. Ellen also attempted to stage a “selfie” with Meryl Streep, which quickly evolved into a more star studded photo. Channing Tatum, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt (he’s everywhere!) and a number of others jumped in. The result was the most retweeted image ever on Twitter. Sorry Barack Obama’s reelection tweet, you’ve got nothing on a picture that has Jennifer Lawrence and Angelina Jolie in it. Both these stunts started awkwardly, so it’s a credit to Ellen for making them work.

If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

3. Montages? After a low ratings year a few years back, the Academy made an attempt to appease more common moviegoers not interested in the indie fare that earns all the trophies. So themed video montages play a few times throughout the show with clips from popular franchises. This year’s “hero” theme played out like a half-executed prom theme that shows up nowhere except the invitations. The segments were well done, and it was fun seeing Harry Potter side by side with Iron Man and Indiana Jones, but they are absolutely unnecessary space fillers in a show that already runs way too long. This reminds me…

4. The Marathon of Awards Shows. Now I am quite a big fan of The Oscars. I look forward to the show and as a film blogger; I do my fair share of research. But I am not delusional. This show is too long. The red carpet ran for about two and a half hours. Then the show itself was three and a half hours. A person with a casual interest wasn’t making it through that. I don’t think there’s a ton in the show that could be cut, but those of us off the west coast have a late night on Oscar Sunday. Even moving it one hour earlier would make it more bearable.

5. It’s the Oscars! Sure, it isn’t the most accessible award show out there, and the movies represented aren’t that accessible either, but there is only one Academy Awards. An incredibly small sampling of actors, producers and others in the industry earned the highest honor someone involved in the silver screen could receive last night. Are there more important things in life than a golden statue voted on by a bunch of rich people living in the Hollywood sun? Absolutely, but it sure is fun watching people’s dreams come true and rooting for your favorite movies to win. So I’ll keep watching even if my favorite movies are only represented in out of context montages and dream casting presenter pairings. (Can someone make that Emma Watson- Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie happen please?

Let us know what you thought about the big show.

Top 10 Films of 2013

2013, just like every year, was filled with its share of stinkers released alongside some instant classics. But looking back at the list of reviews shows that even the best films don’t come across as very memorable. With the five arrow grading system, personal opinion is marginalized in order to create a more fair system. But months later when compiling a list like this, the memorability of the films often plays a big part to break any ties. In that regard this year’s list was more difficult to compile than previous years. Also, pinpointing the number one film has never been so difficult.

Our review total for the year fell just short of 2012 with 85. Last year there were 86. I knew missing that Metallica IMAX movie would come back to bite me. Out of those 85 the average rankings are slightly up from last year. Five films earned a perfect 5 arrows, 14 films earned 4.5 and 17 picked up 4 arrows. So there was definitely a healthy amount of strong movies in 2013. As is always the case, the latter part of the year brought the average up. So with a list that looks very different than a typical critic, here are the top 10 films of 2013.

(click titles to read full reviews.)

10. Captain Phillips

Those last scenes with the SEALS closing in on a resolution will earn Hanks a seat at a number of award shows, which frankly is a place he should be more often. This may not be the most glamorous credit on his résumé, but is intense and worthy of recognition.

9. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

At this point, we know what to expect in Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth. The slightly less dire circumstances in The Hobbit provide more opportunities for fun than LOTR, and they deliver in that regard. Plus the cliff-hanger ending in this one leaves a real intrigue for the final chapter next year.

8. The Way, Way Back

The conversations Duncan has are so painfully real, the audience can’t help but relate. He isn’t some muscle-bound actor that the directors throw some glasses on to convey awkwardness. Everything from Duncan’s slight hunch, to his awkward timing in conversations is spot on. I’ve seen my fair share of movies and I can’t recall another with dialogue this real.

7. Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim is the type of the movie that will inspire audiences by what can be done with a concept. All of Del Toro’s monster and horror movies come together in one of the most epic movies ever made. You read that right. This movie is a massive spectacle.

6. Much Ado About Nothing

It’s not all that common to have a writer/director come off one of the biggest films of all time (The Avengers) and dive successfully into a minuscule budgeted indie flick. But this is Joss Whedon we’re talking about. There’s a reason he is the champion of the comic-con crowd.

5. Ender's Game

Ender’s Game is book smart sci-fi for the modern age. It trades in blasters for drone warfare, which is something that seems more poignant in 2013 than it did in 1985 when the book was written. Visually impressive with a story to match, Ender’s Game snuck up on me 27 years in the making.

