MFM Oscars 2016 Predictions

Copyright AMPAS

With the 88th Academy Award just hours away, here�s my take on the possible winners of the evening, mostly in the big non-technical categories. Overall, it was a less-than-impressive year, aside from many great performances, especially by the female actors in films that speak about social injustices of the past and the present day.

Also, the 2016 Oscars will most likely be remembered by the controversy about the lack of diversity in the nominee lists, but considering the super-white, super-male Academy membership, is hardly a surprise. Read the list of my 2016 Oscar Predictions.

BEST PICTURE

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Brooklyn

Mad Max: Fury Road � This might be more hoping, but for me it was easily the best film of 2015

The Martian

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

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ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo � Sorry Leonardo DiCaprio, you struggle against a bear and Hardy, not the evil of censorship in a democracy

Matt Damon, The Martian

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

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ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Cate Blanchett, Carol

Brie Larson, Room

Jennifer Lawrence, Joy

Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years

Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn � Again, not sure, but my spider sense is pointing to Saoirse Ronan

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ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Christian Bale, The Big Short

Tom Hardy, The Revenant � The most impressive actors of two stars in an impressive film

Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight

Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Sylvester Stallone, Creed

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ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight � More of a "thank you" for many decades in Hollywood

Rooney Mara, Carol

Rachel McAdams, Spotlight

Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

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ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Anomalisa

Boy and the World

Inside Out � I�m certain of this one, everyone loved it with a Wall-E level of intensity

Shaun the Sheep Movie

When Marnie Was There

Film Review: Steve Jobs (2015)

Copyright: Universal Pictures

In the modern, still somewhat death-centric culture thanks to 2000 years of Christendom, deceased are both revered and explored. No matter if those people are dead musicians like Michael Jackson or Kurt Cobain, or if they are leaders of industry, like Jobs, there is a strong magnetic pull that keeps people from allowing them to be forgotten. 

It does not only this but also somehow forces the public subconscious to dig through their lives and looks for clues, even though there are no real questions anymore, at least not any that are relevant to them.

This grave digger approach is the reason why a lot of films about real people end up either half-cooked, like The Imitation Game or weirdly (but clearly) disjointed from that actual woman or man as Lone Survivor.

 However, Steve Jobs was created by Danny Boyle, one of the best directors working today, especially when it comes to those who meander when it comes to genre. He, as a great scholar of films (I believe he is, at least) knew that already people tried to tell the tale of Jobs and failed.

So, instead of making a grand picture about a genius who created barely anything himself in a technical sense, but successfully �played the orchestra� to build a business empire, he made a small tale about a father and a daughter. This tale isn�t set in the wide open world but on stages and backstage areas of the venues where Job held seminal presentations about Apple products. Starting in the 80�s and going all the way to the period before the launch of the iMac, the film juggles the business dealings of the man with his shifting approach to a little girl who is his daughter (even though he denies this at the beginning).

Here, the talent of Michael Fassbender works wonders as he presents a man who will never be an open book, even to the people who knew him best. As Jobs, Fassbender is likable and deplorable, soothing and poisonous, depending on the need and the situation. But, at all times, he is alluring, like a light in a dim room that beckons people to him even when he acts like a complete ass. The rest of the cast is equally interesting and gives the film a very elegant and unforced cognitive quality without any flash or bang.

There is controversy about the film and some believe it to be a misrepresentation of the man. But, we are a culture who loves to explore its dead, so I�m certain that there will be other works which deliver into the life of Steve Jobs. That�s fine by me, as long as they are all as good as this one.

Film Review: Bridge of Spies (2015)

Copyright: 20th Century Fox

30 years ago, when Steven Spielberg and the Coen Brothers were younger and a lot hungrier for recognition, I could imagine the Bridge of Spy becoming an interesting film. Back then, aside from the supposed mindset of these men, this film about Cold War spies would have had an additional advantage: the USSR would have still existed.

Today, however, spies are mostly people who sit behind a computer and fly a drone over some country where beards are very popular or who force their way into the enemy�s (and more than often allies) databases. The age of the agent 007 is so gone that even the last film from this series desires to put the notion of the gentleman spy to its eternal resting place.

But, Spielberg-Coen production decided that the world of the spy genre had too much technology, YouTube head chopping videos, and radical Islamism villains.

Instead, they took us to a much simple time, when the world was facing total nuclear annihilation, but you could hop on a train and be pretty certain that no one would try to blow it up using their mom�s pressure cooker. Here, a New York lawyer by the name of James B. Donovan (played by Tom Hanks) gets to defend Rudolf Abel, an almost-certainly Russian spy.

On the other side of the world, a newly recruited CIA �driver� or U2 spy pilot sets off from Peshawar airbase in Pakistan (which is also Islamism-free back then) to snap some photos of the USSR secret facilities. The Americans are assured that the U2 cannot be brought down, forgetting that age-old wisdom that you never-ever go off to invade Russia, even using a single funny-looking airplane.

In rapid succession, both US and USSR have got themselves valuable spies in custody. But, Donovan, being a sharp mind used to tough negotiation, finds himself in the middle of the trade-off deal involving his country, the Russians but also the German Democratic Republic. The complex web of interests and lies is soon spun from all corners, but Donovan plows through it, determined to save his countrymen.

The Bridge of Spies is so vanilla that you can taste it in every scene and with every character. Everyone is human and logical and every person Donovan meets makes sense from their own vantage point. There are no stereotypes, not even on the Russian side, where they are usually found in other US films. Instead, the Coen Brothers� script plays out like a really expansive documentary film about human determination to be rational when all the global mindset in every country calls for blood. But it is still very vanilla in its realization, from the cinematography to the constantly worried, I�m-not-a-hero hero Tom Hanks. Like with Captain Phillips, this gig that Hanks does is getting a bit bothersome.

