Sunday, March 04, 2018

Stacked Actors

How is this even possible?

Mike and I are having our 7th Annual Academy Award Guessing Game®.   SEVEN!

He calls it the Seven Year Itch - but mostly because his scabies are out of control - nothing a little Kwell won't take care of.

Traditionally, this night has not turned out well for me.

Many of these have ended in a tie. I think I won once and well, he has prevailed more than I.  Of course, there was the infamous miscount of '14.  Mike made sound like Gore v Bush looked like little league compared to that.

But when Mike wins........he gloats. It'd be annoying if he weren't so dreamy.   {psssst.....do you think he bought that?}.

I gloat too.....just not as often.

I'd say maybe I can turn the tide tonight, but I'm not hopeful. While it feels like we've seen a number of these films, some races are too close. If Denzel wins for a movie no one has heard of or seen (including by Denzel himself), well, then, we are fucked.

I've only seen four of the nine best pictures. I think that is one more than Mike has. So, does this double my odds?

The wager?  Well, it used to be cookies. Then I got lazy and purchased cupcakes, though I delivered them personally with like a $83 bar tab he we racked up. This last round, it wasn't even baked good.  I know - right???  Through the miracle or electronics, Mike and his husband got movie tickets from me.  I suppose I could have a bottle of gin delivered if there is a liquor store that does that sort of thing.   ......assuming he wins.

His suggestion?



I'm not sure the amount will make my guesses better, and I don't know how many out-calls he'd have to do to come up with the dough.

Anyhoo - I did make my picks. Mike has claimed to have made his. The reality is, there is usually only a few picks that differ, so the margin is slim.  I now won't make a 'slim' joke. See how mature?

Naturally, I made a comment........or 24.


Best Picture Call Me by Your Name Darkest Hour Dunkirk Get Out Lady Bird
Phantom Thread The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

I'm hopeful. Get Out or Shape of Water could spoil this.

Best Director Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk Jordan Peele, Get Out


Best Actor Timothée Chalamet -- Call Me By Your Name Daniel Day-Lewis -- Phantom Thread Daniel Kaluuya -- Get Out Gary Oldman -- Darkest Hour Denzel Washington -- Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Sirius Black - for the win. 

Best Actress Sally Hawkins -- The Shape of Water Frances McDormand -- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Margo Robbie -- I, Tonya Saoirse Ronan -- Lady Bird Meryl Streep - The Post

It was just a great performance. 

Best Supporting Actor Willem Dafoe -- The Florida Project Woody Harrelson - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Richard Jenkins - The Shape of Water Christopher Plummer- All the Money in the World Sam Rockwell -- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri  ​

You loved to hate him, and then you just kind of loved him. 

Best Supporting Actress Mary J. Blige - Mudbound Allison Janney - I, Tonya Lesley Manville - Phantom Thread Laurie Metcalf - Lady Bird Octavia Spencer - The Shape of Water

It really only comes down to Janney and Metcalf, but Janney has the buzz. Either are deserving, but Metcalf won't give ME, the win!

Best Original Screenplay The Big Sick (Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani) Get Out (Jordan Peele) Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)

Quite possibly the toughest category of them all. I want the Big Sick to win, but I'm thinking it will go to Get Out.

Best Adapted Screenplay Call Me By Your Name (James Ivory) The Disaster Artist (Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber) Logan (Scott Frank, James Mangold, Michael Green) Molly's Game (Aaron Sorkin) Mudbound (Virgil Williams and Dee Rees) 

Totally worth the win. 

Best Cinematography Blade Runner 2049 Darkest Hour Dunkirk Mudbound The Shape of Water 

I didn't see one of these. Dart. Blindfold. Throw. 

Best Film Editing Baby Driver Dunkirk I, Tonya The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Oh - because.......why not?

Best Sound Mixing Baby Driver (Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin & Mary H. Ellis) Blade Runner 2049 (Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill & Mac Ruth) Dunkirk (Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker & Gary A. Rizzo) The Shape Of Water (Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern & Glenn Gauthier) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce & Stuart Wilson)

Battles, battles and more battles, so it will be one of the few Dunkirk wins. 

Best Sound Editing Baby Driver (Julian Slater) Blade Runner 2049 (Mark Mangini & Theo Green) Dunkirk (Richard King & Alex Gibson) The Shape of Water (Nathan Robitaille & Nelson Ferreira) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Matthew Wood & Ren Klyce)

See above. 

