Academy Award Nominations 2015
by Kam Williams

Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel have emerged as the early Oscar favorites after garnering nine Academy Award nominations each. Both of those films are excellent movies and well-deserving of all the accolades they’ve received.

Nevertheless, the simultaneous snub of Selma is a little mind-boggling. The critically-acclaimed civil rights saga is enjoying the highest Rotten Tomatoes rating (99%) of any of the Oscar hopefuls, yet was only rewarded with nominations in the Best Picture and Best Song (“Glory”) categories.

Why didn’t Ava DuVernay become the first African-American female director nominated, as most insiders had predicted? Her slot was ostensibly given to Bennett Miller, the director of Foxcatcher, which wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture.

And why wasn’t Selma star David Oyelowo recognized for his powerful portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King? To add insult to injury, the Academy Award nominations were announced on January 15th, Dr. King’s birthday. Given the glaring omission, one can’t help but note that all of the nominees in the acting categories are Caucasian, perhaps a reflection of the predominantly-white Academy voting membership.

Another contributing factor to Selma’s stock suddenly tanking, undoubtedly, was the sharp criticism directed at it by Joseph Califano in a scathing op-ed printed in the Washington Post. The former assistant to Lyndon Johnson takes issue with the movie’s suggestion that the President’s was a reluctant supporter of the march and the Voting Rights Act, when “in fact, Selma was LBJ’s idea.” Califano he concludes his piece with the assertion that the picture “should be ruled out for consideration” this awards season.

Granted, the film was inaccurate in its portrayal of President Johnson. However, anyone who as actually seen the movie knows that LBJ was not cast as a villain, but more as a sympathetic figure in need of persuasion.

To her credit, director DuVernay avoided the familiar Hollywood formula which would have a group of imperiled blacks folks rescued by a great white savior on a pedestal. Instead, she opted to spread the praise around, acknowledging pivotal roles played not only by such icons as Dr. King and John Lewis, but by lesser-known, Selma local activists like Annie Lee Cooper and Cager Lee.

What I find very disheartening about the Selma smear campaign is that other historical dramas in the Oscar race, including The Imitation Game and American Sniper, have basically been given a pass despite whispered rumors of their having also taken liberties with the truth. For, such license didn’t prevent Lawrence of Arabia, A Beautiful Mind, Schindler’s List, Argo, The Last Emperor or The King’s Speech from winning the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Given how moving and meaningful a film Selma is, it’s sad to think that a few narrow-minded detractors with a patently-political agenda might have actually succeeded in derailing it.

Complete List of Academy Award Nominations

Best Actor

• Steve Carell, "Foxcatcher"
• Bradley Cooper, "American Sniper"
• Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Imitation Game"
• Michael Keaton, "Birdman"
• Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything"

Best Actress

• Marion Cotillard, "Two Days, One Night"
• Felicity Jones, "The Theory of Everything"
• Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"
• Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl"
• Reese Witherspoon, "Wild"

Best Supporting Actor

• Robert Duvall, "The Judge"
• Ethan Hawke, "Boyhood"
• Edward Norton, "Birdman"
• Mark Ruffalo, "Foxcatcher"
• J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

Best Supporting Actress

• Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"
• Laura Dern, "Wild"
• Keira Knightley, "The Imitation Game"
• Emma Stone, "Birdman"
• Meryl Streep, "Into the Woods"

Cinematography

• "Birdman"
• "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• "Ida"
• "Mr. Turner"
• "Unbroken"

Costume Design

• "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• "Inherent Vice"
• "Into the Woods"
• "Maleficent"
• "Mr. Turner"

Directing

• Alejandro González Iñárritu, "Birdman"
• Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"
• Bennett Miller, "Foxcatcher"
• Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• Morten Tyldum, "The Imitation Game"

Foreign Language Film

• "Ida," Poland
• "Leviathan," Russia
• "Tangerines," Estonia
• "Timbuktu," Mauritania
• "Wild Tales," Argentina

Makeup and Hairstyling

• "Foxcatcher"
• "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Original Score

• "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• "The Imitation Game"
• "Interstellar"
• "Mr. Turner"
• "The Theory of Everything"

Adapted Screenplay

• "American Sniper"
• "The Imitation Game"
• "Inherent Vice"
• "The Theory of Everything"
• "Whiplash"

Original Screenplay

• "Birdman"
• "Boyhood"
• "Foxcatcher"
• "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• "Nightcrawler"

Best Picture

• "American Sniper"
• "Birdman"
• "Boyhood"
• "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• "The Imitation Game"
• "Selma"
• "The Theory of Everything"
• "Whiplash"

