Welcome Back to a Fantastic Crop of Films

The Oscars sent some resounding messages this morning, with some exciting and surprising choices. Personally, I barely slept last night worried that I would oversleep and miss seeing the nominations live.  Before we get into reviewing each individual film, let's make some overall observations about those included and those snubbed.

First, I'm sorry that The Greatest Showman got so little love from the Academy.  I loved that film - the easy and obvious categories included Original Score, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume Design, and Production Design.  At least the song that was nominated is spectacular.  When I was in the theater and that song concluded, I leaned over to my husband and said, "that's the Oscar winner."  We'll see.

I have been predicting a screenplay nomination for Get Out since it came out, thinking that this is often a way that the Academy honors movies that aren't quite Best Pictures but are still creative and outstanding (see: In the Loop).  I'm thrilled to see it get attention, same with The Big Sick.  Get Out is significant because Jordan Peele is the first African American to be nominating for directing, producing, and writing all in the same year.  That's an accomplishment for anyone, and this film is worthy of this recognition.

People are already making a lot of Martin Mcdonagh not being nominated for 3 Billboards - a film that has a decent chance of taking Best Picture.  (Barbra Streisand, Prince of Tides anyone?)  I think the real snub is Joe Wright for The Darkest Hour that had some of the best directing this year.  But I'm still protesting the Best Picture list having more than 5 nominees.  I don't like it, I've never liked it, I'm waiting for it to get back in line with the rest of the categories.  Last year was the single year since the revival of "up to 10" options that I couldn't pick an obvious 5 that would be the nominees. This year, it wouldn't be easy, but it could be done.

One nomination that truly pleases me is Woody Harrelson for Best Supporting Actor.  I know Sam Rockwell has gotten all of the attention, but I thought this was some of Harrelson's best work in 3 Billboards, and I'm delighted to see him nominated.

There's a lot more diversity among the nominees this year, but we all have to be thrilled to see Rachel Morrison receive the first ever nomination for a woman cinematographer.  This is not particularly about the recognition, but also about more women receiving behind the scenes jobs to even have the opportunity to be nominated.  And, if you really want to enjoy a moment, you have to love that Jacqueline Durran is competing against herself, having received a nomination for her work in Beauty and the Beast AND for her work in The Darkest Hour.

I have a lot more to say about each individual film, but that's to be savored over the next 5 weeks.

Finally, I do this blog solely for the love of the Oscars and to share that love with you.  I would be most grateful for any support, posting, reposting, retweeting that you would be inclined to do over the coming weeks.  If you like a blog post, or if you like the blog, please become a follower, or follow me on Twitter so you don't miss a single post!  (@jodibee)

Welcome back film lovers - this is going to be a great Oscars season!  (and now, to get some sleep!)

AAAAAAAND, WE'RE BACK!

Welcome back for another year of exciting Oscars nominees!  Aside from the fact that I have already seen the majority of the nominated films this year, I'm overall very pleased with the cream that rose to the top.  A whopping 63 movies garnered nominations in all of the categories, which is the largest number since I began the blog, and this year, only 33 days to squeeze all of the reviews into my daily posts!  This means that there will be a handful of categories that will have to be reviewed all in one post, so that I don't drive you (or myself) crazy.

At the same time, the Best Picture nominees are interesting because of the 9 nominated, six of them have received nominations in 6 or more categories.  So if you see just the 9 best picture nominees, you'll be seeing a large portion of the nominations in many of the categories.  For those of you with limited time, that's good news.  For me, having already seen all of the nominees in the majority of the categories, it makes my next 33 days a little bit easier.  In fact, this year marks my lowest "unseen on the day of announcements" number yet - I have not seen the documentaries or any of the three short subject categories (that happens every year, and short subjects I knock out in a couple of visits to the theatres showing them), and beyond that, I have not seen 4 films.  So my early predictions of what might be nominated were pretty spot on.

I feel obligated to comment on the #OscarsSoWhite question, with more people of color having been nominated this year.  One could argue that the added diversity of the Oscars voting membership is responsible for the increase.  I maintain that the Oscars is not the place where the controversy is appropriately placed.  The question at hand is, are diverse stories being told through film?  Acting categories only represent 4 of the 24 categories.  Barry Jenkins has become the first African American to be nominated for Best Picture (as a producer), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.  That's a breakthrough.  The Adapted Screenplay category has nominated 4 of 5 films with people of color as their leads.  That's a breakthrough.  We must think beyond the acting category when we question whose stories are being told, and who is being hired to tell them.

One final note: This year, I'll be trying something new and I hope you'll join me.  In addition to the daily blog (don't forget to subscribe, share on social media, and comment!), I'm going to try a podcast in which I invite people who have seen all of the nominees in various categories to join me in conversation about the 3-5 films up for consideration.  When I have the first one finished, I'll post. Please let me know what you think!

See you tomorrow, when we begin with the first of the Best Picture nominees, Arrival!

Welcome Back for Another Oscar Blog Year!

Welcome back to the blog!  This year, we have a little more time between today and the day the winners will be announced, so we have a little more time to play.  By my count, there are 57 nominated films this year (down from 60 last year), but since I group into one blog for each of the short subject categories, that gives us exactly the number of days we need, plus one to release my predictions.

As always, here's my general observations about this year's list.

1. I'm still not a fan of more than 5 nominated best picture films.  It's usually pretty easy to pick out the top 5 from the list, and though I'd include six of the eight nominees pretty easily, I believe we should go back to the old system.  I could easily pick out 3 additional male leads who deserve acting nominations, but we don't do that.  We pick five and we go with them.

2. There are a couple of snubs about which I am deeply disappointed.

• Will Smith played possibly his most engaging and difficult role in the film Concussion, which didn't receive a single nomination.
• Jacob Tremblay (the child who was the lead actor in the film Room), gave one of the best and most difficult performances in a film this year.  He has not been on anyone's list, the studio doesn't seem to have been promoting him, and he could have taken down the whole list of lead actor nominees with any scene from that film.  His age only reinforces the quality of the work.
• Idris Elba was robbed of a Best Supporting Actor nomination for the film Beasts of No Nation (on Netflix).  I suspect that the difficulty of getting academy voters to watch a film about child soldiers combined with the ruthless nature of his character stood in the way.
• The Good Dinosaur was one of my favorite films this year and it didn't get nominated in the Animated Feature category.  (As a friend pointed out to me, only the second Pixar film ever not to be nominated.)
• Finally, I'd have to check the eligibility for Best Original Score, but I thought the score for the film The 33 was one of the best this year.  That category has some tricky rules (which I'll explain in a future blog), but if it met the criteria, it was a shame not to have been nominated.

3. There are a couple of nominations about which I am incredulous.

• At some point, the Academy is going to have to deal with category shenanigans.  Rooney Mara was the lead in the film Carol and Cate Blanchett was the Supporting Lead.  But each of the actress' stature in their careers and in Hollywood has them switched so that the former is nominated for Best Supporting Actress and the latter is nominated for Best Actress in a Lead. Ridiculous.  See the movie and you'll see what I mean.  Between the fact the Mara had more screen time and the fact that the film is about her, this makes no sense.
• Not to give away what I'm going to say in my review, but Mad Max: Fury Road is a spectacular movie about a car chase.  It has some cool makeup, sets, and special effects, but it is one long car chase.  Does that make it Best Picture?  No it doesn't.  If they wanted a populist film, Straight Outta Compton is the clear choice, and being a nerd, I would also take Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

4. #OscarsSoWhite

I've been thinking about this quite a lot over the last several months and at the risk of being internet threatened, I'd like to say that the problem does not lie with the Oscars.  It's like breaking a nail and blaming the nail polish.  The real hashtag should be #HollywoodSoWhite.  If you look at the Best Actor category, four of them are biopics or are based on true stories.  But did The Martian require a white male lead? Nope. Do all Directors need to be white (exluding Innaritu, of course)? Nope.  Guess what, people of color can direct stories that have nothing to do with ethnicity, but are they given the opportunities at the same rate?  I suspect not.

I do believe this is a serious issue, but I think the problem with blaming the Oscars is that when you review the 20 acting nominations, 12 of them are from biopics (you can't change the race of the actual people whose stories are being told), and one is about an Irish girl who would likely have been white in the context of the story.  We need to focus our attention on why opportunities for more diverse stories aren't presenting themselves in the Hollywood studio system, and solve the problem where it lies.  The fish rots at the head, so to speak.  You can't nominate what hasn't appeared on the screen, and the solution lies in more diversity appearing on the screen and behind the camera.  

So, those are my initial impressions, and stay tuned for reviews of the 57 films over the next 46 days. It can't help but be so much fun.  See you at the movies!