And La La Land Wins 7, No, 6, No, Wait....

By Steve Evans

So I predicted La La Land would take nine out of 14 Oscars and it won seven. Then dropped to six. Do whut now?

It was the most bizarre event I’ve seen in a lifelong love affair with the cinema. If it had happened in a movie, I would have shouted in disbelief. I’m certainly glad that Moonlight was the rightful winner – it’s a beautiful and worthy film – though La La Land is more my style.

Last night’s climactic events were surreal. As it all unraveled, Warren Beatty, who turns 80 next month, had an expression like he’d just farted loudly in church. Faye Dunaway, almost unrecognizable from her indulgence in plastic surgery, refused to discuss the matter with entertainment media during the Governor’s Ball afterparty. The accounting firm Price Waterhouse Cooper, which has been handling the voting results for 83 of Oscar’s 89 years, issued an apology and accepted responsibility, though it remains unclear how this happened. You don’t hand the presenting talent the wrong envelope as they’re headed to the podium. You just don’t. You verify what the hell you’re doing.

There wouldn’t be all this secret envelope stuff in the first place if the LA Times hadn’t violated a 1940 embargo by publishing the winners in an early edition of the paper before the ceremony had begun. Now, this was an Oscars ceremony for films released in 1939, widely considered the greatest year for motion pictures during the Golden Age of Hollywood. The stars (and anyone with a telephone or radio) already knew who won before the first award was announced. Some suspense.

But back to last night. Host Jimmy Kimmel looked like he was ready to die. Half a dozen production and accounting people with headsets scrambling around the stage like cockroaches with the lights coming on. And how awful I feel for everyone involved with La La Land and Moonlight. Imagine going onstage thinking you’ve won the most significant film award in the world only to be told, no, whoopsie, there’s been a mistake. An epic fuckup, as it turns out. Imagine thinking you haven’t won, then you have – and feeling that whipsaw of emotion that cuts into what should fairly be one of the greatest moments of your life.

We live in strange times.

In watching the 11th hour fiasco unfold early this morning, it struck me that Americans have now won a dubious Triple Crown of weirdness. Until last night, not in my lifetime has the presidency, a Super Bowl and the Academy Awards all in the same year been decided by sudden-death overtime with disappointing results.

Expect La La Land to Win 9

By Steve Evans

My inevitable Oscar breakdown...

I’m going with La La Land to win 9 Oscars this evening -- including Best Picture -- out of a record-tying 14 nominations (equaled only by All About Eve and Titanic, both of which won Best Picture -- for 1950 and 1997).

Also tossing off the bold prediction that La La Land will be the first film since Silence of the Lambs (1991) to win the top 5 – picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay. It's a charming and ridiculously romantic throwback to the Hollywood musicals of yesteryear, though the unsentimental ending is probably essential for it to be a serious Best Picture contender in this dark and cynical year of 2017.

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) and Denzel Washington (Fences) are seen as frontrunners for Best Actor, but Denzel's won twice already and his latest work is essentially a filmed play with non-stop exposition. It's nothing terribly impressive. Affleck is trying to live down sexual harassment allegations, which don't play well with image-conscious Academy voters. That leaves Ryan Gossling for La La Land.

The only other serious Best Picture contender is Moonlight; not your customary Hollywood fare. A beautiful little film, but well outside the experience of most Academy voters, who adore a flick like La La Land because it reflects their obsessive love of the movie business. Moonlight will have to settle for the nomination. Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge was thrilling and inspirational, though probably too old-fashioned to gain any traction for a win. Arrival is science fiction, and you can count on your thumb the number of times a sci-fi flick won Best Picture. Hidden Figures sanitizes the civl rights struggle behind the story of African American women scientists who led NASA to glory. If it had more bite, it might be a real contender. Hell or High Water is fantastic, but it's a cops-n-robbers genre picture that hasn't found a huge audience, even though it should. I didn't see Lion and don't know anyone who wants to.

So if any film could stage a Best Picture upset -- and really startle the hell out of me this year -- it would be Manchester by the Sea. But god a'mighty, that was an overlong, depressing slog through misery and grief with unlikable characters, especially Affleck's. I'm betting voters have enough of that to endure in real life right now. So sorry, Sullen Casey by the Sea, but you're down and out, and so's your film.

That will delight Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel. Expect him to indulge tonight in his entertaining pseudo-feud with Matt Damon, a producer on Manchester.

My own cross to bear will involve toggling back and forth between The Walking Dead and the Oscars. Both are can't-miss shows for me, though TWD will at least be available for streaming on-demand tomorrow.

Due to the interminable length of the awards ceremony, people may not realize that only 24 Oscars are handed out each year. Yep, we’re talking 30 minutes of intrigue stretched over a four-hour period. You know you’re gonna watch, anyway. Below is a complete list of all nominees by category with my picks marked ***** (((For the last 30 years I’ve averaged an 88 percent accuracy rate so bet with confidence, film fans.))) If you want a sure thing, bank on Emma Stone's win for La La Land. It's all but a done deal.

