Skip to main content

2016 Oscars: Grading the Nominees

As I've done for the past I'm-not-sure-how-many years, I intend to watch every single Oscar-nominated film, even the shorts and song nominees (yes, that means 50 Shades).  I'm going to rank every single nominated performance based on my letter grade of that film.  I still have many more to see, which I will put under TBS (for To Be Seen), and will update the list as I see each film.  (Reviews to come later, if I have time)

Ranking/Grades
A -- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Visual Effects, Film Editing)
A -- Inside Out (Animated Feature, Original Screenplay)
A -- Room (Actress, Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay)
A -- Brooklyn (Picture, Actress, ADapted Screenplay) 
A -- Amy (Documentary Feature)
A -- The Big Short (Director, Picture, Supporting Actor, Film Editing, Adapted Screenplay)
A -- Shaun the Sheep Movie (Animated Feature) 
A -- World of Tomorrow (Animated Short)
A -- Shok (Live Action Short)   
A -- The Look of Silence (Documentary Feature) 
A- -- The Revenant (Director, Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Actor, Film Editing, Production Design, Visual Effects, Make-up/Hairstyling, Supporting Actor)
A- -- Carol (Original Score, Actress, Cinematography, Supporting Actress, Costume Design, Adapted Screenplay)
A- -- The Martian (Actor, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Production Design, Visual Effects, Adapted Screenplay, Picture) 
A- -- Spotlight (Supporting Actor, Picture, Supporting Actress, Film Editing, Director, Original Screenplay) 
A- -- Racing Extinction (Original Song)
A- -- Cartel Land (Documentary Feature)
A- -- Cinderella (Costume Design) 
A- -- Bear Story (Animated Short)
A- -- Stutterer (Live Action Short) 
A- -- We Can't Live Without Cosmos (Animated Short)
B+ -- Bridge of Spies (Sound Mixing, Supporting Actor, Production Design, Picture, Original Score, Original Screenplay)
B+ -- Everything Will Be Okay (Live Action Short) 
B+ -- Creed (Supporting Actor)
B+ -- The Hateful Eight (Original Score, Supporting Actress, Cinematography)
B+ -- Straight Outta Compton (Original Screenplay)
B+ -- 45 Years (Actress)
B+ -- The Hunting Ground (Original Song) 
B+ -- Trumbo (Actor)
B+ -- The Danish Girl (Supporting Actress, Actor, Costume Design, Production Design)  
B+ -- When Marnie Was There (Animated Feature)
B+ -- Sicario (Sound Editing, Original Score, Cinematography)
B+ -- Anomalisa (Animated Feature)
B+ -- Ex Machina (Visual Effects, Original Screenplay)
B+ -- What Happened, Miss Simone?  (Documentary Feature)
B+ -- Last Day of Freedom (Documentary Short) 
B -- Steve Jobs (Actor, Supporting Actress) 
B -- Mad Max: Mury Road (Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Picture, Director, Costume Design, Cinematography, Make-up/Hairstyling, Film Editing, Sound Editing, Production Design)
B --Ave Maria (Live Action Short)
B -- The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (Make-up/Hairstyling)
B -- Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (Documentary Feature)
B -- A War (Foreign Language Film)
B -- Chau, Beyond the Lines (Documentary Short)  
B- -- Spectre (Original Song) 
B- -- Day One (Live Action Short) 
B- -- Fifty Shades of Grey (Original Song)
C -- Youth (Original Song)   
C -- Joy (Actress)  
D -- Prologue (Animated Short)

Only Clips/Trailers Available
Body Team 12 (Documentary Short)
Boy and the World (Animated Feature)
Claude Lanzemann: Secrets of the Shoah (Documentary Short)
Embrace of the Serpent (Foreign Language Film)
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (Documentary Short)
Mustang (Foreign Language Film)
Sanjay's Super Team (Animated Short) 
Son of Saul (Foreign Language Film)
Theeb (Foreign Language Film)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Wind River (2017)

Elisabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner Director/Screenwriter: Taylor Sheridan Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elisabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Graham Greene, Kelsey Asbille MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong violence, a rape, disturbing images, and language Genres: Drama, Mystery & Suspense Theatrical Release Date: August 4, 2017 On DVD/Streaming: November 14, 2017 Rotten Tomatoes Score : 87%   Clip: "She Ran Further" Wind River is not an easy watch, to say the least.  But it's almost essential viewing; it shows us [the audience] a part of the country with which we may have previously been unfamiliar.  I, for one, knew little to nothing about Native American life in Wyoming.  The brisk, brutal, snowy landscape easily matches the tone of the story and the mystery at its center.  From the opening sequence, which shows a distraught young woman running barefoot on the cold snow, we have an idea as to where the story will take us.  And, for the m...

Review: Tomb Raider

Daniel Wu and Alicia Vikander Director: Roar Uthaug Screenwriters: Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Alastair Siddons Starring: Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins, Dominic West, Daniel Wu, Kristin Scott Thomas MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and some language Genres: Action, Adventure Theatrical Release Date: March 16, 2018 Rotten Tomatoes Score : 50%   Clip: "Waterfall" Tomb Raider  is much better than it has any reason to be.  Not that it needed to be bad, but with the plethora of remakes and reboots as of late, it is easy to have low expectations for the majority of them.  Director Roar Uthaug's Tomb Raider is definitely more of a reboot than a remake, as it is a far cry from the poorly-made Angelina Jolie-starring Lara Croft movies (of which there are two).  Jolie's Croft was certainly slick, but the focus seemed to be more on her sex appeal than anything else.  Tom Raider , however,  Is more about Croft’s br...

Movie Review: Anna Karenina

Keira Knightley Director: Joe Wright Stars: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Kelly Macdonald Genre(s): Drama; Romance Release Date: September 7, 2012 Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62% Keira Knightley certainly has changed since her Oscar-nominated role in Pride and Prejudice , and in the past eight years she has starred in terrible movies, terrific movies, and everything in-between.  She is still undeniably gorgeous and talented, yet perhaps her poised British grandeur has lost its effect.  It is, therefore, not surprising that she was given the title role in Anna Karenina , her latest film with frequent collaborator, director Joe Weight; she has a knack for playing historical -- both true and fictionalized -- women from years past.  As it turns out, that knack does nothing to elevate Wright's disappointing version of Tolstoy's classic romance novel.  Anna Karenina takes place during the 19th century, and Knightley plays a young mother who is ...