Perhaps the biggest contemporary injustice of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is its failure to recognize the supreme and unique talents of Mr. Wes Anderson. Anderson has received three Oscar nominations in the past (two for writing, one in the animated category for Fantastic Mr. Fox), but none of the director's eight films have been nominated for Best Picture and perhaps even more shockingly, none of his actors have ever received an acting nomination, despite the myriad of brilliant performances that always accompany his films. Hopefully, this wrong will come to an end this year with Anderson's fantastic The Grand Budapest Hotel. The film takes place in a lavish European hotel in the fictional country of Zubrowka shortly before the onset of the Second World War. The film's star is the hotel's legendary concierge and expert on all things refined, Gustave H, played by Ralph Fiennes in the finest performance of his career. Anderson's trademark meticulous art direction is as prominently displayed as ever in The Grand Budapest Hotel, but what makes the film feel different from some of Anderson's previous films is just how humorous and fun the movie is. It's easily the most screwball film of Anderson's oeuvre, to the point where parts of the film almost feel like something out Monty Python, but Anderson never looses sight of the humanism that makes his films so endearing. The film will undoubtedly be too twee for Anderson haters and some of the older members that make up the Academy, but if the Oscars pass on both the film and Ralph Fiennes terrific performance, then it will be yet another black eye in the history of the Academy Awards. Which inevitably snubbed 2014 movies do you think deserve some Oscar love? Share your picks below in the comments thread.
A film fanatic at a very young age, starting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and gradually moving up to more sophisticated fare, at around the age of ten he became inexplicably obsessed with all things Oscar. With the incredibly trivial power of being able to chronologically name every Best Picture winner from memory, his lifelong goal is to see every Oscar nominated film, in every major category, in the history of the Academy Awards.
