The Not Oscars Awards Ceremony

Welcome to the 2013 Not Oscars Award Ceremony (NOAC) where we celebrate the movies, actors, producers, and designers that got shafted by the Academy.  Last year's winner 50/50 is excited to welcome the newest member into the club.  

The rules are simple.  In each category five selections were made by a panel of me, myself, and I.  The only rule is that they cannot be nominated for that specific Oscar by the Academy.  My Not Oscar Award Ceremony also only goes down to Best Cinematography because I can't grade the rest of it.  Now on to the Awards.

Best Picture

The Nominees are:  Cloud Atlas

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Dark Knight Rises

Moonrise Kingdom

The Master

The Winner is:  This is a difficult category because I actually think the Academy got most of their selections right, I would have liked to see The Dark Knight Rises nominated because they fucked up so badly when The Dark Knight got shafted, but that's how it goes.  The other movie that should have gotten a nomination and this year's NOAC Winner is Moonrise Kingdom.  A brilliant masterpiece by Wes Anderson.  This is another Anderson subtle comedy but unlike some of his most recent movies this allows all of his characters to be fully developed and shine.  

Best Actor:

The Nominees are:  John Hawkes  The Sessions

Jack Black  Bernie

Anthony Hopkins  Hitchcock

Brad Pitt  Killing Them Softly

Tom Hanks  Cloud Atlas

The Winner is:  This is another category that the Academy got right and honestly it doesn't matter at all because Daniel Day-Lewis is going to walk away with this award, but there were some fantastic male leads this year.  I, unlike most, thought Tom Hanks put on an acting clinic in the under-appreciated Cloud Atlas and because Killing Them Softly was marketed wrong so many people missed out on the depressingly beautiful mob enforcer in Brad Pitt.  But the NOAC goes to John Hawkes in The Sessions.  Playing a paralyzed poet is never easy, but then to make hum funny and likable instead of just sympathetic is downright impossible, but Hawkes handles the role with ease.  

Best Actress:

The Nominees are:  Kara Hayward  Moonrise Kingdom

Marion Cotillard  Rust and Bone

Helen Mirren  Hitchcock

Rachel Weisz  The Deep Blue Sea

Meryl Streep  Hope Springs

The Winner is: Hands down, the Academy screwed her and she wins this without discussion, Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone.  I understand the love affair with Emmanuelle Riva in Amour but this was a year where two foreign actresses should have gotten the nod over Naomi Watts.  Watch Rust and Bone, Cotillard is just as brilliant as when she won the award for La Vie en Rose.

Best Supporting Actor:

The Nominees are:  Javier Bardem  Skyfall

Ezra Miller  The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Leonardo DiCaprio  Django Unchained

John Goodman  Argo

Michael Pena  End of Watch

The Winner is:  Confusion abounds in the selection of Christoph Waltz by the Academy.  I am a fan of Waltz, but this is far from an award winning performance.  Robert De Niro was also a strange choice, but again this is a run away category by Tommy Lee Jones.  However in the NOAC we are happy to give this award to Ezra Miller for The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  Perks was a well scripted, well acted, teenage movie.  Miller deserves this award not just for the movie but because of his shafting two years in a row, this year and last year's We Need to Talk about Kevin

Best Supporting Actress:

The Nominees are:  Samantha Barks  Les Miserables

Maggie Smith  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Nicole Kidman  The Paperboy

Frances McDormand  Moonrise Kingdom

Ann Dowd  Compliance

The Winner is:  Once again the Academy was fairly correct this year, something I am saying a lot this year and not at all in years past.  The NOAC goes to Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy, which I have to say, although it stars Zak Efron and John Cusack, this was a pretty damn good movie.

