2015 confirmed that the years of movie stars carrying huge box office weight are behind us more than ever. Stars and starlets who heralded huge hits in the past were in some of the biggest flops of 2015; Bill Murray with Rock the Kasbah, Sandra Bullock with Our Brand is Crisis, Hugh Jackman with Pan and Chappie, and Bradley Cooper with Aloha and Burnt. Yet Hollywood works in circles, so someone is bound to rise from the ashes to become a true “movie star”.

In 2014, Chris Pratt became the talk of the town after a giant year with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Lego Movie. He even had a pretty good 2015 starring in Jurassic World. Yet, Pratt doesn’t have all of the characteristics of the Golden Age of Hollywood’s leading men and women. His expressive charisma and good looks don’t completely compensate for his limited range. It’s hard for him to carry a film without strong assistance from a supporting cast, which was noticeable in Guardians of the Galaxy but was more obvious after playing second fiddle to Bryce Dallas Howard in Jurassic World.

Jurassic World movie stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard

Furthermore, Pratt’s mark has never actually been tested; nothing has been sold on his image alone. The Marvel, Jurassic Park, and even Lego brands all have a built-in fan base that assures their films from being box office failures. In fact, many of Marvel’s biggest actors have proven to disappoint outside of the franchise: Chris Evans hasn’t led a non-Marvel film to a gross over $60 million; Robert Downey Jr.’s biggest hits have all been franchise films; Chris Hemsworth has had many leading endeavors tank. Marvel hasn’t historically made any bonafide box office stars; why would Chris Pratt be different?

But another talent has been awoken and he has been thrown into the center of the public’s eye: Oscar Isaac. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Isaac’s Poe Dameron isn’t as utilized as heavily as Finn and Rey, but the part does draw resemblance to the introduction of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo in A New Hope. The two are both cocky, sharp-witted pilots who play the magnetic, charming sidekick. What Isaac has in The Force Awakens that Ford didn’t in A New Hope is experience and a tangible acting prowess.

Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

While A New Hope was essentially Ford’s acting debut, Isaac already has many acting roles under his belt showing his versatility and range. His first leading performance as Llewyn Davis in the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis earned him critical praise and more than a dozen Best Actor mentions. In 2014, he received accolades for his leading performance in A Most Violent Year. And his most impressive box office turn was from this year, Ex Machina, which boasts many critical mentions and award traction.

These indies are obviously in the little leagues when it comes to box office and public visibility, but with The Force Awakens, Oscar Isaac will now become a household name. On top of red carpet events and press conferences, Isaac has been making the rounds on talk shows displaying his confidence and personality. His real life persona is a dashing combination of Pratt’s goofiness and Tom Cruise’s charm, but his talent and scope arguably exceeds them both. Add in his musical talent, and Isaac becomes a double threat that is easy for the public to latch on to.

A pondering Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina

Even though Poe Dameron seems underutilized in The Force Awakens, it’s worth noting that Han Solo’s presence is much more noteworthy in the next two installments of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. With all signs pointing to a derivative series and some characters out of the way, Isaac’s Poe could have much more to do in the next episode. Furthermore, The Force Awakens is only the beginning of Isaac’s blockbuster reign; he is playing the titular villain in the upcoming X-Men film.

With a strong platter of future releases, Oscar Isaac has the potential to latch on to Hollywood and leave a lasting impact. The Star Wars series has started and killed many acting careers, especially Hayden Christensen and Mark Hamill who struggled to brand themselves outside of the series. But Isaac isn’t like these two; he has already proven himself to be strong enough in his past endeavors to outlast the curse. After his franchise contracts run up, he will be one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. His possibilities will be endless.

On this special edition Way Too Indiecast, we take a quick look back at the five-year history of Way Too Indie as part of our anniversary coverage this month. Our discussion leads us to our humble beginning when our name came to be and just one person was on staff. We continue our retrospective glance back by discussing some late-season 2014 films that are coming out now, including the wonderful Best Foreign Language nominee Wild Tales, an overlooked documentary The Overnighters, and J.C. Chandor’s excellent A Most Violent Year. Plus, we catch Bernard off-guard when he can’t remember a film he just reviewed for the site (hint: it was the unimpressive The Lazarus Effect).

