Mike's Fearless Oscar Picks

As with past years I am picking who I think will win, not who I want to win.  I will also give you a possible winner if I feel that the category isn’t a lock.  Actual winners highlighted in green.

Best Picture:  Nomadland

Best Achievement in Directing:  Chloé Zhao - Nomadland

Best Actor:  Chadwick Boseman - Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom   Could win:  Anthony Hopkins - The Father

Best Actress:  Viola Davis - Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom    Could win:  Frances McDormand - Nomadland

Best Supporting Actor:  Daniel Kaluuya - Judas and the Black Messiah    Could win:  Sacha Baron Cohen - The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Supporting Actress:  Yuh-Jung Youn - Minari   Could win:  Olivia Coleman - The Father

Best Original Screenplay:  Promising Young Woman - Emerald Fennell    Could win:  Aaron Sorkin - The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Father - Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller

  Could win:  Nomadland - Chloé Zhao 

Best Animated Feature:  Soul    Could win:  Wolfwalkers

Best Production Design:   Mank - Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale

Best Cinematography:  Nomadland - Joshua James Richards   Could win:  Mank - Erik Messerschmidt

Best Costume Design:  Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom - Ann Roth   Could Win: Mank - Trish Summerville

Best Film Editing:   Sound of Metal - Mikkell E. G. Nielsen

Best Makeup and Hair:  Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – Mia Neal, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Jamika Wilson

Best Sound:  Sound of Metal – Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés, Phillip Bladh    Could win:  Soul – Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker

Best Visual Effects:  Tenet – Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley, Santiago Colomo Martinez

Best Original Score:  Soul – Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Best Original Song:  Speak Now from One Night in Miami – Leslie Odom Jr., Sam Ashworth  Could win:  Húsavík from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga - Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson  (Fight For You - Judas and the Black Messiah)

Best Documentary Feature:  My Octopus Teacher  Could win:  Collective

Best International Feature:  Another Round    Could win:  Quo Vadis, Aida 

Best Live Action Short:  Two Distant Strangers   Could win:  Feeling Through

Best Animated Short:  If Anything Happens I Love You   Could win:  Opera

Best Documentary Short:  A Concerto Is a Conversation   Could win: Colette

Wonder Woman 1984

 Note to readers: I currently am not willing to risk my health (I’m 62 and an asthmatic) by visiting a theatre. All films that I have seen for review have been screened in my home. I am not going to tell you whether or not to attend a theatre. Just be aware of the risks, do your research, and follow the instructions to the letter.

My View: Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) PG-13    We fast forward to 1984, and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is facing new challenges and new enemies in Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) and Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), also known as The Cheetah. First, let me warn you that you will need those Christmas dinner leftovers to make it through the two hours and thirty-minute length of this film. Unfortunately, you feel all of this movie's length as it takes forever to move forward. I thought the first Wonder Woman film was one of the best films of 2017 and that director Patty Jenkins did an outstanding job of giving us a DC character that we could fall in love with. This time, instead of Wonder Woman’s love for a man as one of the sources of her strength, Jenkins makes it a weakness, and the film suffers because of it. The film is set in the mid-80s, and other than a funny shout-out to the crappy clothes of the time, we get very little feel for that time period, other than the thought that I was back in the 80s watching those bad Superman sequels. I would have liked this film to have been more about Wonder Woman versus The Cheetah, a villain who never quite gets the center stage that she deserves. The plot of Max Lord trying to take over the world had a very late 60s, early 70s DC comic book feeling, a time when the DC comics had one-dimensional villains who didn’t make it past the one issue they were in. Overall, after watching this film, I felt let down by the plot. I wanted the fire and passion I got from the first film; instead, I got a lot of Max Lord acting like a real estate pitchman on coke.  There is a small scene after the first bit of closing credits that you will enjoy.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee    Wonder Woman 1984 Website    Now playing in select theatres and on the HBO Max platform.

My View: Soul (2020) PG     A musician, Joe (Jamie Foxx), who has lost his passion, is transported out of his body and must now find his way back, helping an infant soul (Tina Fey) learn about herself. Finally, a Pixar movie for adults! Now, children will enjoy some aspects of the film, especially the time that Joe spends in ‘The Great Beyond’ with his charge, soul number 22. By the way, Tina Fey is delightful as 22, and the Pixar people did the smart thing and let her deliver a lot of her own lines as the character who wants nothing more than to stay where she is, no going back to Earth for her. The film deals with many adult themes; when to let your dreams die, if your life is full without fulfilling those long-lost dreams, and how much would you give to get what you always have longed for. The animation is beautifully done, sometimes simplistically so, and the score by Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross is a mix of glorious jazz with a score that simply matches the film and its tone. Now, I might have enjoyed a few other Pixar films more (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Up), but Soul is a film that fills you up with hope and warm feelings, and that’s all we need from a Pixar picture right now.   My Rating: Full Price    Soul Website    Available on the Disney + platform.

