91st Academy Awards - Results + Recap Post

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS – FIRST MAN

BEST EDITING – BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

BEST COSTUME DESIGN – BLACK PANTHER

BEST MAKEUP/HAIRSTYLING – VICE

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – ROMA

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – BLACK PANTHER

BEST SOUND EDITING AND BEST SOUND MIXING – BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

BEST ORIGINAL SONG – SHALLOW (A STAR IS BORN)

BEST SCORE – BLACK PANTHER

BEST ANIMATED SHORT – BAO

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT – SKIN

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT – PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE

BEST DOCUMENTARY – FREE SOLO

BEST FOREIGN FILM – ROMA (From Mexico)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE – SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – BLACKKKLANSMAN

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – GREEN BOOK

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – REGINA KING (IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – MAHERSHALA ALI (GREEN BOOK)

BEST ACTRESS – OLIVIA COLMAN (THE FAVOURITE)

BEST ACTOR – RAMI MALEK (BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY)

BEST DIRECTOR – ALFONSO CUARON (ROMA)

BEST PICTURE – GREEN BOOK

THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW

Well, there was certainly quite a lot of controversy surrounding this year’s Academy Awards, which ended up being the first ceremony since the 61^st Academy Awards in 1989 to not have a host. Originally, Kevin Hart was set to host, but he ended up backing out as a way of apologizing for a collection of homophobic tweets that he had posted in 2010 and 2011. Thus, after a month of trying to find a replacement, the Academy ultimately decided to go without a host this year. But because of this, there was some speculation about how this would affect the ceremony. As noted earlier, the last Oscars ceremony without a host was in 1989… and yet, it has commonly been regarded as one of the worst Oscars of all-time. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case with this year’s Oscars as the lack of a host surprisingly helped to keep the ceremony running smoothly. There weren’t any major skits, like Ellen DeGeneres ordering pizza for the crowd or Jimmy Kimmel announcing a contest where the one with the shortest acceptance speech would also win a free jet ski. Instead, it was just the award presenters and the performances of the Best Original Song nominees, and while I’m usually okay with Oscar skits and montages, I will also admit that not having any of them this year was probably for the best. If anything, it did help deal with one of the most common criticisms of the Oscars as this year’s ceremony ultimately clocked in at a run-time of three hours and twenty-two minutes, effectively making it the shortest ceremony since the 84^th Academy Awards. Plus, this ended up being a better way of condensing the Oscars than the various ways in which the Academy had planned on accomplishing this.

Yes, folks, the big controversies surrounding this year’s event mainly stemmed from the various ways in which the Academy attempted to keep it from going on too long. First, there was the announcement that only two of the nominees for Best Original Song would be performed, which is undoubtedly a bizarre idea for a show that wasn’t even going to have a host. Ultimately, though, after some backlash, this decision was reversed and four of the nominated songs were performed, with the only exception being ‘All the Stars’ from Black Panther supposedly due to scheduling conflicts with its lead performer, Kendrick Lamar. Things only proceeded to get more complicated, however, when the Academy announced that it was planning on cutting four awards from the main broadcast; Cinematography, Live-Action Short, Editing, and Makeup/Hairstyling. Instead of being presented during the show itself, they would’ve only been shown during commercial breaks. As you might have guessed, this incurred an even greater backlash from the film industry, but just like the plan for the Best Original Song nominees, this idea was thankfully nixed. And don’t even get me started on how mad people got at the proposed new category that would’ve honored ‘popular films’ like Black Panther. Ultimately, though, I do feel that this exemplifies something that I’ve been saying for a while now about how we really shouldn’t be taking shows like the Oscars THIS seriously. To be clear, I’m not defending any of the proposed changes that the Academy had tried to put into motion as I’m very much glad that they didn’t cut out any of the awards or musical performances. However, I do think that these proposed ideas were partially spawned from the Academy being immensely pressured into trying to address some of the common criticisms that the internet tends to have about the Oscars without having any of the time that was necessary to come up with a plan that made sense.

 

As I’ve said plenty of times before (and will surely have to say again in the years to come), this is just one award show. It is not meant to be the ‘end all, be all’ when it comes to what qualifies as the best of the world of film in any given year. The same can be said about other award shows because they’re just as subjective as film itself. Outside of some rare ties, only one film, actor/actress, director, or technical aspect wins in their respective categories; and yet, that doesn’t mean that whatever wins is automatically the ‘best’ of that year. That’s why I don’t get worked up over snubs anymore because it really isn’t that big of a slight against the film or performance in question as the internet always makes it out to be. All of this certainly applies to this year’s Oscars results, which saw Green Book take home Best Picture despite all the controversy that it’s been embroiled in over its alleged historical inaccuracy and ties to the ‘white savior narrative’ trope. Bohemian Rhapsody, which ended up winning the most Oscars of the night with 4, has also proven to be highly controversial due to it not being that well-received by critics, its apparent downplaying of Freddie Mercury’s LGBT lifestyle, and all the baggage of its director Bryan Singer’s various sexual assault allegations in the era of #MeToo. At the very least, there were some historical victories during this year’s ceremonies; for example, Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler became the first African-Americans to win Oscars in Costume Design and Production Design, respectively, for their work on Black Panther. Thus, it could be said that the current state of the Oscars is just like the current state of the film industry in the wake of the Weinstein scandals. There’s clearly still a lot of progress to be made when it comes to a fully diversified industry, but at the very least, some progress has occurred.

And now we turn to the biggest highlights of this year’s ceremony. Unlike previous years, however, I’m not really going to categorize these moments as ‘best’ or ‘worst’.

