Month: April 2021

Awards season is nothing if not unprecedented for its “let’s still do this” approach to the past unprecedented year or so. That’s only to be expected, and the Oscars did their best with a cinematic framing (produced by Steven Soderbergh) and unconventional speech moments that included Daniel Kaluuya mortifying his mom and Glenn Close doing “Da Butt” dance. The evening didn’t contain too many surprises, but perhaps The Academy was saving that vibe until the very end, which has left viewers shocked that the late Chadwick Boseman did not win Best Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Instead, Anthony Hopkins won for The Father, which was a development that surprised even Anthony Hopkins. The awkward resulting vibe wasn’t aided by the Oscars deciding to go against tradition and announce Best Actor as the last award, either, so there was nothing to smooth over the unexpected news. Oh and also, Joaquin Phoenix ended the show rather abruptly:

It was as quietly chaotic of a moment as one would expect from Joaquin, who waged an unorthodox campaign for his Joker win last year. During that crusade, Joaquin held the film industry’s feet to the fire by highlighting numerous issues aimed at slowing climate change. At this year’s ceremony, he promoted sustainability by continuing his apparent pledge from last year to keep on wearing the same tux that he wore for the entirety of his Arthur Fleck-centered awards season. Via USA Today:

Joaquin Phoenix turned up at the Oscars last night in the same suit he wore to the 2020 event – making good on a promise he made.

Phoenix donned the same black tuxedo with a white button shirt and bow tie in an effort to reduce waste. He pledged to wear the Stella McCartney tux for the entire awards season last year and it appears he is continuing the pledge in 2021.

By the way, Joaquin’s vow last year was never articulated by himself. Instead, the news came from McCartney on Instagram. “This man is a winner… wearing custom Stella because he chooses to make choices for the future of the planet and all of its creatures,” she wrote. “He has also chosen to wear this same Tux for the entire award season to reduce waste. I am proud and honoured to join forces with you Joaquin, keep inspiring and keep shining your light x Stella⁣.”

Well, why not recycle fashion? Pulling on a different suit for every awards show is nothing but wasteful, which is also apparently how Joaquin felt about continuing to talk after presenting an award to an actor who didn’t show up. What a king.

For decades now, it has been tradition for Elton John to host a party for the Oscars, and the pandemic didn’t stop the 29th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party from taking place last night. It was a virtual event this year, though, but it still managed to raise $3 million for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, as Page Six reports.

Dua Lipa was in attendance and she performed a handful of Future Nostalgia tracks: “Levitating,” “Pretty Please,” “Hallucinate,” and “Don’t Start Now.” Aside from those, she also linked up with John for a pair of duets, as the two sang “Bennie And The Jets” and “Love Again” together.

John said in a statement, “It was so much fun to perform with the gorgeous Dua Lipa and open up our Party to supporters all over the world. I’m so grateful to Neil [Patrick Harris] for hosting, everyone who attended, and all my friends who participated so that we could continue this legendary event to raise vital funds to end the AIDS epidemic.”

Watch Lipa and John perform “Bennie And The Jets” and “Love Again” above.

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ricky Gervais has hosted the Golden Globes five times, but never the Academy Awards. To be fair, the Academy Awards may never have a host again (the last three ceremonies have gone without one), but this still doesn’t sit well with Gervais. Ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, the trolling comedian tweeted, “It’s The Oscars tonight! I wasn’t invited. Was it something I said?” along with a video of his monologue at the 2020 Golden Globes.

“You’ll be pleased to know this is the last time I’m hosting these awards, so I don’t care anymore. I’m joking. I never did. I’m joking, I never did. NBC clearly don’t care either — fifth time. I mean, Kevin Hart was fired from the Oscars for some offensive tweets,” Gervais joked to kick off the evening. He also took shots at James Corden (“The world got to see James Corden as a fat p*ssy. He was also in the movie Cats“) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, nearly three hours long. Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere and by the end his date was too old for him”), and ended the monologue with advice for the winners. “So if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent, and your God and f*ck off, OK? It’s already three hours long,” he said.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, for one, enjoyed being reminded of when Gervais hosted.

Wait until San Andreas 2 is nominated for Best Picture. Then we’ll see who’s laughing.

Back towards the end of 2019, it was revealed that Questlove was working on what is now titled Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a documentary about The Harlem Cultural Festival, a six-week festival that took place right around the same time as Woodstock. Now, the first teaser for the film, which is set to premiere in theaters and on Hulu on July 2, has been shared.

