#AlternativeWinners : 2017 Oscars Recap

Well, I wasn't wrong. La La Land *did win* Best Picture, for about a minute at least, until the correct winner, Moonlight, was announced by La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz, who graciously conceded defeat. Up until that point, the alternative version of my predictions from my pre-show Viewer's Guide was taking shape. Officially, I predicted 10 wins for La La Land, including Best Picture, but I made it a point to mention that that win total could reach as low as 7. Before the Best Picture winner was announced, La La Land had received 6 Oscars, all of which I correctly predicted: Best Score, Best Song, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Actress, and Best Director. But then I wrote this: "I keep going back and forth on if Editing and Production Design should be locks. If it loses one of those, plus 2 of the other non-lock categories, then its win total could go down to 7..."

Well, those alternative predictions were dead-on. I started getting worried about La La Land's Best Picture certainty when it lost both Sound categories, Sound Editing to Arrival(its only win of the night) and Sound Mixing to Hacksaw Ridge, which finally meant that 21-time nominee Kevin O'Connell could call himself an Oscar winner(I'd like to think I gave him some good luck including the "You're telling me there's a chance" clip from Dumb & Dumber in the Viewer's Guide).

*Kevin O'Connell giving his acceptance speech, which was one of the best moments of the night

Then there was the loss for Best Editing, also to Hacksaw Ridge, which opened up the race even more. In the past, this category tended to go hand-in-hand with the Best Picture winner, with the last Best Picture musical, Chicago, even winning the award, but not anymore. This is the 4th consecutive year where the Best Editing winner doesn't match the Best Picture winner. So even then I thought La La Land was still on its way to a Best Picture win. But because of those losses, there was some more intrigue than I expected when it came time to hand out the major awards.

Everything was going as scheduled, and all was right with the world, and my predictions, as one by one Kenneth Lonergan won Original Screenplay for Manchester by the Sea, Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney won Adapted Screenplay for Moonlight, its 2nd and what appeared to be final win of the night, Damien Chazelle won Best Director for La La Land, becoming the youngest winner in the category's history, Casey Affleck won Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea, its 2nd and final win of the night(great outcome!), and Emma Stone won Best Actress for La La Land. 

*Best Actor and Best Actress winners Casey Affleck and Emma Stone, alongside Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress winners Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis(all gave great speeches)

But then, when everything seemed to be wrapped up perfectly, kind of like when one candidate had a 4-point lead in every swing state the night before the election, or when one team was ahead 28-3 with 5 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl, the unimaginable happened. For reasons that I won't get into here, and after that colossal screw-up that made Hollywood legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway(watch Bonnie and Clyde, it's good) seem like fools, Moonlight was declared the Best Picture winner. Director Barry Jenkins did his best to deliver a memorable acceptance speech, but he was clearly overshadowed by the wackiness on stage. Jimmy Kimmel also did his best to save the situation, blaming Steve Harvey for the blunder, and also disinviting himself from ever hosting the show again. Although it didn't come in traditional fashion, this was clearly one of those "Unforgettable Oscars Moments" I was talking about in the final note of my Viewer's Guide.

Other "Unforgettable Moments", in the more traditional sense, included ...

- The 100% genuine acceptance speech(á la Matt and Ben 19 years ago) by Best Original Song winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul(not so much Justin Hurwitz, who had also just won for Best Original Score). Justin was up first, recognizing the importance his public school education had on his love of culture and the arts(btw, perfect cut away to Lin-Manuel Miranda in the audience by the producers there, who was actually an 8th grade teacher during the time he was writing his first musical, In the Heights), and Benj followed that with the Best (traditional) Moment of the Night! dedicating his win "to all the kids who sing in the rain, and all the moms who let them", just as the orchestra started to play him off, and, in another great move by the producers, we got a reaction shot of who I assume is Benj's mom giving him a standing ovation, which made the moment feel even more majestic, as if it were scripted for a movie.

*No matter how cynical you may be, you can't fake the emotions felt by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek in this picture

- The whole segment of the tourists unknowingly entering the Oscars ceremony, and their shocked reactions as they saw the A+ Listers in the first row. I honestly think I would die, or at least faint, if I were in that situation. Engaged couple Gary and Vicky from Chicago almost stole the whole show, even getting married by Denzel Washington(as Kimmel said, "That's Denzel, so it's legal"). I loved when Kimmel pointed out to Gary: "It seems you're ignoring all the white celebrities", to which Gary replied: "Yes, I am.". Before he left, Gary also got to pose for a selfie with Mahershala Ali and his brand new Oscar statuette.

*Kimmel's "Ellen selfie" moment, but better

- One more Kimmel moment, or a compilation of moments, which was one of the things I was most looking forward to last night(as I mentioned in the Viewer's Guide), was his full-on roast of Matt Damon, his (#alternativefacts) most hated enemy. I love Matt Damon(he's one of my favorite actors), so I'll never get tired of seeing this. Right from the opening monologue the jokes started("When I first met Matt, I was the fat one"), with Kimmel knocking Matt for his Box Office bomb, The Great Wall, which "went on to lose $80 million dollars".

Then came the #alternativetribute(loved the real ones, which featured Charlize Theron honoring Shirley MacLaine, Seth Rogen honoring Michael J. Fox, with DeLorean and future Nikes included, and Javier Bardem honoring Meryl Streep) to Damon's 2011 film We Bought a Zoo(a guilty pleasure, I'll admit), where Kimmel piled on with one great line after another: "He makes two words feel like three words" , "You can see how hard he's working. It's so effortful for him" , "He has almost no discernible talent". 

That was immediately followed by Kimmel, now conducting down in the orchestra pit, playing off Damon as he tried to present the Best Original Screenplay award alongside Ben Affleck(One more great move by the producers, first, because of the callback to their win in the category 19 years ago, and second, because Damon got to announce and hand off the award to Kenneth Lonergan, the writer/director he handpicked for Manchester by the Sea). And finally, before the Best Picture award was to be presented, Kimmel got in one final burn: "My favorite part of the night is here. A chance to see Matt Damon lose an Academy Award." 

