OVP: Picture (2018)

OVP: Best Picture (2018)

The Nominees Were...

Kevin Feige, Black Panther

Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele, & Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman

Graham King, Bohemian Rhapsody

Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, & Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite

Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly, & Nick Vallelonga, Green Book

Gabriela Rodriguez & Alfonso Cuaron, Roma

Bill Gerber, Bradley Cooper, & Lynette Howell Taylor, A Star is Born

Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adam McKay, & Kevin Messick, Vice

My Thoughts: We are officially at the finish line here after tackling 19 different Oscar races, so it's time for us to round the bend.  Some housekeeping for loyal readers-we'll publish this today, head into the My Ballot (who I would've nominated in each category) tomorrow, and then we'll kickoff our new season of the series on either Sunday or Monday (we're still backlogged with years, so we aren't skipping a beat), with Best Makeup for that year (I won't spoil our next featured ceremony just yet but know we're still in the 21st Century) coming up late next week.  We'll also resume more regular blog posts (including some more elections coverage, which I know we've been slacking on) as I get back from vacation-mode throughout next week, with us resuming our regular output on November 22nd.  But for now, let's sit back & grab the popcorn, as we discuss the eight films that Oscar deemed its very best in 2018.

We'll start with the movie that is going to have the longest legacy of any of these pictures, Black Panther.  Though others before it came close (The Dark Knight) or kind of skirted the line into the genre (Birdman), Black Panther was the first traditional comic book movie to get nominated for Best Picture.  The movie is solid, one of the better outputs from Marvel.  It has a self-contained story, and the acting is good.  Ultimately while this is a landmark in terms of diversity & having our first major Black superhero, the story itself doesn't elevate enough to be a truly seismic film for me (I still prefer Captain America: Winter Soldier of the Marvel pictures), but this is special for a reason.

BlacKkKlansman is in a similar boat for me when it comes to this list.  This is a solid movie-Spike Lee does not always make movies that I love, but he's consistent & distinctive enough that I always find myself intrigued by what's onscreen.  There are moments in BlacKkKlansman where it gets ahead of itself, Lee giving us too many ideas at once, particularly in the film's first half before the central story has captured us.  But that doesn't mean that it doesn't work well, taking a sharp look not just at the racist institutions of the past but also how they have bled into the constructs of the present.

Our third colorful film title, Green Book, also deals with the subject of "race in America," but it does so in a tactless way.  Green Book is not a bad movie in a normal sense-it looks good, its story structure works...it's a feel good movie that gets from Point A to Point B without needing a layover.  Its racial politics are troubling, though, as is the way that Mahershala Ali's character is approached (both by the script, and it has to be said, the actor himself).  Green Book I maintain is the sort of movie that feels more disposable than heinous...no one would give a crap about this movie had it not been nominated for (and then won) a Best Picture Oscar.

I don't know that that's the case for Vice.  This film, one of three movies with problematic politics in this list, is attempting the biggest artistic swings of the bunch, using random Shakespearean monologues & a mid-film credits sequence to feel absurd in the face of atrocities from the Bush administration.  But here's the thing-the filmmakers don't deserve credit for standing up to these men a decade after they took & left power, and the movie forcefully rubbing the American public's noise in Dick Cheney's legacy, disregarding that a vast swath of Americans (including, in 2000, a near majority of them) turned down the administration.  This is a bad movie, and quite frankly an offensive one from a director who took the worst parts of his last picture & decided to amplify them.

Since we're already on the "films that cause heartburn" section of 2018, we might as well round out with Bohemian Rhapsody.  Obviously the politics of Bohemian Rhapsody are a giant red flag-the movie is ridiculously homophobic, and the sort of hatchet job look at one man's life that should've been in the $2 bin at Wal-Mart within three months of its release rather than a gargantuan, Oscar-winning blockbuster. But it's also just a truly terrible movie.  The editing, acting, cinematography, writing-they are all pedestrian & working in the worst kinds of cliches imaginable.  I don't get the appeal of this movie beyond its soundtrack, and if you want that...just listen to your old Queen albums?  A perplexing black mark in Oscar's track record.

It feels strange to put Bohemian Rhapsody and Roma into the same hemisphere, much less into the same category for Best Picture the movies are such polar opposites.  A personal love letter to both his childhood and to cinema, Alfonso Cuaron brings a warm approach to this film, not just with rich cinematography, but also with a story that feels full without every needing a lot of exposition.  I am someone who doesn't need a film like this to be richly-plotted, since film is a visual medium & we should embrace that, and Roma is a picture that leaves you immersed in its feelings & dialogue.

A good example of a movie whose plot gets in its way is A Star is Born.  I really liked the first 30-40 minutes of this movie.  I thought it was taking a sort of abstract approach not just to the most timeless of Hollywood tales (everyone knows how this is going to start & end), but also to the concept of these two specific celebrities, not wanting to get bogged down in the trivialities of where this is headed.  The movie falls apart for me after "Shallow," though, when Lady Gaga can't handle the weight of the acting, and the movie tries to present the tale as if it's new & fresh when it's stale (we've done this five times now, this isn't a story with a lot of curves).  As a result, this is the "good movie" of the bunch that I relegate to the bad.

Our final movie is The Favourite, a movie that while it will never have the pop culture cache of Black Panther, is probably going to have some of its staying power in arthouses.  That's what happens when you get three beloved, Oscar-winning actresses (one wasn't there when it came out, but this got her the designation) at the top-of-their-game, and then give them a script to die for.  Honestly while Roma might hit different heights in terms of cinematography that are beyond Favourite, this movie is the best traditionally-structured film of the bunch, totally original despite telling a story that's been around for hundreds of years.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes split their nominations between Comedy/Musical and Drama, so we have a full ten nominees here.  Drama gave its top prize to Bohemian Rhapsody (I had honestly totally blocked that out) over Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, If Beale Street Could Talk, and A Star is Born, while Musical/Comedy went with Green Book against Crazy Rich Asians, The Favourite, Mary Poppins Returns, & Vice.  BAFTA went with Roma for its win, besting BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Green Book, & A Star is Born, while the PGA went with Green Book over Black Panther, BlaKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, Crazy Rich Asians, The Favourite, A Quiet Place, Roma, A Star is Born, & Vice.  In terms of ninth place, I know Crazy Rich Asians got the most precursor love but considering it scored in no other Oscar categories, I would assume Beale Street or Cold War, given their respective writing & directing nominations, would have been closer.

Films I Would Have Nominated: You'll find out tomorrow. 😉

Oscar’s Choice: In what was considered a slight upset at the time, Green Book bested Roma and a surging Bohemian Rhapsody to take an ill-advised Best Picture trophy.

My Choice: Roma is my winner, with The Favourite shortly after, the only two films that I genuinely loved of this lineup.  Following them would be Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Green Book, A Star is Born, Vice, and Bohemian Rhapsody, in that order.

And there you have it-another OVP in the books.  Tomorrow we'll do the My Official Ballot, but in the meantime-are you with me on Team Roma or did you prefer the Academy's Green Book?  Do you think Crazy Rich Asians had a shot at a Best Picture nomination or was it just not Oscar's jam?  And overall-what is your favorite movie of 2018?  Share your comments below!

Also in 2018: Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2018

Past Best Picture Contests: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

OVP: Director (2018)

OVP: Best Director (2018)

The Nominees Were...

Alfonso Cuaron, Roma

Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite

Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman

Adam McKay, Vice

Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War

My Thoughts: Well, we're going to lose a little bit of time this week on our write-ups, and I would apologize for not having new articles out, but I'm on vacation & the week ahead of vacation got away from me a little bit (a busy week of both work & outside-of-work getting prepped for my first vacation in two years).  Two years without a vacation feels like something I should just enjoy, so I'm skipping apologies.  As a result, while I will probably write an article or two while I'm on vacation (the term "vacation" for me is not really a word I can handle as I'm kind of like a shark-even when I'm relaxing I need to be doing something), we'll play the next week by ear other than for sure you'll get my Saturdays with the Stars, as I've never missed one of those (and the next two weeks are already written anyway).  With that preamble, let's discuss Best Director.

It's kind of hard to grasp that this was Spike Lee's first nomination for Best Director.  Let that sink in for a second-it took until 2018 for Spike Lee to be nominated for Best Director at the Oscars.  But it's exciting that Lee's first nomination for Best Director came for a film that feels like a proper "Spike Lee Joint."  BlacKkKlansman has a raw energy to it, one that is willing to take the audience on a journey & I loved some of the provocative imagery, particularly as Lee knowingly counters the Klan meetings with the obvious modern corollaries).  I will say that there were times that Lee's direction, particularly in the first hour feels ill-served, slightly too chaotic as we're settling into the story, but Lee had earned several Oscar nominations by the time this one came about, so I'm not going to quarrel too hard with his inclusion here.

Alfonso Cuaron might be the modern filmmaker I genuinely admire the most, or whose films I consistently adore the most.  Roma is no exception to that, but it's also a film that feels so personal that there was a risk that Cuaron wouldn't make it something that we'd be able to connect with.  Cerebral films can be a challenge, sometimes becoming just "pretty pictures on the screen."  However, Cuaron takes a step back & ensures that this film feels universal not in its message, but in the hazy way that our childhoods become idealized, almost abstract constructs of what we remember.  Roma is a singular vision from start-to-finish, absorbing & challenging but never without purpose.

Cold War can claim a similar path.  Shot by genius Pawel Pawlikowski, this is the one film that won't be returning in the Best Picture field, but what an inspired choice for Oscar to nominate it here.  Pawlikowski's trick is making his short, fleeting movie feel like a bit of a cheat, the way that wrong decisions can cost people years of happiness, and the way that our tendencies to try the easier or faster way out oftentimes get in our way.  Shot in stark black-and-white, Pawlikowski never relents with his camera, but still makes the film feel smoky, romantic, & tragic.

Yorgos Lanthimos' movies have progressively grown on me.  I hated Dogtooth, quite liked The Lobster, was concerned about The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and officially fell in love with The Favourite.  The movie's genius comes from its writing & acting, so it's nice to see that even though it was getting third billing, the direction got a nod here as well.  The movie's pacing is crisp (a comedy, even a black comedy, needs that), and I also think Lanthimos is right to take a slight detour away from his typical style of "totally detached" by putting some genuine emotional stakes here (you learn to care about two of these women in a way you don't the third, unlike some of his other films where you kind of assumed everyone is doomed).  This investment pays off as the movie's jaw-dropping finale is reached.

