Ad Astra (2019)

Nominated for Best Sound Mixing    This one was kind of out of left field for me.  I vaguely remember when it came out but I heard nothing about it since last Spring.  I am sad to say that it is definitely not a hidden gem.

Roy (Brad Pitt) is chosen for a secret mission to investigate mysterious pulses of energy emanating from the outer edges of the solar system that are wreaking havoc on Earth.  His top secret briefing reveals that the pulses are thought to be an SOS from the Lima Project, a manned expedition to Neptune led by Roy's father (Tommy Lee Jones) that was believed to be lost.  It is hoped that Roy's personal connection to his estranged father will be enough to either rescue or distract the Lima crew from trying to blow up the Earth.

Daddy Issues...In Space!

This movie is so boring.  Brad Pitt is boring in it.  Tommy Lee Jones is boring.  They even made Ruth Negga boring.  The big "reveal" is boring.  It is predictability coated in angst pretending to be profound.  Not to be ageist, but Pitt is a little long in the tooth to pull off this kind of role anymore.  Plus, there's only 17 years difference between him and Jones, which means Jones' character had to have been extremely precocious to be an established astronaut with a doctorate and a wife before Pitt came along.  Maybe if a younger actor had been cast, it might have made more sense for the character to navel-gaze so long.

The sound effects are quite good, however.  Not as good as First Man, which got fucking robbed in the sound categories, but still good.  The cinematography and visual effects are also excellent, especially the space scenes, which makes sense because the director of photography, Hoyte Van Hoytema, also did Interstellar.  He is definitely a cinematographer to look for in the future.  If you decide to skip this, you won't be missing much.  It's the kind of movie you put on in the background while you nap on the couch on a Sunday afternoon.

The Irishman (2019)

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor x2, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects    This is Netflix's big hurrah for the Oscars.  They have spent God knows how much money on promotion, on top of the production, to secure their legacy as a real film studio.  It's a little bit ridiculous, like it's not enough to make good films in a trailblazing platform, they have to have validation from this old system as well.  It all comes down to money and ego.  But fuck it.  It's their money.  And if there's one thing the nominations this year have in common, nobody's dad hugged them enough.

Frank Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) recounts his days as a hitman for the Bufalino crime family, starting out as a truck driver and moving up to the personal bodyguard and confidant of Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), under the mentorship and guidance of Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci).

Scorsese has become almost a shortcut for gangster films, for better or for worse.  His films have been endlessly referenced, copied, parodied, and studied.  A lot has been said about how people miss the point.  They see the violence as something to be celebrated, not reviled.  Maybe it's just his age, but Scorsese has grown more openly disdainful of the violence he depicts, but still tongue in cheek.  The first glimpse of characters shows the text of how they died superimposed over their faces, from violence and with little dignity.  Sheeran himself is not a particularly bright man and Scorsese takes pains to illustrate exactly how all of Sheeran's bravado and loyalty to the crime organization cost him literally everything.   People will probably still miss the point but that doesn't mean it's not there.

The visual effects are still about five years away from being seamless.  Still shots are okay, but movement makes them look a little like wax figures or cartoons.  The lighting always seems to be very hard to get right.  It's a big step up, even from ten years ago (remember Tron: Legacy shooting Jeff Bridges right into the uncanny valley?), but it's not quite there yet.  Overall production design is very good, however.

There's no good way to say this.  I think Al Pacino was miscast.  I think the film would have been better off swapping Pacino and Keitel.  I just can't look at Al Pacino and think he's supposed to be Pennsylvania Dutch from Michigan.  Hearing him use derogatory terms about Italians was absolutely surreal.  Keitel would have made a better Hoffa.

That being said, I really really really want Joe Pesci to win.  I said it at the Golden Globes nominations because I thought it would be funny to see him win over these huge A-list titans, but after seeing The Irishman, he deserves the Oscar.  He was excellent.

