The Big Day/Predictions

Today is the big day! I can hardly contain my excitement.

My tradition for Oscar Day is to sleep in a bit, but not too late. Wake up mid-morning and watch any Nominated movies I have left. I read up on my Oscar editions of Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter. E! starts airing Oscar related programming in the early afternoon. I usually let this start to record for an hour or two before I start watching because I fast forward through the parts where they dress random people up in gowns and last year there was even a tiger involved for some reason. I start watching live for the red carpet and finalize my predictions during this time. When ABC starts airing their red carpet I switch back and forth with E!'s coverage for a bit. E!'s is always better though; they just do this more often. Finally the show starts and it's magical.

This year, my only deviation from my past tradition is that I firmed up my predictions earlier in the day so I could share them here. So without further ado, here are my final Oscar Predictions.

Category	Who will win	Who I want to win
Best Picture	12 Years a Slave. This is an incredibly close race and many are predicting Gravity, but I think it will win in more of the technical races leaving Best Picture to 12 Years a Slave.	This was a strong year for film and I liked all of the Nominees except Captain Phillips. If I could vote on my own Oscar ballot though, my choice would be Nebraska. I think 12 Years a Slave should win, but Nebraska was my favorite.
Best Actor	Matthew McConaughey. This one is pretty much a lock. The only award he didn’t win this season was the BAFTA but he wasn’t even nominated.	All of the performances in this category were award worthy. My favorites were Leonardo DiCaprio and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Both were tour de force performances, but I’m gonna choose Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Best Actress	Cate Blancett. This is another easily predictable category. Blanchett has won every major award for her role in Blue Jasmine.	Cate Blanchett is fantastic. While I thought her performance was great, I found the movie to be wanting.  My favorite performance though, was Amy Adams.
Best Supporting Actor	Jared Leto. There’s no doubt he will win in this category.	I have to choose Jered Leto as well. I was pleasantly surprised by how great Jonah Hill was in Wolf of Wall Street, but Leto completely disappears into his role.
Best Supporting Actress	Jennifer Lawrence. I’m taking a risk on this one because it might be Lupita Nyong’o. But I bet against Lawrence last year and was wrong.	This was a hard decision to make. Lupita Nyong’o is amazing in her role, but there’s something about her that I find un-genuine (and I really disliked her attitude during the BAFTAs). So, I’m going to stick with Jennifer Lawrence.
Best Director	Alfonso Cauron. Just as Ang Lee won last year for directing a technical wonder, so will Cuaron.	Alexander Payne is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. Nebraska was beautiful and it’s a gutsy choice to shoot a film in black in white when it’s not a period piece.
Best Adapted Screenplay	12 Years a Slave. The WGA Award went to Captain Phillips, but 12 Years a Slave has been winning a lot of the others.	I think it would be pretty cool if Steve Coogan won for Philomena, but I have to go with Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, and Richard Linklater for Before Midnight. I love this film trilogy and they deserve some love for keeping the story of these characters fresh for nearly two decades.
Best Original Screenplay	Her. Spike Jonze wrote a truly original story. There’s also a chance David O. Russell may win for American Hustle as he did at the BAFTAs.	Spike Jonze wrote a beautiful and thought provoking script. I have to choose Her.
Best Cinematography	Gravity. Gravity has pretty much swept the awards for this category.	I do think Gravity’s cinematography is great and should win, but I would choose Prisoners because it was my favorite movie of 2013 and this was its’ single Nomination.
Best Animated Feature	Frozen. There’s not really a contest here.	I saw all but one of the Nominees (Ernest & Celestine) in this category and I don’t know that this was the strongest year for Animated films. That said, I’d pick The Wind Rises because at least it isn’t computer animated and it’s Hayao Miyazaki’s swan song.
Best Documentary Feature	20 Feet From Stardom. It’s the lone “feel good” Nominee and is about show biz. There’s still a chance The Act of Killing could take it though.	I really liked 20 Feet From Stardom, but The Act of Killing is the more “important” film.
Best Documentary Short	The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life. A film about the oldest living Holocaust survivor (at the time it was filmed) who survived because she was a concert pianist. Of course this will win.	I saw three of the five nominees and thought The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life was the best.
Best Live Action Short	Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything). There is a chance the more sentimental vote could go to Helium.	I did watch all of these and Helium really moved me, but Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything) was stunning. The filmmakers made a woman’s final flight with her children from her abusive husband feel like a Hitchcockian thriller.
Best Animated Short	Get a Horse! It was the short before Frozen so it’s been the most widely seen short.	I saw all of these as well and I really like Room on the Broom from the same filmmakers who made The Gruffalo a few years ago, but the best was Mr. Hublot.
Best Song	“Let it Go” from Frozen. It’s won everything else.	I would be happy if any of the Nominees in this category won, but I’ll be rooting for “The Moon Song” from Her because I want to see Karen O win an Oscar.
Best Score	Gravity. It’s been winning everything.	As I’ve written before, I really didn’t like Gravity’s score so my choice is Her.
Best Costume Design	The Great Gatsby. It’s a race between the period dramas for this one. I might be wrong and American hustle will take it.	Last May I said The Great Gatsby would win so I’m sticking with that.
Best Production Design	The Great Gatsby. The sets were fabulous.	I made the same prediction last May for this as well; The Great Gatsby.
Best Makeup & Hairstyling	Dallas Buyers Club. I just don’t see most of the older members of the Academy voting for either of the other nominees, especially Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.	Dallas Buyers Club, of course.
Best Foreign Language Film	The Great Beauty. It seems to have the most support and has been praised for being Fellini-esque.	I’ve only seen two of the five nominees in this category, including The Great Beauty. It was a little bizarre and to existential for my taste, so I pick the moving The Broken Circle Breakdown.
Best Visual Effects	Gravity. There’s no doubt here.	I may have had issues with the movie but there’s no denying the visual effects of Gravity.
Best Editing	Gravity. I’m not sure, but I’m going with this one because of the mix of editing performance with Visual Effects.	Editing is one of those categories that I’m never sure what to pick, but I’ll root for 12 Years a Slave.
Best Sound Mixing	Gravity. This had a great balance of sound and silence.	The Sound Mixing and Sound Editing categories confound me a bit, so Gravity all around.
Best Sound Editing	Gravity.	Gravity.

