I thought it might be interesting
to look back at the Oscar winners from 2001’s show through last year’s, giving
my thoughts, now in retrospect, of who probably is most deriving today (looking
at all films, not just those nominated).
2001:
Best Picture: Gladiator
Best Director: Steven
Soderbergh, Traffic
Best Actor: Russell
Crowe, Gladiator
Best Actress: Julia
Roberts, Erin Brockovich
Best Supporting Actor: Benicio
Del Toro, Traffic
Best Supporting Actress: Maricia
Gay Harden, Pollock
Looking back, 2000 was a pretty
lousy year for movies. I do not have any thoughts on many of the categories
because there is just no real standout work that has stood the test of time. Best Actor, however, I think probably belongs to
Christian Bale for his electric and career-making performance in American
Psycho (one of my ten favorite performances of the decade). Best Director now goes to Christopher Nolan for
Memento, which seems like a no-brainer today. Best Picture
is In the Mood for Love, arguably the best film from the decade.
2002:
Best Picture: A Beautiful
Mind
Best Director: Ron
Howard, A Beautiful Mind
Best Actor: Denzel
Washington, Training Day
Best Actress: Halle
Berry, Monster’s Ball
Best Supporting Actor: Jim
Broadbent, Iris
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer
Connelly, A Beautiful Mind
Best
Actress Halle Berry is very good in Monster’s Ball; it is by far her
best work; however, Maribel Verdu’s performance in Y Tu Mama Tambien is even
better. And yet, I think Audrey Tautou takes the award today; her work is among
my ten favorite performances of the decade. Her performance in Amelie is iconic
and lasting. Best Actor I think belongs to
Gene Hackman for his work in The Royal Tenenbaums. Best
Director is far more difficult, Ridley Scott’s direction of Black Hawk
Down is exceptional, but really it is a toss-up between David Lynch for
Mulholland Drive and Jean-Pierre Jeunet for Amelie. The same is true for Best Film. Mulholland Drive and Amelie are just as
important and relevant today. I will also add Spirited Away to the mix as well.
2003:
Best Picture: Chicago
Best Director: Roman
Polanski, The Pianist
Best Actor: Adrien Brody,
The Pianist
Best Actress: Nicole
Kidman, The Hours
Best Supporting Actor: Chris
Cooper, Adaptation
Best Supporting Actress: Catherine
Zeta-Jones, Chicago
Three of the four acting
categories are hard to dispute this year; however, Julianne Moore and Meryl
Streep are far better in The Hours (assuming you consider them potential Best Supporting Actress nominees, which the
Academy did). Just to mix things up, I think Bill Pullman is wonderful in Igby
Goes Down (is what is about a cameo’s worth of screen time worth a Best Supporting Actor Oscar?) and Robin Williams
is delightfully insane in Death to Smoochy. Best
Actress is hands down Nicole Kidman for The Hours, one of my favorite
ten performances of the decade. Best Actor
Adrien Brody is excellent in The Pianist, but I also very much enjoy Chiwetel
Ejiofor in Dirty Pretty Things and Al Pacino in Insomnia. Best Director is rightfully Roman Polanski’s, but
Paul Greengrass with Bloody Sunday and Danny Boyle with 28 Days Later…
introduced new styles and aesthetics, changing cinema. Best
Picture is a toss-up between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(which only suffers a minor setback from being the middle of a grander
narrative – it is still my favorite of the series) and The Hours, a beautifully
constructed and acted film.
2004:
Best Picture: The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Director: Peter
Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Best Actor: Sean Penn,
Mystic River
Best Actress: Charlize
Theron, Monster
Best Supporting Actor: Tim
Robbins, Mystic River
Best Supporting Actress: Renee
Zellweger, Cold Mountain
Starting with Best Supporting Actor, Remy Girard is un-matched
in The Barbarian Invasions. Best Actress is
Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation and Best
Actor is Bill Murray also in Lost in Translation, another of my ten
favorite performances of the decade.. Best Director
rightfully belongs to Peter Jackson, not just for The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King but really the whole trilogy. I also want to mention
Kevin Costner for making the brilliant western Open Range, Gus Van Sant for the
chilling and unflinching Elephant and Chan-wook Park for the jaw-dropping
mystery thriller Oldboy. It is hard for me to deny The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King Best Picture, because it
is a monumental achievement and I do love it, but Lost in Translation
transcends with its beautiful, touching and funny performances and the
simplicity of its premise. It is a movie about friendship and life.
