This has become an annual tradition the day before the Oscars. In order move away all the subjectivity and negativity that happens when figuring out what should win and what’s going to win, I get away from all of that stuff and celebrate the films that are nominated for Best Picture.
We take this day to look at them as masterworks of cinema and not as films competing for a trophy. All of that other stuff — the analysis, the opinions — that’s all done with. Today, we take a minute, we stop, and we appreciate the films themselves. I count down my five favorite moments (or elements) of each of them.
When you take away all the awards, all the competition, and all the arbitrary decisions about what film is better than the others, what we’re left with is great cinema. That’s what we’re celebrating.
Our next nominee is Mad Max: Fury Road:
5. This moment
Shout out to the cinematography as well. I love how they painted everything blue for the night sequence. And I also like how they use the orange light as well on top of the blue. The cool/warm contrast is great.
I’m actually here to talk about this moment in particular, because it’s a great moment for the development of these characters an their relationship. Max has the rifle and is trying to take out the searchlight on the oncoming vehicle before they can be spotted and shot at. And he’s only got about three rounds in the gun, and misses with the first two. And Theron, watching from afar, gets antsy and comes over to look over his shoulder. And she starts getting jumpy, wanting to take the gun away from him and do it herself, but not doing that, because she wants to give him the space to do it. So she just stands over his shoulder, twitching. And he realizes this, and realizes he’s not gonna be able to do it and that she is, so he relents and gives her the gun, which she promptly uses to shoot out the light in a single shot. It shows these two characters starting to trust one another for real, and also shows how much of a badass Furiosa is, which is the best part.
There’s something so authentic to me about her pacing behind him, wanting to do it, but also not wanting to be a dick about it. I love little things like that in movies.
4. This fight
I love how they choreographed this. This is this movie’s idea of a meet cute. He shows up, they don’t know who he’s working for or what his agenda is, and he has no idea what’s going on in any of this. But, survival. So they’re fighting, and then the women get involved, and they’re using the chain, the hose — everything that’s introduced in this scene gets worked into the fight. And then Nux wakes up, so there’s that great bit of choreography where he’s helping Max, who’s just trying to get a gun and keep everyone away from him, and so the women are stopping Nux and protecting Furiosa, but Max also wants the chain off and doesn’t give a shit about Nux — it’s really well done. Every character and their intentions are perfectly defined within this fight and the movie really handles it well. You understand everything and the fact that it all makes sense makes the simplicity of the fight even better. And there’s a ticking clock, as these war parties are gonna show up pretty soon.
3. The emotional hook
They layer in this emotional story that allows all of the action to have a purpose and not be hollow like it is in so many action movies. She’s trying to save these women. She wants to take them to where she grew up. And then when you find out it’s no more, it actually means something. It’s not just some empty, “Oh, well I guess we need to pretend like we’re at the end of act two.” It’s actually a big moment here, because we saw all the shit they had to go through. There is no other alternative for them. And now it was all for nothing. Everyone can feel for that.
2. A Ballet of Chaos
The way the action is handled in this film is so beautiful. The things that happen are surreal and operatic. I have no idea how Miller managed to make all of this insanity translate, but he did, and it’s glorious. I don’t even have anything else to say except — bravo.
1. REAL Action
This movie has to be something like 70-30 practical action to CGI. Most of the stuff that goes on is real cars, real stunt people, real crashes and explosions, with only CGI on the obvious parts (the sandstorm) and to supplement what happens. Like, when you see a car explode and bodies go flying. That’s obviously CGI because you can’t just kill people. But everything up to that is all real. You see cars flip and blow up here. And you see people actually doing stunts. Tom Hardy is hanging upside down on those fucking poles. You can say whatever you want about how simple the story is or how the movie is almost nonstop action and that bored you — you can’t help but be impressed by the fact that they did all of this stuff for real. That takes away most of the problems I would have ever had with this movie. I saw them make it. They didn’t sit behind a computer and put this stuff together. They put this film together and then made it look better on a computer. You can almost never say that anymore.
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