Bernardo Villela is like a mallrat except at the movies. He is a writer, director, editor and film enthusiast who seeks to continue to explore and learn about cinema, chronicle the journey and share his findings.
This will be a live blog. I will be updating all night.
Red Carpet
So, I can’t quit the Oscars and this was breaking the Interwebs so I tuned in slightly early.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 27: Timothée Chalamet attends the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Momodu Mansaray/Getty Images)
Many of the Awards the Academy deemed unfit for broacast went to Dune. My rant on that can be found here and a running list can be found here.
The Show
There are five nominated songs, and one extra musical performance. All will be introduced. This is time the produers will gladly use up and not truncate.
Yes, DJ Khaled randomly walking on stage to introduce the hosts is a great time-saver.
Samuel L. Jackson has a Lifetime Achievement from the Oscars and the BAMs (shameless plug).
No massive opener with a produced video lampooning the year in film is kind of missed.
18 minutes and we’re starting a category, so that’s a positive.
Ariana DeBose is a very deserving winner.
The Regina Hall COVID is very good.
Wow, this pre-corded shit isn’t awkward at all.
Greig Fraser winning is no surprise and well deserved. I agree with this choice as evidenced here.
So Best Documentary Short Subject doesn’t even get a presenter on stage introducing the film. Fun. This is an asinine decision.
I’m getting the feeling Dune will win everything except Best Director and Best Picture.
All these measures to cut time and you still play off the award winning VFX team.
I had completely forgotten about the stupid fan votes.
Yes, let’s have an unadverstised appearance by a K-Pop band. That’ll increase viewership and decrease running time.
Yay, more dumb ass fan moments.
One of the most unimpressive Bond songs ever for your listening pleasure.
All these cuts and its still going to aroud 11 or 11:15. Great job.
So did Will Smith actually hit Chris Rock or was that staged?
OK, P. Diddy answered that question.
So now there’s a Pulp Fiction reunion coming up. This is the 80th anniversary of Citizen Kane anyone alive from that still and up for a reunion?
The Oscar voters really know that they they’re standing in the way of Lin Manuel Miranda’s EGOT, jeez.
Will Smith apologized, as expected. I’m not here to be an arbiter of apologies. As a show it’s been frustrating, yet again, to not see any real surprises.
Also of note: all those cuts to the ceremony and here we are at 3h20 minutes with Best Actress and Best Picture to come and yet another commercial break underway.
The drama of the pre-recorded awards sucks anyway, but cutting to Jessica Chastain kind of gave it away.
Seat-fillers got mentioned. Cue Kramer GIF.
An Oscar for Jessica Chastain feels so overdue.
Whoa, there’s a surprise. Finally!
3h41m – so it wasn’t so much about shortening the show as getting “things no one cares about” less time.
Peace out and fix all this shit for next year Oscars.
It’s late to be getting this post up, but I have been getting some Oscar nominated, so here’s the rundown. I will keep it update throughout the month. One my aims annually is to see 31 films and 100 nominations I had yet to see.
Most of the viewings so far have animated shorts on The Criterion Channel, they total four nominations (naturally) and one win. The win was Neighbours and very well deserved.
Windy Day (1968)
Hunger (1974)
Neighbours (1952)
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film(1959)
The feature viewing so far was
West Side Story(2021) and it’s absolutely spectacular from start to finish.
Well, it’s been a long-ass year, and though I’ve not seen many of tonight’s nominees…let’s do this anyway!
Gotta say I’m loving skipping the 8:00-8:30 bloc of fluff interviews.
What Regina King said is very true about film helping me through the pandemic, mostly in older things. To see what I’ve been watching follow me on Letterboxd.
Promising Young Woman I did see and this screenplay award is well deserved.
Seeing this set-up for the awards makes me think of the photos of the first ever ceremony I’ve seen.
The Father is at or near the top of my must-see list.
Weird that Best International Film had decontextualized images without dialogue for three of the five films. Vinterberg being nominated as Best Director gave away who the winner would be.
His speech was the most moving part of the show so far.
Not adhering to Oscar traditions will make this show memorable.
Kaluuya’s win is very pleasing. If you want to see where I first saw him watch The Fades.