1917 (2019)

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hair, Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing    For some strange reason, I thought this had gotten snubbed in the Cinematography category which was fucking ridiculous as that's the whole conceit of the movie.  If you hadn't heard, this film is shot to appear as if it were one continuous take, like Birdman from a few years back.  It's an astonishing achievement and really looks seamless.

Lance Corporal Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) is summoned for a secret mission by General Erinmore (Colin Firth).  A division of troops under Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) is scheduled to attack what they believe is the retreating German front line, but new intelligence confirms that the retreat is a fake and Mackenzie is about to send 1600 men to their deaths, including LCpl Blake's brother.  Blake and his friend Schofield (George MacKay) must travel as fast as possible over no man's land between the trenches to deliver the General's new orders to Col. Mackenzie before it's too late.

I don't necessarily know that the world was clamoring for yet another war movie starring white dudes but it is quite a good movie.  Would it have been nice to see any fucking story about women or people of color trying to also make it through that time period?  Of course.  But that's not what we were given.  It's made more palatable by the gorgeous cinematography, the stellar cast, and the fact that it's at least not another goddamn WWII film.

So far, this is the frontrunner for Best Picture.  It's currently still in theaters.

Honeyland (2019)

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Film    It's interesting to see this get two nominations.  Usually, documentaries are pretty much just kept in their place.

Hatidze is a bee-keeper in North Macedonia.  She lives with her invalid mother in the remains of a bombed out village.  Her hives are meticulously cared for in the old traditions and she makes enough from selling the honey to provide for herself and her mother.  Then a migrant family moves in next door and Hatidze's peaceful existence is shattered.  The family is loud, their livestock are unruly, and the parents have little to no inclination to actually raise their children short of how they can provide money.  At first, Hatidze is happy to help them set up their own hives, painstakingly demonstrating how to care for the bees and warning about over-harvesting the honey.  But the dad, Hussein, is really only concerned with making as much money as he can, and the hives soon collapse.  Hatidze must venture out into the countryside to look for a new wild bee colony in replacement.

This documentary is very slow with no helpful context about bee-keeping, the socioeconomic factors, or the history of North Macedonia.  Still, Hatizde is a warm, likeable subject and if all the documentary did was follow her around while she worked with her bees, I would have liked it just fine.  The neighbors are a different fucking story all together.  I'm not going to bag on people who are poor and clearly had no access to education.  That doesn't help anyone.  I am, however, going to die angry about people who can only see a better way forward for themselves at someone else's expense.

I don't know that this documentary is as accessible as some others in recent years but at least nobody's getting shot or blown up or turned into a terrorist, so there's that.  It's currently streaming on Hulu.

Breakthrough (2019)

Nominated for Best Original Song   I typically don't see or review Christian faith-based films, not because I am anti-Christian but because they tend to be melodramatic character dramas and I don't care for that genre.  I think there are absolutely excellent films that deal with religion, belief, and faith that are careful explorations of philosophical leanings and community.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of other films that seem to only exist as propaganda for ideologies that divide, alienate, and ostracize people.  Breakthrough falls somewhere closer to that end but is so milquetoast, it'll be forgotten completely by the end of February.

Joyce (Chrissy Metz) is concerned about her son John (Marcel Ruiz) shutting her out as he grows into being a teenager, in that he has basically stopped talking to his parents and only lives for basketball and his crush.  All of her attempts to pull him closer only succeed in pushing him away.  Then John accidentally falls through thin ice and spends 45 minutes without a heartbeat, despite the best efforts of first responders and medical personnel.  Joyce is told that her son is dead, asks permission, and prays over his body.  John's pulse returns.  From there, he becomes a catalyst for Joyce and his community at large to band together and pool their faith towards his recovery.

The caliber of acting is all that raises this above a Hallmark movie.  The cast is predominantly white, male, and upper class, despite having a female lead; there is a lot of interpersonal conflict that is supposed to stand in for internal conflict; the main character has no growth through the course of the film; pop music dominates the soundtrack; and the overwhelming message is that people with faith continue to have faith in the face of adversity.  Fine. It's very much not my type of movie but there's clearly an audience for it.

