More 2014 Oscar nominees: Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club and Dirty War

The movies keep on coming. I may have seen more movies in the past two weeks than ever in my life, okay, that is probably an exaggeration, but I have spent a lot of time trying to get in the major movies before the Oscars. So, without further ado, here are three more nominees, plus one.

1/28/14 Captain Phillips, nominated Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, 2013

The biggest news about this film may be that Tom Hanks did not grab a nomination for Best Actor, although to be fair, it's a pretty packed field. Captain Phillips is a dramatization of the true story of the hijacking of the MV Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates (that is a really crappy sentence but you'll have to deal with it). The movie starts out kind of slowly as Captain Richard Phillips heads out to Oman to meet his ship and he runs the crew few a drill or two to keep them prepared for the real possibility of being hijacked by pirates. Parallel to the story of the crew is the story of the Somalis, deciding who is going to be on the attack boats; showing the desperation of some of these men as they know they won't make money if they are not picked. Barkhad Abdi (nominated for Best Supporting Actor) plays one of the 'captains' Abduwali Muse, and he's not the biggest or strongest guy, but you get the feeling he has more nerve and determination than most of the men. Once the introductions to the main protagonists is over, the action starts up and between the action of high-powered water cannons and a massive freighter trying to outrun pimped out speedboats there is tension of the crew trying to hide from the pirates in the depths of the ship. There are moments of fighting between the Somalis as they cannot always agree on the best method for dealing with their captives, and as a viewer you can sense that they may be afraid of the US Navy but they are more afraid of returning to Somalia without the ransom they are demanding. Hanks is strong as Captain Phillips, trying to keep his crew safe by outwitting the pirates, but also trying to relate to Muse and the others, and then demonstrating the ultimately frailty of the human psyche and how we all have our limits. The last 20 minutes or so of the movie seemed to move extremely rapidly. Abdi, who is making his film debut (along with several of his countrymen from right here in Minneapolis) gave me goosebumps; this was more than method acting, he probably had more understanding of the motivation of Muse and his friends than anyone can understand. It was so easy to hate or dislike his character because, after all, he was a pirate; but then when he talks about coming to America, you get a feeling that he really means it, that he doesn't hate America, he just wants a chance to be a part of the American dream. It sounds twisted, but when you look at Muse's eyes, you might believe it. Muse and Phillips have some great moments together (I really think there should be some category somewhere that recognizes these 1:1 moments, like in Philomena or here). There are some really great movies this year, and I think Captain Phillips may be squeezed out of the awards; Abdi is up against Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club and Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave (in my opinion the two main contenders). Captain Phillips is still in some theaters but also available on DVD (in fact, I cajoled someone at work into sharing their Netflix queue with me; that's me, resourceful).

1/30/14 Dirty Wars, nominated for Best Documentary, 2013

Dirty Wars is a documentary that looks at the US's actions in Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen to target 'enemies' of the US and to eliminate them. It's a hard look at policies that get virtually no attention on the evening news (or the 24 news cycle), but Jeremy Scahill has spent several years looking into incidents of children and women being targeted in bomb attacks. US government officials dismissed the incidents as collateral damage, but Scahill tries to show the opposite. There is so much information these days, that it is extremely challenging to know what is real, what is mis-information, what is being skewed for our ingestion. I guess with my critical thinking skills, I am choosing to believe that there is some truth to what Scahill is presenting and it makes me angry. I think you should see Dirty Wars and make up your own mind. This is the second documentary of 2013 that I have seen (20 Feet from Stardom being the first), so I can't really say where it fits in with the other nominees, but I would say if it wins, there will be several government officials who might be less than pleased. That's a real shame, isn't it?

2/2/14 Dallas Buyers Club, nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Hair and Makeup, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, 2013

I finally saw Dallas Buyers Club and was ready to dismiss all the hype. Sorry, not going to happen. It was really good. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto are both immersed in their roles and become Ron Woodroof and Rayon/Raymond. Dallas Buyers Club is another dramatization of real events as Ron Woodroof, a macho ladies man is told he has HIV and only has 30 days to live. I think the easy stereotype is that Woodroof is just some hick idiot, but he becomes a quick study of his disease and the types of treatment that are available to him (this in the mid-1980s and the early days of AIDS/HIV). Rayon/Raymond is an HIV-positive transgender woman who annoys/creeps out Woodroof until they become reluctant business partners and eventually friends. Woodroof is a hustler and tries to find the best deals for the best HIV drugs to sell to willing buyers; and anytime there is a roadblock, Woodroof figures out a way around it, like creating the Dallas Buyers Club where he sells memberships, not drugs (these clubs appeared in New York City and San Francisco to help get drugs to HIV patients). There has been a lot of hoopla around the transformations that McConaughey and Leto underwent, including losing a huge amount of weight, but not a lot of discussion around the director. That seems odd to me, and Jean-Marc Vallee was not even nominated for Best Director, even though the movie was nominated for Best Picture and both actors were nominated in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories. Both actors are great, and both won the Golden Globe and SAG awards (although the Golden Globes split the award between 'drama' and 'comedy/musical' and Leonardo DiCaprio won in the 'comedy category for Wolf of Wall Street). The movie moves along at a good pace, it could easily get bogged down in medical or pharmaceutical terminology, but it doesn't; it keeps its eye on Woodroof, his determination to get the needed drugs for him and his club members and his fight with the medical community. You might think this would be a sad movie, and there are some moments, but Woodroof's spirit and the fact that he lived seven years longer than expected makes it triumphant.This true story focuses on one man, Ron Woodroof, but if you want a macro view of the early HIV/AIDS struggle, you should see How to Survive a Plague. 

The news of Philip Seymour Hoffman's passing on February 2, 2014, is still rattling around my brain. There have been a lot of eloquent tributes and comments about many more of his films than I have seen, so I don't have a lot of new information to add. I will say as someone who has been immersed in movies the last two years, I probably paid a lot more attention to him and his diversity of roles than I did before this movie project. I remember him as the accused priest in Doubt going to toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep, he was kind-hearted and gentle with the children, but so devastated at the accusations; as Truman Capote in his Oscar-winning role as Capote himself in Capote where he disappeared into the role and was Capote (I need to re-watch that movie); he was in The Master and was nominated as Best Supporting Actor in a movie I hated, and I think I would love to see that cast in something better (Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams). He was the bad guy in Mission Impossible III. Just looking at his filmography makes my head spin. It is a tragic loss.

The country also lost a great 2nd lady (but always a first lady to Minnesotans) when Joan Mondale died yesterday. Mrs. Mondale was known as 'Joan of Art' for her dedication to the arts, and she served on the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.