I loved all of this, and, surprisingly, I enjoyed Kimmel as host very much. He kept a jovial tone throughout the night, staying on his toes for those improvised moments that are always present in a live broadcast, including his great "you didn't watch it did you?" follow-up when his Moonlight *happy endings* joke didn't land during the opening monologue. Then there was the final, will-never-be-seen-again #alternativewinner moment, which no host, prior to last night, would ever have imagined being possible. But hey, this is the Oscars, where it appears that anything is possible.

2017 Oscars: A Viewer's Guide

Welcome to Movie Porti's 4th annual Oscars Viewer's Guide!

La La Land will win Best Picture. The end.

Just kidding. I mean, La La Land *will win* Best Picture, but there's still plenty of intrigue to be found from the remaining 23 categories that will be recognized tonight. La La Land actually comes in with the highest intrigue factor of any nominated film tonight, as it will be trying to tie or break the record of 11 Oscars won by a film, shared by Ben-Hur(1959), Titanic(1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003). La La Land already tied the record of 14 total nominations shared by All About Eve(1950) and Titanic, but I believe it will fall one win short of the record holders and end up with a grand total of 10 wins tonight.

The most Oscars La La Land could actually win is 13, as it's competing against itself in the Best Song category. The most Oscars it has a realistic shot of winning is 12, as the Best Actor category is a 2-man race between Casey Affleck(Manchester by the Sea) and Denzel Washington(Fences), so Ryan Gosling has no shot there. The other 2 categories I'm predicting La La Land won't win are Best Original Screenplay and Best Costume Design(I'll get into why in a bit). Other categories where I believe it could lose are Best Cinematography, where the strong support for Moonlight's overall beauty could cause an upset, and in one of the Sound categories, where the strong support for Hacksaw Ridge could cause another upset.

As I have it now, La La Land's path to the record 12 wins would be: the 7 locks, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Score, and Best Original Song, where it's a toss up between "Audition(The Fools Who Dream)" and "City of Stars"(I believe "Audition" deserves the win, but I'll predict "City of Stars" as the one the voters go for). Then there's the 3 non-lock categories I think it *will win* : Best Cinematography, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. And finally, if the full sweep takes effect, I would definitely not be surprised if it also wins Best Original Screenplay and Best Costume Design, giving it the record.

Now, there's always a chance this doesn't go completely as I believe it will. Maybe 10 wins is too high a number for La La Land to reach. I keep going back and forth on if Editing and Production Design should be locks. If it loses one of those, plus 2 of the other non-lock categories(I feel pretty confident predicting 1 win in the sound categories at least), then its win total could go down to 7, which is still a very solid number for a Best Picture winner. For comparison's sake, the last 3 musicals to win Best Picture, 2002's Chicago, 1968's Oliver!, and 1965's The Sound of Music took home 6, 5, and 5 Oscars respectively. 

All the other nominees tonight are surely hoping La La Land winds up more like those films than the 3 Best Picture musicals that immediately preceded them: 1964's My Fair Lady, which won 8 Oscars, 1961's West Side Story, whose 10 Oscar wins stand as the record for a musical, and 1958's Gigi, which sits between those two in 2nd place with 9 wins, and is also the last original musical to win Best Picture. If my predictions are correct tonight, then all 3 of these films will have to set aside some space in the record books for La La Land.

*The Oscar-winning crew of West Side Story, from left to right: Supporting Actor winner George Chakiris, Best Director winners Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise(also won as producer), and Supporting Actress winner Rita Moreno

Speaking of all the other nominees ...

Any other year, Moonlight would have a good chance to win Best Picture, but this year it has to settle for being the best of the also-rans. Of its 8 nominations, I have it as a lock to win 2: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor, which Mahershala Ali clinched after his poignant SAG acceptance speech. In a year with a movie sweeping most of the categories, 2 wins for Moonlight would actually be pretty impressive, demonstrating the wide-ranging appeal this "little" movie had in 2016.

Now, there is a worst-case scenario for Moonlight that, however unlikely, could leave it empty-handed at the end of the night. It's possible that the Box Office success that Hidden Figures enjoyed less than a month ago could propel it to a surprise victory in the Adapted Screenplay category. Out of its 3 nominations, this category is the only one where it could realistically win, and I wouldn't be surprised if it manages to steal that award from the more deserving Moonlight. Remember that Hidden Figures already beat out Moonlight for Best Ensemble Cast at the SAG awards.

Then there's Mahershala Ali's case for Supporting Actor. He's not as strong a lock as other past winners in this category have been, having lost at the Golden Globe awards and more recently to Dev Patel(who's nominated tonight) at the BAFTAs. The Supporting Actor category has given us surprise winners in the past, but I believe Mahershala will hang on for the win, for 2 reasons mostly: one, because he's black, and the Academy wants to cool down all the #Oscarssowhite talk of the past 2 years, and two, because he was everywhere in 2016, and the Academy will sometimes reward an actor for their overall output in a given year, as they did with Alicia Vikander last year. Need proof that Ali was everywhere in 2016? He's one of only two actors to appear in multiple Best Picture nominees this year(Janelle Monáe is the other, also for the same two films, Hidden Figures and Moonlight).

2016 definitely was a strong year for black representation in cinema(let's hope it's not an outlier), with a 3rd Best Picture nominee added to that group, Fences. Fences is also nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category with Moonlight and Hidden Figures, but it has no chance of winning there(nominee August Wilson has been dead for 12 years, so I guess he won't mind). The outlook gets much better for Fences in the acting categories. Viola Davis is a lock to win her 1st Oscar on her 3rd try in the Best Supporting Actress category(it was really a co-lead performance, but whatever), and, as I mentioned before, Denzel Washington is in a neck-and-neck race with Casey Affleck for the Best Actor trophy.

If Denzel wins, this would be his 3rd career acting Oscar, tying him on the male side with Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, and Walter Brennan. Also if he wins, Denzel would become the first black actor to win multiple Best Lead Actor Oscars. One more Denzel fun fact: if he pulls off the win, and Viola and Mahershala(or Dev Patel) secure their wins as well, it would be the first year ever where 3 actors of color won an Oscar. The last instance with 2 such winners was exactly 10 years ago with Forrest Whitaker for Lead Actor and Jennifer Hudson for Supporting Actress, also 2 years before that, it happened with Jamie Foxx for Lead Actor and Morgan Freeman for Supporting Actor, and prior to both of those it happened in 2002, when Denzel won his Best Actor Oscar on the same night that Halle Berry won her Best Actress Oscar.

*Daniel Day-Lewis accepting his 3rd Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Lincoln, the only individual to ever accomplish that feat

Having said all that, I'm sticking with my gut and predicting that Casey Affleck will win the Best Actor Oscar by a hair. My thinking for this is that I believe Denzel's win at the SAG awards is not indicative of any late Oscars push, but was merely a make-up award correcting the fact that the Actor's Guild had never given him an award before, plus, there's the fact that Manchester by the Sea has much stronger support from the Academy than Fences and this category provides them with another chance to recognize one of their favorite movies of the year. Speaking of Manchester, with this win, plus another win I'm predicting for it in the Best Original Screenplay category, I have it tied with Moonlight for 2nd place with 2 Oscars won(out of 6 total nominations). Like Moonlight, Manchester has the possible worst-case scenario of winning nothing if Denzel prevails in Best Actor and it loses Best Original Screenplay in a La La Land super sweep.

Speaking of winning nothing ...

There's always one movie per year that takes the title of Most Overrated Best Picture nominee(previous honorees include American Hustle in 2013, The Imitation Game in 2014, and The Big Short in 2015). This year, that movie is Arrival. From a technical standpoint, it's a well made film(I gave it 3 tech noms in my personal nominations list), but story-wise, it's a very flawed film. It's tied for 2nd place with Moonlight with 8 total nominations, but I don't believe it deserved any of its nominations for Best Picture, Director, Editing, or Adapted Screenplay.

But since it is nominated for Best Picture, let's talk about its chances tonight. The only place where it has any chance of winning is in the non-La La Land-lock categories I previously mentioned: Best Cinematography and both Sound categories, but like I said, I see other movies ahead of Arrival that would win those if La La Land were to stumble. That would mean that, officially, I have Arrival going 0 for 8 tonight. Hey, the fact that a Sci-Fi film got nominated for Best Picture is already a win in my book.

Speaking of Sci-Fi, I'm picking Star Trek Beyond for the win in Best Hair & Makeup, first, because I don't think enough voters will have seen the Swedish film, A Man Called Ove, and second, because everyone, besides the people working in the Hair & Makeup branch of the Academy apparently, hated Suicide Squad. The only other category where a superhero movie has a chance to win an Oscar is Best Visual Effects, but that ain't happening. The general consensus for the entire year has been that the visual effects from The Jungle Book are spectacular, and therefore it's looking like a lock for the win. I don't see a reason to bet against it, so that's my pick here.

Back to the Best Picture nominees ...

The next Best Picture nominee on the list is Hacksaw Ridge, nominated for a total of 6 Oscars tonight. It has no shot of winning in the 3 major categories for which it's nominated(Best Picture, Director, and Actor), so that leaves Best Editing and the two Sound categories. It has a chance to surprise for Editing, but I just don't see La La Land losing there(giving Tom Cross his 2nd straight win for his work with Damien Chazelle after Whiplash). So that leaves the sound categories, where Hacksaw Ridge truly has a strong chance for a win. If it does win, it would probably be for Best Sound Editing, seeing as the Best Sound Mixing award usually goes to a musical when one is nominated there. But like I mentioned before, I'm predicting a win for La La Land in both Sound categories, so I believe that Hacksaw Ridge will also go home empty-handed at the end of the night.

Finally, there's the 2 longest of long shots of the Best Picture nominees. First, also with 6 nominations, is Lion. It's got a shot in the Best Cinematography category after having just won at the American Society of Cinematographers awards, but I'm picking La La Land there. I think its strongest chance for a win is in Supporting Actor, where Dev Patel could ride the momentum from his BAFTAs win all the way to an Oscars upset.

And in last place, with 4 total nominations, is Hell or High Water(the only film from the Best Picture group to premiere before Labor Day). It's nominated for Best Picture, Editing, Original Screenplay, and Supporting Actor, but it only has a very slim chance to win for Best Supporting Actor. There's a small chance this race could actually be wide open, and of course, Jeff Bridges is Hollywood royalty(more on that later), so you never know. It's also technically still alive in the Editing and Original Screenplay categories, but a win for Hell or High Water in any of those would be a huge surprise.

On to the remaining categories ...

When Damien Chazelle walks up to the podium to accept the Best Director Oscar for his remarkable work in La La Land, he will become the youngest person ever to win that award(He just turned 32), breaking a record that has stood for 85 years. He is a first-time nominee in the category, along with Barry Jenkins for Moonlight(only the 4th black filmmaker nominated in the category's history), Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea, and Denis Villeneuve for Arrival. The only repeat nominee in the category is Mel Gibson, who received his 2nd career Best Director nomination 21 years after winning for Braveheart. Coincidentally, Braveheart is the last film to win Best Picture without being nominated for Best Ensemble Cast at the SAG awards, something that La La Land will replicate tonight.

If my predictions are correct, Barry Jenkins and Kenneth Lonergan will both be going home happy tonight, even though they'll lose for Best Director, since they're both heavy favorites to win for writing the screenplays to their respective films: Jenkins(along with Tarell Alvin McCraney) in Best Adapted Screenplay for Moonlight, and Lonergan in Best Original Screenplay for Manchester by the Sea. This is Kenneth Lonergan's 3rd career nomination for one of his screenplays, having lost for Gangs of New York in 2002 and You Can Count on Me in 2000. Damien Chazelle also joins Jenkins and Lonergan as a dual nominee for writing and directing La La Land. All 3 of these auteurs, however, fall short of La La Land's composer Justin Hurwitz, whose 3 nominations are the most of anyone tonight(He shares 2 of those with his songwriting partners, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul).

Hurwitz is pretty much guaranteed to walk away with 2 Oscars tonight, for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, the only person who can say that with any certainty right now. Of course, if the La La Land sweep takes effect, then Chazelle could also be saying the same thing at the end of the night. If La La Land gets the win in Original Screenplay, then it would be falling just one category short of winning all 5 major awards of the night(Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay), something only 3 movies have accomplished in Oscars history: 1934's It Happened One Night, 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and 1991's The Silence of the Lambs.

*The Oscar-winning crew of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, from left to right: Best Actor winner Jack Nicholson(his 1st of 3 career Oscar wins), Best Actress winner Louise Fletcher, and Best Picture winner Michael Douglas, yes, that Michael Douglas

La La Land is actually the first movie in the 4 years that I've written this blog to even get nominated in all 5 of the major categories. You already know it's favored to win 3 of those: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. In an alternate universe where Natalie Portman didn't win an Oscar already for her tremendous performance in Black Swan, I believe that we would be having a down-to-the-wire race between her and Emma Stone for the Best Actress prize. But since this isn't that universe, and Natalie Portman already has her Oscar(and Donald Trump is still president), then this year the award belongs to the universally beloved Stone. Some pundits have said that Isabelle Huppert has a shot at an upset, but I say no way! This one is an absolute lock.

Also for the first time in the 4 years I've written this blog, Emmanuel Lubezki will not win the Oscar for Best Cinematography, but that's only because he didn't work in any movie that was released in 2016. In fact, we are guaranteed a first-time winner, with 4 out of the 5 nominees, Bradford Young for Arrival(the first black person ever nominated in the category), Linus Sandgren for La La Land, Greig Fraser for Lion, and James Laxton for Moonlight, being first-timers. Rodrigo Prieto for Silence is the only repeat nominee, but it's only his 2nd career nomination and he hasn't won before. I'm picking Sandgren for the win here for his magical work in La La Land.

Contrary to the Cinematography contenders, the Best Costume Design category only has one newcomer and 4 repeat nominees. I'm actually predicting the win for that first-timer, Madeline Fontaine, for her work in Jackie. This category is one of the toughest of the night to predict, with Jackie competing directly against La La Land, plus there's the top dog in the category, the Lubezki of Costume Design, you could say, Colleen Atwood, whose nominated for a 12th time for her work in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, having already won on 3 previous occasions. If Jackie doesn't win, I'd put my money on Fantastic Beasts ahead of La La Land. I'd also bet on Fantastic Beasts having the best chance to upset La La Land in the Best Production Design category, if only because its nominated duo of Stuart Craig and Anna Pinnock have a combined 17 Oscar noms between them and 4 previous wins. But I'm sticking with La La Land there as well.

*3 time Oscar-winning Costume Designer Colleen Atwood

Continuing with the theme of first-time nominees, this year every filmmaker in the Best Documentary Feature category is a first-timer. OJ: Made in America already set the record for the longest movie ever nominated for an Oscar, and if it wins it will obviously set the record for the longest movie to ever win an Oscar. This category is stronger this year than in years past, with 2 other contenders that also deal with racial tensions in America: Ava DuVernay's 13th and Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro, but I'm sticking with the general consensus on this one and predicting OJ: Made in America for the win.

There's another interesting first-time nominee this year, and that's the country of Australia in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the film Tanna. For the Aussies, it's gonna be an honor just to be nominated because this category has narrowed down to 2 contenders: the German film, Toni Erdmann, which has gotten rave reviews throughout the year, and the Iranian film, The Salesman, whose director, Asghar Farhadi, decided to boycott the ceremony after Trump's travel ban(that's not a ban) was announced. This could've resulted in a late season push from the voters in favor of Farhadi's film, but there's also the fact to consider that Farhadi already has a win in the category for his 2011 film, A Separation. This makes this category the toughest to predict of the night. I'm going with Toni Erdmann for the win, but I don't feel very confident about this one.

*2011 Best Foreign Language Film winner Asghar Farhadi

The choice doesn't get much easier in the Best Animated Feature category. Zootopia is looking to become Walt Disney Animation Studio's 3rd winner in the past 4 years(Frozen in 2013, Big Hero 6 in 2014) after not having won in the first 12 years of this category's existence. Disney has a 2nd nominee in the category, Moana, which also got a nomination for Lin-Manuel Miranda in the Best Original Song category(He'll have to try again in a non-La La Land year to complete his EGOT). The film with the best chance to upset Zootopia, however, isn't Moana, it's Laika's awe-inspiring Kubo and the Two Strings, their 2nd ever nominee in the category. The visuals in this one are so breathtaking that it became the 1st animated movie since 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas to receive a nomination for Best Visual Effects.

The precursor awards have been evenly split between Kubo and Zootopia, and even though I admired Kubo just a bit more, I honestly loved both these films, and believe that Zootopia's overall appeal and its thematic relevance to social issues we're facing front and center today will help it hang on for the win. The mostly unseen The Red Turtle has been getting some strong support among voters, but I don't think it will be enough to surpass the two contenders ahead of it.

On to 3 Final Fun-Fact Segments ...

"A-List Nominated Producers Segment"
   - Pharrell Williams receives his 1st career Best Picture nomination as one of the 5 producers of Hidden Figures. This is his 2nd career Oscar nomination after his hit song "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 was nominated for Best Original Song in 2013.
   - Matt Damon receives his 1st career Best Picture nomination as one of the 5 producers of Manchester by the Sea. It's his 5th career nomination overall, with 3 for acting, and one for Original Screenplay(which he won). He now needs a Best Director nomination to join George Clooney and Warren Beatty as the only 2 individuals who've completed the career Oscars "cycle" of at least one nomination for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay.
*Orson Welles unofficially belongs to this group too for his debut masterpiece, Citizen Kane, but at that time the Best Picture nominations went to the studios and not to the individuals who actually produced the films*

*George Clooney celebrating his Best Picture win for Argo alongside co-producers Grant Heslov and Matt Damon's best buddy, Ben Affleck

- Denzel Washington receives his 1st career Best Picture nomination as one of the 3 producers of Fences. He's had a couple more nominations in his career for his acting, which I'll get into in the last segment coming up.

   - Scott Rudin, who's definitely a behind-the-scenes A-Lister in Hollywood, receives his 8th career Best Picture nomination as one of the 3 producers of Fences. He's now only one Best Picture nomination behind Steven Spielberg for most All-Time. Rudin has only won once(same as Spielberg), for 2007's No Country for Old Men, so you know he's gonna keep striving for that 2nd win.

*Scott Rudin celebrating his Best Picture win for No Country for Old Men alongside the film's co-producers/writers/directors, Joel & Ethan Coen

Speaking of striving to win an Oscar ...

"Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride Segment"
   - Thomas Newman receives his 14th career nomination for his Original Score in Passengers, and for the 14th time, he'll lose. Once again, he gets to feel proud at least, for extending his family's extraordinary Oscars legacy. This is the Newman family's 90th Oscar nomination. Incredible!
   - Kevin O'Connell receives his 21st career nomination for Sound Mixing in Hacksaw Ridge, and if it weren't for La La Land, I would actually favor him to win his first Oscar tonight. However, war movies, specifically ones that are nominated for Best Picture, usually perform very well in the sound categories. What I'm trying to say is, in the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas, "So you're telling me there's a chance ... Yeah!"

"Multiple Academy Award-Nominated Actors Segment"
   - Michael Shannon receives his 2nd career Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in Nocturnal Animals(the only nomination of the night for this underrated film), 8 years after being nominated for his work in Revolutionary Road.
   - Octavia Spencer receives her 2nd career Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in Hidden Figures, 5 years after winning an Oscar in the category for her work in The Help.
   - Casey Affleck receives his 2nd career nomination, and first in the Lead Actor category, for his work in Manchester by the Sea, 9 years after being nominated in the Supporting Actor category for his work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
   - Emma Stone receives her 2nd career nomination, and first in the Lead Actress category, for her work in La La Land, 2 years after being nominated in the Supporting Actress category for her work in Birdman or(The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
   - Ryan Gosling receives his 2nd career Best Lead Actor nomination for his work in La La Land, 10 years after being nominated for his work in Half Nelson.
   - Viggo Mortensen receives his 2nd career Best Lead Actor nomination for his work in Captain Fantastic, 9 years after being nominated for his work in Eastern Promises.
   - Viola Davis receives her 3rd career nomination, and 2nd in the Best Supporting Actress category, for her work in Fences. She was previously nominated for Supporting Actress 8 years ago for her work in Doubt, and for Lead Actress 5 years ago for her work in The Help.
   - Natalie Portman receives her 3rd career nomination, and 2nd in the Lead Actress category, for her work in Jackie. She was previously nominated for Best Supporting Actress 12 years ago for her work in Closer, and she won an Oscar for Lead Actress 6 years ago for her work in Black Swan.
   - Michelle Williams receives her 4th career nomination, and 2nd in the Best Supporting Actress category, for her work in Manchester by the Sea. Her 1st nomination came in the Supporting Actress category 11 years ago for her work in Brokeback Mountain, and then her next 2 nominations came back-to-back in 2010 and 2011 in the Lead Actress category for her work in Blue Valentine and My Week with Marilyn.
   - Nicole Kidman receives her 4th career nomination, and 1st in the Best Supporting Actress category, for her work in Lion. Her 3 previous nominations, all in the Lead Actress category, occurred back-to-back in 2001 and 2002 for her work in Moulin Rouge! and The Hours(for which she won), and again in 2010 for her work in Rabbit Hole.
   - Jeff Bridges receives his 7th career nomination, and 4th in the Best Supporting Actor category, for his work in Hell or High Water. His previous 2 nominations came back-to-back in the Lead Actor category in 2009 and 2010 for his work in Crazy Heart(for which he won) and True Grit. His 1st career nomination occurred 45 years ago(!) in the Supporting Actor category for his work in The Last Picture Show.
*That is just 3 years shy of the record for longest span between first and last career acting nomination, set by Katharine Hepburn, from Morning Glory in 1933 to On Golden Pond in 1981, winning 2 of her record 4 Oscars for her work in those films*

*Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn making her only career appearance at the Academy Awards in 1974 to present the Irving G. Thalberg award to producer Lawrence Weingarten

   - Denzel Washington receives his 7th career acting nomination(8th total nomination including his producing nom this year), and 5th in the Best Lead Actor category, for his work in Fences. His previous nomination came 4 years ago in the same category for his work in Flight. His 1st career nomination came 29 years ago for his work in Cry Freedom. In between, he's won 2 Oscars, one for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Glory, and one for Best Lead Actor for his work in Training Day. He is the only black actor to ever win multiple Oscars.

And last, but certainly not least ...

   - Meryl Streep receives her 20th career nomination, yes, that's 2 - 0, 20, and 16th in the Best Lead Actress category, for her work in Florence Foster Jenkins. Who wants to bet that she gets to 30? Let's do the math: Her 1st career nomination came 38 years ago in the Best Supporting Actress category for her work in The Deer Hunter, so in that time span, she's averaged 1 Oscar nomination every 1.9 years(with 3 wins mixed in). Let's round that up to 2 full years, which means that if she keeps up that pace she'll reach 30 nominations in the year 2036 when she'll be a young 87 years old. If 87 year old Gloria Stuart could get nominated for her role in Titanic(to date, the oldest acting nominee ever), then so can Meryl. And with Mrs. Streep, you know she'll probably come back the next year and break that record as well.

