And The Oscar Goes To...

 An amazing thing happened today. We have completed our annual Oscar viewing a full day before the ceremony. This has not been the case the last few years, I think two years ago we watched like three or four films the day of the awards, and last year it was at least one or two.  This year we got to it quicker than usual, and were able to pretty much have a somewhat leisurely movie a night sort of pace.  There were some nights that we had to watch two due to missing one because I had to podcast or because we had some event we had to get to.  There were also a few night where we watched multiple, like Thursday I think we watched five, but three of them were shorts so it's not as impressive as it seems.

I was somewhat disappointed with this years set of movies, and I felt like there were a lot fewer than in previous years that I found to be entertaining or even all that good.  I feel like in previous years there were a lot more in the list that we enjoyed than we had this year. It was also more than last year, but not quite as many as 2021.  However, it was also the third year in a row that we were able to get all of them.  It got a little tricky with a few of them, and I did happen to get lucky with someone posting one of the shorts on Vimeo.  That being said, while I do enjoy watching these films every year, I'm also glad we made it through and can do something else.  I'm also glad that I don't have that ticking deadline to get them done before the awards ceremony tomorrow. It was more leisurely than in previous years, but even so it's a lot. 

I don't tend to try and guess what will win, but I do like to vote for what I'd like to win or what I think was best out of the category. So where's what I thought for each of the categories.

Best Screenplay

I think Everything Everywhere All At Once was the best one of this group.  I thought it was the most inventive/original. It was up agains Triangle of Sadness, Tár, The Fabelmans, and The Banshees of Inisherin. 

Best Adapted Screenplay

Honestly, I hadn't read any of the original texts with the exception of All Quiet on the Western Front, and that was a horrible adaptation.  Since I didn't have any of the originals to go off of, I'm giving it to Women Talking because as a screenplay it was really well done. I could see it working really well as a play as well as the novel it was based on.  The others were Glass Onion (which I also enjoyed), Living, and Top Gun: Maverick.

International Film

Many years this is my favorite category, but this year I didn't love most of them.  I thought Close was an important commentary. EO I didn't enjoy, and I really disliked All Quiet on the Western Front.  So, it came down to Argentine, 1985 and The Quiet Girl. I think I have to give it to The Quiet Girl. I thought it was really well done, 

Makeup and Hair

There was some good stuff here, but I think The Whale. Elvis was interesting, Black Panther had some good stuff. I don't know that All Quiet had much, other than the mud and war kind of stuff.

Short Documentary

I thin there were two I really liked, but I have to give it to Stranger at the Gate, it had a good story to tell and it isn't what it appears to be at first.  I really enjoyed The Martha Mitchell Effect as well,  The Elephant Whisperers and How Do You Measure A Year were not bad.  The only one that I found kind of boring was Haulout.  This may have been the category that I liked the most out of.

Documentary

Most of these I didn't enjoy, but I thought Navalny was really good. I also liked A House Made of Splinters, but it was really sad. Fire of Love was ok, and I was rather indifferent about All That Breathes.  I didn't enjoy All The Beauty and the Bloodshed. It seemed to meander with the story.

Directing

I thin I'm giving this to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere all at once. They had some crazy things going on in that movie, and just getting them to be able to get through the fingers scenes in any kind of serious way is an achievement. I love Steven Spielberg, and I loved The Fabelmans, but I think it took more for the others.  

Costumes

This actually is a harder one to figure out because I think all of them had some great costumes.  You had period pieces, you had weird shit, you had fashion icon type stuff, there was the whole Marvel thing too.  For me I was between Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris, as they were all lovely.  However I think that it took more creativity and skill for the costumes in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Animated Short

This was a hard one too because there were two I didn't love (The Flying Sailor, and My Year of Dicks), but the other three were really good. An Ostrich Told Me The World Is Fake And I think I Believe It was really fun, and stop motion which I enjoy.  The Ice Merchants was well done. However, I think that the best was The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. I think the subject was well done, and it was all around the best.

Animated Feature

Can we stop with all the Pinocchio variations?  Ok, the animation was well done, and I could see this one winning, but it wasn't my favorite. Amazingly, I thought Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was the best. They had some cool animation tricks they did that made the style look different. It had a great story, and the villain was well done.  All around my favorite.  I liked Turning Red, Marcel The Shell, and The Sea Beast, but I don't think they did as well as Puss in Boots.

Visual Effects

Ok, so surely Avatar is going to win this, but I refuse to vote for it because the movies are stupid and it's all just animated.  This should be up for best animated movie.  I'm going to say All Quiet on the Western Front for this because it required a lot of traditional effects, and I appreciate that.

Production Design

I'm giving this to Babylon because it was a lot.  They really had to have their ducks in a row and their design pinned down to get cohesion. Just that first scene, which is a bit much, is enough. 

Film Editing

Everything Everywhere All At Once. They had a tight story, that didn't drag and I think they put together a really good film.  The others were generally fine, but they had moments that dragged or didn't seem like was necessary for the plot that they could have cut to make the story move better.

Score

The Fabelmans because I love John Williams and I think this may be his last score.  If he weren't in the mix, I'd give it to Babylon because it's the guys form La La Land, and I like their stuff. That being said, there were a few times where I heard things that were very reminiscent of La La Land.

Song

Ok, so here's a secret about me, I love Bollywood, it's so over the top and wonderful. I think RRR is the best movie of the 54 we watched because it was just so much.  So, I have to give it to them for best song because it was done during a dance off. How can you get better than that? It was so hilarious and wonderful.  What a joy that movie was.  So comical.