Best Original Score Dunkirk (Hans Zimmer) Phantom Thread (Jonny Greenwood) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (John Williams) The Shape of Water (Alexandre Desplat) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Carter Burwell)

Best Original Song "Mighty River" -- Mudbound (Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson) "Mystery of Love" -- Call Me By Your Name (Sufjan Stevens) "Remember Me" -- Coco (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez) "Stand Up for Something" -- Marshall (Diane Warren and Lonnie R. Lynn) "This is Me" -- The Greatest Showman (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul)

I almost picked the Greatest Showman thingy.....because of the gays.....and Hugh Jackman (who as picked, because of the gays), but the two who wrote the song won last year, so, that isn't happening twice in a row.  ....and Disney is probably strong-arming folks up to the red carpet. 

Best Animated Feature​ The Boss Baby The Bread Winner Coco Ferdinand Loving Vincent

It's Disney / Pixar. The NRA of animation.  No one shall dare cross them. 

Best Costume Design Beauty and the Beast (Jacqueline Durran) Darkest Hour (Jacqueline Durran) Phantom Thread (Mark Bridges) The Shape of Water (Luis Sequeria) Victoria & Abdul (Consolata Boyle)

oh for g-d's sake, in the movie, Day-Lewis designs dresses!

Best Visual Effects ​Blade Runner 2049 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Kong: Skull Island Star Wars: The Last Jedi War for the Planet of the Apes

Yeah - you don't know either, so...........

Best Animated Short Film Dear Basketball Garden Party Negative Space Lou Revolting Rhymes

It's more artsy and with a pseudo-message.  Garden Party was cute. Lou? More Pixar, so don't rule it out.

Best Documentary Feature Abacus: Small Enough to Jail Faces Places Icarus Last Men in Aleppo Strong Island

Best Documentary Short Edith + Eddie Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 Heroin(e) Knife Skills Traffic Stop

Crap shoot

Best Foreign Language Film A Fantastic Woman (Chile) The Insult (Lebanon) Loveless (Russia) On Body and Soul (Hungary) The Square (Sweden)

Normally I'd say the Insult because it's the only preview I've seen of the five. But that strategy hasn't worked the best for me in the past. And if I want insults, I'll just wait for Mike to chime in on any of my selections........thankyouverymuch.

Best Production Design Beauty and the Beast Blade Runner 2049 Darkest Hour Dunkirk The Shape of Water

When making a lab for the Creature from the Black Lagoon, well.......you gotta be creative. 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling Darkest Hour Victoria & Abdul Wonder

Victoria &Abdul (not Paula) was in theaters for a week, but it will go to Darkest Hour for making Oldham into Churchill. 

Best Live-Action Short Film ​DeKalb Elementary The Eleven O'Clock My Nephew Emmett The Silent Child Watu Wote/All of Us

Guns in schools hits all the marks these days, no?  Though the trailer I saw for the Eleven O'Clock seemed interesting. 


Well.......I'm about to hit 'publish' there is no going back.


Results post on Tuesday!



Song by: Foo Fighters

6 comments:

Raybeard said...

I'd like you to be right about 'Baby Driver' getting at least something, a film that deserved more recognition than it's got, but I fear the screen presence of one K.Spacey may have put the hex on it. Also bigger shouts for 'Get Out' would be welcome - and, like the audience felt more than the critics did, I did own a soft spot for 'Greatest Showman', though of course it'll be given the cold shoulder.
Best of luck on your own choices/guesses - and I'm sure you'll use your winning tickets with taste and discretion. :-)

Anonymous said...

And so it begins. As Sir Blobby likes to point out, this is our seventh go-round with the Oscars contest. Hard to believe that we started when I was just 38 years old. Time flies.

We’ve certainly had our ups and downs, but one thing’s consistent: Blobby does the lion’s share of work to make this event possible (our contest, not the actual Oscar’s ceremony). He always send me a reminder a few weeks before the telecast and he produces this blog post, which I then just have to comment on. Easy-Peasy (for me). So before any slights or insults commence, let me publicly thank Blobby for his effort here. Almost makes me want to throw the contest so the poor dear has a chance.

Like Blobby, I saw four of the 9 nominated Best Picture contenders: “Dunkirk” (bleh — couldn’t hear or understand a word of dialogue), “Get Out” (still trying to decide what I think), “Call Me By Your Name” (dreamy, loved it, should be nominated for everything, including Best Profile for Armie Hammer), and “The Shape of Water” (which I thought looked mystical and fun, but ended up being predictable and disturbingly and unnecessarily violent). So one could say that we are going into this race with exactly the same knowledge (hahah one COULD say that).

And as for the wager, it’s abundantly clear to any of Blobby’s cherished readers that he seems to be hedging a bit. The movie tickets he purchased after I won the Golden Globes contest were truly generous — a great prize! And the personally delivered cupcakes — along with one or three gin martinis (who’s counting really?) were stupendous as well. For this year? Well, maybe if I lose (hahahahaha), I’ll purchase Blobby a year’s subscription to Entertainment Weekly so he can have a full 52 weeks of research under his belt (hehe) for next year’s showdown. Or maybe we keep it simple: a round of cocktails when Blobby makes his annual trek to the East Coast for his summer getaway, which traditionally includes a meet-up at Club Cafe/Club Sashay/Club SoGay in Boston. If we’re not playing for $5,000, I might as well get a drink out of this deal. Or hey, I’m up for purchasing tickets for a local cinema in Cleveburgh. I will let Blobby make the final call on this one. It’s the least I can do (the VERY least).