Our final nominee is Adam McKay.  I didn't mind McKay's previous film, The Big Short, even if it wears badly in the memory as a result of Vice.  Vice takes all of the worst parts of The Big Short (the fourth-wall breaking, the clumsy story structure), and turns it up to eleven.  I think modern filmmaking sometimes confuses provocative with quality, but that's not the case.  In the same way that you can made a traditional film and make it genius, films that feel outside-the-norm if they include characters that don't feel consistent or random asides that totally take you out of the picture aren't automatically brilliant...just because it's new doesn't make it good, and Vice's kitchen sink approach to filmmaking feels lazy & like a bad episode of Family Guy more than a true movie.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Alfonso Cuaron, over Lee, McKay, Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born), and Peter Farrelly (Green Book).  BAFTA went with Cuaron as their winner as well, sticking to the Academy's lineup with the exception of McKay being bumped for Cooper.  And the DGA likewise picked Cuaron, with the exact same lineup as the Golden Globes.  All of this is to say that in terms of sixth place...I have no idea.  Looking at my predictions at the time I actually guessed Lanthimos & didn't go with Farrelly, and I do think that's the right play in retrospect...but Farrelly winning for writing & Green Book taking Best Picture does make you wonder in retrospect if Cooper was somehow in seventh place despite dominating the whole season.

Directors I Would Have Nominated: I'm going to make a point of doing the My Ballot within the next week, so you'll see later this week who I would've put here & I'm not going to spoil the surprise.  Suffice it to say, Adam McKay will not be in the running.
Oscar's Choice: Cuaron joins George Stevens (and I believe that's it) as one of only two directors to win multiple Best Director trophies but never have a film (to date) win Best Picture.

My Choice: I am going to go against-the-grain here and go with Pawlikowski over Cuaron.  Cuaron has the most obvious choice, but Pawlikowski's film so easily could falter in a way that I think Cuaron's never could, and so by the slimmest of margins I'll give it to Cold War (OVP spoiler alert: both will make My Ballot).  Lanthimos, Lee, & McKay follow.

Those were my thoughts-how about yours?  Is everyone still on Team Alfonso or does someone want to come over to join me with Cold War?  Since he has two Oscars now, will there still be pressure to give Spike Lee a third trophy at some point for Best Director?  And was it Farrelly or Cooper who was just out-of-reach in sixth place?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Also in 2018: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2018

Past Best Director Contests: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

OVP: Adapted Screenplay (2018)

 OVP: Best Adapted Screenplay (2018)

The Nominees Were...

Joel & Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, & Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman

Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk

Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, & Will Fetters, A Star is Born

My Thoughts: We are finishing up the writing categories today with a dirty confession-I almost always like original screenplay more than adapted.  This is weird for me to say, because with one exception, these are not stories that are familiar to me.  I have never read any of the books that these movies are based on, and therefore they "should" be all original to me.  However, in 2018 like in many years, these feel a bit more traditional, a bit more "we've seen this before" even from filmmakers that are trying to do new things.

Case in point: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which is an anthology film, something you rarely see in film today (and honestly, it never REALLY had a heyday in film...it was always more of a television thing).  The movie is watchable, but the script feels like it's struggling to connect these stories together, many of the tales coming across as incomplete, and not in the way you'd hope for.  After all, short stories are supposed to give you a peak into a world you'd want to spend more time with, but with rare exception these tales don't do that, and I feel like the vignette appeal of the script is lost on me (and lost in general).

A Star is Born is another story that feels "seen this before," and partially that's because I have-I've seen many of the Star is Born iterations, and so I knew where this was headed.  The modern touches in this movie don't work at all-it reads as tired to have Ally going on Saturday Night Live and for us to go back to this same well of "a star must rise, a star must fall."  Honestly, even for the best parts of this movie (and there are decent things happening in A Star is Born, particularly Cooper's performance), it feels totally unnecessary, and the scriptwriters never justify its existence.  It'd have been better if Gaga had just come out with a new album and left this overdone tale to rest.

If Beale Street Could Talk is far more urgent & necessary, bringing our first real taste of James Baldwin to the big-screen (the first English-language adaptation of his work).  Barry Jenkins' followup to Moonlight gets so much right, and a lot of that is grounded in the way he approaches this script.  The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, which gives off the appeal of almost a memory, where we remember the biggest things first & then move from there.  If we're going to quibble, one could argue that the central character of Tish leaves too unknowable, which is part of the point (we're supposed to see this tale through her eyes), but it gives off the slight aura of a puzzle missing a couple of pieces, even if you can see what it would eventually turn into.

Can You Ever Forgive Me doesn't suffer from that central idea, even if it might start out that way.  How to make Lee Israel, a bitter, difficult woman who is frustrated that the world has screwed her over, into someone that feels real-to-life (she's not going to become a different person by the end of the picture), but also gives us an authentic portrait of a complicated woman...that's a tall task.  Holofcener pulls it off though (with help from her leading woman).  This is a really smart script, one with a lot of bite & a bit unrelenting in how vicious life can be if you're single at a certain age without a support structure...you both sympathize with & understand the impact of Israel's crimes by the finale of the picture.

BlacKkKlansman is also a smart script.  Spike Lee is always funny (the scenes with some of the KKK members, particularly some of the women in the group, are played for shocking humor), and though this comes with some hiccups (I didn't love the film, as I felt it was a bit too long & that some of Lee's easier sight gags toe-the-line between being repetitive & driving home a point), I enjoyed this.  I also have to admit that the OVP is structured in a way that I only pick the best of that lineup, without any thought of whether someone was over or under-rewarded at that point (i.e. I may end up giving some legends no trophies and some others 6+ statues), but as the actual Oscars don't operate in such a bubble, getting Spike Lee a competitive Oscar was a correct decision by AMPAS even if he's not going to end up my choice here.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes combine their writing categories so there is no adapted or original distinction, and the only nominee that they picked that was adapted was If Beale Street Could Talk (which lost).  BAFTA went with Spike Lee as their winner, and traded out Buster Scruggs in favor of First Man among its nominees.  The WGA went with Can You Ever Forgive Me over this lineup save one (Buster Scruggs was skipped in favor of Black Panther).  There's a lot of solid arguments for sixth place: Black Panther was a Best Picture nominee, First Man did well in tech awards which might have given it a home here...but I still wonder how close we got to Crazy Rich Asians getting this citation.  I predicted it at the time, and sometimes the writing branch gets really into adaptations of books the Academy members actually had read (given the novel's bestseller status, that was the case here).  Hard to tell (Black Panther makes more sense), but I do wonder if Crazy Rich Asians was closer than the precursors indicate.

Films I Would Have Nominated: Like I said, this was an underwhelming year for this category, but for sure First Man would've made the cut for me.  Biopics are rarely that well-concentrated, and I love the way it made a universally-recognized figure so revealed.

Oscar's Choice: Light competition and his long status as an Oscar bridesmaid made Spike Lee not just a winner, but one that I would bet took a majority of the ballots.

My Choice: Like I said, the OVP is in a bubble, so I'm not thinking about if Lee is overdue or not, and under those criteria, this is Can You Ever Forgive Me for me, the most complete tale of the bunch. Follow that with Beale Street, BlacKkKlansman, Buster Scruggs, and A Star is Born.

Those are my thoughts-what about you?  Is everyone of the mind that Spike Lee deserved this, or can I have any takers over with Nicole Holofcener?  Are we finally done with A Star is Born remakes or is that a story that will never die?  And was it Black Panther, First Man, or Crazy Rich Asians that was nipping on the heals of, let's face it, Buster Scruggs?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2018: Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2018

Past Best Adapted Screenplay Contests: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

OVP: Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Film: Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Stars: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Chadwick Boseman

Director: Spike Lee

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Score)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Few modern filmmakers understand the concept of cinema & spectacle quite like Spike Lee.  Lee belongs on a very short list of modern filmmakers who have a distinctive style, voice, & remain relevant decades after they came onto the scene.  Every film, even his newest ones, could be a landmark in his filmography, and with him now taking on the title of "two-time Oscar winner" after his last film, Da 5 Bloods asks the question of whether or not he can handle being put into the place he probably should've always been-one of the celebrated voices of his cinematic generation.  This is his first followup to BlacKKKlansman, and Lee uses that film's box office & goodwill to make a huge film, one that talks about race, war, and commerce in ways that are familiar to followers of his work.  Unfortunately, Da 5 Bloods also hearkens to other filmmakers when they get the kind of leave that Lee gets with this movie (after his award-winning last picture), feeling indulgent & in dire need of editing.

(Spoilers Ahead) The plot of Da 5 Bloods feels relatively simple on its surface.  Four Vietnam veterans return to the country to recover the body of their fallen squad leader Norman (Boseman), but also are intent on finding an enormous amount of gold they were carrying (from the US government) that was never delivered to the Lahu people during the war.  Strife breaks out quickly in the group as Paul (Lindo) is a Trump-supporting, confrontational man who is clearly suffering from PTSD, and is also being followed by his son David (Majors), who knows that his father is unwell.  When they find th gold, they also encounter a series of land mines, which kills one of the veterans, Eddie (Lewis), and nearly kills David.  During this, Paul takes three landmine advocates hostage (to the protest of the rest of the group), and they encounter a group of gunmen hired by a French businessman who wants the gold for himself.  The group splits up, with Paul going his own way, where we learn (in a vision from Norman) that he accidentally killed Norman during a raid during the War, and he is shot by the gunmen.  Eventually David and the remainder of the landmine advocates & veterans kill the remaining members of the gunmen's coalition, and they share the gold with the widows of the men that died, as well as with Black Lives Matter and landmine advocacy groups.

The film borrows, sometimes wholesale, from a lot of movies.  This is not Lee's first war film (he also made 2008's Miracle at St. Anna), so it's surprising how often he's clearly borrowing from other movies.  If you can't see the lines to Apocalypse Now! and Platoon, you need to put down your phone as you aren't paying attention (even though it's Netflix).  This isn't bad (paying homage is never a bad thing, particularly when you're a director like Lee who knows & loves movies), but it sometimes feels like he's ripping off these movies, taking so much of them that you can't tell if he's acknowledging it or if it's supposed to be a joke.

This is because Da 5 Bloods is a movie with a lot of ideas but way too little cohesion.  The movie wants to talk about racism, particularly when it comes to the barbaric way men-of-color are forced to fight wars for a country that doesn't give them equality on their home soul, but it also wants to be a movie about the fraught relationship within the black community, and it also wants to be a treatise about fathers & sons (and the generational gap between the Baby Boomers and their Millennial children)...and it also wants to be a standard-fare heist film, which Lee is very good at (one underrated film on his resumé is 2006's Inside Man, which is elevated popcorn fare, and really excellent).  It succeeds in none of these things, as it tries to be too big.  Lee, like Quentin Tarantino & Steven Spielberg in recent years, is a filmmaker who didn't have someone on set who would tell him "no" and he created a movie without focus & that is at least 40 minutes too long.  The film also has issues with sexism (which, even in his best work, is a persistent problem with Spike Lee's movies), having the two most significant female characters in the movie be a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold and a French woman who is basically there to seduce Jonathan Majors in multiple scenes.

