Yearly Archives: 2018

Black Panther Is A Favourite With The Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society, which is one of the newer critics groups, announced their nominees for the best of 2018 earlier today!  Not only did they really like The Favourite but — as you might expect from a group of online critics — they also embraced Black Panther.  Which is good because, if Black Panther‘s going to make history as the first comic book movie to score a best picture nomination, it’s going to need the critical precursor support that wasn’t given to Deadpool, Wonder Woman, or Logan.

Here are the nominations!

Best Picture

A Star is Born
Eighth Grade
Black Panther
The Favourite
The Hate U Give
BlacKkKlansman
Green Book
Roma
A Quiet Place
Searching

Best Actor

Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody
Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born
Christian Bale – Vice
Ethan Hawke – First Reformed
Viggo Mortensen – Green Book

Best Actress

Toni Collette – Hereditary
Charlize Theron – Tully
Lady Gaga – A Star is Born
Olivia Colman – The Favourite
Nicole Kidman – Destroyer

Best Supporting Actor

Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman
Mahershala Ali – Green Book
Russell Hornsby – The Hate U Give
Sam Elliott – A Star is Born
Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Best Supporting Actress

Elizabeth Debicki – Widows
Emma Stone – The Favourite
Rachel Weisz – The Favourite
Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk
Amy Adams – Vice

Best Adapted Screenplay

Bradley Cooper and Eric Roth – A Star is Born
Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Charlie Wachtel – BlacKkKlansman
Barry Jenkins – If Beale Street Could Talk
Audrey Wells – The Hate U Give
Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty – Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Best Original Screenplay

Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, and John Krasinski – A Quiet Place
Bo Burnham – Eighth Grade
Tony McNamara and Deborah Davis – The Favourite
Boots Riley – Sorry to Bother You
Adam McKay – Vice

Best Male Director

Alfonso Cuaron – Roma
Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman
Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite
Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born
Ryan Coogler – Black Panther

Best Female Director

Chloe Zhao – The Rider
Debra Granik – Leave No Trace
Tamara Jenkins – Private Life
Marielle Heller – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Lynne Ramsay – You Were Never Really Here

Best Animated Film

Incredibles 2
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Isle of Dogs
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Mirai

Best Foreign Film

Burning
Cold War
Roma
Shoplifters
Girl

Best Documentary

Free Solo
Minding the Gap
RBG
Three Identical Strangers
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Best Visual Effects

Ready Player One
Mission Impossible – Fallout
First Man
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War

Best Cinematography

Linus Sandgren – First Man
James Laxton – If Beale Street Could Talk
Alfonso Cuarón – Roma
Robbie Ryan – The Favourite
Rachel Morrison – Black Panther

Best Blockbuster

Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Deadpool 2
Mission: Impossible Fallout
Ready Player One

Best Independent Film

Eighth Grade
First Reformed
Sorry to Bother You
Ben Is Back
If Beale Street Could Talk

Best First Feature

Bo Burnham – Eighth Grade
Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born
Ari Aster – Hereditary
Paul Dano – Wildlife
Aneesh Chaganty – Searching

Best Comedy/Musical

Crazy Rich Asians
Game Night
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!
The Favourite
Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Action Film

Mission: Impossible -Fallout
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Deadpool 2
Widows

Best Sci-Fi/Horror

A Quiet Place
Annihilation
Halloween
Hereditary
Suspiria

Best Performance by an Actor 23 and Under

Alex Wolff – Hereditary
Lucas Hedges – Boy Erased
Lucas Hedges – Ben Is Back
Noah Jupe – A Quiet Place
Timothée Chalamet – Beautiful Boy

Best Performance by an Actress 23 and Under

Amandla Stenberg – The Hate You Give
Elsie Fisher – Eighth Grade
Millicent Simmonds – A Quiet Place
Milly Shapiro – Hereditary
Thomasin McKenzie- Leave No Trace

Best Breakthrough Performance

Elsie Fisher – Eighth Grade
John David Washington – BlacKkKlansman
Lady Gaga – A Star is Born
Yalitza Aparicio – Roma
Amandla Stenberg – The Hate U Give

Best Cast

Black Panther
The Favourite
BlacKkKlansman
Crazy Rich Asians
Widows

Best Stunt Work

Avengers: Infinity War
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Black Panther
Deadpool 2
Upgrade

Best Score

Justin Hurwitz – First Man
Nicholas Britell – If Beale Street Could Talk
Alexandre Desplat – Isle of Dogs
Ludwig Göransson- Black Panther
Terence Blanchard – BlacKkKlansman

Best Original Song

All the Stars – Black Panther
Shallow – A Star is Born
Hollywood Ending – Anna and The Apocalypse
Revelation – Boy Erased
Hearts Beat Loud – Hearts Beat Loud

Best Editing

Adam Gough and Alfonso Cuarón – Roma
Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick – Searching
Yorgos Mavropsaridis – The Favourite
Barry Alexander Brown – BlacKkKlansman
Hank Corwin – Vice

Best Visual Effects or Animated Performance

Ben Whishaw – Paddington 2
Jason Liles – Rampage
Josh Brolin – Avengers: Infinity War
Phoebe Waller-Bridge – Solo: A Star Wars Story
Tom Hardy – Venom

 

Artist Profile: Bernard Barton (1920 — 1993)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

As happens sometimes, I couldn’t find much biographical information about the pulp artist Bernard Barton.  I was able to find his dates of birth and date at wikimedia but otherwise, there wasn’t much information online, beyond his work.  Bernard Barton was one of the few artist of the pulp paperback era to regularly sign his work, which means that even if I can’t find out much about his life, at least we can appreciate his work.

As far as I can tell, Bernard Barton is no relation to Harry Barton, another prominent artist of the pulp era.  (Interestingly, Harry’s full name was Harold Bernard Barton.)

Check out some of Bernard Barton’s work below:

Music Video of the Day: Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison (1987, directed by Gary Weis)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

There were actually two videos released for George Harrison’s cover of Got My Mind Set On You.  I shared the better-known version yesterday.  

The other version features Alexis Denisof, trying to win the heart of a young woman at an arcade by winning her a toy ballerina.  George and the band appear in a hand-cranked movie viewer.

Like the other version, this video was directed by filmmaker Gary Weis.  Along with the videos for Got My Mind Set On You and several short films for Saturday Night Live, Gary Weis also directed the videos of Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al and Walk Like An Egyptian by the Bangles.

I Watched Finding Santa

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

I will be the first to admit that I’m not as much of an expert on Hallmark Christmas films as some members of my family but I think that I have figured out that general formula.  Basically, in every Hallmark Christmas movie, one of the girls from Full House either lives in or returns to a small town where it snows all the time and she falls in love while celebrating the holidays.  There is always one person who doesn’t have the holiday spirit but, by the end of the movie, they’re saying “Ho ho ho” and drinking eggnog.

In Finding Santa, it’s Jodie Sweetin’s turn to fall in love during Christmas.  She plays Grace, who lives in the town of Green River.  From her parents, she inherited an all-year Christmas store and the responsibility for organizing the town’s annual Christmas parade.  With the parade’s 50th anniversary approaching, Grace wants everything to be perfect but then the town’s Santa Claus, Tom (Jay Brazeau), slips and breaks his arm.  Tom runs a Santa school but he says that none of his students are ready to don the red suit.  Tom says that only his son, Ben (Eric Winter), can steer his sleigh.  The only problem is that Ben has no Christmas spirit and doesn’t want to be Santa.  Grace goes to Boston to try to change his mind.

Finding Santa starts out like a typical Hallmark Christmas film, with Grace loving Christmas and Ben feeling that Grace is making too big a deal about it.  The thing that sets Finding Santa apart from other Hallmark movies is that, for once, the Christmas skeptic has a point.  Grace does make too big a deal about the Christmas parade and protecting her parent’s legacy.  Grace is so obsessed with making everyone else’s holiday season perfect that she forgets to enjoy it herself.  Of course, by the end of the movie, both Ben and Grace have fallen in love and learned an important lesson about the true meaning of Christmas.  It’s a cute movie that teaches an important lesson about taking time for yourself.  Plus, I like the idea that there’s a school where you can get a Santa Claus degree.

Before I watched this movie, I was feeling bad because I overslept and missed our annual Christmas parade this weekend.  Getting to see the Green River Christmas Parade in Finding Santa made me feel better,  I don’t know the name of the man who plays Santa in our parade but he’s been doing it for years and he always does a great job.   He probably graduated at the top of his class from Santa School.

The Real Santa Claus, circa 2015 (picture taken by me)

Lisa’s Week In Review: 11/26/18 — 12/02/18

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Jeff & I are on holiday until the 9th!  Happy December everyone!

Movies I Watched:

  1. Barrabas (2012)
  2. Before Sunrise (1995)
  3. Before Sunset (2004)
  4. Having You (2013)
  5. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
  6. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
  7. The Rewrite (2014)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 24 Hours in A&E
  2. The Apprentice
  3. Caught on Camera
  4. Coronation Street
  5. Curvy Girls: Stripped Bare
  6. Doctor Who
  7. Emmerdale
  8. Enterprice
  9. Eyewitness News
  10. Friends
  11. The Graham Norton Show
  12. I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!
  13. ITV Evening News
  14. ITV News London
  15. Last Call With Carson Daly
  16. Maid in Hell: Why Slavery?
  17. Nightline
  18. Panorama
  19. Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs
  20. Poker
  21. Seinfeld

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Acoustic Truth
  2. Armin van Buuren
  3. Avicii
  4. Big Data
  5. Coldplay
  6. The Chemical Brothers
  7. David Guetta
  8. Fade
  9. Gwen Stefani
  10. Jakalope
  11. Martin Garrix
  12. Saint Motel
  13. Son Lux
  14. Swedish House Mafia
  15. Taylor Swift

Links From Last Week:

  1. George H.W. Bush Dies at 94: president, family man, war hero
  2. On my music site, I shared music from Son Lux, Fade, Gwen Stefani, Coldplay, Saint Motel, Taylor Swift, and Acoustic Truth.
  3. On my dream site, I shared Last Night’s Art Gallery Dream!
  4. On her photography site, Erin shared Playground, Campus, Central, Trees, Christmas is Coming, Church In The Rain, and Christmas 2011!
  5. On the Reality TV Chat Blog site, Erin reviewed the latest episode of Survivor!
  6. Amanda Bynes Breaks The Internet
  7. Fantastic Oscar Hosts And Where To Find Them
  8. “If Bobbie Talks, I’m Finished” How Les Moonves Tried To Silence An Accuser
  9. Curtains for the Clintons
  10. ‘Cosmos’ Host Neil deGrasse Tyson To Be Investigated By Fox, Nat Geo & Producers After New Sexual Misconduct Allegations
  11. Neil DeGrasse Tyson Addresses Sexual Misconduct Accusations: “I’m The Accused, So Why Believe Anything I Say?”

Links From The Site:

  1. We all wished Arleigh a happy birthday!
  2. Erin shared the following artwork: Startling Stories, The Girls in 3-B, The Green Girl, Pierre’s Woman, Woman of the Avalon, White Christmas, and Snowslide.  She also reviewed a Hallmark film, Mingle All The Way!
  3. Gary reviewed Dark Passage, The Trial of Billy Jack and Billy Jack Goes To Washington!  He also took a look at the television career of Larry Cohen!
  4. Jeff shared music videos from 1,000 Clowns, Spacehog, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Animotion, Jesus Jones, and George Harrison!
  5. I reviewed Behind Green Lights, Parole, Inc, Time Table, Johnny O’Clock, and The Stranger!  I shared my Oscar predictions for November and I shared the picks of the National Board of Review, the Satellite nominations, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Detroit Film Critics, and The Washington D.C. Film Critics!
  6. Ryan reviewed Mother’s Walk, Mac and Me, Breach, and American Psycho, along with sharing his Top Ten Single Issues of 2018 and his Top Ten Ongoing Series of 2018!

(Check out what I accomplished last week by clicking here!)

The Washington D.C. Film Critics Nominate Coogler, Jordan, and The Favourite

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, the Washington D.C. Film Critics announced their nominees for the best of 2018.  While the big three contenders — Roma, Star is Born, and Green Book — are all present and accounted for, the D.C. Film Critics did take the time to nominate Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan for their work on Black Panther.  They also nominated The Favourite for Best Picture, which isn’t unexpected but The Favourite, like Black Panther, can use all the support it can get to prevent being overshadowed by the big three contenders.

(Before anyone asks what I’m basing my analysis on, allow me to point out that I’m not the first film blogger to pretend to be an Oscar expert and I’m sure I won’t be the last….)

