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Friday, March 2, 2018

AWARDS SEASON 2018
The Oscars: The Deserving Winners


Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar-nominated for playing Chris in Jordan Peele's Best Picture Oscar nominee "Get Out". Universal Pictures
       
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Friday, March 2, 2018
Many avid Oscars watchers, experts and prognosticators have a strong idea of who will go home with Oscar on Sunday night in Hollywood.  While Sunday is expected to be a mostly anti-climactic night over the years Oscar has pulled off a surprise or two.

Yet this article is devoted to spotlighting the deserving winners, not those who will likely win.

(The Oscars are this Sunday, March 4 and will be broadcast live in the U.S. on ABC television starting at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern.)

Here are a few of the nominees who deserve to win the Oscar on Sunday.


BEST PICTURE
GET OUT

Many are betting on the PGA winner "The Shape Of Water" because of its momentum and the stunningly close correlation between winning Producers Guild Of America for Best Produced Film and winning Best Picture.  Last year "La La Land" won the PGA only to be bested on Oscar night for Best Picture by "Moonlight".

Despite no nomination for editing (a key variable for Best Picture) "Get Out" has been America's cultural and social touchstone for more than a year now, and its momentum has not waned.  If the Academy wants to do something enlivening in its 90-year-anniversary it would do well to appraise a groundbreaking and inventive film.

"Get Out" is a film that will be remembered 50 years from now.  More than a year later you still remember the lines, the scenes, the moments.  Jordan Peele's film is an entirely, enthralling, clever, thought-provoking and jarring experience.


BEST ACTRESS
Margot Robbie, "I, Tonya"

A visceral, bruising and defiant showcase from Margot Robbie, who displays a full range of character as Tonya Harding in "I, Tonya".  Ms. Robbie skates, fights, falls, spars, percolates and deftly balances her performance into a nuanced journey of victim or victimizer.  It's a terrifically good work full of gusto, bravery, spikes and comedy.  Sheer vigor and energy alone should give Margot Robbie this Oscar.  This was the most alive and aware big screen performance I saw in 2017.




Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock in Paul Thomas Anderson's film "Phantom Thread". Focus Features

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis, "Phantom Thread"

In some ways Daniel Day-Lewis sets the bar so high that when it comes to awards consideration he is competing against himself with the quality of his work and the fierce, years-long dedication to it.  Mr. Day-Lewis is in an echelon by himself.  Some may call his performance in "Phantom Thread" mannered.  I'd call it astoundingly tactile and genuine.  As fastidious fashion coutourist Reynolds Woodcock Mr. Day-Lewis is achingly human --he's hardly a film character.  No caricature nor trace of theatricality.  The subtlety is there.  It appears that Mr. Day-Lewis isn't acting at all.




Laurie Metcalf. Maarten De Boer/Getty

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Laurie Metcalf, "Lady Bird"

Laurie Metcalf accesses her character so thoroughly that you feel you actually know her.  She plays Marion, the mother of the title character in "Lady Bird" and brings such palpable moments to Greta Gerwig's film.  Ms. Metcalf is a generous actor and you can see that she makes Saoirse Ronan better.  Ms. Metcalf allows her Marion to embrace episodes and moments and turn them into something smaller or greater.  Ms. Metcalf's timing as an actor is a key to the whole film.



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Willem Dafoe, "The Florida Project"

A stalwart for generations now Willem Dafoe looks effortless in his work as a building landlord in "The Florida Project" but the hardest thing to do is appear not to be acting at all.  Which is what Mr. Dafoe's work shows.  With a cast of non-professional actors Mr. Dafoe shrewdly gives the screen and stage to them.  He bounces off of them, reacting to them -- as he marshals them through Sean Baker's film.  It's clever work.  Understated and effective.




Jordan Peele, director of "Get Out". Uncredited

BEST DIRECTOR
Jordan Peele, "Get Out"

Such intelligent orchestrations from Jordan Peele as he navigates the horror landscape with ingenious twists and creations of his own.  The turns of stage, the canvas, the array and coverage of horror that we see and feel but yet are unfamiliar with in horror films historically, is all here.  Mr. Peele uses racism -- institutional, local and familial -- and embeds them throughout in a cinematic way.  Identifying white police officers and white families as sources of horror for Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) while representing what those traumas are with iconic visuals not only shows great imagination but a supreme command of the craft.  Not bad for a first-time director.




Tatiana S. Riegel, editor of "I, Tonya". Omar Moore

BEST EDITING
Tatiana S. Riegel, "I, Tonya"

The precision and heartbeat "I, Tonya" has is due to Tatiana Riegel.  Her fine career in editing is further accentuated by this excellent achievement in editing for Craig Gillespie's film.  There is a rhythm, a chaos, a freedom and a sense of visceral moods, comedy and brutality that Ms. Riegel captures that works so well for the film and what it represents.  The violence is often conjured by the editing choices.  Specifically -- the rapid shifts in atmosphere -- the pushing, pulling and prodding of the audience, the characters and the narrative itself.  Having met Ms. Riegel I have become a huge fan and the work she does here speaks for itself.



BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Mighty River", Mary J. Blige (from "Mudbound")

Mary J. Blige, so evocative and terrific in Dee Rees' "Mudbound", punctuates the film in its closing credits with this beautiful, heartfelt song.  With "Mighty River" Ms. Blige captures the triumph, inspiration, sorrow, joy and pain that fluctuates in "Mudbound".  I can't think of a better song to encapsulate a film in 2017. 


Mary J. Blige. Getty


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Jonny Greenwood, "Phantom Thread"

An astounding effort from Jonny Greenwood, who infuses this soundtrack with the feelings and emotions of the events and characters in "Phantom Thread".  The beauty and elegance in the piano and string music Mr. Greenwood orchestrates is marvelous.  This music is infectious and incredibly addictive.  "Phantom Thread" represents Mr. Greenwood's very best work for Paul Thomas Anderson.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Rachel Morrison, "Mudbound"

The texture, feel and tone of "Mudbound" are stunningly rendered and so beautifully captured by cinematographer Rachel Morrison, who also lensed "Black Panther".  Ms. Morrison captures the earth and sweat and violence of "Mudbound" so well.  The cinematography here is its own distinct and singular character.  This is excellent work.


Reminder: The Oscars are this Sunday, March 4 and will be broadcast live in the U.S. on ABC at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern.
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