Podcast: Pre Oscar Grab-All

The gang gets back together as Oscar approaches. Nathaniel R, Nick Davis, Katey Rich, and Joe Reid discuss what they've been watching as they prep for Oscar night. How many movies do YOU still have left to see? (Or are you not a completist?)

Index (41 minutes)
00:01 What we still haven't seen
02:30 Loving Vincent & Animated Feature
08:40 Andrey Zvyagintsev's Loveless, Russia's nominee
12:00 Short Film categories
15:00 A Fantastic Woman & Foreign Film
20:00 Acting Categories
23:00 Lady Bird, actressy movies, messy trivia
29:30 Preferential ballot theories
33:00 Director/Pic splits and The Shape of Water
37:00 Who will present Best Picture?
38:30 RED ALERT: NICK IS GOING TO THE OSCARS !!!
40:30 The End

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? 

Grab-All Oscar Talk

A quick look back at the Oscar Nominee Luncheon

by Nathaniel R

photo via Rebecca Keegan

The Oscar Nominee Luncheon -- which we must belatedly now obsess over -- is one of the greatest Oscar traditions, for a variety of reasons which have nothing to do with lunching. One of the secrets to its wonderfulness is possibly that it's not telecast so it still maintains some kind of insider cachet. Nevertheless the media are invited so it's not "private" per se. And even if it were, in our social media age the stars serve as their own kind of media outlet, too, with their selfie madness...

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Del Toro's last stop before Oscar

by Nathaniel R

Last night Guillermo del Toro took his expected win at the Directors Guild Awards. Next stop: the 90th Academy Awards where he's also expected to claim his trophy. No one else in the Best Director field has enough momentum or goodwill to upset him, particularly given that the DGA prize is historically super predictive of the eventual Oscar win. They only seem to stray when they're making a "statement"...

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Soundtracking: "The Shape of Water"

by Chris Feil

“You’ll never know...” Is it safe yet to discuss the musical flourish in The Shape of Water? It’s a moment that should remain unspoiled if you haven’t seen it.

Guillermo Del Toro’s interspecies romance is itself in love with the movies, and its genre bending owes as much to classic musicals as it does to Sirkian melodrama and monster movies. Even without the moment in question or Alexandre Desplat’s gorgeous score, the texture of the film recalls old Hollywood musicals from its structure to its overflowing emotionality. But Del Toro actually goes there, and unexpectedly reveals something more than an expression of love from its heroine Eliza, played by Sally Hawkins.

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The Furniture: Rejecting a Neon Green Future in The Shape of Water

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

“That’s the future,” the ad man says, “Green.” It’s a ridiculous observation, but it’s also a cruel way to tell Giles (Richard Jenkins) he should find somewhere else to pitch his illustrations. The future, the ad man means, is the replacement of Norman Rockwell with cartoon children selling neon, gelatinous green pie.

The Shape of Water isn’t really about pie. But this comment on 1950s advertising is a helpful key to understanding the rest of this aqueous fantasy...

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