My View: News of the World (2020) PG-13    Five years after the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) makes his living going town to town as a storyteller, reading from news accounts, telling stories of all kinds. In the plains of Texas, he finds Johanna ( Helena Zengel), a ten-year-old girl who was raised by the Kiowa people as their own. Against her will, the Captain agrees to take Johanna to her relatives in a remote town hundreds of miles away. The two will travel a great distance to meet the tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces to find Johanna a home. Everything you want in a Tom Hanks performance is in this film and maybe, just a little more. We all know that Hanks has experience playing a cowboy, if one that is animated and loved (Woody), but this is the first time Hanks has appeared in a live-action western. It reminded me of the westerns that Jimmy Stewart did in his 50s and 60s, the grizzled, seen it all hero who had a past he would rather not bring up. Hanks is reliable in the role, an instant father figure to a young girl in need of understanding and love. This is an old-fashioned tale of a single man who undertakes a job no one else is willing to do. A man with a moral backbone who knows he must do what is right, no matter the consequences. What I have always loved about westerns is that they take a simple story and make it relevant to modern times. Instead of making the Indians the bad guy, it's Captain Kidd’s fellow ex-confederate soldiers that he once fought along with are now the enemy. This film wouldn't have worked as well without the instant chemistry that Hanks has with his co-star, Helena Zengel, who gives a touching and sometimes powerful performance as the little girl taken twice against her will from her families. The News of the World is a modern tale that has just enough of the old west to make it a western for everyone.    My Rating: Full Price     News of the World Website     Now playing in select theatres.

Indiefest: One Night in Miami (2020)  R  Fictional account of one night where Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cook, and Jim Brown gathered to discuss their roles in the civil rights movement in the turbulent 1960s. While not as flashy as another recent stage to screen adoption Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, One Night in Miami has competing and forceful performances from a cast that is given the challenging task of portraying characters that are well-known and distinct. Like Black Bottom, director Regina King has taken what could have been stagey and stiff and breathed life into a story that mostly occurs in and around a hotel room. The cast does a wonderful and fascinating portrayal of four men trying to find their way in an increasingly complex and complicated world. You have the brash, brilliantly charismatic boxer Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), the confident, strong football star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), the slick and talented singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and the fiery, bombastic Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir). The four good friends are all dealing with a time of significant change, with the civil rights movement gaining speed on the national front. Two of the men will soon be gone (Cooke and Malcolm X) but will leave behind works and legacies that have survived long after they were gone. The other two, Brown and Clay (soon to be Ali), are men whose fight for equality and change was just starting. The film shows all the torment and thought that went on behind the scenes as the four try to figure out what their roles would and should be to help a movement move forward. The four actors are dynamic in their roles, with Odom Jr. and Goree standing out in their roles of iconic entertainers who want to make their mark on history.   My Rating: Full Price      One Night in Miami Website    Now playing in select theatres and available on the Amazon Prime website on Jan. 15th.

My View: The Midnight Sky (2020) PG-13    Augustine (George Clooney) is a scientist in the Arctic who learns of a mysterious global catastrophe. He now races to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her fellow astronauts from returning home to an uncertain future. This isn’t a great film as it slowly wanders along to tell a story filled with dread and despair. Visually, the film is beautifully brought about, with it going back and forth from the arctic's bleak world to the grandeur of space travel. The film has a hard time not hitting you over the head with the idea that we are our own worst enemy, and it seems that there is nothing more to do but accept it. This is a film that tries too hard to make a point; Augustine made a mistake in his past and now has a chance to make up for that mistake, the human race has made a mess of Earth, but maybe our space explorers can save a bit of humanity for the future. There are a few good action sequences in space, but most of the action is predictable and is put there just to give our characters more obstacles to overcome. The film never delivers the emotional moment you need for it to do, making the whole movie feel pretty empty, like being in the arctic or space.    My Rating: Bargain Matinee     The Midnight Sky Website    Now playing in select theatres and available on the Netflix platform. 

Indiefest: Promising Young Woman (2020) R    A young woman (Carey Mulligan), traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks revenge against those she feels to have wronged her, getting vengeance against those who crossed her path. What a performance Mulligan gives as Cassandra, a woman whose life is dedicated to getting revenge, sometimes just against men who take advantage of women and other times, at the people responsible for bringing her world crashing down while she was in college. Mulligan is breathtaking as a woman with a nasty, dark sense of humor that isn’t afraid to push any boundary to get the results she wants. The film is so much fun to watch, as you delight in far Casandra will go to take her revenge. I hope that no one spoils all the twists and turns because it is an engaging and surprising story that keeps you wondering just how far will Cassandra go and will it have consequences. One of the best films of the year, and I hope that you are willing to go on this bumpy ride with Mulligan’s incredible performance as a woman you can’t help yourself root for, no matter how far, or wrong she goes down the slippery road of revenge.     My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again    Promising Young Woman Website   Now playing in select theatres.

Indiefest: Sylvie’s Love (2020) PG-13    Set in the summer of 1957 in New York, Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha) is an up and coming saxophonist who meets Sylvie (Tessa Thompson), a young woman who dreams of a career in television while she waits for her fiancé to return from the war. This is one of those films where the heart is in the right place, the leads are perfect in their roles, but the movie never finds the spark it needs to keep us interested. I loved Tessa Thompson in this role, as the strong-willed Sylvie, who doesn’t need a man to provide for her and is tenacious in her desire to succeed in a career that she loves. This is a love story not only between two star-crossed romantics but also a love story of a woman in love with television. The film takes too many twists and turns, with one too many obstacles put in the way of our two lovers, making the story slow down to a crawl. I did love the soundtrack, capitalizing on Robert’s and Sylvie’s love of music to accompany them on their journey. However, any momentum that our stars find is quickly extinguished by the complications of the script. Sylvie’s Love heart is in the right place, but it never finds the momentum to keep us wanting more.    My Rating: Bargain Matinee     Sylvie's Love Website    Available on the Amazon Prime format.

FamilyFaire: We Can Be Heroes (2020) PG    When alien invaders capture the earth’s superheroes, their children must band together to save their parents and the world. If you saw The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D, then you know what you are getting in this quasi-sequel. Robert Rodriguez continues to pour out these low budget, kid action films that constantly tarnish what was at the start of a promising career. The action and the special effects are cheaply done, and the acting by most of the kids is rough. The storyline is simple, so very young children will enjoy the costumes and the bright colors, but adults will be put the sleep by a plot written for a five-year-old. The fact that he got Pedro Pascal, hot off The Mandalorian, and Christian Slater to do this film is either a miracle or really sad. We Can Be Heroes can be summed up by saying a six-year-old will enjoy the character Guppy, a 5-year-old with super strength, but parents are going to cringe at the preformance.    My Rating: Cable    We Can Be Heroes Website   Available on the Netflix platform.  

Forgotten Film: Anna and the Apocalypse (2017) R   Anna (Ella Hunt) just wants to survive high school and go off traveling for a year before college. Anna has an overprotective dad (Mark Benton) and a job at a bowling alley with her best friend John (Malcolm Cumming). Little do they know that soon a zombie apocalypse will come to their sleepy, tiny town of Little Haven. Part Shaun of the Dead, part High School Musical, this is the Christmas movie for you if you like funny, sometimes bawdy songs combined with killing zombies. Little seen when this film came out, it is a blast to watch as Anna and her high school chums rack up the zombie kills as they sing about tweeting, not fitting in with the cool crowd and sex. Anna and the Apocalypse is a smart, hilarious film with some fun songs and lots of great zombie deaths. What more could you want from a Christmas film?   My Rating: Full Price    Anna and the Apocalypse Website

Weird Credits: From the credits of Wonder Woman 1984: Movement Artist

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: The Little Things (2021) R Former L.A. Sheriff Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) comes back to Los Angeles for what should be a quick evidence gathering assignment. Instead, he becomes involved in a hunt for a serial killer led by L.A. Sheriff Jim Baxter (Remi Malek). All roads lead to a man (Jerod Leto) who may be involved with Deacon’s shadowy past. This movie looks to be right up Denzel Washington’s sweet spot, a determined man with a tortured past.       The Little Things Info

Until Next Time!

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Note to readers: I currently am not willing to risk my health (I’m 62 and an asthmatic) by visiting a theatre. All films that I have seen for review have been screened in my home. I am not going to tell you whether or not to attend a theatre. Just be aware of the risks, do your research, and follow the instructions to the letter. 

My View: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) R    In 1968, the war in Vietnam has divided the country, and the Democratic Party Convention convened in hot, sweaty Chicago. The convention was met with protests from activists led by Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, and Abbie Hoffman. Eight protesters were put on trial, and the country was torn farther apart. The film is written and directed by Oscar and Emmy winner Aaron Sorkin, who does a magnificent job of creating the atmosphere of the unrest in the 60s that led up to the confrontation between the police/national guard and the demonstrators during the convention. The film shows us just how crazy the trail was, as the defendants went from the extreme of fiery Black Panther leader Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), the two ‘Yuppie’ leaders Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), who used humor and confrontation to make their points and the conservative Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch) who looked like they belonged to the Republican party. The film is full of incredible moments, some of which will feel like they are not real, but that is just how outlandish this trial became. Of the cast, Sacha Baron Cohen as Hoffman and Eddie Redmayne as Hayden stand out. Cohen is masterful in his performance, giving us a charismatic, smart, and beguiling Hoffman. It’s a performance that you can’t take your eyes off of him. Redmayne has a much different and challenging role of the more diplomatic Hayden, who seems put together and a voice of reason, but as the story unfolds, becomes a flawed character that Redmayne allows us to see his warts and all. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a fascinating look at a trial that has to be seen to believe and is sure to be a major Oscar contender.    My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again     The Trial of the Chicago 7 Website     The film is currently in select theatres and is available the Netflix platform. 

My View: 2 Hearts (2020) PG-13   Two couples (Radha Mitchell, Tiera Skovbye, Adan Canto, Jacob Elordi) from different decades are connected in a way that no one could ever guess or predicted. The film is based on a true story, but I would love to know just how much of this story is true because the further this film moves along, the less reality is involved. 2 Hearts is a movie that is designed to pull you in, with two love stories that seem to be totally unrelated, until the big twist (that can be seen coming for a long time) at the end. If you are a fan of films that have overlying religious tones to them, where love conquers all, this is a film for you. The film almost feels like it belongs in a Twilight Zone anthology series rather than a weepy, romantic film, with a plot that is a bit bizarre. It’s a movie whose heart (no pun intended) is in the right place but badly bungles a storyline that can’t be believed.   My Rating: Cable     2 Hearts Website    The film is currently playing in select theatres.

My View: Evil Eye (2020)   Pallavi (Sunita Mani) is a single woman whose Indian mother, Usha (Sarita Choudhury), is convinced that her daughter is destined never to marry. Pallavi’s fate changes when by chance, she meets Sandeep (Omar Maskati), and they quickly start a relationship. Usha is haunted by her past and is afraid that Pallayi is making a horrible mistake in choosing Sandeep. Evil Eye is another film in the Welcome to the Blumhouse film series. As with most of the other films that I have seen in this series, this is more a psychological thriller than a horror film. I enjoyed the two leads, Sunita Mani as the independent daughter and Sarita Choudhury as the meddling mother. The two have an easy chemistry together that makes their scenes feel real and impactful. The plot is simple; is this man who seems perfect for Pallavi genuine and loving as she feels it is, or as the mother believes, someone that has harmful intentions. The film slowly builds to an ending that, frankly, felt a bit of a letdown. It’s not a bad film, but it never grabbed me where I really cared about these characters' outcome. I think I would have liked a little more in-depth look into the characters' religious beliefs, making the stakes of the film feel higher than they do.    My Rating: Bargain Matinee    Evil Eye Website   Available on the Amazon Prime platform. 

My View: Honest Thief (2020) PG-13 Tom (Liam Neeson) is a brilliant bank robber who has always been two steps ahead of the law; in fact, no one knows his identity. Tom then meets Annie (Kate Walsh) and falls in love. He decides to surrender to the FBI and return the money to get a reduced sentence so that he can start his life with Annie. The problem, the two FBI agents (Jai Courtney, Anthony Ramos) Tom deals with are crooked and want the money for themselves. If you are a fan of Neeson and his action films, then you probably will be satisfied with the result; otherwise, like me, you wonder how much longer to we have to see Liam Neeson do these type of he’s a good guy but don’t push him to become a killer type of film. There is nothing special to this film; the action sequences are weak, the plot is pretty thin, and it has an ending that feels a little too easy to come about. Honest Thief is one of those films that the minute you finish watching it, you won’t remember anything about the film, other than Liam is in it.   My Rating: Cable    Honest Thief Website     The film is currently playing in select theatres.

