Month: April 2021

No, Glenn Close didn’t win what would have been her first-ever Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Hillbilly Elegy, she was widely seen as someone with an outside chance to win. And she didn’t: She lost to Young Yuh-jung for Minari. It was her eighth-ever loss, which ties her with Peter O’Toole for the most nominations without a win. But that’s cool, because later on she stole the entire show anyway.

Over 2 ½ hours into the show, with only three awards left, the pandemic Oscars finally did a fun comedy bit. Lil Rel Howery came out to play a game, where the night’s DJ Questlove would play an old song, and attendees had to guess if it was nominated for an Oscar, if it won an Oscar, of if it did neither. He eventually got to Close, and Questlove played “Da Butt” — the go-go hit from the band E.U., originally heard in Spike Lee’s second feature School Daze from 1988, and which wasn’t even nominated.

But Close knew all this and more. She whipped out some razor-sharp “Da Butt” knowledge, naming the band, naming the movie, and naming its Oscar status. She even did the dance from the song, which involves shaking one’s tuchus.

So while Glenn Close lost the battle, she won the war. And people knew it.

And here’s her dance.

People agreed that this was the highlight of an unusual evening.

The pandemic Oscars have been pretty weird. Produced in part by Steven Soderbergh, it’s envisioned a new, probably one-time-only way to handle a ceremony in the midst of a once-in-a-century public health crisis. There’ve been roaming cameras and CinemaScope framing and lots of talking and almost no clips. But perhaps the weirdest thing about the 2021 Academy Awards didn’t happen on air. It was a tweet from a politician.

Chuck Schumer, the newish Senate Majority Leader, decided to weigh in on Hollywood’s big night. He didn’t, say, congratulate Nomadland‘s Chloe Zhao for being only the second woman to ever win Best Director, or say that the documentary Time got robbed. Instead he posted a very dense, loaded picture of him a) sitting about two feet from a TV screen while b) sitting in what looks like a pretty uncomfortable wooden chair and c) nursing what he called an “ice cold plant-based beer.” He then thanked Joe Biden. For what exactly? It’s a mystery.

This year’s Oscars are weird not only because the format is radically different. It’s also weird because few of the nominated films garnered much widespread attention. So when Schumer posted his bizarre tweet about halfway through the show, plenty of people pounced on it.

Some questioned the “plant-based beer” remark — which may have been a subtle trolling of former Trump staffer Larry Kudlow, who recently ranted about how Biden was going to make everyone guzzle beer from plants (aka beer).

Some were weirded out by the awkward way he held the bottle.

Others criticized his close proximity to the TV.

And there were those who thought everything about it was strange.

There were other jokes, too.

And there were people who found this to be the most entertaining part of a pretty chatty show.

This year’s Oscars ceremony kicked off with Regina King leading the cinematic, Steven Soderbergh production before the winners began rolling forth. The scaled-down (in terms of number of attendees) event put speeches front and center, and the evening will be hard pressed to find a more quote-worthy (and meme-worthy) moment than when Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Oscar (for Judas and the Black Messiah) while beating out Sacha Baron Cohen, Leslie Odam Jr., Paul Raci, and LaKeith Stanfield (who was nominated for the same film).

While Kaluuya expressed enthusiasm for how humanity has (begun to) overcome the past horrible year, he marveled at how all who were in attendance were, well, alive. Then the Get Out star veered off the rails: “My mom, my dad, they had sex, it’s amazing! I’m here.” Cringe City! Here’s the video evidence that proves how Daniel’s gonna have a lot of explaining to do tonight.

Poor Daniel’s mom. Poor Daniel’s sister! Arguably, sister had it worse because something popped into her head, and it wasn’t fantastic. Yet Daniel is correct: we are all lucky to be alive today. And social media had a ball with this quote of the evening.

The night is young! We’ll see if anyone can top this glorious mess.

In a better timeline, we would have seen Steven Spielberg’s take on West Side Story already. Originally scheduled for an Oscar season December release, it got bumped nearly a year by the pandemic. And so not only haven’t we seen it, but we haven’t even seen a trailer — until now. Dropped into the middle of the Steven Soderbergh-led Academy Awards telecast was the first look at what one of cinema’s most popular filmmakers did with a classic.

The trailer leans heavily on two things: dancing and gang warfare. Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner kept the original premise, which is restaging Romeo and Juliet to the modern day, with our star-crossed lovers torn between two warring gangs: one American, the other Puerto Rican. We only get glimpses of our main pair, played by Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort, instead seeing the large ensemble who will take an old war horse into our present day.