Topics

• Name 5 Game (2:10)
• Way Too Indie 5th Anniversary (5:50)
• 2014 Films Coming Out Now (16:30)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

Way Too Indie Turns 5

Best 50 Movies of the Decade So Far

The Lazarus Effect Review

The Overnighters Review

Interview with Jess Moss of The Overnighters

Wild Tales festival coverage

A Most Violent Year Review

Interstellar Review

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J.C. Chandor’s third feature, A Most Violent Year, is set in 1981 New York City, a year that saw a dramatic spike in criminal activity (hence the odd title). Oscar Isaac plays Abel Morales, a young, self-made entrepreneur and family man who runs a heating oil business with his mob-princess wife Anna (Jessica Chastain), who handles the books. He’s an ambitious, confident mogul who’s always moving forward. His competitors in the cutthroat home-heating market run their operations like mobsters, but Abel’s got more class than that. He covets transparency and morality, and unlike his rivals, he can sleep at night with a clear conscience (though he’s no stranger to shady back room dealings). “I run a fair and clean business, and I will fight to my last breath to prove that.”

A Most Violent Year is about a man protecting his honor at all costs while the rest of the world, even his family, conspires to strip him of it. The son of Hispanic immigrants, Abel started from the bottom as a heating-oil truck driver and eventually moved up the ranks, married his boss’ daughter, and bought the company from his father-in-law, who played the game as dirty as Abel’s rival merchants. With the company in his hands, he turned things around and made it a clean operation. He’s looking to expand, too: a piece of waterfront real estate looks to be the key to cornering the oil market, and he’s got 30 days to close the deal.

Abel’s a man of conviction, constantly in pursuit of the American dream, but all that surrounds him is nightmarish. The rampant violence and corruption of the city threaten to tarnish his squeaky-clean business on the daily, and jeopardize his chances of closing the waterfront deal. As a result of the vicious turf war, his truck drivers are getting held at gunpoint, his salesmen are getting roughed up, and he even finds an armed goon prowling around his McMansion late at night while his wife and kids are home. Surely arming himself and his crew for protection would be the smart thing to do, but he’s not cut from that cloth.

Reluctantly, Abel allows his drivers to carry guns on their deliveries (the first in a series of moralistic compromises), but refuses to tote one himself. When Anna buys a pistol as a knee-jerk reaction to the would-be home invader, Abel loses his mind. “I don’t want anything do to with this!” he roars. If he or she were to ever be seen holding a gun, his reputation would crumble. Adding to Abel’s stack of problems is a district attorney (David Oyelowo) who’s sniffing around the oil industry in search of corruption and malfeasance. It’s a terribly twisty plot, but Chandor’s pace is set at a slow, steady boil to make it digestible. The tension mounts in small increments, until it’s so thick by the film’s final act you feel like you’re suffocating (in a good way).

On two separate occasions Chandor shows us Abel running through the sooty, sapped NYC streets, and together these scenes comprise the film’s most poetic artistic statement. As the film opens, we see him on a morning exercise run, flying past graffitied walls, past run-down buildings, past the urban malaise: he’s running toward a brighter future. Later, we see him running again, in an impeccably-shot foot chase sequence on railroad tracks that sees him hunting down an enemy, gun in hand, with vengeance and violence on his mind: he’s running toward the devil. He’s lost himself, and the film’s real suspense lies in the question of whether Abel’s will is strong enough to not succumb to the unscrupulous ways of the crime lord.

Isaac is a convincing kingpin, always looking invincible in his mustardy double-breasted coat, but Abel’s so monomaniacal sometimes that he feels less like a human being and more like a crime movie cliché. The same can be said for Chastain, who acts with so much kick and venom that it’s a hit-or-miss situation: she either nails Chandor’s sizzling one-liners and looks like a badass, or she overshoots her lines and comes off like a factory-issue mob-movie wife (the wonky Brooklyn accent doesn’t help). They’ve got chemistry together, though, and generate some real energy in their heated domestic arguments. Taking nothing away from their acting abilities (I’m a big fan of them both), I don’t feel like they were necessarily the best fits for their respective roles.

