Oscars 2016: My Worst Score In Five Years

Last night, I watched the 88th Academy® Awards broadcast with friends and over 150 people at the Rialto Theater in Raleigh. There was a lot of laughter, and some gasps, at host Chris Rock’s hilarious opening monologue, which, of course, was completely about the whole #oscarsowhite controversy. You knew it was coming way before he walked out on stage to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” but that didn’t lessen the impact of such lines as: “This year, in the In Memoriam package, it’s just going to be black people that were shot by the cops on their way to the movies.”

I’ve read that some folks think Rock went too far with some of his material, but I found it to be maybe the best Oscars opening monologue ever – at least the funniest. So were appearances by Louis CK, Sarah Silverman, and Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G, but there were, as always, some bits that bombed like when CLUELESS actress Stacey Dash came onstage as the supposed new “director of the minority outreach program” and wished everyone a happy Black History Month to zero laughter, and Rock bringing his daughters out to sell girl scout cookies was pretty lame too.

Was happy to see Leonardo DiCaprio win for THE REVENANT - the lock of the night. Naysayers complain that his acting was just angry grunting, but I thought he put in a intensely passionate performance. Of course, in the Oscar tradition, this also majorly a win for his previously nominated work, so you got to factor in his terrific turns in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, and THE AVIATOR among others. DiCaprio had a nice eloquent speech too.

Anyway, on to the actual awards. My predictions were really off as I had my worst score in five years: 16 out of 24. In 2012, my score was 15/24 (My best score was in 2014: 21/24). I had THE REVENANT down for Best Picture, it went to SPOTLIGHT, which I came very close to going with as it was my favorite film of 2015. THE REVENANT did win all the other categories that I predicted, including Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Best Director, making him the first person in 66 years to win the award two years in a row. With SPOTLIGHT and BIRDMAN’s wins last year, I guess I’ll know to vote for the Michael Keaton movie that is up for Best Picture next year.

Here are the eight predictions I got wrong:

BEST PICTURE: SPOTLIGHT (I picked THE REVENANT)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mark Rylance for BRIDGE OF SPIES (I picked Sylvester Stallone for CREED)

ORIGINAL SONG: “Writing’s on the Wall” – Sam Smith from SPECTRE (I picked: “Til It Happens to You” from THE HUNTING GROUND)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT: STUTTERER ( I had SHOK down for this, I thought it would lose to AVE MARIA).

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: A GIRL IN THE RIVER: THE PRICE OF FORGIVENESS (I took a stab in the dark with BODY TEAM 12)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: BEAR STORY I missed all three of Best Short Film nominees, even though I’ve actually seen all of the Live Action and Animated ones. I guessed with my heart on these for sure.

VISUAL EFFECTS: EX MACHINA (I thought the Academy would throw a bone to the hugely successful STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. My second choice would’ve been MAD MAX: FURY ROAD so I was going to lose this one either way.

COSTUME DESIGN: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (I had picked Sandy Powell for CINDERELLA; my second choice was Powell for CAROL, so I really underestimated MAD MAX, which won 6 Oscars). I loved how Jenny Beavan, MAD MAX Costume Designer, looked like she could've been in the movie with her outfit:

So that's Oscars 2016. Despite my poor score, I had fun and I'm glad there were a few surprises.

More later...

Hey Kids! Funtime 2016 Oscar Predictions!

I know some folks are boycotting The 88th Academy Awards Ceremony, which is broadcasting this Sunday, February 28th, because of the #oscarsowhite thing, but I bet most of those people will still watch Chris Rock’s opening monologue (at least a clip of it the next day). I’m anxious myself to see what the guy has to say about the lack of diversity controversy, as you just know he’s going to kill on the subject.

As for the rest, this year's Oscars appears to be harder to predict than most years as THE REVENANT and SPOTLIGHT seem to be head to head, with THE BIG SHORT being a possible upset. I’ve even seen some folks predicting ROOM but that’s even a wilder card. It so seems to be Leonardo DiCaprio's (and his film's) year and I'm cool with that, and MAD MAX: FURY ROAD looks to sweep the technical awards, but, as always, here's hoping for some surprises.

My predictions:

1. BEST PICTURE: THE REVENANT

2. BEST DIRECTOR: Alejandro G. Iñárritu for THE REVENANT

3. BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio. It will truly be a shocker if he doesn't get the gold this year.

