Todd Phillips Considers "The Joker" (2019) Oscar Worthy, Though Skepticism Remains

Scene from The Joker (2019)

The past few weeks of the summer have produced a lot of reasons to look forward to Oscar season. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood marks a potential return for Tom Hanks, and this weekend's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is a Quentin Tarantino movie (so we'll be talking about it for a while). However, there's one outlier that has made the rounds in recent days... and it is not what you'd expect. Even in a post-Black Panther world, it still seems ridiculous to think that any superhero movie could crack the Oscars again. It's why it seems odd that there is one to not forget this Fall, or at least The Hangover director Todd Phillips will have you believe. The Joker is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and there are talks that the Oscars are not too far behind. It seems like a risky gamble, but maybe what this season needs.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Suicide Squad" (2016)

Scene from Suicide Squad

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Dallas Buyers Club" (2013)

Scene from Dallas Buyers Club

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

A Few Thoughts on the Academy Awards Ceremony: The Bad

Ellen Degeneres

If there was one issue of this year's Academy Awards, it was its desire to try and be hip. While it resulted in the ceremony's highest ratings in over a decade, it also lost focus of what the Academy Awards is: an awards show. This isn't a moment for spectacle, but to highlight a year of film with the prestigious award. This was most evident in the host, whose lack of spectacle was replaced be a series of happenstance moments literally ate up a lot of time, making her one of the dullest hosts in the show's recent history. Even if she was tame and appealed to the audience with off kilter remarks, Ellen Degeneres essentially lost the plot. While she isn't the only one to blame for this year's ceremony being one of the worst in recent memory, she does at least earn credit for ruining the fun nature.

A Closer Look at the Best Supporting Actor Nominees

Much like the Best Actor race, this year's Best Supporting Actor nominees feel like a broad mix of talents that each highlight a different portion of charismatic performances. From transsexual (Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club) to boat hijacker (Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips) to a crack smoking broker (Jonah Hill - The Wolf of Wall Street), this feels like a crazy selection just on paper. However, the lack of one performance standing out makes it an exciting year that keeps the category from feeling as closed off as some of the others. 

Review: "Dallas Buyers Club" is an Engrossing Portrait of the AIDS Epidemic and the Power of One Man

Matthew McConaughey

One of the biggest surprises in the Oscar race this year is just how successful a threat that director Jean-Marc Vallee's Dallas Buyers Club has become. In a year where conversation has been heavy around 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle, it is exciting to see a film that had limited appeal sweeping up wins from groups such as the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild (S.A.G.) and ending up with a Best Picture nod as well as five others. Then again, one of the biggest underdogs of this year's ceremony had an uphill battle and managed to turn in an impressively audacious look at AIDS and the vaccinations in 1980's America. It may not be the best nominee, but it does make itself worthy of mention.

Will the "Dallas Buyers Club" Trailer Combine Weight Loss with an Oscar Nomination?

Matthew McConaughey

If one person deserves a most improved trophy over the past few years, it is Matthew McConaughey. Where he had become a leading man in romantic comedies through the early 00's, he has finally become someone that I respect. In fact, I have argued twice before with Magic Mike and Mud for Oscar consideration. Of course, I have held out faint hope that of every potential movie that he has made during his recent reincarnation, the one that I have placed the most money on is director Jean-Marc Vallee's Dallas Buyers Club, which if nothing else has the distinct honor of being the film that the actor sacrificed his chiseled looks for a skinny, lanky HIV victim. If the trailer is any speculation on his chances, I feel like we may be looking at one of the first serious contenders.