2024 Oscars: The Winners

Here's the full list of winners of the 2024 Oscars:

Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”

Best Animated Short: “War Is Over!”

Best Animated Feature: “The Boy and the Heron”

Best Original Screenplay: “Anatomy of a Fall”

Best Adapted Screenplay: “American Fiction”

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: “Poor Things”

Best Production Design: “Poor Things”

Best Costume Design: “Poor Things”

Best International Feature: ”“The Zone of Interest”

Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”

Best Visual Effects: “Godzilla Minus One”

Best Film Editing: “Oppenheimer”

Best: Documentary (Short Subject): “The Last Repair Shop”

Best Documentary Feature: “20 Days in Mariupol”

Best Cinematography: “Oppenheimer”

Best Short Film (Live Action): “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”

Best Sound: “The Zone of Interest”

Best Score: “Oppenheimer”

Best Song: “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”

Best Actor: Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”

Best Director: Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”

Best Actress: Emma Stone, “Poor Things”

Best Picture: “Oppenheimer”

I did pretty well, correctly predicting 17 of the 23 categories correctly, but 6 of the Top 8 in my "Will Win" predictions and 5 of 8 correct in my "Should Win" hopes. I thought that Lily Gladstone would win Best Actress, and I thought Barbie would win for Adapted Screenplay but I'm quite happy that American Fiction did instead, since that was what I hoped would happen.

I've made no secret of my love for Christopher Nolan movies so it is awesome he finally has Best Picture and  Best Director Oscars! Hopefully next year Denis Villeneuve will get some love for the Dune movies.

2024 Oscars: My Predictions in the Top 8 Categories

Here is my annual prediction post for the 2023 Oscars, i.e. the 96th Academy Awards. I really just consider the Top 8 categories on the blog but I often play the Oscar prediction game like lots of other people (on other websites) where I think about all of the categories. I generally split my predictions into who I want to win versus (i.e. who I would vote for) as opposed to who I think will win (i.e. who the Academy voters will vote for).

In 2023 I predicted five of the top eight correctly. This year I have seen nine of the (bolded) 10 Best Picture nominees (haven't seen Killers of the Flower Moon and I don't really intend to). Five of the nine we saw on streaming (either Amazon Prime or Netflix).

Best Picture:

• "American Fiction" 
• "Anatomy of a Fall" 
• "Barbie"
• "The Holdovers"
• "Killers of the Flower Moon" 
• "Maestro"
• "Oppenheimer"
  
• "Past Lives"
• "Poor Things"
• "The Zone of Interest"
  

I have been a Christopher Nolan fan boy since his film Memento broke my brain in the early 2000s. I literally listen to the soundtrack of either Interstellar, Inception or The Dark Knight on every single flight I take. I am very psyched that Oppenheimer led the nominations this year with13 (Poor Things close behind with 11) and very confident this will be his year to win Picture and Director.

SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer.
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer.

Director:

• Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”)
• Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) 
• Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”) 
• Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”) 
• Jonathan Glazer(“The Zone of Interest”)
  

If this award was for "Most Directing" than Lanthimos would win for Poor Things. But Nolan won the DGA and there is a critial consensus his time has come (he's actually overdue, in my mind!)

SHOULD WIN: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer.

WILL WIN: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer.

Lead Actor:

• Bradley Cooper(“Maestro”)  
• Colman Domingo (“Rustin”) 
• Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”)
• Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) 
• Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”) 
  

It is a very rare occasion when there are two Black men in the Best Actor race, and they are both very deserving to be here, albeit at veru different stages of their career. I wish I could say one of them is going to win, but Cillian Murphy is pretty much a lock this year, having won most of the precursor awards that matter (Golden Globe and SAG). That being said, if I had a vote, I would vote for Jeffrey Wright, as  a career appreciation award, with Giamatti a close behind. The performance that I thought was the most amazing was Bradley Cooper's--he completely inhabits the role of Leonard Bernstein and your forget that Cooper is playing the role.

SHOULD WIN: Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction or Bradley Cooper, Maestro.

WILL WIN: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer.

