As an overly devoted watched of the Oscars for more than thirty years, I often complain that the ceremony doesn’t show me anything I haven’t seen before. I guess that particular gripe is off the table for the ninety-fourth annual … Continue reading Oscars Exit the Speed Force

We come to another tradition of mine. The last day before the Oscars that isn’t claimed by other recurring business, I offer the names that I would have scratched out on an Actors Branch nominating ballot had I the privilege … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Tick, Tick… Nom!

Another dizzying, pandemic-buffeted year for movies leads to another set of largely happy surprises with the Academy Award nominations. The Academy’s efforts to diversify the voting body continue to have interesting, rewarding results. Drive My Car took its flurry of … Continue reading Jane’s Getting Serious — Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations

If nothing else, the anticlimactic end to last night’s Academy Awards ceremony proves definitively that the accounts who tabulate the votes aren’t tipping off the ceremony’s producers about the winners. The shift of the Best Picture category to take place … Continue reading Oscarland

In this Oscar year with a calendar that has been understandably scrambled, it’s been especially difficult to undertake my usual process of selecting the twenty performances I would submit to the Academy were I gifted with an Actors Branch nominating … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Precious Metal

In this upside-down movie year that sprawled beyond the boundaries actually set by the calendar, it makes sense that the Oscar nominations would bring their own unique set of surprises. What makes the morning especially discombobulating for this long-time Oscar … Continue reading Promising Young Directors — Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations

When Tom Hanks tells you to turn the lights back on, you turn the lights back on. After Parasite secured its historic win in the Best Picture category and the first producer delivered their acceptance speech, the show producers dimmed … Continue reading Parasite by the Oscar Lights

With the annual Academy Awards ceremony mere days away and the sharing of my personal assessment of the previous year’s ten finest films duly completed, tradition holds that I put my pontificating about performance into the format of an Actors … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Women and Chill Don First

“Congratulations to those men,” Issa Rae said pointedly and gracefully this morning, immediately after listing the five contenders in the directing category for this year’s Academy Awards. The annual announcement of new nominations is always going to be a hash … Continue reading Women Belittled — Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations

When Julia Roberts slipped her slender fingers across the seal of the Best Picture envelope, I was actively afraid she was going to pull out a card with the title Bohemian Rhapsody typed onto it. So I mostly felt relief … Continue reading All We Hear is Academy Ga Ga