Indiefest: John Bronco (2020)   The story of the rise and fall of the legendary pitchman John Bronco (Walter Goggins), who made the Ford Bronco a household name. This is a relatively short film (39 minutes) that is a little too long for its own good. The film is a mockumentary about how John Bronco became a famous for a short while, a man whose fame is tied with a Ford truck of the same name. I enjoyed a couple of the people who are ‘interviewed,’ including basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who delivers some witty lines and makes fun of himself with some clips from commercials that Kareem has done over the years. There are some funny scenes in the film, including a ‘lost’ commercial about a certain white Bronco, but overall, the film's humor runs a little flat. I enjoyed Goggins in Bronco's role, a man who just wants to ride a Bronco, horse, or truck, but the film tends to linger on jokes too long and not let Goggins really go wild with the role.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee    John Bronco Info     Available on the Hulu platform.

My View: Nocturne (2020)   Juliet (Sydney Sweeney) is a talented pianist but is overshadowed by her outgoing and equally talented sister Vivian (Madison Iseman). After a classmate commits suicide, Juliet discovers the classmate's notebook that contains a secret for Juliet to get everything she wants but at a price. Another film in the Welcome to the Blumhouse series, this is the first film in the series that can be considered a horror film. I liked the idea of this film, but I just don’t think they made the movie scary or creepy enough. Nocturne felt like a run of the mill film that lacked the fun or the style of a good horror film. Sydney Sweeney is subtle as the mousey Juliet, but I never felt fear of her character, and at no time felt like she would do much more than what her character ended up doing, causing a bit of mayhem before her story ends. The film never builds the tension it needs, and I didn’t care enough about Juliet to care what happened to her. Overall, this was a more about a cautionary tale of how stress can cause us to do things we might not ever do, but is that the basis to build a horror story on? In this case, no. My Rating: Cable      Nocturne Website     Available on the Amazon Prime platform.

Indiefest: Totally Under Control (2020)   Torn from the pages of the news, this documentary is an in-depth look at how President Donald Trump and the United States government handled the COVID-19 outbreak during the crucial early months of the pandemic. I have always enjoyed Alex Gibney’s films, who has the ability to take a complex subject and make it both interesting and understandable. If you are a Trump supporter, this is a film you will want to skip as the President is one of the film's main targets. If you want to understand how COVID so quickly and easily took over our lives, this film gives you a play by play rundown on what happened and why. Totally Under Control is a film that will shock you, make you mad, and if you have wondered how this happened, how did we get to this point that over 200,000 Americans have died, this film will explain just how it happened. It is an important film that documents a time in American history, giving us insight into handling a crisis (South Korea is used as a country that has dealt with the pandemic with success) and how not to handle one. I learned a lot about COVID-19, much more than I ever thought I would, and it does celebrate some of the people that have tried and are still trying to protect us from this horrible pandemic. My guess is that it is just part one of this film, and it will be interesting to see how Gibney and history see the result.   My Rating: Full Price     Totally Under Control Website     The film is  available for rent on participating on-demand services.

Forgotten Film: sleepwalk with me (2012)   Matt (Mike Birbiglia) is a struggling stand-up comedian whose career has come to a standstill. To make things worse, his relationship with his girlfriend (Lauren Ambrose) is also is failing, and Matt has a nasty case of sleepwalking.  This is a funny, smart film based on writer/director/lead actor Mike Birbiglia’s own life. Birbiglia shows how hard it is to break into the stand-up comic business, and once you get into the business, how tough the life is. He does it with humor, and his dialogue is just so dead-on, and captures a sort of sad-sack type of humor. Ambrose is excellent as the girlfriend who supports Matt at first but soon learns that their relationship will be tested by his profession, especially after he starts using his real-life experiences for material. I picked this film as one of my top ten films of 2012.    My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again      sleepwalk with me Info

Weird Credits: From the credits of The Trial of the Chicago 7: Wig Ventilator

Coming Soon to Screen Near You: One Night in Miami (2020) Fictional account of one night where Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cook, and Jim Brown gathered to discuss their roles in the civil rights movement in the turbulent 1960s. Directed by Oscar-winning actress Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)), there is already Academy Award talk about this film, and it is slated currently to come out on Christmas Day.      One Night in Miami Info

Until Next Time!