Animated Feature Film

• "Big Hero 6"
• "The Boxtrolls"
• "How to Train Your Dragon 2"
• "Song of the Sea"
• "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya"

Documentary Feature

• "Citizenfour"
• "Finding Vivian Maier"
• "Last Days in Vietnam"
• "The Salt of the Earth"
• "Virunga"

Documentary Short Subject

• "Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1"
• "Joanna"
• "Our Curse"
• "The Reaper (La Parka)"
• "White Earth"

Film Editing

• "American Sniper"
• "Boyhood"
• "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• "The Imitation Game"
• "Whiplash"

Original Song

• "Everything Is Awesome," "The Lego Movie"
• "Glory," "Selma"
• "Grateful, "Beyond the Lights"
• "I"m Not Gonna Miss You," "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me"
• "Lost Stars," "Begin Again"

Production Design

• "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• "The Imitation Game"
• "Interstellar"
• "Into the Woods"
• "Mr. Turner"

Animated Short Film

• "The Bigger Picture"
• "The Dam Keeper"
• "Feast"
• "Me and My Moulton"
• "A Single Life"

Live Action Short Film

• "Aya"
• "Boogaloo and Graham"
• "Butter Lamp"
• "Parvaneh"
• "The Phone Call"

Sound Editing

• "American Sniper"
• "Birdman"
• "The Hobbitt: The Battle of the Five Armies"
• "Interstellar"

Sound Mixing

• "American Sniper"
• "Birdman"
• "Interstellar"
• "Unbroken"
• "Whiplash"

Visual Effects

• "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
• "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
• "Guardians of the Galaxy"
• "Interstellar"
• "X-Men: Days of Future Past"

The Wedding Ringer
Film Review by Kam Williams

Doug Harris (Josh Gad) and Gretchen Palmer (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) are putting the finishing touches on their impending wedding. Trouble is the socially-challenged groom has yet to find a best man and they’re set to exchange vows in just ten days.

He’s been rejected by every acquaintance he’s approached, receiving rude responses ranging from “I thought you died” to “I didn’t even invite you to my wedding.” So, Doug decides to hide his awkward predicament from his fiancée, since he’s too embarrassed to admit that he doesn’t have any friends.

Instead, he hires a professional best man, Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart), along with seven strangers to serve as his groomsmen. Can these guys get to know Doug well enough in a week to convince Gretchen and members of the wedding party that they’re long-lost friends?

That is the preposterous point of departure of The Wedding Ringer, an unlikely-buddies comedy marking the directorial debut of Yale University graduate Jeremy Garelick. Provided you are not offended by and are willing to suspend disbelief about the farfetched setup, you’ll actually be richly rewarded by the hilarious, bad boy hijinks about to ensue.

Most of the laughs emanate from the attempt by that motley assortment of unsavory characters to impersonate refined, white-collar types ranging from a podiatrist, to a principal, to a lawyer, to a professor. The sham of a best man adopts the alias “Bic Mitchum” and passes himself off as a priest.

And although he proves convincing at faking bromance, he warns Doug not to develop feelings because, “You’re not buying a new friend. You’re hiring a best man.” But despite this strictly business understanding, coldhearted Jimmy gradually warms to the goofy groom and the two somehow bond anyway.

That unexpected development is what ultimately redeems The Wedding Ringer’s otherwise pretty repugnant premise. After all, how much hope could there really be for a marriage, if a groom would opt to stage such an elaborate scheme rather than simply explain the situation to his bride-to-be?

Check your brain at the box office, and motor-mouthed Kevin Hart, surrounded by a talented cast of seasoned comedians, will keep you in stitches for the duration of a decidedly-lowbrow, politically-incorrect misadventure.  

Very Good (3 stars)

Rated R for crude humor, pervasive profanity, coarse sexuality and brief graphic nudity

Running time: 101 minutes

Distributor: Screen Gems

To see a trailer for The Wedding Ringer, visit:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3TeI9jPPuA

Kevin Hart
“The Wedding Ringer” Interview
with Kam Williams

Kevin Hart might be the hardest working man in Hollywood. Just last year, he starred in a trio of feature films: Ride Along, About Last Night and Think like a Man Too, and enjoyed supporting roles in Top Five and School Dance, too.

Meanwhile, he has his hit TV show, Real Husbands of Hollywood, for which he won the NAACP Image Award in the Best Actor in a Comedy Series Award. In 2014, the NAACP also named Kevin the Entertainer of the Year.

