Ryan's 1000th Movie Extravaganza (plus a Quick Review of Top Gun)

It finally happened.  After spending 21 years (plus a week) on this earth, I have finally reached the milestone of having completely watched 1,000 movies.

Now I do have a confession to make about this milestone that few of you were aware of me being near and even fewer of you care about me reaching: I probably watched my 1,000th a month or two ago.  After logging in my 1,000th movie (the Tom Cruise film Top Gun, which I will review later on in this post), I did some more searching on Letterboxd and discovered several handfuls of movies that I have seen from start to finish, but forgot to log in to the website.

http://letterboxd.com/rytherb/

So if you take a look at the link above you'll notice that I am at 1,041 films seen as of now (Thursday, August 20th, 2015), and not currently sitting at the 1,000 mark.  So it's a bit like if baseball fans searched the archives of baseball footage and discovered that Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit ball, which he kept as a souvenir was actually his 3,041st hit, and instead his actual 3,000th ball was hit and then played with for a little bit until the pitcher threw a wild pitch and the ball got a little dirty, so the catcher gave it to the umpire to put in his pocket next to his sweaty crotch where it would stay for the remainder of the game before it inevitably ended up in baseball heaven (or wherever MLB baseballs go after they're used).  

I'm being dramatic.  Anyway, I reached (over) 1,000 movies seen, and there are still so SOOOOO many movies from the past that I have not yet seen, as well as many great films being released each year.  The situation I am in is similar to that of a heroin addict who has an overwhelmingly large amount of heroin at their disposal, but they are also being shipped tons of delicious, delicious heroin every week.  And they LOVE heroin, so really their best option is to try and continue doing as much heroin as they can until they die.  And maybe later on in their life, after college, if they get the opportunity, they'll start making some heroin of their own.  But they are still going to do other people's heroin, because other's people's heroin is just as awesome, in fact probably better.  And one day when the heroin addict is old and the heroin industry has changed in so many ways, he or she will be able to vividly describe to his or her grandkids what heroin was like when he was younger, and the kinds of heroin that he or she has tried.  And they'll say, "Shut up Grandpa, we're going to go play on our Hover Heely's."  Basically the heroin is a metaphor for my movie watching.

Here are a few statistics of my movie watching history:

-The oldest movie I have seen is Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896).  It's 1 minute long, and it's just a silent film of a train arriving at a station.

-The newest movie I have seen is the awesome N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton (2015), released last week.

-The average length of every movie I've seen is about 1 hour and 49 minutes long.  Using that average and multiplying it across 1,041 movies adds up to 113,469 minutes, or a little over 1,891 hours, or almost 79 days.  And that's not including the time that would be added from the additional viewings of movies after the first time seeing them.  If that time was included you could probably double the time I've spent watching movies in my lifetime.

-The shortest movie I have seen is the same as the oldest.

-The longest movie I have seen is the extended cut of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, which is 4 hours and 11 minutes long.

-I have never walked out of a movie that I was seeing in theaters (not even R.I.P.D.)

-The movie I have seen the most is my at one time favorite movie, The Dark Knight, around 30 times.  The closest competitors are childhood favorites, which I still enjoy today, The Sandlot and Remember the Titans, around 20 times, and my current favorite movie, Boogie Nights, about 15 times.

-The only movies I have seen more than once in theaters are Fred Claus (twice) and this year's The End of the Tour (twice).

Plus a Quick Review of Top Gun

Ahhh, the 80's.  A time when the sun was setting 24 hours a day.  A time when straight men could play topless beach volleyball in jeans, and no one would think anything of it.  A time when Tom Cruise, was just starting to take your breath away.  Times were simpler...I'm guessing; I don't know, I was born in the 90's.

Risky Business gave Tom Cruise a nice jumpstart to his career, but Top Gun put that thing into overdrive and it hasn't slowed down yet.  With Maverick, as well as his several other cocky, be-the-best-there-is roles, Cruise brings a level of confidence and charisma that equals that of the characters he is playing.  Maverick is the kind of guy who at one moment is flying through the sky with a weapon surrounded by enemy fighter jets, and in another moment is trying to pickup a hard-to-get Kelly McGillis with same level of confidence.  To Maverick, there are two kinds of people in the world, those who are charmed by him, and those who are wrong.

