Oscars: Best & Worst

First things first, I was 15 for 24 on my predictions, having not expected the Mad Max sweep of the crafts categories, the genuine surprises in the Visual Effects and Supporting Actor races, and the very pleasant surprise of the "it's anyone's game" Best Picture race. So, here they are, my picks for the night's best and worst moments:

Worst: Writing's On the Wall winning Best Original Song. Seriously? Seriously? What a shitty choice. The only way this makes sense to me is if all the other nominees tied for first and that somehow disqualified them all from winning.

Best: Jenny Beavan winning for Best Costume Design having shown up like it's casual Friday. The show was, like, a million hours long so good for her for choosing comfort.

Worst: The conceit behind the ordering of categories, unfolding them in the order that the elements of a movie come together, except not really. They tried this a few years ago, as I recall. It was as dumb this time as it was last time.

Best: Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Best presenting team, hands down.

Worst: Jared Leto and Margot Robbie. Worst presenting team, hands down.

Best: The black history month tribute to Jack Black. There were a lot of jokes about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy throughout the night, but this one was the best.

Worst: Whatever that was with Stacey Dash.

Best: The presentation for the Best Sound Editing nominees. Sound Editing is arguably the least understood Oscar category, as it's difficult for lay people (and even people in the industry, if interviews with supposed Oscar voters are to be believed) to understand the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, and this year's presentation did a fine job of demonstrating just what is being rewarded.

Worst: Mad Max not winning Best Visual Effects. Yes, it's difficult to feel bad for a film that walked away with that many awards during the course of the night, but the film's loss in this category is a real head scratcher.

Best: Louis C.K.'s presentation for Best Documentary Short.

Worst, Now and Forever: Playing winners off before they've finished speaking. It's not even that I don't agree that speeches should be shorter or that the show is too long. It's the unfair way that the practice of playing people off is deployed. If DiCaprio isn't going to get played off even though the show has gone over time by half an hour, then don't play off the "lesser" winners who aren't celebrities. It should apply to everyone, or it should apply to no one.


So, that's it. Another year down, on to the next one.

88th Academy Award Winners

As they're announced:

Best Original Screenplay: Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer, Spotlight

Best Adapted Screenplay: Charles Randolph & Adam McKay, The Big Short

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Production Design: Colin Gibson & Lisa Thompson, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega, & Damian Martin, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant

Best Film Editing: Margaret Sixel, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Sound Editing: Mark Mangini & David White, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Sound Mixing: Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff, & Ben Osmo, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Visual Effects: Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington, & Sara Bennett, Ex Machina

Best Animated Short Film: Bear Story

Best Animated Feature: Inside Out

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Best Documentary Short: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

Best Documentary Feature: Amy

Best Live Action Short Film: Stutterer

Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul

Best Original Score: Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight

Best Original Song: "The Writing's On the Wall," Spectre

Best Director: Alejandro G. Inarritu, The Revenant

Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Best Picture: Spotlight

Oscar Predictions

We're now only hours away. Once again, my predictions:

Best Picture: The Big Short

Best Director: Alejandro Inarritu

Best Actress: Brie Larson

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander

Best Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Big Short

Best Original Screenplay: Spotlight

Best Film Editing: The Big Short

Best Cinematography: The Revenant

Best Production Design: The Revenant

Best Costume Design: Carol

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Revenant

Best Original Song: "Til It Happens To You"

Best Original Score: The Hateful Eight

Best Sound Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Sound Mixing: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Visual Effects: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul

Best Animated Feature: Inside Out

Best Documentary Feature: Amy

Best Animated Short Film: World of Tomorrow

Best Live Action Short Film: Stutterer

Best Documentary Short Film: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

21st Century Essentials: How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Director: Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler
Country: United States

One of my weak spots as a film viewer is that I have a tendency to dismiss animated films sight unseen as being “for kids” and, therefore, not of interest to me. This is despite the animation boom of the last decade or so which has produced animated films that are not only huge financial successes, but also critically acclaimed and possessed of technical and narrative ambitions which put them on par with the best live action films of any given year. Every once in a while an animated film (usually one from Pixar) will get such rapturous reviews that I’ll feel compelled to see it in theaters, but for the most part if I happen to see an animated movie, it’s well after the fact and when my home viewing options are sort of limited. That’s how it was when I first saw How to Train Your Dragon, coming to it about 2 years after its theatrical release and then kicking myself for having missed the opportunity to see it on the big screen. How to Train Your Dragon is the kind of film that can make a believer out of even the most stubborn and resistant of viewers.

88th Academy Awards: Best Picture

The nominees are:

The Big Short
Plot: Three parallel stories about men who see the housing market collapse coming and make moves to capitalize on how greedy and short-sighted everyone else on Wall Street is being.

