The Fifth Annual Double Oscar Spectacular - Part One (2019)

Thought it was time to spice the title up a little bit.

It came as a surprise this year when I was alerted to the Oscar announcements. Normally I can feel when Oscar season is approaching because all the big obvious contenders make themselves known and start announcing their February releases all in one go, and it's usually pretty easy to predict the best picture roster. Now I have been very vocal in the past about how irritating it is that the supposed best films of year (X) aren't formally released until early year (X+1), cheating their release dates to make the most commercial use of the Oscar hype. It's at least somewhat gratifying then that most of the best picture choices this year have aired at sensible times throughout the course of 2018. It's less gratifying, however, to see that besides a couple of genuinely notable films, this year's list comprises a selection of rather underwhelming contenders.

Well, shall we get into it? Time for our usual shtick: the Best Picture Rundown.

Best Picture

Black Panther
Hooo, boy. Where do I start? First things first, I suppose: it should be no surprise to see this film surface here considering the Best Popular Film controversy that the Academy tried to pull earlier this year that thankfully got knocked in the head, as well as the way that no-one could seem to stop talking about it during last year's ceremony, despite it being completely irrelevant to the show. It seems the Academy were hell-bent on shoehorning this film somewhere into the rankings, and if that's the case, little could probably have been done to dissuade them. But I mean really, Black Panther? Best Picture worthy? Seven nominations worthy? Well, no. Of course it's not. What this is is a perfect example of the level of politics that has seeped into the Oscars over the years, no longer about actually trying to award and curate the best that cinema has to offer, but instead for furthering an agenda. Now I want to be crystal clear here, I am not against equality and representation in the film and television industry, or in general for that matter, it is a massive issue of our time and one that needs attention and action, certainly. I also see the value of a superhero film as part of Marvel's official canon that provides representation to an under-represented community such as Black Panther provides to the black community. That, in and of itself, is fine. The problem here is something I have dubbed 'the Ghostbusters effect', where a piece of media becomes completely impervious to any form of criticism purely because it spotlights a minority demographic, and any attempt to criticise the film, regardless of how good it actually is, is immediately dismissed as not liking the film because the critic is racist/sexist/whichever-ist. And let's face it, Black Panther isn't a great film. It might have its moments, maybe, but for me at least it was dull as dishwater. But, because of its 'groundbreaking' representation, it has been showered with praise and accolades and, well, here we are. What I found most insulting is how thinly veiled the insincerity is: it's blindingly obvious that putting the film in the Best Picture category is the Academy's way of saying "Yes, fellow humans, we too care about *checks cue card* the blacks." And while this will probably go down as some momentous occasion in film history, I know there's no way the Academy will actually let Black Panther win, and while everyone will surely praise them for including it anyway, this was not a decision made out of any kind of sincere intent or compassion, this was a move driven purely by attention and money, tapping into the fight for equality as if it's the latest fashion trend rather than a serious ongoing struggle. 5/10, Low Recommendation

BlacKkKlansman
What's even more confusing about the Black Panther nomination is that, yes they're ticking the obligatory black representation box, yet that box was already ticked by a significantly better film, BlacKkKlansman. A funny, smart and very-well made film that, yes, still gets across a message about discrimination, but has so much fun doing it that you can't help but enjoy yourself too. Is it six nominations good? Probably not, I chalk that one up to it being an apparently slow year for the Oscars, but it's certainly worthy of some attention. I don't think it'll win the big one, but then I have been wrong in the past and this one doesn't seem completely out of the question, but I wouldn't consider it a major contender. Still, a very enjoyable film, and with an epilogue that nicely drives home the film's point about the seriousness of the issues, there's a nice balance between entertaining its audience and making them think. 8/10,  Medium Recommendation


Bohemian Rhapsody
I've always had a kinda special connection to Queen. Back in my childhood, before I had any interest in music and my MP3 player consisted entirely of Crazy Frog and Bond themes, I still had a liking for Queen's most popular songs, which I was often exposed to by my parents and popular media. While I've never fully explored their discography like I have with other favourite bands (although that is something I plan to rectify in the near future) I've always had that little soft spot for them, and so watching this film was a very enjoyable experience for me (besides the fire evacuation and city-wide power outage that attempted to thwart my viewing, and that's two separate occasions there). I highly doubt it's gonna win best picture, and it's certainly nothing groundbreaking, but what it is is a nicely made music biopic, pretty much exactly what you'd expect but entertaining nonetheless. 8/10, Medium Recommendation

The Favourite
The first of the serious contenders this year (of which there's maybe three?) and it's one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Having seen Dogtooth and The Lobster, and with plans to watch The Killing of a Sacred Deer sometime soon, I've had a bit of a casual interest in Yorgos Lanthimos' directing career over the past few years, and he shows a lot of promise. Of the three films of his I've seen thus far, this is definitely my favourite (wow, these jokes write themselves). The dark, yet somehow light-hearted sense of humour is spot-on, and the drama is brilliantly acted and very compelling. There's also a nice mix of artistic presentation, which adds plenty of character and unique identity to the film whilst never feeling pretentious. I've heard some comments about the distracting use of fisheye lenses, and while I can't say I didn't notice them (studying film for this many years renders me incapable of not noticing these things to be honest), they didn't really annoy me the way other people seem to have been, although I can completely understand why someone would be. This would probably be my front runner to win best picture, but even if it didn't it's definitely gonna be walking away with some awards. 8/10, Medium Recommendation

Green Book
Ah, the first contender that I haven't seen. Only two films this year, which must be some kind of personal record. I'm going to miss my usual rush to see the candidates before the ceremony, but hey, at least I can write some actual valid criticism in this post rather than my usual baseless conjecture. That being said, who wants to read some baseless conjecture? Ok, so from reading the IMDb blurb for Green Book, I'm getting an inverted Driving Miss Daisy kinda vibe with a musical touch. I can't say I'm thrilled by the prospect but hey, it doesn't look that bad. It'll probably be the kinda thing I see if it's convenient, but I can't see myself going out of my way to chase a screening. Will it win? Possibly. We've got the race angle again (that seems to be a bit of a theme this year, eh) and it's got that sort of Oscar-bait-y vibe to it, although nowhere near as overbearing as it normally is. Let's say, it wouldn't surprise me if it won, but it's not where I'd put my money.

Roma
If the Black Panther comments above weren't controversial enough, I'm afraid I'm about to dig the hole further: I don't love Roma. Pitchforks away, please. I do like Roma but I don't think it's quite the masterpiece everyone else sees. The cinematography is absolutely beautiful and by far the film's best feature, as well as some fantastic performances from the cast which are allowed to fully play out in the film's many long takes. It reminded me very much of the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, in terms of its slow pace, poetic tone, and focus on visuals. The problem for me is while the plot and structure of Tarkovsky's films are normally quite clearly defined (despite how complex they get), Roma's story is a bit too loose for me to get fully invested. A mother goes through a breakup whilst trying to hide it from her kids and the family maid tries to deal with her pregnancy, but really that's about the limit of the story: these events occasionally come up but for the most part it just seems like episodes in the life of a Mexican family (probably due to being inspired by director Cuarón's own childhood), and while none of this is really bad, a bit more of a structure and sense of progression would have helped tie the whole thing together and make it a cohesive story. It seems that Roma is geared up to be one of the Academy's favourites for the year, and I expect it to be competing with The Favourite and our next film for Best Picture. While I did prefer The Favourite, I wouldn't have any qualms with Roma winning and I can see this film being talked about for many years to come. 7/10, High Recommendation

A Star Is Born
Hmmm. Now here's a perplexing case: here we have a film where seemingly the only thing noteworthy about it is the fact that it is considered noteworthy in the first place. Keep digging that hole, Nick. I don't think we're at the Earth's core yet. You can tell this was the second third remake of a film that was made in 1954 1937, as everything that happened in this film I felt like I'd seen done a hundred times before and in much more interesting ways (not to mention the gender politics definitely feel 64 82 years old). Functionally and technically, the film's completely fine, but I just fail to see what the magic element was that endeared everyone to this film so much. The story was run of the mill, the cinematography and editing all competent but never special, the performances decent enough. I've heard a lot of people raving about the soundtrack being the highlight, but I honestly can't remember a single song, and even in the cinema none of them really gripped me. Maybe if there was an update to the gender politics or some other interesting new spin on the idea, other than just a by-the-numbers revision acting as a Lady Gaga vehicle, then maybe this could have been a standout film, but to me, there was just nothing special here. However, I can't deny this definitely feels like an Oscary film and I think it'll be the other major contender for Best Picture, as much as I wish it weren't. 5/10, Low Recommendation

EDIT: Wow, turns out A Star Is Born is even older than I originally thought

Vice
The only other film on this list that I haven't seen yet, although several of my friends have, and the response seems to be mixed. The most apt comparison I've heard so far is to The Big Short, which makes sense since its the same writer/director Adam McKay and it's similar in it being a dramatisation of events from recent American history, focusing on politics this time instead of economics. Unfortunately, I saw The Big Short recently and found it very difficult to stay engaged with the film. My slightly more detailed thoughts can be found here but the gist of it is while I could tell there was passion behind the film, no matter how hard they tried it was difficult to make the economic subject matter really engaging (or to an economics virgin like me, comprehensible) and resulted in a kinda boring mess. From what I've heard, it seems that Vice is a bit better and more coherent, but still not fantastic. I doubt I'll see this one in the cinema, although I might give it a chance on home media someday. There's certainly a little whiff of Oscar-bait to this one, and while I expect will take home a few awards, I don't think Best Picture will be one of them.

So to conclude, here's my ranking of the most likely Best Picture contenders;

My personal pick to win is The Favourite, and I reckon my ultimate prediction would be for Roma.

Best Actor 
Can we talk about Bradley Cooper quickly? Specifically in A Star is Born. Did anyone else find him just completely and utterly unlikeable? Yes, I get that the point of the film is he's an abusive drunkard and whatnot, but I literally felt no sympathy or compassion for him really at any point. He was either being creepy or an arsehole or both, and then when we reach the end of the film (those who've watched it will know what bit I mean) and we're supposed to feel bad for him? I didn't feel a goddamn thing. Of course, some portion of that will be the writing but there are two possibilities here: either he was supposed to be that unlikeable in which case the writing is to blame and the acting is pretty decent, or Cooper's performance has serious issues, which I think is the more likely. Meanwhile, my pick for the winner is probably Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. In relation to what I said a few years back about the Best Actor award, Mercury is a daunting role to play, with both an iconic voice and physicality that need to be done just right, but Malek nails both of them. A career-defining performance to be sure.

Best Actress
Yalitza Aparicio's performance as Cleo in Roma was one of the film's strongest aspects, and it's hard to believe this is her acting debut. Despite this, I think the award is more likely to go to Olivia Colman for her performance of Queen Anne in The Favourite, and to be fair, I think it's high time Colman got some Oscar attention. With the sheer number of films and TV shows she's featured in, and the range of roles she's played across them, I think she's one of the most underrated British actors of the moment, and it would be awesome to see her get some international recognition. Besides, her performance in The Favourite was probably one of her career bests, both emotional and comedic, delightfully neurotic and working very well off of her co-stars.

Best Supporting Actress
Speaking of which, it's interesting how life imitates art: first Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz play characters in a film who are directly competing to be the Queen's favourite, and now the actresses are, in real life, competing to be the Academy's favourite for the Best Supporting Actress award. It's also interesting to note, as a friend pointed out to me, that Emma Stone has been nominated as a supporting actress even though she is the clear protagonist of the film. Maybe it's for this reason, I'm not really sure, but I think I'd give it to Rachel Weisz. Again, I can't really say why, maybe being the antagonist captures my interest more, and there was something quite interesting about the infuriation her character goes through as she has everything stripped from her through absolutely no fault of her own and no matter how hard she tries can't convince anyone of Abigail's ulterior motives. Either are deserving winners to be honest, but considering the comparison of the Academy to Queen Anne, I'm very intrigued to see which one they'll pick (or maybe they'll choose someone else entirely, that's also possible...)

Best Animated Feature
For once we've actually had a pretty decently balanced turn out for Best Animated feature this year, with the exception of Ralph Sucks Off Disney's Media Conglomeration which also had one of the cringiest trailers I've seen in a while (oh and there's Mirai which I haven't been able to see yet but I'm sure is good). I never really realised how good a year 2018 was for animation. While Incredibles 2 was great, I think Pixar can afford to take a break from its annual monopoly of this award. Besides, those who read my top 5 will know that Isle of Dogs was my favourite film of the year and so naturally it's my choice for Best Animated. However, I have got to give credit where it's due to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. A complete breath of fresh air after the slog of dull repetitive superhero flicks, Spider-Verse injected so much energy and creativity into the format, with it's deliciously self-aware, tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, like something halfway between Deadpool and The Lego Movie. And since this is the animation category, let's talk about the animation: it takes the concept of 'comic book style' to a whole new level, with everything from panel layouts and exaggerated proportions down to a pop-art styling and what I can only describe as a split line effect for out of focus areas. Additionally, the film's so goddamn colourful, it's just all round a great demonstration of what can be done with animation and I'm glad to see it getting (at least a bit of) Oscar attention. I'm afraid Isle of Dogs still wins out for my favourite, but Spider-Verse is definitely a worthy winner too.

