The Oscars 2016

I don't know if I'll ever come close to my personal best of 23/24 at the 2014 ceremony, especially when there are so many tight races with no obvious front runner. With the PGA, DGA and SAG unable to come to a consensus, best picture is anyone's game. This year's awards have been wrought with controversy over a second consecutive year of all-white acting nominees. The Academy even responded this year by changing the rules for voter eligibility to try to diminish the voting power of the largely old, white, retired male filmmakers. The Academy had to do something when Spike Lee, an honoree this year for lifetime achievement, said he would not attend. Will the Academy's reforms work? Not right away. It is certainly a start. It will not fix the industry wide problem--that is a lack of substantive roles for minority actors. Tackling that issue is another one entirely. Personally, I was predicting a Best Picture nomination for Straight Outta Compton and a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Idris Elba from Beasts of No Nation, but it was not meant to be. Chris Rock is set to host and I trust him to break the tension in the room and actively tackle the issue with comedy.

Best Picture Likelihood of Winning
1. The Revenant
2. The Big Short
3. Spotlight
4. Room
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
6. The Martian
7. Bridge of Spies
8. Brooklyn

Best Picture Personal Ranking
1. The Big Short
2. Brooklyn
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. The Martian
5. Room
6. Spotlight
7. The Revenant
8. Bridge of Spies

Personal Top 10 of 2015
1. Steve Jobs
2. Inside Out
3. Ex Machina
4. The Big Short
5. Brooklyn
6. Mad Max: Fury Road
7. The Martian
8. Room
9. Love & Mercy
10. Spotlight

Best Director
Will Win/Should Win: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, The Revenant
Honorable Mention: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actress
Will Win: Brie Larson, Room
Should Win: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Actor
Will Win/Should Win: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Honorable Mention: Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Best Supporting Actress
Will Win: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Should Win: Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Best Supporting Actor
Will Win: Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Should Win: Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight

Best Original Screenplay
Will Win: Spotlight
Should Win: Inside Out

Best Adapted Screenplay
Will Win/Should Win: The Big Short
Honorable Mention: Brooklyn

Best Cinematography
Will Win/Should Win: The Revenant

Best Costume Design
Will Win/Should Win: Carol

Best Film Editing
Will Win/Should Win: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Will Win/Should Win: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Production Design
Will Win/Should Win: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Score
Will Win: The Hateful Eight
Should Win: Carol

Best Song
Will Win/Should Win: Til It Happens to You, The Hunting Ground

Best Sound Editing
Will Win/Should Win: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Sound Mixing
Will Win/Should Win: The Revenant

Best Visual Effects
Will Win/Should Win: Mad Max: Fury Road
Honorable Mention: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Animated Feature
Will Win/Should Win: Inside Out

Best Documentary
Will Win: Amy
Should Win: The Look of Silence

Best Foreign Film
Will Win: Son of Saul, Hungary

Best Animated Short
Will Win: Sanjay's Super Team

Best Live Action Short

Will Win: Stutterer

Best Documentary Short
Will Win: Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah

Update: 16/24 is worse than the 18/24 I got last year. Spotlight, which was the presumed front-runner for many months until the Golden Globes, won Best Picture. Guess I should've had a little faith. Mark Ryland beat Sylvester Stallone with a wonderfully nuanced performance. Quite frankly, he was better than Stallone anyways. Hollywood isn't as nostalgic as I thought it was. Best Visual Effects went to Ex Machina, which was a pleasant surprise. In a night when Mad Max was winning all of the below-the-line awards, it was nice to see the small indie take one. I missed on the Sound Mixing Category but the clip that they played for The Revenant was the one that I wrote about on my blog pointing out the sound mixing (some affirmation is always nice)! And Sam Smith stole Lady Gaga and Dianne Warren's Oscar. He was kind of pitchy and as far as Bond songs go, his was not even that good. And I still think that they should either perform all 5 songs, or none at all. Where's the respect for Manta Ray and Simple Song #3? That is an unfair bias. And as always, I love Chris Rock. I thought he was hilarious, relevant, and really hit the nail on the head on the race issue.

The Crowd (1928)

King Vidor was a master of melodrama. I really enjoyed this movie. Despite its silence, or perhaps due to its silence, it conveys so much raw emotion. The facial expressions and gestures are very exaggerated. The action is incredibly regular. The movie depicts normal life. It does not require a villain because life itself is tough enough. We overcome obstacles that are mundane, but we rarely see them on film. And it is not even so much that it was realistic, but that it was real. It is genuine. It is as if Vidor recorded an actual married couple without a script, and captured real life.

