Back in the old days, Oscar contenders were born, not made. Now, of course, it’s the opposite. Oscar contenders are targeted early as the “right” choice to deliver in neat packages to Oscar voters. Oscar pundits operate kind of as stylists for Oscar voters: we do the leg work, we vet the movies, and we decide which ones should pass or fail the first round. But we’re not always right. In fact, much of the time we’re totally wrong, especially early on.
Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis is most definitely an organic Oscar movie. It wasn’t hyped by pundits — if anything, it was downplayed coming out of Cannes. Even now, it seems to be underestimated. If you look at the critics/audience disconnect, you see:
It’s a “don’t threaten us with a good time” kind of scenario. God forbid Oscar movies should be movies people actually like. To figure out whether Elvis will be a player, you just have to imagine the following:
Golden Globe nominations? Yes. Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor at the very least
Producers Guild nomination? Yes. Um — yah.
Design Guild nominations? Yes. Costumes, Makeup &a Hair, Production Design
Screen Actors Guild nominations? Yes. Austin Butler/Tom Hanks
Directors Guild nomination? MAYBE
Elvis is already a hit. Along with Top Gun: Maverick, we have two good reasons to believe Hollywood is back. A nearly three-hour biopic making that kind of money today is unheard of. It doesn’t have to struggle. People are going to see it multiple times, bringing their relatives, etc. If ever there was a contender for Best Picture of the Year in a year with ten nomination slots — well, I’d say Elvis is a sure bet.
But of course, we can’t put it past the Academy members to faceplant when it comes to choosing films that will cause audiences to, you know, want to engage with them when the Oscars roll around. They really should just keep picking films the film critics like, because that seems to be working out really well. /s
We still have to run the gauntlet, the agonizing long march through the hundreds upon hundreds of critics’ awards. By the end, all that remains are the films that managed to survive because they have great publicists, but no one really thinks much about them when it’s all over but the shouting. We all just kind of stare at each other blank-eyed. The party’s over. The guests have gone home. Balloons bob lifelessly on the dance floor. Someone is cleaning up some kind of mysterious ooze in the corner. But no one called the cops, so there’s that.
We also are on “shitstorm alert,” as in, what will the Children Spies of Twitter uncover this season? Which artist’s past behavior, tweets, opinions, set behavior, relationships, and thematic content will be hurled into the public square for the judgment of the hive mind? This is really the best part of Oscar season, honestly, because how else to decide what films are the best of the year without running them through the puritanical morality filter of Twitter?
David O. Russell became the subject of a few editorials and tweets trying to decide whether or not a groping incident from his past means he is now persona non grata, wished out to the cornfield and strung up for He Who Walks Behind the Rows. No charges were filed, but does that matter? No. The only thing that matters is how it’s interpreted on Twitter, what image people put in their heads, and what they conclude about what happened that day. They always choose the worst option. The nuclear option.
It isn’t just that, of course, now all of his past behavior will be dragged into the light, Scott Rudin-style, to try to purge a baddie from our utopia. The work they do doesn’t matter as much as WHO THEY ARE. What’s the alternative? To ignore all of it and just go on making, producing, and releasing art.
And before you ask, even if I did once believe it’s the public’s job to “hold people accountable” — I no longer feel that way. I think it’s none of our business. Trauma, accusations, and our pasts have all become weaponized for the destruction of the community overall. The way it should work is that people who are upset by it should walk away. But it is unreasonable to keep going through these public persecutions to keep the village pure and righteous. How long has this been going on now? YEARS.
As we cover the Oscars, we then have to calculate the damage of a shit storm. How big of a deal will this be? How much of a headache will this present to public relations strategists to mitigate damage? What is the end goal here? To make sure everyone who puts out a movie or stars in a movie has never been accused of anything bad? Is Armie Hammer ever going to come back?
How can we actually be living through this episode of the Twilight Zone and almost everyone willingly going along with it? Does it ever end? Is this our new normal?
I propose watching David O. Russell’s movie and assessing it on its own merits. That is what I plan to do. But if you’re asking whether the industry will shrink back in the face of a ten-year-old scandal? I don’t know. No one can know. The question going forward will have to be: how to survive the rising hysteria. We all have to train our brains not to care.
