The official stanning list of 2018

2018's award season is shaping up to be a very strong year for some of my favorite actors.

Toni Collette has received rave reviews for Hereditary. Collette is near the top of my list of favorite working actors (if not #1!) and is well overdue for a second Oscar nomination. Hopefully she can carry through up to the stage.

Saoirse Ronan has a strong-on-paper role in Mary, Queen of Scots. I'm sure she'll kill the role, hope the film lives up to her performance.

Lady Gaga isn't one of my favorite actresses, but she is one of my favorite singers and she has great buzz for A Star is Born. Maybe she'll follow Cher and Barbara Streisand to singer-turned-actress Oscar winners?

Amy Adams plays Lynn Cheney in Backseat. She's been nominated a thousand times and was snubbed for Arrival just a couple of years ago. The role seems juicy and with Adam McKay in charge it should be a little off-kilter as well. She should be a threat in supporting actress.

Ryan Gosling is one of my favorite actors, he chooses quirky roles and is thus often out of the picture for awards. However he was nominated for La La Land, and now plays Neil Armstrong in First Man from Damien Chazelle, and hopefully he will win the trophy.

Timmy Chalamet gave one of my favorite performances of all-time last year in Call Me By Your Name, and he seems to have a juicy role in Beautiful Boy. Test screenings have given him a ton of praise and hopefully the Academy makes up for their mistake last year.




AND OF COURSE there will be some performances off of my radar at this moment that become my favorites. This year though seems like a bizarre year where at least one of my favorites can bring home the statue.

Top 10 favorite performances of the year

Last night, I posted my 2017 film awards. Call Me by Your Name and Lady Bird nearly swept across the board. Today I thought I'd post my ten favorite performances of the year. Usually I have an assortment from different movies, but this year those two films claim five of the ten spots.

1. Timothée Chalamet as Elio in Call Me by Your Name

2. Laurie Metcalf as Marion McPherson in Lady Bird

3. Saoirse Ronan as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson in Lady Bird

4. Michael Stuhlbarg as Mr. Perlman in Call Me by Your Name

5. Hong Chau as Ngoc Lan Tran in Downsizing

6. Armie Hammer as Oliver in Call Me by Your Name

7. Jennifer Lawrence as Mother in mother!

8. Sebastian Stan as Jeff Gillooly in I, Tonya

9. Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock in Phantom Thread

10. Tiffany Haddish as Dina in Girls Trip

My 2017 Film Awards

2017 seemed to be a pretty good year in film, or else I had a better sense of avoiding the turds than I normally do. The top films of the year were hard to decide upon, where as in past years like 2014 it was hard to come up with a valid field for some categories. 

Here are my nominees for the best of film in 2017. The winners are in bold. 

Best Picture

Blade Runner 2049

Call Me by Your Name

Get Out

Lady Bird

mother!

Phantom Thread

Best Actress

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Salma Hayek, Beatriz at Dinner

Jennifer Lawrence, mother!

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Best Actor

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name

Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Ross Lynch, My Friend Dahmer

Sebastian Stan, I, Tonya

Ben Stiller, Brad's Status

Best Supporting Actress

Hong Chau, Downsizing,

Bridget Everett, Patti Cake$

Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip

Catherine Keener, Get Out

Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread

Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Best Supporting Actor

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Armie Hammer, Call Me by Your Name

Lucas Hedges, Lady Bird

Garrett Hedlund, Mudbound

Algee Smith, Detroit

Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me by Your Name

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread

Darren Aronofsky, mother!

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Luca Guadagnino, Call Me by Your Name

Jordan Peele, Get Out

Denis Villenueve, Blade Runner 2049

Best Original Screenplay

The Big Sick

Get Out

Lady Bird

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Phantom Thread

The Post

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Beguiled

Call Me by Your Name

The Disaster Artist

Mudbound

My Friend Dahmer

Wonderstruck

Cinematography

Blade Runner 2049

Call Me by Your Name

The Florida Project

Mudbound

Phantom Thread

Wonder Wheel

Best Score

Blade Runner 2049

Call Me by Your Name

Get Out

A Ghost Story

Phantom Thread

The Shape of Water

Film Editing

Baby Driver

Blade Runner 2049

Call Me by Your Name

Dunkirk

I, Tonya

The Shape of Water

Production Design

Blade Runner 2049

Call Me by Your Name

Dunkirk

Lady Bird

mother!

Phantom Thread

Original Song

"Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens, Call Me by Your Name

"Tuff Love (Finale)" performed by Bridget Everett, Patti Cake$

"Visions of Gideon" by Sufjan Stevens, Call Me by Your Name

Films with most nominations:

Call Me by Your Name -12

Phantom Thread - 8

Lady Bird - 7

Blade Runner 2049 - 6

Get Out - 6

mother! - 4

Top 10 Films of the Year:

1. Call Me by Your Name

2. Lady Bird

3. mother!

4. Phantom Thread

5. Blade Runner 2049

6. Get Out

7. Brad's Status

8. Detroit

9. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

10. The Florida Project

           

Oscar Nomination Reactions

Things I loved about this morning's Oscar nominations:

In one year, three of my favorite actresses (Allison Janney, Laurie Metcalf and Greta Gerwig) all became Academy Award nominees. Greta of course is not nominated for her acting, but for her beautiful screenplay and direction for Lady Bird.

Timmy Chalamet may have given my favorite film performance of all-time and is now an Oscar nominee.

Sufjan Steven's great "Mystery of Love" was nominated for Original Song.

Saoirse Ronan returns to Oscar glory.

I personally preferred Woody Harrelson to Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards, so I'm happy for Woody who is one of our greatest actors.

The Director and Screenplay categories are about as good as they could get. Loved PTA sneaking in.

Blade Runner in all the tech categories.

Things I did not like:

Hong Chau, Armie Hammer, Holly Hunter and Michael Stuhlbarg getting snubbed in the Supporting categories.

Otherwise I really don't have that much to complain about...WHAT A SHOCK.

White Noise What an Awful Sound

I'm not sure what my favorite film performance was before today. Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas and Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People were probably the two at the top previously.

However after seeing Call Me by Your Name last night, my new favorite performance is Timmy Chalamet as Elio. Staggering work, and while he has been praised for the last year for this performance I just want it to be known that I'm joining the crowd. You talk about a lived-in performance, every single movement and line reading was perfect. THAT FINAL SHOT.

Sure this may seem like hyperbole, but this really feels like something that will live on for as long as Cinema remains.

I know that Gary Oldman has the Oscar locked up, but as Winston Churchull said "we shall never surrender!"

2018 Golden Globe Predictions

The Golden Globes have arrived, and with that the beginning of the televised awards for film. The Golden Globes are decided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, so they always like to throw a few curve-balls while doing their best to predict the Oscars.

Usually by now we have a few locks, for example a Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine or Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln. This year we don't have that. Gary Oldman is probably the closest thing to a lock, but Timmy Chalamet might win the Globe because of passionate fans and Oldman's past remarks about the HFPA.

Tonight's awards kind of feel like closing your eyes and throwing a dart and seeing where it lands. Best Actress in a Drama seems like a real cutthroat race with Sally Hawkins fighting it out with Frances McDormand and Meryl Streep.

These are my current predictions with an alternate in parenthesis:

Best Motion Picture - Drama: The Shape of Water (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical: Lady Bird (Get Out)
Best Actor - Drama - Timmy Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name (Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour)
Best Actress - Drama - Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water (Frances McDormand, Three Billboards)
Best Actor - Comedy or Musical - Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out (James Franco, The Darkest Hour)
Best Actress - Comedy or Musical - Margot Robbie, I, Tonya (Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird)
Best Supporting Actor- Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World (Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project)
Best Supporting Actress - Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird (Allison Janney, I, Tonya)
Best Director - Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water (Steven Spielberg, The Post)
Best Screenplay - Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird (Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards)
Best Animated Film - Coco (Loving Vincent)
Best Foreign Language Film - First They Killed My Father (The Square)
Best Original Score - Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water (Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk)
Best Original Song - Mighty River, Mudbound (This is Me, The Greatest Showman)

Welp...