Saw Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom liking this hair and make-up win.
Best Director went out early in the night!
Nothing diminishes cinematography more than hearing approaches described while seeing zero footage.
This will forever be the Oscars Glenn Close did “the butt.”
However, what was the deal with the audio in that segment and through most of the night.
Then, on my ABC affiliate anyway, the commercial break went on too long and cut-in to Angela Bassett’s speech midway through.
Am I missing something, why is Best Picture announced before Best Actor and Best Actress?
Wow, so the acting winners are clearly always-deserving actors but not who you would have believed would win based on the run-up.
This was the most satisfying film of the year for me. To be able to end a review with the words I do in the one I paste below, the choice was clear.
Being Brazilian-American myself this was a movie I would have to see. While the overarching premise and conflict is clear, well done, and wonderfully performed; how a third culture played into this story would matter quite a bit to me. It adds a bright counterpoint in musical terms as well as some added humor; aside from the necessary and useful analogy of fusion from the culinary world that any bicultural can relate to.
There are some editorial touches that are creative and deft also.
One of myriad things I loved about The OA was it was the first time I’d seen Alice Krige in anything in a while. Seeing here back in a horror film, and excelling so as she does here, was even more satisfying.
Supporting roles come in many shapes and sizes. When a character has a smaller role and still has an impact it’s due to an incredible performance such as we have here.
Begoña Vargas, Iván Marcos, Bea Segura, Sergio Castellanos, José Luis de Madariaga, Iván Renedo, Concha Velasco, and Javier Botet 32 Malasaña Street
Noah Schnapp, Seu Jorge, Dagmara Dominzyck, Arian Moayed, Mark Margolis, Tom Madirosian, Salem Murphy, Daniel Oreskes, and Gero Camilo in Abe
Lewis Cancelmi, Greg Rikaart, Thomas Kopache, Anastasia Ganias, Antoinette LaVecchia, Anthony Patellis, Bobby Guarino, Joseph Callari, Owen Vaccaro, Jacob Laval, Jake Katzman, Ethan Coskay, and Skylar Lipkin Team Marco
Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Oakes Fegley, Laura Marano, Cheech Marin, Jayne Seymour, Christopher Walken, Juliocesar Chavez, Isaac Kragten, T.J. McGibbon, Poppy Gagnon and Colin Ford in The War with Grandpa
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Pedro Pascal, Adriana Berrazza, Boyd Holbrook, Christian Slater, Taylor Dooley, Sung Kang, Hailey Reinhart, Christopher McDonald, Jill Blackwood, John Valley, YaYa Gosselin, Lyon Daniels, Andy Walken, Hala Finley, Lotus Blosson, Dylan Henry Lau, Andrew Diaz, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Akira Akbar, Nathan Blair, and Vivien Lyra Blair in We Can Be Heroes
It’s not easy to play a quirky, oddball and still make them a real person as opposed to a caricature. For McKenna Grace to do that at a young age with such ease is impressive.
All these performances need to be seen, Robertson’s work without dialogue is spectacular and deserves mention despite the indication of sparsity above. However, the most soaring of these performances is the nuanced, multicultural, turn by Noah Schnapp.
In an ensemble piece, when all your scenes are of import, and make an impact that’s saying something and Freedson-Jackson delivers memorably in every single one.
Alivia Clark, Ashling Doyle, Tanner Flood, James Freedson-Jackson, Oliver Gifford, Nolan Lyons, Sam McCathy, Ivy Mille, Taylor Richardson, and Eric Schuett 18 to Party
YaYa Gosselin, Lyon Daniels, Andy Walken, Hala Finley, Lotus Blosson, Dylan Henry Lau, Andrew Diaz, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Akira Akbar, Nathan Blair, and Vivien Lyra Blair We Can Be Heroes
Sadie Stanley, Maxwell Simkins, Cree Cicchino, Lucas Jaye and Calidore Robinson The Sleepover
Owen Vaccaro, Jacob Laval, Jake Katzman, Ethan Coskay, and Skylar Lipkin Team Marco
Jaden Michael, Gerald Jones III, Gregory Diaz IV, Coco Jones Vampires vs. The Bronx
Just impeccable work here from top to bottom of a deep cast.
