Let’s face it. We all love Oscar night. The pretty dresses, the chance to see your favorite actors, and most importantly, the stories brought out by movies that you just connect with. Here is everything you need to know about the movies nominated for Best Movie, and of course, the winner.
Boyhood
IMDb rating: 8.2/10
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater
Plot: Richard Linklater’s movie captures the small nuances and emotional rollercoaster that comes with a boy’s childhood. And it was 12 years in the making. Linklater used the same actors, filming them for 12 years as they aged. Ellar Coltrane was six when he was cast as the small boy we would watch age to 18.
Patricia Arquette, who won best actress in a supporting role, also talks about aging. “You’re programmed in your own mind by society and you do see fault with yourself and that you’re not supposed to have faults if you’re an actor in this business,” she told Hitfix.com. It’s obvious her body and image goes through a transformation throughout the film as she plays the mom. But she does so without much makeup, aging shamelessly and beautifully, in the most natural way possible.
“Part of what was exciting was just not Hollywood-ing that up and being frankly honest about this character and not looking as great as you could all the time,” said Arquette.
The Theory of Everything
IMDb rating: 7.8/10
Director: James Marsh
Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones
Plot: Forget everything you think this movie is going to be about, because it’s actually a love story between the famous Stephen Hawking and his wife.
Eddie Redmayne played the physicist and does a very convincing job of it, seeing as he won Best Actor. You may recognize him from Les Miserábles and Jupiter Ascending.
The actor and Hawking actually had a few meetings, and Hawking showed his utmost support for the movie in a heartfelt Facebook message.
The Imitation Game
IMDb rating: 8.2/10
Director: Morten Tyldum
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightly, Matthew Goode
Plot: Sherlock fans rejoice. Over the past few years we’ve really gotten to see Benedict Cumberbatch stretch his acting muscles.
Keeping with the math and science theme, this movie is about the Alan Turing, the mathematician who was hired during WWII to break the Nazis’ communication code. He faces hardships and judgment along the way because of his sexuality.
Whiplash
IMDb rating: 8.6/10
Director: Damien Chazelle
Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons
Plot: Ever felt like a teacher, mentor, or other authority figure has pushed you too hard? That’s exactly what Miles Teller’s character experiences in this movie as he tries to prove himself as a drummer in a prestigious music academy.
J.K. Simmons won Best Supporting Actor for his role. Miles Teller is quickly becoming a rising star in Hollywood, with him set to return in Insurgent and appear in Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four 2. Teller has already been in Divergent, That Awkward Moment, Project X, and The Spectacular Now.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
IMDb rating: 8.1/10
Director: Wes Anderson
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric
Plot: This movie is wild from start to finish. Expect Wes Anderson’s quirkiness to be all over this. It’s about a famous fictional hotel concierge who befriends his lobby boy during the first and second World Wars. This is a movie you have to watch to understand.
American Sniper
IMDb rating: 7.5/10
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner
Plot: This movie is about real-life Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and dealing with the emotional effects of the war after returning.
There has been a lot of controversy swirling around this film. The real-life Chris Kyle was just killed, and some people believe Kyle should not be portrayed as a hero because of his actions and words against Iraqis, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.
This BBC article writes more on the topic.
Selma
IMDb rating: 7.6/10
Director: Ava DuVernay
Stars: David, Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth
Plot: About time there was a Hollywood movie about Martin Luther King. It seems there is a common theme between the Oscar movies of this year, and that is honoring real-life people that have accomplished great things.
This movie goes through three-months in 1965 when King was fighting for equal voting rights for African-Americans. It also documents the march from Selma to Montgomery.
Oyelowo commented on the feelings he was having while playing King. He told Nerdist.com, “the fact that he was really riddled with guilt at the fact that people died during this campaign in particular. People were hurt physically and emotionally. And even though he felt it was necessitous to do these campaigns which were clearly dangerous, it was still something that wore heavy upon him….”
Oyelowo was also in Interstellar.
The movie won Best Song for “Glory” by John Legend and Common.
And now the winner for best movie…
Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
IMDb rating: 8.1/10
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Stars: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis
Plot: The trailer basically gives you nothing as to the plot of the movie. It’s about a washed-up actor that basically tries to get his mojo back before the opening of his Broadway play.
This movie is packed with amazing actors. There shouldn’t be one person in here that you aren’t excited to see. I mean, Michael Keaton? Ed Norton? Emma Stone? Yeah. Be excited if you haven’t seen this yet.
The movie also won Best Director.
*Most information came form the IMDb pages of each of these movies and actors.