As previously mentioned, I am a sucker for an awards film, and the Oscars is biggest film award. Duly, I have watched as many of these as possible and so here are my predictions for tonight's Oscars. Some of them are little more than a coin toss, though. Some difficult categories to choose from. But here's what I think...
Best Picture:
La La Land
There's nothing else nominated that looks like it or sounds like it, and it comes as a welcome relief in a year where the overall theme of these movies seems to be grief. Plus Hollywood likes to award prizes to films about Hollywood, and La La Land is that film.
There's an outside chance it might be Moonlight, but my money's on La La Land.
Best Actor in a Leading Role:
Denzel Washington (Fences)
This is one of the categories that is a coin toss. It's between Washington and Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea). Both dominate their films, and both are great performances. The difference is this: Affleck's is a quiet, subtle, barely-hanging-in-there performance, and Washington's is bolder and brassier and more in your face. I couldn't easily pick out the scene in Manchester by the Sea that you would point at and say "that, there, defining moment".
Best Actress in a Leading Role:
Emma Stone (La La Land)
Another coin toss. It's between Stone and Natalie Portman (Jackie). It feels like Emma Stone has spent the past couple of years paying her dues in comedy, then moving into award nominations (Birdman), and this will scrape her the award. Portman's portrayal is fantastic, but maybe a touch too alienating?
Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
I'll be honest, it's not a film I've seen, but this seems to be where the hype is.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Viola Davis (Fences)
I was rooting for Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures) until I saw Fences. Great performance, and it takes a lot to be able to stand next to Denzel Washington, match him and not get overshadowed.
Animated Feature Film:
Zootopia/Zootropolis
One of the best films of last year.
Best Cinematography:
La La Land
Costume Design:
Jackie
Best Directing:
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Documentary:
13th (Ava DuVernay)
Best Music (Original Score):
La La Land
Best Original Song:
City of Stars (La La Land)
Best Short Film (animated):
Piper
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Arrival (I want Arrival to win something - it was fantastic)
Best Original Screenplay:
La La Land
Showing posts with label Fences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fences. Show all posts
Sunday, 26 February 2017
Fences
(warning: contains spoilers for Fences)
Fences has been a long time in the making. Based on the 1985 Pulitzer and Tony award winning play by August Wilson, he refused permission for any non-black director to work on his play, stating that "whites have set themselves up as custodians of our experience". Wilson died in 2005, but his decree was absolute, and so his estate released the rights to the screenplay to Denzel Washington who directs and acts in this production.
Troy Maxson (Washington) is a waste collector who lives in 1950s Pittsburgh with his wife, Rose (Viola Davis) and their son Cory. We learn about Troy's life and beliefs as the play goes on. I mean, film. Except it is a play. It looks like a play and it sounds like a play. This isn't meant as a criticism, it's just how the film is set up. Other characters come and go, but mainly they teach us more about Troy. How he is as a father, a husband, a colleague, a brother.
The fences referred to in the title refer to the fence that Rose has asked Troy to build around their property, a source of tension between him and Cory. It also harks back to the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". This defines Troy's life - it's one full of "if only's". Everyone else has things a little better, life would be better if he was...with another woman/had been a baseball player/could read/had more money. Troy is a fascinating character - he fills and dominates the screen, and Washington plays him with a barely contained anger. He is one of those people who is the absolute life and soul of the party until someone says something that displeases him, and then all of a sudden the party is over...
That said, he's also weak and strong, pitiful and commanding, intelligent and a fool.
There's a good chance that Denzel Washington will get a Best Actor Oscar, but he has Casey Affleck to beat and I can't comment...yet. But Affleck has some ways to go to be better than Washington's Troy.
Playing across from him is Rose, who helps smooth Troy's rough edges. Having only just seen Hidden Figures, and being sure that Octavia Spencer was going to get the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, I'm now convinced it will go to Viola Davis. Her portrayal of Rose is one of a woman loves her man but who knows what Troy is like, listens to the same stories again and again, knows which arguments to leave alone, and which to fight. And when she fights, she goes toe-to-toe with Troy. Her "big speech" is heartbreaking, about how she had married him because she loves him and soon afterwards realises that he is too hard and bitter a character to love her back in the same way, but that she never cared because she chose to be in the marriage for the long haul. She's a useful character because she tells us how to respond to Troy (it's surprisingly difficult to tell if Troy is angry or not - Rose's laughs and smiles guide the audience through his moods) She is fierce and vulnerable, and Davis deserves every award she's up for.
Given the understandable furore in recent years about #Oscarssowhite, I wonder if this film would have made the Best Picture list in any other year. Although it's a very engaging story, it's a play, not a film. This is a film with a black cast, black director, black writer, about black issues - it almost feels like the Academy is trying a bit too hard. I doubt it will win Best Picture, but it will be going home with well-deserved awards.
Additional thoughts, comments and questions:
Fences has been a long time in the making. Based on the 1985 Pulitzer and Tony award winning play by August Wilson, he refused permission for any non-black director to work on his play, stating that "whites have set themselves up as custodians of our experience". Wilson died in 2005, but his decree was absolute, and so his estate released the rights to the screenplay to Denzel Washington who directs and acts in this production.
 |
| Fences. They keep people in. They keep people out. |
The fences referred to in the title refer to the fence that Rose has asked Troy to build around their property, a source of tension between him and Cory. It also harks back to the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". This defines Troy's life - it's one full of "if only's". Everyone else has things a little better, life would be better if he was...with another woman/had been a baseball player/could read/had more money. Troy is a fascinating character - he fills and dominates the screen, and Washington plays him with a barely contained anger. He is one of those people who is the absolute life and soul of the party until someone says something that displeases him, and then all of a sudden the party is over...
That said, he's also weak and strong, pitiful and commanding, intelligent and a fool.
There's a good chance that Denzel Washington will get a Best Actor Oscar, but he has Casey Affleck to beat and I can't comment...yet. But Affleck has some ways to go to be better than Washington's Troy.
Playing across from him is Rose, who helps smooth Troy's rough edges. Having only just seen Hidden Figures, and being sure that Octavia Spencer was going to get the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, I'm now convinced it will go to Viola Davis. Her portrayal of Rose is one of a woman loves her man but who knows what Troy is like, listens to the same stories again and again, knows which arguments to leave alone, and which to fight. And when she fights, she goes toe-to-toe with Troy. Her "big speech" is heartbreaking, about how she had married him because she loves him and soon afterwards realises that he is too hard and bitter a character to love her back in the same way, but that she never cared because she chose to be in the marriage for the long haul. She's a useful character because she tells us how to respond to Troy (it's surprisingly difficult to tell if Troy is angry or not - Rose's laughs and smiles guide the audience through his moods) She is fierce and vulnerable, and Davis deserves every award she's up for.
 |
| Rose is happy - so we know to be happy too. |
Additional thoughts, comments and questions:
- If Denzel Washington gets the Best Actor Oscar, he will become the third man to have three acting Oscars, after Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis.
- Mykelti Williamson was fantastic as Gabriel.
- Do we all just become our parents?
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