Well, that's what I'm sticking to at this point. I saw more Nominated films this year before Oscar night than ever before. The best I've done in years past is getting 19 of 24 Categories correct. Let's see if my extra effort paid off. I hope you all enjoy your Oscar Night! I know I will. Just 30 minutes until the Red Carpet starts!

(I'll be live Tweeting the Red Carpet if you want to follow along @MandaAiley)

Documentaries, Scores and More

Only two days left to go until the big night! Time to tackle some more Oscar Categories.

Documentary
Last night I finished watching all of the Best Documentary Feature Nominees. I watched all five within the past week and I found them all fascinating.  This year, the documentaries have two distinct themes: art and war.

The first one I saw was Cutie and the Boxer, which highlights the lives of married artists Ushio and Noriko Shinohara. I was expecting a documentary purely about art and was pleasantly surprised to find a deeper, complicated view of marriage and lasting love.

Next up was The Square, a look at the young revolutionaries behind the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. I'll admit that when I'd first read the description of this documentary I didn't have much interest in it, but it was a great film. I hope the filmmakers continue to follow what's going on in Egypt and maybe have a series of documentaries as things progress a la the Paradise Lost documentaries.

Continuing with the "war" theme I next watched Dirty Wars, a film featuring journalist Jeremy Scahill's investigation into the role of JSOC in the War on Terror. This was my least favorite of the documentaries. It's interesting and quite frankly scary to think about the power that JSOC has, but I felt like Jeremy Scahill was the star versus the story being the star. Good documentaries are about the story, not the person telling the story.

My penultimate documentary viewing was 20 Feet From Stardom, a delightful behind-the-scenes glimpse at the music industry's back-up singers since the 50's and 60's through today. I really enjoyed this film and it was a nice change of pace after watching so many bleaker films.

Finally I watched The Act of Killing, which truly married the themes of art and war, with my husband. Both of us sat stunned as we watched the story unfold of "gangsters" (essentially mass murderers) who killed thousands of communists in Indonesia in the mid 1960's. What is so stunning about this film though, is that these "gangsters" are being filmed as they make a movie about how they did the killings; most of them with no remorse at all.

As of right now I'm struggling between whether I think The Act of Killing or 20 Feet From Stardom will win come Sunday night. The Act of Killing is a strong contender and has been sweeping up most of the awards this season, but it has disturbing subject matter and can be difficult to watch. If the Academy ends up swinging towards 12 Years a Slave for Best Picture members may not want to reward another sad, difficult movie. 20 Feet From Stardom would be the answer. It's sparkly, mostly happy, full of singing, and a behind-the-scenes look at show-biz, which the Academy loves. 20 Feet From Stardom also has the best production value of all the Best Documentary Feature Nominees.

Score
Last weekend I finished watching all of the Best Original Score nominees and this is the category that I have the most issues with. I've written before about how great the scores were for 12 Years and Slave and Nebraska and now that I've seen all of the nominees I think they should have been included over others.

