Academy Awards - The Oscars

Once again it is time to celebrate a year of film watching. Here are my choices for the following awards along with a few thoughts about some of the selections and non-selections The Academy made.

• Actor in a Leading Role – The nominees are: Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Timothee Chalamet (Call me by Your Name), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread), and Denzel Washington (Roman J. Isreal, Esq.). Who else could be on this list? Tom Hanks (The Post), James Franco (The Disaster Artist), and Richard Gere (Norman). However, regardless of who wasn’t on the list, the runaway best performance is Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour. His Winston Churchill was simply sublime.
• Actress in a Leading Role – The nominees are: Meryl Streep (The Post), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Francis McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird). Who didn’t get nominated? Rachel Weisz (My Cousin Rachel), Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes) and Jessica Chastain (The Zookeepers Wife). If it were up to me, I’d select Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird because of the variety and excellent delivery of teenage emotions she effectively brings to the screen. Margot Robbie was utterly fantastic as Tonya Harding. Francis McDormand was filled with angst and fire as the woman who lost her daughter to rape and murder. Sally Hawkins was ethereal as Elisa Esposito a deaf woman who communicates with the captured creature. Meryl Streep showed the subtle development of strength as her character Katharine Graham.
• Supporting Actress – The nominees are: Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird), Allison Janney (I, Tonya), Mary J. Blige (Mudbound). Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water). Who is missing from this list? Melissa Leo (Novitiate), who gave one of most outstanding performances of the year. The film wasn’t seen and that is a shame. This is a strong field but choosing from the nominees, I’d select Allison Janney. Her depiction of Tonya Harding’s mother was vividly cold.
• Supporting Actor – The nominees are: Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World), Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Willem Defoe (The Florida Project), and Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water). A great set of actors. Missing? Steve Carell (Battle of the Sexes) gave us an incredibly life like Bobby Riggs. I’d have to say that Sam Rockwell would get my vote although each of the above deserve the recognition.
• Best Cinematography – The nominees are: Bruno Delbonnel (Darkest Hour), Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk), Rachel Morrison (Mudbound), Dan Laustsen (The Shape of Water), and Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049). Great list of people creating and delivering great pictures. My vote would go for Hoyte van Hoytema in Dunkirk. I admired the multitude and type of scenes that were shot and how they were made into a cohesive feeling of awe.
• Writing (Adapted Screenplay) – The nominees are: Dee Rees and Virgil Williams (Mudbound), Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter (The Disaster Artist), James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name), James Mangold, Michael Green and Scott Frank (Logan), and Aaron Sorkin (Molly’s Game). My vote would go to  Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter for The Disaster Artist.
• Writing (Original Screenplay) – The nominees are: Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water), Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird). This is probably the tightest category to be contested. Each of these stories is amazingly original. Therefore, I don’t have a single selection, they all are deserving.
• Film Editing – The nominees are: Lee Smith (Dunkirk), Tatiana S. Riegel (I, Tonya), Jonathan Amos and Paul MacHliss (Baby Driver), Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape of Water), and Jon Gregory (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). All very good, however the standout in editing goes to Lee Smith for Dunkirk. This is a story based film and not a character based film and because of this the editing makes this film engaging.
• Directing – The nominees are: Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), and Jordan Peele (Get Out). What is missing. To me there are huge gaps here. Margaret Betts (Novitiate), Kathryn Bigelow (Detroit), Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya), and Joe Wright (Darkest Hour) all had a great firm hand on their story's and told them with excellence. Out of the nominees, I’d vote for Christopher Nolan and Dunkirk because he made this event come alive. However, Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) got amazing performances from her cast.
• Picture – The nominees are: Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Phantom Thread, Get Out, The Post, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Shape of Water, and Lady Bird. All these pictures, except Phantom Thread (review in process) are films I loved to watch for different reasons. What is missing? I think Novitiate, Detroit, and Battle of the Sexes were deserving as well. However, Novitiate would be my candidate for replacing Phantom Thread which I didn’t really find likable or engaging. Who will win? My wish would be Dunkirk, Lady Bird, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in that order. If Novitiate was in the mix, it would be a tie between it and Dunkirk.

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The Disaster Artist

First Hit:  This is a very out loud funny film.

I’ve never seen The Room which has a reputation of being the worst film to ever be released. The basis of The Disaster Artist is about the making of The Room. Tommy (James Franco) plays Tommy Wiseau an odd person who seems to have unlimited funds, has a very peculiar accent, and would like to be an actor. Our first introduction to him is when he gets in front of an acting class and dramatically over does a scene. The looks on the other acting students’ faces? Priceless.

Contrarily Greg (Dave Franco) is in the same acting class and he freezes and cannot emote in front of his classmates. So, Greg reaches out to Tommy and asks him if he would help him learn to emote. The scene in the restaurant where the first lesson happens is hilarious.

Because they both want to be actors and do not see an opportunity, they decide to make a film together. Tommy ends up writing, directing, producing, financing and starring in this film called The Room.

They hire a team of people including actors for the film. Tommy, in the lead role of Johnny, gives Greg a major part as Mark. To play Johnny’s love interest, Tommy hires Juliette (Ari Gaynor) to play the role of Lisa. Additionally, he hires Carolyn (Jackie Weaver) as Claudette, Lisa’s mom. As someone to guide the actors with the script and help Tommy direct the film, Tommy hires Sandy (Seth Rogen) who has experience in filmmaking.

The rest of the film is about the poorly acted and scripted scenes of making this film, The Room. The difficulties of working with Tommy and worse, his unclear vision, are filled with hilarious scenes. Although Greg and Tommy are friends, this friendship gets tested in both the acting scenes as well as the scenes where Greg decides to live with his girlfriend Amber (Alison Brie).

Do I want to see the room? I’m not sure because just prior to the credits the film shows scenes from the initial film, The Room, next to the same scenes from this film of filming the room. I was struck about how close the scenes were done and now think that seeing The Room won’t enhance my overall moving going experience. This is because I don’t think I’d act like the audience in the film’s opening night.

James Franco was fantastic as Tommy. I loved how he gave this character an air of otherworldliness. Dave Franco was great. I loved his enthusiasm towards the character and giving this role a wonderful appeal. Weaver was really good. I loved her line about her announcing that she has cancer never appears again in The Room. Brie is wonderful as Greg’s supportive girlfriend. Gaynor is engaging as the film’s love interest. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote an ingenious script to capture the story of the creation of the film The Room. James Franco did an excellent job of putting a very funny story together by getting strong situational comedic performances out of the actors.

Overall:  This was probably the funniest film I’ve seen this year.

Alien: Covenant

First Hit:  This version was laughable if compared this with the engagement, thrills and horror of the first film, ‘Alien’.

The opening sequence has Peter Weyland (Guy Pierce) activating his latest humanoid robot David (Michael Fassbender), who is named after Michelangelo’s statue. After a short discussion about Peter being David’s creator,  the question David asks is, who was Peter’s creator? Peter looks at him and says, he doesn't know but that they will search for mankind’s creator together. This dialogue tells the audience that this question is important to the film.

Then we switch to the spaceship Covenant, which is now just seven years away from landing on a planet they believe is perfect to colonize with ship's the crew, two thousand colonists and a thousand embryos that are all stored on the ship.

Minding the ship as it sails along through space is Walter (Michael Fassbender) who looks like a replica of David. At first I was confused because I thought it was David and that he had been re-named. This is an initial flaw in the film but makes obvious that the two characters, David and Walter, will be the drivers of what happens in the film and the film doesn’t disappoint with this thought as a plot device.

The crew led by Captain Jacob “Jake” Branson (James Franco) who dies immediately because of a neutrino burst that hits the ship. This happens just a few minutes into the movie and starts the story’s spiral into trouble for the ship and crew.

The newly awakened crew is thrust into action to fix the ship’s issues from the neutrino burst and while managing the repairs they receive a transmission from an unknown planet that sounds vaguely familiar to Tennessee (Danny McBride). What he discovers is that it sounds like the song “Country Roads” by John Denver.

Jake’s wife, Daniels (Katherine Waterson), helps the next in command, Orem (Billy Crudup), figure out their next steps to fix the ship and what he needs to do to take charge. The side story that the crew doesn’t respect him plays no aspect in the film’s story and is a waste of dialogue.

Following the signal, they find a planet that appears to have everything they need for colonization and it is only a week away. Although the audience knows, as do some of the crew members suspect, the choice to explore this “new” planet will be the wrong choice but they do it anyway. Not much in the way of suspense.

One rule about thrillers is that to be thrilled one must be surprised and given a full dose of suspense or it won’t work well. And from here on the film dives into wasted energy. We are not surprised, nor is there suspense. They land, they discover it isn’t a friendly place, the immensely strong aliens are back and we discover that here, ‘David’ is the creator of life. A few of the crew get away. But remember my third paragraph where I stated that the look alike humanoids David and Walter will be the dark story, it is true.