A final note on the host ...

I have no strong feelings either way about Jimmy Kimmel, who's hosting the Oscars for the first time tonight. To me he's just, meh. One thing I will be looking forward to is for his ongoing shtick with Matt Damon to make it onto the Oscars stage. Maybe Kimmel could mock Damon's youthful exuberance during his Unforgettable Acceptance Speech("Chris Moore! Chris Moore!) with best bud Ben Affleck. But seriously, this 100% genuine moment from 2 young filmmakers who 19 years later are among the biggest movie stars on the planet, is a perfect example of what makes this show so great. Who will provide us with the next unforgettable Oscars moment? I guess we'll all have to tune in tonight to find out.

And the Oscar Goes To ...

10 Best Movies of 2016 (A Double Take)

Another movie year is about to come to a close tomorrow night at the 89th Annual Academy Awards, but before the Academy crowns the Best Picture of the year out of its 9 nominees, for the 4th consecutive year(2013, 2014, 2015) my brother and I present our lists of the 10 Best Movies of the Year. This year we're both also including 10 honorable mentions, quickly ranking them from #11 to #20.

From our Top 10 lists, we agreed on 4 films, and only one of those is a Best Picture nominee, Manchester by the Sea. My brother has one additional Best Picture nominee in his Top 10, Hell or High Water, and I have two more, La La Land and Moonlight. In all, I have 7 movies on my list that received at least one Oscar nomination this year, but my brother only has 5 such films. One of those nominated films that he included, OJ: Made in America, is a documentary, the first time that either one of us has ranked one in the Top 10 since we started making these lists. I included a different documentary that wasn't nominated for an Oscar in my honorable mentions section.

Speaking of the snubs, from that group the one that we feel most deserved to be nominated was Sing Street, which appears in both our Top 5s. Each of us has one more movie in our Top 5s that got completely shut out of the Oscars party, and that ironically enough also got snubbed from the other's list here. His movie that I didn't like as much is Don't Think Twice, and my movie that he didn't find as fascinating as I did is The Handmaiden. But hey, that happens, even amongst brothers. For the 2nd consecutive year my #1 movie of the year didn't even make his Top 10.

We all have different preferences that we take in to the movie watching experience, which also occurs at a different point of all our lives, creating an absolutely unique emotional reaction that no one else could ever understand. But like I said last year, the truly great movies, the ones that stand the test of time, are the ones that are able to transcend those differences and connect with all of us. Which movies did my brother and I think accomplished that this year? Let's find out now, starting with my brother's list of the 10 Best Movies of 2016 ...

Honorable Mentions
20) The Jungle Book
19) The Wave (a Norwegian Dante's Peak)
18) Sausage Party
17) How to be Single
16) Zootopia
15) Lion (That kid tho! Great performance!)
14) La La Land (Filmmaking-wise: a masterpiece ... story-wise: ehhh)
13) The Nice Guys (Funniest movie of the year)
12) 10 Cloverfield Lane (Missing the opportunity to nominate John Goodman for the first time in his career is a shame here)
11) Green Room

10) OJ: Made in America

Documentary? Miniseries? Film? Whatever it is, it's brilliant! OJ: Made in America is the greatest thing the ESPN 30 for 30 series has ever produced. In what was one of the first glimpses of reality TV and the 24/7 news cycle and its impact, the OJ Simpson trial changed how we consume content(can you imagine this trial being covered today!?). What director Ezra Edelman does so beautifully is how he sets up all the players, angles, scope, and magnitude of what is one of the more important moments in American culture history. It's almost 8 hours long, but it HAS to be 8 hours long to get to the bottom of every little detail, and thanks to its brilliant narrative and smooth pace you won't even notice it.

9) Everybody Wants Some!!

Maybe I’m just a sucker for Richard Linklater movies but the guy just gets doing movies about people just “being”. He’s like the Seinfeld of movie directors, his movies don’t have to be about anything for them to be great and make the audience connect. The before trilogy dives into relationships better than most movies ever made just by watching 2 characters talk for almost 6 hours, “Boyhood” just follows a kid and his family through his adolescence, and now with “everybody wants some” you get reminded of all those 1^st week of college feels. (P.S: Shout-out to one of my fav scenes of the year, the boys riding in the car and singing along to rapper’s delight… brilliant scene!)

8) Barry

For the 2^nd year in a row I have a Netflix original movie in my top 10 (Beasts of No Nation last year). These people do more than good tv shows people, start noticing! Unlike the more cheesy, formulaic, typical date movie “Southside With You”, “Barry” really takes you into the depths of the young adult that was Barack Obama in his years living in NY. A great character study, with a bit of a dark side to it, that shows the internal and outer struggles we go through in our developmental and formative years that are needed to create that empathy, self-awareness and well-rounded traits to use in future endeavors (something our current president clearly lacks).

7) The Edge of Seventeen

“I think some deranged part of me likes thinking I’m the only person with real problems, as if that makes me special.” I have to admit I was a little biased towards this movie since I got of glimpse of the trailer oozing with its coming-of-age/John Hughes style goodness. Edge of Seventeen takes a while to get going but it gets its point across in between its -I’m a rich, smart/witty, suburban, teenage girl, who has a family and friends that love her, but I’m going through some shit so my life is ending- melodrama, and by the time it does its very good… which is just the point and by the end Nadine understands just that. The 2^nd half of the movie is much better than the first where we really see future star Hailee Steinfeld show her range. The movie is simply about showing us a 17 year old who goes through things that just about everybody goes through when they’re 17 (which is why Woody Harrelson’s character is so great here… he sees this and just lets this girl vent without judging or trying to give her the big speech no 17 year is ever interested in hearing). 

6) Hell or High Water

Ben Foster never disappoints, last year he was brilliant as Lance Armstrong in the underrated “The Program” and now he’s great again here in a performance that should have been nominated for best supporting actor. Hell or High Water is non-stop action from start to finish that’s very easy to watch and a lot of fun with a cast of actors at the top of their game. A throwback to old school heist movies, this one just won’t disappoint.

5) Don't Think Twice

Why was this movie not talked about more this year!? “Don’t think twice” is the hidden gem of year, and yeah you can be a “hidden gem” when you have a 99% rating on rotten tomatoes. In a bit of an autobiographical spin, the director Mike Birbiglia plays one of the 6 members of a comedy improv group of friends who deal with success and jealousy in different ways. It’s a realistic tale about goals and dreams and how sometimes we may not achieve them all but we have to find happiness and complacency in our own realities. It has heart, laughs, and underrated performances (Gillian Jacobs is amazing AS ALWAYS and Keegan-Michael Key gives the best performance of his career in a role that was tailor made for him)

4) Nocturnal Animals

A story within a story that needs great editing and filmmaking in order to work or else it could unravel quickly and you’ll be lost, “Nocturnal Animals” does none of that and finds the right balance in its differing narratives. There’s the outside of the novel Amy Adams is reading, and the inside of the novel where Jake Gyllenhaal’s character sees his family harassed and eventually murdered by a group of madmen (led by the brilliant, should’ve been nominated, Aaron Taylor-Johnson). What’s makes Nocturnal Animals great is its underlying chilling tone and back and forth jumping from outside the novel to inside and the subsequent ride which we are taken with these wonderfully acted and layered characters.

3) Captain Fantastic

This was definitely the most interesting movie of the year for me, right from the start when we’re introduced to this family living in the wilderness you’re hooked for the duration of the film. The culture-clashes encountered on the family road trip to their mother’s funeral are where the movie really stands out and finds its groove (the scene where Ben’s 6 year old daughter schools her teenage cousins on the Bill of Rights is both laugh out loud funny and genius!). You’re so fascinated and intrigued with how this man is deciding to raise his family but at the same time you’re frustrated with how much he is doing wrong and how stubborn he is (there has to be a balance!).

2) Manchester by the Sea

The most powerful and emotionally charged film of the year, “Manchester by the Sea” is brilliantly executed with its editing style that cuts back and forth in time to tell the story of a broken man who has to come back to life after the death of his brother to take care of his nephew. What the movie is really about is the NEVER ENDING process of grief and forgiving yourself for acts of your past, something that is summed up in a beautiful scene where Lee (Affleck) says to his nephew the words “I can't beat it. I can't beat it. I'm sorry” and you proceed to fight off tears for about the 28^th time in the movie but it still finds room for small bits of humor and heart in its melancholic universe that round it out perfectly. 

1) Sing Street

“Your problem is that you're not happy being sad. But that's what love is, Cosmo. Happy sad.” You think of John Carney’s previous films (Once, Begin Again) and the first thing that comes to mind is the music, but in Sing Street he takes his game to a whole new level and that’s not to discount the music which is still second to none and deserved at least 2 songs nominated (“Up” and “Drive it like you stole it”). His -quotable at every turn- screenplay here is fantastic, a story about pitting you’re hope and dreams vs reality, sprinkled in with poignant subtle humor, a sweet young love story, and one of the more genuine brotherly love stories ever captured on film (seriously, Jack Raynor steals every scene he’s in and deserved a best supporting actor nom). A coming of age masterpiece, Sing Street is a mid-80s period piece dream as it perfectly captures the music, style and characters of that time in a story we can all identify with from our teenage days.  

And now, my 10 Best Movies of 2016 ...

Honorable Mentions

20) Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi does it again)

19) 10 Cloverfield Lane

18) Bad Moms

17) Gleason (bring tissues)

16) The Nice Guys (genius comedic acting from Ryan Gosling)

15) Swiss Army Man (most ballsy movie I've seen in quite some time)

14) Zootopia 

13) Toni Erdmann

12) Morris From America (that final father & son scene in the car is an instant classic)

11) Hell or High Water (I'll echo my brother: What does Ben Foster have to do to get an Oscar nom?)

10) Moonlight

My brother mentioned Boyhood above in his description of Everybody Wants Some!!, but if one movie from 2016 reminded me of Richard Linklater's universally acclaimed coming of age tale, it's Moonlight. This one features a similar concept, the story of a young boy's life  as he goes through adolescence and enters adulthood, but with 3 key differences: first, as you can see from the poster, the main character here is black, second, he's gay, and third, he's played by three different actors as he grows older in the movie, differing from Boyhood's 12 year gimmick using the same cast. There is another major difference between these movies, and that is the style in which they're presented. Where as Linklater uses his patented "just being" approach to tell his coming-of-age story, Moonlight's director Barry Jenkins elevates his coming-of-age story with impeccable technical filmmaking, featuring some of the most beautiful cinematography of the year.

Unfortunately, as with Boyhood, I had some problems with the flow of the story as it shifted from one segment to the next, particularly the inferior 3rd act of the film, which caused me to rank it a bit lower than most people. However, from the second this movie ended I knew I had experienced something truly special, flaws and all.

9) I, Daniel Blake

A simple, but powerful, film that anyone who's ever had to deal with government bureaucracy can relate to. It features two great performances by Dave Johns as title character "Daniel Blake", who's stuck in welfare limbo, and Hayley Squires as "Katie", a young, single mother of two who is struggling to put food on the table for her kids and herself. Director Ken Loach uses a bare-bones approach that sucks us completely into the lives of these people, almost blurring the line between fiction and documentary. There are at least three scenes in this film that I would say are among the most heart-wrenching I've seen from this decade, let alone 2016.