The Oscar-nominated song is played over the ending credits.  It's written by Diane Warren, a songwriting legend, and sung by actress Chrissy Metz.  It's a very basic pop song

Rocketman (2019)

Nominated for Best Original Song    This is really one of those head-scratchers.  One fucking nomination?  Nothing for Taron Egerton?  Nothing for Bryce Dallas Howard?  Nothing for costumes?  After the Academy fell over itself last year to give Bohemian Rhapsody as many awards as it could, Best Original Song was the best it could do this year?  Was the musical awards budget tapped out?

Elton John (Taron Egerton) started life as Reggie Dwight (Matthew Illesley), a chubby kid in 1950s Britain stuck between an emotionally distant father (Steven Mackintosh) and an emotional terrorist mother (Bryce Dallas Howard).  Fortunately, he was also a piano prodigy and translated that into a career as one of the top performers in the entire world, thanks in large part to his partnership with Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell).  Fame, fortune, and no restrictions did Elton absolutely no good, especially with manager John Reid (Richard Madden) enabling and profiting at every turn.

This is a fairly by-the-book biopic, elevated by Egerton's complete commitment to the role and the fun, fantastical music numbers.  Bonus!  Not directed by a pedophile!  Probably what sunk its chances.  Jokes aside, it does feel like it's trying to ride Bohemian Rhapsody's coattails.  That's unfortunate because it's a good film that will probably never come out of the shadow of its predecessor.  Ah well.  Perhaps history will be kinder to it than its contemporaries.

Marriage Story (2019)

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Score    Straightaway, let me say that this is a very good movie but I did not like it.  Most of you who have read this blog more than once will probably know, I don't like character dramas.  I will almost never choose to see a character drama unless it is during my yearly Oscar sojourn.  There are even fewer that I enjoy.

Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) have been married for around nine years.  In the beginning, Nicole was an actress fresh off of starring in a teen comedy.  Charlie was a New York theater director.  She became his star and both of their fortunes rose because of it.  Then Nicole is offered a pilot for a TV show in Los Angeles.  She seizes the opportunity to find herself as an individual again and that's where the movie starts.  Nicole and Charlie begin their divorce amicably but soon after moving to LA, Nicole hires a fierce divorce lawyer (Laura Dern), forcing Charlie to also get his own (Alan Alda).  Things get bad as Charlie is forced to repeatedly move his comfort zone further and further afield to stay close to the couple's eight-year-old son (Azhy Robertson).

Did I mention that I hate character dramas?  Movies about divorce are hard (not as hard as actual divorces, but still) because one person tends to come off better than the other.  Personally, I found Nicole more sympathetic because her character is trying to find her own path not on the coattails of her husband but others may see her as a narcissist only looking out for herself at the expense of her family.  Same for Charlie.  Your perception of these people will mostly depend on your personal experiences.  Maybe you'll like it more than I did.  There are some really funny bits, and also some frustratingly sad bits.  Noah Baumbach tries to deliver a well-rounded film about three-dimensional characters struggling to find the right way forward in their lives and mostly succeeds.  Like I said, it's a good film.  I just really hated it.

It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Elmer Gantry (1960)

  This has been sitting on my shelf since before Christmas.  I just haven't had the time or the energy to sit through a 2.5 hour movie, but I really needed to send it back so I could get some of the new Oscar nominees.  This might have been a vastly different review if I hadn't just seen Hail, Satan?.

Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) is a silver-tongued vacuum salesman during Prohibition.  He can quote the Bible all day long to make a sale, charm the birds from the trees, and more than one lady from her skirts.  When he meets Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), a revivalist, he knows he's fallen in love at last.  But his past is there to haunt him no matter how he runs from it.

