Here’s what happened today in Oscar History.
Born
Died
Released
This Day in Oscar History: May 8 (2021)
Film Preview: Vivo (2021)
Page Revisions:
(May 2, 2021) Original
Release Date:
June 4, 2021
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “Vivo, Sony Pictures Animation’s first-ever musical adventure featuring all-new original songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda, will take audiences on an epic adventure to gorgeous and vibrant locations never before seen in animation.”
Poster Rating: –
SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: There was no poster immediately available for my review. Should one become available in the future, this section will be updated.
Trailer Rating: C
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Review: This teaser looks like the kind of film Sony Pictures Animation is better known for making and not the kind of exciting tour-de-force they more recently exhibited with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This definitely looks a lot more childish, which might work to draw in kids, but few others.
Oscar Prospects:
A contender for this year’s Best Animated Feature Oscar with a likely nomination in play.
Trailer #1
Film Preview: Port Authority (2021)
Page Revisions:
(May 2, 2021) Original
Release Date:
May 28, 2021
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “Port Authority is a love story set in New York’s kiki ballroom scene, and follows Paul, a 20 year old midwesterner, who arrives at the central bus station and quickly catches eyes with Wye, a 22 year old girl voguing on the sidewalk. After Paul seeks her out in secret, an intense love between them blossoms. But when Paul discovers Wye is trans, he is forced to confront his own identity and what it means to belong.”
Poster Rating: C / D+
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Review: (#1) The garish colors and simple image make for something briefly interesting to look at, but then becoming instantly forgotten. (#2) From outlandish to dull, this image does little to excite the viewer and certainly won’t draw new audiences.
Trailer Rating: C+
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Review: An awful title prevents this queer cinematic feature from feeling like a genuine attempt at steering a conversation about transgender issues. That alone might make it tough to sell beyond its core enthusiasts.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Oscar in Box Office History (Week 19, 2021)
Every week, we’ll take a look back in 5-year intervals at the box office past to explore how Oscar’s nominees were doing at the box office each weekend historically. The first section under each year is the positioning of all Oscar nominees during that weekend at the box office (as well as a section looking at the inflation-adjusted numbers). The third section is an alphabetical list of those films and the categories in which they were nominated. And to start each week off, we’ll be looking at the films releasing over the weekend that have the best chance of getting Oscar nominations and specifying the categories where we think they have the best shots at this stage of the game. If you have any suggestions for more data you’d like to see, please let us know.
This Year: Potential Oscar Nominees Releasing This Weekend
Here Today (Wide)
Oscar Potential: Original Screenplay.
The Friday Face-Off, Losers Bracket Round 2, #13
Below are our face-offs for this week. Choose the better winner in each category. For more information on how the game works, click here.
This Day in Oscar History: May 7 (2021)
Here’s what happened today in Oscar History.
Born
Died
Released
Poll: Remaking Best Adapted Screenplay, 2004
Return Links
Remaking Best Adapted Screenplay, 2004
In our twelfth pass of the Oscar nominees from 1997 through 2016, we take a look at the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay. Each week, we’ll present a list of contenders from which you can select five to make up the Best Adapted Screenplay slate. There will be an “Other” option, but you can only use this once and you’ll have to specify your other in the comments. Now on to the game: Best Adapted Screenplay.
Loading ...Film Preview: Riders of Justice (2021)
Page Revisions:
(May 2, 2021) Original
Release Date:
May 21, 2021
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “Markus, who has to go home to his teenage daughter, Mathilde, when his wife dies in a tragic train accident. It seems like an accident until a mathematics geek, who was also a fellow passenger on the train, and his two colleagues show up.”
Poster Rating: C- / C / C-
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Review: (#1) A dingy, unappealing design that tells the audience that this is about bikers, which it is not. That kind of misleading aesthetic won’t win the film fans. (#2) This design may suggest the film’s a comedy, but that isn’t well reflected in the trailer, plus the stagy nature of the image balance doesn’t make it terribly appealing. (#3) The best representation of the film’s trailer, this design is woefully structured, meant to look like the interior of the car, but definitely showing its cut-out elements.
Trailer Rating: C+
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Review: A failure to generate the kind of comedic elements that might make this Danish film look more appealing might ultimately keep audiences from connecting with it.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Film Preview: Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021)
Page Revisions:
(May 2, 2021) Original
Release Date:
May 14, 2021
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “A teenage murder witness finds himself pursued by twin assassins in the Montana wilderness with a survival expert tasked with protecting him — and a forest fire threatening to consume them all.”
Poster Rating: C- / B-
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Review: (#1) There’s not a lot here except a supposedly terrified Angelina Jolie and a crying child. The red and yellow lighting doesn’t sufficiently tell the audience what’s going on. (#2) If you want to give the audience an idea of what they are going to see, this is the design you want to put forth. The background/midground/foreground details set the place and narrative while the character images help create a sense of humanity.
Trailer Rating: C+
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Review: A surprisingly fresh concept is presented in a stale trailer package that has to hit all of the expected notes making the whole film feel like a series of checked boxes rather than a convincing narrative.
Oscar Prospects:
It’s not the kind of film Academy voters typically embrace, but Angelina Jolie could be a left-field contender for Best Actress and films that feature fires this massive tend to compete in the Best Sound category, though competition this year will surely be fierce between blockbusters.
Trailer #1
5 Favorites Redux #78: Favorites: Garfield, Haddish, Molina, Oyelowo, Statham
Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
A wide array of new movies releases this weekend and it’s impossible to pick just one actor to highlight, so I picked five. I ultimately bypassed two names. The first was Billy Crystal whose new comedy, Here Today, co-stars Tiffany Haddish, whom I did include below. I struggled to find an adequate film to represent Crystal that I would say I enjoyed more than these other films. The other I thought about including was Rosario Dawson, who features in this week’s The Water Man, but for similar reasons to Crystal, I couldn’t choose a film that I ultimately cared for more than the below.
Now to the five actors I ultimately selected. Alongside Dawson, The Water Man features David Oyelowo and Alfred Molina. Haddish, as mentioned above, is in Here Today while Andrew Garfield is front and center in this week’s Mainstream. Finally, there’s Jason Statham, an actor whom I generally cannot stand, and his new film Wrath of Man looks like more of the same, but who did deliver one performance that finally made me appreciate him…but only that one time. Now, to the five films that I chose to represent Garfield, Haddish, Molina, Oyelowo, and Statham.
Oscar Profile #547: Frances McDormand Revisited
Born June 23, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois, Frances McDormand was the adopted daughter of Canadian-born parents, Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and The Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. She began her stage career after graduating from Yale in 1982, appearing on Broadway in the 1984 revival of Awake and Sing!, the same year she made her film debut in Blood Simple, marrying the film’s director, Joel Coen.
In 1987 she played another supporting role in one of her husband’s films, Raising Arizona, in which the female lead was played by her college roommate, Holly Hunter. The following year, McDormand received a Tony nomination for playing Stella in a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire and an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the wife of a racist deputy sheriff in Mississippi Burning.
Despite her Oscar nomination, McDormand languished in minor, often unbilled roles, until her iconic portrayal of the pregnant sheriff in Coen’s 1996 masterwork, Fargo, which brought her numerous awards including an Oscar for Best Actress. She also had important roles in that year’s Primal Fear and Lone Star. Despite the Oscar, however, it was back to supporting roles in films, two of which in 2000, brought her further awards recognition. She was recognized by various critics’ groups for her work in both Wonder Boys and Almost Famous, the latter bringing her a third Oscar nomination, her second in support.
This Day in Oscar History: May 6 (2021)
Here’s what happened today in Oscar History.
Born
Died
Released
Poll: What Are You Watching? (May 7-9, 2021)
Trailer Watch: Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021) Updated
New Trailer (#3) — New Posters (#2-#7) — New Release Date (changed from 4/3/20) — Updated Plot Description
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, updated
Preview Link: CLICK HERE for all of the new content as well as the original.
Trailer Watch: In the Heights (2021) Updated
New Trailer (#4)
In the Heights, updated
Preview Link: CLICK HERE for all of the new content as well as the original.