8) Jackie

The most divisive film of 2016. My brother, for example, says he hated it. But I loved it! From the first sound of Mica Levi's mesmerizing score, I was hooked. Everything else after that worked for me. The two standouts are Natalie Portman, who carries this film with her excellent portrayal of America's most glamorous first lady, and director Pablo Larraín, whose vision can be sensed in every detail of this film, from the back-and-forth editing, to the great screenplay that takes us behind the scenes of those hectic post-assassination days in the White House, to the perfect recreation of the era through the sets and costume design, and finally, to the great performances he got from what was one of the best, and most overlooked, ensemble casts of the year. I was 100% on board for the ride the whole time.

7) Captain Fantastic

I'm gonna agree with my brother here. "Interesting" really is the perfect word to describe this film. The "Cash" family, father "Ben"(Viggo Mortensen) and all 6 of his children, were one of my favorite movie characters of the year. The screenplay from writer/director Matt Ross is one of the most inventive of the year. It's a shame that it didn't get nominated for an Oscar. Actually, apart from Mortensen's Best Actor nomination, the movie didn't receive any other nomination. Don't make the mistake the Academy made of overlooking this one-of-a-kind film. It's been out on DVD & Blu-Ray for a while, so check it out.

6) Nocturnal Animals

Another polarizing film that makes my Top 10, only this time my brother agrees with me. He has it ranked 2 spots higher than me, but just the same you'll find many people who saw this movie who'll say they didn't like it at all. The majority of the Academy seems to be on the side that's against the film, giving it only one Oscar nomination for Michael Shannon's terrific performance(is there any other kind from him?). Some nominations that I think this film deserved include: Tom Ford for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for pulling off the best David Lynch film that David Lynch didn't direct, Joan Sobel for Best Editing for maintaining the perfect pacing that this movie needed for it to work, Abel Korzeniowski for Best Original Score, which I would've chosen as my favorite of the year if not for La La Land, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Laura Linney for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

5) Sing Street

John Carney does it again! With his musical movies, Carney has direct access to the happy place inside my brain, and Sing Street may be his best film yet. His movies(Once, Begin Again) are pure magic, and this one is no different. It's a beautiful coming-of-age story, that's also a love story, and a great meditation on brotherly love, set in 1980's Dublin, with catchy original songs mixed with popular rock hits of the era. The fact that none of this movie's original songs received an Oscar nomination is a flat-out travesty. My brother already mentioned "Up" and "Drive it Like it You Stole it", so I'll raise him "Brown Shoes", particularly relevant with the bullies the entire country is faced with today, "Beautiful Sea", "To Find You", and "Go Now", which provides the perfect inspirational message for the film's ending.

4) Kubo and the Two Strings

An instant animation classic in my book! Kubo and the Two Strings features some of the most beautiful cinematography of any 2016 film I saw. It's animation as if it were filmed by 3-time Oscar winner Emmanuel Lubezki. It's full of awe-inspiring shots one after the other from the opening scene to the last. It actually became just the 2nd animated film ever, the other being 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas, to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. I would've also nominated it for Cinematography and Production Design. Add to that a great story about the influence of past generations on our children, and vice versa, and a quest for the main character that includes funny talking animal sidekicks plus some awesome fight scenes that pay tribute to classic asian cinema, and you get a film that had me tearing up at the end from the sheer brilliance that I had just experienced.

3) Manchester by the Sea

Kenneth Lonergan is officially the master of presenting grief on screen. I just saw his previous film before this one, Margaret, for the first time this week, and I had already seen his first film, You Can Count on Me, and I have to say, I feel terrible for this man without knowing him because something horrible must have happened for him to be able to write about pain, and sadness, and suffering, and regret, so perfectly. I had a lump in my throat the entire time I was watching this one. From the trailers I knew something bad was gonna happen in this film, and as soon as I saw those kids in the flashback in Casey Affleck's and Michelle Williams' home, I knew where this was going. I have two kids, man. This movie was way too emotionally draining for me to the point where I don't think I'd ever watch it again. But that one time was enough.

2) The Handmaiden

This one had it all for me. The interesting story that you think is going one way until it isn't, with interesting characters whose intentions are never clear. Three excellent lead performances that bring all those characters' eccentricities to life. And most importantly, a production value that was arguably the best from any movie I saw in 2016. Chan-wook Park's direction here is flawless. The cinematography is beautiful, the editing, also jumping back-and-forth in time and from one character's perspective to another's, is perfect. The sets, the costumes, the score, the sound, all extraordinary. I was completely pulled into this movie's world. Any other year, I would have no problem placing this movie at #1 in my rankings. But in 2016, there was one movie that I liked just a little bit more.

1) La La Land

If you know me, you know I love musicals. So it comes as no surprise that I would love Damien Chazelle's love letter to classic musicals. But what really made me love this movie though, isn't the old, but the new. You know what's gonna be the best part of a musical 100 times out of 100? The music! And the music in La La Land couldn't be better. From the show(and traffic)stopping opener, "Another Day of Sun", to the terrific party scene of "Someone in the Crowd", to the delightful dancing duet "A Lovely Night", also the lovely piano duet "City of Stars", and finally, in what is arguably Emma Stone's best career on screen moment to date, the beautiful and heartfelt "Audition(The Fools Who Dream)". In between those five All New original songs, there is Justin Hurwitz's soon to be Oscar winning Original Score, which is simply magical as it takes us up into the stars with "Mia"(Emma Stone) and "Sebastian"(Ryan Gosling) as they're falling in love, and later takes us on a It's a Wonderful Life-style journey of what their life together could've been like if they had done everything right in their relationship instead of letting their career aspirations divide them. Does it have its flaws? Of course it does. All movies do. But no other movie from 2016 transported me into its world like La La Land did. I applaud Damien Chazelle for even thinking that making this movie was possible. I had my doubts about him after Whiplash, but not anymore. I'll be anxious to see how he raises the bar after this.