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Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant



I will say this was not as clear cut a victory as I expected. Maybe if I'd seen The Hateful Eight the outcome could have been very different! Still perhaps the academy got it right after all with both leading actors correlating with us.

Yay! I arrive just in time to witness the beginning of Mad Max's momentum, and also just in time to have something to complain about. Room was ROBBED in the Best Cast category. How it failed to even get nominated is a mystery to me.

And re: my tastes vs. Geezer's, his nomination of Spotlight shows that we do indeed come at films from a very different perspective. Spotlight has a barrage of non-stop dialogue, and 98% of it went in one ear and out the other. I described it as an information dump rather than a proper movie, and I stand by that, despite the Oscar win. It's a film about people who did important work, but that doesn't make it an important movie, or even a good one. The wikipedia article had more dramatic tension.

While there was far less dialogue in Mad Max, when characters did speak they usually had more more interesting things to say, in a dialect that was invented solely for the film, which is why I ended my write up of Mad Max with a reference to a line from the movie I found infinitely more memorable than anything in Spotlight, or any of the other films that were nominated for Best Screenplay, for that matter.

Like I said, there's something for everybody. That's what makes this medium great.

This could develop into quite a debate! Fascinating!!

In the meantime, with the last featurette of the evening, with Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi once again - The Martian, presented by Walleye:

It's getting harder and harder to do "sincere" in American Cinema. We've become a very cynical society, and that's reflected in our politics, in our workplaces, and in our cinemas. It's why the vast majority of films that are praised seem to have an edge, a bite, to them that matches our biting and cynical way of thinking. Into that world steps the Martian - and a try for hope and sincerity not seen too often this past year. Making it even more rare, is the fact that it succeeds as doing just that.
The Martian stars Matt Damon (An actor more and more stepping into the shoes of Tom Hanks, Jimmy Stewart, and Gregory Peck) as Mark Watney - an Astronaut stranded on Mars. The movie is based on the excellent book by Andy Weir, and it's no faint praise to say that in the transfer from print to screen the movie gets awfully close to matching a new impossible task. The science in the film is both fascinating and "real", or as real as NASA will allow. The supporting performances are excellent, in what is Who's Who of of brilliant actors all in their own rights. But it's the story that makes the film. What drives a story like this? That yes, in spite of all the costs, and all the challenges, and all the pitfalls, we as a human race really would do everything we could to save just one. When faced with turning our backs on one of our own, we would choose, instead, to rise above. To never give up, certainly not while that one is not giving up either. The Martian is a big budget, Hollywood movie. And yet, it's also the best of those things. This is what can happen when Hollywood gets it right. You left this movie feeling hope, a rare occurrence in our day. For that alone, this movie stands as one of the best of the year.

Time for the penultimate award of the evening!!!

Best Director

The nominees are:

Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Alex Garland, Ex-Machina
Alexandro Gonzalez Innaritu, The Revenant
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
David Robert Mitchell, It Follows

And the winner is...

George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road



Indeed, just in time JohnErle!!!

Hell, yeah!

The passion Miller put into making that film, despite countless obstacles, can be felt in every frame.

And so, we've been leading up to this for the last couple of hours, we've seen featurettes presented by all members of the committee in support of the best movies of the last year, as nominated by the Fantaverse, and now we reach the climax. Time to announce the Best Picture for all movies released in 2015!

Best Picture

The nominees are:

Carol
Creed
Ex-Machina
Inside Out
It Follows
Mad Max: Fury Road
Room
Spotlight
The Hateful Eight
The Martian

And the winner is...

I'm glad to know Surf that Sam Jackson wasn't far behind Leo.

And that's a big YES for George Miller !!!

Room, winner of Best Picture at the Reel Society of Film Critics Awards 2016!

WE GOT IT RIGHT AGAIN!!!!!! Good work Fantaverse!

Ooooooooh !!!

There were 4 films ahead of Room in my vote, but it's still a very good film.

Here's a quick highlights reel of all the winners this evening:

Best Breakthrough Performance: Jacob Tremblay, Room
Best Original Screenplay: Ex-Machina
Best Adapted Screenplay: Room
Best Actor In A Supporting Role: Jacob Tremblay, Room
Best Actress In A Supporting Role: Alicia Vikander, Ex-Machina
Best Animated Feature: Inside Out
Best Documentary Feature: Amy
Best Cinematography: The Revenant
Best Visual Effects: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Score: The Hateful Eight
Best Foreign Language Picture: Mustang
Best Cast: The Hateful Eight
Best Actress In A Leading Role: Brie Larson, Room
Best Actor In A Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Best Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Picture: Room

A24 wins the night. They're going places.

Speaking of Room, I checked out Emma Donoghue's novel yesterday. It will be interesting to find the differences between book and movie.