2020 OSCARS: The Winners

The winners of the 92nd Annual Academy Awards were announced last night, and I correctly predicted 6 of 8 of the Top 8 categories, missing the big wins for "Parasite" in the Best Picture and Best Director categories, which I am quite happy about. Elsewhere I picked 17 of 24 categories correctly. Parasite ended with the most with 4 while both 1917, Once Upon a Time..in Hollywood and Ford v Ferrari ended with 3 Oscars each.

Best Picture
Parasite

Best Director
Parasite – Bong Joon-ho

Best International Feature
Parasite – South Korea

Best Actress
Renee Zellweger – Judy

Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix – Joker

Best Supporting Actress
Laura Dern – Marriage Story

Best Supporting Actor
Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Best Cinematography
1917 – Roger Deakins

Best Film Editing
Ford v Ferrari – Michael McCusker & Andrew Buckland

Best Original Screenplay
Parasite – Bong Joon Ho & Han Jin Won

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jojo Rabbit – Taika Waititi

Best Original Score
Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir

Best Animated Feature
Toy Story 4

Best Documentary Feature
American Factory

Best Production Design
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood – Barbara Ling & Nancy Haigh

Best Costume Design
Little Women – Jacqueline Durran

Best Sound Editing
Ford v Ferrari – Donald Sylvester

Best Sound Mixing
1917 – Mark Taylor & Stuart Wilson

Best Visual Effects
1917 – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler & Dominic Tuohy

Best Make-up and Hairstyling
Bombshell – Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan & Vivian Baker

Best Original Song
(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again – Rocketman (Elton John & Bernie Taupin)

Best Documentary Short
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)

Best Animated Short
Hair Love

Best Live Action Short
The Neighbors’ Window

2020 OSCARS: My Predictions in the Top 8 Categories

Here is my annual prediction post for the 2020 Oscars, i.e. the 92nd Academy Awards. I really just consider the Top 8 categories on the blog but I play the Oscar prediction game like lots of other people (on other websites) where I think about all 24 categories. Last year I predicted 4 of 8 categories correctly and 12 of 24 overall. This year I have only seen a few of the nominated pictures.

Best Picture:

• “Ford v Ferrari” 
• “The Irishman” 
• “Jojo Rabbit” 
• “Joker” 
• “Little Women” 
• “Marriage Story” 
• “1917” 
• “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” 
• “Parasite” 

SHOULD WIN: Parasite.
WILL WIN: 1917.

Director:

• Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”)
• Todd Phillips (“Joker”)
• Sam Mendes (“1917”)
• Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
• Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”)

SHOULD WIN: Bong Joon Ho, Parasite.

WILL WIN: Sam Mendes, 1917.

Lead Actor:

• Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”)
• Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
• Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”)
• Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”)
• Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”)

SHOULD WIN: Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory (Dolor y Gloria).

WILL WIN: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker.

Lead Actress:

• Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”)
• Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”)
• Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”)
• Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”)
• Renee Zellweger (“Judy”)

SHOULD WIN: Renee Zellwegger, Judy.

WILL WIN: Renee Zellwegger, Judy.

Supporting Actor:

• Tom Hanks (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”)
• Anthony Hopkins (“The Two Popes”)
• Al Pacino (“The Irishman”)
• Joe Pesci (“The Irishman”)
• Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

SHOULD WIN: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

WILL WIN: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Supporting Actress:

• Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell”
• Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”)
• Scarlett Johansson (“Jojo Rabbit”)
• Florence Pugh (“Little Women”)
• Margot Robbie (“Bombshell”)

SHOULD WIN: Laura Dern, Marriage Story.

WILL WIN: Laura Dern, Marriage Story.

Adapted Screenplay:

• Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”)
• Steve Zaillian (“The Irishman”)
• Anthony McCarten (“The Two Popes”)
• Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”)
• Todd Phillips and Scott Silver (“Joker”)

SHOULD WIN: Little Women

WILL WIN: Jojo Rabbit.

Original Screenplay:

• Rian Johnson (“Knives Out”)
• Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”)
• Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (“1917”)
• Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
• Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won (“Parasite”)

SHOULD WIN: Parasite.

WILL WIN: Parasite.

EYE CANDY: Robert Oliveira (4th Time!)

Longtime readers of this blog know I have  a "thing" for Brazilian boys (of any color!) Many  have appeared here over the years (several from MundoMais and other websites) such as Maxs Souza, Jones Tamar, Alan Taurus, Guilherme Rofino, Erasmo Viana, and Diego Barros (to name a few)!

