Borrowing a page from Siskel and Ebert from back in the day, we here at Movie Dearest are once again presenting our own version of "If We Picked the Oscars"! These aren't predictions, but what movies, actors, directors, et al that we would vote for if we were members of the Academy. We also chime in with our picks for the "egregiously overlooked" non-nominees in each category as well as what we deem are the "Worst Nominations of the Year".
So without further ado, the envelope please...
The nominees for Best Picture are:
Black Panther,
BlacKkKlansman,
Bohemian Rhapsody,
The Favourite,
Green Book,
Roma,
A Star Is Born and
Vice
CC: This is the strongest lineup in several years with the exception of
Bohemian Rhapsody, although that has legit crowd-pleaser cred. After much hand-wringing, I would vote for
The Favourite. It memorably and entertainingly combines BBC production values with the bitchiest dialogue since
All About Eve, or at least
Heathers. The writing, cast, art direction, direction direction, cinematography and costumes add up to one stunning movie.
KH: Considering it is the sole BP nominee in
my top 20 of 2018,
The Favourite is literally my only choice, but certainly the best one here regardless.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC:
Can You Ever Forgive Me? I'll be saying more about this one further down...
KH: This award season has been an increasingly exasperating exercise in frustration for me, no more clearly symbolized than in this Best Picture line-up filled with overrated Oscar bait and/or hollow crowd-pleasers instead of such small masterpieces as
Can You Ever Forgive Me? and
Leave No Trace.
For their final voting, Academy members are asked to rank the
Best Picture nominees from #1 to #8, so here are our rankings:
CC: 1.
The Favourite, 2.
Roma, 3.
Vice, 4.
Green Book, 5.
A Star is Born, 6.
BlacKkKlansman, 7.
Black Panther and 8.
Bohemian Rhapsody
KH: 1.
The Favourite, 2.
A Star Is Born, 3.
Vice, 4.
Green Book, 5.
Roma, 6.
BlacKkKlansman,
7.
Black Panther and 8.
Bohemian Rhapsody
The nominees for Best Actor are: Christian Bale in
Vice, Bradley Cooper in
A Star Is Born, Willem Dafoe in
At Eternity's Gate, Rami Malek in
Bohemian Rhapsody and Viggo Mortensen in
Green Book
CC: I regret I haven't seen
At Eternity's Gate so can't consider Willem Dafoe's performance but his fellow nominees are pretty fantastic. Rami Malek makes
Bohemian Rhapsody more watchable and moving than it might have
been in lesser acting hands. However,
Christian Bale's transformation
into former VP Dick Cheney in
Vice is nothing short of amazing. Bale, unlike the man he portrayed, gets my vote.
KH:
Bradley Cooper's career best performance as the grizzled, fading superstar Jackson Maine stands out among his all-biopic competition.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: While I was not a fan of
First Reformed (see below),
Ethan Hawke gave an impressive, tightly coiled performance as its
troubled pastor protagonist and should have been included here.
KH:
Ben Foster was brilliant, once again, in the shamefully not-nominated-at-all
Leave No Trace.
The nominees for Best Actress are: Yalitza Aparicio in
Roma, Glenn Close in
The Wife, Olivia Colman in
The Favourite, Lady Gaga in
A Star Is Born and Melissa McCarthy in
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
CC: Glenn Close is the front runner but I loved
Melissa McCarthy's tart but
compassionate turn as celebrity forger Lee Israel. She made a hugely
unsympathetic person funny, lovable, and even admirable to
a degree.
KH: This is a tough choice between Olivia Coleman and
Melissa McCarthy (both, coincidentally, playing real lesbians), with the latter ultimately victorious for making me completely forget her usual screen persona.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC:
Emily Blunt was perfect, not just practically so, in both
A Quiet Place and
Mary Poppins Returns. She should have been recognized in this category for at least one of them.