The first score I found to be wanting is from Gravity. In fact, I was a little underwhelmed by the whole movie. I didn't see it until it had been out for four months and it didn't quite live up to the hype. Good movie, but not the most fantastic thing ever. For a movie that takes place in a the vastness of space there needs to be a score that can fill part of the void. However, Steven Price's score doesn't do this. It had some high points, which were all featured in the trailer, but beyond that I found it to be rather forgettable. What was more interesting was director Alfonso Cuaron's use of silence in key scenes. (I would trade in Hans Zimmer's 12 Years a Slave score here.)

The other Nominee that I think could have been replaced  is Thomas Newman's score for Saving Mr. Banks. The movie was charming (I'm little surprised Emma Thompson wasn't nominated for Best Actress, but I'm not sure who she would have replaced) and so was the score, but not necessarily Oscar worthy. I want more originality out of my Oscar nominated scores and I think Mark Orton's score for Nebraska had more character.

The Nominee that surprised me the most was John Williams' score for The Book Thief. I went into the movie expecting to not be wowed by the score because it seems like some years Williams is nominated because he's "John Williams", not because it's a great score.  However, I  was pleasantly surprised. It was a nice movie, though the pacing was a bit slow at times, but the score really stood out and kept the movie moving even through the slower parts.

I really like the final two nominees even though they are very different. William Butler (of Arcade Fire) and Owen Pallett's score for Her was fun and quirky. In the past few years the Academy has been rewarding fun, original, inventive scores like A.R. Rahman's score for Slumdog Millionaire and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score for The Social Network. It would be interesting if Butler and Pallett win for Best Original Score and Karen O wins for Best Original Song, not just because they're both nominated for Her, but it would also be a win for the indie rockers.

Finally, I'd be really happy if Alexandre Desplat won for his score for Philomena. I thought the score fit perfectly with the movie and Desplat is incredibly adept at hitting the emotional cues without being showy. He's fast becoming one of my favorite film composers. I listen to his score for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom in my car all the time and can't wait to see what he's done with Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel in March.

Visual Effects
Best Visual Effects is the Category that tends to include more of the summer tent pole movies and this year is no exception. Iron Man 3, The Lone Ranger, and Star Trek Into Darkness all came out last spring or summer. All three had spectacular effects, but who would have thought last July that The Lone Ranger would be an Oscar Nominee? And it's a double nominee (for Best Makeup and Hairstyling)! The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug also has great effects. They created a fabulous dragon, but there's only one nominee that seems to matter this year. Gravity. Even though I was underwhelmed by the movie as a whole, there's no denying that it's visual effects are dazzling.

Makeup and Hairstyling
As I just wrote, The Lone Ranger was a surprising inclusion on the Oscar Nominee list, though it did have some impressive facial hair. (Not at much as in The Hobbit, though.) However, the Nominee that shocked me the most in this Category was Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. I'll admit I have not seen this movie and have absolutley no desire to do so. It is very rare that I'll refuse to see an Oscar Nominated movie, but after I was dragged to see the last Jackass movie and had to leave the theatre half way through because I was about to throw up, I swore to never watch another one. I'm rooting for the third nominee, Dallas Buyers Club. It's a great movie and the makeup was done really well. It takes a lot to make Matthew McConaughey look bad and Jared Leto's makeup was fabulous.

Well, that's enough for tonight. I meant to have this up before midnight but that didn't quite work. Also, I was featured in the local paper yesterday in an article about trying to see all of the Oscar Nominees. Check it out here:  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2014/02/27/fans-hustle-to-see-top-titles-before-oscars.html

Until tomorrow!

It's Crunch Time

Less than a week until the big night now!! I'm so excited. Over the last week and a half I've seen 10 movies up for Oscars this year. Yes, that's right. It's crunch time. The Olympics have ended and now I can focus all of my extra time on the Oscars. This week I'm going to try and focus on a few categories each day and pick my final predictions Sunday afternoon.

First though, I've been remiss at writing about the BAFTAs. They happened a little over a week ago, but things have been busy this past week, plus I was watching a lot of movies. However, I had a few thoughts to share.

1. I always love how adorably British the BAFTAs are. They give out awards for the Outstanding British Film, Outstanding Contribution to British Film, and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. I love that all of these awards are "outstanding" versus the "best". Stephen Fry has been hosting for years and he is outstandingly British in his presentation. It's always hilarious to see the American stars not sure how to react to the British humor. I just want to tell them to loosen up and laugh a little more.

2. The theme of the night seemed to be missing winners having their speeches read by their movie's directors. Youtube the acceptance speeches given by Alfonso Cuaron on behalf of Gravity's Best Cinematography winner, Emmanuel Lubezki, and David O. Russel on behalf of American Hustle's Best Supporting Actress winner Jennifer Lawrence. Both are funny and charming.