The irrepressible comedian shows no sign of letting up, between presently releasing The Wedding Ringer, and following that up with Get Hard in March. And he’s already wrapped work on Ride Along 2, and has The Secret Life of Pets, Central Intelligence and Captain Underpants in production.

Read the rest of this story »

American Sniper
Film Review by Kam Williams

Navy Seal Chris Kyle served four tours as a sniper in Iraq between 2003 and 2008. Over the course of dangerous deployments to Ramadi, Sadr City, Fallujah and other hot spots, he racked up enough kills to become the most lethal sniper in the history of the U.S. military. Directed by the legendary Clint Eastwood, American Sniper is a reverential biopic chronicling the eagle-eyed sharpshooter’s enviable exploits.

The film is based on Kyle’s autobiography of the same name, and stars Bradley Cooper in the title role. Besides highlighting battlefield heroics, the movie mixes in plenty of poignant flashbacks from the protagonist’s formative years.

For instance, in those early childhood scenes, we see Kyle learning to shoot from his father (Ben Reed), nobly protecting his little brother Jeff (Luke Sunshine) from a playground bully (Brandon Salgado Telis), and piously pocketing his dog-eared copy of the Bible while attending Church services. These telling tableaus are obviously designed to provide hints at how such an exemplary combination of character and skills might have been forged.

Another focus of the picture is Kyle’s relationship with his terminally-worried wife, Taya (Sienna Miller). She’s raising their kids back in the States, but often finds her long-distance phone chats with her hubby rudely interrupted by everything from IED explosions to enemy fire. However, Kyle always attempts to qualm his frazzled spouse’s fears with calm reassurances that he’ll survive the ordeal.

This deliberate humanizing of the soldier at the center of the story into a tenderhearted family man is what sets American Sniper apart from other recent war flicks like Lone Survivor and The Hurt Locker. Consequently, we really care whether this patriot will ultimately return home safe and sound.

Kudos to Clint Eastwood for fashioning such a moving and well-deserved salute to a true American hero!

Excellent (4 stars) 

Rated R for graphic violence, sexual references and pervasive profanity

Running time: 132 minutes

Distributor: Warner Brothers

To see a trailer for American Sniper, visit:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bP1f_1o-zo

Inherent Vice
Film Review by Kam Williams

Dateline: Los Angeles, 1970, which is where we find Private Eye Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) living in a beach house with a view in a fictional, seacoast enclave called Gordita Beach. He’s totally wasted, but that doesn’t stop Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) from approaching her ex-boyfriend for help with a personal problem.

Seems that the fetching femme fatale is currently the mistress of real estate magnate Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts), and she has reason to believe that the philandering billionaire is about to be involuntarily committed to a mental institution by his vindictive wife, Sloane (Serena Scott Thomas), and her lover, Riggs Warbling (Andrew Simpson).

Against his better judgment, Doc takes the case, and soon finds himself swept into a seamy underworld filled with colorful characters ranging from a recently-paroled black radical (Michael Kenneth Williams) to an avowed white supremacist (Christopher Allen Nelson) to the proverbial prostitute with the heart of gold (Hong Chau). After being conked on the head, Doc comes around in a police station where he learns that he’s the prime suspect not only in the disappearance of both Mickey and Shasta Fay, but in a murder to boot.

So unfolds Inherent Vice, a surreal whodunit far more concerned with recreating the feel of the post-Sixties’ daze of free-flowing drugs than with crafting a compelling crime thriller. Unfortunately, the absence of a credible plotline means the premise soon dissolves into a rudderless, meandering mess, reducing the viewing experience to enjoying the retro décor, fashions and slang of the period.

The picture was directed by five-time Oscar-nominee Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights and Magnolia), who also adapted the script from the Thomas Pynchon best-seller of the same name.

The film does feature a few standout performances, most notably, Joaquin Phoenix in the starring role, and Josh Brolin as a hard-nosed LAPD officer. Otherwise the production makes precious little use of the services of its cluttered, A-list cast which includes Academy Award-winners Reese Witherspoon (for Walk the Line) and Benicio del Toro (for Traffic), and Oscar-nominees Eric Roberts (for Runaway Train) and Owen Wilson (for The Royal Tenenbaums).

An unstructured, atmospheric affair ostensibly designed to appeal to folks nostalgic for the hedonistic hippie era.

Good (2 stars)

Rated R for profanity, violence, sexuality and graphic nudity

In English and Japanese with subtitles

Running time: 148 minutes

Distributor: Warner Brothers

To see a trailer for Inherent Vice, visit:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZfs22E7JmI