OPENING PERFORMANCE BY QUEEN AND ADAM LAMBERT

This year’s ceremony kicked off with a musical performance by Queen and Adam Lambert, the latter of whom has been one of Queen’s primary collaborators since 2011 and had a small cameo as a truck driver in Bohemian Rhapsody. Together, they performed ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are the Champions’ to the highly enthusiastic Oscars crowd as best exemplified by a reaction shot of a high-spirited Javier Bardem. There was even a nice little tribute to Freddie Mercury when his image appeared on the screen at the end. All in all, it was a nice way to start off a show that wasn’t going to have a main host. Even with that in mind, though…

MAYA RUDOLPH, TINA FEY, AND AMY POEHLER’S ‘OPENING MONOLOGUE’

The first official presenters of the night were Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler, and while Fey and Poehler have had plenty of experience as award show hosts having hosted three Golden Globe ceremonies, the trio quickly reassured the audience that they were not the hosts. They also noted that there wouldn’t be a ‘Best Popular Film’ category, no awards were going to be presented during commercials, and that Mexico wasn’t going to pay for the wall. Still, the strong comedic chemistry amongst the three proved that they certainly could’ve proven to be good hosts. In fact, there were a few other instances of dynamic presenter duos that showed promising potential as hosts, including the duo of Awkwafina and John Mulaney, who presented the Oscars for Best Animated Short and Best Documentary Short, and Creed co-stars Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, who presented the Oscar for Best Original Score. But as I noted before, the lack of a host didn’t end up being that big of a loss in the long run. Thus, it’s ultimately up to the Academy to decide whether to have hosts or not for future ceremonies.     

MELISSA MCCARTHY, BRIAN TYREE HENRY, AND THEIR EXTRAVAGANT ATTIRE

Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry presented the Oscar for Best Costume Design and did so in the most appropriate manner possible by wearing elaborate costumes that featured elements from all 5 nominees. Henry sported Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger hairdo from Black Panther and Emily Blunt’s hat from Mary Poppins Returns while McCarthy sported a wig that mirrored the reveal of Queen Elizabeth I’s thinning hairline from Mary Queen of Scots, a hat from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and a dress that was covered with bunnies a la The Favourite. And as ridiculous as these two get-ups looked, the two managed to play it all completely straight-faced.

KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY AS MARY POPPINS

To introduce Bette Midler’s performance of ‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’ from Mary Poppins Returns, Keegan-Michael Key had his own Mary Poppins moment by floating down from the rafters via umbrella. Need I say more about how awesome this moment is?  

WAYNE, GARTH, AND BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ the song saw a major resurgence in popularity in 1992 thanks to the comedy Wayne’s World, where main protagonists Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) rocked out to the classic Queen tune in their car. Myers would then go on to appear in this year’s Bohemian Rhapsody biopic, which included a scene where he directly references Wayne’s World by arguing that the song would not be one that “teenagers can crank up the volume in their car and bang their heads to”. And while I will openly admit that it is one of the most undeniably blatant uses of an in-joke in recent memory, it’s still a memorable moment from the film for better or worse. The Oscars then proceeded to pay tribute to the classic scene from Wayne’s World by having Myers and Carvey come out together to introduce Bohemian Rhapsody as one of this year’s Best Picture nominees. Sure, it was mostly just a reunion for these two SNL alumni, but I do get a kick out of film-related reunions like this.    

MARVEL WINS SOME OSCARS

Now admittedly, this is more about the Oscars results than moments from the show itself, but I was quite glad to see that Black Panther managed to get some love at this year’s ceremony. It was the first superhero film to get nominated for Best Picture, and while it ultimately didn’t win that one, it did end up winning for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and Best Original Score. I was especially glad to see it win some awards after reading one of Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot’ articles that revealed some of the Academy’s voters’ picks in an anonymous fashion. One of the voters explicitly noted that he didn’t vote for Avengers: Infinity War for Best Visual Effects because “like a lot of people in the Academy, [he] doesn’t respect money-grabs”. And while this comment was primarily directed towards Avengers, he also described Black Panther as “a Marvel comic book movie” that’s “not much better than any of the others”. Reading this legitimately made me worried that Black Panther was going to get ignored just because it was from the genre that, for the past few years, has been the subject of mockery from those who take issue with its domination of the current pop cultural zeitgeist. Thankfully, though, that was not the case. Plus, Black Panther wasn’t the only Marvel film to win big that night as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature. Simply put, it was a big night for Marvel Studios and the MCU, which was then perfectly topped off with the late Stan Lee being honored during the annual ‘In Memoriam’ section.

LADY GAGA AND BRADLEY COOPER’S PERFORMANCE OF ‘SHALLOW’

Thanks to the Academy reversing their decision to cut out most of the performances of the Best Original Song nominees, we got to witness another excellent round of musical performances. Jennifer Hudson performed “I’ll Fight” from the documentary RBG, Bette Midler made a special appearance performing “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns, and David Rawlings and Gillian Welch performed “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. But for many people, the biggest highlight of them all when it came to the musical performances was seeing Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga perform “Shallow”, which would ultimately end up winning the Oscar that night, from A Star is Born. And it was certainly an unforgettable moment with a notably different spin to it compared to the other Best Original Song nominees because no one came out to introduce it. Instead, Cooper and Gaga simply walked onto the stage to perform their film’s signature tune with the same emotional intensity that helped to make A Star is Born one of the biggest hits of the year.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON AND SPIKE LEE ARE BEST BUDS

Samuel L. Jackson has had a long career in the film industry, and one of his most frequent collaborators has been Spike Lee thanks to appearances in films like Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, and Chi-Raq. And when Jackson and Brie Larson came out to announce the winners of the Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars, Jackson immediately reminded everyone of his friendship with the veteran filmmaker. For starters, Jackson informed Lee that his hometown team, the Knicks, had won that night, officially breaking their 18-game losing streak at Madison Square Garden. And when Lee and his BlacKkKlansman co-writers ended up winning the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Jackson couldn’t contain his excitement for the results, culminating in Lee bear-hugging Jackson when the former got up onstage.

And lastly…

GREAT SPEECHES

As is the case with any Oscars ceremony, there were some great speeches from the winners. Some of the most notable speeches include…

*Spike Lee encouraging everyone to be “on the right side of history” and “do the right thing” (“You know I had to get that in there!”) for the 2020 Presidential Election.

*Rami Malek talking about his identity as the son of immigrants and how it led to him connecting with Freddie Mercury, who was also an immigrant. There was also a sweet shout-out to his Bohemian Rhapsody co-star/girlfriend Lucy Boynton.

*Bao director Domee Shi (AKA the first female director of a Pixar short) encouraging girls “who hide behind their sketchbooks” to not “be afraid to tell your story to the world”.

*Black Panther costume designer Ruth Carter paying tribute to Spike Lee, who helped her get her start in the film industry. “Marvel may have created the first black superhero, but through costume design, we turned him into an African king.”

*Black Panther production designer Hannah Beachler arguably had the most emotional speech of the night as she thanked director Ryan Coogler, who she’s worked with on all his films, for helping make her “a better designer, a better story-teller, and a better person”. She also thanked Marvel for “supporting their vision” and concluded with the following; “I did my best and my best is good enough.”

*After winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, Lady Gaga thanked Bradley Cooper for believing in her and her fellow songwriters Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt, further stating that there wasn’t “a single person on the planet that could have sung this song with [her] but [him]”. Gaga then proceeded to encourage viewers to fight for their dreams and keep going no matter “how many times you get rejected or you fall down or get beaten up”.

*But for many, the best speech of the night came courtesy of Olivia Colman when she won Best Actress for her role in The Favourite. During her speech, she fangirled over fellow nominees Glenn Close and Lady Gaga, joked about the possibility that her kids weren’t watching by saying that “this is not going to happen again”, and reminisced about her time spent as a cleaner where she often pretended to give this exact speech. She also promised to snog anyone that she forgot to thank during the speech.

And that concludes this recap of the 91^st annual Academy Awards. Thanks for following along and be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own thoughts on the show. Did you think that it worked better without a host? And do you agree with me about what I said about how we really shouldn’t take award shows like this too seriously?    

Alita: Battle Angel (2019) review

In the early 2000s, James Cameron acquired the film rights to the popular manga series Gunnm, also known as Battle Angel Alita. Created by artist Yukito Kishiro, it told the story of a young female cyborg named Alita who struggles to understand her past but then gradually learns that she comes from a line of powerful warriors with martial arts training. This nine-volume series ran from 1990 to 1995 and sold around 50 million copies during that time, later spawning several manga spin-offs and a two-part animated short film (or ‘original video animation’, as it’s referred to in Japan) in 1993 that was based on the manga’s first two volumes. And in 2005, it was announced that Cameron would be directing an adaptation of the manga alongside another project of his that was initially codenamed Project 880. Ultimately, though, the latter came first in 2009 and would go on to become the highest-grossing film of all-time, Avatar. And because of its success, Cameron decided to start developing sequels to his $2 billion-grossing blockbuster, resulting in Battle Angel being pushed back several times over the next few years. It wasn’t until 2016 when the project finally started to move into production, but by this point, Cameron was already well underway on directing the sequels to Avatar. Thus, a new director had to be found, and Cameron quickly found his choice in Robert Rodriguez, making this the biggest-budgeted film that the Texas-born director has ever made at around $200 million. But after nearly two whole decades of development, Alita: Battle Angel finally graces the big screen in a highly ambitious but still all-around engaging sci-fi adventure that is visually stunning.

The year is 2563. After a devastating war known as ‘The Fall’ left the planet in a state of total ruin, the people of Iron City struggle to survive in their harsh environment while floating paradises like Zalem loom large in the skies above. One day, while rummaging through the scrapyards full of Zalem’s trash, scientist Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) comes across the head and torso of a female cyborg whose cybernetic brain is surprisingly still intact. Ido then proceeds to give the cyborg a new body and calls her Alita (Rosa Salazar). Alita, however, finds herself in quite the predicament as she’s unable to remember anything from her past even when aided by Ido and a charismatic young man named Hugo (Keean Johnson) who shows her the ins and outs of Iron City. This begins to change, however, when Alita learns that Ido secretly moonlights as a member of Iron City’s elite faction of bounty hunters known as ‘hunter-warriors’. While helping him fend off a bunch of vicious cyborg assassins, Alita finally starts to remember that she comes from a line of cyborg warriors who were trained in the zero-gravity based martial art form known as Panzer Kurst on the planet Mars. This, along with the discovery of a more powerful cybernetic body that also originated from Mars, prompts Alita to become a Hunter-Warrior herself so that she can combat those who threaten the good people of Iron City. In doing so, she runs amok of Vector (Mahershala Ali), a businessman with ties to Zalem who promptly puts out a bounty on the girl who’s been putting a dent in his criminal operation.

James Cameron has noted that the film primarily serves as an adaptation of the manga’s first four volumes. As such, it’s safe to say that this film attempts to cover a lot of ground in its two-hour runtime and not every major plot-line or bit of character development that’s introduced here gets as much attention as they probably should. But aside from what the film does to set up future installments of this potential franchise, it does do its job when it comes to immersing you within this dystopian future. A lot of this comes from the overall handling of Alita’s origin story, which is arguably the best aspect of the plot as it does a nice job of showcasing her transition from innocent cyborg girl to confident warrior while also providing the film with some genuinely effective emotional depth. The biggest draw to the film, however, is its excellent visual effects. It’s been said that one of the reasons why the film took so long to get made was so that visual effects technology was advanced enough to properly tell this story, and it does indeed show in the final product. From the seamless integration of CG-based characters into a live-action setting to the truly visually stunning action sequences, this film boasts the amazing visual polish that one can expect from a James Cameron production. But, of course, it was Robert Rodriguez who was behind the camera for this one, not James Cameron, and while it’s quite arguably the most streamlined outing of his career, Rodriguez’s direction is still excellent, and he does provide the film with the same energy that’s defined many of his independently-produced directorial efforts.

Ultimately, though, one of the most talked about aspects of this film is how it brings the title character of Alita to life. Actress Rosa Salazar portrays the character via motion-capture and the film maintains a key artistical aspect of the manga by giving Alita large anime-style eyes. However, this decision was initially met with skepticism when the first trailer was released, with many pulling the ‘uncanny valley’ card when describing how it looked in a live-action context. And yet, as is the case with any film’s marketing campaign, this first trailer was clearly released before most of the visual effects were finished, and I can assure you that the larger eyes look far more natural in the final film than what they initially seemed. Simply put, Alita is another excellent addition to the growing cavalcade of mo-cap created characters, and Rosa Salazar shines in what will surely be her breakout role as the sympathetic, badass heroine. The other big standout of the cast is Christoph Waltz, who gets some solid character development as well through some gradual reveals regarding Ido’s past and how it connects him to Alita. Salazar also works well off Keean Johnson as Alita’s love interest Hugo, even if his character arc is sometimes waylaid by everything that the film tries to cover over the course of its run-time. Everyone else in the film admittedly plays more of a supporting role by comparison, though they’re all solid as well. This includes, but is not limited to, Ed Skrein as Zapan, an extremely cocky cyborg bounty hunter who’s a constant thorn in Alita’s side, and Jennifer Connelly as Dr. Chiren, a scientist who works for Vector but also has a deeply personal history with Ido.

As I’ve probably made it clear in the past, I don’t have a lot of history with manga and anime, meaning that I don’t have the same connection that others do with franchises like Dragon Ball or Ghost in the Shell. And this was certainly the case with Alita: Battle Angel, as I went into this film without any prior experience with its source material. Ultimately, though, this scenario didn’t have any sort of effect on what I found to be a solidly entertaining sci-fi adventure. Granted, I wouldn’t necessarily call it ‘perfect’ because it does feel like it’s trying to cover a lot of ground when it comes to setting up its world and characters despite it being only two hours long. In other words, the amount of story material that’s introduced here could practically be enough to fill at least two whole films. However, that doesn’t mean that what’s there doesn’t make for an engaging story that boasts some gorgeous visuals and excellent action sequences. And thanks to an excellent performance by Rosa Salazar in the title role of Alita, this lavish sci-fi action flick about a cyborg girl from Mars who was trained in martial arts does indeed have a genuine heart to it. Thus, while Alita: Battle Angel is perhaps a bit too ambitious for its own good, this Robert Rodriguez/James Cameron collaboration is a visual spectacle unlike any other. Obviously, I can’t say much about whether this film does complete justice to its source material but considering some of the most infamous live-action adaptations of popular manga and anime like Dragonball: Evolution, I think that this one will fare much better with fans of the medium.

                                                                    Rating: 4.5/5       

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) review

In the world of Marvel Comics, Spider-Man is quite arguably the company’s most iconic superhero. Ever since his creation in 1962 by Stan Lee (R.I.P.) and Steve Ditko, everyone’s favorite web-slinger has made an incredible impact on readers worldwide and has had one of the most prominent roles in Marvel’s comic history. This, of course, has also translated quite well to his run on the big-screen, with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man playing a major part in redefining the superhero film genre when it was released in 2002 and spawning a highly successful trilogy. Admittedly, the franchise then had to go through some tricky times in the early 2010s with an attempted series reboot that ultimately didn’t go anywhere, but the ‘second’ attempt at a live-action reboot is doing well so far. 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming was the highest-grossing superhero film of the year, and a large part of its success was thanks to Marvel Studios’ involvement with it. This was thanks to a deal that they made with Sony (who currently own the character’s film rights) that allowed Spider-Man the chance to finally participate in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while Spidey’s next adventure, Spider-Man: Far from Home, will be hitting theaters next summer, right now we’re getting something a little different from this long-running franchise in the form of an animated Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This new film, the latest from Sony Animation, primarily comes courtesy of the duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, both of whom are producing it while Lord is the primary screenwriter. And under their influence, Into the Spider-Verse is a highly entertaining spin on the Spider-Man mythos that boasts some of the best animation to come out of a film in recent years.

In the borough of Brooklyn, teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) prepares to start school at the prestigious Visions Academy. However, while spending time with his uncle Aaron Davis (voiced by Mahershala Ali) one night, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider that gives him the same spider-like abilities as the beloved hero Spider-Man AKA Peter Parker (voiced by Chris Pine). Unfortunately for Miles, Spider-Man ends up dying at the hands of crime-lord Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin (voiced by Liev Schreiber), thus leaving Miles with the responsibility of continuing where his predecessor left off. But as it turns out, thanks to Fisk’s recent test of a device known as the Super Collider, the door has been opened to a wide variety of alternate dimensions. And because of this, Miles soon finds himself meeting another Peter Parker, this time a far more disheveled Peter B. Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson), who was transported to Miles’ dimension. Although initially hesitant to serve as the mentor of an up-and-coming Spider-Man, Peter B. agrees to help Miles learn the ins and outs of being a superhero, and together, the two work to ensure that Fisk doesn’t use the Super Collider for his sinister purposes. To do so, they must use it themselves so that Peter B. can return to his dimension after the two realize that he can’t stay in Miles’ dimension forever. This situation only becomes further complicated, however, by the arrival of other Spider-based superheroes from other dimensions, including Gwen Stacy AKA Spider-Gwen (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld).

Much has been said about this film’s animation, and sure enough, it’s undoubtedly one of its greatest aspects. The filmmakers and animators did such a phenomenal job when it comes to recreating, for lack of a better term, the ‘comic book’ style. This may be a computer-animated film, but practically every shot in this looks like it came from a traditionally-animated 2-D film that was straight-up ripped from the comics themselves. And while the main influence behind this film’s animation style is the works of artist Sara Pichelli, who helped co-create the character of Miles Morales with writer Brian Michael Bendis, the film does a great job when it comes to honoring the art styles of all the Spider-Men and Spider-Women who are featured in it. This great attention to detail also carries over well to the story, which is very well-handled especially considering that, on paper, it’s mostly just your basic superhero origin story. Simply put, it does go through all the usual plot developments in a story about a main protagonist who gains superpowers and is then immediately thrust into a situation where he initially struggles with learning how to use them properly. But thanks to the implementation of the ‘multi-verse’ plot-line, this film’s plot does have more of a unique flavor to it compared to other superhero origin stories. And, of course, being a project that was worked on by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, this film’s humor is strong throughout. Whether it’s a bit of meta-commentary on Spider-Man’s pop-culture status or a visual sight gag that pays homage to the comics, this is up there with the likes of Thor: Ragnarok and Deadpool 2 as one of the funniest superhero films ever made.

