Tag Archives: A Star is Born

2019 Academy Awards

And the 2019 Academy Award for Best Picture Goes to…

February 22, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

With the 91st Academy Awards just days away, awards season is coming to an unceremonious end. That is unless the Academy has something up its sleeve after angering viewers at every turn. There will be no host, all categories will be presented during the telecast, and there is no Most Popular category. All of this backlash for a broadcast dedicated to handing gold trophies out to famous people.

Yet, love them or hate them, the Oscars still hold cultural capital in a mainstream sense. If Green Book beats out Roma for Best Picture, it Continue reading And the 2019 Academy Award for Best Picture Goes to… →

2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Predictions – Best Original Song and Best Original Score

February 5, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

I don’t think there is an awful lot to say about the 2019 races for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. One is barely a race, and the other has a standout front-runner with only minor competition.

This isn’t to say that the two categories are complete locks, but they are both pretty darn close.

The Nominees – Best Original Song:

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2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Predictions – Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing

February 5, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

What is often the operative question with the two sound categories is whether or not they will go to the same film. More often than not, if a film stands out for either editing or mixing, it also stands out in the other.

This year, I think there is a case to be made for both the split and the sweep.

The Nominees – Best Sound Editing:

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2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Predictions – Best Original Screenplay & Best Adapted Screenplay

January 25, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Across the two 2019 writing categories, I think there are seven high quality scripts. There are two-to-three that are damn near brilliant. But that holds no bearing on the task at hand, which is to suss out exactly which scripts have a chance at taking home the trophy.

The Nominees – Best Adapted Screenplay:

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2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Predictions – Best Cinematography

January 24, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Four of the five Oscar nominees for Best Cinematography have received nominations before. Alfonso Cuaron has won two, albeit not for cinematography. Caleb Deschanel has been nominated a whopping six times. The only outlier here is Robbie Ryan, who makes a convincing case for himself in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite.

It is a category stacked to the gills with talent. Somehow, though, I believe it is not that close of a race.

The Nominees:

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2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Nominations Predictions – Best Adapted Screenplay

January 4, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Generally, the Best Screenplay categories are filled with Best Picture hopefuls and, when there is room, one or two “honorable mention” choices. These are films that don’t necessarily get the love they might deserve in other categories, but the WGA and the Academy want to honor their merits in some way.

In the Original Screenplay category, this is something like The Big Sick or 20th Century Women. Both are great films that could have competed in other categories, but for one reason or another didn’t quite make the cut. For whatever reason, the screenwriting branch seems to be more forgiving of these clever little films.

The Nominees:

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2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Nominations Predictions – Best Cinematography

January 2, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

There were a lot of visually appealing films in 2018. Films with a diversity of aesthetic styles. There’s something disorienting in First Man. Something queasy in The Favourite. Something slow and crafty in Roma. Something sumptuous and classical in Cold War. Etcetera. Etcetera.

With that being said, narrowing down the final Oscar shortlist to five is no short order. And with the American Society of Cinematographers not dropping their nominees in this category until January 7, we’re flying a bit blind here. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Nominees:

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2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Nominations Predictions – Best Picture

December 29, 2018 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

The 2019 Oscar race for Best Picture seems surprisingly cut and dry. There are a handful of films that would be baffling to see not make the cut, and there are only a couple of films that have the campaign strength to move into the race.

If the race comes down to a final eight, then the films are already accounted for. The few films that could take up the rear and fill a ninth or tenth slot don’t necessarily have the consensus support needed to raise to the top of voters’ ballots.

All in all, there are only a few potential surprises in this year’s race. Might as well dig into them, anyway, right?

The Nominees:

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All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words), musical

A Star is Born (2018) Movie Review

October 5, 2018 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

About 10 minutes into A Star is Born—that is to say, the 2018 Bradley Cooper-directed A Star is Born—country rock superstar Jackson Maine (Cooper) explains to his love-at-first-sight (and soon to be muse) date Ally (Lady Gaga) something very important. Drunk, but conjuring up a moment of lucidity, he points around at the patrons of the bar. “Everyone in this bar is talented at one thing or another,” he says. But Ally. Ally has something to say. And that means something. That’s bigger than just being talented.

With this line, Cooper both encapsulates the entire film and reveals its biggest flaw. A Star is Born is certainly talented at one thing or another. But I don’t know if Continue reading A Star is Born (2018) Movie Review →