4. Lone Survivor

It should be remembered as one of the best military films of all time. Its story comes first. The film is shot beautifully, but that won’t be remembered in the face of the true story.

3. Don Jon

The way the script addresses pornography in mainstream culture isn’t preachy in the least, but it still gets a point across about separating one’s thoughts from gender stereotypes. Don Jon sends a message that Hollywood (and western culture in general) needs to hear. And it all came from the pen of the long-haired kid in “3rd Rock From the Sun.”

2. Gravity

Gravity is an emotional ride with an accessible presentation that gives it the rare feat of appealing to film purists and interesting the masses. So maybe I won’t ever go to space, but at least this movie told me what it’s actually like. I didn’t see a single Wookie in there.

1. The Wolf of Wall Street

DiCaprio gives a strong performance that is on par with the year’s best. The character is so intense and full of negative traits, it’s a testament to DiCaprio that the audience still cares about him. For Martin Scorsese, following up the child filled ode to film, Hugo with the drug-filled orgy that is The Wolf of Wall Street may seem like a strange choice. But one look through his filmography and it’s a transition that makes perfect sense.

Honorable Mention: The Remaining films that scored a 4.5

11.American Hustle

12. 12 Years a Slave

13. Rush

14. Man of Steel

15. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

16. Oblivion

17. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

18. The Great Gatsby

Please leave your top ten list in the comments and let us know why you liked what you did.

86th Academy Award Nominations: Who Got the Nod?

Oscar nomination morning is a bit more bearable for us on the east coast. That 5:30 AM PT start can be rough for the Cali-folk. But Thor made it there, or more accurately Chris Hemsworth, to announce the nominees for the 86th Academy Awards along with Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs. The announcement is nothing to write home about. They get immediately to the point and were done in about 10 minutes. It’s the complete antithesis of the award show itself which is quite long-winded. So enough babbling, who was nominated?

For the big prize of Best Picture, nine films were nominated. As always a number of them don’t stand a chance. 12 Years a Slave just won the Golden Globe, so they have to be the front runner at this point. After them it’s anybody’s guess. The hype for Gravity has waned a bit, but they, along with American Hustle and Her probably have the most realistic chances. The initiative put in place a few years ago to add nominees to this category to make room for mainstream films like The Dark Knight seems to have failed again. Gravity was a huge hit, but no action blockbusters turn up. Remember when Inception was nominated? That was fun.

In the acting categories there is a large variety of dynamics at play. For lead actor, only Christian Bale has won before so it’s possible we see another big star earn the trophy. Matthew McConaughey won the Globe and has a good chance of carrying the whole award season, but Chiwetel Ejiofor can’t be overlooked. How about Leonardo DiCaprio who, believe it or not, has never won an Oscar? He also won a Globe and is my current pick to take this category. For lead actress, your guess is as good as mine. Meryl Streep always has an above average chance of winning. But Amy Adams, Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench winning each have a nice ring to it. I wouldn’t be surprised with any of them to be honest. My pick is Adams, who is overdue.

Supporting actor always ends up being the most fun category. Jared Leto is the favorite for Dallas Buyers Club, but there are a number of names that interest the casual viewer. Jonah Hill adds a second nomination to his ever expanding career that began with teen comedies. Plus the well-liked Michael Fassbender and Bradley Cooper got their tickets punched to try and earn their first Oscars. The newcomer, Barkhad Abdi, from Captain Phillips is also a great story coming from Somalia to America and making a name for himself. Supporting actress is almost as much of a guessing game as lead actress. I’m anticipating it to come down to a battle between the current it-girl, Jennifer Lawrence, and the former it-girl turned superstar Julia Roberts. Can Lawrence repeat as an Oscar winner in her downtime from making blockbuster franchise films? Yes, I think she can and then her world takeover will be complete.

For a complete list of the nominees, click here. The Oscars air march 2nd on ABC and will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. Be sure to check back with What’s Up Movement as we will be covering the entire award season. Then tune in and see just how wrong my predictions are.

71st Golden Globes Recap: SNL Steals the Show

Was it just me or were the 71st Golden Globe Awards pretty awesome. They were um, well… I just… This is… I can’t… Woo I’m so nervous. I’d like to thank my dog groomer and um… Okay, they want me to wrap it up now.

I have just summed up 90% of the acceptance speeches from the Golden Globe winners. Sure the alcohol is flowing at the Globes, but who was the bartender, the Wolf of Wall Street, because everyone seemed to fall into an incoherent stooper. It was kind of fun when Jennifer Lawrence did it, but by the time Jon Voight did, enough was enough.