Best Director

The Nominees are:  Tom Hooper  Les Miserables

Wes Anderson  Moonrise Kingdom

Ben Affleck  Argo

Kathryn Bigelow  Zero Dark Thirty

Colin Trevorrow  Safety Not Guaranteed

The Winner is:  This is the category that the Academy shafted people left and right.  Other than Colin Trevorrow each of our NOAC nominees could have won this years Oscar.  And although I loved what Tom Hooper did with Les Miz (I know I might be one of the only ones), no doubt should this go to Ben Affleck and Argo.  Gone Baby Gone was good, The Town was quite good, but Argo is a true story masterpiece, one of the best movies of the year, and brilliantly seen.  The director's casting and vision were very apparent in this film.

Best Original Screenplay

The Nominees are:  Seven Psychopaths

Looper

Safety Not Guaranteed

The Cabin in the Woods 

Friends with Kids

The Winner is:  I don't care what anyone else says, Friends with Kids is a well written movie.  It has equal parts humor and sorrow and I even like this movie more than Bridesmaids.  That being said, the NOAC goes to Looper, a very creative movie from Rian Johnson, although it did not get amazing reviews I believe that had more to do with Bruce Willis mailing in the acting than the script.

Best Adapted Screen Play

The Nominees are:  The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Les Miserables

Cloud Atlas

The Sessions

The Dark Knight Rises

The Winner is:  Cloud Atlas.  I know that I am one of the only people who liked this movie, but I loved it.  It changed the way I look at things and it did a great adaption from the David Mitchell novel.

Best Foreign Film

The Nominees are:  The Intouchables  (France)

Sister  (Switzerland)

Blood of My Blood  (Portugal)

Death for Sale  (Morocco)

Caesar Must Die  (Italy)

The Winner is:  The Intouchables is a really brilliant film and although Amour is definitely the best foreign film, The Intouchables deserved a nod.  I also liked Lea Seydoux in Sister, but the NOAC goes to The Intouchables.

Best Documentary

The Nominees are:  Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Brooklyn Castle

The Waiting Room

West of Memphis 

The Central Park Five

The Winner is:  They have already announced that it is going to be a major motion picture, Brooklyn Castle, is an amazing story about overcoming adversity and struggling to achieve greatness.  Here is a link to the trailer, do yourself a favor and watch this film.  Brooklyn Castle Trailer

Best Animated Feature

The Nominees are: Rise of the Guardians

The Lorax

The Secret World of Arrietty

A Cat in Paris

Madagascar 3

The Winner is:  Wreck it Ralph or Paranorman are easy winners this year, but the NOAC goes to a little known movie called A Cat in Paris, if only to say the title, A Cat in Paris.

Best Cinematography

The Nominees are:  Les Miserables  (Danny Cohen)

The Master  (Mihai Malaimare Jr)

Cloud Atlas  (Franke Griebe and John Toll)

Argo  (Rodrigo Prieto)

The Dark Knight Rises

The Winner is:  This category along with directing is very hard to say because all five of these films were beautifully shot.  But in a year that looked over a movie because of a terrible tragedy I have no problem saying that The Dark Knight Rises wins this award.  

"Once Dark Knight Rises wins Best Cinematography then I give you my permission to die."

….Oh and Cloud Atlas for Costuming and Makeup.  100%

Next Week Oscar Picks.  

Mad as Hell; or Off the Bench

For my newest post I had written numerous lists about movies.  My predictions for the upcoming oscars, who I thought 

were snubbed, my list of best acting performances of all time, my favorite movies, you know, nerd stuff.  But then today came and with today came a passion in my heart that I have felt so little in the last year.  Now it's back.

Today I chose to talk, if ever so briefly, about two men that I consider to be personal heroes of mine.  Those men are Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barack Obama.  Here is what I wrote:

I saw a few friends brag about the fact they don't have school today.  Let me tell you why you don't have school today.  

84 years ago a man was born with a dream.  An imperfect man with plenty of personal issues, but still a man of hope, survival, strength, and understanding.  We celebrate that man today.

We also celebrate another man, one who opens a new chapter of his journey today.  An honest man, sill imperfect but adding to the equation a wonderful husband and father.  Today he too has a dream.  A dream of an America that unites us instead of dividing us.  A dream for the future that celebrates our commonalities, but respects our uniqueness.  A dream of a better tomorrow.  