Lead Actress:

• Annette Bening (“Nyad”) 
• Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) 
• Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”)
• Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) 
• Emma Stone (“Poor Things”)

Only Emma Stone has won an Oscar before and she is the frontrunner for her revelator performance in Poor Things. But does she really belong in the pantheon of Double Best Actress winners like Katharine Hepburn (4), Meryl Streep (2), Jodie Foster (2), Sally Field (2) and Frances McDormand (3)? I have my doubts. This is why I think they Lily Gladstone will win as the first Native American winner, one year after Oscar crowned the first Asian American winner. However, if I was voting, I would give it to Hüller, whom I had never seen before this year and who is absolutely stunning in two European films this year that are noinated for Best Picture: The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall.

 

 SHOULD WIN: Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall.

WILL WIN: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon.

Supporting Actor:

• Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”) 
• Robert DeNiro  (“Killers of he Flower Moon”) 
• Robert Downey, Jr. (“Oppenheimer”)
• Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”) 
• Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”) 

Here DeNiro has (of course) won Oscars before, including in this category and been nominated  a total of 9 times. This is Sterling K. Brown's first Oscar nomination but he has won 3 Emmy awards. The frontrunner is Downey, and he is a key reason why Oppenheimer works so well despite its 3-hour running time. Ruffalo is devouring the scenery in Poor Things, and going against his type as an affable guy. But if I was voting I would vote for Gosling's Ken, without which Barbie would not be as effective at all.

SHOULD WIN: Ryan Gosling, Barbie

WILL WIN: Robert Downey, Jr., Oppenheimer.

Supporting Actress:

• Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimerr”) 
• Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”) 
• America Ferrera (“Barbie”)
• Jodie Foster (“Nyad”) 
• Da'Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”)

Again, very psyched to see two black actors in the same category! This time one of them is the rontrunner: Randolp has won most of the precursor awards and she is one of the best things about The Holdovers--without her it would have been basically been a TV movie.

SHOULD WIN: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers.

WILL WIN: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers.

Adapted Screenplay:

• “American Fiction,” Written for the screen by Cord Jefferson
  
• “Barbie,” Written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
  
• “Oppenheimer,” Written for the Screen by Christopher Nolan
  
• “Poor Things,” Screenplay byTony McNamara
  
• “The Zone of Interest,” Written by Jonathan Glazer 
  

This is one category Oppenheimer is definitely going to lose, because Nolan is definitely going to win Director and there's no reason to give him THREE Oscars (since he will lamost certainly win Best Picture as well). American Fiction is the standout here, although if Oscar voters may want to make sure that the creative force behind the Billion Dollar Barbie movie gets some recognition, this is their prime opportunity to do so.

 

SHOULD WIN: American Fiction.

WILL WIN: Barbie.

Original Screenplay:

• “Anatomy of a Fall,” Screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
• “The Holdovers,” Written by David Hemingson
  
• “Maestro,” Written by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
• “May December,” screenplay by Samy Burch; story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik
• “Past Lives,” Written by Celine Song

I love when directors are also screenwiters and in this case Past Lives, Anatomy of a Fall and Maestro fit the bill. I didn't see May December (but intended to, and still do) but in my opinion the strongest of the bunch is Anatomy of a Fall. It looks like it must be based on prior material, but it's a completely original idea--very well-executed by Triet, who becomes one of the few women in Oscar history to be nominated for Directing.

SHOULD WIN: Anatomy of a Fall.

WILL WIN: Anatomy of a Fall.

2018 OSCARS: My Predictions for the Top 8 Categories

Here is my prediction's post for the Top 8 categories in this year's Oscars, the 90th Annual Academy Awards. In blue are the people who I want to win, or who I would vote for (if I had an Oscar ballot) while in red are the people who I think will win. Last year I only predicted 3 of the Top  8 categories correctly (in both of the red and blue votes); Overall I did better, predicting 14 of 24 categories correctly.

Best Picture:

• “Call Me by Your Name”
• “Darkest Hour”
• “Dunkirk”
• “Get Out”
• “Lady Bird”
• “Phantom Thread”
• “The Post”
• “The Shape of Water”
• “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

(The ones in bold are the Best Picture nominees I have seen as of this writing.)

WILL WIN: The Shape of Water.

SHOULD WIN: Get Out.

Director:

• “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan
• “Get Out,” Jordan Peele
• “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
• “Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson
• “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro

WILL WIN: The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro.

SHOULD WIN: Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan.

Lead Actor:

• Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
• Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”
• Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
• Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
• Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

WILL WIN: Darkest Hour, Gary Oldman.

SHOULD WIN: Call Me By Your Name, Timothée Chalamet.

Lead Actress:

• Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
• Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
• Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
• Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
• Meryl Streep, “The Post”

WILL WIN: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Frances McDormand.

SHOULD WIN: Ladybird, Saoirse Ronan.

Supporting Actor:

• Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
• Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
• Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”
• Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”
• Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

WILL WIN: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Sam Rockwell.

SHOULD WIN: The Shape of Water, Richard Jenkins.

Supporting Actress:

• Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
• Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
• Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”
• Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
• Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”

WILL WIN: I, Tonya, Allison Janney.

SHOULD WIN: Lady Bird, Laurie Metcalfe.

Adapted Screenplay:

• “Call Me by Your Name,” James Ivory
• “The Disaster Artist,” Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
• “Logan,” Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green
• “Molly’s Game,” Aaron Sorkin
• “Mudbound,” Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

WILL WIN: Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory.

SHOULD WIN: Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory .

Original Screenplay:

• “The Big Sick,” Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
• “Get Out,” Jordan Peele
• “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
• “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
• “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Martin McDonagh

WILL WIN: Get Out, Jordan Peele.

SHOULD WIN: The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani.

2018 OSCARS: Nominations List For Top 8 Categories

Best Picture:

• “Call Me by Your Name”
• “Darkest Hour”
• “Dunkirk”
• “Get Out”
• “Lady Bird”
• “Phantom Thread”
• “The Post”
• “The Shape of Water”
• “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

(The ones in bold are the Best Picture nominees I have seen so far.)

Director:

• “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan
• “Get Out,” Jordan Peele
• “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
• “Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson
• “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro

Lead Actor:

• Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
• Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”
• Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
• Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
• Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

Lead Actress:

• Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
• Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
• Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
• Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
• Meryl Streep, “The Post”

Supporting Actor:

• Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
• Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
• Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”
• Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”
• Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Supporting Actress:

• Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
• Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
• Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”
• Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
• Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”

Adapted Screenplay:

• “Call Me by Your Name,” James Ivory
• “The Disaster Artist,” Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
• “Logan,” Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green
• “Molly’s Game,” Aaron Sorkin
• “Mudbound,” Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

Original Screenplay:

• “The Big Sick,” Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
• “Get Out,” Jordan Peele
• “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
• “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
• “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Martin McDonagh

WATCH: First Full Trailer for Christopher Nolan's Summer 2017 Dunkirk

The very first official full trailer for Christopher Nolan's next film, Dunkirk was released this week. This is the first film Nolan is making after 2014's Interstellar. Dunkirk  is about the famous World War II event, and stars Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy and 2016 Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winner Mark Rylance.

WATCH: Trailer for Arrival Features Difficulty Of Intraspecies Communication

I"m very excited about the imminent arrival of Arrival, the new film by director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoners, Sicario) starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker based (loosely) on an award-winning short story by Ted Chiang. Villeneuve has made some of my favorite films over the last decade (notwithstanding my constant fan-boy love for Christopher Nolan) and I'm thriller he is working in my favorite genre of science fiction for the first time.

In this "Common Ground" trailer, the difficulty of communicating with people who share common experiences but not a common language is depicted as a means of emphasizing the key point of the film which is about the arrival of aliens whom humanity needs to communicate with.

My Top 10 Films (Released In 2014)

This post contains the list of the Top 10 films that I saw in 2014. The year before my favorite film was  12 Years A Slave. This year it was very hard to decide between the very best film of the year, with three contenders essentially tied with each other but each had a very powerful impact on me in their own way.

Anyway, here is my Top 10 list of the films released in 2014 that I saw last year. This year I saw roughly 17 films in the movie theaters and then another half dozen or so through other channels (at home on television via premium cable or iTunes) and on planes.

10. Blackbird. This is the latest film by Black gay wunderkind Patrik-Ian Polk (Punks, Noah's Arc). It stars Mo'Nique in her first film role after winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Precious and is a film adaptation of the classic book by the same name about a young Black boy coming of age in the South. Unfortunately, Blackbird still has not found a distributor but I was able to see the film twice in 2014, once at the Pan African Film Festival, and then several weeks later at Outfest Fusion. The main strength of this film is its authentic portrayal of a gay teenager's life and love, and even though the actual twists of the story are melodramatic, it felt good to see representations of Black gay men like myself on screen. If you get a chance to see Blackbird, grab it!

9. Snowpiercer. I had heard of Snowpiercer but it just looked like another bat-sh*t crazy Tilda Swinton movie. My interest was piqued when I discovered that the always fun to watch Chris Evans (Captain America) was also in it. Sadly, Evans has an extensive beard and shows almost no skin in the film but delivers an effective performance that grounds the film, even though, by any measure, Snowpiercer is a pretty wild ride of a film. It is reminiscent of other wild, visually arresting classics like Brazil, The Fifth Element and The Matrix. Just like those movies, the story doesn't make much sense but somehow you can not stop watching it. Definitely a movie I will remember years from now, probably more so than some of the higher ranked films on this list.

8. Big Hero 6. This was the best animated film that I saw in the theaters this year. (The LEGO Movie I saw on AppleTV soon after it left the theaters and despite what the Oscar voters say, it is better than Big Hero 6.) Like Edge of Tomorrow, Big Hero 6 is based on content from another source, this time a popular Marvel comic of the same name. The best thing about Big Hero 6 is the inflatable robot named Baymax, although the main character of Hiro Hamada (voiced by Ryan Potter) is a close second. I guess one of the main reasons why I liked Big Hero 6 is that it reminds me somewhat of one of my favorite movies, The Incredibles.

7. Edge of Tomorrow. If you had told me when I wrote last year's Top 10 list that a Tom Cruise science fiction flick would be one of my favorite movies of the year I would not have believed you. But Edge of Tomorrow also stars Emily Blunt in a big screen adaptation of a Japanese graphic novel with a fiendishly clever script, directed by a well-respected action director (Doug Liman, known for his work on the Bourne series starring Matt Damon). Since the film was so badly marketed I went it to the theater with low expectations, which were happily easily exceeded.

6.  X-Men: Days of Future Past. This latest entry into the X-Men franchise was directed by animating force behind the reboot: Bryan Singer, which is a good thing. The key feature of this movie is that it featured Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart from the first set of X-Men films as well as Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy playing the same characters (Magneto and Professor Xavier, respectively). It's really fun to have both sets of actors in the film, even though they basically have no scenes together (since they are playing the same characters in different eras). Another strength of this film was the plot which, although it depended on a somewhat cheesy time travel device allowed the film to be mostly set in the early 1970s, which was an inspired choice. 

5. The LEGO Movie / Guardians of the Galaxy. At the beginning of the year I guess I might have been one of the many people who did not know the name of the actor who plays the young, tall, goofy white dude on Parks & Recreation but there are very few people who don't know who Chriss Pratt is now after he appeared in not one but two of the biggest box-office hits of the year. The LEGO Movie sounded like it would be a painfully bad attempt to leverage a well-known nostalgic brand (Battleship, anyone?) but instead was a surprisingly clever romp strengthened by the voice talents of Pratt and Morgan Freeman, the silly but hyper-infectious theme song "Everything is awesome!" and a snarkily satirical script. The Lego Movie was fun and a huge hit but since Pratt does not physically appear in the film it took the summer blockbuster
Guardians of the Galaxy to really send Pratt's profile into the stratosphere. Guardians of the Galaxy  can not be considered a surprise sleeper hit like The Lego Movie since it is one of the Marvel suite of comic-book movies but even in that context, Guardians of the Galaxy is a surprisingly effective entertainment. And Pratt is front and central to the movie's runaway success, in all his attractive goofiness.

4. Gone Girl. Regardless of what Oscar voters think, in my opinion David Fincher's representation of Gillian Flynn's blockbuster mystery novel was one of the best directed  and most thrilling movies I saw in 2014. Even though I read and quite enjoyed the book, I was very impressed with how much of the book was able to be included in the film. There are very strong performances by a bevy of well-cast actors, starting with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as the (un)happily married couple Nick and Amy Dunne at the center of the film, and also including Carrie Coon as the suspicious detective who investigates Amy's disappearance,  Neil Patrick Harris as Amy's obsessive childhood crush and even Tyler Perry as Nick's buffoonish but media savvy defense attorney. Fincher's film also includes a wickedly dark sense of humor that adds oomph to the impression it leaves on the psyche.

3. The Imitation Game.  This film was another one of my most anticipated films of  2014 that also lived up to my expectations. Additionally, it also provided a fair number of surprises by giving information about the story of Alan Turing's life and work that I was unaware of even though I was generally familiar with the broad outlines of his heroic contributions to society and the tragedy of his personal biography. In fact one of the key strengths of The Imitation Game is its ability to present a British period piece in a way that is both compelling and suspenseful, even though we know how the story ends. Another major strength are the performances by Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley as well as the structure of the screenplay adapted from Andrew Hodges classic biography.

2.  The Grand Budapest Hotel.  This is the only film that I saw multiple times throughout the year and was also one of my most unexpected pleasures at the cinema all year long. I have not been a huge fan of Wes Anderson's work in the past (I still have not seen Moonrise Kingdom) but was convinced by friends to see this one and found it absolutely delightful. The screenplay is so clever, and the film is anchored by the hysterical and self-possessed performance of Ralph Fiennes  as M. Gustave, the concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel as well as an impressive debut by Tony Revolori as the Lobby Boy. Additionally, the huge supporting cast (Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton) and surprising cameos (Bob Balaban, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Jeff Goldblum, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Fisher Stevens) present an inexhaustible supply of smiles and giggles that cement this film as one of the most enjoyable films of the year.

1. Interstellar. When I started thinking about this list I did not place Christopher Nolan's film at the number one spot, although I was pretty sure it would be somewhere in my Top 5. However when I went back and looked at my written reviews I saw that I had basically felt that The Imitation Game, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Interstellar were all essentially tied as my favorite films of the year. Then as I reflected more upon the three I realized that Interstellar was not only my most anticipated film of the year it was also the film that had the strongest emotional impact on me after viewing. It was not a perfect film (some of the dialogue is painfully bad) by any means but there's no question that it was the film which had the most memorable visuals of anything I saw in the theaters all year long. The suspenseful plot and the always rock-solid performances by Sir Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Matthew McConnaughey are other impressive strengths. I still do not think it was as compelling conceptually as Nolan's Inception (2010), which possesses one of my all-time favorite soundtracks and is a film that I have seen and enjoyed multiple times.

 There ya go. There are still some very well-regarded 2014 movies which I have yet to see, such as Boyhood, The Theory of Everything, Selma and Foxcatcher.

Some Honorable Mentions that could be on this list are Divergent (mostly for Theo James' hotness), and Birdman (although overall I think it is somewhat self-indulgent and a bit too-"inside Hollywood" for me).

Looking forward to seeing more movies in 2015!

FILM REVIEW: Interstellar

As I have said before, Christopher Nolan is my favorite director. Once I found out that Nolan was releasing a new film, Interstellar, starring Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Sir Michael Caine and Matt Damon in 2014 I started following the pre-release hype pretty heavily. Oscar nominees John Lithgow and  Jessica Chastain have key parts in the film as well.

In fact I was able to see the film a few days before its official premiere, at a preview screening at Arclight Cinemas in Pasadena which was on 35mm film. The reviews of the film were generally mixed (73% from critics on rottentomatoes.com), but box-office, especially internationally, was quite robust with a domestic gross of $173 million and a worldwide gross of well over $600 million.

Overall, I liked Nolan's latest film, but I did not think it was at the same level of his film Inception (2010), which I think is a masterpiece. I saw Interstellar six weeks ago, but for some reason I have been blocked on writing this review (as well as for the other movies I have seen this fall). My initial reason for waiting was that I had hoped to see the film again (probably in standard digital projection or one of the five other formats the film is released in) to confirm the initial impressions I had garnered from seeing the version of Interstellar on actual film.

Regardless of what format you see it in, one thing that one takes away from the cinematic experience that Nolan has created with Interstellar is an appreciation for its impressive visual canvas. The film is simply stunning to look at and has shots that I will remember for years. Interestingly, it somehow manages to simultaneously have something of a retro and futuristic look to it.

The story revolves around a widowed former test pilot named Cooper (McConaughey) who is raising two kids with the help of his father (Lithgow) in a near-future Earth increasingly impacted by climate change which is causing crippling food shortages that have led to an increasingly dismal outlook for the viability of our world. NASA and a professor named Brand (Caine) have a secret plan to use a recently discovered worm hole near Saturn to explore different galaxies to find another planet our species can colonize in order to survive. But they need an experienced pilot to lead the mission because NASA has limited resources and this is basically our only chance. And thanks to relativity it is very likely that time will pass much more slowly for the team that goes while years pass back on Earth. So basically Cooper has to decide whether it is worth trying to save the entire human race if it means he will never see his beloved brilliant daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) ever again. We find out that another daughter will likely not see her father again because Professor Brand's daughter Dr. Brand (Hathaway) is going on the mission as the head astrophysicist.

