Hi there, we are almost into the fourth month of the year already! Where does the time go? Well for today at least we are still in March, and there is no bigger month in the film calendar than March. Yes, all the big releases happen across the summer but March is awards season, where the crème de la crème of the big & small screens get their rewards. Though not everyone is so lucky, which is why for this months Friday Film Club we are going to look at four incredible films that undeservedly missed out on the most coveted Oscar (otherwise known as the Academy Awards) of them all…. Best Picture. All four entries are from different genres, but they all have one thing in common, they deserved to win Best Picture but for various reasons did not.
Let’s get down to business with horror film Get Out (2017), which was a major surprise hit right out from the start. This is considering it was the film directorial debut of Jordan Peele, a man known much more for his comedy exploits with partner Keegan Michael-Key, though the film does have more than a few comedic moments. It stars Daniel Kaluuya (Johnny English Reborn, Black Panther) and Alison Williams (M3GAN) in the lead roles of Chris Washington and his white girlfriend Rose Armitage, who takes him on a road trip to meet her family.
As they set out on their journey, Chris worries what Roses parents will think of him, but she assures him they are not racist. However, when they reach the Armitage’s estate, Rose’s parents can not stop making discriminating and derogatory comments about their black housekeeper and groundskeeper Georgina & Walter, as well as black people in general. The more Chris uncovers about the family, the more he realises he was right to be worried, just not for the reasons he expected.
Dealing with strong themes such as; inherent racism liberal ignorance to it (which can be just as damaging), and the fact that more attention goes on missing white girls and women than missing black people; Get Out was released to great critical and public acclaim. It has since featured in many peoples & organisations lists of the greatest films of both the 2010s and the 21st Century. In 2021, the screenplay (for which it won its only Oscar) was even chosen by the Writers Guild of America as the greatest script of the 21st Century so far. Renowned critic Richard Roeper said of the surprise hit, “the real star [of the film] is writer-director Jordan Peele, who has created a work that addresses the myriad levels of racism, pays homage to some great horror films, carves out its own creative path, has a distinctive visual style-and is flat-out funny as well.”
Despite its brilliant reception it won just of the four Oscars it was nominated for. In fact, the film’s dismissal was one of the bigger controversies of the Academy’s history, with it proving divisive with the voters from the off. Older members of the Academy actively chose to ignore it without evening watching it, believing it was not an Oscar worthy film based solely on the premise. Others were turned off because they thought its Oscar campaign had tried to play the race card (it had not). What is clear, this top-rated flick got far from a fair shot from the voters. Incredibly it lost out to Guillermo Del Toro’s fantasy spectacle The Shape of Water for Best Picture, which in comparison had and still does face multiple claims of plagiarism within its story. You can watch the clear better of the two only on e-stream now. Watch a clip by clinking the link below:
Our second snub goes to… Boyhood (2014). It is an incredibly original coming-of-age story, straight from the brilliant mind of director Richard Linklater (School of Rock). It is set and was even filmed over the span of 12 years (2002-2013), which is unsurprisingly a filming technique never attempted before. The films notable stars are Patricia Arquette (Toy Story 4) and Ethan Hawke (Dead Poets Society, Training Day), the main spotlight goes to Ellar Coltrane who portrays ‘the boy’ Mason Evans Jr. The film details his childhood and adolescence from age 6 to 18 as he grows up traversing Texas while dealing with the divorce of his parents.
The story begins with Mason & his sister Samantha living with their mum Olivia (Arquette) in 2002 shortly after the divorce, who complains she has no free time and is barely getting by due to parenting to her boyfriend. She enrols in University to get a better job. The movie then goes on to chronicle Mason, Olivia and Samantha’s journey together as the kids grow up and go off to College; while dealing with Olivia’s many tumultuous relationships and getting to know their father (Hawke) again; right up until Mason starts university.
A story about the riggers of life on young & adolescent children, this kind of filmmaking has never been attempted before. It received universal critical acclaim, seen as a perfect example of realism on screen, incorporating the actor’s real-life experiences into their characters stories. Many critics called it the best film of the year and it was granted a perfect 100/100 score on Metacritic (only seven other films have managed to reach that). Regardless of its critical reception however, Boyhood surprisingly missed out on five or the six Academy Awards it was nominated for, winning only Best Supporting Actress for Arquette. It lost the Best Picture award to Birdman, despite winning Best Motion Picture & Best Film at the preceding Golden Globes & Film BAFTA’s respectively. In comparison, Birdman had only an 87/100 score on Metacritic, and hence did pick up several negative reviews, most of which found it both dull and simple. Overall, most of it (filming techniques, story etc.) had been done many times before, contrasting with the incredible originality and uniqueness of Boyhood which should have won it this award and more at the Oscars. This beautiful tale is available for loan now only on DVD from the Library. Click the link below to watch the trailer:
Next, we take a look at an altogether different kind of coming-of-age story, with the biographical crime thriller Goodfellas (1990). Directed by the esteemed Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, The Departed), it is an adaptation of the 1985 Nicholas Pileggi book, Wise Guy; which in turn is about the real life rise & fall of mob associate Henry Hill (as well as his friends & family). The movies timeline spans an incredible 25-year period (1955-1980), taking viewers from Henry’s humble teen years through to his admittedly rougher adult years. Hill himself is brought to life by the late Ray Liotta (Field of Dreams, Hannibal), who is joined by Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver, Meet the Parents) and Joe Pesci (Home Alone, Lethal Weapon) as his best friends.
