Well…that’s it for another year. Another exhausting round of Oscar winners. Some amazing, some OK, and some just plain bad. The 91st Academy Awards have seemed to be the most exhausting with just a few films feeling worthy of even a nomination let alone an accolade. Despite this, the show must go on…
…which is apt because Bohemian Rhapsody went home with the most awards for Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Best Actor for Rami Malek. Hmmmm. Many will be in dispute for its wins but Malek for Best Actor certainly seems justified somewhat. Green Book went home with the biggest gong – Best Picture and, again, that seems like a lot of derision and contention will come from that win.
Roma scooped up three awards for Best Foreign Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography meaning Cuaron is going home with all the prizes as the most awarded individual. Black Panther won for Best Costuming, Best Production Design, and Best Score, the latter two awards being the first wins for a black artist for Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler respectively. Best Documentary went to Free Solo naturally.
Our favourite awards go to Regina King for Best Supporting Actress for If Beale Street Could Talk.Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse scooped up Best Animation which is….it is just absolutely genius.
Perhaps the biggest (and happiest) win goes to Olivia Colman for her performance in The Favourite and the absolute best speech of the night.
Best Picture: Green Book
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Best Actor: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
Best Foreign Language Film:Roma
Best Documentary:Free Solo
Best Animation:Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Sound Mixing & Editing:Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Costume Design: Ruth Carter, Black Panther
Best Original Score: Ludwig Goransson, Black Panther
Best Original Song: Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrea Wyatt, Shallow (from A Star is Born.)
Best Documentary Short: Rayka Zehtabchi and Melissa Barton, Period. End of Sentence
Best Film Editing: John Ottman, Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Make-Up & Hairstyling: Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe, and Patricia Dehaney, Vice
Best Production Design: Hannah Beachler (Production Design) and Jay Hart (Set Decoration,) Black Panther
Best Live Action Short: Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman, Skin
Best Visual Effects: Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles, and J.D. Schwalm, First Man
Best Adapted Screenplay: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, an Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Best Original Screenplay: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, and Peter Farrelly, Green Book
Did your favourite win? Let us know in the comments!
It’s that time of the year again where the “best” and the “brightest” of films are awarded the highest accolade in the film season. Emphasis on the air quotes. That’s right – it’s the 91st Academy Awards. Although watching it this year feels like attending a work training day with people you despise, we’re definitely going
So whilst Movies On Weekends settles in again for an all-nighter – popping energy drinks and Haribo to grumpily send memes and tweets throughout the night – we might as well fashion our own predictions for the ceremony ahead. Best Animated Short
What Should Win:Weekends What Will Win:Bao
Disney have a monopoly on this category because it’s probably the only short that people are forced to watch and do watch. Which is a shame because shorts are GREAT! Weekends may snatch it but it is heavily unlikely. But history has taught me well not to fall into that trap again. I don’t want to repeat The Bigger Picture upset. I just don’t.
Best Live Action Short
What Should Win: Mother What Will Win: Detainment
There is a lot of controversy surrounding Detainment and that’s understandable but it is very unlikely to stop the award-winning film from winning this award. We adore Mother though so we hope it will win.
Best Documentary Short
What Should Win: Black Sheep What Will Win: Black Sheep
This impressive small feature has made waves already at award-season. This is a shear win……he he.
Best Original Song
What Should Win: All The Stars What Will Win: Shallow
There is no way that this absolute beast of a belter will fail at winning. We’ll get to see Gaga’s teary speech at last and, of course, see Coops perform all growly like. Though our heart is wrapped up in All the Stars, we certainly can’t see it outshining A Star is Born.
Best Original Score
What Should Win:If Beale Street Could Talk What Will Win:If Beale Street Could Talk
The Academy made a big almighty fuss about wanting to include Black Panther with introducing the now defunct category Best Popular Film. Nicolas Britell’s score for Beale Street is perhaps one of the favourites and absolutely should win here.
Best Adapted Screenplay
What Should Win: If Beale Street Could Talk What Will Win:BlacKkKlansman.
Barry Jenkins’ has already won in this category award and with Beale Street having so little in ways of awards that should be a sure-hit. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut with Jenkins’ previous award win and Spike Lee’s considerable shadow, it may just go to BlacKkKlansman.