2005:
Best Picture: Million
Dollar Baby
Best Director: Clint
Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
Best Actor: Jamie Foxx,
Ray
Best Actress: Hilary
Swank, Million Dollar Baby
Best Supporting Actor: Morgan
Freeman, Million Dollar Baby
Best Supporting Actress: Cate
Blanchett, The Aviator
Jamie Foxx is very good in Ray,
but Christian Bale’s transformation in The Machinist is staggering and Bill
Murray’s hard-luck adventurer/oceanographer Steve Zissou is funny yet
emotionally complex. None of them are Best Actor,
however, that alone belongs to Bruno Ganz in Downfall. Back in 2005, I agreed
with Million Dollar Baby winning the awards it won. Today, I still think it is
a powerful and well-told narrative, but it is not Best
Picture or even Best Director. For
director, I put forth Oliver Hirschbiegel for Downfall and Kar Wai Wong for
2046; and yet, honestly I think the year belongs to franchise sequels. Alfonso
Cuaron’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2
are the best crafted and most entertaining films of the year. With Spider-Man
2, Raimi constructs a perfect narrative. For Best Picture, I will also add
Hotel Rwanda to the mix, but it is Spider-Man 2 all the way.
2006:
Best Picture: Crash
Best Director: Ang Lee,
Brokeback Mountain
Best Actor: Philip
Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Best Actress: Reese
Witherspoon, Walk the Line
Best Supporting Actor: George
Clooney, Syriana
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel
Weisz, The Constant Gardener
Best
Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor
very well could be The Squid and the Whale’s Laura Linney and Jeff
Daniels; although, Niels Arestrup is very good in The Beat That My Heart
Skipped, Val Kilmer is hilarious in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Tom Hollander
steals scenes in Pride & Prejudice. That said, I think Best Support Actor,
for me, is Chiwetel Ejiofor in Serenity. I love Reese Witherspoon in Walk the
Line (and Joaquin Phoenix is wonderful as well), but Best
Actress is Keira Knightely in Pride & Prejudice, another of my ten
favorite performances from the decade. Best
Director very well could be Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain, but I would
also like to mention Jacques Audiard for The Beat That My Heart Skipped,
Terrence Malick for The New World, Rian Johnson for Brick (reimagining the film
noir genre, blending it with a teen film), Steven Spielberg for Munich, Joe
Wright for Pride & Prejudice (with his fantastically fluid and kinetic
camera), Joss Whedon for Serenity, and Christopher Nolan for Batman Begins
(making me forget that Tim Burton even attempted another Batman film before,
something seemingly infeasible to my late 1980s adolescent self). Best Picture is among all these films as well as
Capote and Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. I am torn between Batman Begins,
Pride & Prejudice and Serenity – each is highly entertaining, very
well-made and just as vital and relevant today. 2005 was a standout year for film.
2007:
Best Picture: The
Departed
Best Director: Martin
Scorsese, The Departed
Best Actor: Forest
Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen
Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor: Alan
Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer
Hudson, Dreamgirls
2006 mostly comes down to two
films: The Prestige and Children of Men, but let us dig a little deeper. Best Support Actor, for me, is Bill Nighy in
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (just utter brilliance and joy). Best Actress is Carice van Houten for her tour de
force performance in Black Book. Best Actor easily
could be Francois Cluzet in Tell No One or Ulriche Muhe in The Lives of Others,
but Christian Bale is phenomenal in The Prestige, another of my ten favorite
performances of the decade. Martin Scorsese was due to win a Best Director Oscar, and cinema fans were happy to
see him win, but there were some move deserving directors: Paul Verhoeven for
Black Book, Paul Greengrass for United 93, J.J. Abrams for Mission: Impossible
III (I know you are shocked by this, but he made the best action film of the
decade with MI3; it is just wholly entertaining), Florian Henckel von
Donnersmarck for The Lives of Others, and Guillermo del Toro for Pan’s
Labyrinth. The award, however, belongs to either Alfonso Cuaron for Children of
Men (its aesthetic and technical degree of difficulty) or Christopher Nolan for
The Prestige (its masterful construction). I tend to favor Nolan, as I favor
The Prestige for Best Picture. I also want
to throw in the genuine, sad and heartfelt musical Once, just to mention it. It
is a great film.
