Thursday, March 22, 2018

A to Z Challenge - Theme Reveal

theme reveal #atozchallenge 2018 blogging


That's right, I'm doing the A to Z Challenge again this year.  I know I had some severe run-ins with the A to Z Challenge Advisory Board as you may have read about here and here.  I know many of you will say, who cares.  And you're right.  Oh wait, you're not saying that about my disputes with their advisory board, you mean my blog.........this is awkward........well, when you opt to live blog, these things seem to occasionally happen.

Anyway I will ignore the distractions, hold on, sorry, again the dangers of live blogging.........and I am back.  My reveal is that this year I will be doing A to Z of Best Directors who have been nominated for and have won the Oscar for Best Director.  It will include exciting verbal banter from yours truly, additional preview clips, sock puppets, 35% less Esperanto, and no more anti-celery commentaries, I have learned to tolerate it and can eat it in small quantities.

Visit the A to Z Challenge site to learn more and maybe attempt to try blogging yourself this April.

The First Time U2 was in Russia

That's right, fifty years before they performed, Francis Gary Powers was shot down in 1960.  This is why my next review is Bridge of Spies nominated for Best Picture in 2015.  Also received nominations for Original Screenplay, Score, Sound Mixing, Production Design and winning Supporting Actor for Mark Rylance.

The film is based on the trial of communist spy Rudolf Abel in 1957 and Tom Hanks who plays James Donovan is tasked to act as his defense attorney.  A few years later after the U2 fighter jet is shot down, Donovan is used to broker a deal to trade Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel in Berlin at the time the wall was being put up.  Toss in an American college student who is arrested whom Donovan attempts to broker along with the trade, and you have the film in a nutshell.

Well acted, not very historically accurate, but then again that isn't that what poetic license is for?  Remember, this is Hollywood here.  The story co-written by the Coen brothers, so you know there are no plot holes and the story has a solid beginning, middle and ending.  That is a trademark of their skilled screenwriting.  And Stephen Spielberg directed the film, again his work is always top quality. So it is rather obvious why it was nominated for Best Picture.

This is now the fifth of the eight films nominated that year, and I would have to place this in third place.  So to catch up on the scoreboard, The Revenant is still top, Brooklyn is still second, The Martian is pushed to fourth and Max Max still last.


Tuesday, March 6, 2018

90th Oscar Results

As a fan of movies, I look forward every year for the Oscars.  And trying to predict is somewhat of a science and a bit of luck.  Alright, a lot of luck.  But unlike most years, this year the winners seemed to make sense.  How did I do, follow along and see.

I'm also very glad to see that I inspired fellow movie blogger Suzanne Blazier and her Mood for Every Movie blog, to list her predictions and wish list of Oscar winners.  I encourage you to visit her page and subscribe.  She reviews movies a lot more often that I do and gives very thorough posts that are well written.

And now, on with the results.

Visual Effects
Chris - War for the Planet of the Apes
Adam - War for the Planet of the Apes
Winner - Blade Runner 2049
Chris - 0
Adam - 0

Right off the bat we're both wrong.  But this makes sense.  From what I have seen, without having seen this sequel, looks amazing.  So there goes getting a perfect score, but one that I'm not upset on getting wrong.

Sound Mixing
Chris - Dunkirk
Adam - Dunkirk
Winner - Dunkirk
Chris - 1
Adam - 1

Like I have been saying, war movies do really good in this category.  Having seen Dunkirk I can attest that the sounds of bullets, the explosions, and the airplanes, sounded incredible.

Sound Editing
Chris - The Shape of Water
Adam - The Shape of Water
Winner - Dunkirk
Chris - 1
Adam - 1

And I should have stuck through with Dunkirk.  In previous years I would do that and got burnt.  So this year, I decided to get smart and mix it up.  And look where that got me.  The lesson here is don't be smart.

Cinematography
Chris - Dunkirk
Adam - The Shape of Water
Winner - Blade Runner 2049
Chris - 1
Adam - 1

Just like visual effects, Blade Runner 2049 looks like a film with incredible cinematography.  So neither one of us moves ahead or falls behind.

Makeup & Hairstyling
Chris - Victoria & Abdul
Adam - Darkest Hour
Winner - Darkest Hour
Chris - 1
Adam - 2

There were only three films nominated, so the odds were good.  My guess paid off.

