88th Academy Awards results

Hello there, Albert here! This is a follow up to Episode 52 of The Stuff & Junk Show, where me, Jiaming, and Kathryn, made our predictions and choices on who / what will win in the 88th Annual Academy Awards; The Oscars! We didn't think it was completely necessary to record a podcast episode of the results, but for those curious as to how right and wrong we were in our choices, here you go... 

The Stuff & Junk Show - Episode 52 : 88th Academy Awards - Oscar Picks  

Best Supporting Actress
Kathryn's pick : Alicia Vikander (wants Rooney Mara) 
Jiaming's pick : Rachel McAdams (wants Jennifer Jason Leigh) 
Albert's pick :  Alicia Vikander  (wants Alicia Vikander) 
WINNER : ALICIA VIKANDER 

Best Supporting Actor  
Kathryn's pick : Sylvester Stallone (wants Mark Rylance) 
Jiaming's pick : Sylvester Stallone (wants Sylvester Stallone) 
Albert's pick : Sylvester Stallone (wants Sylvester Stallone) 
WINNER : MARK RYLANCE  

Best Actress
Kathryn's pick : Brie Larson (wants Brie Larson) 
Jiaming's pick : Brie Larson (wants Saoirse Ronan) 
Albert's pick : Brie Larson (wants Brie Larson) 
WINNER : BRIE LARSON  

Best Actor
Kathryn's pick : Leonardo DiCaprio (wants either DiCaprio or Fassbender) 
Jiaming's pick : Leonardo DiCaprio (wants Matt Damon) 
Albert's pick : Leonardo DiCaprio (wants Eddie Redmayne) 
WINNER : LEONARDO DICAPRIO  

Best Adapted Screenplay
Kathryn's pick : The Big Short (wants Brooklyn) 
Jiaming's pick : The Big Short (wants The Martian) 
Albert's pick : The Big Short (wants Room) 
WINNER : THE BIG SHORT  

Best Original Screenplay
Kathryn's pick : Inside Out (wants Ex Machina) 
Jiaming's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out) 
Albert's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out) 
WINNER : SPOTLIGHT  

Best Animated Feature
Kathryn's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out) 
Jiaming's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out) 
Albert's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out) 
WINNER : INSIDE OUT  

Best Director
Kathryn's pick : George Miller (wants Inarritu or Miller) 
Jiaming's pick : Tom McCarthy (wants George Miller) 
Albert's pick : Alejandro Inarritu (wants George Miller) 
WINNER : ALEJANDRO INARRITU  

Best Picture
Kathryn's pick : The Revenant (wants Mad Max : Fury Road) 
Jiaming's pick : Spotlight (wants Mad Max : Fury Road) 
Albert's pick : The Revenant (wants The Martian) 
WINNER : SPOTLIGHT  

Best Visual Effects  
Kathryn's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens (wants Mad Max : Fury Road) 
Jiaming's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens (wants Mad Max : Fury Road)  
Albert's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens (wants Mad Max : Fury Road) 
WINNER : EX MACHINA  

Best Cinematography  
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants Sicario)  
Jiaming's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants Sicario) 
Albert's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants Sicario) 
WINNER : THE REVENANT  

Best Production Design
Kathryn's pick : The Revenant
Jiaming's pick : The Revenant
Albert's pick : The Martian (wants The Revenant) 
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD  

Best Film Editing  
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Jiaming's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Albert's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD  

Best Sound Editing
Kathryn's pick : The Revenant (wants Sicario) 
Jiaming's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens (wants Sicario) 
Albert's pick : The Revenant
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD  

Best Sound Mixing
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Jiaming's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens
Albert's pick : The Revenant
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD  

Best Score
Kathryn's pick : The Hateful Eight
Jiaming's pick : The Hateful Eight
Albert's pick : The Hateful Eight
WINNER : THE HATEFUL EIGHT  

Best Song
Kathryn's pick : till it happens to you or writings on the wall
Jiaming's pick : writings on the wall
Albert's pick : Simple Song #3
WINNER : WRITING'S ON THE WALL  

Best Foreign Film
Kathryn's pick : Son of Saul
Jiaming's pick : Son of Saul
Albert's pick : Theeb
WINNER : SON OF SAUL  

Best Short Film Animated
Kathryn's pick : Sanjay Super Team
Jiaming's pick : Sanjay Super Team
Albert's pick : Sanjay Super Team (wants World Of Tomorrow) 
WINNER : BEAR STORY  

