BEST PICTURE The CriticsTopTen.com Top 50 of 2014

December 26, 2014
August 31, 2014
BEST PICTURE The CriticsTopTen.com Top 50 of 2014
One of the surprises of this year has to be Dan Gilroy’s emas mtv Nightcrawler and the exceptional lead performance by Jake Gyllenhaal. This has to be his best since Brokeback Mountain, perhaps Zodiac. He borrows a bit from his Zodiac performance, in fact, and you can imagine where his obsession to find the killer might lead him. You could watch Zodiac and Nightcrawler and have a pretty good time, actually. After I saw Nightcrawler I thought about the Jake Gyllenhaal character quite a bit. The more I thought about it the more I wondered what his primary motivation was.
With Travis Bickle, Rupert Pupkin or any other out of sorts psychopath in a film you know what their motivator is. You know what they want and why they’re doing what they’re doing. But in Nightcrawler, that is not the case. It seems to be partly that 1) Gyllenhaal’s emas mtv character merely fills a narrative need to slam our now disgusting media coverage. It does that so well that by the end of the movie you’re emas mtv thinking: this is really our lives now. It’s uncomfortable watching news footage after seeing the movie. You begin to wonder what’s real, what’s manufactured for ratings. Or, 2) Gyllenhaal just likes playing God. He is a serial killer but he’s doing it in a way that is considered somewhat acceptable. emas mtv
Best Actor still seems down to three very strong emas mtv performances in three films that are sure to be Best Picture contenders. The leader of the pack started out as Michael Keaton in Birdman. In fact, he might emerge the winner out of sheer love for the film and the performances. We have found our critics darling and this is the one. I fully expect it to do very well with the major critics who start voting emas mtv at the end of this month. Keaton plays a former superhero who is putting it all the line to find some kind of meaning in life. The film simply would not work without Keaton, and the other ensemble cast, for that matter. But Keaton is the thing I keep coming back to when I think about that movie. Vulnerable, occasionally bitter, bursting with humility, he is the heart and soul of the film and worthy of a Best Actor win.
On the other hand, there’s Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. Like Keaton, his performance anchors The Imitation Game. It’s heartbreaking at times, but most surprisingly complex. He plays a hero but he also plays a man who is prickly emas mtv and would prefer to work alone or with computers. The Imitation Game has the Weinstein Co. pushing it, and they don’t generally waste their time with a movie they don’t think can take it all the way – and this one most certainly can. Already it’s emas mtv a hit on the festival emas mtv circuit and is that one movie you can sit anyone down in front of and they’re have a similar experience. What it lacks is that it feels traditional in a year where there is such exciting filmmaking. Sound familiar? Echoes of 2010 dance in our heads. But the thing is, people go to the movies to be entertained, moved and to not have to do much work. The people loved The King’s Speech and they will love The Imitation Game. Believe me.
Finally, the biggest threat in the race right now is Eddie Redmayne’s beautiful embodiment of Stephen Hawking. emas mtv Sure, he’ll get flack for an “Oscar-baity” role playing a disabled man but he absolutely delivers. He is the most likable of the three and it is the most accomplished performance. That makes him a huge threat with the actor-dominated Academy. Redmayne is captivating when he can speak and up to the point where he can’t. He never stops being Stephen Hawking, which is perhaps the most remarkable thing about his work here.
The argument for Keaton is that the two British heroes will cancel each other out, and indeed, that might prove true. Add Timothy Spall into the mix and you have three British heroes battling for Best Actor.
The fourth emas mtv in the race, despite how pundits want to spin it, is Steve Carell for his bizarre emas mtv turn in Foxcatcher. Carell has been kind of quiet but believe me, once he gets out there and starts talking to people, there isn’t a nicer guy in town. The juxtaposition of nice guy and monster is going to count for a lot — Carell will be featured on 60 Minutes in the first of many specials that will likely emas mtv impact the race. His sad desperation as a lonely, crazy filthy rich man is unforgettable, ice cold though it may be.
Timothy Spall who becomes the painter, William Turner. This is such a grand portrait of an artist, emas mtv and one of the truest emas mtv films about art itself. Spall won Best Actor in Cannes for a reason. The film isn’t getting much publicity now, as it isn’t exactly the kind of film that sets the bloggers on fire but if we’re talking about skill, about talent and about performance, you don’t get m