Failed Oscar Campaigns: "The Irishman" (2019)

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

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.

Every Best Picture Nominee of the 2010's Ranked: #15-19

Scene from Boyhood (2014)

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.

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.

How Peggy Reveals the Brilliance of "The Irishman" Script

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

The greatness of director Martin Scorsese's towering gangster epic The Irishman can be summarized with one performance: Peggy Sheeran. It may not seem like it given that she has considerably less screen time than most characters in Frank Sheeran's (Robert De Niro) life, but the way that writer Steven Zaillian uses her describes something key in the film's overall tragedy. Yes, one can use the crackling dialogue rich with acidic humor and bursts of violence that distract from Frank ever learning a lesson, but that isn't anything new for a Scorsese movie. No, there has to be something there that serves as the piece of Frank that got away, unable to ever be obtained even as he murders for the sake of building a reputation among the local mob. The performances are rich with personality, but one has to wonder what they mean in the long run. Why doesn't Frank's story end when the last of them have said goodbye? It's because their respect was easy to get. His family was a different matter.

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.

Ranking the Best Picture Nominees of 2020

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

One of the greatest games to play following every Oscar season is to see every film that's nominated in any given character. None are more fun than Best Picture, which remains the most anticipated category year in and year out, leaving behind a winner that is going to be talked about for decades and (very soon) a century. Now that I have seen every nominee in the class of 2020, I am throwing in my hat to determine which films I love the most and what are some of the weak spots on the list. As a whole, the films picked from 2019 presented another strong class that reflects the best of cinema's diverse potential. Could it be better? Sure, but the nine films here are no slouches.

Looking Back at Predictions: How Did I Do?

Scene from Parasite (2019)

On Monday, The Academy announced its nominees for this year's ceremony. There's a lot to be excited about on the list, including Parasite becoming the first Korean movie to be nominated... well, ever. Having had time to mull over all of the nominees, there is one thing that is fun to do: look back on predictions and see just how accurate things turned out. After all, they were the last moment to shape what should be nominated before finding out what ended up making the cut. The following is a rundown of six categories that I predicted along with how well things turned out. To say the least, it always produces interesting results. 

The 2020 Oscar Nominations Are Officially Here!

Ladies and gentlemen, at long last the day has arrived. The Academy gathered together to announce the nominees for this year's ceremony. Among the highlights is that comic book movie Joker lead the pack with 11 nominations, and Parasite became the first South Korean film to be nominated, period. Across the board, there are nonstop things to celebrate and get excited for. Now there's only one question to go: who will win it all? While nobody has the answers for that yet, there are several nominations to get excited about. Read on to discover what made the list and come back in the weeks to come to discuss news and reviews about all of the nominees.

Last-Minute Predictions for This Year's Oscar Nominations

Scene from Joker (2019)

The big moment is here! After a year of prognosticating, this year's Oscar nominations will be upon us and put to rest a lot of complicated questions. Which actors will make the cut? Will this be one of the best years for Best Picture ever? How big does Parasite or Joker show up? So many questions will finally be resolved, leaving only the biggest one (who wins?) to be resolved. With time ticking away until this moment comes, it feels like a good time to announce my predictions for what will get nominated this year. Like every time, it's difficult to narrow it down, but if half of these end up on the list, then we should be happy.

"The Irishman" Proves Netflix Isn't Kidding Around This Oscar Season with 26.4 Million Views in the First Week

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

By all accounts, Netflix has been crushing it this awards season. This past week saw the streaming service dominate the Golden Globe nominations with major nominations for Dolemite is My Name, The Two Popes, Marriage Story, and the Martin Scorsese-directed epic The Irishman. All of the films look like their on track to dominate awards season and possibly lead the Oscars. That's not only the critics talking. According to data released by chief Ted Sarandon, The Irishman is a big success because of the availability on Netflix. With a reported 26.4 million households seeing the film in the first week and a potential 48 million projected for the first month, it's a number that looks to prove why Scorsese and Netflix were smart to collaborate on this 3.5-hour film. It may have made the film a bigger hit than a conventional release strategy.

Review: "The Irishman" is the Great Gangster Movie to End All Gangster Movies

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

With The Irishman, director Martin Scorsese has made the gangster movie to end all gangster movies. He has made a career of exploring the criminals who have gotten rich off of shady deals and violent discourse, leaving behind nothing but misery for everyone else. After pushing limits with films like Mean Streets, Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street, he has taken on the elder statesman role in 2019 to discuss how a life of crime may seem rewarding at first but inevitably ends in a sadness that can't be escaped. As much as the 3.5-hour running time feels at times taxing, drawing out small moments that feel interminable, the result is to create an epic about a man learning to realize his own flaws only to realize that they come too late. It's a story about loyalty and aging in the ways that only Scorsese can get away with. While the results are less flashy than his aforementioned masterpieces, this is the final chapter in a cautionary tale that has defined his work from the beginning. With a cast of incredible actors at the top of their game, The Irishman may be overlong, but it's all in an attempt to cheat death. It's horrifying and immersive, leaving the audience with a powerful gut punch that is too bittersweet to forget.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Roma" (2018)

Scene from Roma (2018)

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.

Netflix Launches Website for Where You Can See "The Irishman"

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

For many Oscar fans last year, nothing was more debated than where you could actually see Roma. Given that Netflix maintains a fraught relationship with most major theater chains, it continues to loom large as a problem impacting their current plan to do slow rollouts for several of their Fall 2019 films. Among them is the hotly anticipated Martin Scorsese epic The Irishman, which has gained acclaim as one of the director's finest movies. But, where could you possibly see a film released by the Oscar-winning filmmaker? Up until now, the answer would be to do the familiar hard work of Googling or going to Fandango to find answers. Thanks to Netflix, there's an even easier option out there now.

Netflix Announces a Bold Theatrical Release Schedule for 10 Films

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

This past week has been an exceptional time to be a streaming service. If you managed to manage to make it through the weekend without seeing an ad for Disney+'s The Mandalorian, you're one of few. Even Netflix has gotten their fair share of news, announcing a Breaking Bad movie called El Camino and, in more important Oscar news, a lot of information about what to expect this Fall season. Yes, there are the obvious suspects with The Irishman and Marriage Story leading potential races, but more importantly, they have announced their own release strategy, their biggest single season of theatrical programming yet. With an announcement of 10 theatrical releases, it looks like the streaming service is starting to make their transition to conventional Oscar player, which could make this one of the most exciting seasons yet.

"The Irishman" Trailer Sets Scorsese Up for Oscar Potential

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

There have been few obvious Oscar campaigns quite like director Martin Scorsese's The Irishman. It was so anticipated that a teaser played during the commercials for the actual ceremony. However, this is the first time that audiences will be privy to what lied in one of the most exciting pairings of the year. Not only is it the return of Scorsese with Robert de Niro, but it also features Goodfellas actor Joe Pesci and his first with Al Pacino. It's a dynamite group that could sell the film without a single piece of marketing. Thankfully, the trailer that premiered lived up to the expectations, taking audiences back to the world of Scorsese gangster films for the first time since The Departed in 2006. If nothing else, it looks to be one of the best excuses to subscribe to Netflix yet.