Image = Oscars So What?!

The Academy Awards used to be THE event of the year – for both Hollywood and the filmgoing public, but the Oscars are now in a very bad way. Recently I have seen many people on social media say that awards are bullshit and it makes me sad. The Oscars are a 90-year tradition honoring greatness in filmmaking and they need to regain their former glory. The ratings for the broadcast have dipped dramatically in the past few years, and the Academy keeps trying to reinvent the wheel, to no avail. It is one thing to adapt to a changing culture, as in integrating more diversity in the nominees, but there is also something to be said for maintaining an institution.

I was upset when the Oscar ceremony moved from Monday to Sunday evening and increased the number of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 8-10. After a while I acclimated to the changes and they became the new normal. However, what has gone on in the past year is insane. Proposing a “Most Popular Movie” category, showing Cinematography, Editing & Costume Design during the commercials – and now going host-less. Fortunately, the Academy reversed their decisions on the first two changes and we have yet to see how the third will go. Hosting the Oscars used to be a great honor and now no one will touch it with a 10-foot pole. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Inspired by Bill Maher, I would like to implement New Rules:

Stop misrepresenting nominees. 
Mahershala Ali is NOT a supporting actor in Green Book and he has been winning awards all season as such. This is unfair. Green Book is essentially a buddy movie and Viggo Mortenson and Ali are co-stars. Positioning Ali as Supporting Actor is a sly tactic to give both actors a chance to win. I’m a proponent of spreading the love and Mahershala is hogging all the acclaim this year. It makes me mad that young & hot Ali is probably going to win a 2nd Supporting Oscar tonight when the award could have gone to Richard E. Grant, who has waited decades just for the opportunity to be nominated.

Side note – the same thing happened with Alicia Vikander in 2015 with The Danish Girl. She was in every scene in that movie and won for Supporting Actress.

Stop giving (great) people owed awards for lesser performances. 
I have been saying for years that it is criminal that Glenn Close does not have an Oscar yet. However, I truly hope that she doesn’t win this year because she is owed by the Academy. The Wife is a terrible movie and Glenn has been so much better over the years. I have a feeling that they are going to bestow her this year though, which is frustrating because I believe it is Lady Gaga’s year.

Stop nominating foreign films in the Best Picture category.  
There are many film awards around the world, but The Oscars is all we’ve got. Adding foreign films & directors into the mix is a slap in the face for fantastic American films & directors. I am completely perplexed by all the acclaim for Roma this year. I don’t think I have ever hated a highly praised movie as much as I hate Roma. To me, the film is tedious and futile. My opinion aside, it makes absolutely no sense for this film to be in contention for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Film. Which makes me wonder, did Netflix buy all of these nominations, a la Weinstein?

Stop nominating movies just because they made a lot of money.  
Bohemian Rhapsody is not a worthy contender for Best Picture; I believe it was nominated because it grossed a ton of money worldwide. Rami Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury is one for the ages, but aside from the re-creation of Queen at Live-Aid, Bohemian Rhapsody is a simple biopic. Whereas If Beale Street Could Talk is a gorgeous film and was basically ignored.

One more thing, Academy – How can you justify only 5 Director Noms?  
With 8-10 Movies and 5 Director noms, someone is going to get snubbed. And again, why are Cuaron & Pawlikowski in contention here? It is a disgrace that Peter Farrelly Bradley Cooper and Barry Jenkins are not nominated. The Favourite is technically a foreign film as well, so Lanthimos shouldn’t be eligible either.

Winning an Oscar indelibly changes the lives of its recipients and it needs to be respected as such. Academy – please remember this in the future when considering making changes and honoring the best of American cinema. This year is such a cornucopia of contradictions in nominations that predicting who will win is impossible, but here is who & what I believe to be the best of the year.

My picks for the Best of the Best of 2018:

BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee, Lady Gaga, Rami Malek, Regina King, Richard E. Grant, First Reformed (Original Screenplay), Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Adapted Screenplay)

Image = Bradley Cooper: From Actor to Auteur

Bradley Cooper

I have a theory that if a male actor in Hollywood is too good looking, he doesn’t get taken seriously. Examples of this are Colin Farrell (brilliant in Saving Mr. Banks) and Hugh Jackman (brilliant in EVERYTHING!). Most esteemed male actors are not empirically attractive and if they are, they get put into the category of Movie Star (Cary Grant, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon). Paul Newman was an exception to this rule, but it was different time.

In the most non-offensive double standard ever – it is a very different story with actresses. They can be simultaneously beautiful and taken seriously. But even so - in many cases actresses do even better when they make themselves ugly for a role (eg. Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry).

Bradley Cooper has been nominated 

for an acting Oscar 5 times and has not won yet. He has disclosed that when he started out, many casting agents wrote him off as a “pretty boy” and he was not taken seriously as a dramatic actor. After 20 years of acting in TV & film, Cooper decided to take control of his destiny and helm a major project. He wanted something daunting to transform his perception in Hollywood and took the biggest risk of his life in choosing A Star is Born as his directorial debut. Everyone Bradley knows advised him not to do it but there was something inside him that compelled him to remake this classic Hollywood tale for the 4th time. On The Treatment with Elvis Mitchell he said, “I always wanted to tell a very intimate relatable story about love & addiction, and I wanted it to be cinematic.”

Cooper spent 4 years of his life and put all of himself (quite literally) into re-creating A Star is Born in 2018. He could have played it safe and just simply directed actors, but he chose to co-write the script, co-star in the film (including altering the timbre of his voice which took many months), learn guitar and co-write the music for the film. I was impressed with the beauty of the film because it feels like an old-fashioned love story in many ways. And Bradley can passionately talk about every single frame of this film, so it is truly his work of art.

Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga in A Star is Born

It is always inspiring to witness someone follow their gut against the odds and have it pay off. Despite some mixed reviews, A Star is Born is a hit. It is one of the most nominated films of the year and it has also changed Lady Gaga’s life. Cooper could have opted for a safe choice for his leading lady, but he took a chance on Gaga and even if she doesn’t win the Oscar this year, ASIB has made her a movie star. There must be some real magic behind Cooper’s piercing blue eyes because even veteran film actor Sam Elliott said that working on this film was the most fulfilling experience of his career.

Cooper says his favorite thing about filmmaking is collaboration. He loves actors and even hired his friends from grad school on ASIB who “don’t work as often as they should.” He literally shared his good fortune with his friends. It is clear that Bradley Cooper is so much more than a pretty face. He is a multi-talented artist who has vision and integrity and A Star is Born is a stunning freshman endeavor. Now that Bradley Cooper has successfully been thrust into the rarefied domain of filmmaker, the only question is: How will he challenge himself next?

Image = Awards Season 2016

Tonight’s Golden Globes marks the official start of Awards Season and I’d like to talk a little about that.  I am not going to discuss every single nomination so far, but just some that I feel require discussion…

The nominations for the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and Independent Spirits are ALL over the place and this is VERY unusual.  It’s crazy and disconcerting but it’s also exciting.  There is no one big favorite movie this year and so… anything can happen.  As I said in my last blogpost, I am championing Spotlight for many reasons.  I have to have a favorite and there it is.  Room and The Big Short are my silver and bronze winners, and actually I would be happy if any of them won Best Picture because they are all so damn good.  

Even though the Academy Award nominations have not been announced yet, I am going to make some very early Oscar predictions.

Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl

BEST ACTOR: 

Because it is such a wide open field this year and he already has noms for every award… I am predicting that Eddie Redmayne may very well win back to back Oscars.  The movie The Danish Girl is flawed but his performance (and how AMAZING he looks in drag) is NOT!

I had to literally watch it through my fingers because it is riddled with graphic violence but I think Johnny Depp deserves a nom for Black Mass and Will Smith is back to his serious acting roots in Concussion and merits major consideration.  Bryan Cranston is also spot-on in Trumbo and has been on a roll of late winning Emmys and a Tony and everyone in the industry loves him, so he could steal the Oscar this year.  I am not going to see The Revenant and as much as I think he is way overdue, I would hate to see Leo win his Oscar for it because he almost died in the treacherous terrain and sub zero temps where they were shooting.  I also hate when the Academy gives people owed awards.  Matt Damon does not exactly re-invent the art of acting in The Martian but he expertly displays his mastery at being a charismatic movie star, reminiscent of Cary Grant and Clark Gable.

The real truth is that the finest performance of the year came from young Jacob Tremblay in Room and if he doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, there is no justice in the world.  I don’t understand both why The Globes overlooked him completely and why The SAGs think he is a supporting actor.  He is in every shot of Room and utterly captivating in every moment.

One side note about Best Supporting Actor – since the world is enamored with Amy Schumer and Trainwreck has garnered many noms so far, let’s also recognize Colin Quinn.  It’s a GREAT performance.   

Lily Tomlin

 

BEST ACTRESS:

I think Grandma is a perfect film and that Lily Tomlin was pitch perfect helming it.  It’s great that she got a Globe nom but I am totally shocked that she is not nominated for an Indie Spirit.  I thought that was a lock – and not even a nomination!  This makes no sense to me at all.  At 75 and having one of the greatest years of her career, I think it’s time Lily became an EGOT.

I’ve already said that I was underwhelmed by Carol and that I think Cate Blanchett should be nominated for Truth instead. 