One piece of the story that feels under-developed is the reasoning behind Abel shedding every bit of his immigrant heritage. One can easily suppose that he did it to make his image more appealing on his way up to the top of the mountain, but that’s an uninteresting supposition to make. Julian (Elyes Gabel), one of Abel’s drivers who gets hijacked and beaten, is Hispanic as well, and Abel’s conversations with him are the only time we hear him speak Spanish. There’s a loose symbolism that Julian represents the former life Abel’s left behind (to detail this would be too spoiler-y), but it’s clunky symbolism at best.

Like Chandor’s first film, Margin Call, A Most Violent Year boasts a supporting cast of vets that add gravity and richness to the proceedings. Oyelowo, Albert Brooks, Peter Gerety, and Jerry Adler make brief, but impactful appearances. Bradford Young’s (Selma, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) cinematography is ashy, atmospheric and textured, and coupled with the phenomenal period set and costume design makes New York City look downright apocalyptic compared to the shining culture hub it is today. Chandor pays homage to Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City and Serpico as far as the milieu he’s created: it’s a city full of tough guys and alpha dogs who were born to screw each other over and hold meetings in dingy, poorly-lit rooms.

A Most Violent Year is my least favorite of Chandor’s films. I’m still a fan, though; the fact that he went from All is Lost, a boiled-down fable pitting a man against the elements, to a labyrinthine crime picture like this verifies for me that he’s one of the most exciting directors working today. Just like Abel, it’s not in Chandor’s nature to sit still; he’s always moving forward.

The National Board of Review has put out the list of winners for their 2014 awards. They’ve named A Most Violent Year the Best Film of the Year. Starring the Board’s Best Supporting Actress winner Jessica Chastain and their pick for Best Actor Oscar Isaac, the film is set in the early ’80s in the belly of New York’s crime world. The Board’s picks come as somewhat of a surprise to many critics as Boyhood and Birdman have generally been two of the most talked about films this year and have been the first to pick up awards this week from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Gotham Awards.

Other Awards to be given at the Gala on January 6th, 2015 are to Julianne Moore for Best Actress in Still Alice where she plays a woman dealing with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and Clint Eastwood for Best Director for American Sniper.

Michael Keaton did end up tying with Oscar Isaac for Best Actor and Edward Norton for Best Supporting Actor for their performances in Birdman which so far has been incredibly well received.

All in all, the dissension among early awards just proves this could be an interesting and varied awards season.

Here is the full list of the National Board of Review Awards:

Best Film: A Most Violent Year
Best Director: Clint Eastwood (American Sniper)
Best Actor (TIE): Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year) and Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Best Actress: Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton (Birdman)
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year)
Best Original Screenplay: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson (Inherent Vice)
Best Animated Feature: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Breakthrough Performance: Jack O’Connell (Starred Up and Unbroken)
Best Directorial Debut: Gillian Robespierre (Obvious Child)
Best Foreign Language Film: Wild Tales
Best Documentary: Life Itself
William K. Everson Film History Award: Scott Eyman
Best Ensemble: Fury
Spotlight Award: Chris Rock for writing, directing, and starring in Top Five
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Rosewater
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Selma

Top 10 Films
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
Fury
Gone Girl
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Lego Movie
Nightcrawler
Unbroken

Top 5 Foreign Language Films
Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
Leviathan
Two Days, One Night
We Are the Best!

Top 5 Documentaries
“Art and Craft”
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”
“Keep On Keepin’ On”
“The Kill Team”
“Last Days in Vietnam”

Top 10 Independent Films
Blue Ruin
Locke
A Most Wanted Man
Mr. Turner
Obvious Child
The Skeleton Twins
Snowpiercer
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
Starred Up
Still Alice

Let’s talk about FOMO.

You know what I’m talking about. That feeling you get when a friend posts online that they just saw the film you’ve read about for months and haven’t seen yet. It’s avoiding social media the entire weekend a new movie opens for fear of spoilers. It’s knowing that awards season is just around the bend and there’s more films to be seen than time to see them in. It’s Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) and in some way, shape, or form it’s been eating at you for months during the busy-ness of fall. But the light at the end of the tunnel has arrived: the Holidays.

Full, work-free days where you are practically mandated to eat a lot of food and catch up on movies. But unless you’re in college, you don’t have ALL the time in the world, so here’s your Holiday Movie Preview, just in time to help you figure out what’s coming out so you know where best to put your energy. You may return to work from the holidays 5 pounds heavier, but you’ll ace any water cooler movie pop-quizzes.

Must-Sees

Mockingjay: Part 1

It’s the beginning of the end for what is arguably the best YA film adaptation series of all time. Of course you’ll feel incomplete having to wait a year for Part 2, but this will be the one all your friends are talking about. (11/20)

The Imitation Game

The Oscar buzz around Benedict Cumberbatch will make this one worth being able to talk about. (11/27)

The Babadook

Perfect for those who like balancing savory and sweet, family time and fright time. Nothing makes you more grateful for family than a horror film about a mother and her son fighting to reconnect as they are haunted by a kid’s book character. (11/28, limited)

Wild

Skip the book, see the movie, bring tissues. Reese Witherspoon is phenomenal in the film, and Laura Dern adds emotional veracity. (12/4)

Still Alice

It’s been a slow year for decent female-led films. Julianne Moore has been building buzz around her role as a woman who discovers she has early-onset alzheimers. (12/5, limited)

Top Five

Animated films and Grown Ups movies aside, Chris Rock hasn’t been on our radar for a while, but when Top Five debuted at TIFF this year it was immediately what everyone was talking about. Chris Rock taps his best stand-up while exploring being black and famous. (12/11)

Exodus: Gods and Kings

If you’re over Middle Earth but still want some big screen epic action (with Christian Bale no less), this film’s got your back. And if it means Ridley Scott is getting back to Gladiator-level awesomeness, it should be a satisfying watch. (12/11)

Inherent Vice

The loopy, cool movie you’re film-geek friends will want to discuss. With a bit more humor than his usual, Paul Thomas Anderson weaves a groovy stoner-style mystery starring Joaquin Phoenix. (12/12, limited)

Mr. Turner

A British biopic of the eccentric painter J.M.W. Turner. Timothy Spall will be among award contenders playing the impassioned artist in director Mike Leigh’s latest. (12/18)

Big Eyes

This one might be iffy as the historical art drama hasn’t garnered a whole lot of accolade as of yet, but we’re willing to take a bet on Tim Burton, Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams almost any day. (12/24)

Unbroken

Angelina Jolie’s inspiration tale of war hero Louis “Louie” Zamperini (Jack O’Connell,) who was taken as a prisoner-of-war in WWII after surviving in a raft for a month and a half. Take Grandma, it’s almost guaranteed to be the inspirational tale of the year. (12/24)

The Interview

Intriguing due to the controversy around it and Kim Jong-Un’s apparent hatred for it. Basically after seeing Rogan and Franco in This Is the End we’re betting this could be just as hilarious. A good one to catch with friends once the family has cleared out. (12/25)

American Sniper

It’s not a true end of the year awards race without an entry from Clint Eastwood. Starring Bradley Cooper as America’s best sniper, coping with life in war, and outside of it. (12/25, limited)

Selma

If you live near a city you’ll likely be able to see this one before it goes nationwide in January, marking the 50th anniversary of the organization of the march from Selma to Montgomery, a turning point in the American Civil Rights movement. Critical consensus thus far is that director Ava DuVernay makes a name for herself with this timely historical drama. (12/25, limited)

A Most Violent Year

Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain are the new wave of hollywood elite, of the DeNiro and Streep variety. It’s a crime-thriller set in dirty 1981 NYC where an immigrant family attempts to capitalize on the American Dream. Might be the perfect grit to go with all that dessert you’ve been eating. (12/31)

Leviathan

Alright, this is for the arthouse families willing to find small theaters and in the mood for a more serious foreign film. But this drama around a family in a small fishing town has garnered serious praise thus far. (12/31, limited)

With the Family

Family-safe for when the small-talk AND the food has run out.

Penguins of Madagascar

The other Benedict Cumberbatch movie opening Thanksgiving week, and while this franchise seems overdone, from what we saw at Comic-Con it’s quite clever. Take your little sister. She’ll love you. (11/25)

The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies

For the family member obsessed with Tolkien, or for those who always finish a book even if they don’t like it. At least you’ll feel you got closure by watching this last installment in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit series. (12/16)

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

It’s the third in the franchise, so no guarantees on quality. But the gang’s all back, Stiller, Wilson, Gervais, and even Robin Williams. Might be nice to see just to see the latter one more time. (12/18)

Annie

Understand that we’re only trying to give you options that the whole family might enjoy. But as a musical re-make of an already cutesy film, we make no promises. Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, and Rose Byrne lead the family friendly foray. (12/19)

Into The Woods

A film version of Sondheim’s musical of fairy tale characters with real world problems sounds great. With Disney behind it, we worry they may soften it a bit. Either way it’s got an all-star cast including Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, and Chris Pine. (12/24)

Skip ‘Em

Trust us, these ones are likely not to be worth your precious time.

VHS: Viral (11/21)

Horrible Bosses 2 (11/25)

Extraterrestrial (11/28)

The Gambler (12/19)

The Mule (12/28)

Dying of the Light (12/5)

You might be thinking “Already?!” but yes, award season is already starting. Today, New York’s Gotham Independent Film Awards put out their nominees, a list filled with pleasant surprises and some very obvious choices.

Let’s start with the obvious choice: Boyhood. Any indie award would be insane to deny Richard Linklater’s film, possibly the indie event of the year, some love, so Gotham understandably gave it four nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Ethan Hawke), Best Actress (Patricia Arquette) and Breakthrough Actor (Ellar Coltrane). Also unsurprising is Birdman nabbing three nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor (Michael Keaton). Expect to hear even more about Birdman in the months to come.

Because the Gotham Awards are about independent film, that gives some great underrated films and performances the chance for some exposure through a nomination. The biggest surprise might be Under the Skin and Scarlett Johansson scoring nominations for Best Picture and Actress. It’ll be unlikely for Jonathan Glazer’s strange sci-fi to get much love outside of critics’ circles this year, so nominations like these are nice to see. Another great choice by Gotham: Giving Ira Sachs’ wonderful Love is Strange a Best Picture nomination. Sachs’ film, a quietly heartbreaking drama, seems bound to get left out this year once the awards race kicks into high gear (if Best Actor weren’t so competitive this year, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina would have been locks). Any recognition for Love is Strange is a huge plus.

Read on below for the full list of nominees, including the nominees for Breakthrough Director and Actor. For those more interested in the bigger awards, take note of Oscar Isaac’s nomination for A Most Violent Year. The film hasn’t come out yet (it opens AFI Fest next month), so this nomination might be a hint of another shake-up in the coming weeks. And if anyone’s wondering where current Best Actor frontrunner Steve Carrell is, Gotham decided to give Carrell and co-stars Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo a special award for their ensemble performances in Foxcatcher.

The Gotham Independent Film Awards will hold their awards ceremony on December 1st.

Best Feature

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Love Is Strange
Under the Skin

Best Actor

Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins
Ethan Hawke in Boyhood
Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Miles Teller in Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)

Best Actress

Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights
Julianne Moore in Still Alice
Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin
Mia Wasikowska in Tracks

Best Documentary

Actress
CITIZENFOUR
Life Itself
Manakamana
Point and Shoot

Breakthrough Actor

Riz Ahmed in Nightcrawler
Macon Blair in Blue Ruin
Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood
Joey King in Wish I Was Here
Jenny Slate in Obvious Child
Tessa Thompson in Dear White People

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Ana Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
James Ward Byrkit for Coherence
Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler
Eliza Hittman for It Felt Like Love
Justin Simien for Dear White People

J.C. Chandor‘s first two films, Margin Call and All Is Lost couldn’t have been more different — the first was a talky, smart depiction of Wall Street’s collapse and the second a quiet, small-scale tale of one man’s survival. For his third film, A Most Violent Year, Chandor is taking a look at the lives of an immigrant family in New York City during the crime-filled winter of 1981.

A Most Violent Year is now set for a December 31, 2014 release in New York and Los Angeles, before expanding in early 2015. The release puts it in prime contention for this year’s wide-open Oscar races — though Chandor’s films have arguably under-performed with the Academy, the film sports a great cast (Jessica Chastain, Oscar Isaac, David Oyelowo and Albert Brooks) and Chandor will most likely be considered for original screenplay.

The film will be released by A24 Films, which has only existed since 2013 but has quickly become a hotspot for daring indie films. The company is most notable for Spring Breakers, Obvious Child and Under the Skin.

While we wait to hear much more about the film in the coming weeks, check out the first trailer for A Most Violent Year below: