The Oscar Project
This weekend we see the arrival of one of the bigger movies in terms of Oscar buzz this season. First Man blasts into theaters, chronicling the life of the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong.
As you'll see by my description below, I am extremely excited to see this film. It is likely the highlight of the weekend, and will be sure to garner at least a few nominations come Oscar time next year.
Bad Times at the El Royale
I haven't seen much about this film but it seems simple enough. A group of strangers and up in a remote motel on the California/Nevada border, each bringing his or her own secrets and baggage to the table. The cast looks interesting if the premise seems a little lacking. Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, John Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth headline the cast and the ladies will surely be pleased to see Hemsworth open-shirted through much of the film.
I have a feeling this is what I call a Netflix or Redbox movie, and worth the wait to see this on your streaming service of choice in a year or so.
First Man
If you don't know who the first man in this title is referring to, perhaps you're one of those folks who things the moon landings were staged in a Hollywood studio and to this day, no one has ever set foot on the moon. I am not one of those people. I have been in awe of space travel since I was a young boy, attending space camp in Florida at the age of 12, memorizing facts about the various space missions from the 60s and 70s, and visiting the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D. C. whenever I had the chance. This film looks to me like the spiritual predecessor of Ron Howard's 1995 film Apollo 13.
Now, like Apollo 13, there should be no secret about how this film ends. Spoiler alert, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. What I'm curious to see is the lead up to that event throughout the rest of the film.
Rest assured there will be several Oscar nominations coming out of this film. Chazelle and Gosling were both nominated when they teamed up for La La Land a few years ago, with Chazelle winning the award for Best Director. I anticipate a good chance that he will be in the running here again while both Gosling and Clair Foy (playing Armstrong's wife Janet) are both safe bets to be on the Best Actor and Best Actress short lists. Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, and Film Editing are also pretty safe bets for a film like that. I would anticipate a slew of nominations in January that span many of the major categories as well as several lesser categories.
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
Believe it or not this is the second Halloween themed film in the last few weeks that has Jack Black in it. I was not obsessed with the R. L. Stein Goosebumps books as a kid the way lots of my friends were, but I did enjoy the ones I read. In this film, a sequel to the 2015 release, we are introduced to the one R. L. Stein book that was apparently never supposed to see the light of day. And you all know what happens next.
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AuthorI'm just a film buff who wants to watch great movies. Where else to find the best, than the list of those nominated by the Academy each year? Archives
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