4. BEST ACTRESS: Brie Larson for ROOM.

5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Sylvester Stallone for CREED

6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Alicia Vikander for THE DANISH GIRL

And the rest:

7. PRODUCTION DESIGN: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

8. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Emmanuel Lubezki for THE REVENANT

9. COSTUME DESIGN: Sandy Powell for CINDERELLA. Powell is also up for CAROL, which may have the edge.

10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: AMY

11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT: BODY TEAM 12

12. FILM EDITING: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

13. MAKEUP: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

14. VISUAL EFFECTS: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

15. ORIGINAL SCORE: Ennio Morricone, THE HATEFUL EIGHT

16. ORIGINAL SONG: “Til It Happens to You” from THE HUNTING GROUND

17. ANIMATED SHORT: Most critics are predicting Pixar's SANJAY'S SUPER TEAM, and I won't be surprised if that wins, but I'm gonna go with THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, which has a lot more food for the thought than all of the other shorts.

18. LIVE ACTION SHORT: SHOK

19. SOUND EDITING: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

20. SOUND MIXING: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

21. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy, SPOTLIGHT

22. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, THE BIG SHORT

23. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: INSIDE OUT

24. BEST FOREIGN FILM: SON OF SAUL

As I always say, tune in Monday to see how many I got wrong.

More later...

Film Babble Blog's Top 10 Movies Of 2015 (With Spillover)

As the Academy Award nominations are going to be announced tomorrow, I thought it was finally time to unveil my top 10 movies of the last year. I saw over a hundred movies on the big screen in 2015, and I found it to be a good, not great, year for film. 

There are a number of notable films I haven’t seen yet, but, of course, you can never see ‘em all. So let’s get right to my favorite motion picture picks of '15, in descending order:

10. ROOM (Dir. Lenny Abrahamson)

Like I said in my review last fall, if Brie Larson doesn't get a Oscar nomination for her harrowing role as a woman who’s been held captive in a backyard shed for five years taking care of her five-year old son (the result of a rape by her abductor), I'll be very offended. The kid (Jason Tremblay) was pretty “on” too.

9. THE MARTIAN (Dir. Ridley Scott) Astronaut and can-do acheiver Matt Damon sciences the shit out of his predicament of being stuck on Mars, and it makes for an inspirational epic of cerebral sci-fi. Read my review here.

8. INSIDE OUT (Dirs. Pete Docter & Ronnie Del Carmen)

It's been five years since a Pixar film made my top 10, and this one definitely wins a placing because, as I wrote last summer, it pulls every heartstring there is.

7. THE HATEFUL EIGHT
(Dir. Quentin Tarantino)

The “Eighth Film by Quentin Tarantino,” as it's identified in its opening credits (who else does that?), is his most divisive work for sure, but its bloody Western mix of THE THING with RESERVOIR DOGS, with a splash of Agatha Christie, really entertained the bejesus out of me. Here's why.

6. ANOMALISA (Dir. Duke Johnson & Charlie Kaufman)

A stop-motion emotional masterpiece from the guy who brought you BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, and SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK. And it's the second film on my top 10 that has Jennifer Jason Leigh in it! My review of this delightful yet unnerving piece of high art will be posted when it opens in my area later this month.

5. CAROL (Dir. Todd Haynes)

Todd Haynes' film follow-up to one of my favorites of 2007 (I'M NOT THERE) is a sophisticated, complicated, and immaculately artful look at a lesbian love affair in the oppressive era of 1950s New York City. The performances by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are as pitch perfect as their setting. Read my review.

4. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
(Dir. George Miller)

As I wrote in my review last May, George Miller's fourth entry in the MAD MAX series is a “brutally brilliant blast”; “an orgy of fire-breathing cars, pole-swingers, chainsaws, steampunk thugs, and gas fire explosions all given a heavy metal soundtrack by a masked musician with a flame-throwing electric guitar atop a vehicle piled with amplifiers.” And it's even more awesome than that sounds.

3. SICARIO (Dir. Denis Villeneuve)

As modern action movies go, as much as I loved MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, this superbly dark cartel counterinsurgency thriller got to me more. The terrifically intense turns by Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro have a lot to do with that. My review.

2. THE REVENANT
(Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)

Leonardo DiCaprio deserves (and will probably get) the Oscar for what he went through in the punishing wild here, but I predictTom Hardy will at least get a nomination too for his supporting part. The film itself, as well as Iñárritu, may also get nods, but coming after last year's win for BIRDMAN, I wouldn't bet on it. My review.