Two men have dreams, that's why you don't have school today.

"An individual has not started living until he can rise about the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."  ~MLK.

In the process of writing this short diatribe never did I feel like I was being unreasonable, overly political, or controversial, I was merely attempting to remind people that one, today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and two, today was the Presidential Inauguration.  Do I feel that we have school off because a President was inaugurated, no, but nevertheless I found it poetic if not deeply meaningful that the Inauguration should fall on this year's MLK Day.  

After I wrote this I received praise and thanks and comments of general interest, some were not so well intended, others were simple and respectful, but then my inbox was filled with a large quantity of hate.  And while the people responsible know that I have discontinued my belief in politics if they thought their actions and words would put me down, I stand firm and strong and angered as Hell.  I will now address a few issues that were raised.

I'm incredibly pissed off right now.  For far too long I have sat on the sidelines of much of the national political discourse merely playing it off as stupid and not worthy of my time.  Those days are over with.  The days of me sitting on the political bench have ended.  Some of you may believe I was never really on the bench to start with, but I certainly am no where near it now.

One person, who I respect very much, responded to my post with the line, "If you're going to politicize MLK Day, I feel the need to point out that he was a registered Republican."  Although my intention was not to politicize but merely celebrate a holiday and event in this nation's history, I can say that I will politicize it now.  

If Martin Luther King Jr was alive today he would be disgusted and appalled by the modern day Republican Party.  A party that thrives on deceit, that is based in 'no', that would rather be wrong and strong, then right and weak.  A party that marginalizes 47% of Americans.  The fact that Mitt Romney made that incredibly ignorant and frankly un-American comment is not what bothers me.  It was a political gaffe, one in a string of political gaffes that most Presidential Candidates make.  Hell, most Presidents make the same gaffe.  Bill Clinton, a man that I believe is the greatest Democratic President ever made his share of political gaffes.  Actually what he made were less gaffes and more colossal and monumental stupid statements that followed his even dumber actions.  So I have no problem with what Mitt Romney said, I have an issue with the fact that he believes it.  He believes in condemning the disenfranchised, the poor, the "weak."  His party believes in the same things.  That is why they support politics over governmental reform.  Why they say no, 100 times more than they say yes.  Why the same people that they are disgusted by, Martin Luther King stood up for.  If MLK was alive today he would hate the Republican party.  If Abraham Lincoln were around, he too, would be disgusted by his party.  

And I do mean the party and therefore the party leadership.  I harbor no ill will towards Republican voters.  Although I cannot believe their choices in who they wish to elect to office, most of the Republican people I know are fine upstanding members of society.  They care as much for this country as I do.  Dan Anderson and Matt Leopold are as good Americans as anyone else.  

A friend of mine immediately politicized the issue of gun control after the Newtown shootings.  I was angry and jumped on his back about the problem in this culture is that we look to the political issue before we look at the human, the mourning one.  I was wrong.  Not because I believed in the human element of the issue, I still contend I was right on that one, but because unfortunately in this country we can no longer wait for the sun to set and rise again before we take action.  I watched Gabrielle Giffords shot on national television.  I also saw and heard the conversations that occurred after the shooting.  Nothing happened.  Something must be done today, not tomorrow, not yesterday, today.  To a former colleague and friend that I truly respect, Nic Van Putten, I am extremely sorry for getting upset.  

The second part of this issue that I wish to address is a simple one.  I am not stupid.  I am not dumb.  I am not ignorant, or selfish, or immature, or mis-informed, or naive.  Well I am many of those things but not on this topic.  If you wish to belittle my intelligence that is your right but don't expect me to sit idly by and allow you to do so without dramatic repercussions.  I am not the smartest one in the room, I have never claimed to be, but I am as smart as you.  Not smarter, but nothing less and I ask to be treated with the same respect that I give to you.  On certain topics I get it wrong, I speak with so much passion that I overstep my boundaries, but don't you dare try to belittle my intelligence.  You should know better.

I have a great respect and adoration for these United States.  I also have a great and wonderful respect for those who serve, those who love, and those who care so deeply for this nation.  I respect Derrick Gonzalez and Toby Ray who serve in our armed forces, I respect Shane Crone and Nell Shamrell for not being afraid to show who they truly are.  I am proud to have met Matt Kopec, Brittni Storrs, Alex Guzman, and Amanda Nelson who work daily to improve this country.  I support the love that Sue Diebner, Maggie Willems, Nate Willems, and Phil Munsterman show.  I have seen the actions of Leah Cokely, Darren Gage, and Caleb Webb.  I have heard the words spoken by Godfrey Hamilton, Karla Moran, and RJ Whitfield.  I know of the great work that Chelsea Tremblay, Sam Ross, Benjamin Anderstone, and Yusuf Word have done.  To my family I love and respect my brother, Nate, my mother, Abbi, and my uncle, Dan.  Each serve this country and the world with kindness and bravery.  For Amber Henning helping her father, for Rafay Khalid for helping his friends and family, for Meghan Schimanski for helping her cause.  Arjun, and Summer, and Ann, and Dan.  Kainoa and Karen.  Alex and Matt.  And finally to the two strongest supporters on either side of the aisle, to Nic and Danderson.  Each of these people are wonderful Americans, each one of these people are ardent patriots, and each of these people believe so strongly in a different tomorrow that they are willing to put in their blood, sweat, and tears in order to make it possible.  Many of these people I don't see eye to eye with, but I respect them nonetheless, and I admire their passion for their beliefs.  

For a long time I have distanced myself from the political arena.  I hate politics and despise the fact that I ever wanted to work in them.  But in my hatred of political power I have forgotten my true love for government, for making changes, for helping fuel the revolution for cleaner energy, for a better tax plan, and a stronger healthcare system.  Although my outlook has become more optimistic I still harbor great resentment for my old career path.  That is no longer the case.  I do think that politics and the fuel the media puts on the fire of politics is damning this nation.  But I also believe in a brighter tomorrow, one that focuses on our spirit, our ingenuity, and our drive without stamping out individualism, but supporting community.  I believe in having a dream and reaching for the stars.  I believe in saying yes, more than saying no, and finding ways to compromise without selling the whole farm.  I believe that our commonality as humans should bring us together instead of tearing us apart.

Perhaps most of this rant made little sense.  Perhaps I am just rambling incoherently (wouldn't be the first time).  Perhaps I'm just tired and angry.  But to the people who sent me those messages I tell you that your painful remarks have only made me stronger.  They have rekindled the fire within my soul.  I may only work in theatre but in my field I plan to work for the rest of my life making this nation a better one for future generations.  It's time for action.

"Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad.  It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good." ~Martin Luther King Jr.  

Two Years

(This post could use a little revising but I simply just wrote, stream of consciousness, how I feel)

Let me tell you a story.  This is the story of how I died.

In May of 2010, over two and a half years ago I stepped off of a stage with my hands held high.  No, it wasn't a theatre stage but instead it sat in the middle of field with thousands of onlookers and a bright sunny day beamed down.  The sun came from a deal that was made years before when Ronald Thomas made a deal with the devil to bring out the sun only on important days at the University.  With a diploma in hand I made my way off the stage and into a brand new world.  One, which I was a just like everyone else, unemployed.  A theatre major with a creative writing minor, the options were sparse to say the least.  

I couch surfed for the first few weeks and then found a home off of 8th street.  A nice quiet house where I could house my books and a very cheap blowup mattress.  Then I started applying for jobs.  Although I knew I wanted a life in theatre I also applied to many political positions with the thought that I wanted to work an election in 2010, because this one mattered!  I became a finalist with a job in the Tacoma-Seattle area after multiple interviews and was just a few days away from a campaign management position.  My first campaign as more than a grunt.  I was excited.  But then I received a phone call.  One from an old friend who needed a favor.  It turned out that a close friend of his, and an old acquaintance of mine was in need of workers down in Arizona.  They pay was pretty good for entrance work and they needed Field Managers.  I could run multiple grassroots elections for an entire section of the state.  I applied, was accepted, and drove down to Arizona a few days later.  