Best Picture
I think that many Oscar pundits don’t think much of Elvis at the moment, probably because there are so many more movies coming out. But to me, I run my Oscar contender tracker with movies that have been seen, rather than predicting the unseen. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Erik Anderson has laid out his late June Best Picture predictions and has Elvis at 15. I expect that it will rise as the movie continues to make money. This is what he has:
1. The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple Original Films)
3. Babylon (Paramount Pictures)
4. Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Netflix)
5. Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)
6. Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios)
7. Women Talking (MGM/UAR)
8. The Son (Sony Pictures Classics)
9. The Whale (A24)
10. Empire of Light (Searchlight Pictures) – 2022 or 2023?
11. TÁR (Focus Features)
12. Thirteen Lives (Amazon Studios/MGM/UAR)
13. Broker (NEON)
14. The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight Pictures)
15. Elvis (Warner Bros)
16. She Said (Universal Pictures)
17. White Noise (Netflix)
18. Napoleon (Apple Original Films) – 2022 or 2023?
19. Triangle of Sadness (NEON)
20. Shirley (Netflix)
Film Twitter is very bullish on Everything, Everywhere All At Once. Jeff Wells has commented on Erik’s list too with his own spitballs. I have tried watching this movie and have failed three times, so far. I am still hoping to get back in there and finish it. Regardless of what Film Twitter thinks, it’s not the easiest movie and will be divisive. It’s certainly fascinating and innovative, and has made a lot of money at the box office, which means it will be the internet’s chosen frontrunner. But I have some reservations. I will finish watching it — I promise.
After seeing the trailer for Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, I have to conclude it is now officially on my radar. It looks fun, weird, unique.
When it comes to female directors, you hope that they get in because the movie is good, not necessarily because they’re filling the “female director slot.” But Wilde’s film looks great so far.
Another film by a female director is Watcher. It’s a moody horror movie directed by the very talented Chloe Okuno. Will it get anywhere near the awards race? Maybe? It might get into the Spirit Awards. Watcher is already on my preliminary list for Best of the Year. I know, alert the media.
There are quite a few films directed by women this year in the race, including Women Talking (Sarah Polley), She Said (Maria Schrader), Happening (Audrey Diwan), I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Kasi Lemmons), Red, White and Water (Lisa Neugerbauer). Right now, I have my eye on Wilde and Okuno. But that’s likely to change.
Here are my predictions, which are to be taken with a HUGE grain of salt and are just for fun. Let’s do a full slate. Maybe we’ll revisit this later to see how right or wrong it was.
Best Picture (In order of confidence for a nomination, not win)
Elvis
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Fablemans
Babylon
Everything, Everywhere All At Once
White Noise
Bardo
Don’t Worry Darling
Avatar
Poor Things
Alts: Empire of Light, Top Gun: Maverick, Napoleon
For the rest of these, I’ll do ten because five is too hard.
Best Director
Steven Spielberg, The Fablemans
Damien Chazelle, Babylon
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Alejandro G. Inarritu, Bardo
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Baz Luhrmann, Elvis
Jim Cameron, Avatar
Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling
The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once
Noah Baumbach, White Noise
Here are the contenders from May at AwardsWatch
Best Actor
Austin Butler, Elvis
Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon
Brad Pitt, Babylon
Adam Driver, White Noise
Hugh Jackman, The Son
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Colin Firth, Emperor of Light
Tom Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Here are the contenders from May at AwardsWatch
Best Actress
Margot Robbie, Babylon
Viola Davis, The Woman King
Regina King, Shirley
Carey Mulligan, She Said
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once
Emma Stone, Poor Things
Ana DeArmas, Blonde
Naomie Ackie, I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Florence Pugh, Don’t Worry Darling
Olivia Colman, Emperor of Light
Who knows how any of this will end up. It’s still way too early to tell how the race might go. At least we know we have a solid contender with Elvis.
TAR
The Todd Field comeback directing Cate Blanchett in a leading role. The buzz for TAR is growing. I find it weird and also fun that Awards Daily does not include Cate Blanchett among the hopefuls. Blanchett is coming for that 8th nomination. Dam! Dam! Dam! Daaaam!
