Well, we’ve done it! The Oscars are just a few days away. and we only have two categories left to go. Let’s get predicating!
I am super-bummed out that Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans isn’t going to win any Oscars. Also, it made no money. It’s all super sad because this was the brilliant director’s look back at his childhood and how his parents helped shape the way he is. It’s a brilliant film (I had it as my #2 film of last year) and deserved a bigger audience and an Oscar for Michelle Williams had Universal put her in the supporting category as opposed to lead, which they did not.
It was a rough year for Steve all over in terms of his most personal movie.
However, The Fabelmans does have one thing no other film made last year can say. It has the best moment in all of 2022 cinema. It’s a moment that blew me away when I saw it, and I don’t know that a week has gone by since then when I haven’t thought about it. I’d like to share it with you. Maybe you haven’t seen the movie yet and this will change your mind. Maybe you did see it but glossed over it. Maybe you just liked Lyle Lyle Crocodile more. But nothing impacted me more in movies last year.
Best Animated Short. Editing. Costume Design. Original Score. These aren’t the sexy categories, but if you’re going to win you’re Oscars bracket, you’re going to have to take some of these down. Here’s where I think how some of (what some people consider) the “smaller awards” will pan out…
Continue reading “FBC 2023 Oscar Coverage, Part XI: Predicting the winners, part 4…”
The biggest story among this year’s acting nominations is just how new so many of these actors will be new to the Oscars stage. Of the 20 nominated thespians, only 4 have been previously nominated. However, of those four with prior nominations, one of them just happens to be one of the best working actresses in the whole goddamned world.
With her Tár nomination, Cate Blanchett now has eight nominations over her amazing career, which brings her into a tie for 9th place of total acting nods. Her company includes Glenn Close, Geraldine Page, Jack Lemmon, Judi Dench, Peter O’Toole and Marlon Brando, which is pretty good company to keep. If she can win, and this race feels like a knock-down brawl between her and Michelle Yeoh, it will be her third victory, and that company would be even more impressive. A third Oscar for the Australian actress would have her tied for second for all-time acting Oscars and just one behind the leader who you get the feeling she can probably catch and surpass (Katharine Hepburn). Watching Blanchett is truly watching one of the best be amazing, and Tár may be a perfect example of that.
Let us rank all eight of her nominating performances and just marvel at what a brilliant force Ms. Blanchett is.
This is a year when I am absolutely stunned that the lead acting categories are both so close. It’s easy to make a case for five people to be taking home one of these two trophies a week from Sunday. Which thespian will be walking away with acting’s biggest prize? Let’s get right into it…
In the last few years, all of the major locks have come from the supporting acting categories. There have been no real surprises or upsets. You don’t see Olivia Colman winning over Glenn Close or Anthony Hopkins stealing Best Actor from Chadwick Boseman. There is something nice to know I can just check these off as guarantees, but also kind of a bummer to know there’s really no home for an upset.
Will 2023 be the same? Let’s take a look…
Continue reading “FBC 2023 Oscars Coverage, Part VIII: Predicting the winners, part 2…”
Twenty years ago I was sixteen, still a few years off from even comprehending what twenty years felt like. Every responsibility I have now was merely a pipe dream. Kids? Wife? Mortgage? I couldn’t begin to imagine how far away these concepts were back then. In 2003, my primary concern was getting a driver’s license. I was a suburban kid full of all of that teenage angst and disillusionment toward the world around me. I internalized every negative thought and interaction, feeling as though only I could see the cracks in the suburban façade. Linkin Park was practically handing me a tract for whatever they were preaching. Their debut album, Hybrid Theory, was my obsession. I gravitated toward their extremely catchy hooks and melodies. When they announced their second studio album, Meteora, was coming in March of 2003, it was the most important thing in my life. I had favorite musicians and bands prior to them, but no act had fully overtaken me like Linkin Park did at that time.
But as I found out- time doesn’t stop. And the only constant is change.
A staple of the Chicagoan suburban comedy scene for over a decade, there are few comics working more than Jack Baker. Clubs and shows love him. Audiences love him. Other comedians love him. It’s really kind of gross.
This Sunday, Jack is preparing to record his first special at The Comedy Vault in Batavia. He agreed to sit down with us and let us ask him some questions…
Continue reading “Fancy Boys Club sits down with: Jack Baker”
Ok, so normally, I start predicting winners a week earlier, but ya boi caught the COVID and it sucked butt. So, let’s not waste any time and jump right into the sweet, sweet screenwriting categories. This year, I will be brief in my remarks about what films should have been nominated, as I gave you my thoughts on the matter a few weeks ago.
So, let’s begin…
Continue reading “FBC Oscar Coverage, Part VII: Predicting The Winners, Part 1…”
Hogwarts Legacy, one of the most anticipated video game releases of the year, came out a few days ago. The game, in which a player controls a child wizard at the school of magic made popular by the Harry Potter book and film series, is bound to sell a whole lot of units, though I won’t be one of them. For starters, I don’t own a video game console unless you include my phone, of which there are several games I often pass time with. Also, I think there have only been a few great video games, and the last one may have been Halo. There is no better video game, to me, than Burger Time. That being said, I understand that this boy wizard franchise, created by J.K. Rowling, meant a whole heck of a lot to a whole bunch of people and that sentimentality is going to be huge for sales.
Even if it means that people are supporting something that’s really gross.
Yeah… it’s one of these pieces.
Continue reading “For heavens sake, you don’t have to play the fucking wizard game!”
Fancy Boys Club 