Robert Oliveira has been one of my favorite Eye Candy models, having appeared 3 times already (July 16, 2018; September 3, 2018; November 5, 2018). He has 286,000 followers on Instagram (@robert.officiall).

As this blog comes to an end (or a pause?) I want to leave you with these beautiful images of beautiful men. Enjoy!

EYE CANDY: Mike Thurston (6th time!)

Mike Thurston is still one of (if not my very top) favorite male models. He has appeared as Eye Candy the most frequently of any model on my blog (December 31, 2018; June 4, 2018; August 31, 2015; October 19, 2015; December 28, 2015. In addition to having a ridiculously muscular body, he is devilishly handsome and if you have seen any of his YouTube videos (like his 850,000+ followers) you know that he has a delightful British accent and is a successful entrepreneur.

EYE CANDY: Justin St. Paul

Justin St. Paul is a British bodybuilder I discovered on Instagram through Mike Thurston. He is a 27-year-old personal fitness trainer (@justin_stsmall) who is listed at 6-feet and 215-225 pounds. I guess sometimes he shaves his chest, sometimes he doesn't. Enjoy!

BOOK REVIEW: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Since the televised adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale became a viral sensation it was inevitable that The Testaments, which is a sequel to the book the show is based on would also have a significant cultural impact. Margaret Atwood, the author of both books and consultant on the show, is the creative source of the terrifying alternative history in which the United States becomes a theocratic, patriarchal, authoritarian state named the Republic of Gilead.

I haven’t read the original The Handmaid’s Tale book but like many other people I have been mesmerized by the television adaptation and fascinated/horrified by the subtle (and not so subtle) connections between its depiction of the fictional Gilead and the current United States. It actually works out fine to read The Testaments without having read its predecessor, since the first season of the show essentially covers most of the main plot points of the original book. The Testaments is timed exquisitely well as it covers events that happen roughly 15 years after the end of the third season of the show, which aired on Hulu earlier this year. Important characters from the show play central roles in the book, especially Aunt Lydia (who in the show was played with alarming gusto and chilling commitment by Ann Dowd, who won a Best Supporting Actress Emmy award after Season 1 in the process). The lead character in the show, June/Offred, played by Elizabeth Moss (who also won an Emmy for her Season 1 portrayal) is barely a presence in The Testaments (while it's my understanding that Offred was the main character in the first book).

The structure of The Testaments is that it is presented as three first-person accounts of three women whose lives are dominated by experiencing life in Gilead. It’s supposed to be a secret to new readers who these authors are, and the experience will be different for people depending on whether they are simply readers of the first book, consumers of the television show or both.

Regardless of your prior experience with the previously produced materials, The Testaments is powerful stuff. The central horror of what Atwood has created is how fundamentally plausible the existence of Gilead is. As she herself says (in the author’s note at the end), all events depicted in the book or the show have been documented to have happened in human history, at some point. So one major strength of this alternative history novel is its verisimilitude. Another strong point is the characterization of Aunt Lydia, Agnes and Daisy. The book allows the author to provide the internal monologues of the characters, which is where it has an advantage on the show. (The show has the advantage of visual depictions of the people and events that occur in the books.) This is especially effective in the case of Aunt Lydia, a woman whose role in Gilead is to encourage/coerce/cajole other women into not rebelling against Gilead's murderously violent patriarchal society. Lydia in the show is an unmitigated villain, while in the book her status is far more nuanced. (For people who have only watched the show this will come as an incredible and somewhat unbelievably radical change, but in the end I was convinced that it was possible Aunt Lydia could secretly be working against Gilead. I hope that the show gets to depict the events of The Testaments. I am convinced it would win Dowd another Emmy.)

Overall, The Testaments is an effective, cautionary tale to read. Its depiction of theocracy, autocracy and patriarchy are chilling, and chillingly familiar. These descriptions are of situations/ideologies that are dependent on the perspective/politics of the viewer/reader. However, for most, I believe that the central question of “(How) could it happen here?” will stick with you long after you have finished reading the last page. It well deserves all the accolades and awards it has won (including the 2019 Booker prize) and will win.

Title: The Testaments.
Author: Margaret Atwood.
Paperback: 419  pages.
Publisher: Chatto & Windus.
Date Published: September 10, 2019.
Date Read: December 13, 2019.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★½☆  (4.5/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.92/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A+.
WRITING: A.

EYE CANDY: Adrian Conrad (5th time!)