An official statement describes the film:

“In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary — part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was never seen and largely forgotten — until now. Summer Of Soul shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach, and more.”

Back when the project was announced, Questlove said in a statement, “I am truly excited to help bring the passion, the story and the music of the Harlem Cultural Festival to audiences around the world. The performances are extraordinary. I was stunned when I saw the lost footage for the first time. It’s incredible to look at 50 years of history that’s never been told, and I’m eager and humbled to tell that story.”

He also told Variety in an interview earlier this year, “”Woodstock happens in two weeks after this and it defines a lifestyle, it defines a generation. Woodstock, the city name alone, just defines a whole movement. And I kept wondering what would have went down if this were allowed to happen for [Black people]. If this were allowed to unfurl and and spread across the world as Woodstock did, how much of a difference could that have made in my life as a music lover and as a music collector? So, then I just felt this the sense of purpose that I have to tell the story.”

Watch the Summer Of Soul teaser above.

“Were they all on drugs?… Why do we need a third cut to the eggs?” I bet you’d have never guessed that Harrison Ford would say these words on an Oscars broadcast, yet that’s what he did at the 93rd Academy Awards, straight from the Dolby stage. It was an unprecedented event that turned out more than alright, all things considered, from the cinematic approach (produced by Steven Soderbergh) to the speeches (which included Daniel Kaluuya mortifying his mom) and the occasional bit (which led to Glenn Close doing “Da Butt” dance). After what we’ve been through lately, the Oscars worked as well as possible, and then there was one super-strange moment that left people scratching their heads.

That would be when Harrison Ford (while presenting the award for Best Film Editing) gruffly and awkwardly began sharing some harsh “editing notes” that followed a screening of 1982’s Blade Runner:

“I want to share some notes, some editorial suggestions that were prepared after the screening of a movie I was in… ‘Opening too choppy. Why is this voiceover track so terrible? He sounds drugged. Were they all on drugs? Deckard at the piano is interminable. Flashback dialogue confusing. Is he listening to a tape? Why do we need the third cut to the eggs? The synagogue music is awful on the streets. We’ve got to use Vangelis. Up to Zora’s death, the movie is deadly dull. This movie gets worse every screening!’”

It was very, very strange, and protracted, and a bit uncomfortable (Ford, as is often his air, didn’t appear to want to be at the Oscars) although ultimately funny. The presentation was even weirder than the opposite approach taken by Joaquin Phoenix while accepting the Best Actor award on behalf of Anthony Hopkins while abruptly closing the show. So in the light of day, it’s worth noting that since Harrison topped not only Joaquin but also Glenn Close and Daniel Kaluuya in terms of the weird factor, the reactions were also outstanding. That includes a reference to Best Documentary Film winner My Octopus Teacher: “Harrison Ford backstage sharing a joint with the octopus.”

For those who want even more, here’s those Blade Runner notes that Ford was referencing, or roasting, or something.

In this week’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead, the series follows a phenomenal first half of the season and two more spectacular episodes in a row that featured major deaths with a return to the sort of intimate storylines that characterized the front half.

The focus in “Handle with Care” (named after the Travelling Wilbury’s song) is on Daniel, who opens the episode in a jail cell explaining to an unknown figure the events of the day. He begins by repeating the names of several random objects, which sounds not unlike the dementia test that Donald Trump bragged about passing. That wasn’t unintentional, but we’ll get to that.

The day begins with Daniel meeting Victor and Sherry (and a couple of their friends), who have come to Morgan’s new community because Morgan wants to put aside their differences and work together to eliminate whatever threat the spray-painters — likely led by The King of Crazies — pose to them. Victor, Sherry, and the others are invited in, but only on the condition that they relinquish their weapons, which are locked up in a shed by Daniel.

Soon thereafter, however, an explosion not unlike the one at Tank Town goes off, drawing the attention of several walkers. No one knows who is responsible for the explosion, but the level of paranoia is high. It is so high, in fact, that Daniel refuses to let anyone have their weapons back, even as walkers threatened to breach the walls. Soon thereafter, however, Daniel discovers that all the weapons locked up in his shed are gone, as well. Someone is trying to sabotage the community from the inside.