3. Lupita Nyong'o  needs to learn how to have a more gracious losing face. She was nominated for two awards, Best Supporting Actress, which clearly she lost to Lawrence, and the EE Rising Star Award. That award is given to an actor or actress who's up and coming in the business and is voted on by the British public through texting, phone calls, and online. Nyong'o looked pretty pissed when she lost the first award to Lawrence, but when she lost the EE Rising Star Award as well, she looked really upset and annoyed. She even leaned over to her companion and muttered something while the kid who did win, Will Poulter (Son of Rambow, We're the Millers) walked up to the stage. Poulter was genuinely surprised and excited that he won and gave a slightly flustered and sweet speech. Nyong'o has won a lot of awards this season and deservedly so, her performance in 12 Years a Slave is heartbreaking, but she's not going to win them all. Her reaction made me start to root against her a little for the Oscars.

4. Cate Blanchett gives great speeches. She, of course, won for her performance in Blue Jasmine, but I think her best performance this Awards Season has been her acceptance. She's been humorous and classy throughout, but this speech made me cry. She accepted the award and gave the speech in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman. This one is worth Youtubing to see an example of a class act.

The Oscar category I want to focus on today is Best Original Song.  This year seems to have produced a lot of "rock stars" as nominees with the exception of one Broadway vet. I've seen all of the nominated movies except for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, however, I did listen to the U2 penned song, "Ordinary Love". I like U2, even if Bono has become synonymous with pretentiousness over the past few years, and the song was a good U2 song, but not quite Oscar worthy. Pharrell Williams is up for his song "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 and it's a delightful song. Pharrell is also on a winning streak right now after his four Grammy wins earlier this month. Honestly, I don't care if he wins or loses the Oscar, as long as he can get the whole Dolby Theatre to clap along because they're happy. The third rock star up for an Oscar this year is Karen O of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs for "The Moon Song" from Her. This was a sweet song and fit in perfectly with the movie. I really love Karen O and think she's fabulous so I would sort love if she won an Oscar. It would be like when Trent Reznor won for Best Original Score for The Social Network in 2010. I'll admit, I yelled with excitement in my living room. Finally, the last nominee for best song is "Let it Go" from Frozen. As I've said before, I think it would be great if Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez won for this song. It's a fun song and has all of the pizzazz of a Broadway hit.

Well, that's enough for tonight. I plan to be back tomorrow with a few more Oscar category thoughts and hopefully a couple more movies seen.

Beating the Winter Doldrums with Three Movies

Sorry it's been a while. The last couple weeks have been crazy personally. Plus, the Olympics have started and I love the Olympics almost as much as I love the Oscars. Despite all of this I did find time to see three movies since my last post; two Oscar contenders and one for fun on a date night with my husband. :)

The first movie up was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This was the date night with my husband. I thought is was a fun little movie about a man who daydreams so much that he's a bystander in his own life, until he's inspired by a coworker/love interest to go on an adventure to find a lost negative for the final cover of Life magazine. I've always liked Ben Stiller, who pulled double duty as both director and the title character, Walter Mitty. This was a departure from the straight comedies that Stiller is known for directing (Zoolander--which is one of my all time favorite comedies--and Tropic Thunder--also brilliant). Overall, I feel Stiller balanced the drama and the comedy well, minus one bizarre daydream sequence involving "Benjamin Button" disease. Personally, I think Stiller's humor is great and laughed during the scene, but from a critical standpoint I can understand that it was absurdest and may have lost the general audience's connection to the story. One thing I was not expecting from a Ben Stiller movie was that the cinematography was stunning. Oscar nominated cinematographer, Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano, 1993), does a wonderful job, especially in the scenes in Iceland involving a skateboard. My favorite part of the whole movie, though was the awesome soundtrack featuring Jose Gonzales and Junip (one of my favorite bands). 

I hope that someday there will be an Oscar for best soundtrack. Yes, there are already statues handed out for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, but a a soundtrack can make or break a movie. Even though the songs/music may already exist there's a true talent in being able to put the right song to the right scene. If you've seen Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, you'll never hear Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You" without envisioning the ear cutting scene. Or Enya's "Orinoco Flow" has a new meaning when put over a scene in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. On the less chilling side of things, would the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? have had the same impact without it's stellar soundtrack? Probably not. Putting together the perfect soundtrack is as much an art form as writing the perfect score. Hopefully, the Academy will eventually see that.

The next movie that I saw was Frozen with a group of friends including someone seeing it for the third time. Frozen is up for two Oscars including Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song. I have to say I had an enjoyable time seeing the movie. Disney does have a way of making movies seem magical while you're watching them--and this movie even has magic. Audience reaction to this film has been astounding, thus my friend seeing it a third time. There are sing-along showings already in theatres. As I said I enjoyed the movie, but I don't quite understand this overzealous reaction to it. It was fun, but not the most amazing movie ever. The story is sweet and having two sisters myself, I like that the sisters' love story is as important as the romantic story. However, I'm a little tired of computer animated movies. I miss traditional animation. At this point it will probably win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature but I'm rooting for HayaoMiyazaki's The Wind Rises in that category even though I haven't seen it yet. As far as the music goes, I think Frozen featured fun songs. Not surprising considering the songs were written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Lopez already has two Tonys for Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon. I'm hoping he wins Best Original Song for "Let it Go" because then he'd have three of the four awards needed for an EGOT (he also has a Grammy for Book of Mormon). 

