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 = Best of 2017 & Pre-Oscar Rants

2017 was the worst year of my life because my mom, who inspired my passion for film & theater, died. But a great deal of solace for my grief came from the stellar year of cinema.

My 10 Best Movies of 2017:
  
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
I, Tonya
The Meyerowitz Stories (New & Selected)
The Big Sick

Call Me by Your Name  
The Greatest Showman 
Battle of the Sexes 
Patti Cake$
Dean 
The Insult

Three Billboards is a masterpiece and the Best Picture of 2017. It’s a story about a woman unabashedly demanding justice from the local powers that be. The impact of this film comes from the unapologetic style of writer/director Martin McDonagh, and literally every actor in the cast in addition to the three leads is at the top of their game. Frances McDormand’s performance is simultaneously fierce and restrained and I dare you to take your eyes off her when she is on screen. She is one of the greats and I love that she doesn’t play the Awards Season game (or any other game for that matter) and still wins. She allows her work to stand on its own and gets rewarded for it. Which begs the question – why are there award campaigns at all?

And Sam Rockwell – what can I say? I have loved him since he exploded off the screen in The Green Mile nearly 20 years ago. His performance is insanely complex and to be really honest – it’s just his time.

I, Tonya is miraculous because I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it. Everything about it is great - cinematography, tone, pace, editing, music and all of the performances. It’s the inimitable vision of director Craig Gillespie who accomplished so very much on a tiny budget. Gillespie created a roller coaster ride of a film that is genre-less. It doesn’t fit into a category because it has elements of all of them. Comedy, drama, love story, cautionary tale, breaking the fourth wall, documentary, mockumentary, etc. I, Tonya has unfortunately not received the credit it deserves apparently because the real-life Tonya Harding media circus in the 90’s has kept people away. What a shame. I believe it should have nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay by Steven Rogers. If nothing else, Allison Janney has collected hardware all season and will have an Oscar soon and Margot Robbie has proven that she is a veritable triple threat by training as a figure skater, starring and producing.

When I saw The Meyerowitz Stories back in October I thought for sure it would be showered with awards – for writer/director Noah Baumbach as well as Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman & Ben Stiller. The movie received a standing ovation at Cannes and is the best and arguably most authentic role Sandler has ever played. But something went askew with Netflix and it has been entirely overlooked. It is a crime because aside from Three Billboards and I,Tonya I still think Meyerowitz is one of the finest movies of the year.

Actors who worked their asses off in 2017:

Michael Stuhlbarg – in Call Me by Your Name, The Shape of Water & The Post. What a truly talented character actor. He first amazed me in Trumbo as a desperate, turncoat Edward G. Robinson post McCarthy hearings, and now I am thrilled to see him even in the smallest of roles. Thank you Casting people for giving this actor a ton of work.

Woody Harrelson – in The Glass Castle, an abysmal movie but he is sensationally delusional in it. Then starring LBJ which I didn’t see because of its brief & limited distribution. And then nailing a nomination with his utterly human performance in Three Billboards.

Zendaya – in Spiderman: Homecoming & The Greatest Showman. She’s like Jennifer Lopez but with talent!

Lucas Hedges – in Ladybird & Three Billboards – two totally different parts and he held his own in a car with Dame Frances McDormand. You go baby!

Timothee Chalamet – in Ladybird as a brooding anti-establishment teenager and in Call Me By Your Name as a sophisticated wunderkind falling in love for the first time. And I have to brag that he went to my high school... It’s remarkable that he is the 2^nd youngest nominee ever for Best Actor in a category with heavy hitters like Denzel Washington, Daniel Day Lewis and Gary Oldman. Sorry though Tim – it’s Gary’s turn this year (finally!!!).

A few notes on overly hyped movies:

Ladybird is not on my list because I think it’s a nice little first coming of age indie and that is all. Its greatness has been severely blown out of proportion and I think it’s all because of producer Scott Rudin. Period. If Greta Gerwig wins Best Director, I will have lost all faith in humanity.

I HATED Phantom Thread and don’t understand all its acclaim and the reverence for Paul Thomas Anderson. What is the point of this movie exactly? Why does anyone want to see a psychotic love story? I only saw this film because of Daniel Day Lewis and even he didn’t make it worth the suffering. I am now officially done with PTA’s films.

Now let me end on an upbeat note:

Unlike Ladybird, Patti Cake$ and Dean were distinctive first indie features. Patti Cake$ was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards but I don’t understand how they overlooked Danielle MacDonald’s star making turn as Lead Actress. Dean is as unique as writer/director Demetri Martin's stand up comedy, integrating drawings to tell a bittersweet story of grief and ultimately, growth. 

Battle of the Sexes was simply a good solid movie that told a very important story in the history of women's rights. Billie Jean King was a revolutionary at a time when women could not get a credit card without their husbands and both Emma Stone & Steve Carell are on point. I'm also a huge admirer of directors Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris. 

I was thrilled to have access to more foreign films in 2017 than in the past 10 or 15 years. The Midwife, Truman & Happy End were notable and The Insult is incredibly compelling and socially relevant and my pick for Best Foreign Film. Also, director Sebastian Lelio made history by casting the first transgender actress ever (Daniela Vega) in Chile in the heart breaking A Fantastic Woman. Progress!

The Big Sick was definitely the most satisfying experience I had in a movie theater last year. It is so damn good that it reinvented the genre of romantic comedy. I wish it was nominated for Best Picture – and I am thrilled to see Holly Hunter back in action, (and the casting of Hunter & Ray Romano is casting genius!) but I wish Holly was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

I would also have liked to see The Greatest Showman up for Best Picture. It's another notch on the great Hugh Jackman's belt where he put everything he has into the role. All of the movie's acclaim is for the song “This is Me” but it is a gorgeous modern musical, like La La Land. The good news is - we're making musicals again. 

In general I’d like to see more comedies and musicals in the Oscar Best Picture category. 2017 had a lot of female centered films and films about people of color. Who knows? Things may be even more diverse and empowering next year in our new #timesup world.

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.