Oscar Nominations
Well here we are again folks – time for the Oscar do’s and don’ts. This time however, it has been fully immersed in quarantine and Covid-19. The choices are not pretty – and a lot of people have not seen the movies – yet still the show rolls on. This year could be called Oscar-Lite. Half the star power, half the calories and a quarter of the entertainment value.
Notice the absence of Borat, and Sasha Baron Cohen for Best Actor for Borat – which both won Golden Globes. Europeans have a very sick sense of humor.
Also absent of any mention is Spike Lee and his Da 5 Bloods. i believe the only reason Spike won the Oscar last time is because of his association with and backing of Jordan Peele who has quickly become Oscar’s darling.
Tom Hanks not here for News Of The World – which I don’t think anyone even knew about, much less seen.
Also noticeably absent was Chrstopher Nolan and his film TENET. All this hype about Christopher Nolan and his amazing talent and the film garnered two nominations – production design and visual effects. Those two nods were probably out of respect more than anything else.
Anyhoo – let’s celebrate the films and talent that deserve some recognition.
Best Picture: The Father, Judas and The Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal and Trial of Chicago 7.
Best Actor: Riz Ahmed, Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Steven Yeun.
Best Actress: Viola Davis, Andra Day, Vanessa Kirby, Frances McDormand, Carey Mulligan
Supporting Actor: Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Kaluuya, Leslie Odom JR, Paul Raci, Lakeith Stanfield
Supporting Actress: Maria Bakalova, Glenn Close, Olivia Colman, Amanda Seyfried, Yu-Jung Youn
Director: Thomas Vinterberg, David Fincher, Lee Isaac Chung, Chloe Zhao, Emerald Fennell
Best Adapted Screenplay: Borat 2, The Father, Nomadland, One Night In Miami, The White Tiger.
Best Original Screenplay: Judas and The Black Messiah (Will Berson & Shaka King), Minari (Lee Isaac Chung), Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell), Sound of Metal (Darius Marder & Abraham Marder), Trial of Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin).
Here are my predictions – Chicago 7 wins Best Screenplay. Nomadland Best Picture, Chadwick Boseman Best Actor, Frances McDormand Best Actress, Glenn Close for Best Supporting Actress, Chloe Zhao Best Director for Nomadland.
Those are what I think are the obvious choices. I think Oscar will go with some comfortable choices like Aaron Sorkin and Glenn Close, and embrace the women’s movement and the fresh voices of Nomadland and their cast and crew.
20201 Grammy Awards Hit All Time Low!
The recent Grammy Awards were a complete and empty, disaster. Down a whopping 61% from last year – this is officially the least watched Grammy Awards show of all time. This debacle was not just airing on CBS either – it was on CBS.com, the CBS app and the Paramount+ app.
I watched a bit of this thing and it felt very empty and very desperate. It was almost like a dress rehearsal. No energy and no big crowd to liven things up and pump some electricity into things.
The performance most talked about was BTS – the Korean boy band that has been taking over social media lately. They performed their hit Dynamite – and it really was the most interesting thing the entire night. Nothing spectacular, nothing to remember, but just a good professional performance. That was the best the evening could hope for.
Cardi B, Niki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion basically just shook their rump and tried to prove who could be the most sexually suggestive dancer of the evening.
No big rock groups – no big hit songs – mostly just songs you hear on Tik Tok and Twitter.
The Grammy Awards took a huge dive this year – and hopefully next year we can look forward to some bands and rock stars playing, rocking out and having a great time.
Let me know what you think – And thanks for reading – see ya next Thursday!