Opening in 1955 Brooklyn, New York: a young Henry becomes infatuated with the criminal lifestyle and expanding Mafia presence within his working-class neighbourhood. Thus, he himself begins working for local Mafia Captain Paulie Cicero and his associates: Jimmy “the Gent” Conway (De Niro) & Tommy DeVito (Pesci) both juvenile delinquents. Starting as a fence for Jimmy (who had become known as a truck hijacker and gangster by this time), Henry gradually works his way up the ladder by committing more serious crimes; the two and Tommy quickly become firm friends.
The three spend most of their nights throughout the 60s at the famous Copacabana nightclub carousing women. That is until Henry meets and begins dating Karen Friedman (Lorraine Bracco), a Jewish woman whose parents obviously don’t approve. Also seduced by the mafia lifestyle, she marries Henry. His life however, starts to go downhill when, in 1970, Tommy & Jimmy beat and murder Billy Batts (a fully initiated member if the Gambino crime family) after he patronizes Tommy at a nightclub owned by Henry. Unsurprisingly the unsanctioned murder of what they call a ‘made man’ provokes retribution from his family, which leads the friends to bury the body in Upstate New York, though it is far from the end of the troubles this death will cause them…
Goodfellas was released to rave reviews and seen as the high point of Scorsese’s incredible career. Roger Ebert gave it four out of four, stating “No finer film has ever been made about organized crime – not even The Godfather.” It was ranked as the Best film of 1990 by many a critic and has made the Top 50 of Top 100 films lists of several publications over the years since release. Much like its predecessor in this blog, it was nominated for six Oscars and yet won only one, Best Supporting Actor for Pesci. The worst part was that it lost out on most of those awards (most importantly the eponymous Best Picture) to the Kevin Costner vehicle Dances with Wolves, which was and still is seen as one of, if not the biggest controversy in Oscars history! Given it fell within the Academy’s usual most liked features, its not much of a surprise it won, and yet there is ample evidence as to why it shouldn’t have. With Costner’s character the hero, many thought the film promoted a white saviour theme; while there was also criticism of several cultural errors including their only being one native Lakota (a native American tribe prevalent in the movie) speaking actor, and the others speaking the wrong dialect due to poor training. Once again it is clear Scorsese’s crime thriller was robbed! But you can experience the greatness now and decide for yourselves, only on DVD in the Library. Experience the moment it all starts to fall apart for Tommy by clicking the link below:
And our final snub goes to… Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), a Wuxia film directed by Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi). Wuxia movies focus on fiction about the adventures of martial artists in ancient China, with this particular one being based on a novel of the same name released in parts between 1941 & 1942. It features a completely Asian cast with a few well-known faces to the western hemisphere including: Chow Yun-fat (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Bulletproof Monk), Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies, Crazy Rich Asians), Zhang Zyi (Rush Hour 2, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) and Chang Chen (Dune 2021).
Set in the 19th century, in the latter period of the Qing dynasty (1636-1912), the narrative follows Li Mu Bai (Yun-fat) a renowned swordsman and his female warrior companion Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh) who heads a private security company. The two have long since held romantic feelings for each other but chose not to pursue them in honour of Lien’s deceased fiancé who was also a close personal friend of Mu Bai’s. Long ago, Mu Bai’s teacher was killed by Jade Fox, a woman who sought to learn his ways of fighting. One day, Mu Bai chooses to retire, asking Lien to give his fabled 500-year old sword named “Green Destiny” to their benefactor Sir Te in Beijing. While attending a gathering Lien meets Yu Jiaolong (who goes by Jen), the daughter of the rich and powerful Governor, who is to be wed. The plot quickly escalates when one evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Te’s estate and steals Green Destiny. The rest of the movie chronicles Mu Bai and Shu Lien’s fight to get it back, in addition to their growing curiousness as to what exactly Yu has to do with proceedings.
Ang Lee’s martial arts fantasy romp was a surprise rousing success, becoming the highest grossing foreign-language film in US history, as well as the first foreign-language film to break the $100 million mark in the US. It was profoundly commended for its story, cinematography and fight sequences among many other qualities. In addition, it was praised for its gender roles, putting female warriors front and center, thereby emulating the recently released Mulan somewhat and disrupting the gender norms at the time. Nominated for an incredible 10 Academy Awards, it did win four (including Best Foreign Language Film & Best Cinematography) but crucially not Best Picture. The film it lost out to was the equally historically themed, Gladiator. Which while it won the most awards altogether, was not without its critics at the time (it is looked upon much more favourably in the present), who cited its overly dark tone as its main detraction. Roger Ebert himself gave it only 2 out of 4 stars. The film also notoriously had quite the torrid production, including the death of one of the supporting actors, in addition to major complaints about the films script. In comparison, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had a smooth sailing production and no controversies whatsoever, plus it was original and vibrant compared to the Oscar baiting of the actual winner. You can watch this action epic now only on DVD in the Library. See one of many epic fight scenes in this movie by clicking the link below:
Naturally, when it comes to award shows, the gongs don’t always go to the most deserving, especially the much-coveted Best Picture, maybe it is time for a remodelling of the voting board or winning criteria. But it doesn’t mean we can’t support those we thought worthier of the win by watching them over an over to our hearts content. Now get yourself down to the Library and get watching these Oscar worthy films over the Easter holidays!
Not sure how to access e-stream? Then simply click on the link below…
Bradford College Planet Estream.
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