KH: It would be hard to choose between the veritable rawness of
Toni Colette in
Hereditary and the inimitable charm of
Emily Blunt in
Mary Poppins Returns.
The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Mahershala Ali in
Green Book, Adam Driver in
BlacKkKlansman, Sam Elliott in
A Star Is Born, Richard E. Grant in
Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Sam Rockwell in
Vice
CC: The wonderful
Richard E. Grant has consistently delighted me since he played a wackily megalomaniacal villain in 1991's
Hudson Hawk. I would vote for him not only for
Can You Ever Forgive Me? but his entire body of work to date.
KH: As gay grifter Jack Hock,
Richard E. Grant was brilliant and hilarious, and brilliantly hilarious, as always.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: While I wasn't as enamored by
Black Panther as most,
Michael B. Jordan was dramatically and physically imposing as its morally complex antagonist.
KH: Oh, if only it were the days when performances
like this were nominated than
Hugh Grant's high camp turn as the villainous thespian Phoenix Buchanan in
Paddington 2 surely would have made the cut.
The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Amy Adams in
Vice, Marina de Tavira in
Roma, Regina King in
If Beale Street Could Talk, Emma Stone in
The Favourite and Rachel Weisz in
The Favourite
CC: As good as all these performances are, I would go with
Amy Adams as Dick
Cheney's suitably Lady Macbeth-like wife, Lynn. It is time for Adams
to be honored with the gold after five nominations.
KH: As a fiercely protective mother who would go to great lengths (such as: Cuba) for her family,
Regina King reigns.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC:
Linda Cardellini, perhaps best known as Velma in the live-action
Scooby-Doo movies, was terrific as the yearning but patient New Yawk housewife in
Green Book.
Claire Foy was also terrific in a similar role in
First Man.
KH: As a devout Christian mother who finally sees the light regarding her gay son,
Nicole Kidman was the best thing about
Boy Erased.
The nominees for Best Directing are: Alfonso Cuarón for
Roma, Yorgos Lanthimos for
The Favourite, Spike Lee for
BlacKkKlansman, Adam McKay for
Vice and Paweł Pawlikowski for
Cold War
CC: I wasn't as impressed as others by
Yorgos Lanthimos' earlier films (
The Lobster, Killing of a Sacred Deer) but he won me over with his handling of the saucy, sassy and sexy royal goings on in
The Favourite.
KH: I've been a big fan of
Yorgos Lanthimos' darkly skewed work to date (starting with the Oscar nominated
Dogtooth), so his crossover success with
The Favourite is well deserved... and deserving of the Oscar.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC:
Damien Chazelle became the youngest-ever winner of the Oscar for Best Direction two years ago for
La La Land, but he exceeded himself with the Neil Armstrong biopic
First Man.
It was my choice as
Best Film of 2018 but only scored a few Academy
Award nominations in technical categories. It is one of the most
visceral and haunting movies I've
ever seen thanks to Chazelle's craft.
KH: There were no finer examples of excellent direction last year than the work of
Marielle Heller in
Can You Ever Forgive Me? and
Debra Granik in
Leave No Trace.
The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are:
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,
BlacKkKlansman,
Can You Ever Forgive Me?,
If Beale Street Could Talk and
A Star Is Born
CC: The compassionate, frequently hilarious yet deeply moving
Can You Ever Forgive Me?.
KH: The
Writers Guild Awards got it right: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty's finely crafted adaptation of the Lee Israel memoir
Can You Ever Forgive Me?.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: 1964's
Mary Poppins was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay but not its past due 2018 sequel. Times were more innocent back then but
Mary Poppins Returns (screenplay by David Magee, story by Magee, Rob Marshall and John DeLuca) went somewhat deeper and is virtually as accomplished as the original.
KH: And the
USC Scripter Award got it right as well: Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini's adaptation of the novel
My Abandonment by Peter Rock into the film
Leave No Trace.