Best Short Film Live-Action
Kathryn's pick : Shook
Jiaming's pick : Day One
Albert's pick : Shook
WINNER : STUTTERER  

Best Documentary Short Subject
Kathryn's pick : Spectres of the Schaub
Jiaming's pick : Girl, The River
Albert's pick : Chan, Beyond The Lines
WINNER : A GIRL IN THE RIVER  

Best Documentary Feature  
Kathryn's pick : What Happened, Miss Simone? 
Jiaming's pick : What Happened, Miss Simone? 
Albert's pick : What Happened, Miss Simone? 
WINNER : AMY  

Best Make-up and Hairstyling  
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Jiaming's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Albert's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD  

Best Costume Design
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants The Danish Girl) 
Jiaming's pick : The Revenant (wants Mad Max : Fury Road) 
Albert's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants Mad Max : Fury Road) 
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD  

Out of the primary 9 categories that we really focused on, I actually got 6 out of the 9 correct, while Kathryn and Jiaming tied at getting 5 correct each. Kathryn even got one of her preferred choices as the actual winner too in the Best Supporting Actor category.

On the other categories however, Kathryn got the most correct with 7 out of 15, Jiaming got 6 right, while I lagged with only 4 good guesses. Jiaming was also able to get one of his preferred choices as the actual winner in the Best Costume Design category. 

As for the movies themselves, Mad Max : Fury Road got the most wins with 6, even if it's mostly technical categories. However, in terms of the main categories, it was The Revenant and Spotlight that stood out. In general, it seems the Academy members really wanted to spread the wealth, as many got their 1 award, although there were many that didn't get anything at all. 

Biggest surprises for the night are probably Mark Rylance taking it from Sylvester Stallone in supporting actor, Leonardo DiCaprio not getting shut out again in the acting category, Alejandro Inarritu getting a Directing award two years in a row, but it's Spotlight that won out in the end as the best picture of the year against favorites like The Revenant, The Big Short, and Mad Max : Fury Road. 

The 88th Academy Awards has proven to be a rather exciting year. From the #oscarssowhite controversy, to fact that Mad Max : Fury Road really did have a shot at the Best Picture win. Hopefully the 89th will be a fun one to look forward to as well. 

- Albert 

It's Movies Awards Season! Yay?

So we recently had the 73rd Golden Globe Award, and the nominees for the 88th Academy Awards were also announced. As usual the general public had the typical broad reactions to both events that you hear about every year. The first is about the supposed relevance to how the Golden Globe determines who will win at the Oscars, and the second is how the Academy Awards still don't seem to cater to a wide audience. 

First off, you shouldn't take the Golden Globe seriously. This is an awards show that is determined by 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is an organization of journalists and photographers that reports about the US entertainment industry to international markets. These are voters who don't even make movies, and have been known to give awards to studios who essentially bribes them by treating them out to luxurious meetings.

The HFPA may try to make respectable choices, but their decisions are always suspect. As far as whether the winners for the Golden Globe influences the Oscars, well apparently Academy Awards voters had to turn in their votes before the day of the Golden Globe Awards anyway. So there's no significant influence there. But if the studios are trying to sway Golden Globe voters to go one direction, you know they will try to convince the MPAA voters of the same things. 

Now it's true that it seems like the Academy Awards always seem to nominate what many people call "Oscar bait films," but I think it undercuts the cinematic value of the films nominated. The voting body of the Motion Picture Association Of America may have an average age of about 60+ something year olds, and are predominantly Caucasian, which does question why they would choose certain movies over others. However it's important to know that these voters are at least film makers in one way or the other, in at least one point in time of their career. So all the nominees were voted by their peers, which is how respectable awards should go. 

I myself have seen all 8 films that are nominated for Best Picture of the Year, and I don't necessarily disagree with them on why the MPAA chose those movies. Remember that they nominate films that are suppose to be well made and elevate the art of story telling via a moving picture format. It can be easily argued that each of those movies actually fits that description, more so than other films. Look at the highest grossing films of 2015, and honestly think about whether some of those deserves to truly replace the nominees (maybe 3-5 of them could). If all the people criticizing the Academy just wanted "popular" movies, then they are looking at the wrong awards show. There's the People's Choice Awards for that, and just take a look at who won there. 

Albert Patrick
- movie reviewer and podcaster - 
http://whowhatwhereswhy.com 

P.S. As I said on the final episode of the "Movies, Movies, and Movies" podcast, I will start doing my opinion pieces in either a written format (like this exact entry), or in an audio format over at the Stuff & Junk show (keep an eye for that). 

End Of Year, End Of Run

Episode 34  (8 mins 22 secs)  Presenting the final episode of Movies Movies and Movies. 

00:32  I saw 15 movies in December  
02:14  Amazon Prime : While We're Young  
03:41  My top 25 Favorite movies of 2015  
04:58  It's the end of the run for this show  

- "I Saw That Movie" film review blog  
- "the Stuff & Junk show"  
- "Spoilers, Pleeze"  

Send your comments to...  
whowhatwhereswhy@gmail.com  
facebook.com/whowhatwhereswhy  

Albert Patrick  
twitter.com/albert5x5  
instagram.com/albert5x5  

More episodes, other podcasts, and movie reviews can be found at whowhatwhereswhy.com

Change Is Coming

Sorry folks, there is no new episode of Movies Movies and Movies this week. Kinda took some time off from the website these past few days. There were a lot of things I had to think about. I'll say this now though, there is likely going to be a format and scheduling change for this show. It might not even be a show anymore actually. We'll see... Stay tuned, I'll have a definite answer to what's going on in the near future. I appreciate the patience. 

Albert  
 

Franchises and Adaptations

Episode 33  (6 mins 57 secs)  Non-spoiler movie reviews, a streaming movie recommendation, and this week's op-ed. 

00:26 Creed, The Good Dinosaur  
02:19  Netflix : Kung Fu Hustle  
03:31  The strength of franchises and adaptations  

Send your comments to...  
whowhatwhereswhy@gmail.com  
facebook.com/whowhatwhereswhy  

Albert Patrick  
twitter.com/albert5x5  
instagram.com/albert5x5  

More episodes, other podcasts, and movie reviews can be found at whowhatwhereswhy.com

Give Thanks

Episode 32  (8 mins 24 secs)  Non-spoiler movie reviews, a streaming movie recommendation, and this week's op-ed. 

00:27 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, The Night Before, Spotlight, A Journey Through Time With Anthony  
04:17  Amazon Prime Instant recommendation: Ex Machina  
05:51  Giving Thanks To The Movies You Love  

Send your comments to...  
whowhatwhereswhy@gmail.com  
facebook.com/whowhatwhereswhy  

Albert Patrick  
twitter.com/albert5x5  
instagram.com/albert5x5  

More episodes, other podcasts, and movie reviews can be found at whowhatwhereswhy.com

The Bill Murray Fandom

Episode 31  (7 mins 34 secs)  Non-spoiler movie reviews, a streaming movie recommendation, and this week's op-ed. 

00:25 The 33, Suffragette  
02:09  HBO Now recommendation: Gravity  
03:10  About that Bill Murray Fandom  

Send your comments to...  
whowhatwhereswhy@gmail.com  
facebook.com/whowhatwhereswhy  

Albert Patrick  
twitter.com/albert5x5  
instagram.com/albert5x5  

More episodes, other podcasts, and movie reviews can be found at whowhatwhereswhy.com

128 Movies In 12 Months

Episode 29 (08 mins 34 secs) of Movies Movies and Movies  

00:27 Burnt, Room, Goosebumps  

02:39 Hulu = 15 James Bond movies  

05:25 Watching 128 Movies in movie theaters within 12 Months

- moviepass.com  
- variety.com/2015/film/box-office/average-ticket-prices-record-third-quarter-1201621459/  

Send your comments to...  
whowhatwhereswhy@gmail.com  
facebook.com/whowhatwhereswhy  

Albert Patrick  
twitter.com/albert5x5  
instagram.com/albert5x5  

More episodes, other podcasts, and movie reviews can be found at whowhatwhereswhy.com

Time Travel Movies

Episode 27 of Movies Movies and Movies  

00:24 Crimson Peak, Bridge Of Spies, Boruto: Naruto The Movie  

02:48 Amazon Prime Instant = Back To The Future: Part II  

04:18 Time Travel Movies  

ranker.com/list/time-travel-movies-and-films/reference  

Send your comments to...  
whowhatwhereswhy@gmail.com  
facebook.com/whowhatwhereswhy  

Albert Patrick  
twitter.com/albert5x5  
instagram.com/albert5x5  

More episodes, other podcasts, and movie reviews can be found at whowhatwhereswhy.com