89th Academy Awards: Predictions, Surprises, & Snubs

Oscar season is finally coming to an end. I have to say this year was an incredible year in Hollywood, and I am overall pretty satisfied with the nominations. So without further ado let's get into it!

Best Picture: Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight
Winner: La La Land
Dark horse: Moonlight

I've made my peace with LLL winning. I really like the film, but would have liked to see Moonlight or Arrival take it. But the LA musical romance is a worthy winner for that dream ballet alone. And though I'm somewhat indifferent to HR and HOHW, there isn't a completely bad movie in the bunch.

Major snub: Jackie is the big movie I wish had more Oscars play. Silence as well if it had been marketed properly.

Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar is Anyone's Game

Normally when people talk about the Oscars, they talk about the biggest categories: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor. And while the below-the-line categories are important and discussed, they don't get the attention or headlines This year, the Best Adapted Screenplay is stacked. The nominees are all Best Picture nominees, and they are all well-respected movies with lots of nominations around the different categories.

Here are the five nominees: Arrival (Eric Heisserer, based on the short story "Story of Your Life"); Fences (August Wilson, based on his play); Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi and Alison Schroeder, based on the book of the same name); Lion (Luke Davies, based on Saroo Brierly's memoir); and Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue). Moonlight and Arrival have the most nominations this year (they both have eight), while Lion has 6, Fences has 4, and Hidden Figures has 3. And frankly I can't predict what film is going to win Best Adapted Screenplay.

The One Reason Why Disney is Ruling Hollywood

Finding Dory

It's no secret that Walt Disney Studios is killing it at the box office. The studio grossed over $7 billion last year, including the mega hits Finding Dory ($486 million), Zootopia ($341 million), Captain America: Civil War ($408 million), The Jungle Book ($364 million), and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($507 million). Five of the top ten highest grossing movies of 2016 are from Disney, with #11 and #12 being Moana ($235 million) and Doctor Strange ($231 million). And that's just the domestic list.

Disney owns some of the biggest franchises: the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Pixar films, the Disney animated films, the Disney live action remake series, and the Star Wars franchise. That doesn't include the random one-offs that the studio might release. I should mention that the animated (both from Pixar and from in-house Disney) and live action remake films aren't traditional franchises in that they are a continued story. They do act like franchises in that the Disney name + concept gets people excited to see them, and the films rely on the previous one's success. By acquiring these properties, Disney spent a lot of money and have reaped the rewards. But how do they do it?

7 Movies to Watch Instead of the Inauguration

Looking to skip the swearing in of Donald Trump? Here are some more diverse, inspiring films that are helping to make the world a better place...unlike certain people in high places...

Hidden Figures
In an era when both Black people and women are under attack, a movie about 3 Black women rising above racism and sexism to change the world is just what the doctor ordered. Hidden Figures is an unabashedly crowd-pleasing movie but a confident, well-executed one. With three compelling performances from Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Moane, Hidden Figures is striking in its depiction at the small, meaningless microaggressions that chip away at the soul bit by bit.

74th Golden Globes Predictions

This Sunday is the first televised awards ceremony, and we're all really excited. The Golden Globes are awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and there is no overlap with the Academy (who votes on the Oscars). However, winning a Golden Globe can shift a movie's chances through perception and buzz. As I've said before, the HFPA is very star-crazy so that often influences their winners. So here we go!

Best Actress - Musical/Comedy
Annette Bening (20th Century Women), Lily, Colins (Rules Don't Apply), Hailee Steinfeld (The Edge of 17), Emma Stone (La La Land), and Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins)

Winner: Emma Stone. It's the kind of performance that the Globes would eat up. Luckily, Stone is also radiant and layered in the film.
Dark horse: Bening or Streep

The Hot Shots of 2016

Even though 2016 was a waking nightmare that will continue until at least 2020, there wre some people in the pop culture world who had a great year. So it's time for my annual Hot Shots list!

Amy Adams
Hey, it wouldn't be an MATM Hot Shots list if five time Oscar nominee Amy Adams didn't top the list. However, the actress formerly known as Princess Giselle just keeps doing great stuff every year! This year, she's in the Oscar conversation for her luminous work in the brainy, emotional sci-fi drama Arrival (fingers crossed for Oscar nomination #6, people!). But she also delivered a knockout performance in the noir/melodrama Nocturnal Animals. #getitgirl

Mahershala Ali
The actor is known for his work on House of Cards and The Hunger Games. This year, he played a memorable supporting character on Luke Cage. And he starred in one of the best films of the year Moonlight. His sensitive, commanding performance is one of the year's most affecting, and it probably will win him an Oscar. Mahershala Ali has been toying with the A-list but he is such a terrific actor with charisma and conviction in spades.

Take it easy, Urvashi: LION and Cultural Displacement/Connection

There's a Hindi phrase that kept popping into my head while watching Lion: "na idhar ke, na udhar ke." Literally it means neither here nor there. But colloquially it suggests a sense of constant displacement. A lack of belonging in any place. The phrase came to mind during a scene where Saroo (Dev Patel) is walking to a party with his white girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara). The sequence is very Bollywood especially with the song "Urvashi Urvashi." The party is hosted by some Indian friends' house. And these friends are immigrants from India. There is Bollywood music playing and a Hindi movie on the TV. Lucy does some Indian dancing, Saroo struggles to eat with his hands. Through his facial expressions and body language, Saroo is visibly uncomfortable. This isn't his culture, his life, even if he is surrounded by people who share his skin tone. In another parry scene--this time, with mostly white people--Saroo is even more uncomfortable and sticks to the wall while Lucy dances with her friends. Saroo seems out of place wherever he goes.

Lion is the directorial debut of Garth Davis, who worked on the acclaimed miniseries Top of the Lake. The film is based on the autobiography A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierly. Adapted by novelist Luke Davies, Lion stars Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, Priyanka Bose, David Wenham, and Nicole Kidman along with debut child actor Sunny Pawar. The cinematography was handled by Greig Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty), with editing by Alexandre de Franceschi (The Painted Veil).