Convoluted movies can house good performances, and the acting in Da 5 Bloods is solid.  Chadwick Boseman is getting Oscar buzz for this, and he does have one big moment at the end of the film, but it feels more like people are struggling watching him play a ghost (and wanting to honor his memory, as the film does) than this being an A+ performance (Majors, for example, has a much better role if you needed a Supporting Actor play from this movie).  The rest of the cast is solid, if not always spectacular, and the choice of Norm Lewis feels like a problem (Lewis was 11 in real life when the Vietnam War ended, and is too young to be playing this part).

But it's impossible to talk about this movie without speaking about Delroy Lindo.  Lindo, a character actor you've seen in everything from The Cider House Rules to Gone in 60 Seconds to The Good Fight knows that he's getting his moment-in-the-sun and takes it.  The movie is a showcase for him, giving him repeated monologues to nail, juicy complicated backstory to play, and even a death scene (I said spoiler alert for a reason).  There are times when it's too much, when we're getting diminishing returns, and occasionally it's hard to watch (Paul is not a bad guy, but he's certainly not what you'd consider an easy man to like).  But Lindo at his best in this movie is some titanic acting, a character actor unleashed, and this will be the defining performance of his career (and will probably get him an Oscar nod, one that will not elicit any complaints from me even if I haven't finalized my own five Best Actor nominees).  It's hard not to think about how much better his work here might've been had he gotten a movie that could have assisted the acting he was giving it.

OVP: BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Film: BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Stars: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Herrier, Topher Grace, Jasper Paakkonen
Director: Spike Lee
Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor-Adam Driver, Film Editing, Score, Adapted Screenplay*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

As I continue to wind down the Oscar-nominated films of 2018, we now come to the final Best Picture nominee I still had outstanding, and I think the only reason I didn't get to it initially was that it was the sort of film that feels surprising that it took the Best Picture nomination.  The films of Spike Lee are not what you'd anticipate as being "Oscar-friendly" even when they occasionally are (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and 4 Little Girls all received some sort of Oscar blessing).  It remains to be seen after finally being welcomed into the Best Director club this year and winning his first competitive Oscar whether or not he'll become a mainstay (ala David O. Russell) or whether this was a one-and-done situation where he won't show up again for another decade (like, say, Terrence Malick).  Either way, BlacKkKlansman is a good movie, one that probably is made better because it brought recognition to a singular filmmaker who has had this praise coming for a while.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is at least loosely based on the life of Ron Stallworth (Washington), a cop hired by the Colorado Springs Police Department (the first black man to serve on the force).  He is put undercover first to investigate civil rights leader Kwame Ture, and there meets a student activist named Patrice Dumas (Harrier), and is drawn into her politics, even though she stands against the police force, of which he is a member.  Stallworth eventually joins the intelligence division, and starts to investigate the KKK, pretending to be a white man on the phone named Walter Breachway, and has his partner Flip Zimmerman (Driver), a Jewish man, stand in as Breachway so that they can bring down the Klan, who are purportedly planning some sort of attack.  All the while Stallworth, under the guise of his voiced Breachway, is having conversations with Grand Wizard David Duke (Grace), who is completely duped by Stallworth, who feeds him racist pablum to fuel his ego.  Eventually a bombing, perpetrated by the wife of one of the Klan members Connie (New York theater staple Ashlie Atkinson, who does a fantastic job with a small role in this picture), is thwarted by Stallworth & Zimmerman's investigation, and they save the day (with Stallworth getting to tell off David Duke over the phone).  Of course, as this is a Spike Lee joint, a proper happy ending is not in the cards, and we get both the police trying to cover up the investigation, as well as a look at the continued racism that Stallworth and Dumas must endure (the Klan lights a white cross near their home at the end of the movie).  The film ends with footage from the 2017 Charlottesville rallies, dedicating the picture to Heather Heyer who was murdered during the rallies by a white nationalist, and interspersing speeches of Duke alongside those of Donald Trump.

The film is entertaining, provocative, and challenging, while still being more popcorn than the Lee films that rose the director to prominence in the late 1980's and early 90's.  The film unfolds very much like an adult summer cop film, except one that is informed by reality and with a heavy dose of very uncomfortable laughter.  The movie plays figures in the Klan (like Duke) occasionally for laughs, but never shies away from the real damage that the racist organization does through its hate speech.  The movie is also not shy about showing the racism that is all-too-real in police forces across America.  Lee shows a patrolman who gropes Patrice because she is black and female early in the film, and while he eventually has him be caught by Stallworth, it's heavily implied that this sort of thing happens all-the-time and most of the time abuse-of-privilege remains unchecked.  Considering the events that happened in Phoenix just this past week, this is a conversation that may take place in the 1970's, but is pertinent to our national conversation today.

The movie isn't perfect.  Occasionally Lee's indulgences as a director are ill-served, with him going for easy sight gags and persistent visuals that toe-the-line between underscoring his point and just being repetitive.  Washington in the lead is fine, though it's hard not to make comparisons to his father (he's the son of Oscar Winner Denzel Washington), particularly since he's not as good at the dramatic bits of the film as he is some of the lighter or more charismatic moments for Ron; his missing out on an Oscar nomination (he had to be very close) is not a big loss, and he probably got all he needed by launching his career here.  Adam Driver who did get an Oscar nomination, is best-in-show of the cast, playing Zimmerman as a man who has tried his best to avoid prejudice (despite being Jewish), hiding his identity when he can (in a way that Ron cannot), and plays him as someone who doesn't view himself as racist, but has definitely taken advantage of privilege when he can.  The subtle evolution of such a man is hard to play onscreen, but Driver, possibly the most reliable presence in movies today, does it with ease and it's good to finally have "Oscar nominee" next to his name, even if he's been better.  The same can obviously be said for Spike Lee, who finally took that competitive Oscar here, even if it feels more like a career win than for this film in particular.

