The 2015 Oscar Nominees are...

The nominations are out and I can say that I am not entirely pleased with those snubbed this year.  Many of the nominations were expected but there were some not on the list that I was genuinely surprised about. Here's the official list and let me know your thoughts!

Best Picture

American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Best Director

Alejandro Innaritu, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

Best Actor

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher 
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night 
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything 
Julianne Moore, Still Alice 
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl 
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall, The Judge 
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Laura Dern, Wild
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Best Adapted Screenplay

American Sniper 
The Imitation Game 
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Best Original Screenplay

Birdman
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler

Best Cinematography

Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
Mr. Turner
Unbroken

Best Costume Design

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr. Turner

Best Film Editing

American Sniper
Boyhood
Grand Budapest
The Imitation Game
Whiplash

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Original Score

The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Mr. Turner
The Theory of Everything

Best Original Song

“Everything is Awesome,” The Lego Movie
“Glory,” Selma
“Grateful,” Beyond the Lights
“I'm Not Going to Miss You,” Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
“Lost Stars,” Begin Again

Best Production Design

The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Mr. Turner

Best Sound Editing

American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken

Best Sound Mixing

American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash

Best Visual Effects

Captain America: The Winter Soldier 
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
X-Men; Days of Future Past

Best Animated Feature

Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Documentary Feature

Citizenfour
Finding Vivian Maier
Last Days in Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga

Best Foreign Language Film

Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines
Timbuktu
Wild Tales

Best Animated Short

The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keeper
Feast
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life

Best Live-Action Short

Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butter Lamp 
Parvaneh
The Phone Call

Best Documentary Short

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press One
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth

Movies on my mind...

So I realized that I have been posting a lot of movies and movie related topics lately.  I am sorry but I can't help it!  Movies are on my mind, the Oscars are just around the corner, my Avengers sequel is closely creeping upon us, what more do you want from me?!

Probably something other than movie reviews...(eye roll)

Music is a big part of my life as well, so I have decided to do a month of music reviews and include styles from all genres...even ones I don't like!  (WHY ARE YOU HERE TAYLOR?!)

On that note, send me any artist you think I should check out locally or ones that aren't.  I am going to try and see as many as I can this coming month and post as often as I can.  Until then, enjoy this gif of Chris Evans (future baby daddy) helping Betty White at the People's Choice Awards.  Sigh, he really is Captain America...

and this girl's tweet pretty much sums it up for me as well

Comic Book Movies getting an Oscar nod

The comic book world has found itself exploding on to the big screen over the past few years we as nerds can thank in large part Christopher Nolan for this.  He gave Batman the darker edge that readers have been longing to see on the big screen.  Michael Keaton will always be Batman to people from my generation but having Christian Bale as Batman to future generations isn't a bad thing either.

I don't care what kind of flack I get for this but Batman Forever was the first comic book movie that I watched as a kid and made me fall in love with comics and nerdy things.  Not to mention the hot steamy scene with Nicole Kidman and Val Kilmer...ah memories...*cough, ehm* any who, the corny lines from Robin, the cheesey interaction between the Riddler and Two-Face, it was the perfect introduction to a world that at this point in time was considered extremely "uncool".  

Then came Spiderman with Toby Maguire and the comic industry began it's slow upward trend of breaking into the industry of film.  Fun Fact, Spiderman 2 won an Oscar for Best Achievement of Visual  Effects in 2005. Comic books aren't just about the art, they need a great story with great writers to help them along.  Christopher Nolan gave us a world that we could really sink our teeth into with Batman Begins and the shock that he wasn't nominated at the Oscars for Dark Knight gave the committee pause and decided to open up the nominations list from 5 to 10.

The one who did win an Oscar that year for the Dark Knight was Heath Ledger, for Best Actor in a Supporting role.  The question that I wish we could have answered is, was he nominated for his work in that role or was it simply because of his untimely death?  Not that his work as the Joker wasn't wonderfully portrayed, the Academy has just not been very light hearted when it comes to who is selected for this prestigious award.

Not to be out done by DC, Marvel came back with a vengeance with Iron Man and the fantastic Tony Stark, brought to life by Robert Downing Jr.  This character kicked off a campaign that has made Marvel the forerunner for comic films since Batman Begins.  The Avengers is quite possibly one of my favorite films of all time.  I wish I could tell you that it was because I was a Marvel chick and that I knew this storyline inside and out but alas, I can only say that my love for Joss Whedon and his clever repartee won me over hook line and sinker.  I believe the unison of the characters in this story (Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor) gave life to these follow up films that I am not sure would have been as successful without the Avengers.   One of my favorite films of 2014 was Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  The first Captain America left something to be desired but my love for Chris Evans and Joss Whedon can not be deterred!  I gave the sequel a shot (as I did with Thor) and was pleasantly surprised!  Most fans have left sequels and prequels with bad tastes in there mouths.  With a glimmer of hope, I looked towards the future only to see the next project of Marvel...a giant humanoid tree and a talking racoon...what the?!

I will be the first to say that I was very skeptical of this movie.  Guardians of the Galaxy sounded utterly ridiculous in theory and I couldn't see how any grown person would want to see a movie that involved a giant tree and a talking racoon.  Then I learned Chris Pratt was the lead.  Better, I do like him on Parks and Rec, then I found out Zoe Saldana had joined the project.  This should be interesting...she's been building quite the resume since Avatar...then I saw the trailer.

Are you kidding me?!  This movie looks amazing!  So now I was very amped to watch the film, hoping beyond wildest hope that this movie would be everything I wanted it to be.  Needless to say James Gunn did not disappoint.  The best part about the film in my opinion is that James Gunn didn't even want Chris Pratt as Peter Quill in the beginning.  Who could have played the role any better??  It wasn't until after the two met that the role seemed to click for the director.  The movie is excellently written, has enough action for your manly men, enough sexual intrigue for your not so manly lady friends and enough comedy for a family friendly film. This movie was the surprise sleeper hit of the summer.

This movie also caught the attention of the Writers Guild of America and was handed a nomination for best adapted screenplay.  This organization has some serious street cred in the film world for any of you who aren't aware.  In fact, many films that are nominated by the WGA are then nominated for the Oscars.  Having a film like Guardians of the Galaxy nominated for an Oscar in the best adapted screen play division would be huge for the comic book world.  Talk about going from comic geek to comic chic, in fact, there would probably be many more titles that are currently considered second and third tier titles that could be green lit and would make excellent films.  As a comic enthusiast, nothing would please me more.  The real rub here for Guardians is that did it get the nomination because it truly deserved it or because several other critically acclaimed films (i.e. Birdman, Selma, The Theory of Everything and Mr Turner) didn't follow the filming guidelines set up by the Guild.

Whatever the case may be, the Guardians of the Galaxy does have the nomination and nothing would thrill me more than to hear on January 15th that a comic book film has picked up a nomination for an Oscar that packed a little more punch than best visual affects. To those of you who feel differently, I think Peter Quill sums it up best.