Oscar Noms: What A Lovely Day!

I'm not sure about you guys, but I'm already burned out by this Awards Season. I don't remember being this over it this early last year. But then again I was a much bigger fan of last year's cinematic output. Not that this year was a total wash. There have been some legit great movies this year. It's just that right now, I'm pretty confident that the truly great stuff is not going to win. Am I just being pessimist? Am I putting too much faith in Oscar bloggers? Am I still burned over Birdman's win last year? We will see when the little good guys get handed out next month. Until then, here are my annual bullet point thoughts on the nominees...

-First and foremost I say: Screw Shortlisting! More than a month before these nominees were announced it was decided that Phoenix was not going to make the cut for Best Foreign and Call Me Lucky was not going to make the cut for Best Documentary. As those were two of the year's best films, the decisions to exclude them are dumb decisions.

-White people! I thought this was supposed to be a paradigm shifting year thanks to all the young and ethnically diverse voters? Perhaps they all threw in behind Mad Max and stuff like Creed and Tangerine got left in the lurch?

-WTF with the overall lack of Carol in most major categories? That's some serious BS.

-In happier news... 10 NOMINATIONS FOR FURY ROAD! ... let's just hope it can win a few. Don't know if The Academy would deign to give it Best Picture, but I will totally settle for Best Director!

Oscars 2015

We're all tired of post-Oscars coverage, aren't we? But seeing as I haven't missed an Oscars ceremony since I was about ten years old, I just thought I'd add my two cents. 

*Okay, let's NOT invite Neil Patrick Harris back to host. Yikes. I enjoyed the opening number, but that had more to do with the special effects than with his hosting/singing/acting/whatever abilities. His jokes bombed, he looked uncomfortable, and it was overall such a bummer of a ceremony after Ellen rocked it last year. 

*Really enjoyed the majority of the acceptance speeches, especially the ones by Patricia Arquette, Graham Moore, and John Legend and Common. In spite of the glitz and glam of the Oscars, they reminded us that there are real people out there struggling and to join the ongoing fight for justice. 

*While I apparently was alone at our party in thinking that the "Sound of Music" segment was really weird (like...really really REALLY weird), I enjoyed seeing Julie Andrews come out at the end. She's the best. 

*Everything Is Awesome! What a fun performance, and yes that was Will Arnett as Batman. And Lego Oscars! Yay!

*JOHN TRAVOLTA STOP BEING CREEPY.

*Eddie Redmayne!! Sorry, I have a huge crush on him. He did an amazing job in The Theory of Everything, a film I absolutely loved.

*Julianne Moore! Grand Budapest Hotel! Feast! Hooray for the winners!

*"Glory". Incredibly moving. A well-deserved win for an amazing film that was by far one of the best of the year. 

*Birdman for Best Picture? Really? I liked it, but Best Picture? Uh...okay Academy, if you say so. This movie screwed up my Oscar betting...I didn't think it was going to win EVERYTHING. Oh well. I have a feeling this will be one of those years we look back and be like "Oh yeah Birdman won that year! That was weird." Happy for a Mexican director winning again, though. Viva Mexico!

*Seriously, NPH. Don't host again.

Bye bye Oscars, see you again next year!

Oscar Umbrage 2015!

Well it’s that time of year again. Time for me to ramble off my random knee-jerk reactions to the Oscar nominations! Of the eight Best Picture nominees I have only see three, but that is not going to stop me from being able to go “full umbrage” here. As it stands I’ve seen 74 eligible films. Sure a lot of them were either fluff and/or downright bad, but there was also a LOT of good films that went either completely or significantly unheralded. It’s very early in the day and I might miss a few observations here and there. I’ll probably edit this piece as the day goes on to include them and make me look like I was a genius all along. Well enough with all of this intro business, here we go…

Best Picture

-American Sniper? I’m aware that Rotten Tomatoes isn’t the be-all and end-all but that film is currently sitting at 73%. That’s 6% lower than fellow nominee The Theory of Everything (which I did unexpectedly like). And even before the usual whisper campaigns of Awards Season had a chance to begin, people were digging into this film's accuracy and questionable quality.

-Though I haven’t seen Whiplash it is HIGH on my to-see list and I’m glad that a film that small can still make it to the big game without a huge machine behind it.

Best Director

-Ava DuVernay where are you? We saw this coming with the snub from the DGA earlier this week, but still… 

-I love me some Bennett Miller and with three great films under his belt I see him as a, “director to watch”, but with Foxcatcher’s lack of a Best Picture nomination I see him as merely taking up space. Space perhaps that could have gone to a woman. Perhaps a woman of color. Perhaps a woman of color who directed a historical EPIC with relevance to modern day social issues. Just sayin…

Best Actress
-No Amy Adams?

Best Actor
-No Raph Fiennes?
-No Jake Gyllenhaal?

Best Supporting Actress

- I get that they campaigned Arquette as Supporting Actress and I’m really glad to see her here, but I am decidedly on the side of the LA Film Critics Association in thinking that she was at least the co-LEAD in Boyhood. Ellar Coltrane was the male lead, and she was the female lead. Had the film been released with its original title of 12 Years (scrapped due to its similarity to 12 Years a Slave) this would have been a whole different conversation.

-Of course Meryl Streep, because why not?

Best Supporting Actor

-Oh yeah there was a movie called The Judge this year…

Best Adapted Screenplay

-Yay Inherent Vice!

-Glad to see that The Academy’s weird decision to classify Whiplash as an adaptation (since 15 pages of the EXACT SAME SCREENPLAY had been made into a short film last year in order to get investors interested in supporting the feature-legth verion) didn’t derail it from getting recognition.

Best Original Screenplay

-Yay Nightcrawler!
-Where's Obvious Child?

Best Documentary Feature

-No love for Teenage. I guess a lot of it was re-creations so it’s in a weird in between category. Still worth seeking out. Currently streaming on Netflix.

-But where is Life Itself? There is absolutely nothing that should have or could have excluded this moving portrait of a man who was and is so tied to the industry giving out these awards.

Best Animated Feature

-No Lego Movie?

Best Song

-Lego Movie! Spaceship! EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!

-But seriously we all know this is going to "Glory", right?

Best Original Score

-No love for Under the Skin. Of course.

-Did love the EPIC organ use in Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar score.

Best Cinematography

-Gonna spit if the film that finally wins Roger Deakins an Oscar is Unbreakable rather than any film in the decades of amazing work that preceded it.

-Ida is pretty gorgeous

-How is this the first time Robert Yeoman has ever been nominated?

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

-Guardians of the Galaxy's entire cast! Vs. Steve Carell’s nose and Channing Tatum’s ears! Vs. Old Tilda Swinton! – IN A BATTLE TO THE DEATH!!!!!

Best Animated Short

-Feast is ADORABLE!

Oscars 2014

That just about sums it up!

The Academy Awards have come and gone, and I have to honestly say that it was one of the better ones in a long time! Just about every win felt well deserved, and we had a blast watching it at home! Let's reminisce, shall we?

Highlights:
*Ellen! She did a great job. With the epic group photo, the pizza order, and her adorably announcements of her outfit changes, she kept the mood light and the laughs rolling! Can we have her host every year? Pretty please?
*Bill Murray's impromptu Harold Ramis tribute during his turn as presenter. Truly lovely.
*Hooray for Frozen! Idina Menzel's performance of "Let It Go" was awesome, and I loved the rhyming acceptance speech.
*While my money was on "Let It Go" for the win, can we all agree that "The Moon Song" from Her is a wonderful song as well? I was humming it the rest of the night.
*Lupita and Meryl dancing with Pharrell!
*Hooray for the writing wins! I was especially happy for Spike Jonze.
*I was iffy about Pink singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", but she did a great job. And Bette! I haven't heard "Wind Beneath my Wings" in yeeeeeears!
*Lupita, Lupita, Lupita. She looked stunning, and her speech had us all tearing up. Your dreams are valid!
*Gravity and 12 Years A Slave were two of the best movies I saw this year, and I'm so happy about the way the awards ended up going. Gravity completely deserved all the technical awards, and 12 Years A Slave deserved the big win. We're going to be talking about these two films for a long long time.

The hilarious WTFs:
*"Adele Dazeem"?! You had ONE JOB, John Travolta! Oh well, at least it spawned a million hilarious memes and John Travolta Name Generators. And Adele Dazeem has her own Twitter now. Oh, the Internet!
*30 Seconds to Mars? Hahahaha dude you just won an Oscar. The silliness.
*Liza, you crazy!

Here are some photos from our little Oscar party! Thanks to all who spent the evening with us!

Anyone's Game...

So it's Oscar time again which means that it is once again time for Craig react to the nominees in stream of conscious fashion! Thanks to the sheer number of good films that came out in 2013, picking a field of nominees that would please everyone was clearly a losing battle, but some of the omissions here seem downright odd. But then again there are some great surprises too. Oh well, here we go!

