It's that time of year again and all your artsy film friends are freaking out.
Every year in the end of February, the Oscars come around and everyone is talking about who is going to win all the major awards. The Academy Awards are my Super Bowl. I know the stats, analyzed the winners of the past awards shows, and seen a majority of the movies being represented at these awards. This year will probably represent the worst Oscars as we're forced to watch a three hour show with no host.
Every year, eight films are nominated for the best picture award. It's the most cherished prize, and can make careers. I get it though. It's hard to sit down and watch eight films, half of which you probably aren't even interested in. I mean that's like sixteen hours you could be spending binge watching Grey's Anatomy or whatever your latest binge on Netflix is. That's why your favorite film school reject sat down and did all the dirty work for you. Being the film school reject I am, I obviously know everything about film and all of my opinions stated here are basically facts.
Black Panther
Summary
King T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) of Wakanda is challenged by his cousin Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) who comes to Wakanda to claim the throne. After his successful battle, he throws T'Challa over a waterfall and the relatives of T'Challa work to find him, and help him regain the throne that is rightfully his.
Karisa's Useless Opinion
What am I kidding? You must really hate Marvel, good movies, diversity, amazing acting, and Kendrick Lamar, if you haven't seen this movie. This isn't just a great Marvel movie, it's an overall great movie. Your local film junkie will probably say that it only got nominated because people would have been outraged if it didn't, but I personally believe that this is a worthy nominee. This movie has proven to have a huge cultural impact, and I hope to see more diverse films like this in the future. I was disappointed to see that Ryan Coogler didn't get nominated for Best Director as he is proving time and time again that he is one of the best young directors around. As a self proclaimed Marvel Stan, it's refreshing to finally see some of Marvel's work get recognized by the Academy, who has historically overlooked blockbuster and superhero films.
BlacKKKlansman
Summary
The story focuses on how two cops incredibly infiltrate the KKK. Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) is a Jewish man goes undercover as a white supremacist to the local Colorado chapter of the KKK to discover if they are planning an attack. Behind the scenes, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), and African American cop, poses as a white man over the phone and has conversations with the Wizard of the Klan, David Duke. I won't spoil the ending because it's absolutely crazy, and if there is one movie on this list you should watch, this is it.
Karisa's Useless Opinion
This movie was absolutely crazy, and it's hard to believe that a lot of this happened in real life. This was the perfect time for this movie to come out, and the message is ever so relevant. The final minutes of the film show real footage from the Charlottesville rally where Heather Heyer was killed, tying the entire story to how it relates to the current political climate. This movie was truly moving and it proved that something great could come out of so much hate.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Summary
It's impossible to not love Queen music and that is an absolute fact. This movie is a biopic of the life of lead singer, Freddie Mercury and how he and his band rose to fame. It also depicts his life after being diagnosed with AIDS.
Karisa's Useless Opinion
From the moment this was announced, I was super excited. You can't tell me there's a person on this Earth who hasn't bopped to "Another One Bites the Dust" or dropped everything when "Bohemian Rhapsody"came on. Queen's music is universal, and it was about damn time that they made a movie about the complicated life of Freddie Mercury. I waited 2 years for this film to come out, and all that could be said about the movie was that there was A LOT of drama that went down behind the scenes. The cast was changed, tension between lead actor, Malek, and director Bryan Singer led to the dismissal of Singer. One day, there will probably be a movie about that set alone. With all of that in mind, I had low expectations for the movie, yet I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was fun and gave an enjoyable concert vibe, but I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that they failed to go into depth about a lot of aspects of his life like his sexuality and family. The script probably could have been better, but if they had gone in that direction, it probably wouldn't have been as popular as it was.
The Favourite
Summary
This movie follows Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) of Great Britain as they are about to embark in a war with France during the early 18th century. Her advisor Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) tends to the Queen while also running much of the political side of things as the Queen begins to fall ill. When Churchill's cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) comes asking for a job, she is given a low-level position, but quickly catches the eye of the Queen. Abigail and Sarah are stuck in a battle to see who can become the favourite and gain control of the major political decisions.
Karisa's Useless Opinion
I'm not one who is usually into period pieces, and I watched this movie a few weeks ago because I was late to see Green Book. I was so surprised by this movie, and I really enjoyed it. This period piece could easily be written as a modern political thriller with three strong women at the center. While the director said that a lot of aspects of the movie are fiction, the battle between these two was something very real that happened in history. Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz made this movie with their incredible performances that kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time.
Green Book
Summary
A story based on the relationship between famed Black pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and his Italian driver/bodyguard, Tony (Viggo Mortensen) who embark on a tour into the deep south during the early 1960's. The movie follows them as they face the racism of the time while traveling from place to place to partake in this tour. The movie is named after a book entitled "The Green Book," which shows hotels and restaurants where blacks would be served.
Karisa's Useless Opinion
This movie has had issues similar to Bohemian Rhapsody, except most of them came after filming was over. It has faced a lot of controversy behind the legitimacy of the story, and the "white savior" narrative it depicts. It's a problematic narrative that Hollywood has been obsessed with for years, as it has come out with popular movies like "The Blind Side" and "The Help." With all that aside, this movie was really enjoyable and had some incredibly powerful scenes that depicted the deep racism in the south during the 1960's. It's really hard to hate this film because of the rise above racism narrative, and Ali's portrayal of Don Shirley.
Roma
Summary
This story follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a live-in maid for a family living in a suburb outside Mexico City. Cleo becomes pregnant with her boyfriend's child, but he cuts all ties with her and disappears. The movie goes on to show how she copes with her pregnancy and eventually a still-born birth of her child, while managing to raise the children of her employer.
Karisa's Useless Opinion
Look, there's no excuse not to watch Roma. It's a Netflix movie, and I know you have a Netflix account even if it might be your third cousin's neighbor's account. If you take aesthetic pictures in black and white and post them on Instagram, then you owe it to this movie to give it a watch. This is without a doubt the most beautiful movie I saw all year and the old school black and white is perfect for this story. Although the movie was fun to look at, I felt that this story was pretty slow and there honestly wasn't a lot of plot on the surface. Even though I was a little disappointed, I still felt that the performance from Yalitza Aparicio even without considering that this was her first time acting, was one of the best of the year.
A Star is Born
Summary
A famous Country singer named Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) meets a singer named Ally (Lady Gaga) at a drag bar. The two quickly fall in love and Maine takes her on tour to sing her song "Shallow" with him. As her career begins to kick off, Maine falls back into his alcohol addiction.
Karisa's Useless Opinion
A little over a year ago, I saw Lady Gaga live and it was honestly life changing. Her album "Joanne" really proved to everyone that she could SING sing and A Star is Born proved that she could ACT act. Admittedly, I haven't seen any of the previous versions of this movie, but I thought the story was enticing, heartbreaking and a beautiful portrayal of a love story all in one. There wasn't a moment where I wasn't entertained. My only criticism of this movie would probably have to be in the cinematography. Even though it was fitting for the plot of the film, I felt that nearly every shot was a close up of people's face, and the entire film I felt like I was breathing down Bradley Cooper's neck.
Vice
Summary
This movie shows the rise of an unlikely political giant Dick Cheney and how he finessed the public into supporting many of his causes. The movie is told from a mysterious narrator whose connection to the story is not revealed until the very end in a surprising twist.
Karisa's Useless Opinion
I saw this movie when it first came out because my dad heard this showed Dick Cheney for who he really was, and my dad hates Dick Cheney. I was blown away by the historical facts behind this movie that I really didn't know. Like BlacKKKlansman, this movie came out at the perfect time and the message is stronger than ever. Cheney's ability to shape the narrative of the media in order to get the public on his side, is scary to watch and yet ever so relevant to our current political climate. This movie was good, but not up to the standards of McKay's previous work, The Big Short. All in all this movie solidifies the fact that Dick Cheney is a real dick and his daughter wins the award for worst sister for throwing her sister under the bus.
Will Win: Roma
Roma is predicted to be the winner of the best picture this year which would be a historical win. It would be the first time a foreign language film would be taking home the biggest prize. It would also be the first time that a picture distributed by Netflix would get the dubb. A win for Roma would be huge in the sense of representation, validation of foreign language films, and the new era of the distribution of movies.