There was a ton of Oscar buzz for Blythe Danner early in the year for her first starring role of her career for I’ll See you in My Dreams and so far – nothing.

Saoirse Ronan, Charlotte Rampling and Alicia Vikander all deserve recognition but I don’t agree with all the praise for Brie Larson.  She is a very natural actress and Room is a sensational film, but her performance was a bit one-note to be THE best of the year.

Since The Globes honor both film and television, let’s talk about TV.  An unfortunate side-effect of what critics have dubbed “too much television” is that many actors get snubbed.  Here are a few actors who are doing amazing work but never get acknowledged: 

Danielle Brooks

Hayden Panettiere on Nashville

Wendy McLendon-Covey on The Goldbergs

Danielle Brooks and Kate Mulgrew from Orange is the New Black
Anna Faris on Mom 

Tim Robbins on The Brink 

Will Chase on Nashville

There is also a big problem tonight with categorizing many shows that are quite un-categorizable.  Is Orange is the New Black a comedy or drama?  What about Transparent?  And - The Martian – about an astronaut left on Mars is not exactly a laugh riot but it’s in the Musical/Comedy category.  I think that we need a Dramedy category.  We can name it The Wonder Years Award.

Maybe since there is “too much TV” we need more nominations.  Or, split the nominations between network and cable & streaming.  I’m not sure what the answer is, but in the words of the legendary Nancy Meyers - something’s gotta give.

Image = And the Nominees Are... But Why?

As we approach the final weekend of Awards Season, I want to say a few things about the nominees.  It was an exceptional year for film and many nominees deserve all the praise that has been showered upon them.  Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, JK Simmons and Julianne Moore, to name a few...  However - I feel that many nominations this year are more about hype than substance – and it begins with Boyhood. 

I admire Richard Linklater as a filmmaker and am in awe of the process and ground breaking nature of Boyhood, but I do not like the finished product.  To me, the movie Boyhood is not engaging in any way.  That is really the point of a great film, isn’t it? Boyhood is long & tedious, nothing much actually happens and the acting (especially by Ellar Coltrane & Patricia Arquette) is quite lackluster.  So, why all the acclaim?  And - is Patricia Arquette winning every award as part of the groundswell for Boyhood or because she has been around for close to 30 years and it is a nice acknowledgment of her tenure?  

In this current climate, awards are too much about campaigning.  Some actors go to everything because they are truly proud of the work they have done and truly honored to be acknowledged.  A good example this year is Benedict Cumberbatch.  He must know that his chances to win anything are slim, but he has said over & over how proud he is of The Imitation Game and how important the story of Alan Turing is to history.  Conversely, some actors (who shall remain nameless) go because they are required to by their contracts.     

Nominations and awards really should be about the work and not about politics or campaigning.  Katharine Hepburn won 4 Best Actress Oscars and did not attend one ceremony!  A story broke yesterday about Mo’Nique winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Precious without campaigning and then not landing future roles because she didn’t campaign.  This is ludicrous!  Often an actor’s performance is so head and shoulders above everyone else, there is no real competition.  When I saw Mo’Nique’s performance I said, “There will be riots in the streets if she doesn’t win.”  It is the kind of visceral, raw, daring performance that you never forget.  And that’s what awards should reward.      

 

In my not so humble opinion - these are some great performances that were entirely overlooked this year...

Best Actress 

Shailene Woodley - The Fault in Our Stars

Jenny Slate - Obvious Child

Best Actor

Ansel Elgort - The Fault in Our Stars

Colin Firth - Magic in the Moonlight

Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Supporting Actor

Miles Teller - Whiplash

Mark Strong - The Imitation Game

Ben Schnetzer - Pride

Bill Hader - The Skeleton Twins
Best Supporting Actress

Imelda Staunton - Pride

Naomi Watts - St. Vincent

Best Original Screenplay

Woody Allen - Magic in the Moonlight

Zach Braff - Wish I Was Here

Best Adapted Screenplay

Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber -  

The Fault in Our Stars

And - why is Steve Carell in the Best Actor category? Foxcatcher had an ensemble cast shared among 3 actors.  BAFTA nominated Carell as Best Supporting Actor and that is where his performance belongs.

One final thing.  Very occasionally in Academy Awards history there have been ties.  In 1968, Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) & Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) shared the award for Best Actress.  The last time I prayed for a tie was in 1999 between Kevin Spacey (who won for American Beauty) and Denzel Washington (The Hurricane).  They were both so great, I couldn't choose but somehow The Academy did.  All season I have said that Eddie Redmayne is THE Best Actor, but on the eve of the Oscars, I am secretly hoping for another tie.  I want them to give awards to both Redmayne and Michael Keaton for his extraordinary job in Birdman - which I am also praying wins Best Picture, as it deserves.