Predictions for the 87th Academy Awards

Patricia Arquette as Olivia Evans in "Boyhood"

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette - “Boyhood,” Laura Dern - “Wild,” Keira Knightley - “The Imitation Game,” Emma Stone - “Birdman,” and Meryl Streep - “Into the Woods”

Will Win and Should Win: Patricia Arquette for “Boyhood” - In a film that has been 12 years in the making, Arquette is the single mother of the boy at the center of the story.  Throughout her time on screen, we sense everything that her character feels, someone whose life hasn’t turned out the way she had hoped, but who is finding ways to get by.  Arquette’s role seems like a rather simple one on paper, but the way she portrays this character gives you a complete idea of what she has given up to provide for her family, all of which leads up to her final emotional scene with her son as he gets ready to leave for college.  Arquette has gained a considerable amount of awards for her performance, and an Academy Award will definitely be in her hands by the time Oscar night is over.

J.K. Simmons as Terence Fletcher in "Whiplash"

Best Supporting Actor: Robert Duvall - “The Judge,” Ethan Hawke - “Boyhood,” Edward Norton - “Birdman,” Mark Ruffalo - “Foxcatcher,” and J.K. Simmons - “Whiplash”

Will Win and Should Win - J.K. Simmons for “Whiplash” - After I first saw this film back in November, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Simmons would be the clear frontrunner in this category.  As a brutal and verbally abusive jazz conductor at a top music school, his performance displayed a thunderous force and terrifying power.  While seeing this a second time, his performance still stirred up a since of anxiety in me, even though I knew what to expect from his character.  Simmons has already won nearly every award that his performance has been nominated for, and the ferocity he displays in the movie will unquestionably carry him to a win this weekend. 

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard - “Two Days, One Night,” Felicity Jones - “The Theory of Everything,” Julianne Moore - “Still Alice,” Rosamund Pike - “Gone Girl,” and Reese Witherspoon - “Wild”

Julianne Moore as Dr. Alice Howland in "Still Alice"

Will Win: Julianne Moore for “Still Alice” - This is Moore’s fifth nomination, and it’s shaping up to be her first win.  As a woman struggling with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Moore delivers a heartbreakingly honest performance that certainly deserves to have a spot in this category.  She has been the lead contender during the awards season, picking up many accolades on her road to the Oscars.  With the numerous wins that Moore has received so far, including Best Actress at the Golden Globes and from the Screen Actors Guild, an Oscar is more than a possibility to cap off her majorly successful year.

Rosamund Pike as Amy Elliott-Dunne in "Gone Girl"

Should Win: Rosamund Pike for “Gone Girl” - Be careful, because this paragraph contains spoilers.  Although Moore gave a wonderful performance, there are others in this category that stand out a little more, but the one who definitely deserves to win is Pike.  As a young suburban wife framing her husband for her disappearance, Pike perfectly realizes the character of Amy Elliott-Dunne from Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel.  Pike successfully ropes the viewer in as a seemingly loving spouse, but then completely discloses her charade and reveals herself to be a complete psycho, a part of Amy’s character that makes Pike’s performance a disturbing joy to watch.  It’s too bad it won’t be Pike bringing home the statuette, because this is a performance I would have loved to see win. 

Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything"

Best Actor: Steve Carell - “Foxcatcher,” Bradley Cooper - “American Sniper,” Benedict Cumberbatch - “The Imitation Game,” Michael Keaton - “Birdman,” and Eddie Redmayne - “The Theory of Everything”

Will Win: Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything” - Earlier in the awards season, it seemed like Best Actor was going to be a tight race between Redmayne and Keaton.  It seems that now, however, Redmayne has the upper hand.  In his portrayal of celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking, Redmayne showcased a full physical and emotional commitment to his character, a performance that has earned him Best Actor at the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.  Although it might still be possible for Keaton to surprise us with a win, expect this award to go to Redmayne.

Steve Carell as John du Pont in "Foxcatcher"

Should Win: Steve Carell for “Foxcatcher” - As much as I admired Redmayne’s performance, I still can’t stop thinking about Carell’s intensely serious turn in Bennett Miller’s biographical sports drama.  As wrestling coach John du Pont, Carell completely washed away my view of him being primarily a comedic actor.  After seeing Carell in a wealth of humorous roles, his dark performance as a glory-seeking mentor to a young wrestler is positively unnerving to watch and opens a whole other world of acting possibilities for Carell’s career.  The skillfulness with which he goes into this drastically different acting territory was one of the most stunning accomplishments by a performer in 2014 cinema, and Carell deserves more roles like this moving forward.

Best Director: Wes Anderson - “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Alejandro González Iñárritu - “Birdman,” Richard Linklater - “Boyhood,” Bennett Miller - “Foxcatcher,” and Morten Tyldum - “The Imitation Game”

Richard Linklater, director of "Boyhood" 

Will Win and Should Win: Richard Linklater for “Boyhood” - Linklater has achieved something in moviemaking that has never been done before, in that he filmed his cast over the course of 12 years to tell the story of a six-year-old boy maturing into a young man, and we see his family grow with him.  To watch the cast get older before your eyes is something that has you realize you’re a part of a special event, and Linklater’s 12-year dedication is an accomplishment that deserves, and needs, to be recognized.  Although Alejandro González Iñárritu won Best Director at the Directors Guild of America, Linklater’s wins from many critics groups and at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs will give him an extra nudge to help him to the Dolby Theater stage.  

"Boyhood"

Best Picture: “American Sniper,” “Birdman,” “Boyhood,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game,” “Selma,” “The Theory of Everything,” and “Whiplash”

Will Win and Should Win: “Boyhood” - For most of this awards session, Richard Linklater’s film seemed to be unstoppable, seeing as it won Best Picture from many critics groups and at the Golden Globes.  The one main factor that could stop “Boyhood” from winning big at the Oscars is the Outstanding Production win that “Birdman” received from the Producers Guild of America, which is usually a very reliable indicator of what will win Best Picture.  Although this is a fairly big win for “Birdman,” I still have some trouble thinking that this could derail the momentum that has been carrying “Boyhood” during the awards season, and the innovativeness of the film could have the Academy by its side.  This is a film that must be seen, due to the fact that you’re watching a hugely admirable culmination of 12 years of work that fully delivers an emotional and relatable story.  The praise it has earned hasn’t been anything less than deserving, and on the biggest night in cinema, “Boyhood” deserves cinema’s biggest award. 

Be sure to watch the 87th Academy Awards on Sunday, February 22 at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.

While Gradually Losing Her Memory, a Woman Tries to Remain Who She Is

Julianne Moore as Dr. Alice Howland in "Still Alice" 

In her many years of working in film, Julianne Moore has become one of the most gifted and hardworking actresses in the business.  Her roles in films such as “The Kids Are All Right,” “A Single Man,” “Magnolia,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “Boogie Nights,” to name a few, have made her a prominent presence in cinema.  

In “Still Alice,” directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, Moore’s talent takes what could have been a typical disease-of-the-week movie and elevates it to a film that sensitively handles the topic of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Dr. Alice Howland (Moore) is a highly respected professor of linguistics at Columbia University.  After experiencing some lapses in her memory, she visits a neurologist and is told that she has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.  Although her memory is slowly slipping away, her husband (Alec Baldwin) and children (Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish, and Kristen Stewart) do all that they can to help their mother through this challenging time.

Moore’s performance is one that presents an emotional depiction of someone whose mental health is steadily declining.  The regression in her character’s memory is very heartbreaking to watch, all because of Moore’s ability to show what her character has to struggle through.  To see Alice go from being a renowned educator to someone suffering from Alzheimer’s is a transition that Moore displays convincingly and movingly. 

The cinematography by Denis Lenoir makes a very effective use of having the background of images go out of focus as a way for audiences to have a better feel for what Alice is experiencing when she loses her grip on her memory.  This technical aspect is used very well in a scene early on in the film when Alice goes for a jog around Columbia’s campus, and then stops and has to look around to remember where she is.  It’s a doleful scene because of how her familiarity with her workplace is starting to leave her, and it’s made all the more potent because of Lenoir’s camerawork. 

The screenplay by Glatzer and Westmoreland, which is based on the novel of the same name by Lisa Genova, fully shows the impact that Alice’s affliction has on her and her family.  Although the movie is only just over an hour and a half, it feels as though the screenplay completely captures Alice’s passage from first experiencing her symptoms to experiencing the complete effects of the disease, never seeming like it skips anything when showing the changes that Alice goes through.

One of the many aspects of the story that I respect is how the narrative doesn't choose to end on an inspirational note right after Alice gives a speech at an Alzheimer’s conference.  I’m not saying that I didn’t wish she could get better; I’m just saying that under the circumstances that Alice faces throughout the film, the story is much more powerful because of how it shows the total mental decline that comes with Alice’s illness and how she and her family handle it. 

Directors Glatzer and Westmoreland are able to keep this film from seeming like an average television movie because of how delicately they handle the topic of Alzheimer’s, never going overboard with their portrayal of the disease.  Along with the performances from the cast, the directors are able to construct a genuine portrait of an individual living with this illness.

Final grade: A