North America

Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America

71

OSCAR Predictions 2018 – Who Will Win & Who Should Win

Image result for academy awards

Oscar Predictions 2018

With the Academy Awards only 2 days away, I thought I’d throw my hat into the prediction ring. So here are my predictions for who will win, as well as my thoughts on who should win.

We’ve also made a 2018 Oscars Nominee Viewing Guide which shows you where to watch each of the Oscar nominees (on Amazon, at the Cinema, and even Netflix). And scroll to the bottom to fill out your predictions for a chance to win a surprise Blu-Ray DVD from 2018.

So here we go, here are the predictions. Feel free to tear into them on Sunday night/Monday morning!

Best Actor

Is this one really as ‘easy’ as everyone thinks? Gary Oldman has already scooped up the SAG and BAFTA top prizes and his role fits exactly what the Academy Award loves: historical figures, transformations, and of course, good acting. But the Academy also loves Daniel Day Lewis (3 career wins already), and Timothee Chalamet has what is probably the best performance of the category, maybe even the whole acting category. Which is why I’m going for the upset. Although Gary Oldman deserves a career Oscar and his performance in Darkest Hour is good, Timothee Chalamet’s performance was excellent. Therefore I’m predicting he will be the deserving winner of the Best Actor award.

Should Win: Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Will Win: Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Best Actress

After the upset call in the Best Actor category, I’m playing it safe in The Best Actress category. Frances MacDormand has already won the top awards at the SAG and BAFTA ceremonies and is brilliant in her role. I can only see another candidate winning if critics are pan Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri  and all their actors are damaged as a result. Only then could the equally deserving, Saoirse Ronan sneak in for the win.

Should Win: Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Will Win: Frances MacDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Supporting Actor

There’s only one former winner in the Best Supporting Actor category and that’s latecomer Christopher Plummer. But if things go as expected, this will be another win for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Not for Woody Harrelson, who was also nominated, but for Sam Rockwell. His biggest challenger is Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project (which you should go watch). We marginally prefer Willem Dafoe’s role, but we’re not going to complain if Sam Rockwell wins as both acted their roles perfectly.

Should Win: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Will Win: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Supporting Actress

Another acting category and another ‘upset’. Whilst the talk has mostly focused on Allison Janney’s mean mum, I think Laurie Metcalf’s mean mum will win this one. Allison Janney has the more memorable role, and acts well, but I think Laurie Metcalf’s performance was better. Just think of that scene in the car. And if you don’t know what scene I’m talking about you haven’t watched the film… so go watch it!

Should Win: Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Will Win: Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Best Director

This one is up for grabs. Whilst Guillermo Del Toro has won at the Director’s Guild, Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson are both admired in the industry. I wouldn’t even rule out first-timers Jordan Peele and Greta Gertwig. That being said, I’m backing Guillermo Del Toro to make it 4 out of 5 for Mexico in the Best Director category after Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity in 2014 and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman 2015 and The Revenant 2016).

Should Win: Guillermo Del Toro

Will Win: Guillermo Del Toro

Best Picture

Moonlight surprised La La Land last year, and Spotlight surprised The Revenant two years ago. That makes 2 surprises in the last 2 years. Which is why I’m not going for Shape of Water. It’s a great film, but it’s a too recognisable. For me it had the feel of a R-rated Disney film (if ever there was one).  Which leaves three options for me: 1. Call Me By Your Name, 2. Lady Bird, and 3. Get Out.

Whilst I would love to see Call Me By Your Name win, I think the Academy ruled it out when it didn’t nominate Luca Guadagnino for Best Director. That leaves Lady Bird and Get Out. Both have run good campaigns, generating a lot of word of mouth. However, whilst Lady Bird might be the slightly better made film, Get Out is the more unique and memorable. Therefore I’m going for Get Out to surprise everyone and become the first pseudo horror film to win since The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

Should Win: Call Me By Your Name

Will Win: Get Out

Best of the Rest

Here’s the rest of my predictions – definitely don’t trust me on the short films!

  • Best Animated Feature: Coco
  • Beat Documentary: Faces Places
  • Best Foreign Language Film: The Insult
  • Best Cinematography: Bladerunner 2049
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: Call Me By Your Name
  • Best Original Screenplay: Lady Bird
  • Best Costume Design: Phantom Thread
  • Best Film Editing: Dunkirk
  • Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Darkest Hour
  • Best Original Score: The Shape of Water
  • Best Original Song: “Remember Me” from Coco
  • Best Production Design: The Shape of Water
  • Best Short Film: DeKalb Elementary
  • Best Short Animation: Dear Basketball
  • Best Documentary Short: Heroin(e)
  • Best Sound Editing: Dunkirk
  • Best Sound Mixing: Dunkirk
  • Best Visual Effects: War for the Planet of the Apes

What Next?

