Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why was so dreadful that I lost interest in the contrived plot at several points, and instead focused on how some of the cast members looked like footballers. In the spirit of the 2018 World Cup, which begins this Thursday, here are thirteen dubious actor/footballer lookalikes!
This blog is rated 15 for implied very strong language and descriptions of domestic violence and brutality.
About twice a year, I’ll curiosity-watch a film purely because Mark Kermode has gone in on it in his reviews. Last year, I watched Ron Howard’s The Dilemma for this precise reason, and Kermode was right; it was a tonal mess with jokes that went down like a lead balloon.
The Oscar nominations come out tomorrow, and, as movie award commentary is one of the chief functions of my blog, I thought I’d predict them! The rankings are from most to least likely.
Saoirse Ronan and Beanie Feldstein (Jonah Hill's sister!) in Lady Bird
Best Film
01. The Shape of Water
02. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
03. Get Out
04. Dunkirk
05. Lady Bird
06. Call Me By Your Name
07. The Post
I forsee there being 7 nominees in Best Picture, but with the expanded Best Pic facilitating as many as 10 nominees, the extra predictions, should there be that many nominees...
08. Phantom Thread
09. The Florida Project
10. I, Tonya
I, Tonya has been performing very well with the Guilds (nominations for Producers Guild, at the WGA and Editing), but I'm hoping that what is ultimately a morally bankrupt movie which makes light of a woman complicit in her opponent having her kneecaps smashed in doesn't get enough #1 votes to make the Best Film shortlist!
Last year saw an unprecedented sweep of seven wins for the insufferable Blah Blah Bland, really testifying people's perception of the Golden Globes as being 'starf_ckers'. This year, none of the films in contention are about how great Hollywood is (although The Disaster Artist does portray the film-making process with jovial teasing), so I foresee the wealth being spread out more evenly.
Predictions:
Movies
Best Motion Picture - Drama: "The Shape of Water"
Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: "Lady Bird"
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama: Sally Hawkins, "The Shape of Water"
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama:Gary Oldman, "Darkest Hour"
Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: Saoirse Ronan, "Lady Bird"
Best Director: Christopher Nolan, "Dunkirk"
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: James Franco, "The Disaster Artist"
Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Allison Janney, "I, Tonya"
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture: Christopher Plummer, "All the Money in the World"
Best Original Score in a Motion Picture: "Dunkirk"
Best Screenplay in a Motion Picture: "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language: "First They Killed My Father"
Best Animated Film: "Coco" Best song: Mighty River, "Mudbound"
I don't usually predict the TV categories, but this year, me and my brother decided to do a competition to see who could get the most right out of the two combined sections!
TV
Best TV series - Drama: "The Handmaid's Tale"
Best performance by Actress in a TV series - Drama : Elisabeth Moss, "The Handmaid's Tale"
Best performance by an Actor in a TV Series - Drama: Sterling K. Brown, "This is Us"
Best TV series - Musical or Comedy: "Will & Grace"
Best performance by an Actor in a TV series - Musical or Comedy : Aziz Ansari "Master of None"
Best performance by an Actress in a TV series - Musical or Comedy: Rachel Brosnahan, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"
Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: "Big Little Lies"
Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Geoffrey Rush, "Genius"
Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Jessica Lange, "Feud: Bette and Joan"
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television : Alexander Skarsgard, "Big Little Lies"
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television : Laura Dern, "Big Little Lies"
Bonus prediction: Emma Stone, Casey Affleck, Meryl Streep and the whole gaggle of intolerable Hollyweird hypocrites will find any opportunity to self-congrulate for choosing to wear black outfits, like that undoes all their complicity when the moguls who were at the peak of their harassing powers by working with them and singing their praises. And of course, in a classic case of 'methinks the lady doth protest too much', the stars will drone on to anyone who listens about how they 'had no idea' about it when it was happening when really they did but turned a blind eye because they wanted roles and awards recognition.
I
went on a 4-hour R course last year, and since then, I’ve just been fixated
with adapting the code they gave us to draw pretty graphs with, in order to nerd
out over my personal interests (chiefly, films and football).
This
post will be much like the one I did six months ago when I analysed
my film-watching habit of 2016 across all mediums, only here, I’m just
analysing the 69 titles I saw on my Odeon Limitless card with some attempts at
~science behind the graphs I present.
As I said in my prediction post, I didn’t watch the Oscars live on Sunday, because I anticipated a La La Land sweep, culminating in it winning 8 Oscars, including Best Picture.
In fact, it did win six of the eight I’d predicted it to. It did not, graciously, take Best Sound, because the superlative that should be awarded to its sound is quite the opposite of ‘best’.
But the real miracle was that it also didn’t win Best Picture.
I love movie stars (films, food and football are my entire life), but I won’t be staying up tonight for this dross. The dressing up box mafia preaching about politics at the BAFTAs was cringe AF and I won’t be subjecting myself to a bunch of millionaires lecturing me again, in addition to the yawn-tastic Blah Blah Land love-in.
Film
Who will win: La La Land
Who should win: Moonlight
Who might win: In the infinitesimal chance LLL doesn’t walk away with this, Moonlight has about a 0.0007% chance of an upset.
Who might win: Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea. Although the odds of Damien Chazelle losing this is even slimmer than LLL not taking Best Picture. He’s got this sewn up.
Who should have been nominated: Ken Loach for I, Daniel Blake. Although had he won, he would have just taken the opportunity to hector the audience about what terrible people they were and how he knows better than all of us had he won, so on second thoughts…
Actor
Who will win: Creepy Affleck for Manchester by the Sea
Who should win: Honestly, I wasn’t enamoured with any of the three performances I've watched (Washington, Affleck, Gosling), but if I were to judge them on quality of the acting, Denzel owns this.
Who should win: So once, I was on a date with insufferable clown who kept acting like he was the authority on The Wolf of Wall Street (even though he hadn't seen it). I'm afraid I'm now going to be a massive hypocrite and emulate said clown and say Isabelle Huppert, despite not having seen Elle. Because she’s a brilliant actress who’s long overdue, and everyone’s been raving about her icy portrayal of a complex character.
(and also because I'm hella salty towards Yellowface and the overrated film she was in).
Who might win: Isabelle Huppert for Elle
Who should have been nominated: Amy Adams for Arrival(!!!!) and Emily Blunt for The Girl on the Train. Note: I haven’t seen Aquarius or 20th Century Women.
Supporting Actor
Who will win: Mahershala Ali for Moonlight
Who should win: Mahershala Ali for Moonlight
Who might win: Unfortunately, Dev Patel is going to run Ali close for this Oscar. I think the balance is currently 51/49 in Ali’s favour, but it's so finely judged right now I wouldn’t be surprised if I checked the results tomorrow morning to see Patel has won. I’d be devastated, but not surprised.
Who should have been nominated: Trevante Rhodes for Moonlight (stunning performance and my favourite of the year by far) and Alden Ehrenreich for Hail, Caesar!
Supporting Actress
Who will win: Viola Davis for Fences
Who should win: Viola Davis for Fences. Knockout performance, despite the clunkiness of Denzel Washington’s slightly vain direction doing her no favours. Plus she's a screen queen who never phones it in (see: Suicide Squad) who's well overdue.
Who might win: Michelle Williams for Manchester by the Sea
Who should have been nominated: Lily Gladstone for Certain Women and Hayley Squires for I, Daniel Blake.
Original Screenplay
Who will win: Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea
Who should win: Taylor Sheridan for Hell or High Water
Who might win: Eric Heisserer’s slow-burning, cerebral script for Arrival has a fair bit of awards momentum, but if anyone’s going to trump Moonlight it’ll be Lion’s script due to the sheer brazenness of the Weinstein Company’s campaign. Just remember how hard they and Felicia Vikander campaigned for her fraudulent category Oscar last year. And Felicia saw the gold, so.
(Sidebar: The Weinstein Company are really trying to make that wannabe Leonardo DiCaprio, Dane DeYawn happen. Just check out this (unintentionally) hilarious trailer to Tulip Fever, which stars DeHaan and their girl Felicia:)
Who should have been nominated: Liu Zhenyun for Someone to Talk To and Whit Stillman for Love and Friendship
Editing
Who will win: Hacksaw Ridge. The vast majority of my predictions are copy+paste jobs from Nathaniel’s blog, but I disagree with him that LLL has this locked up. Hacksaw Ridge won the BAFTA in this category and seems to have ‘more’ editing in the in-your-face meaning of the word, so I’ve gone for that for my prediction.
Plus, this category, in recent years, has thrown up a few surprises, particularly The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s win in this category, meaning Editing is no long an automatic vote for the film Academy voters enjoyed the most.
(Obviously, I’m just deluded and refuse to accept a LLL sweep).
Who should win: Moonlight
Who might win: La La Land
Score
Who will win: La La Land
Who should win: Jackie
Who might win: Passengers, because the fact that Thomas Newman (who's haunting scores for Finding Nemo, The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty and Road to Perdition are part of the reason I persevered with the violin when the going got hard) doesn't have an Oscar but Jennifer Lawrence does is a bit *clown music*. But I think LLL's got a tight grip on this, so he'll have to keep waiting for his Oscar.
Song
Who will win: 'Shitty of Stars', La La Landdespite the fact that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone's duet of it hurt my ears even more than the Boston accents in Manchester by the Sea did
Who should win: 'How Far I'll Go' from Moana
Who might win: there’s a chance that due to Blah Blah Land having two bland songs in this category ('Audition' being the other), they might split the vote, with some people voting for 'Shitty of Stars', and the others voting for 'Yawndition', there’s a glimmer of hope that Moana might be the beneficiary. I would love this.
Who should have been nominated: ‘Never Give Up’ by Sia, for Lion. It played over the closing credits whilst set to footage of the real Saroo’s journey and that in itself was more poignant than the majority of the movie.
I most certainly would not have nominated Shakira's song in Zootopia, which despite me loving both the film and the singer, was one of the most saccharine songs ever, and downright irresponsible in its suggestion that 'I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail'. I daresay parents of children who decide to try to fly off the top of a building wouldn't be quite as fond of such a lyric.
Cinematography
Who will win: La La Land
Who should win: Moonlight
Who might win: Lion Sound
Who will win: La La Land
Who should win: Arrival
Who might win: Hacksaw Ridge
Who should have been nominated: Kubo and the Two Strings Sound Editing
Who will win: Hacksaw Ridge
Who should win: Anyone other than La La Land. I couldn't hear what they were mumbling half the time!