It is telling that Interstellar was initially a project that Steven Spielberg was to direct because the film definitely has a Spielbergian emotional quality to it which I think is its primary weakness. Clearly the stresses that can be applied to the bond between father and daughter are on display, as well as the stresses on the team who know that they may be humanity's best hope to survive. One of the key themes of the film is about difficult choices and another is obligation. There are scenes and dialogue which are cringeworthy (Hathaway's character at one point says "Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.") For most hard-core science fiction enthusiasts like myself such touchy-feely sentiments are anathema, especially as they are appearing in a film which celebrates the power of science to solve humanity's problems and depicts the wonder and beauty of the physical Universe in multiple ways. The film also does a good job of depicting interstellar space flight in a way that is believable.

So, overall, I agree with most reviewers that Nolan's Interstellar is an ambitious, gorgeous film which is a bit too emotionally heavy-handed to be considered an unqualified success but is definitely worth seeing, especially in the theaters.

Title: Interstellar.
Director: Christopher Nolan.
Running Time: 2 hours, 49 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some intense perilous action and brief strong language.
Release Date: November 7, 2014.
Viewing Date: November 5, 2014.

Writing: A.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A+.
Impact: A.

Overall Grade: A (4.0/4.0)

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Golden Globe Nominations Announced

The Golden Globe nominations were announced yesterday as Hollywood's award season is now in full swing on the inexorable march towards the Academy Awards.

Here are the important categories:

MoviesBest motion picture -- drama"Boyhood" "Foxcatcher" "The Imitation Game" "Selma" "The Theory of Everything"
Best motion picture -- musical or comedy"Birdman" "The Grand Budapest Hotel" "Into the Woods" "Pride" "St. Vincent"
Best directorWes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" Ava DuVernay, "Selma" David Fincher, "Gone Girl" Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Birdman" Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"
Best screenplayWes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" Gillian Flynn, "Gone Girl" Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Birdman" Richard Linklater, "Boyhood" Graham Moore, "The Imitation Game"
TVBest TV series -- drama"The Affair" "Downton Abbey" "Game of Thrones" "The Good Wife" "House of Cards"
Best TV series -- comedy"Girls" "Jane the Virgin""Orange is the New Black" "Silicon Valley" "Transparent"

Some of the notable nominations are Ava Duvernay for directing "Selma," becoming the first Black woman to be nominated for a Directing Golden Globe. People are suggesting that "Selma" may get several Oscar nominations as well. Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" was snubbed, garnering a single nomination for it's score. Both of the main actors in the reboot of BBC's "Sherlock" were nominated, for different things. Martin Freeman was nominated for his work in the miniseries "Fargo" (which I have been slowly catching up with online and it appears to be really really good) while Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for his role as Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game."

So far of the Best Picture nominees I have only seen "Birdman" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" but I do intend to see everything in the Drama category, especially "Foxcatcher" and "Boyhood."

In the television categories I'm constantly surprised by the snubs that "The Walking Dead" (which is the highest rated drama series on television) gets from the awards. I'm glad to see that someone is recognizing the consistent excellence of "The Good Wife" and of course "Game of Thrones" is probably my favorite show.

It's not clear that the Golden Globes can have that much of an impact on the results of the Oscars (the Screen Actors Guild awards are more closely correlated since the actors' branch is the largest branch of the Academy).

Asimov's Foundation Being Adapted For HBO By Christopher Nolan's Brother Jonathan

Isaac Asimov is one of the main reasons why I am a fan of science fiction to this day as well as being an avid reader of genre fiction in general. In the popular media Asimov was known for his popular promotion of science and technology but he was also the author of the landmark, best-selling series Foundation. He was the author of dozens of books and an influence on many authors who came after him.

Jonathan Nolan is best known to me as the (younger) brother of Christopher Nolan, my favorite film director. However, Jonathan has been listed as a co-author on several of Christopher's hit films such Memento, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar. He is probably most well-known for co-creating (with his wife Lisa Joy Nolan) the hit television show Person of Interest on CBS.

