Tonight we will find out what the most prestigious voting body in the world thinks. But here is something I'd like to think as a recap of the last year. It's nice to sit down and see what you liked and maybe loved. The choices are sometimes controversial, so were they last year. I got some people wondering why I chose Judi Dench as my best actress. I choose what I liked the most, don't give a damn how it looks or sounds. If I feel good about my picks, then I give out the awards, otherwise I might just wait till tomorrow and copy the Academy's choices. It's about being fair to your taste.
So here they are, my picks, some of them will overlap with the Academy (a lot I hope), and some aren't even nominated. Here they are. The 2nd Annual Burt Awards with the Top Ten movies of the year 2014.
1. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2. Whiplash
3. Boyhood
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Nightcrawler
6. Selma
7. Gone Girl
8. Edge of Tomorrow
9. Inherent Vice
10. Interstellar
I was really debating whether 10 should be Interstellar or Into the Woods. I liked both, but in the end the spectacular vision of Christopher Nolan prevailed.
What I liked was that many films (each of the above) started a discussion. Gone Girl must've been the most talked about movie of the year. The problems it tackled, the themes it portrayed. Birdman and its open for interpretation ending was something to be talked about. Whiplash and the character of Fletcher, and by extension the ending sequence. Boyhood enchanted me. It felt so real, the story was so incredibly honest, and sometimes gripping. Edge of Tomorrow was the most awesome movie of the year, being the best blockbuster action film. Amazing. Each of them offered something, and each will stay with me.
Birdman, however, was the one that I knew would be No1 or 2 right after I saw it. It blew my mind, it's something that every filmmaker wants to achieve. Everything about it was so damn perfect. It was that or Whiplash, but Birdman prevailed having its strength in the screenplay, the sole tiny flaw that Whiplash had. Birdman is a film I will surely come back to in years to come.
Having announced my Best Picture of the year, here are the remaining categories.
The winners are in YELLOW & BOLD and below are the runners-up in alphabetical order.
BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro G. Innaritu (Birdman)
Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Ava DuVernay (Selma)
David Fincher (Gone Girl)
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Why: The way the amazing idea was executed was stunning and how it all worked together like a perfect puzzle made it impossible not to choose Innaritu. DuVernay directed one of the most thrilling and breath taking scenes I've seen all year. Linklater made something so honest that it just moved you. The scene at the table when the drunk husband slams dishes was so powerful. I mentioned him here because of the quality of his work, not the commitment that shamefully appears to be the reason for his frequent votes (as we found out from Scott Feinberg's "Brutally Honest Oscar Ballots".
BEST ACTOR
Jake Gylenhaal (Nightcrawler)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Michael Keaton (Birdman)
David Oyelowo (Selma)
Why: Gylenhaal just gave me the chills. He was so scary that I literally was debating whether or not to shit my pants. That eventually came with Steve Carell, but that's not in this category. The chemistry between Gylenhaal and Russo was amazing. They both wanted more, only he had a plan and was organized and she blindly and greedily demanded more just to please herself. They both were crazy, and for showing us in such a powerful way Gylenhaal deserves to be here. I couldn't go without mentioning my second favorite of the year - Ralph Fiennes. So funny and good. Oyelowo - electrifying and charismatic. Keaton - satirically funny and profound. Cumberbatch - touching and breath taking.
BEST ACTRESS
Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
Jennifer Aniston (Cake)
Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Reese Witherspoon (Wild)
Why: Well there just was no other option. This was Pike from the very beginning. I walked out of the theatre knowing she would be the one I'd choose. I thought about it once more when I saw Cotillard, she was my No2. Back to Pike though, she was equally as scary as Gylenhaal, so very convincing. There was no showy performance, it was just raw and blood chilling life. "That's marriage" she said, which had to be the best scene of hers in the movie. She was the best and if you think she wasn't, well... "No way, baby. I'm it."
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Edward Norton (Birdman)
Josh Brolin (Inherent Vice)
Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)
Marco Perella (Boyhood)
J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
It could have gone three ways for me. Carell, Norton or Simmons. They are were great. Carell and Simmons scared the shit out of me. Carell creeped it out more, and Simmons... well he haunted me for some time. "Not quite my tempo". But Norton playing the celebrity, the sum of everything I always loved about him. There is one line that absolutely won me over. "Play with my balls". Perfect and amusing.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Rene Russo (Nightcrawler)
Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Carrie Coon (Gone Girl)
Emma Stone (Birdman)
Naomi Watts (Birdman)
As I said before the chemistry with Gylenhaal, which is best seen in the restaurant scene, was the best thing about the film and it's thanks to Rene Russo too. As for her performance solely, the "killer moment" was when she scream at Lou Bloom for not getting her the footage she wanted. She is so addicted from information and lives on a basis of ratings that she explodes when someone fails, and by extent she does. The two ladies from Birdman are both phenomenal in their own ways. Stone is perfect in her monologue (shoutologue, really) but her best moment is on the roof when Norton tells her that Keaton hit him in the face. "Oh my God. Are you fucking kidding me?". Watts is very delicate and subtle, beautifully capturing the fragile soul behind a debuting Broadway actress' ego.
BEST SCREENPLAY
Birdman
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Nightcrawler
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
Nightcrawler
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Interstellar (Hans Zimmer)
Birdman (Antonio Sanchez)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Alexandre Desplat)
Gone Girl (Atticus Ross & Trent Reznor)
The Theory of Everything (Johann Johannsson)
BEST ENSEMBLE
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Gone Girl
That's all. We shall see who wins tonight, I hope my picks at least to some extent overlap with the Academy's (although some categories are locked). Good luck to whoever you're rooting for! Thanks for a great and unpredictable season, see you after the big night.
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