Weekend Musings + My Thoughts On The 2015 Oscars

Hello, happy Sunday and welcome to my weekend musings. This Sunday is a special one, tonight is The Oscars (formerly known as The Academy Awards), a day where actors, directors, producers, writers, and all the other incredibly creative people that are part of the filmmaking experience are celebrated. This year we are the most behind on our Oscar movie-watching so we’ve been playing catch-up this weekend as much as possible.

The Oscars 2015

So far we’ve seen, Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman, and The Theory of Everything. Today we’re going to be seeing a double-header watching Selma first followed by The Imitation Game. We used to watch more movies but now that we work 14+ hour days we don’t see nearly as many movies, but that’s a tradeoff I’ve been more than happy to make as a startup founder.

Selma and Imitation Game

So far The Theory of Everything is my favorite, in fact it is one of the most touching and inspiring films I have ever seen. While I knew a bit about Stephen Hawking, this film gave me an even greater appreciation for his life and the struggles he has had to overcome. While I enjoyed the absolutely stunning cinematography in Birdman I found the plot incredibly dark and to me it really did seem like a movie made by Hollywood for Hollywood. PandoDaily had a little harsher take on it:

“The Oscars and other yearly awards orgies are the only reason you watched and pretended to like Birdman, an incredibly impressive exercise in stunt-filmmaking that is otherwise utterly uncaptivating in its storytelling and character development. To the audience, it’s the cinematic equivalent of watching somebody take a very difficult Algebra exam.” (Source – PandoDaily)
Birdman - Oscars 2015

While I think Michael Keaton is an amazing actor and without a doubt acted his heart out in the movie, I have to say I will be genuinely disappointed if Birdman wins the coveted Best Picture award. The Theory of Everything, Selma, and The Imitation Game tell incredible stories of some of the most inspiring people in human history, these are the films that should be celebrated the most in my opinion.

Of course it’s easy to forget that the Oscars aren’t about the films that impact us the most, or make us think more deeply about our lives. Instead the Oscars are about what a small group of Hollywood insiders think should win that year, it’s not based on impact or storytelling, it’s based on who they think should win.

Now all this being said, and in all fairness to the Oscars, films that are nominated are without a doubt outstanding movies that people spent years of their lives on to bring to the silver screen. Every film nominated deserves an award in some category and I think that if Birdman does not win best Cinematography I will be very disappointed since I think they did something truly unique in this arena.

So the big night is tonight and we’re getting ready to spend a day at the movie theater watching Selma and the Imitation Game. If you want to see all the 2015 Oscar Nominees you can see the full list here. Also if you want to watch the Oscars live this is the first time you can watch it live online.

That’s my two cents, now it’s your turn. Do you think Birdman deserves Best Picture or should Selma or The Theory of Everything get the gold? Comment and let your voice be heard!

Photo Credit: TempusVolat via Compfight cc

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton