The Snubby Awards: 2013 Oscars

It's that time again: The Snubby Awards.  For those of you who don't know, the Snubby Awards take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees from a given year and determined if the correct film won or if one was subbed.  If that's the case, they win the coveted Snubby Award!

This time, we'll be looking at the 2013 Oscars.  The Best Picture nominees were: Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty, with the the winner being Argo.  Did Argo deserve to win or did somebody else get subbed?  Let's take a look!

#9: Amour

Coming in dead last is a movie I hated.  Amour follows an elderly couple and their ordeal after one of them suffers a stroke and part of her body becomes paralyzed.   While the acting is solid and there is some interesting cinematography, the vast majority of this movie is incredibly boring and utterly miserable to sit through.  It has a brutal runtime at over 2 hours.  The scenes go on for far too long and the subject matter isn't interesting enough to deserve it.

 3/10: Really Bad

#8: Les Misérables

The story of a criminal on the run from justice and desperate for redemption with the French Revolution as a backdrop, Les Misérables and up are all movies I enjoy.  This one is a musical and every bit of dialogue is sung, which brings the movie down for me.  There are plenty of moments where the film would have been better served by no singing and simply speaking.  Especially because not all of the cast members are very good singers.  Still, the film becomes epic by the end and most of the musical numbers are spectacular.

 7/10: Good 

#7: Zero Dark Thirty

This film follows several CIA operatives as they work on the greatest manhunt of all time, the hunt for Osama bin Laden.  Zero Dark Thirty is intense, exciting, and disturbing.  It's masterfully directed by Kathryn Bigelow.  The film can be too methodical at times, but there are major thrills along the way and an intense replication of the raid that ended in bin Laden's death.

 9/10: Great 

#6: Lincoln

This biopic examines the last few months of the life of Abraham Lincoln as he races to get the 13th Amendment passed to abolish slavery.  The movie doesn't quite stick the landing, but the performances of both Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones are incredible and the voting sequence near the end of the film is far more thrilling than one would expect it to be.

 9/10: Great 

#5: Silver Linings Playbook

The story of a man with bipolar disorder and his relationship with a woman with mental problems of her own, this film takes a look at mental health and is the perfect example of how to make a movie with unlikable characters really good.  Extremely interesting and really fun.

 9/10: Great 

#4: Life of Pi

The story of a man who survives a shipwreck only to be trapped in a lifeboat with a tiger, Life of Pi is somewhat heavy-handed with its themes, but it may be the most beautiful movie I have ever seen.  The story is extremely exciting and really engaging.

 9/10: Great 

From here on out, this gets very difficult.  All three of these movies are 10/10 films as far as I'm concerned.

#3: Argo

Argo follows a CIA operative that puts together a plan to rescue a group of Americans trapped in Iran during the Iran Hostage Crisis.  He does it by posing as a film crew and pretending to be making a movie.  Argo is impressively acted and directed by Ben Affleck.  The first half is really fun as they create a fake movie, but the second half is insanely intense and will bring you to the edge of your seat.

Yes, I believe Argo was not the best film of the 2013 Oscars.  Somebody was snubbed!  In no particular order, let's have a look at our last two films before I announce the winner of The Snubby!

Beasts of the Southern Wild 

The fantastic tale of a young girl who lives with her father in extreme poverty in the floodplains of the Louisiana bayou.  The performances are fantastic all around and very impressive, the characters are engaging, and the story is emotional.  It's an all-around fantastic movie and blew me away.

Django Unchained 

My favorite Tarantino film, Djano Unchained follows the story of a slave turned bounty hunter, who infiltrates a cotton plantation to rescue his wife.  An awesome movie that's insanely fun to watch, even if it is uncomfortable to watch at times, Django Unchained has an extremely satisfying story with some incredible performances.  It has a long runtime, but the film flies by and is the definition of entertaining.

So...who wins the Snubby Award?  Drum roll please!

It's Django Unchained!  A work of art, incredibly entering, and it has a lot to say.  You couldn't ask for much more in a movie and it is the best film Mr. Tarantino has ever made.

Next, I'll be looking at the 2012 Oscars!  Did The Artist deserve to win or did somebody else get snubbed!?  Stay tuned!