Awards Season Finale: The Oscars

Folks! It finally came! The end to awards season, The Academy Awards. And they did not disappoint. I’m going to recap my thoughts, favorite and most awkward moments for you all below, as well as my thoughts on those that took home the hardware.

Despite not having a host this year, the show went pretty smooth in my opinion. No listening to jokes that might not land or an over the top opening number/monologue. Just getting straight into presenting awards after an opening performance from Queen with Adam Lambert. That performance fell a little flat for me, but I still enjoyed it.

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Weekly Movie and TV Round-Up

Lucky for you all I had a pretty packed week of content, and I intend to share. It will be a brief sharing, because let’s be real, you’re more interested in what I have to say about the Oscars (hopefully).

First up in movies this weekend was At Eternity’s Gate starring Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh during the final few years of his life. Look, Willem Dafoe has such a distinct looking face that I never realized how perfect he was to play van Gogh! The movie itself had a pretty slow pace, but outstanding performances including Oscar Isaac as Gauguin and Rupert Friend as van Gogh’s brother, Theo. It was great glimpse into the mind of a man suffering and longing to dispel his loneliness with friendship. Dafoe’s performance almost had me convinced he was going to take the Oscar away from Rami Malek or Christian Bale.

Next I headed to the theater for a double feature. First up was Fighting with My Family about real-life WWE star Paige and her path to stardom. It was a really earnest film about the close and strange relationship Paige (played by my new favorite Florence Pugh) has with her family. It also touches on being lonely in a new place, judging a book by its cover, and perseverance! Just the right amount of laughs and cameos that it’s a must-see in my opinion.

Following on the heels of Fighting with My Family I switched gears to watch the kid-friendly, third installment of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Good God was this movie adorable! Since the first film came out in 2010 (yes, you read that right), I was transported back to my childhood days and fell in love with Toothless the Night Fury. So many precious cat mannerisms I could’t take it! This final film follows Toothless as he finds a lady friend and the “hidden world” where dragons can live without being hunted by humans. Cue departure tears. But you seriously better go see this film if you even remotely liked the other two.

Last up, literally two hours before the Oscars aired, two hours before Glenn Close did NOT win best actress, I watched The Wife. It was a very solid effort. I loved Christian Slater as the sketchy biographer, Max Irons as the snide son, and Johnathan Pryce as the diabolical husband to Glen Close’s tough as nails wife. This story gives ghostwriting a whole new look, and that look is bitter. I can definitely see why she was the front runner.

Standout episodes in television this week for me included Brooklyn Nine-Nine, where Amy tries to help organize the office while Captain Holt is looking for a new assistant. The latter scenes had me cracking up pretty hard. How to Get Away With Murder‘s penultimate season finale episode was slightly less interesting than last week, but there are still so many potential plot twists that I can’t wait until Thursday! Finally, Gotham finally brought back the best villian duo this series has to offer: Penguin and Riddler! It also touted the return of Jeremiah (cough, Joker) and his face-off with Bruce by cruelly teasing him with people who looked like his dead parents. Friendship.

This week I’m looking forward to the return of Shadowhunters and Roswell, New Mexico along with that season finale of HTGAWM, so keep your eyes peeled for reviews!

Oscar Nominations 2019

Hi all! I know it’s been a minute since I’ve written anything. I’d say reviewing the Oscar nominations that came out yesterday is a great way to come back!

Based on all of the other awards shows that have announced their nominees, most of these were unsurprising. That’s not to say there were no surprises! Below are a few that made me raise my eyebrows and say “wow.”

Best Picture – I’m going to get some hate for this, but I just don’t think Black Panther deserves a best picture nomination. With that being said, it’s a great accomplishment that will yield no results, and certainly no win. I am surprised that in the giving spirit that Academy was obviously in, that Crazy Rich Asians also didn’t get a nod. Especially since they’ve had up to 10 films nominated in this category in the past. Since the Golden Globes have aired I am switching my vote to Roma. I still haven’t seen it yet, but I envision it sweeping a lot of the categories it’s nominated for.

Best Director – I am very surprised to not see Bradley Cooper’s name in this list, and equally as surprised to see Cold War‘s director Pawl Powlikowski’s name here instead. Mainly because I only just heard of this foreign film about two weeks ago. It was also interesting to lean this was Spike Lee’s first nomination in the category. My money once again goes to Roma director Alfonso Cuaron.

Best Actress – I know some of these names are different, but I still think this is going to be a fight to the death between Glenn Close and Lady Gaga. But who knows, Roma‘s Yalitza Aparicio could take it right from under their noses.

Best Actor – Also no surprises here. I would be very much okay with any of these gentlemen taking it. I do give the edge to Rami Malek and Christian Bale, though.

Supporting Actress – I am surprised that Claire Foy got bumped from this category, but clearly the Academy loved Roma. Based on how the awards season has panned out so far, Regina Kings is taking the trophy home.

Supporting Actor – Not surprised, just bummed that little Timmy T didn’t get another nod this year, and still sorely disappointed that Lucas Hedges was overlooked. My vote is for Sam Rockwell, although Mahershala Ali will definitely win.

Those are all my stray observations. I can’t wait for them to air on February 24th! See all the nominees here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/oscar-nominations-2019-complete-list-nominees-1172407/item/best-picture-1172473

Potential Oscar Movies

In less than 24 hours this weekend, I managed to watch what I would consider two very obvious Oscar contenders.  The first was “Beautiful Boy” starring Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell.  Based off of books written by father and son dealing with the son’s addiction, this was very well done.  Both actors commit to their respective rolls, especially that of Timothee playing the drug-addicted son.  I also felt for Carell’s take on the grieving and helpless father still trying desperately to save his son falling back into addiction time and time again.  Watching anything with needles just creeps me out, so this movie did well to further dispel me from ever using drugs.  While I don’t know that this film specifically will get a best picture nod, I do think Timothee Chalamet will get a best supporting nod (especially since he’s Hollywood’s darling right now).  

The next film I watched was “Boy Erased” starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Joel Edgerton.  This film touched on a boy getting sent to gay conversion therapy after being outed to his very religious parents.  Also based off of a real person, Garrard Conley, this was tough to watch, but a sad reality that I was surprised to learn still exists today.  Overall I thought the acting was very well done, and I am a huge fan of Joel Edgerton, so this was great!  The only artistic change I would have made would be how the movie itself flowed.  There were some oddly timed and fading flashbacks that I felt should have come well before the conversion therapy parts.  Otherwise, Nicole Kidman and Lucas Hedges were standouts.  I’d be surprised if neither of them got noticed by the Academy for their work in this film.