The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are:
The Favourite,
First Reformed,
Green Book,
Roma and
Vice
CC:
The Favourite, perhaps the finest historical dramedy since 1963's
Tom Jones (which incidentally starred the great Albert Finney, who passed away earlier this month).
KH: Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara's wryly sardonic script for
The Favourite naturally gets my vote.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: Bo Burnhams's debut feature
Eighth Grade hit the transition from pre-pubescence to adolescence on the nose as no film before it has.
KH: Once again, the Writers Guild Awards got it right with Bo Burnam's
Eighth Grade, which somehow was totally ignored by the Academy.
The nominees for Best Cinematography are:
Cold War,
The Favourite,
Never Look Away,
Roma and
A Star Is Born
CC: The two black & white entries here,
Cold War and
Roma, are grabbing all the attention. I go for Robbie Ryan's more colorful, classical work on
The Favourite.
KH: With Robbie Ryan's use of natural lighting and unorthodox lenses, no other movie looked quite like
The Favourite last year... or most other years.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: The visually stunning
First Man, shot by the great Linus Sandgren.
KH: Some of the scariest moments in
Hereditary are thanks to its DP Pawel Pogorzelski and his expertise with shadows and framing.
The nominees for Best Production Design are:
Black Panther,
The Favourite,
First Man,
Mary Poppins Returns and
Roma
CC:
First Man and
Mary Poppins Returns finally get some love here. However, I would vote for the equally period-perfect
The Favourite.
KH: From the inside of a Royal Doulton bowl to the top of Big Ben, not to mention the lovingly recreated Cherry Tree Lane,
Mary Poppins Returns delivers the most eye candy.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: Sure, its mostly set in dirty apartments and used book stores but
Can You Ever Forgive Me? nails its early-1990's NYC setting.
KH:
Crazy Rich Asians' over-the-top wedding alone should have attracted Oscar's attention here.
The nominees for Best Costume Design are:
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,
Black Panther,
The Favourite,
Mary Poppins Returns and
Mary Queen of Scots
CC: Designer Sandy Powell was a busy lady last year, and is nominated for both
The Favourite and
Mary Poppins Returns. I would vote
for Powell's impressive attention to detail in the latter. Note that
she hand-painted the costumes for the show-stopping, traditionally
animated "A Cover is Not the Book" production number.
KH: Can't double nominee Sandy Powell just win for both? No? OK, then her inventive, whimsical frocks for
Mary Poppins Returns win by a nose.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: It's hard to believe
Bohemian Rhapsody was overlooked here, what with all its 70's and 80's tribute fashions.
KH:
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again clothed the likes of Lily James and Cher in fashions from the 70's and today... pretty groovy.
The nominees for Best Original Score are:
Black Panther,
BlacKkKlansman,
If Beale Street Could Talk,
Isle of Dogs and
Mary Poppins Returns
CC: Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman had a tall order when they took on the sequel to one of Disney's most beloved live-action musicals. Their
score for
Mary Poppins Returns more than rose to the occasion, adding some clever and memorable new songs while wistfully evoking the original's at times. Although only Shaiman is nominated in this category, I expect him to drag Wittman – his longtime partner in music and life – on stage with him if he wins. The pair brought the house down when they won the Tony Award for their
Hairspray score and kissed on national TV, which was still pretty scandalous back in 2002.
KH: Marc Shaiman is just missing the "O" from the
"EGOT", and his appropriately Sherman-esque melodies for
Mary Poppins Returns deserve to earn him the final piece of that showbiz quadruple-crown.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: I love Justin Hurwitz's haunting, minimalist music in
First Man. It's a 180 degree turn from
La La Land.
KH: Brian Tyler's
Crazy Rich Asians score was a wonderful mash-up of Asian influences and big band sounds.
The nominees for Best Original Song are:
"All the Stars" from
Black Panther,
"I'll Fight" from
RBG,
"The Place Where Lost Things Go" from
Mary Poppins Returns,
"Shallow" from
A Star Is Born and
"When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" from
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
CC: Gotta go with Gaga and
"Shallow".