Best Original Screenplay
What Should Win:First Reformed What Will Win:First Reformed.
This’ll be a home run because we sure as hell won’t be happy with giving an Oscar to “dick flasher” Peter Farrelly. Paul Schrader’s film should’ve been nominated for more so the Academy will look at this as
Best Visual Effects
What Should Win:Christopher Robin What Will Win:Black Panther
AKA Best Popular Film. This is where the blockbusters go. It’ll be no great shock that Black Panther will win but Avengers: Infinity War could scoop the prize. We’ll also be happy to see Christopher Robin to win because they brought back Winnie the Pooh!
Best Production Design
What Should Win:First Man What Will Win:The Favourite
Again, period dramas have a habit of trumping anything in this category. We’ll be happy if Damien Chazelle’s space epic gets a look in though. We’d like to stress, again, that it should’ve had more nominations.
Best Sound Editing & Best Sound Mixing
What Should Win: First Man What Will Win:Black Panther
The Academy usually award these awards to bombastic films. Your war time epics, your Marvel films, you’re really LOUD movies. First Man deserves everything that it could get here so there is hope this aural space epic will score something. Anything. Please.
Best Make-Up & Hairstyling
What Should Win:Border What Will Win:Vice
Fat suits triumph always. Let us please use this moment to talk about how amazing it is that Swedish twisted fairy-tale Border has a nomination. A much deserved one because it is immense. But it might be too obscure to oust Christian Bale’s Darkest Hour.
Best Film Editing
Who Should Win:The Favourite Who Will Win:Vice
Right, so a lot has been said about things that shouldn’t win awards and I think Vice is one of them. Yet it keeps on winning. If either this or Bohemian Rhapsody wins, it proves that people think good editing is erratic scene-cutting rather than subtle story-telling. Which is wrong. It’s going to frustrate you so much but look at Independent Spirit Awards, look at Joe Bini’s win. Sooth yourself.
Best Costume Design
Who Should Win: Ruth Carter, Black Panther Who Will Win: Sandy Powell, The Favourite
Award season love their history. Black Panther should rightfully get this award for imbuing and crafting each costume with rich African History but Sandy Powell has clout and corsets.
Best Cinematography
Who Should Win: The Favourite Who Will Win:Roma
Alfonso Cuaron does most things in this movie so if he doesn’t win everything then he’ll definitely win this. Robbie Ryan for The Favourite would be the dark horse.
Best Foreign Language Film
Who Should Win: Shoplifters Who Will Win: Roma
There isn’t much that is going to stop Roma from scooping up this award unless they’ve already given it Best Picture then any of the entries here could win the award. But it’s most likely going to Roma.
Best Documentary
Who Should Win:Hale County This Morning, This Evening Who Will Win:Free Solo
Much like Alex Honnold, nothing is going to knock this documentary from its heights.
Best Animation
Who Should Win:Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Who Will Win:Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sod off Disney! Look, the animation company have been (wrongly) on top of this list for some time and their mediocre entries Incredibles 2 and Wreck It-Ralph 2 haven’t matched the sheer energy of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. It has the audience, it has the other awards, it has the box-office, and it has the traction. This is the award we’re most looking forward too and the one we cannot wait to see.
Best Supporting Actor
Who Should Win: Richard E. Grant or Sam Elliot Who Will Win: Mahershala Ali
There is something so sweet about Grant’s Oscar campaign that, despite being a world-famous actor anyway, makes us warm to him as though he were a blossoming ingénue on his first role. Although last night Grant upset the applecart with his Independent Spirit Award win for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Ali pretty much has this in the bag. Shout out to Sam Elliot though – the death of a loved one won’t make me cry as much as his car reversal does.
Best Supporting Actress
Who Should Win: Regina King Who Will Win: Regina King
Similarly to Ali, it feels as though the crown will go to the King. Only Rachel Weisz from The Favourite will come anywhere close to usurping Regina from her throne. The Supporting Actress category always feels the most unpredictable so anything goes here.