This ceremony marks the opening of award season. Sorry People’s Choice Awards, you don’t count. Hosted by returning funny women Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, they set the tone for what turned into a night full of SNL love and some good old’ celebrity roasting. Their open was very funny. The most memorable moment was when Poehler referred to Matt Damon’s star power in the room of A-listers as being that of a garbage person. It was a good joke, but the whole night had a theme of insulting Damon for some reason. The guy is a good sport, so that’s probably why. He was the logical option since the usually game Tom Hanks, didn’t seem to be feeling it last night and Leonardo DiCaprio has an almost Jedi like aura surrounding him. Even the unflappable Ryan Seacrest seemed slightly off when interviewing him on the red carpet.

Before we get to the awards, it’s worth noting who exactly is giving out these awards. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is a group of foreign journalists who cover Hollywood movies and TV shows. That is legitimate enough. But there are less than 100 members of this group. Remember statistics class? That sample size isn’t that big. So that would be why the Globes always seem to get some wonky winners compared to the other award shows. That isn’t a complaint; it actually makes it more fun. By the time the Oscars come around, almost everyone knows who will probably win. Not the case here. Plus with awards for comedy/musical in addition to drama, there is double the amount of categories viewers care about, even though the qualifications for being considered a comedy/musical are questionable.

Without listing all the winners, here are some of the memorable moments. For television, SNL alums Poehler and Andy Samberg won the comedy acting awards for “Parks and Recreation” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”. Both deserve it, but these wins were a bit shocking when looking at the award show favorites they were up against. Then “Nine-Nine,” a new show, won best comedy. For one minute it was like the Hollywood Foreign Press actually had the same taste as normal people. With hosts Fey and Poehler, wins from Poehler and Samberg, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers presenting and Will Forte there for his nominated film “Nebraska,” the night had a very SNL flavor to it. Even the clip from “12 Years a Slave” shown featured Taran Killam’s small role in the film.

With film, a number of the titles featured in the best picture discussion ended up walking away with a major award. “12 Years a Slave” lost in all of its categories until it won Best Picture, Drama. Spike Jonze won Best Screenplay for “Her.” Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for “Gravity.” It was all incredibly well split up. Did the HFPA get together and figure out a plan to keep everyone happy? No because “Captain Phillips,” among others, won nothing. But the acting categories followed suit. Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams won for their “American Hustle” “comedic” performances. Matthew McConaughy and Jared Leto of “Dallas Buyers Club” did the same for the male drama categories. Cate Blanchett won for “Blue Jasmine,” DiCaprio for “Wolf of Wall Street.” See what I mean? It’s too well distributed.

The night’s success related to the fun variety of winners and the consistent laughs from the hosts and presenters. But there were plenty of moments that won’t be remembered. Woody Allen won the Cecil B Demille Award, but continued his trend of rarely showing for award shows. Instead we got to watch a kind of heartfelt, kind of weird tribute from Diane Keaton that included muted swearing and singing. The acceptance speeches were for the most part, as already mentioned, drunken stuttering thanks to lists of names the audience doesn’t know.

There were a handful of teleprompter snafus, and boy is it fun watching the rich and fashionable attempt to act cool when they don’t know what to say. Matt Damon pulled it off when he couldn’t read the prompter because he forgot his glasses. Jonah Hill took the pressure off nervous award show newcomer Margot Robbie when they tried to present their film, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and the prompter had different lines on it. Hill told the audience the truth and drew a few laughs as he described the film by reading the description off a piece of yellow loose leaf paper.

Overall, that moment can be used to sum up the 71st Golden Globe Awards. A comedian, who has gained the respect of mainstream Hollywood, gets some laughs while some type of minor technical difficulty plays out. For an award show that began with a malfunctioning sprinkler that damaged the red carpet, it pretty much followed suit the rest of the way.

Now that the Globes are distributed, award season is off and running.

2013: The Year of the 3 Arrow

Closing in on the glorious blockbuster season, we’re being treated to some pre-season films that could easily fit into the summer rotation. GI Joe: Retaliation is massive in its action and next week’s Oblivion boasts Tom Cruise in a high profile sci-fi project. But we moviegoers are stuck in a very strange run of middle of the road features so far this year. When reviewing films What’s Up Movement has a 5 arrow system that rakes away a lot of the arbitrary guesswork that goes into rating films. The result is a fairly objective scheme that spreads out the appropriate scores of every film we see. But 2013 has proven to be incredibly baffling with most of the films earning three or three and a half arrows.

Usually the scores aren’t that big of a concern, but when so many films fall in line like this I begin to wonder. With 18 films reviewed in 2013, seven of them received scores of 3 arrows and six earned 3.5. That’s more than two thirds of the movies! Be impressed by my math skills. At first I pointed the finger at myself, thinking I was taking the easy way out by not committing in either direction. But after looking over the reviews, that’s not the case. Average performances and average movies without any real attempt at innovation end up in the middle. Sure I enjoyed a lot of them, but that’s not enough.

Looking at the films on the list we have the kinds of movies that tend to populate the first few months of the year on the big screen. There’s the entertaining but predictable action films (Snitch, A Good Day to Die Hard), the moderately funny comedies (The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, 21 and Over), a few “edgy” fairytale reboots (Jack the Giant Slayer, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters), and the leftovers (Admission, Side Effects). But the category that has been especially surprising to constantly land in 3-3.5 town is the would-be blockbuster.

Oz the Great and Powerful is a massive hit, but the movie is not nearly as impressive as its ticket sales. GI Joe: Retaliation is incredible when compared to its predecessor, but it’s still a shoot-em-up action film that has a few very poor scenes that weaken its story. Even something like The Host, which could have picked up where Twilight left off with fans, collapsed under the weight of what was supposed to be an important message.

As we continue on, the threes may keep coming or maybe Hollywood will break their funk. Only Gangster Squad and Warm Bodies have been able to rise above the mediocrity so far. But I have faith in the summer tent poles. There’s a reason studios dump hundreds of millions of dollars into these movies. So hopefully some are good. But I have no problem continuing to dish out the threes if I need to.

The King of All Critics

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert died yesterday after a lengthy cancer battle. He was 70.

His career was an incredibly interesting one that evolved almost nonstop for more than 40 years. Posting about a deceased celebrity isn’t common practice for What’s Up Movement, but Ebert’s life and career is worth noting because without him, it’s possible that the process of critiquing films would look very different. If you’re interested, I encourage you to read his obituary in his own paper, the Chicago Sun-Times, to learn just how successful he was in bringing film reviews to mainstream America through journalism, television and the internet.

While the idea of turning my film hobby into a website and an exercise in writing can be credited to my mother, my oldest memories of rating movies was in association with Ebert and his rival/friend Gene Siskel on their PBS show “At the Movies.” Maybe it came on after Sesame Street or maybe my parents actively sought it out, I don’t know. But I remember watching the show at a very young age. The two were the odd couple. Siskel was tall and thin, Ebert shorter and stockier. Then when it became Ebert and Roeper after Siskel’s death, I watched even more often. The second pair argued much less if I recall correctly.

“At the Movies” had such influence that the definitive review that films sought was the pair’s signature two thumbs up. I actually borrowed a movie from the library recently (How old am I?) and above the title in bold type face was “Two Thumbs Up- Siskel & Ebert.” Since the show last went off the air there has been no successor to this prominent position. The rating was universal. Three options: good (two thumbs up), bad (two thumbs down) or so-so (one up, one down). Everyone understood. Now studios go with out of context snippets from reviews. (“Best Movie Ever!” says the cashier in the supermarket.) It just doesn’t hold the same weight. The two were so iconic that one of my favorite movies growing up, Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla even featured two characters with similar names and builds to Siskel and Ebert. They were the mayor and his assistant. Siskel and Ebert still panned the film.

In 2012 when I decided to change the grading system for What’s Up Movement film reviews, I researched what methods the prominent critics used. I went back and forth until I came across an essay by Ebert where he talked about his process trying to solve the same problem of rating movies. He mentioned that he preferred a 5 star system to four because some movies fall in that middle area. Four stars splits the options to either good or bad. As a self-proclaimed optimistic film critic, that made a lot of sense to me. You’ll notice we now have a 5 Arrow system here at W^M.

In the last act of Ebert’s career he became a prominent blogger building a huge web presence. To be honest, I very rarely read his blog or his reviews because it was near impossible to read his thoughts on a movie and not recycle his words into my own work. It may sound strange, but I was a fan, so I didn’t read his reviews. On the rare occasion I did, his points would immediately poke holes in what I believed to be a sound case for a film.

The headlines and coverage of Ebert’s death probably seem a bit odd for the casual moviegoer or non-fan, but Roger Ebert really was the most prominent film critic in history. He changed reviews from just a rehashing of the plot and characters into a commentary filled with jokes and opinions. I’d say he deserves one more day in the spotlight.