The Mad Professah Lectures

Here is the list of winners of the 2016 Oscars. This year I correctly predicted 6 of the top 8 categories correctly. Best Picture for Spotlight took almost everyone by surprise, since no Best Picture had ever occurred with only one other win it (also took home Best Original Screenplay). Mad Max: Fury Road cemented its status as the best film of 2015  with six(!) wins in the technical categories, with The Revenant only managing to win in tree categories when the personality overshadowed the vehicle: Iñárritu for Director (for the second year in a row!), Dicaprio for Best Actor (finally!) and Chivo Lubezki for Cinematography for the third year in a row (Gravity, Birdman, The Revenant).
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian, Brooklyn and Carol were all shut out while other Best Picture nominees Room, The Big Short and Bridge of Spies each won one award.

The only other major shock of the night was the surprise win of Sam Smith's execrable Writing's on the Wall winning the Best Song Oscar over Lady Gaga and Dianne Warren's Till It Happens To You.

• Best Picture: Spotlight
• Actor in a Lead Role: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
• Actress in a Lead Role: Brie Larson, Room
• Directing: Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant
• Original Score: Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
• Original Song: "Writings on the Wall," Spectre, Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
• Best Foreign Language Film: Hungary, Son of Saul
• Live Action Short Film: Stutterer, Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
• Documentary Feature: Amy, Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
• Documentary Short Subject: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
• Actor in a Supporting Role: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
• Animated Feature Film: Inside Out, Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
• Animated Short Film: Bear Story, Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
• Visual Effects: Ex Machina, Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
• Sound Mixing: Mad Max: Fury Road, Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
• Sound Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road, Mark Mangini and David White
• Film Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road, Margaret Sixel
• Cinematography: The Revenant, Emmanuel Lubezki
• Makeup and Hairstyling: Mad Max: Fury Road, Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
• Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road, Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson
• Costume Design: Mad Max: Fury Road, Jenny Beavan
• Actress in a Supporting Role: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
• Best Adapted Screenplay: The Big Short, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
• Original Screenplay: Spotlight, Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy

Below are my predictions for the Top 8 categories for the 88th annual Academy Awards. Last year I correctly predicted 7 of the Top 8 categories. Below I put in red the movie or person I want to win, and in blue the person I think actually will win.

• The Big Short
• Bridge of Spies
• Brooklyn
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Room
• Spotlight

SHOULD WIN: The Big Short 

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, "The Revenant"
• Lenny Abrahamson, "Room"
• Tom McCarthy, "Spotlight"
• Adam McKay, "The Big Short"
• George Miller, "Mad Max: Fury Road"

SHOULD WIN: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

• Cate Blanchett, "Carol"
• Brie Larson, "Room"
• Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy"
• Charlotte Rampling, "45 Years"
• Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"

• Bryan Cranston, "Trumbo"
• Matt Damon, "The Martian"
• Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant"
• Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs"
• Eddie Redmayne, "The Danish Girl"

• Jennifer Jason Leigh, "The Hateful Eight"
• Rooney Mara, "Carol"
• Rachel McAdams, "Spotlight"
• Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs"
• Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl"

• Christian Bale, "The Big Short"
• Mark Ruffalo, "Spotlight"
• Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies"
• Sylvester Stallone, "Creed"
• Tom Hardy, "The Revenant"

• Bridge of Spies
• Ex Machina
• Inside Out
• Spotlight
• Straight Outta Compton

• The Big Short
• Brooklyn
• Carol
• The Martian
• Room

Tomorrow morning at 5am PST (Tuesday January 24) the 84th Academy Award nominations will be announced for films released in 2011. The Golden Globe award winners were previously announced on Sunday January 15th. After seeing the actual nominations I will post a more extensive post with my predictions for the Top 8 award winners. In previous years, Mad Professah has done pretty well in predicting both Academy Award nominations and wins.


