Critical Week: The big night

Well, the 91st Academy Awards threw a few surprises at us on Sunday, handing out Oscars to popular movies like Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody and Black Panther while only offering the occasional nod at more ambitious, artistic films. I'm not disparaging the winners, although I would argue that all three are badly compromised projects, but as usual there was far better work in other nominated (and non-nominated) films last year. The show clipped along without a host, offering a few great moments for the award presenters and winners. Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph did a superb pastiche of an opening monolog. Spike Lee was triumphant and outspoken in a way few winners dare to be. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga recreated their intimate chemistry on-stage in a show-stoppingly cool single-take performance. The askance presenters (A-list outsider fans like Serena Williams and Trevor Noah) were a nice touch. And Olivia Colman stole the show with her heartfelt and very funny thank you speech - one of the best in Oscar history.

I've attended one press screening while I've been in Los Angeles, for Michael Winterbottom's dramatic thriller The Wedding Guest. It's a slow-burn starring Dev Patel and Radhika Apte, with a script that gives very little in the way of character or plot detail. But it's involving, and it's nice to see Patel in a shifty role for a change - he's terrific even if his role is underdefined. I also caught up with last summer's action comedy Tag, starring Ed Helms, Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner, which isn't fine art but is funny and enjoyable for what it is.

Heading back to London, I have a few screenings in the diary, including Brie Larson's entry into the Marvel universe as Captain Marvel, Dean Cain in the fantasy satire 2050, the Icelandic comedy Woman at War, the indie thriller Devil's Path, and the short film compilation Boys on Film 19: No Ordinary Boy.

Oscar picks & predictions: Out on a limb

It's that time of year when I try to imagine what the Academy will do on Sunday, while holding on to my personal hopes. This year's awards season has been the least predictable in memory, with the top prizes leading up to Oscar night scattered all over the place: there's no clear consensus winner in any category. And my track record for predictions is rather spotty. Still, there are inklings about who Ampas voters are likely to choose. And as always, I will be cheering any upsets and surprises, while hoping the producers take some risks in the ceremony itself to make it more fun to watch...

PICTURE

Will win: Roma
Should win: BlacKkKlansman
Dark horses: The Favourite or Green Book

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Will win: RBG
Should win: Free Solo

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

Will win: Roma
Should win: Cold War
Dark horse: Capernaum

ANIMATED FEATURE

Will win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Should win: Isle Of Dogs

DIRECTOR

Will win: Alfonso Cuaron - Roma
Should win: Pawel Pawlikowski - Cold War
Dark horse: Spike Lee - BlacKkKlansman

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Will / should win: The Favourite - Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
Dark horse: First Reformed - Paul Schrader

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Will win: BlacKkKlansman - Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
Should win: If Beale Street Could Talk - Barry Jenkins

ACTRESS

Will / should win: Olivia Colman - The Favourite
Possible life-achievement award: Glenn Close - The Wife

ACTOR

Will win: Rami Malek - Bohemian Rhapsody
Should win: Willem Dafoe - At Eternity's Gate
Dark horse: Christian Bale - Vice

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Will / should win: Regina King - If Beale Street Could Talk
Dark horses: Rachel Weisz or Amy Adams

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Will win: Mahershala Ali - Green Book
Should win: Richard E Grant - Can You Ever Forgive Me

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Will / should win: The Favourite - Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton

COSTUME DESIGN

Will / should win: The Favourite - Sandy Powell

ORIGINAL SCORE

Will win: BlacKkKlansman - Terence Blanchard
Should win: If Beale Street Could Talk - Nicholas Britell

ORIGINAL SONG

Will win: Shallow - A Star Is Born
Should win: When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Will win: Roma - Alfonso Cuaron
Should win: Cold War - Lukasz Zal

FILM EDITING

Will win: Bohemian Rhapsody - John Ottman
Should win: The Favourite - Yorgos Mavropsaridis

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

Will win: Vice
Should win: Border

VISUAL EFFECTS

Will / should win: First Man

SOUND EDITING

Will / should win: A Quiet Place

SOUND MIXING

Will win: First Man
Should win: Roma

The Best of 2018: 38th Shadows Awards

These are films I saw in 2018, regardless of their release dates. All were seen by public audiences in cinemas - either on general release, specialty screenings or at festivals, during the past 12 months. These were especially difficult lists to narrow down!

A far more extensive version of this is on the website at 38TH SHADOWS AWARDS, for those who can't get enough of this sort of thing: longer lists, many more categories, trivia-o-rama.

My top film this year is not only a bracingly ripping true story, but it captures and confronts the current cultural mood with skill and invention. It's also a wonderful return to fighting form for filmmaker Spike Lee, who last won my best film prize in 1989 for Do the Right Thing.

BEST FILM:

1. BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee)
2. Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski)
3. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
4. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
5. Generation Wealth (Lauren Greenfield)
6. Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)
7. We the Animals (Jeremiah Zagar)
8. Colette (Wash Westmoreland)
9. Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)
10. Sofia (Meryem Benm'Barek)

DIRECTOR:

1. Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War)
2. Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)
3. Ari Aster (Hereditary)
4. Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk)
5. Nadine Labaki (Capernaum)
6. Bart Layton (American Animals)
7. Chloe Zhao (The Rider)
8. Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)
9. Jeremiah Zagar (We the Animals)
10. Meryem Benm'Barek (Sofia)

WRITER:

1. Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk)
2. Pawel Pawlikowski, Janusz Glowacki (Cold War)
3. Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland, Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Colette)
4. Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara (The Favourite)
5. Daniel Kokotajlo (Apostasy)
6. Bart Layton (American Animals)
7. Alfonso Cuaron (Roma)
8. Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs (Blindspotting)
9. Alex Garland (Annihilation)
10. Madeleine Sami, Jackie van Beek (The Breaker Upperers)

ACTRESS:

1. Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
2. Joanna Kulig (Cold War)
3. Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place, Mary Poppins Returns)
4. Agnes Jaoui (I Got Life!)
5. Eva Melander (Border)
6. Toni Collette (Hereditary, Hearts Beat Loud, Madame)
7. Anna Brun (The Heiresses)
8. Natalie Portman (Vox Lux, Annihilation)
9. Claire Foy (Unsane, First Man)
10. Rosamund Pike (A Private War, Beirut, Entebbe)

ACTOR:

1. Michael B Jordan (Black Panther, Creed II, Fahrenheit 451)
2. Brady Landreau (The Rider)
3. Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince)
4. Tomasz Kot (Cold War)
5. Marcello Fonte (Dogman)
6. John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman, Monsters and Men)
7. Zain Al Rafeea (Capernaum)
8. Steve Carell (Beautiful Boy, Vice, Welcome to Marwen)
9. Alex Lawther (Freak Show, Ghost Stories)
10. Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1. Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
2. Florence Pugh (Outlaw King)
3. Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place)
4. Sarah Perles (Sofia)
5. Cynthia Erivo (Widows, Bad Times at the El Royale)
6. Sissy Spacek (The Old Man & the Gun)
7. Danai Gurira (Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War)
8. Sakura Ando (Shoplifters)
9. Molly Wright (Apostasy)
10. Elizabeth Debicki (Widows, The Cloverfield Paradox)

SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1. Brian Tyree Henry (Widows, If Beale Street Could Talk, White Boy Rick, Hotel Artemis)
2. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Outlaw King)
3. Daniel Kaluuya (Black Panther, Widows)
4. Timothee Chalamet (Beautiful Boy)
5. Nicholas Hoult (The Favourite)
6. Jonah Hill (Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot)
7. Richard E Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
8. Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place, That Good Night)
9. Barry Keoghan (Black '47, American Animals)
10. Jude Law (Vox Lux, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald)

WORST FILM:

1. Mile 22 (Peter Berg)
2. The Strangers: Prey at Night (Johannes Roberts)
3. Truth or Dare (Jeff Wadlow)
4. Midnight Sun (Scott Speer)
5. Fifty Shades Freed (James Foley)
6. Life Itself (Dan Fogelman)
7. Strangeways Here We Come (Chris Green)
8. The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood)
9. Venom (Ruben Fleischer)
10. Action Point (Tim Kirkby)

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N O N - F I L M   D I V I S I O N

TV SERIES:

1. Pose (FX)
2. Schitt's Creek (CBN)
3. Fleabag (BBC)
4. Everything Sucks! (Netflix)
5. Killing Eve (BBC)
6. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Prime)
7. Patrick Melrose (Showtime)
8. A Very English Scandal (BBC)
9. Atlanta (FX)
10. Trust (FX)

SINGLE:

1. This Is America (Childish Gambino)
2. Nothing Breaks Like a Heart (Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus)
3. One Kiss (Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa)
4. Shallow (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)
5. Promises (Sam Smith & Calvin Harris)
6. Happier (Marshmello & Bastille)
7. Make Me Feel (Janelle Monae)
8. Better Now (Post Malone)
9. Ruin My Life (Zara Larsson)
10. This Is Me (Keala Settle)

Critical Week: Looking good

London critics finally had a chance to catch up with Spike Lee's Cannes prize-winning BlacKkKlansman, and it was well worth the wait. The film is a fierce, skilfully told true story with lots of present-day resonance. John David Washington (son of Denzel) is terrific in the title role. Meanwhile, the week's blockbuster was the tongue-in-cheek guilty pleasure The Meg, with Jason Statham doing what he does best, diving into the action and winking at the camera. But the latest near-future young adult adventure The Darkest Minds was a disappointment, despite a strong cast led by Amandla Stenberg and Harris Dickinson.

Outside the mainstream, we had the animated true story Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero, which is involving and very moving. Making a Killing is a wildly entertaining true crime romp, told with heavy doses of irony. Tides is a meandering, improv-style British comedy-drama set on a canal boat holiday. And The King is a staggeringly clever documentary about Elvis Presley, layered with a telling exploration of American culture today.

There were also three excellent European films. From France, The Guardians is a gorgeous drama about women who run the family farm while their men are off fighting WWI. From Germany, The Captain is a pitch-black satire about a deserter who assumes power as an officer during the final weeks of WWII. And from Iceland, the unnerving, involving Under the Tree weaves irony into a darkly witty story of a war between two neighbours.

Films screening in this coming week include Ewan McGregor in Christopher Robin, Ansel Elgort in Billionaire Boys Club, Hugo Weaving in Black '47, the British comedy The Festival, the coming-of-age drama We the Animals, the zombie apocalypse thriller Redcon-1, the German drama Paths, and the ballet documentary Nureyev.