Oscar night recap - a great night for inclusivity and 90 years of Oscars

It is the day of the Oscars. Just published my last review. I think this is the best year I have had, out of 59 nominated films, I have seen 52. I am pretty pleased. Before things get crazy and the chaos of the night takes over, I would seriously like to give a shout out to my two main movie pals who have sat with me through short films, long films, REALLY long films, great movies and some not so great movies. I also want to thank my three amigos who gave me one of the best birthday presents ever, MoviePass. Thus far, I have seen nine movies thanks to them. And now, two and half hours until Jimmy Kimmel and the Oscars.

And we're off. The opening mixes old style Hollywood newsreel style with current day references. First reference to the Moonlighting/La La Land mix-up at the end. Kimmel is addressing the sexism, sexual harrassment and inappropriate behavior in Hollywood by men, specifically Harvey Weinstein, and the #Metoo movement. It's a year of firsts and barrier breaking nominations (Jordan Peele, Rachel Morrison, Greta Gerwig, among others). They are supposedly offering a jet ski for the shortest speech this year. We'll see if that happens.

Best Supporting Actor is first. They are showing a montage of previous Best Supporting Actor winners. Pretty cool. My guess is this will be how they do most or all of the awards, maybe just the bigger categories. Viola Davis (winner last year for Best Supporting Actress in Fences) is presenting. She looks stunning in this bright pink dress. Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project; Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Richard Giles in The Shape of Water; Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World (which I haven't seen yet). Sam Rockwell wins. I kind of thought it would be him or Harrelson. Mary J Blige will be coming up to sing. I think these commercials are better than the Super Bowl commercials.

Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) and Armee Hammer (Call Me By Your Name) are presenting Best Hair and Makeup. The nominees are Darkest Hour, Victoria and Abdul and Wonder. I hope that wins. It's a great family film. Darkest Hour won. Fair enough, they did a great job on Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. Eva Marie Saint (winner Best Supporting Actress for On the Waterfront with Marlon Brando and Karl Malden) received a standing ovation as she came on stage to present Best Costume Design. Beauty and the Beast, Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, The Shape of Water, Victoria and Abdul. Phantom Thread just won. I thought there were better designs in Beauty and the Beast and The Shape of Water.

The documentary nominations are next. Greta Gerwig and Laura Dern are presenting. This is a tough category, all quality films. Most are available online right now, so check them out. Nominees are Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Faces Places (this is the only one I have not seen), Icarus, Last Men in Aleppo, Strong Island. Tough call. Icarus won. I think that has to do with timing, because I think the others were better executed and the topics were more pertinent to most people. Disappointment. It's ironic Bryan Fogel mentioned 'telling the truth' when he set out to cheat. Go figure. Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Numbers) is introducing Mary J. Blige and the song from Mudbound, "Mighty River". Wow. I'm not even going to recap that for you, just check it out online tomorrow. It was fabulous. Kind of how I thought it would be staged when I heard it.

A great montage featuring some of Hollywood's best known and best loved films and some long forgotten classics to celebrate the 90th Oscars. The Best Sound Editing and Mixing awards are next. Nominees for Sound Editing, Baby Driver (a great surprise), Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The winner is Dunkirk. That makes sense, although I really thought the sound editing in Baby Driver was very clever and well done. Nominees for Sound Mixing, Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The winner is also Dunkirk; I think that's how it usually goes.

Lupita Nyong'o and Kumail Nanjiani are presenting (he is funnier here than in his movie The Big Sick) the Oscar for Production Design: Beauty and the Beast, Blade Runner 2049, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water. The winner is The Shape of Water, which won its first award of the night. Totally agree. It was a beautiful movie and the sets were typical Guillermo del Toro, which is to say, magnificent. The song for Coco is being presented (I didn't think it was that great in the movie, but we'll see), "Remember Me". The presentation was a lot of spectacle, but I think the song is overly simplistic in lyrical terms, and didn't move me like some of the other songs.

Kimmel is adding a trip to Lake Havasu to speed up speech times. Rita Moreno is presenting next (they are showing a clip from West Side Story "I want to live in America") and she still looks great as she comes dancing out on stage to a standing ovation. She is presenting Best Foreign LAnguage film, and that is my big lacking category; I've only seen one, The Square, and as long as that doesn't win, I'm good. It was terrible. A Fantastic Woman from Chile won (I've seen clips, and it looks really good). They are now showing clips of nominated Best Supporting Actresses; again, some powerful roles. Mahershala Ali (last year's winner for Best Supporting Actor in Moonlighting) is present for Best Supporting Actress. Mary J. Blige, Mudbound; Allison Janney, I, Tonya - god, I hated that movie; Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread - I hated that movie, too; Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird (she totally deserves this one); Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water (well, she deserves it too, and one day she is going to win it). Allison Janney won. Damn it. I should have known, but I really think Laurie Metcalf should have gotten it. I love Janney, don't get me wrong, but ugh, that movie.

The cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Oscar Isaac, Mark Hammill, Kelly Marie Tran and BB8 is presenting Best Animated Short: Dear Basketball, Garden Party, Lou, Negative Space, Revolting Rhymes. Dear Basketball. Really? In the back of my mind, I thought it would be possible but not for the right reasons. Well, it wasn't a really strong year in terms of topics or animation style. Best animated feature film: Boss Baby, The Breadwinner, Coco, Ferdinand (the only nominee from this category that I haven't seen), Loving, Vincent. Loving, Vincent is my favorite, but it is Coco. I guess I can live with that, better than Boss Baby. I still don't know how that got nominated. Daniela Vega (A Fantastic Woman) (I just looked her up to get the right spelling of her name, and learned that she is the first openly transgender person to present at the Oscars) is presenting the song for Call Me By Your Name, Sufjan Stevens, "Mystery of Love". I wasn't thrilled by this whiny song in the movie, it's only mildly better live. Meh.

Gina Rodriguez and Tom Holland are presenting Best Visual Effects: Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2, Kong: Skull Island, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes. Tough one. Blade Runner 2049 wins (I'm not sure I had my eyes all the way open when I was watching that move, and I might have been snoring). Matthew McConaughey is presenting the awards for film editing. Baby Driver, Dunkirk, I, Tonya, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. Dunkirk wins (it seems that a lot of the technical awards go together, which makes a ton of sense; that happened with Mad Max: Fury Road a couple of years ago). We're going on two hours now, and we still have a ton of awards to go. Another late night. Another audience stunt with Kimmel and a group of unsuspecting regular people who are watching a movie across the street. Guillermo del Toro, Gal Gadot, Mark Hammill, Lupita Nyong'o, Armee Hammer, Margot Robbie, Emily Blunt, Lin Manuel Miranda and Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver) are heading over to the theater where the audience is watching A Wrinkle In Time; this is similar to the stunt Kimmel did last year bringing tourists from a tour bus into the Oscars. It was funny, but when I think back on it, that added another fifteen minutes. And that could mean 11:45 instead of 11:30, which is a big deal when the alarm goes off at 5:15. They just walked into the front of the theater (Kimmel and Gadot). The crowd loves it. They are firing a hot dog cannon. Mike Young, from the audience, is making an introduction of Tiffany Hadish and Maya Rudolph (this should be funny). Oh yeah. Flashback to "Oscars so white" with some observational comedy. They are presenting Best Documentary Short Subject: Edith + Eddie, Heaen is a Trafic Jamo nt eh 405; Heroin(e), Knife Skills, Traffic Stop. Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405. Awesome! Knife Skills would have been my pick, but these were all so good. GO SEE THEM. Live Action Shorts are next: DeKalb Elementary, The 11 O'clock, My Nephew Emmett, The Silent Child, Watu Wote. The Silent Child! Yes. Again, they were all good, but this was a great choice. Not thrilled about this guys man bun. Rachel Shenton is signing her speech. This is awesome. Dave Chappell (maybe he should host the Oscars?) is presenting the nominated song from Marshall, "Stand up for Something" sung by Andra Day and Common. The audience is on their feet; there were ten people brought on stage, but I couldn't tell who they were (Common brought the crowd to their feet when he sang the song from Selma. This is another you should check out online if you missed it or just want to see it again. It's a powerful song and to me it's a toss up between this and "Mighty River", no disrespect to the other nominees.

Annabella Sciorra, Ashley Judd and Selma Hayek Pinault are onstage and addressing and saluting the #Timesup Movement. These women have spoken out against the sexual assaults and attacks they have experiences themselves in the entertainment industry. They are showing a clip about integrating real diversity into the filmmaking industry: race, color, gender. It's an interesting look back, and a look forward.

Chadwick Boseman and Margot Robbie are presenting Best Adapted Screenplay: Call Me By Your Name, The Disaster Artist, Logan, Molly's Game, Mudbound. James Ivory wins for Call Me By Your Name. I'm good with that. I would have picked that or Mudbound. Ivory is acknowledging his longtime film partners, Ismail Merchant and Ruth Prawa Jhabvala. Nicole Kidman is presenting for Original Screenplay. The Big Sick, Get Out, Lady Bird, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Jordan Peele wins for Get Out, which was my pick (or Lady Bird, but I think Get Out was really original).

Wes Studi, a Native American Indian actor introduced a montage of films that honor or are about the men and women who serve in the armed forces around the world.

Sandra Bullock is having the lighting guys turn the lights down as she presents the Oscar for cinematography, Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, Darkest Hour, Mudbound, The Shape of Water. Rachel Morrison, Mudbound, is the first woman ever to be nominated, but Roger Deakins won for Blade Runner 2049. Deakins has been moninated fourteen times and this is his first win (he has worked with the Coen Brothers, Sam Mendes and Denis Villeneuve). Zendaya (The Greatest Showman) is introducing the nominated song "This is Me" sung by Keala Settle (who plays the Bearded Lady in the film). There is a crowd on the stage, with two drummers); this song in the movie is amazing, and it's frigging great here. She is belting it out. It's another song that has a deeper meaning that is so fitting for the last year. There's a young woman in a hijab (not something you see at most Oscar ceremonies). Damn! Honestly, I'm not even sure how to pick the winner. The Greatest Showman is movie that the whole family can watch and enjoy.

Christopher Walken came on stage and Timothee Chalamet was giving him the high sign. He is introducing the Best Original Score: Dunkirk - Hans Zimmer, Phantom Thread (ugh) - Jonny Greenwood, The Shape of Water, Star Wars: The Last Jedi - John Williams, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Carter Burwell. Alexandre Desplat won for Shape of Water. Emily Blunt and Lin Manuel Miranda are presenting the Best Original Song "Mighty River" - Mudbound; Mystery of Love, "Remember Me" - Coco, "Stand Up For Something" - Marshall, "This is Me" - The Greatest Showman. Ugh, sorry, so disappointing. "Remember Me" has won. Sorry, not the best song, not even in the top three.

Jennifer Garner is introducing the In Memoriam segment. Eddie Vedder is singing Tom Petty's "Room at the Top". That's always a tough segment: is the music going to be right, are they going to have to leave people out (there's only so much time), and then just seeing all the talent that has made movies for over 100 years (well, not everyone, obviously) but it's a history of film in about 4 minutes. And it reminds us of all the people that it takes to put movies together.

Emma Stone (last year's Best Actress from La La Land) is presenting Best Director, Christopher Nolan - Dunkirk, Jordan Peele - Get Out, Greta Gerwig - Lady Bird, Paul Thomas Anderson - Phantom Thread, Guillermo del Toro - The Shape of Water. Guillermo del Toro wins for Shape of Water, his first Oscar for Best Director. Could this be a sign there are more awards to come? I hope, it was one of my favorites this year. Almost there. They switched up some of the traditional ways they picked the presenters, which is usually the winner from the previous year presents (at least for the actor categories), but because of the admitted disparity and lack of women and people of color, more women and more diverse backgrounds are being represented, and they are saving the best for last (Helen Mirren, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Lawrence and Jane Fonda).

Another montage, this time of Best Actor nominees; some fabulous performances by the best actors around. Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren are presenting Best Actor. Timothee Chalamet - Call Me By Your Name, Daniel Day-Lewis - Phantom Thread, Daniel Kaluuya - Get Out, Gary Oldman - Darkest Hour (I think the critics' favorite), Denzel Washington - Roman J. Israel, Esq. Gary Oldman wins his first Oscar for portraying Winston Churchill. He did an amazing, transformative job, no question. He is going on a bit, and it's 10:30 and we have two more awards (I think).

Best Actress montage (I really love these, they are fun). Jodie Foster and Jennifer Lawrence are presenting Best Actress. Jodie is on crutches and blaming it on Meryl Streep. This is normally presented by last year's Best Actor Sally Hawkins The Shape of Water, Frances McDormand Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Margot Robbie in I, Tonya, Saorise Ronan Lady Bird, Meryl Streep The Post. The Oscar goes to Frances McDormand; which again was the critics' choice. I would have given it to Sally Hawkins or Saorise Ronan. She just asked all of the female nominees in ALL categories to stand up! They're doing it, and it's unbelievable. That was fantastic!

Best Picture is next, and I really don't know. It could be The Shape of Water or Three Billboards, maybe Darkest Hour, but I don't think so. It's been a weird night; some things going as expected, but others, not (at least for me). It seems the awards have been spread around. Kimmel is again referencing last year's "incident". Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are presenting Best Picture again (which seems only fair, really). They do have a good sense of humor about it. Phantom Thread, Darkest Hour, Three Billboards, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, Dunkirk, The Post, Lady Bird, The Shape of Water. The Shape of Water wins Best Picture. That is tremendous. It really is a fabulous film; very del Toro.

Costume designer Mark Bridges won the jet ski.
This was actually one of my favorite Oscars in a while. Kimmel does a good job of bringing the humor, but not being mean spirited; covering topics of the day, but not beating them to death (I think, I'm sure others will disagree). The audience/nominees seemed to enjoy it as well. This was a good one. I hope the momentum keeps up on inclusivity and diversity. I have to say, I didn't love a lot of the movies this year, but there is something for everyone. Check out something you might not normally watch. (I type as I watch and try to catch typos and other errors, sometimes it's not possible, so please forgive bad spelling, punctuation, factual errors written in haste.)

See you next year. Bed time.

Down to the wire - my last four films Mudbound, Phantom Thread, The Breadwinner, The Florida Project

It's the day of the Oscars, and I'm done. I couldn't watch another movie if my life depended on it. Having said that, there are only seven movies I have not seen. I'm impressed.
2/25/18 Mudbound, Nominated Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Song, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, 2017

I was pleasantly surprised by Mudbound; that's not to say I had any preconceived ideas or expectations, I knew next to nothing about it, except I heard that Mary J. Blige was in it. This is an ensemble movie, I mean, if you take one of the characters away, it could totally change at least two storylines. Mudbound is based on the novel by Hillary Jordan (which I have not read), so I don't know how faithful it is, but it is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, so that should mean something. I like that the stories are told from different perspectives, visually and narration by different characters. The movie is set in 1940s Mississippi, featuring a black family, the Jacksons, who have been working the land as tenant farmers, and a white family, the McAllans, who recently bought the land. The 1940s are only eighty years after the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and twenty years away from the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and sixty-five years before America's first African-American president; all that is to say, race relations in Mississippi and the rest of the U.S. are tense and often violent. The McAllans are headed by Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke), an engineer, who decides to go into farming, something his father, Pappy (Jonathan Banks, you probably know the face and not the name), left behind. Henry married to Laura (Carey Mulligan), who believed and supported Henry's decisions early on, but later becomes more cynical; Laura does much of the narration (shared with Mary J. Blige's character, Florence Jackson). Henry's brother, Jamie (Minnesota's own, Garrett Hedlund) is very different from his brother, in temperament, interests and life experience. Hap Jackson (Rob Morgan) is the head of the Jacksons and married to Florence; Florence and Hap have several children, the oldest is Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), who has learned to read and write, and will have experiences his parents could never imagine. The movie is told using flashbacks, which sometimes I like and sometimes I don't, but I think it works really well here, because, well it does. Just trust me. In fact, I really don't want to tell you too much because it all ties together, but there are some twists. I was impressed by a lot of things: I thought the cast was terrific; there was a quiet strength from both female leads; Hap had his own strength and dignity as he feels forced into helping Henry McAllan, almost like a slave. That's what it felt like just watching it; Hap didn't have a choice. Jamie brings some humanity and decency, much to the dismay of his father and brother, although as a side-note, several times when Jamie/Hedlund spoke, I could only think of Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday "I'm your huckleberry". Anyway, this is a powerful and relevant film, with some great acting, and the Oscar-nominated song is up there as my top two, and I look forward to Oscar night, because I hope Mary J. Blige sings it and blows everyone away. If you watch the movie, it is at the very end, so don't turn it off until you hear it. There's a lot more to say about the movie, but I feel rushed for time and space, and don't want to give away any spoilers.

