Showing posts with label Judy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Judy. Show all posts

Monday, February 10, 2020

Here Are This Year's Oscar Winners!

Well, that's it. Another year is officially in the books. The 92nd Academy Awards were held last night and, by all accounts, it was an exciting night full of many surprising winners. Most importantly, it was the night when Best Picture (and three other trophies) ushered in a new era as The Academy celebrated Parasite. While there was a share of obvious winners, there's no discounting that it was another fun year full of great artists finally getting their recognition for hard work. There is more Oscar coverage to come in the week ahead, but for now, there is one question on everyone's minds: what actually won? Presented here without further commentary are this year's winners in every category.

Saturday, February 8, 2020

Here's My Official Predictions for This Year's Oscars Ceremony

Scene from 1917 (2019)
After months of prognostication, the moment is finally here. Tomorrow is the day that every film fan has been waiting for as The Academy Awards take to the stage to announce this year's winners. Who will be the big winners? 1917, Parasite, Joker? There's nothing known for sure until that envelope is open. While I don't have any answer regarding who will win, I am still capable of making predictions, sometimes wild as they are, for who will be walking up to that stage and joining the selective circle of Oscar winners. So, without further commentary, here are my predictions for this year's ceremony. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments and prepare for plenty of post-ceremony coverage coming on Monday.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Ranking the Acting Nominees of Oscars 2020

Scene from Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Next to Best Picture, there are few fields as scrutinized annually at The Oscars as much as the four acting fields. Every year there is a constant buzz over who should've been nominated and what the final group represents to the industry. While there are hundreds of movies and thousands of performances to pull from, these are the 20 that were deemed worthy to make it to Hollywood's biggest night. What follows isn't meant to be a prediction of who should win, but how I feel the 20 nominations rate against each other, finding the best and worst in a group of talent that is now part of film history forever. Who deserved the cut, who didn't? Read on to find out.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Review: "Judy" Finds Pain in a Charismatic Performance

Scene from Judy (2019)
There's an old adage in show business: the show MUST go on. No matter what's happening around you, if you're feeling the least bit timid, a performer puts on a show and entertains the crowd who paid handsomely to see them. That is the familiar crux of director Rupert Goold's biopic Judy, which pits one of Hollywood's most famous and tragic careers into a sympathetic lens, trying to understand what kept her going. With drug addiction and family problems spiraling out of control like her wrecked hotel suite, the story finds her backstage in London, doing everything in her power to keep going on. For as much as this follows conventional paths of a music biopic, there's something to be said for Renee Zellwegger's brittle performance as Judy Garland, whose tearful demeanor makes the many musical numbers more triumphant and saves this. For as much as it leans too heavily on conventions, one can't deny that Garland was a performer until the end, leaving the audience wanting even more when she herself had nothing left to give. It's the tragedy of art, but also the reality of Hollywood's gross past when it came to how it treated its female talent. 

Monday, July 8, 2019

The First "Judy' (2019) Brings Forth a Promising Oscar Contender

Scene from Judy (2019)
Everyone loves a biopic it seems. The desire to take the celebrities of the past and turn them into fodder for new stories is something that has never gone out of style. It's why it seems odd that Judy Garland is just now getting around to the biopic treatment. With a storied career full of tremendous highs and lows, it's hard to not find something to take from her life story (though to be fair, A Star is Born was almost autobiographical anyways). It's what makes the upcoming release of director Rupert Goold's Judy starring Renee Zellweger so compelling. Not only is it a potential return to the Oscar circles for the actress, but it may help to inspire a new generation to fall in love all over again with the singer. If the trailer has anything to say about it, the journey there will be a rip-roaring success.