I have two hopes for this year’s contest: 1. That Sir Blobby makes it to the end of the Oscar telecast. Seems every year, he peters out about one hour before the show’s over. Something about a big day at work tomorrow blah blah blah. 2. That the “Miscount of ’14” remains a historical event, not a playbook. I know that Blobby’s accounting firm of Dewey Cheatum & Howe will be carefully monitoring the ballots …. but for god’s sake, let’s get it right, shall we?

Hey — one final shout-out to Blobby (I’m feeling kind this morning.) What a terrific header image for his blog post! Why, I almost look like Armie Hammer!

Anonymous said...

So without further ado, and further wear and tear on my keyboard, here goes nothing:

Best picture: We can agree to disagree on this big prize here. “The Shape of Water” seems to be on or near the top of everyone’s mostly likely to win list, so I’ll go with the mob mentality here and predict it will take home gold. Unless Faye Dunaway screws up reading the card again.

Best Director: Guillermo del Toro. Because it’s fun to say. And because despite recent charges of him stealing the concept for this movie, he’s going to pick up the Oscar.

Best Actor: If had my druthers, it would be Timothee Chalamet — who gave a heartbreaking, sensitive, and totally believable performance in “Call Me By Your Name”. AND he learned how to play the piano AND how to speak Italian for the role. AND he’s cute. But it seems that Gary Oldman has the lock on this one, so I’ll go with Mr. Oldman.

Best Actress: I’m going “Anyone But Meryl Streep”. Is anyone else tired of seeing her in the front row of every film awards show? Didn’t see “The Post” — and won’t - but clips in coming attractions several times. Same old, same old. Didn’t see Three Billboards — and previews show Frances McDormand just being angry (I suspect that’s her in real life too)….but Blobby seemed to like it, so I will vote for Frances in this category.

Best Supporting Actor: Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam….

Best Supporting Actress: Part of what I didn’t like about “The Shape of Water” was the Octavia Spencer character. Isn’t that the same role she’s played in every movie to date? Harrumph. I don’t think there’s any stopping Allison Janney from taking the statue home.

Best Original Screenplay: I am really torn about this one. Will it be “Three Billboards” or “Get Out”. Blobby’s going “Get Out” — which makes me think it will go to “Three Billboards”. But then again, they may throw a bone to the new guy on the block, so damn it, I’m gonna say “Get Out”. God help me.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Oh please be “Call Me By Your Name” and give James Ivory some love for his sensitive story-telling.

Best Cinematography: How about going with one I’ll never ever see: Blade Runner 2049

Best Film Editing: All the cool kids (and Blobby) say it’s going to be “Baby Driver”. But let me go out on a limb here: “Dunkirk”

Best Sound Mixing: Dunkirk.

Best Sound Editing: Dunkirk

Best Original Score: I’ll go with “The Shape of Water”. 

Best Original Song: Attention accountants. This is where Blobby walk the fine line. Highlighting two (mind you — two) selections in his ballot. One must read between the lines and assume he’s going with “Remember Me” but one can’t be too sure. Let me say this and say it loud and clear. since none of the beautiful Sufjan Stevens tracks from “Call Me By Your Name” were nominated (he was robbed), I will go with “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman”.

Best Animated Feature: It’s a homerun for “Coco”.

Best Costume Design: The whole move it about fashion design, for god’s sake. “The Phantom Thread”.

Best Visual Effects: “Blade Runner 2049”

Best Animated Short Feature: “Dear Basketball”. Yeah, I played basketball once in high school. But then I dribbled on the court.

Best Documentary Feature: Having seen none of these, I will go with “Icarus”.

Best Documentary Short: I am seeing buzz around “Heaven is a Traffic Jam”, but I will go with “Heroin(e)” for the win.

Best Foreign Language Film: “A Fantastic Woman”

Best Production Design: Another trophy for “The Shape of Water”

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: I’ll go with Gary Oldman’s makeover in “The Darkest Hour”

Best Live-Action Short Film: “DeKalb Elementary”

Ur-spo said...

I always enjoy your Oscar entries.
I haven't seen any of these movies; I rely on you to tell me the news.

Deedles said...

What does it say about my movie going habits when the only films I've seen are the ones in the Best Visual Effects category? Blade Runner wasn't one of them and two I saw on television. Another year of not watching any awards show.

Anonymous said...

My what good taste you have. My only difference is Mary J Blige.
JP