Finally, I saw Nebraska by myself. Part of the reason I waited so long to write this post is that I needed more time to process this movie. I loved it and I think that one sign of great art is the ability to elicit an emotional response from someone. This movie effected me emotionally on many levels. It's the story of an elderly man, Woody Grant, convinced that he's won a million dollars and his exasperated son, David Grant, who takes Woody on a road trip to claim the "prize". My grandparents are getting older and both have major health issues. Watching Bruce Dern play Woody Grant was like watching my own grandfather minus the drinking problem that Woody has. Both are Korean War vets that don't talk about the horrors they endured. And both are cantankerous, stubborn and determined, yet you can't help but love them. Nebraska was such an emotionally charged movie for me to watch, I'm glad I saw it alone. I wouldn't have known how to explain to a friend in the moment why I was crying throughout. 

Alexander Payne (nominated for Best Director) is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. Some people have said that he depicts the people of the mid-west in a not very flattering light in Nebraska. However, I would argue that he just shines a light on how people truly are. I've grown up in the mid-west and while I live in a large city I have family that live in small towns and Payne hits it on the nose. Families worry and argue and about money. People hold grudges and gossip about things from 40 plus years ago. Two years ago I felt that Payne's The Descendants was the Best Picture over The Artist and this year I don't know if Nebraska is the top movie but it's a close second to 12 Years a Slave. 

Nebraska is up for six Academy Awards, all deservedly so, however I think it should have been included in two more categories. Just as I felt with 12 Years a Slave, I think Nebraska had an awesome score that should have been recognized. It was not your traditional John Williams style sweeping score featuring more french horn solos than anyone needs, but had more character and uniqueness. I also think that Will Forte should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for portraying David Grant. He gave a great subtle performance that I think was better than Bradley Cooper's flashier performance in American Hustle.

Alright, I've got to get back to watching Olympics and get ready for the BAFTA Awards tonight. I'll be back with my thoughts on the BAFTAs later this week. Until then...

SAG Awards/12 Years a Slave

Yes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards were a week ago, but it's been a busy week so I'm gonna talk about it now. The SAGs are always a fun awards show to watch, even though the fact that SAG-AFTRA is union is sort of beaten over your head throughout the evening. The show always starts out with several stars in the audience facing the camera and telling a short story or anecdote about acting and finishing by saying, "I'm so-and-so and I am an actor." Talking to a friend about this opening a few days ago, we both agreed it is so stale and awkward. Why not just jump into the awards? If they cut out this 5 minute awkward opening then there wouldn't be a need to flash "wrap it up" on the teleprompter to Cate Blanchett.

The SAGs were the second awards show in a week, after the Globes, which featured both films and television.  It's interesting that at both the best and most clever speeches came from the TV stars. I love love love movies, but there's no denying that we are clearly in a creative renaissance with television. The best speech was Julia Louis-Dreyfus'. It called back to the Emmy's by incorporating her Veep co-stars and called out her loss at the Globes. Comic genius. Look it up on YouTube if you missed it. Ty Burrel also gave a charming, funny speech about how to make it in show business. The SAGs also treated us to another whack-a-doo acceptance speech from an industry vet. Rita Moreno was presented with the Life Achievement Award by Morgan Freeman and is was full of awkwardness. She had Freeman "participate" in a bit from their 70's children's show The Electric Company and he clearly didn't know what was going on. Then she continued to sing half of her acceptance speech. This is another one worth YouTubing.

This weekend I went and saw 12 Years a Slave. It is heartbreaking and beautifully acted and filmed. It is another movie that deserves all of the accolades it is getting and more. Yes, it is an emotionally brutal movie to watch (I haven't cried so much in a movie theatre since Les Miserables) but it is an important movie to see as an American. In last year's Oscar race Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained gave us the revenge fantasy we wish could have happened to slave owners in The South. This year, Steve McQueen shows us the brutal honesty of one of America's darkest times in history 12 Years a Slave. It's interesting that it took a British director with a British leading man to make a movie that unflinchingly shines a light on the horrors of American slavery. I hope as years go by, this film will become a movie that schools show to students to illustrate to them America's past that should never be repeated. Just as I watched Schindler's List to learn about Holocaust.

