Posts tagged Adam McKay
COLUMN: Predicting the major 88th Academy Award nominations

The 88th Academy Award nominations will be announced tomorrow morning, January 14, 2016, hot off of the weekend's 73rd Golden Globe awards.  I've been following the full awards season over on my Awards Tracker page.  Using that data as the tea leaves and a truckload of hunches, I'm going to attempt to closely predict the Oscar nominations for the "Big 8" categories for the third year in a row.

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2015, 2016, Column, Editorial, SPECIALDon ShanahanBest Picture, The race for Best Picture, Oscar Predictions, Oscar nominations, Oscar contenders, Oscar hopefuls, Oscar bait, 88th Academy Awards, 88th Oscars, Oscars, 2016, 2015, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Big 8, Oscar snubs, Oscar surprises, Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, The Big Short, Carol, Room, Brooklyn, The Martian, Bridge of Spies, Creed, Inside Out, Son of Saul, Straight Outta Compton, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, George Miller, Tom McCarthy, Todd Haynes, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Ridley Scott, Adam McKay, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Ryan Coogler, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs, Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl, Matt Damon, Bryan Cranston, Trumbo, Johnny Depp, Black Mass, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Keaton, Brie Larson, Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy, Charlize Theron, Sarah Silverman, I Smile Back, Helen Mirren, Emily Blunt, Sicario, Sylvester Stallone, Mark Rylance, Michael Shannon, 99 Homes, Paul Dano, Love and Mercy, Jacob Tremblay, Benecio del Toro, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation, Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, Alex Garland, Rooney Mara, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria, Rachel McAdams, Josh Singer, Pete Docter, Meg LaFauvre, Josh Cooley, Oren Movermann, Michael Alan Lerner, Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen, Joel CoenComment
COLUMN: Who should win/will win the 2016 Golden Globes?

More and more each year, the Golden Globes have become more an a popularity contest than a true precursor to the Academy Awards.  What you're watching on TV is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and hosted by Ricky Gervais in an effort to be loved and share some love.  To its credit, the awards show still garners legitimate attention and ratings.  The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films.

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2015, 2016, Editorial, Column, SPECIALDon ShanahanBest Original Score, Carter Burwell, Carol, Daniel Pemberton, Steve Jobs, Alexandre Desplat, The Danish Girl, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, The Revenant, John Williams, Johann Johannsson, Creed, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Fifty Shades of Grey, Furious 7, Elle Goulding, Wiz Khalifa, Brian Wilson, Love and Mercy, Writing's on the Wall, Sam Smith, Spectre, Simple Song #3, Sumi Jo, Youth, Mustang, Son of Saul, The Brand New Testament, The Club, The Fencer, Timbuktu, The Assassin, Best Foreign Language Film, Amour, The Artist, Best Animated Feature, Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep, Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Good Dinosaur, The Peanuts Movie, Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman, Disney/Pixar, Emma Donoghue, Room, Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, Spotlight, Aaron Sorkin, Adam McKay, Charlie Randolph, The Big Short, Quentin Tarantino, Brooklyn, Michael Shannon, 99 Homes, Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation, Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Dano, Mark Ruffalo, Benecio del Toro, Sicario, Jacob Tremblay, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Helen Mirren, Trumbo, Jane Fonda, Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria, Lily Tomlin, Grandma, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy, Melissa McCarthy, Spy, Maggie Smith, The Lady in the VAn, The Lady in the Van, Amy Schumer, Trainwreck, Teyonah Parris, Chi-Raq, Al Pacino, Danny Collins, Infinitely Polar Bear, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Matt Damon, The Martian, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Charlize Theron, Carey Mulligan, Suffragette, Far from the Madding Crowd, Will Smith, Concussion, Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bryan Cranston, Michael Keaton, Michael B. Jordan, Tom Hanks, The Wolf of Wall Street, Todd Hayne, George Miller, Ridley Scott, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globes, 73rd Golden Globes, Golden Globe nominees, Golden Globe winners, who will win/should win, Awards Predictions, Awards Tracker, Awards Talk, 88th Academy Awards, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment
MOVIE REVIEW: The Big Short

Closing out 2015, you will find the most argumentative and ballsiest movie of the year hitting wide theatrical release over the Christmas holiday.  The real film in question to bear those bold superlatives is "The Big Short."  Headlined by a star-studded cast and directed by one of the most unlikely of sources, this legitimate must-see film tip-toes audaciously between biting satire and topical cautionary tale.  You won't know whether to be pissed or be entertained and that's a powerful quality to pull off.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Ant-Man

Creative differences, bad PR, and terrible marketing have sunk greater and lesser films.  "Ant-Man" survives each those kisses of death to be a fun, entertaining, and clever blockbuster.  The creativity is more than present to veer away from Marvel's usually enormous scale of worldwide crisis-aversion and give us a true small-scale (literally and figuratively) "regular guy" hero that was missing among the billionaires, scientists, soldiers, assassins, and demi-gods Marvel has elevated so far to its cinematic pedestals.   "Ant-Man" is packed with a plentiful amount of humor, spirit, and surprises that trump both the bad PR and overindulgent marketing.  It was saving some aces up its sleeve.

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