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 = 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 = Best of 2016 & Pre-Oscar Rants

My Best Movies of 2016:

Manchester By the Sea
La La Land
Denial
Florence Foster Jenkins
Captain Fantastic
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Other People
Sing Street
A Man Called Ove
The Meddler
 
Honorable Mention:
 
Hidden Figures
Lion
20th Century Women
Café Society
Genius

I’ve said this before and it needs to be said again. Katharine Hepburn won 4 Academy Awards (which is a solitary record) and she never attended a ceremony or campaigned in any way. And they weren’t all in the early part of her career. Kate won her 4^th Oscar in 1981. I HATE that The Oscars have become both a popularity contest and an annual exercise in “Who do we owe this year?” Here’s my soapbox about both the great and the overrated this year.

Casey Affleck

1 – Manchester by the Sea is a masterpiece. Kenneth Lonergan dramatizes and beautifully directs the subject of extreme grief with humor, humanity and an incredible use of eclectic music. Lonergan’s original script needs to win the Oscar for screenplay because there is nothing else like it. And here’s the blatant truth: Casey Affleck has been in the trenches in mostly supporting roles for 20+ years. His leading performance as a tortured man in Manchester is restrained and beautiful and the bottom line is… It is Casey Affleck’s year. I don’t care what has unearthed from his personal life during this awards season. He is THE Best Actor of 2016. Period.

2 – La La Land is also a modern masterpiece because Damien Chazelle achieved making a romantic musical in 2017 that is visually stunning and (spoiler alert) does not have a happy ending! The actors (Emma Stone & the great Ryan Gosling) are honest & vulnerable and it takes guts to sing on screen with naturalistic singing voices. The film deserves a lot of acclaim for being unique, ambitious & absorbing. I’ve seen it twice and it was better the second time.

3 – Now for the bitching:

Fences is a play on film, not a movie. Denzel Washington & Viola Davis did it on Broadway in 2010 and both won Tonys so I don’t see why it needed to be made into a film – except maybe vanity. The film is very dramatic but not at all cinematic. Denzel the Great as Director does nothing interesting with his film adaptation. His acting is interesting but not compelling because there is not enough editing. Denzel already has 2 Oscars (#2 owed to him). He does not need a 3^rd for this movie. I LOVE and greatly respect Viola Davis but I feel like the Oscars (and all the major awards this year) are making up for the incredible injustice of NOT giving her the award for Best Actress for The Help in 2011. I would give the award for Best Supporting Actress this year to either to Michelle Williams in Manchester or Naomie Harris in Moonlight.

Arrival is one of the worst movies I have EVER seen. Unbearably slow, boring, nonsensical and badly written. I don’t understand ANY of the acclaim for it.

And I know this is not going to be a popular comment – but – both Loving & Moonlight are so slow I stopped caring what happened on screen. The stories are significant but the filmmaking is so tedious that I cannot appreciate the finished product. I can acknowledge certain performances though – and I think Joel Edgerton was brilliant as usual, as were Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris.  

4 - Some major oversights this year:

Maybe the most underrated actress alive Annette Bening in Mike Mills’ lovely tribute his own mother, 20^th Century Women.

The entire cast of Denial. Tom Wilkinson, Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall & Andrew Scott. All brilliant, as is the film.

Hugh Grant in Florence Foster Jenkins. I would give him every Supporting Actor Award for graciously holding his own opposite Dame Meryl Streep. And if not Hugh, runner up is the gorgeous & vulnerable breakout performance by Lucas Hedges in Manchester. Although another flagrant oversight is the remarkable 5 year old non-actor Sonny Pawar, who carries the first hour of Lion with ease.

Shafted for TWO great performances was Janelle Monae. Wonderful in Moonlight and scene stealing in Hidden Figures. It's shocking that she didn't get a nomination for Supporting Actress. 

The Meddler is arguably Susan Sarandon’s greatest role ever and the film got NO recognition. It’s wonderfully written & poignant. Susan & the movie are just brilliant. See it.  

And lastly - one awesome thing:
Because I am watching the Indie Spirit Awards right now, I have to say that I LOVE that Molly Shannon won for Best Supporting Actress for the very affecting Other People. Justice for a tiny little indie and an actress who can do both comedy and drama.

Image = Kate the Great McKinnon

I have a major pet peeve.  I hate when people say that Saturday Night Live hasn’t been funny since the original cast.  This is a bandwagon people jump on just to sound cool even if they haven’t watched the show in years.  To them I say, first of all – watch the first episode ever.  It’s not that funny.  It’s slow and actually very weird.  SNL was a crazy experiment and it is an inimitable accomplishment that it’s been on the air for pver 40 years.  Second – yes, every single sketch is not a home run, but every single cast (after the original) has had brilliant members with indelible characters and sketches.

Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon, Phil Hartman, Martin Short, Will Ferrell, Bill Hader, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen, just to name a few…

I am a devotee of SNL and as such, I slog through the inferior sketches for those moments of gold - and there are many.  In the past 2 seasons this current class has delivered some of the most clever and salient work on the show in years.  (Honorable mention goes to the music videos and Weekend Update with Michael Che & Colin Jost skewering Trump last season after he hosted).  SNL provides scathing social satire on the American condition and is a barometer on current events.  Even though SNL has an ensemble cast, there are always cast members who stand out.  Right now, the “stars” of the show are Taran Killam and Kate McKinnon.  And although they are not household names, they are kicking ass on SNL and I predict that Kate is going to be a huge star after this weekend.  Ghostbusters opens today and it is going to be gi-normous and make her a huge star.

I knew McKinnon was special since The Big Gay Sketch Show (2006-2010).  She played an aristocratic British boy named Fitzwilliam who could have anything in the world but all he wanted was a vagina.  This was at a time before there was a transgender character on every other show on television.  It was brave and bold and a little heartbreaking.  Watch here to see a taste of Fitzwilliam and other characters Kate did on TBGSS.  

On SNL, Kate moves seamlessly from a dead on Hillary Clinton to Justin Beiber to Ellen Degeneres.  Her character last season who was abducted by aliens was so funny that every other cast member in the scene broke into laughter, including host Ryan Gosling.  She also, with Kumail Nanjiani, was a better host of the Independent Spirits than Chris Rock was of the Oscars.  McKinnon is fearless in her work and that’s what makes her so engaging.  I’m guessing that comes from how she lives her life, being the first openly gay cast member in SNL history.  Like I said, if you don’t know her name right now, you will after this weekend.  Whether this Ghostbusters is a good movie is beside the point.  It's a watershed moment that a big summer blockbuster stars 4 women with 2 relatively unknown.  Thanks to Paul Feig for that.  I hope this is the beginning of a trend - in casting, in the world and whatever it takes to get many more Kate McKinnon projects made. 

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.