Looking back on that first phone call, my first day on the job, and my first campaign event on the 4th of July it feels like a lifetime ago and although only a few years have passed, it was a lifetime ago.  When I worked for that campaign in 2010 I was a different person, same face, same overweight exterior, same horse-toothed smile, but when I look at pictures from those days and all the ones previous, I don't recognize that boy.  He was a depressed child, a saddened and overworked young man, but there was a great deal on naivety and innocence across his face.  He believed in the best that the world can offer.  His cynicism was towards himself, not towards society.  That young man is gone.  He died two years ago today.

This is a story about myself, my life, and the event that altered it.  This story is not meant to demean those that have suffered far greater than I.  For the families and friends and former colleagues I know and to a degree can understand the pain that you have all suffered.  My loss is a minuscule effect in comparison to yours, but nevertheless it was felt my me and will always be felt by me.

On January 8th, 2011 Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords held a 'Congress on your corner,' event at a local supermarket.  This was a normal event for Giffords who was so kind to her constituents.  Taking time out of her busy schedule for conversation was not just part of her job description but was instead an honor and a joy that she felt for the people of her district.  As usual she set up a table and began talking with the people, her people.  

Around 11:20 or 11:30 I received a text message.  To this day I have no idea who sent it to me.  It read, "turn on the television."  I jumped out of bed, as by this time I was accustomed to sleeping until 12 or 1, rushed into my mother's bedroom and turned the station to CNN.  That was the last moment of my life.  The second the channel changed and I saw the screen, I died.  Not in some over dramatic way, but I was no longer the person that I was before.  I became someone else for a time.  Some being that didn't know his name, forgot how to tie his shoes, no longer slept, ate, or felt anything.  

I did not know many of the people who were shot.  I met Gabe Zimmerman a few times, Ron Barber a few times, and even met Judge Roll briefly at some event in Tucson.  But in that moment and many moments that followed I knew them instantaneously.  And for a woman who clung to life by single strands of muscle and brain tissue, I knew her unlike I have ever known anyone.  For one moment in time we were connected, her and I, and all of her staffers, and friends, and family.  And all of the people who watched, all the people who were shot, all the people of Arizona.  For one brief moment we were connected by our commonality in that we were all human and our darkest sorrow matched the deepest connection with our race.  Our heart beat slowly and we waited.

For months after that fateful day, I was no longer the same person I was before.  I suffered from the worst symptom that a human can have.  Not great fear or disgust, anger or resentment, sorrow or hate.  I became apathetic.  Things would happen, great things, terrible things, small and large and I would not care.  Each day the sun would rise and the sun would fall and I did not care.  In one moment a great sense of shock shattered my world and I had no idea if it would ever mold itself together again.  Eventually it did, but it was no longer the same shape.  That day was the watershed moment of my life, where I shed my skin of innocence and hardened my face against the bitter cold of life.  I became cynical, pessimistic, and I still suffered from a great deal of apathy.  

I watched my hero die on national television.  Someone who I aspired to be.  Someone who represented what I believed was the best in humanity.  Someone I could trust in a world of no trust.  Someone good.  

During the campaign I witnessed many things that I will never forget.  I was a part of something that is scorched into my memory.  We lost nearly every race in that campaign.  Even the ones that I wasn't working on officially, we lost those as well.  I was with my friend Mark Suagee and Kathy Suagee, candidate for Superior Court when the initial tally was being reported.  It looked grim but I knew I needed to get to Tucson so I bid them farewell and journeyed on to Tucson.  As I arrived in the ballroom the results were in for almost all of the races and we had been creamed.  Not just in our elections but in the nation.  The Democratic Party was in disarray.  I arrived just in time to watch Gabrielle Giffords take the podium for the last time I would see her in person.  She gave a rousing speech and then left the stage rushing off into the night to meet with lawyers and other politicians for an inevitable recount.  As I left the ballroom I got a glimpse of her face.  For the longest time that image has been stuck in my memory, it was the last time I saw her, as one of true anger.  She looked mad as hell as she went out, but now I know it was the same look I had seen many times before, my own anger changed my perception.  She was determined.  Some how, some way, she knew she would prevail.  And one week later she did.  One victory.  But it was the most important one.  And then two months later she was clinging to life in a hospital in Tucson.

