All eight films nominated this year for the Academy Awards’ Best Picture Oscar are worthy contenders, but it looks like only two of them have a real shot at taking home the top prize – “Boyhood,” director Richard Linklater’s 12-year-long experiment in filmmaking, and “Birdman,” director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s technical masterpiece.
“Boyhood,” adored by critics and viewers alike, was the early frontrunner, winning several best picture awards, including the Golden Globe. But, “Birdman,” a bizarre, yet entertaining film, has been gaining steam, winning coveted awards from the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America.
It’s easy to make a case for either one to win.
“Boyhood” follows its subject, Mason, for 12 years, beginning at age 6, until he enters college at age 18, along the way capturing moments both small, like a baseball game with his dad, and large, like surviving an abusive step-dad. Those moments, which add up to make Mason the man he turns into, seem so real you often feel you’re watching a documentary, rather than a fictionalized account of a “boyhood.”
Ethan Hawke, as Mason’s father, is wonderful in the film. Patricia Arquette, as his mother, is fantastic, too, and she looks to be a shoo-in for the Best Supporting Actress Award.
Like “Boyhood,” Inarritu’s “Birdman” also offers an intimate look at its main character – in this case, Riggan Thomson, an aging actor who’s trying to make a comeback with a play he’s adapted from a short story and is directing and starring in. He hopes the play will give people something to remember him for, rather than the Birdman superhero character he used to play in a series of blockbusters.
The story is compelling and the acting is brilliant. Not only does Michael Keaton shine in the lead role, but so does Edward Norton as the pompous actor starring alongside Riggan in the play. Emma Stone as Riggan’s daughter and Zach Galifianakis as Riggan’s friend are great, too. The film, which looks like it was shot in one long take, is visually stunning and will likely win the Oscar for best cinematography.
While it looks like the Best Picture award belongs to either “Boyhood” or “Birdman,” I wouldn’t be disappointed to see one of the other nominees win.
My favorite nominee this year is “Whiplash,” a mesmerizing little film that examines what it takes for someone to achieve “greatness.” Not only does the movie take you on a thrilling, although sometimes uncomfortable, ride, but also the acting is phenomenal. J.K. Simmons is sure to win the Best Supporting Actor Award for his superb work as the sadistic teacher, and Miles Teller, as the student desperate to please him, is fabulous, too. It’s unlikely, though, that “Whiplash” will take home the Best Picture Award. It had too small an audience to win the coveted prize.
If the award went to the movie with the biggest audience, then director Clint Eastwood’s mega box-office hit, “American Sniper,” would be the clear winner. It’s a moving biopic about real-life war hero Chris Kyle, and it does a good job showing the toll war takes on a soldier. Bradley Cooper, as Kyle, is excellent, and the film soars while it’s focused on the legendary sniper and his work in Iraq. However, the movie falls flat when it follows Kyle at home. As a boy, his father gives a speech about three kinds of people in the world – sheep, wolves and sheep dogs, the latter being the people who protect others – and that’s the only clue we’re given about why Kyle is so driven to take care of everyone around him. After he returns from his tours of duty to his wife and children, we’re told he is struggling to adapt to civilian life, but we don’t really see it. Because of those weaknesses, I don’t think “American Sniper” will win the Best Picture Award.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Wes Anderson’s quirky visual delight, won’t win either.
The whimsical movie, about a concierge who works at a fictional European hotel between the two World Wars, is a lot of fun, but it’s a comedy and the story isn’t important enough for the Oscar.
“The Imitation Game,” on the other hand, is deserving of the award. It tells the thrilling and heartbreaking story of real-life mathematician Alan Turing, who broke the Nazi code during World War II. The film is well made, and Benedict Cumberbatch is superb as Turing. But, the film hasn’t been winning any of the big awards leading up to the Academy Awards, so it’s unlikely to go home with the top prize on Oscar night.
“Selma,” another worthy biopic, takes a close look at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the three months leading up to the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. It, too, tells an important story, and David Oyelowo is terrific as King. But, director Ava DuVernay was not nominated for the film, and it got only one other Oscar nomination – for best song – so “Selma” won’t win the Oscar for best picture either.
In “The Theory of Everything,” Eddie Redmayne is astonishingly good playing the famous physicist Stephen Hawking, and he could beat out Michael Keaton for the Best Actor Oscar, but the film won’t win the big award.
So, that leaves “Boyhood” and “Birdman” vying for the Best Picture Award. They’re both extraordinary films, but I would put my money on “Boyhood,” mainly because Linklater accomplished something no one else has before, following the same set of actors for 12 years and showing how time, with all its trials and triumphs, ultimately is what makes us the people we are.
The Academy Awards show will begin at 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, on ABC.