Total Nominations For the Film: 5 - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing

Metacritic Score: 81
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88% Fresh
Box Office: $67,399,794

88th Academy Awards: Best Director

The nominees are:

Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Oscar History: 1st nomination
Total Nominations For the Film: 4 - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay

88th Academy Awards: Best Actress

The nominees are:

Cate Blanchett, Carol
Role: Carol Aird, a woman in the process of divorce who falls in love with a shopgirl and is forced to choose between living an honest life as the person she really is and with the person she loves, or continuing to suppress herself in order to maintain her relationship with her daughter.

Oscar History: 2 wins for Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004) and Best Actress for Blue Jasmine (2013); 4 previous nominations for Best Actress for Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), and Best Supporting Actress for Notes On a Scandal (2006) and I'm Not There (2007)

88th Academy Awards: Best Actor

The nominees are:

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Role: Dalton Trumbo, famed Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted during the HUAC era, but who perseveres and finds a way to keep getting his work produced despite the prohibition.

Oscar History: first nomination

88th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress

The nominees are:

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Role: Daisy Domergue, a prisoner being transported to be hanged for her crimes as part of the Domergue gang, who has a secret plan to escape her fate.

Oscar History: first nomination

88th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor

The nominees are:

Christian Bale, The Big Short
Role: Michael Burry, an eccentric hedge fund manager whose narrow focus allows him to see that the housing market is about to collapse before anyone else does.

Oscar History: 1 win for Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter (2010); 1 previous nomination for Best Actor for American Hustle (2013)

Review: Freeheld (2015)

* *
Director: Peter Sollett
Starring: Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, Michael Shannon

Freeheld, based on the Academy Award winning documentary short film of the same name, is the sort of film that is perhaps most generously described as "well meaning." It takes on an important subject that, despite its events taking place 10 years ago, was still more than relevant at the time of its theatrical release last fall, thanks to the US Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage, and aims to be a rousing and powerful depiction of our continuing march towards equality. At times it is a rousing and powerful film. More often, though, it's a film that doesn't even actually seem all that interested in the two women who were the subject of that original documentary which makes the feature possible, and instead reduces them to being catalysts for the male characters around them to take action and bring about change and/or wrestle with their own personal feelings as they try to decide whether or not they want to be on the right side of history. Julianne Moore and Ellen Page are really good as the two women in question, but the film really gives them short shrift.

88th Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay

The nominees are:

The Big Short
Nominated Writers and Oscar History:

* Adam McKay - first nomination
Also nominated for Best Director for The Big Short

* Charles Randolph - first nomination

88th Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay

The nominees:

Bridge of Spies
Nominated Writers and Oscar History:

* Matt Charman - first nomination

* Joel Coen - 4 wins for Best Original Screenplay for Fargo (1996), for Best Adapted Screenplay for No Country For Old Men (2007), Best Director for No Country for Old Men (2007), Best Picture for No Country for Old Men (2007); 9 previous nominations for Best Director for Fargo (1996) and True Grit (2010), for Best Film Editing for Fargo (1996) and No Country For Old Men (20007), for Best Adapted Screenplay for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), and True Grit (2010), for Best Original Screenplay for A Serious Man (2009), and for Best Picture for A Serious Man (2009) and True Grit (2010)

* Ethan Coen - 4 wins for Best Original Screenplay for Fargo (1996), for Best Adapted Screenplay for No Country For Old Men (2007), Best Director for No Country for Old Men (2007), Best Picture for No Country for Old Men (2007); 9 previous nominations for Best Director for True Grit (2010), for Best Film Editing for Fargo (1996) and No Country For Old Men (2007), for Best Adapted Screenplay for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), and True Grit (2010), for Best Original Screenplay for A Serious Man (2009), and for Best Picture for Fargo (1996), A Serious Man (2009) and True Grit (2010)

88th Academy Awards: Best Film Editing

The nominees are:

Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Oscar History: first nomination for both

88th Academy Awards: Best Cinematography

The nominees:

Roger Deakins, Sicario
Oscar History: 12 previous nominations for Best Cinematography for The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Fargo (1996), Kundun (1997), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), No Country For Old Men (2007), The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Reader (2008), True Grit (2010), Skyfall (2012), Prisoners (2013), Unbroken (2014)

88th Academy Awards: Best Production Design

The nominees are:

Bridge of Spies
Nominated Team and Oscar History:

* Rena DeAngelo - first nomination

* Bernhard Henrich - first nomination

* Adam Stockhausen - 1 win for Best Production Design for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014); 1 previous nomination for 12 Years a Slave (2012)

88th Academy Awards: Best Costume Design

The nominees are:

Jenny Beavan, Mad Max: Fury Road
Oscar History: 1 win for Best Costume Design for A Room with a View (1986); 8 previous nominations for Best Costume Design for The Bostonians (1984), Maurice (1987), Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Anna and the King (1999), Gosford Park (2001), The King's Speech (2010)