While watching Top Gun, it's easy to get taken out of the film a little bit due to it's cheesier moments (silhouetted sex scene, volleyball montage, c'mon).  That's especially true if like me, you watch it for the first time ever, during the 21st century.  But what I'm sure were probably the film's best qualities back in 1986, remain it's best qualities today.  The relationship between Maverick and Goose is still perfect, the soundtrack is still great, the flying sequences are exciting and edited together really well, and Tom Cruise is still able to charm the pants off of anyone with a pulse.  If it was led by a lesser actor than Cruise, I don't see Top Gun being a very successful film, and without (SPOILERS even though it's been almost 20 years) the Maverick and Goose relationship in the announced Top Gun 2, there is no way it comes anywhere close to the original.  The only think that could possibly get me excited for it would if they change the title to Top Gun 2: Goose's Revenge.  I miss you Goose.

Rating: 7.5/10

-Ryan

My 2015 Oscars Rankings and Predictions

The Oscars are on tonight, which means that movie fanatics and live-tweeters can join together to make all forms of social media unbearable.  With that being said, I will absolutely be live-tweeting and complaining about each Oscar win that I disagree with.  I'm already preparing myself for the inevitable loss in the Adapted Screenplay category for Paul Thomas Anderson.  Since the Oscars have a tendency to not be very shocking, I'm hoping there are some surprises this year.  At the very least, Neil Patrick Harris should be a good host.

In All Seriousness:

Below I will rank the films and performances in order from would like to win the most to the least, and I will put an asterisk next to the film/performance that I think will win.  And the short film categories were picked at random because I haven't seen any of them.

*= My predicted win

BEST PICTURE

1. Whiplash

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

3. Boyhood*

4. Birdman

5. The Imitation Game

6. Selma

7. The Theory of Everything

8. American Sniper

BEST ACTOR

1. Michael Keaton (Birdman)*

2. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

3. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)

4. Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)

5. Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)

BEST ACTRESS

1. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

2. Julianne Moore (Still Alice)*

3. Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)

4. Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

5. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)*

2. Edward Norton (Birdman)

3. Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)

4. Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

Did not see: Robert Duvall (The Judge)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)*

2. Emma Stone (Birdman)

3. Laura Dern (Wild)

4. Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)

Did not see: Into the Woods

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Richard Linklater (Boyhood)*

2. Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

3. Alejandro G. Inarritu (Birdman)

4. Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)

5. Morton Tyldum (The Imitation Game)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel*

2. Birdman

3. Nightcrawler

4. Boyhood

5. Foxcatcher

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY 

1. Inherent Vice

2. Whiplash*

3. The Theory of Everything

4. The Imitation Game

5. American Sniper

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1. Ida*

Did not see:

"Leviathan," Russia

"Tangerines," Estonia

"Wild Tales," Argentina

"Timbuktu," Mauritania

BEST ANIMATED FEATURED FILM

Did not see:

"Big Hero 6"

"The Boxtrolls"

"How to Train Your Dragon 2"*

"Song of the Sea"

"The Tale of the Princess Kaguya"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. Birdman*

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

3. Ida

4. Mr. Turner

Did not see: Unbroken

BEST FILM EDITING

1. Whiplash

2. Boyhood*

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel

4. American Sniper

5. The Imitation Game

BEST SOUND EDITING

Richard King, "Interstellar"

Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro, "Unbroken"

Brent Burge and Jason Canovas, "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"

Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman, "American Sniper"*

Martin Hernandez and Aaron Glascock, "Birdman"

BEST SOUND MIXING

Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten, "Interstellar"

Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley, "Whiplash"*

Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montano and Thomas Varga, "Birdman"

John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin, "American Sniper"

Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montano and David Lee, "Unbroken"

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Dennis Gassner (Production Design) and Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration), "Into the Woods"

Adam Stockhausen (Production Design) and Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration), "The Grand Budapest Hotel"*

Nathan Crowley (Production Design) and Gary Fettis (Set Decoration),"Interstellar"

Maria Djurkovic (Production Design) and Tatiana Macdonald (Set Decoration), "The Imitation Game"

Suzie Davies (Production Design) and Charlotte Watts (Set Decoration),"Mr. Turner"

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Milena Canonero, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Mark Bridges, "Inherent Vice"*

Colleen Atwood, "Into the Woods"

Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive, "Maleficient"

Jacqueline Durran, "Mr. Turner"

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1. The Theory of Everything*

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

3. The Imitation Game

4. Interstellar

5. Mr. Turner

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

"Glory" by Common and John Legend, "Selma"*

"Lost Stars" by Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley and NickSouthwood, "Begin Again"

"Everything Is Awesome" by Shawn Patterson, "The LEGO Movie"

"I'm Not Gonna Miss You," by Glen Campbell, "Glenn Campbell: I'll Be Me"

"Grateful," "Beyond the lights"

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

"Foxcatcher"

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"

"Guardians of the Galaxy"*

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher, "Interstellar"*

Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"

Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould, "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick, "Captain America: Winter Soldier"

Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer, "X-Men: Days of Future Past"

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

"Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1"

"Joanna"

"Our Curse"

"White Earth"

"The Reaper"*

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Did not see:

"Citizenfour"*

"Last Days in Vietnam"

"Virunga"

"The Salt of the Earth"

"Finding Vivian Maier"

BEST SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION

"Boogaloo and Graham"

"Aya"

"Butterlamp"

"Parvenah"

"The Phone Call"*

BEST SHORT FILM, ANIMATED

"Feast"*

"The Bigger Picture"

"A Single Life"

"The Dam Keeper"

"Me and My Moulton"

-Ryan Moncrief

What Movie Should You Be Watching on Valentine's Day?

Love is in the air. Chocolate is in our mouths. People are ironically and un-ironically tossing around the "word" "bae".  This must mean it's Valentine's Day.  Whether you hate it or hate it (does anyone actually really like V-Day?) you have to endure it like everyone else.  Single or not, one of the best ways to spend February 14th is by watching movies.  Below I will show you what movie to watch on Valentine's Day depending on what kind of person you are.  Even if you're single!

In All Seriousness:

You've been with the same Valentine for a long time: Groundhog Day

Sit down with your husband/wife or your long-term boyfriend/girlfriend, and enjoy this incredible Bill Murray film.  Murray is at the top of his career in what is in my opinion his best film.  Hilarious and touching to reignite that burning desire in you both.  For a different kind of burning feeling, enjoy your Valentine's Day dinner at Taco Bell.

You're reuniting with your Valentine after a while apart: Wild at Heart

Have you been on opposite sides of the country as your significant other?  Are you just getting out of serving a prison sentence only to reunite with your lady and go on the run with her because her mom is hiring people to kill you? The second scenario is what happens to Nicolas Cage's character Sailor in Wild at Heart.  This movie is darkly funny, crazy as hell, and super weird.  All things you'd expect from a David Lynch film.

You were recently broken up with before V-Day: Sideways

I get it.  Breaking up sucks.  You have no hope for the future.  Why don't you give that Sam Smith album a break and pop in Sideways.  It's funny, it's filled with bright California images, and it shows that even if you're Paul Giamatti, there is still hope to find love in this world.

You recently started a relationship before V-Day: Punch-Drunk Love

Woooo!  Finally got a boyfriend or girlfriend, huh?  Adam Sandler knows exactly how you feel in Punch-Drunk Love.  "I have a love in my life.  It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine." Adam Sandler's Barry Egan's love makes him stronger than anything you can imagine when he gets into some trouble with a mattress salesman as he enters a new relationship.  Short, sweet, and has one of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman's best roles despite how small it is.

Your best friend is your valentine this year: Thelma and Louise

As is the common consensus with single people, both boys and girls suck.  That's why your best friend is your valentine this year.  There is no shame in that.  You might be closer with that person than you ever could be with someone of the opposite sex.  You could argue that Thelma and Louise's love for each other is stronger than most romantic relationships in other films.  Just try not to go on a crime spree with your friend this Valentine's Day.

Just because I'm thirteen doesn't mean I can't be in love, MOM: Moonrise Kingdom

You are young, dumb, and in love.  It happens.  You are mature enough to make decisions for yourself.  And as we can see in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, sometimes the kids act like adults and adults act like kids.  Enjoy being a kid, write letters to each other, enjoy picnics together, and hope that Bill Murray isn't your dad.  (Actually scratch that, Bill Murray would be an amazing dad.)

