The 2015 Vassal Awards


The Oscars may be tonight, but who cares? Today is about the Vassal awards! It's the day we take to reflect upon the events of 2015 in Cinema and talk about what the best and brightest films have achieved. Here to present is the Sultan of Television himself, Max Benowitz!



Best Dramatic Picture:

 1. The Revenant
2. The Hateful Eight
3. Spotlight
4. Ex Machina
5. The Big Short
6. Beasts of No Nation
7. The Martian
8. Anomalisa

The year in film was an interesting one. Certainly, it was not as explosive and difficult to choose as 2014, where movies like Birdman, Nightcrawler, Boyhood, and Whiplash stole multiple shows, but 2015 brought a host of good content to our screens, even in they were more under the radar. When choosing the single best, the eight nominees were easy, all of them having earned their rightful place as a nominee. However, the best was very hard to pick out. The Hateful Eight may have been the most enjoyable, Spotlight and The Big Short the most relevant, and The Revenant the biggest headliner, but when it came down to it, I was most impressed with Ex Machina. Following the year's cinematic trend of under-the-radar, Machina was able to give a clear and present thesis while at the same time crafting fantastic characters and most of all, an edge-of-your-seat story. To me, this stood out above all else to achieve the nod for best picture.

Best Comedic Picture:

1. Spy
2. Kingsman: The Secret Service
3. Trainwreck
4. Ant-Man

One of my problems with The Oscars and the Golden Globes are their ostensible adversity to giving comedies any kind of recognition. Even the Globes, who have a comedy category, still awarded the "Best Comedy/Musical" to The Martian, a drama which had funny lines in it occasionally. And, while the comedic achievement may not hold as much water as the dramatic to the larger field of critics, a good comedy has just as much relevance as a good drama to me. Office Space is a hell of a lot more memorable than most acclaimed dramas over the last twenty years, even if it didn't get the Oscar fanfare the year it came out. Spy was my comedy of choice this year. It brought Melissa McCarthy back into relevance instead of playing the same role over and over, and somehow, it managed to make me love Jason Statham. Paul Feig once again shows himself to be one of the best comedic minds in film making and edges out his competitor, Judd Apatow by a pretty vast margin.

Best Screenplay:

1. Drew Goddard - The Martian
2. Charles Randolph & Adam McKay - The Big Short
3. Alex Garland - Ex Machina
4. Quentin Tarantino - The Hateful Eight
5. Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer - Spotlight
6. Charlie Kaufman - Anomalisa

Again, this was a tight category. For my money, Charlie Kaufman is the most innovative film writer out there, while Spotlight, The Big Short, The Martian, and Ex Machina all had fantastic scripts that carried their movies through in fantastic fashion. However, to me, Tarantino wrote his best film since Pulp Fiction in Hateful Eight. Weighing in at over three hours that are almost all filled with witty dialogue, the movie has a whale of a script that really must be given the credit it deserves.

Best Directing: 

1. Cary Joji Fukunaga - Beasts of No Nation
2. Alex Garland - Ex Machina
3. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - The Revenant
4. Quentin Tarantino - The Hateful Eight
5. Adam McKay - The Big Short
6. Guillermo Del Toro - Crimson Peak

There wasn't any question. The Revenant is absolutely stunning in terms of directorial achievement. Just read a little bit of trivia on the creation of this movie and you can see the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making the survival epic. It wasn't always entertaining, but The Revenant is nothing if not gorgeously shot and impressively constructed. Though it didn't capture my attention like Birdman as much, Inarritu certainly went all in on this movie. Much as I liked the competitors, it wasn't close.

Best Cinematography:

1. Joe Passarelli - Anomalisa
2. Emmanuel Lubezki - The Revenant
3. Cary Joji Fukunaga - Beasts of No Nation
4. Robert Richardson - The Hateful Eight
5. Dan Laustsen - Crimson Peak

There's a pretty good argument for Emmanuel Lubezki being the best cinematographer ever. If his name is attached to a film, it will be gorgeous, without fail. From underrated comedy gem The Birdcage to Y Tu Mama Tambien to Birdman and now to The Revenant the guy just makes a movie better. He, like Inarritu, pulls out all the stops for the survival/revenge flick to make a true visual stunner.

Best Original Score:

1. Ennio Morricone - The Hateful Eight
2. Ryuichi Sakamoto - The Revenant
3. Atticus Ross - Love and Mercy
4. John Williams - Star Wars: The Force Awakens
5. Carter Burwell - Carol

Hiring Ennio Morricone was a very good idea for Tarantino. He composed one of the most catchy scores for The Hateful Eight that I enjoy whether it's in or out of the movie. However, in the movie, it's almost unparalleled. It just works so damn well. At 87, Morricone is still delivering the best Western scores around, and it's the trump card that has given Hateful Eight the biggest award buzz it deserves.

Best Lead Male Actor:

1. Matt Damon - “Mark Whatney” - The Martian
2. Samuel L. Jackson - “Marquis Warren” - The Hateful Eight
3. Leonardo Di Caprio - “Hugh Glass” - The Revenant
4. Bryan Cranston - “Dalton Trumbo” - Trumbo
5. Jason Segel - “David Foster Wallace” - The End of the Tour
6. Michael Fassbender - “Steve Jobs” - Steve Jobs

Best lead male was a difficult category, as it wasn't as competitive as past years. The best two, in my opinion were Matt Damon and Leonardo Di Caprio, but to pick out Damon was a difficult process. It really came down to dialogue. Both were alone, carrying a film on their back for most of their respective pieces, but while Di Caprio committed his body to the film more, I don't think he did as much to invest viewers as did Damon. Perhaps it was the scripts, but for my money, Di Caprio was a whole lot of barking and not a whole lot of bite. Damon, on the other hand, kept our attention for hours as he hung around alone on a deserted planet talking about science that would regularly be mind-numbing.

Best Lead Female Actor:

1. Brie Larson - “Joy Newsome” - Room
2. Bel Powley - “Minnie Goetze” - The Diary of a Teenage Girl
3. Melissa McCarthy - “Susan Cooper” - Spy
4. Cate Blanchett - “Carol Aird” - Carol

 For women, the year was similar, as there were certainly impressive performances, but they flew largely under the radar. Brie Larson takes this with relative ease, as she truly carried Room across emotions and plot through the entire film. However, I would like to give a shoutout to Bel Powley and Diary of a Teenage Girl in general. It didn't get as much buzz as it deserved, and Powley did an excellent and edgy job of helming the movie. Larson takes the award in the end, but I think both deserve significant praise.

Best Supporting Male Actor:

1. Oscar Isaac - “Nathan Bateman” - Ex Machina
2. Idris Elba - “Commandant” - Beasts of No Nation
3. Walton Goggins - “Chris Mannix” - The Hateful Eight
4. Joel Edgerton - “Gordon Mosley” - The Gift
5. Michael Keaton - “Walter Robinson” - Spotlight
6. Paul Giamatti - “Eugene Landy” - Love and Mercy
7. Tom Hardy - “John Fitzgerald” - The Revenant
8. Christian Bale - “Michael Burry” - The Big Short

There are so many great opportunities for supporting male actors across television and film. They truly have a long history of stealing the show. And, once again, all eight of these guys were almost more memorable then their respective leads. In the end though, the gorgeous Beasts of No Nation takes it with Idris Elba's performance as the child soldier leader, Commandant. This role took a bit of a transformation for Elba, reminiscent of his work on The Wire. The character never even had a name beyond Commandant, and yet he still worked as the cold standout from the movie. Honorable mentions go to Oscar Isaac and Tom Hardy.

Side note: How the hell did Idris not even get a nomination in The Oscars? Putting racial controversy aside, the man had the performance of the year for my money and wasn't even given a slight nod for his work? Terrible. Just terrible.

Best Supporting Female Actor:

 1. Jennifer Jason Leigh - “Daisy Domergue” - The Hateful Eight
2. Alicia Vikander - “Ava” - Ex Machina
3. Rose Byrne - “Rayna Boyanov” - Spy
4. Rachel McAdams - “Sacha Pfeiffer” - Spotlight
5. Rooney Mara - “Therese Belivet” - Carol

McAdams needed something to make her like me again after True Detective season two, and after her excellent job in Spotlight, I can once again just be mad at Nic Pizzolatto. She was very subtle in the journalism drama, but as the theme of the year is, she was under-the-radar great. McAdams brought with her a host of interesting emotion and drama without ever hogging the screen or over-acting.

In Conclusion...

 That just about does it for the year in film! However, I am considering making a podcast "Sultan of Cinema" to discuss movies each week and expand the brand a bit. Though perhaps television is in the true golden age right now, a number of memorable films were produced over the last year that deserve praise.

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