Now that Christmas has come and gone, we're in the final days of 2017. Over the next couple weeks the last few stragglers of 2017 films will make their way in theaters.

Molly's Game (Jessica Chastain, all day, everyday)
The Post (The pedigree!!!!!! The timeliness!!!!!)
I, Tonya (Love the trio of Allison Janney, Sebastian Stan and Margot Robbie)

Followed by the hard hitting duo of Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread on January 19th.

Call Me by Your Name has been one of my most anticipated films ever since it premiered at Sundance almost a year ago. I love coming of age stories, and Timmy Chalamet seems like a lock for my Best Actor prize.

PT Anderson made Magnolia and Boogie Nights two all-time great films, plus The Master and There Will Be Blood make anything he does - must see.

I'm running a little behind because of the cold weather so I still need to see Downsizing and Darkest Hour.

Anyone know if My Friend Dahmer has a DVD release anytime soon? I had heard good things about it, but it never came anywhere near Omaha.

December Oscar Predictions

The critic awards have started for the 2017 awards season. 

The National Board of Review began the proceedings awarding The Post with Best Picture. Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks came along for the ride in the leading acting categories for the same film. Lady Bird walked away with Best Director for Greta Gerwig and Best Supporting Actress for Laurie Metcalf. Willem Dafoe won the first of his Supporting Actor awards for The Florida Project. 

NYFCC was next in line. Lady Bird had another big day winning Best Picture and Best Actress for Saoirse Ronan. Saoirse's Lady Bird co-star Timothee Chalamet won Best Actor for his raved work in Call Me by Your Name. The Florida Project's Sean Baker won Best Director. In an unexpected, but inspired pick Girls Trip star Tiffany Haddish won in Supporting Actress. Phantom Thread won Best Screenplay following up its Original Screenplay win at NBR. Willem Dafoe won again. 

Call Me by Your Name was the big winner at the LAFCA awards. The film won Best Picture, Chalamet won Best Actor and the film co-shared Best Director. The Shape of Water which shared the Best Director prize also won Best Actress for Sally Hawkins. Laurie Metcalf and Willem Dafoe won again in the supporting categories. Jordan Peele's Get Out won Best Screenplay. 

My interpretation is that Tiffany Haddish is very close to an Oscar nomination and I'd predict her to get in. Wonder if they will use her grapefruit monologue for the ceremony? Willem Dafoe might sweep the critics and since people seem to really be against Sam Rockwell's attempted redemption in Three Billboards then with the overdue factor I could easily see Dafoe winning this now. Also a chance for them to reward The Florida Project. Timmy Chalamet might come up short in his quest to become the youngest Best Actor winner ever, but he is going to put up a strong fight. It's too bad Gary Oldman just had to play Winston Churchill this year. Lady Bird seems like it could win Best Picture, and I never would have guessed that a month ago. Christopher Nolan or Spielberg still seem likely Best Director winners, but Gerwig should be good for a nomination now. I thought Allison Janney was going to stream-roll her way to the Oscar, but I'm leaning towards Metcalf now. Actress and Original Screenplay are a mystery right now. The Post seems very timely and very likely to be our winner for Picture.

