Oscar Roundup

Last updated on: February 28, 2014 at 6:00 am by Paul D. Miller

Oscar Roundup 2014-02-28T06:00:48-07:00 Paul D. Miller

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

by Paul D. Miller

It’s that time of year again. Time to ignore the actual quality of movies and instead watch an antiquated and unrepresentative cultural weathervane known as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences arbitrarily pick the winners and losers of 2013. Time for the Oscars.

The frontrunner for Best Picture is 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen. Christian Hamaker said of the American slavery drama that “It’s a harsh, at times brutal film, devoid of humor or other distractions from the horrors of its main story. And it is excellent.” Despite that, the film is not favored to win many other awards. If it does win any others, it is likely to be Lupita Nyong’o for Best Supporting Actress, John Ridely for Adapted Screenplay, and McQueen has a shot at becoming the first black filmmaker to win Best Director (I was going to say the first African American, but he’s British).

If 12 Years doesn’t win, Gravity will. It is a simple story of a stranded astronaut trying to get back home, but it is amazingly told. I proclaimed the movie “one of the greatest movies ever made” and begged you to go see it. Andrew Collins said it was “a metaphor for human experience.” The film is an almost certain winner for cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing, and probably for score, director, film editing and visual effects. It will probably come away with the highest number of Oscars for the night, though it may narrowly win out on the top prize. Gravity and 12 Years tied for Best Picture at the Producer’s Guild Awards.

Third place for the night will belong to American Hustle, the sort-of-true crime-comedy caper starring everyone famous. Elizabeth Whyte found it “light, frothy, funny, with a tinge of melancholy” but “conspicuously lacking much of a deeper message,” which I think it about right. I found the film funny, brilliantly acted, profane, and empty. It won Best Comedy at the Golden Globes but faces very long odds at winning Best Picture on Sunday. Instead, it will probably take home the acting awards–Amy Adams for Best Actress, Jennifer Lawrence for Best Supporting Actress (if Nyong’o doesn’t win it), and, possibly, Christian Bale for Best Actor. In addition, it has a good shot at Original Screenplay for its witty writing, and Production Design (though I’d vote for Great Gatsby in that category) and Costume Design for all that greasy, plastic ’70s glam.

Beyond that, the movies drop off sharply. Kendrick Kuo thought that The Wolf of Wall Street was one of “the most cynical and possibly most elegant” commentaries on money put on screen. Wolf is Martin Scorsese’s dramatization of the true-life memoirs of a ’90s wall street fraudster, complete with his boasting of epic debauchery in sex, drugs, and prostitutes: the film holds the record for the most number of uses of the f-word (506 times) in a movie. Leondardo DiCaprio may finally win his Oscar for Best Actor as a sort of career award–this is his fourth nomination, with no prior wins.

I found Captain Phillips to be a “harrowing, intense nail-biter” and an interesting study in contrasting styles of leadership. The true story of the hijacking of a cargo ship and kidnapping of its captain off the coast of Africa in 2009 made for one of the best movies of the year to that point, in large part because of a tremendous turn by Tom Hanks. Hanks wasn’t even nominated, one of the biggest snubs of the year. Barkhad Abdi has an outside shot at Best Supporting Actor as the lead pirate.

One of the more curious movies of the awards-season has been Her, a movie by Spike Jonze about a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his operating system, a Siri-like siren voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The movie won Best Picture by the National Board of Review, which tends to diverge from the Oscars and pick riskier, more contemporary fare–it gave the top award to Zero Dark Thirty last year and The Social Network two years ago. Abe Timler wrote that the movie avoided moralizing about our relationship with technology but nonetheless forced us to confront the issue through its surprisingly plausible, and melancholy, portrayal of its central character.

Dallas Buyer’s Club, another true story, this one about a man infected with HIV/AIDS in the early ’80s who smuggles drugs from Mexico to keep himself and others alive, has been getting attention mainly for the acting by Matthew McConaughey, who is favored to win Best Actor, and Jared Leto, up for Best Supporting Actor. Elizabeth Whyte said, in one of the best-written reviews I’ve read in a while, that “The film reminds viewers again and again that Ron and Rayon are lost, suffering, and in need of divine mercy, though in the movie at least, they do not find it.” The movie will also probably win for makeup and hairstyling only because the Academy will not dignify the other two nominees in that category, The Lone Ranger and Jackass, with a win.

Sadly, we never got around to reviewing two other nominees for Best Picture, Nebraska or Philomena.

Among the nominees for Best Animated Feature Film, Giancarlo Montemayor read Frozen as a movie about “family bonds and the importance of sacrificial love,” while Josiah and Carolyn Davis thought Despicable Me 2 was about “the sanctifying power of adoption.” I never wrote up a review of The Croods, which I found more moving than I expected but a frustratingly missed opportunity because of its insultingly cliched plot and buffonish father figure. The Oscar will probably go to Frozen (which will also probably win Best Original Song), unless the Academy decides to award The Wind Rises because it is legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki’s final film.

And that’s it until next year.

Films

Oscars

Previous Post

February 26, 2014

Christian Realism and Democracy

Next Post

March 3, 2014 Dead Poets Society: The call of a modern classic

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What king of Judah found the Book of the Law during Temple repairs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Manasseh Hezekiah Jehoshaphat Josiah