Yes, I’m sure you are. Coming up in just a few days will be the announcement of the winners from If I Ruled the Oscars. What, you were thinking I was speaking about the Academy Awards? Come on, when was the last time the Oscars were relevant? When was the last time they actually chose the best picture of the year as the best picture of the year? How about their ability to pick best director? Hitchcock, nah. Shall I mention The Greatest Show on Earth? Forrest Gump? Kramer vs. Kramer?
Forget them. Stick with me.
So a few thoughts on my five Best of categories to get us in the mood.
There’s not a great deal to say about Best Feature as this is a pretty standard category. All of the films are very much worth seeing, and a majority of them are deserving of a top award. You’ll just have to wait to see what edges out what.
Best Animated Feature is also a standard category, far more so in that my genre nominees are overlapping the Academy nominees three-fifths of the time (Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2). Enough has been said throughout the Internet about the Academy’s bizarre misstep in not nominating The Lego Movie. My fifth choice, Penguins of Madagascar is a film that is much better than non-me critics have said and far superior to the other Madagascar movies. Funny and exciting, it is an underrated film. Instead of those two, the Academy chose Song of the Sea and The Tale of Princess Kaguya. I cannot comment on Song of the Sea. I disqualified it because it was pretty much impossible for me to see in a timely manner. As for Kaguya, ignoring its 2013 date, it earned its nomination purely based on being from Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki’s company, but it is no Howl’s Moving Castle. It is not a bad film, but is in need of an editor.
Best Screenplay is not as robust of a category this year. A good screenplay is needed to make a good film, and all five films have good screenplays, but none are truly great. It will be hard to choose a winner when all nominees are good, but none pop out beyond their peers.
Best Character [Creation] is a new category for me, and one I think will stick around as it combines elements that must work together to make the audience care. Makeup, CGI, non-CGI effects, performance—none of these are enough on their own (well, performance can be). But when all work together the results can be astounding. It is also a very strong category. I didn’t walk away from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes thinking about the plot (except for the lack of ending) or theme; I was dwelling on how astounding Caesar was—how much of a real person he was. Similarly Rocket is perfectly created in Guardians. Maleficent, the film, has many detractors, but even they give a nod to Angelina Jolie in the “role she was born to play.” The Hobbit, all nine hours of it, dragged and skittled about where it had no need to go, but there was no flaw in the drawing of Bilbo, Thorin, or Tauriel. They seemed completely real. As for The Beast, in the new version of Beauty and the Beast that I am guessing few who are reading this have seen, he manages to pay homage to tradition while not copying the past.
Which brings me to my last category, Song. I gave up on trying for a Best Original Song category as I could not find enough nominees (nor could The Academy if you look at a few of their choices). And sticking with Original Song would fail to honor some of the best moments in film for 2014. So I went broader, allowing any use of music as a potential nominee. The result is one of the strongest categories of the year, and one very difficult to judge because so many of them pop. “Everything Is Awesome” is the heart of The Lego Movie with its deeply cynical cheerfulness. The goth rendition of “Once Upon a Dream” defines Maleficent, plus is simply beautiful. Then there’s “The Hanging Tree.” The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is not a great film. It has been a weak franchise. It lacks heart. It is drab and emotionless. But not during that song. Then, it is moving and captivating. No one can deny that the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 made Guardians of the Galaxy and I almost nominated the entire mix. Based on the trailer, I’d have gone with “Hooked on a Feeling,” or if I’d gone with my childhood, it would have been “Go All the Way,” but in the film, it is “Come and Get Your Love” that sets the tone.
That’s the rundown. Which will win?