Oscar Race: 'Mad Max', 'The Big Short' and 'Spotlight' all win over the weekend

Warner Bros./Paramount Picture/Open Road Films

There was a lot up grabs this weekend as two major guilds, the Screen Actors and American Cinema Editors handed out their top prizes for 2015 films. Last weekend saw The Big Short picking up a huge win from the Producers Guild of America (PGA) along with all the momentum that comes with it. It also set up a showdown with Spotlight, another major best picture Oscar contender, at last night’s Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG). However, due to Spotlight not receiving an American Cinema Editors Award (Eddie) nomination the door was open for another film to join The Big Short and Spotlight at the front of the Oscar race.

Mad Max: Fury Road was that film as it took home the Eddie for Best Edited Dramatic Feature Film, beating out The Martian, The Revenant, Sicario and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This win for Mad Max may not be enough to call it a front runner or to drop Spotlight or The Big Short out of the top two spots (mainly because they won big this weekend as well but I’ll get to that in a moment) but it does add a bit of intrigue. Mad Max: Fury Road now looks to be the Oscar frontrunner for Best Editing. Its director George Miller is also looking like the frontrunner to be recognized next weekend by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) as Best Director for his latest outing, also meaning he is the frontrunner in the Oscar race. Winning these categories can only help Mad Max’s Best Picture chances but like I said, its toughest competitors, Spotlight and The Big Short, also won big this past weekend.

Matching Mad Max’s success at the Eddie’s was The Big Short as it won Best Edited Comedic Feature Film on Friday and continuing its winning streak that started with its PGA award (the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures). These wins certainly gave The Big Short lots of momentum, even making it the frontrunner for Best Picture at the Oscars heading into last night’s SAG Awards, putting Spotlight in a position to play spoiler in the process.

And that’s exactly what happened as Spotlight won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at last night’s ceremony, beating out The Big Short along with Straight Out of Compton, Beast of No Nation and Trumbo. A Big Short win would have made it a safe bet for Best Picture but Spotlight winning makes things very interesting. If history is any indication, The Big Short may still have the upper hand as the PGA winner has gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture 70% of the time whereas the SAG winner has gone on to win the Oscar 50% of the time. As you can see, winning these guild awards leading up to the Oscars does not guarantee a Best Picture win but Spotlight and The Big Short look to be the two films in front at this point.

This showdown down will continue at next weekend’s DGA Awards where Thomas McCarthy for Spotlight and Adam McKay for The Big Short are both nominated. Standing in there way though is, as I mentioned, George Miller for Mad Max. If Miller is to win, it may be appropriate to start seeing Mad Max: Fury Road, with its 10 Oscar Nominations and guild accolades, as a serious contender to take on Spotlight and The Big Short. Personally, I believe we are looking at a year that will feature a Best Picture/Director split with Miller winning and either Spotlight or The Big Short  winning Best Picture. But anything can happen.           

Review: 'The Hateful Eight' (2015)

The Weinstein Company

It is no secret that Quentin Tarantino, within his films, has a strong tendency to paint the screen red, so to speak. If Tarantino is at the helm, blood will be shed and no character or set piece is safe. His latest film, The Hateful Eight is no expectation to this trademark style. Less people may be aware that with this blood drenched violence also comes a wildly entertaining, dialogue heavy script that only a master penman can piece together. The Hateful Eight is also no exception to this Tarantino film characteristic. So considering just these two factors, The Hateful Eight is Tarantino’s most Tarantino film yet. At the same time though, it is important to make very clear, The Hateful Eight is a different animal all of its own.

Taking place for a majority of its 167 minute running time (the non-70mm Roadshow version) in a cabin on a mountain range in Wyoming being effected by a nasty blizzard not long after the civil war, The Hateful Eight actually  opens with a stage coach at the center of things. This stage coach, its driver and two passengers, comes across Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a bounty hunter on his way to Red Rock, right smack dab in the middle of their path, setting on a stack of bodies. It just so happens that occupying the stage coach is the infamous John Ruth (Kurt Russell), which has acquired “The Hangman” nickname due to his practice of delivering a prisoner alive so that a hanging can take place. His prisoner, literally chained to his side, at this point in time is Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who has a $10,000 price tag on her head.

With the blizzard quickly approaching, Major Warren has no choice but to ask for a ride a after a brief discussion to sort out reluctantly, John Ruth allows him to do so. The discussion reveals that Ruth and Warren have crossed each other’s paths before which prompt’s Ruth, when in the stage coach with Warren, to ask to read a letter Warren has from President Lincoln. As Ruth is reading the letter, were given the first great line of this snowy, no bullets saved western and then assured we are in for one wickedly wild ride.    

Shortly after this, the stage coach comes across former militiaman and, according to him, the new sheriff of Red Rock, Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). After he is able to persuade John Ruth to allow him to travel with them, the now 4 person stage coach and its driver O.B. (James Parks, who, regardless of not being one of the ‘hateful eight’, goes toe to toe with the rest of cast, making for a memorable performance to say the least) make their way to Minnie’s Haberdashery for shelter.

However, questions of thing not be how they should when Minnie is nowhere to be found when arriving and her Haberdashery is being occupied by Bob (Demian Bichir), Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), Joe Gage (Michael Madsen) and General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern). These 4 occupants, along with the four from the stage coach passengers, make up the ‘hateful eight’, and with all of them having a story (some knowing others past, some not), stuck inside the Haberdashery, all that can be done is to question the intentions and grow even more suspicious of one another.

Even though some of them had already been given a chance to bring life to their characters, it is in this cabin together that Tarantino’s cast, nearly an alumni-like gathering from his past efforts, bring their own special touch to the roles they fill. Jennifer Jason Leigh as the raggedy, ruff, thrown around prisoner Daisy Domergue is racking up supporting actress nominations with Oscar voters likely following suit and for good reason as she pours every ounce of bizarre humor and over the top orneriness into every word or action while also telling us a lot with long non-verbal moments. The men though are able to hold their own alongside her as each performance and character is as zany and entertaining but also important as the next.

For anyone that has witness a Tarantino project before, it will come as no surprise that his script tends to outshine the performances (even if superb) that play it out when crammed in this cabin. Tarantino has no trouble building tension through conversation as he uses background, racial and gender differences and also similarities to create what essentially is one big scene that is loaded with intrigue and questions. It is when he finally has the room ready to explode in turmoil, that he goes to a violence, ultra-gory at times, that only he can produce. With Ennio Morricone’s fitting score taking place behind all this and a mystery still unfolding, Tarantino once again blends genre, giving The Hateful Eight a horror of the slasher variety feel while also being a thriller steeped in carefully placed deductive reasoning.

The Hateful Eight has and will likely continue to take a lot of heat for the over-the-top, blood and guts type of violence present at times but Tarantino has always been under the microscope for this. So maybe because he is constantly hearing about how his brand is violently unnecessary, is indeed the reason is The Hateful Eight is at times, some of his most gruesome work. Or, my better guess is that he will and can put whatever he wants to on screen and The Hateful Eight is a reminder of this. He well knows how indulgent he in being and if you want to indulge with him that’s great and if not, he doesn’t really care. The issue is that, in this particular case, he tends to end the tension he has carefully built up in a rather abrupt matter with these more violent moments that feel awkwardly placed. 

Similar to how Tarantino challenges the audience to let loose a bit, he also challenges us to look deeper than violent characteristics. If one is able to do this with The Hateful Eight, like his previous film Django Unchained, one will find moments of rich dialogue that, even if at a small level, can be rather touching. The person that can do this will also find a fascinating and wacky mystery that will have you wondering who just might walk out of that cabin.

Grade: B