Good thing the Oscars weren't political this year. Just kidding, I wanted to see if you were paying attention. There were the usual upsets, guaranteed wins and the reality that Warren Beatty is dumb as soap. More on that later, on to the results.
Visual Effects
Chris - The Jungle Book
Adam - The Jungle Book
Winner - The Jungle Book
Chris - 1
Adam - 1
Like I said before, the experts all picked this and from the few seconds I saw on TV, this clearly deserved the Oscar.
Sound Mixing
Chris - La La Land
Adam - Hacksaw Ridge
Winner - Hacksaw Ridge
Chris - 1
Adam - 2
Don't know why, but lately war movies have been winning or at least getting nominated for the sound technical awards. And they wanted to reward the film and Mel Gibson, so a technical one is good enough.
Sound Editing
Chris - Hacksaw Ridge
Adam - Hacksaw Ridge
Winner - Arrival
Chris - 1
Adam - 2
So much for my theory that Hacksaw Ridge would win both.
Cinematography
Chris - La La Land
Adam - La La Land
Winner - La La Land
Chris - 2
Adam - 3
And I was right about this one. I don't think it was the best cinematography, but you know how them old time academy voters are.
Makeup & Hairstyling
Chris - Star Trek Beyond
Adam - Star Trek Beyond
Winner - Suicide Squad
Chris - 2
Adam - 3
Yes, the Mountain Dew fueled in your face extreme fighting film won. I know nothing about this category and feel proud of that.
Costume Design
Chris - Jackie
Adam - La La Land
Winner - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Chris - 2
Adam - 3
And both of us got knocked again. I guess the Harry Potterish type of movie must of had good costumes. In fact, never mind, see my last response, I have no idea and won't lose sleep over it.
Production Design
Chris - Hail, Caesar!
Adam - La La Land
Winner - La La Land
Chris - 2
Adam - 4
This is similar to cinematography, and since La La Land won that....
Film Editing
Chris - La La Land
Adam - La La Land
Winner - Hacksaw Ridge
Chris - 2
Adam - 4
So not winning best editing doesn't stop you from not winning best picture, many films that won't win get this award. But getting nominated is usually a sign that it is a good movie, unless it is the only nomination, then there is money laundering going on. Just my theory.
Music Original Song
Chris - City of Stars
Adam - City of Stars
Winner - City of Stars
Chris - 3
Adam - 5
After hearing it during the Oscars, I think this was the musical piece at the end of the film. Just as annoying as the opening musical number. But everyone knew it was going to win.
Music Original Score
Chris - La La Land
Adam - La La Land
Winner - La La Land
Chris - 4
Adam - 6
Just like this one. A musical about Hollywood not winning? Ha ha ha!
Writing Adapted Screenplay
Chris - Moonlight
Adam - Moonlight
Winner - Moonlight
Chris - 5
Adam - 7
This was in a group of strong contenders. I will hope that they choose the best adaptation of the book as opposed as making a political statement. I'll believe that this was chosen on merit and not for any other reason.
Writing Original Screenplay
Chris - Manchester By The Sea
Adam - Manchester By The Sea
Winner - Manchester By The Sea
Chris - 6
Adam - 8
This category being the AFC of the screenplay awards it was rather obvious that it would win. The only other movie that anyone would know was La La Land and no one would mistake that as a good screenplay.
Short Film Animated
Chris - Piper
Adam - Piper
Winner - Piper
Chris - 7
Adam - 9
Luck, luck, pure luck, all luck, luck and luck. There is no other way you even begin to explain why we both got this one.
Short Film Live Action
Chris - Ennemis Interieurs
Adam - Timecode
Winner - Sing
Chris - 7
Adam - 9
Like this one. No way to guess. Even those with a crystal ball couldn't tell.
Documentary Short Subject
Chris - Joe's Violin
Adam - The White Helmets
Winner - The White Helmets
Chris - 7
Adam - 10
I got two out of three!?!?!?! I could have seen all of them, spent hours researching and still wouldn't do as good. Go figure?
Best Animated
Chris - Kubo and the Two Strings
Adam - Zootopia
Winner - Zootopia
Chris - 7
Adam - 11
This is usually one big cartoon film and four others they find to compete. I guess that is. Who knows? I do know that I am starting to run away with this.
Best Documentary
Chris - I Am Not Your Negro
Adam - O.J.: Made In America
Winner - O.J.: Made In America
Chris - 7
Adam - 12
And I was right. O.J. is now nostalgia and everyone wants a piece of him.
Best Foreign Language
Chris - Toni Erdmann
Adam - Toni Erdmann
Winner - The Salesman
Chris - 7
Adam - 12
And art has been sacrificed in the name of politics. I say this without seeing this film, or the other four, with great confidence. Why? I've seen his other Oscar award winning film and it was horrible. And as a movie buff I've seen a number of films from Iran. You can find better produced films on Youtube by some eleven year old with their smartphone filming their friends trying to jump over a garbage can with their bikes. And the director refusing to attend the award ceremony to make a political statement about immigration was hysterical seeing how Iran deals with illegal immigration much differently and severe that the US. But let's ignore how Iranian border guards have now resorting to shooting anyone attempting to sneak into the country and how many millions of people were deported by Barack Obama and punish those who foolishly attempted to produce a good movie. (1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10) Okay, deep breath, back to the results.
Best Supporting Actress
Chris - Viola Davis
Adam - Viola Davis
Winner - Viola Davis
Chris - 8
Adam - 13
Like I said, everyone knew she was going to win, but her speech was, well, just a bit pretentious. But it was obvious she was happy to win and that is nice to see.
Best Supporting Actor
Chris - Mahershala Ali
Adam - Mahershala Ali
Winner - Mahershala Ali
Chris - 9
Adam - 14
Going into the award show he was winning every award and this one was no different. But since the Oscars I have had the opportunity to see Moonlight and I have to say that he was incredible. Every scene he was in, he dominated. He was perfect in what was a rather so-so movie. He truly earned this award and gave such an uplifting positive speech.
Best Actress
Chris - Emma Stone
Adam - Emma Stone
Winner - Emma Stone
Chris - 10
Adam - 15
Along with my prediction I also guessed that it was going to rain in Forest Grove, and it did.
Best Actor
Chris - Casey Affleck
Adam - Casey Affleck
Winner - Casey Affleck
Chris - 11
Adam - 16
Having not seen this movie yet, I can only guess that it was a knockout performance. I have seen him in other movies where he was so-so and others where he was rather good. This much can be assessed, he is a much, much more talented actor than his brother.
Best Director
Chris - La La Land
Adam - La La Land
Winner - La La Land
Chris - 12
Adam - 17
Damian Chazelle won pretty easily. That and he is lucky that Alejandro Inarritu wasn't nominated either.
Best Picture
Chris - La La Land
Adam - La La Land
Winner - Moonlight
Chris - 12
Adam - 17
Warren Beatty - 0
There is so much that needs to be said about how this went down. We'll start with the easy assessments, like that Warren Beatty is dumb as a box of rocks. I want to specify that he isn't as dumb as a rock, or a few rocks, but a rather large box full of them. The box isn't too big mind you, it would have to be able to be picked up and carried away. I say this because having one rock compared to Warren Beatty's intelligence isn't fair to that rock.
If you haven't heard already, here is a summary of what happened. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway came out to announce the Oscar for Best Picture. They did the usual showing a clip of each movie and then the "...and the award goes to...", except Warren Beatty looked at the card confused, showed it to Faye Dunaway, who also looked confused and she then said that the award goes to La La Land.
Here is the problem. Warren Beatty opened an envelope for Best Actress. He didn't ask for the correct one, something anyone with an IQ above 75 would do, and passed it off to Faye Dunaway. She gambled that La La Land probably won and just said it. That way afterwards the producers would get the correct envelope, no one would know, the show went on. Except for one slight problem.
La La Land didn't win Best Picture.
After a few moments of commotion on the stage during the speeches given by the producers of La La Land, it was announced that the winner was not La La Land but Moonlight. They even held up the card saying that it won. The producers of La La Land were very gracious and the producers of Moonlight came up to accept the award.
But that doesn't change the fact that Warren Beatty is an idiot. If I was there with Faye Dunaway, and since my IQ is above 75, at least on a sunny day, I would have handled it differently. Here is how it would have gone.
INT - STAGE - NIGHT
The award clips end and the camera comes up on Faye Duanway and Adam. Adam opens the envelope.
ADAM
And the award goes to.....
CUT TO POV
Adam looks at the card which says BEST ACTRESS EMMA STONE
CUT TO FRONT
ADAM (CONT'D)
(Looks to his right off stage)
Sorry folks, looks like we got the wrong envelope here.
We'll add to the suspense while we wait for the right one
to show up
A page comes running in from stage right and hands an envelope to Adam, he opens it and smiles.
CUT TO POV
The card in Adam's hand says BEST PICTURE MOONLIGHT.
CUT TO FRONT
He hands the envelope to Faye Dunaway.
FAYE DUNAWAY
And the award goes to La La Land!
Alright, not everything always has a happy ending. (And that is not meant to be a joke about Moonlight). I will comment in a future post about the movies that I have seen so far this year, but I can tell you that La La Land losing isn't that much of a tragedy.