Ahhhhhhh I'm single and I'm pissed about it!: Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2

Woah!  Take it easy.  Stop breaking things.  You're making a scene.  You're single, again.  It sucks.  Instead of putting bags of poop on your ex's doorstep (actually don't rule this out, sounds fun), watch a film where a girl goes on an unstoppable quest for revenge, trying to take down every person that stands in her way just so she can kill her ex.  Watch all four hours of this 2-part action film (let's face it, you have the time), and watch Uma Thurman let out all of her anger in a way that you wish you could.

Whether you actually listen to my recommendations or don't watch a movie at all, I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day.

-Ryan Moncrief

3 TV Shows You Aren't Watching But Should Be

I know that you are all probably watching thirty different shows already.  You're trying to fit in seven episodes a day of Orange is the New Black, while catching up on the last season of Game of Thrones and Mad Men before people spoil them for you, and trying to rewatch every episode of Breaking Bad again because if you go a month without hearing, "Yoooo Mr. White!" you breakout into hives and start vomiting all over the place.  Woah, this got really gross.  Anyway.  I know you're swamped with other shows (and social lives, which I hear is a thing normal people are supposed to have) so you don't have to watch these shows now, but I'd like to shine some light on them so if you're ever free you can give them a watch.

In All Seriousness:

1. The Leftovers (HBO)

The Leftovers is a new HBO show, it premiered three weeks ago.  The show focuses on Justin Theroux as a cop in a town that's coping with life after an event where 2% of the entire world's population disappeared into thin air with no explanation (yet).  It's really new, so I could be speaking too soon if the rest of the season just really sucks, but with the way it's going so far, I feel really comfortable giving it my stamp of approval.  The inspiration for this entire post was the 3rd and most recent episode of this premiere season, because it was one of the best episodes of television I've seen this year.  So definitely try to give this show a watch, and at least make it to the third episode.

2. Undateable (NBC)

This show could very well fall into the realm of countless sitcoms of a bunch of friends who work at/constantly go to a bar, and be forgotten.  But for now at least, I'm a big fan.  The show isn't breaking any storytelling ground, a lot of the stories aren't that original, but every episode has me laughing really hard.  The joke writing is good, and the cast is filled with talented up-and-coming stand-up comedians like Chris D'Elia, and the lesser known but very funny Brent Morin and Ron Funches.  Give it a shot, if you laugh then keep on watching like I have been.  

3. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Another HBO show.  If you don't have HBO Go then steal it from a friend because it's pretty much the best network. (Have you not seen Game of Thrones yet?  What's wrong with you?)  LWT is a comedy news show from former Daily Show correspondent John Oliver.  He is killing it.  Being on HBO he is able to be more risqué then he would be allowed on Comedy Central, and the once a week format allows him and his writers to put more work into creating the jokes.  The show is really informative and hilarious at the same time.  There are many late night shows available to watch nowadays.  Make this the one or at least one of the ones you watch.

~Ryan Moncrief

A Love Note to How I Met Your Mother

In All Seriousness:

During my Junior year of high school, which was 4 years ago, I watched my first episode of How I Met Your Mother.  This episode that I watched was "The Three Days Rule,"(Episode 21 of Season 4) where Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) changes one of Ted's (Josh Radnor) potential love interest's numbers in Ted's phone as Barney's number, and when Ted inevitably texts her right away Barney and Marshall (Jason Segel) pretend to be her.  I was attempting to do homework at the time, but I wound up not a doing a single second of it while this episode was on.  I was too engrossed in it to even look at my homework.  This episode was so interesting and funny.  The characters were likable.  And the episode just worked on it's own without me knowing much backstory about the show.  I was immediately hooked, like a guy who swore he was only going to try crystal meth once.

After that day I decided I would start the show from the beginning, and try to catch up to wherever they were in the series.  Well, I started Season 1 the next day.  By Sunday of that week, I had watched every episode up to "The Three Days Rule," which shows you how much time I had on my hands in high school, and how obsessed I was with this show already.