There is an honest-to-God disclaimer at the beginning of this movie warning good Christian folk to not be horrified by the depictions therein.  It is very preachy, for sure, with the skeptical atheist newspaper reporter (Arthur Kennedy) filling in for the villain when one is needed.  In a different age, this might have been a cautionary tale about snake oil salesmen masquerading as preachers but Elmer Gantry is almost painfully earnest.

It is very well acted.  Lancaster has never been my go-to leading man but he is extremely charming and affable here.  Simmons isn't given quite as much to do other than switch randomly between wildly affectionate and cold-shouldered.  Through modern eyes, Sister Sharon definitely gets short shrift, especially in the ending conflagration.  She's essentially punished for refusing to give up a position intended only for men (preaching).  The real standout of the film is Shirley Jones, the fallen woman and one-time victim of Gantry's charms.  She takes what could have been a stereotype and makes a real role out of it.

I didn't hate it but it definitely wasn't my favorite film.  It is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

Nominated for Best Animated Feature    Starting off pretty strong with the new Oscar nominees.

Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is now the leader of Berk and the community is thriving with its dragons.  But increased prosperity is an invitation to enemies and Hiccup worries that his people are in danger from dragon hunter Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), who has vowed to kill the last Night Fury as he has all the others.  Hiccup believes that the key to everyone's safety is to find the "hidden world" of dragons that his father (Gerard Butler) was searching for but must find balance between his quest and his people.

There have been a lot of movies recently about moving on and letting beloved franchises go.  This one doesn't have anything new or revelatory to add to that dialogue but it does wrap up the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless in an organic, warm way that feels genuine.  The animation is beautiful, especially the play of light and the subtle uses of color on the Light Fury's scales.  A white dragon could have been very boring and flat-looking but there's real attention paid to making her look just as lifelike as Toothless.  I do not know if it will win, considering that Toy Story 4 is basically telling the exact same story but with more philosophy, but it is still absolutely worth watching.  It is currently streaming on Hulu.

Holy Motors (2012)

  This movie is bonkers.  I'll just get that out of the way now.  It is deeply, unapologetically weird.  If you can embrace that, however, you will find a beautifully introspective look at identity and the way our roles shape how we see ourselves.

Oscar (Denis Lavant) is growing dissatisfied with his job, which involves a series of shifting identities from homeless old lady to dad to weird sewer dweller.  Only his limo driver, Céline (Edith Scob), is there for him all the time, ferrying him from appointment to appointment, trying to make sure he eats and takes care of himself in between.  Only the happenstance running into an old flame (Kylie Minogue), also on a job, alleviates some of the existential burden and then only temporarily.

People have seen clips of Lavant in the green velvet suit getting a cigarette lit by Eva Mendes but that doesn't begin to scratch the surface of what happens in this film.  Lavant plays a heroic eleven different characters here and should have been recognized more for that.  His performances are astonishingly physical and really power the entire film.

I was going to write a whole paragraph about how this film made me meditate on the nature of self and how performative our lives are and how easy it is to lose a sense of identity when constantly reacting to other people's expectations for us, but I have a hair appointment in an hour and then have to clean and prep for my wine party tonight so you'll just have to fill in your own thoughts on the subject.

It's currently streaming (with ads) on Tubi.

Life During Wartime (2009)

  This is a follow-up/sequel to Happiness, one of if not the darkest comedy I have ever seen.  Every part is played by a different actor so I spent most of the film on Wikipedia trying to remember who was supposed to be whom.  Probably should have watched it sooner after the first one.  Now, after having seen it, I can safely tell you not to bother and just pretend Happiness exists on its own.

After the fallout from Bill's (Ciaran Hinds) imprisonment for child molestation, his wife Trish (Allison Janney) has told their younger children that he is dead.  This becomes an issue when Timmy (Dylan Riley Snyder) learns the truth just before his bar mitzvah.  Meanwhile, Joy (Shirley Henderson) is running from her marriage to Allen (Michael K. Williams) after learning that he has never stopped making obscene phone calls, and still having troubling visions of her ex, Andy (Paul Reubens), who killed himself.  She tries to visit her sister Helen (Ally Sheedy) in Los Angeles, but is put off by Helen's constant insistence that she is forgiven for whatever perceived slight she has done to Helen.

Happiness worked because it was a deeply fucked up film about deeply fucked up people.  Life During Wartime attempts to look into the aftermath of being so fucked up but that's the problem.  No one cares about the aftermath.  Drama is entertaining.  Forgiveness and repentance are boring.  Plus, there's no way this film could possibly live up to its predecessor and the sudden actor shifts were very jarring.  A swing and a miss.  It's currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

92nd Academy Awards Nominations (2020)

It's time for the only thing that makes January bearable!  (Also happy birthday month to my brother, whatever.)  Oscar nominations are here!  And they are... so very white and male.  /sigh

Best Picture

Ford v. Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
1917
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Parasite

No real shocks here.  Pretty much the same line up as the Golden Globes.

Best Director

Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Todd Phillips, Joker
Sam Mendes, 1917
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Bong Joon-Ho, Parasite

Not a single female director.  Again.

Best Actor

Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes

First-time nomination for Antonio Banderas, so that's nice.

Best Actress

Cynthia Erivo, Harriet
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Saorise Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
Renee Zellweger, Judy

Apparently the Academy really hated The Farewell.

Best Supporting Actor

Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Again, the exact same line-up as the Golden Globes.  Yikes.

Best Supporting Actress

Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell
Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh, Little Women
Margot Robbie, Bombshell

Scarlett's doubled her chances of walking away with a trophy.  People were saying J.Lo got robbed for her slot, though, so maybe ScarJo should hire extra security.

Best Original Screenplay

Knives Out - Rian Johnson
Marriage Story - Noah Baumbach
1917 - Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino
Parasite - Bong Joon-Ho and Han Jin-Wan

I can't believe this is the only nomination Knives Out got.  Like, they could have had 10 nominees for Best Picture and just ... didn't.

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Irishman - Steve Zaillian
Jojo Rabbit - Taika Watiti
Joker - Todd Phillips and Scott Silver
Little Women - Greta Gerwig
The Two Popes - Anthony McCarten

Best Animated Feature

How to Train Your Dragon:  The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
Klaus
Missing Link
Toy Story 4

Holy shit.  I thought Frozen 2 was a lock for this category but no.  Netflix dropped two in there.

Best International Feature

Corpus Christi
Honeyland
Les Miserables
Pain and Glory
Parasite

Parasite and Honeyland are both double dipping here.  It might have been nice to see a little more diversity but I haven't seen any of these so what do I know?

Best Documentary Feature

American Factory
The Cave
The Edge of Democracy
For Sama
Honeyland

Best Documentary Short

In the Absence
Learning to Skateboard in a War Zone (If You're a Girl)
Life Overtakes Me
St. Louis Superman
Walk Run Cha-Cha

Best Live Action Short

Brotherhood
Nefta Football Club
The Neighbor's Window
Saria
A Sister

It's going to be really hard to keep from mixing up A Sister with Sister in the animated short category.

Best Animated Short

Daughter
Hair Love
Kitbull
Memorable
Sister

I've actually seen Hair Love and Kitbull.  I'll try and find links to them in lieu of actual reviews.

Best Original Score

Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
1917
Star Wars:  The Rise of Skywalker

Best Original Song

"I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away" - Toy Story 4
"I'm Gonna Love Me Again" - Rocketman
"I'm Standing With You" - Breakthrough
"Into the Unknown" - Frozen 2
"Stand Up" - Harriet

Yeesh.  Frozen 2 got one nom that puts it in the same category as some super-Christian film about a kid falling though a frozen river.

Best Sound Editing

Ford v. Ferrari
Joker
1917
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Star Wars:  The Rise of Skywalker

Best Sound Mixing

Ad Astra
Ford v. Ferrari
Joker
1917
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Best Production Design

The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
1917
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Parasite

Best Cinematography

The Irishman
Joker
The Lighthouse
1917
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Apparently, The Lighthouse is completely bonkers.  I fucking hated The Witch (same director), though, so I'm not holding my breath.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Bombshell
Joker
Judy
Maleficent:  Mistress of Evil
1917

Best Costume Design

The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Really surprised 1917 didn't get nominated over Joker here.  The Academy loves period films and it's pretty rare for them to choose modern wardrobes.

Best Film Editing

Ford v. Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Parasite

I am fucking shocked, however, that 1917 isn't in this category.  The whole point/schtick of the film is that it's supposed to look like it was shot in one continuous take.  Wild.

Best Visual Effects

Avengers:  Endgame
The Irishman
The Lion King
1917
Star Wars:  The Rise of Skywalker

Ah, yes.  And finally, the category for films that actually made money.  Disney is 3/5 here so they're obviously the favorites but I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix pulls off an upset.  Depends on how the night goes.

Tickled (2016)

  I'm having some problems with Blogger at the moment.  For some reason, it reverted my last two posts back to draft.  I published them again so hopefully they're up now.  It's just weird.

Speaking of weird, some friends and I saw the trailer for this documentary on the DVD for Hail, Satan? and thought "well, we have to watch that next."  David Farrier is a New Zealand journalist who specializes in pop culture.  Basically, he spends all day on the internet hunting down cute stories for his news site.  When he comes across a video for "competitive endurance tickling," he knows he's found his next story.  But a simple request for more information turns into a harassment campaign from the video's owner, Jane O'Brien Media.  Everyone should know by now that harassing a journalist or a comedian just leads to more trouble than it's worth.  David and his cameraman, Dylan Reeve, follow the trail of tickling videos from New Zealand to New York City in an effort to determine who is behind the videos, what is their purpose, and who is behind this toxic harassment of anyone who dares question or quit.

Honestly, we were not prepared for how creepy this film got.  I'm not going to spoil it.  It's really something better to be experienced for yourself.  What starts off as kind of a joke turns into a sobering look at how money covers up a lot of sins and just how easy it is to ruin people's lives over the internet.

It's streaming on Hulu and it's absolutely worth your time.

Hail, Satan? (2019)

I've known Satanists since I was a teenager.  They have always been extremely mild-mannered and frankly better than a lot of people who identify as Christian.  As a pagan, I've always felt Satanists to be a kindred group, like they share the skinny part of a Venn diagram between pagans and atheists.  This documentary looks at the modern Temple of Satan, resurrected (ha!) by a handful of people from the Anton LaVey form as a counterbalance to the oppressive pervasiveness of mainstream Christian culture.

Spokesman Lucien Greaves provides political opposition to religion-based legislature in the most hilarious ways, from suggesting a 9-ft statue of Baphomet across from the ten commandments in Oklahoma to providing science-based after-school programs with an adorable Mr. Satan mascot.  It seems like deliberate provocation, and it is.  Greaves and followers urge critical thinking and continual vigilance of the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state.

I've always had a soft spot for outcasts and rabble rousers so this documentary was very much my catnip.  If the mention of the word Satan sends a cold chill up your spine and makes you clutch your Bible, maybe this isn't for you.  But I still think you should give it a shot, maybe interrogate those knee-jerk reactions, and really think about the kind of propaganda being pushed by our lawmakers.

76th Golden Globe Awards (2020)

Awards season is fully upon us now.  The Golden Globe awards were last night, the Oscar nominations come out next week, and then there's only a month until that ceremony.  This was also my first year trying to watch a live event without cable.  There were several options for watching but since I already have Hulu, I bumped up my service to their Live + no ads package.

Maybe I'm just stupid, but I could not get that damn thing to fast forward through the commercials, even when I paused during the broadcast to build up some of the recorded time (like with a DVR).  It was very irritating and I will be looking into a different way to watch the Oscars.