Ranting On...Jada Pinkett Smith and the Oscar Boycott

I watched Jada Pinkett Smith's tweet today announcing her boycott of the Oscars, followed by Spike Lee's post stating that he would also be boycotting the Oscars, and am sitting here perplexed as I have a lot of feelings about this, and want to be as matter-of-fact as possible.  I hadn't really touched upon yet another year of #OscarsSoWhite, but I will spell out that I do think it's unfortunate that this is the case again.  I don't believe in rewarding a performance or a film just because of someone's racial identity, but it says something that Hollywood didn't create enough strong product this year that gave people opportunities to really shine, and that's unfortunate for all of us because diversity in art can be a powerful forum, and this has been a problem for decades, if not the entirety of the history of the cinema and many other art forms.

Because I lay this problem at the feet of Hollywood, not as Pinkett Smith and Lee did at the feet of the Oscars, since the Oscars are only the messenger here, not the provider of the product that is being acknowledged or merited as "the best."  The reality is that there were very few films that were in the realm of an Academy Award that featured African-American actors or directors behind the camera in 2015.  In fact, by my count, the only films that were remotely in the traditional Academy wheelhouse (I'm not counting movies like Chi-Raq or Tangerine, where any hope of a nomination would be dashed by low distribution or content) were Concussion, Straight Outta Compton, Creed, and Beasts of No Nation, and it's easy to pick apart all four of these films and their Oscar chances.

After all, Straight Outta Compton's writing nomination is the actual surprise.  A harsh rap epic wouldn't have done well with an all-white cast, and there is literally no precedent for the film being included in the Best Picture category.  Creed admittedly felt like a film that might crossover to Oscar, but let's not forget it was a boxing sequel starring an attractive younger man (which is usually poison for a body that likes their men over-40 and past-their-physical-prime) that didn't get acknowledged by any other awards bodies.  Concussion managed a Golden Globe nomination, but Will Smith wasn't really making a big play for a nomination, and the film itself was terrible and couldn't capture the zeitgeist despite starring one of the planet's biggest movie stars and being about a major part of pop culture.  And Beasts of No Nation, arguably the film with the most momentum, is a film that is challenging the distribution model that has kept Hollywood extremely well-fed for over 100 years; the Emmys may have embraced Netflix, but the film industry with its gigantic budgets and tent-poles seems less inclined to throw itself in with exclusively digital content, at least in a major category.

This argument held far more weight last year when a film like Selma, which is exactly in Oscar's wheelhouse, missed out on nominations for acting and directing-that felt like about the right time to lead a movement against the Academy, though as I've discussed before Selma lost a lot of buzz and momentum by having a truly terrible distribution model in terms of picking up awards.  This year, though, it feels like the Academy is just in the wrong place and the wrong time and is taking Hollywood's bullet rather than someone acknowledging that black actors (and for that matter, and in many cases far more so, Latino, Asian, and GLBT actors) didn't have a great many opportunities this year.  And it's not like the Academy hasn't been deeply diverse in some of its other choices-the Academy's president, ceremony producer, and Oscar host are all African-Americans this year, as was one of their Governor's Award recipients (oddly enough, it was Spike Lee).

It also feels, and this may be unfair but I have to call it the way I see it, that Jada Pinkett Smith is the wrong person to be delivering this message this year.  While she's a very recognizable name in Hollywood, an actress that will guarantee major headlines from every entertainment-based website on the internet, she's also making this complaint the same year that her husband was up for an Oscar and missed.  I'm reminded of the 1975 Best Actress field, when Ellen Burstyn proposed boycotting the category due to the dearth of strong roles for women, only to have Louise Fletcher challenge it would mean more in a year where Burstyn had a picture competing.  I feel this way about Pinkett Smith-would we have had this conversation this year if her husband had been nominated?  Does the Best Actor category become more valid if Will Smith is a part of it?  And if so, please name which actor should be excluded in favor of him.

That's part of the reason these sorts of protests bother me.  I don't like being on this side of this argument, defending a lack of diversity, but the reality is that I hate when people complain of snubs when they don't name-check specific actors or people that should not be included.  It would mean more to me if Pinkett Smith specifically cited an actor that should be excluded in favor of her husband or Idris Elba or Straight Outta Compton or even herself.  But that will never happen because she knows that would make this protest unpopular.  It's easy to blame someone, but it's a helluva lot harder to offer up a solution, which this protest doesn't do.  I would have a lot more respect for Pinkett Smith or Spike Lee if they were out there stating Leonardo DiCaprio shouldn't win an Oscar or a nomination in favor of Will Smith-that would be a solution, albeit one that might put them at risk of people having an easy way to disagree with them.  People frequently want to throw awards shows under the bus because Nominee X got excluded, but they rarely state who should have been excluded (particularly, it's worth noting, amongst lead male actors), and that feels disingenuous.  I respect Pinkett Smith for wanting to bring a light on the lack of diversity in film, I really do, but I feel like this is the wrong way and year to do it, and it undercuts Ms. Pinkett Smith's magnanimity in particular when her family stands to personally gain from such a protest.

Everybody's Linking for the Week

I know, it's Monday.  I'm bummed too.  Let's do this thing and hopefully feel a little better informed as we count the days until the next weekend, shall we?

In Entertainment...