I’m failing to see where Elvis is supposedly this white hot controversial film in the land of “film twitter” constantly mentioned here. If anything, what’s impacting the RT scores (and who really puts stock in a film aggregator where the critics’ scores have such a vague formula and the audience scores can be easily manipulated, but I digress) is the across the board confusion at Tom Hanks’ performance which is getting an otherwise well liked film nicked in its final score.
Yeah, the impression I get is that its a Baz Luhrmann film, through & through for better or worse. 78% critics is solid. 94% users sounds about right. Everyone I know who saw it ‘liked’ the film or ‘really liked’ it and ‘loved’ Butler. The worst I hear about the film is that its a bit ‘too much’ and that some people think Hanks doesn’t give the best performance. So yeah, decent ink/feelings all-around from my vantage point.
I do look forward to the day when films can be discussed as films around here instead of as a means to talk about unrelated things.
If Elvis makes to the finish line with Oscar, cool. That means it will have been seen as the best film, as opposed to “owning the libs”.
Tom Hanks’ performance has been divisive, but the No. 1 takeaway from ”Elvis” reviews, even the more mixed and critical ones, is that Austin Butler gives an Oscar-worthy tour de force. Hugh Jackman, who’s expected to be an Oscar contender for ”The Son,” recently raved about ”Elvis” and says Butler is ”amazing” and ”crushes” it as Presley. And Kodi Smit-McPhee, who played Jimmie Rodgers Snow in ”Elvis,” echoes that and predicts Butler will win the Academy Award.
Failing to nominate TOP GUN for best pic would be such a wasted opportunity.
I refuse to pay money to see it… maybe when Netflix or some streaming service includes it… I HATED the first one – as shameless advertisement, the only value was how gay it is – and therefore no reason for me to see the sequel, regardless of buzz, b.o. and reviews.
The second film is better than the first if that means anything
the first one is a ZERO to me, so I don’t need to see whatever they do next.
Same I did with The Fast and the Furious… hated it, I thought it was even a dangerous film for braindead teenagers, so I refused to see anything else that came next, despite some glowing reviews for later installments.
The Academy already failed to nominate the original ”Top Gun” for Best Pic at the 1987 Oscars. However, it was up for Sound, Editing, Sound Effects and Song (which it won).
Why?
Top Gun Maverick can make the lineup cause it’s second Paramount hopeful aka Plan B. A studio having 2 Picture nominees is reasonable and happens often. It’s Netflix with its 5-6 hopefuls that tends to pick the ones that don’t go all the way while the rest gets lost in the shuffle.
Which is why I hope Sasha will take the cue from Erik Anderson and always show which studio made which movie. That way we can avoid a situation where 5 movies from one studio are in Top 10.
The billion-dollar blockbuster bonanza of ”Top Gun: Maverick” has sparked some Academy Award buzz for Tom Cruise, but Variety reports at least one Oscar nominee isn’t impressed: Mickey Rourke. Asked about the ”Top Gun” sequel’s success, Rourke says: “That doesn’t mean shit to me. … [Tom Cruise has] been doing the same part for 35 effing years. I got no respect for that. I don’t care about money or power. I care about…when I when I watch Al Pacino or Christopher Walken working, or De Niro’s early work and Richard Harris and Ray Winstone, that’s the kind of actor I want to be like. A lot of guys that tried to stretch as actors.”
According to Rourke, Cruise has not stretched his acting muscles for the last three decades. When asked if Tom Cruise is a good actor, Rourke fired backed, “I think he’s irrelevant.”
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/mickey-rourke-slams-tom-cruise-irrelevant-1235314481/
it is true… when was the last time Cruise dared to do something really different? Tropic Thunder.
I wish I could agree on Elvis, I’m so close but if only they cast someone other than Tom Hanks in that role I would be so much more on board. I love Tom Hanks but he was very miscast and very distracting. I also thought it went on a little long considering how by the numbers the story was (the presentation of the story was absolutely unique and very Luhrmann but the story itself was quite formulaic) so it got a bit repetitive, especially towards the end of the second act.
Still I did like it and I’m fully behind the Austin Butler train, I’m just not quite as convinced that the film itself is best of the year level.