Costume Design
Chris - The Shape of Water
Adam - Victoria & Abdul
Winner - Phantom Thread
Chris - 1
Adam - 2

And so much for that.  Got lucky on the makeup and hairstyling, but not so good here.  On a positive note, Phantom Thread looks very impressive and seems to have earned the award.

Production Design
Chris - Dunkirk
Adam - The Shape of Water
Winner - The Shape of Water
Chris - 1
Adam - 3

Looking at all the nominees, it seems like anyone one of them could have won.  But I took a guess on this one and it paid off.

Film Editing
Chris - Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adam - The Shape of Water
Winner - Dunkirk
Chris - 1
Adam - 3

And once again I get this category wrong.  But so did the wife and no one moves up or down.  But having seen Dunkirk, I can say it was edited very well and I don't feel bad about being wrong on this one.

Music Original Song
Chris - Stand Up For Something
Adam - Remember Me
Winner - Remember Me
Chris - 1
Adam - 4

And the guess paid off.  Still have no idea what it sounds like, fast forwarded through the songs.  Hey, you all know how I feel about musicals!  And if I don't know the song, I don't want to hear it.  But I got it right and moved up one more ahead of the wife.

Music Original Score
Chris - Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adam - Dunkirk
Winner - The Shape of Water
Chris - 1
Adam - 4

So I seemed to get this confused with editing.  But having seen The Shape of Water, again I have no problem with this winning.  The music was very good and worked well with the movie.

Writing Adapted Screenplay
Chris - Call Me by Your Name
Adam - Call Me by Your Name
Winner - Call Me by Your Name
Chris - 2
Adam - 5

Called it!  The only Best Picture nominee in this category and the academy wanted to give it some recognition.

Writing Original Screenplay
Chris - Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adam - Get Out
Winner - Get Out
Chris - 2
Adam - 6

And my prediction was right.  This was the only award that Get Out won.  This is common, like when Pulp Fiction won a screenplay award and Quentin Taranito announced that he knew it was the only award the film would win.  But it did help build his career which will do the same for Jordan Peele.

Short Film Animated
Chris - Dear Basketball
Adam - Lou
Winner - Dear Basketball
Chris - 3
Adam - 6

I will skip any commentary about Kobe Bryant getting applause in between actresses making speeches about ending sexual harassment in Hollywood.  Although I do admire how he accepted the award, professional athletes have a way of being humble and respectful when they win.  And the wife got one of the random impossible ones, moving back into the game?

Short Film Live Action
Chris - The Eleven O'Clock
Adam - The Silent Child
Winner - The Silent Child
Chris - 3
Adam - 7

And nope, moved back to up by four.  Kind of like scoring a goal and then giving one up on the ensuing face off.  I got lucky, I won't say any more than that.

Documentary Short Subject
Chris - Edith+Eddie
Adam - Traffic Stop
Winner - Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
Chris - 3
Adam - 7

Let me go to the judges, my blog advisory board. I got the word traffic guessed right?  Isn't that worth anything?  What?  No?  Thanks to my advisory board for being so quick to tell me no.

Best Animated
Chris - Ferdinand
Adam - Coco
Winner - Coco
Chris - 3
Adam - 8

I think this film also won the Best Song, ahhhh, who cares.  I'm up by five, and with only four more different choices between me and the wife, I have clinched victory.

Best Documentary
Chris - Last Men in Aleppo
Adam - Faces Places
Winner - Icarus
Chris - 3
Adam - 8

Can't be upset if you make a guess and you are wrong.  I'm sure this is a good film, might get to see it one day.

Best Foreign Language
Chris - The Square
Adam - A Fantastic Woman
Winner - A Fantastic Woman
Chris - 3
Adam - 9

So I was right, this was only the second time that Chile had a nominee in this category.  I remember about five or six years ago the film No was nominated, but it lost.

Best Supporting Actress
Chris - Octavia Spencer
Adam - Allison Janney
Winner - Allison Janney
Chris - 3
Adam - 10

And it turns out that what I did see about this category was right.  And puts me up by seven.

Best Supporting Actor
Chris - Sam Rockwell
Adam - Sam Rockwell
Winner - Sam Rockwell
Chris - 4
Adam - 11

This is a well deserved Oscar for Sam Rockwell.  I haven't seen this film yet, but how he has acted in so many other films, it was his time to win.

Best Actress
Chris - Sally Hawkins
Adam - Frances McDormand
Winner - Frances McDormand
Chris - 4
Adam - 12

Again, without having seen the film, I will accept that Frances McDormand was the best choice.  Sally Hawkins should not be ignored having to carry a film without her character being able to speak is a very impressive accomplishment.

Best Actor
Chris - Gary Oldman
Adam - Gary Oldman
Winner - Gary Oldman
Chris - 5
Adam - 13

Sid Vicious wins an Oscar!  A long career that has earned him a well deserved award.  Also a really great acceptance speech.

Best Director
Chris - The Shape of Water
Adam - The Shape of Water
Winner - The Shape of Water
Chris - 6
Adam - 14

Guillermo del Toro has now joined the ranks of other great Mexican directors, who now seem to be the best in the world.  This once again proves how the best talent can come from all over the world.

Best Picture
Chris - The Shape of Water
Adam - The Shape of Water
Winner - The Shape of Water
Chris - 7
Adam - 15

It's been a few years, but the academy got it right.  I've only seen a third of the films nominated, but I am very confident that none of them will be any better than this one.  It's nice to see that even though there is politics, and favoritism and self gratification that goes into awarding the best picture, sometimes the quality of art shines through.  Of course they brought out dumb and dumber to once again try and not mess up.  I was so hoping that they would say La La Land again after they opened the envelope, but Warren Beatty did hold up the card after he announced the winner.  So there is no need to praise them for finally getting right what any six year old could do.

Oh yeah, I forgot.  I won!  Whoo-hoo!  Okay, the moment is over.  Onward to the next movie review.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Picks for the 2017 Oscars

It's time again for the annual Academy Award contest that I have with the wife every year.  I'm sure in a few years the daughter will be involved too, but for now it is the annual grudge match.  We've been doing this for at least twenty years now.  I find the more I prepare and study, the worse I do.  The wife goes on gut instinct and guesses, and usually does well.  I'm going more on that this year since I've only seen a few of the films nominated.

So this post will be my rational reasons why I choose what I did.  My next post will be the standard follow up of me carrying on about how stupid and crazy the academy is.  I'll start with the technical and work my way towards the major awards.

Visual Effects
Chris - War for the Planet of the Apes
Adam - War for the Planet of the Apes

For some reason I think this won this award for one of the previous films in this series.  Gone are the days of people putting on rubber masks to look like apes.  It also looks like a competitive category, so a lot of votes may cancel each other out.

Sound Mixing
Chris - Dunkirk
Adam - Dunkirk

War movie, so logic dictates that it should be a shoe in.  Although I think that burned me last year.  Since we both picked the same, it doesn't matter.

Sound Editing
Chris - The Shape of Water
Adam - The Shape of Water

I'm thinking this will be one of many awards this film will win during the Oscars.  And having seen the film I think this should win.  But to be honest I don't know how this is different from the previous award.

Cinematography
Chris - Dunkirk
Adam - The Shape of Water

So an opportunity for one of us to potentially move ahead.  I've seen Dunkirk and The Shape of Water, two different films.  I can see why Dunkirk could win with the beautifully shot scenes on the beach, but The Shape of Water really gave a mood with how it was filmed and I think that helped make the film that much better.

Makeup & Hairstyling
Chris - Victoria & Abdul
Adam - Darkest Hour

I've heard that Victoria & Abdul is a very stylish film that might take this award.  But I think the same for Darkest Hour.  Knowing my luck the third film in this category will probably win.

Costume Design
Chris - The Shape of Water
Adam - Victoria & Abdul

So this one I am hedging that Victoria & Abdul will win for costume design, but The Shape of Water is also a good pick too.

Production Design
Chris - Dunkirk
Adam - The Shape of Water

This is another category that can be tricky, do they look at how each film was designed or do they award it to the film that they are voting for Best Picture?  I'm betting on the later.

Film Editing
Chris - Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adam - The Shape of Water

My theory is that the film that will win Best Picture will also win this award.  Although that hasn't been the case lately.  And I haven't been too good at picking what will win Best Picture.

Music Original Song
Chris - Stand Up For Something
Adam - Remember Me

I have never heard of any of these songs.  You could play one of them and ask me to guess which of the five nominees it is and I wouldn't know.  No idea, just a pure guess.

Music Original Score
Chris - Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adam - Dunkirk

Again, another guess on my part.  This category is different than the previous one in that it's for music that is played throughout the movie.  I figured Dunkirk is as good as a guess as any other.