Steve McQueen does a wonderful job directing and I'm so glad he was nominated for Best Director. In a different year I think he might win, but I don't think he has a chance against Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity. Chiwetel Ejiofor also gives an amazing performance as Solomon Northup, a free black man in the North who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. It looks like Matthew McConaughey will win the Oscar this year, but I think Ejiofor gives the more moving and tour de force performance. He is able to convey so much with just his eyes; it is truly astounding. Lupita Nyong'o for Best Supporting Actress is the surest bet for an Oscar win for 12 Years a Slave. After the Golden Globes I thought maybe there was a bit of a race between her and Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle in this category, but now that I have seen Nyong'o's performance it would be a travesty if Nyong'o doesn't win. She gives a heartbreaking performance as Patsey, the slave who has become the favorite play thing and punching bag of Michael Fassbender's terrifying slave owner Edwin Epps. Fassbender is also nominated for Best Supporting Actor and deservedly so, but he hasn't got a chance against Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club this year.

In all, 12 Years a Slave was nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture. However, I think it should have gotten ten. One thing that really struck me as I was watching the film was how seamlessly Hans Zimmer's score intertwined with the action of the film. I've only seen one of the Best Original Score nominees so far, which is Her, but I felt Zimmer's score was more emotional.

That's enough for tonight. Hopefully there are some Oscar nominated movies in my mailbox from Netflix to watch this week. Goodnight!
MGG

1st Movie Marathon of 2014

This past weekend was a whirlwind of Oscar nominated movie viewing and more awards shows. My favorite kind of weekend.

The first movie I saw on Saturday was Dallas Buyers Club and it deserves all the accolades it's received. It has six Oscar nominations including, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Editing. (Side note: I forgot to mention the other day, but how the hell did The Lone Ranger and Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa get Oscar nominations for Best Makeup and Hairstyling over American Hustle? Wha?!) I think Dallas Buyers Club has two of the Academy Awards in the bag. Jared Leto should and will win everything for Best Supporting Actor. He's received a lot of buzz for his portrayal of Rayon, a transgender woman struggling with HIV/AIDS who forms an unlikely partnership with Matthew McConaughey's homophobic Ron Woodroof, who also has HIV/AIDS. Often, when I watch a movie I'm still aware that "the actor/actress" is portraying a part. However, Leto completely becomes Rayon. I forgot that it was Leto. I forgot that he was ever Jordan Catalano in My So Called Life or that he's a real life rock star. Watching him flirt/fight with McConaughey's Woodroof and face his own mortality and more (I won't spoil the more) is absolutely heartbreaking. McConaughey also gives the best performance I've seen him do to date. Last year he won an Independent Spirit Award for a buzzy but just okay performance in Magic Mike, but with Dallas Buyers Club he gives a truly Oscar worthy performance. His transformation from a womanizing, homophobic addict to a mostly clean living, advocate for all those fighting against HIV/AIDS is beautiful to watch. Of the two Best Actor performances I've now seen (Christian Bale in American Hustle being the other), I've noticed a trend of the characters being assholes with a heart of gold. In both movies the "hero" is the bad guy at the beginning, but both end up showing their better selves when pitted against the true bad guy: the government.

The next movie in the marathon was Her. I enjoyed the film and the ideas it played with. Spike Jonze always makes interesting, thought provoking films. This is only his fourth feature length film and I've liked all of them. (His first three films are Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are.) As we move into a more technological future, what happens to our relationship with other humans and with technology? That's the question that seems to be at the core of Her. Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a man depressed about his impending divorce who falls in love with the new operating system he installs on his computer and phone. The operating system, Samantha, is voiced by Scarlett Johansson in a beautiful voice acting performance. Jonze's prescient vision of the near future is fascinating. Phoenix's Twombly works for an internet company that writes beautiful handwritten letters for other people and travels home on a subway where no one interacts with other humans but instead spends the time talking to their OS. We already spend evenings with other people constantly connected to our smart phones. How long before we are in the future of Her? Several years ago, when there were only five Best Picture nominations, I don't know if Her would have made the cut, but I'm glad it did this year. I think its' best shot for a win is probably in the Best Original Screenplay category and Best Original Song. I would really love it if Karen O, of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, won an Oscar. I'm rooting for her over U2. Her is also up for Best Production Design and Best Original Score. I haven't heard the other nominees scores yet so I don't know how I feel about that yet. There's stiff competition in production design though. Her is up against American Hustle, The Great Gatsby, 12 Year's a Slave, and Gravity. I thought The Great Gatsby had beautiful sets and American Hustle had some great set decoration (the "science oven" was awesome).