Best Film:
The Favourite
Green Book
If Beale Street Could Talk
Roma
A Star Is Born

Best Director:
Ryan Coogler (Black Panther)
Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born)
Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)
Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)

Best Actor:
Christian Bale (Vice)
Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born)
Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)
Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Viggo Mortensen (Green Book)

Best Actress:
Glenn Close (The Wife)
Toni Collette (Hereditary)
Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born)
Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Best Supporting Actor:
Mahershala Ali (Green Book)
Timothée Chalamet (Beautiful Boy)
Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born)
Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther)

Best Supporting Actress:
Cynthia Erivo (Bad Times at the El Royale)
Nicole Kidman (Boy Erased)
Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Emma Stone (The Favourite)
Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)

Best Acting Ensemble:
Black Panther
The Favourite
If Beale Street Could Talk
Vice
Widows

Best Youth Performance:
Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade)
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie (Leave No Trace)
Milly Shapiro (Hereditary)
Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place)
Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give)

Best Voice Performance:
Bryan Cranston (Isle of Dogs)
Holly Hunter (Incredibles 2)
Shameik Moore (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
Sarah Silverman (Ralph Breaks the Internet)
Ben Whishaw (Paddington 2)

Best Motion Capture Performance:
Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War)
Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One)
Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story)

Best Original Screenplay:
Bo Burnham (Eighth Grade)
Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (The Favourite)
Paul Schrader (First Reformed)
Nick Vallelonga & Brian Currie & Peter Farrelly (Green Book)
Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)
Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole (Black Panther)
Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Eric Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters (A Star Is Born)

Best Animated Feature:
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Best Documentary:
Free Solo
RBG
Science Fair
Three Identical Strangers
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Best Foreign Language Film:
Burning
Capernaum
Cold War
Roma
Shoplifters

Best Production Design:
Production Designer: Hannah Beachler; Set Decorator: Jay Hart (Black Panther)
Production Designer: Fiona Crombie; Set Decorator: Alice Felton (The Favourite)
Production Designer: Nathan Crowley; Set Decorator: Kathy Lucas (First Man)
Production Designer: John Myhre; Set Decorator: Gordon Sim (Mary Poppins Returns)
Production Designer: Eugenio Caballero; Set Decorator: Bárbara Enríquez (Roma)

Best Cinematography:
Robbie Ryan, BSC (The Favourite)
Linus Sandgren, FSF (First Man)
James Laxton (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Alfonso Cuarón (Roma)
Matthew Libatique, ASC (A Star Is Born)

Best Editing:
Yorgos Mavropsaridis, ACE (The Favourite)
Tom Cross, ACE (First Man)
Alfonso Cuarón, Adam Gough (Roma)
Jay Cassidy, ACE (A Star Is Born)
Joe Walker, ACE (Widows)

Best Original Score:
Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther)
Justin Hurwitz (First Man)
Nicholas Britell (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Thom Yorke (Suspiria)
Hans Zimmer (Widows)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
The Front Runner
RBG
Vice

Four Color Apocalypse 2018 Year In Review : Top Ten Ongoing Series

Posted on by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)'s avatarRyan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse

The 2018 ” Top 10″ train keeps rolling! This time out : my ten favorite ongoing series of the year. Open-ended or limited runs are fine, as long as the books in question adhere (however tenuously, in some cases) to a production schedule of some sort. Ongoings that release one issue a year (or less) are not eligible in this category, although many such series — like Sean Knickerbocker’s Rust Belt and Anders Nilsen’s Tongues, to name just a couple — were represented in my previously-posted “Top 10 Single Issues” list. And so, with all that out of the way —

10. Exit Stage Left : The Snagglepuss Chronicles By Mark Russell And Mike Feehan (DC) – While never quite reaching the same heights as Russell and Steve Pugh’s The Flintsones, this re-imagining of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon cat as, essentially, Tennessee Williams was still a superb take-down…

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Music Video Of The Day: Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison (1987, directed by Gary Weis)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Got My Mind Set On You was the first single to be released off of George Harrison’s 1987 solo album, Cloud Nine.  It went on to become the last of George Harrison’s three number one singles in the United States and the last number one single (to date) to be released by a former Beatle.  By a nice twist of fate, it was number one the week that the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Got My Mind Set On You was actually a cover of I’ve Got My Mind Set On You, which was recorded in 1962 by James Ray.  “Weird Al” Yankovic later parodied this song as (This Song’s) Just Six Words Long.

The video above features George Harrison’s performing the song in a study while the furniture dances along to the music.  Just as that’s not actually George doing a backflip, the video wasn’t shot in George Harrison’s actual study.  Admit it, though.  If you ever heard someone say, “George Harrison was in his study,” you’d imagine the room looking just like the one in this video.

This video was directed by Gary Weis, who is probably best known for the short films that he directed for the first five seasons of Saturday Night Live, including the famous short where an elderly John Belushi visits the graves of all the other Not Ready For Prime Time Players and marvels at the fact that he outlived them all.