Every Best Picture Nominee of the 2010's Ranked: #35-39

Scene from Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

As 2019 reached its end, another decade of cinema had passed. It's amazing to think about how things have evolved since 2010 when the biggest controversies were about recognizing genre movies. Things look different now, especially as genre films like The Shape of Water and Parasite are winning Best Picture and the voting body looks incredibly different with each passing year. With this period in the books, it feels like a good time to celebrate their accomplishments by ranking all 88 titles nominated for Best Picture from worst to best with the goal of seeing which films are more likely to stand the test of time. Join me every Saturday and Sunday as I count them down, five at a time. It's going to be a fun summer looking back on what was, especially as we prepare for the decade ahead and an even more interesting diversity that we haven't even begun to think of.

Composing Greatness: #10. The Freshman Class of the 2010's - "La La Land" (2016)

Scene from La La Land

Welcome to Composing Greatness: a column dedicated to exploring the work of film composers. This will specifically focus on the films that earned them Oscar nominations while exploring what makes it so special. This will be broken down into a look at the overall style, interesting moments within the composition, and what made the score worth nominating in the first place. This will also include various subcategories where I will rank the themes of each film along with any time that the composer actually wins. This is a column meant to explore a side of film that doesn't get enough credit while hopefully introducing audiences to an enriched view of more prolific composers' work. This will only cover scores/songs that are compiled in an easily accessible format (so no extended scores will be considered). Join me every Sunday as I cover these talents that if you don't know by name, you recognize by sound.

What "The Shape of Water" Winning Best Picture Means to Me

Credit: Naki for Variety

There's certain things that people have come to expect from a Best Picture winner at The Academy Awards. They are prestigious dramas conveying deep and conflicting resonance of the moment it came out. It's supposed to be serious, often contextualizing a piece of history through an artistic prism. But, as someone who has loved classic monster movies, I've also known that another thing is true: genre movies don't win. Comedies or musicals maybe, but never sci-fi, horror, fantasy, or anything considered niche. After all, the Best Picture winner is something agreed upon of thousands of people from differing tastes. So to see The Shape of Water win two of film's most prestigious awards this past Sunday gave me an incredible feeling. Somehow it validated the idea that The Oscars have always preached: all movies matter. For the first time this millennium, that's felt like more than hyperbole.

Ranking the Most Nominated Oscar Films of the Past 10 Years

Scene from The Shape of Water

With this week presenting the Oscar nominations, it only seems right to continually nitpick every category to determine just how good this year is (in my opinion, it's a very good one). However, there is one piece of trivia that's likely to go unnoticed: the films with the most nominations. While it's a big deal in any given year, does anyone remember what that film was even 10 years ago? It's what inspired me to rank the last 10 years of films that lead the year with the most nominations. Ironically, it's a bit uneven as there were many ties in a given year. However, it's also 13 films - the number of nominations that The Shape of Water received this year. It's interesting to look back at the films that dominated, even if they didn't win much. The following is my ranking of the past 10 years, which has produced a lot of interesting results.

Theory Thursday: In Defense of Ryan Gosling

Scene from Blade Runner 2049

Welcome to a weekly column called Theory Thursdays, which will be released every Thursday and discuss my "controversial opinion" related to something relative to the week of release. Sometimes it will be birthdays while others is current events or a new film release. Whatever the case may be, this is a personal defense for why I disagree with the general opinion and hope to convince you of the same. While I don't expect you to be on my side, I do hope for a rational argument. After all, film is a subjective medium and this is merely just a theory that can be proven either way. 

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "La La Land" (2016)

Scene from La La Land

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.

Check It Out: A Look at the First Annual La La Land Day

Dancers celebrating La La Land Day

It is likely by now that you have seen La La Land. If you waited for home video, yesterday was your chance to bring home the beloved musical that rejuvenated the genre and brought in $440 million internationally and won six Oscars, including Best Director for Damien Chazelle and Best Actress for Emma Stone. However, there was another reason to remember the movie yesterday. April 25, 2017 has officially become the first annual La La Land Day in Los Angeles, California. To say the least, it wasn't just a name on the paper. The city went all out with a celebration full of dancing and an appearance from composer Justin Hurwitz. You can read about the festivities and more after the jump.