This was a year I went for more ambient selections than thundering booming score, but Color Out of Space takes that ambience from grating to melodic, from subconscious to immersive and is an aural accompaniment to the visual madness of the film.
The cast of It continues to go places. Aside from all the movies I saw Jaeden in this year, one of which was a delayed viewing of Knives Out, he was also in Defending Jacob on AppleTV+. His films also ran the gamut of genre and were seen throughout the year.
For whatever reason I saw exactly two of her films while she was alive. Even though I loved it I never managed to see others. This box has helped with that.
So this past year was…something. I’m almost entirely convinced it really happened. For more on my year of being mostly-absent from my blog read this. Commentary on the smattering of films I saw will accompany my post next week.
These nominations will be posted by live blog until the categories are complete.
Begoña Vargas, Iván Marcos, Bea Segura, Sergio Castellanos, José Luis de Madariaga, Iván Renedo, Concha Velasco, and Javier Botet 32 Malasaña Street
Noah Schnapp, Seu Jorge, Dagmara Dominzyck, Arian Moayed, Mark Margolis, Tom Madirosian, Salem Murphy, Daniel Oreskes, and Gero Camilo in Abe
Lewis Cancelmi, Greg Rikaart, Thomas Kopache, Anastasia Ganias, Antoinette LaVecchia, Anthony Patellis, Bobby Guarino, Joseph Callari, Owen Vaccaro, Jacob Laval, Jake Katzman, Ethan Coskay, and Skylar Lipkin Team Marco
Robert DeNiro, Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Oakes Fegley, Laura Marano, Cheech Marin, Jayne Seymour, Christopher Walken, Juliocesar Chavez, Isaac Kragten, T.J. McGibbon, Poppy Gagnon and Colin Ford in The War with Grandpa
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Pedro Pascal, Adriana Berrazza, Boyd Holbrook, Christian Slater, Taylor Dooley, Sung Kang, Hailey Reinhart, Christopher McDonald, Jill Blackwood, John Valley, YaYa Gosselin, Lyon Daniels, Andy Walken, Hala Finley, Lotus Blosson, Dylan Henry Lau, Andrew Diaz, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Akira Akbar, Nathan Blair, and Vivien Lyra Blair in We Can Be Heroes
Alivia Clark, Ashling Doyle, Tanner Flood, James Freedson-Jackson, Oliver Gifford, Nolan Lyons, Sam McCathy, Ivy Mille, Taylor Richardson, and Eric Schuett 18 to Party
YaYa Gosselin, Lyon Daniels, Andy Walken, Hala Finley, Lotus Blosson, Dylan Henry Lau, Andrew Diaz, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Akira Akbar, Nathan Blair, Vivien Lyra Blair We Can Be Heroes
Sadie Stanley, Maxwell Simkins, Cree Cicchino, Lucas Jaye and Calidore Robinson The Sleepover
Owen Vaccaro, Jacob Laval, Jake Katzman, Ethan Coskay, and Skylar Lipkin Team Marco
Jaden Michael, Gerald Jones III, Gregory Diaz IV, Coco Jones Vampires vs. The Bronx
Here are the nominees for the 2017 BAM Awards. Winners will be announced on January 9th. Some films did qualify after 12/24. Some gross omissions, as speculated in the shortlists were corrected. Collages that may feature in the honoree post will feature on my Instagram page over the course of the next week. Without any further ado … enjoy!