The obsession didn't end with just constantly watching episodes.  Not even close.  I bought the DVDs of the seasons when they came out, I made constant facebook statuses and tweets about my love for this show, I was Neil Patrick Harris for celebrity day at school, and Barney Stinson for Halloween that year.  I started incorporating countless HIMYM phrases like, "Suit up!" and "Lawyer'd" in every day life.  I watched HIMYM every night before I went to sleep and every morning before school.  I introduced countless people to the show.  I started doing Slap Bets in real life.  I had every original song from the show on my iPhone.  I re-watched the entire show in order with two of my friends.  I did the math one day and estimated that I've watched about 32 days worth of HIMYM.  That's 24-hour days, over a month (in Earth time).  It's still to the point where I might need an intervention (HA HA, reference to the show!).

Now, after nine seasons of slaps, Robin Sparkles songs, Ted girlfriends, catch phrases, naked mans, ducky ties, marriage proposals, and all of those good HIMYM things that I love so much, the show is coming to an end.  I don't care who you are, if you watch TV (and aren't a soulless human being) you have at least one show that actually effects your life in a major way (*salutes* Major Way).  It'll make you cry, it'll make you laugh so hard that you cry (unless it's like Law and Order or something), and you'll reference it constantly without caring if people get the reference or not.

I want to give an open thank you to everyone who is involved with creating the show, and all of the fans who kept it going for 9 seasons.  The creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the writers, Pamela Fryman and the other directors, the producers, the great cast of Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris (and Cristin Milioti).  Not only has HIMYM helped me get even more excited to potentially tell stories like this as a hopeful filmmaker, it also has helped me in my life.  Whether I'm sad, I'm happy, I'm going through a break-up, I'm in a good relationship, I'm in a bad relationship, HIMYM has and will always be something I can use to just get through life.  The show has helped me create and further friendships, it's given me confidence and allowed me to be more outgoing, and it taught me things that I didn't even know I needed to learn.

This upcoming Monday will be as bittersweet as bittersweet can get.  I'll sing the opening song to a new episode for the last time, I'll see these characters in a new episode for the last time, and I'll get a conclusion to the question I've been wondering about for 9 years.  It sounds silly to feel this way about a television show, but when it becomes such a big part of your life, you can't help but feel sad when it's over.  My expectations are extremely high, but there is no doubt in my mind that in the final minutes of the show I'll get an incredibly satisfying ending set to the perfect indie rock song.  I'll finally feel relief now that Ted has met his perfect girl.  And for the first time in my life, an episode of television will make me cry.

~Ryan Moncrief

My Oscar Nomination Thoughts and Predictions

What did the Academy just not see Inside Llewyn Davis?  The Academy Awards allow for up to 10 Best Picture noms, and they only nominated 9 films (which means there was room for Llewyn Davis!)  Also how did Philomena get in over it?!  It got snubbed in every single category.  I don't care if there was no animation in it, it should have gotten a nom for Best Animated Feature.  And no Best Actor nod for Oscar Isaac?!  Who is this Leonardo DiCaprio guy anyway?

Meryl Streep gets nominated AGAIN (instead of a deserving Emma Thompson for Saving Mr. Banks).  Meryl Streep is like the guy who goes to the pie eating contest and wins so much to the point where people just don't want to be in it anymore.  Give someone else a chance!  But seriously most of my gripes are with the lack of Llewyn Davis, no Screenplay nomination?!  At least it got a Best Sound Mixing nod though! : /

I'm happy that Jonah Hill got into the supporting actor category again this year, surprised that they left Daniel Bruhl off.  And just intensely angry at the fact that the cat from Inside Llewyn Davis didn't get anything for it's role as the the cat from Inside Llewyn Davis.

In All Seriousness:

Below I'm gonna predict who I think will win.  Bold = Who will win  Italics = Who I want to win

BEST PICTURE

“12 Years a Slave”
“American Hustle”
“Captain Phillips”
“Dallas Buyers Club”
“Gravity”
“Her”
“Nebraska”
“Philomena”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”

BEST DIRECTOR

David O. Russell, “American Hustle”
Alfonso Cuaron, “Gravity”
Alexander Payne, “Nebraska”
Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”
Martin Scorsese, “The Wolf of Wall Street”

BEST ACTOR

Christian Bale, “American Hustle”
Bruce Dern, “Nebraska”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”