Best Song: "City of Stars" (2016)

Scene from La La Land

Welcome to Best Song, a new weekly column released on Sunday dedicated to chronicling the Best Original Song category over the course of its many decades. The goal is to listen to and critique every song that has ever been nominated in the category as well as find the Best Best Song and the Best Loser. By the end, we'll have a comprehensive list of this music category and will hopefully have a better understanding not only of the evolution, but what it takes to receive a nomination here. It may seem easy now, but wait until the bad years.

A Play By Play of That Best Picture Accident

It's a moment that nobody can forget. At the end of this year's Oscars ceremony, it looked like La La Land won Best Picture. With everyone doing the ritual speeches, a commotion formed behind them. As a producer ran forward, he announced that there had been a mistake. The film that everyone predicted to have won didn't win at all. In fact, it was Moonlight. Not only was it the moment of the evening, but it was the moment that recap coverage has loved to focus on. So, what exactly did happen? To the best of my ability, I have pieced together the story based on interviews that have come out in the days since, hopefully painting a full picture of the most eventful 10 minutes of Oscar history to happen this century - or at least since Crash won Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain.

Check Out the Winners of this Year's Academy Awards!

Now that Oscar Sunday is behind us, it's time to start the regular coverage of the highs and lows of this year's ceremony. Before we get to how well Jimmy Kimmel did as host or who gave the best speech, we must get to what we really care about: who won. As many likely know, the Best Picture presentation was the highlight of the night, as the winner went from being La La Land to Moonlight. But, who else won big last night? Read on to get a full rundown of this year's batch of Oscar winners.

Here's My Official Predictions For This Year's Oscar Winners

This is it. At 4 PM PST (check your local listings for more information), the 89th Academy Awards will officially be underway with Jimmy Kimmel hosting. It will finally answer the questions that many have been pondering over. What will won't La La Land win? Will Casey Affleck or Denzel Washington take Best Actor? Will Arrival get anything? All of these questions will be answered in what will hopefully be a great ceremony. While we wait to find out what goes down this year, it's time to lock down predictions for this year's Academy Awards. I have mine right after the jump. Feel free to add your own predictions in the comments, and I shall have recap coverage out on Monday. Enjoy your Oscar Sunday, and do it right.

"13 Hours" Best Sound Mixing Nominee Gets His Nomination Revoked

Scene from 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

While this has been a largely controversy-free Oscar season, there was one film that managed to get in the news for all of the wrong reasons. Director Michael Bay's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi may not be a movie up for Best Picture, but it still managed to have its sole nomination rescinded due to a little rule breaking. While it won't be replaced by another nominee, it lowers the Best Sound Mixing category to four potential nominees. Read on to discover what exactly got 13 Hours excluded from the race and sacrificed it from having a potential win.

Ranking the 9 Best Picture Musical Winners

Scene from La La Land

This Sunday marks the event that everyone has been waiting for: Oscar Sunday. While everyone makes their last minute predictions (I will be sharing mine tomorrow), there is one agreed consensus: this is La La Land's year for Best Picture. The musical has received unanimous acclaim for its spectacular craft. Provided nothing changes and it wins, it will join a small list of musicals that have achieved an honor that only 88 movies have achieved so far. What's more surprising is that there's been only nine musicals to have won the category despite being one of Hollywood's most iconic genres. Which is the best of the bunch? Click on to find out, and come back on Monday, provided that it wins, to find out where La La Land falls on the list of the best Oscar-winning Best Picture musicals.

Check This Out: An Excerpt from My Essay on "La La Land"

Scene from La La Land

With Oscar Sunday less than 72 hours away, it's crunch time for those wanting think pieces and last minute predictions for all of the major nominees. While I have done extensive work on this blog, I felt like director Damien Chazelle's La La Land was something special. That is why I am proud to announce that I have published my own analytical essay "What's Old is New Again: An Exploration of the Themes of 'La La Land'" exploring the themes found in the film; ranging from why it is important to compromise, the impact of nostalgia, and why going off script is sometimes important. The following is an excerpt from the essay, which is currently available on Amazon for free (purchase it here) from February 24 until the 27th. Check it out and feel free to get caught up in the magic of one of this century's best musicals all over again.