As far as recent musical biopics go Rocketman>Elvis>>>Bohemian Rhapsody but the tragically underseen Love and Mercy is better than all 3
A moment of appreciation for the passing of the composer of the GREATEST MOVIE THEME EVER!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/908ae7e5e47405d80edca597a78b775ac6d8cc5068e8cb57e8258ce8a8268635.jpg
Greatest? Well actually maybe yes. It’s one of the most iconic, for sure, and damn good. R.I.P.
I’m here to agree with Sasha about Watcher. Holy shit I thought it was fantastic. Slow burn suspense/paranoia but the last act is disturbingly intense. Highly recommend.
Maika is great, I really liked the film, the plot doesn’t make a lick of sense, but it’s fine.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14fb2ecc545e03599d8cec3679af37d01dea155022b382e2a1cf3dfbe1d627ca.jpg
She’s fantastic. I can’t help thinking she looks a lot like Gwen Stefani. I thought it was just ‘ok’ for the first half…it was interesting and a slow build but it was all building up to that last act which I just thought was intense as hell. I also watched it by myself at night which never helps. 🙂
Why doesn’t it make sense? I’ve seen it three times and it’s lockstep plotting and very tightly coiled.
Maika’s character makes unbelievable choices. No reason for her to take the subway, when she could’ve just as easily taken a cab, and then just happens to run into someone with a bag that..well you know. Don’t buy she’d go into the strip club alone, wandering the streets alone etc with a serial killer out and about. When she has a chance to confront Weber by the elevator, she doesn’t, after banging on his door. After the killer is caught, someone makes a choice in continuing the work. Way too many “no way” behaviorisms, but I still really liked it. But it’s watertight compared to her other film, It Follows, which defies all human logic.
it sounds exactly as the fantastic and utterly underrated “Last Night in Soho”
Mmm not to me I guess. I couldn’t even finish Soho.
well, you lost an AMAZING ending, where everything makes sense.
Oof. I LOVED the movie until the ending. It didn’t retroactively ruin the movie but I thought it was silly and rushed.
it had been actually planted its seeds all throughout the film, and the wonder of the ending is that, once you think about it, it makes total sense… that you have assumed, the story was one way but that you SHOULD have thought right away, what really happened, as it twists completely the morals of the story and makes a poignant point on the themes discussed in the film.
I mean, I watched the movie and understood it. I’m not suggesting it wasn’t telegraphed or that it didn’t make sense. My issue was that it was sloppy (from a writing, directing, and VFX standpoint) and that after watching such a unique and wonderful film we got a (in my opinion) a trite, obvious ending. Whether or not it’s woven effectively into the film doesn’t matter to me because it didn’t work. It was like someone threw the E-break on while driving down the highway. My companion agreed. I’ve seen it’s a common complaint as well so I don’t think it’s just me. Up until the last 15-20 minutes I thought I was watching the film of the year.
literally, religious fanatism doesn’t even trash the mission, but the film’s tone as well, with a wild change of tone and genre. Yes, that’s on purpouse, and yes, it worked. The fact it pissed so many, is just further proof that it worked to perfection. The theme of fanatism literally hijacks the film, which was the whole point.
Not all the films go in the direction that mainstream audiences want it to go. Some are daring and risk being misunderstood, and “Sunshine” is one of them (or Aronofski’s “Mother”, or “A Serbian Film”, or “Titane”, and many more), and I am glad that there are still writers, directors and studios, that support risk, regardless of the final result.
Boyle’s 3 masterpieces to me are “Trainspotting”, “Sunshine” and “T2: Trainspotting” (SOOOO UNDERATED!!! Ewen Bremner should have won Supporting Actor in 96 and Lead Actor for T2, if you ask me…)
Happening is great. France really should’ve submitted it last year over Titane.
100% this. I hated the discourse around “we love that they submitted Titane over Happening because they went with the better film even though it is less Oscar bait” because while I love Titane, Happening was one of the best movies of the year last year and it felt like it was just brushed past and disrespected
Titane was always going to flame out. That crap deserved Oscar nomination like the movie it ripped off – Breaking Dawn Pt 1. Means no.
There was quite a controversy about it, since Cannes Festival’s director, Thierry Frémaux was in the voting comitee.