Also while you’re here:

 

 

 

72

Son of Monarchs – The Immigrant Experience and Lost Identity

Son of Monarchs

Son of MOnarchs Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

A Mexican biologist living in New York returns to his hometown after the death of his grandmother. Unlike the urban jungle of New York, his hometown in Michoacán is surrounded by the Monarch Butterflies he studies. His isolation abroad forces him to contemplate his new identity, displayed on screen in vivid magical scenes and memories.

From: Mexico, North America
Watch: Trailer, HBO Max
Next: Lingua Franca, I'm No Longer Here, I Carry You With Me

Son of Monarchs Breakdown

Mendel is fated to test gene editing theories on Monarch butterflies. He’s both named after the father of modern genetics and hails from Angangueo, the main access point for the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. However, the coldness of his job, working in a laboratory in New York, doesn’t match the warmth of his memories growing up at home. The many shots of butterflies under the microscope being picked apart by Mendel’s scalpel removes the majesty of the butterflies and displaces Mendel from his past. At his work, the butterflies are just instruments to test the latest gene editing technology. Whereas, outside of work, they remind him of his home.

As the film progresses, Mendel seems conflicted with how he coldly pulls apart the Monarch butterflies at work. It’s implied that their beauty inspired him to become a scientist and they also appear in some of his happiest memories, as alluded to in the film’s flashbacks. Even in the narrative, he speaks of their majesty and mythology – that they are the souls of the dead returning home, and that they can even perceive mountains that have been hidden for millennia. From the way he dreams and speaks about them, he appears to revere them, instead of wanting to change them. The microscope shots of Mendel dissecting them runs against his thoughts and words.

A few times in the film, the director shoots Mendel in bed with a swarm of butterflies sitting on his body. The image emphasizes Mendel’s affinity for the Monarch butterfly. They like him, travel across imaginary borders to foreign lands before returning home. Their secrets are also hidden, just like Mendel’s buried trauma. These butterflies come to symbolize both his personal past (as the scene pops up when his traumatic nightmares surface) as well as his Mexican identity. Editing their genes perhaps symbolizes how he is also losing his own identity in New York. He’s lost touch with his family and the brother he looked up to and longs for reconnection when he returns home after his Grandmother’s death. At home, he spends his time reliving memories with his friends and family instead of speaking of his new life in New York. When the only colleague he identifies with leaves, he becomes even more lost abroad, which reflects in his attitude – ghosting his white girlfriend and showing no pride in his accomplishments. To regain his self, he has to embrace the butterfly and revere it. So he edits himself to pay respects to the animal that represents home.

Son of Monarchs is a brilliant character study of a Mexican scientist in a foreign land. Like other film’s that focus on the immigrant experience in New York – Lingua Franca, I’m No Longer Here – he doesn’t quite feel at home, and his thoughts are conveyed uniquely through his symbolic relationship with the butterfly. The only distractions are the side narratives which feel a bit empty due to the lack of exposition. These include name dropping the Trump presidency and immigrant crisis without development as well as leaving Mendel’s family relationships undercooked. The butterflies and Tenoch Huerta (who plays Mendel) are the crux of this film.

What to Watch Next

If you’re looking for more indie movies featuring the immigrant experience in New York, check out Lingua Franca and I Carry You With Me. The latter also features a lot of jumping back and forth into the memories of the main characters. There’s also I’m No Longer Here, which follows a similar Mexico-New York-Mexico arc with more of a character study like Son of Monarchs.

Or for more small town Mexico films, you could try Nudo Mixteco, an anthology film set during the Festival of San Mateo in Oaxaca, or Kings of Nowhere, a documentary that follows the last few residents of a flooded town in Northwestern Mexico.

Lastly if you want to watch more movies of protagonists identifying with animals – try Awakening of the Ants from Costa Rica or Aronofsky’s Black Swan.

73

Alla En El Rancho Grande – The Genesis of Mexico’s Golden Age

Alla en el Rancho Grande

Alla En El Rancho Grande Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

The Mexican Golden Age of Cinema started with Alla En El Rancho Grande which became the first Mexican blockbuster in 1936. It established the film industry in Mexico and introduced one of the most popular genres in Mexican film history: la comedia ranchera – essentially the cowboy musical – which reinforced Mexican identity at home and abroad.

From: Mexico, North America
Watch: YouTube, JustWatch, IMDb
Next: Enamorada, Maria Candelaria, The Pearl

Alla En El Rancho Grande – Breakdown

1936 was a big year for the Mexican film industry. It saw the release of the country’s first ever blockbuster which put Mexico on the film world map. But how did this film break through and kick off the Mexican Golden Age of Cinema? Two external factors were crucial: revolutionary fatigue and timing.

1. Revolutionary Fatigue

In Mexico, the revolution had been running more hot than cold since 1910. The chaos did not end with Pancho Villa’s surrender in 1920. Multiple revolutionary politicians fought over power for the best part of the next two decades, and a violent religious rebellion (the Cristero War) split the heart of the country in the late 1920s.

In 1934 Lazaro Cardenas won the general election and outmaneuvered Elias Calles – the man holding the strings of power for the previous 6 years – to take control of Mexico. Cardenas is one of Mexico’s most popular leaders for establishing wide-spread land reform and nationalizing the Mexican oil industry (Pemex). Less known is that his administration founded the Filmoteca de la UNAM and incentivized domestic film production with tax breaks and grants. Cardenas and his administration saw film as an opportunity to strengthen national identity. After years of revolutionary uncertainty, the country needed to restore national pride to re-unite the country. Alla En El Rancho Grande was just the film to do this. It hearkened back to the ‘simple’ pre-revolutionary days, re-establishing the iconic charro dress and popularizing Mexican ranchera music.

2. Timing

Whilst the film-making wheels were turning in Mexico with the new initiatives from the Cardenas administration, the film centers in the U.S. and Europe were on the road to World War II. Film production in the U.S. and Europe were de-prioritized for the war effort, reducing competition for Mexican films to reach more cinema-goers domestically and abroad. This helped spike the immense popularity of Alla En El Rancho Grande and was the spark that lit up the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.

Building a National Identity

Alla En El Rancho Grande, still had to win the popularity of the Mexican public. So what made this the film to do it?

Similar to Hollywood musicals, Alla En El Rancho Grande built a fictional utopian vision of a romanticized past (in this case, pre-revolutionary Mexico). It features self sufficient haciendas run by benevolent landowners that take care of their workers (even if they are idly drunk all day, everyday) and problems that are sung away in spontaneous song. This conservative romanticized past ran against the progressive revolutionary reform of Lazaro Cardenas. It evoked nostalgia for ‘simpler pre-revolutionary’ days which helped create a post-revolutionary calm. In turbulent times, nostalgia thrives.

The romanticized past was crucial in building national identity. It popularized the ranchera style; charro dress for men and china poblana style dresses for women, and built on this visual style through the songs, especially the guitar playing and rap-battle style singing. These tokens of the Mexican past became signifiers for Mexico throughout the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema and beyond, creating a style and culture that are still used today to express Mexican pride at home and abroad.

What Next?

For something different from the same director behind this film, check out Vamonos con Pancho Villa. Unlike Alla en el Rancho Grande, which tries to blur the memory of revolutionary violence, this one brings the brutality of the war all back without censorship.

For more comedias rancheras, explore the filmography of Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete (Dos tipos de cuidado and Los tres Garcia). These two prolific singers, made huge names for themselves through their musicals at the height of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, following Tito Guizar’s lead.

74

A Caribbean Dream – Shakespearian Comedy in Barbados

A Caribbean Dream

A Caribbean Dream Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

If you’re looking for a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream set in the tropics you’ve come to the right place. Shakirah Bourne’s A Caribbean Dream captures the magic of the original with mischievous fairies and pantomime humor and adds its own touch with the lush setting and Bajan music. The acting and editing is B-movie level, but if you’re not expecting anything exceptional, you’ll have a good time in its short run time.

From: Barbados, North America
Watch: Trailer, Hoopla, IMDb
Next: Romeo + Juliet, 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless

A Caribbean Dream – The Breakdown

A Caribbean Dream reminded me a bit of an English pantomine. The acting isn’t high quality, neither are the makeup or effects. However, this is fine if you go into the film expecting B-movie quality. Like when you watch a B-movie action or horror – you expect cheesiness so you can laugh with it – do the same for this one, after all, this is how Shakespearean plays were performed in Elizabethan times.

A Caribbean Dream borrows a lot from its source material. If you’re familiar with Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream you’ll recognize most of the lines in this film. It uses the original ‘older’ English verse more than contemporary Bajan language. You’ll also recognize all of the main characters from the original as they’ve all been copied into this adaptation along with the silly comedy.

Despite the old verse, the film does bring the 16th Century text up to the present. Situating it in Barbados’ tropical setting works well as the lush green rainforests match the fairy magic. It’s also nice to hear Bajan carnival music to break up the long pieces of Shakespearian dialogue.

Overall, the adaptation works fairly well. The problems with the script stem mostly from the film’s faith to the original. It doesn’t work especially well with the short run time, which makes it feel like you’re watching the play on fast-forward, or the many characters, as there’s not much time for creative development. So, if you’re unfamiliar with the original text you might get a bit lost with all the different people and fairies. The faith to the original text also feels unnatural in the modern context, especially as some scenes feature regular Bajan conversation. It would have been nice to see more of a break with the original text to make the film more distinct. It feels like the director was afraid of doing the Shakespeare a disservice and held back from making something truly unique.

What to Watch Next

If you’re looking for more Shakespearian film adaptations you’ve got plenty of choice. Romeo + Juliet and 10 Things I Hate About You are two that are contemporary to when they were filmed (like A Caribbean Dream). You also have a bunch of Midsummer Night Dream adaptations to check out. Or you could try Clueless, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma.