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Oscar Predictions
PLUS, NEW AND OLD FILMS TO WATCH THIS WEEK
By Drew Wheeler movies@flagpole.com
It’s Oscar time! Best Picture again pits
multiple worthy films against one another.
The nominees, in my order of current pref
erence, are Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,
Parasite, Little Women, Joker, Jojo Rabbit,
1917, Marriage Story, The Irishman and Ford
v Ferrari, meaning I would vote for QT’s
latest epic. Barring an upset,
I anticipate the envelope will
read 2 917. Though I would
love to see Tarantino hoist the
prize for Best Director, if we
all agree 1917’s most stunning
achievements are technical, it
is hard to argue against Sam
Mendes.
For Best Actor and Best
Actress, I would be shocked
if Joaquin Phoenix or Renee
Zellweger lost, and I am fine
with both selections. Go
ahead and give Brad Pitt his
Best Supporting Actor Oscar
already, and I have no reason
to bet against Laura Dern
for Best Supporting Actress,
either. I would like Best Original Screenplay
to go to Knives Out and Rian Johnson, but
one nomination shows little love, especially
as much as the Academy prefers to reward
QT for writing and nothing else. Why not
Steven Zaillian’s The Irishman for Best
Adapted Screenplay? Just please not Joker,
in its weakest category by far. (I would be
ecstatic if Hildur GuSnadottir won Best
Original Score.)
I prefer Missing Link, but the probable
Best Animated Feature Award winner, Toy
Story 4, is also excellent. Finally, Parasite’s
likely win should come in the recently
renamed Best International Feature Film
category.
Oscar weekend only sees one
wide release, Birds of Prey (and the
Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley
Quinn), in which Margot Robbie reprises
her role from Suicide Squad as the Joker’s
equally wild and crazy girlfriend. Cine con
tinues to offer 1917, Oscar Animated Shorts
2020 and Parasite, and adds a screening of
the suicide doc The S Word on Feb. 8.
At Flicker, Showdown at the Equator
presents A Life of Ninja on Feb. 10. Stick
around that evening for 1994’s Tammy and
the T-Rex. On Feb. 11, Count Zapula pres
ents three movies about “Cops in Love.” In
1989’s Sea of Love, A1 Pacino falls for mur
der suspect Ellen Barkin. Jamie Lee Curtis
gets involved with a sketchy Ron Silver
in Kathryn Bigelow’s Blue Steel (1990).
Finally, David Caruso and Linda Fiorentino
have an ill-advised fling in William
Friedkin’s erotic thriller Jade (1995),
written by the infamous Joe Eszterhas,
who is best known for Basic
Instinct and worst known for
Showgirls.
The Georgia Museum of
Art’s Black History Month
Film Series starts with Spike
Lee’s Malcolm X on Feb. 6.
UGA’s Speak Out for Species
and Sustainable UGA again
sponsor Long Gone Wild,
another look at captive orcas
and marine theme parks, at
the Miller Learning Center
on Feb. 10. Tate’s movies for
the weekend of Feb. 7-9 are
Jexi, which I avoided, and
the entertaining B-movie 21
Bridges, starring Chadwick
Boseman. Beechwood’s
Flashback Cinema has an encore showing
of Meet Me in St. Louis on Feb. 5 before
James Cameron’s Titanic sails again on
the big screen on Feb. 9. The Oglethorpe
County Library’s Seniors’ Monday Matinee
returns on Feb. 10, movie TBA.
GRETEL & HANSEL (PG-13) A far more ambi
tious horror film than usually finds its way
to a wide release, Gretel & Hansel purposely
swaps the order of the lost siblings’ names
to focus on Gretel (Sophia Lillis, as good
here as she was in both chapters of It), a
teenager on the cusp of adulthood. Hansel
(Sam Leakey) takes a backseat as her little
brother, tagging along everywhere she goes.
Director Oz Perkins (son of Psycho’s
Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins) and writer
Rob Hayes tweak their straightforward
retelling of the Grimm fairy tale by empow
ering Gretel. The promising Perkins shows
an eye for stylish, dreamy horror, and his
latest film comes off as a more in spirit
remake of Suspiria than Luca Guadagnino’s.
That composer Robin Coudert’s score
aurally exudes a lot of Goblin does not
hurt the comparison. Moviegoers seeking
a more conventional horror experience will
see the lack of immediate terror as a bane.
However, the surprising Gretel & Hansel
effectively carves out its own space as a
more accessible version of The Witch.
COLOR OUT OF SPACE If you can make it to Cine
before Color Out of Space is gone, do so.
Richard Stanley’s return is a triumphant
blend of horror and science fiction that
watches like a ’90s direct-to-video relic one
would rent from Vision upon confirming
the cult classic status this film may one day
achieve. Every line requiring Nicolas Cage to
utter “alpacas” is pure gold. Colin Stetson’s
score perfectly accompanies the intriguing
color palette and practical FX reminiscent
of The Thing. Fingers crossed this movie her
alds a late career burst of productivity from
Stanley akin to that of Terence Malick. ©
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FEBRUARY 5, 2020 | FLAGPOLE.COM 19