Into the Spider-Verse has the distinction of being the first Spider-Man feature film to focus primarily on the character of Miles Morales, currently the most famous occupant of the Spider-Man persona aside from Peter Parker. While it has been reported that Morales will be implemented into the MCU in the future (his uncle Aaron appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming played by Donald Glover, who happened to be one of the main inspirations behind the character), this film is ultimately the place where he gets to make a first impression. And overall, he does make a great first impression as the sympathetic up-and-coming superhero that he is, with Shameik Moore (star of 2015’s cult hit Dope) bringing much personality to the role. There’s also a lot of heart to this character as well, namely thanks to his relationships with his uncle Aaron (especially after Miles learns his uncle’s dark secret) and his father, police officer Jefferson Davis (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry). And as for the OG Spider-Man himself, Peter Parker, we get not one but two great and vastly different interpretations of the character. First, there’s Chris Pine, albeit in a very brief appearance, as a traditional Peter Parker who’s said to be an amalgamation of all the live-action interpretations of the character. And then for the rest of the film, we focus on the more bumbling Peter B. Parker, with Jake Johnson doing a fantastic job as a hilarious and far more apathetic take on this classic character. The other Spider-Man based heroes in this are major standouts as well, including Hailee Steinfeld as the badass Spider-Gwen, Nicolas Cage as the 1930’s-inspired Spider-Man Noir, and John Mulaney as, yes, Peter Porker the pig AKA Spider-Ham. And finally, in a manner akin to Vincent D’Onofrio’s critically-acclaimed take on the character in the recently canceled Daredevil series, Liev Schreiber’s Kingpin is a solid villain whose motivations for using the Super Collider are emotionally-driven.

Alternate universes have always been a long-standing aspect of superhero comics, effectively giving readers a wide array of unique spins on classic characters. On the big screen, however, there hasn’t really been any major attempts at a multiverse story arc when it comes to the current era of live-action superhero films. Granted, it has been done in superhero TV shows like DC’s current lineup of shows airing on the CW, but on film, the most prominent cases of audiences getting a different take on an established character are usually just whenever the role is recast. As such, it could be argued that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse could potentially pave the way for future superhero films to tackle the multiverse concept. And even if it doesn’t, it is still one of the most electrifying superhero films of the modern era. While its main plot is a traditional superhero origin story, the added layer of the multiverse does give this film a lot more meat to it compared to other entries in the genre. And thanks to the involvement of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, this film’s humor is on point throughout while never losing sight of the heart of the story of how a kid from Brooklyn named Miles Morales became Spider-Man. But, of course, the biggest reason to see this film is for its amazing animation, as its impressive recreation of the classic comic-book style legitimately rivals the likes of Disney Animation and Pixar. As such, it seems like this year’s race for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars is shaping up to be an exciting 3-way competition between this, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Incredibles 2. Regardless of who wins it all, however, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a big win for Sony Animation… which is a big deal considering what happened last year with The Emoji Movie.  

Rating: 5/5!

Luke Cage: Season 1 Review

“How about we grab some coffee?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

89th Academy Awards: Results + Recap Post

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: THE JUNGLE BOOK

BEST EDITING: HACKSAW RIDGE

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

BEST MAKEUP/HAIRSTYLING: SUICIDE SQUAD

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: LA LA LAND

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: LA LA LAND

BEST SOUND MIXING: HACKSAW RIDGE

BEST SOUND EDITING: ARRIVAL

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: CITY OF STARS (LA LA LAND)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: LA LA LAND

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: PIPER

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: SING

(Disclaimer: Not to be confused with the animated film of the same name)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: THE WHITE HELMETS

BEST DOCUMENTARY: O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: THE SALESMAN (from Iran)

BEST ANIMATED FILM: ZOOTOPIA

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: MOONLIGHT

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: VIOLA DAVIS (FENCES)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: MAHERSHALA ALI (MOONLIGHT)

BEST ACTRESS: EMMA STONE (LA LA LAND)

BEST ACTOR: CASEY AFFLECK (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

BEST DIRECTOR: DAMIEN CHAZELLE (LA LA LAND)

BEST PICTURE: LA LA LAND… Wait, sorry, my mistake… MOONLIGHT

THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW

Holy crap, that ending! Talk about one of the craziest endings in Oscars history! Anyway, I’ll get into that finale later. First, it’s time to talk about the show in general, and I must say, even with that crazy ending, this was a great ceremony. Now, as far as my experience with late-night talk shows is concerned, I’ll admit that I usually don’t watch them live. Like many, I tend to just watch a lot of these shows’ clips on YouTube when they’re posted the following day after a broadcast. The only one of these shows that I can say that I do watch live, on occasion, is Jimmy Kimmel Live! Jimmy Kimmel is an entertaining face in the current crop of late-night talk show hosts. He’s a likable TV personality and there are plenty of entertaining recurring segments on his show, including Mean Tweets and his legendary rivalry with a famous Hollywood star (who I won’t mention just yet…). Plus, seeing how he’s on a Disney-owned network, he almost always gets to debut the newest MCU trailer on his show. As for his turn as this year’s Oscar host, I thought that he did a great job. He got to use some of the classic segments from his show and he didn’t overload his monologues with political jokes, even when considering that this past year, in general, warranted a lot of material for those kinds of jokes. But, as he admitted in the opening monologue, he’s just not that kind of host. As for this year’s award results, I can’t complain with any of the winners. A lot of great films and performances got the recognition that they deserved.

And now it’s time for my favorite (and least favorite) moments from this year’s ceremony. And this year, I’m pleased to say that almost all these moments were great ones.

BEST: THIS PHOTOBOMB

Justin Timberlake orchestrated the best photobomb of the night, which he did to Emma Stone during an interview on the red carpet.

BEST: THIS REACTION SHOT

I can’t explain why, but this shot of Mel Gibson eating a Red Vine after Jimmy Kimmel made a joke directed at him might just be one of my new favorite reaction shots ever.

HILARIOUS: WHEN SUICIDE SQUAD WON AN OSCAR

Hands down, one of the biggest surprises of the night was when Suicide Squad beat Star Trek Beyond to win Best Makeup and Hairstyling. And, as I hinted at in my ‘Predictions’ post, this was a hilarious moment just because of the obvious reason that Suicide Squad was savaged by critics upon release. Of course, Twitter went nuts when this happened (one of my favorite tweets was one that said ‘Suicide Squad has more Oscars than you do’, and keep in mind, I’m saying this as someone who did like the film) but, like I said, at the very least, the makeup design for the film was one of its better aspects. I mean, it’s not like it won Best Picture or anything. The only real downside to this, if you ask me, is that DC fanboys are now going to use this win to belittle Marvel any chance that they get. Doctor Strange didn’t win Best Visual Effects, meaning that a DCEU film has won an Oscar before an MCU film. I’ll give you folks a minute to let that sink in…

BEST: GREAT MUSICAL PERFORMANCES

Surprisingly, the show started with one of the ‘Best Original Song’ performances right out the gate; Justin Timberlake performed his hit song ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ from the film Trolls, starting the night off on a great note. That was then followed by the performance of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Oscar-nominated song from Moana, ‘How Far I’ll Go’, performed by Auli’i Cravalho. Her co-star, Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson, came out to introduce the performance, even managing to get in a part of his own solo from the film, ‘You’re Welcome’ (The Academy Awards’ apparent response to it being performed in full; “Nah, we’re good!”). Before Cravalho, Lin-Manuel opened the performance with an original rap, once again asserting his status as the musical genius that he is. And then, Cravalho once again asserted herself as one of the industry’s newest shining stars with an excellent performance of the song. Also, kudos to her for handling the moment when one of the flag twirlers behind her accidentally hit her with a flag like a champ. You had one job, flag twirler! Then, Sting came out to perform his song ‘The Empty Chair’ from the documentary Jim: The James Foley Story. As I said in my ‘Predictions’ post, I think it’s a decent song. The best part of his performance, though, was the finale, when a final image of James Foley appeared on-screen with a great quote from him about the importance of journalism. Finally, John Legend performed a medley of the two nominated songs from La La Land; ‘City of Stars’ and ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream)’. While he did do a great job with the performance, I’ll admit that I’m rather mixed on him being the one performing the songs. Why not just let Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone do them, instead of just having the two of them introduce him? Ah, well…

BEST: AS USUAL, SOME GREAT SPEECHES

As always, there were some great speeches from this year’s award winners. Some were great because of how personal they were while others were great for their powerful political statements. In the case of the former, this included Mahershala Ali’s speech when he won Best Supporting Actor, in which he noted that he and his wife just had a baby a few days earlier (good for you, man!), Viola Davis’ amazing speech when she won Best Supporting Actress (“I became an artist, and thank god I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.”) and the speech by sound engineer Kevin O’Connell, who won for Best Sound Mixing for Hacksaw Ridge. In his speech, he thanked his mom, who helped him get his first job in the film industry. It’s also worth noting that this was his 21^st Academy Award nomination… and his first win. He’s got more Oscar nominations than Meryl Streep. He was previously nominated for films like the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, Transformers, and The Rock. As for the more political speeches, the most notable of the bunch was when The Salesman won for Best Foreign Film. Prior to the show, controversy arose when it was revealed that, due to Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, director Asghar Farhadi would’ve been barred from entering the U.S., therefore being unable to attend the show. In response, Farhadi decided to skip out on attending; instead, when the film won the award, it was accepted by Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian astronaut to go up into space, and Firouz Naderi, a former NASA employee who was involved in some of NASA’s most iconic robotic space missions. Ansari then proceeded to read a prepared speech from Farhadi, in which he honored those who, like him, were affected by the ban. In short, while he may not have been there to say it himself, Farhadi had one of the best speeches of the night. Speaking of Ol’ Don…

BEST: THIS JAB AT DONALD TRUMP

Obviously, a few jokes from last night’s ceremony were directed squarely at Donald Trump. For me, the funniest of these occurred about halfway through the show. Jimmy Kimmel pointed out that, at that point, Trump hadn’t made any inflammatory remarks on Twitter, as he, of course, is known to do. In response, Kimmel sent out a tweet asking Trump if he’s up; a tweet which, might I add, somehow appeared online BEFORE he ‘posted it’ during the show. And then, he proceeded to post another tweet with the hashtag #Merylsayshi, which of course references the backlash that Meryl Streep got from Trump and his fan-base when she made her big speech at the Golden Globes back in January condemning some of his actions during the election. In other words, the one that got called ‘overrated’ got the last laugh…

BEST: FREE CANDY!

During the 86^th Academy Awards, host Ellen DeGeneres ordered pizza for the no-doubt very hungry Oscar crowd. Last year, host Chris Rock had a Girl Scout troop sell cookies in the audience. So, what did Jimmy Kimmel do this year to continue this apparent new tradition? He parachuted candy down from the theater roof, specifically Red Vines and Junior Mints. He did it again a second time, after doing a Lion King recreation with Sunny Pawar, who played young Saroo in Lion, sending down Lemonheads and Mike and Ike’s. This resulted in a rather hilarious ‘gif-able’ moment in which we see Casey Affleck looking up as the second batch of candy parachuted down. I was originally then going to say ‘someone get that man some candy, damn it!’, which was a reference to a tweet that the website The A.V. Club posted, but then I watched the footage on replay and noticed that Andrew Garfield tossed some candy over to him during the first round of candy dropping. And, finally, Kimmel gave the crowd something a little bit more ‘substantial’… cookies and donuts. Cue another hilarious crowd reaction, this time from Taraji P. Henson, which is fitting due to her playing a character named Cookie on Empire. You could see her urging her Hidden Figures co-star Octavia Spencer to share. In short, this was a fun little recurring segment which, to reference another tweet (this one by AMC Theaters), is something that I wouldn’t mind seeing happen in real life whenever we go to the theater. Just parachute down some Zours, Sour Patch, or Skittles and I’ll be a happy camper.