Carla Gugino Gerald’s Game
Sally Hawkins The Shape of Water
Haley Lu Richardson Columbus
Aubrey Plaza Ingrid Goes West
Frances McDormand Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Saoirse Ronan Lady Bird
James Franco The Disaster Artist
Ryan Gosling Blade Runner 2049
Daniel Kaluuya Get Out
James McAvoy Split
Kumail Nanjiani The Big Sick
Denzel Washington Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Betty Buckley Split
Carrie Fisher Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Holly Hunter The Big Sick
Catherine Keener Get Out
Laurie Metcalf Lady Bird
Carla Juri Blade Runner 2049
Sterling K. Brown Marshall
Dave Franco The Disaster Artist
Richard Jenkins The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Bill Skarsgård It
Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Benicio Del Toro, Frank Oz, Warwick Davis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gareth Edwards
The Big Sick
Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Anupam Kher, Zenobia Shroff, Adeel Akhtar, Kurt Braunohler, Vella Lovell, David Alan Grier, Ed Herbstman, Shenaz Treasury, Kuhoo Verma, Mitra Jouhari, Myra Lucretia Taylor
Get Out
Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Root, LilRel Howert, Erika Alexander
The Disaster Artist
James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Melanie Griffith, Sharon Stone, Josh Hutcherson, Zac Efron, Paul Scheer, Ari Graynor, Jacki WeaverMegan Mullally, Jason Mantzoukas, Nathan Fielder, Hannibal Buress, Bob Odenkirk, Ike Batinholtz, Kevin Smith, Keegan-Michael Key, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Kristen Bell, J.J. Abrams, Lizzy Caplan, Judd Apatow, Zach Braff, Bryan Cranston, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
It
Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jackson Robert Scott, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hamilton, Jake Sim, Logan Thompson, Owen Teague, Stephen Bogaert, Stuart Hughes, Geoffrey Pounsett, Molly Jane Atkinson
Wind River
Kelsey Asbille, Jeremy Renner, Julia Jones, Teo Briones, Apesanahkwat, Graham Greene, Elizabeth Olsen, Tantoo Cardinal, Eric Lange, Gil Birmingham, Althea Sam, Tokala Clifford, Jon Bernthal
Ella Anderson The Glass Castle
Sophia Lillis It
Millicent Simmonds Wonderstruck
Izabela Vidovic Wonder
Lulu Wilson Annabelle: Creation
Maddie Ziegler The Book of Henry
Lilly Aspell Wonder Woman
Chiara Aurelia Gerald’s Game
Lola Flanery Home Again
Peyton Kennedy XX
Amiah Miller War for the Planet of the Apes
Olivia Kate Rice The Glass Castle
Ella Anderson, Chandler Head, Charlie Shotwell, Iain Armitage, Sadie Sink, Olivia Kate Rice, Shree Grace Crooks, and Ellen Grace Redfield It
Jaeden Lieberher, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jackson Robert Scott and Nicholas Hamilton
Wonder
Jacob Tremblay, Izabela Vidovic, Noah Jupe, Bryce Gheisar, Ty Consiglio, Kyle Breitkopf, James Hughes, Elle McKinnon, Millie Davis, et al.
Wonderstruck
Millicent Simmonds, Oakes Fegley, Jaden Michael, Sawyer Niehaus, et al.
Rico, Oskar und der Diebstahlstein
Anton Petzold, Juri Winkler, and Tristan Göbel The Beguiled
Oona Laurence, Angourie Rice, Addison Riecke, and Emma Howard
Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani The Big Sick
Jordan Peele Get Out
Lee Unkrich & Jason Katz & Matthew Aldrich & Adrian Morris Coco
M. Night Shyamalan Split
Martin McDonagh Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Zak Hilditch and Stephen King 1922
Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, and Philip K. Dick Blade Runner 2049
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; Greg Sestero and Tom Bisse The Disaster Artist
Mike Flanagan & Jeff Howard, and Stephen King Gerald’s Game
Chase Palmer & Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman, and Stephen King It
Carter Burwell Wonderstruck
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Wind River
John Williams Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Benjamin Walfisch It
Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch Blade Runner 2049
Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss Baby Driver
Jason Ballantine It
Jon Gregory Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Gregory Plotkin Get Out
Joe Walker Blade Runner 2049
“This Is Me” Keala Settle and The Greatest Show Ensemble The Greatest Showman
“Remember Me” (Reunion) Anthony Gonzalez, Ana Ofelia Murguía Coco
“Un Poco Loco” Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal Coco
“La Llorona” Alanna Ubach, Antonio Sol Coco
“Proud Corazón” Anthony Gonzalez Coco
Over the past year, postings on this site have been a bit sparse but one of the more significant ones was for the Things I Learned From the Movies Blogathon (just after National Coming Out Day 2016). It was my coming out on this blog, and those stories real and fictionalized matter. The short below has been released in the past year and made quite a big splash on fictionalized end.
The day matters not as a compulsory exercise but rather to raise awareness. Here’s an example of how a real-life coming out can have an impact on others (Yes, this means you need to read a long Instagram caption. #sorrynotsorry).
Even when you’re as legendary and accomplished an actor as Christopher Plummer is there are certain themes you may be loath to revisit if it mirrors a bit too closely to one of your more famous roles. In Remember Christopher Plummer plays Zev Guttman, a Holocaust survivor living in a nursing home whom has just lost his wife and is dealing with dementia. Now entering a new stage of his life he can embark on his mission to avenge the death of his family at Auschwitz.
When the material is good enough and you feel it has something to say, the director you’ll be working with is acclaimed (as Atom Egoyan is), you will gladly participate in a film that may appear to share superficial themes (Nazism and World War II) to a film in your past you can’t seem to outrun (The Sound of Music). Furthermore, when you have over 200 credits to your name, and are in your late eighties (an age bracket that may as well not exist as a consideration in mainstream films) you may not be too picky. However, as some of Plummer’s more recent films like Beginners show he’s not just agreeing to a project because he read a script as some actors over a certain age may appear to.
What is the most notable in this film is that Plummer is not merely the elder statesman in an otherwise youthful cast. Quite on the contrary Remember features impressive performances from fellow octogenarian Martin Landau and septuagenarian Bruno Ganz, and features but a brief supporting turn by the prodigious and prolific young actor Peter Dacunha. Not only are the older actors great but they feature prominently in the film. However, the film as opposed to the pre-packaged film for the older set it is one about characters and plot considerations that are specific, and can communicate to audiences of all ages due to the use of expertly employed suspenseful set pieces.
While much of film acting is the ability to recreate emotional notes many times over owing to the need to shoot coverage, much of a film like Remember wherein a character must reabsorb givens as if it is entirely new information asks much more from an actor, director, and editor than a conventionally constructed film. In this film Plummer has to not only emote to have us engage in the repeated loss of his wife but also on more than one occasion have us fear that his only purpose left — as he sees it — will fail because he has either forgotten about the letter that now defines his reality or because in his travels it has become illegible.
While a protagonist going brazenly into random encounters with other men of a certain age and asking them they are German, were at Auschwitz, and a blockführer does allow for a quiet thrum of tension throughout; there are moments of unexpected pathos. Zev has but a name (Rudy Kurlander) and a location to find each of the man who could be responsible for killing his family. One of the men has a number tattooed on his arm, which catches Zev by surprise.
“You’re Jewish?”
“Homosexual.”
At that moment Zev breaks down in tears, feeling remorse and offering his condolence. It’s a wonderful moment of empathy that is but an example of how this is a more layered emotional experience than one might expect going into it.
There is a huge revelation that I will not spoil but it is the commitment to a performance that allows it to work. When the film is over and consider things in hindsight you will note the clues were there all along, but you didn’t even realize you should have been looking for them.
This film was distributed by A24 who is a company willing to go outside the norms and push the envelope even where we weren’t aware it should be pushed even lightly. It is available to stream for Amazon Prime subscribers and is worth checking out.
Typically when I’ve written about these crowdfunding efforts it has been about campaigns that have not been funded. This reissue of an expanded, gorgeously packaged book is happening but the stretch goals are coming fast and furious, and I suggest you hop on the bandwagon as I have. Here’s what this package about one of the members of the Italian Horror Trinity is about:
Here’s what the next stretch goal will add:
Having announced the addition of an illustrated booklet with the trailer DVD after surpassing the £55,000 milestone, here is what everyone gains if we can find more people who want to own the ultimate edition of the ultimate Lucio Fulci tribute package:
Just 30 to 35 more people will bring us to a total of £62,500 raised. If we hit this target everyone will receive a set of postcards featuring the four iconic 1980s British quad poster designs – The Beyond, City of the Living Dead, The House By the Cemetery and Zombie Flesh-Eaters.
Having already added one goal, they announced further add-ons:
£70,000 – Everyone’s package will include a stamped hard enamel badge with the Eibon symbol in black against a polished copper metal finish.
£80,000 – We go into a recording studio, where Stephen Thrower will record a commentary track for the trailer DVD.
The Movie Rat 