Tag Archives: Mahershala Ali

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Alita: Battle Angel (2019) Movie Review

February 17, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Centuries in the future, Earth has been ravaged by a vague war known as “The Fall.” Most people live in squalor, while the elite live in a sky city named Zalem. A doctor who performs cyber-prosthetic surgery, Ido (Christoph Waltz), discovers in a junkyard of scrap metal the remains of a cyborg. He rebuilds her, calls her Alita (Rosa Salazar), and explains the world to her for our benefit.

She doesn’t remember anything of her past, but soon enough everyone in the city’s underbelly (and a select few from the city above) want her dead. Funnily enough, Alita just happens to be Continue reading Alita: Battle Angel (2019) Movie Review →

2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Predictions – Best Supporting Actor

January 22, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

For whatever reason, Best Supporting Actor is, year after year, the easiest acting race to predict. It is often narrowed in on one or two candidates long before the Screen Actors Guild announce their awards. The SAGs just act to solidify the already established front-runner.

2019, by and large, shows the same conditions. The race is already narrowed down, and it is not hard to pick a winner before the SAGs even happen. There is always upset potential, but this race is much more predictable than the other categories.

The Nominees:

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2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Nominations Predictions – Best Supporting Actor

December 31, 2018 Alex Brannan 1 Comment

Of all the acting categories, Best Supporting Actor appears to be the most locked up. There is a clear top four or five, with just a select few actors that could squeeze in.

Let us, then, talk about those dark horse candidates.

The Nominees:

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) Movie Review

December 16, 2018 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Rather inexplicably, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best Spider-Man film made to date. It is hard to imagine that an animated film about multiverse theory and multiple incarnations of a single comic book character coming together to fight a rogue’s gallery that is only recognizable to fans would not only be an inspired origin story for Spider-Man, but also be an entirely accessible experience.

Yes, it is a lot of information to take in, the plotting story churning forward endlessly without a breath. Those completely unfamiliar with Continue reading Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) Movie Review →

2017 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Supporting Actor

January 24, 2017 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Traversing the 2017 Academy Award category of Best Supporting Actor seems like walking through a minefield. Yes, I led you astray on the same category at the Golden Globes, but I think some slack should be cut for me. I mean, who would have guessed that Aaron Taylor-Johnson would upset?

Taylor-Johnson is notably absent from the Oscar running, which should hypothetically make this easier, as the Golden Globes cannot really be factored in. Still, anything could conceivably happen in this race without the SAG award around to give a prediction some evidential backing. Should I stick to my guns and keep the same path I hoed for the GGs, or adjust my choice accordingly?

Well…

Best Supporting Actor:

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Hidden Figures (2016) Movie Review

January 9, 2017 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

There is something cautionary about a film that opens with a scene that outlines a superficial context by having every line of dialogue out of the characters’ mouths point to the obvious mores of the day, to the point where a character has to exclaim what year it is to highlight the already obvious irony of their immediate situation.

It is this retrograde rose-tinting of history that plagues Hidden Figures. Morality films such as these often fall into this pitfall, where characters are hyper aware of their situation as if they themselves are looking back as we are. The film is designed around Continue reading Hidden Figures (2016) Movie Review →

2017 Golden Globes, Award Ceremonies

Golden Globes 2017 – Aaron Taylor Johnson Upsets in Best Supporting Actor Category

January 8, 2017 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

The first category of the night at the 2017 Golden Globes was an unceremonious surprise as Aaron Taylor Johnson won Best Supporting Actor over the likes of Jeff Bridges and heavy favorite Mahershala Ali.

While Johnson’s role in the disturbing thriller Nocturnal Animals was Continue reading Golden Globes 2017 – Aaron Taylor Johnson Upsets in Best Supporting Actor Category →

2017 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Supporting Actor

January 1, 2017 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

The Best Supporting Actor race is another open field, sort of. The five nominees I have selected are five great performances (more or less.), but there are other great supporting roles that deserve attention. While there is a clear frontrunner in the category, it is harder to choose among the other contenders.

Best Supporting Actor

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2017 Golden Globes, Award Ceremonies, Movie News

2017 Golden Globes Predictions – Best Supporting Actor

December 12, 2016 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Perhaps I am starting to sound like a broken record at this point in my predictions. But the Best Supporting Actor category isn’t even close. We have a two horse race with an unlikely chance of an upset.

Best Supporting Actor

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Moonlight (2016) Movie Review

November 4, 2016 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Moonlight begins with a beautiful steadicam shot that literally revolves around a denied drug deal. One of the dealers involved, Juan (Mahershala Ali), gets cut off by a child being chased by bullies. Chiron, or “Little” (Alex Hibbert), finds comfort in Juan as a father figure that he does not have elsewhere in his life.