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" The second annual Esquire Nominating Academy is a regular series in which we ask some of our favorite talent from the last year in movies to weigh in on what and whom they&amp;#039;d like to see honored this awards season. You may know Martin McDonagh as the guy who surprised everyone by showing us Colin Farrell could act in In Bruges (for which McDonagh was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar), or if you&amp;#039;re of a certain sensibility, as the four-time Tony-nominated playwright of The Pillowman, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and A Behanding in Spokane, among others. If nothing else, we hope you&amp;#039;ve seen this year&amp;#039;s brilliant Seven Psychopaths, a piquant dark comedy starring Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and Christopher Walken, giving his best performance in years. McDonagh gave us his award-season picks for the latest installment of the Esquire Nominating Academy.  Killing Them Softly: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d pick Andrew Dominik as director, because I don&amp;#039;t think anyone&amp;#039;s done three films in a row that are so different and so brilliant. And he hasn&amp;#039;t really gotten quite the recognition I think he deserves for his great taste. I&amp;#039;ve never been as tense in a movie theater as when that raid happened, and they&amp;#039;re in the masks. Anything can happen in that film. It was terrifying to me. It&amp;#039;s great as a filmmaker to go and see something and be kind of envious: How the hell? Why am I so scared? What is he doing? Is it the setup of the characterizations? Is it the performances? Is it the editing? Just what the hell is it? &amp;quot;Killing Them Softly felt like a gritty, urban movie \u2014 it felt real. It felt like it could have fallen out of the 1970s.&amp;quot; The Master: &amp;quot;I think my favorite film of the year was The Master. When I saw it, I thought, There goes my shot at best screenplay. It felt like an old novel that was just found and made into a film, but it&amp;#039;s a brand-new piece of art. But it felt just weighty and meaty and smart, and I still don&amp;#039;t really know what it&amp;#039;s all about, and I think that&amp;#039;s lovely. I think the good thing about novels and the good thing about great films is, as soon as I came out, I kind of wanted to see it again to try and work it out. &amp;quot;Joaquin Phoenix is astonishing. Like scarily astonishing, someone you wouldn&amp;#039;t want to be in a room with. I&amp;#039;ve never seen anyone like that before. At any moment, you&amp;#039;re terrified. You&amp;#039;re thinking, Don&amp;#039;t say that to Joaquin \u2014 he&amp;#039;s gonna start stranglin&amp;#039; ya! And Philip Seymour Hoffman \u2014 he&amp;#039;s always great, too. Those two together were scary and different and muscular. And so I couldn&amp;#039;t believe that I heard it was divisive. It&amp;#039;s like, Can&amp;#039;t you just enjoy it? Even if you don&amp;#039;t understand the whole thing, can&amp;#039;t you just enjoy brilliant performances? &amp;quot;It feels like being hungover all the time. Or like doing drugs. It&amp;#039;s great to feel a little weird. I wouldn&amp;#039;t want my life to be like watching The Master all the time, but the dip into it for two hours \u2014 that&amp;#039;s fantastic.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a17727/martin-mcdonagh-2013-academy-nominations-14930488/>