Oscar Volley: Who knew that Best Original Screenplay would so divide us?

Our Oscar Volleys continue with  Eric Blume, Baby Clyde, and Gabriel Mayora with surprising confessions, hot takes, and unexpected sentiment.

Eric Blume:  I suspect we have three locks for nominations in this category: Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza, Kenneth Branagh for Belfast, and Adam McKay for Don't Look Up!  I am a colossal fan of PTA, but it makes me sad to think he could finally win his Oscar for one of his weaker pictures.  I am mystified by the rave reaction to Licorice Pizza, which is wonderful in patches, but the screenplay is so meandering and fails to culminate in anything dramatically. Plus, it's a genre we've seen hundreds of times. PTA is able to bring his directorial dazzle to it, but as a script, it's severely undercooked.  I do think Don't Look Up! has a magnificent setup for a comedy, but the jokes are flabby and tepid, and it's not exactly razor sharp in terms of structure or dialogue.  The script just kind of lays there.  Of the three, I think Branagh's script is the strongest: it indeed does culminate in something dramatically, plus it's tight and contained, and captures the Irish humor dead-on. 

Belfast is no masterpiece, but it feels true, has some vivid characterizations, and Branagh finds a good balance between how the personal and political flow over each other.  What are your feelings on these three contenders?

Baby Clyde: I disliked Licorice Pizza immensely...

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Oscar Volley: Supporting Actor. Who is in third, fourth, and fifth?

Oscar Volleys continue with Eric Blume and Ben Miller discussing Best Supporting Actor.

Eric Blume:  Happy to reteaming with you, Ben, to discuss that woebegone category of Best Supporting Actor. Nobody in the running  can touch what Kodi Smit-McPhee accomplishes in The Power of the Dog, a bravura combination of sleight-of-hand and lived-in work. The movie feels like an instant classic.  Kodi delivers the gift of making you want to re-watch his performances instantly to see his choices in a new context when he unfurls the full characterization.  There's depth and artistry to this performance, while appearing effortless:  it's a stunning piece of acting. But he's not the only lock...

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Oscar Volley: ‘Cruella’ is the one to beat in Best Costume Design

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience.  Cláudio Alves and Glenn Dunks discuss Best Costume Design

Cláudio Alves: This is my favorite Oscar race! I studied Costume Design in college and still design for theater. However, that doesn't necessarily correlate to my appreciation of the Oscar category. That admiration stems instead from this branch's propensity for lone nominees, the recognition of films with little to no hope of breaking into other races. Sometimes, that lonely contender even wins, though it's been over a decade since that last happened – 2006's Marie Antoinette with costumes by Milena Canonero.

Truthfully, I could envision that occurring this year with Cruella. Beyond that Disney fashion show, one wonders if there'll be any surprise single-category nominees. Honestly, I'm having trouble coming up with a potential candidate unless it's Cyrano or House of Gucci drastically underperforms. What about you, Glenn? 

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Oscar Volley: It's a Best Supporting Actress lovefest!

Our Oscar Volley series continues with Cláudio Alves and Nick Taylor doing a deep dive on a category near and dear to their hearts...

NICK: First, quick introductions! What drew us to this category, you ask? The Supporting Actress category was one of my favorite fields to rummage through when I was initially exploring the Oscars. Tilda Swinton, Lupita Nyong’o, Sandy Dennis, Thelma Ritter, Mo’Nique, Dianne Wiest, Agnes Moorehead - all led me to new ideas about film and performance I hadn’t dreamed of before then. Watching talented actresses carve out whole worlds from the corners of their films became one of my favorite things to search for in movies.

I have a very specific memory of discovering the Supporting Actress Smackdown after watching Kramer vs Kramer for the first time only a few weeks after the podcast on 1979 dropped and listening to the discussion with rapt attention. And then the 1948 episode came out like, the next day! Gave me wild misconceptions on how fast things updated, lemme tell you...

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Oscar Volley: Should music be judged outside of the film for Best Original Score?

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Abe Friedtanzer and Timothy Lyons on Best Original Score

Abe Friedtanzer: The Best Original Score category is an interesting one since we have only fifteen films left in consideration, which in one way is great because it's a smaller field from which to predict but also means that some terrific soundtracks are no longer in contention. I like to take the opportunity to listen to as many of the scores as I can after I see the films, to see if there's anything I pick up on or enjoy more as I hear them in a different context. This year, that has been beneficial for a film I didn't love, Don't Look Up, since Nicholas Britell's orchestrations really are a marvel, and also for Being the Ricardos, which reminded me that Daniel Pemberton's music drove the rhythm of the story just as much as Aaron Sorkin's script. I'm also intrigued by the inclusion of Candyman on the finalist list. I generally avoid horror films but the score is quite haunting. There's no chance it shows up, but it's good to see that voters are at least listening to a variety of films! My main issue has been with The Harder They Fall, a film I liked a lot but where I have trouble differentiating between score and song. That's also true for Encanto.

Do you think songs are a disadvantage or actually more likely to get voters to give the music love?  

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