New Trailer for Pixar's 'Finding Dory'

I realized as I watched this trailer that I could not possible care less about Dory or this movie. The joke about her short term memory loss was honestly never that funny to me, and everything else about Finding Nemo is what made it a good movie, not her. Sorry, Dory fans. I know I'm in the minority on that, but that's honestly how I feel about this character, so watching a movie where she's center stage? Not that interested.

George Kennedy 1925-2016

Oscar winner George Kennedy died today at 91, best remembered for playing "Dragline" opposite Paul Newman in 1967's Cool Hand Luke, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His other credits included Charade, Shenandoah, The Dirty Dozen, Airport and The Naked Gun series, while also appearing on the 1980's iconic nighttime soap Dallas as the villainous Carter McKay.

Oscar Predictions 2016, Part 5: Director and Picture

Finally, time for the last two, the big prizes of the night. Best PIcture and Best Director, and it pains me to say they're both likely to go to my least favorite of the nominated films.

BEST DIRECTOR

  •         George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
  •         Alejandro Inarritu, The Revenant
  •         Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
  •         Lenny Abrahamson, Room
  •         Adam McKay, The Big Short

You can't bet against the DGA in this category, ever, unless for some reason the DGA winner was not nominated for Best Director, ala Ben Affleck in 2012. But here, Alejandro Inarritu made history as the first person to win the DGA back to back, and he will very likely take the directing Oscar again as well. There are two others in Oscar history who won back to back directing prizes, and that was John Ford (1940's The Grapes of Wrath and 1941's How Green Was My Valley) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950's All About Eve and 1951's A Letter to Three Wives). So that's quite an exclusive little club he's about to join. Coincidentally, both of those other directors only won Best Picture with one of their films, so Inarritu will very likely make history of his own this weekend as well, by winning Best Picture and Best Director two years in a row.

Winner: Alejandro Inarritu

Alternate: George Miller (this is a pipe dream on my part- it won't happen)

BEST PICTURE

  •         Brooklyn
  •         Bridge of Spies
  •         The Big Short
  •         Room
  •         The Revenant
  •         Spotlight
  •         Mad Max: Fury Road
  •         The Martian

Okay, so full disclosure here. I really didn't like The Revenant. It's my least favorite film of everything nominated and I would literally prefer just about anything else to win instead. But, the DGA win combined with the recent Bafta wins seem to show that all the momentum, if there is any, is barreling towards this movie. Interestingly, this was the first year in a long time that the three major guilds (PGA, SAG and DGA) all went for a different film. The Big Short came in on top with PGA, Spotlight took the SAG and DGA went for The Revenant- for the last 7 years, the PGA's preferential ballot, which is the only one that matches the Academy's, has gotten Best Picture right, but historically speaking, DGA has always been the stronger precursor, and in a split year like this, it's the wisest move to stick with the decades long historical trend, plus the fact that predicting a split between Picture and Director is rare.

The last time it happened was when Alfonso Cuaron won Director and 12 Years a Slave won Picture- but there was a really strong "guilt" factor going on with 12 Years, given how many Academy voters to this day publicly refused to even watch the movie and admitted to voting for it anyway, because it was the "right thing to do." That definitely does not apply to the PGA's choice in The Big Short this year. The Revenant is a big hit, it's a sweeping historical epic, it's got the Best Actor and Director winners, it's the kind of technical filmmaking achievement film awards were made for. There's just not enough of a reason to bet against it at this point. Spotlight stands a chance as the actor's choice (although there's really nothing else it can win besides screenplay) and Big Short has that PGA ballot behind it, but with voting happening this week it may just feel like old news.

The choice seems obvious, no matter how indifferent I personally am towards this film.

Winner: The Revenant

Alternate: Spotlight

Dark Horse: The Big Short

Oscar Predictions 2016, Part 4: Acting

Okay, we're done with the techs! Time to move on to the acting awards, the big ones that people actually watch the show for, right? Well, don't worry Leo stans, you're all getting your wish this year.

BEST ACTOR

  •         Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
  •         Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
  •         Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
  •         Matt Damon, The Martian
  •         Bryan Cranston, Trumbo

Leo seems to have this in the bag, he's won everything else, and now the people who are inexplicably obsessed with him winning an Oscar (I think more than he is) can finally shut the hell up, because it's happening. Too bad it's for a movie where he barely spoke. I think he should have won for Wolf of Wall Street, if he was going to win one of these, which he doesn't necessarily deserve, and I say that as as big a Leo fan as anybody- I was one of the original Titanic fangirls, believe me. But he's not exactly Robert DeNiro in his prime, okay? He tries really hard, but he's too big a matinee idol to ever be a chameleon or a character actor, and this is first and foremost an award for being a massive movie star who brought a movie like The Revenant to over 160 million dollars. If we're going by actual performance, Fassbender deserves this hands down.

Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio

BEST ACTRESS

  •         Brie Larson, Room
  •         Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
  •         Cate Blanchett, Carol
  •         Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
  •         Jennifer Lawrence, Joy

Another one I don't really agree with. Brie Larson has won everything leading up to this, so I guess it's hers. Look, I saw Room and I did like it, but she was practically a supporting performance to little Jacob Tremblay, who carried that whole film on his shoulders. I prefer Saoirse Ronan, who really was her entire movie and didn't have to be histrionic in any sense to be convincing. But I rarely agree with the winners here.

Winner: Brie Larson

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  •         Sylvester Stallone, Creed
  •         Christian Bale, The Big Short
  •         Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
  •         Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
  •         Tom Hardy, The Revenant

Sylvester Stallone has won the Golden Globe and the Critics Choice award, and even though he wasn't even nominated at SAG and Bafta, his standing ovations at every awards show he's made an appearance at (including the BET awards!) show you just how beloved he is after all these years, and how much people really want to give him that trophy. In other words, like Leo, he's really coasting on stardom this year, and this is kinda like when John Wayne finally won an Oscar in his old age that was primarily seen as a "we love you, thank you for being you," award. Funnily enough, Stallone's filmography doesn't include nearly as many great movies or acting roles, but c'mon, he's Rocky Balboa, people! Even I can't be too cynical about this one- I'd like to see him win that Oscar too. And you know what? He was great in Creed.

Winner: Sylvester Stallone

Alternate: Mark Rylance (he won the Bafta, and if there's any groundswell for someone else, I guess it would be him)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  •         Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
  •         Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
  •         Rooney Mara, Carol
  •         Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
  •         Rachel McAdams, Spotlight

This is the one acting category that I actually don't think is set in stone. I'm predicting Alicia Vikander for her LEADING role in The Danish Girl, because she won the SAG award and the Critics Choice, but Kate Winslet winning that Golden Globe and Bafta award does not mean nothing. It's true that she wasn't competing against Vikander for Danish Girl at those shows, because some places did the right thing and placed her in lead where she belonged (although she was still up against her for Ex Machina), but Winslet is still a respected actress and an Academy Award winner already, and not someone they'd necessarily balk at giving another Oscar to. And Alicia Vikander is new, still unknown, and her film is very little seen. I'm going to say the SAG outweighs the other two groups, but we could definitely see a Kate upset here.

Winner: Alicia Vikander

Alternate: Kate Winslet

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander Star in 'The Light Between Oceans'

Real life couple and Oscar nominated duo Fassbender and Vikander are starring in what looks like a pretty heavy melodrama from the guy who directed The Place Beyond the Pines and Blue Valentine, neither of which I saw. The story looks a little much though, if this trailer is anything to go by. Ostensibly a tearjerker, but the heavy sentiment looks a little too heavy for my taste.