Karisa's Useless Opinion: BlacKKKlansman
This movie is a Spike Lee masterpiece. It really has everything from satire to pure comedy, to phenomenal dramatic performances. No scenes are more impactful than the final 20 minutes of this film, and for just that I have to give it the best picture. There is often a divide between what I consider a good movie and what is a fun movie, but somehow I felt that this movie captured both.
Predictions For All the Other Categories
Karisa's Useless Opinions from her last 3 brain cells
Best Director
Nominees:
Alfonso Cuaron (Roma)
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)
Spike Lee (BlacKKKlansman)
Adam McKay (Vice)
Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War)
Will Win: Alfonso Cuaron
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Spike Lee
This category often goes to the director of whatever movie wins best picture. I'm a huge fan of Cuaron's work, but I still believe Gravity is his best movie and BlacKKKlansman is my pick for best picture so I have to stick to my man, Spike Lee. The Academy has failed to acknowledge his work and last year they gave him one of those stupid honorary Oscars which really doesn't make up for the fact that he has directed movies worthy of much more.
Best Actor
Nominees:
Christian Bale (Vice)
Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born)
Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate)
Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Viggo Mortensen (Green Book)
Will Win: Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Christian Bale (Vice)
Don't get me wrong. I love Rami Malek, and I've watched a majority of his past work in Mr. Robot and the movie that should have won him an Academy Award, Night at the Museum. He shined in a movie that had so many issues behind the scenes, but in my opinion Christian Bale's portrayal of the ruthless Dick Cheney was the performance of the year. In Bale's acceptance speech after he won the Critics Choice Award for Best Actor he thanked Satan for inspiring his portrayal of a truly evil man. Needless to say, we stand.
Best Actress
Nominees:
Yalitza Aparicio (Roma)
Glenn Close (The Wife)
Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Lady Gaga (A Star is Born)
Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Will Win: Glenn Close (The Wife)
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
To be honest, I haven't even seen Can You Ever Forgive Me? or The Wife. The movie came out after I left the US and was never released in France, but my bias says that Melissa McCarthy deserves this because I love her. She has shown to be one of the most dynamic actresses and her career looks to be on a path similar to Steve Carell's. Everyone in this category was amazing, but I'm out here voicing my opinion here, and I say that Melissa deserves the world.
Best Supporting Actor
Nominees:
Mahershala Ali (Green Book)
Adam Driver (BlacKKKlansman)
Sam Elliott (A Star is Born)
Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Sam Rockwell (Vice)
Will Win: Mahershala Ali (Green Book)
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Mahershala Ali (Green Book)
This is a really strong group minus Sam Rockwell. I honestly don't know why he was nominated when he was in maybe ten minutes of Vice, and really didn't have a memorable performance at all. I guess because he won last year, the Academy decided to give him another nod. Mahershala Ali is a phenomenal actor who gained huge recognition from his role in Moonlight 2 years ago. He is the shining star in Green Book, and I continue to wonder why he was not considered the leading actor in this movie. All the odds are in his favor with the Hollywood Reporter giving Ali an almost 90% chance of winning.
Best Supporting Actress
Nominees:
Amy Adams (Vice)
Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Emma Stone (The Favourite)
Marina de Tavira (Roma)
Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)
Will Win: Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
This category is truly stacked with some of the most powerful performances in movies this year. If there weren't as many heavy hitters in this category, I'm confident that Michelle Yeoh would have been among these names for her role in Crazy Rich Asians. If Beale Street Could Talk is an extremely heavy movie, that should have gotten a nod for Best Picture. Regina King absolutely carries this movie and while the other nominees had great performances, none of them had as hard of a job as King.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominees:
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
If Beale Street Could Talk
BlacKKKlansman
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
A Star is Born
Will Win: BlacKKKlansman
Karisa's Useless Opinion: BlacKKKlansman
At this point you know I love this movie so you know my pick would be BlacKKKlansman. The script brings in a mixture of drama and comedy to create the perfect formula for a movie about the KKK. I haven't had the chance yet, but I really want to read the book behind this insane movie.