Best Picture

-Only 9 nominees in a year like this? You couldn't possibly have found another film to fill out that slate? No Short Term 12? Before Midnight? Spectacular Now? Inside Llewyn Davis? Spring Breakers? The list goes on...

-Haven't seen Philomena, Dallas Buyers Club or Captain Phillips yet but the first two seem out of place in this field. Aside from American Hustle (which isn't awful) the rest of the nominees are solid in my opinion.

-Though it doesn't break my heart, it's interesting to see pretty much no love for Saving Mr. Banks.

Lead Actor

-No Oscar Issac? No Tom Hanks?

-Go Bruce Dern!

Lead Actress

-Of course Meryl!

-Amy Adams?

-This is totally a battle between Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock. Since Sandy already has her lead Oscar let's give this one to Cate...unless Dench sweeps in and surprises everyone.

-Would have loved to see Brie Larson get love for Short Term 12. Great, great stuff!

-No Emma Thompson?

Supporting Actor

-No Franco?

-Two-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill? Sure!

-I'm already tired of Jared Leto and apparently he's been using the same speech at every awards show so let's give him a break and how about Michael Fassbender? Or the Somali guy?

Supporting Actress

-Go June Squibb go!

-Take Julia Roberts out and you have one of the most solid categories of the year.

Animated Feature

-The Croods?

-No Monsters University?

Cinematography

Very solid category. Didn't expect to see The Grandmaster get any love but I'll take it.

Best Director

Substitute David O. Russell with Spike Jonze and I'd be happy.

Best Documentary

-CUTIE AND THE BOXER!!!!!!! Awesome!

-No Blackfish? No Stories We Tell? No Leviathan?

-But we all know that this catagory is OWNED by The Act Of Killing Right?

Best Makeup

-Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Original Score

-Arcade Fire!

Original Song

-Karen O!

-"Let It Go"!

-Apparently "Alone Yet Not Alone" is from one of those evangelical Christian movies you never hear about like Fireproof and such. How does that get a nomination over ANYTHING from Inside Llewyn Davis?

Sound Editing/Sound Mixing

-I had no clue that Lone Survivor got a limited early limited release for Oscar qualifying....

Visual Effects

-They haven't given this award to Gravity yet?

Adapted Screenplay

-Finally some love for Before Midnight!

Original Screenplay

-Spike!

-Original?

Oscars 2013

I just love awards season, don't you? The buzz, the gowns, the speculation, all leading up to the big night! Every year my in-laws host an Oscar party and our friends go and there's food and spontaneous sing-a-longs and griping and laughing...it's a good time! So, let's get to it!

Highlights:
*The intro was all over the place (Captain Kirk? What??) but I loved adorable Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe tapdancing, and Charlize Theron looked like a goddess in that dance number.
*Shirley Bassey. Holy crap. She was giving me LIFE. I hope I look that fabulous at 76!
*Barbra's still got it too, doesn't she?
*That Sound of Music joke killed me! I love that there was a guy whose only job was to run out wearing a Nazi uniform and yell "They're gone!"
*Christoph Waltz winning his second Oscar!
*Jennifer Lawrence tripping on her way up to receive her Oscar and being able to laugh at herself.
*Quvenzhané Wallis was so cute with her puppy purse, showing off her guns, haha!
*Ben Affleck getting his due with Best Picture after getting snubbed for the nominee for Best Director. And I found his rambly speech really sweet!

Wah Wahhhh:
*That Ted bear was so creepy. Maybe I'm alone on that one.
*Seth MacFarlane was just OK. But that's what we say about all the hosts, isn't it?
*Michelle Obama presenting Best Picture was kinda weird. I love her, but she doesn't have anything to do with the film industry.
*What is wrong with Kristen Stewart? I mean, I know she stepped on glass and was on crutches and all that, but what is WRONG with her?

Here's to winning Oscar bets, (*clinks glass with Craig*) crazy sequins, and all of people who created these great nominated films! I guess I need to see Life of Pi, don't I? And congrats, Argo!

A House Divided...

It's Oscar time! Craig here with my annual musings on this rather wacky and all over the place field of nominations. LOT of surprises this year. Some good, some not so good. Really bummed to see Moonrise Kingdom virtually shut out and The Master shut out of non-acting stuff. Perhaps these will fare better in our upcoming poll? With the lack of a real clear front-runner and the odd differences between the Guild nominees and these nominees, I don't think I'm going to do too well when it comes time to lay money on the line on Oscar night. Oh well! Onward with my ramblings!

