It’s the end of January and the Oscar should be four weeks away. This year is the rule that proves the exception. They’ve been moved up to just past the Superbowl. So in just under ten days Hollywood’s biggest night will take center stage.
Let’s start with this years best picture nominees. Some great movies made the list: Parasite, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Jojo Rabbit are all competing for best picture and all three made my top ten list of 2019. The war flick 1917 made the best picture list, but I saw it after I made my top ten list. I still loved that movie. I hated Little Women and Marriage Story. It annoys me that they took best picture spots from excellent movies like Rocketman and Bombshell. I enjoyed Joker and Ford V Ferrari and am ok with their inclusion for best picture. I’d be ok with them being excluded as well but am not complaining. The Irishman rounds out the best picture list. I was ho hum on that movie. Martin Scorsese has lost the best director Oscar for better movies: Goodfellas, Raging Bull, The Aviator, Hugo. Hell he’s been snubbed for better movies, chiefly Taxi Driver. The Irishman was too long. I don’t mind long movies, hell The Aviator was three hours. The parts of the story I thought were good focused around Al Pacino, who seemed to be phoning in his performance. Focusing on that would of created a tighter story and overall better movie. Every coin does have two sides and the Joe Pesci was excellent in the movie.
In other categories Knives Out earned a well deserved original screenplay nomination while Toy Story 4 leads the animated feature pack. Kathy Bates gave a fantastic performance in Richard Jewell and has earned a well deserved supporting actress nomination. Rocketman was snubbed for costume design but am excited that it’s up for original song. It means Elton John will be performing on the telecast.
Transitioning on to the telecast it has been announced that Elton John will perform his Oscar nominated song from Rocketman. However there’s at least six other musical performances, maybe a seventh. It seems this is more like the grammies. If I wanted that I would of watched the grammies, not a movie award show. The choice of no host disappoints me as well. I understand why it happened last year and it seems there was no search for a host at all this year. I was really hoping for an out of the box host like Hugh Jackman, who knocked it out of the park, or Seth Mcfarlane, who had his moments. Hell I would have even settled for a safe choice like Jimmy Kimmell or Ellen Degeneres. I enjoy watching a celebrity host the awards. It ties everything together nicely for me. I’ve enjoyed watching Steve Martin and Billy Crystal do it over and over again. I really want to see Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman return. I would love to see Melissa McCarthy or Julia Louis-Dreyfus take on the role at some point. Same with Ewan Mcgregor. I think he’d bring a great bit of class to the role.
A handful of presenters have been announced to shake the winners hand. Last years acting winners were the first announced and since then Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been announced to take Oscar’s stage. I’m excited that Zack Gottsagen of The Peanut Butter Falcon will be presenting. I’m assuming he’ll be presenting with Shia LaBeouf. So there’s that to look forward to seeing.
Sometime after the Oscars I’ll post my thoughts on the show and winners.
