Oscars 2019: The Big Techies

Jeremy BeckOscars
Matt Damon and Christian Bale in future Oscar winner "Ford v Ferrari".

Yesterday, we analyzed some of the less sexy categories at this year’s Oscars. Today, the sexiness has arrived; we’re moving on to five below-the-line fields that I’ve arbitrarily labeled “the big techies”. Get excited, film editing enthusiasts!


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

NOMINEES
The Irishman—Rodrigo Prieto
Joker—Lawrence Sher
The Lighthouse—Jarin Blaschke
1917—Roger Deakins
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—Robert Richardson

WILL WIN
The Oscars work in mysterious ways. For a solid decade—beginning with his double-nomination in 2007, for No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James—Roger Deakins was deemed to be the greatest living cinematographer never to have won an Academy Award. Two years ago, after 13 straight nominations without a win, Deakins finally got off the schneid for his breathtaking lensing of Blade Runner 2049. This year, he’s winning again for 1917. This will not be close. Read More

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Oscars 2019: The Odds and Ends

Jeremy BeckOscars
Is "Toy Story 4" a future Oscar winner?

It’s that time of year! Over the next week, the Manifesto will be rigorously analyzing each of the 21 feature categories for this year’s Oscars. Well, maybe not that rigorously. I used to be an Oscar obsessive, but over the past decade or so, my enthusiasm for the glorified gala has waned a bit. How the movie industry chooses to celebrate itself is no longer of tremendous concern to me. I know which films and performances I like and which I don’t; who really cares what the Academy thinks?

Well, a lot of people. And even setting aside the commercial significance of the Oscars, it’s always worth remembering that, for the most part, they tend to honor pretty good movies. Just don’t take them too seriously; that way, you can’t be too disappointed when they inevitably fuck up.

We’ll be filing a series of posts this week, culminating with a look at Best Picture on Friday. Today, we’re beginning with a handful of categories that I’ve rudely deemed to be minor—not because I discount the contributions of the artisans in these particular fields, but because I, as a cinematic neanderthal, don’t especially care about them. (Speaking of which, I never bother to even predict the three shorts categories, because come on.) Let’s get to it. Read More

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The 10 Best TV Shows of 2019

Jeremy BeckTop 10 Lists, TV Rankings
Rachel Brosnahan in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"; Zendaya in "Euphoria"; Sarah Snook in "Succession"; Alison Brie in "GLOW"; Regina King in "Watchmen"

And here we are. After a week of ranking every single TV show from 2019, we finally come to the end. In case you missed it, here are links to the prior posts:

#s 101-76
#s 75-51
#s 50-31
#s 30-11


10. Watchmen (HBO, Season 1). I don’t think this is a perfect show. It’s sprawling, and tracking its complicated mythology can be a little exhausting. But in raw mathematical terms, I’m not sure any TV series in 2019 delivered more moments of flat-out greatness than Watchmen. This is a massively impressive show, full of gorgeous imagery and exhilarating technique. It’s also a work of monumental ambition, seeking to reframe a traditional comic-book narrative as a commentary on the contemporary evil of white supremacy. Whether it’s especially meaningful as a political document is an open question, but what’s undeniable is how self-assured Watchmen is, how effortlessly it develops its own cinematic language. Plus, it’s funny; this is a show that features a powerful flashback episode investigating the rise of an anti-Ku Klux Klan vigilante, yet it also makes room for Jean Smart lovingly caressing a giant blue dildo. Nothing else on television in 2019 had more to say, and nothing else said it so boldly. Read More

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Ranking Every TV Show of 2019: #s 30-11

Jeremy BeckTV Rankings
Phoebe Waller-Bridge in "Fleabag"

Our countdown of every 2019 TV show continues! For prior installments, check out the links below. And honestly, you can pretty much rearrange all of the shows in this post in any order you want, because they’re all kind of great:

#s 101-76
#s 75-51
#s 50-31


30. Game of Thrones (HBO, Season 8; 2017 rank: 13 of 108). Gulp. OK, let’s get this out of the way: The last episode of Game of Thrones was bad. Or, rather, the last half-hour of the last episode was bad; the much-maligned finale concluded with an appalling whimper that arguably betrayed the uncompromising ferocity that was the series’ signature. Here’s the thing, though: The first half-hour of the finale featured some pretty terrific stuff, including perhaps the most stunning image the series has ever produced. And leading up to that finale, Season 8 as a whole, while uneven, was filled with killer material. Its second episode, which found its characters grimly preparing for the deadly battle to come, is one of the finest hours the show has ever produced, full of humor and tenderness and hard-won camaraderie. And even if Game of Thrones’ ultimate destination was disappointing, its journey was always full of marvelous sights and sounds: an armada of fires blinking out one by one; a deadly game of hide-and-seek in a dusty library; a giant dragon mournfully cradling a fallen rider; Carice Van Houten’s eyes; Maisie Williams’ face. It’s undeniable that the conclusion of this show left a bitter aftertaste. There’s also no denying that, along the way, it routinely delivered images and scenes we’d never before seen on television. Read More

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