#151
Posted: 1/18/15 at 7:14pm
After seeing American Sniper, I think this is the sleeper. It late-crested and while Eastwood didn't get a director nomination despite hitting DGA, I'm just putting that as the Directors Branch marching to the beat of their own drum (see: Miller, Bennett lone director nomination). It is making a boat load of money, already the highest grossing Best Picture nominee but potentially could make the kind of money you'd expect from Marvel movies.
Eastwood isn't the most popular director on this board and this film is confrontational, at times, uneasy, difficult, and uncomfortable if you are in the perspective of being against the War on Terror/War in Iraq, but this film functions extremely well as an action film and character piece. I think Clint Eastwood's history is not of jingoism but, in fact, very pro-soldier. I think he took to Jason Hall's script, which seems to refine the real life Chris Kyle to somebody more accessible in that sense. That will cause the film problems with the accuracy police that recently plagued Selma, but given how anonymous Chris Kyle is to 99% of the population, I am only seeing a character and an interesting one at that.
This is easily Bradley Cooper's best performance of his career. Given his first Oscar nomination happened in a year where Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln was undeniable and his second was for a broad, comedic performance where he was overshadowed by his female co-stars and also had Jared Leto in a baitier, more dramatic role, I think with this being his third consecutive nomination: He has a shot. On merit, this is among the best performances of the four acting categories. Forget the physical transformation in bulk and Texan affect he has going, this is a performance where you are feeling everything this guy is going through even if a lot of it is unassuming and arguably underplayed to naturalistic effect. His character arguably belongs just as much in a Dardennes film as Marion Cotillard. It is really shocking to see Bradley Cooper in this next gear and have it be under the circumstances of Clint 'One Take Is A-Okay With Me' Eastwood, and I have come to like Clint in looking further into his body of work.
Anyway, Cooper is the spoiler to watch but in the 2 sound categories, I see American Sniper as easy wins there and a huge threat for Adapted Screenplay. Chris Kyle's casual racism, machismo, and PTSD are a matter of fact in American Sniper and is pretty good film classicism. The Imitation Game, the presumed front-runner in the Adapted Screenplay category, can barely deal with its own subject matter's sexuality and creates the fiction of him staying closeted even when faced with outing a spy whom he never met in real life. The Imitation Game is too anonymous in pedigree beyond Harvey Weinstein and for that reason, I think it is going to suffer most from American Sniper's rise.
Consider this the year of The Pianist being the 11th hour threat to Chicago. Had the voting been pushed back 2 weeks, it may have won the whole thing. Same situation here. I doubt American Sniper is your Best Picture winner and still think that is Boyhood's to lose, but it is going to win categories and make the Best Picture announcement a real event.
Eastwood isn't the most popular director on this board and this film is confrontational, at times, uneasy, difficult, and uncomfortable if you are in the perspective of being against the War on Terror/War in Iraq, but this film functions extremely well as an action film and character piece. I think Clint Eastwood's history is not of jingoism but, in fact, very pro-soldier. I think he took to Jason Hall's script, which seems to refine the real life Chris Kyle to somebody more accessible in that sense. That will cause the film problems with the accuracy police that recently plagued Selma, but given how anonymous Chris Kyle is to 99% of the population, I am only seeing a character and an interesting one at that.
This is easily Bradley Cooper's best performance of his career. Given his first Oscar nomination happened in a year where Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln was undeniable and his second was for a broad, comedic performance where he was overshadowed by his female co-stars and also had Jared Leto in a baitier, more dramatic role, I think with this being his third consecutive nomination: He has a shot. On merit, this is among the best performances of the four acting categories. Forget the physical transformation in bulk and Texan affect he has going, this is a performance where you are feeling everything this guy is going through even if a lot of it is unassuming and arguably underplayed to naturalistic effect. His character arguably belongs just as much in a Dardennes film as Marion Cotillard. It is really shocking to see Bradley Cooper in this next gear and have it be under the circumstances of Clint 'One Take Is A-Okay With Me' Eastwood, and I have come to like Clint in looking further into his body of work.
Anyway, Cooper is the spoiler to watch but in the 2 sound categories, I see American Sniper as easy wins there and a huge threat for Adapted Screenplay. Chris Kyle's casual racism, machismo, and PTSD are a matter of fact in American Sniper and is pretty good film classicism. The Imitation Game, the presumed front-runner in the Adapted Screenplay category, can barely deal with its own subject matter's sexuality and creates the fiction of him staying closeted even when faced with outing a spy whom he never met in real life. The Imitation Game is too anonymous in pedigree beyond Harvey Weinstein and for that reason, I think it is going to suffer most from American Sniper's rise.
Consider this the year of The Pianist being the 11th hour threat to Chicago. Had the voting been pushed back 2 weeks, it may have won the whole thing. Same situation here. I doubt American Sniper is your Best Picture winner and still think that is Boyhood's to lose, but it is going to win categories and make the Best Picture announcement a real event.
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