Finally, I saw August: Osage County, whose only Oscar Nominations are in the acting categories. Meryl Streep is nominated for Best Actress for her role as Violet Weston; the angry matriarch with a pill addiction of an extremely dysfunctional family. Now, I looove Meryl Streep, and I thought she did a solid job in the role, but she's not going to win for it. It's a flashy performance and not nearly as good as her winning work as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. I would compare her Violet Westin more to her character of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. Both characters are verbally and emotionally abusive, yet sort of have a love for their families. Julia Roberts has the other nomination for Best Supporting Actress as Violet's broken, angry daughter Barbara. I would argue that Roberts' performance should have been nominated for Best Actress versus Best Supporting Actress. She has just as much screen time as Streep and has the more natural performance. Thus far, I've only seen two of the Supporting Actress roles (the other being Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle), but of those two I would give it to Roberts. I also thought Chris Cooper did a wonderful job in August: Osage County and in a year without as many strong Supporting Actor performances, he may have had a chance for a nomination.

Well, I've run out of time tonight for my SAG Awards thoughts, so I'll have to come back in the next day or two for those.

Good night!
MGG

Oscar Nominations

Sorry this is a day later than promised, but as much as I wish I could watch movies for my full time job,  that is not the case. The combination of a late night at work and the Critics Choice Awards airing equaled this girl being too tired to type last night. However, the upside is I've had more time to think about the Oscar nominations and analyze how I feel about them.

I'm not surprised at all by the Best Picture nominees. So far it seems like this category will be a two way race between 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle. It would be rather refreshing to have a Best Picture Oscar race that has some mystery to it. The last few years were so predictable from day one.

With Best Actor a lot of fuss has been made about Robert Redford and Tom Hanks getting snubs, but it's a stacked group this year. Which actor that was nominated should have been snubbed instead? I also think that Redford and Hanks may have "cancelled" each other out since both were featured in "lost at sea" movies. (I've yet to see either one, but I'm really not a fan of lost at sea/in the wilderness/in the arctic stories.)

Best Actress is another category that I'm not surprised about even though everyone seems to be shocked that Meryl Streep got a nomination. Really? The woman has more acting nominations than any other person in history. Clearly the Academy likes her and her work. I'm still rooting for Amy Adams in this race, but I think it's going to go to Cate Blanchett. And I have to say I'm tired of hearing people call her "Cate the Great". I think Blanchett is an amazing actress but "Kate the Great" is and always will be Katherine Hepburn. Even if their names are spelled differently.

Now, Best Supporting Actor had a genuine unexpected nomination; Jonah Hill. Hill hasn't been nominated for his role in Wolf of Wall Street in any of the other major Awards shows. I'm even more excited to see Wolf of Wall Street now. I sort of love the idea that the guy that played a puking demon earlier in 2013 (in This is the End) has now earned his second Oscar nomination.

Best Supporting Actress is another race I'm interested to see unfold. So far it seems like a two woman race between Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave and Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle. I've only seen Lawrence of the nominated performances so far and she did do a great job, but I've heard wonderful things about Nyong'o as well. Some people are predicting Lawrence will get her second win in a row, but only time will tell.

My biggest disappointment in the nominations comes from the lack of love for the movie Prisoners. It was the best movie I saw in 2013. The performances were all stellar, the direction was amazing and the cinematography was gorgeous. It's lone nomination was for cinematography. I'm also think Nat Faxon and Jim Rash should have gotten a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Does Woody Allen really need another nomination? No. He never shows up to the Oscars and he married his daughter. Why does everyone seem to forget that?

Yesterday the Critics Choice Awards also aired and they are always an interesting night. I like that they now air the night of the Oscar nominations because you get a candid view of the attendees views on the Oscar nominations. Last year, the beginnings of Argo's support in reaction to Ben Affleck's Directing snub began at the Critic's Choice Awards. Last night the biggest reaction seemed to be towards Tom Hanks' lack of Oscar love. The biggest theme of the night was winners who had won at the Globes on Sunday essentially continuing their acceptance speeches with thank yous to the people they forgot before. Both Amy Adams and Leonardo DiCaprio followed this line, including DiCaprio congratulating Jonah Hill on his nomination that morning. My favorite moment of the night though, was when Cate Blanchett accepted her award for Best Actress and told her small son in the audience that he was lucky she was his mother and not her character in a super creepy voice. My one complaint is that the CW took over airing the show this year and they clearly need to brush up on how to air a live broadcast. Twice the screen just went blank and almost every commercial break went over and cut into the broadcast, even completely missing the award for Best Action Movie.

Well, that's enough rambling for now. I'm doing a mini marathon tomorrow. I'm joining my mom (who instilled in me my love of movies and the Academy Awards) and her boyfriend in seeing August: Osage County, Dallas Buyer's Club, and Her. Then I''ll close out the evening by watching the SAG Awards on my DVR. Oh how I love Awards Season.