Best Director

• Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
• David Fincher, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Michael Hazanavicius, The Artist
• Alexander Payne, The Descendants
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Best Actress

• Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis, The Help
• Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
• Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin

Best Actor

• George Clooney, The Descendants
• Leonardo Dicaprio, J. Edgar
• Jean Dujardins, The Artist
• Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Supporting Actress

• Berenice Bejo, The Artist
• Jessica Chastain, The Help
• Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
• Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus
• Olivia Spencer, The Help

Best Supporting Actor

• Albert Brooks, Drive
• Armie Hammer, J. Edgar
• Jonah Hill,  Moneyball
• Christopher Plummer,  Beginners
• Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Best Original Screenplay

• Michael Hazanavicius, The Artist
• Mike Mills, Beginners
• Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Bridesmaids
• Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
• Diablo Cody, Young Adult

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Alexander Payne, Nat Faxton and Jim Rash, The Descendants
• Tate Taylor, The Help
• John Logan, Hugo
• Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillian, and Stan Chervin, Moneyball
• George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon, The Ides of March

Total Nominations

1.  The Artist 10
2. The Descendants, 9
3. Moneyball, The Help 7
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, Hugo, Midnight in Paris 5

The 2012 Oscar race heats up with the announcement of the nominations for the Golden Globes, the second-most watched awards show of the season. Of the Best Picture nominees, I have see n only Moneyball, The Help and Midnight in Paris.

Looks the tight race this year is going to be Best Actress, as predicted awhile back. Meryl Streep has two Oscars and Tilda Swinton has one. My sentimental favorite would have to be for Glenn Close, because I think she was robbed for Dangerous Liaisons all those years ago.


BEST PICTURE, DRAMA
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse 

BEST PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY
50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn 

BEST DIRECTOR
Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris
George Clooney, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo 

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA
George Clooney, The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio, J Edgar
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March
Brad Pitt, Moneyball 

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin 

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Joseph Gordon Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Crazy Stupid Love
Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris 

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Michelle WIlliams, My Week With Marilyn
Kate Winslet, Carnage 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer, Beginners 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain , The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants 

BEST SCREENPLAY
Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen
The Ides of March, George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants, Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash
Moneyball, Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Flowers of War
In The Land of Blood and Honey
The Kid WIth The Bike
A Separation
The Skin I Live In

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Artist, Ludovic Bource
W.E., Abel Korzeniowski
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Hugo, Howard Shore
War Horse, John Williams

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Lay Your Head Down," Albert Nobbs
"Hello Hello," Gnomeo and Juliet
"The Living Proof," The Help
"The Keeper," Machine Gun Preacher
"Masterpiece," W.E.

Hat/tip to TowleRoad.

After a long break, I finally went and saw a movie. A group of co-workers planned an outing to see J. Edgar, the new movie directed and produced by Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River) starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench and Armie Hammer. The film is a biography about the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and was written by openly gay Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk).
The movie has had a mixed reception by critics (rated 40% on rottentomatoes.com) and has been excoriated by some LGBT reviewers. I don't disagree with the disappointed reviews but I do disagree with the intensity of the vitriol that is being heaped on the film.
At its core, J. Edgar is a film about the 50-year-old relationship between two men, J. Edgar Hoover (played by Dicaprio) and Clyde Tolson (played by Hammer), one of whom happened to be the most powerful man in the United States. Black's screenplay jumps haphazardly between different decades, covering the major events in Hoover's (and thus the FBI's) career. The primary event in Hoover's career was his investigation of the so-called Crime of the Century, the kidnapping (and murder) of Charles Lindbergh's infant son. Hoover was obsessed with solving the crime and the movie does a good job of depicting his support and encouragement of forensic science.


Hoover also had some curious relationships with the two most important women in his life, his mother, Anne Marie Hoover (played with brio by Dame Judi Dench), and his longtime secretary and personal assistant Helen Gandy (a thankless role played by Oscar nominee Naomi Watts). There's an incredibly chilling scene where Judi Dench makes it crystal clear that she has no interest in seeing her longtime bachelor of a son ever come out of the closet. Another enlightening scene is between a very young Hoover and Gandy have just began dating and Hoover asks her to marry him. She must realize that Hoover really has no interest in a conjugal relationship with a woman and instead she is interested in having a more enduring (professional) relationship, as his executive secretary.


The performances are the best part of the film, Dench is particularly good, as is Dicaprio. Hammer is easy on the eyes and the depiction of these two single men spending decades together at the #1 and #2 positions at the internal national police force despite a parade of more than half a dozen Presidents is quite compelling.