2008:
Best Picture: No Country
for Old Men
Best Director: Joel Coen
and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Best Actor: Daniel
Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Actress: Marion
Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Best Supporting Actor: Javier
Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda
Swinton, Michael Clayton
2007 was also a very good year
for film. I agree with most of Oscar winners. Tilda Swinton is very good in
Michael Clayton (a film that has not remained vital in any regard), but Saoirse
Ronan is extraordinary in Atonement; she is 2007’s Best
Supporting Actress. Javier Barden is Best
Supporting Actor, no question, but Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton,
Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson’s War probably would have all won in
different years. There is also no denying Daniel Day-Lewis Best Actor, but Brad Pitt is sensational in The
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (probably the best
performance of his career, and the performance that won me over; he has since
become one of my favorite actors), as is Richard Jenkins in The Visitor. I
concur with the Coen Brothers being Best Director and
No Country for Old Men being Best Picture,
but I also love Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, Andrew Dominik’s The
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (I know you have not
seen it, but if you love westerns, you must), Joe Wright’s Atonement, and Paul
Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
2009:
Best Picture: Slumdog
Millionaire
Best Director: Danny
Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor: Sean Penn,
Milk
Best Actress: Kate
Winslet, The Reader
Best Supporting Actor: Heath
Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope
Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best
Supporting Actress Penelope Cruz and Best
Supporting Actor Heath Ledger (giving maybe the performance of the
decade, and one of my ten favorite) are both very deserving (although, you can
make cases for Taraji P. Henson and Tilda Swinton in The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button, both of whom are also very good). Best
Actress Kate Winslet is better in Revolutionary Road and should have won
for that film; I also very much enjoy Rebecca Hall in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
and Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Sean Penn is great
in Milk (it is my favorite performance of his), but I also want to nominate
Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (perfectly conveying the humor and
sadness – it is the decade’s best romantic comedy), Leonard DiCaprio in
Revolutionary Road, Tom Hardy in Bronson, Chiwetel Ejiofor in Redbelt, Brad
Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and my pick for Best Actor Michael Fassbender in Hunger.
Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight, David Fincher for The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button and Tomas Alfredson for Let the Right One In are all good
choices for Best Director, but Steve McQueen
does something exceptional with Hunger. It is mesmerizing, haunting and
unforgettable. WALL-E deserves to be mentioned along with these others, as one
of the few animated films to really make an impact as one of the year’s very
best movies. Yet, Best Picture comes down to
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Dark Knight – two grand epics. I
pick The Dark Knight.
2010:
Best Picture: The Hurt
Locker
Best Director: Kathryn
Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges,
Crazy Heart
Best Actress: Sandra
Bullock, The Blind Side
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph
Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique,
Precious
This year’s Oscars has a lot of
wrongs. Starting with Best Supporting Actress,
my pick is Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air, but in close proximity are Rosamund
Pike in An Education and Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds. Christoph Waltz
is Best Supporting Actor, unquestionably,
but there were some other great supporting performances by men in 2009: Michael
Fassbender in Inglourious Basterds, Tom Hollander and Peter Capaldi in In the
Loop (hysterically funny), Niels Arestrup in A Prophet, and Christian Bale in
Public Enemies. The Blind Side being nominated for Best Picture is laughable
(almost as laughable as Crash winning in 2006) and Sandra Bullock’s performance
boarders on caricature, but I guess everyone decided it was her year, good
performances be damned. My pick for Best Actress is
Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds, followed closely be Carey Mulligan in
An Education, Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank and Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria.