The first time that I saw EEAAO was in the theater with friends. I admit that one hour in I felt respect for it but thinking ‘this isn’t really for me’. If I had been alone I might have given up and left. But I stuck it out and in the end crying like a baby and absolutely in awe of this thing. I’ve seen it twice more and cannot imagine it not being my favorite of the year. Stick with it.
From Anthony D’Alesandro’s box office report at Deadline.com:
”Give it up for Warner Bros.’ ‘Elvis,’ which will be the second, non-franchise adult-demo, mass-appealing title to cross $100M soon, after Paramount’s adventure romantic comedy ‘The Lost City’ at $105.3M. The Baz Luhrmann-directed musical biopic’s third Friday came in at $3.3M, -38% from a week ago, on its way to an estimated $11M third weekend, -40% for a $91.1M.
”This is an important milestone for the domestic box office. Producers have become used to the idea of making their money by selling adult titles to streamers (of course, even pre-pandemic, but now it’s just typical). In addition, a streamer sweetens its offer to a filmmaker by making a movie on a bigger budget than a motion picture studio.
” ‘Elvis’ proves that not everybody wants to watch non-superhero movies at home. …”
By the same token, let’s hear it for Marcel, who has made nearly $1 million in just 48 theaters.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5c61203e9c02eaa6ebfe62e47a0df48a8f16bfa6599f4fa047be1c1e911644e0.jpg
Watching “RRR” (in Netflix, I missed its Spanish limited release). 60 minutes into it, and… I can totally see it nominated for Picture, Score, Song, Production Design, Costume, VFX and International Film. I don’t think it is a masterpiece by any means, but it has “it”. Extremely likeable and with scenes that really remain with you. SAG Ensemble, no way… the british actors blow it, most of them. SAG Stunt Ensemble is a way different story, though
(and on a personal note, NT Rama Rao Jr… stills the film all together, so far… balancing naiveness and badassery on equal parts and in a way that looks effortless)
Finished, the rating is C+ / *** 1/2
Too over the top for its own good at some points. Acting – British – is quite mediocre or directly bad at certain points (I wonder if on purpouse, to match the hammy delivery from hindu actors?), and the film is manipulative and clearly racist (with just ONE exception, every british is a saddistic psychopath or sociopath)… and the higher in power they are, the most vicious psychos they become…
I understand the pleas for Oscar recognition (Picture, International Film), but honestly, I don’t think it deserves it (however I would recommend it with caution, as a curiosity with plenty of moments to remember and praise)
I’m team Baz and Austin. The only other Baz movie I saw was Moulin Rouge and that didn’t resonate with me. Yes, it was lovely to look at and the costumes were magnificent. But I couldn’t get over Nicole Kidman singing (or was she?) and Nicole Kidman is such an ice queen actor to me. She doesn’t resonate warmth….it’s just something about her that turns me away. So I walked away from MR not impressed.
Then I went to the Broadway show and was blown away and had such a good time. I thought — MR should have been a Broadway show, not a movie.
And now with Elvis, Baz has won me over. Definitely a different way to film an autobio. It wasn’t cookie cutter like so many others.
I have yet to see Top Gun. I’m not a big Tom Cruise fan, at least the Action / Adventure Tom Cruise because after sitting through 2 Mission Impossibles, he doesn’t do it for me. I wish he would go back to light comedy. Do a change up. But I guess the closer you get to 60 yrs old there are fewer and fewer comedies and dramas, so actors like Tom turn to action/adventure or the Marvel universe.
BTW, the Anti-Elvis campaign has started. Somebody put out a false rumor that Austin was meeting up with Ezra miller in Japan.
Wasn’t the rumor that Austin Butler gave Ezra Miller a public beatdown?
If you’re calling Nicole Kidman an “ice queen” you may want to do a little homework. Her deeply emotional and touching performances in BOY ERASED and LION are only two of several. They are the definition of warm.
I saw Elvis, and I thought it was good! However, that may be because I am not a fan of Elvis and therefore had a lot to learn about him and his story. Some of my friends thought the pacing was terrible. Austin Butler will be nominated, the film will probably squeak in Best Picture at #9 or #10, but Tom Hanks is miscast, playing in a different movie than everyone else, and stands out like a sore thumb.
Jim’s post highlights everything I abhor about biopics. He says he had a lot to learn about Elvis and his story! In a movie designed to entertain!
