The Academy Awards - A Celebration of Caucasian Excellence

The Oscar nominations came out last week, and, what is surprising but should no longer be surprising, is that it is a celebration of whites in Hollywood.  Among the acting categories, not a single person of colour was nominated.  As well, all of the best picture noms were dominated by white casts.

What the hell happened to diversity, I scream to myself.

In 2009 the number of best picture nominees was changed from five to a maximum of ten.  This was done to try and add some diversity to the types of films that would get the noms, allowing genre fare to get recognition when it normally wouldn't.  What is surprising is when you have this total white dominance in a year that there was only eight of a possible of a possible ten best picture nominations.  I have seen six of the eight, and I will say that they are most worthy of the honour.  But what about the two empty slots that could have been filled?

This is where I start to wonder.  Why is it that there were only eight chosen when there were so many other great films this year?  Why couldn't there be some recognition given to non-whites in those slots?

I am not talking about 'pity recognition,' I am talking about movies that truly are worthy of being in the running that didn't make it.  Three such movies come to mind without even having to think too hard.  I don't like thinking too hard, because then I need to take a break.

Straight Outta Compton was released in the late summer, and instantly entered the talk of being a possibility for film of the year.  I don't think there were many pundits who believed that it would win, but there was a great number who saw this as a serious contender for getting a nomination.  What could be the possible problem here?  It was about a music group called Niggaz With Attitudes.  This causal relation between the content and the lack of nomination is pure speculation on my part, but the Academy is almost 95% caucasian.

Now, I don't want to do anything other than speculate.  I saw the film, and it was a great biopic.  It did what it needed to do, and it hit the emotions it was trying to.  Was it the best movie of the year?  Hell no.  Was it better than some of the soapy water biopics that made the list last year?  It sure was.  If The Theory of Everything or The Imitation Game were good enough to to be considered a best picture contender, then there is no way that Straight Outta Compton, which was a lot riskier than those other two overly safe and by the numbers films were, shouldn't be worthy of the same consideration.  I'm sorry about the long sentence.  I am just in that kind of mood right now.

Another possible choice could have been Beasts of No Nation, a movie about child soldiers in Africa. It was a very difficult movie to watch, and there could be a few factors other than just race that kept it from the list.  First of all, the subject material (elevated by the skilled directing and excellent acting) is extremely hard to watch while you smile and eat popcorn.  It is a challenging film that robs the audience of innocence.  That kind of film may not be the top of the list for people to nominate, as they tend to be a little safer in the their picks at times.  Secondly, this was a feature film that was released day and date on Netflix.  It is a true sign of the future, but with 86% of the academy being over fifty, it may be a little too much a little too soon.  Non-traditional release platforms may need to be around for a while before they are recognized, at least in the feature film category.

And hey, in the acting categories as well.  Beasts of No Nation had two standout performances in it, neither of which not nominated.  Young Abraham Attah gave a breakthrough performance, carrying the weight of the film on his shoulders and competently delivering all of the various emotions that the audience was to feel.  No best actor nomination for him.  Idris Elba was a standout as The Commandant, being brutally nurturing and manipulative with the soldiers around him.  No best supporting actor for him.

And then there is Creed, easily one of the best motion pictures of the year.  Sylvester Stallone was nominated in the supporting actor category, but missing out was the lead performance of Micheal B. Jordan.  Heck, even with the amazing cinematography and the epic score, the nomination for Stallone was all this movie has for nominations.  I find it very difficult to understand how this movie isn't worth a best picture nomination.  It's not as though it would need to replace or bump another movie out of the list, because there are two open spots begging to be filled with something.

It is just sad that there is so little representation of minorities in Hollywood recognition.  The problem is amplified by the fact that the representation of talent in movies is mostly white.  There is some notable progress, but it is not enough.  The president of the academy, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, is an African American, but it doesn't seem to move the needle when it comes to what people want to hold up as worthy of recognition.

Boone Isaacs stated that, "in the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond."  I think that is a great step forward, but it brings up a reality that really irks me: Why cannot the current academy see past the lines of colour?

Having more diversity in the voters will have a beneficial outcome, but what is it in the human nature that means a bunch of older white men (over 75% of the academy is male) do not recognize diversity?

I don't think I will ever know for sure the answer to this.  It could be a number of things, but ruling out sub-conscious or conscious racism is not one of them.  Forty acting talents were nominated over the past two years, and all of them were white.  Eight movies were nominated, and all of them were with a predominantly white cast.  Was it really a stretch to keep the highest domestically grossing movie of all time, The Force Awakens, from filling one of those spots?  They put Avatar on the list back at the 82nd Academy Awards, and it had a lower Rotten Tomatoes rating than The Force Awakens.  Oh wait.  The lead actor in The Force Awakens is black.  I guess that answers my question.

REVIEW: Creed

The good news about Creed is that if there were people wondering if a Rocky spin off would end up turning into a story about Rocky Balboa getting back into the ring 'one last time,' your worries are unjustified.  The story truly focuses on the tale of the illegitimate child of Apollo Creed, the man who died in the ring at the hands of the vicious Ivan Drago and who challenged and then mentored Balboa.

The young and talented actor Michael B. Jordan plays the role of Adonis Johnson, the up and coming boxer who wants to carve his own path and does not want to make it based solely on the name of his father.  The secret cannot stay hidden forever, and the moment it comes out it is the wet dream of the manager for the soon to be jailed light heavyweight champion "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, played by boxer Tony Bellew.  This is not the first time in the Rocky franchise that the choice to have professional boxers in the cast, and it pays off well as Bellew is able to adequately be the villain that is needed to our hero to face and overcome.

But is the movie really about beating someone and becoming the champion?  Absolutely not.  The movie is a character story, with boxing just being the means for which our protagonist develops and learns about himself.  Michael B. Jordan flexes (pun kind of intended, I guess) his talents as he adds an enormous amount of depth to his character, with the solid script from director Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington making for an intriguing story with an emotional character arc.

One of the best things about this film, outside of the action in the ring, that is, is the chemistry between Jordan and Sylvester Stallone who returns to play the legendary role of the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa.  He is a supporting character this time around, and he hits into it more naturally than any of the films since Rocky.  He is written not as a one dimensional character, and he proves to audiences once more that he can act with the right script and the right director.  There are a lot of very touching and emotional scenes between the aging boxer and the new blood who just wants to prove to himself that he is the best.

The directing of Ryan Coogler is one of the main take aways from this film.  Creed is completely stylistically different than his only other feature film, Fruitvale Station, but from what you see on the screen you would think that he had done this kind of film many times before.  He shows a mastery of using dialogue, cinematography, and score to allow the emotions of the film to ebb and flow along with the story.

The action in the film feels like first nature to Coogler.  One of the boxing matches shows incredible ambition and talent as it is made to feel like one continuous shot through out the entire battle, with the camera weaving around the action in the ring and following the boxers to their corners between rounds.  This is the incredible work of cinematographer Maryse Alberti, who also showed an skillful eye in this year's The Visit.  There may not be any talk of her being up for an Oscar for this role, but that boxing sequence alone demands that people give her respect.

Everything with this film comes together to bring audiences a fun, emotion-fueled boxing movie about an underdog working to over come.  It is not just about winning, but about knowing who you are, and what it is that you are fighting for in life.  There is just too much entertainment and talent shown in this movie to not enthusiastically recommend it.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars

Box Office Predictions: The Good Dinosaur, Creed, and Victor Frankenstein

A few days ago I wrote a post on Creed, a spin off of from the popular (and aged) Rocky franchise.  After talking about the film itself, it is time to take a look through the realm of the mystics and forecast just how it will do in the box office this weekend.  Along with it, Pixar's The Good Dinosaur and Fox's Victor Frankenstein are opening as well.

This is the first time that Pixar has released two films in the same year.  Back in the summer, Inside Out became an enormous success both critically and in the box office.  It scored 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and opened to $90 million.  One could guess that this will be another knock out of the park by Pixar, but there is a chance that it won't be quite as successful as Inside Out.

For starters, it is not fairing as well on Rotten Tomatoes, currently sitting at 81%.  Now, that does not necessarily mean anything for a family feature such as this, but it is interesting to note that the audience rating is pretty much the same, with 80%.  Twitter traffic is also relatively low for a Pixar film, with BoxOffice.com reporting that the Twitter activity mirrors that of Hotel Transylvania 2, which opened to $48 million.

I won't play the standard maths and say that it will translate proportionally to The Good Dinosaur, but I will say that all things considered, it looks like this will not be the holiday weekend breakout film that perhaps Disney was hoping for.  It is Thanksgiving weekend of a fall season that has seen a lot of movies flop, but I don't think that will be the case here.  I expect a decent opening weekend for Pixar's latest.

