90th Annual Academy Awards - Review: Most Uneventful Oscars in Memory [2018]

IMDb listing
Previous/Other years

Perhaps everyone was just scared.  Between the fiasco with which the Oscars ended last year and then reverberations from the spectacular fall from grace of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein after several dozen (!) women came forward with allegations against him of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape, it seemed that everyone just wanted the Academy Awards to be over this year and ... without incident.

So while the moderately fun African American-centric horror movie Get Out [2017] (affluent white suburbanites were the "bad guys" / "monsters" ;-) won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and the more problematic gay-themed coming of age story Call Me by Your Name [2017] won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (it was also a summer of love story between a 17 year old and a 25 year old...), the Mexican Day of the Dead themed Coco [2017] won Best Animated Film and Mexican born Guillermo del Toro's film, the 1950s-set SciFi period piece The Shape of Water [2017] won four Oscars including for Best Director and Best Picture, there really were no great surprises.

There were multiple references to the plight of Dreamers (young undocumented aliens who were brought here by their parents while they were still young children and now don't really know any other country other than ours), and Frances McDormand, winner of this year's Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role did make an impassioned appeal for gender equality in both pay and career opportunity in Hollywood, but nothing really stood out.

Indeed, young Greta Gerwig and her film Lady Bird [2017] nominated for FIVE Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role came away with none.

Well "maybe next year," maybe next year indeed.


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My 2018 Oscar Picks

IMDb listing
Previous/Other years

It's Oscars Time again, so as in previous years, I dutifully present my picks here ;-)


BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
    WILL WIN - Woody Harrelson for his role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [2017]
    SHOULD WIN - Woody Harrelson for his role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [2017], Christopher Plummer for his role in All the Money in the World [2017]
    DESERVED CONSIDERATION -  Armie Hammer for his role in Call Me by Your Name [2017]


BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
    WILL WIN - Allison Janney for her role in I, Tonya [2017],
    SHOULD WIN - Allison Janney for her role in I, Tonya [2017], Laurie Metcalf for her role in Lady Bird [2017], Mary J. Bilge for her role in Mudbound [2017]
    DESERVED CONSIDERATION - Isabela Vidovic for her role in Wonder [2017], Holly Hunter for her role in The Big Sick [2017]


BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
    WILL WIN - Gary Oldman for his role in Darkest Hour [2017]
    SHOULD WIN - Gary Oldman for his role in Darkest Hour [2017], Woody Harrelson for his role in Glass Castle [2017], Daniel Day Lewis for his role in Phantom Thread [2017], Timothée Chalamet for his role in Call Me by Your Name [2017]
    DESERVED CONSIDERATION - Woody Harrelson for his role in Glass Castle [2017], Jason Clarke for his role in Mudbound [2017], Kumail Nanjiani for his role in The Big Sick [2017], Ryan Gosling for his role in Blade Runner 2049 [2017]


  BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
    WILL WIN - Frances McDormand for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [2017]
    SHOULD WIN - Frances McDormand for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [2017], Sally Hawkins for her role in The Shape of Water [2017]
   DESERVED CONSIDERATION -  Jessica Chastain for her role in Molly's Game [2017],  Vicky Krieps for her role in Phantom Thread [2017], Jessica Chastain for her role in Zookeeper's Wife [2017]


BEST ORIGINAL SCREEN PLAY
    WILL WIN - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [2017] by Martin McDonagh
    SHOULD WIN - Get Out [2017] by Jordan Peele, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [2017] by Martin McDonagh, Lady Bird [2017] by Greta Gerwig, The Shape of Water [2017] by Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
   DESERVED CONSIDERATION - Dunkirk [2017] by Christopher Nolan  


BEST ADAPTED SCREEN PLAY
    WILL WIN - Call Me by Your Name [2017] by James Ivory based on the novel by André Aciman
    SHOULD WIN - Wonder [2017] by Stephen Chbosky and Steven Conrad  and Jack Thorne based on the novel by R.J. Palacio; Mudbound [2017] cowritten by Dee Rees and Virgil Williams based on the novel by Hillary Jordan; Molly's Game [2017] by Aaron Sorkin based on the memoir by Molly Bloom;
    DESERVED CONSIDERATION - Wonder [2017] by Stephen Chbosky and Steven Conrad  and Jack Thorne based on the novel by R.J. Palacio.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
    WILL WIN -  The Shape of Water [2017]
    SHOULD WIN - Blade Runner 2049 [2017], The Shape of Water [2017], Dunkirk [2017]
    DESERVED CONSIDERATION - Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets [2017], Baby Driver [2017]


BEST DIRECTOR
    WILL WIN - Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water [2017]
    SHOULD WIN - Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk [2017], Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water [2017], Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird [2017]
    DESERVED CONSIDERATION - Denis Villeneux for Blade Runner 2049 [2017]


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
    WILL WIN - Coco [2017]
    SHOULD WIN - Coco [2017]


BEST PICTURE
    WILL WIN - The Shape of Water [2017]
    SHOULD WIN - Dunkirk [2017], The Shape of Water [2017], Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [2017], Lady Bird [2017]
    DESERVED CONSIDERATION - Coco [2017], Blade Runner 2049 [2017], Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi [2017], Wonder [2017]


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