Writing Adapted Screenplay
Chris - Call Me by Your Name
Adam - Call Me by Your Name

Call Me by Your Name is this year's Moonlight.  I don't think it will win in any other category and the other four nominees are not nominated for Best Picture, while this film is.

Writing Original Screenplay
Chris - Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Adam - Get Out

This seems to be the more competitive category for screenwriting this year.  I'm guessing that Get Out will win this one since they want to award it something and it's not going to take any other category.  That and it is nice to see a horror/thriller film get nominated.  This is one of the genres that doesn't get recognized often.

Short Film Animated
Chris - Dear Basketball
Adam - Lou

And the random section of the Academy Awards now begins.  Pick a film, any film, you have a one in five chance of getting it right.

Short Film Live Action
Chris - The Eleven O'Clock
Adam - The Silent Child

It's better not to know anything and just guess.  Because if you did take the time to watch them and think about which one would win, you would be wrong.

Documentary Short Subject
Chris - Edith+Eddie
Adam - Traffic Stop

Sometimes they will show the nominees for the short films, and I foolishly watched one year.  Guess what, the worst movie got the Oscar.  So I given up.

Best Animated
Chris - Ferdinand
Adam - Coco

So I haven't seen any of these movies, but I'm sure in a few years I will become more of an expert in this category.  But for now, I picked the only movie I have heard of and was nominated for something else.

Best Documentary
Chris - Last Men in Aleppo
Adam - Faces Places

Again, no way to tell, so I guessed.  Some years it is pretty obvious.  Might be this year, but I seem to be missing it.

Best Foreign Language
Chris - The Square
Adam - A Fantastic Woman

This category has been disappointing for the past few years, mainly because I have been wrong.  My guess is that I don't think Chile has ever won a Best Foreign Language Oscar, let alone only has a few nominations, so I'm thinking this is their year.

Best Supporting Actress
Chris - Octavia Spencer
Adam - Allison Janney

The actress from I, Toyna is favored from what I read.  Okay, I did do some research, but not much.  Anyway, this might be the only Oscar from this film.  But Octavia Spencer was really good in The Shape of Water...

Best Supporting Actor
Chris - Sam Rockwell
Adam - Sam Rockwell

No matter what, Sam Rockwell is such a talented versatile actor that he is deserving of more recognition than he gets.  I'm also speculating that Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri might win a few of the major awards since it is out of the running for Best Picture, it didn't get a Best Director nod.  That pretty much nails a coffin shut on it winning Best Picture

Best Actress
Chris - Sally Hawkins
Adam - Frances McDormand

I don't think there is a clear front runner, it has been over twenty years since Frances McDormand won for Fargo.  But Sally Hawkins was really, really good too.  This might be an interesting one since the last number of years it has been noncompetitive.

Best Actor
Chris - Gary Oldman
Adam - Gary Oldman

Timothee Chalamet and Daniel Kaluuya are both newer actors and don't have much of a chance.  Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel Washington have both won multiple Oscars before, so they don't have much of a chance.  Gary Oldman has been shut out in the past and is due this year.  And Darkest Hour will not have an opportunity to win any other major award category, so this one seems to be a lock.

Best Director
Chris - The Shape of Water
Adam - The Shape of Water

Guillermo del Toro is one of the class of extremely talented Mexican movie directors, along with Oscar winners Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Inarritu.  Inarritu won back to back Oscars, that is epic John Ford type of action.  I remember back when being a Mexican director was considered a joke, like below.  Those days have changed and he should win easily.



Best Picture
Chris - The Shape of Water
Adam - The Shape of Water

This is one of those times you hope that the Academy doesn't do what it has done in the past, ignore the politics and social messages, and reward a really good film.  This is one of them.  This film is a perfect film.  Everything is perfect, the acting, the scenery, the cinematography, the costumes, the mood, it really helps make this film work.  But I expect to be disappointed and you'll see my follow up after the awards air this weekend.

Monday, February 26, 2018

The Testaverde Touchdown of Best Pictures

Art is subjective.  And voting has a great deal of popularity ingrained in the process.  So when it comes to picking a winner for Best Picture, there have been times where people have scratched their heads wondering how did this movie win.  The most recent was Argo from a few years ago.  This post will be about Moonlight, but first let's take a stroll down memory lane so that you can understand the title of this post.


Now that I think about it, that wasn't a very cheerful memory.  So last year in my post about the annual contest the wife and I have, I presented my version of how I would have handled the situation at the end of the Oscars.  Remember you were dealing with two people not very smart.  Especially Warren Beatty who is dumb enough for both of them.  He remade Here Comes Mr. Jordan and called it Heaven Can Wait, a completely different movie.  That would be the same as remaking Raiders of the Lost Ark and calling it Apocalypse Now.