Best Original Screenplay
Nominees:
The Favourite
First Reformed
Green Book
Roma
Vice
Will Win: The Favourite
Karisa's Useless Opinion: The Favourite
Like I said, The Favourite really is a modern political thriller in the disguise of a period piece. There's so much to love about it and while it might not be completely accurate to the actual historical events, it plays out as a thrilling piece worthy of the Best OG Screenplay award.
Best Animated Feature
Nominees:
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Will Win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
I have to admit that when I first found out that they had cast Tom Holland to play the Spider-Man for the MCU, I was pretty disappointed. This meant that it would be the third time that we would be seeing yet another Peter Parker, when this could have been a perfect opportunity to bring Miles Morales into the spotlight. With all that aside, Sony, who still owns part of the rights to Spider-Man, decided to come out with an animated feature focused on the half Puerto Rican, half Black young hero. They did a fantastic job of making a comic book into a movie. This is one of those great movies that came out at the perfect time. All the hype in this category went to Incredibles 2, but Spider-Man came out at the perfect time to steal it all away at the peak of awards season.
Best Documentary Feature
Nominees:
Of Fathers and Sons
Free Solo
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Minding the Gap
RBG
Will Win: RBG
Karisa's Useless Opinion: RBG or Free Solo
I saw RBG in a tiny theater near my house over the summer. I was the youngest person in that theater by about 35 years (yeah, the second youngest person in that room was probably my mom). It was the first documentary that ever made me cry. Ruth Bader Ginsburg's relationship with her husband is one of the most pure couples stories that I've seen since the first 5 minutes of Up. On the other hand, Free Solo is the first documentary to nearly give me a heart attack. I went to see this documentary because a National Geographic photographer I follow on Instagram (Jimmy Chin, his insta is hella cool and he does some of the craziest skiing photography) co-directed this. The documentary follows this crazy dude Alex who is trying to be the first person to climb El Capitan with no gear. If he falls, he dies. So yeah, I had a little heights anxiety.
Best Foreign Language Film
Nominees:
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Will Win: Roma
Karisa's Useless Opinion: idk
Sorry man, I've only seen Roma so I can't really judge the other films. If Roma got nominated for Best Picture it's a shoe in for this category.
Best Cinematography
Nominees:
Cold War
The Favourite
Never Look Away
Roma
A Star is Born
Will Win: Roma
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Roma
The first thing I noticed when I sat down and watched The Favourite was that it had some extremely interesting shots using a fisheye lens. In my useless opinion, I don't really think it fit the setting of a period piece, and in general I'm not a huge fan of a fisheye lens in the first place. There are a lot of people who picked The Favourite to win this award, but both I and the math are going with Roma. Roma took advantage of the old school black and white look and benefitted from some beautiful production design to produce shots extremely pleasing to the eye. For me, Roma was the aesthetic film of the year.
Best Costume Design
Nominees:
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
The Favourite
Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots
Will Win: The Favourite
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Black Panther
I'm not surprised the math is predicting that The Favourite will win in this category. The Academy is made up of a lot of old people who really like traditional stuff and I'm sure the people voting for this category are the same. The costumes in The Favourite are beautiful, but I feel that the ones of Black Panther garnered much more creative thinking. I read an interesting article in The Washington Post a while ago about Ruth E. Carter's inspiration behind her costume design. Worth the read.
Best Film Editing
Nominees:
BlacKKKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Vice
Will Win: Bohemian Rhapsody
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Vice
Editing can make or break a film, and while the editing in Bohemian Rhapsody allows for the film to flow smoothly, I felt that Vice's editing was integral to Adam McKay's unorthodox telling of the story. It's hard to explain why without going through the entirety of the film, but this story wouldn't been the same without the work of Hank Corwin.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Nominees:
Border
Mary Queen of Scots
Vice
Will Win: Vice
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Vice
If you can turn Christian Bale into that, then you probably deserve this award. Not everything can be CGI.
Best Original Score
Nominees:
If Beale Street Could Talk
BlacKKKlansman
Black Panther
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns
Will Win: If Beale Street Could Talk
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Black Panther
Black Panther is one of those films that had a lot of tangibles that were perfectly executed, and I feel that the score fits right in with that. The best scores are either the ones you can't get out of your head, or the ones you can't even remember being present in the film. This score is one I could hear as I walked out of the theater on opening day. It blended traditional African music with modern day hip hop, which worked perfectly for the vibe of the movie.
Best Original Song
Nominees:
"All the Stars" (Black Panther)
"I'll Fight" (RBG)
"The Place Where Lost Things Go" (Mary Poppins Returns)
"Shallow" (A Star is Born)
"When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)
Will Win: "Shallow"
Karisa's Useless Opinion: "Shallow" or "All the Stars" or "I'll Fight"
This is always one of my favorite categories because it is half of the reason I stay through the credits. My three picks are all very different but are all reflective of the movies they are paired with. If you want some good movie bops, you should follow my Movie Music Playlist on Spotify.
Best Production Design
Nominees:
Black Panther
The Favourite
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma
Will Win: The Favourite
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Black Panther
Ok, I'm SUPER salty that Crazy Rich Asians didn't get nominated in this category. It even won the Art Directors Guild Award, but failed to get recognized here. You're really going to tell me that Wedding Scene wasn't the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? Whatever. I chose Black Panther to win this because while The Favourite looks pretty cool, but really the whole movie takes place in about 5 different places. Black Panther's design is dynamic, and has a beautiful mix of modern and traditional culture, which yet again, is extremely reflective of the movie itself.
Best Sound Editing
Nominees:
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
A Quiet Place
Roma
Will Win: A Quiet Place
Karisa's Useless Opinion: idk
Look. If I had gotten into film school I probably would have learned whatever the hell this is and how it works, but I got rejected so I have no idea how to judge this. All I know is it has to do with the sound effects, and the ones in Quiet Place nearly made me pee my pants.
Best Sound Mixing
Nominees:
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
A Star is Born
Will Win: Bohemian Rhapsody
Karisa's Useless Opinion: idk
Sound mixing is the mixing of sounds. I don't know how to judge this so go ask someone studying film at your university. While you're at it, ask them how they got in, and have them slide into my DMs.
Best Visual Effects
Nominees:
Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
First Man
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Will Win: Avengers: Infinity War
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Avengers: Infinity War
Yeah, I still don't feel so good either. While the post *snap* stuff was pretty cool, that scene where Nebula is putting herself back together on Thanos' ship is some pretty awesome CGI, and they deserve it just for that. Ready Player One was pretty cool but there was an added level of realism that couldn't match that of Infinity War.
Best Animated Short
Nominees:
Animal Behavior
Bao
Late Afternoon
One Small Step
Weekends
Will Win: Bao
Karisa's Useless Opinion: Bao
Next week I'm going to do a whole blog post on this short, but for now all I'm going to say is that I will be very disappointed if this doesn't win. As an Asian American, I felt that this 8 minute short was the most important media that came out this year. And yes, that means more than Crazy Rich Asians.
Best Documentary Short
Nominees:
Black Sheep
End Game
Lifeboat
A Night at the Garden
Period. End of Sentence.
Will Win: Period. End of Sentence
Karisa's Useless Opinion: idk
I haven't seen any of these so I can't really judge.
Best Live-Action Short
Nominees:
Detainment
Fauve
Marguerite
Mother
Skin
Will Win: Marguerite
Karisa's Useless Opinion: idk
Yet again I have not seen any of these and cannot judge, but what I can say is that the people who make these shorts are often the future of Hollywood. Shorts like this, often lead to full length films. Damien Chazelle who directed La La Land started out by pitching his screenplay, Whiplash to film executives. When they wouldn't approve of it, he decided to make a short film. The film became critically acclaimed and he would go on to make the full length film which would win 3 Oscars in 2014.
The Oscars air on ABC 5PM West Coast 8PM East Coast and 2AM Paris time #RIP.
If you made it this far, just know I love you. <3 Karisa
Comments