I found out today from reading Aidan Moher's wonderful blog that Jonathan is adapting Asimov's Foundation series for HBO. This is incredibly exciting news to me (perhaps even more exciting than the news that my current favorite sci-fi series, James S.A. Corey's The Expanse, is being adapted for SyFy).

Apparently, Jonathan has another project for HBO coming out soon also. He co-wrote the pilot for Westworld, a big-budget sci-fi series (about artificial intelligence) to appear on HBO in 2015 starring heavyweights like Sir Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright and Thandie Newton. Westworld is based on material written by Michael Chrichton, who adapted his own short story in a 1973 film of the same name that he wrote and directed (which bombed).

The Wrap summarized how the Jonathan Nolan Foundation deal happened.

The “Foundation” series was originally comprised of three books — “Foundation,” “Foundation and Empire” and “Second Foundation.” The trilogy won a Hugo Award for “Best All-Time” series in 1966, 15 years before Asimov began adding to the series with sequels “Foundation's Edge” and “Foundation and Earth,” as well as prequels “Prelude to Foundation” and “Forward the Foundation.” 

Sony Pictures acquired “Foundation” in a multi-studio auction back in 2009 and attached Roland Emmerich to direct and produce. Two years later, the studio hired Dante Harper (“Akira”) to adapt the books. When the project failed to materialize, HBO spent big bucks to acquire the property when it became available earlier this summer.

There's no information about how soon Foundation would be ready to go to air but I doubt it would happen in the Obama administration. I imagine it will depend on the script Nolan can produce and it might also depend on the critical and commercial response to Westworld in 2015.

Still, this is very exciting news for geeks like myself who are huge fans of Asimov and the Foundation!

LOOK! New Trailer for Interstellar Drops Today!

The new trailer for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar has debuted on the internet. it's the third trailer for my most anticipated film of 2014. The movie opens on Friday November 7th, and Arclight Cinemas is booking advanced tickets now for a special screening on Tuesday November 4th.

Multiple Posters For Christopher Nolan's Interstellar

Longtime followers of this blog will know that I am a big time fanboy of director Christopher Nolan. I named Inception my favorite film of 2010 and greatly enjoyed his take on the Batman mythos. The fact that he has a brand new original film coming out on November 7th starring Matthew McConnaughey, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway and Sr Michael Caine is incredibly exciting to me and I have been blogging about developments such as the release of the first and second official trailers for the film. Interstellar is my most anticipated film release of 2014, followed by David Fincher's Gone Girl (October 3rd) and then probably The Imitation Game (November 21) followed closely by The Theory of Everything (November 7). I'm sure it's just a coincidence these last centered around the lives of heroic mathematicians!

With less than 6 weeks before the film comes out, not one but three new official posters for the film were released late last week! I have posted them above. They all look amazing, to me, although I think I have a slight preference for the one with the water. What about you?

WATCH: Second Interstellar Trailer is out!!

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is by far my most anticipated film of 2014! The first trailer came out awhile ago, and just a few days ago the second trailer was released. The poster came out in June, and the film will hit theaters on November 7, 2014.

It stars Matthew McConnaughey, Anne Hathaway, Sir Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon.

WATCH: Trailer for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar Revealed

I thought I had posted the trailer for Interstellar, the new Christopher Nolan movie already but I guess I forgot. It went live last exactly a week ago and has more than 7 million views so far. Check it out!

T-180 DAYS: Christopher Nolan's Interstellar Poster Revealed

It is exactly 6 months until Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is released on November 7, 2014. The film stars Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway and Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain. Nolan regular Sir MIchael Caine is also in the cast.

The next official trailer will debut on May 16th (before screenings of the new Godzilla movie) but the big news is that the poster for the film has been released and features the tag line: "Mankind was born on Earth. It as never meant to die here."

WATCH: 1st Trailer for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar

The first teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar was released yesterday, and already has well over 1 million views on YouTube. The film stars Matthew McConnaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) and Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises, Les Miserables). Sir Michael Caine makes an appearance, as well, of course, as he does in almost all of Nolan's films.

Nolan's Inception was my favorite movie of 2010 and is one of my favorite movies of all time. To say I am looking forward to November 7, 2014 is an understatement!

The short description of Interstellar is "A group of explorers make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage."

Get excited!