The Gold Pantheon

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

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.

Saturday, March 31, 2018

My best picture winners of the decade.

Previously I had said that the best picture of 2016 was Toni Erdmann. I still think it's a great film, but I've decided that the film that has stuck with me the most and that I think about a lot is Arrival. Whether it's the current political situation or the emotional pull of the story or perhaps it's Amy Adams all-time great performance, but the film has stuck with me and is the true best picture of 2016. I do owe a rewatch to Moonlight a film that I respect, but it didn't work for me as much as I thought it would. Coming-of-age films are my favorite genre so it's surprising to me that it didn't blow me away like it did everyone else. That being said it's one of the top-tier best picture Oscar winners. (I also loved La La Land, don't shoot me!) For now however these are my best picture winners since 2010.

ETA: I also decided that Frances Ha is the rightful winner of 2013...sorry Blue is the Warmest Color!!!

I'll do a little post about each film in the coming days.

Arrival (2016) - Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Black Swan (2010) - Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Brooklyn (2015) - Directed by John Crowley

Call Me By Your Name (2017) - Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Frances Ha (2013) - Directed by Noah Baumbach

Mommy (2014) - Directed by Xavier Dolan

A Separation (2011) - Directed by Asghar Farhadi

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Thursday, March 29, 2018

My acting winners this decade...so far!

A slow time for the movies right now as we wait for the summer season to kick-in. So with that in mind, I thought I'd review my acting winners for the best of the decade...so far!

Clearly the Academy and I differ in our opinion of the best. Only two of my winners would win the Oscar for this performance, Casey Affleck and Natalie Portman. However several were nominated with the lead actor category having the most representatives on Oscar night. Compare the lead actor category with five nominated performances next to one each in the supporting categories.

Casey Affleck as Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Timothée Chalamet as Elio in Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (2010)

Michael Keaton as Riggan in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

Logan Lerman as Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Michael Shannon as Curtis in Take Shelter (2011)

Jacob Tremblay as Jack in Room (2015)

Amy Adams as Louise Banks in Arrival (2016)

Jessica Chastain as Maya in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Anne Dorval as Diane in Mommy (2014)

Adèle Exarchopoulos as Adele in Blue is the Warmest Color (2013)

Anna Paquin as Lisa Cohen in Margaret (2011)

Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers in Black Swan (2010)

Saoirse Ronan as Eilis in Brooklyn (2015)

Saoirse Ronan as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson in Lady Bird (2017)

James Franco as Alien in Spring Breakers (2013)

Walton Goggins as Sheriff Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight (2015)

Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network (2010)

Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty in On the Road (2012)

André Holland as Kevin in Moonlight (2016)

Ezra Miller as Kevin in We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Edward Norton as Mike in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virture of Ignorance) (2014)

Michael Stuhlbarg as Mr. Perlman in Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Rose Byrne as Helen in Bridesmaids (2011)

Rosemarie DeWitt as Hannah in Your Sister's Sister (2012)

Greta Gerwig as Brooke in Mistress America (2015)

Lesley Manville as Mary in Another Year (2010)

Laurie Metcalf as Marion McPherson in Lady Bird (2017)

Julianne Moore as Havana Segrand in Maps to the Stars (2014)

Molly Shannon as Joanne Mulcahey in Other People (2016)

Shailene Woodley as Aimee in The Spectacular Now (2013)

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Best Performance of the Year

My favorite performance of the year for the last seven years... very strong decade so far. It will be hard to pick the best of the decade come 2020.

2017
Timothée Chalamet as Elio in Call Me by Your Name

Runner-Up: Saoirse Ronan as Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson in Lady Bird

2016

Amy Adams as Louise Banks in Arrival

Runner-Up: André Holland as Kevin in Moonlight

2015

Saoirse Ronan as Eilis in Brooklyn

Runner-Up: Greta Gerwig as Brooke in Mistress America

2014

Anne Dorval as Diane in Mommy

Runner-Up: Julianne Moore as Havana Segrand in Maps to the Stars

2013

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street

Runner-Up: Adèle Exarchopoulos as Adèle in Blue is the Warmest Color

2012

Jessica Chastain as Maya in Zero Dark Thirty

Runner-Up: Logan Lerman as Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower

2011

Michael Shannon as Curtis in Take Shelter

Runner-Up: Anna Paquin as Lisa Cohen in Margaret

2010

Lesley Manville as Mary Smith in Another Year

Image result for lesley manville another year gif

Runner-Up: Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers in Black Swan Image result for natalie portman black swan gif

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Final Oscar Predictions

This Sunday marks the end of awards season as the 90th annual Academy Awards take place. A once-promising awards season has turned into one of the most boring in recent memory. The only real question marks seem to be in best picture and original screenplay. Even then on Sunday if Three Billboards wins those categories we'll just be saying we should have seen it all along.

That being said the Oscars almost never nominate as many movies that I love as they did this year. Call Me by Your Name, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread and Get Out are all in my top five of the year, (my third ranked film of the year, mother! is nominated for worst picture at the Razzies the night before!) so I'm still excited to see many of my favorites at the ceremony. I also really liked The Post, The Shape of Water, Dunkirk and (dare I say it?) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, so it will be a mostly enjoyable evening for me. The only best picture nominee that I truly hated was Darkest Hour. What an absolute turd.

Also while I'm rooting for other actresses above them this year, Frances McDormand and Allison Janney are two of my favorites and I'm glad they'll both have more hardware to add to the trophy-case. We're also going to be able to say Academy Award Winners Roger Deakins and James Ivory, which is well over-due.

Anyway here are my final predictions for this Sunday's Academy Awards. They are mostly by the book because this year doesn't seem ripe for many upsets.

Original Screenplay is very interesting, because I don't see Get Out going home empty-handed. I think it finishes second for best picture, but I don't see Three Billboards only winning acting awards along with best picture. I'm predicting Three Billboards in picture, but if Get Out wins screenplay then I think it wins picture. I'm going to predict a split, but whatever wins original screenplay will win picture so I'm wrong already!

Best Picture

Will Win: