88th Academy Awards: Best Picture

Best Picture

So this time tomorrow, we here at Black Ribbon will be fully stocked up on coffee, energy drinks. those small cocktail sausages from Asda and perhaps the contraption that keeps Malcolm McDowell's eyes open within A Clockwork Orange in a brave attempt to keep awake during the early hours to which the latest incarnation of the Oscar ceremony will no doubt take place unto. For now however, it is time to examine the last and perhaps most important category of the 88th Academy Awards; the Best Picture category, a category which features a wide range of brilliant cinematic achievements, all of which have shocked, thrilled and stunned audiences across the world over the course of the past cinematic year, ranging from the all-out action craziness of Mad Max: Fury Road to the understated drama of Spotlight, two completely different movies, but both exceeding in critical acclaim nonetheless with the former being the favourite film of last year for two of Black Ribbon's leading contributors. 

As for the bookies, The Revenant is all set to continue its' success at the BAFTA's and walk away with the prestigious award yet it may face stiff competition from The Big Short and Spotlight, the film I believe deserves to win. There is no doubt that The Revenant is an excellent piece of cinematic achievement but Spotlight is a film that arks back to the fundamentals of film, one that believes telling a story in a straightforward fashion with a superb ensemble cast on top form is the most organic way to achieve true drama. Much like Whiplash last year, Spotlight is a film nominated for best picture and one that I hope wins against all the odds. We shall see. As for those who may have been overlooked, Inside Out, although odds on to win Best Animated Feature, should have been part of the Best Picture nominations, whilst films such as Sicario, Macbeth, The Gift and Straight Outta Compton all would have been on my own personal Oscar list for their achievements but in the eyes of the "prestigious" Oscar voters (See Link Below) such films were not worthy of Oscar stardom. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the ceremony as much as we will, and for the last time until this time next year, here are the nominations; 

Mad Max: Fury Road - George Miller

The Revenant -  Alejandro González Iñárritu  

Spotlight - Tom McCarthy

The Big Short - Adam McKay

Room - Lenny Abrahamson

Bridge of Spies - Steven Spielberg

The Martian - Ridley Scott

Brooklyn - John Crowley

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/oscars-2016-voter-admits-not-watching-some-films-praises-the-room-and-shuns-whats-her-name-from-a6897016.html

88th Academy Awards: Best Actor

Best Actor

Could this finally be the year. Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Sorry, Jamie Foxx deserves that this year. How about Billy Costigan in The Departed? I'm afraid not. But how about my roles in either Django Unchained or The Wolf of Wall Street? Once again, I'm afraid not Leonardo, you just aren't good enough to deserve an Oscar. Fine. I'll find a director who will put me through sheer hell and force me to cut open a horse and sleep inside it, proper Luke Skywalker style from The Empire Strikes Back. Of course, I'm sure this isn't how the life of Leonard DiCaprio actually played out after countless times of Oscar betrayal but it does seem that his dedication to his role in The Revenant was that of a man giving all he possibly can in order to claim what has bypassed his clutches in the past. Everyone and their mum's believes it is time for Leo to win his Oscar and if somehow such did fail to occur this year, I fully believe the Leo supporting masses would violently and swiftly burn the Dolby Theatre down to the ground with Leo being the sole survivor of such a terrible tragedy. 

Extreme I know, but without even looking at the betting for this years' Best Actor category, it is obvious that Leo is the firm favourite. In fact, it is such a safe bet I would recommend putting your life savings on it. Trust me, I know these things. If however you are not privy to the odd bet or two and believe that the Oscars will continue to starve DiCaprio of his glory, the other contenders for the award include Bryan Cranston for Trumbo, Matt Damon for The Martian, Michael Fassbender for the brilliant Steve Jobs and Eddie Redmayne for the not-so-brilliant The Danish Girl.  As for those who may have been overlooked, Fassbender, if not for Steve Jobs, would have been nominated for his role as Macbeth in Justin Kurzel's cold-blooded adaptation of the Shakespearean classic, whilst it was a shame Samuel L. Jackson wasn't recognised for his eye-locking performance in The Hateful Eight, one which kept the film intriguing and captivating for its' ridiculously over-long runtime. Also, what about Jacob Tremblay's simply stunning performance in Room? Sure he's only nine but Tatum O'Neal won an Oscar at the age of ten. One to ponder upon anyhow. Here are the nominations: 

Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant

Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs

Bryan Cranston - Trumbo

Matt Damon - The Martian

Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl

Next Time: Best Actress!

Film Review: The Martian

Life On Mars

When the first theatrical trailer for Ridley Scott's new sci-fi movie The Martian was released to the world a few months back, the two-minute clip was so spoiler-heavy in terms of some rather important plot points, you could have been easily forgiven for not choosing to pay to watch what essentially might have been a two and a half hour extension of the ideas highlighted in that particularly short amount of time, and when a following six-minute trailer for the film was released soon after the first, I completely blocked it in order to save some of the excitement for the film's release. If you were one of the many who chose to watch The Martian in its' six-minute release format, I can't imagine you could have been overly impressed by the complete package, with it, like Everest recently, suffering from the now-familiar problem that its' core shocks and storylines were overtly spoiled before the film's release in a vain attempt to sell the film to the masses via that of a trailer, something of which detracts the film from the excellence it could have possibly become.

When the NASA led Ares III manned mission to Mars is forced to retreat due to heavy storms and dangerous weather, astronaut and acclaimed botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is left for dead on the planet after being hit by debris, yet soon after, NASA realise Watney is in fact alive and well on the planet after surviving the accident and is now attempting to survive on Mars for the duration of time it takes until the next scheduled NASA mission lands. Using the wide range of expertise of both Watney and those back on Earth, the two combine in an attempt to accomplish the miracle of getting Watney back home, a destination all of 33 million miles away. Directed by the genius that is Ridley Scott, creator of two of my favourite films of all time in the form of Blade Runner and Alien, The Martian proves to be one of his better works in recent times but ultimately fails to touch the greatness of some of his most prestigious work whilst feeling indirectly and unfortunately familiar to the masterpiece that was last year's Interstellar, with the film even going so far as having some of the same actors (Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain) whilst having an unbelievably uncanny plot point that derives straight from last years' Nolan epic (Matt Damon being stranded alone on a alien planet).

Areas in which the film succeeds is the way in which Damon's portrayal of the lone astronaut Mark Watney is strongly handled with him neither passing into the realm of annoyance or boredom and instead being an interesting and well-developed character throughout, whilst the interaction of geeks and gargantuan space-filled characters on Earth was also highly enjoyable with a wide range of unexpected comedic content, aside from the inclusion of Donald Glover's Rich Purnell whose annoying ten-minute inclusion almost ruined every scene in which he was present. Excellent also was the presentation of the desperate wasteland that is Mars, with Dariusz Wolski's cinematography being on tip-top form when confronted with the planet's desolate surroundings. The main problem in my opinion with The Martian, aside from it being around twenty-minutes too long, was there was no real sense of threat for the character of Mark Watney, with it being blindingly obvious that his escape from Mars was set to be a successful venture, something of which was rather disappointing, whilst the sometimes cheesy script and dialogue (That Iron Man scene...Eugh) resulted in The Martian being a solid return for Sir Ridley, but nothing actually that spectacular on the face of it. 

Overall Score: 7/10