BEST ACTRESS

Amy Adams, “American Hustle”
Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Sandra Bullock, “Gravity”
Judi Dench, “Philomena”
Meryl Streep, “August: Osage County”

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

“American Hustle” – Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
“Blue Jasmine” – Written by Woody Allen
“Her” – Written by Spike Jonze
“Nebraska” – Written by Bob Nelson
“Dallas Buyers Club” – Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

“Before Midnight” – Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
“Captain Phillips” – Screenplay by Billy Ray
“Philomena” – Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
“12 Years a Slave” – Screenplay by John Ridley
“The Wolf of Wall Street” – Screenplay by Terence Winter

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Jennifer Lawrence, “American Hustle”
June Squibb, “Nebraska”
Julia Roberts, “August: Osage County”
Sally Hawkins, “Blue Jasmine”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips”
Bradley Cooper, “American Hustle”
Michael Fassbender, “12 Years a Slave”
Jonah Hill, “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”

BEST ANIMATED FILM

“The Croods”
“Despicable Me 2”
“Ernest & Celestine”
“Frozen”
“The Wind Rises”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

“The Grandmaster”
“Gravity”
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
“Nebraska”
“Prisoners”

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Michael Wilkinson, “American Hustle”
William Chang Suk Ping, “The Grandmaster”
Catherine Martin, “The Great Gatsby”
Michael O’Connor, “The Invisible Woman”
Patricia Norris, “12 Years a Slave”

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

“The Act of Killing”Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
“Cutie and the Boxer” Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
“Dirty Wars” Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
“The Square” Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
“20 Feet from Stardom” Nominees to be determined

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Haven't seen any of these.

“CaveDigger” Jeffrey Karoff
“Facing Fear” Jason Cohen
“Karama Has No Walls” Sara Ishaq
“The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” Edgar Barens

BEST FILM EDITING

“American Hustle” Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
“Captain Phillips” Christopher Rouse
“Dallas Buyers Club” John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
“Gravity” Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
“12 Years a Slave” Joe Walker

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

“The Broken Circle Breakdown” Belgium
“The Great Beauty” Italy
“The Hunt” Denmark
“The Missing Picture” Cambodia
“Omar” Palestine

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

“Dallas Buyers Club” Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
“Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” Stephen Prouty
“The Lone Ranger” Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

John Williams, “The Book Thief”
Steven Price, “Gravity”
William Butler and Owen Pallett, “Her”
Alexandre Desplat, “Philomena”
Thomas Newman, “Saving Mr. Banks”

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Alone Yet Not Alone” from “Alone Yet Not Alone”
Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel

“Happy” from “Despicable Me 2”
Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams

“Let It Go” from “Frozen”
Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

“The Moon Song” from “Her”
Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze

“Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”
Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

“American Hustle”
Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler

“Gravity”
Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard

“The Great Gatsby”
Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn

“Her”
Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena

“12 Years a Slave”
Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Haven't seen any of these.

“Feral” Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
“Get a Horse!” Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
“Mr. Hublot” Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
“Possessions” Shuhei Morita
“Room on the Broom” Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

Haven't seen any of these.

“Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)” Esteban Crespo
“Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)” Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
“Helium” Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
“Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)” Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
“The Voorman Problem” Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

BEST SOUND EDITING

“All Is Lost” Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
“Captain Phillips” Oliver Tarney
“Gravity” Glenn Freemantle
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Brent Burge
“Lone Survivor” Wylie Stateman

BEST SOUND MIXING

“Captain Phillips” Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
“Gravity” Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
“Inside Llewyn Davis” Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
“Lone Survivor” Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

“Gravity” Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
“Iron Man 3” Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
“The Lone Ranger” Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
“Star Trek Into Darkness” Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

The Criterion Collection: And why you should be interested in it if you're a film fan

Time for a post aimed towards all you pretentious film fans out there!  I'm gonna be discussing the Criterion Collection, and it's significance to appreciators of all kinds of films.  So stop watching that early Sergei Eisenstein film, put down the decaffeinated chai tea, and let me inform you about the Criterion collection (although you probably know everything about it already).

