A Guide to the 2017 Academy Awards

The 2017 Academy Awards are upon us and it's sometimes hard to enjoy the show when you haven't seen a lot of the movies that are nominated. Luckily this year the nominated films encompass a wide array of genres, but it's still difficult to get out and see all of them. That's what Film Comet is here for. I've seen most of the films nominated and there's a lot overlap between categories, plus I am pretty involved in the movie sphere so I know the general landscape of this year's Awards and each category. This is a guide to the show. I think this article will help everyone who hasn't seen all the films enjoy the show a lot better. I've seen the following films:

-Arrival
-Lion
-La La Land
-Hell or High Water
-Moonlight
- Fences
-Hidden Figures
-Manchester by the Sea
-Captain Fantastic
-Loving
-Nocturnal Animals

First, some information about the show:

When: Sunday, February 26th at 8:30 PM EST. Red carpet coverage begins at 7 PM.
Where to watch: The Oscars are televised on ABC. You can use a cable subscription to watch online on ABC.com and there will be plenty of other live streams out there.

Now, to the categories, starting with Best Picture.

Best Picture
The Favorite: La La Land
The Runner-Up: Moonlight
The Upset: Manchester by the Sea

La La Land is the big favorite to win Best Picture. Disregarding the fact that Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood, La La Land is a critical and audience favorite that's a ton of fun and an overall cinematic feat thanks to the direction by Damien Chazelle(who we'll get to in a bit). It will be a shocker for sure if La La Land doesn't win, but Moonlight has been gaining a lot of momentum. I don't think it'll be enough, but Moonlight is definitely the 2nd most likely pick to win. Manchester by the Sea probably has the 3rd best likelihood of winning, but its chances are still slim to none. La La Land should, and probably will, be the winner of Best Picture.

Best Director
The Favorite: Damien Chazelle(La La Land)
The Runner-Up: Barry Jenkins(Moonlight)
The Upset: Denis Villenueve(Arrival)

Another pretty much surefire lock for La La Land to win, Damien Chazelle's direction of La La Land absolutely is the most integral and likely the most impressive part of the film. You can tell that Chazelle was so inspired to make this film and was truly a master behind the camera during the production. Barry Jenkins has an outside shot for Moonlight, as his direction was also phenomenal, but La La Land will likely win this. Arrival could be an upset pick, as Denis Villenueve was the true star of that film, but it's likely not enough to top La La Land or Moonlight. Expect for Damien Chazelle to win his first Oscar Sunday night, and deservedly so.

Best Actor
The Favorite: Denzel Washington(Fences) and Casey Affleck(Manchester by the Sea)
The Runner-Up: Whichever of the above two that doesn't win
The Upset: Ryan Gosling(La La Land)

This one is an absolute toss-up and an exhibition in different acting styles. Denzel Washington's portrayal of Troy Maxson was undeniably one of the best of the year, he plays a somewhat bitter father in the 50's whose heart is in the right place but makes the wrong decisions. A truly lead performance, Washington has years of experience playing Maxson on broadway and it shows here. On the other hand, Casey Affleck plays a broken and damaged man who endures a horrific tragedy and fights to defeat his own demons in the wake of adversity. Washington's performance is loud and boisterous, while Affleck's is more nuanced and toned-down. If I had to pick, I would say Denzel Washington's performance was a tad better but I could feasibly see either of these men taking the Oscar. Ryan Gosling is likely in third but there's no way one of these two men don't win Sunday night.

Best Actress
The Favorite: Emma Stone(La La Land)
The Runner-Up: Isabelle Huppert(Elle)
The Upset: Natalie Portman(Jackie)

This is likely the toughest category to pick. Natalie Portman was a shoe-in to win as her performance as Jackie Kennedy was acclaimed by nearly everyone, but then Emma Stone burst onto the scene as Mia Dolan in La La Land. Then to throw a monkey wrench in things, Isabelle Huppert, a French actress, won Best Actress at several other awards shows. The race is likely between Stone and Huppert, but Portman still has an outside shot of taking home gold. This is the closest race of any.

