NOOOOOO CAROLLLLL!!!!
I just had a feeling that was coming. I was hearing "IT'S TOO CHILLY!!" ever since it premiered at Cannes in May. Aside from Carol's Best Picture snub, it was a pretty predictable set of nominations, except Ridley Scott missing Director, Quentin Tarantino and Aaron Sorkin missing in the screenplay categories, and maybe "See You Again" in Best Original Song. There was nothing like last year when they only gave Selma 2 nominations, they snubbed Jake Gyllenhaal for Actor in Nightcrawler, Gillian Flynn in Adapted Screenplay for Gone Girl, LEGO Movie in Animated, Life Itself in Documentary, and Force Majuere in Foreign Language.
I ended up going 79% of my predictions correct, which is the best I've ever done. I could have gotten above 80%, but I decided to go against the grain a little bit and not predict Sylvester Stallone in Best Supporting Actor or Jennifer Jason Leigh in Best Supporting Actress, and I went out on a limb in both of the sound categories. Damn! And all year I was predicting Tom Hardy would get nominated for The Revenant, but then he wasn't showing up anywhere and I think I let my personal preference affect my predictions, so I went with Jacob Tremblay instead. I could have gotten all 20 acting nominations right! I got 5/5 in Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, and Best Animated Short (a short category! Those are always impossible to predict!). I only missed one in every category except Director, Supporting Actor, Production Design, and Documentary Short (where I got 3/5) and Original Song (where I got 2/5). I'm also kind of kicking myself for missing Embrace of the Serpent in Best Foreign Language. Even though I was predicting it for the past couple of weeks, I followed some other Oscar predictors and switched to the Belgian entry. I knew my foreign language predictions were too Europe-heavy!
My Personal lows of the morning:
- Carol snubs in Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Production Design (obviously)
- Jacob Tremblay snub in Best Supporting Actor
- Aaron Sorkin snub for Steve Jobs in Best Adapted Screenplay
- Idris Elba snub in Best Supporting Actor (I had a feeling that was coming, though. I never really thought the Academy would go for a movie on Netflix)
- Jennifer Lawrence getting nominated in Joy. I mean, yeah, fine, she's good. But I'm just so sick of her, and we were so close to Joy getting 0 nominations! They could have done Rooney Mara or Alicia Vikander in the lead category instead.
- Ugh, The Danish Girl is there in several categories. No one should have been eligible for that terrible movie. Alicia Vikander should have been nominated for Ex Machina instead. And lolol Adam McKay is a Best Director nominee for The Big Short. That movie has no business being in the Oscar race at all
- Another year of all white nominees. Michael B. Jordan in Creed, Jason Mitchell in Straight Outta Compton, Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina, and Benicio Del Toro in Sicario all deserved to be in the conversation and none of them really were. Get it together, Academy!
- Ew Sam Smith's terrible Spectre song made it.
- Listen to Me Marlon really should have gotten nominated for Best Documentary, but I didn't think that would actually happen.
My Highs:
- Even though Jacob Tremblay didn't make it in, I'm really happy Room got in Best Picture, Best Director (biggest surprise in the top 8 categories), and Best Adapted Screenplay. Even though I had Room as a strong player in Picture and Director back in October/November, it had fallen down my and most experts' predictions after I missed almost all the guilds.
- I can't believe Charlotte Rampling happened! Even though she looked like a good bet because that category pretty much emptied out (and the CATEGORY FRAUD! conversation proved to be a red herring, like I had a hunch it would be), I didn't really trust the Academy would give 45 Years a chance. Best nomination of the morning.
- A bunch of Mad Max nominations (including costumes!)! So, okay, they didn't go for Carol, but they went for the second best movie of the year that really seemed like it was going to be too weird (and a 4th sequel!) for them.
- They really went astray from those terrible SAG nominations, thank God. No Johnny Depp nomination for Black Mass! And no Helen Mirren for Trumbo! SAG went 13/20 for Oscar, which I'm pretty sure it's the lowest that overlap has ever been. Which I love! Less overlap with the guilds! More independent thinking!
- Johan Johannson's creepy score for Sicario making it in when no one was expecting it to. It was already on my own personal ballot.
- They really seemed to stay away from bad movies in Visual Effects (The Revenant and Ex Machina over Jurassic World or The Walk) Animated Feature (When Marnie was There, The Boy and the World, Shaun the Sheep over The Good Dinosaur and The Peanuts Movie), and Documentary Feature (Winter on Fire and What Happened Miss Simone over He Named Me Malala or Where to Invade Next).
- So glad Carter Burwell got his first ever nomination (which is insane) for his Carol score.
- Happy The Weeknd's "Earned It" made it in. And hey look, Antony is an Oscar nominee now, too.
--
Going forward, I'm excited that we have some suspense in 4 of the top 8 categories. It looks like Best Actor (Leo), Best Actress (Brie), Best Original Screenplay (Spotlight), and Best Adapted Screenplay (The Big Short) are locked up. If The Revenant wins both the PGA and DGA (like Birdman last year), then we're probably just looking at The Revenant for Picture and Director. If anything else wins one of those, we should be looking at a race for Best Picture between The Revenant and Spotlight. Maybe The Big Short but I doubt it. Even if Spotlight remains the frontrunner, I could see Inarritu or maybe George Miller winning Director. We'll probably figure out if it's going to be Alicia Vikander or Rooney Mara (or I guess maybe Jennfier Jason Leigh or Kate Winslet) for Best Supporting Actress after Critics Choice, SAG, and BAFTA. I'm hoping that remains a race up until the Oscar night, but that doesn't really happen anymore. Supporting Actor will probably remain a race up until the end because Sylvester Stallone isn't nominated for SAG or BAFTA. So I suspect Mark Rylance will win both of those so it should be a race between those two on Oscar night, with Mark Ruffalo as the potential spoiler. Ahh can't wait!
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
2014 Oscar Nomination Predictions
This has been a really fun Oscar season so far.
First, when the Oscar season officially began in December, the SAG nominations threw the Oscar experts for a loop with their seemingly random nominations. Oscars and SAGs usually line up really closely. In 2013 and 2012, 14 out of the 20 SAG nominees went on to Oscar nominations, but in every other year this decade they went 17/20, including last year (and 19/20 in 2009). So it already looked like we were in for a different race than we were expecting. Then Carol led the Golden Globe nominations and Mad Max lead the the Critics Choice nominations, Spotlight was winning all the critics groups and looking like the presumptive Best picture frontrunner, and we were looking at a wide open race.
Then in January, the guilds started announcing, and all of the sudden Spotlight missed an ACE (Editors Guild) nomination. Star Wars looked like it might enter the race with an ACE nomination, but then it missed a PGA (Producers Guild) nomination (every year the PGA predicts all but one or two of the eventual Best Picture nominees). All of the sudden Straight Outta Compton and Sicario were showing up at both guilds and at the WGA (Writers Guild), while early favorite Room didn't show up at any. Carol also missed a PGA nomination and a couple of other guilds but then led the BAFTAs (British Academy). Then on Sunday, The Revenant won Best Drama at the Globes over presumptive frontrunner Spotlight, and now we might have to rethink what the frontrunner really is. Finally, yesterday, the DGA (Directors Guild), released their 5 nominees and I think we're finally looking at a solid top 5 or 6.
I'm a little worried about Mad Max and Carol. They're the two critics' favorites this year (along with Spotlight), but I almost seems too good to be true that they both get nominated (Mad Max is too weird, Carol is too CHILLY, for whatever the fuck reason). I don't think either would get nominated in an old Top 5 Best Picture field. The new rule for Best Picture is any number of nominees between 5 and 10--you just need to get 5% of all first-place votes cast for Best Picture. We had 9 nominees for three years in a row, but then we got 8 nominees last year. I think last year we had more contenders than usual, which resulted in fewer nominees. That looks like the case this year, as well, so I'm going with 8 nominees again. I hope we get 10, though!
When it comes to the acting categories, the biggest question mark and topic of conversation is CATEGORY FRAUD!! When Rooney Mara (for Carol) and Alicia Vikander (for The Danish Girl) were announced to be campaigning in the Best Supporting Actress category, the internet cried foul! Category fraud happens every year (hello Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind or Christian Bale in The Fighter), but it seemed to be a bigger news story this year than it ever has been. And the voters may have noticed, so we may see Vikander and/or Mara show up in lead instead of supporting or maybe one or both don't get nominated at all if they're splitting their own votes between the two categories (and Vikander might be splitting her own voters in supporting with her other performance in Ex Machina). Jacob Tremblay and Paul Dano could also see themselves getting nominated in lead instead of supporting.
When you add this category placement confusion to already crowded fields in every category, we should be due for some surprises when the nominations are announced tomorrow morning. Since the fields are so wide this year (there are literally 11 legit contenders for Best Supporting Actor), I don't think there are too many crazy scenarios that we haven't thought of already, but here are a couple of surprises I could see happening but I'm too afraid to actually predict:
- Steve Carell surprises in Best Actor, replacing either Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne, or Matt Damon and NOT Bryan Cranston (I could see this also see this happening with Michael B. Jordan or Jacob Tremblay)
- Joan Allen surprises in Best Supporting Actress over Rooney Mara, who gets snubbed in both categories.