Adrian Conrad makes his 5th appearance at this blog in a short time (January 14, 2019; January 11, 2018; December 11, 2017; November 27, 2017). He is the most recent addition to my list of all-time favorite male models (which includes Simeon Panda, Mike Thurston, Raciel Castro, Robert Oliveira). He has several hundred thousand followers on Instagram (@adrianconrad_)--you owe it to yourself to do so!

The Expanse Season 4 Is Available NOW on Prime Video!

Now that Game of Thrones is off the air, my favorite television show is The Expanse, based on the amazing 9-book space opera series written by James S.A. Corey is my favorite show. After the first 3 seasons aired on SyFy, that network failed to pick up the show but it was revived at Amazon Studios, which has produced Season 4 (based on Cibola Burn) and is currently in production on Season 5 (based on Nemesis Games). Season 4 (all 10 episodes!!) is now available for streaming on Amazon Video. Once my semester is truly over I expect to binge all 10 before the end of the year!

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Patrick Bumatay Becomes First Openly LGBT Federal Appellate Court Judge

Openly gay, Filipino Patrick Bumatay, 41, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a 53-40 vote to a lifetime seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Cort of Appeals. Bumatay is the first openly gay man to be appointed to the federal judiciary at the Circuit Court level (one rung below the U.S. Supreme Court) and is also the first Filipino to serve in that capacity. His nomination was opposed by both of California's U.S. Senators, Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein, which prior to the Trump administration would have doomed his candidacy. He was also opposed by basically every major LGBT and/or civil rights organization. He is Trump's 49 confirmed appointee to the circuit courts.

EYE CANDY: Raciel Castro (5th time!)

Raciel Castro is another one of my all-time favorite models. He has numerous Instagram followers (@racielcastro) but I am surprised that he doesn't have even more. He has appeared as Eye Candy at least 4 times  before (May 19, 2014; December 29, 2014; July 7, 2014;  May 21, 2018). Enjoy!

EYE CANDY: Simeon Panda (6th Time!)

Simeon Panda is one of my all-time favorite models. His body is ridiculous, but as you can see, he is extremely handsome as well. This is his sixth appearance as Eye Candy. Surprisingly, he has not graced these pages in over 2 years (February 6, 2017)! Most likely it will be his last, since I am planning on ending my blog on January 1, 2020.

BOOK REVIEW: Recursion by Blake Crouch

Blake Crouch is the author of multiple, best-selling, mind-bending thrillers; his atmospheric novels in the Wayward Pines trilogy were adapted into a television show for Fox. I enjoyed his previous book Dark Matter (2016) but have not read any of his other work.

The buzz for Recursion (2019) is even higher than for Dark Matter so I was greatly looking forward to reading it. Not much is given away in the blurb (“A breath-taking exploration of memory and what it means to be human.”) but it was clear to me even before I started that the story must have something to do with time travel.

Crouch has a very direct, visual and propulsive writing style. At times this book reads like a screenplay instead of a novel. The story develops very quickly and moves ahead even faster. The main characters are Barry Sutton, a NYPD detective, Helena Smith, a neuroscientist, and Marcus Slade, a billionaire investor. Slade invests in Smith’s nascent technological invention, a way to map, store and transfer memories.

The book switches into high gear when Slade hijacks the development of Smith's technology, turning it into a world-altering device. This is where Crouch fundamentally loses me. The thing Smith has invented allows a person not to recover their memories, instead it allows them to go back in time to the moment when that memory was created. (In order to do so they have to use Smith's memory-mapping technology and then die immersed in her device, which produces huge amounts of a brain chemical which spurs the person in the tank to alter reality itself to conform with their saved memory.) Crouch never uses the term “time travel” but that is really what Recursion is about at its core. It is uni-directional time travel, only back in time. Eventually, when the time traveler lives long enough to get back to the time when the timeline was split EVERY PERSON IN THE WORLD suddenly becomes aware of the events in the removed timeline (the timeline the time traveler was from) as “false memories.” They also have sudden nosebleeds and a sudden splitting headache. This is where Crouch completely lost me and I ceased to enjoy the book. It’s so obvious at this point that the impact on world events would be so extremely significant that what happens from that point in the story on just devolves into nonsense.

What kept me going was my investment in the characters of Helena and Barry. I was also somewhat curious how Crouch would write himself out of the pretzel plot he had created. For awhile it seemed like he actually would let it spiral out of control but in the end he resolved it satisfactorily.

