Oscar Wrap Up 2021

Wow, I was not a fan of that ceremony. Here are some of my thoughts.

·         I did like the seating and ‘set design’ of the space.

·         I got 17 out of 23 categories correct which wasn’t too bad considering some of the difficult categories. Though I didn’t predict The Father winning anything, it was a powerful film with a great script and stellar acting.

·         I hated the lack of clip packages. As a video editor, I love myself a clip package. What kind of design template are they going to use? What clips are being chosen to highlight the film element or performance of the nominees? We only got ones for full length features, that it. Unless you count the speed-round of In Memoriam. What was that about? Id’ rather see a great nomination package rather than stars heaping praise on the nominees in flowery speeches. Boring!

·         I’m guessing Questlove was told not to play off any of the winners. Some of the speeches were way too long. Thank you, Frances McDormand for keeping it short.

·         The quiz time seemed really unnecessary, especially as the show was heading into overtime already. But at least Glenn Close was ready to party.

·         But the weirdest thing about the night was having the Best Picture be presented before the Best Actress and Best Actor. So, these performances are more important than the overall films? Also, the tradition is that the Best Actor winner from last year present the Best Actress this year, and Best Actress from last year present Best Actor. Why switch? None of the ladies want Joaquin to give them an award. I bet everyone thought that Chadwick Boseman was going to win and the producers thought that would be a great way to end the ceremony. Only, Anthony Hopkins won and he wasn’t even there! What a deflating end.

Okay, here’s who won:

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
TWO DISTANT STRANGERS (predicted)

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
IF ANYTHING HAPPEN I LOVE YOU (predicted)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
COLETTE

SOUND
SOUND OF METAL (predicted)

ORIGINAL SCORE
SOUL (predicted)

ORIGINAL SONG
FIGHT FOR YOU

VISUAL EFFECTS
TENET (predicted)

MAKE-UP & HAIRSTYLING
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM (predicted)

COSTUME DESIGN
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

PRODUCTION DESIGN
MANK (predicted)

FILM EDITING
SOUND OF METAL (predicted)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
MANK

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER (predicted)

ANIMATED FEATURE
SOUL (predicted)

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
ANOTHER ROUND (predicted)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE FATHER

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (predicted)

BEST DIRECTOR
CHLOE ZHAO [NOMADLAND] (predicted)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
YUH-JUNG YOUN [MINARI] (predicted)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
DANIEL KALUUYA [JUDAS & THE BLACK MESSIAH] (predicted)

BEST ACTRESS
FRANCES MCDORMAND [NOMADLAND] (predicted)

BEST ACTOR
ANTHONY HOPKINS [THE FATHER]

BEST PICTURE
NOMADLAND (predicted)

How did you do?

Oscar Predictions 2021

It’s that time of year again for my fearless Oscar predictions. I found this year incredibly hard to predict with no clear front-runners in many categories. Just as a reminder, I’m not predicting who I want to win but who I think the Academy will vote for. From smaller to bigger, here we go:

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
TWO DISTANT STRANGERS
(The story will remind voters of George Floyd.)

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU
(Parents grieving. I think it’s a downer year.)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
A CONCERTO IS A CONVERSATION
(About a jazz pianist. It’s also jazzy year.)

SOUND
SOUND OF METAL
(I’ll be angry if this doesn’t win. It’s what the film is about.)

ORIGINAL SCORE
SOUL
(Though I really don’t want Jon Batiste to get an Oscar)

ORIGINAL SONG
SPEAK NOW [ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI]
(They gotta give some love to this movie after Regina’s snub.)

VISUAL EFFECTS
TENET
(You don’t have to understand the film to enjoy the visuals.)

MAKE-UP & HAIRSTYLING
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
(They might have overdone it a bit from the images I’ve seen.)

COSTUME DESIGN
MANK
(I think the Hearst party outfits will trump Ma Rainey.)

PRODUCTION DESIGN
MANK
(Hollywood loves the Old Hollywood look.)

FILM EDITING
SOUND OF METAL
(The editing matches the amazing sound scape.)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
NOMADLAND
(There are some beautiful shots of the sky and such.)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER
(This one seems to be a crowd pleaser.)

ANIMATED FEATURE
SOUL
(This one looks like a lock this year, unless the wolves come.)

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
ANOTHER ROUND
(The director nomination puts this one in the lead.)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
NOMADLAND
(I think The Father deserves it more but predict this will get it.)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
(This is the edgier choice. I think’s Sorkin’s film will be shut out.)

BEST DIRECTOR
CHLOE ZHAO [NOMADLAND]
(Pretty confident in this one. History-making time!)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
YUH-JUNG YOUN [MINARI]
(She’s been winning more lately.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
DANIEL KALUUYA [JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH]
(He was pretty charismatic. And he’s been winning lately.)

BEST ACTRESS
FRANCES MCDORMAND [NOMADLAND]
(She carries the film. This was one of the hardest to predict.)

BEST ACTOR
CHADWICK BOSEMAN [MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM]
(I think everyone wants to honor this actor.)

BEST PICTURE
NOMADLAND
(Not might favourite but seems most fitting after this bizarre Covid year.)

I rocked it with 21 out of 24 last year. Not as confident this year. We’ll see what happens this Sunday.

Film: The Trial of the Chicago 7

GENRE: Drama
RATING: R for language and violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 9 minutes
PLATFORM: Netflix
STARRING: Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables, Fantastic Beasts)
Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), Jeremy Strong (Succession)
DIRECTOR: Aaron Sorkin (Molly’s Game)
WRITER: Sorkin (Social Network, West Wing, A Few Good Men)
PLOT: The story of those who stood trial for a politically charged riot during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a gigantic fan of all things Aaron Sorkin. This is also my second time watching this film.

STORY STUFF: It is hard to believe that this court case went down like this. Of course, there are a lot of liberties taken for dramatic effect but even so. It’s stories like this that sicken me when I see blatant injustice and prejudice. In short, the story triggers lots of emotion. Not too surprised when it’s coming from Sorkin. His sharp dialogue, powerful speeches, and wonderfully paced plotting of the story pulls me in every time. Sorkin is a fantastic storyteller.      

ACTING STUFF: Such a great cast. Redmayne lays it on a little thick as Tom Hayden which makes it harder to root for him but I still am captivated by his performance. Cohen and Strong are simply wonderful as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Mark Rylance (Dunkirk) is amazing at keeping his clients under control while Yaha Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen) commands the screen as the ‘roped-in’ Bobby Seale. The most frustrating actor to watch is Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) as the most unjust judge I have ever experienced. He does so well at making me loathe his each and every word.     

ARTISTIC STUFF: I love the editing of this film. I like the way it jumps from courtrooms to communal housing to footage to filmed moments of the riots. It reminds of the slick Social Network double depositions at times. The music has its typical Sorkin-esque inspired swells. I was bothered with Rylance’s hair; not sure if it was historical or a personal choice.   

VERDICT: Four and half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You like Sorkin’s writing and are willing to get angry.  
UPCOMING REVIEW: Oscar Predictions (My 800^th Blog Post!)

Film: Minari

GENRE: Drama
RATING: PG-13 for some thematic elements
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 55 minutes
PLATFORM: Online Rental
STARRING: Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, Okja)
Alan Kim (newcomer), Yuh-Jung Youn (Sense8)
DIRECTOR: Lee Isaac Chung (Abigail Harm)
WRITER: Chung (Lucky Life)
PLOT: A Korean family adjusts to farm life in Arkansas.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I loved Steven Yeun as Glen in Walking Dead.  

STORY STUFF: I was totally on board with all the family dynamics. The son and grandmother interactions were wonderful. The parents struggling to keep their family afloat was heartbreaking at times. It was compelling to see this Korean family maintain their heritage while adjusting to what the wife refers to as ‘hillbilly’ land. Unfortunately, the farm part and some of the other plot details just didn’t grab me.   

ACTING STUFF: Great acting all around. The family chemistry is fantastic. Yeun projects loads of emotion in every quiet moment. Youn as the ‘not typical’ grandmother was lively and fun. But the breakout performance is Alan Kim as the young son, David. He is perfectly cast with his mix of adorableness and bratty attitude. I was disappointed with Will Patton’s (Remember the Titans) performance with his over-the-top craziness, numerous exorcisms and cross carrying. Just weird.      

ARTISTIC STUFF: Not much to say here. It was well shot.

VERDICT: Three stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You want to see interesting family dynamics and subtitles
UPCOMING REVIEW: Trial of the Chicago 7

Film: The Father

GENRE: Drama
RATING: PG-13 for strong language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 37 minutes
PLATFORM: Online rental
STARRING: Anthony Hopkins (Howard’s End, Shadowlands, Thor)
Olivia Colman (The Crown, The Favourite), Rufus Sewell (Dark City)
DIRECTOR: Florian Zeller (newcomer)
WRITER: Christopher Hampton (Atonement) & Zeller (the play)
PLOT: A man with dementia refuses the assistance from his daughter.   

FULL DISCLOSURE: Worried about this one being a downer.  

STORY STUFF: Dementia sucks. I’m sorry if this is ruining the film for others but be prepared to be confused as you see things from Hopkins point of view. Things are not always what they seem and can be jarring at times. It’s pretty tragic when you know lots of people go through this. Watching this film, it reminded me a bit of my Opa; I was young though.  

ACTING STUFF: Hopkins is pretty amazing in this film. His work is compelling, tense, charming and incredibly sad; it definitely garnered a few tears. I did enjoy his obsession with his watch. Colman’s role as the daughter is heartbreaking as you feel her struggle watching her father deteriorate with this awful mental disease. Awesome acting all around.      

ARTISTIC STUFF: As this film is based on a play, the set is very contained but dressed well. The classical music throughout is very beautiful and haunting at times. Not much else to say.

VERDICT: Four stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You are prepared to be sad and think of grandparents.
UPCOMING REVIEW: Minari, Trial of the Chicago 7

Film: Sound of Metal

GENRE: Drama
RATING: R for language
RUNTIME: 2 hours
PLATFORM: Amazon Prime|
STARRING: Riz Ahmed (The Night Of, Rogue One, Nightcrawler)
Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One), Paul Raci (TV guest spots)
DIRECTOR: Darius Marder (newcomer)
WRITER: Marder (Place Beyond the Pines) Abraham Marder (newcomer)
PLOT: A heavy metal drummer’s life changes when he loses his hearing.   

FULL DISCLOSURE: I loved Riz Ahmed in The Night Of.  

STORY STUFF: The Marders have written a pretty moving story. Your heart aches for Ruben as he loses his hearing and has to learn how to live with deafness. The pace is slow but necessary as we go on this journey with Ahmed’s character. The movie gives you the opportunity to try experience what those without hearing have to go through and appreciate the sounds that are all around us.

ACTING STUFF: Ahmed is fantastic. He pulls you into the film and keeps you rooting for him the entire time. His display of emotion in just a look is masterful. I think it’s his eyes; he says so much with them. It was amazing to experience the frustrations and triumphs with this brilliant actor. It’s a shame he’ll probably lose to Chadwick Boseman at the Oscars, but I’m thankful that his performance was at least recognized by the Academy. The other actors are good too. They also have a number of hearing impaired children and adults in the cast as well.      

ARTISTIC STUFF: It’s all about the sound design. It’s simply incredible. Well, maybe I shouldn’t say ‘simply’ as it is intense and complicated at times. To put the audience in Ruben’s shoes, we are treated to the diminished and altered sounds that he hears throughout the film. Don’t play with the remote – share the experience. If this movie doesn’t win the now single Sound Oscar, I’ll be extremely disappointed.   

VERDICT: Four and a half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You want to see awesome acting and challenge your hearing.
UPCOMING REVIEW: Three more Oscar films

Film: Promising Young Woman

GENRE: Drama
RATING: R for strong violence & sexual material, drugs & language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 53 minutes
PLATFORM: Online rental
STARRING: Carey Mulligan (An Education, The Dig, Great Gatsby)
Bo Burnham (The Big Sick), Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black)
DIRECTOR: Emerald Fennell (newcomer)
WRITER: Fennell (Killing Eve)
PLOT: A young woman seeks vengeance against those who traumatized a friend of hers.   

FULL DISCLOSURE: Watching for the Oscars.

STORY STUFF: Well that was sure dark. Fennell tells a compelling story but it is hard to watch at times. I both wanted to know and didn’t want to know how this would conclude. I did find it interesting that they never utter the word ‘rape’ or ‘sexual assault’ but we clearly know what they are talking about. I liked the romantic portion of the movie but knew I couldn’t get too comfortable. This film has important things to say. I’ll just leave at that.  

ACTING STUFF: Mulligan is intriguing. She is one of the reasons it’s hard to watch this film; she is so unpredictable and on edge, but in a good way, kinda. At times I’m rooting for her but other times find her too crazy. I liked the dorkiness of Burnham as the love interest. The casting that didn’t sit well with me was Max Greenfield who was acting too much like Schmidt from New Girl. A moment of shock turns sitcom-y in his hands. Not sure if this is what Fennell intended but I thought it was handled poorly – completely took me out of the moment.    

ARTISTIC STUFF: There’s some nice cinematography here and there. I like the framing of angel wings on Mulligan from time to time. The music was a times off-putting and other times interesting (like an eerie strings version of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’). The set design was weird at times. There’s a scene in a Pharmacy where there’s too much neon which looked random to me. Nothing is clear cut in this film which is probably the point.  

VERDICT: Three and half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You’re not squeamish about dark sexual situations.
UPCOMING REVIEW: More Oscar films

Film: Judas and the Black Messiah

GENRE: Drama
RATING: R for violence and language
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 6 minutes
PLATFORM: HBO Max
STARRING: Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther, Queen & Slim)
LaKeith Stanfield (Atlanta), Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad, FNL)
DIRECTOR: Shaka King (Newlyweeds, People of Earth – TV series)
WRITER: King (Newlyweeds) & Will Berson (newcomer)
PLOT: Bill O’Neal infiltrates the Black Panther Party for the FBI as Fred Hampton gains power.  

FULL DISCLOSURE: Heard good things but mostly watching for Oscars.

STORY STUFF: When I was watching this, I kept thinking back to the infiltration film, BlackKklansman, which I found to be far better. I don’t know much about the Black Panther party but also feel I didn’t learn too much about them either. I was more interested in O’Neal’s infiltration. The love story was okay. There were a handful of scenes I enjoyed like the opening scene in the pool hall and in the car at gunpoint but I wasn’t pulled in like I thought I would.

ACTING STUFF: Kaluuya and Stanfield give some great performances; I can see why they got nominated for Oscars. I think Stanfield was better though, he had more stuff to do. He should be up for Lead Actor but I guess he feels he has more of a shot as supporting – like Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects. I also liked Dominique Fishback (The Hate U Give) as Deborah Johnson. Plemons is actually tiresome as he seems to be playing the same dick-ish roles lately. Martin Sheen (West Wing) creeped me out as J Edgar Hoover with his menacing demeanor and awful hair.  

ARTISTIC STUFF: The cinematography was pretty good. Again, I liked the camera movement in the opening scene. The music annoyed me. It would blast after quiet dialogue making me have to change the volume constantly. I can’t imagine how that would be in a movie theatre.

VERDICT: Two and half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You’re watching all the Oscar nominees.
UPCOMING REVIEW: More Oscar films

Film: Mank

GENRE: Drama
RATING: R for some language
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 11 minutes
PLATFORM: Netflix
STARRING: Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour, Tinker,Tailor,Soldier,Spy)
Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls, Les Mis), Lily Collins (Mirror, Mirror)
DIRECTOR: David Fincher (Social Network, Seven, Gone Girl)
WRITER: Jack Fincher (newcomer)
PLOT: Herman Mankiewicz races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane while having flashbacks to his drunken 1930’s Hollywood days.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Second time watching & found more that I liked.

STORY STUFF: I like a good behind-the-scenes Hollywood origin story (like Chaplin). I’m a big fan of Citizen Kane and having researched and listened to a number of commentaries, I was always impressed with how this “greatest film of all time” got made. David Fincher, working off a script from his late father, gives us another behind-the-scenes perspective. I love seeing these moments in Mank’s relationships with the Hollywood elite that make their way into Kane’s script. The dialogue is extremely clever. I even watched it with subtitles so I could fully appreciate the precise word choices. I found the politics angle a little long and wished there was more about movie production but I still found it to be a compelling story.     

ACTING STUFF: Oldman plays a fantastic drunk. He commands every scene he is in with his staggered walk and clever mouth. Seyfried also shines as Marion Davies. I’m glad she also got nominated but wish there were more scenes with her. The supporting class is very sharp. I love the pomposity of Arliss Howard as Louis B Mayer; his speech about the rules of MGM is a definite highlight. I also enjoyed the characterizations of Joe Mankiewicz (Tom Pelphrey), Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley) and Orson Welles (Tom Burke).

ARTISTIC STUFF: Fincher made some awesome stylistic choices in this film. This is definitely an homage to Citizen Kane. The black and white is sharp and really sets the stage. There are number of angles that have that Kane vibe – the dropping of the alcohol bottle nicely matches the dropping of the snowglobe without going too far. Fincher’s go to musicians, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, also imitate some of the music cues from Bernard Hermann’s original score. The choice that bothered me for this film was the tinny sound of the dialogue. Fincher ADR’d the dialogue at a sound stage which gives off an auditorium sort of feel. It sounds okay indoors, especially Hearst’s mansion, but outdoors sounds awkward and fake. It’s a gimmicky idea that doesn’t work for me.

VERDICT: Four and half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You like old Hollywood and/or Citizen Kane
UPCOMING REVIEW: More Oscar films