Oscars 2016: best picture prediction and thoughts.

Long story short, my top 3 from top to bottom:

1. The one I liked the most: The Revenant.
2. The one I think will win: Spotlight.
3. The one that shook me even with some plot flaws: Room.

Let's speak briefly about each of them:

The Big Short. 123 min. Adam McKay. (The other guys)
Cristian Bale has a weird eye. He has a weird eye and we can't stop looking at him. We wait for him to appear again. He is the movie, and behind him there is a whole documentary about how banks operate with friendly explanations. I liked this one, but I'd have love to know more about them, about their feelings and how they connect with the world. It's really good as a sort of documentary, we know only a few things about the truth and it's always refreshing to get to know more, but as a movie is not really my cup of tea.

Bridge of Spies. 135 min. Steven Spilberg. (Saving Private Ryan. Schindler's List. Jurassic Park)
It took me sometime to engage with this one. Spies and alike are not my thing these days. But Tom Hank plays his role neatly. He makes you feel there, in the old Berlin in the days that the wall was made. The movie makes you feel that things may turn south at some point, so you don't know why but you start engaging it, wondering what will happen next. So even if I didn't like it at first, I enjoyed it at the end. Like a meal that ends with a proper desert. Good for a Sunday afternoon.

Brooklyn. 111 min. John Crowley. (True Detective II)
How hard it is to leave your mother country, to get to know people and find some kind of love that you never experienced before. How good it is to feel at home in a land that is not yours, knowing that at the end countries are just some sort of human idea. Knowing that there is no such a thing as countries, there is just the place that we live in and life which is where we all belong to. But even though, how easy it is to feel home sick, to feel that urgency of going back to where your old loves ones are. And what will happen there may arise old feeling, old ideas and needs, and this movie is all about that. So as a foreigner living in London I really loved it. It touched me. At some point I just couldn't hold the tears. I'll definitely recommend it to anyone living abroad, in the pursuit of some kind of drama to open your chest with and let your feelings go.

Mad Max: Fury Road. 120 min. George Miller. (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome)
Here comes your adrenaline rush. Cars going through the sand from one place to another. A post apocalyptic world full of fights, lunatics, and an amazing Charlize Theron leading some sort of amazons of the desert. A few of my friends loved it, a few of them hated it. I personally finished it feeling that nothing but chasing Max and his friends happened. It's all right, but is it really good? Is it really an oscar nominee?

The Martian. 142 min. Ridley Scott. (Gladiator. Blade Runner. Alien)
If you want to survive you'll need to deal with your shit. And that's how The Martian will keep you hooked to the screen with all sort of witty ways to find his way through the unknown land of Mars. I simply loved it. For all those adventure and science-fiction lovers, this will touch you as well.

The Revenant. 156 min. Ajandro González Iñarritu (Birdman, Babel, 21 Grams)
Raw meat advice: You gotta believe what you see, but if you do, you'll leave the cinema feeling different. You'll have travelled across mountains and lakes, you'll be Hugh Glass, and you'll have experienced the cold, pain and bitterness of surviving in a savage land. I definitely think that this movie may offer something different, like it or not, but for the way things are told, for the scenery, silence and angles if you like cinema it definitely deserves a try.

Room. 118 min. Lenny Abrahamson (Frank)
You only have a room and your child. And if you want to get along with it, you'll need plenty of patience and imagination. Since it started I felt that this movie was going to punch me in the stomach, and it did. It's surprising how good the director plays with the angles discovering to us how they are experiencing that small and bitter world of the room. As a londoner always complaining about how bad housing is, this one makes me realize how good my life is now that I don't even have a mice infection *fingers crossed*. If the rhythm would have been faster, it'll definitely be my second favourite one. Something happened at the half of if that made me waver, but even though I liked it. After it ended, I still wanted to know more about them. I tell to myself that I should read the book (but I don't listen to myself as much as I should).

Spotlight. 121 min. Thomas McCarthy (The Visitor)
Small offices and highly motivated people is all I need, and that's why I loved this one. It hydrated that fire of loving the work I do. It made me feel that everyone of us can collaborate to do something bigger than us. That we all can help to make a better world. At this day and age, is good to have something to believe in, but is hard to trust in organizations. Therefore, is hard to trust in the church and their members. It's not a surprise any more to hear about bishops, priest and alike been reported for child abuse, and this movie will get you there, in that hurricane of unveiling the truth. The characters assemble pretty good together, even though I was hoping that Rachel McAdams could have a more important role. The plot is great. Some twist at the end would have make it to the top of my list, but even though it's really good. Every time I speak about it I feel that fire again, and I want to get back to work.

Some thoughts:
It's a common pattern that movies that win as best picture, get nominated as well as best directing. In this category we have: The Big Short, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Room and Spotlight. Three of them are in my top, I still don't know what Mad Max is doing there, though, but being nominated in the two categories means that it may win and that would be pretty crazy for me, but I'm sure it will make sense for all of those who thought that it was a masterpiece (been an 8.2 in imdb is not precisely low). I'm glad that The Big Short is there as well, if it wins I'll be really happy that the oscars committee is willing to spread the word about banks. But I really doubt it will happen.

Having said that, I believe that what really matter about cinema are two things, which is always good to keep in mind:
1. The experience. Either sharing it or just keeping it to you. And as important as that
2. Empathy. Because connection is key and without that everything else is just torn apart.
And on this point, I think that the Revenant is the hardest one to connect. To really feel there.

Finally, because I'm just a guy trying to write about cinema in english, apart from all those grammar mistakes that I may have - please correct me if I do, I really appreciate that, we never know enough -, being subjective there is another category to bear in mind, and that maybe the most important one.

So here we go, drum roll for those movies that made me cry (from top to bottom):

1. Brooklyn.
2. Room.
3. The Martian.

My two cents.