BEST: THE ‘HOLLYWOOD TOURISTS’

I’ll admit that there was a possibility that this gag could’ve turned out to be a disaster but, thankfully, it didn’t. It started when Jimmy Kimmel announced that he had orchestrated a plan in which a bunch of tourists on one of those Hollywood tour buses were to be led into the theater during the show, under the guise of it being for an Oscar dress exhibit (“And, in a way, it’s true, they will see dresses and gowns but they will be on people.”). When they were led in, on the count of ‘3, 2, 1, Mahershala!’, I must say that it was a cool little moment, seeing regular tourists interact with Hollywood stars. Highlights from this segment included Denzel Washington acting as a faux priest for a soon-to-be-married couple (“It’s Denzel, so it’s legal!”) and each of the tourists getting to touch Mahershala Ali’s Oscar on the way out. The only real downside to this segment was that it admittedly was a bit overlong, though not to the point where it ruined the whole thing. 

BEST: THE ‘ACTORS/ACTRESSES WHO INSPIRED ME’ SEGMENTS

(Disclaimer: Not the actual title; it’s just the best that I could come up with)

Another neat recurring segment that they did for this year’s show were a series of videos in which an actor or actress was seen sitting in a theater, watching a classic film, and praising the work of one of the film’s stars. After the video concluded, we then saw those two come out on stage together to announce the next award. Charlize Theron presented the award for Best Foreign Film with Shirley MacLaine after praising her work in the 1960 classic The Apartment. Javier Bardem praised Meryl Streep for her work in 1995’s The Bridges of Madison County before coming out together to announce Best Cinematography. The other two videos… well, I’ll get to those in a bit. Again, I thought this was a nice addition to the show. I’ve seen some be a bit more critical on these videos for mainly being montage-based. However, the reason why I appreciated them was because they celebrated iconic performances through the eyes of actors and actresses who were inspired by them. In fact, I honestly wouldn’t mind if they brought this back every year. As for my favorite of this year’s bunch…

BEST MOMENT OF THE NIGHT: SETH ROGEN AND MARTY MCFLY

For his ‘Actors/Actresses who Inspired Me’ segment, Seth Rogen highlighted the 1985 classic, and my personal favorite film of all time, Back to the Future. Cut to him and Michael J. Fox stepping out of the DeLorean to announce the winner for Best Editing, complete with Rogen wearing the iconic self-tying shoes from Back to the Future Part II. As if that wasn’t awesome enough, Rogen then proceeded to do something else on his ‘bucket list’; sing a song from Hamilton onstage. He sang part of ‘The Schuyler Sisters’ while Michael J. Fox chimed in with the lyric ‘Eliza’. Cue the appropriate response from Lin-Manuel Miranda in the audience and you have one of the most awesome things that I’ve ever seen. And yes, I know I’m clearly biased because I love Back to the Future and have also been on a Hamilton binge recently.  

BEST/HILARIOUS: THE MEAN TWEETS

Of course, being that this year’s show was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, he got to use his popular ‘Mean Tweets’ gag, in which actors read trolling tweets from real-life Twitter users. As usual, it was hilarious to see some of the responses from the actors targeted by these mean tweets, as they were all clearly taking them like a champ. Some of my favorites include Natalie Portman responding to a tweet saying that she probably wouldn’t order an entrée at lunch by showing off her pregnant belly (which is why she didn’t attend the ceremony) and remarking “you’re wrong” to the user who sent that tweet, Jessica Chastain being confused (as I’m sure many of us were) by a user tweeting that they’d ‘white balance their TV on her chest’, and Robert De Niro responding to a tweet claiming that he’s “too old to be making gangster films” and should “start playing grandfather roles” by saying that he already does play grandfather roles and will soon be playing ‘great-grandfather roles’.  

BEST: IN MEMORIAM

As usual, the saddest moment of the show was the ‘In Memoriam’ montage. This year’s montage was particularly rough given the large number of celebrity deaths that occurred since the last Oscars, including but not limited to; Gene Wilder, Anton Yelchin, and of course, Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. In fact, that same day, we were hit with yet another passing; that of Bill Paxton, who got mentioned by Jennifer Aniston during her introduction of the segment. During the segment, Sara Bareilles performed the song ‘Both Sides, Now’, providing a nice melody for the moment. And I know that this segment of the show always gets flak for excluding a few names here and there but at the end of the day, it’s still always the most emotional moment of the show and this year’s montage concluded on the perfect note with Carrie Fisher, as Leia, saying the iconic line “May the Force be With You”. The only real mistake of this year’s montage was when they honored Australian costume designer Janet Patterson… but used a photo of Australian producer Jan Chapman, who is still alive. Whoops...

BEST: JIMMY KIMMEL’S TROLLING OF MATT DAMON

If you’re familiar with Jimmy Kimmel, then you’ll know that he’s had a long-running feud with Matt Damon, which has resulted in some of his show’s most iconic moments. Obviously, that feud was brought up again during the Oscars; in fact, it even came up during the opening monologue. But, in this moment, Kimmel surprisingly complimented Damon, though obviously in a backhanded way, by noting that Damon was originally set to star in Manchester by the Sea before the role went to Casey Affleck… and then went on to star in the rather controversial The Great Wall (“Smooth move, dumbass!”). But, ultimately, Kimmel’s biggest joke on Damon came when he and Ben Affleck came out to announce the winner for Best Original Screenplay. Prior to them coming out, there was another one of the previously mentioned segments in which an actor/actress praises the work of another actor/actress in a classic film of theirs. In this case, however, it was Jimmy Kimmel who was featured in this segment as he talked about a film that ‘inspired’ him, the 2011 film that Damon starred in, We Bought a Zoo. After that segment, the show’s announcer announced the next two presenters as Ben Affleck… and guest. And then, to top it all off, the usual ‘send-off’ music that’s sometimes played during an award winner’s speech (which, might I add, thankfully didn’t happen at all during this year’s ceremony) began to play while Damon was talking. The camera then panned down to reveal that Kimmel was leading the orchestra at that moment (“Wrap it up, we want to go home!”). What can I say? It would’ve been a missed opportunity had Kimmel not pulled this kind of move.

