Top Five Pet Peeves of the 2015-16 Oscar Season

The Oscar derby has been dead and buried for over a week now, but as usual I still have a few nuggets to get off my chest before calling it a year. Read on, if you dare, and behold my final purge of negativity, after which I can say "Okay, I'm over it" (hopefully).

5. The Big Short's Adapted Screenplay sweep

I know I've been harping on Adam McKay and Charles Randolph's well-meaning housing crisis comedy for months, but I just don't see what made this such a unanimous choice for writing awards. Especially when the competition hasn't been this stacked in years. I mean, good God: Carol, Room, Brooklyn, The Martian, inexplicable snubbee Steve Jobs, and even the long shots from 45 Years to Mr. Holmes write circles around The Big Short's misguided gimmickry, which gets by on sounding a lot smarter than it truly is. The lone bone tossed to Aaron Sorkin by the Golden Globes is going to look very good ten years from now (Heck, it looked good the moment it happened). At least other season sweepers like Inside Out and Son of Saul can be justified on quality, but I'm not drinking the Koolaid on this one.

October Recap

So October is a wrap! As I was cobbling together my last-minute Doof Warrior costume in time for last night's frivolities, I figured now was the best time to start taking note of how the 2015-16 Oscar race is shaping up.

I realize that for many, the September festival circuit is the official kick-off of awards season. But for those of us without press credentials or travel time to burn, October is when we actually get to see the buzzy titles we've been reading about for a month or more. And this October was chalk full of them.

Globe predix and blogging preview

I must confess that with Oscar nominations less than a week away, I'm starting to feel the crunch. There are still movies I haven't seen yet (including the possible Best Picture winner American Hustle), and many more which I have seen but haven't had time to review (including Her and Short Term 12, both of which will make my top ten, so I want to write proper pieces for them). This is to say nothing of the movies I'll have to seek out and catch up with if there are surprise nominations on Thursday, which there will almost certainly be.

In addition, there are my award nominations to get done. Some categories are pretty well finalized and may be announced as early as this week, but most of them won't appear until after the Academy unveils their own nominations. Thank you for your patience.

But for tonight, I'm devoting my attention to a different set of awards entirely: The Golden Globes! Tina Fey and Amy Poeller were such a notable improvement over Ricky Gervais, if they're half as funny tonight as they were last year, we're guaranteed a good time. As usual, I'll be live blogging the ceremony because this relatively breezy two hour affair simply lends itself to live blogging much more easily than the Oscars.

You can check out my predictions below, not that I'm ever any good at predicting the Globes, but that's part of what makes them so much fun to watch!

Oscar Postmortem Pt. 2: Seth MacFarlane

Reactions from entertainment writers in the wake of last Sunday's sweet and sour Academy Awards telecast have been mostly sour. Has nobody anything sweet to say about the show or its controversial host Seth MacFarlane? I'm just searching for some sugar, man.

Not that MacFarlane needs me or anyone else to defend him. He's no martyr. The style of frat-boy humour that so annoyed people at the Oscars is that upon which he's built for himself a small TV animation empire. Having gotten away with – and actually thrived on – far grosser comedy in Family Guy and American Dad for so many years makes the 39-year-old millionaire somewhat untouchable.

So why do I feel compelled to debate the vocal masses who have been quick to deem him public enemy #1? Again, it's not because I feel he needs to be defended. Nor is it because I think he did a particularly great job; his own self-deprecating meta review of himself, “Seth MacFarlane Proves to be Mediocre Oscar Host”, is pretty accurate in my opinion. So no, this editorial is not a defence of the man, and it is not a contrarian stand for the minority opinion. Rather, it is a plea for cooler heads and less conclusion-jumping, which are becoming increasingly rare in this digital age of hasty headlines and instant reactions.

Golden Globes preview

The Golden Globe Awards take to the air tonight, and it should hopefully be a less cluttered outing than last Thursday's Critics Choice Awards. I'll have plenty of opportunities to replenish my beverage whenever they announce those boring TV categories (tee hee), or whenever Ricky Gervais opens his gob. I know some people have dug his boldly abusive humour the last two years running, but don't count me among them. There are ways to make fun of celebrities without sounding so spiteful, as Billy Crystal will likely demonstrate at the Oscars in six weeks time, so my television will be happily muted when Mr. Gervais takes the stage.

As for the awards, my predictions are outlined below. Should be an easy win for The Artist in Musical/Comedy, but the Drama category promises to actually be exciting this year. I'll be back here tonight to comment on the proceedings as they happen.

Best Picture, Drama
The Descendants
alt: The Help

Best Picture, Comedy or Musical
The Artist
alt: Bridesmaids

The Social Network owns the Golden Globes!

The Social Network wins 4, The Kids Are All Right and The Fighter each take two.

Best Picture (Drama): The Social Network
Best Picture (Comedy or Musical): The Kids Are All Right
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Actor (Drama): Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Best Actress (Drama): Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Actor (Comedy or Musical): Paul Giammatti, Barney's Version
Best Actress (Comedy or Musical): Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter Is the Oscar hers?
Best Screenplay: The Social Network
Best Animated Film: Toy Story 3
Best Foreign Language Film: In A Better World nice boost for this Oscar hopeful
Best Original Song: "You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me", Burlesque
Best Original Score: The Social Network

-Ricky Gervais wasn't funny at all. His jokes are so classless and unappealing. Fail.
-So The Social Network is clearly not just an early season fad. If the guilds confirm it has an industry favourite, then I'll have to finally put it in my #1 Best Picture slot.
-Does Melissa Leo have the Oscar wrapped up? Her precursor wins are lining up, but that acceptance speech was all kinds of arrogant. Will it hurt her chances?
-It's looking like "You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me" is primed to bring Dianne Warren her first Oscar after six (soon to be seven) nominations.