Goodnight!
MGG

Golden Globes Wrap-Up

Well, as I predicted, the Golden Globes was a fun spectacle. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did a fantastic job hosting. I really wish they would host the Oscars, but I read and interview with them recently in Entertainment Weekly and both said they're not interested. Hopefully, some day they'll change their minds. I'll keep my fingers crossed. My two favorite jokes of the night were about George Clooney choosing to float away in space rather than stay with a woman his own age and about giving a warm welcome just like a model's vagina to Leonardo DiCaprio. Comedy gold. And they got some of the biggest laughs from the audience.

Some of my favorite themes of the evening included:

• Taking a very long time to walk to the stage--The most meandering being Jacqueline Bisset, who even stopped to kiss Jon Voight. At least Robin Wright had the decency to try and run up to the stage. (All I could think then was "Run Jenny Run" a la Forrest Gump.) 
• Cursing in speeches--Again, Jacqueline Bisset with the win on this one. The censors sort of messed up and the we all heard Bisset say "shit" on national television. Plus, she gave one of the most whack-a-doo acceptance speeches I've ever seen at an awards show. I wish the censors had continued to fail at their jobs though, so we could have heard more of Elizabeth Moss' speech.
• Public/Private moments on stage--The best was Seth Meyers' reaction to Andy Samberg winning the Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for TV. Meyers looked so freaking excited for his friend. My other favorite was the Best Original Score winner (Alex Ebert from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) telling P. Diddy that they'd met before on a yacht.
• SNL alum winning--What can I say? I just adore Amy Poehler and Andy Samberg.

As far as an analysis of the winners in the movie categories goes; like I said in my previous post, I don't think the Globes have a lot of weight when it comes to the Oscars. However, I was very happy to see Amy Adams get some love for American Hustle. As I've said before, I thought she was brilliant in that movie. It will be interesting to see if she gets an Oscar nod on Thursday morning. I really hope so. I haven't seen any of the other movies that had major movie category wins, but I'm looking forward to seeing Wolf of Wall Street, Blue Jasmine, and Dallas Buyer's Club for the performances. If Matthew McConaughey's performance in Dallas Buyer's Club is half as good as his impression of himself last night then, "Alright, Alright, Alright", I'm sold.

I'd love to keep going but it's getting late and I'm turning into a pumpkin. I'll be back Thursday for the Oscar nominations (!!!) and the Critic's Choice Awards that night.

Until then,

MGG

Let's Begin/The Golden Globes

As the name of this blog states, the Oscars are my Super Bowl. I've come to use this term when describing my love of movies and the Academy Awards to non-movie people. I couldn't care less about the actual Super Bowl (which I'm told involves a sport with a ball), but to me the Oscars are the best night of the year. My love began as a little girl and has only grown over the past 25 years. I love the glitz and glamour, the acceptance speeches, the montages, and pretty much every single moment (Unless Seth MacFarlane is singing about boobs. Uhg.). I am one of a very small minority that wants the ceremony to keep going. I would be fine if the ceremony lasted 6 hours, but I don't think the people actually at the ceremony would agree.

What began when I was a child as a love of the Academy Awards and a curiosity about the movies highlighted there, has grown into a true passion for movies as an adult. I will watch pretty much anything except for horror. (I really don't like to be scared) I find all aspects of the movie making process fascinating; from acting to costuming to cinematography. When I go see a movie in theatres I always stay through the end of the credits because I think that even the best boys and gaffers deserve to have their names seen on the big screen by more than someone cleaning up the trash. Essentially, I am obsessed with all things having to do with the magic of movie making.

I felt that with today being the Golden Globes and the official kick off to Awards Season (my favorite season), that it would be a good day to kick off my blog as well. The Golden Globes are a fun spectacle. I don't put a lot of weight in their choices as any sort of prediction for the Oscars, but I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing Tina Fey and Amy Poehler host tonight. I'm also a sucker for awards shows so I'm interested to see how tonight unfolds and excited to see the red carpet fashions.

Of the best picture nominees for tonight I've only seen one so far--American Hustle--but that will be changing in the next few weeks. I thought it was a great movie with great performances. Amy Adams was amazing and I think the stand out in an outstanding cast. Jennifer Lawrence seems to be getting more buzz for her performance, but I think she proved she can play crazy for David O.Russell in last year's Silver Linings Playbook. Adams' was the more nuanced performance this year. Christian Bale continues to astound in the way he disappears into a character. It was hard to believe the same man was Batman a year and a half ago. My one complaint would be Russell's choice to have the camera move around so much. I get motion sick very easily and it's always a disappointment to have to miss parts of a good movie because the camera is moving so much that I start to feel ill. (One of the biggest reasons Argo was not the best picture to me last year.)

Red Carpet coverage starts in a little over an hour and a half and I need to get back to real life until then so, let's see how the Golden Globes go tonight. I'm rooting for Amy Adams.

Until next time,
MGG