Mackinaw Mail

I Even Impressed Myself With the Picks This Year

It’s that time of year when I come to terms with not being on the same page as The Academy regarding the films I like. A year after what had to be one of the most awkward Academy Awards (thanks to COVID and the odd restrictions set in place), we follow it up with probably the most memorable (for better or worst) moments in the Oscars televised history. Although I may not agree with everything they like, I am happy to say that I can predict them pretty well. Especially this year, I ended up correctly guessing 21 of the 23 categories (hopefully, you used the picks on your ballot as I suggested!) That’s a 91.3%, god enough for an A- (although I still disagree with the selections that differed.) Unfortunately, my picks that I wanted to win didn't fair as well; that was 12 of 23 or 52.17%, which is a big fat F.

The two categories I predicted wrong were Best Original Screenplay and Best Animated Short Film. While I’m not upset with BELFAST winning screenplay over LICORICE PIZZA, it was one of my favorite films of the year and drastically underrepresented this year. I have more of an issue with THE WINDSHIELD WIPER winning over ROBIN ROBIN. With this being one of the weakest years in the animated short category, ROBIN ROBIN was the most deserving. THE WINDSHIELD WIPER felt more like a live-action film run through a filter; I guess you could take that as a compliment, but it just wasn’t as appealing to me.

As a personal note, these are some of the awards that I wanted to win (not my actual predictions.) I would have liked to have seen Kirsten Stewart win over Jessica Chastain; not to say that I didn’t like Chastain’s performance, but I felt Stewart shined in her role in SPENCER. It was a moment that surprised a lot of detractors of hers, especially those that only associate her with the role in the TWILIGHT films.

I had wanted to see Andrew Garfield win over Will Smith (before anything happened) because I enjoyed TICK, TICK… BOOM! far more than KING RICHARD. Smith’s performance was on point, especially when comparing the real-life character to his role. Even if The Academy strips Smith of his Oscar, it won’t go to anyone else; it will just end up as an asterisk in the history books.

I didn’t understand this one. The definition of a production designer is “In film and television, the production designer is the individual responsible for the overall aesthetic of the story. The production design gives the viewers a sense of the period, the plot location, and character actions and feelings.” While DUNE was gorgeous, I don’t think it even came close to the feel of THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. That was one of my biggest surprises of the year.

I have to talk about the elephant in the room; even if you didn’t watch the Oscars, you’ve heard about “the smack.” While The Academy is still deciding how to proceed, I feel like they already messed up its entirety. Allowing Will Smith to stay in the audience and then handing him the award for Best Picture and allowing him to give his acceptance speech is a bad look for them, and it won’t be able to be cured by anything they do as punishment. As of Friday, Smith resigned from The Academy, which means he doesn’t get to vote on future Oscar ballots. I feel like this was a public relations move to soften any punishment he may get. My personal opinion is that Smith should lose his Oscar and be barred from attending any future presentations. I’ve refrained from talking about this incident any further because I don’t think it’s my place to comment on this is for several reasons, but this is the last you’ll hear from me about it.

Oscar firsts: CODA won Best Picture and was the first film distributed by an internet streaming service to receive that award. Ariana DeBose became the first Afro–Latin American and the first queer woman of color to win for acting. With her Best Supporting Actress win for her performance as Anita in the film West Side Story, both she and Rita Moreno, who previously won for playing the same character in the 1961 adaptation of the stage musical, became the third pair of actors to win for portraying the same character in two different films.

If you haven’t noticed, I have started posting all of my film reviews on my author page, and I’ve created a short link to help get to the page. Simply go to OhMovie.Reviews (no dot com needed.) Here you can see all of the same reviews I share on my Facebook page.

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