20 Weeks to Oscar
20 Weeks To Oscar: Cinema, Trump, and Oscar
What smashed me hard across the face about 1917 was the simple earnestness about honor and, considering its time, manhood at a time when America is wallowing in a lack of honor and a dearth of what were once seen as the virtues of manhood.
1917 is just one of the 5 period movies that very specifically deal with the male engagement with power.
Read the full article »Do You Want To Build A Straw Man?
I like Mark Harris. I respect Mark Harris. I care what Mark Harris thinks.
Unfortunately, Mark Harris has become one of the media’s most aggressive spokeshammers for the “everything is a nail” coalition.
I read his most recent Vanity Fair piece, “Conventional Oscar Wisdom Has an Almost All-White Best-Actress Lineup—For No Reason” with real curiosity.
Read the full article »Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
I feel like there is a giant hole in the middle of this work.
Why is this couple getting divorced?
Read the full article »16 Weeks To Oscar: Best Picture
The thing about a season that seems as unsettled as this Oscar season seems… is that things usually lean towards the default positions, which is a bit boring and all too predictable.
Read the full article »Strategy Session: Eight Things (In No Particular Order) To Know About Oscar Season
Welcome to the first chapter of Strategy Session, you guide to how the Oscar season really works. To get things started, here are some general tips about how all this madness really works.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: A Week To Go
Every one of the five films that is considered to have a real chance of winning Best Picture has a position of strength and a soft underbelly.
Do you want to go through them all again?
I don’t either.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: The Big Quiet
Can you hear it?
Listen carefully.
Silence.
We are still a month from The Oscars.
We are still weeks from voting.
And in what has felt like a pretty open season is not accelerating into a passionate discussion of the top movies of 2017. The discussion is about the Solo trailer and Black Panther.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: Nomination Morning
In meetings all over town this morning, the question of whether Phase II will be a war or a love letter is being determined. Me? I think the door is open just wide enough for people to come out fighting. But we shall see… about this time next week, just before every single person alive is honored in Santa Barbara, we will know.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: Season of Assumption
There has never been less plain talk in an Oscar season.
The field lacks many frontrunners and has representation on many fronts, which is stirring passion amongst a wider-than-usual range of interested observers.
This is a good thing.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: Year of the Reconstructed Rom-Com
Award seasons have a theme that emerges as the season progresses. With the arrival of Phantom Thread and The Post, this year is loaded with rom-coms that don’t want to be rom-coms.
The form has been torn down in recent years and barely exists now in Hollywood movies, indies, or even TV. But take the idea of a romantic comedy about, say, the black guy being brought home to meet the over-exuberant white suburban parents and give it a twist… and BAM!… Get Out.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: Season of a Different Color
I don’t know if this will be an #OscarSoWhite year. But even if Denzel Washington and Octavia Spencer are nominated, it will be the same way as two seasons ago… and likely, two seasons into the future.
The problem is not how many nominations people of color get from The Academy. The problem is that we have such a small group of “movies of color” for Academy members to consider.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: The Known Unknown
I see no rhyme nor reason to hang onto trying to figure out which of this group will be The Ones. I think I can guess 6 with pretty high assurance. But others would intensely disagree. It gets more complicated because many people will get excited about more than 10 of these titles. And there aren’t enough slots.
Read the full article »23 Weeks To Oscar: Actors!!!
This is a good year for movies. It may become the most boring Oscar race in living memory. Why? Because even though the answers are not 100% clear in any category yet… the reason that no one has taken “absolutely winning” position is not a lack of great performances, but a distinct lack of “must win” candidates.
Read the full article »24 Weeks To Oscar: Where We Are After TIFF
Only two movies came out of North American premieres at TIFF (which is essentially over, even though it goes on for five more days) with legitimate Best Picture hopes, Molly’s Game and the Venice premiering Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Read the full article »25 Weeks To Oscar: What Happened In Telluride
Twenty-nine new films premiered (or close to it) at Telluride. About half figure in the award season. The two clear winners – at a festival without a competition – were Lady Bird (which gets first billing as the less-expected smash) and Darkest Hour, a movie highly anticipated for the performance of Gary Oldman… and then overdelivered. Expect Best Picture nominations for both. From there, it gets complicated.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: 4 Days Away…
It wasn’t complex. It wasn’t full of surprises. And nothing in its nature has suggested any real change at The Academy or inside The Industry.
The Academy is still old and white. Young people still tend to spark what is new about the industry. But the process of “becoming” for non-actors tends not to be an overnight event.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: Cash & Carrying Gold
Here is a key stat about winning Best Picture: Since the expansion to 5+ Best Picture nominees, no film that has won Best Picture has been better than #3 on the list of domestic box office grossers amongst the nominees.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: The Simple Case For Moonlight
The phenomenon of Moonlight was on full display at the Telluride Film Festival. Audiences were not only screaming and standing on their feet when the movie ended, but many walked the intimate streets of Telliride in a kind of shock, rocked to their core. Men and women. Straight and gay. Some were black… but it is Telluride and well… most were not.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: The Simple Case FOR La La Land
How can anyone claim that a musical that opens with scores of people getting out of their cars to dance and sing on the freeway is “easy” “obvious” or “made for Oscar voters?” If audiences didn’t fall in love with that 5 minutes, the whole picture probably goes down. That is a massive risk.
Read the full article »20 Weeks To Oscar: Right Before The Noms
This has been, perhaps, the most boring Oscar season in modern history.
But the other truth is, this has been a great award season for movies. Everyone has their personal preferences, but man, what a high quality line-up of product for awards this year. High and low.
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