Ah, the 2010s. Social media made anxiety the norm and Americans became obsessed with “red states” and “blue states.” Americans fetishized politicians and the Academy decided that it would be cool to do away with the idea of having a set number of best picture winners. One bright spot, for me at least: Arleigh invited me to write for this site! And the rest, as they say, is history!

I have to admit that I don’t agree with any of the Academy’s choices for Best Picture during this decade but I do appreciate a good deal of their nominations.

1. The Academy Nominates Black Swan For Best Picture

This is still one of my favorite nominations and again, this is one of those films that probably never would have been nominated during the previous century.  In 2010, it not only picked up a Best Picture nomination but it also won Natalie Portman the Oscar for Best Actress.

2. The Academy Nominates Mad Max: Fury Road

Again, this is another film that probably wouldn’t have been nominated during the previous century, just because of its genre and its status as being a sequel.  However, it full deserved to be nominated and it was nice to see the Academy embrace it.  Remember when, at the start of the ceremony, it won all of those technical awards and it looked like Mad Max: Fury Road might actually go all the way?  We were so excited!  Of course, then Spotlight won.

3. The Academy Nominates Boyhood and Richard Linklater

It took the Academy long enough to show some respect to one of the most important indie filmmakers of the past few decades!  Unfortunately, neither Linklater nor his film won.  How Birdman was selected over Boyhood, I’ll never know.  But, at least it was nominated.

4. The Academy Nominates Michael Keaton For Best Actor

I may not have liked Birdman overall but I do think that Michael Keaton gave a wonderful performance and, by nominating him, the Academy reminded people of just how good (and underrated) an actor Keaton truly was.  Now, Keaton is one of our busiest character actors and I don’t think anyone would have expected that, pre-Birdman and the Academy.

5. The Academy Nominates Bruce Dern For Best Actor

Like Michael Keaton, Bruce Dern is a good but underrated actor.  The Academy nominating him for Nebraska reminded people of that.  It’s just a shame he didn’t win because, if anyone was going to give a memorable acceptance speech, it would have been Bruce Dern.

6. J.K. Simmons Wins Best Supporting Actor For Whiplash

“Not my tempo.”  Agck!  That line still gives me nightmares.  Still, this was one of the most deserved Oscars of the 2010s and J.K. Simmons gave a wonderfully sincere acceptance speech.  I always love seeing a good character actor get some recognition.

Well, that’s it.  Will the Academy get six things correct tonight?  They’ve already gotten 8 incorrect as a result of moving those 8 categories off of the live show.  Still, even when they screw up, I always have hope that the Academy will learn from their mistakes.  I’m an optimist.

We’ll see what happens!  Enjoy the show!

Ah, the aughts. The new century started out with the terror of 9-11 and it ended with the collapse of the world’s economy. In between, a lot of films were released. Some of them were really good. A few of them were nominated for Best Picture. Most of them were not.

Still, let’s not focus on the negative.  Instead, here are 6 times that the Academy got it right in the aughts!

1. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Wins Best Picture in 2003

A fantasy film winning best picture!?  Before this decade, that would have been unthinkable.  The Academy might be willing to nominate the occasional fantasy or sci-fi film but it would have been nearly impossible to imagine that they would actually honor one of them.  The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, however, changed that.

Now, of course, the legacy of LOTR has been damaged by far too many imitations and also by the lukewarm response to The Hobbit.  People tend to roll their eyes whenever they hear that a movie is going to be split into multiple parts.  That said, Peter Jackson’s original epic still holds up marvelously well.

2. Bill Murray Is Nominated For Best Actor

Murray received his first, long overdue Oscar nomination for his performance in 2003’s Lost in Translation.  Personally, I wish he had won.  But, even though he didn’t win, the nomination still transformed the way that people viewed Bill Murray and help him go from being a somewhat erratic comedic actor to being one of our best interpreters of 21st century ennui.

3. Martin Scorsese Finally Wins Best Director

Though it’s really not even his best film, The Departed is the film for which Martin Scorsese finally won the directing Oscar that he should have previously won for Goodfellas.  No longer would cinema lovers have live in a world where Sam Mendes had an Oscar but Martin Scorsese did not.  And, of course, Scorsese being presented his award by his three biggest friend in the industry — Spielberg, Lucas, and Coppola — only made the moment all the more special.

4. Kathryn Bigelow Wins Best Director….

….and makes history as the first woman to ever win the Oscar for Best Director!  Even though I wasn’t a particularly huge fan of The Hurt Locker (my favorite films that year were An Education and A Serious Man), I cheered out loud when Bigelow’s name was called.  That her main competitor was her ex-husband made her victory all the more satisfying.

Mulholland Drive (2001, dir by David Lynch, DP: Peter Deming)

5. David Lynch is Nominated For Best Director

It will always be interesting to me that one of the most acclaimed films of this century, Mulholland Drive, was originally meant to be a pilot for a television show.  Only David Lynch could direct an Oscar-worthy pilot.  The Academy, to their credit, acknowledged that with a deserved Best Director nomination in 2001.

6. No Country For Old Men Wins Best Picture

Based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy and directed by the Coen Brother, 2007’s No Country For Old Man was a masterpiece.  It had some fierce competition and there’s still some debate today as to whether or not it should have defeated There Will Be Blood.  Personally, I think that Paul Thomas Anderson is one of our greatest living directors but I also think that, in this case, the Academy made the right choice.  Plus, the Coens finally won the Oscar that they should have won for Fargo!

Up next: the 2010s!

Ah, the 90s.

Some would say that this was the last good decade that the world would ever experience. It was certainly a good decade for films!  Though I don’t agree with the majority of the Academy’s winners from this decade, I do agree with most of their nominations.  Here are 6 things that Academy got right in the 90s!

1. Nominating Pulp Fiction and Quentin Tarantino

Way back in 1994, it actually probably took more than a little bit of courage to not only nominate a film like Pulp Fiction for Best Picture but to also honor its director as well.  Still, by doing so and also giving Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary an Oscar for their screenplay, the Academy not only announced that Tarantino had arrived but they also embraced an entirely new, pop culture-driven sensibility.  Of course, this led to a number of very bad films that were directed by people hoping to be the next Tarantino but it led to some pretty good films as well.  It is certainly cemented Tarantino’s place in the culture.

2. Nominating The Thin Red Line and Terrence Malick

The 90s may have begun with Tarantino and the combination of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction but it ended with the return of Terrence Malick and his own idiosyncratic but unforgettable aesthetic.  Though 1997’s The Thin Red Line may not have won best picture and Malick did not win Best Director, the Academy still deserves some credit for nominating both of them.

3. Nominating Fargo and the Coens

Like Pulp Fiction and The Thin Red Line, Fargo didn’t win Best Picture.  However, by nominating the film, the Academy was announcing that times had changed.  Directors like the Coen Brothers were no longer destined to be on the outside looking in.  Much like Pulp Fiction and Thin Red Line, Fargo has gone to be much more influential than the film to which it lost.

4. Steven Spielberg Winning Best Director for 1993’s Schindler’s List

It took Spielberg a while to win his first Oscar.  When he finally did when, it was for one of his best and most important films.

5. Clint Eastwood Winning Best Director For 1992’s Unforgiven

The 90s were about two things: independent films and unexpected comebacks.  After years of being dismissed as just an action star who rarely spoke, Eastwood made a critical comeback and proved that he was a masterful director with Unforgiven.  He also proved that, as an actor, he was capable of more than just snarling.  Unforgiven remains one of the most powerful explorations of violence ever put on film.

6. The Silence of the Lambs Wins Best Picture

The Silence of the Lambs is often described as being the first horror movie to win Best Picture.  I consider it to be more of a thriller than a horror film but still, one cannot deny it’s influence.  The character of the erudite and manipulative serial killer has become such a trope that it can be surprising to go back and rediscover just how Anthony Hopkins was in this film.

Up next: the 2000s!

The Elephant Man (1980, directed by David Lynch)

Ah, the 80s!

Ronald Reagan was president. America was strong. Russia was weak. The economy was booming. The music was wonderful. Many great movies were released, though most of them were not nominated for any Oscars. This is the decade that tends to drive most Oscar fanatics batty.  But you know what?  The Academy didn’t always get it wrong in the 80s.  Here are six times the Academy got it right:

1. Opening The 1989 Ceremony With Rob Lowe and Snow White Singing

Sure, people make fun of this moment but you know what?  33 years later, people are still watching this opening on YouTube and asking themselves, “What the heck was that?”  That’s the power of a good opening and I imagine it will be more memorable than anything we see tonight.

2. Nominating The Elephant Man and David Lynch in 1980

By nominating both The Elephant Man and David Lynch in 1980, the Academy also welcome our greatest surrealist to the mainstream.  Though both the film and Lynch lost to Robert Redford’s Ordinary People, The Elephant Man is still one of my favorite Best Picture nominees.  (I also like both Ordinary People and Raging Bull.  1980 was a good year.)  The Academy also got it right when they nominated Lynch in 1986 for directing Blue Velvet.  The idea of the Academy or any part of mainstream Hollywood honoring a director like Lynch would have been unthinkable in the 50s and the 60s.

3. Robert Duvall Winning Best Actor For 1983’s Tender Mercies

Robert Duvall is one of our finest actors and Tender Mercies is one of his best films.  For someone who was born in California, raised in Maryland, and spent the early part of his career in New York, Duvall is one of the most convincing Texans that I’ve ever seen.

4. Amadeus Wins Best Picture

My personal pick for the best film of 1984 is Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America but, of the films that were nominated, Amadeus was clearly the best.  If nothing else, it’s victory finally brought Salieri the fame that he is rumored to have felt was stolen from him by Mozart.

5. Fatal Attraction Is Nominated For Best Picture

Fatal Attraction is actually a terrible movie but, by nominating it, the Academy guaranteed a decades worth of enjoyably bad rip-offs.  Every Lifetime film ever made owes a debt to Fatal Attraction.

6. Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn Won Best Actor and Best Actress For On Golden Pond

On Golden Pond isn’t even that good of a film and Katharine Hepburn’s performance is one of her least interesting but, if you’re a fan of TCM, you have to love the idea of Fonda and Hepburn picking up two final Oscars in the twilight of their career.  This was only Fonda’s 2nd nomination and his only win.  The fact that he was competing with another underrated veteran actor, Burt Lancaster, makes his win all the more special.  There were definitely better performances that year but sometimes, it’s good to go for the sentimental choice.

Up next: The 90s!