Best Actor
Who Should Win: Bradley Cooper Who Will Win: Rami Malek
Malek’s performance, like Bohemian Rhapsody, has been pretty lambasted by Twitter and online hoards but that hasn’t been enough to shake his position on top, with Malek scooping up award after award. Whilst Bale has done enough to warrant a nomination, it does feel like Cooper may be a dark hose here and, arguably, rightly so because his transformative performance is outstanding for A Star is Born.
Best Actress:
Who Should Win: Olivia Colman/Glenn Close Who Will Win: Glenn Close
Whilst Gaga cries on the edges of her 100 person room, it is definitely just a two horse race now. Honestly, we’d be happy for both. The Wife may not be as good a film as The Favourite, their performances are definitely on parr. Close does have an edge due to being an American actress who hasn’t won in the decades of her career. But Colman may cause upset. Because it’s Colman and she is just that good.
Best Director
Who Should Win: Spike Lee Who Will Win: Alfonso Cuaron
Right so – Spike Lee might edge Cuaron out because he absolutely deserves the award more than anyone on the list. A win for him tonight feels like a win for his whole back catalogue and it is richly deserved. Cuaron, however, presents a juggernaut film and having a hand in every aspect of Roma could see him win the award.
Best Picture
Who Should Win: The Favorite Who Will Win:Roma
There’s a lot of debate on this one and, honestly, we are so unamused by this list (that could’ve really had more on it,) that we’re kinda shrugging and going “I guess” to both the Should Win and the Will Win. Favour for Roma has fallen somewhat short but imagine a Netflix backed film winning the biggest film award ever?
For more of a breakdown of predictions, head to the The Outside Centre Podcast where our editor Cookie talks about the awards.
Destined for Oscar glory in the eyes of this reviewer, especially since Three Identical Strangers didn’t make the shortlist, the documentary Free Solo follows climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to climb the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without a rope. Husband and wife directing team Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi make us care about the obsessively single-minded Alex as he challenges himself to scale 3,200 feet of sheer rock face with no safety net and a significant risk of death.
From that description, you might think that Alex is some rich kid with an expensive but dangerous hobby. When we first meet him, he is living in a van. He has climbed many rock faces before but has never attempted ‘El Cap’. No other free-solo climber has successfully ascended it, with its seemingly insurmountable features such as the ‘Boulder Problem’.
With many successful climbs behind him, as well as an autobiography, ‘Alone on the Wall’ the thirty-one year old Alex has a degree of celebrity. A high school student asks him how much money he has. ‘As much as a dentist,’ he replies. He donates a third of his earnings to a charitable foundation improving lives in Africa and considers himself lucky to turn his hobby into a living.
However, he has also been shaped by his father Charles, who ‘never hugged him’ and may have had Asperger’s. Alex describes himself as a ‘real dork’ at high school, earning straight As. However, he dropped out of the University of California in his second term, drawn heavily to the outdoors.
Does Alex share his father’s condition? He is honest – or unguarded – enough to say that he would never put the love of a woman before his hobby. Yet as he prepares for the El Cap climb, he has a girlfriend, Sanni McCandless, who met him at a book signing and thought he was cute. ‘I didn’t hear the word ‘love’ in my household,’ Alex explains. He’s being pedantic: his mother spoke French (she was a teacher) and uttered ‘Je t’aime’. He learns hugging – he wasn’t hugged growing up – and now he’s a big fan.
In the most revealing section of the film, we see him have a CT scan. Alex’s amygdala, not to be confused with Natalie Portman’s character in The Phantom Menace, doesn’t register fear the way most brains do; the amygdala processes emotions. He doesn’t fear death when climbing; rather he is motivated to achieving peak physical condition to negotiate precarious hand and foot-holds.
Sanni was indirectly responsible for one of Alex’s few injuries – she let go of the rope. However, they didn’t break up and still climb together. However, during his preparation, Alex undergoes another fall.
In many ways, Free Solo is a generic sports story, with the requisite setbacks. There is also the alternative. Sanni attempts to give Alex a normal life – they buy a house together in Las Vegas. He finds a coffee machine puzzling and eats his meals with a spatula used for cooking.
The climbing sequence is genuinely thrilling: heart-stopping, suspenseful and gruelling to watch. We hear the debate about whether filming would distract Alex or threaten his safety if there was an accident with the drone. During the ascent, the cameraman on the ground can scarcely bear to look at the monitor.