In fact I wouldn’t be surprised that when Crouch was writing the book he “saw” the final scene in his mind’s eye first and the entire book was written to get there. It’s a great scene in the context of what went before but it was not enough payoff for me.

Title: Recursion.
Author: Blake Crouch.
Paperback: 336 pages.
Publisher: Crown.
Date Published: June 11, 2019.
Date Read: November 26, 2019.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★½☆☆  (3.5/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: B (3.0/4.0).

PLOT: B.
IMAGERY: B.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: B-.

2019 ATP YEC: Tsitsipas Wins Biggest Title Of His Young Career

Surprising many, Stefanos Tsitsipas finished his breakout 2019 season by coming from behind to win his first ATP Tour Finals title over Dominic Thiem 6-7(6) 6-2 7-6(4). The 21-year-old Greek player is the youngest player to win the  year-end tour championship since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001 and the seventh player to win it in his tournament debut (Grigor Dimitrov did that in 2017).

Tisitsipas finished the year with wins over every member of the top 10, including the big 3: Nadal, Djokovic and Federer.

2019 ATP YEC: Tsitsipas-Thiem Final

For the fourth consecutive year, the ATP Finals will be won by someone new, i.e. someone who is not a previous champion of the event. This sequence started in 2016 when Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic to become World #1 for the first time, then in 2017 Grigor Dimitrov defeated David Goffin, last year Alexander Zverev beat Djokovic to win the biggest title of his career and tomorrow either 26-year-old Dominic Thiem or 21-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas will win their biggest title. On paper one has to give the edge to Thiem, who has played in two major finals but only won one Masters series shield (defeating Roger Federer in the 2019 Indian Wells final). Plus Thiem leads the head-to-head with Tsitsipas 4-2.

Despite my predictions of a Federer-Thiem final, Tsitsipas was able to blast past Federer in a thrilling 6-4 6-3 win while Thiem dispatched defending champion Zverev 7-5 6-3.

MadProfesah's prediction: Thiem d. Tsitsipas.

2019 ATP YEC: Federer-Tsitsipas, Thiem-Zverev Are Semis As Djokovic and Nadal Are Eliminated

The semifinals at the Nitto ATP Finals are now set: Roger Federer will face Stefanos Tsitsipas while Dominic Thiem versus 2018 champion Alexander Zverev. Both the World #1 Rafael Nadal and World #2 Novak Djokovic were eliminated via different paths in the last two days.
In a blockbuster showdown between Federer and Djokovic (their 49th career meeting) for the semifinal slot, Federer shocked Djokovic by defeating his rival in straight sets 6-4 6-3 to bring their head to head of 23-26 in favor of Djokovic. Interestingly, the result of this match also decided the World #1 race for 2019. Nadal claimed his 5th yearly World #1 (2019, 2017, 2013, 2010, 2008), matching the other members of the trivalry: Djokovic (2018, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011) and Federer (2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004). The significance of the Federer-Djokovic match was set up after Dominic Thiem beat Djokovic in one of the best matches of the year: 6-7(5) 6-3 7-6(5). Thiem's victory meant that Djokovic wouldn't gain undefeated ranking points in the ATP Finals, thus making his task to reach the #1 spot that much more difficult.

In fact this year's ATP Finals was one of the most thrilling in years. In addition to Thiem-Djokovic and Federer-Djokovic there was another notable match in Medvedev-Nadal. Medvedev was up in the third set 1-5 3-40 on Nadal's serve and the Russian twice served for the match at 5-2 and 5-4 but eventually he lost in a third set tiebreak. Other important wins were Zverev's first win over Nadal and Tsitsipas's first win over Medvedev. In the end, despite winning two matches in the round robin round (both 3 set victories, against Medvedev and Tsitsipas) Nadal was eliminated when Zverev defeated Medvedev in straight sets, claiming the final semifinal slot to join Thiem, Federer and Tsitsipas.

MadProfessah's prediction: Federer d. Tsitsipas and Thiem d. Zverev.

BOOK REVIEW: Velocity Weapon (The Protectorate, #1) by Megan O'Keefe

Velocity Weapon is the first book in a new space opera trilogy called the Protectorate written by Megan E. O'Keefe. Since space opera is my all-time favorite I had placed this book on my TBR (to be read) list a while ago and recently moved it to the top and I'm very pleased that I did.