In All Seriousness:

If you aren't already aware of The Criterion Collection, please read this post, especially if you consider yourself someone who is a huge fan of and knowledgeable about film.  Criterion is every DVD/Blu-ray collector's dream, and instead of describing what it is myself I'll take the description from the criterion website:

"OUR MISSION

Since 1984, the Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, has been dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. Over the years, as we moved from laserdisc to DVD, Blu-ray disc, and online streaming, we’ve seen a lot of things change, but one thing has remained constant: our commitment to publishing the defining moments of cinema for a wider and wider audience. The foundation of the collection is the work of such masters of cinema as Renoir, Godard, Kurosawa, Cocteau, Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, Fuller, Lean, Kubrick, Lang, Sturges, Dreyer, Eisenstein, Ozu, Sirk, Buñuel, Powell and Pressburger. Each film is presented uncut, in its original aspect ratio, as its maker intended it to be seen. Every time we start work on a film, we track down the best available film elements in the world, use state-of-the-art telecine equipment and a select few colorists capable of meeting our rigorous standards, then take time during the film-to-video digital transfer to create the most pristine possible image and sound. Whenever possible, we work with directors and cinematographers to ensure that the look of our releases does justice to their intentions. Our supplements enable viewers to appreciate Criterion films in context, through audio commentaries by filmmakers and scholars, restored director’s cuts, deleted scenes, documentaries, shooting scripts, early shorts, and storyboards. To date, more than 150 filmmakers have made our library of Director Approved DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and laserdiscs the most significant archive of contemporary filmmaking available to the home viewer."

If you were too lazy to read that block of text here is a short summary of what The Criterion Collection does: They take classic, lesser-known, under-appreciated, and highly acclaimed films, and restore the visual and audio quality to the best it can possibly be.  Also they include in each DVD/Blu-ray case a booklet with an essay or essays about the film in it, and every movie comes with a variety of cool bonus features that you can only get from the Criterion edition of the film.

So why should all of this interest you?  Well I'm gonna be honest, if the thought of classic and lesser know films (a good amount of them being foreign as well) in the highest quality with essays and bonus features to accompany it doesn't already interest you, you probably won't be too interested in most of what The Criterion Collection has to offer, but feel free to continue reading this post!

Below I'm going to list a few reasons why any true film fan should start their own Criterion Collection, or at least watch some of the films that are included on the list.

Cool Covers

The Criterion Collection is known for their super cool DVD box art.  If you're a collector of DVD/Blu-rays then it's definitely nice to have a bunch of covers that are really nice to look at.  Here are some of the covers that I like a lot:

Wide Variety

As of now there are over 700 films released or announced to be release through Criterion.  In addition to that about 10 new films are announced every month, so the list keeps on going.  While you're not going to see really mainstream films like The Shawshank Redemption or Avatar being released through Criterion, they do a good job of balancing out the variety.  You'll get more well-known films (like Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums or Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory), and you'll get films you might have never even heard of (like Wim Wenders's film Pina or the Luchnio Visconti film Senso).  There's also a good mixture of American cinema, but also a lot of foreign films.  And the years in which the films were originally released goes from the early 20's silent-era to films like Frances Ha and Blue Is the Warmest Color which came out in 2013.  This variety allows you to flock towards films you know you like, but also discover films you might have never seen before seeing it was in the Criterion Collection.

Bonus Features

If you're a film nerd like me, you go crazy for good bonus features on your favorite movies.  I love them.  I recently watched my favorite film Boogie Nights, and then the next day watched it again with Paul Thomas Anderson's director commentary.  I spend hours with some films bonus features, and The Criterion films have the best ones.  My Blu-ray Criterion edition of Fellini's film 8 1/2 has all of the following bonus features: a booklet of essays written about Fellini and the film, an intro to the film by Terry Gilliam, audio commentaries by film scholars, 3 almost an hour long documentaries, interviews with people from or regarding the film, behind-the scenes photographs, and the film's trailer.  Criterion allows you to learn everything you could ever want to know about a film with it's bonus features.

As you can see I am a huge supporter of The Criterion Collection.  What they do to preserve great films and make known films that don't get enough spotlight is encouraging to hopeful filmmaker like myself.  It lets me know that my films could matter, and some people are trying to improve the film industry, as well as keeping the hobby of collecting DVDs and Blu-rays alive.  If your as passionate about film as I am, do yourself a favor and at least look through the films that are available through Criterion.  You won't be sorry.

~Ryan Moncrief