Congratulations to all of this years Oscar nominees and to those who didn’t get nominated, well better luck next year.
The 91st Academy Awards is just around the corner and the nominated actors, actresses, films and directors have been announced. Netflix’s Roma and The Favourite lead the pack with 10 nominations each, with both films up for best picture and best director. I haven’t heard anything about Roma except for what critics have said, which is that it’s amazing, but they’re also saying the same thing about The Favourite and everyone I know that has seen it has hated it. The film, staring Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Coleman, has been compared to The Shape of Water in the sense that critics and the Academy loved it, even voting it best picture, but audiences left the theater very confused as to what they just watched. I haven’t seen The Favourite but I did see The Shape of Water and I was very confused. I liked the movie up to a certain point and then it took a turn no one was expecting and it lost me. It was one of those movies that self appointed movie snobs will claim they loved and come up with their own interpretation of what all that was supposed to symbolize, while all normal viewers saw was a woman falling in love with a fish. If that’s what I have waiting for me when I go to watch The Favourite then to that I say no thank you.
Tying for second for prize of most nominations are A Star is Born and Vice. I haven’t seen Vice yet but I have seen and previously raved about A Star is Born. I am still obsessed with the soundtrack and listen to it all the time, but the more I thought about it and looked at the other films nominated, I’m starting not to believe in my own statement that A Star is Born is the greatest movie made in 2018. I watched it twice and during the second time I couldn’t stop thinking that it could have been at least 30 minutes shorter. In my opinion, the award will most likely go to The Favourite, Vice or Roma, just because those are typically the kind of movies the academy celebrates. One is very artsy and was a period piece, the other involved a lot of character acting and prosthetic makeup, and the other pointing out difficulties of people living in foreign countries such as Mexico. These movies, with the exception of maybe Vice have not really been seen by a lot of people, which is also the kind of movie that typically wins best picture. The other nominated movies Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born are way too commercial to even be considered to win.
Let’s talk about acting! In the best actress category we have Yalitza Aparicio for Roma, Glenn Close for The Wife, Olivia Colman for The Favourite, Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born and Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me?. It’s pretty clear that either Glenn Close or Olivia Colman is going to win. They both won the Golden Globe in their category this year and its just clear to everyone that they gave the best performances out of the bunch. Lady Gaga had a chance to win but she over promoted herself and got on everyone’s last nerve. We get it, you love Bradley Cooper and you two got along great, now let us move on. I would love to see Melissa McCarthy win because she was SO good in her first dramatic leading role, but I don’t think it will be her year. The best actor category consists of Christian Bale for Vice, Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born, Willem Dafoe for At Eternity’s Gate, Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody and Viggo Mortensen for Green Book. Although I loved Rami Malek, Viggo Mortensen and Bradley Cooper in their respective roles I think the winner will be Christian Bale for his role of Dick Chaney in Vice. He won the Golden Globe for the role and completely lost himself in the character. The academy loves when actors and actresses are unrecognizable in their roles and in this movie Christian Bale is as unrecognizable as it gets. I know Rami Malek changed his look for his role and his portrayal was perfect, but I just don’t think it’s the typical movie academy voters go for.
Now let us get into some snubs. The whole world is upset that Crazy Rich Asians was not nominated for best picture. I truly believe I am the only person on this earth that did not like that movie, and isn’t surprised that it was not nominated. In fact I would have been upset if it had been. I mean I get it, first all Asian cast in 25 years but that doesn’t mean the movie was great. Another snub fans are upset about is Bradley Cooper was not nominated for best director. I think they should have switched out his best actor nomination for a best director nomination. So much was done right in that movie and if they were going to give him one or the other, it should have been for directing. The last snub people are angry about is the omission of If Beale Street Could Talk from the best picture category. This one I don’t understand because it got rave reviews and everyone who has seen it has loved it more than any movie that was nominated. Also the academy only nominated eight movies when they have the ability to nominate 10. It just goes to show that you can never predict what is going on in the minds of the members of the academy. At least Regina King was nominated for her role in the movie and will most likely win.
The 91st hostless Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 23 on ABC. Check out the rest of the nominees on the Hollywood Reporter’s website.