How you feel about Alex’s climb may to some extent be determined about how you feel about rock climbing in general. I felt for the people Alex left behind as he continued alone. I didn’t marvel at his prowess – I just wanted him to live. I don’t think Free Solo will popularise climbing without ropes. But it does show how people with Asperger’s – or the son of a man with Asperger’s – have different abilities. Spiderman doesn’t need the bite of a radioactive spider to climb walls – just a differently functioning amygdala and an appetite for a challenge.
Free Solo is nominated for Best Documentary Feature. The Oscars will air on ABC on Sunday 24 February 2019 (01:30am, Monday 25 February, Sky Cinema in the UK)
Let’s face it – we all feel like the Award seasons are shit and really cannot wait for the Academy Awards to be over.
But in the ray of light within the darkness of the season is the Independent Spirit Award which, up until recently, has just been the Academy Awards a day earlier. Now there seems to be a direct split with not one Best Director from the Academy selection having an Independent Spirit Award and a Best Picture category that looks like this.
Oh yeah, that’s the good shit right there.
Hosted by Aubrey Plaza, who proved superb in her delivery and wit, the Independent Spirit Award showcased some worthy winners. The big heavy awards went to Barry Jenkins and his incandescent If Beale Street Talk, walking away with Best Director and Best Feature Film. He used his time of stage to celebrate female directors, big up Lynne Ramsay, and basically geek out!
Richard E. Grant scooped up Best Supporting Actor, finally, showing that his pure unadulterated joy/conniving dastardly plan is working. Best Supporting Actress went to the Queen Regina King for Beale Street.
Glenn Close accepted her award for Best Actress with her dog which we should do more and more of. Bring your pets to Award Season seems like a better year than the pile of dog dodo we’ve had this year. Best Actor went to Ethan Hawke for which means most of film twitter could, for a while, retire this meme.
Other notable awards go to Joe Bini for his superb editing on Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here. Bo Burnham scooped up the award for Best First Screenplay and Boots Riley won for Best First Feature for Sorry to Bother You. Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty won for Best Screenplay for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Don’t you just love the indies?
Usually we end this sort of coverage with a full list of winners. But seeing as you can find them here, we just want to share we you Shangela’s performance because it is a slice of fried gold. And by fried gold, we mean chicken nuggets.
Alex Lawther has proven himself to be an incredible young actor. The performer has risen through the ranks of movies and television shows to become one hell of a rising star. From playing young Alan Turing in Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game to his absolutely ground-breaking performance in The End of the Fucking World. So we’re excited to see him in more daring roles and characters.
Now Lawther is working with director Toby MacDonald, the pair produce a tender, if albeit simple, adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac.
Set in a private school, the film revolves around the young nerdy Amberson. He lives his school-life opposed to jocks and sporty-types of his school. When the daughter of a new French teacher arrives, his whole word is turned upside down. Instead of going straight for the young lady himself, Amberson spends his time playing matchmaker for the school’s popular sporting hero Winchester – who may be great on the field but on the field of love, he is anything but. However, Amberson finds himself falling in love with the girl himself…
Old Boys is a pretty nice movie. Reminiscent of boarding school movies such as Rushmore, the movie revolves around that kind of posh schoolboy fantasy with a modern flare that – despite its surroundings – learns more towards a modern feeling more so than a dated one. MacDonald makes his work appealing enough to fall into and there are some brilliantly written moments that cause you to laugh out loud.
The film definitely works best because of the blossoming male friendship on display. The development of their relationship creates the most moving moments and the cast really hone in on that. Lawther is just an actor that oozes this awkwardness that is bloody charismatic. He is paired opposite Jonah Hauer-King as Winchester, who proves himself a brilliant actor on the rise!
Another strong performance comes from Denis Menochet as the glowering French teacher Babinot. The actor has had terrific performances, most recently in French drama Custody. So he has such terrific moments here. Pauline Etienne is fine enough as Agnes to be enjoyable.
Old Boys is an OK film. You know? It’s pleasant. It’s nice. It isn’t good and it isn’t bad – it’s just nice. And that’s OK! In this agonizing heavy world – it’s quite a break to have a movie as lovely as this is.
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