Blech. This looks lame and stupid and after the last Ant-Man became the first Marvel movie I skipped altogether, I think this might be the next (I really hated the first Captain Marvel). So yeah, not into this. And I’m sorry, but what exactly is Nick Fury’s job now?
New 'Dial of Destiny' Trailer Looks Like Classic Indiana Jones
This is a better trailer than the original one- but is anyone interested in seeing this? I have to wonder at this point. I guess we’re not that far way from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull having made over $317 million in 2008, but let’s face it- the box office world from 15 years ago and now couldn’t possibly be more different. Do people want another Indiana Jones movie? I’d still like for it to be good. The de-aging doesn’t look too bad in this, at least from the trailer.
New 'Across the Spider-Verse' Trailer is More Multiverse Fun
The new trailer for the Spider-Verse sequel looks about the same as the original. Should be fun, maybe. I did like the first one and still think it’s the best take on the multiverse than any of the stuff that’s come out since.
New 'Barbie' Teaser Shows Off Bright Colors, Weirdness
I think my question watching this bizarre and horribly unfunny teaser, is who the hell is this movie for? It’s not for kids seemingly, but if it’s a comedy aimed at adults about Barbie, it needs some better and broader comedy. This? Ain’t it. I sense a massive misfire.
New DC Superhero Movie 'Blue Beetle' Comes Out in August
This looks extremely generic and as something that was originally supposed to be a streaming release on HBO Max, I’m surprised it didn’t stay there. Utterly uninteresting in the least.
Two Elements Fall in Love in Pixar's New Movie 'Elemental'
Another thing I’m getting tired of is Pixar’s obsession with movies about colorful blobs. Inside Out, Soul, now this. It almost looks like a parody. But I also noticed they seem to be something of a romantic comedy and the only near romances I ever remember Pixar doing are WALL-E and maybe the first 15 minutes of Up. It’s not their thing usually, so maybe it is different in that aspect?
Trailer for Wes Anderson's Latest 'Asteroid City'
I guess I’m a little tired of Wes Anderson’s style at this point because this doesn’t excite me. Maybe a combo of Moonrise Kingdom and one of the other, adult focused ones. He’s got some new actors joining the usual Anderson crew, like Scarlett Johansson, Steve Carell and Tom Hanks. As alway, I guess we’ll see.
New 'Little Mermaid' Trailer Premieres During the Oscars
I hesitated posting this just because…frankly, it looks awful. An ugly CGI mess with no reason to exist, as it aims solely to recreate famous images from the cartoon and butcher the famous music. I fully expect it to be just as horrible as the live action remakes of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. But this one hurts me more because it’s my favorite of the Renaissance movies. Sigh.
'Everything Everywhere' Sweeps the Oscars, Makes History with 7 Wins
Well. That happened. I’m not the biggest fan of EEAO, but it was nice to see the winners so happy (Ke Huy Quan especially, whose speech was the most emotional). I still can’t quite believe this movie won 7 Oscars, including three acting wins. Seriously? That’s the first time a Best Picture winner won three acting Oscars- the only other films to get three acting wins were A Streetcar Named Desire and Network, neither of which won Best Picture, so we’re talking major history. On top of the actors, it won Picture, Director, Screenplay and Editing, which no other film has ever done. Ever. Is it really that good? Come on. But the ceremony was miles better than the more recent ones, as it felt like a throwback to a more old-fashioned Oscars show, with Jimmy Kimmel in traditional host mode, and musical performances that were mostly pretty good (yay for Naatu Naatu! Probably my favorite win of the night). I’m also very surprised that Elvis was completely skunked after all those nominations, Bafta and guild wins. What happened there? I clearly underestimated Brendan Fraser’s career comeback narrative, and how beloved he really was in the industry. My score was not great this year, and five Best Picture nominees went home empty-handed, which rarely happens these days.
2023 OSCAR WINNERS
BEST PICTURE: Everything Everywhere All at Once
BEST DIRECTOR: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once
BEST ACTOR: Brendan Fraser, The Whale
BEST ACTRESS: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Everything Everywhere All at Once
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Women Talking
BEST EDITING: Everything Everywhere All at Once
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: All Quiet on the Western Front
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: All Quiet on the Western Front
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: All Quiet on the Western Front
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
BEST DOCUMENTARY: Navalny
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: “Naatu Naatu,” RRR
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: All Quiet on the Western Front
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Avatar: The Way of Water
BEST SOUND: Top Gun: Maverick
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING: The Whale
BEST ANIMATED SHORT: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: The Elephant Whisperers
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: An Irish Goodbye
Jennifer Lawrence Tries Raunchy Comedy in 'No Hard Feelings'
I don’t know what’s going on with this movie but it just looks kinda gross to me. I don’t think JLaw has the kind of comic timing to make something like this work (doesn’t she always just sound like she’s reciting her lines as angrily as possible?)
OSCAR PREDIX, Part 5: Best Picture and Director
Unfortunately these are not as fun to talk about today because they are pretty much set in stone, as you’ll see.
BEST PICTURE
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
TÁR
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking
We go by the precursors here, and the fact of the matter is, EEAO has won the DGA, PGA and SAG (where it set a record by winning 4 prizes, the first time that’s ever happened at SAG). It’s a guild sweeper and no guild sweeper has ever lost Best Picture. It’s true that BAFTA did not like it much at all, and only gave it a single award in editing, but they also didn’t like Birdman back in 2014, which won all the guilds too and then the Oscar. When you have a guild sweeper they pretty much can’t be beaten. Of course, nothing’s ever possible until it happens, but I simply have no reason to predict anything else. If even one of the guilds had gone another way, I might be able to make a case for something, but no real alternative has emerged. Even the BAFTA favorite, All Quiet on the Western Front, has virtually no guild presence.
Winner: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Alternate: Top Gun: Maverick
Dark Horse: All Quiet on the Western Front
BEST DIRECTOR
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Todd Field, TÁR
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness
This is similar to Best Picture in that there’s no clear alternative to the Best Picture frontrunner. At BAFTA they gave director to All Quiet’s Edward Berger, who wasn’t even nominated here. That means the DGA winners, the Daniels, are the frontrunners to win and I don’t even know who could challenge them. Theoretically, Steven Spielberg could do it, but he’s won nothing for The Fabelmans this whole season. Maybe Todd Field comes out of nowhere as a place to honor Tar that’s not Cate Blanchett? I could kinda imagine that, but it would be a huge surprise. I don’t really see it happening.
Winner: The Daniels
Alternate: Steven Spielberg
Dark Horse: Todd Field
Oscar Predix, Part 4: Acting
Now these are the fun categories this year, because you could argue they’re all up in the air except for one. And that’s because BAFTA and SAG this year matched 0-4, which hasn’t happened in 20 years. What does that mean? We’re going to have to reason it out, which makes it more fun.
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, TÁR
Ana de Armas, Blonde
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
The toughest race of the night. You can write off Ana de Armas, Riseborough, and Michelle Williams, no matter what weird controversy exists because of Riseborough’s out of nowhere nomination. She stands no chance with the whole Academy voting. It’s between Michelle Yeoh, who stars in the Best Picture frontrunner and would make history as the first Asian Best Actress winner, and Cate Blanchett, vying for her third Oscar in a career best performance which would be its film’s (likely) only Oscar win. Very difficult. Yeoh won the SAG over Blanchett, but Blanchett has BAFTA (both were Globes winners in different categories). BAFTA has traditionally picked the winner in a split race, and Tar has 6 nominations so it’s definitely strong enough to put Blanchett over the top. Can history win the day or are there enough international voters in the Academy now that think they already voted for EEAO in enough categories and will go with Blanchett in this one? I think Michelle Yeoh might have enough momentum in this last week of voting to carry her though to a historic win.
Winner: Michelle Yeoh
Alternate: Cate Blanchett
BEST ACTOR
Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living
Another two person race here with Best Actor. Brendan Fraser won SAG and Critics Choice for The Whale, while Austin Butler took the Golden Globe and BAFTA. I think ultimately in these cases it comes down to the strength of the film, and Elvis is a Best Picture nominee that could win a few Oscars on the night. The Whale did not make it into Best Picture and I think that’s ultimately what counts the most.
Winner: Austin Butler
Alternate: Brendan Fraser
Dark Horse: Colin Farrell (this is unlikely since he lost BAFTA to Butler though- if he was going to win anywhere it should have happened there; that it didn’t indicates the international voters are behind Butler)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Hong Chau, The Whale
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Another one that’s completely up in the air! This one is even more open because we have three different winners in the precursors. Angela Bassett took the Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards (both non-industry voters) while Kerry Condon won the BAFTA and Jamie Lee Curtis won the SAG. Oy. So who prevails? I think JLC winning SAG indicates there’s a split vote for the “overdue narrative” that will go some to her, some to Bassett. Bassett’s film is also not a Best Picture nominee. But JLC has competition with co-star Hsu from EEAO. BAFTA voters on the other hand are lined up behind Condon, whose film is a Best Picture contender and might be the only place to award it on Oscar night. BAFTA has often predicted a surprise winner in this category before, so I’m thinking Kerry Condon will take it.
Winner: Kerry Condon
Alternate: Jamie Lee Curtis
Dark Horse: Hong Chau – I think this is possible if the vote splits all over the place and we get a winner who hasn’t won anything yet
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
This one is easier to call. Ke Huy Quan has won everything except BAFTA, but in that case, the combination of Golden Globe, Critics Choice, SAG plus being in the Best Picture frontrunner is more important. He’s the closest to a lock in the acting categories. Anything else would be a big surprise.
Winner: Ke Huy Quan
Alternate: Barry Keoghan (BAFTA winner)