Podcast: Top Ten Lists

Nick and Nathaniel and Joe compare their top ten lists for the year -- only two movies are on all three lists.

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Nick & Nathaniel talk Fire at Sea, The Lobster, Right Now Wrong Then, La La Land, allergies to directors and "delight" at the movies
14:00 Joe joins in for The Witch, Little Men, Ixcanul, and Francophonia  
23:00 Annette Bening's miracle performance and the bliss of watching 20th Century Women
28:30 More divisive films: The Handmaiden and American Honey
38:00 Things to Come and wrap-up

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Our Top Ten Lists

Tweet Story: Huppert, Gibson, Barbarella

One great thing to watch right now: PERSEPOLIS. It's vital that we make the stories of immigrants feel specific and real and human to us. pic.twitter.com/92ySv37Emp

— BrightWall/DarkRoom (@BWDR) January 28, 2017

Thought about what would happen if Isabelle Huppert had to reveal a hidden talent for a mag's video content, laughed, and then shuddered.

— Jackson McHenry (@McHenryJD) January 27, 2017

After the jump a gorgeous mini-review of 20th Century Women, a valid question about Barbarella, a fantasy about female auteurs, and more amusements... 

Click to read more ...

Team Experience: Mourning the Snubbed, Pondering the Head-Scratching Nominees

I polled Team Experience this morning about the Oscar nominations. Here are the first two related questions on absences and curious inclusions. We expect your answers to add to the conversation in the comments. 

What omission in this morning nominations most upset you?

Matthew: Like everyone else on here, I am devastated, first and foremost, for the outstanding Annette Bening, an exclusion for which I hold A24 accountable. Finally, I'd like to imagine that Pharrell and Sing Street composer Gary Clark are off together somewhere getting hammered and slinging insults at the tire-fire that is "Can't Stop This Feeling."

John: The intense excitement at Isabelle Huppert's name being read first, chased quickly by the sad reveal that Annette Bening lost a nomination is a perfect capsule for this Oscar morning...

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Actress in a Supporting Role, Personal Ballot

Oscar predictions are already up for Best Supporting Actress.

Will Greta Gerwig read good news or bad next week?

It's looking like the most settled of the acting categories with Viola Davis, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Nicole Kidman, and Octavia Spencer all widely expected to place.

If there's a sudden shift look for either Greta Gerwig or Janelle Monae to spoil... or enliven the party, depending on your preferences. "Spoiler" is such a weird word in this context, no? Regardless, it will be a good year for the Academy in Supporting Actress with all seven of those performances that ranging from quite good to phenomenal; we'll take it!

But it's not my personal ballot and that's not only because I consider Viola Davis a lead in Fences (I realize others feel differently). Three of those names above, however, do make my personal list. The two I'd like to add to the mix are Riley Keough, so mesmerizingly trashy/real as a entrepeneur (of sorts) toying with her underlings in American Honey and Elle Fanning doing the best work of her already lauded teenage career (thus far) in 20th Century Women. Read the writeups here at the Film Bitch Awards.

The Final Predictions Begin!

I've updated the Picture, Director, Screenplays, Actor and Supporting Actress charts with final predictions. Though many questions remain we must make the hard calls with nominations only a week away!

Best Picture & Best Director
The Best Picture race will literally never be "locked up" again so long as Oscar sticks with its "5 to 10" balloting math. That shifting number of Best Pictures means that you just never know. I want to say 8 again this year but what if its 5,6,7,9, or gulp 10. The big question mark, at least for this pundit, is Nocturnal Animals. Given that it's the movie that won't go away in precursor season with great showings at the Globes and BAFTA and significant buzz in Los Angeles despite its polarizing nature and its relatively low box office take (lower than ALL the other still buzzing pictures with the exception of Loving). The thing is you can't vote AGAINST something. You can only vote for it, so we're predicting Tom Ford in Best Director. 

Leading Actor
Arguable the most settled of the Oscar acting races with Casey Affleck, Denzel Washington, Andrew Garfield, Viggo Mortensen, and Ryan Gosling all steady players for months. At this point it would be a minor surprise to see one of the ousted. Support for their rivals seems to be far too diffuse.

Supporting Actress
The other "settled" acting race though you can definitely make arguments about one of two women spoiling the party:  Greta Gerwig who is brilliant in 20th Century Women and who has definitely earned her place at Hollywood's most prestigious tables after years of fine work, or Janelle Monae, who proves herself a total natural in Hidden Figures with a bright film career ahead of her. Supporting Actress is a friendly category to double nominees which means if there's a major shake-up it could be both Octavia and Janelle in the mix.

With Captain Fantastic holding strong for Viggo and with its SAG nomination, we're betting the Screenplay shows up, too.

Original Screenplay & Adapted Screenplay
The big question in Adapted might be whether Fences has enough goodwill to earn August Wilson a posthumous nomination, or if naysayers who believe its too "stagey" have made it a Viola & Denzel only party. My guess is that if Tom Ford doesn't show up in Director he shows up here instead and steals that slot away from the late theatrical giant.

In Original Screenplay with three films looking unstoppable for nominations (Manchester, Hell or, La La), one looking like a very typical "of course it nabbed #1 votes!" critical darling style nominee (The Lobster), there's presumably only one spot left and SO many strong screenplays fighting for it: Captain Fantastic, 20th Century Women, Zootopia, Toni Erdmann, Jackie.