Time to talk about the only negative moment of this year’s show, in my opinion. In fact, it has nothing to do with anything during the show itself.

WORST: SOME OF THE BACKLASH TOWARDS LA LA LAND

Now, let me be clear for a moment; this is not in regards to what happened at the end of the show (I’ll get into that momentarily). I’m happy that Moonlight won Best Picture, as it is a great film that earned all the praise it got. But, going back to what I said in my ‘Predictions’ post, I still don’t understand some of the backlash that was being directed towards La La Land in the weeks leading up to the Oscars. Obviously, part of that backlash was from those who weren’t too big on the film. And that’s fine; film is subjective, after all. The side of this backlash that I didn’t get was the fact that some said that it would’ve been a huge mistake if La La Land swept the awards. To that, I ask… HOW? Seriously, what the hell would’ve been so wrong with La La Land winning a good chunk of this year’s Oscars? Because it was a musical about Hollywood that starred a predominantly white cast? Sure, that’s what it is on a technical level but I feel like this backlash severely negates the positive themes of the film. At its core, La La Land was a story about dreamers and romance, while also not being totally romanticized in how it addressed both these themes. With that said, I am aware that the main reason why many wanted Moonlight to win was due to the importance of its story. Instead of being a tale dedicated to classic Hollywood, like La La Land was, Moonlight was a personal story about a young African-American man struggling with his sexuality and identity in a rough neighborhood. Not only that, this became the first Best Picture winner to have an all-African-American cast.

But here’s the thing... if Moonlight didn’t win Best Picture last night, and La La Land did, that wouldn’t have diminished the importance of the former’s story in any way. Hell, Moonlight won Best Adapted Screenplay which, if you ask me, is probably the next best thing for the film to win (after Best Picture, of course) in terms of its story. La La Land didn’t even win Best Original Screenplay; Manchester by the Sea did. Again, if some of you out there didn’t like La La Land, that’s fine. No one’s forcing you to like it. But I swear, some people out there acted like the frigging world was going to blow up if La La Land won the biggest award of the night. Talk about one of the most extreme cases of hyperbole that I’ve ever seen. You see, this, folks, is why I don’t like to get very political when it comes to talking about film, hence why I’m not going to address the other big backlash of this year’s ceremony, which was mainly in regards to Casey Affleck winning Best Actor in the wake of the two sexual harassment lawsuits he got caught up in back in 2010. Because like I said before, those two lawsuits had NOTHING to do with Manchester by the Sea. In conclusion, to quote Jimmy Kimmel during the closing monologue, “it’s just an awards show”. There is no right or wrong in terms of who wins.

WTF: THAT MIX-UP

And now, here we are. We’ve finally come to what will forever be known as the definitive moment of the 89^th Academy Awards; the mix-up of La La Land and Moonlight for the biggest award of the night. It all started when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway came out to announce Best Picture, with the two being paired together in honor of the 50^th anniversary of their classic film, Bonnie and Clyde. When the envelope was opened, Beatty hesitated for a bit before giving it over to Dunaway, who announced that La La Land had won. The film’s crew came up to accept the award but while looking behind them while they were up on stage, you could see that something was up as a few Oscar crew members were scrambling around. And then La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz came to the mic, announcing that there was a mistake. Moonlight was the real winner for Best Picture, resulting in the Oscars equivalent of when Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant. So, now the question is this, what the heck happened in that moment? Well, not too long after the Moonlight crew came up to accept the award, Beatty returned to the mic and stated that the envelope that he had read ‘Emma Stone, La La Land’, which was for when Stone won Best Actress, hence why he hesitated at first. When Emma Stone was later asked about the situation, she stated that she had been holding her ‘Best Actress’ envelope that whole time. But then how did Beatty have that same envelope? Finally, this incident was explained by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the U.K.-based accounting firm in charge of tallying votes. They had made two sets of envelopes for each of the 24 winners; these two sets were then placed at opposite sides of the stage. So, clearly, someone must’ve just given Beatty and Dunaway the wrong envelope.

And there you have it, one of the craziest moments in Oscars history. And overall, while it’s undoubtedly one of the most genuinely surprising moments in recent Oscars history, it’s also quite a crappy situation in regards to how it impacted everyone who was involved in it. One of these people was, of course, Warren Beatty, who I’m guessing is currently becoming the butt of many internet jokes and memes. To that, I say… knock it off, it wasn’t his fault. Again, he hesitated when he opened that envelope, so it’s not like this was intentional or anything; he knew something was up. Then, of course, this was definitely a crappy moment for the cast and crew of La La Land. Going back to what I said about the ‘backlash’ towards the film, if you didn’t like the film, that’s fine. But after what happened last night, can I ask those who didn’t like it to at least take it easy on them? Because I think that we can all agree that it sucks to go through what happened to them in that moment. Hell, just ask Ariadna Gutierrez (she was the one who was announced by Steve Harvey as the winner of Miss Universe by mistake). Not only that, it even had a negative impact on Moonlight because it wasn’t a clean victory for them. Had this mistake not occurred and the proper envelope was opened, we wouldn’t be here right now. Again, let me be clear, I have nothing against Moonlight winning Best Picture. It may have only been my #3 pick out of the 9 Best Picture nominees but it was truly a great film that genuinely earned that award. But I’m guessing that even the filmmakers are thinking to themselves, “That could’ve gone better…”

And those are my thoughts on this year’s Academy Awards. This sure was an eventful ceremony. With that in mind, be sure to sound off in the comments below with your thoughts on them, particularly the big mix-up.