Force Majeure to Barf: 20 films that deserved nominations, but got snubbed by Oscars

Every year, it’s the same story. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominates a bunch of undeserving movies for the Oscars and totally ignores the quality stuff. It’s common knowledge that the voters have an antiquated hive mentality and the hilariously contrived voting process does little to justify the mediocrity of the nominations. After all, no mathematical process can factor in personal bias. [caption id=“attachment_2111605” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] What the Oscars are actually good at is advertising the films that do make the cut. Make no mistake, people flock to the theaters to see movies just because they’re nominated for Oscars. But since the Academy fails to see beyond manipulative schmaltz and simplistic storytelling, a huge collection of really good, if not better movies, never receive the attention or recognition they deserve. These are not just snubs, but affronts to art appreciation. Following are 20 of the biggest upsets of 2014: THE LEGO MOVIE The unanimous choice of angsty folks who rediscovered their childhood while watching the film, The Lego Movie not being nominated for in the animated film category was a mystery. It only proved that hilarious lines, sensitive filmmaking and gorgeous visuals are not factors when selecting animated films for the Oscars. NIGHTCRAWLER Michael Keaton will walk away with the acting trophy, but terrific as he was, Keaton had nothing on Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler. It’s not often that an actor completely disappears into his character. And it’s very rare that a movie character both scares you and makes you laugh (nervously). Gyllenhaal was the devil incarnate, but he was also me and you; and he probably didn’t get nominated because the voters could see themselves in him. CALVARY The new Irish film by The Guard director John Michael McDonagh is a gorgeous dark drama with heavy, existential themes executed with dry British humor. Brendon Gleeson plays a priest facing an imminent death and he’s another actor who lost out on an acting nomination. WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL If you thought Birdman was a great meta film about the film industry, Sion Sono’s new movie dips the theme in some acid and splashes it on your face. It’s surreal, crazy, hilariously over the top and very entertaining. SNOWPIERCER The Weinsteins clearly had a bone to pick with director Bong Joon Ho. Not only did this excellent film not get a wide theatrical release, but it also didn’t receive any push in the awards circuit. It’s a pity that Chris Evans delivered the best performance of his career as an antihero in this movie and will still be known as Captain America. WEB JUNKIE This film shed a light on “Internet Rehabs” in China, or teenagers who perceivably spend too much time on their computers and are forcibly sent to military camps. There, the teenagers are subjected to brutal psychological and personality shakeups. It’s kind of a horror movie because it makes you ponder how you’d deal with an internet addict child and just how fair an option is brute force. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE Jim Jarmusch mixes up the vampire genre with Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as a vampiric couple with existential problems. Subverting the tradition of cinema vampires, Jarmusch’s lead pair were a bored couple, tired of living forever and staying hidden from the rest of the world. The monotony of constantly searching for blood without alerting the cops and the humdrum nature of being in love forever is explored to smashing effect. CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA The passage of time in the film industry has seldom been captured in cinema and director Oliver Assayas does this beautifully in Clouds of Sils Maria. This is yet another meta Hollywood film, where Juliette Binoche plays an ageing superstar coming to terms with a younger starlet taking her place. Like Birdman, this film also transitions in and out of reality, and it also takes digs at snooty celebrities, while remaining crowd pleasingly fantastic. PREDESTINATION Perhaps the most underrated movie of the year, Predestination has a tremendous script that puts a new spin on the time travel genre. Writer-directors Peter and Michael Spierig explore the predestination paradox to great effect and make Looper look simplistic. The film also signaled the arrival of a major talent in the form of Sarah Snook. SCHIMBARE Seen through the eyes of a truly desperate couple (Candela Pena and Luis Zahera), director Alex Sampayo’s Spanish film takes us through an existential dilemma wrought with manic depression, blood, murder, illegal organ transplants and kidnapping. It is brutal, moving stuff, but it isn’t surprising that Schimbare didn’t get picked. The Academy has never been known to nominate dark films in the foreign language category. BARF Mehdi Rahmani’s stunning writing and direction showcases why Iranian cinema is regarded so highly. The film, set entirely inside a dysfunctional Iranian house, weaves through themes of abandonment and social responsibilities, often veering between laugh-out-loud comedy and bitterness. GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANNE AMSALEM The Israeli French drama produced the single most stunning female acting performance from Ronit Elkabetz as a woman who is desperate to divorce her husband in patriarchal Israel. Elkabetz also co-directed the equally hilarious and heartbreaking film. Gett did manage to come under the Oscar radar, but lost out in the penultimate round. JODOROWSKY’S DUNE What if every since fiction film you’ve seen since the 80’s was based on a project that never got made? And the director of said project faded into depression and oblivion because his dream was shattered? Director Frank Pavinch whips out a revelatory, moving film about the forgotten legend that is Jororowsky. It’s poetic injustice that the Academy failed to notice this movie. ENEMY, THE DOUBLE Both these films were about twins and the fact that neither one of them got nominated for anything is a glaring example of the lobbying that’s essential to score nominations. Denis Villenueve, the director of Enemy, and Richard Ayoade, director of The Double, made films that were gloriously messed up, and exuded a murky mystery. Add to that beautiful visuals, tremendous performances and social commentary — and yet, it’s not enough to get noticed by the Oscars. A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT Yet another fresh spin on the vampire genre, Iranian-American Ana Lily Amirpour’s part noir, part horror, part drama, part romance, part expressionist art, part comedy, part thriller, part western, part social commentary is one smooth, seriously gorgeous, black and white, sinfully entertaining package. If there was an Oscar for the best on screen kiss, this (with a stunning, electronic-music based, five-minute, slow-mo prelude)would win it. MOMMY Xavier Dolan knocks you in the face with his powerful story of a single mother and her tumultuous relationship with her son, played with pulsating manic energy by Antoine Oliver Pilon. The scene when Pilon tears the cinema frame, or the one where he whirls a shopping cart around in a parking lot, repeatedly kicking and screaming ‘Who’s your daddy’, should have been enough to score a bunch of awards. BLUE RUIN With razor sharp pacing, a smart script, and a fantastic cast of newcomers, director Jeremy Saulnier’s film represents the best the thriller genre has to offer. The film takes familiar elements of a revenge story and approaches it with less emphasis on the sensational and more on the moody and surreal atmosphere of vengeance. FORCE MAJEURE Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund’s gorgeous film makes you question the accepted definition of the ‘man of the family’, and the divide between cowardice and survival instinct. It’s possibly the biggest upset at the Oscars, and aptly Ostlund, going with the theme of the film, even made a viral video of himself and his producer watching the Oscar nominations and facing bitter rejection. STARRED UP David McKenzie’s ferocious and uncompromising prison drama boasts the most explosive acting performance of the year from Jack O Connell as a volatile underage inmate, hauled up in jail. Apart from O Connell, Ben Mendelsohn lost out a supporting actor nomination for his performance as the estranged father trying to make amends with his newly-arrested, prison mate son. THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY The most important and significant story of 2014, Brian Knappenberger’s film chronicled the rise and the tragic murder of Aaron Schwartz, the kid responsible for some of the internet’s most iconic applications. The film dealt with the hypocrisy of privacy laws in the US, along with the accompanying corporate bent and capitalist agenda. Naturally an Academy that runs on similar fundamentals wouldn’t nominate this. Luckily, we still have the internet that Schwartz built to know about this film.