Best Picture in Monochrome

by Cláudio Alves

The trend of rereleasing critical darlings in black and white is apparently here to stay. After George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road and James Mangold’s Logan, it’s time for Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite to be revisited in sharp monochrome. The artistic value of such exercises is dubious, but they do offer a chance to reflect upon a film’s visual idiom and aesthetic construction. After all, do these works gain something by being in color? Is that an intrinsic part of their form or simply a consequence of convention? Would they be better, at least better looking, in black and white?

Those answers will have to remain unanswered, but as a fun exercise here are some from this year’s Best Picture nominees. They’ve been drained of color for your pleasure…

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20:19 with "The Irishman" and "Marriage Story"

Time to play 20:19. We had intended to rank every Best Picture nominees by how intriguing their 20th minute and 19th second was until our DVD player (remember those?) decided to malfunction. Oops. So streaming it is with just two of 'em. Pretend you haven't seen either of these Best Picture nominees. What do you suppose these two movies are about based on these fleeting images?

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Film Bitch Awards: Screenplays, Score, and Sound

We started a week ago with a few appetizers but now the 20th (gulp) annual Film Bitch Awards are finally in full swing. Here are the new categories that are up

BEST ORIGINAL & ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Wouldn't it be neat if Marriage Story or Parasite could snag a surprise win from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the Oscars in Original Screnplay. All three are also nominated for the Film Bitch Award but we don't think Tarantino needs a third Oscar and for the first time since Kill Bill his visuals feel even more noteworthy than his writing anyway. Not that it's not a grand script. But the raw wound comedy and drama of Baumbach's reflection and Parasite's ingenious construction are right there for the honoring so we hope the Academy thinks it through.  We're happier about the other impending Oscar win for Adapted because Greta Gerwig takes Little Women apart and puts it back together again in such a personal and fresh 'life-of-an-artist' way. 

BOTH SCORE & SOUND CATEGORIES
Music and sound preferences are so hard to articulate so forgive the very short notes.

As a reminder, if you haven't voted on the "should wins" for those categories at the actual Oscars, do that on the charts please. 

Echoes from Oscars Past

by Cláudio Alves

The past always returns, one way or the other. It haunts the present and prophesizes our uncertain futures. That's why History is a cycle of recurring nightmares and dreams, one overtaking the other in ruthless combat.

Anyway, we're here to talk about the Academy Awards. The ghosts of Oscars past always come to haunt the current races, helping shape narratives, setting records to be broken and announcing patterns of cyclical discontent. Regarding the Best Picture nominees of 2019, here are some of the Oscar champions of the past that haunt them… 

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"Because you love movies"

by Cláudio Alves

There's something mercenary, a bit unseemly, about many Oscar campaigns. Nobody should be slighted for campaigning too hard or for showing they want the award too much, of course -- that's not what we're saying (no Hathahating here). Still, studio's FYC ads tend to feel pushy, more interested in vacuous hyperbole than a genuine celebration of any film's particular merits.

All of that said, sometimes a campaign hits the nail right on the head, negotiating the needs of clever promotion and cinephile wonderment with utmost ease. Such is the case of Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood's latest ads. As the final Oscar voting starts, Sony has played its last card in the campaign game. It's a rather simple one, focused on special screenings and a bunch of traditional paper ads as well as some internet banners. Their genius lies in the simplicity of it all, avoiding incomprehensible lists of critics' prizes in favor of a simple powerful message...

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