95th Academy Awards Recap
Another year in the books.
Not a whole lot to really say about this one. A lot of the obvious stuff won. Which, given what won, a lot of that is very interesting and worth talking about and celebrating. Huge wins for diversity all around, and in the right way. Two Asian actors won Oscars, a woman won Screenplay, two Indian films won awards. And none of it felt forced. It felt like legitimately everyone picked what they liked the best. There’s a lot to love about this year as a whole given the choices they made.
Now, of course, in terms of picking everything (which you know is my main focus in the moment. We can talk about the rest going forward for the rest of time)… it was a pretty boring year. Lotta chalk. Lotta obvious choices. I knew it was a boring one when I only had one 3 come in on my Scorecard and the rest were 1s and 2s. There was literally one surprise winner all night. And even that wasn’t that much of a surprise when you got there. So — big win for diversity, great night for feeling good for people, and another year that thoroughly proves that these awards, when you pay attention to precursors and general history, are pretty easy to figure out most of the time. (more…)
The B+ Oscar Ballot: Guide to the 95th Academy Awards
It’s that time again.
Maybe it’s because I barely paid attention to awards season this year or maybe it’s because the Academy’s composition is changing and the long-held truths about how this body votes no longer hold as firm as they once did, but I’m coming into this having no idea what’s gonna happen. And that’s exciting. It might mean I’m gonna do horribly on the guesses, but I’m so far past the point of giving a shit about all of that. I’m all about the analysis, and I think anyone who’s read this post each year knows that. I’m just trying to get as close as I can to what’s most likely gonna happen and do my best to help you all make the most informed decisions you can when trying to win your office or party pools.
So let’s see how I do. Here’s 2022: (more…)
Oscars 2022: Precursors 33 ⅓ — The Final Insult
Last set of precursors, guys. Oscar night is within a week now, and we’re in the final stretches.
Not gonna waste any time here, let’s just get into what won so we can finish our ballots:
CAS, the Sound Mixers, gave their award to Top Gun: Maverick. Of note here is that All Quiet actually was nominated against it. ACE, the Editors, gave their awards to Everything Everywhere All at Once (Comedy) and Top Gun: Maverick (Drama). No real surprises there. ASC, the Cinematographers, gave their award to Elvis, which is what I suspected, given their category vs. the Oscar category. The WGA Awards went to Everything Everywhere All at Once in Original and Women Talking in Adapted. Both of which are the presumed favorites, so nothing shocking. Women Talking also won the USC Scripter, if anyone puts stock into that (more…)
Precursors: The Quickening
More precursors!
Not really gonna waste time here. Oscars are in like two weeks and this is the last of the major things we were waiting to see come in. Past this, it’s all just guilds confirming what we probably already know.
Let’s get into it. (more…)
Precursors 2: Electric Boogaloo
Hey look, we’ve got some winners.
I considered just not talking about these at all until Oscar ballot time, but BAFTAs were today and it seemed worthwhile. I’ll probably wait until the end of the month to update again, just because everything going forward, save maybe SAG, is just ‘here’s what won’ and there’s really not much to talk about. But hey, it’s something, right? (more…)
And the Nominees Are (2022)
This is so weird. Oscar nominations morning has been and is always appointment viewing for me. And this year, I almost didn’t even watch them live. I turned on the livestream seconds before it started. And rather than spend the morning poring over everything as I usually do, we’re almost 12 hours later and only now am I actually putting any thought into them, past my initial reactions texting with people as they happened. Weird times, this year.
Anyway, let’s go over all the nominations that were announced this morning. I remember only openly going “oh wow” once during all the names, and past that there was only one minor surprise (and not even so much a surprise as much as a slight eyebrow raise of ‘oh, you guys actually watched that movie/went there’ more than a ‘I didn’t see that coming’). Otherwise, most of this year felt chalk.
Put it this way — I listened to the Documentary and Shorts categories get announced and did just about as well as I do every year and I literally didn’t watch any of them before I guessed. So yeah, it’s a weird year (and apparently I’m just really good at this). (more…)
Oscars 2022: The B+ Nominations Ballot
It’s that time again, folks.
This year is fully weird for me. The past two years were partially weird because of the pandemic, but this one went even further. Right as prime movie season/awards season was starting, I was in the middle of moving and starting a new job and all of that, so I paid no attention to anything. Even as I caught up with all the precursors, none of it really sank in. The first time I really sat down to look at the totality of this awards season was as I started putting together this article… four days ago. So I’m in tip-top shape, clearly. Which I guess is good. I say every year how I don’t look at anything else and purely go by what I can see and my instinct. What better way to do that than by fully going in cold (and still not even having finished writing up a Top Ten list yet)?
Anyway, here’s me trying to guess all the Oscar nominees that are going to be announced tomorrow morning. (more…)
Oscars 2022: My Nominations Ballot
If I were able to select the entire Oscar ballot, this is what I would nominate (again presented without comment).
Best Picture
All Quiet on the Western Front
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Bardo, False Chronicles of a Handful of Truth
The Batman
Blonde
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Thirteen Lives
Top Gun: Maverick
Oscars 2022: Best Original Song Eligibles
The list is back, baby!
I like to think it’s because somebody listened to me and put it out there for all the Oscar degenerates like me who like to go through and look at every single thing eligible. Honestly, whatever the reason his heart or his shoes, I’m glad it was released. Or leaked. Whichever it is. I don’t care. The world is better when things are out in the open. Secret votes are weird and only create distrust in the system. At least here we can see what kind of good or bad choices were made.
Anyway, for those who don’t remember — this used to be an annual tradition for me (and still is!), looking at all the eligible songs, listening to them as I go through the article and putting them out there for us all to decide which ones we like and which we don’t, to see how good or bad the shortlist ends up being (which — haven’t looked at it at all yet. I decided this article was more important to be done blind, before I know what they chose).
So anyway, here are all 82 eligible songs for Best Original Song this year: (more…)
Oscars 2022: Precursors Go West
Okay, last bit of precursors before Oscar nominations.
What’s crazy is how the WGA and ACE won’t announce until after the Oscar nominations come out, so we’re fully flying blind on Screenplay and Editing. Arguably two of the most important categories for figuring out the rest of the nominees.
But we’ve got everything left past those, including some winners. So let’s get into it. (more…)
Oscars 2022: The Shortlists
It’s shortlist time, folks.
These shortlists articles have become one of my favorite things to write up during the Oscar season. What’s funny about it is how we used to have almost all of these shortlists (Live Action Short, Animated Short, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, International Feature, Visual Effects and Makeup & Hairstyling), plus we had the full list of eligible animated features and the full list of eligible scores and songs. All they did was add Score, Song and Sound to the list and drop them all at once and now all of a sudden Shortlist Day feels like a party. And I’m here for that party.
Anyway, what we do here is go through all the shortlists, try to watch everything, become more educated about what’s up for all the categories and do the work to make life easier for when I inevitably try to guess what’s gonna get nominated in all the categories. It’s a good time. Let’s go. (more…)
Oscars 2022: PGA / DGA / SAG / CDG / MU+HS Guild Nominations
More precursors.
I’m doing my best to stay caught up here, but I’ll be honest, I’m probably not even gonna be actively putting any real thought into categories until it comes time to pick the nominees in… *checks imaginary watch* … nine days. So this is mostly just to have all the stuff in one place for when that happens.
I’m also gonna be traveling for the next week, which is either gonna be great for me catching up or the worst possible thing ever. Guess we’ll find out!
P.S. My Top Ten list is basically done (I’m down to like five movies left to see that might make any impact on it, and I don’t think any of them would make the top ten, so I can just add those as I see them). Now I just need to find the time to write the damn thing up. Which may not happen until after Oscar nominations. (more…)
Oscars 2022: More Precursors
More stuff to catch up with. Mostly due to the Golden Globes being broadcast tonight. On a Tuesday!
I feel like I know why they put it on a Tuesday night instead of a Sunday night, but we don’t need to have that discussion here. I’m knee deep in Oscar season and have barely even rolled up my sleeves. So let’s just get right into it all. (more…)
Oscars 2022: The Catch-Up
Well, I’m all out of sorts this year. A lot’s been going on and I’ve just barely had time to watch stuff the past few months. So whereas most years, I’m all over everything that’s out and ready to go with a Top Ten list for December 31st, I’m thinking I’m gonna be late on that this year. I still need to watch about 45 movies (and that’s before I even get started on the shortlists). The major ones on that list include Bones and All, Tár, Triangle of Sadness, The Wonder, My Father’s Dragon, The Eternal Daughter, Bardo, Decision to Leave, Emancipation, Aftersun, The Menu, Devotion, The Inspection, The Son, White Noise, The Pale Blue Eye, The Whale, Empire of Light, A Man Called Otto, Living, Women Talking and Avatar. I’m not even gonna attempt a Top Ten list before I watch most of those. So I think mid-January is probably the best time to expect that. Which I don’t really mind. I’d rather get it right than get it posted.
All that being said, because I’m so behind on simply watching stuff (since this time of year, I’m usually only looking to watch about 5 or 6 movies and already on my rewatch portion before I finalize my list), I haven’t even begun to think about Oscar season. To the point where I legitimately didn’t even know it had started until I saw the Golden Globe nominations were out… the day after they were announced. Legitimately it hadn’t even crossed my mind that we’d even be into that stuff yet. That’s how busy I’ve been.
So this article is just me catching up on all that’s happened thus far (minus the shortlists. That’s gonna be its own thing), plus me making a list of all the things that are to come, so at least I have it as a reference for when I invariably have to catch up and need to know what I’ve missed.
Like I said, Oscar season’s gonna happen, it’s just gonna be a bit weird. So let’s embrace the weird. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 2013-2014)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 2011-2012)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 2009-2010)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 2007-2008)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 2005-2006)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 2003-2004)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 2001-2002)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 1999-2000)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Reconsidered (Best Picture, 1997-1998)
The Oscar Quest began in May of 2010. I finished about fifteen months later, and wrote it up for this site. That was essentially the first thing I did on here. Five years have passed since then. I’ve grown as a person. My tastes have changed, matured (or gotten more immature, in some cases). So it feels fitting, on the five year anniversary of the site and of the Oscar Quest, to revisit it.
I want to see just how my opinions about things have changed over the past five years. I didn’t do any particular work or catch-up for this. I didn’t go back and watch all the movies again. Some I went back to see naturally, others I haven’t watched in five years. I really just want to go back and rewrite the whole thing as a more mature person, less concerned with making points about certain categories and films than with just analyzing the whole thing as objectively as I can to give people who are interested as much information as possible.
This is the more mature version of the Oscar Quest. Updated, more in-depth, as objective as possible, less hostile. You can still read the old articles, but know that those are of a certain time, and these represent the present. (more…)
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