Spielberg has never made a full-blown musical, though he has dabbled. 1941 and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom both have cracking good musical numbers. It should be exciting to see what he cooks up, but it’s already clear that, with this and the also long-postponed movie version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, 2021 is going to be a great year for the New York City-set movie musical.

You can watch the full trailer in the video above.

The Academy Awards has now gone without a host for the last three years. (The last time there was a host, it was Jimmy Kimmel cracking jokes about the Moonlight and La La Land debacle.) But the 2021 Oscars is unlike the last two — or any other in the award show’s history. It was anyone’s guess what form the monologue would take, but with Steven Soderbergh producing the ceremony, you knew it was going to be good. It was.

The 2021 Oscars kicked off with a tracking shot filmed in CinemaScope of Regina King (her directorial debut, One Night in Miami…, was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture) walking down the carpet to the stage, where she delivered a timely message. “It has been quite a year and we are still smack dab in the middle of it. And I have to be honest, if things had come differently this past week in Minneapolis, I may have traded in my heels for marching boots,” she said. “Now I know a lot of your people at home want to reach for your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you. But as the mother of a Black son, I know the fear that so many live with. And no amount of fame or fortune changes that. OK? But, tonight, we are here to celebrate.”

King also acknowledged the mask-less ceremony. “Think of this as a movie set. We been vaxxed, tested, re-tested and socially distanced, and we are following all of the rigorous protocols that got us back to work,” she said.

For the complete list of Oscar winners, head here.

The 2021 Oscars are officially underway, and the show’s apparently hostless again. Everything should move along quite nicely with the focus fully resting upon nominees and winners, but who knows, since Steven Soderbergh has promised that this awards ceremony will feel watching a movie (well, alright!). We’ll be updating this complete winners list all night as more awards are announced, so make sure to keep checking back. Winners will be marked in bold.

Best Director
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Best Costume Design
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Emma
Mank
Mulan
Pinocchio

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Emma
Hillbilly Elegy
Mank
Pinocchio

Best Supporting Actor
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
Sacha Baron Cohen The Trial of the Chicago 7
Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami
Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
LaKeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah

Best International Feature Film
Another Round
Better Days
Collective
The Man Who Sold His Skin
Quo Vadis, Aida?

Best Adapted Screenplay
Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, The Father
Sacha Baron Cohen and Co-Writers, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Kemp Powers, One Night in Miami
Ramin Bahrani, The White Tiger

Best Original Screenplay
Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
Judas and the Black Messiah (Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith Lucas, and Kenny Lucas)
Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
Sound of Metal (Derek Cianfrance, Abraham Marder, Darius Marder)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin)

—–

Best Picture
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Actor
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Gary Oldman, Mank
Steven Yeun, Minari

Best Actress
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

Best Supporting Actress
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Youn Yuh-jung, Minari

Best Documentary
Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
Time

Best Animated Feature
Onward
Over the Moon
Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers

Best Cinematography
Judas and the Black Messiah (Sean Bobbitt)
Mank (Erik Messerschmidt)
News of the World (Dariusz Wolski)
Nomadland (Joshua James Richards)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Phedon Papamichael)

Best Film Editing
The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Original Score
Da 5 Bloods
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Soul

Best Original Song
“Fight For You,” Judas and the Black Messiah
“Hear My Voice,” The Trial of the Chicago 7
“Husavik,” Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
“lo Sì (Seen), The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)
“Speak Now, One Night in Miami

Best Production Design
The Father
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
News of the World
Tenet

Best Sound
Greyhound
Mank
News of the World
Soul
Sound of Metal

Best Visual Effects
Love and Monsters
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
The One and Only Ivan
Tenet

Short Film
Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens I Love You
Opera
Yes-People

Best Short Film (Live Action)
Feeling Through
The Letter Room
The Present
Two Distant Strangers
White Eye

Best Documentary (Short Subject)
Colette
A Concerto Is a Conversation
Do Not Split
Hunger Ward
A Love Song for Latasha

After holding a memorial for DMX on Saturday, featureingappearances from Kanye West and the Sunday Service Choir, Swizz Beatz, and more, the late rapper’s family held a Homegoing Celebration for him on Sunday. Just like the previous service, Sunday’s in-person gathering was limited strictly to close friends and family, while DMX’s fans were able to watch it through a livestream on BET. But the latter at least had some good news.

According to Revolt, Erica Ford, the co-founder of Life Camp, an organization established to prevent gun violence, and Priscilla Echi, a Westchester community activist, revealed at the service that the New York State Senate had officially declared December 18th, DMX’s birthday, as Earl “DMX” Simmons Day. The resolution, which sought to mourn “the untimely death of DMX, legendary New York rap icon and talented actor,” was originally introduced on April 20 by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Senator Jamaal T. Bailey.

“His lyrics were rapped on the Senate floor by Senator Jamal Bailey who introduced a resolution in his honor. He also has proclamations from Mayor Spano and Mayor Shawyn Patterson Howard,” Echi revealed during Sunday’s service. “From the governor’s office, we have the flag that was flying the day that he died to be presented to his family,” she said. “We have a citation from the governor’s office for his oldest son and one for his father.”

To those lucky enough to attend the Academy Awards every year, the gift bags are the stuff of legend. There’s always some pricey goodies stuffed in there, handed to massive movie stars and below-the-line technicians alike. But those attending the pandemic-era Oscars this year got a little surprise: NFTs honoring the late Chadwick Boseman.

NFTs, of course, are the latest virtual craze. The acronym stands for non-fungible tokens, but it’s better to call them digital collectables — virtual trinkets that have so far mostly attracted musicians, among them Doja Cat, The Weeknd, and Eminem, all of whom have started selling NFTs to fans.

But this one is different. The NFT offers a 3-D digital likeness of the late actor, embodied as a golden head floating in air. “The way to immortalize an artist is to honor them with art,” wrote Andre Oshea, the artist tasked with creating the NFT. “I was tasked to create a tribute NFT for Chadwick Boseman for the Oscars! Bringing this piece to life has been one of my most challenging & rewarding experiences as an artist.”

Though everyone who attends the ceremony will get their own copy of the NFT, the original one will be auctioned off separately, with proceeds going to The Colon Cancer Foundation. Boseman himself died last summer after a long, mostly secret battle with colon cancer.

(Via EW)

Saturday Night Live made waves over the weekend by announcing its next host would be a billionaire with questionable scientific beliefs, despite owning a company responsible for sending humans into space. Though Musk has plenty of fans online, the reaction across social media was largely negative for a number of reasons, with some comparing the move to the show’s infamous decision to let Donald Trump host during his run to the White House in 2015.

Musk drew plenty of reaction from skeptics on Saturday, but as the weekend went on, one meme triumphed above all. In recent years, SNL has announced hosts and musical guests with images of yellow, blue and pink index cards. They did the same on Saturday when announcing Musk and musical guest Miley Cyrus, and an intrepid poster with the Twitter handle @bonerwizard decided to edit out the names and let people go wild picking their own host and musical guest.

Their own suggestion was pretty good, and very quickly the pairings got more and more absurd.

https://twitter.com/Rob__Sly/status/1386280242159960064

Some, however, were actually pretty good suggestions.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the format has been used to make a joke. In fact, SNL writer Steven Castillo has used the format to make his own jokes on Twitter and Instagram in the past. This one is a particular favorite.

He made his own joke about the Musk pick on Saturday as well, so perhaps the show will be in on the joke of it all when Musk actually swings by next month.

The only way to see if Musk can actually pull it off is to watch. Or, I suppose, just wait to see some clips surface on Twitter and quote tweet it with your own take.

Whenever NASCAR goes to the superspeedways of Talladega and Daytona, it’s just a matter of time before you get “The Big One.” With how the cars run stacked up, bumper-to-bumper, when a wreck happens it tends to take out a good chunk of the field. On Sunday, Joey Logano was unfortunately on the wrong end of starting a big one — it only collected a few cars so surely another wreck is on its way — when he got turned by Denny Hamlin and found himself suddenly airborne and flipping over as he turned down the track.

It is a terrifying scene for Logano, who luckily was fine and climbed out of the car on his own — a true testament to NASCAR’s safety improvement in recent years. In that video you can see how he nearly landed on Bubba Wallace’s 23 car, and at this point NASCAR broadcasts have cameras everywhere, including in the cars looking out the windshield to show you what the drivers see. In case you ever thought being a NASCAR driver might be for you, here is the terrifying reality of what it looks like when a car suddenly appears flipping over onto its roof in front of you from out of a cloud of smoke while you’re going almost 200 miles per hour.

Absolutely not. Wallace’s reaction on the radio afterwards was more than understandable, as he said his underwear took more damage than his car did in the scare.

You can see how Wallace just goes into reaction mode, snapping his car down the track to try and avoid the flipping Logano, and then having to work the wheel back the other way to keep from spinning himself out into the grass. Wallace’s car took a little cosmetic damage but avoided disaster, which is a minor miracle of its own.

After being released from the care center, Logano spoke about how something needs to change with the way they race at these superspeedways, noting he could’ve easily suffered a fate similar to Ryan Newman’s terrifying injuries a couple years back had he gotten hit by someone as he was upside down. He was appreciative of the safety advances NASCAR’s made so he could survive that wreck, but noted it’s “stupid” they keep doing this same thing with the pushing and stacked up racing that results in these kinds of wrecks.