Fear goes Agatha Christie, and Daniel is so determined to smoke out the mystery person responsible for the explosion that he allows a few zombies into the community to see who will pull out a gun to protect himself. That person turns out to be Victor Strand, who was secretly holding a gun in reserve. Daniel, however, believes that makes Victor responsible for the explosion and for stealing all the weapons. He locks Strand up and tries to get a confession out of him by threatening to shoot Victor in the face, as Victor had once shot him in the face. In the episode’s most intense sequence, Daniel rattles off the list of symptoms he suffers from since having been shot in the face by Strand. He threatens to inflict these very symptoms onto Strand, even as walkers begin to break through the walls of the community.

Finally, Daniel holds a gun to the face of Victor — who still won’t confess — but before Daniel can pull the trigger, Morgan returns with the humvee and wipes out the zombie threat, mere milliseconds before Daniel shoots Victor.

Soon thereafter, we discover the culprit behind the explosion and the missing weapons. It’s Daniel. The person Daniel was talking to at the beginning of the episode is June, who is administering a dementia test. When he was under the supervision of Ginny during the first half of the season, Daniel had pretended to lose his memory to protect himself. As it turns out, however, it might not have been entirely an act. Daniel does seem to be losing his mind, but as June discovers, it’s not neurological. It’s psychological.

Daniel is having a nervous breakdown, not unlike the one he had when he killed a slew of people in the Salvadoran jungle as a young man, and not unlike the one he had when he burned down Griselda’s vinyard. Daniel’s mind is buckling under the stress, and he’s endangering those he loves again.

Recognizing the danger that he poses to Morgan’s community, Daniel decides to leave. However, Victor — with whom Daniel has always had a complicated relationship — steps in and agrees to take Daniel back to Lawton and keep watch over him and protect him. Daniel doesn’t understand why Victor — who also returned Daniel’s cat, Skidmark, to him at the beginning of the episode — would do such a thing, but he ultimately agrees to go with Victor.

It is unclear if Strand had an ulterior motive, or if he really does feel bad for Daniel after having heard the pain he suffers from because of being shot in the face by Strand. Strand, as always, remains an enigma. It’s impossible to tell if he’s lying or being truthful because the only side Strand has ever taken is his own.

To be honest, it seems fairly obvious based on the evidence that Daniel was responsible for stealing the weapons. However, there are still some who think that Daniel was set up, at least partially. Daniel may have confiscated the weapons, but the initial explosion is still reminiscent of the explosion in Tank Town. Could this be a mix of Daniel losing his mind and the Spray-Can Crazies? Moreover, is it possible that there are moles on the inside?

Some are speculating that Charlie and Grace are working for the Spray-Can Crazies, and were gaslighting Daniel about where he told them to hide. While this seems improbable, the writers during this season of Fear have been thinking two steps ahead (the Dakota reveal, for instance, was outstanding and completely unexpected), so I wouldn’t put it past them to introduce a couple of moles, and the least suspicious people in Morgan’s entire community are probably Grace and Charlie. Maybe that makes them the most likely?

In any respect, we’ll get to meet that new group next week. I’m not sure what’s going on, but they look like post-apocalyptic pot growers!

The Academy Awards were last night, so the best in film from the past year was properly honored. Per usual, some of the awards were devoted to music as well, and picking up big wins in those categories were HER, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste.

HER got the Best Original Song win for her Judas And The Black Messiah track “Fight For You” over “Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga (sung by Will Ferrell and Molly Sandén, the latter of whom Rachel McAdams lip-synced for the film), Celeste’s “Hear My Voice” from The Trial Of The Chicago 7, Leslie Odom Jr.’s “Speak Now” from One Night In Miami, and Lauren Pausini’s “Io Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead.

Reznor, Ross, and Batiste’s Soul score also picked up a win, in the Best Original Score category, winning over the former two’s score for Mank, as well as Da 5 Bloods, Minari, and News Of The World.

As Billboard notes, these wins were superlative. Reznor, Ross, and Batiste are the first three-member composing team to win Best Original Score in 33 years, following Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Cong Su’s 1987 win for The Last Emperor. Batiste is also just the third Black composer to win in a scoring category, following Prince’s 1984 win for Best Musical Song Score with Purple Rain and Herbie Hancock’s 1986 victory for Best Original Score with ‘Round Midnight.

HER’s victory was also historically significant: For the first time in 35 years, a songwriter or songwriting team won an Oscar in the same awards season that they won a Grammy for Song Of The Year for a different song, as HER’s “I Can’t Breathe” just picked up the Grammy win a few weeks ago.

Find the full list of this year’s Oscar winners here.

There have been 16 posthumous winners in the nearly century-old history of the Academy Awards, including two actors: Peter Finch for Network and Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight. Nearly every Oscar prognosticator had Chadwick Boseman, who died at 43 years old last August from colon cancer, becoming the third member of the club for his electric performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. But then chaos reigned.

For the first time in apparently decades, the Oscars ended on Sunday not with Best Picture (which went to Nomadland), but Best Actor, presumably because the Academy assumed that Boseman would be posthumously awarded in the category. Instead, Anthony Hopkins won for The Father, leading to an ending that was not only anti-climatic but also unfair. Unfair to Hopkins, who’s fantastic in The Father and doesn’t deserve the amount of scorn he’s getting; unfair to Nomadland director Chloe Zhao, whose historic win felt like an afterthought due to the category shuffling; and unfair to Boseman. The ceremony was built around his win, including his family being in attendance and his head being turned into an NFT (“They made him a literal token”), but then… nothing.

Hopkins handled the controversy well (once he got out of bed).

“Good morning. Here I am in my homeland in Wales and at 83-years-of-age I did not expect to get this award. I really didn’t,” Hopkins said in a video posted to Instagram after someone woke him up to tell him he won. The Silence of the Lambs star also paid tribute to Boseman, “who was taken from us far too early,” and added, “I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honored.” No one expected this.

The morning after, people are still in disbelief.

It’s the most heartrending part of any Oscars ceremony: the “In Memoriam” montage is a chance to reflect on those in the industry who’ve passed in the previous 12 months. But this last year was different: Along with taking half a million lives globally, the pandemic — and the murder of George Floyd — put loss front and center in all of our lives. So during the 2021 Academy Awards, the montage hit even harder than usual.

Angela Bassett presented this year’s “In Memoriam,” addressing, as so many did over the night, the elephant in the room. “Considering the enormity of our collective loss, and the often incomprehensible times we’re living through, we wish to also acknowledge those precious lives lost — to the violence of inequality, injustice, hatred, racism, and poverty,” she said. “To all of those who left our lives too soon, we cherish the moments we had the honor of having with you. Tonight we want to celebrate the artists who gave us the permission to dream, the technical pioneers and innovators who expanded our experience of movie love. Let us as one community say, ‘Thank you. You will remain as we remember you in our hearts, always.”

The montage itself played over a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “As,” off Songs in the Key of Life. It was kicked off by the brilliant actress Cicely Tyson, and it rolled through untold legends, like Max Von Sydow, Olivia de Havilland, Ian Holm, Christopher Plummer, George Segal, Hal Holbook, Rhonda Fleming, Yaphet Kotto, Cloris Leachman, and Diana Rigg. There were film directors, like Joel Schumacher, Bertrand Tavernier, Michael Apted, Joan Micklin Silver, Alan Parker, and Lynn Shelton. There was Wilford Brimley and Fred Willard and Brian Dennehy and Jerry Stiller. There was Carl Reiner. And at the end, there was Sean Connery followed by Chadwick Boseman.

Some of these people died from COVID-related complications. Others did not. They all of them, no matter their age, left us too early. You can watch the full montage in the video above.

There was not much drama for the top prize at the 93rd Academy Awards. Nomadland won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Best Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globes, Best Picture at the Critics’ Choice Awards, and Best Film at the British Academy Film Awards. It can add Best Picture to its list of achievements.

Nomadland winning Best Picture capped a historic night for writer/director/producer/editor Chloé Zhao, who also took home Best Director (only the second woman to do so, and first of Asian descent). “This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold out to the goodness in themselves and to hold out to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that,” she said during her directing acceptance speech. “You inspire me to keep going.” Zhao, who thanked “all the people we met on the road,” was joined on stage by Best Actress winner Frances McDormand following the Best Picture win. (Nomadland is now the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner of all-time, although with an obvious asterisk due to the pandemic.)

“Please watch our movie on the largest screen possible and one day soon take everyone you know into a theatre shoulder to shoulder into that dark space and watch every film that’s represented here tonight,” McDormand said before letting out a wolf howl. You can watch that cathartic moment above.