Who might win: La La Land
Who should have been nominated: Kubo and the Two Strings Animated Film
Who will win: Zootopia
Who should win: Zootopia, although I love Kubo and the Two Strings, too. Both are 8.5/10s in my book and in my current top 6 of 2016.
Who might win: Kubo and the Two Strings. The surprise BAFTA win will definitely give their producers some hope, but ultimately, I think Zootopia’s charm is too strong.
Who should have been nominated: Nothing I can think of. Certainly not that over-long and over-convoluted Your Name, or that phoned in, disappointing sequel, Finding Dory. And DEFINITELY not that unbelievably unfunny, wannabe edgy Sausage Party. #ByeFelicia
Documentary Feature
Who will win: The 13th
Who should win: Haven’t seen any of them.
Who might win: OJ: Made in America
Foreign Film
Who will win: The Salesman. London Trafalgar Square is actually hosting a screening of this film today at 4:30pm, which I was intending on going to, but unfortunately I have some freelance programming work that needs to be done, so guttingly, I’m sitting this one out.
Who should win: Haven’t seen any of them.
Who might win: Toni Erdmann.
Who should have been nominated: Julieta
Makeup and Hair
Who will win: Star Trek Beyond
Who should win: Don’t care
Who might win: Suicide Squad
Who should have been nominated: A bit random, but I would go with Moonlight, for how they transformed Naomie Harris (who is 40 in real life but looks younger than Emma Stone, 28 #JustSaying) from the sleek Moneypenny we’re used to seeing, to a haggard druggie.
Visual Effects
Who will win: The Jungle Book
Who should win: Kubo and the Two Strings, hands down. Those origami battles were astonishing.
Who might win: Inception with A-levels, aka Doctor Strange
Who should have been nominated: Not Batman v Superman or Suicide Squad's distractingly bad effects, that’s for sure. I’m just surprised the Academy voters didn’t honour La La Land here, seeing as they seem to be giving out nominations to that Hollywood-fellating movie like smarties.
Production Design
Who will win: Unfortunately, La La Land
Who should win: Arrival
Who might win: Fantastic Oscar-Beggers and Where to Find Them
Who should have been nominated: Love and Friendship and Jackie
Costume
Who will win: I refuse to believe LLL will take this for some suits & skinny ties and Emma Stone’s colourful dresses. That would be one of the most egregious and lazy wins in Oscar history. I refuse to believe it and am refusing to predict it, even though it probably will. But I’m stubbornly predicting Jackie
I don’t predict short films, so I make that 8 wins for La La Land, which is excessive, to say the least, but given that they actually could win 13 (ties aren’t possible under this preferential ballot system), I’ll cut my losses and take 8. No more, please!
And if Mahershala loses to Dev Patel, then the Weinstein Company will have done their worst. As misdirected penance, I will write a scathing review of Tulip Fever on my blog (although let’s be real, it stars Dane DeYawn and Felicia Vikander. I was totally planning on doing that regardless). That'll teach them.
I refuse to watch Hacksaw Ridge because it looks like an absolute chore (and I despise Mel Gibson), so here be my rankings, from least favourite to favourite, of the 8 films nominated for Best Picture that I have seen. I’ll list the three most Bye Felicia ones today, and give the better five later this week.
08. Manchester by the Sea
Kenneth Lonergan’s bleak-fest has Casey Affleck in a domain he’s completely unfamiliar with: Boston. He plays a reclusive handyman, Lee Chandler, who is made legal guardian of his nephew Patrick after Patrick’s father dies, forcing him to revisit painful memories in his Massachusetts hometown of Manchester.
I'm seeing Fences later, and then immediately after the winners of the BAFTAs will be available online. I will have to avoid the internet for 2 hours until 9pm so I can watch them 'live' on the BBC and check how I fared in my predictions, swoon at the fit celebrities and their wardrobe and bask in the general movie love!
Even though I expect La La Land to sweep comfortably tonight, a film I am very 'meh' about, I'm still looking forward to the BAFTAs tonight; following movie awards in the 2006 season and rooting for Brokeback Mountain was the reason I started this blog, after all.
I heard on the grapevine that Isabelle Huppert (who wasn't nominated for Elle, which was ineligible due to British release dates, but was eligible but not nominated for Things to Come) will be presenting Best Actress. That is some very cheeky/brazen campaigning from Sony, worthy of the character Michèle Leblanc! If Leonardo DiCaprio or Felicia Vikander had pulled such a move last year, I would have cringed at dat thirst, but as it's La Reine Isabelle, I dig her audacity.
I got three out of five on my SAG predictions, which isn't very good. I should have predicted Denzel, given SAG have never awarded him, and they must have been keen to set that right. However, I am delighted I got that wrong, because I don't want to see Creepy Affleck run away with the award.
Given Brie Larson's rightly frosty response at the Golden Globes when she had to read Affleck's name out and hand him the trophy, I was wondering if the mere fact that she even bothered to show up at the SAGs to honour her presenting duties (as with the Golden Globes and Oscars, last year's winner of Best Actress presents the award to Best Actor) was a slight giveaway as to the recipient of the award.
I'm guessing that she didn't want to show up, knowing she'd probably have to present to The Perv, but then SAG told her that she needn't worry, because it wasn't going to The Perv, but a talented, humble, amazing actor instead, and thus, Brie showed up after all?
Leonardo DiCaprio's capital in Hollywood is higher than Brie Larson's, so he can afford to Bye Felicia these events if all he's doing is reading out the name of someone and handing them a blue statue. SAG's interesting choice for his replacement, his Wolf of Wall Street co-star Jonah Hill, also got me thinking if JH knew in advance who the winner was.
(Speaking of Jonah and SAG, remember when he took the SAG minimum wage of $60,000 for WoWS, just so he could work with Marty? I also love how he deputised for Leo at the SAGs like Donnie was Jordan's de facto stand-in in the film XD)
Jonah Hill starred opposite Emma Stone in her first film role, Superbad, where she played the object of his affections, and their reunion yesterday when he announced her name was totally adorable. He looked ecstatic for her, and the way he screamed 'Emma Stone La La Land' when he read it out was freaking adorable!
Find you someone who looks at you the way Jonah Hill looks at Emma Stone 😻
Even though I will never stop being salty about the yellowface thing, even I have to admit Emma Stone gave it her all in La La Land, and, acting-wise, at least, it was an irresistibly charming performance. She was by far the best thing about LLL, and never in her wildest dreams could prissy Emma Watson have given that performance. There were moments when I got lost in Stone’s massive eyes, Bambi's in size and sea-green in colour and her rendition of 'Audition (Here's to the Fools Who Dream)' was spectacular. Much worse performances have won the Best Actress Oscar (hi Jennifer Lawrence), so I've made my peace with her winning.
I'm pretty pleased with the SAG results yesterday, three of the four film acting awards going to people of colour is incredible!
Here be the nominations. Below are my guesses for who will win, not necessarily who I think should win!
Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea (alt: Ryan Gosling, La La Land)
Actress: Emma Stone, La La Land (alt: Natalie Portman, Jackie)
Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight (alt: Dev Patel, Lion)
Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences (alt: Naomie Harris, Moonlight)
Ensemble: Moonlight (alt: Hidden Figures)
Below be my thoughts on the Oscar nominations, which came out on Tuesday. Belated post is belated because I’ve had somewhat of a busy week, and I couldn’t bring myself to blog on the day because I was too busy seething.
[picture credit] This image works on so many film banter levels: 1) Ben and Amy appeared together in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, one of the frontrunners.... for the Razzies, 2) Although not nominated, Ben Affleck will play a prominent part in the Oscar race, campaigning his ass off for his brother, and 3) AMAZING AMY WAS MISSING.
The Oscar nominations come out on Tuesday, and seeing as there aren’t any awards shows/major critics circles announcing their wins/nominations before then, I thought there couldn’t be any harm in predicting Tuesday’s nominations now!
Best film Arrival I, Daniel Blake La La Land Manchester by the Sea Moonlight
Aside from the inclusion of the very British (and very fine, my second of the year so far) I, Daniel Blake, the other four are all now considered locks when Best Picture at the Oscars get announced.
Best British film American Honey Denial Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them I, Daniel Blake Notes on Blindness Under the Shadow
Best film not in the English language Dheepan Julieta Mustang Son of Saul Toni Erdmann
Elle and The Handmaiden weren't eligible because they're not being released here until March and April, respectively. Son and Saul and Mustang, which were nominated at last year's Oscars, weren't eligible in time for last year's BAFTAs, but were obviously too strong to be forgotten, so they have their belated nominations now.
Best documentary 13th The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years The Eagle Huntress Notes on Blindness Weiner
I haven't seen any of these because documentaries bore me to tears. #SorryNotSorry
Best animated film Finding Dory
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
Zootropolis
Haha at BAFTA not being able to find five Animated films they felt passionately about. Whilst I'm glad that means the overrated Your Name doesn't get nominated, I do feel When Marnie Was There deserves to be in the pantheon of the films listed; particularly Finding Dory which it was far superior to.
Best director
Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)
Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake)
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals)
Barry Jenkins not getting nominated for Moonlight will damage the film's credentials as the main competitor to La La Land for Best Movie at the Oscars. :( I'm happy to see some recognition for Ken Loach, however. He crafted a really touching and powerful film in I, Daniel Blake and deserves to be nominated. Not so sure about Tom Ford, on the other hand.
Best original screenplay Hell or High Water
I, Daniel Blake
La La Land
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Jesus, dat adapted screenplay category. It's a shame that Screenplay is the only place where Hidden Figures is recognised; I hear it's quite good. And no Fences in adapted but Nocturnal Animals and Hacksaw Ridge are present? Damn. The shade of it all.
I'm also disappointed that the very British treat Love and Friendship, an adaptation of a Jane Austen novella, wasn't recognised here, given it featured some of the wittiest one-liners in 2016.
Best actor
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nocturnal Animals)
Ryan Gosling (La La Land)
Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)
No Denzel, BAFTA???? WTF???? It's crazy that BAFTA have never nominated Denzel Washington.
I ain't even mad about David Oyelowo's snub for A United Kingdom, as well as A United Kingdom's absence on the list overall. I presume they didn't send screeners (or I'm just gonna tell myself that).
