Why I Think "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" Will Win Best Picture

Scene from Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

Last Monday, the Oscar nominations were announced and cut the competition in half for all of the major categories. Now it's down to the wire with only a few weeks until The Academy Awards answer all of the questions that movie fans have been clamoring for: what will win Best Picture, Best Actor, etc. It's the territory that comes with every year, and this one is no slouch, presenting a variety of front-runners that are undeniable charmers. If one was to follow conventional awards rules, 1917 would be the front-runner, followed closely by Parasite (one of few films to win the Screen Actors Guild Award's prize for Best Ensemble without another acting nomination). However, there is one that's lingering just under the surface, and one that makes a lot of sense if one was to apply Oscar trends on it.

Director Quentin Tarantino's proposed penultimate film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is a film that has become forgotten in recent weeks of awards season. With exception to Brad Pitt winning Best Supporting Actor, it hasn't exactly had any consistency since winning Best Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes. Even then, one has to merely look at the campaign to see how brilliant their approach to a Best Picture win is. It wasn't just the decision to release the film in the dumping grounds of August, almost 50 years to the date of Sharon Tate's untimely death. It was everything around it, which has only proven it to have a longevity that half of the nominees have yet to prove (save for maybe Parasite, now in its fourth month of theatrical release). Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood isn't just one of Tarantino's most accessible films, it's arguably the one that appeals to Academy biases the most. In a time where the old clash with the new class of voters, few films feel as connecting (both in appeal and themes) quite like Tarantino's film. 

Theory Thursday: "Inglourious Basterds" is Tarantino's Best Film

Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

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. 

Check This Out: The "Pulp Fiction" Wish List

Uma Thurman

By now, you've likely formed your own opinions about director Quentin Tarantino and his films. Even then, the most common moment of applause comes from Pulp Fiction, which is often considered his masterpiece. From the music to the screenplay, it is a top notch film that you cannot see going any other possible way. In fact, Tarantino has been applauded for his ability to cast people and reinvigorate careers. With a recent document floating around Reddit, now's a moment to theorize what history could have looked like if Tarantino's film didn't end up as it did. What follows is a look at the wish list for Pulp Fiction, including a lot of various and impressive surprises.

A Few Highlights From Quentin Tarantino's Vulture Interview on Film Culture and the Oscars

Quentin Tarantino

By now, you likely have an opinion on Quentin Tarantino. Love him or hate him, he is one of the most recognizable directors working in cinema. After making a splash in 1994 with Pulp Fiction, he came out with a string of increasingly stylized films that made him one of the most authentic and successful genre directors of contemporary times. His love of film also seems to be a point of acclaim every time he has an interview. With a very strange taste in pop culture, his recommendations are always worth a head scratch. With his latest interview for Vulture, he doesn't disappoint as he provides his thoughts on TV, movies, and his own career. Check out his thoughts after the jump.

Birthday Take: Roger Avary in "Pulp Fiction" (1994)

Left to right: John Travolta and Samuel Jackson in Pulp Fiction

Welcome to The Birthday Take, a column dedicated to celebrating Oscar nominees and winners' birthdays by paying tribute to the work that got them noticed. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive retrospective, but more of a highlight of one nominated work that makes them noteworthy. The column will run whenever there is a birthday and will hopefully give a dense exploration of the finest performances and techniques applied to film. So please join me as we blow out the candles and dig into the delicious substance.

Watch This: David Letterman at the Oscars

David Letterman

After an impressive 33 years, late night talk show host David Letterman will be retiring from his job as the host of The Late Show. For many, it is the end of an era that was full of anarchy and very odd comedy choices. Unlike his competition, specifically that of Jay Leno (The Tonight Show), he was influential in making pranks and lists into an art form for hilarity. With all of this in mind, it is interesting to note that his Academy Awards hosting gig has gone down as one of the worst, yet is it considering the countless names that have come since (Ellen Degeneres, James Franco, etc.)? Along with celebrating the 20th anniversary of that frightful gig this year, it is as good of a time as any to revisit it as we lose one of the most inimitable and ornery talk show hosts in American history.

Is "Pulp Fiction" Overrated?

John Travolta

On this day in history, director Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction hit American theaters nationwide and in the process, altering how many conceived of cinema. It played fast and loose and gave a profane-laced, pop culture behemoth that earned the 30-year-old director the Palme d'Or and a Best Original Screenplay award with co-writer Roger Avary. For many, it was a renaissance of film innovation equivalent to Citizen Kane or The Godfather, changing the way that independent film would be judged and consumed. With all of the praise coming out to commemorate this anniversary, there's one hypothetical that never gets explored: what if Pulp Fiction was overrated?

The Oscar Buzz Celebrates Its Second Anniversary!

Clint Eastwood

I am proud to announce that The Oscar Buzz has survived another year. It is quite an achievement that while the second wind wasn't nearly as strong as the first year, I continued to expand my audience and find new readers to interact with. I even ran The Directors Project, which for better or worse brought in new readers and helped the reader to better understand my interests as a whole. So, how do we celebrate the second anniversary? I have decided that in order to continue with the thematic elements that make these occasional lists so unique is to go with something that is not often thought of: the second films. While directorial debuts get a lot of clout, there's still some magic to be had with filmmakers on their second go. They need to prove themselves as more than just a lucky move. The following is a list of 15 films throughout history that I have enjoyed as the second go around for many fine filmmakers.

The Directors Project: #8 - Quentin Tarantino

Scene from Cinema Paradiso

With the many lists and essays written on the subject of film, there has been one thing that The Oscar Buzz has tried to understand: Who is my favorite of the film world? For 10 weeks this summer, I will be exploring this with a countdown of the Top 50 names based on a numerical ranking of ratings from various sources, the following is a list of directors who rank above everyone else. With occasional upsets, this is intended as both a discussion opener as well as a better understanding of me as a film critic and fan. Please enjoy and leave any comments you have regarding the entry's selection.

A Look Back at "Forrest Gump" and its Controversial Best Picture Win Over "Pulp Fiction"

Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump

In honor of Forrest Gump's 20th anniversary, I have decided to run something special. I have decided to personally explore the Best Picture category of 1994 as well as my personal thoughts within the nominees. Despite becoming an iconic film with countless catchphrases, a restaurant chain, and a rock band, it seems like Robert Zemeckis' technologically groundbreaking film has received flack for pandering to baby boomers through an intellectually stunted character by rewriting American history. I won't go into politics, but it does challenge how I view the film, especially as it was an iconic piece of my childhood. Instead, I will choose to focus on the "controversy" that surrounds it. Did it deserve to beat Pulp Fiction?