KH: I have soft spots for the songs from
Mary and
Buster, but there's no denying the instantly iconic
"Shallow".
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC:
"A Place Called Slaughter Race" is a simultaneously heartfelt and hilarious mock Disney Princess "I want" song in
Ralph Breaks the Internet.
KH: Pick a show-stopper from
A Star Is Born (
"Always Remember Us This Way",
"I'll Never Love Again") or
Mary Poppins Returns (
"Can You Imagine That?",
"Trip a Little Light Fantastic").
The nominees for Best Film Editing are:
BlacKkKlansman,
Bohemian Rhapsody,
The Favourite,
Green Book and
Vice
CC: I was impressed by the whiplash editing in
Vice as it veered from serious political drama to comedy to all-out satire.
KH: I concur,
Vice it is.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: How did
First Man...
KH: ...and
A Star Is Born not make this final cut?
The nominees for Best Sound Mixing are:
Black Panther,
Bohemian Rhapsody,
First Man,
Roma and
A Star Is Born
CC: As much as I loved all the Queen tunes and concert footage in
Bohemian Rhapsody, I would go with
First Man.
KH:
A Star Is Born, not just for the obvious work with the music and songs, but also the effective depictions of Jackson Maine's substance abuse.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: How did the hyper-heroic and suitably-loud
Avengers: Infinity War get overlooked here?
KH: Musicals usually fare well in this category, so where's
Mary Poppins Returns?
The nominees for Best Sound Editing are:
Black Panther,
Bohemian Rhapsody,
First Man,
A Quiet Place and
Roma
CC: Since this is the only nomination garnered by the very effective thriller
A Quiet Place, I would vote for it with its sound-sensitive monsters.
KH: With or without it,
A Quiet Place was all about the sound.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC:
Avengers: Infinity War redux.
KH: Another popular superhero fest,
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The nominees for Best Visual Effects are:
Avengers: Infinity War,
Christopher Robin,
First Man,
Ready Player One and
Solo: A Star Wars Story
CC: The other nominees in this category are bigger and flashier (not to
mention more expensive), but I adored and totally believed the CGI
versions of A.A. Milne's beloved Winnie the Pooh and friends in
Christopher Robin. I'm so happy it was nominated here.
KH: If it was just the impressive Thanos, than I'd go with
Avengers: Infinity War, but then there's scenes
like this. And don't get me started on the muddy, ugly
Ready Player One. So I too will go with the entirely believable childhood toys of
Christopher Robin's childhood days.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: Disney's artists also scored big with
Mary Poppins Returns, turning Meryl Streep upside down and
setting the entire cast afloat for the finale. I especially liked the
dolphin that pops up in the bathtub ("No, not yet") during the
delightfully nautical "Can You Imagine That?" number.
KH: A far cry from Disney's high-flying nanny and cuddly stuffed animals:
Hereditary's host of decapitated bodies.
The nominees for Best Makeup and Hairstyling are:
Border,
Mary Queen of Scots and
Vice
CC: Christian Bale's transformation into Dick Cheney was frighteningly effective in
Vice.
KH: The impressive transformations in
Vice were only surpassed by the seamless creations of the trolls in the Swedish film
Border.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC:
Mary Poppins Returns, if primarily for Meryl Streep's appearance as cousin Topsy.
KH: Nicholas Hoult's wigs: three words that prove that
The Favourite should have been recognized.
The nominees for Best Animated Feature are:
Incredibles 2,
Isle of Dogs,
Mirai,
Ralph Breaks the Internet and
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
CC: I love
Isle of Dogs. Is that redundant?
KH: The new adventures of Ralph and Spidey are faves, but Wes Anderson's wacky
Isle of Dogs was wildly original and thoroughly entertaining.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: Actually, the Academy seemed to nail this category for once.