Best Cinematography
Roma wins, hands down. By far the best part of that film was it's beautiful monochrome images and some really great composition, with often quite minimal movement (reminds me of the kind of thing 18-year-old-me would have wanted to shoot if he knew what he was doing) I can't comment on Cold War or Never Look Away, but A Star Is Born's cinematography is, as previously mentioned, unimpressive and The Favourite's, while great is nowhere near the calibre of Roma's. This is a surefire win.

Best Sound Editing/Mixing
I've expressed before my perplexion on how these two are somehow two separate Oscar categories, especially when other departments like cinematography or editing aren't split in a similar fashion and especially especially when the list of nominees are nearly the same in each. But this year, like a catheter bag stuck in a refurbished lift, the piss is being taken to all-new levels. The lists for both categories are the same, except for one entry. While A Quiet Place has a nomination for sound editing, it loses its nomination for sound mixing to A Star Is Born. So, let me get this straight: A Quiet Place has Oscar-worthy sound editing but not mixing, and A Star Is Born has Oscar-worthy sound mixing but not editing. Do you see how fucking bonkers this is? In terms of winners, since A Quiet Place was a film about the danger of sound, where every noise spells potential death for the characters, I'd go for that. And mixing? I don't know, how about First Man?

Best Costume Design
"Nick, what are you doing? You've already pissed off the entire population of the planet by talking shit about Black Panther, why are you continuing the crusade?"

Well, arguably this isn't quite the right place to talk about it, but I wanted to take a moment to discuss Black Panther's suit. Not the design of it, that was basically fine, I'm talking from a writing side. So let me get this straight: this suit absorbs all kinetic energy directed at it, without passing any of it on to the wearer, but also somehow storing it as potential energy that can then be released. Putting aside the scientific acrobatics needed for that to make any goddamn sense (it's sci-fi/fantasy and its a superhero film, I can let that bit slide), this might be the most OP fucking gadget in the history of fiction. The wearer of the suit is literally invincible: ANY kinetic energy imparted on it is absorbed, that means literally nothing can even move the suit, let alone penetrate it. You could launch a nuclear warhead directly at it and nothing would happen. Hell, heat is a form of kinetic energy so Black Panther could stand on the surface of the sun and be a-ok. So if our protagonist is completely invulnerable, how can we possibly feel any sense of tension for him during his action scenes? Thugs are shooting at him: oh well, even if he's hit he just soaks that sucker up. What about all the fast-moving cars? Nope, not an issue. People care about Batman because he can be injured, and often is, it makes for tension where we see him overcome peril. Here, there is no peril, so how can we get invested? Which leads me onto the climax. "Well gee, since Black Panther can't be harmed, how are we going to make a perilous climax?" "Don't worry, we'll have him fight someone in an identical fucking suit so that neither of them can be harmed!" Oh and good luck keeping track of who's who during said fight, by-the-by. "But then how's he going to defeat the evil panther?" "Oh, we'll just engineer a needlessly complicated scenario to do with some kind of Vibranium deactivation field and a train(?)" This is the point one would usually start re-writing. And just as a note, even if this is how the suit worked in the comic, that doesn't matter: if it doesn't work in the film you change it, it's an adaptation, that's what adaptation means!

Sorry what? Costume Design? Oh, I don't know give it to The Favourite or something.

Well, that concludes part one of this year's Oscar special. Make sure to come back this time next month for part two. See you then!

My Top 5 Films of 2018

Well, there goes another year drifting off into the distance like an unsecured dinghy being swallowed up by the ocean. 2018 has somehow simultaneously gone way too quickly and dragged on forever at the same time. I'd hesitate to say it was a good year, fine perhaps sums it up better. At the very least, it's been a year of milestones: I finally passed my driving test, I got my first part-time job (well, it's temp stuff but you know), rented my first flat and even organised my first holiday without my family. On the more creative side of things, I've written my longest screenplay yet (27 pages, soon to be topped) and directed my longest and most ambitious film yet, Heartbreaker (link here) which while still needs work, has been a massive learning experience for me.

But enough about my personal life, you're here for my annual top 5, aren't you? And while the blog has been pretty much dormant this year, I couldn't miss my New Year's tradition, and I have been watching a fair few films this year. Sadly not as many as I'd have liked: between heavy uni work, the usual cruel UK release schedule and the fact I literally just forgot to go to the cinema this last term has led to my film intake being a little lower than last year. Suffice to say there'll be a lot of catchups for next year, but in the meantime, here's my top 5 of 2018.

Updated Top 5 of 2017
5. Baby Driver
4. Logan
3. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2. Dunkirk
1. Blade Runner 2049

5. Hereditary - Ari Aster
Well, I started writing out my thoughts on this film like I normally would for one of these entries, but it quickly became a fucking wall of text, so you know what, Hereditary is getting its own post early next year because I want to go in-depth with this mother. For the time being though, my opinion is essentially thus: this film was nearly at the Number 1 spot, it shaped itself up to be one of the most powerful, subversive and maybe even revolutionary horror films of the decade, and a personal favourite of mine, only for it to completely ruin itself in the final act and undo all of its hard work. Again, further details to follow, but consider this Number 5 spot an honorary place for the film this nearly was. 8/10, High Recommendation

4. Deadpool 2 - David Leitch
About the only Marvel character I have any care for at the moment, both movies have made it into my top 5s of their respective years which is pretty impressive really. I'd say this is an improvement on the first film: it's the same trademark brand of intelligently childish and self-aware humour but this time around, everything's been ramped up a notch, from the action scenes to the characters and jokes and even the overall theme of the film is darker and more nuanced. Yeah, it's not really as high brow as some of the other choices on this list but you know what, this was a barrel of laughs from start to finish and I enjoyed it immensely. 8/10, Medium Recommendation

3. A Quiet Place - Josh Krasinski
Look everyone, it's our good old friend the Avatar effect, where a good film is praised and enjoyed by everyone only to be inexplicably shat on by everyone from seemingly nowhere because someone must have decided that it had enough praise. I understand films being overrated, and even receiving backlash after an initially good reception, but Jesus people, no one was comparing it to Citizen Kane. Luckily for me (I suppose?) I made a point of seeing it as soon as I could after first hearing of it so as to minimise the hype effect, and probably achieved some kind of personal best in the process: I first heard if it on a Monday morning when I checked my Letterboxd rushes, was convinced to check it out by Monday afternoon and saw it Tuesday evening. And you know what, it was pretty damn good. Yeah, fine, it wasn't a masterpiece but you can't deny it was at least a unique breath of fresh air from our usual horror offerings. As you'd expect from something like this, the sound design is impeccable, and you really felt every single noise and the dread that each brought. I also really liked the attention to detail and world-building in terms of the methods the family had to eliminate noise such as the sand pathways and felt-lined board game pieces. And finally, can we just take a moment to appreciate the building of tension, with the stair nail if nothing else. Probably one of the most agonising Checkov's guns I've seen for a long time, from the moment it was set up I could not stop thinking about it until it's eventual payoff, and while in the end it felt a little disappointing, they say it's about the journey rather than the destination, and what a hell of a journey. 8/10, High Recommendation

2. Incredibles 2 - Brad Bird
After the rather disappointing and unnecessary Finding Dory, the phrase 'Pixar sequel' was one of dread to my ears, and while the upcoming Toy Story 4 still has me screaming 'no', I'm now a little happier that at least one of them has had a reason to exist. Incredibles 2 was not only a very fun and well-made continuation of the story, but really explored and developed its characters and their relationships in new depths, and even managed to tackle contemporary societal and familial issues without feeling preachy or getting in the way of the story or its entertainment value. With some spectacular action setpieces that surely trump the original's and the expansion and development of the world it created, Incredibles 2 aims to be bigger and better than its predecessor, and for the most part, succeeds. While both have strengths in different areas, I found myself getting more engaged in this one than the first, but a lot of people still prefer the original and I can completely understand why. Either way, it's hard to deny that this was an incredible (ayy) film and a shining example of how to do a sequel right. 9/10, Medium Recommendation


1. Isle of Dogs - Wes Anderson
I've always had a bit of an awkward relationship with Wes Anderson. Like basically every other even remotely hipster film student, I really love Anderson's visual style: his approach to symmetrical composition and pastel colour palettes, but I've rarely enjoyed the films themselves. That is except for two, one is The Grand Budapest Hotel and now the second one to join these ranks, Isle of Dogs.  I really was not expecting to love this film as much as I did, but everything about it just worked so perfectly and hit me in all the right spots. Firstly, I have a big ol' soft spot for animation, stop motion especially. And the animation in this film is absolutely fantastic and bursting with energy and creativity. Of course, Anderson brings his trademark compositional style and colouration, but this time it combines with a feudal Japanese art style to make a visually breathtaking film where every frame's a painting. The plot is suitably tongue-in-cheek but still surprisingly complex with multiple threads running at once and all of them work well off each other. And finally, a shoutout to one of my favourite details: considering the film is set in Japan with mainly Japanese characters, all the human dialogue (where applicable) is spoken in Japanese, only being translated where it makes sense in-universe (such as a TV translator during a broadcast). As a result, there are several scenes with the human characters where Anderson relies on old fashioned silent film techniques for conveying information to the audience, utilising both the scenery and character gestures and expressions to get the important details across. It's an unusual choice but it absolutely pays off and really adds to the rich cultural immersion of the film. 9/10, High Recommendation

And so we enter 2019, the year where flying police cars patrol the smog-covered, urban jungle of LA if Blade Runner is to be believed, or where biker gangs battle it out amongst the neon streets of Neo-Tokyo, according to Akira. Well, who knows, a lot can change in a year. I'm expecting to bring the blog back in the new year, as hopefully once I finish uni I'll be able to get back into writing these posts again: there's plenty of old, unfinished drafts kicking around and plenty more new stuff to discuss. Until then, I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year!

Oscar Results 2018

Well, here we are again at the end of awards season. Another round of actors and filmmakers have claimed their golden statuette and as usual, I plan to briefly run through my thoughts on the results. But before we get to that, it's time for...

Catchup Reviews

Lady Bird
I'm still struggling to fully articulate my thoughts on Lady Bird. It was definitely a good film, I enjoyed it a lot. But I'm also not blown away by it the way a lot of other people seem to be. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf were both fantastic in their roles, their mother-daughter relationship providing the emotional core and (the closest thing to) the central narrative thread of the film: both nominations are deserved. As you may have guessed from that slight parenthetical jab, this film is a little loose narratively. Its main plotline is Lady Bird's desire to go to a good university despite the derision and scepticism of her mother and other authorities such as the school. However, this doesn't really take much precedence and stays very much as a background element. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I don't think it's the problem I have with the film. But when I reached the end credits, I did feel ever so slightly underwhelmed, just a touch, and I'm just not sure what it is. This film is hilarious, heartfelt, relatable, very entertaining and has some great performances, so why am I not as infatuated with it as others have been? This may just simply be a case of classic overhyping, since the Letterboxd community has been going wild over this film over the last few months, and I was getting pretty excited to see it. It's happened before, and it's one of the many problems I have with the annoyingly late release dates of the Oscar contenders over here, but alas, c'est la vie. By the way, just so there's no confusion, this is in no way a bad film, far from it, and I'm definitely not condemning any part of it, I just think I might need to give it a rewatch to truly work out how much I like it. But don't think it's leaving here without a good score.
8/10, High Recommendation

The Shape of Water
Furries, rejoice! Guillermo del Toro has made bestiality not only popular, but socially acceptable, at last. There's a side of me (an admittedly quite childish side) that finds it inherently amusing that a film that is, let's face it, about a woman wanting to fuck the creature from the black lagoon, has become a critical darling with thirteen Oscar nominations: just one less than the record held by La La Land and All About Eve. In its defence though, there's a lot more to this film than just fishy fornication. For one thing, it does a surprisingly good job of essentially normalising the interspecies love. None of the characters really question it and the behaviour of the creature is close enough to human, with enough chemistry and humanity, that it pretty much gets away with it. Of course, combined with the time period and a couple of other moments between side characters in the film, as well as the notion of the creature being taken from some jungle in South America, there is a clear parallel here with interracial relationships that thankfully isn't distracting and slips quite nicely into the background to be examined after. The film itself isn't mind-blowingly good or anything, but it is a very well made and enjoyable film that does nearly everything you'd want out of it (sadly absent is the hardcore sex scene we all clearly wanted, but there is instead an amusing discussion of Captain Nemo's retractable penis). Maybe the most disturbing thing about the film is its inspiring of a new dildo based on the creature. Not only that, but apparently they sold out. Make of that what you will.
8/10, Medium Recommendation
EDIT: It's finally dawned on me why the creature is so familiar. It's almost identical to the Mirelurk Kings from Fallout

Phantom Thread
Call me a peasant or a noob or a poseur or whatever snobbish title you give to the people who don't have the apparent mental capacity to process high art like you do, but I just do not get this film, or the hype around it. One of the slightly more perplexing cinema experiences of recent memory, I was left waiting for some kind of plot point or conflict or anything to actually give the 'story' some kind of purpose, and it never came. Recently, I've been noticing and attempting to define something in storytelling which I have dubbed 'the point' of the story. It's difficult to describe fully, but it's probably closest to the dramatic question, specifically on an overarching, macro scale. The closest thing Phantom Thread has to a point is the relationship between Alma and Woodcock, but not only is it a mess that doesn't really go anywhere, it feels like there should be some bigger point to it all that their relationship would somehow play into and change the outcome of, but it never happened, and I was left at the credits wondering what the point of the last two hours really was. The best way I can see for them to improve it would be with Woodcock's clothing company. A lot of focus is put into it and it's a central element, yet has really nothing to do with anything: the business could be changed to anything else and not much would really change. The dress being made for that princess's wedding? That went absolutely nowhere. Where was the resolution? Daniel Day-Lewis was good in his role, I suppose, although Woodcock did start to feel to me like a posh British version of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory more than anything else as the plot went on, which soured my experience somewhat. Maybe I'm wrong. I do seem to be the only person who did not like this film. Maybe I really just don't 'get' this film and there's something magical here that everyone else has found. Fine. I'll just add it to the pile along with All About Eve and Raging Bull.
5/10, Medium Recommendation

And now, on to the Oscars themselves!

Results

To be honest, it was kind of underwhelming the results this year: not many surprises, no sweeps, only really one little controversy, which we'll get to in due time. It all just seemed a little deflated this year for whatever reason.


Best Production Design
Despite my love for Blade Runner 2049's design, I have no real qualms with The Shape of Water winning this one. I quite like the aquamarine-ish colour scheme and grading (which for some reason keeps reminding me of those avocado-coloured baths that used to be around when I was younger) and there was a lot of care taken towards capturing the aesthetic of the 50's that really gives the film a bit of visual flair.

Best Animated Feature
Had a bit of a look at previous winners: of the seventeen winners of best animated feature, twelve of them were Disney. Now I'll admit, it wasn't quite the monopoly I was expecting: there's even years where a Disney/Pixar film loses to another studio. Even still, Disney or Pixar have been on a winning streak since 2012 and really anyone who thought Coco wasn't going to win this award, especially against the likes of Boss Baby and Ferdinand, was smoking something. To be fair, The Breadwinner I've heard is pretty good, but again, it's up against Pixar. There was just no hope. Still haven't seen Coco, just by the by. But I'll get to it eventually, don't worry.

Best Visual Effects
Blade Runner 2049 was once again victorious, and deservingly so. In my previous post I said how I was pretty much satisfied with all the choices, and that still absolutely stands, although my additional love for Blade Runner in all its forms (and 2049 is definitley growing on me more and more every time I think about it) makes me particularly satisfied with this win. It's also worth pointing out that the other nominees on this list are well established, well-performing franchises, whilst Blade Runner was a little riskier and a little artsier, and especially considering its underperformance at the box office, is at risk of being labelled as some kind of failed experiment by the studio. It's in our best interest to encourage more films, especially more sequels and reboots, to be like 2049 rather than something like the 2016 Ghostbusters, and this means reassuring studios that 2049 was not a failure. It may be small, but maybe 2049's Oscars might just help contribute to that reassurance. I don't know, sometimes I like to be optimistic.

Best Sound Editing/Mixing
I just don't get it. The same films got nominated, the same film won both, why are these separate categories? At uni we are learning all about post-production processes and in a month or so's time will be embarking on this ourselves, and I promise you, they may be different steps but sound mixing is a part of sound editing. And even if not, what's the point in splitting it into two separate Oscar categories. This would be like splitting best film editing into editing and colour grading, and even then that's a more understandable split than sound editing and mixing. I'm just slightly baffled. Oh, and congrats Dunkirk.

Best Cinematography
At last, the promised day has come. Mr Roger Deakins, the man behind the camera of: Skyfall, Fargo, Sicario, The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men, Prisoners, O Brother, Where art Thou? and several others, has finally won his long overdue Oscar for cinematography. And what a film to win it for. Blade Runner 2049's cinematography is orgasmically good. Every shot in that film (a film that's nearly three hours) is masterfully composed and executed, and as a burgeoning cinematographer myself, just looking at this film was a kind of inspirational bliss. Far and away, this was the most deserving win of the year and I'd say the best thing to come out of this awards season. What more can I say?

Best Supporting Actor
Sam Rockwell got it, and quite deservingly. My opinion on this category hasn't really changed since last time, and I haven't really got much else to add without repeating myself. So.....yeah. Move along.

Best Supporting Actress
I can't comment on Mudbound, but all the other nominations here seemed perfectly valid picks, and Allison Janney definitely impressed with her performance in I, Tonya. While I finally have a chance to talk about this film, it's definitely worth a watch. It's a lot of fun and the acting is truly superb, Margot Robbie in particular really made this film her own, with Janney providing an excellent antagonist as Tonya's cold-hearted mother. It's a bit of a shame that the film hasn't received much more recognition besides this one win, but hey, means it did better than Lady Bird.

Best Actor
It kinda annoys me still that this works: just throwing together an Oscar bait period piece with the specific intent of getting a revered actor an Oscar. To be fair, Gary Oldman is a longstanding favourite actor of mine and many others, who has done so many fantastic roles over the year, that if this is what it takes to finally get him his little statuette, then I suppose it's a necessary evil.

Best Actress
Frances McDormand was the winner here, no surprises, although the rest of the nominated performances were all very deserving upon finally seeing them. Well, maybe not Streep. I'm glad that The Post didn't get any Oscars whatsoever this year, foiling its literal only purpose in life other than to give Spielberg something to do. To the deep depths of obscurity with ye! May you only return as an obscure answer in a pub quiz in twenty years time.

Best Directing
This does slightly scupper my theory from a couple years ago about best directing being essentially runner-up to Best Picture. Guillermo del Toro won, and not that he isn't deserving or anything, but personally, at least, I wanted Nolan to win this one for Dunkirk. Set aside the fact that Nolan still hasn't won an Oscar despite making some of the best films of the last two decades and being nominated five times, I feel the complexity and ambition of Dunkirk, especially with its non-linear parallel plotlines, lack of a single central protagonist and ability to strip off the layers of war to get to the survivalist heart of the story, executed as perfectly as it is, is the sign of an incredibly talented director, and one who definitely deserves an Oscar. But then, this leads us nicely to our one controversy of the night...

Best Picture
...or at least, my personal controversy. I haven't seen too much on the internet in outcry over The Shape of Water winning, although every friend I've discussed it with at uni has agreed with me. Look, it's not that The Shape of Water is a bad film. I mean, just look at the review at the top of the post; I like it. It's a good film. But that's it. It's just good. It's not really that special, it's not had any major impact, it's certainly not even close to the best film of 2017 (although how often are the best picture winners the true best of the year?). It just seems like an odd pick: nearly every other film on the list seems more deserving. Well, ok, not The Post, Darkest Hour or Phantom Thread. But all the others were. Having seen a few more of the best picture candidates, I ponder once more which of them I would have picked, and I'm still not sure. My literal favourite of the bunch is still Dunkirk, at least until I get around to rewatching it, but I don't think any of the others really come close to usurping it. Thinking more from the Academy's shoes, I'd most likely have gone for Three Billboards, which I'd also say is my next favourite of the roster. Well, at the end of the day, all I can say is it's a good thing I didn't place any bets on the winner like I was considering, because I certainly wouldn't have guessed this.

And there we have it, the end of the Oscars for another year. The blog will unfortunately be returning to its hibernation for the next few months while I continue with other projects. My book Chrysalis, annoyingly, is not much closer to completion, as it got slightly dogpiled by my uni coursework, which is particularly heavy this year, but work on the book and other projects such as last year's short Dead Tired will continue once my coursework starts to wind down, and there will be undoubtedly some kind of new content available in the summer, including potentially a new post (besides the regular summer updates, that is). Thank you all for reading, and happy viewings. I'm going to bed...