I caught up with one more Best Picture nominee last night, King Richard starring Will Smith, and I will be brief about it. It is the story of adolescent tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams (well before they became the best players in the world and winners of multiple majors), and the role that their father, Richard, played in their development. It is a good movie, a good sports movie, and a movie well worth seeing, and it features an absolutely terrific performance by Will Smith as Richard Williams. Smith is the odds on favorite to win the Best Actor Oscar tonight, and it will be a well deserved award, and it will also serve as a Career Achievement Oscar for Smith who has twice before been nominated for Best Actor in his career.
Three Stars from The Grandstander.
After viewing King Richard, I have now seen seven of the ten Best Picture nominees. I never did get the chance to see Don't Look Up prior to tonight's presentations, so that one will have to wait.
Of the the seven films that I have seen, I would be happy if any pf the following three wins the Best Picture Oscar: Belfast, CODA, and West Side Story. I have maintained all along that West Side Story has been my favorite movie that I have seen, but CODA is one that I could also see myself voting for if I had the privilege. Three others, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, and Nightmare Alley were all good, and maybe even very good, movies, but none of them, in my opinion, are the Best Picture of the year.
That leaves Power of the Dog. This is the most nominated film and for the longest time is was considered a shoe in for Best Picture. I got through 45 minutes of it and gave up. Here's a story that sums up this movie. A guy whose opinion I respect, recently told me that he watched this and couldn't "get it", couldn't figure out "what was going on", but after he watched it, he went to Google to read about it and figure out what the movie was trying to say, and then he "got it." When intelligent people have to go to the Google Machine to figure out what a movie was about, sorry, but that is not a movie that should be the Best Picture of any year.
Okay, got that off my chest, so now for my predictions. These are based upon what I have read, what I have been hearing on various movie podcasts, and, oh yeah, what I have actually seen with my own two eyes.
- BEST PICTURE: CODA *
- BEST ACTOR: Will Smith, King Richard *
- BEST ACTRESS: Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
- BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Troy Kotsur, CODA *
- BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Ariana DuBose, West Side Story*
- BEST DIRECTOR: Jane Campion, Power of the Dog
- ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: CODA*
- ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Belfast*
* Movies and performances that I have actually seen. Didn't give an asterisk to Power of the Dog since I only saw about one-third of the movie.
Of the twenty nominated acting performances, I actually only saw seven of them (again, not including three nominated performances from Power of the Dog).
The only Best Actress performance that I saw was Nicole Kidman's portrayal of Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos. I liked her and liked the movie, so if she ends up winning, I won't be unhappy.
If Ariana DuBose wins for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Anita in West Side Story, she will be the second actress to win the same award for playing the same character. Rita Moreno won the same award for the same role back in 1961. Has anything like that ever happened before?
Not a prediction, but I will be rooting hard for Summer of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not be Televised) to win for Best Documentary Feature. That was a terrific movie.
Enjoy the show everyone, and I will own up to my predictions after the telecast.
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