This is such a misguided notion and why biopics fare better to voters than they should. It was so frustrating after Bohemian Rhapsody correcting all the errors to all my friends that simply adored the movie to no avail “Either way I loved the movie” they would say, easier to ignore the truth than to challenge what they love.
Biopics allow people to believe false narratives in order to feel good. Maybe that’s why they are so popular nowadays.
Let me say, I didn’t go into it knowing that I had a lot to learn, it just ended up that way.
I also hated Bohemian Rhapsody. How that got nominated for Best Picture, I will never know.
BR came *this* close to win BP. Actor+Editing+2xSound…
And yet, the race that year was between Green Book and Roma.
Roma had way less chances to win Picture that it is being credited for… b&w in spanish with an amateur star and was going to win Director and Foreign Film anyways… while BR was the triumphant biopic of an icon that was sweeping b.o. and winning key precursors, and aiming to be the film with most wins… Roma came 3rd in the votes for Picture, probably.
I doubt it. BR was battling bad press for the fallout with Bryan Singer whereas Roma came from a highly respected auteur.
Roma came in with 10 noms, including 3 wins; BR only had 5 noms, including 4 wins (two of which were mixing and editing—a single award today). It did not have director or writing noms either, a sure sign of weakness. By contrast, Roma won director, and cinematography, and got in both female actresses when most had only pegged one—all signs of strength for the film.
Metacritic:
BR: 49
Roma: 96
I think it’s been proven again and again that what matters, Oscar wise, is how much the audience loves a film, and BR was SEEN and loved. Roma, in exchange, had the uphill of being author, b&w and subtitled.
No, the audience does not matter. What matters is Academy voters, did they like it, did they see it, did they vote for it? Roma likely got a lot of votes the same way 12 Years a Slave did: it made those voting for it feel good in doing so. Green Book was the same way.
Do you really think the average Academy voter gives a flying F about a gay rock star, when they couldn’t even be bothered to nominate Carol for Best Picture—arguably one of the most egregious oversights in Academy history? I think not.
I was referring to the Oscar voters, for “audience”.
Fair enough
Roma lost because of Netflix
Triangle of Sadness 19th? Should be 1st!
We all remember how Film Twitter’s last darling did. It tied Oscar history with the most losses ever.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1fb5302cde260d9f3100d81a421d0a8d71dcb7a4179d0170580b7162c50eee2b.gif
It’s nice to see The Son gathering attention, but y’all are 20 years late. That masterpiece didn’t get nomination why would this one? Certainly it can’t be better.
what movie are you talking about from 20 years ago?
The Son by the Dardennes brothers. If you’ve not seen it, you must simply vault it into your #1 slot on your To See list.
It’s time for the Academy voters to recognize Baz Luhrmann for the vibrant, visionary director he is: ”Strictly Ballroom,” ”Romeo + Juliet,” ”Moulin Rouge!,” ”The Great Gatsby” and now ”Elvis.” Nobody else’s movies look like his. With ”Moulin Rouge!,” Luhrmann was nominated for Best Director by the DGA and BAFTA, and tied with Ron Howard (”A Beautiful Mind”) at the Broadcast Film Critics. Plus, it won Best Picture from the PGA. And yet … it’s crazy to me that AMPAS gave it 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but no Best Director nod. ”Moulin Rouge!” is such an auteur’s creation, and Luhrmann sees cinema in epic terms. In ”Elvis,” you don’t get a standard-issue biopic of Presley; he gives you a kaleidoscopic portrait of America, from the ’50s to the ’70s, as seen through music, race and sex. And he found the perfect actor: Austin Butler goes beyond imitation; he really embodies Elvis. Like Presley, Luhrmann is such a showman.
Each year, there’s a contender – an obvious contender – that the tracker simply ignores till the last minute forces the site to include it, when precursors start rolling (Maria Bakalova being the most obvious case). The honor in 2022’s race goes to…
Sometimes I wonder, if it is a deliberate move, to bury a contender whose narrative really stands out from the rest… specially since the performance is raved and also considered by pundits, as a strong contender even for the win.