However, there are some bad characteristic of the film and these flaws most definitely outweigh its strong points. The first that comes to mind is the make-up. Dicaprio looks quite amazing physically as Hoover, but as the film jumps decades into the future they are forced to slather huge amounts of make-up on Hammer and Dicaprio, making Hammer particularly look like some kind of zombie. It doesn't help matters when Tolson has a stroke and spends the last half-hour of the film shaking a leaf. Hammer does a decent portrayal of the physical effects and Hoover's self-centeredness and paranoia are revealed when he starts to turn on the man who has shared his life with him. Even though the relationship lasts 50 years it is completely chaste since neither party really ever acknowledges the love they have for each other, except for one badly written and overly histrionic scene in which the two get physical (violently and romantically). I can understand that some reviewers felt these aspects of the film make it a disappointing exercise, but I would argue that it is still worth seeing, but go in knowing that it is not a masterpiece, but simply an affecting film.


Title: J. Edgar.
Director: Clint Eastwood.
Running Time: 2 hours, 17 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for brief strong language.
Release Date: November 11, 2011.
Viewing Date: November 15, 2011.


Plot: B+.
Acting: B+.
Visuals: B-.
Impact: B+.


Overall Grade: (3.167/4.0).

The campaigns for the 2010 Best Picture Oscar have begun in earnest.... Here is the promotional trailer for Christopher Nolan's Inception

Finally saw Shutter Island starring Leonardo Dicaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese a few weeks ago at our favorite local movie theaters in Alhambra. Running Time: 2 hours, 18 minutes.
MPAA Rating:Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity.

OVERALL GRADE: B+.

ACTING: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
PLOT: B.
IMPACT: B-.

I saw Martin Scorsese's The Departed in mid-December at the second-run Regency Academy Theaters in Pasadena.

The first thing I noticed about this film is how overwhelmingly white (some would say aggressively racist) it is. The very first lines of voice-over dialogue by 3-time Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson casually includes the word "n-gg-r" and other racially derogatory epithets (I think "sp-c" and "w-p" were also included). It's difficult to recall a single Black face in the entire movie.

One of the central themes of William Monahan's Oscar-nominated adaptation of the Hong Kong action thriller Infernal Affairs (2002) is tribalism. This theme manifests itself in a variety of incarnations. Just some of the examples which leap to mind are cops versus robbers, "good guys" versus "bad guys," crooked cops versus decent cops, college-educated versus street smart, Irish versus non-Irish, "us" versus "them."

The story follows Billy Costigan (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) as two South Boston boys who join the Massachusetts State Police and follow parallel but divergent career paths. Damon's character becomes a rapidly rising star of the department and joins an elite Special Investigations Unit led by Alec Baldwin while secretly reporting to Jack Nicholson's Frank Costello, the all-powerful neighborhood mob boss. Dicaprio's character takes on a special deep undercover assignment in Costello's crime syndicate under the aegis of two decent cops, Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Dignan (Mark Wahlberg). Queenan and Dignan are the only people on the Massachusetts State Police Force who know Costigan's true identity as a police informant.

The symmetric nature of the two main characters, a cop who is undercover with the mob (Dicaprio) and a cop who is undercover for the mob (Damon) is fascinating to watch. Of course the two characters are connected via common acquaintances: mob boss Frank Costello, and police psychiatrist (and love interest) played by Vera Farmigia. Farmigia's role is particularly shallowly written. As the other half put it, her character is not really a person, she is a trope for the notion that "women can see through into the core of a man's soul." Farmigia's character's understanding of the nature of her boyfriend's character is a barometer of the film's choice between the Costigan (Dicaprio) and Sullivan (Damon) characters.

The acting is excellent throughout with particularly outstanding performances by Wahlberg (he actually grew up in South Boston and has the most authentic accent in the entire large cast, because it's absolutely real), Damon, Dicaprio and Nicholson.

GRADE: A-.

MadProfessah's Oscar nomination prediction accuracy rate in the Top 8 categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay) was an impressive 29 out of 40, or 72.5%. EW.com has a very cool Flash-powered game where you can enter EW's Oscars prediction contest. The awards ceremony will be hosted by Ellen Degeneres and broadcast next Sunday February 25th at 5pm from The Kodak Theater in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.

Best Picture











Of course the major story here is what I like to call in my classes the Wideman question, i.e. "What's not here?" or "What's left out?" The answer is Dreamgirls! In my opinion, it was the Best Picture of the Year. Although I have seen a lot of movies in the last year, I only saw Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima in the last week but I can't say that I was overly impressed with either of these films enough to endorse their Best Picture worthiness.