I imagine that the main reason for making this film was to show the world who James B. Donovan was. While he apparently was a great guy who wanted to talk with his enemies instead of exclusively hate them and trying to kill them, the Bridge of Spies is still a masterfully made TV movie.

Film Review: Flying To Disney World (2016)

For a film that literally uses one piece of paper (a winning lottery ticket) and a hot dog (a magical-scientific means of travel) Flying to Disney World really makes the most use of its limited resources. Its director and writer Jonathan Vargas takes his barren production potential in terms of locations and props to create an elaborate joke which is both funny and laden with subtle references to the popular culture. While not perfect in execution, this short film clearly shows that the ability to restrain one�s aspirations and ambitions for any one project is the key to its success.

Flying to Disney World presents its story as a one-line joke, opening with Sam, who is ecstatic to find out that he just won a ticket to Disney World. Being a grown man, he still takes the news as the most excited 12-year-old in the world, but only unit he finds out that he can claim it in Disney World itself. However, his car was recently destroyed by his roommate Roxy. But, just as all seems lost, Roxy enters the film and she comes with the perfect bang.

Part Dexter�s sister Dee Dee, part lunatic, Roxy is first distraught by the news that Sam won�t be able to get his prize because of her, but then, being that she is some kind of home-based insane scientist, she offers to resolve his problem using her invention. When the invention turns out to be a hot dog (a real, eatable hot dog) the film kicks into higher gear.

Here, the real jokes begin to fly and it seems that Vargas rightly recognized that this is the part where his actors really got into their roles. Both Amanda Ortega and Christopher Michael do great as Roxy and Sam, but once the "invention" enters the fold, Ortega takes it to a whole new level. Even though the film was up to that point intriguing because of its simple setup, the appearance of the hot dog is the glue that ties all elements of the film together and makes it work.

Here, the first few chuckles can mutate into full laughter as Roxy presents her idea to the bewildered Sam who doesn�t have any alternative. As a comedy, here the film shows its multiple sources of inspiration, from goofy slapstick to bizarre domains of things like Wonder Showzen. In fact, the film could have even better if an even bigger number of jokes came in even faster.

Cleverly, Vargas presents all of this in neat and tidy shots, where the camera doesn�t get used or abused in any way. He also uses sound editing to a degree that is above regular independent short films, which is also a great means of introducing humor, like the �sounds� that follow the unseen creation process of the powerful hot dog. This allows the film to focus on the characters, especially Ortega, who clearly finds her mark around this time and drives it home.

Flying to Disney World cannot be called a masterpiece of short filmmaking, mainly because of the fact that the visual domain was mostly used to present the dialogues, but doesn�t venture further (a safe bet, but not enough for greatness). However, it can be seen as a miniature sitcom which really is funny and entertaining. Independent short films regularly fail at both of the previous, which is why Flying to Disney World can be called a really good short comedy. Vargas possesses a big potential for a possible move to TV production because he has all that is needed for making short-form TV shows, especially if he could push his weird type of humor even further.

Find out more about Jonathan Vargas on his YouTube channel and Facebook fan page and watch the full Flying to Disney World below.

Film Review: Spectre (2015)

Copyright: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Everyone seems to be impressed by the fact that Dark Star is David Bowie�s eulogy, but Spectre offered people a lot less usual content on its farewell to the Daniel Craig�s James Bond. In it, Sam Mendes apparently decided to end his 007 run not with a bang, but with a very impressive whimper. This time, the plot does not include testicle-beating, M-stabbing villains, but an organization that encompasses them all.

The same organization is run by a mysterious figure that apparently, died many decades before and now wants to see the world burn not through a single grandiose deed, but through the human savagery and gradual exploitation of the range and anger that is already in all of us.

Mendes is a master of an elegant cinematic eye which could have worked equally well 50 years ago as it does today. Steering clear of any and (almost) all modern tricks, the director of Spectre uses his natural ability to set up a shot in a menacing way, where the protagonist is almost surrounded by other things in it, both human and inanimate.

This silky smooth trick is applied several times, but most effectively on the site of a burial in an ancient cemetery in Rome, where the use of white and gray pylons goes brilliantly with mourners wearing black. As they slide away from the scene, Mendes demonstrates his uncanny talent where the narrative is spoken and presented by the environment itself almost more than the actors and their lines � remember the Scottish moors in Skyfall?

At the same time, this scene, like many others, focuses on the notion of things passing away and stopping to exist, while latently, it also provides a counterpoint by showing how this passing, no matter how tragic or undesirable, will not stop the world from spinning.

As Bond fights and investigates his way to the heart of Specter, Daniel Craig is on board with Mendes� last goodbye to the series. He, like his character, presents a determined but shallow man who knows it has all ended a long time ago and now he is simply fighting for remembrance and their legacy, nothing more. Even when he sees his name written in paint onto the memorial placket of the old MI6 HQ, Bond simply recognizes the word but does not react. The character and Craig both recognize that their time has passed and they are fine with that.

While I watched the film with its regular location A, location B, location C setup of the plot, I was surprised that the film is so toned down. But, just like Christoph Waltz, there is no need for extravaganza when you have that deep-rooted quality about you, presented in all the things you do no. Like Sicario, another recent and impressive action film, it is very cool about being cool. I�m certain that many of those who enjoyed Quantum of Solace will not like this film, but they shouldn�t go hard on it: after all, Spectre is a kind of a funeral.