Pic of the Day: “We thought you went to the Forest.” “I’m going there now.” “Are you mad? No. You can’t give yourself up to him.” “What is it, Harry? What is it you know?” “There’s a reason I can hear them… the Horcruxes. I think I’ve known for awhile. And I think you have too.” (10th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Do you think they should deserve to die?” “Yes, they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!” (25th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Honey, we all got to go sometime, reason or no reason. Dyin’s as natural as livin’. The man who’s too afraid to die is too afraid to live.” (60th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Copper, you’re my best friend.” “And you’re mine too, Tod.” “And we’ll always be friends forever. Won’t we?” “Yeah, forever.” (40th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “I need the reason. Don’t say money. Why do this?” “Why not do it? … Because yesterday I walked out of the joint after losing four years of my life and you’re cold-decking ‘Teen Beat’ cover boys. Because the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes, the house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, and then you take the house.” “Been practicing that speech, haven’t you?” “Little bit. Did I rush it? Felt like I rushed it.” “No, it was good, I liked it. ‘Teen Beat’ thing was harsh.” (20th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.” (80th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower, we will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains behind.” (60th Anniversary)
Pic of the Day: “Don’t tell me! You’re from outer space.” “No, I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.” (35th Anniversary)
93rd Academy Awards Recap
So I know the Oscars are never a ‘fun’ show to watch. They’re always overlong and tedious and full of bad jokes and filler. But man, this year just felt so tedious, the way they did it. Which is weird, because I was into Soderbergh being one of the producers and loved how they set it up at the beginning. It started off so relaxed and seemed like it was gonna be something different and fun. Everyone hanging out at a cocktail hour beforehand outside and then going into that room and trying to do a different type of ceremony…
Then we had those overlong presenter intros that took way too long and didn’t translate as well in person as they maybe seemed when they thought them up. And then it felt almost like they were rushing through stuff rather than focusing on the right parts of the night. Somehow they avoided filler until right near the end, when they did that one bit with Glenn Close (which I didn’t hate, just because I know they have to do stuff to go viral nowadays, but you’d think they’d have done it an hour earlier, and not when we were all looking at the time like, “Okay, let’s wrap this up, guys”).
And then there was that ending, where you had three hours of Black presenters and Black winners and Black music, and an Asian woman winning and all sorts of diversity… and then the two older white people won to end the night. Honestly, how fitting. How ironically fitting, the Academy trying to go, “Look at us! We’ve changed!” and then the older white contingency still going, “…not so fast.”
It was the absolute perfect unintentional metaphor to end that ceremony, especially after you take into account how truly meaningless a lot of this is anyway. (more…)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Fate is kind / She brings to those to love / The sweet fulfillment of / Their secret longing / Like a bolt out of the blue / Fate steps in and sees you through / When you wish upon a star / Your dreams come true” ♫
The B+ Oscar Ballot: Guide to the 93rd Academy Awards
Once more, unto the breach, dear friends.
It’s Oscar night, and we all know what that means: I get all analytical about what’s gonna win (and why) and nobody cares and only reads the picks. It’s okay. I don’t take it personally.
The goal this year has been brevity… so here’s my pick for Best Animated Short.
I really have tried to skip the rigamarole though, given all we’ve gone through this past year. I’m still gonna give you all the information you need to pick a ballot. I’m just gonna do it as succinctly as I can. Of course, last year I said that and still wrote 30,000 words. So we’ll see how it goes. (more…)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly / Birds fly over the rainbow / Why, then / Oh, why can’t I?” ♫
Oscars 2020: Independent Spirit Awards
So apparently the Independent Spirit Awards were handed out on Thursday instead of today. No idea why that happened, since I thought it was a truth universally acknowledged that the day before the Oscars, everyone got drunk in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica. But I guess they taped the ceremony like they did for SAG and just aired it. Okay then.
I refused to talk about it before today, though, because you just can’t have the Independent Spirit Awards properly before the day before the Oscars. It doesn’t affect the proceedings either way, so it’s mostly just window dressing. But hey, awards. (more…)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Thanks for the memory / Of candlelight and wine, castles on the Rhine / The Parthenon, and moments on the Hudson River line / How lovely it was / Many’s the time that we feasted / And many’s the time that we fasted / Oh well, it was swell while it lasted / We did have fun, and no harm done.” ♫
2020 Oscar Category Breakdown: Best Picture
And finally we get to Best Picture.
The funny thing about Best Picture most years is how, for the biggest category on the ballot… it’s usually the easiest to predict. It’s the category with the most precursor awards (5) and you can kinda, based on how all the other categories have gone in precursors and look to go on the ballot, gauge what’s most likely to happen. Most years there’s either a clear #1 that’ll for sure win or there’s a #1 and a #2 that could win, maybe won’t, but at least you know it’s either one or the other. I’ve had maybe one questionable Best Picture choice since I started doing this (2015), but otherwise there was either a clear winner or it was between two choices.
This year, it’s been pretty much a wrap from the word go and we haven’t even had to think about this category whatsoever. So even though I save this article as a culmination of sorts of all the other categories, I really could’ve put this category first and it’d have had the same amount of impact since we all know where it’s headed. (more…)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Tell me somethin’, girl / Are you happy in this modern world? / Or do you need more? / Is there somethin’ else you’re searchin’ for? / I’m falling / In all the good times I find myself / Longin’ for change / And in the bad times I fear myself.” ♫
2020 Oscar Category Breakdown: Best Actress
Today is Best Actress, the single most wide open acting category in years. We thought Supporting Actress was gonna be the difficult category this year and that turned into a veritable walk in the park compared to this. The last category I can remember off the top of my head being this wide open was maybe Best Supporting Actor 2012 (between Waltz, Jones, Hoffman, De Niro and Arkin).
We have, for the first time since Best Supporting Actress 2000, a situation where every single precursor has gone to a different nominee. Though whereas in 2000, the fifth nominee (who won without any precursors) wasn’t nominated anywhere else, here, the fifth nominee was. So you’re left with four people who split and the fifth who’s lost everything. Which means you’re either picking who makes the most sense on paper or which precursor feels most impactful. Which means… you’re basically just guessing and hoping for the best.
So let’s just get into the guessing. (more…)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Do not forsake me, oh my darlin’ / On this, our weddin’ day / Do not forsake me, oh my darlin’ / Wait, wait along.” ♫
2020 Oscar Category Breakdown: Best Editing
And now Best Editing. This is one of the few categories this year that feels like it’s actually pretty open and can have multiple legitimate winners. Each year, you generally have your locks, your wide open stuff (which are usually the shorts and categories like that), your ‘it’ll almost definitely be this, but this other one could beat it’ categories and then your categories where you’re like ‘I know it’ll be this or this, but I have no idea which is more likely’. That’s what Editing is this year.
Let’s get into it. (more…)
Pic of the Day: ♫ “Remember me / Though I have to say goodbye / Remember me / Don’t let it make you cry / For ever if I’m far away / I hold you in my heart / I sing a secret song to you / Each night we are apart.” ♫
2020 Oscar Category Breakdown: Best Live Action Short
Today is Best Live Action Short, which oscillates between years of an absolute clear winner and years of ‘fuck if I know, any of these five can win’. This year is one of the latter years. So, while most years you should be fully prepared to do horribly in this category because it is one of the most unpredictable categories there is, you should especially be ready for that to happen.
The thing about Live Action Short is that there are no precursor and it’s a category based entirely around people’s tastes. Which, if you’ve been around Hollywood at all, you realize that most people don’t actually have any taste (and if they do, it’s usually bad) and that a lot of their decision-making is reactionary based on what’s making money, what seems to be popular and what other people are saying is the best thing. So a category like this makes you have to think ‘okay, who’s actually watching all the nominees and casting a vote (whether it’s them or their assistant) and which seems like it’ll get the most votes?’ Which, as I said earlier… is a dicey proposition this year. (more…)