21st Century Essentials: The Return (2003)

Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Starring: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko
Country: Russia

His arrival is seemingly out of thin air. Where has been? Why is he back? Why is he back now? What does he want? Is he even who they say he is? Andrey Zvyagintsev’s The Return raises these questions not to answer them, but to create a mood of unshakeable unease that allows the viewer to burrow into the mindset of its adolescent protagonists. Like those two kids, you never really know where you stand in The Return, whether you’re watching the story of a man who is genuinely trying to connect with the children he hasn’t seen in some time, not realizing that his hard nature and inexplicable behavior is pushing them away, or whether you’re watching the story of two children at the mercy of someone with a nefarious purpose, left in his care by a mother whose intentions might be good but ultimately misguided. The result is a spellbinding film that keeps you on the edge of your seat right until the very end.

88th Academy Awards: Best Makeup and Hairstyling

The nominees are:

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Nominated Team and Oscar History:

* Love Larson - first nomination

* Eva Von Bahr - first nomination

88th Academy Awards: Best Original Song

The nominees are:

"Earned It," Fifty Shades of Grey

Music and Lyrics By: Ahamad Balshe (Belly), Stephan Moccio, Jason "Daheala" Quenneville, Abel Tesfaye (The Weekend)

Nominees' Oscar History: first nomination for all 4

88th Academy Awards: Best Original Score

The nominees are:

Carter Burwell, Carol

Oscar History: first nomination

88th Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing

The nominees are:

Mad Max: Fury Road
Nominated Team and Oscar History:

* Mark A. Mangini - 3 previous nominations for Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Aladdin (1992), and The Fifth Element (1997)

* David White - first nomination

88th Academy Awards: Best Sound Mixing

The nominees are:

Bridge of Spies
Nominated Team and Oscar History:

* Andy Nelson - 2 wins for Best Sound for Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Best Sound Mixing for Les Miserables (2012); 16 previous nominations for Best Sound for Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988), Schindler's List (1994), Braveheart (1995), Evita (1996), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Thin Red Line (1998), The Insider (1999), Moulin Rouge! (2001), and for Best Sound Mixing for Seabiscuit (2003), The Last Samurai (2003), War of the Worlds (2005), Blood Diamond (2006), Star Trek (2009), Avatar (2009), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012)
also nominated as part of the team for Star Wars: The Force Awakens

* Gary Rydstrom - 7 wins for Best Sound for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Titanic (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998); 10 previous nominations for Best Sound for Backdraft (1991), Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), Best Sound Mixing for War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing for Backdraft (1991), Best Sound Editing for Monsters, Inc. (2001), Minority Report (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), War Horse (2011), and Best Animated Short Film for Lifted (2006)

* Drew Kunin - 1 previous nomination for Best Sound Mixing for Life of Pi (2012)

88th Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects

The nominees are:

Ex Machina
Nominated Team and Oscar History:

* Mark Williams Ardington - first nomination

* Sara Bennett - first nomination

* Paul Norris - first nomination

* Andrew Whitehurst - first nomination

Review: What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)

* * * 1/2
Director: Liz Garbus

What Happened, Miss Simone? is the sort of documentary so well-crafted that going into it almost entirely unfamiliar with its subject isn't an obstacle to enjoying it. I went into it with only the broadest of knowledge of Nina Simone's career and was totally captivated by the complex, dynamic, and at times self-destructive woman revealed through archival footage of her on stage and in interviews, and through interviews of those who knew her. While pretty much every award for documentary filmmaking this year went to Amy, this other chronicle of a star who burned bright and self-immolated with fame is just as compelling and as fascinating.

88th Academy Awards: Best Foreign Language Film

The nominees are:

Embrace of the Serpent
Country: Colombia
Director: Ciro Guerra
Plot: A 40 year search through the Amazon for a sacred healing plant undertaken by a shaman who is the last surviving member of his tribe and two scientists, one German and one American.

Director's Oscar History: First nominated film

88th Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature

The nominees are:

Anomalisa
Director: Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson
Plot: A self-help author depressed by how mundane life has become experiences a brief encounter with a woman who makes him see things in a different way.

Director's Oscar History: First nominated film for Duke Johnson. Charlie Kaufman: 1 previous win for Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004); 2 previous nominations for Best Original Screenplay for Being John Malkovich (1999), and Best Adapted Screenplay for Adaptation. (2002)

88th Academy Awards: Best Documentary Feature

The nominees are:

Amy
Director: Asif Kapadia
Subject: The life of Amy Winehouse, as seen through private home videos.

Director's Oscar History: First nomination

88th Academy Awards: The Shorts

The nominees are:

Best Animated Short Film
Bear Story
Director: Gabriel Osorio Vargas
Plot: An old bear relates the story of his life through a mechanical diorama.