Fassbender is strong in both roles, David and Walter, but the film doesn’t do much justice to his abilities. Waterson is very good and is a highlight as first the grieving widow. She is strong as the clear headed person who really needs to be in-charge. McBride is funny and very good as Tennessee, the guy who is homey and smart. Crudup is wasted in his minimal role and doesn’t show strength. Dan O’Bannon wrote a mediocre script and screenplay that showed its hand way too early and really lacked suspense. Ridley Scott appears to have been in this for the money because the film is simply uninteresting and is at times, a joke (meaning people laughed out loud and the preposterousness).

Overall:  Don’t waste your time on this poorly conceived story.

Why Him?

First Hit:  A couple of out loud funny bits but in the end there is nothing there.

At best, this was a mediocre film. The concept of a wild youngish video game internet programmer making it big and falling in love with a young pretty smart Stanford girl from the Midwest is not too far fetched and could have been fun. The premise is that she wants her conservative family to meet him for the first time during the holidays and that this is where the fireworks and comedy are supposed to happen.

This premise had potential but where did it fail. For me, first and foremost was the poor writing. From the beginning Laird Mayhew’s (James Franco) character was poorly based and thoughtlessly conceived. Why make him hang around shirtless most of the time? What is the point of this? How many young game, internet developers and entrepreneurs do you hear about that hang out with only their loose pants on. Yes, they might wear hoodies and baggy clothing but shirtless is not the Silicon Valley style so this was missed completely. Second saying “fuck” 3 times in almost every sentence is not only off putting but unneeded to denote edginess. Lastly, the overdone staging and home filled with stupid art (some of it Franco’s own) including a preserved buffalo submerged in its own urine tries to make the case that young rich entrepreneurs have a interesting appreciation of art.

All this is the writers’ fault. The writers didn’t want to look for subtle or interesting ways to create comedic exchanges, everything here is overt, in your face and hammer like: Things like the art which was uninteresting. The overdone characters like Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key) who is Laird’s gentlemen’s gentlemen. The sets with programmers doing little in every room in the house. The helicopter landing in the middle of the street in front of Flemings’ home – just isn’t going to happen or be allowed. All of these things were overtly stupid just like Laird’s tattoo of the Fleming family on his back. All this and more made up the lack of thoughtful intelligent comedy.

Although the cast with Bryan Cranston (as Stephanie’s father Ned Fleming), Zoey Deutch (as Stephanie), Megan Mullally (as Stephanie’s mother Barb Fleming), Griffin Gluck (as Stephanie’s brother Scotty) and Franco was strong, every scene appeared to be approached like a tidal wave which was the real failing of this film.

Franco’s character was overdone and overbearing to make him at all believable. Cranston was as good as he could be with his given script. Deutch was solid enough but the script let her down. Muallally was OK and I will continue to repeat myself the script was her downfall. Gluck was OK as the son who wanted to come out of the shadows. Key was OK as the together person behind a unhinged Laird. Jonah Hill, John Hamburg, and Ian Helfer wrote this insipid mindless script. While Hamburg made the script worse with overdone scenes that were obvious and telegraphed.

Overall:  This film is a waste of money and time and will probably not be profitable.

The Interview

First Hit:  Funny enough but the sprinkles of very low-brow bits made it less fun and interesting than it could have been.

Seth Rogen has the ability to make funny films and funny situations. What doesn’t work for me in his films is that he appears to be compelled to make sure he sticks in low-brow dialogue or high-school genre fart jokes and bits that take away from the overall film.

I thought the concept of having Dave Skylark (James Franco) a popular and without a lot of substance television interviewer selected by North Korea’s President Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) to give a once in a lifetime interview was genius. And there are parts of this film that are truly funny and I appreciated those moments. It was just unfortunate that when push came to shove, if Rogan thinks it’s not funny enough he reverts to less intelligent stuff.

Franco at times is really funny and his interviews of Eminem and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were funny and I thoroughly enjoyed him. Rogan as Skylark’s producer Aaron Rappaport as well as writer and co-director was both really good and also misplaced. Lizzy Caplan as CIA Agent Lacey was funny. Park as Kim was really funny and had enough of the "god like" features that helped hold the story together. Diana Bang as Sook who interfaced between Skylark, Rappaport and Kim was really funny. Her bit to overthrow Kim was great. Rogan, Evan Goldberg, and Dan Sterling wrote the story and script which at times was brilliant and other times, sophomoric. Rogan and Goldberg directed this film with both brilliance and stupidity.

Overall:  I enjoyed the film more than not – and that, I suppose, is a good thing.