Best Supporting Actress
The Favorite: Viola Davis(Fences)
The Runner-Up: Michelle Williams(Manchester by the Sea)
The Upset: Naomie Harris(Moonlight)

On the other hand, this is probably the most sure-fire lock of any. Viola Davis will win this category and should win this category even though her performance opposite Denzel Washington likely should have been a lead actress. Michelle Williams had a haunting performance in Manchester by the Sea, but Viola Davis was hands down the best actress out there this year and deserves recognition for it.

Best Supporting Actor
The Favorite: Mahershala Ali(Moonlight)
The Runner-Up: Dev Patel(Lion)
The Upset: Lucas Hedges(Manchester by the Sea)

Mahershala Ali had hands down the most breakout year of anyone, he had great roles in Luke Cage and House of Cards on Netflix, then had a phenomenal performance in Hidden Figures and topped it all of with the best performance of his career in Moonlight. Ali's performance is so integral to that film and should definitely be appreciated. Dev Patel was phenomenal in Lion, and Lucas Hedges had a breakout role in Manchester by the Sea, but this is definitely Mahershala Ali's award to lose.

Best Original Screenplay
The Favorite: Manchester by the Sea
The Runner-Up: La La Land
The Upset: Hell or High Water

As much as I would love to see Hell or High Water get some recognition Sunday night, this is most certainly a two-horse race between Manchester by the Sea and La La Land. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Academy will award Kenneth Lonergan for his outstanding work on the screenplay for Manchester by the Sea especially if it doesn't win best picture or any other awards. La La Land certainly has a strong shot at it too though, so this should be an interesting one to watch.

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Favorite: Moonlight(Adapted from In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney)
The Runner-Up: Lion(Adapted from A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley and Larry Buttrose)
The Upset: Arrival(Adapted from Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang)

This is a category with a lot of really great adaptations. I'd love to see Lion or Arrival get some recognition here but I think Moonlight will take it. It's such an applicable movie to today's cultural climate and I think that will be appreciated by voters. Moonlight should definitely win this category and I'd be pretty surprised if it didn't.

Other Categories

These categories are ones that will be presented early on in the show and don't really require a ton of explanation. I'll just post my predictions of what will win for them.

Best Animated Film: Moana
Best Foreign Language Film: A Man Called Ove (Haven't seen any but this is what is getting a lot of buzz)
Best Feature Documentary: O.J. Made in America
Best Short Subject Documentary: The White Helmets
Best Live Action Short Film: Sing(not the animated movie that came out in December)
Best Animated Short Film: Piper(The one attached to Finding Dory)
Best Original Score: La La Land
Best Original Song: "City of Stars" from La La Land
Best Sound Editing: Hacksaw Ridge
Best Sound Mixing: La La Land
Best Production Design: La La Land
Best Cinematography: La La Land
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Star Trek Beyond
Best Costume Design: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Best Film Editing: La La Land
Best Visual Effects: The Jungle Book

As you can see, La La Land is likely to have a big night and clean up a lot of the more technical categories(Cinematography, sound mixing, film editing, etc.) The best picture favorite likely won't set the record for wins, but it will still have an amazing night nonetheless.

The Oscars are one of my favorite nights of the year and I hope this helps others be able to appreciate the show a little more. Thank you for reading and enjoy the show tomorrow!

Film Review: Patriots Day(2016)

Being raised in Massachusetts, I always knew firsthand the steadfast, hard nature of "Massholes" as we're known. But it wasn't until I had moved away from Massachusetts that I truly began to appreciate the indomitable spirit of the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts as a whole. Watching the coverage of that fateful day: April 15th, 2013, all the feelings that come with being a resident of Massachusetts came flooding back to me even though I was almost a thousand miles away. The sense of community, the loyalty, the patriotism, the general love for your state and your city, all those feelings encompassed my mental state while I watched truly horrible events unfolding on television. Yes, I was disturbed and saddened by this tragedy, but I was also reminded of all these amazing qualities and witnessed them firsthand during and after the events that happened on Boylston street.

I've seen a lot of controversy over this film, and personally I never really understood it. Yes, Patriot's Day ran a very big risk of oozing exploitation and feeling like a big cash grab. But as long as the film presents the events that happened in a factual and informative way, shows the amazing qualities of the city of Boston, and doesn't idolize the perpetrators in any way, I thought Patriots' Day could serve as an informative and enlightening film to those who don't really know what happened.

Fortunately, Patriots' Day does exactly that. This film was extremely well-done and did an excellent job of showing every single positive thing that came from these horrible bombings and ensuing shootouts: The bravery, the unbreakable spirit, the compassion, the true stories of people affected by these acts and how they refused to allow terrorism to ruin their lives and destroy their freedom. Every part of this movie shows the positive that came from these horrible attacks while still presenting the facts about what happened in a truthful, accurate, and captivating way.

One thing I was worried about in this movie was the fact that Mark Wahlberg's character Tommy Saunders isn't an actual person, instead he was created for the film. However, Wahlberg's role serves the story well and encompasses the stories of several Boston Police officers in one character. It would be impossible to show every officer involved in the immediate aftermath of the bombings and subsequent search for Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev, and Wahlberg's character serves as a vessel to tell the stories of incredible bravery by the Boston and Watertown PD as a whole.

The acting in the film is incredible. Wahlberg, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, JK Simmons, and Michelle Monaghan are all fantastic, portraying their characters well and always remaining true to the spirit and personality of the real people they are emulating. The way that the film is interlaced with real footage from Boston works really well, at first I thought it could be a bit off-putting but overall it works really well and continually serves as a reminder that these events actually happened.

Peter Berg's direction is really great, the film flows extremely well and no scene lasts too long or is too short. Cinematography is incredible as it is in all of Berg's films, showing really amazing shots of the city of Boston and Watertown.

The final five minutes of the film perfectly encompass all that Patriots' Day is all about, it contains interviews from real people who were truly affected by or involved in this tragedy plus shots of David Ortiz's famous speech saying "This is our fucking city!". Everyone interviewed explains how an act meant to harm and destroy lives did the complete opposite, it inspired them to be better people, it inspired the city of Boston to love more, to be more compassionate, to truly appreciate life more than they ever had before, and to strive to never let fear ruin lives again.

The Bottom Line: Peter Berg's Patriots' Day is a true cinematic achievement, portraying a horrific act of terrorism with an amount of class, honor and respect that is rarely seen in film. Through stellar acting and direction, Patriots' Day is an almost flawless film.

Rating: 5/5

Welcome

Hey everyone, welcome to my blog/site/review space/whatever you'd like to call it. I'm not really sure exactly what to call it myself, but I'm glad you're reading nonetheless. That's my primary goal anyways: to get people to read my writing and hopefully get some enjoyment and/or information out of it. This will primarily be a movie review and discussion blog, but I'd also like to review other things such as albums, video games, television, and other stuff. In addition, I'm sure I'll be posting my own thoughts on current pop culture news and also just my own general thoughts on things going on in my life.

This first week of my writing will be a lot, I'm planning on seeing every film in Oscar consideration this week that I haven't seen thus far: A Monster Calls, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Fences, Silence, Patriots Day, Moonlight, Jackie, and Lion. I've already seen Arrival, Nocturnal Animals,  Manchester by the Sea, Hell or High Water, Sing Street and most of the big blockbuster films from this year in addition to some lesser-known ones like Green Room and The Lobster.

So, stay tuned because I'll be posting reviews for all of those films this week. And if some breaking news happens, then I'll write about that too. Thanks for reading!