The story in Velocity Weapon is told in multiple timelines and in multiple locations simultaneously. The primary plot follows Sanda Greeve, who wakes up in a life preservation module apparently 200 years after her last memory which was of the beginning of a war between two human societies that have colonized the planets Ada Prime and Icarion. Sanda awakes naked and missing part of a leg on a sentient Icarion warship  called The Light of Berossus capable of accelerating up to 8% of the speed of light and interstellar travel. The second timeline takes place 2 years after the start of the Prime-Icarion war and features Biran Greeve, Sanda's younger brother, who is also Speaker of the Keepers of Ada Prime. Keepers are people who are selected to serve as the keepers of the secret of Ada Prime's greatest technological achievement: the construction of Casimir gates which allow instantaneous interstellar hyperspatial travel. The third timeline takes places some 3500+ years before the first two, depicting the dawn of the Prime area, in which Alexandra Halston, the billionaire CEO of a globe-spanning corporation called Prime who created the very first Casimir gate (after discovering a curious artifact possibly of alien origin) and is credited with humanity's colonization of interstellar space.

The main characters in the book are the artificial intelligence running the warship The Light of Berossus (who likes to be called Bero), Sanda, and Biran. There are multiple other important characters as well: Tomas Cepko, a spy who is hired by Biran (at the usurious price of 90% of all his future earnings!) to try and find Sanda and rescue her; Jules, a small-time criminal who comes across a mysterious cache of military-grade tech that puts everyone she knows in danger while simultaneously providing her with possibly super-human powers of recovery and reflexes and whose connections to the other main plots are mysterious and unclear; Sanda and Biran's two dads Graham and Ilan.

One of the very appealing aspects of Velocity Weapon to me is the author's clear and consistent approach to (re)presenting a diverse and inclusive cast of characters in this space opera. Sanda and Biran are two straight characters who have been raised by a gay male couple that they love very much. One of Jules' main contact is a non-binary character named Arden who is described by all the other characters using the pronouns they and them. The description of most of the characters makes it VERY clear that they are not white (there's an explicit back-story exposition that most of the people in both Ada Prime and Icarion can trace their heritage back to the country of Ecuador on Earth). If that wasn't enough, there are multiple examples of descriptions of the skin tones of characters which are compared to various shades of brown (e.g. coffee with milk, coffee without milk, etc) and most people's hair is dark and curly.

Overall, I was very impressed with Velocity Weapon. As the blurb says, it is an "epic of intergalactic politics, war and rogue A.I." This is right up my alley, and I am confident that readers who like the work of Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds and James S.A. Corey will enjoy this first book in The Protectorate as much as I did. I am eagerly awaiting the following books in this series!

Title: Velocity Weapon.
Author: Megan E. O'Keefe.
Paperback: 544 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date Published: June 11, 2019.
Date Read: November 4, 2019.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★★  (5.0/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0).

PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A+.
WRITING: A.

TENNIS TUESDAY: France Wins Fed Cup Merci A Kiki; Zverev, Thiem and Tsistipas Get Surprising Wins at #ATPFinals

KIKI STEALS THE SHOW AS FRANCE WINS FED CUP IN PERTH

Much to the surprise of many observers, France defeated Australia in the Davis Cup Final held in Perth, Australia last weekend. After the first two matches were 6-1 6-1 France (Kiki Mladenovic d. Ajla Tomljanovic) and 6-0 6-0 Australia (Ash Barty d. Caroline Garcia), most people expected the World #1 to lead her team to their first Fed Cup in 45 years. But after leading 6-2 against Mladenovic Barty's game went off and eventually she lost in a 3rd set tie-break. Amazingly, Tomljanovic was able to win her match to even the tie at 2-all but then Garcia and Mladenovic teamed up to win the decisive doubles tie against Barty and Samantha Stosur and victory for France.

SOME SURPRISING RESULTS AT THE 2019 ATP YEAR END CHAMPIONSHIPS

The ATP Year-End Championship is happening now in London. Currently called the Nitto ATP Finals, it will be moving to Turin, Italy in 2020. Although it started off slowly, there have been some surprising results. Dominic Thiem has defeated Roger Federer for the third time this year. He followed up that win with a 3rd set tiebreak victory over Novak Djokovic which many people are calling the best 3-set men's match of the year. However, in the even more surprising results section is the fact that both Alexander Zverev and Stefans Tsitsipas defeated players whom they had 0-5 head-to-head records against in straight sets. Zverev defeated World #1 Rafael Nadal and Tsitsipas defeated Daniil Medvedev.