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by Charles Beall

Throughout the next month, I will be contributing articles about the Oscar race this year. To start things off, let’s talk about the big race, Best Picture.

9 Best Picture nominees

When the Academy announced that there would be a new voting system to select a Best Picture nominee (a film has to have 5% of first place votes to gain a nomination), I aired on the side of skepticism. At first, when the Academy announced that there would be 10 nominees two years ago, I cried foul. This is the Academy Awards! Why would we sully it by letting in five other films? However, take a look at these ten films (the first five released in 2009 and the last five in 2010, respectively): District 9, The Blind Side, An Education, A Serious Man, Up, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, Toy Story 3, and Winter’s Bone. Aside from The Blind Side (total turd), these ten films are exceptional “unconventional” films that never would’ve been nominated if there were only five nominees. Sure they can’t win, but they definitely were deserving of a nomination for Best Picture. I decided that I liked this 10 Best Picture nominee system.

However, per the new Academy rules, there could be anywhere between five and ten nominees for the films of 2011. The movies that were to be nominated had to, as I stated, receive 5% of number one votes. So, with this complicated system, I assumed there would be between five and seven nominees. Yet, there were nine.

Here are the tiers these films fall into:

(Note: films with an * are films I have not seen yet. I can only give the impression I get from them, whereas the films I have seen, I can attempt to attest to why they were nominated.)

The Five– these would’ve been the five nominated films if there were only five nominees:

The Artist*
This is a film that has Oscar written all over it. A nostalgic look at Hollywood, a silent film in black and white, and a feel-good, original idea, this movie is the kind of warm hug Academy members like.

The Descendants
The Descendants is the tailor-made, quirky Fox Searchlight Oscar bait we’ve all come to expect, yet don’t let that detract from how great of a film it is. Alexander Payne is a wonderful filmmaker and this film, his first since the incredible Sideways, goes along with his theme of middle aged men “coming of age.” Anchored by a wonderful performance by George Clooney (I think he deserves the Oscar), The Descendants is worthy of the respect heaped upon it, and even though it oozes of “Oscar prestige,” it truly is a great American film

The Help
The Help is the type of crowd-pleasing hit that the Academy loves to recognize to show that it isn’t a bunch of out-of-touch, pretentious white people. I enjoyed The Help, yet I have some reservations about it. First, it is entertaining without being overly confident in itself; it doesn’t wear its message on its sleeve. We know that segregation in the South is a disgusting stain on our nation’s history, yet The Help doesn’t delve into how blatantly horrible it was to make the actions of the white people in the movie seem more noble than that of the Help. With that said, it almost does go off the deep end. Yes, it portrays the bravery of certain white women and certain African American women, but it comes off that without the white women, the Help would’ve never had their story told. The film teeters on that cliff, but the filmmakers realize that that is too easy of a plot device, so I commend them for not taking the easy route.

While I would’ve liked a more “intense” portrayal of racism in the South, The Help suffices for reaching such a wide audience. The film is honest and takes its time to develop its great characters. In a year with only five nominees, I wouldn’t have selected The Help; however, when there are ten spots, I think it is deserving as one of the ten nominees.

Hugo
Hugo is a marvel and the best film I’ve seen this year. This love letter to film, imagination, and life is completely engulfing. As Scorsese’s first 3D film, he utilizes the technology to add, well, another dimension to the story. There are no gimmicks and you are literally immersed into a world that could only come out of careful planning and love of source material. I cannot praise this film enough, and in any year, this would be in the top five, if not number one spot. Hugo deserves all of its 11 Academy Award nominations.

Midnight in Paris
The Academy loves Woody Allen, which is ironic because Woody never shows up to the ceremony. However, if there is any comeback film for Allen after some flubs in years past, it is Midnight in Paris. This is such a cute, original movie that offers an escape for not only the main character, but for the entire audience. This is one of the best movies of the year and worthy of its four nominations.

The “honor-to-be-nominated” Crew– if there were five nominees, these wouldn’t have been nominated, but with the current voting system (and the former 10 nominee system), they are:

The Tree of Life
Terrence Malick’s fifth feature film is a simply beautiful, undeniably maddening meditation on life. If there were only five nominees for Best Picture, this wouldn’t have been nominated (even though, I believe, he would’ve been nominated for Best Director-the Academy would oftentimes nominate a director whose film wasn’t nominated for Best Picture) but with the new system, it got in there. There is an almost cult-like following for this film and I was honestly surprised that it was nominated. It is a unique film, and this definitely “diversifies” the Academy’s canon of nominated films. It won’t take home the big prize, but it definitely has been honored with its 3 nominations.

Moneyball*
A movie about math and baseball, written by Aaron Sorkin, and starring Brad Pitt. I haven’t seen it, but heard it is great. This is the Academy trying to be cool, I suppose.

War Horse*
Steven Spielberg. World War I. Epic. Is the Academy still sorry for snubbing Saving Private Ryan?

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close*
This smells Weinsteinesque (more on that later).

Harry Potter WAS NOT snubbed

Fans are crying foul on the “snub” of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 in the Best Picture race. Folks, there was no snub. This film did not deserve a nomination for Best Picture; it was the worst film in the franchise. Now, before you call me a death eater or a Slytherin, I urge you to do some soul searching and ask yourself if this really was the movie you thought it was.

Now, in defense of the Academy, they have opened their minds somewhat when it comes to films of different caliber. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for instance, was nominated for 30 Academy Awards, winning 17 (including a clean sweep for The Return of the King). Yes, the Academy has been stingy on which films they nominate (fantasy/science fiction-wise), but The Lord of the Rings films were exceptional, bridging fanboy/girl devotion with a mass audience appeal. That isn’t to say the Harry Potter franchise didn’t do such a thing; it did, but not to the extent of respecting the source material in such a way that the LOTR filmmakers did.

Now, as I stated earlier, ask yourself if the final film really was that incredible. Take a look at both the entire final book and the penultimate film in the series. Both of these took their time developing both the story and the characters; the final film did not. There was a checklist of obligatory plot points to be filmed and they were done in such a rapid succession that one did not have time to emotionally process what was happening to the characters we have grown to love. The final LOTR film was 200 minutes. The final Harry Potter film was barely over two hours. With so much story left in the second half of the book, the filmmakers didn’t develop it into drama; they shot it and sent it off to 3D rendering.

Is the Harry Potter film series terrible? Absolutely not. I believe that for such a massive, original world that J.K. Rowling created, the filmmakers did a reasonably excellent job in adapting it for the big screen. However, after seven well-made films, the eighth just floundered, portraying itself as something that it was not and seducing loyal fans into thinking it was the best in the series.

Don’t hate on the Academy for this “snub.” There have been sequels that were nominated for Best Picture (and some that won) that were far more deserving than Part 2. True, The Return of the King won Best Picture for two reasons: it was a great film, but also the conclusion to a flawless motion picture trilogy. That is what gets rewarded by the Academy, not an “easy” sequel to an otherwise great film series.

“But The Blind Side was nominated for Best Picture,” one might say. I know…I never said the Academy was perfect. However, there is a huge difference in an unworthy film getting nominated for Best Picture and an unworthy film not getting nominated for Best Picture. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 falls into the latter category.

In conclusion, it must be said that the Harry Potter film series, as a whole, stands as a landmark in motion picture history, and for that, both as a lover of the series and as a cinephile, I sing its praise.

What should’ve been the “ninth” and tenth films?

I put “ninth” in quotes because, while the 8 films that were expected or had a reasonable chance of being nominated for Best Picture were, the ninth film, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, was a shocker. There is a hardcore group of fans of this film, and while I have not yet seen it, I can tell you that it is one of the worst reviewed films of the past ten years (according to Rotten Tomatoes) to be nominated for Best Picture. So what happened?

As I stated earlier, the way the Academy has changed their voting rules over the last three award cycles allows films like Loud (and The Blind Side) to sneak in and nab a spot. What happened with Loud is that there were 5% of people who loved this movie so much that they put it as the number one spot on their ballot among the list of 300 plus eligible films from 2011. There is a great article from Entertainment Weekly that explains this whole system, and the link to that is right here: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/01/24/oscars-best-picture-why-nine-nominees/

So, now that you have your head wrapped around that, let us look at which films were “bumped off.” I believe that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Bridesmaids were bumped off by Loud. Some may argue that The Tree of Life also was a surprise, but with its devoted fanbase, I think it was always a shoo-in for a nod. As explained in that Entertainment Weekly Article, Tattoo and Bridesmaids were probably voters third or fourth pick for their favorites of the year, which would’ve helped in other years, but not this one. So, Academy members, if you find yourself passionate about a particular movie next year, make sure it gets your number one spot. If The Dark Knight Rises is as incredible as its predecessor, you know what to do.

So, that concludes my analysis of the Best Picture race for 2011. There will be more to come before and after the Academy Awards, so keep checking Anti-Film School for more updates.

Posted in FEATURE