If I go with the film that I enjoyed the most while watching it I would have to vote for Little Miss Sunshine though I must admit that I felt that there were moments of "Damn! That's good film making" while watching The Departed (for the intricacy of William Monahan's script), Babel (for the impact of Gustavo Santolalla's heart-tugging score) and The Queen (for the amazing Helen Mirren's transformation into Queen Elizabeth II). Sadly, I felt no transcendent moments while watching Letters from Iwo Jima ("Oscar voters snubbed Dreamgirls for this?" this weekend.

Anyway, many Oscar prognosticators have forecast a win by Babel for Best Picture on Sunday while others have gone for The Departed or Little Miss Sunshine. Anyway, Oscar ballots had to be in by Tuesday February 20th. Here are my picks:

SHOULD WIN: Little Miss Sunshine
WILL WIN: The Departed

Best Director

• Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
• Stephen Frears, The Queen
• Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
• Martin Scorsese, The Departed
• Paul Greengrass, United 93
  
  SHOULD WIN: Stephen Frears, The Queen
  WILL WIN: Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actress

• Penelope Cruz, Volver
• Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
• Helen Mirren, The Queen
• Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
• Kate Winslet, Little Children
  
  SHOULD WIN: Helen Mirren, The Queen
  WILL WIN: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Actor

• Leonardo Dicaprio, Blood Diamond
• Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
• Peter O'Toole, Venus
• Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
• Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
  
  SHOULD WIN: Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
  WILL WIN: Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Supporting Actress

• Adriana Barraza, Babel
• Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
• Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
• Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
• Rinko Kicuchi, Babel



SHOULD WIN: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
WILL WIN: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Best Supporting Actor

• Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
• Jackie Early Haley, Little Children
• Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
• Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
• Mark Wahlberg, The Departed
  
  SHOULD WIN: Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
  WILL WIN: Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

Best Original Screenplay

• Guilllermo Arriaga, Babel
• Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis, Letters From Iwo Jima
• Peter Morgan, The Queen
• Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
• Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
  
  SHOULD WIN: Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
  WILL WIN: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
• Todd Field and Tom Perrota, Little Children
• Patrick Marber, Notes on a Scandal
• Alfonso Cuarón and Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, Children of Men
• William Monahan, The Departed
  
  SHOULD WIN: William Monahan, The Departed
  WILL WIN: William Monahan, The Departed
  

I saw a screening of Blood Diamond starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Jennifer Connelly (Best Supporting Actress, A Beautiful Mind) and Djimon Hounsou (Best Supporting Actor nominee Amistad, In America) at a private residence Saturday night. The audience, which was nearly 30 people, was also overwhelmingly African American and gay.

I had heard one extremely positive comment from a relative stranger in mid-December when the film first opened but I had seen somewhat lukewarm reviews and some negative rumblings about Connelly's performance. The film has grossed more than 50 million dollars domestically and a total of nearly 100 million dollars internationally, so it will likely make money for the releasing studio, Warner Bros. The film garnered a surprisingly strong five Academy Award nominations (Best Actor for Dicaprio, Best Supporting Actress for Hounsou and three technical awards) last month.

So, I was unprepared for how gripping and enjoyable I found Blood Diamond. I believe it is well-directed by Ed Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai) who I respected from his thirtysomething days. The script (by Charles Leavitt) is a slightly fantastical (to save Hounsou's character from near-certain death at the hands of unpredictable and violent rebels there are two improbably propitious coincidences in a very short period of time). However, generally I found the film very suspenseful as well as disturbingly violent (harrowing scenes of maiming and mutilation).

The most compelling aspects of the film to me were the amazing African scenic landscapes and the dramatic portrayal of the training, living conditions and violent activities of the child soldiers.

I agreed with the overall political project of the film (drawing attention to the horrific price in human suffering of what have come to be called "conflict diamonds") and I believe it is more effective at incorporating entertainment and exhortation than last year's African film The Constant Gardener which won Best Supporting Actress for Rachel Weisz (who happens to be married to The Fountain's Darren Aronovsky.) I heartily recommend the film to others and look forward to seeing The Last King of Scotland (set in Ghana) to see if I can make significant comparisons.

GRADE: A.