I was predisposed to dislike this year’s Oscars telecast. I can admit it. Even since the Academy’s baffling announcement that Seth MacFarlane would be the host of their 85th awards ceremony, I’ve been on a downward trajectory of enthusiasm for … Continue reading Oscar Blight
With a bit of fortuitous timing (somewhat orchestrated, I will admit), we current sit between charts on the Sunday College Countdown feature, allowing for the accurate use of the above banner for my annual indulgence in Oscar ballot wishcasting. I’ve spent the past few weeks trickling out my choices for the best films of the year, but my compulsion for making lists doesn’t stop there. Instead, it melds with my helpless interest in the Oscars (no matter how much the Academy tries to thwart that with their baffling choice of a host for this year’s ceremony) and I arrive at … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Hero Riva, Mon Amour
I no longer offer up predictions of the Oscar nominees, but I can tell you with some assurance that I definitely wouldn’t have seen that Best Director list coming. While there are all sorts of interesting details up and down the list of nominees for the 85th Academy Awards, it’s the five guys cited for directing that stand as the most interesting story from the morning’s announcement. And “guys” is a word that I use very deliberately. After becoming only the fourth woman to be nominated in that category and the first to win, Kathryn Bigelow failed to make the … Continue reading Lincoln, Lincoln, I’ve been thinkin’
Sure, that banner above would work much better on Sunday, but that’s the day I’m committed to demonstrating how good I am at counting backwards. For the foreseeable future, this annual indulgence needs to land a few days earlier. What follows is my best approximation of how I might fill out a nominating ballot issued for the acting branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had it landed in my hands. All the usual caveats apply, mostly the admission that there are problematic gaps in my personal viewing so the exclusion of certain names may reflect my … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or Oscar, How Did We Grow Apart So?
It’s probably too late for me to tell you that I would have had Terrence Malick listed as a surprise Best Director nominee had we done predictions this year, right? Right. If you had trouble getting onto IMDb this morning, it’s because was trying to figure out who the hell Demián Bichir was at the very same time. Okay, that might be a little unfair; Bichir was also a Screen Actors Guild Best Actor nominee for A Better Life, but he was still one of the more surprising announcements this morning. In same category, Gary Oldman became an Oscar nominees … Continue reading It’s smelly and cold, but I wouldn’t trade it for a big pot o’ gold
The Oscar nominations arrive tomorrow. Usually I would be sitting in front of the television with a sheet of paper hastily scrawling down the honorees in the key categories as they’re announced, giving me the data needed to do some rapid-fire calculations. Somewhere nearby I had my predictions and those of my cohort from the movie review show we did on 90FM in Stevens Point what now seems an eon ago. Once the announcement was complete, I quickly tallied up which one of the two of us did a better job forecasting the nominations. Overwhelmingly, he was the victor. I … Continue reading Anything ragged or rotten or rusty
It’s a bad sign that my favorite moment from last night’s Academy Awards telecast was when Cate Blanchett called one of the nominees in the category she was presenting “gross.” Right before presenting that nominee with the award, of course. … Continue reading All that’s gold does not glitter
My standing tradition is to post this little exercise is Oscar wishcasting on the day of the actual ceremony. I don’t want to preempt the recurring feature that resides on that day (especially since one of the two albums featured this week is a big personal favorite), so we’ll jump the gun a bit. It’s not like there’s some hallowed sanctity to the timing of this, after all. Having made my opinion on the best films of the cinematic year 2010 abundantly clear over the course of the past few weeks, I want to turn my attention to the other … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or If I Had a Ballot
1-19-2. Something about that first number…just…doesn’t….look…right…. As I’ve reported in this space, I’ve been engaged in an ongoing bout for over twenty years, putting my best guess at the Oscar nominations in the six major categories up against those of my old movie review radio show colleague. Nineteen times, I’ve conceded defeat to him. Twice, I was able to call him up and note that we had tied, though those didn’t feel like accomplishments; they felt more like leaning across the ring with my face bloodied, asserting, “You didn’t get me down, Ray!” Then, this morning, for the first time … Continue reading Sell yourself short, but you’re walking so tall
It’s odd to be able to accurately use the phrase “decades of futility” about a personal endeavor. But the simple fact is that it was over twenty years ago the first time I challenged my friend and movie review show colleague to a duel, each of us taking a stab at predicting the Oscar nominees for the top six awards: Best Picture, Best Directing and all four acting categories. We’ve revived the skirmish nearly every year since. We’ve tied twice, he’s won nineteen times, and I’ve never won. Ever. In my tepid defense, we’re both quite good at this. It’s … Continue reading Predicting the Oscar Nominations, or The Definition of Insanity
Coffee for Two 