2015 Oscar Nominations - Book Edition

I have a book blog, not a movie blog, so how do I 'play' with the relatively recent Oscar Nominations for 2015 movies? The easy answer is: "I don't." The more interesting, to me, answer is to look at them from the book side of things.

Best Picture
8 Movies have been nominated. 5 of which are based, at least in part, on books.

The Big Short
Originally a nonfiction novel by Michael Lewis about finance, then a movie starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt. - Also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. (Charles Randolph and Adam McKay)

When the crash of the U.S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread. Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages?

The book was okay but not great, and I never saw the film. I can tell already that this will be a great blog post.



Brooklyn
Originally a fiction novel by Colm Tóibín set in 1950s Ireland and Brooklyn, NY, USA. Then a movie starring Saoirse Ronan (who is neither from Brooklyn nor from Ireland, but is, instead, from the Bronx; though she did grow up in Ireland). - Also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. (Nick Hornby)

Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America -- to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood "just like Ireland" -- she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.

By far Tóibín's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters.

I had previously never heard of the book nor the movie until this moment.



The Martian
Based on the novel by Andy Weir. Starring Matt Damon. Also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. (Drew Goddard)

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive — and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills — and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength – he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive – but Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.

The only one I both read and watched. The book is one of my favorites of all time, one of those few I, based on the inadequacies of book websites rating systems, I had to rate 5.5 to move it out of the shadow of every other book rated 5 stars (everything from books rated 4.7 and up). The movie? The movie was closer to a 3.7, 3.8.




The Revenant
Based, in part, on the novel by Michael Punke. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Trapping beaver, they contend daily with the threat of Indian tribes turned warlike over the white men's encroachment on their land, and other prairie foes—like the unforgiving landscape and its creatures. Hugh Glass is among the Company's finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive.

The Company's captain dispatches two of his men to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies, and to give him the respect of a proper burial. When the two men abandon him instead, taking his only means of protecting himself—including his precious gun and hatchet— with them, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge.

With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out crawling inch by inch across more than three thousand miles of uncharted American frontier, negotiating predators both human and not, the threat of starvation, and the agony of his horrific wounds.

Not a movie or book I was aware of.



Room
Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue who also wrote the screenplay. Also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Another one I had not heard of before.