Film Bitch Awards - Best Scenes of Multiple Kinds
Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 12:00PM We're nearly finished* with 2015 Film Bitch Awards, our own annual year in review yearbook/party and of imaginary Oscar ballot (well, half of it is that). Today the remainder of our Best Scene categories with six final scene categories. This group hands more nominations to films from the top ten list of course but for highlights to point out here on the blog before you click over, we're using films outside the top ten list.
Obviously this page (and post) of awards contains mild spoilers so if you haven't seen the films and wish to stay pure, these are not the awards categories you're looking for. Here is one nominee I felt the need to gab about (maybe you will too?) from each category...
BEST KISS
While Creed was mostly ignored by the Academy, chances are its big box office (which significantly outgrossed Stallone's last two attempts are reigniting the franchise) will insure a big career for Michael B Jordan. Can Tessa Thompson hope for the same (it's always trickier for actresses of color)? They're wonderful together. Especially endearing is the scene in her apartment where Adonis makes up a godawful wrap and they end up collapsed on the floor, caught up in the moment. It's an upside down shot from above and they're something beautifully innocent and pure but also sexy about this kiss. (Later they'll bring the heat in a proper sex scene at Rocky's house. "but what about your Uncle?" / "He old!" Ha!)
SEX SCENE
Angelina Jolie's third directorial effort By the Sea was mercilessly trashed upon arrival but this was always going to be its fate. The Jolie-Pitts are extremely mainstream-famous. And household name blockbuster stars that the public has longed to see paired again onscreen aren't supposed to reunite for an indulgent overly serious tribute to Euro art cinema of the 1970s. That's for the other kind of movie star, like the Julianne Moores and the Ryan Goslings of the world, whose filmographies are built on eclectic sensibilities and crisscrossing between the ittybitty and the giant. But By the Sea isn't without its moments. The best scene, repeated in different forms like a musical riff, is when the couple sits on the floor in their hotel room and shyly watches another younger couple (Melanie Laurent & Melvil Poupaud) make love in the next room through a peephole. It's beautifully sympathetic and tragicomic, an estranged couple tiptoeing back to intimacy through surrogates.
OPENING SCENE
David O. Russell's Joy is an easy movie to quibble with. It often feels like five different movies that haven't reconciled themselves. This problem (?) is embedded right in its prologue which jumps from inside a stylized soap opera, to Diane Ladd's wonderfully expressive fable-like narration, and back to the soap opera but this time "outside" of it through a TV set, and into little Joy's bedroom where she makes a castle and theorizes about her possible superpower (maybe she doesn't need a Prince?). Ladd's Grandma guides us through this collision of styles and ideas with an expertly dropped line about Joy's creativity that doubles as a guide to how to watch and make ambitious movies.
The patience to figure it out."
Will Joy grow on us with time? Perhaps it might. Perhaps we quibbled too much. Perhaps Russell didn't have the patience to truly figure this one out but there's a lot to figure therein.
ENDING
Spotlight may have the most mellow finale we've ever nominated in this category but there's something about its sober work ethic and the core ensemble wide shot, with Walter "Robby" Robinson centered, that really lands emotionally and elevates the film. His phone rings and they all just return to work. Where they've always been.
Spotlight..."
CREDIT SEQUENCE
I've been disappointed these last few years that it's more and more common for films to have virtually no credits at the beginning and double up at the ending. So shout out to Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation which has great opening and closing credits. The opening credits would be spoiler-alert central if they didn't come at you so aggressively with machine-gun montage speed. The ending credits are even more stylish --both an homage to the TV show and film appropriate -- with action frames from the film outlined by the wicks of time bombs; this movie is a blast.
[Read more about these two sequences at The Art of the Title.]
MISCELLANIA - A DOZEN FAVORITE SCENES
When writing about the Film Bitch Awards I often revisit a whole bunch of movies in clip forms, particularly the earlier releases that are blurry int he memory. Here we are at the end of the prize-giving and here comes Diary of a Teenage Girl and it suddenly looks just as good as everyone claimed it to be (I was previously in the admired but only admired camp). It was easy to turn certain movies off after checking the scene in question but I kept getting sucked into this film, as if it were the first time. One of the best moments is an animated interlude "The Making of Harlot" where a 'Beautiful Junior,' getting it on with Minnie, remarks upon her aggressive sexuality with something like judgment in his voice (though he's benefitting). Giant Minnie, holding him in her King Kong paw, turns away, with a single teardrop and casts him aside. True movie magic.
THE COMPLETE "BEST SCENES" CHART
* Only three categories left to announce (Limited Roles x2 & Line Readings). Can you believe we're actually going to finish this year before the Oscars**?! Wheeee. We'll announce those three categories plus all the Gold Silver and Bronze medals at some point in the next 24, ya dig?
** Okay technically I won't have finished, damnit. I never named the Animated Feature nominees (we only go 3-wide here) because I was trying to see Boy and The World before voting. So we'll be finished with everything but that category.
Reader Comments (12)
Love your write-up of Mad Max's opening scene. The movie is far from perfect but that opening is spectacular in every single way.
Other shout-outs. 100% agree on:
> Sicario opening scene. Absolutely sets the tone in a truly horrific way that puts you on edge for the rest of the film.
> Phoenix ending. Hauntingly beautiful.
> Antman- Michael Pena flashback. If you haven't seen this yet, youtube Michael Pena story telling scene. I dare you not to laugh.
Now I wanna see a By The Sea starring Julianne Moore and Ryan Gosling...
On Joy: no, it's not a problem
I am kind of surprised you didn't mention that final scene in Sicario. So damn tense, I couldn't hear a single breathe when I saw it. Best acted scene of the year, specially because you don't know what's gonna happen. The movie is bleak that he may kill her ; you worry about her life.
Del Toro is a villain for the ages in it.
Dozen Best Scenes is my favorite category that you do. (When you didn't do them 2011-2013, I was crushed.) It's amazing to see which scenes resonated with you.
Can't wait for Line Readings and Limited Actor/ress.
Wow, for someone so enamored of "Carol" I'm surprised it doesn't even merit a mention in the Best Opening Scene category. I would probably nominate it there, in addition to that brilliant unbroken tracking shot in "Spectre" (have you seen that one yet?).
Speaking of unbroken takes, I'm also surprised you don't have the second boxing match from "Creed" in your Best Scenes.
Your Best Ending Scenes are great. I'd elect "Son of Saul," too, which haunted me for a really long time after seeing it and carries such powerful moral weight.
Also, sad to see "See, I'm Smiling" didn't make it into Best Musical Scenes. Anna Kendrick proves to be the current film musical darling (if we had to have one).
I absolutely loved By The Sea. The critics got it all wrong.
I absolutely LOVED Tessa Thompson in Creed - she was the best thing about "Creed", which was just as bad as 2015's other boxing movie, Southpaw.
Just saw 45 Years. FUCKING WOW!
For a simple subtle film, it sure is explosive and has so many memorable scenes.
That ending with the dancing and THAT acting by Rampling is out-of-this-world.
Yeah, By the Sea wasn't that bad. I enjoyed a lot of it, but wished it had been about 20 minutes shorter and I chortled at Angie's big reveal sequence (as if we hadn't figured it out already).
All of those scene and credit nominations are so spot on. All so very good.
I'm glad to see Joy make your list of best opening scenes and best scenes overall (that QVC scene is amazing). I've noticed a couple of people like Cassian Elwes recently saying that it was treated unfairly and deserved to be a BP nominee. I do think it will grow in time.
I keep thinking about Jose's review of Joy - when is the last time you saw a film about a female inventor? - as well as Mark Harris's tweets comparing the occupations of the Best Actor nominees and the Best Actress nominees, where Joy was the only movie in which the lead character was not entirely defined by her personal relationships. The film deserved a lot of credit for it approach to its leading character.