The Good Dinosaur Opening Weekend Prediction - $63 Million


Let's pretend that the name Sylvester Stallone is not attached to Creed.  His name has meant next to nothing in the box office the past number of years, so it would do a disservice to the potential of this movie to lean on his drawing power.  He does play a role in the film, but it is not by getting in the ring 'one last time,' and instead plays a mentor, but in a movie that looks better than when he mentored Tommy 'Machine' Gunn in the fifth and cartoonish Rocky movie.

This time around, the story is less about Rocky Balboa, and more about the son of Apollo Creed, Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan).  It is hard to base any interest from the general public off of Jordan's name, and let's try to forget for the moment that he was in this summer's (less than) Fantastic Four.  Critics know just how talented he is, and mainstream audiences are about to find out.

Right now it is boasting a tremendous 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and has seen a very effective and emotionally stirring promotional campaign.  Audiences are loving it (giving it 96% on RT), and it is that kind of appreciation that I think could turn into good word of mouth that will give this film a boost over the course of the weekend, allowing it to exceed expectations.

Creed Opening Weekend Prediction - $30 Million


And last we have Victor Frankenstein, a movie whose trailers make it difficult to take the film's chances seriously.  Having stylized movies is a risk, and this one may not pay off at all.  Audiences are currently liking it more than critics, but I doubt that will help out the film.  Stylized reimagining may have worked for Sherlock Holmes, but something tells me that the character of Holmes is much more intriguing to the public than that of Frankenstein.

Victor Frankenstein Opening Weekend Prediction - $7.5 Million

Is Rocky Balboa Ready to be Relevant Again?

With the upcoming film Creed,  I can't help but ask if the aging boxer Rocky Balboa is really something that audiences care about at all.  The movie follows the life of Adonis Johnson, the son of Apollo Creed.  For those who are not familiar with the Rocky franchise, Apollo Creed was the challenge for the underdog Balboa to over come, turning from foe in the ring to good friend.

Sylvester Stallone is a far distance from the cinematic draw that he once was in the eighties.  In 1985, his films Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rocky IV were second and third in the box office respectively.  The characters were cartoonish, but it played well with the general thirst for cheesy action that movie goers had during that time period.

A lot has changed in the thirty years that have passed since then.  The kinds of films that Stallone was known for now have a difficult time even getting wide releases, and when they do, they end up in the dumping grounds of the winter or mid August.  The name of Stallone itself means nothing for ticket sales, with each of his three 2013 releases (Bullet to the Head, Escape Plan, and Grudge Match) all falling short of ten million dollars in their opening weekends.  Even the revitalizing franchise of The Expendables only made $15.8 million its opening weekend last year.  No matter who he is teamed up with, his films just don't have the appeal that they once did.

So, with some pretty dismal numbers leading to an undeniable conclusion that his time of being a draw is long gone, why are we about to see Rocky arrive on screens once again?  Is it just an aging actor refusing to let go?

That does not appear to be the case here.  For the first time in the Rocky franchise, Sylvester Stallone is not writing the story, but leaving that task to the film's director Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington.  Coogler may have only one film under his belt, but that doesn't mean that he is over his head with this potential blockbuster.  In 2013 he released his first feature film, Fruitvale Station, which won over critics and audiences and showed his abilities as both a director and writer.

What made Fruitvale Station so powerful was the focus on the final day of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) in a 'based on true events' story that leads to Grant being shot by a BART police officer on new year's eve in 2009.  With a true story such as that, the audience knows exactly how it will end, with the sound of a gunshot and the lead dying.  However, even with the outcome known, Coogler gets us so invested in the character of Oscar Grant that we beg for the inevitable to not happen.

It is that skill that he brings with him to Creed, in a movie that looks to be a character story of Adonis Johnson, who is played by Michael B. Jordan, making this the second time the two have teamed up together.  With Coogler's directing and writing combined with the incredibly powerful yet nuanced abilities of Jordan, it is not surprising that critics are praising this film.

This could be the wisest cinematic move that Stallone has done in recent memory, and that involves the passing of the torch to the next generation.  It felt as though his past movie attempts were about keeping the spark of the action hero alive in him, something that the ticket purchasing public could not get into.  Now, with him playing the part of mentor for an up and coming super talent, movie goers have a Stallone movie to be excited about once again.