KH: Does
Paddington 2 count?
The nominees for Best Foreign Language Film are:
Capernaum (Lebanon),
Cold War (Poland),
Never Look Away (Germany),
Roma (Mexico) and
Shoplifters (Japan)
CC: Alfonso Cuarón's lovingly autobiographical
Roma gets my vote.
KH: I have yet to see the Lebanese and German contenders, and was mostly underwhelmed by the Polish and Mexican front runners, which leaves Hirokazu Kore-eda's brilliant
Shoplifters, which would have been my pick no matter what.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC: It wasn't officially submitted for consideration but Finland's
A Moment in the Reeds is both a great foreign language film and one of the best gay-themed films in several years.
KH: I was mesmerized by the tense Danish thriller
The Guilty;
Jake Gyllenhaal, you have a lot to live up to.
The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are:
Free Solo,
Hale County This Morning, This Evening,
Minding the Gap,
Of Fathers and Sons and
RBG
CC: All hail the
RBG!
KH: There's no stopping the Notorious
RBG.
Egregiously Overlooked:
CC:
Won't You Be My Neighbor? WTF?
KH: The twisty strange-but-true
Three Identical Strangers was robbed.
The nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject are:
Black Sheep,
End Game,
Lifeboat,
A Night at The Garden and
Period. End of Sentence.
CC: I've worked with the dying on hospice for many years so am partial to the courageous
End Game.
KH: I was greatly impressed by the tenacious women of
Period. End of Sentence., the only "feel good" contender here that nevertheless earns every good feeling it elicits.
Egregiously Overlooked:
KH: The title of
My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes alone would have brought some levity to this predominantly somber bunch.
The nominees for Best Animated Short Film are:
Animal Behaviour,
Bao,
Late Afternoon,
One Small Step and
Weekends
CC:
The adorable, dumpling-themed
Bao both touched me and made me hungry.
KH: The bittersweet
Late Afternoon is easily one of my favorite nominated films this year, short or otherwise.
Egregiously Overlooked:
KH: DreamWorks'
Bilby (which will screen theatrically with the newest
How to Train Your Dragon later this month) is a cute and funny adventure through the wilds of the Australian Outback.
The nominees for Best Live Action Short Film are:
Detainment,
Fauve,
Marguerite,
Mother and
Skin
CC:
Marguerite is the only one I've seen but it is lovely and worthy of my vote.
KH: From a batch of nominees that has become infamous for its bleakness, the grim and gritty
Fauve is the one that haunts me still.
Egregiously Overlooked:
KH: The Hungarian comedy
Chuchotage would have injected some needed levity into this category this year.
And now for our own special category of dishonorable mention, the
Worst Nomination of the Year:
CC: Best Original Screenplay for
First Reformed. I'm a longtime fan of writer-director Paul
Schrader and this is his first, overdue Oscar nomination. Normally I
would applaud him but I was frustrated by this baffling,
religio-environmental drama that plays like a mashup of Schrader's
scripts for
Taxi Driver and
The Last Temptation of Christ. His underrated, 1982 remake of
Cat People was better than this.
KH: This year I'm going straight to the top and call out the Best Picture nomination of
Bohemian Rhapsody. There are so many things wrong with this long-in-the-works Freddie Mercury biopic, both onscreen (those
teeth!?!) and behind the scenes (yeah, I'm not going to touch any of
that), and yet it somehow kept on getting attention this award season, one perplexing nomination after another, until this. An Oscar nomination for Best Picture. To paraphrase the Queen title tune: "Is this the real life, or is it just fantasy? Oh, mamma mia. Just let me go..."
And so the final march to Oscar glory begins. Tune in to the Big Show this Sunday to see who wins, as well as which nominees are rocking the best (and worst) gowns, hottest escorts and most heartfelt acceptance speeches.
By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine, and Kirby Holt, creator, editor and head writer of Movie Dearest.