The film is a good movie, although somewhat confusing at times.  It is broken into three parts, each one is its own entity as if it were three different short films.  The first segment shows the main character, Chiron as a child being bullied by the other kids and his mother is a drug addict.  A drug dealer, Juan played by Mahershala Ali, takes a liking to Chiron and acts like a father figure to him.  The second segment shows Chiron as a teenager still being bullied.  He has a sexual encounter with one his male classmates who ends up beating him up later on after being egged on by a bully.  Chiron retaliates against the bully and is sent to jail.  The third segment shows Chiron now an adult, is a drug dealer, and seeks out his friend he had the encounter with years earlier.

This is not a bad movie, the first part is terrific.  Mahershala Ali is amazing in every scene he is in, he carries the film and is so talented.  He clearly earned the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.  But he is only in the first part of the film, once he is gone the film is not really worth watching.  Naomie Harris who plays Chiron's mother, also does a great job and received a Supporting Actress nomination, but is not enough to carry the film after Mahershala Ali's character dies.

It received notoriety because the relationship involved two boys.  Just like Brokeback Mountain, if you replaced the two male characters with a male and female, would it still be considered as good as a film?  If the answer is yes, then it is a good story.  If no, then the film is not an Oscar caliber film.  In the case of Moonlight, I think this falls into the same situation.  It is a good film, but if the romantic interest of Chiron was a woman, I don't think it would be as well known.

That being said, it did win Best Picture and there was the big fiasco at the Oscars with Warren Beatty who is as dumb as soap.  But on a positive note, at least La La Land didn't win after all.  So Lion is still the best of the year, Hidden Figures second, Moonlight third and La La Land quickly moving towards ninth place but stopping at fourth for now.


Wednesday, February 21, 2018

If I Wanted a Rerun, I Could Have Watched The Partridge Family

So yes, technically this is a repeat of a blog post I did last year in April during the A to Z challenge where I gave a review of Lion, 2016 nominee for Best Picture.  The film I was planning on reviewing was Lost Horizon, but at the last minute I changed my mind and talked about this great film.  But it was only in the context of the A to Z challenge and not reviewed as compared to other films nominated that year.

To bring you up to speed, the movie is based on a true story about a young boy living in Western India in the 1980's who falls asleep on an empty train one night. When he wakes up the train is traveling and he can't get off.  A few days later he is in Eastern India lost, confused and speaking a different language.  Eventually he ends up in an orphanage and is adopted by an Australian couple who raise him in Tasmania.

Twenty years later his memory is triggered and realizes that he doesn't know where he is from and what has happened to his family.  Since this was the time when Google Earth came online, he attempts to trace back the train ride to find his hometown.  He has a memory of a water tower at the train station, but not much more than that.

Watching this film, I was reminded of Salaam Bombay! the 1988 Best Foreign Language nominee from India.  Please note this is a very depressing movie, but very fascinating to watch.  The stories are parallel to Lion being filmed during the same time frame, but on different sides of the country.  Just shows you how difficult life is in India, especially if you are orphaned.

This movie means a lot to me because it is about adoption.  When I saw the film a year ago (Yes I know that I am very behind on my blogging, but I have a good excuse.  Seriously, I do!) my wife and I were in the adoption pool to become adoptive parents.  Now that we are adoptive parents (Told you I had a good reason!) this movie means so much more to me.

The acting is terrific by Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Sunny Pawar who plays Saroo as a child in his first movie debut, is amazing.  This kid is so talented and carries the first half of the movie.  He even stole the show at the Oscars last year.  I hope he continues as an actor, looking forward to see what he can do next.  And when you see photos of the real Sue Brierley, you will see how talented Nicole Kidman is.

So this makes three of the nine I have reviewed.  Let's be clear, La La Land is still last.  But Lion does edge out Hidden Figures and is the best film of the year.  Look, if the world was fair this would have won Best Picture, but at least we have such a great film that will last the test of time.  Fifty years from now you'll be able to watch this movie and remark at how great it still is.

Here is the trailer for the film.  I hope you enjoy this film as much as I did.



And if you get a chance, here is the trailer for Salaam Bombay! which you should try and find sometime.  Occasionally TCM will show it during their Imports program on Sunday nights.