I died not because I was so connected to the Congresswoman or because I felt like with her death it meant all my work was for nothing.  No, that didn't even factor in.  I died because with that shot to the head I no longer understood life.  Gabrielle Giffords was the single greatest Politician that I have ever met.  She was one of the greatest people as well.  She had an ability to truly care about governing as much as she cared about those who she governed for.  It was a nasty and terrible campaign but never did I see her lose herself.  I remember that towards the end of the campaign, the final week, Gabby came to our office for some teachers event.  It was the last time that I spoke to her.  She approached my desk and said, "I hear that some people on the campaign call you Papa," (It was my nickname) "What if I called you Papa?"  I was slightly stunned and before I could mount a reply she said, "Ok then, how are you doing today Papa."  Pause.  Pause.  She starred at me with a slight smile on the side of her face.  "No Congresswoman I think Grant will be just fine."  "So do I," she replied.  "Keep up the good work Grant."

Campaign Event in Douglas

Although the former was a slightly comical anecdote, the story I tell when I talk about Gabby the politician is always the same.  We had a campaign event in the lobby of a hotel in Douglas Arizona.  Douglas sits on the border between the US and Mexico.  We had a pancake breakfast and we were expecting around 50 people.  Hundreds showed up to the point where we were passed capacity.  And then the Congresswoman arrived.  Her speech was supposed to last ten or so minutes and then she would be off to open the Douglas headquarters.  She didn't start talking for over an hour.  Why?  Because she went around to each and every person in the lobby and talked to them.  If she didn't know them, she introduced herself, but most she knew and knew well.  Not in that political way that an aide reminds you who they are, no, she knew them on a very personal level.  I stood back in awe with a group of her staffers.  When one of them saw the look on my face she said, "That's just who she [the Congresswoman] is."

That was the Gabrielle Giffords that I knew.  In an instant it was wiped off the face of the earth.  Her caring smile, her understanding eyes, the way she always knew when something was wrong.  Gone.  And with it my entire world view.  If someone so good as Gabby were to be extinguished then how could I see the world the same way.  She was the best of us and then in an instant she was gone.

And then she was back.  The last thing I remember from that day was a text message from a former colleague and friend, Caitlin Brady.  "The news reports are wrong, she is still alive."  And so she was, and so she is.  

Today Gabrielle's recovery is remarkable, and although she has given up her post, her continued strive to get back to where she was is a true testament to the will of a human being.  Mark, her husband, and Gabby continue each day to learn a little more about themselves and the world they are surrounded by.  Today the two of them have launched a campaign against gun violence by creating an initiative PAC called Americans for Responsible Solutions.  A PAC that for once I am in full support of.

Congressional District 8 Team

And today, I am alive, if only barely, I am still kicking.  Sickness and injuries get me down, but so far I have managed to get back up.  I did die that day.  What I was ceased to exist and from the ashes rose another person.  One with similar characteristics but one that no longer has any innocence.  Hardened but not stone.  It has made me very pessimistic about politics, but at the same time rather optimistic about life.  Celebrating the here and now and not waiting until tomorrow.  Whenever I have a problem too large for me I think WWGD, What Would Gabby Do.  I don't know what the future will bring and how I will venture out into it.  But for now, on January 8th, 2013 I choose to remember six brave souls, a few heroes, and one courageous woman.  Thank you Daniel Hernandez Jr, Ron Barber, and always Gabrielle Giffords.

Judge John Roll

Gabe Zimmerman

Christina-Taylor Green

Dorwan Stoddard

Phyllis Schneck

Dorothy Morris

Rest in Peace.