Jeff Bridges is good in Crazy Heart, but Colin Firth in A Single Man, Sam
Rockwell in Moon, Sharlto Copley in District 9, Brad Pitt in Inglourious
Basterds, and my pick for Best Actor Michael
Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man all give more interesting and dynamic performances. Best Director could be Kathryn Bigelow for The
Hurt Locker, Pete Docter and Bob Peterson for Up, Michael Mann for Public
Enemies, Juan Jose Campanella for The Secret in Their Eyes, Jacques Audiard for
A Prophet, Armando Iannucci for In the Loop, or Cary Fukunaga for Sin Nombre,
but my pick is Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds, which also my pick
for Best Picture.
2011:
Best Picture: The King’s
Speech
Best Director: Tom
Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Actor: Colin Firth,
The King’s Speech
Best Actress: Natalie
Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actor: Christian
Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa
Leo, The Fighter
I think all the performances that
won are very deserving. I just want to mention some other great performances
from the year not nominated: for Best Supporting
Actress Rooney Mara in The Social Network; she makes a tiny amount of
screen time resonate throughout the whole narrative. Keira Knightley is also
excellent in Never Let Me Go, playing off type. For Best
Supporting Actor Andrew Garfield is brilliant in both The Social Network
and Never Let Me Go, having a breakthrough year. Matt Damon and Barry Pepper
(in a tiny role) are great in True Grit. Ben Mendelsohn (who has become one of
our best working character actors) is electric and terrifying in Animal
Kingdom. And, Tom Hardy is just a treat to watch in Inception. For Best Actress Hailee Steinfeld is wonderful in True
Grit, as is Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go. And for Best
Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio is very good in Inception, a deseptively
difficult performance. Best Director is
unquestionably Christopher Nolan (did the Academy not see Inception?).
Incendies, Never Let Me Go, True Grit and The Social Network are all top-notch,
and could have won Best Picture if not for
Inception, a breathtaking feat of directorial skill, narrative construction and
realization. In a time dominated by series and series, Inception is a grand and
original blockbuster.
2012:
Best Picture: The Artist
Best Director: Michel,
Hazanavicius, The Artist
Best Actor: Jean
Dujardin, The Artist
Best Actress: Meryl
Streep, The Iron Lady
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher
Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia
Spencer, The Help
The 2012 Oscars were dominated by
nostalgia, but in retrospect they got most everything wrong. Best Supporting Actress Octavia Spencer is
deserving, but it is a shame that Carey Mulligan did not get nominated for
Drive or Shame, Jessica Chastain for The Tree of Life, Elle Fanning for Super
8, Anna Kendrick for 50/50, Keira Knightley for A Dangerous Method, and
Shailene Woodley for The Descendents (who probably gave the best performance of
the bunch). Best Supporting Actor Christopher
Plummer is also deserving, but I also really enjoy Michael Fassbender in Jane
Eyre, Omar Sy in The Intouchables, Ezra Miller in We Need to Talk About Kevin,
Albert Brooks in Drive, Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life, Corey Stoll in Midnight
in Paris, and Jonah Hill in Moneyball. And then things go wrong. Best Actress is Rooney Mara in The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo, followed by other excellent performances by Kirsten Dunst in
Melancholia, Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre, Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk
About Kevin, and Felicity Jones in Like Crazy. Best
Actor is Michael Fassbender in Shame, followed by other excellent
performances by Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Brad Pitt in
Moneyball, Tom Hardy in Warrior, Michael Shannon in Take Shelter, and Francois
Cluzet in The Intouchables. Best Director is
David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (making an even better
version of what was already a great Swedish film and book). Steve McQueen’s
work on Shame is also striking. A few others worthy of mentioning: Cary
Fukunaga for Jane Eyre, Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive, Terrence Malick for The
Tree of Life, and J.J. Abrams for Super 8. There were quite a few great films
in 2011, like the blockbusters Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which
actually lived up to the hype, and surpassed it) and Super 8, fun dramedies
like 50/50 and Midnight in Paris, and profound dramas like Shame and Jane Eyre.
