This marks the fifth year I have tried to watch and review at least some of the movies nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
This year I saw “Birdman,” “Boyhood,” “Selma” and “The Imitation Game.” The others nominated, some of which I would like to see at some point, are the commercially popular “American Sniper,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Theory of Everything” and “Whiplash.”
Since most people seem to think “Boyhood,” or possibly “Birdman,” will win, I believe I have seen the winning movie, even though this year does not have an odds-on favorite as in recent years.
Of those two, I actually struggled watching one of them and wondered why I was not as crazy about it as many others were.
But I know I will not be struggling to watch the Academy Awards ceremony when it begins this Sunday, Feb.
22, at 8 p.m. on ABC, with the red carpet show starting at 7. It will once again be my personal reward for finding time to go and see at least some of the movies.
So here are my reviews of the four movies, presented in order from least favorite to personal favorite.
Fourth Favorite -- “Birdman” – This movie portrays Michael Keaton as a washed-up former superhero movie star, Riggan Thompson, trying to restart his career as a more seriously taken actor who writes, directs and stars in a somber Broadway play.
While the play, staged fictitiously at New York’s St. James Theatre, is mostly serious, the movie about the production of it is lighter and occasionally humorous. For example, during one of the presentations before the play’s actual opening, Mr. Keaton’s character gets his robe stuck in a door after he goes outside to smoke during a break.
As a result, he has to leave his robe in the door and go through the crowd of Broadway revelers and back into the front of the theater in his underwear.
A man with supernatural powers, who can levitate or move objects, Mr. Keaton’s character struggles with the Birdman character, who still talks to him through his conscience or shows up periodically in person.
In the end of the play – and movie -- after Mr. Keaton’s character actually shoots his nose off instead of using a blank gun, he is hospitalized. But he soon flies out of the hospital window, apparently full of happiness after achieving his dream of a critically acclaimed serious drama and apparently after leaving the Birdman sidekick behind.
Most people have been praising the movie, and many think it is the likely Best Picture winner if “Boyhood” does not triumph. I must admit that Mr. Keaton does an excellent acting job and he will likely win the Best Actor Oscar.
The other actors did well, also. I actually did not realize until after the movie that well-known actresses Emma Stone and Naomi Watts play his daughter and co-star, respectively.
The movie is also masterful at how it appears to be shooting the same scene continuously. For example, if Mr. Keaton’s character is being filmed in his dressing room, the next series of scenes leads out from the dressing room and does not suddenly switch to another place in town or the theater. Director Alejandro Inarritu has drawn great praises for giving the impression that the movie is shot in one take.
While the cinematography is nice, I struggled personally with the storyline parts of the movie. Cursing and vulgar references occurred almost constantly. And if the cynical world they portrayed is what being involved in a Broadway play is all about, I certainly don’t want to do that kind of work.
And as a member of the media, I was once again critical of the seemingly unrealistic way one of the play’s reviewers was portrayed. It just did not seem natural.
I also don’t care for movies that are mostly real except for one person who has supernatural powers – even though I grew up loving “Bewitched” and “I Dream of Jeannie” on TV.
I am also not sure I completely understood the movie, and maybe that is the main part of my problem with it. It reminded me a lot of the 2010 Oscar-nominated movie, “Black Swan,” which also seemed to trouble and confuse me.
Many people seem to like the movie, so I will respect that. But still, I was glad when the credits started rolling and I could quickly exit the theater and go home.
Third Favorite -- “The Imitation Game” -- This film focuses somewhat loosely on how a group of British scientists and other workers were able to use a machine Alan Turing developed to help break Germany’s Enigma code during World War II.
The Germans under Adolf Hitler were sending out military information via encrypted code that was changed daily, and the British team of male scientists could not decipher what was handed them by the women clerks writing down the letters.
However, in a neat twist of fate that is the highlight of the movie and occurs right before the program was to be shut down for failure, they are able to crack the code. But it is not due as much to sophisticated science as to the simple nature of humans.
While the male scientists and some of the female clerical workers are out at a pub relaxing one night, one of the women reveals that the German man whose daily code she has been writing down always mentions his female significant other. Because of that and the fact they realize “Heil Hitler” is also in each code, they are able to crack the words each day with the help of the machine.
They are thus able to save many lives and shorten the war in the top-secret project. But it came with the stark realization that they had to be subtle about disseminating the information. For example, right after breaking the code, they learn of German plans to attack an Allied ship, but conclude they cannot save that ship because the Germans would realize they had broken the code. And, the enemy would simply come up with another code that the British might not be able to crack, they realize.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays well the role of Mr. Turing, who is gay and – in a subplot that is shown throughout the movie – is arrested several years after the war for a homosexual act that is then against the law. He later was reported to have committed suicide.
After the war he also continued to research his artificial machines, and called the test to see if they could mimic human intelligence the “imitation game.” At the end of the movie – in a touching scene – director Morten Tyldum uses captions to tell the viewer what Turing’s machines are now known as – computers.
While this movie is well done overall after a somewhat slow first 30 minutes or an hour, I would still say it is still not quite as moving as such other recent historical Best Picture winners as “The King’s Speech” or “Argo.”
Second Favorite – “Selma” – This movie -- which focuses primarily on the March 1965 events leading up to the final successful 50-mile march from Selma, Ala., to the state capitol in Montgomery to demand voting rights for all -- is quite powerful.
But it is also somewhat intense, as plenty of emotional and physical pain is endured – and is graphically illustrated -- before the memorable March march can be made.
The movie begins when Selma resident Annie Lee Parker, played by Oprah Winfrey, is asked obviously difficult questions she cannot answer and is denied a voter’s registration card, as countless other blacks had been at that time. It thus set the stage for getting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the other black civil rights leaders to become even more vocal in demanding fair treatment and the passage of a Voting Rights Act.
While keeping up with all the different civil rights leaders involved in the movie was somewhat difficult, the violent scenes are quite clear. They tell the viewer the fact that getting equal rights for blacks in 1965 was still hard.
Violence is shown when the marchers first try to go across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and when a young Jimmie Lee Jackson is shot to death in a restaurant after a night march. Bloodshed also occurs when the Rev. James Reeb, one of many white Americans who descend on Selma to help the cause after the violent first march is shown on television, is beaten to death outside a restaurant.
Despite all these scenes that were a little hard to watch, the civil rights supporters’ injuries and deaths were not in vain. The protesters are eventually given the right to march without incident to Montgomery, thanks in part to a courageous Alabama judge and President Lyndon Johnson.
A touching scene is when black Selma resident Cager Lee – the grandfather of the slain Jackson youth – gets the right to vote at the age of 84.
Some have criticized the movie for the fact that Lyndon Johnson is depicted as not being as supportive of the marchers as he actually was. It is yet another example of, when it comes to a historical movie, directors don’t let the facts get in the way of making the story even better. However, I found that President Johnson’s character was not portrayed quite that badly, as he does show obvious support toward the end.
The character of Dr. King, played by David Oyelowo, is well done and shows his human side as well as the extraordinary gift he had for public speaking. Of the former side, the movie hints of his well-documented infidelities and, somewhat surprisingly, even shows him smoking a cigarette while writing a letter to his wife.
Without a doubt, the best part of the movie is the last 5 or 10 minutes, when they are finally able to make the march peacefully to Montgomery. Even though this part is in some ways almost anticlimactic because they have overcome all the struggles to be able to march, it was the most touching time for me as a viewer. I even found myself getting a little choked up.
And what is neat is that most of what they show is actual historical footage from the 1965 march. I was deeply moved when I saw people waiting along the highway to join the marchers, as well as when I saw a white man and a black child huddled together along the route.
However, even the victory march had some sadness. The movie points out that white march volunteer Viola Liuzzo, who had spent some of her growing-up years in Chattanooga, was shot and killed afterward while giving rides to marchers.
Despite this and the other tragedies, the Selma march is considered one of the most touching moments in civil rights – and American – history, and the movie captures its significance in a satisfactory way.
Also quite touching is that at the end, as the credits roll, the Academy Award-nominated song, “Glory,” plays. Ingenuously done in rap style perhaps to attract young people to the story of Selma, the black struggle anthem had such an effect on the audience in the theater where I was that not a single person left until the song ended.
Favorite -- “Boyhood” – This is kind of an unusual film in several ways. First, it has not been seen as much as a lot of Best Picture front-runners of recent years. In fact, it was gone from the theater when I made plans to see it, so I had to figure out how to purchase and download a movie into my computer for the first time.
Also, in a unique cinematographic effect, the film was shot over 12 years by director Richard Linklater. As a result, since it deals in large part with the growth of a young male protagonist played by Ellar Coltrane, maybe it should have been called “12 Years a Boy,” as a spinoff on last year’s Best Picture winner, “12 Years a Slave.”
What is for sure is that it can be called mostly well done, even though it lasts a longer-than-usual time of nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes.
It follows from 2002 to 2013 a Texas family headed by a single mother, played by Patricia Arquette, and her two children, played by Mr. Coltrane and Lorelie Linklater, daughter of the director.
During that time, Ms. Arquette’s character goes back to school and becomes a college teacher. She also has two failed marriages, including one with an alcoholic and physical abuser. The two children slowly grow up and become mostly responsible youngsters, despite the stepfamily issues and a few lapses in judgment along the way.
The youngsters also maintain a good relationship with their father, who is played by Ethan Hawke and is the film’s other main character. He is initially an irresponsible young adult, but always has his children’s best interest at heart.
The realistic way in which the family struggles through the various challenges is uplifting, and I found myself as a viewer caring very much about them and their outcome. Also, anyone who has ever been a parent, a step-parent, a child, a stepchild, a teen-ager, been in abusive relationships, been divorced or has been a struggling single parent working to make ends meet financially can relate to the movie.
In other words, the movie is a great glimpse into the challenges, rewards and lessons of life that everyone experiences in some form.
And it is an example of the sum being greater than the individual parts, as the fact that the characters are shown over 12 years helps the movie greatly. It might inspire parents to put together some kind of contiguous video of their own home movies.
The film also has a couple of neat scenes, although they are perhaps presented in a more subtle way than I might have shown them if I had been directing the movie. The first is when the mother talks to a male Hispanic worker putting in new pipes outside their house, and she tells him he is smart enough to go to school and get a good job.
He later comes up to them at a Mexican restaurant and tells her he heeded her advice and graduated from school to become a restaurant manager/operator. And he says their meal is on him as a thank you!
And at the end, after Mr. Coltrane’s character is now a college freshman, he goes with his new school friends to a place in the area of Texas where his father once took him. He and a female acquaintance gently talk about life, and the movie ends nicely, but softly and without intensity or emotion.
The subtleness of the movie works well, though, when it goes from one year to the next without having subtitles of the different years on the screen.
While I would not necessarily say I was totally moved by the movie as I have been with some Best Picture winners and nominees of recent years, overall I liked it. It made my own problems seem smaller and encouraged me to enjoy and savor more the good and important aspects of life when they happen.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net