1. SPOTLIGHT (Dir. Tom McCarthy)

Tom McCarthy's fifth film, his follow-up to last year's infamous Adam Sandler flop THE COBBLER (WTF?), which focuses on the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team into the scandal of child molestation and systematic cover-up within the Catholic Church, is a clean, precise procedural about a extremely messy, and unsettling subject. 

The perfect storm of an excellent cast including Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, and Liev Schreiber; a sharp, involving screenplay, along with its top notch editing, score, and Masanobu Takayanagi's cinematography all collide together to make this my #1 movie of 2015. I'll be shocked if the Academy doesn't reward multiple categories for this one. My review.

Spillover: In no particular order, here's a bunch of other 2015 favorites:

LOVE & MERCY (Dir. Bill Pohlad)

THE BIG SHORT (Dir. Adam McKay)

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (F. Gary Gray)

AMY (Dir. Asif Kapadia)

THE END OF THE TOUR (Dir. James Ponsoldt)

Legacyquel Tie: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (Dir. J.J. Abrams) / CREED (Dir. Ryan Coogler)

STEVE JOBS (Dir. Danny Boyle)

THE WALK (Dir. Robert Zemeckis)

EX MACHINA (Dir. Alex Garland)

THE SALT OF THE EARTH
(Dirs. Juliano Ribeiro Salgado & Wim Wenders)

WHILE WE’RE YOUNG (Dir. Noah Baumbach)

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION (Dir. Christopher McQuarrie) - Hey, it's a lot better than SPECTRE!

So, those are my picks for 2015. Let's see what Oscar has to say about it tomorrow morning.

More later...

SPOTLIGHT: A Journalism Procedural That Really Crushes It

Now playing at both multiplexes and indie art houses:

SPOTLIGHT (Dir. Tom McCarthy, 2015)

Tom McCarthy’s SPOTLIGHT is everything that James Vanderbilt’s Rathergate drama TRUTH wanted to be – a vital journalism procedural that actually has the facts to back up its case.

The film focuses on the 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team into the scandal of child molestation and systematic cover-up within the Catholic Church.

The investigation is spearheaded by editor Martin Baron (Liev Schreiber), who has just joined the paper after a buyout. Baron tasks the team – made up of editor Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton), and reporters Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) – to dig into the case against Father John Geoghan, a Catholic priest charged with sexual abuse of over 80 children.

The staff reports to assistant managing editor Ben Bradlee Jr., son of legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee of Watergate fame (see ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN) sharply played by John Slattery of Mad Men fame.

To prove that Cardinal Law found out about Geoghan 15 years earlier and did nothing, the Globe sues the church to obtain access to incriminating documents, something that may alienate the paper’s readership, 53% of which are Catholic.

With the help of lawyers Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci), and Eric MacLeish (Billy Crudup), it doesn’t take long for the team to uncover that close to 90 priests in the Boston area have been accused of sexual misconduct.

McCarthy certainly atones for his previous film, the atrocious Adam Sandler vehicle THE COBBLER, with his passionately meticulous work here. The camerawork, shot by cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, is straightforward as is the editing, as no flashiness is required to enhance the swift, compelling storytelling on display.

Many films have great casts, but SPOTLIGHT is my vote for best ensemble of 2015. Keaton, who was wrongly passed over by the academy for his performance in BIRDMAN last year, could be back in the Oscar race for his stellar turn here. Ruffalo, whose reaction to the enormity of the scandal is the most emotional, also stands out, and McAdams puts in her second solid performance of the year (SOUTHPAW was the first one). Schreiber, Slattery, James, Tucci, and Crudup crush it as well – man, this film is really a boy’s club! – and a few non-names such as Neal Huff and Michael Cyril Creighton shine in roles as outspoken victims.

I bet that, much like its classic newspaper drama predecessors ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN and ZODIAC, this is a film that will reward repeat viewings. Its pace and construction is tightly wound, but still takes time for some interesting moments in-between the unveiling of events – i.e. a shot of Scrieber looking for the publisher’s office, a beautifully framed shot of Ruffalo, James, and McAdams working at their desks with Keaton in his office behind them (see above).

SPOTLIGHT will definitely make my top 10 films of 2015 list, and I’ll be pulling for it come Oscar time. The acting, screenplay, editing, direction, Howard Shore’s stirring score, etc. should all be acknowledged in the upcoming awards season.

More importantly, it should be seen. It has a lot of competition and isn’t playing on a huge amount of screens so folks should really seek it out. Too many great films slip through the cracks and are largely overlooked. Don’t let that happen to the brilliant, intelligent, and über insightful SPOTLIGHT.

More later...