The Best Picture of the year, however, is
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (revisit it and you will see its brilliance).
2013:
Best Picture: Argo
Best Director: Ang Lee,
Life of Pi
Best Actor: Daniel
Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress: Jennifer
Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph
Waltz, Django Unchained
Best Supporting Actress: Anne
Hawthaway, Les Miserables
I agree with the acting
categories. Anne Hathaway is also fabulous as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight
Rises, which would have been my favorite Best
Supporting Actress performance of the year if not for her work in Les
Miserables (it is the only thing worth watching the very tedious movie for).
Kelly Reilly is excellent in Flight, but did not get a nomination. Christoph
Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor is
probably right, but it was a strong year. These standout performance were not
even nominated: Javier Bardem in Skyfall, Ezra Miller in The Perks of Being a
Wall Flower, Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained, Tom Hardy in The Dark
Knight Rises (his Bane is one of my favorite superhero film villains, up there
with Heath Ledger’s Joker and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki), Michael Fassbender in
Prometheus (the best part of the film, along with its aesthetics), and Ben
Mendelsohn in Killing Them Softly. Jennifer Lawrence is undeniably charming and
engaging in Silver Linings Playbook winning Best
Actress, but I think Marion Cotillard’s performance in Rust and Bone is
just as good (maybe even better). Other great performances not nominated
include: Keira Knightley in Anna Karenina (a visual whirlwind, but grounded by
her strong work), Alicia Vikander in A Royal Affair and Greta Gerwig in Frances
Ha. Daniel Day-Lewis is probably our best working actor presently, he utterly
becomes his characters. He deserved to win Best
Actor for Lincoln, but here are some exceptional performances not
nominated: Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt, Christian Bale in The Dark Knight Rises,
Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained, Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly, and Suraj
Sharma in Life of Pi. Ang Lee’s Life of Pi is remarkable. He took 3-D, an
improperly used technology, and used it to produce an incredible film experience.
And yet, Kathryn Bigelow’s directorial feats on Zero Dark Thirty are just about
as impressive. In terms of blockbuster filmmaking, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers
is uneven, but he knocked the third act out of the park, creating the year’s
most entertaining film, while Christopher Nolan ends his Dark Knight Trilogy
with another astoundingly good film in The Dark Knight Rises. Rian Johnson also
exhibits flourishes of sheer brilliance in the montages of Looper. And, Paul
Thomas Anderson gets pitch perfect performances across the board in The Master.
Best Director is a toss-up. If I have to
pick though, I tend to lean towards Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty is just
so enthralling). Best Picture comes down to
The Master, Life of Pi, The Dark Knight Rises, and Zero Dark Thirty. Argo is a
good thriller, but nowhere near the level of these films. I love Nolan’s Batman
trilogy, and so my pick is The Dark Knight Rises, but if you were to take that
out of the running I would go with Zero Dark Thirty.
2014:
Best Picture: 12 Years a
Slave
Best Director: Alfonso
Cuaron, Gravity
Best Actor: Matthew
McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actress: Cate
Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actor: Jered
Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita
Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
We have finally come to the end.
I will make this one quick. I agree with Lupita Nyong’o as Best Supporting Actress. I question if anyone will
care about Dallas Buyers Club in five year, or if anyone even cares about it
now. Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave is Best
Supporting Actor. I agree with Cate Blanchett as Best Actress. Chiwetel
Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave is Best Actor.
Initially I did agree that Alfonso Cuaron deserved to win Best Director for the technical challenges of
Gravity, but now I feel differently. The film does not really hold up to
multiple viewings and Steve McQueen’s directorial work on 12 Years a Slave is
much more profound and interesting. I think Spike Jonze for Her and Marin Scorsese
for The Wolf of Wall Street are also more deserving, but McQueen is my pick
today. I agree with 12 Years a Slave as Best
Picture.
Enjoy the 2015 Academy Awards on
Sunday.