At any rate, Ricky Gervais hosted for a record fifth time.  He was... not great.  I know he's gotten a reputation for being very caustic to the Hollywood elite which would be fine if he were also funny about it, but this year seemed very phoned in.  I also did not appreciate the request to attendees not to mention their politics or stands.  I get that it's an entertainment awards show and people tend to ramble on but telling people they can't use their platform to talk about what's important to them sounds dangerously close to a "just shut up and color inside the lines" kind of censorship.  That is the last thing the world needs right now.

Best Actor in a TV show, musical or comedy was Ramy Youssef for Ramy.
Best Actor in a limited series, or made-for-TV movie was Russell Crowe for The Loudest Voice.
Best Supporting Actor in a TV show, limited series, or made-for-TV movie was Stellan Skarsgaard for Chernobyl.
Best Actor in a TV Show, Drama was Brian Cox for Succession.

Best TV Show, Drama was Succession.
Best TV Show, Musical or Comedy was Fleabag.
Best Actress in a TV show, musical or comedy was Phoebe Waller-Bridge for Fleabag.
Best Actress in a limited series, or made-for-TV movie was Michelle Williams for Fosse/Verdon.
Best Supporting Actress in a TV show, limited series, or made-for-TV movie was Patricia Arquette for The Act.
Best Actress in a TV Show, Drama was Olivia Colman for The Crown.

Best Foreign Language film was Parasite.
Best Screenplay was Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Best Animated Feature was Missing Link.
Best Original Song was "I'm Gonna Love Me Again" from Rocketman.
Best Original Score was Hildur Gudnadottir for Joker.

Best Actor in a Film, Drama was Joaquin Phoenix for Joker.
Best  Actor in a Film,Musical or Comedy was Taron Egerton for Rocketman.
Best Supporting Actor in a Film was Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Best Actress in a Film, Drama was Renee Zellweger for Judy.

Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

  I got this for Christmas from my boyfriend so we decided to watch it Saturday.  I had heard very good things about this Christmas zombie musical and I am happy to report that it did not disappoint.

Anna (Elsa Hunt) is ready to begin a life of adventure after leaving high school but her dad (Mark Benton) is having some trouble letting go.  On Christmas Eve, however, all of that ceases to matter when a viral outbreak sets loose a plague of zombies.  Anna and her friends must fight their way to the school to rescue their loved ones, trapped since the night before attending the annual student variety showcase.  Crushes are addressed, old flames confronted, new baggage meets old, you know, high school.

The music is very good and all three of the female leads are excellent but the movie lives and dies by Steph (Sarah Swires), the take-no-shit school journalist who does all of the heavy lifting (on and off camera, as the sole listed choreographer).  You'll see what I mean when you get to the "Santa Boys", a number that instantly catapulted Anna and the Apocalypse up to Mean Girls-level for inappropriate school dances.  There are definitely nods to Shaun of the Dead but I think the reference to La La Land does it a disservice.  I actually enjoyed this movie.  It's unconventional and your mileage may vary, but I think it's a great addition to the Christmas musical canon.

Knives Out (2019)

  I love murder mysteries.  I could probably just end that sentence after "murder" but I also love mysteries surrounding murder.  This is a very good one.

After the death of mystery writer Harlan Thromby (Christopher Plummer), private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is hired to discover who murdered the patriarch on his 85th birthday.  Every member of the Thromby family has a motive to want the old man dead, but Blanc leans most heavily on Marta (Ana de Armas), the nurse/confidante) to navigate the stormy waters of familial relationships as they all point the finger of guilt at each other.

This is a great locked room movie in the style of Agatha Christie or the Thin Man series.  It is funny, fast-paced, and always shifting audience expectations.  Even if you figure out whodunit, the how and why is still really fun.  It's one of those films that begs to be rewatched to catch all the jokes and one-liners.  All around excellence from a stellar cast.