I love Jake Gyllenhaal a lot (Brokeback Mountain is my sixth favourite film of all time and he was snubbed of an Oscar nomination for Nightcrawler) but he was, dare I say it... a little hammy in Nocturnal Animals, especially in the scene where he breaks down in front of Aaron Taylor-Johnson's redneck. It would be a shame if he got nominated for an Oscar for his awards-begging turn.
Best actress Amy Adams (Arrival)
Emily Blunt (The Girl on the Train)
Emma Stone (La La Land)
Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins)
Natalie Portman (Jackie)
With Isabelle Huppert out of contention due to her film's late release, this was pretty expected. I did expect BAFTA to use that fifth spot on their very own Emily Blunt, who was fantastic (my number 1 in Leading Actress so far) in the otherwise terrible The Girl on the Train, but, given they overlooked Charlotte Rampling last year for 45 Years, I couldn't be sure.
The fact that Jackie only has two other technical nominations indicate to me that BAFTA didn't love the film, thus they'll probably give the win to the Yellowfaced Felicia for playing Emma Stone in the Emma Stone Biopic. However, I'm praying for a curveball; Emma Stone doesn't need a BAFTA yet and Amy Adams or Emily Blunt deserve it more. I certainly haven't seen them taking any whitewashed roles.
Best supporting actor
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals)
Dev Patel (Lion)
Hugh Grant (Florence Foster Jenkins)
Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
What a week Gorgeous Taylor-Johnson is having. A few weeks ago he wasn't in the Oscar race, with most preferring Michael Shannon's work in Nocturnal Animals. Now he has a Golden Globe win under his belt, and his home nation have gotten behind him. I'm not surprised BAFTA nominated ATJ; they liked Nowhere Boy a lot (which is where he met his missus, 50 Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson). His acceptance speech at the Golden Globes was very humble and concise and it's clear he loves his wife a lot, which I really adore. Would LOVE for all this momentum to result in an Oscar nomination. His days of being wooden in Anna Karenina are long-forgotten!
The BAFTAs aren't above category fraud themselves, then.
Best supporting actress
Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake)
Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)
Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
Nicole Kidman (Lion)
Viola Davis (Fences)
Delighted for Hayley Squires, who is currently fourth in my personal ballot. The food bank scene in I, Daniel Blake was gut wrenching and her acting in it was understated perfection.
The other four ladies on this list are probably locks for Oscar nominations now.
Best original music Arrival Jackie La La Land Lion Nocturnal Animals
Best cinematography Arrival Hell or High Water La La Land Lion Nocturnal Animals
Best editing Arrival Hacksaw Ridge La La Land Manchester by the Sea Nocturnal Animals
Best production design Doctor Strange Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Hail, Caesar! La La Land Nocturnal Animals
So they saw Hail, Caesar, then? Then where's Alden Ehrenreich's nomination for his unforgettably charming, perfectly comedic turn??
Overall, this is... pretty weak stuff. The suspect acting nominations, the category fraud, the shutout for Moonlightin direction and editing, all points to a sweep for Step Up 9: The Emma Stone Biopic in the manner of their massive Golden Globes wins on Sunday. It looks like BAFTAs have tried a wee bit too hard to predict the Oscars, and the results, bar Emily Blunt and ATJ's nominations, utterly, utterly inspiring.
I really hope they throw some curveballs when announcing the winners!
:: Best motion picture (drama) - Moonlight
:: Best motion picture - (musical or comedy) - La La Land
:: Best performance by an actor in a motion picture - Casey Affleck - Manchester By The Sea
:: Best performance by an actress in a motion picture - Isabelle Huppert - Elle
:: Best performance by an actor in a motion picture - (musical or comedy) -Ryan Gosling - La La Land
: Best performance by an actress in a motion picture - (musical or comedy) -Emma Stone - La La Land
:: Best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture - Aaron Taylor-Johnson - Nocturnal Animals
:: Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a motion picture - Viola Davis - Fences
:: Best director - Damien Chazelle - La La Land
:: Best original screenplay - La La Land
:: Best motion picture - foreign language - Elle - France
:: Best motion picture - animated - Zootopia
:: Best original song - City Of Stars - La La Land
:: Best original score - La La Land
--
Seven out of seven is an unprecedented sweep for La La Land, so they must be buzzing. The majority of the wins were not unexpected, bar, perhaps, in Screenplay, where I would have thought a 'talkier' film such as Manchester by the Sea would have won. A musical winning Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes is pretty unheard of. The fact that La La Land won Screenplay and Director acts as a barometer that this was by far the most loved film by the 90 or so voters in the HPFA.
One of the two biggest surprises in the acting categories was Aaron Taylor-Johnson winning for Nocturnal Animals. He bloody deserved it tho; I was on a knife edge every time he was on screen. It's unusual; most other awards bodies have awarded/nominated his Nocturnal Animals co-star Michael Shannon instead of Taylor-Johnson, for his more internal performance, but in this case, I much preferred the showier turn from ATJ. He probably won't get an Oscar nomination, so I'm ecstatic he got recognised at the Golden Globes.
The other acting shock was Isabelle Huppert winning Best Actress in a Drama for 'rape revenge comedy' Elle. Huppert has been sweeping the Critics awards, but I would have thought with the film's dicey subject matter, as well as the fact that Portman has been in Hollywood since she was a child and the HPFA love honouring celebrities, they would have awarded her. More than happy to be proved wrong!!
I hope this Golden Globe win gives IsabElle the momentum to get an Oscar nomination and even win the thing; I have confused feelings towards the frontrunner Emma Stone, who, despite being very pretty and charming, did play a half-Asian in Aloha, something I simply can't overlook given how hard it is for my Asian sisters to find acting work. It's funny; that yellow-facing Felicia dedicated her Best Actress in a Comedy win to 'anyone who's ever had the door slammed in their face' regarding failed auditions. What about the Asian actresses who had the doors slammed in their face as a result of you accepting a white-washed role, Emma? #JustWondering
One thing that's hampering Isabelle Huppert's campaign is that, annoyingly, due to Elle being released over here in March, it isn't eligible at the BAFTAs. If she'd got a BAFTA nomination, she probably would have won, because we tend to be more receptive to European fare than the Americans are (we correctly awarded Emmanuelle Riva back in 2013 for her amazing performance in Amour, was one of the catalysts for pushing Riva's Oscar campaign almost all the way), thus raising her profile even more. BAFTA nominations come out tomorrow, and Huppert could still get a nomination for Things to Come, so that's something.
Moonlight got a standing ovation when it won Best Drama, showing that whilst La La Land may be the favourite of the HPFA, the audience had a different favourite. Although I haven't yet seen it, I'm already a fan given its subject matter, and wish for it to do well all Awards season. Also delighted for Viola Davis although I've not yet seen Fences. And yay Zootopia! My third favourite film of the year so far, tremendous fun, film references aplenty and featuring one foxy lead.
I got 9 out of 14 correct in my predictions which is pretty good for me!
I didn't watch the ceremony but have seen a couple of clips and Tom Hiddleston accepting his win for The Night Manager is the most White Saviour thing I've seen for a while. Naomie Harris side-eyeing him during the speech encapsulates my thoughts to his narcissistic speech perfectly.
Finally, the tradition at the Golden Globes is that winner of Best Actress Drama last year has to present the award to recipient of Best Actor Drama this year. This meant that Brie Larson, an advocate for Victims of Sexual Assult, had to present the award to Casey Affleck, as she'll probably have to do at the Oscars as well. Apparently she could barely veil her disgust (Affleck is riddled with accusations of groping a woman whilst she was asleep), refusing to so much as pat him when he came up to accept his award. Attagirl.
It's the annual Star-f_cker's annual awards ceremony tomorrow, and as per the tradition, I will try to predict the winners in each category! If you'd like to play predictor too, here are the nominations.
Best Motion Picture, Drama: Moonlight (alternative: Manchester by the Sea)
Best Motion Picture, Musical, or Comedy: La La Land (no alternative needed)
Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama: Natalie Portman, Jackiesigh (alternative: Amy Adams, Arrival)
Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy:
Emma Stone, La La Land (alternative: Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Seasigh(alternative: Denzel Washington, Fences)
Best Performance By an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water (alternative: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight)
Best Performance by Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Viola Davis, Fences (alternative: Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea)
Best Director: Damien Chazelle, La La Land (alternative: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical, or Comedy: Ryan Gosling, La La Land (alternative: Hugh Grant, Florence Foster Jenkins)
Best Screenplay:Hell or High Water (alternative: Manchester by the Sea)
Original Score:Hidden Figures (alternative: La La Land)
Best Motion Picture, Animated:Zootopia (alternative: Moana)
Best Original Song: “City of Stars,” La La Land
(alternative: “How Far I’ll Go,” Moana)
Best Foreign Language Film: Toni Erdmann (alternative: Elle)
--
I've basically gone with all the predictable choices that most people are picking; bearing in mind that the Golden Globes like to kiss up to the big names, and thus are more likely to honour the Hollywood A-listers, rather than lesser known European actors. Predicting Moonlight to beat Manchester By the Sea is probably my only 'bold' choice.
I really hope they'll be some upsets tomorrow night, such as Isabelle Huppert grabbing Best Actress Drama from Blahtalie Portman, or Denzel trumping Casey 'gropes women when they're asleep' Affleck. Just anything to make the Oscar race a bit more exciting, such as Dev Patel picking up Best Supporting Actor!
I’d just come out of a meeting to check the nominations and when I saw my girl Emily Blunt got a surprise nomination, I almost started hyperventilating!!!!! I was not expecting that one at all, as the film was terrible, and usually when people nominate a performance in a film, they tend to take the quality of the film into consideration. But so happy to be proved wrong! Here be some of my quick thoughts on the film nominations (don’t know enough about TV to comment)
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
CASEY AFFLECK – “MANCHESTER BY THE SEA”
ANDREW GARFIELD– “HACKSAW RIDGE”
RYAN GOSLING–“LA LA LAND”
VIGGO MORTENSEN– “CAPTAIN FANTASTIC”
DENZEL WASHINGTON– “FENCES”
Would love to see Denzel win, but unfortunately, we all know this award is going to the Groper of Women when they Sleep, Casey Affleck.
Andrew Garfield’s SAG nomination means we get (sort of) his-and-hers nominations for him and his ex-girlfriend Emma Stone; although they’ve broken up, they parted ‘very amicably’ and by all intents and purposes seem to adore each other. Awww.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
AMY ADAMS– “ARRIVAL”
EMILY BLUNT– “THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN”
NATALIE PORTMAN– “JACKIE”
EMMA STONE– “LA LA LAND”
MERYL STREEP– “FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS”
Elated for Amy and Emily!!!!
Amy I was pretty sure was getting in, as she’s in a strong film and is popular with awards bodies, and she bloody deserves it. Adams is so talented she can even act well in Batman v Superman.
But I really did not see that Blunt nomination coming. The Girl on the Train was an absolute chore, tediously written and directed, but Blunt was far away the best thing about it. And she was absolutely phenomenal, one of the best drunk performances ever, even more impressive given she didn’t touch a sip of alcohol during the shoot.
I just love how the top two performances from my Best Actress list so far this year have gotten recognised!
Now BAFTA better f_cking nominate Emily too and build some momentum for her to get that Oscar nomination! I'm not sure they will, tho, they didn't even nominate Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years last year...
The main loser from this list, sadly, is Isabelle Huppert, who had been gaining quite a lot of awards traction by scooping the majority of critics awards. Not being nominated here calls her chances of an Oscar nomination into doubt.
Her omission is good news for Natalie Portman and Emma Stone, who will probably go head-to-head for that Oscar.
Natalie has already won one (for being histrionic and taking the credit for her body double's excellent ballet dancing in Black Swan), so the odds probably favour the "half-Asian", Emma Stone.
Really hope Isabelle Huppert scuppers the both of them come Oscar time :P
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
MAHERSHALA ALI– “MOONLIGHT”
JEFF BRIDGES– “HELL OR HIGH WATER”
HUGH GRANT– “FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS”
LUCAS HEDGES– “MANCHESTER BY THE SEA”
DEV PATEL– “LION”
I haven’t seen Florence Foster Jenkins, but the fact that Hugh Grant got nominated for Lead Actor at the Golden Globes suggests some category fraud here. Happy for him, nonetheless.
Speaking of category fraud, this is the second time the SAGs have shamelessly enabled category fraud on the part of Dev Patel; he was nominated for Supporting Actor in 2009 for Slumdog Millionare. Supporting. When the whole film’s about his character! (but I’m very pleased for him; he was great in Skins and seems a thoroughly sweet chap!)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
VIOLA DAVIS– “FENCES”
NAOMIE HARRIS– “MOONLIGHT”
NICOLE KIDMAN – “LION”
OCTAVIA SPENCER– “HIDDEN FIGURES”
MICHELLE WILLIAMS – “MANCHESTER BY THE SEA”
With her Golden Globe and now SAG nominations, Octavia Spencer’s shots at an Oscar nomination for Hidden Figures have sky-rocketed. Her The Help co-star Viola Davis must be favourite for the win here, although her closest competitor is probably Michelle Williams.
I would have loved to have seen some recognition for Lily Gladstone's beautifully realised turn in Certain Women, but that film was probably too small-budget for major movie awards. Hopefully she'll win at the Independent Spirit Awards, tho.
I so, so wish Viola had campaigned for Lead; maybe then, someone could have put the brakes on Natalie’s second Oscar or the "half-Asian" winning. :'(
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
FENCES
HIDDEN FIGURES
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
MOONLIGHT
This is the SAG category that is most correlative to ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars, so it may seem strange not to see Best Picture frontrunner La La Land on here. But as many who’ve seen the film have commented, La La Land is essentially a duet between Stone and Gosling, and there’s not much in the way of memorable support. So fair play to SAG for actually nominating films for the category that it says, rather than bending to populism.
Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight were always going to get nominated in Ensemble, but the other three: Fences, Captain Fantastic and Hidden Figures not necessarily so, so their chances with Oscar have just been boosted. I think Moonlight will win this category, making it La La Land's main competitor for Best Pic.
The race just got exciting!
BAFTA better nominate Emily Blunt for Best Actress!!! She’s one of your own, BAFTA!
So many explanation marks in this post. I’m just so giddy on Emily Blunt’s behalf. What a week. Between Jonah’s surprise Golden Globe nomination on Monday and Emmy’s surprise nom today, I am just loving these noms!
Here be the 2017 Golden Globe nominations, announced earlier today! As I haven't seen the majority of the films yet, I shall just post the lists unless I have something of value to say XD
Best Picture, Drama
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Where on earth is Arrival? No way is Mel Gibson's tedious-looking Hacksaw Ridge more deserving of a Best Pic nomination than the beautiful sci-fi movie! I'm glad to see Hell or High Water get some love, tho.
Best Picture, Comedy or Musical
20th Century Women
Deadpool
Florence Foster Jenkins
La La Land
Sing Street
Of these, I've only seen Deadpool, which was solid (7/10), although comedies I rated higher this year include Zootopia, Cafe Society, War Dogs, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople,The Edge of Seventeen, Ghostbusters and Love and Friendship, so I can't say I think it totally deserves its place on the list.
Best Director
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals
Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
I'm not convinced Tom Ford's ponderous brand of perfume commercial 'directing' in Nocturnal Animals was better than what Denis Villeneuve achieved on the other Amy Adams film, but there you go. I know I haven't seen Hacksaw Ridge but ew at that raging anti-semite Mel Gibson being recognised.
Best Actor, Drama
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Joel Edgerton, Loving
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington, Fences
I haven't seen any of these titles yet, but Casey Affleck has been absolutely decimating the competition in all the Critics Awards so far, so he's considered front-runner for Best Actor. Which is annoying as he groped a woman whilst she was asleep, but hey-ho, I guess Hollywood has short memories about sexpesting when you're white and your big brother does all the campaigning on your behalf, precluding you from looking thirsty.
(The irony of me complaining about a sibling showing off on their younger brother's behalf is a bit rich, given I'm constantly bragging about my brother's grades on Facebook, but not like me to be a hypocrite, now is it? *cough* have a go at Blahra Delevingne for using her father's connections to get into films when I didn't do a dissimilar thing to get on my MSc *cough*)
Best Actress, Drama
Amy Adams, Arrival
Jessica Chastain, Miss Sloane
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Yesss at Amy Adams getting nominated for the right movie. And yessss for her fellow redhead Jessica Chastain getting a nom; an Oscar nom is probably out of the question now, but it's nice to see Queen Jessica recognised somewhere!
Isabelle Huppert has been slaying at the Critics Awards so far, and whilst the overlap between critics (who tend to favour arthouse, European performances) isn't identical with the Oscars and HPFA, their star-f_cking Hollywood counterparts, this nomination builds good momentum for Isabelle. I hope she wins the Oscar!!!!
Best Actor, Comedy
Colin Farrell, The Lobster
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Hugh Grant, Florence Foster Jenkins
Jonah Hill, War Dogs
Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool
Ma boi Jonah Hill for War Dogs had me like 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
I've been trawling Oscarwatch websites and the dismay and shade at Hill getting nominated here has me trollfacing, so hard. He provoked a similar reaction when he got his second Oscar nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street, as if because he's rotund and a comedy man, he's not allowed to recognised for his acting performances???
My money is on 99% of the naysayers not even having seen War Dogs, because Hill was immense in it. His unsettling giggle and his portrayal of a self-aggrandising, jumped up prick was just so on point and I would know about self-aggrandisement. He fully deserves this nomination, haters gonna hate. SO PROUD OF JONAH!!!!
Best Actress, Comedy
Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
Lily Collins, Rules Don't Apply
Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge of Seventeen
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
And so proud for young Hailee Steinfeld as well!!!!!! Hailee was snubbed of a Golden Globe nomination for her majestic turn in True Grit, although she eventually went on to get an Oscar nomination for that film, so it didn't harm her too much. I love her, she's in Taylor Swift's Bad Blood music video (along with another actress who I love and never discredit, Cara Delevingne) and she's a sick singer too; Love Myself needs to be everybody's masturbation anthem.
Plus Hailee was absolutely radiant in Edge of Seventeen, bringing empathy and pathos to a character who (on paper) was an absolute nightmare. Her expressive face just lit up the screen.
I hope Hailee wins this category, although that's very unlikely. Emma Stone will certainly be frontrunner for this award, not least because La La Land will win multiple categories at the Globes. I be hella petty and fangirlish; I don't want Emma Stone to win an Oscar until her Superbad co-star Jonah Hill wins his first. (also, she played a half-Asian in Aloha. Just sayin').
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Simon Helberg, Florence Foster Jenkins
Dev Patel, Lion
Aaron Taylor Johnson, Nocturnal Animals
I'm so happy ATJ got credit for Nocturnal Animals!! In all the other precursors so far, it's Michael Shannon who has been getting nominated for Supporting Actor, so the fact that the Golden Globes bucked the trend is both surprising and welcome. Aaron was creepy AF in Nocturnal Animals, what a transformation given he's quite the dish in real life. And I know this isn't related to his acting, but I just love that he took on his wife' surname.
Simon Helberg is ace on The Big Bang Theory as smarmy Howard, so it's nice to see he's transitioned to films well!
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis, Fences
Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
Strong category. I haven't seen any of the performances yet, but currently in my personal Supporting Actress ballot, I have Viola Davis fifth (for Suicide Squad) and Michelle Williams sixth (for Certain Women), and these aren't even the films they're in awards contention in, so I'm sure they'll bring a lot of gravitas to their nominated roles.
Best Screenplay
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water
Surprised to see Hell or High Water nominated, but very pleased about it. I'm not convinced about Nocturnal Animals' screenplay, as I was with the direction. It was just a pulpy revenge movie? A very sleek pulpy revenge movie, but a pulpy revenge movie nonetheless. Unless I'm missing something... Personally, I thought the best thing about the film were the performances (particularly ATJ).
Best Original Score
Moonlight
La La Land
Arrival
Lion
Hidden Figures
Yay for Arrival! Jóhann Jóhannsson's ethereal score suited the vibe of the film perfectly.
Best Animated Feature Film
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
Sing
Zootopia
Zootopia is currently my third favourite film of the year and Kubo and the Two Strings my sixth, so I would be happy with either winning.
Best Foreign Language Film
Divines
Elle
Neruda
The Salesman
Toni Erdmann
No Handmaiden here, hmmm. But Elle, Neruda and Toni Erdmann, the latter which was named Sight and Sound magazine's top film of 2016, are high up on my to-see list.
A film I was surprised to see completely shut-out at the Golden Globes was Martin Scorsese's Silence. Here be a film poster of it I spotted yesterday:
Silence has its BBFC rating, by the way, 15 for 'strong violence, scenes of torture'. Which is actually tame by Scorsese's standards~~~~
