My (admittedly spotty) thoughts on the Oscars

Best Picture: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

This movie, above all, is a lot of fun. So much has been discussed about its originality, its creative technical aspects, Michael Keaton’s big comeback, and what it all means that seemingly few left any room to mention how funny, well-acted, and joyous it is to watch. Aside from Foxcatcher, all the other Best Picture nominees I’ve seen are solid, but none are as entertaining this one. Plus, there is the matter of everything else I just mentioned.

Best Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman

Iñárritu’s filmmaking apparently divides critics as well as audiences. Well, Birdman is the first and only movie of his I’ve seen, and in this case, it’s a hit. The film’s much-discussed “one long take” style (for which cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s Oscar is also well-deserved) is exhilarating to watch, as the constant, uncut action gives every moment a palpable energy. The picture moves from scene to scene smoothly and seamlessly, and the real and surreal blend more naturally than you’d expect. What could have been a gimmick (yet another single-camera, documentary-style work) ended up being an awesome technique that only a truly talented filmmaker could have pulled off.

Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

This was one category where you hate to single out just one of several great performances. Redmayne physically embodied the brilliant Stephen Hawking so perfectly it’s uncanny, and yet despite the limitations of such a role, managed to convey strong emotions in a heartfelt film. Definitely one of the best performances of the year. But still, Michael Keaton threw himself into Birdman, managing to emit some real pathos while keeping up with the pace of the picture and keeping us laughing and cringing. Also, Bradley Cooper underplayed the all-American hero archetype with very real demons in American Sniper. Which of the three was best? I can’t choose, but you couldn’t go wrong with any of them.

Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

I haven’t seen Still Alice.

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Or Whiplash.

Best supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Or Boyhood.

Snubs:

Much has already been said about the snubs for The Lego Movie in Best Animated Feature and Selma in all the major categories except a token nomination for Best Picture. These grievances are valid, however.

The Lego Movie is arguably one of the best films, animated or live action, of 2014. It’s beautiful to look at and much smarter than almost all kids and family fare (even Big Hero 6, which did win for Best Animated Feature). Some are speculating that the snub was because part of the last act switches to live action. If that is the case, it’s a really stupid technicality to disqualify a deserving film.

As for Selma, we’ll never really know how much political factors or tone deafness to diversity or just simple matters of taste eliminated the film in the Academy’s eyes. All that aside, it deserved to be nominated—Ava DuVernay for directing, and especially David Oyelowo for his fantastic portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr.—on its merits alone. Certainly more than the dry, dour, blatant awards bait that was Foxcatcher, and Steve Carell’s lazy, latex-y attempt to go serious in it.

Lastly, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar turned out to be quite a divisive picture. I’m of the opinion that it’s a great film, one of the best science fiction movies I’ve ever seen. Everything’s subjective, but I would have put it up for more than just technical awards (which were deserved), at the very least for its screenplay and direction. Then again, since science fiction in general has a hard time escaping its genre label and being taken seriously as art, I’m not at all surprised.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Gone, it seems, are the days when film spoofs simply poked fun at a movie or genre. These days, many parodies (the good ones, anyway) are nearly as good as any picture in the genre they’re ribbing. 

Kingsman: The Secret Service edges the dial a little further still from parody to the real thing. There’s plenty of content sending up spy pictures, savaging of current events and famous figures, and just regular bits of humor. But taken as a legitimate action film, it’s quite good. Good enough, in fact, that I’m somewhat reluctant to even call it a spoof at all. Its comedic elements aside, it’s as exciting as any comic book adaptation or summer action flick, and the plot, while (refreshingly) not as insistent on brutal realism as the genre’s been of late, isn’t bad at all.

Loosely based on a comic by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, the movie follows the exploits of Kingsman, a well-dressed top secret English espionage agency as deadly as they are gentlemanly. After the death of an agent (Jack Davenport) in the field, talented but troubled British youth Eggsy (Taron Egerton), the son of a former member of Kingsman, is approached by agent Harry Hart (Colin Firth) with an opportunity to join the organization. As Eggsy goes through rigorous physical, mental, and social training, the agency investigates a plot by tech billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) to wipe out the human race.

Few clichés are left untouched, from the outlandish world domination plotting, to the ridiculous gadgetry, to the equally ridiculous near-invincibility of Jason Bourne and his ilk. The characters even know the clichés in which they’re steeped and point them out. It’s a lot of fun seeing talented actors like Firth, Mark Strong, and Michael Caine send up their serious demeanor, and Jackson is clearly having a ball eviscerating not only larger-than-life Bond villains but also the archetype of the “cool billionaire.” And as the main protagonist, Egerton has affably snarky comic chops, as well as an everyman heroic appeal.

That appeal, and the veteran cast’s skill and presence, serve the picture well when it blurs the line between spoof and actual spy movie. Scenes where the satirical bent is relaxed work rather well, particularly the training sequences in the first half. A lot of times, the wit and humor is supplemental to the action, not the focus. Much of the action scenes are aiming for parody, of the blurry slow-motion, kinetic violence of superhero fare, or the ability of superspies to take down a whole room of people with no effort or injury. But while they do succeed as comedy, they’re as good as or better than any movie playing it straight. And when they go to ridiculous and sometimes macabre extremes, the film has its sense of humor to fall back on. There’s also one sequence that reminds the audience that there’s nothing like good old-fashioned stunt work. 

Kingsman is very funny in a lot of places. However, it feels less like a comedy than the kind of film that’s gone extinct in the wake of grim and gritty spy movies like the Bourne series. It’s so much fun that it almost feels fresh and new.

Better Call Saul, "Uno"

Of all the little oddball touches that distinguished Breaking Bad from the rest of the cable drama pack, Bob Odenkirk’s turn as criminal lawyer Saul Goodman was one of the best. The character could have easily been a bland attorney archetype, a suit-filler with little characterization beyond his functions to the plot. Casting a comedic actor instead and letting him devour the scenery turned out to be unexpectedly ingenious. His comic relief never seemed intrusive, and he was quite up to the task when things got serious. So it’s little surprise that Saul got his own show (for those reasons as well as the fact that he’s one of the few supporting characters left standing).

Last night’s premiere of Better Call Saul began with a look at what happened to the lovable shyster since we last saw him. It was a wonderfully amusing riff on the flash-forwards that Breaking Bad used to great effect, and its stark black-and-white and somber score of mall music struck a great balance between funny and tragic.

From there, the story goes back to nearly a decade before Breaking Bad, when Saul was Jimmy McGill, an Albuquerque public defender struggling to launch his own practice. In addition to few clients and little money, he also has to worry about his brother (Michael McKean), an attorney from a major law firm who’s on extended leave for an unnamed ailment. Desperate for a break, Jimmy tries to pull a small, one-time scam, but it backfires and leads him into more trouble.

The episode plays very similarly to the first episode of Breaking Bad, with a lot of quiet scenes of Jimmy sulking amongst everything—the bills, the crappy job, the crappy car and office—that drives him to take actions so drastic and immoral, just as Walter White did. Breaking Bad’s DNA is apparent in other places, too, from its black comedy (the video in the first courtroom scene is sickly hilarious), to taking its sweet time to build tension ever so slowly and ending at exactly the moment where the viewer won’t even think about missing the next episode. And, of course, a few other characters fans will recognize appear, one of which comes as a big surprise in the final moments. All made for an enjoyable first hour, but Breaking Bad’s shadow could be a hindrance to the show going forward.

Maybe it’s just the similarity between both series’ first episodes, but I got the sense that Jimmy is setting out on a path just like Walter White’s. Now that he’s already entered an evil, morally ambiguous world, every attempt to get out alive will just make him sink deeper and deeper until the good man he began as no longer exists. Or maybe it’s the surprise character appearance at the end that makes it feel like they’re retreading the same territory. Either way, Walt and Jimmy’s trajectories look much the same, at least after one episode. I really hope that's not the case, because the character metamorphosis of Walter White was already so perfect (I’d argue it was the best character arc ever in the history of film or television) that even a similar one from the same people would probably suffer by comparison.

I hope that the old character cameos turn out to be just some fan service for the premiere, and that the show does away with them now and goes its own way. It’s certainly possible, because while the Saul Goodman snark and humor we know and love pervades the episode, there are also moments where Odenkirk shows some desperate pathos. We'll see if he can carry a series, but it's clear he's at least capable of more than comic relief.