Featured Post

Letterboxd Reviews

So as you know, I stopped writing lengthy reviews on this site this year, keeping the blog as more of a film diary of sorts.  Lo and behold,...

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Oscar Predictions

Update Post-Awards:

18/24 -- I consider that not bad.  Granted, it's only two more than last year's tally, but I feel better about this year...mainly because I picked the contentious Best Picture winner...and also because my sound picks were troublesome and I knew it.  I felt like Mad Max couldn't sweep everything, but I knew that it would, but somehow I just went with Revenant because I felt Revenant was gonna get a little more love...

I'm also happy because I got two of the three short categories correct which I consider a big coup.  

Overall, the ceremony was paced well despite running 37 minutes long.  I thought Rock's opening monologue was decent -- you knew he was going to hit on the OscarsSoWhite controversy and I thought his skewering of the industry was decent.  But then it went on too far.  Once the fantastic Tracy Morgan Danish Girl bit was done, everything else went downhill.  The Girl Scout cookie thing was a cheap ploy to capture the Ellen selfie or pizza delivery thing and it didn't work.  Neither did much else.  So, good monologue, but disappointing the remainder of the show.  (And let's remember that the controversy should include all non-White minorities...not just the one that was promoted so highly in the show.)

Overall, I'm pleased with most winners.  Stallone's loss was sad as I thought he gave a great performance in Creed, but it's always nice to have some surprises.  And speaking of surprises, how about Ex Machina for Best Visual Effects?  That one came out of nowhere and while I'm not quite sure it deserved the win over its competitors, I'm thrilled that the great film got recognition.  Now if only Brooklyn had received some award, it would've been a fantastic night awards-wise.  

Edited: Sun 12:43am

Predictions for Sunday's ceremony are below.  I did awful last year -- 16/24 -- and this year I fear I won't do much better seeing as how the two films that are nearly going to run the table are my least favorites of the bunch, so I'm sure I'm picking things wrong.

Best Picture (listed in order of my own personal ranking)
Room  (A)
Brooklyn  (A-)
The Martian  (B+)
Spotlight  (B+)
The Revenant  (C+)
Mad Max: Fury Road (C- -- review forthcoming)
Will Win:  Spotlight (my "out on a limb" prediction -- I should probably be going with The Revenant)
Should Win: Room
Should've Been Nominated:  Steve Jobs

Best Director
Lenny Abrahamson - Room
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight
Adam McKay - The Big Short
George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - The Revenant
Will Win: Inarritu
Should Win: Abrahamson
Should've Been Nominated: Alex Garland - Ex Machina

Best Actor
Bryan Cranston - Trumbo
Matt Damon - The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl
Will Win: Dicaprio
Should Win: Fassbender
Should've Been Nominated: Jacob Tremblay - Room

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett - Carol
Brie Larson - Room
Jennifer Lawrence - Joy
Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn
Will Win: Larson
Should Win: Didn't see Joy/45 Years yet and I need a second viewing of Room/Brooklyn to really figure out if I like Larson or Ronan better because both were great
Should've Been Nominated: Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl (in the correct category)

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale - The Big Short
Tom Hardy - The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo - Spotlight
Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone - Creed
Will Win: Stallone
Should Win: Stallone
Should've Been Nominated: Weak year for this category

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara - Carol
Rachel McAdams - Spotlight
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs
Will Win: Vikander
Should Win: Vikander was great, but she's not a supporting actress rather the film's lead; Winslet would probably get my vote had I a ballot.  Didn't see Hateful Eight
Should've Been Nominated: Elizabeth Banks - Love and Mercy

Original Screenplay: Spotlight
Adapted Screenplay: The Big Short
Cinematography: The Revenant
Costume Design: Mad Max: Fury Road
Film Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Make-up and Hair: Mad Max: Fury Road
Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road
Score: The Hateful Eight
Song: "'Til It Happens to You" - The Hunting Ground
Sound Editing: The Revenant
Sound Mixing: The Revenant
Visual Effects: Mad Max: Fury Road
Animated Feature: Inside Out
Documentary: Amy
Foreign Film: Son of Saul
Animated Short: Bear Story
Documentary Short: Body Team 12
Live Action Short: Stutterer

No comments:

Post a Comment