Best Picture:

The Post

1. The Post (+3)

2. Lady Bird (+4)

3. Dunkirk (-1)

4. Call Me by Your Name (+1)

5. Get Out (+3)

6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (-5)

7.  The Shape of Water (-4)

8. The Florida Project (-1)

Best Director:

Greta Gerwig 

1. Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk (=)

2. Steven Spielberg, The Post (+1)

3. Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird (NEW)

4. Luca Guadagnino, Call Me by Your Name (=)

5. Jordan Peele, Get Out (NEW)

Dropped Out:

Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water

Best Actress:

Margot Robbie

1. Meryl Streep, The Post (+1)

2. Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird (+2)

3. Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (-2)

4. Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water (-1)

5. Margot Robbie, I, Tonya (=)

Best Actor:

Timothee Chalamet

1. Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour (=)

2. Timothee Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name (=) 

3. Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread (=)

4. Tom Hanks, The Post (=)

5. James Franco, The Disaster Artist (=)

Best Supporting Actress:

Tiffany Haddish

1. Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird (+1)

2. Allison Janney, I, Tonya (-1)

3. Holly Hunter, The Big Sick (=)

4. Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip (NEW)

5. Hong Chau, Downsizing (NEW)

Dropped Out:

Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Catherine Keener, Get Out

Best Supporting Actor:

Willem Dafoe (and Brooklyn Prince)

1. Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project (+2)

2. Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (-1)

3. Armie Hammer, Call Me by Your Name (+1)

4. Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water (NEW)

5. Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me by Your Name (-4)

Dropped Out:

Michael Shannon, The Shape of Water

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Call Me by Your Name (=)

2. The Disaster Artist (=)

3. Mudbound (=)

4. Molly's Game (=)

5. Wonder (NEW)

Dropped Out:

Last Flag Flying

Original Screenplay:

1. Get Out (+4)

2. Lady Bird (=)

3. The Post (+1)

4. Phantom Thread (NEW)

5. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (-4)

Dropped Out:

The Shape of Water

2017 Oscar Predictions

Awards season grows ever closer, so it feels like time for some early Oscar predictions. 

Best Picture:

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

2. Dunkirk

3. The Shape of Water

4. The Post

5. Call Me by Your Name

6. Lady Bird

7. The Florida Project

8. Get Out

Outside Contenders: 

Downsizing. 

The Big Sick.

 I, Tonya. 

Mudbound.

Best Director:

1. Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk

2. Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water

3. Steven Spielberg, The Post

4. Luca Guadagnino, Call Me by Your Name

5. Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Outside Contenders: 

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird. 

Sean Baker, The Florida Project. 

Best Actress: 

1. Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

2. Meryl Streep, The Post

3. Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

4. Saorise Ronan, Lady Bird (Pictured above)

5. Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Outside Contenders:

Judi Dench, Victoria and Abdul.

Brooklyn Prince, The Florida Project.

Jessica Chastain, Molly's Game.

Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes.

Jennifer Lawrence, mother!

Best Actor:

1. Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour

2. Timothee Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name (Pictured Above)

3. Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread

4. Tom Hanks, The Post

5. James Franco, The Disaster Artist

Outside Contenders:

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out.

....

I guess maybe...

Jake Gyllenhaal, Stronger.

...

This category is desolate.

Best Supporting Actress:

1. Allison Janney, I, Tonya. (Pictured Above)

2. Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird.

3. Holly Hunter, The Big Sick.

4. Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water.

5. Catherine Keener, Get Out.

Outside Contenders:

Hong Chau, Downsizing.

Melissa Leo, Novitiate.

Mary J. Blige, Mudbound.

Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread.

Best Supporting Actor:

1. Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me by Your Name

2. Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

3. Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

4. Armie Hammer, Call Me by Your Name

5. Michael Shannon, The Shape of Water.

Outside Contenders:

Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water.

Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Sebastian Stan, I, Tonya.

Mark Rylance, Dunkirk

Jason Mitchell, Mudbound.

Original Screenplay:

1. Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

2. Lady Bird

3. The Shape of Water

4. The Post

5. Get Out

Outside Contenders:

The Florida Project

The Big Sick

Phantom Thread

Downsizing

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Call Me by Your Name

2. The Disaster Artist

3. Mudbound

4. Molly's Game

5. Last Flag Flying

Other Contenders:

I could barely come up with five.