Some Thoughts about the Oscars.

Tomorrow night is the Oscars and tonight is the Independent Spirit Awards for Indie films. You can see my Top Ten List for 2015 here, but there were other entertaining films last year. The Spirit Awards have nominated Beasts of No Nation, Anomalisa, and Tangerine for Best Feature as well as the more mainstream, Carol, and Spotlight. I'm never sure how these Hollywood films qualify as Indies. Beasts of No Nation was made for Netflix and tells the story of a rebel army in an unnamed African country. The wonderful Idris Elba stars as the rebel commander. Tangerine has had a lot of buzz. It was "filmed" entirely on an iPhone, and tells the story of transgender prostitutes in Hollywood. It is a bit rough but it is worth seeing. Other good films with Indie nominations include Me and Earl and the Dying Girl which I liked a lot. It is about a high school kid whose mother forces him to spend time with a sick classmate. Another good one is The End of the Tour, starring Jason Segel as the author, David Foster Wallace, and Jesse Eisenberg as the Rolling Stone reporter who interviews him for several days.

Among the Hollywood films that missed getting nominations and didn't quite make my Top Ten, there were some good ones. My favorites include:

• Creed: See my mini-review here. This was probably the best film featuring African-Americans in front and behind the camera and deserved some more nominations.
• Trumbo: This movie is very good, particularly with Bryan Cranston in the title role. It's also a grim reminder that free speech has been under attack before. See my mini-review here.
• Pitch Perfect 2: What can I say, I am in love with Rebel Wilson. There I said it. This film isn't rocket science but I laughed through the whole thing. 
• Bridge of Spies: See my mini-review here. Sylvester Stallone will win Best Supporting Actor for Creed, but Mark Rylance gives the best performance of the year in Bridge of Spies as the Russian spy, Rudolph Abel. Tom Hanks is pretty good too. Duh.

Some good movies sank without a trace, but they are still out there and worth seeing:

• Pawn Sacrifice: The story of the Chess championship between Boris Spassky (Liev Schrieber) and Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) in Iceland in 1972. This film is very well done.
• Ricki and the Flash: If you've always wanted to see Meryl Streep play an aging rocker, here is your chance. This is an interesting movie because it is a rare story where a woman leaves her family to pursue a career leaving the husband (Kevin Kline!) to pick up the pieces. 
• The Woman in Gold: This film came out at the beginning of 2015 and was well received. It is the true story about a woman played by Helen Mirren who tries to reclaim some painting stolen from her family by the Nazis. 
• Suffragette: This film does a nice job telling the story of the suffragette movement in England. Carey Mulligan is great. See my mini-review here.

Finally, who should win the best acting Oscars?

Best Supporting Actor:
I already mentioned that Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) should win Best Supporting Actor but Sylvester Stallone (Creed) will win. Stallone was great too so I don't mind him winning. The other nominees, Christian Bale (The Big Short), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), and Tom Hardy (The Revenant) were all good too. Hardy should get an award for playing this role along with Max in Mad Max Fury Road and two identical twin gangsters in Legend. Legend is well worth seeing. See my mini review here. Domhnall Gleeson who appeared in four good movies, Brooklyn, Star Wars, Ex Machina, and The Revenant, should get an honorable mention. And why not John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)? Why no big nominations for Star Wars just because this is a big budget SciFi movie? He would have been a good non-white nomination.

Best Supporting Actress:
The nominees are Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs), Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), Rooney Mara (Carol), and Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight). Kate Winslet seems to the slight favorite followed by Alicia Vikander. I think Winslet should win. Steve Jobs is the most underrated movie of the year. See my mini-review here. Vikander is great too although The Danish Girl isn't that great. She had an even better role in Ex-Machina. Mara should be nominated in the Best Actress category but is supporting for political reasons. She was good in Carol but the movie left me a bit cold. See my mini-review here. Rachel McAdams is doing some interesting things these days including True Detective. Spotlight is a very good film and she is good in it. See my mini-review here. The less said about The Hateful Eight the better. I love Jennifer Jason Leigh but read my mini-review here.

Best Actor:
We all know that this is the year for Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant). I don't agree
but other people think it was a better movie than I do. See my mini-review here. I would pick any of Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs), Matt Damon (The Martian), and Bryan Cranston (Trumbo). These are all great movies with great lead performances. I didn't think much of Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl. Some other very good performances that could have been nominated include Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Walk), Ian McKellen (Mr. Holmes), and Michael B. Jordan (Creed).

Best Actress:
This is another category that is supposed to be a lock for Brie Larson (Room). She is deserving and the film is good. See my mini-review here. Another very good movie she made that no one saw is Short Term 12. Then, there are two perennial nominees Cate Blanchett (Carol) and Jennifer Lawrence (Joy). Blanchett has 7 Oscar nominations and two wins. Lawrence although she is only 25 already has 4 nominations and one win. Joy was a mess of a movie but Lawrence was still great. See my mini-review here. Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) is nominated for a very sweet performance in a movie I loved. See my mini-review here. Finally, Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) has been making movies for 50 years and this is her first nomination. She might have been a sentimental favorite if not for her comments on #OscarsSoWhite. I haven't seen 45 Years.