-On Saturday the Governors Awards took place in Los Angeles, as the likes of Gena Rowlands, Spike Lee, and Debbie Reynolds won their long overdue Oscars.  Spike Lee urged Hollywood to embrace diversity, particularly from a business perspective, and AMPAS President Cheryl Boone Isaacs echoed these sentiments in her opening remarks.  Gena Rowlands was the major hit of the night, sharing a cute story about Bette Davis (it always pays to name-drop a Hollywood legend or two in a speech, particularly if you're a Hollywood legend yourself), while Debbie Reynolds was too ill to be able to attend, so her granddaughter Billie went in her place.  Congrats to all three, and here's to hoping both for a speedy recovery for Reynolds and for the three of them to be at the very least presenters (perhaps Best Picture?) at this year's Oscar ceremony.

-Due to the attacks in Paris, episodes of Supergirl and NCIS: Los Angeles that focused on terrorism-related plotlines were replaced by other episodes.  I do, of course, want to be sensitive to those directly affected by the tragedy but part of me becomes very uncomfortable when studios do something like this.  These episodes don't pose a security risk like the cancellation of live concerts and film premieres, but instead are just episodes of television, and as a result by not airing them aren't we giving the terrorists a victory?  I get that CBS doesn't want to suffer the backlash, but part of me wonders if a simple "we're not going to let terrorists dictate our freedom of expression" would be a better byline for the network.  In related news-should I be watching Supergirl?  I feel like it's a pretty populist hit, but no one I know is watching-is it any good, and what is it comparable to?

-Salon's Sophia McClennon wrecked Trevor Noah in an epic takedown, saying he can't hold a candle to Jon Stewart and points out that his approach will ruin The Daily Show's sharp position in the public debate and its place as a former of national opinion.  Clicking over to the link, it's easy to see her point-Noah is a voice of fresh air in the light night talk game, but more so because he's intensely handsome and has a wryness that lacks in comparison to the earnestness that dominates network late-night.  However, he hasn't really advocated for anything other than SNL level parodies, and that's SNL when it isn't acing it.  His show hasn't really done anything except cruelly malign Iowa (but not in a way that came across as anything other than regional stereotyping) and say Donald Trump was an African dictator (something that Stewart could have done in three jokes).  While McClennon is correct to point out that Stewart wasn't a great hit out-of-the-gate, in a media landscape where John Oliver is sharply gaining points and Jon Stewart is poised to be creating another show on HBO, Noah doesn't have that long to wait before he becomes old news.

In Politics...

-Politico, whose magazine may be the best thing on the web these days (their general site occasionally turns into a beltway gossip column), gives a remarkably thorough investigation into the months preceding the 9/11 attacks, particularly spelling out that (based on evidence provided by former CIA officials) President Bush had received numerous warnings about impending attacks from Al-Qaeda and hadn't heeded those warnings.  This is particularly timely both in comparison to how Bush was treated over 9/11 and how Sec. Clinton has been treated in regard to the attacks in Benghazi, as well as in the wake of the tragic events in Paris this past week.  I thoroughly recommend reading through the full article if you haven't yet.

-Speaking of Politico Magazine, Bill Scher raised yet another article wondering if Jeb Bush is still in the presidential game, but instead of calling back Sen. John McCain's triumphant return to the spotlight in 2008, he instead decided to compare him to a different comeback kid, John Kerry in 2004.  While the Bush camp would be loathe to compare themselves to the man who spent a year vilifying his brother, behind closed doors I suspect they are studying the Kerry campaign.  After all, like Bush Sen. Kerry was down in the mid-single digits before the Iowa caucuses (actually down less than a month by those kinds of numbers), and 2004 was more about a man who never had held office (Wesley Clark), a first-term senator who had become the establishment's new favorite (John Edwards), and someone from the fringe of the party that seemed to have inexplicably caught fire (Howard Dean) rather than longtime party stalwarts like Kerry, Dick Gephardt, and Joe Lieberman.  It's worth noting that Bush is actually mimicking in many ways the Kerry camp, not really succumbing to the urge to be outlandish or change his tune, but instead staying in and hoping that the others implode in a way similar to Kerry's challengers (when Dean, Clark, Edwards, Gephardt, and Lieberman, all of whom had a strong shot at the nomination throughout that campaign, ended up being unacceptable choices for a general and the establishment went to the longtime war-hero senator).  Some may mention that Kerry, of course, lost the White House (as did John McCain), but right now the goal is emerging victorious out of the primary-Bush doesn't care about Hillary Clinton until then.  He'd gladly settle for the hand that John Kerry got dealt at this point.

-While there were a number of retirements announced this past week from Congress (including Sam Farr, who is another close Nancy Pelosi ally who could be indicating that Pelosi will eventually resign from the next Congress should she lose out on the Speakership next November), perhaps no one set off a potential firestorm quite like Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.  With Lummis, a relatively quiet Republican whom I thought would just bide her time until Mike Enzi retired in 2020, announcing a surprise retirement, we are likely to see the return of Liz Cheney, who last cycle ran an embarrassing and nasty campaign against Enzi, which she ended up withdrawing from in the wake of a 50-point voting deficit in the state.  Cheney is unlikely to have the field to herself, however, as more seasoned politicians in the state like State House Speaker Tim Stubson and House Majority Leader Rosie Berger are looking at the contest (openings in Wyoming don't come around every day, and whomever wins here will have right-of-first-refusal in 2020 when Enzi is expected to retire).  Considering the bad blood that Cheney had with the Wyoming State Republicans (as well as Lummis and Enzi, both still powerhouses in the state), and her father's still considerable profile in national politics, this could be one of the most intriguing primaries of the next House cycle.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

-I am loving the second season of The Leftovers (which, while lacking the wandering nature of the first season, still manages to take a look at the harshness of faith, tragedy, and dependance on others), but why do they have to make Matt so insanely stupid?  I won't share what he does (please be watching the show if you aren't-I can't lose this and Looking in the same year), but if you're watching sound off in the comments on Matt's story arch.

YouTube Video of the Week...

-The best video that Shane Dawson has done probably all year was his Fifi Fierce character (parodying the banal nature of YouTube beauty gurus), and thankfully she's back.  This is audibly NSFW, so keep the headphones on, but it's probably the sharpest satire Shane has done:

Just One More...

-HuffPo did a rundown of this past season's art auction highlights, which if you've been paying attention hasn't been particularly exciting outside of the insanity of Mondigliani's Nu Couche getting $170 million.  HuffPo is a little kinder to the auction houses than others in the art world have been, but it's definitely a worthwhile read if you're an art/museum lover and haven't been keeping up with the scene.

Honorary Oscar Winners

I know I am a couple of days late on this (again, trying to catch up from a persistent work week), but a huge congratulations have to go out to Debbie Reynolds (who is getting the Jean Hersholt Award, a fact I missed on the first announcement), Gena Rowlands, and Spike Lee on their recent Academy Awards.  I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get a Thalberg winner (seriously, when is Kathleen Kennedy getting her Thalberg?!?), and I'm always mad that they don't incorporate these winners into the primetime-televised ceremony, but I couldn't be happier that these three entertainers get to have the title of Academy Award-winner (and sorry, but I have to say that Honorary winners get that title too-I know some people get stingy about it, but they have the Oscar on their shelves and their names on it, so it counts).  I figured in honor of them I would countdown my relationship with each entertainer:

Spike Lee

Oscar History: 2 nominations (one for writing Do the Right Thing (1989) and one for the documentary 4 Little Girls (1997)
First Impression: I know this will shock you if you read this blog regularly, but growing up in a small town in rural Minnesota, Spike Lee movies were not frequently in my local theater.  The iconic director from Brooklyn was probably known to be me roughly around the time that he won his second Oscar nomination, and I remember him kind of screwing up my Oscar predictions that year as I was still under the impression that the most famous documentary usually won (though oddly enough that's actually become true in the past few years).  The first film I ever saw of his was Inside Man, a movie I was blown away by starring Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster (seriously-if you haven't seen this movie or haven't seen it in a while, you are doing yourself a great disservice by missing it as it is wildly thrilling and surprisingly still true to Lee's New York style).
Favorite Film: Certainly the absolute masterwork Do the Right Thing, which is just a stupendous movie that genuinely lives up to the hype.
Film I Should Finally See to Honor His Oscar: Malcolm X, one of the most critically-praised films on his resume that many have claimed should have been Denzel's second Oscar win.

Debbie Reynolds

Oscar History: 1 nomination (for Best Actress in The Unsinkable Molly Brown, for which she was beaten by Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins)
First Impression: I think the first of Reynolds' films that I ever saw was Bundle of Joy.  My mom has always loved the films of the 1950's and 1960's and had a particular fondness for Bundle of Joy and My Six Loves, so I had seen both of them before I even knew anything about classic movies.  Reynolds herself became more of an icon to me when she played Grace's mom on Will and Grace (always so bubbly), and eventually became part of my cinematic firmament (words chosen precisely) for...
Favorite Film: Singin' in the Rain.  Seriously one of the finest films ever made, and one that I have seen countless times through the years, Reynolds' Kathy Selden is marvelously bubbly and delightful in the film-every frame of Reynolds is a joy, and sixty-some years later it still holds up.
Film I Should See to Honor Her Oscar: I have never caught her performance in Mother, a late-career comeback bid that resulted in a Globe nomination, but nothing from AMPAS.  Reynolds' hilariously pointed this out when she presented in one of my favorite Oscar moments (watch it here).

Gena Rowlands

Oscar History: 2 nomination (for Best Actress in 1974 in A Woman Under the Influence and again in Best Actress in 1980's Gloria, losing to Ellen Burstyn and Sissy Spacek, respectively)
First Impression: Almost certainly it would be as the mother in Hope Floats, where she wonderfully-played off of Sandra Bullock's complicated, defeated former prom queen.  It's actually a film that I still hold dear in my heart, and remembered thinking that Rowlands was very gifted, but like many actresses of the 1970's who didn't quite seal the deal with Oscar, she got lost a bit in the shuffle for me in a sea of Fondas, Burstyns, and Dunaways.
Favorite Film: As a result of this, I don't feel like I can have a favorite film, though I do feel a bit ashamed of this fact as I've only seen a couple of Rowlands' movies and neither of her two Oscar-blessed performances.
Films I Should See to Honor Her Oscar: Since I am so lacking in this screen legend's filmography, I'm going to make a bit of a point to have a Rowlands film festival on the blog.  Gloria isn't on Netflix (anyone know of another place I could find it?) and neither is Another Woman, but I certainly will include Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, and Opening Night.  Any other suggestions for a Gena Rowlands film festival?  We'll do it right before the Governors Awards this fall.

And also, what do you think of these winners?  It's a pretty fine group in my opinion, and should make for some great YouTube clips even if we don't get to watch the thing proper at home.  Share some favorite film memories of Spike, Debbie, and Gena in the comments below!