*      *      *

-Wow no Moonrise Kingdom or The Master in Best Picture? Guess Harvey Weinstein threw all his weight behind Silver Linings Playbook rather than The Master and of course only one "quirky" film can get nominated at a time, right?

Oscars 2012

I sort of HAVE to comment on the Oscars, don't I? They weren't full of surprises, necessarily, but I enjoyed having Billy Crystal back to host and thought they put on a nice show. We watched the show pigging out and surrounded by friends and family, and we all enjoyed it. From what I've read, enjoying the Oscars seems to put us in the minority, but WHATEVS.

Highlights:
*Octavia Spencer's emotional speech after winning Best Supporting Actress. Aw, I teared up a little!
*Cirque du Soleil's cinematic-themed performance, that made me feel a) lazy, and b) sorry for the guy who lost his balance on the person chair! Don't worry, I'm sure the beheading you will get for your crimes will be quick.
*Seeing Bob Balaban, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge in a fake focus group for "The Wizard of Oz"..."We're always arguing about whether or not monkeys can fly, and this proves it!"
*Robert Downey Jr, Emma Stone, and the Bridesmaids taking full advantage of being presenters!
*Christopher Plummer winning Best Supporting Actor, being 82, and suave as hell at that. Take note, men of Hollywood!
*Jim Rash mocking the awkward way Angelina Jolie was standing just before presenting him with an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants.
*Best Original Song goes to "Man or Muppet"? Hilarious.
*Hugo!!

Wah Wahhhh....
*The utter predictability of it all. Although, after having tied for first in the Oscar bets at our party, I shouldn't complain...
*Um, how did Harry Potter not win for makeup? The GOBLINS, people!

Aaah!
*Don't. Get. Me. Started. On. The Artist.

Oh, and for the fashionistas out there, I have to give a shout-out to my favorite fashion blog Tom and Lorenzo for all things red carpet!

Say what you will about the Oscars, but they're my Super Bowl and I'll be damned if I ever miss it!

And the nominees are...

January and February are notoriously shitty months for movies. March too. The films released in these months are all just placeholders to tide us over until the summer blockbuster season. This is the time of year when crap like Wild Hogs and Old Dogs gets dumped in our laps. Mercifully the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have chosen to once again extend an olive branch to all the Cinema Nerds out there by announcing their 2011 Oscar Nominees!

Opinions on the Nominees:
(Disclaimer: These are my opinions, apologies in advance if they're bitchy)

-First thought: Yawn!

-Really happy to see Hugo get more nominations than The Artist. I know The Artist was cute and silent, but seriously? Best EVERYTHING?

-Glad to see The Tree of Life get best picture and director love. Don't really understand how or why Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and War Horse got best picture picks.  Both had been pretty written off, but I guess they have powerful people pulling for them. Would have liked to have seen a film as dark as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo up for a golden statue.

-The Best Director nominees are pretty impeccable. Part of me wishes David Fincher had been included, but mostly I just wish he would have won last year.

-Pleased to see Gary Oldman up for Actor but it's probably going to be between the two Ocean's guys.

-Props to Brad since he's up for both Lead and Supporting!

-Best actress might be the tightest race. Real people, gender-bending, civil rights and rape.

-Pleased to see Jonah Hill up for an Oscar, would rather see Albert Brooks though...

-FUCK YEAH MELISSA MCARTHY!

-FUCK YEAH KRISTIN WIIG!

-No Tin Tin for animated? And what are these other two nominees? At least they aren't Cars 2...

-Thought this would be the year that I saw multiple Best Documentary Nominees before the announcement (Senna and Bill Cunningham New York) only to have it be yet another year where I've seen none.

-Best Cinematography and Editing are pretty damn tight races.

-Wow! A Roland Emmerich film up for something other than special effects (Anonymous up for Costumes)

-John Williams v. John Williams

-Only 2 Best Song nominees? Just hand it to the Muppet guys right now...

-Woo hoo a nomination for Drive!...for Best Sound Editing. Probably won't win. Hopefully won't lose to Transformers...

-And lastly...would've liked to have seen Beginners get an Original Screenplay nod...

So rather than sit through Underworld: Awakening or Joyful Noise, why not go and play catch up with all the wonderful films you missed last year? Some of them are even out on DVD and Netflix Instant already! And when you're done with all the nominees, start watching some of the movies we've written about on this here blog, cause really, there are PLENTY of great films to watch before it's time to give Joyful Noise a spin.