It's over, folks! I have stuffed my eyes and brains with too many movies and am ready to drink prosecco and watch these Oscars go down!
The lead up to this year's Academy Awards has been ridiculous. First they got a host and then he said some stuff a while ago and they didn't have a host but they were going to get one and then they never wanted a host in the first place! We are all good here! Then they weren't going to perform ALL of the musical numbers and then they said, just kidding! Then they were going to take very important awards, like EDITING (insert my angry roar here), off of the live broadcast but then there were lots of angry roars so they didn't. I mean, I guess we should be happy that the Academy is in a growth mindset here and ready to try and fail and listen to immediate feedback and make changes? I guess.
The Oscars are an industry event. It's not for the fans, it's for Hollywood to take a minute to reflect and celebrate the work that they think stood out. It has been televised because lots of people are interested in peeking behind that curtain and seeing how that celebration goes and maybe learning a little something along the way (like why Cinematography is important to the outcome of the film, maybe????) So this notion that hosting it has to be a slam dunk for your career, or that if it doesn't have the largest audience of all time it isn't worth it is utterly annoying. I propose we let C-SPAN or ESPN Ocho cover it and just let the show run for 5 or 6 hours. I'd still watch the whole thing! Others could DVR it and just speed ahead to best picture since apparently that's the only thing the average viewer wants to see anyway.
Also people get so ruffled about the Academy getting it "wrong" every year. This isn't about right or wrong, people! Films get left out, our opinions change over time, fans feel disappointed or somehow vindicated by the results, but in the end it shouldn't be about right or wrong. It should be about betting! If you can guess whatever the heck the Academy is thinking this year, you should get PAID!
Wait, I got off track. It should simply be about loving the movies. I don't love the Oscars because they are "right" (they seldom are in line with my opinions, for sure), I love the Oscars because I want to see what happens live. I want to see how people respond to the pressure and when they go a little bit crazy, I want to be there. I don't write this blog because these are the only films worthy of my attention, I do it because the Oscars are an interesting snapshot of where the industry is right at this moment, right or wrong. We all have our own opinions and passions about films and that shouldn't stop us from enjoying the gala event (I will try to remember this when I get super pissed and scream at the TV tonight for some bad choice or another!)
All of that said, I'm feeling like the overall offering of nominees this year is a bit lackluster. I can't figure out if the movies were all B+ with no Honors A in the mix or just a symptom of my sometimes overwhelming feeling that everything about civilization as we know it is a complete hoax and we have strayed far from our right path as human beings. A lot of people agree with me on both the movies and society, so either way, I suppose.
The Best Picture nominees lack any movie that completely took my breath away. Last year I wasn't picking The Shape of Water but what I wouldn't give for that option this year! It's interesting to me that three of the five Cinematography nominees were foreign films. So the cinematography branch of the Academy maybe also felt like it wasn't a hot year for American cinema. Doc Shorts and Live Action Shorts usually feel like special categories and just didn't connect for me this year.
I'm posting my faves and picks for the year below, mostly so that I have my own archive to look back on. Feel free to peruse them but DON'T use them on your official Oscar party ballots! My picks are not good guesses. Please enjoy whatever weird mess they offer us tonight and rest assured, it can't be as bad as when James Franco co-hosted!
Thank you to all my readers, real an imagined! Good night and may Oscar bless!
My personal top ten list of the year looks something like:
You Were Never Really There
Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
Shoplifters
Tully
First Reformed
Never Look Away
A Quiet Place
Free Solo
Minding the Gap
Black Panther
My picks for each category:
Picture - My pick changes every day. If I had time to go back and rewatch Blackkklansman, I might pick that one. I guess I'll go with Black Panther today.
Actor - Christian Bale
Actress - Glenn Close
Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali
Supporting Actress - Regina King
Animated - Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
Cinematography - Never Look Away
Costumes - Black Panther
Directing - Spike Lee
Documentary - Free Solo
Documentary Short - Black Sheep
Editing - Vice
Foreign Language Film - Shoplifters
Makeup - Vice
Score - Black Panther
Song - A Star is Born
Production Design - Black Panther
Short Animated - Late Afternoon
Short Live Action - Mother
Sound Editing - First Man
Sound Mixing - First Man
Visual Effects - Avengers: Infinity War
Writing, Adapted - Blackkklansman
Writing, Original - First Reformed
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