(and yes, the more the site would ignore the obvious, as every year, the more I will remind the site, that they are the only ones ignoring it)
Off topic: loved Thor: Love & Thunder. Waititi does it again… make a whole tragedy, completely fun to watch and laugh out loud at places (the way Zeus goes down the stairs goes right away as probably my fave comedic moment of 2022 so far, specially since the trailer already spoiled the reaction to Thor’s full nudity). Hats off to Waititi to directly point out and not avoid, the LGTB+ aspects of the greek gods (yes, Hercules is going to be bi, and it is canon that it has been one of Wolverine’s partners), the Valkyrie and even Korg (loved the stone moustache). The queerest MCU movie yet…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ccfe39a6e138d5744714d63c737ecb8f868c85160779edf2694acaac3599067.jpg
“Each year, there’s a contender – an obvious contender – that the tracker simply ignores…”
I wonder what it could’ve been last year.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9bf5eaa3599940a3d40a21b9b4c531ef7b347ace8acce6f02135a4104342ac7.gif
whoever that is, she needs to keep her eyes on the road if she wants to drive my car
This isn’t England.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ead1055d01274e2bb35ead4b1ec06c83370098b0b41dafb06c9e335d40229592.gif
Sascha : :Interesting list . Maybe it’s just me being an admirer of James Gray films especially The Immigrant but i can’t help thinking and hoping that His movie Armageddon Time which when it played at Cannes received almost unanimous praise won’t be in the conversation in major Oscar categories like Picture , Director and Screenplay and Acting !
Poor Things is 2023.
I’m sick and tired of the perennial starf*cking in Best Original Song. We of the Oscars season blogosphere need to start manifesting a superior slate.
What Deserves to Get Nominated for Best Original Song 2022:
(61 new releases seen as of comment)
—
“Dosti” (RRR: Rise, Roar, Revolt)
“Good Tonight” (The Bad Guys)
“Hold My Hand” (Top Gun: Maverick)
“Lucky Ducks” (The Bob’s Burgers Movie)
“Naatu Naatu” (RRR: Rise, Roar, Revolt)
Excuse me, Taylor has song locked up. If not, there’s going to be trouble.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17e5db160abe325a15850e177361aced93cf7df3868b697ddbb46e0f0585c821.jpg
Idgaf about Taylor Swift’s theme song until I’ve seen Where the Crawdads Sing and how her song is used in the film, not to mention whether the film has any commercial legs whatsoever. The first two should be handled within the week.
If Swift is locked, then she can replace “Good Tonight”, then “Naatu Naatu”.
In the meantime, I’m fighting hard for “Dosti” and “Lucky Ducks”.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but outside of Gaga and possibly the song from Bad Guys, the rest ain’t happening. Diane Warren won’t let it.
Screw preordained “bad news”, along with Warren continuing to be category filler without a win. (What, is AMPAS going to Harold Russell her?)
(Also, as my previous reply indicates, I regard “Good Tonight” from The Bad Guys as the most expendable of my 5, even though it’s a decent song with effective incorporation.)
You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
not if jake has anything to do with it
Jake?
her ex-boyfriend from Hollywood. Hint: Taylor left a scarf in his sister’s house for some unidentifiable reason.
Oh, that Jake.
This is Taylor’s to lose, I agree.
I think Amsterdam looks very interesting, I’ve long been awaiting Don’t Worry, Darling though the trailer doesn’t look as interesting as I had hoped, I hope Austin Butler is a prime Oscar candidate, I want to see anything that Damian Chazelle makes and and I hope Armie Hammer comes back soon.
Discount the Shell at your own peril, but this is going to be one of the ten films nominated.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1c00e53824f995f2746283a7492ec21a1be24b76de854e68e5f6fe007400579.gif
Is it considered animated as well?
That’s going to be up to the Academy. I was thinking maybe it would qualify in documentary too, so it can hit the trifecta like Flee did last year.
Probably depends on how the live action production design is treated. A few animated characters in a live action world, with clearly-visible real-world humans moving around, wouldn’t qualify as animated per AMPAS rules.
Wait, so you’re saying Marcel isn’t real??? Hold the damn phone a minute here… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c449a5758c9f2123a5021b31f368325de62a004624d76e22b61c3ed20219c3d5.gif
Loved this movie! I know there’s no way in hell but I would love to see Jenny Slate and Isabella Rossellini’s work get some traction!