Check This Out: A Video Rehearsal of "La La Land"s Opening Scene

Scene from La La Land

By now everyone knows what La La Land is. It's currently up for 14 Oscar nominations and on track to win at least half of them. There are moments that stand out from the film, and that includes the opening number on the 105/110 freeway intersection in which everyone jumps out of their cars and does an elaborate dance number. It's a breathtaking number, and one that sets up the rest of the film perfectly. The question could be "How did they do that?" and the answer would be with cameras flying everywhere and dancers singing in hot temperatures. But to look back even further at rehearsals is to see a different side of the equation. Even on an iPhone, director Damien Chazelle had a strong idea of what to expect.

"Moana" vs. "La La Land": Who Should Win Best Original Song?

Ryan Gosling in La La Land

While the Best Picture category may be the biggest award given out on Oscar Night, there's few other categories that could be as exciting as Best Original Song. This is because, unlike having to watch hours of movies, it's a category that distills the art form to a brief ditty. They are the indicator that most will have for these movies, and it's none more present than for soundtrack-turned-radio hits. This year has a phenomenal list (and Sting) to choose from, but there's probably only two that are neck and neck with each other: La La Land and Moana. Which film should win the category, and in the case of La La Land: which one of its songs? The following is a defense and exploration of each of the three songs likely to take home the top prize.

Ranking This Year's Best Picture Nominees

There is officially two weeks left to go before Oscar Sunday. With everyone clamoring to see all of the nominees beforehand, it only seems right to start calculating which ones are standing out above the rest. In this piece, I will be exploring the Best Picture field by ranking the really strong group of nominees. So, which ones stand out as favorites? They're all pretty good this year, and even the bottom half have strong moments. The following is my personal ranking from best to worst, and I look forward to any comments regarding your favorites and whether or not the class of 2016 Best Picture nominees has anything exceptional about it.

Check Out 2017's Academy Award Nominees Here

The moment is finally here. After months of speculating, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominees for this year's Oscars ceremony. The announcement was held this morning with a special video production to make this year extra special. With La La Land leading the pack, it was an exciting year full of diversity both in genres as well as race. So, who made the cut? The following is a rundown of every category and every nominee, including additional thoughts for each field regarding how exciting this year's Oscar race is. So without further ado, a look at the Oscar nominees of 2017, celebrating the best and brightest in film.

Here's the List for This Year's Golden Globe Winners

Scene from La La Land

Yesterday was a big day for movie lovers as The Golden Globes gave out awards to the best in TV and film. While this year's nominees were at times baffling (it's par for the course), the results were surprising often in a good way. With La La Land winning seven awards - the most by one film - it is looking more and more likely that Damien Chazelle's musical will take all of the trophies home come Oscar night. For those who want to know who won, keep reading. It was definitely a year of interesting diversity, and that's the perfect set-up for what this Oscar season needs. The only question is how much overlap we expect to get.

Review: "La La Land" Will Make You Believe in the Power of Movie Musicals Again

Emma Stone

There are few cities in America quite as depressing on film as Los Angeles, California. The place best known for film noir has given its fair share of famous sad endings including in Chinatown where things end horribly, ending with the line "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." It's the land of disaster despite bordering the land of glitz and glam. There are few places deserving of a modern musical quite like L.A., especially in a year that many would consider depressing. Yet it doesn't take long for director Damien Chazelle to invade the city of opportunity and turn one of the most dreaded activities - rush hour traffic - into the elaborate song and dance number "Just Another Day of Sun." Before the number is halfway through, it will be hard to believe that this is the land that's inspired misery. In fact, it's the land of opportunity, and something that La La Land takes full advantage of in glorious technical detail that reminds you that films could be fun and that musicals aren't just silly; they're cathartic experiences.