Crisp Criticism - "I, Tonya", "Molly's Game", "The Commuter", "Maze Runner: The Death Cure"

by

Julien Faddoul

I, Tonya *

Competitive ice skater Tonya Harding rises amongst the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, before becoming infamous for a possible involved in sabotage.

The idea that Tonya Harding’s circumstantial position in pop-culture is heedful enough to warrant a statement about the inherent demoralization of America is more than a little odious. Like so many other proclamations on the American Dream, this feels the need to rip-off Scorsese with non-linear interjections of analysis, characters breaking the fourth-wall and non-stop referential music on the soundtrack. The whole feels very superficial with not much of interest outside of the performances.

d – Craig Gillespie

w – Steven Rogers

ph – Nicolas Karakatsanis

pd – Jade Healy

m – Peter Nashal

ed – Tatiana S. Riegel

cos – Jennifer Johnson

p – Tom Ackerley, Margot Robbie, Steven Rogers, Bryan Unkeless

Cast: Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Sebastian Stan, Julianna Nicholson, Bobby Cannavale, Paul Walter Hauser

My Reactions to the 90th Academy Awards Nominations

by

Julien Faddoul

Below is the full list of nominees for the 90^th Academy Awards with my written reactions.

A few notes:

Didn’t do so well in predicting as I did in the past two years…my average was 4/5 correct this year.

Nomination Tally:

13 (The Shape of Water),

8 (Dunkirk),

7 (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri),

6 (Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread),

5 (Ladybird, Blade Runner 2049),

4 (Call Me by Your Name, Get Out, Mudbound, Star Wars: The Last Jedi),

3 (Baby Driver, I, Tonya)

2 (The Post, Beauty and the Beast, Coco, Victoria and Abdul)

Over-performers this year include Darkest Hour and Phantom Thread, while the under-performers include I, Tonya, The Florida Project, The Big Sick and, despite making it into the top category, The Post, which only snagged two nominations…

The Shape of Water did even better than I thought it would, appearing in categories that were totally unnecessary like Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.

  

BEST PICTURE

Call Me by Your Name

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Get Out

Ladybird

Phantom Thread

The Post

The Shape of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

8/9 correct, missing Phantom Thread for I, Tonya.

I was feeling 7 or 8 nominees this year but they went with the typical 9.

The Post’s thrashing can be attributed to multiple factors: the film’s release was rushed and people probably assumed other branches were supporting it. Also, perhaps peer group voters found it to be genuinely undeserving…

My Predictions for the 90th Academy Awards Nominations

by

Julien Faddoul

The nominations for the 90th Academy Awards are tomorrow morning. Despite their nonsensicality, I always have fun predicting them every year. Here are my final predictions.

I have made the necessary amount of predictions correlating to the limit of each category – 10 for PICTURE, 3 for MAKEUP and 5 for everything else – after which I list my alternates which I have limited myself to only 3. Also, this year, I abstained from the 3 SHORTS categories.

BLUE = A lock at a nomination. Bet some money.

BEST PICTURE

The trickiness of this category always has to do with the number of nominees. I’m thinking 8 is the number this year. Call Me by Your Name and The Post have both waned through the guild awards and thus are in jeopardy, while I, Tonya started weak and has grown stronger. The other 5 have all been up and down.

This is an unusually uncertain race this year and I wouldn’t be surprised by any inclusion and/or exclusion.

Predictions:

1.     The Shape of Water

2.     Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

3.     Get Out

4.     Ladybird

5.     Dunkirk

6.     Call Me by Your Name

7.     The Post

8.     I, Tonya

9.     Darkest Hour

10.  The Big Sick

Alternates

11.  Phantom Thread

12.  Mudbound

13.  The Florida Project

Crisp Criticism - "The Shape of Water", "Paddington 2", "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women"

by

Julien Faddoul

The Shape of Water *

At a top-secret research facility in Baltimore in the early 1960s, a lonely, mute janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.

Yet another imaginative fable from Del Toro that I found utterly hollow. A sentimental tale on the lack of love for the marginalized – a mute, a closeted gay man, a black woman, a communist, a fish monster – but uses them only as signifiers, with none of these ideas really coming together outside of the director’s sketchbook, as well as his own cinephilia (in particular Creature from the Black Lagoon). Injecting the film with blood and sex doesn’t provide any gravitas either, with each story point culminating in either thematic lip-service or a lack of commitment.

d – Guillermo Del Toro

w – Guillermo Del Toro, Vanessa Taylor

ph – Dan Laustsen

pd – Paul D. Austerberry

m – Alexandre Desplat

ed –Sidney Wolinsky

cos – Luis Sequeira

p – Guillermo Del Toro, J. Miles Dale

Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Lauren Lee Smith, Nick Searcy, David Hewlett

Crisp Criticism - "The Post", "Darkest Hour", "Breathe", "Kedi"

by

Julien Faddoul

The Post ***

The Pentagon Papers: A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government.

Obvious allegory to the modern malpractice by the US government on the First Amendment and their relationship with the free press. It’s that kind of flagrance that shows its director at his least dauntless. However, everything else – compositions, pacing, dramaturgy, performance – is superb.

d – Steven Spielberg

w – Liz Hannah, Josh SInger

ph – Janusz Kaminski

pd – Rick Carter

m – John Williams

ed – Michael Kahn, Sarah Broshar

cos – Ann Roth

p – Steven Spielberg, Amy Pascal, Kristie Macosko Krieger

Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Matthew Rhys, Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Jesse Plemons, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bradley Whitford, Zach Woods

Crisp Criticism - "All the Money in the World", "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle", "Pitch Perfect 3", "Thelma", "The Greatest Showman"

by

Julien Faddoul

All the Money in the World *

The kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.

Supposedly a film about greed, but one that confuses the issues it attempts to explain. The whole thing is peculiarly old-fashioned and is of interest chiefly for some fun performances and for production turmoil that unfortunately materializes on screen.

d – Ridley Scott

w – David Scarpa   (Based on the Book by John Pearson)

ph – Dariusz Wolski

pd – Arthur Max

m – Daniel Pemberton

ed – Claire Simpson

cos – Janty Yates

p – Chris Clark, Quentin Curtis, Dan Friedkin, Mark Huffam, Ridley Scott, Bradley Thomas, Kevin J. Walsh

Cast: Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, Romain Duris, Timothy Hutton, Charlie Plummer, Andrew Buchan