- Son of Saul misses in Best Foreign Language and/or Amy misses in Best Documentary (I was right with my surprise snubs in both of these categories last year)
Best Picture:
1. Spotlight
2. The Revenant
3. The Big Short
4. The Martian
5. Bridge of Spies
6. Mad Max: Fury Road
7. Carol
8. Brooklyn
If 9: Room
If 10: Straight Outta Compton
Backup: Sicario
Potential Spoilers: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Trumbo, Ex Machina, Steve Jobs, Inside Out
Best Director:
1. Alejandro G. Innaritu, The Revenant
2. Ridley Scott, The Martian
3. Tom McCarthy, Spolight
4. George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
5. Todd Haynes, Carol
Backups: Steven Spielberg, Bridge of Spies; Adam McKay, The Big Short
Spoilers: Denis Villenueve, Sicario; Laszlo Nemes, Son of Saul; F. Gary Gray, Straight Outta Compton
Best Actor:
1. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
2. Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
3. Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
4. Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
5. Matt Damon, The Martian
Backups: Steve Carell, The Big Short; Jacob Tremblay, Room
Spoilers: Johnny Depp, Black Mass; Michael B. Jordan, Creed; Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Best Actress:
1. Brie Larson, Room
2. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
3. Cate Blanchett, Carol
4. Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
5. Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Back-Ups: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl; Rooney Mara, Carol
Spoilers: Maggie Smith, The Lady in the Van; Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road; Helen Mirren, Woman in Gold
Best Supporting Actor:
1. Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
2. Christian Bale, The Big Short
3. Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
4. Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
5. Jacob Tremblay, Room
Backups: Sylvester Stallone, Creed; Tom Hardy, The Revenant; Benicio Del Toro, Sicario
Spoilers: Michael Shannon, 99 Homes; Michael Keaton, Spotlight; Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Best Supporting Actress:
1. Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
2. Rooney Mara, Carol
3. Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
4. Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
5. Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Backups: Joan Allen, Room; Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Spoilers: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina; Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria; Jane Fonda, Youth
Best Adapted Screenplay:
1. Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, The Big Short
2. Drew Goddard, The Martian
3. Emma Donoghue, Room
4. Nick Hornby, Brooklyn
5. Aaron Sorkin, Steve Jobs
Backups: Phyllis Nagy, Carol; Alejandro G. Innaritu and Mark L. Smith, The Revenant; John McNamara, Trumbo
Spoilers: Charlie Kaufman, Anomalisa; Nico Lathoris, Brendan McCarthy, and George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Original Screenplay:
1. Tom McCarthy and John Singer, Spotlight
2. Peter Docter and Bob Peterson, Inside Out
3. Mark Chapman, Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen, Bridge of Spies
4. Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight
5. Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Backups: Taylor Sheridan, Sicario; Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Salvidge, and Alan Wenkus, Straight Outta Compton
Spoilers: Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow, Trainwreck; Oren Moverman and Alan Lerner, Love & Mercy
Best Cinematography
1. The Revenant
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Sicario
4. The Hateful Eight
5. Carol
Backup: Bridge of Spies, The Martian
Spoilers: Son of Saul, Steve Jobs, Brooklyn
Best Costume Design
1. Brooklyn
2. Carol
3. Cinderella
4. The Danish Girl
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
Backups: Trumbo, Crimson Peak, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Spoilers: The Revenant, Bridge of Spies
Best Film Editing
1. The Big Short
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Martian
4. The Revenant
5. Spotlight
Backups: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Bridge of Spies, Sicario
Spoilers: Carol, Room
First, when the Oscar season officially began in December, the SAG nominations threw the Oscar experts for a loop with their seemingly random nominations. Oscars and SAGs usually line up really closely. In 2013 and 2012, 14 out of the 20 SAG nominees went on to Oscar nominations, but in every other year this decade they went 17/20, including last year (and 19/20 in 2009). So it already looked like we were in for a different race than we were expecting. Then Carol led the Golden Globe nominations and Mad Max lead the the Critics Choice nominations, Spotlight was winning all the critics groups and looking like the presumptive Best picture frontrunner, and we were looking at a wide open race.
Then in January, the guilds started announcing, and all of the sudden Spotlight missed an ACE (Editors Guild) nomination. Star Wars looked like it might enter the race with an ACE nomination, but then it missed a PGA (Producers Guild) nomination (every year the PGA predicts all but one or two of the eventual Best Picture nominees). All of the sudden Straight Outta Compton and Sicario were showing up at both guilds and at the WGA (Writers Guild), while early favorite Room didn't show up at any. Carol also missed a PGA nomination and a couple of other guilds but then led the BAFTAs (British Academy). Then on Sunday, The Revenant won Best Drama at the Globes over presumptive frontrunner Spotlight, and now we might have to rethink what the frontrunner really is. Finally, yesterday, the DGA (Directors Guild), released their 5 nominees and I think we're finally looking at a solid top 5 or 6.
I'm a little worried about Mad Max and Carol. They're the two critics' favorites this year (along with Spotlight), but I almost seems too good to be true that they both get nominated (Mad Max is too weird, Carol is too CHILLY, for whatever the fuck reason). I don't think either would get nominated in an old Top 5 Best Picture field. The new rule for Best Picture is any number of nominees between 5 and 10--you just need to get 5% of all first-place votes cast for Best Picture. We had 9 nominees for three years in a row, but then we got 8 nominees last year. I think last year we had more contenders than usual, which resulted in fewer nominees. That looks like the case this year, as well, so I'm going with 8 nominees again. I hope we get 10, though!
When it comes to the acting categories, the biggest question mark and topic of conversation is CATEGORY FRAUD!! When Rooney Mara (for Carol) and Alicia Vikander (for The Danish Girl) were announced to be campaigning in the Best Supporting Actress category, the internet cried foul! Category fraud happens every year (hello Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind or Christian Bale in The Fighter), but it seemed to be a bigger news story this year than it ever has been. And the voters may have noticed, so we may see Vikander and/or Mara show up in lead instead of supporting or maybe one or both don't get nominated at all if they're splitting their own votes between the two categories (and Vikander might be splitting her own voters in supporting with her other performance in Ex Machina). Jacob Tremblay and Paul Dano could also see themselves getting nominated in lead instead of supporting.
When you add this category placement confusion to already crowded fields in every category, we should be due for some surprises when the nominations are announced tomorrow morning. Since the fields are so wide this year (there are literally 11 legit contenders for Best Supporting Actor), I don't think there are too many crazy scenarios that we haven't thought of already, but here are a couple of surprises I could see happening but I'm too afraid to actually predict:
- Steve Carell surprises in Best Actor, replacing either Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne, or Matt Damon and NOT Bryan Cranston (I could see this also see this happening with Michael B. Jordan or Jacob Tremblay)
- Joan Allen surprises in Best Supporting Actress over Rooney Mara, who gets snubbed in both categories.
- Son of Saul misses in Best Foreign Language and/or Amy misses in Best Documentary (I was right with my surprise snubs in both of these categories last year)
Best Picture:
1. Spotlight
2. The Revenant
3. The Big Short
4. The Martian
5. Bridge of Spies
6. Mad Max: Fury Road
7. Carol
8. Brooklyn
If 9: Room
If 10: Straight Outta Compton
Backup: Sicario
Potential Spoilers: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Trumbo, Ex Machina, Steve Jobs, Inside Out
Best Director:
1. Alejandro G. Innaritu, The Revenant
2. Ridley Scott, The Martian
3. Tom McCarthy, Spolight
4. George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
5. Todd Haynes, Carol
Backups: Steven Spielberg, Bridge of Spies; Adam McKay, The Big Short
Spoilers: Denis Villenueve, Sicario; Laszlo Nemes, Son of Saul; F. Gary Gray, Straight Outta Compton
Best Actor:
1. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
2. Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
3. Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
4. Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
5. Matt Damon, The Martian
Backups: Steve Carell, The Big Short; Jacob Tremblay, Room
Spoilers: Johnny Depp, Black Mass; Michael B. Jordan, Creed; Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Best Actress:
1. Brie Larson, Room
2. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
3. Cate Blanchett, Carol
4. Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
5. Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Back-Ups: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl; Rooney Mara, Carol
Spoilers: Maggie Smith, The Lady in the Van; Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road; Helen Mirren, Woman in Gold
Best Supporting Actor:
1. Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
2. Christian Bale, The Big Short
3. Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
4. Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
5. Jacob Tremblay, Room
Backups: Sylvester Stallone, Creed; Tom Hardy, The Revenant; Benicio Del Toro, Sicario
Spoilers: Michael Shannon, 99 Homes; Michael Keaton, Spotlight; Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Best Supporting Actress:
1. Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
2. Rooney Mara, Carol
3. Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
4. Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
5. Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Backups: Joan Allen, Room; Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Spoilers: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina; Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria; Jane Fonda, Youth
Best Adapted Screenplay:
1. Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, The Big Short
2. Drew Goddard, The Martian
3. Emma Donoghue, Room
4. Nick Hornby, Brooklyn
5. Aaron Sorkin, Steve Jobs
Backups: Phyllis Nagy, Carol; Alejandro G. Innaritu and Mark L. Smith, The Revenant; John McNamara, Trumbo
Spoilers: Charlie Kaufman, Anomalisa; Nico Lathoris, Brendan McCarthy, and George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Original Screenplay:
1. Tom McCarthy and John Singer, Spotlight
2. Peter Docter and Bob Peterson, Inside Out
3. Mark Chapman, Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen, Bridge of Spies
4. Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight
5. Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Backups: Taylor Sheridan, Sicario; Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Salvidge, and Alan Wenkus, Straight Outta Compton
Spoilers: Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow, Trainwreck; Oren Moverman and Alan Lerner, Love & Mercy
Best Cinematography
1. The Revenant
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Sicario
4. The Hateful Eight
5. Carol
Backup: Bridge of Spies, The Martian
Spoilers: Son of Saul, Steve Jobs, Brooklyn
Best Costume Design
1. Brooklyn
2. Carol
3. Cinderella
4. The Danish Girl
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
Backups: Trumbo, Crimson Peak, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Spoilers: The Revenant, Bridge of Spies
Best Film Editing
1. The Big Short
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Martian
4. The Revenant
5. Spotlight
Backups: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Bridge of Spies, Sicario
Spoilers: Carol, Room
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. The Revenant
3. Mr. Holmes
Backups: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, Black Mass
Spoilers: Legend, Concussion
Best Original Score
1. The Hateful Eight
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
3. Carol
4. Bridge of Spies
5. The Danish Girl
Backups: Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road; Sicario
Spoilers: The Martian, Steve Jobs
1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. The Revenant
3. Mr. Holmes
Backups: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, Black Mass
Spoilers: Legend, Concussion
Best Original Score
1. The Hateful Eight
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
3. Carol
4. Bridge of Spies
5. The Danish Girl
Backups: Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road; Sicario
Spoilers: The Martian, Steve Jobs
Best Original Song
1. "Til it Happens to You," The Hunting Ground
2. "See You Again," Furious 7
3. "Simple Song #3," Youth
4. "Flashlight," Pitch Perfect 2
5. "The Light That Never Fails," Meru
Backups: "Earned It," Fifty Shades of Grey; "So Long," Concussion; "Writing's On the Wall," Spectre
Spoilers: "Love Me Like You Do," Fifty Shades of Grey; "Feels Like Summer," Shaun the Sheep Movie
Best Production Design:
1. Bridge of Spies
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
4. The Martian
5. Carol
Backups: The Danish Girl, The Revenant, Brooklyn
Spoilers: Cinderella, Crimson Peak
Best Sound Editing
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Martian
4. Inside Out
5. Sicario
Backups: The Revenant, Spectre, Jurassic World
Spoilers: Bridge of Spies, The Hateful Eight
Best Sound Mixing
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Revenant
4. The Martian
5. Straight Outta Compton
Backups: Bridge of Spies, Sicario, The Hateful Eight
Spoilers: Jurassic World, Spectre
1. "Til it Happens to You," The Hunting Ground
2. "See You Again," Furious 7
3. "Simple Song #3," Youth
4. "Flashlight," Pitch Perfect 2
5. "The Light That Never Fails," Meru
Backups: "Earned It," Fifty Shades of Grey; "So Long," Concussion; "Writing's On the Wall," Spectre
Spoilers: "Love Me Like You Do," Fifty Shades of Grey; "Feels Like Summer," Shaun the Sheep Movie
Best Production Design:
1. Bridge of Spies
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
4. The Martian
5. Carol
Backups: The Danish Girl, The Revenant, Brooklyn
Spoilers: Cinderella, Crimson Peak
Best Sound Editing
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Martian
4. Inside Out
5. Sicario
Backups: The Revenant, Spectre, Jurassic World
Spoilers: Bridge of Spies, The Hateful Eight
Best Sound Mixing
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. The Revenant
4. The Martian
5. Straight Outta Compton
Backups: Bridge of Spies, Sicario, The Hateful Eight
Spoilers: Jurassic World, Spectre
Best Visual Effects
1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
3. The Martian
4. The Walk
5. The Revenant
Backups: Jurassic World, Ant-Man
Spoilers: Tomorrowland, Ex Machina, Avengers: Age of Ultron
Best Animated Feature
1. Inside Out
2. Anomalisa
3. Shaun the Sheep Movie
4. The Good Dinosaur
5. Boy and the World
Backups: The Peanuts Movie, Khalil Gibran's The Prophet
Spoilers: When Marnie Was There, The Boy and the Beast
Best Documentary Feature
1. The Look of Silence
2. Amy
3. Cartel Land
4. Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Walk to Freedom
5. He Named Me Malala
Backups: The Hunting Ground, Where to Invade Next, Meru
Spoilers: Listen to Me Marlon, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Best Foreign Language Film:
1. Son of Saul
2. Mustang
3. A War
4. The Brand New Testament
5. Theeb
Backups: Viva, Embrace of the Serpent, Labyrinth of Lies, The Fencer
Best Animated Feature
1. Bear Story (Historia De Un Orso)
2. World of Tomorrow
3. Sanjay's Super Team
4. We Can't Live Without Chaos
5. Prologue
Backups: If I Was God..., Carface (Autos Portraits), Love in the Time of March Madness, An Object At Rest, My Home
Best Documentary Short
1. Chau, Beyond the Lines
2. Body Team 12
3. A Girl in the River: A Price of Forgiveness
4. My Enemy, My Brother
5. 50 Feet From Syria
1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
3. The Martian
4. The Walk
5. The Revenant
Backups: Jurassic World, Ant-Man
Spoilers: Tomorrowland, Ex Machina, Avengers: Age of Ultron
Best Animated Feature
1. Inside Out
2. Anomalisa
3. Shaun the Sheep Movie
4. The Good Dinosaur
5. Boy and the World
Backups: The Peanuts Movie, Khalil Gibran's The Prophet
Spoilers: When Marnie Was There, The Boy and the Beast
Best Documentary Feature
1. The Look of Silence
2. Amy
3. Cartel Land
4. Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Walk to Freedom
5. He Named Me Malala
Backups: The Hunting Ground, Where to Invade Next, Meru
Spoilers: Listen to Me Marlon, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Best Foreign Language Film:
1. Son of Saul
2. Mustang
3. A War
4. The Brand New Testament
5. Theeb
Backups: Viva, Embrace of the Serpent, Labyrinth of Lies, The Fencer
Best Animated Feature
1. Bear Story (Historia De Un Orso)
2. World of Tomorrow
3. Sanjay's Super Team
4. We Can't Live Without Chaos
5. Prologue
Backups: If I Was God..., Carface (Autos Portraits), Love in the Time of March Madness, An Object At Rest, My Home
Best Documentary Short
1. Chau, Beyond the Lines
2. Body Team 12
3. A Girl in the River: A Price of Forgiveness
4. My Enemy, My Brother
5. 50 Feet From Syria
Backups: Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, Minerita, The Testimony, Starting Point, Last Day of Freedom
Best Live Action Short
1. Ave Maria
2. Shok
3. Stutterer
4. Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
5. Bis Gleich (Till Then)
Backups: Winter Light, Day One, Contrapelo (Against the Grain), The Free Man (Zi You Ren), Bad Hunter
Best Live Action Short
1. Ave Maria
2. Shok
3. Stutterer
4. Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
5. Bis Gleich (Till Then)
Backups: Winter Light, Day One, Contrapelo (Against the Grain), The Free Man (Zi You Ren), Bad Hunter
My Top Movies of 2015
There were 10-15 movies this year that really stood out as the best, so my list looks pretty similar to most critics' lists, which is pretty boring. I definitely love that this was a great year for women's movies and mainstream movies with female leads (dear God, please let that continue), but there was also a lot of shit, especially coming out of Hollywood. I love every movie in my top 10 and they will definitely be up high in my Best of the Decade list, but I'm just saying I had more fun with my list last year when it wasn't as obvious what the best movies were and the year itself was a little weaker.
I've watched more movies this year than any year (I'm currently at 94, on my way to probably 110 - a new record for me! I keep track over at Letterboxd), but I'm starting to notice I'm developing a more critical eye than I've ever had. I'm just so so so fatigued with franchise movies and I'm even starting to find the ones I like forgettable. When I close my eyes and try to remember any Mission Impossible or James Bond movie, I vaguely remember random scenes. On the other hand, when I try to recall many of the impenetrable foreign movies I watch every year and admire but rarely love, those movies remain vimid in my memory. I typically tend to think of myself as being somewhere in the middle between the fanboys and the most frustratingly snobby critics that I follow, but I think I may be tipping toward the snobs.. especially because the straight guy fanboys' voices are so loud and dominant. I just get so exhausted. Seriously, I barely made it out alive this December during non-stop Star Wars coverage.
But yeah. Here's My List!
1. Carol
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Son of Saul
4. Inside Out
5. 45 Years
6. The Duke of Burgundy
7. The Diary of a Teenage Girl
8. Spotlight
9. Tangerine
10. Room
11. Sicario
12. Phoenix
13. The Look of Silence
14. Ex Machina
15. Girlhood
16. Jafar Panahi's Taxi
17. Brooklyn
18. Eden
19. Timbuktu
20. Creed
Runners-Up: Chi-Raq; Amy; Mustang; Steve Jobs; The End of the Tour; '71; James White; Cartel Land; Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter; Tom at the Farm
Movies I Liked More Than I Thought I would (aka Biggest Surprises): Paddington, The Gift, I'll See You in My Dreams, While We're Young, Sisters
Movies I Liked Way Less Than I Thought I Would (aka Biggest Disappointments): The Hateful Eight, Trainwreck, Crimson Peak, The Hunger Games; Mockingjay - Part 2, The Good DinosaurMovies I Admired More than I Actually Liked: The Assassin, Heaven Knows What, Clouds of Sils Maria, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, The Tribe
Most Notable Movies I Felt MEH About: The Revenant, The Big Short, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Anomalisa, Victoria
Worst Movies I Saw: Sleeping With Other People, Black Mass, The Walk, The Danish Girl, Joy
Most Important Movies I Still Have Left to See: Arabian Nights Volumes 1-3, Heart of a Dog, The Pearl Button, The Russian Woodpecker, About Elly, Jauja
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
MY Top TV of 2015
Good Lord, this list was hard to make. Ranking TV is damn near impossible. But I noticed some trends when making this list that were reflective of my TV taste and viewing in 2015:
- Most of my TV excitement is centered around brand new series or limited-run/mini-series.
In general, I start to slightly fatigue on a show once it's past, like, its 3rd season.
- Comedies are outpacing dramas.
The half-hour form is really flourishing right now, especially with more indie film directors coming to TV. Even beyond the half-hour dramedies, there are so many more comedies that I wanted to include on my list than dramas. Most of the new ambitious dramas that are trying to emulate the prestige dramas of his Golden Age of Television just aren't that good. We're bored of the male anti-hero already, y'all! And then the new dramas that are actually well-written are often kind of boring. I blame Breaking Bad for breaking TV. But yeah. In general I found myself being drawn to shows that seemed new and fresh, which leads me to...
- Diversity!
Under this list I included a list of my favorite new TV characters of 2015, and spoiler alert!: there aren't any white guys in my top 10. Yay! Lots of good black characters and complicated female characters and Asian males and Latinos. Keep it coming!
With that being said, I also noticed that:
- I'm in the process of slightly paring down the list of shows I watch (at least the old ones).
I'm definitely trying to watch as few network shows as possible. They're just not as good; and the network model of 22 episodes a season is way too big to sustain when you're watching a show that you only slightly enjoy. That leads me to:
- There are few shows that I actually get really excited about watching.
When I'm binging a show, I can sit and watch 5-10 hours a day and not nitpick when a show is slightly becoming a slog. But I noticed this year that I really had to force myself to watch new episodes of certain shows (even one I loved like Mr. Robot, especially later in the season), and I let them sit for a couple of days before I finally got around to them. I need to evaluate which of these shows are actually good and challenging and which ones aren't actually worth the time and effort.
2. Transparent
3. Mr. Robot
4. Fargo
5. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
6. Master of None
7. Mad Men
8. You're the Worst
9. Show Me a Hero
10. UnREAL
11. Broad City
12. Jane the Virgin
13. Rectify
14. Catastrophe
15. Looking
16. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
17. Orange is the New Black
18. Inside Amy Schumer
19. Silicon Valley
20. Halt and Catch Fire
Runners-Up/Honorable Mentions: Please Like Me, Review, Marvel's Jessica Jones, Fresh Off the Boat, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Older Shows That I Still Love/Like but Can't Get Excited About Enough to Put On My Top 20 List Anymore: Hannibal, Parks and Recreation, Justified, The Americans, Game of Thrones, Shameless, Veep
---
Best New TV Characters of 2015:
Other Dramas I Watched: The Fall, American Horror Story: Freak Show, Parenthood, House of Cards, Downton Abbey, Better Call Saul, Marvel's Daredevil, Penny Dreadful, Deutschland 83, True Detective, Narcos, How to Get Away With Murder, The Man in the High Castle, The Walking Dead, Empire, The Wiz Live!, The Good Wife, Manhattan, American Horror Story: Hotel, The Knick, The Returned, Making a Murderer
Other Comedies I Watched: Togetherness, Girls, New Girl, Louie, Bojack Horseman, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Difficult People, Bob's Burgers, Casual, Scream Queens, The Last Man on Earth, Getting On, The Mindy Project
Reality Shows I Watched: The Celebrity Apprentice, RuPaul's Drag Race, So You Think You Can Dance, Big Brother (and Big Brother Canada), Project Runway (and Project Runway All-Stars), America's Next Top Model, Survivor, Top Chef
The Only Truly Terrible Shows I Watched This Year: House of Cards, True Detective
Show I Still Need to Watch: Rick and Morty (Almost got through my whole list! Damn!)
Shows I Dropped in 2015:
- Community and Orphan Black (used to love them but didn't bother with new seasons)
- Nashville, Scandal, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (I'm trying to purge myself of a lot of my network shows that I don't really care about that much and require way too much effort because of 22-episode network orders)
- Archer and Portlandia (I've been behind for years, and I just decided it was just fine to let them go)
- Bloodline (could only get through 3 or 4 episodes)
- Masters of Sex (gave up this year with only 2 episodes left - my saddest breakup this year, as it was a top-5 show for me 2 years ago. Why do almost all Showtime shows eventually get bad? What's the deal there?!)
Shows I Need to Catch Up on but Probably Won't Get Around To: American Crime, Wolf Hall, Broadchurch season 2, Red Oaks, Bessie
Shows I'm Legitimately Considering Dropping: How to Get Away With Murder, Empire, American Horror Story, New Girl, Manhattan, The Good Wife (especially if it keeps on going with different showrunners), The Man in the High Castle (that season 1 was pretty terrible, but I was interested enough in the world to keep watching. Hmm..)
Shows I'm Tempted to Drop But Probably Won't: Downton Abbey (spoiler alert: I already watched it, but if this wasn't the last season I would have totes been done), The Walking Dead
Other Notable Shows I Didn't/Don't Watch: I made a huge list last year that's unchanged, but this year I can add Sense8, Grace & Frankie, Humans, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Documentary Now, Into the Badlands, Flesh and Bone, Ash vs. Evil Dead, The Grinder, iZombie, W/Bob & David, Project Greenlight, The Last Kingdom, Wayward Pines, Ballers
2016 Shows I'm Most Looking Forward To: One Mississippi, Big Little Lies, Codes of Conduct, Taboo, The OA, The Night Manager, Vinyl, The Get Down, The Girlfriend Experience, 11.22.63
- Most of my TV excitement is centered around brand new series or limited-run/mini-series.
In general, I start to slightly fatigue on a show once it's past, like, its 3rd season.
- Comedies are outpacing dramas.
The half-hour form is really flourishing right now, especially with more indie film directors coming to TV. Even beyond the half-hour dramedies, there are so many more comedies that I wanted to include on my list than dramas. Most of the new ambitious dramas that are trying to emulate the prestige dramas of his Golden Age of Television just aren't that good. We're bored of the male anti-hero already, y'all! And then the new dramas that are actually well-written are often kind of boring. I blame Breaking Bad for breaking TV. But yeah. In general I found myself being drawn to shows that seemed new and fresh, which leads me to...
- Diversity!
Under this list I included a list of my favorite new TV characters of 2015, and spoiler alert!: there aren't any white guys in my top 10. Yay! Lots of good black characters and complicated female characters and Asian males and Latinos. Keep it coming!
With that being said, I also noticed that:
- I'm in the process of slightly paring down the list of shows I watch (at least the old ones).
I'm definitely trying to watch as few network shows as possible. They're just not as good; and the network model of 22 episodes a season is way too big to sustain when you're watching a show that you only slightly enjoy. That leads me to:
- There are few shows that I actually get really excited about watching.
When I'm binging a show, I can sit and watch 5-10 hours a day and not nitpick when a show is slightly becoming a slog. But I noticed this year that I really had to force myself to watch new episodes of certain shows (even one I loved like Mr. Robot, especially later in the season), and I let them sit for a couple of days before I finally got around to them. I need to evaluate which of these shows are actually good and challenging and which ones aren't actually worth the time and effort.
So, yeah, anyway! Here's my Top 20 List:
1. The Leftovers2. Transparent
3. Mr. Robot
4. Fargo
5. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
6. Master of None
7. Mad Men
8. You're the Worst
9. Show Me a Hero
10. UnREAL
11. Broad City
12. Jane the Virgin
13. Rectify
14. Catastrophe
15. Looking
16. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
17. Orange is the New Black
18. Inside Amy Schumer
19. Silicon Valley
20. Halt and Catch Fire
Runners-Up/Honorable Mentions: Please Like Me, Review, Marvel's Jessica Jones, Fresh Off the Boat, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Older Shows That I Still Love/Like but Can't Get Excited About Enough to Put On My Top 20 List Anymore: Hannibal, Parks and Recreation, Justified, The Americans, Game of Thrones, Shameless, Veep
---
Best New TV Characters of 2015:
1. Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon, Empire
2. Constance Wu as Jessica Huang, Fresh off the Boat
3. Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, Mr. Robot
4. Shiri Appleby as Rachel Goldberg, UnREAL
5. Titus Burgess as Titus Andromedon, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
6. Bokeem Woodbine as Mike Milligan, Fargo
7. Oscar Isaac as Nick Wasicsko, Show Me a Hero
8. Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Marvel's Jessica Jones
9. Regina King as Erika Murphy, The Leftovers
10. Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar, Narcos
11. Aziz Ansari as Dev, Master of None
12. Kevin Caroll as John Murphy, The Leftovers
13. Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
14. Constance Zimmer as Quinn King, UnREAL
15. Kirsten Dunst as Peggy Blumquist, Fargo
16. Melanie Lynskey as Michelle Pierson, Togetherness
17. Sharon Horgan as Sharon, Catastrophe
18. Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
19. Cherry Jones as Leslie, Transparent
20. (TIE) Julia Garner as Kimberly Breland, The Americans and
(okay, fine, a white guy) Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, Marvel's Daredevil
I also would have included:
2. Constance Wu as Jessica Huang, Fresh off the Boat
3. Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, Mr. Robot
4. Shiri Appleby as Rachel Goldberg, UnREAL
5. Titus Burgess as Titus Andromedon, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
6. Bokeem Woodbine as Mike Milligan, Fargo
7. Oscar Isaac as Nick Wasicsko, Show Me a Hero
8. Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Marvel's Jessica Jones
9. Regina King as Erika Murphy, The Leftovers
10. Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar, Narcos
11. Aziz Ansari as Dev, Master of None
12. Kevin Caroll as John Murphy, The Leftovers
13. Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
14. Constance Zimmer as Quinn King, UnREAL
15. Kirsten Dunst as Peggy Blumquist, Fargo
16. Melanie Lynskey as Michelle Pierson, Togetherness
17. Sharon Horgan as Sharon, Catastrophe
18. Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
19. Cherry Jones as Leslie, Transparent
20. (TIE) Julia Garner as Kimberly Breland, The Americans and
(okay, fine, a white guy) Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, Marvel's Daredevil
I also would have included:
- Helen McCrory as Madame Kali, Penny Dreadful (but technically introduced in 2014) and
- Ben Mendelsohn as Danny Rayburn, Bloodline (but I didn't get past episode 3, so I would probably be cheating including him without seeing his whole arch)
---
More Lists!!Other Dramas I Watched: The Fall, American Horror Story: Freak Show, Parenthood, House of Cards, Downton Abbey, Better Call Saul, Marvel's Daredevil, Penny Dreadful, Deutschland 83, True Detective, Narcos, How to Get Away With Murder, The Man in the High Castle, The Walking Dead, Empire, The Wiz Live!, The Good Wife, Manhattan, American Horror Story: Hotel, The Knick, The Returned, Making a Murderer
Other Comedies I Watched: Togetherness, Girls, New Girl, Louie, Bojack Horseman, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Difficult People, Bob's Burgers, Casual, Scream Queens, The Last Man on Earth, Getting On, The Mindy Project
Reality Shows I Watched: The Celebrity Apprentice, RuPaul's Drag Race, So You Think You Can Dance, Big Brother (and Big Brother Canada), Project Runway (and Project Runway All-Stars), America's Next Top Model, Survivor, Top Chef
The Only Truly Terrible Shows I Watched This Year: House of Cards, True Detective
Show I Still Need to Watch: Rick and Morty (Almost got through my whole list! Damn!)
Shows I Dropped in 2015:
- Community and Orphan Black (used to love them but didn't bother with new seasons)
- Nashville, Scandal, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (I'm trying to purge myself of a lot of my network shows that I don't really care about that much and require way too much effort because of 22-episode network orders)
- Archer and Portlandia (I've been behind for years, and I just decided it was just fine to let them go)
- Bloodline (could only get through 3 or 4 episodes)
- Masters of Sex (gave up this year with only 2 episodes left - my saddest breakup this year, as it was a top-5 show for me 2 years ago. Why do almost all Showtime shows eventually get bad? What's the deal there?!)
Shows I Need to Catch Up on but Probably Won't Get Around To: American Crime, Wolf Hall, Broadchurch season 2, Red Oaks, Bessie
Shows I'm Legitimately Considering Dropping: How to Get Away With Murder, Empire, American Horror Story, New Girl, Manhattan, The Good Wife (especially if it keeps on going with different showrunners), The Man in the High Castle (that season 1 was pretty terrible, but I was interested enough in the world to keep watching. Hmm..)
Shows I'm Tempted to Drop But Probably Won't: Downton Abbey (spoiler alert: I already watched it, but if this wasn't the last season I would have totes been done), The Walking Dead
Other Notable Shows I Didn't/Don't Watch: I made a huge list last year that's unchanged, but this year I can add Sense8, Grace & Frankie, Humans, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Documentary Now, Into the Badlands, Flesh and Bone, Ash vs. Evil Dead, The Grinder, iZombie, W/Bob & David, Project Greenlight, The Last Kingdom, Wayward Pines, Ballers
2016 Shows I'm Most Looking Forward To: One Mississippi, Big Little Lies, Codes of Conduct, Taboo, The OA, The Night Manager, Vinyl, The Get Down, The Girlfriend Experience, 11.22.63
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