Congratulations to this year's Writers Guild of America honorees!
Best Adapted Screenplay
Eric Heisserer, Arrival
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Deadpool
August Wilson, Fences
Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures
Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals
Best Original Screenplay
Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Jeff Nichols, Loving
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Barry Jenkins and Tarell McCraney, Moonlight
Prediction time! I feel reasonably confident about at least half of these - no way, for instance, La La Land, Natalie Portman, Emma Stone or Viola Davis are losing here. Some of these are true jump balls - Manchester by the Sea vs. Moonlight in both Drama Picture and Screenplay, Casey Affleck vs. Denzel Washington, Moana vs. Zootopia and arguably all of the contenders in Foreign Language Film. Upsets to keep an eye on include Jeff Bridges, Mel Gibson and yes, Ryan Reynolds, who I am begrudgingly predicting for the win here. (My feeling is if Deadpool could inexplicably garner a Comedy/Musical Picture nod, a Reynolds victory is not only plausible but perhaps even likely.)
Check out my predictions below, ranked from most to least likely to prevail. And of course, feel free to chime in with your own two cents as well!
Best Motion Picture – Drama:
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy:
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama:
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama:
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy:
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy:
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Best Director – Motion Picture:
Best Screenplay:
Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language:
Best Motion Picture – Animated:
Best Original Song – Motion Picture:
Best Original Score – Motion Picture:
Earlier this year, I fawned over Illumination Entertainment's The Secret Life of Pets, an endearing roller coaster ride of an animated feature that was exquisitely drawn, enthusiastically performed and sported one hell of an Alexandre Desplat original score to boot.
The studio's latest effort, I'm afraid, is lacking in all areas where Pets excelled, a haphazard, pedestrian film that rarely even stimulates a smile.
Writer-director Garth Jennings' Sing starts off on a decent-enough note, as we see the theater-owning koala bear Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) come up with an idea to save his failing, once-extravagant venue - a singing competition. The event draws far more attention than anticipated when Moon's bumbling secretary misprints the contest as having a grand prize 100 times the actual amount. This draws in a host of characters, few terribly interesting or funny, voiced by the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Seth MacFarlane and Nick Kroll, who belt out new and old Billboard hits.
Each A-lister has their own little subplot but there's not much to write home about. Only MacFarlane, as an arrogant mouse who croons like Sinatra, interjects some life into the proceedings. Perhaps superfans of American Idol and/or The Voice (or - sigh - the Pitch Perfect films) will get a kick out of the musical performances here but I was left mostly unmoved. And where Pets crafted a breathtaking Manhattan setting that really popped off the screen, Sing feels curiously claustrophobic and isn't all that visually striking.
Sing is animated cinema for only the most undemanding of moviegoers.
C
Fingers crossed this does not spur the wrath of franchise fanboys - I am not much a fan of Star Wars. I respect The Empire Strikes Back and get a real kick out of Return of the Jedi (largely on account of Jabba the Hut and those irresistible Ewoks) but A New Hope mostly bores me and I felt Episodes I, II and III often teetered on the hideously awful. I was entertained by last year's The Force Awakens but trust me, there was no urgency felt to revisit it anytime soon.
So, as you might imagine, I was not terribly pumped about the latest picture to sport the Star Wars name. There is, however, some good news to report - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is not a complete miss, on the level of The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. It is still, I'm afraid, not an especially great film.
Rogue One opens with scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) being plucked away from his peaceful home life by the malicious Orson Kreenic (Ben Mendelsohn) to work for the Empire. Years down the road, he is the lead engineer for that notorious, seemingly unstoppable weapon, the Death Star. Galen's daughter Jyn (Felicity Jones), who fled the scene when Orson took her father, teams up with a Rebel spy (Diego Luna) and other members of the resistance to take on Orson and hopefully destroy the Death Star. There are, of course, plenty of bumps, explosions, one-liners and half-baked action sequences along the way.
Despite an accomplished cast and screenplay by the usually reliable Tony Gilroy and Chris Weitz, Rogue One never quite takes off. It's not a bad film but rather one that just kind of sits there, as you wait for something fabulously exciting to happen (it never does). Jones, who was superb two years ago in The Theory of Everything, has a nice screen presence here but isn't given a whole lot to do. Even less meat is on the bone for her talented co-stars to devour. Only Mendelsohn really shines, as the film's one truly compelling character.
Michael Giacchino's original score is no John Williams but also not half-bad. Visually, the picture is not as striking as the last entry, or the first three pictures released, but at least it's not the same wall-to-wall, head-inducing CGI of Episodes I, II and III. Even as someone not enamored with this series, I sorely missed past characters, so much more memorable and fun than this bland crowd.
Could someone please make a spin-off for me with just Jabba, the Ewoks and Yoda?
C+
The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson was, I would argue, one of the finest American playwrights of the 20th century. Prior to his death at age 60 in 2005, he had penned 16 plays, including a collection of 10, dubbed "The Pittsburgh Cycle," depicting the African-American experience in Pittsburgh in each decade of the century. His piece set in the 1950s, Fences, won Wilson his first Pulitzer and only career Tony Award in Best Play.
Now, Fences has been adapted to the big screen by leading man and director Denzel Washington, who brought along with him most of his fellow cast from the immensely successful, Tony-winning 2010 revival of the play. This marks the first time a Wilson play has been brought to the silver screen and the result, while imperfect, still packs a solid punch.
Fences focuses on the Maxson family - father and breadwinner Troy (Washington), his wife Rose (Viola Davis) and their son Cory (Jovan Adepo). There's also Troy's brother Gabe (Mykelti Williamson), whose head injury in World War II left him mentally impaired; Bono (Stephen Henderson), Troy's best friend and a constant presence in the Maxson house; and Lyons (Russell Hornsby), Troy's estranged son, whose dreams of becoming a musician don't sit well with his father. That's largely on account of Troy's failing earlier in life to become a professional baseball player, something he believes was on account of the color of his skin but, in actuality, was due to his age. That sentiment creates great conflict in the home when Cory gets scouted by a college football team - something Troy is adamantly against - and blood further boils among the Maxsons when Troy reveals something to Rose that will forever alter their marriage.
Wilson's words are stirring as ever in Fences and the acting is dazzling all-around. Davis, who is largely relegated to the background in the film's first half, walks away with the picture's back half in a powerhouse, enormously empathetic turn. Adepo is a great find and Henderson a real charmer, managing to steal moments with a simple smile. In the demanding and commanding role of Troy, Washington does fine work selling Wilson's brilliant dialogue. His performance does, however, seem more tailored to the stage than screen - where Davis has toned down her delivery a bit to fit the new medium, Washington is still playing the back row of the balcony.
Washington's direction of Fences is a bit on the staid side - considering this, The Great Debaters and Antwone Fisher collectively, he certainly seems a more compelling force in front of, as opposed to behind the camera. The picture recalls recent stage-to-screen adaptations like August: Osage County and Doubt that, without a great filmmaker calling the shots, got all of their mileage out of the screenplay and performances.
That isn't to say Fences is a bad film in the least - it's a must-see for Davis's performance alone. And I would love to see additional Wilson works adapted to the screen, except preferably with another, more daring director at the helm.
B+