Cinematography 

For me this has to go to Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths because what a trip that was.  They had some excellent sequences, and I liked the feel and look of it all. I didn't really enjoy the movie over all, but from a cinematography point of view it.

Short Live Action

This was another tough choice. I didn't like Le Pupille at all, and Ivalu wasn't great.  However I though Night Ride was really good. I also though that An Irish Goodbye was one of the funniest and well done movies that we saw of the 54 and enjoyed every minute of it.  However, I think The Red Suitcase was really a strong story that I think puts it over the top of the three choice I had.

Best Supporting Actor

I really liked Brian Tyree Henry from Causeway, he dd a really good job and early on he was my favorite for this category. However, in the end Ke Huy Quan from Everything Everywhere All At Once I think takes it. He had to switch characters a few times in his performance. However, his main character I just loved, and he was so sincere and wonderful as that character, so I think I have to give it to him.  I loved his message, and of course his use of googley eyes.

Best Supporting Actress

I also have to go with Everything Everywhere All At Once, and give it to Jamie Lee Curtis.  I mean, the finger scenes are enough for me.  However, she too had to switch characters due to the way the plot goes, and I think she did such a great job in her performance.  This was a strong category because I also really loved Angela Bassett and Hong Chau from Black Panther and The Whale.  Stephanie Hsu wasn't bad either, but I didn't feel like she had a wide range. 

Best Actor

Hands down I'm going with Brendan Fraser. He gave a killer performance that was heartbreaking and emotional.  He really is what propelled this movie and it was pretty much all on him.  What a great job.  I love bill Nighy, but I don't feel like there was much for him in Living, and Colin Farrell was just his usual character, so I just couldn't see much there.  I also didn't see much with Paul Mescal in Aftersun.  I will say Austin Butler did a great job with Elvis.

Best Actress

Yet again, Everything Everywhere All At Once gets it with Michelle Yeoh.  Similar reason as the other actors that got my vote. Michelle Williams did pretty good in The Fabelmans, and Andrea Riseborough also was pretty strong in To Leslie. 

Best Picture

There were ten films in this category, but I really don't know why some of them made the cut while others (say Babylon, which was ambitious and well done) didn't.  Avatar and Top Gun weren't very groundbreaking or notable.  It was just a pair of sequels and I don't know that they were the best pictures, though Top Gun was entertaining.  Triangle of Sadness was a weird movie, but I didn't hate it.  I did not enjoy Tár or All Quiet on the Western Front at all.  Women Talking was really well done. Elvis and The Banshees of Inisherin were ok, but not anything that really blew me away.  By the time we got to The Fabelmans I felt like it was the best I'd seen, but it was a movie about making movies, and since I love movies, it hit the mark for me. However, then I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once and that was just great.  It was not just a remake, sequel, or rehashing just the same dumb ideas over  again with a slightly different spin.  It was fun and strange, but also lovely and had a good message.  

So end another Oscar season.  It was a marathon for sure, and I'm excited to see what wins tomorrow night.  I'm also excited to see some more movies that aren't on a list that I get to just pick! Oh, the luxury after a month of movies!

Goals Update: March

Winter is close to the end, and another month is also over, though my goals are not anywhere close to the end.  That being said, I'm behind in many of them.  Time to check in and see how bad we're doing at this point in the year (with the goal of improving as we go).

Goal Number One - Read 24 books: The reading thing is hard still, I read some, but didn't finish any books this month.  In January, I finished:

1. Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning by John Larmer, John Mergendoller, and Suzie Boss. 

I'm still in the process of reading:

1. Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer,
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, 

I'm not far from the end of Withering Heights, so I'm really working to be sure it's finished before the end of the month.

Goal Number Two - Focus on Fitness by closing all three of my fitness rings 75% of the time: For January this was a fail, I had 18/31 days where I closed all three, which only comes to 58%.  February was worse than January, as I only made it 12/28 or 42%. For the year that puts me at 30 of 59, which is just a hair over 50%.  So, for sure I need to be over 50% in March to keep seeing improvement toward my goal here. 

Goal Number Three - Use a social calendar:  A few things on the social calendar this month.  We did a fun cooking night where we did Thai food.  The shrimp we did was very good and I'm sure we'll do it again.  We also got to go to the theater for the first time in a while and saw Beetlejuice.  Had a birthday party as well.  Still not back to the normal before Covid, and not putting a ton on the calendar still. Hope to get some more regular sort of things like game nights or just drinks and hanging out. 

Goal Number Four - Spend at least one hour a week on creative things: I had about three hours in January, which was under the four that I needed for this goal.  In February I did have a lot here, I did about an hour of drawing with Sal but that was about it. Only room to improve on that next month.

Goal Number Five - Take more home videos: I didn't really take much in January or February.  I did one short video in January, and two short ones in February.  I've been thinking still about getting a camera specifically for movies. We have a family trip coming up soon, so maybe I should?

Goal Number Six - Take one photos a day:  Technically I said take one photo a day, which I've taken over 100 so far this year.  However, I've been tracking it in terms of my posts on Instagram. Under that idea I've done:

1. January 23 of 31 days
2. February 9 of 28 days

So, perhaps I should post more of what I'm taking? I'm taking photos but I don't feel they're noteworthy enough to post.  Not sure my thoughts here.  Guess I'll need to think about it.

Goal Number Seven - Have seven new experiences:  So far not a ton but one each month.

1. In January I got to see a whole bunch of Van Gogh art that I love and have never seen before. 
2. In February I got to see a new musical I'd never seen before, Beetlejuice.  It was pretty fun, not much like the movie, but a great time.  I enjoyed it.

So that's it for February.  On to March!