2/27/18 The Florida Project, nominated Best Supporting Actor, 2017
After reflecting about The Florida Project and why I didn't like it, and what it reminded me of, it reminded me of the few John Cassavetes films where there seems to be no real idea of where the film is going, dialog that seems improvised, a lot of shouting, and characters I didn't care about. So, that pretty much sums it up. The characters live in a run down Florida motel, near enough to Orlando and the magic of Disney to confuse a few foreign visitors, but not the residents/long term guests. These long-term guests are people struggling to make it every day: low paying jobs or no jobs, trying to raise kids, and just not able to get ahead in life. I think there is a story to tell about this 'invisible population', but I do not think is it. The main character is a little girl, Moonee (newcomer, Brooklynn Prince), who gets into mischief with her young friends, some is probably typical of seven or eight year olds (it's been so long, I don't remember), and some is due to the fact that she has to do a lot of without any responsible adult supervision. The only real adult in her life is Bobby (Oscar nominated Willem Dafoe), the manager of the Magic Castle motel. Bobby does his best to run the motel, but also keep an eye on the kids and to help out the families when he can. Moonee's mother, Halley (another newcomer, Bria Vinaite), is a train wreck; honestly, not a lot to like or admire, and it's amazing that she hasn't lost custody of Moonee - yet. I think this would have been a better movie had it been done as a short because in a short you have a limited amount of time to get your point across, and you cut out extra crap that adds nothing, like the difficult relationship Bobby has with his adult son; either examine it and figure it out, or just leave it out of the movie. It seems kind of lazy to try and try some parallels or comparisons (or get the audience to make inferences): Bobby has a difficult relationship with his son, that is why he tries to help the kids (I don't know if that was the point, but then, if there's no point, cut it out). In 2004, there was a British short that won the Oscar, called Wasp, which focused on a single mom raising three kids in council housing struggling to make ends meet (she feeds her kids raw sugar when she is out of food), and there is a lot of chaos. But, it made it's point and I liked it. I enjoyed the last ten minutes of The Florida Project, my adrenaline was really going, and then it was over. So, I didn't need 90+ minutes of watching Halley be a terrible parent, maybe 45 would have been enough. I think the Best Supporting Actor will go to either Woody Harrelson or Sam Rockwell, both in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

3/3/18 Phantom Thread, Nominated Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Score, Best Costume Design, 2017

Phantom Thread would not have gotten any consideration for any awards, and I certainly would not have gone to see it if Daniel Day-Lewis was not in it. That being said, even with Daniel Day-Lewis in this endurance test, I did not want to see this movie at all. And, three hours later (the trailers and commercials were at least twenty minutes) I owe my friend a movie, because this was horrible. It made me want to eat a mushroom omelet (and if you've seen the movie, you get the reference). I am so angry at having spent my time watching a narcissistic, Oedipal, whiny dress designer manipulate and insult his lovers and sister. Jennifer Lawrence had the right idea, turning the movie off after three minutes. Good on you! So, my short take is: this is NOT the best picture, Day-Lewis does NOT deserve the Best Oscar (please see Denzel Washington in Roman J. Israel, Esq. or Timothee Chalafant in Call Me By Your Name), Leslie Manville does not deserve the Best Supporting Actress Award for glowering for 130 minutes (Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird, Octavia Spencer in The Shape of Water or Mary J. Blige in Mudbound, and finally, the score was intrusive, and I couldn't wait for moments of quiet. It is mercifully off the list.

3/3/18 The Breadwinner, nominated Best Animated Film, 2017

The Breadwinner is an international production, directed by Irish director Norah Twomey, who also directed Oscar-nominee, The Secret of Kells. I only mention this because I recognized the animation style. It was produced by a couple of Canadian animation studios and Angelina Jolie's production company.  So, with that little bit of background done, The Breadwinner is set in Afghanistan as the Taliban are establishing their reign of terror. Parvana is the middle child of Nurullah, a teacher and amputee (it's mentioned he lost his leg fighting; I assume fighting the Russians during the war in the 1980s) and Fattemah; the family struggles to survive, selling anything they own that might be of value, but also selling reading and writing services. Nurullah is arrested for insolence and violating the rules of the Taliban, including having his daughter, Parvana, out in public. This may seem ridiculous to us, but it was life, and in some parts of the world, still is. Parvana, her elder sister, Soraya and their mother try to figure out how to survive and how to get Nurullah out of prison. Parvana realizes the only way they have a chance is for her to disguise herself as a boy cutting off her beautiful long hair. The little family battles against outsiders, but also a distant family member who sees the only remaining male of the family, baby Zaki, and Soraya as a possible financial boon, try to force the family to leave with him. Parvana is off on her own adventure as "Aatish", the male name she adopted, which means fire, as she uses her new identity and some money to try and get her father released. There is a story within the story as Parvana tells of a young man on a quest to find stolen seeds from the evil Elephant King (there is a subtle change in the animation during these sequences). I don't think The Breadwinner will win, only because there is so much hype around Coca, but I hope more people see it; it might be good to show in schools to help educate kids on another culture, a culture that is often vilified in the U.S. It shows family values, strong female characters, and a different way of life. I would say don't just plop your kid in front of the television and it on because it's animated; watch it together, because there are some upsetting moments as the family is torn apart. Definitely worth watching.