Was Jimmy Kimmel a Good Oscar Host?

Jimmy Kimmel

Now that the ceremony has passed and the tension of what will win has been resolved, there is one issue that needs to be answered: was Jimmy Kimmel a good host? It's the most interpretive question for one of Hollywood's most thankless job. An Oscar host almost solely exists to keep a show moving. The best can add their own bit of personality into the mix, but it's a job meant to honor others, As a whole, there is a couple benefits that make Kimmel stand out: he's probably interviewed everyone in the audience on his late night talk show across the street. He has gained a routine over the years to know how to do live events. Even during the night's most disastrous moment, he managed to keep things breezy. Is he a good Oscar host? Most definitely. In fact, he might secretly be one of the best.

Why "Moonlight" Winning Best Picture is a Big Deal

By all accounts, the 89th annual Academy Awards ceremony was going according to plan. Over the course of the evening through 24 categories, the nominees who had won almost every preliminary got up and gave acceptance speeches. There was nothing new. There rarely is when it comes to the Oscars. Viola Davis won. Emma Stone won It was a predictable even. That is, until the last category was announced. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced La La Land, which was predicted to sweep the entire ceremony. Moments later, it was revealed that there was a mistake and that Moonlight actually won. While this is a moment that will be analyzed for decades to come, it should also be seen as a ceremonious moment that hopefully marks a change in the Academy Awards. Hopefully, this is the moment where things become more inclusive.

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.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Les Miserables" (2012)

Hugh Jackman

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.

Natalie Portman, Best Documentary Short Nominees Are Not Attending the Oscars

Natalie Portman in Jackie

Even if there's plenty to look forward to on Oscar Sunday, there will be a few missing faces at the ceremony. A few weeks back, The Salesman's Asghar Farhadi and Taraneh Alidoosti announced that they wouldn't go due to the Muslim Ban. Now there's more names added to the list. While there's plenty related to the the Muslim Ban, there's one particular absence that is brought about for different reasons. Best Actress nominee Natalie Portman (Jackie) has already missed the Spirit Awards and is looking to be staying home tomorrow night as well. Read on to discover which stars won't be on the R.S.V.P. list.

"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.

An Appreciation Piece for Mica Levi's "Jackie" Score

Scene from Jackie

There's a lot to love about this year's Best Original Score category. For starters, it is packed with first time nominees (and for some reason Thomas Newman for Passengers). It makes the category far more exciting than normal, and even features a variety of excellent compositions. While it does seem likely that Justin Hurwitz will win for La La Land, I want to give a quick shout out to possibly the biggest surprise nominee of the bunch: Mica Levi (Jackie). Even if I fear that she won't win, I feel that her nomination is an excellent addition to the eclectic scores that normally wouldn't be considered. In fact, it's probably my favorite from the list. 

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 the Best Documentary Short Oscar Nominees

Oscar Sunday is only a week away. While many are likely catching up on the last of the Best Picture nominees, Shorts HD has been key in giving audiences the chance to see the other categories. The following is a look at the Best Documentary Short category's five nominees as well as a ranking from best to worst. It's a rather strong group with three focusing on the Syrian refugee crisis - so you know it's a harrowing bunch. Even then, it's more evidence of how powerful cinema can be to tell true stories and cover events that wouldn't work in a fictional landscape. The following features a great line-up that tell powerful stories, and prove why it's important to seek out the harder to find nominees.

The First Trailer for "Song to Song" Sees Malick Playing a Familiar Tune

Rooney Mara

It didn't used to be this way. The promise of new Terence Malick seemed to be something that would happen once every decade, or twice if he was feeling inspired. However, the past few years has seen him form a late period creativity that has made for some interesting results. From 2011's The Tree of Life to last year's Knight of Cups, he has managed to make his meditative style grow into more contemporary settings. With is latest Song to Song, he looks to tackle the music scene. It may not look bad, but it looks like what the average later day Malick film looks like these days. Again, it's not a bad thing, but it doesn't provide much confidence either.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "The Birth of a Nation" (2016)

Nate Parker

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.

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.

Theory Thursday: Adam West is the Best Live Action Batman

Adam West

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. 

Sofia Coppola's "The Beguiled" Takes Gorgeous Vengeance in the First Trailer

Scene from The Beguiled

In a time of remake culture, it would have to take a pretty good filmmaker to turn old text into something new and inspired. Leave it to director Sofia Coppola to take The Beguiled and find a spin on the Clint Eastwood original. With the release of the first trailer, it presents a cryptic look into the world of the film. With a great female cast (and Colin Farrell), it looks to present a reversal on the damsel in distress story by pitting a man against some vengeful women. While there's little offered beyond a vengeful slur, it's still great to have Coppola back, and producing a film that looks really good.

Review: "Lion" is a Powerful Film About Finding Faith in Loneliness

Dev Patel

Many films capture the feeling of loneliness with poetic and often abstract imagery, but few show it as anything but a means to an end. Yes, the feeling of abandonment is a frustrating circumstance, and one that creates complex emotional responses. In director Garth Davis' Lion, he sets out to tell one story of persistence causing loneliness to end on a happy note. The story may play the conventional fields, but predictability isn't the point. Lion is a story of hope that asks us, even without saying, to have faith in the impossible - for it is where the greatest challenges lie. With a phenomenal performance by Dev Patel, this is a film that not only captures the heartbreaking loneliness in lengthy detail, but also the ability to cope and live a normal life within the situation. It may not be the most groundbreaking film, but it may be among the year's most heartwarming, innovative experiences. 

Jack Nicholson Will Return to Acting with "Toni Erdmann" Remake

Jack Nicholson

Among the many world cinema movies making the rounds this awards season is director Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann. It's a story that follows a father trying to befriend his hard working daughter. It's a film so beloved that it not only made many critics Best of 2016 lists, but will be competing for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Even then, there's been talk beyond this of the film getting a much maligned Americanized remake. While this news still feels premature, there is one piece of good news to come from this story. After seven years off of the scene, three-time Oscar winner Jack Nicholson will officially be returning to acting for the film. It's the type of news that should be met with overwhelming excitement, and will hopefully show why Nicholson is one of the all time greats.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Deadpool" (2016)

Scene from Deadpool

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.

Theory Thursday: Denzel Washington is Winning the Best Actor Oscar for "Fences"

Denzel Washington as SAG Awards

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.