I also took notice of the music. It is two hours long, and the music is continuous in a silent movie. The music does not resolve when you think it will because it just has to keep going for two hours. It is actually pretty incredible. Professor Jelavich told us that when the movie was shown in theaters back in 1928, the music would have been played live and it would have been improvised. We did not even hear the same music. Every viewing would have hypothetically been different.

Warner Brothers has been sitting on this movie for many years. And we are waiting for Warner Bros. to re-release this movie in decent quality. All we had was a DVD version of the VHS release from back when people still used VHS. They have the print...they just have to share it.

Ivan's Childhood (1962)

It would be an understatement to say that I didn't understand this movie. I was not sure what was going on for most of the movie. There is a scene featuring Masha that inexplicably adds nothing to the plot--plus it's kind of creepy.  Not to mention that the movie is super slow. That being said, there is a pretty powerful anti-war message. War steals childhood and innocence away from the young. It is unapologetic. There is an amazing shot of Ivan framed by sharp, broken timber beams. In class, Professor Moss showed us a video of a compilation of shots from The Revenant that are seemingly modeled after Tarkovsky's movies. And for the record, I said the same thing before she showed us that video. I saw that shot of the flowing river and immediately thought of The Revenant. 

The Hateful Eight (2015)

I think the perfect word to describe this movie is self-indulgent. For one, it is way too long, clocking around three hours. And when your movie is so long, it can't be so slow--I kind of fell asleep a little in the middle. The story is told in several distinct chapters, which enhances the epic grandeur that Tarantino tries to evoke. And I understand that the first few set up the story, but they are too long for just setup.  There is the usual gratuitous amount of hyperbolic graphic violence and lots of inappropriate language. I'm all for free speech, but Tarantino  is a little too comfortable using the N-word. The most problematic aspect of the movie: no likable characters.

That being said the movie does some things very well. The storytelling is strong. I am surprised that Tarantino wasn't nominated for his screenplay. The story is mostly told linearly, but there is one chapter of flashback to make a crucial revelation that totally turns the story on its head. The last half of the movie is significantly better than the first. Most of the movie takes place in a single room, and we change perspectives in this one room. Some chapters also use narration, which is out of place since it is only present in some chapters, but it somehow works. The cinematography is also pretty incredible. The white snow is expansive and there is a great shot that is half pure white and half pure blue sky. But the very best aspect of this movie is Ennio Morricone's score. It is quintessentially western. 

His Girl Friday (1940)

His Girl Friday is a hilarious screwball comedy about the world of print journalism. Screwball comedies are marked by witty, fast-paced dialogue. It makes me wonder if that is where the stereotypical old-timey newspaper journalist voices come from (or did journalists actually talk like that way back when?). The speed and braininess of the dialogue reminds me of Aaron Sorkin's writing. It is a wonder how Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell could remember that much dialogue and spit it out in one breath. Especially since all of the dialogue is yelled at the top of their lungs. Journalism seems very hectic.

This movie also presents a rather early portrait of a modern woman. She is married to her work and holds her own against the boys in the brutal press room. She is good at what she does and commands the respect of her male counterparts. She dominates in her relationship with her fiancee and even protects him. It is a very refreshing movie for the 1940s.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

There's no denying that this is a strange movie. It is part horror, part drama, with a tinge of comedy. I mean, there's nothing funny about a serial killer pursuing helpless little orphans but it has its awkwardly funny moments. These kids are kind of creepy, not as creepy as the preacher (Robert Mitchum looks really sinister), but almost to the level of little not-very-kid-like Pearl from The Scarlet Letter. The spookiest thing about this movie is the song that the preacher sings. It is an omen of sorts. He leaves "Jesus" out of his lyrics the same way his life (as a preacher) is devoid of God. And playing up the weird factor, the opening sequence uses floating heads in outer space which then cuts to a shaky helicopter shot.

The movie is full of symbolism, both religious and secular. The message about religion is kind of interesting. There are two ways to see it. Though these people in the countryside find solace in The Bible, it does a lot of harm. It has a blinding effect on the mother and on the Spoons, who should've minded their own business and then these poor kids wouldn't be in this living nightmare.

There are some really great shots. It is shot in the style of German Expressionism with diagonal angles and lots of shadow work. My favorite shot is of the kids in the canoe floating down the river. We see the quiet natural surroundings. And then there is an aerial shot of the kids sleeping in the boat that reminded me of Life of Pi when they were all alone finally able to stop and breathe. I wonder if Ang Lee had that in mind...

Spectre (2015)

Sure, it was never going to live up to the glory of Skyfall, but Spectre fell far short. This is James Bond and we have come to expect certain things from 007--that is action sequences. And for a two and a half hour movie, they are too few and far between. And in such a long movie, they travel to a lot of different locations, more than necessary (Mexico, London, Rome, Tangiers, Tokyo, and middle-of-nowhere). There is more story than action. Action movies have gotten more story heavy lately and I can appreciate that, but I don't think the film did a very good job at explaining things. We are given so little to go on and the leads that he follows seem to arise out of nowhere. I also thought the dialogue was quite lacking. There is some lame dialogue and some uncharacteristically funny lines (Bond doesn't do funny). And that very last scene was wholly unnecessary. The film does attempt to tie all of the Craig films together (it kind of inexplicably tries to) and then ties up the Craig films period. I think it would be appropriate for him to end on that note and let someone else don the suit.

Carol (2015)

Carol is a gorgeous love story by Todd Haynes,  a pure romantic drama at its core. Haynes is a master of his craft, creating a beautiful depiction of 1950s New York (the costumes!). Haynes loves the time jump and there is one major time jump in the beginning that is not immediately obvious but very important and well executed. We start in the future and witness the dynamic between Carol and Therese from a third party perspective. Then we go back to see how their relationship evolved interestingly alternating perspectives between Carol and Therese.

The screenplay is very well written. The story moves along very slowly, but that is all the better to bask in its beauty. What moves the film forward is the music. I love the score. The piano plays heavy chords in the recurring theme that are mostly steady save for a single measure that is played in double time. It is subtle, but it builds anticipation just enough. The music adds to the mysterious atmosphere, along with the clever cinematography. Many of the images are indirect, like how Therese sees the world through her camera and how we watch reflections in murky windows. It adds to the aura, as does the divine (yet undoubtedly mysterious) Cate Blanchett.

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are both brilliant. They both show extraordinary vulnerability and immense passion for each other. Their love is forbidden in their time and it tortures them so. They show restraint. They are simply a joy to watch.

Bruce Springsteen: The River Tour (2016)

He has still got it! At 66, The Boss is still performing. He played for almost 3 and a half hours straight. Isn't that extraordinary? The whole E Street Band is aging but they keep up with him too. Clarence Clemons's nephew Jake has taken over the rock saxophone part and thankfully he has a young set of strong lungs.

He opened with an energetic outtake "Meet Me in the City" before going into the River album in its entirety in sequence. During "Hungry Heart," one of my favorites, he surfs through the crowd (again, he's 66!). And the crowd got to sing the first verse as always. After he played through the album, he did another seven songs and then five more for the encore. He brought up two people to dance with him for "Dancing in the Dark" like Courtney Cox and with a roaring race to the finish he performed the Isley Brothers' "Shout".

Set List: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bruce-springsteen/2016/verizon-center-washington-dc-bf3e562.html

The Grammy Awards 2016

So the Grammys this year is inexplicably on a monday which means I'm not going to be able to watch live. Nonetheless, I'll try to make predictions in the major categories.

Best New Artist
There's no Sam Smith in the category this year, which means it's really anyone's game. I'm going to pick James Bay, with Tori Kelly as a second choice.

Song of the Year
Taylor's Swift's Shake It Off qualified last year, and this year she has Blank Space, which is a much worse song though I am reluctant to bet against Taylor Swift at the Grammys (because they love to vote for her). Kendrick Lamar has eleven nominations, the most of any artist and his song Alright may pull off the win here though I don't love the song myself.  I'm going to pick Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud after he lost a few years ago for The A-Team (back then the nomination was surprise enough, but well deserved). This is a songwriting category, and Sheeran is one of the bets songwriters out there right now.

Record of the Year 
I'm going to pick Bruno Mars & Mark Ronson's infectious and highly-produced dance tune Uptown Funk. Otherwise they'll probably go for Taylor Swift.

Album of the Year
This could be a very interesting race. The favorites are Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar. Lamar's debut album was groundbreaking and if Grammy voters didn't vote for that one, they might not vote for him now either (or they'll attempt to rectify their past mistakes). And Grammy voters just love Taylor Swift for some reason. Chris Stapleton also released a very good album, and I don't even like country music. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and pick Alabama Shakes's fantastic album Sound and Color. Recent ceremonies have had a history of awarding Album of the Year to rockers (several upsets) Beck, Mumford and Sons, and Arcade Fire.

Update: I scored 2/4 missing on Best New Artist and Album of the Year. Best New Artist went to Meghan Trainor despite the fact that the James Bay/Tori Kelly's collaboration was one of the top performances of the night. And that she's not new (she was nominated last year?). Album went to Taylor Swift, who should apologize to Kendrick Lamar for ruining his night. Though he came away with five awards, he left empty-handed in the main categories. The best performances of the night: Lady Gaga's tribute to David Bowie, Kendrick Lamar, and Hamilton's first televised performance. Honorable mentions: Joey Alexander, BB King tribute and James Bay/Tori Kelly.