The song and score categories feel like foregone conclusions this year, with one film playing right to what the sound categories are looking for. The real question is what will fill the other four nominee slots.
Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Original Score
The idea of a Best Film Editing award is strange. While editing is an arduous task that certainly deserves to be rewarded, the concept of judging a film’s editing is counter intuitive. The success of an edit is determined by the editor’s ability to hide the fact that cuts are occurring. A seamless experience is what marks a good editing job.
How do you judge a film by its editing, then? Part of it is a rhythm, a pulse in the cuts that contribute to the overall effect of a scene. In the case of a film like La La Land, it is an edit that has musicality and adds energy to a musical number. Another part of it is the editor’s ability to create that seamless experience.
Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Film Editing
There is a general formula to the Academy’s taste for costume design, and it generally involves period pieces. This year will be no different, although La La Land is not a period piece, per se, it merely feels like it is coming from a classical Hollywood time.
Let’s get into Best Costume Design nominations.
Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Costume Design
Where I find it difficult to compare the merits of screenwriting between films, I think judging the cinematics of a batch of films is somewhat easier. Quality cinematography strikes you in specific and noticeable ways, whereas a good script can sneak up on you. In 2016, we came across a number of visually striking movies. Let’s take a look at which ones will get Oscar nods.
Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Cinematography
After watching hours upon hours of backlogged RedLetterMedia videos over the holiday, I am well aware of the fatigued nature by which Hollywood shoves pre-sold intellectual properties down our throats year in and year out so folks can cash in on an easy payday. With this in mind, it is nice to look at the refreshingly new and original ideas that Hollywood has put out in 2016. Let’s talk Best Original Screenplay nominations.
Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Original Screenplay
As is often the case, the Academy acting awards feel like they have already been handed out. The phrase “the Oscar is X-actor’s to lose” is standard, and I will likely use the same phrase down the line this year. In 2016, Best Actor was Leo DiCaprio’s to lose, and he won. In 2015, Best Actress was Julianne Moore’s to lose, and she won. Etcetera, etcetera.
In 2017, there is a clear favorite and a few other contenders.
Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Actor
With 2016 winding down—half of America wanting to forget the entire election cycle, most lamenting the year as the most trying in recent memory, everyone hoping no one influential dies in 2017—it is time to look at some things that were actually good during the last calendar year.
2016 felt like a typical, unsurprising year at the movies. The box office didn’t blow up with mega-hits like last year’s The Force Awakens or Jurassic Park. There were your standard issue blockbusters and flops. Some movies were great. Some movies were God awful. And most of them were woefully in-between in that grotesque nether-region that is mediocrity.
Here, I have outlined my top 15 movies of 2016. Keep in mind that this list does not include some key late-year releases that I have yet to see and review, including but not limited to Fences, Silence, and Jackie. It also does not include documentaries, even though the likes of Weiner, Tickled, O.J.: Made in America, and 13th would all be strong contenders.
If you wish, click on the green titles to read the full review.
Nicolas Winding Refn continues his divisive oeuvre with this Summer’s soft release The Neon Demon. While it might not feel it, the film is more Continue reading Top 15 Best Movies of 2016
The opening number of La La Land, the new musical from Whiplash director Damien Chazelle, is the appropriate first impression of Los Angeles: a gridlocked freeway of cars sitting idle. Only, instead of the frustration and cynicism that would arise from this situation, people burst into hopeful song and dance among the stalled cars. In a rush of agile choreography, a rainbow color scheme, and immense depth staging, a flurry of people dance on hoods and sing of the wonder of Hollywood sunshine.
At the culmination of this tune, we are introduced to Mia (Emma Stone), another hopeful going over audition sides in her car as she waits, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), who honks aggressively at her when she refuses to move once the congestion breaks up.
With the first few scenes, La La Land presents itself as a
Scores are the under-appreciated backbone of tone in cinema. Composers control the emotional arcs of scenes. They reinforce important motifs. Music makes some films feel more full. A composer has to know what is at the heart of any script in order to properly do his/her job. The composers on these films understand this process. Let’s take a look at the nominees for Best Original Score.
Continue reading 2017 Golden Globes Predictions – Best Original Score
Golden Globe nominations are out, and that can only mean one thing: extremely early predictions. We’re about a month out from the ceremony, so anything could happen between now and then. For now, though, let’s crack into these categories and see who will win, who could win, and who could come from behind and surprise everybody. Continue reading 2017 Golden Globe Awards Predictions
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