Here's how I predict the 89th Academy Awards will go down:

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BEST PICTURE

Arrival
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
*****La La Land*****
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

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ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
*****Ryan Gosling, La La Land*****
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington, Fences

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ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie
*****Emma Stone, La La Land*****
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

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ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

*****Mahershala Ali, Moonlight*****
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel, Lion
Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

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ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
*****Viola Davis, Fences*****
Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

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ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

*****Kubo and the Two Strings*****
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Zootopia

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CINEMATOGRAPHY
Arrival
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
*****Silence*****

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COSTUME DESIGN
Allied
*****Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*****
Florence Foster Jenkins
Jackie
La La Land

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DIRECTING
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
*****La La Land*****
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

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DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

Fire at Sea
*****I Am Not Your Negro*****
Life, Animated
O.J.: Made in America
13th

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DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
Extremis
4.1 Miles
*****Joe’s Violin*****
Watani: My Homeland
The White Helmets

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FILM EDITING
Arrival
*****Hacksaw Ridge*****
Hell or High Water
La La Land
Moonlight
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FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Land of Mine
A Man Called Ove
*****The Salesman*****
Tanna
Toni Erdmann

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MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
A Man Called Ove
Star Trek Beyond
*****Suicide Squad*****

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MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Jackie
*****La La Land*****
Lion
Moonlight
Passengers

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MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
*****"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" from La La Land*****
Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

"Can’t Stop The Feeling" from Trolls
Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster

"City Of Stars" from La La Land
Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

"The Empty Chair" from Jim: The James Foley Story
Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting

"How Far I’ll Go" from Moana
Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda

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PRODUCTION DESIGN

Arrival
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Hail, Caesar!
*****La La Land*****
Passengers

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SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

*****Blind Vaysha*****
Borrowed Time
Pear Cider and Cigarettes
Pearl
Piper

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SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Ennemis Intérieurs
La Femme et le TGV
*****Silent Nights*****
Sing
Timecode

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SOUND EDITING
Arrival
Deepwater Horizon
Hacksaw Ridge
*****La La Land*****
Sully

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SOUND MIXING
Arrival
*****Hacksaw Ridge*****
La La Land
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

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VISUAL EFFECTS
Deepwater Horizon
Doctor Strange
*****The Jungle Book*****
Kubo and the Two Strings
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

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WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Arrival
Fences
Hidden Figures
Lion
*****Moonlight*****

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WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Hell or High Water
*****La La Land*****
The Lobster
Manchester by the Sea
20th Century Women

Bullitt Approaching 50: Badassery, Beauteous Bisset

By Steve Evans

Let me tell you a story. When I was 10 years old all my buddies wanted to be superheroes or astronauts. I wanted to be Steve McQueen. Cool as ice. Solid as the V-8 Mustang Fastback he drove through the streets of San Francisco at heart-stopping speeds in Bullitt (1968). It’s not just one of the best action-mystery films of the ‘60s, oh no. It’s part of the great American film canon.

A beautifully constructed film, the few technical weaknesses in Bullitt can be discerned only by careful repeat viewings by film obsessives (“hello,” he said). More on that in a moment. But little things like continuity errors, to me, are irrelevant when Jacqueline Bisset shows up periodically to love on McQueen and express concern for his professional life – as a quietly bad-ass police detective who’s no less hip than the hippies haunting the Haight at the time. She plants a kiss on McQueen just to get the party started and I feel lightning crackle through my mind. Hot damn; that’s quality acting. McQueen's last scene in the film, staring wearily in the mirror, speaks volumes about his inner turmoil, whether he can give up being a cop to make a life with Bisset, because by then it's become pretty damn clear that the options are mutually exclusive. The film ends on an ambivalent note for McQueen's detective. Sometimes you wonder what happens to the characters after the movie ends. I always root for him to choose Bisset as the credits roll. That's his essential dilemma: commit to a woman who deeply loves him or drive around like a wild fool and shoot bad guys who desperately need to be shot. Not many men get to confront such an intriguing choice against the backdrop of a crackling murder mystery (Bullitt won the Edgar award for best screenplay).

Listening to the original score playing over the opening credits, I thought the tone and jazz rhythms sounded familiar and Dirty Harry (1971) came to mind. Hooray for Google: as it happens, composer Lalo Schifrin wrote the score for both films. He created that intense theme for Mission: Impossible, too.

Schifrin’s collaboration with director Peter Yates was one of many in Bullitt that sculpt the feel of the film. There’s never a lull, not one unnecessary scene. Look fast and you'll see Robert Duvall in a small but important role as a cabbie who provides crucial information. Truly, this film could be improved only with more Jackie Bisset.

The justly famous car chase in Bullitt lasts barely 10 minutes, but that’s enough. Few can withstand the jolting rush of adrenaline longer than that. McQueen did much, not all, of his own stunt driving in that growling Mustang, occasionally reaching speeds a tick above 110 mph. It’s a complex chase sequence that by the necessity of the plot covers impossible geography, as anyone familiar with San Francisco will recognize. For instance, you can’t drive past Coit Tower and two blocks over hop on the freeway. Using multiple takes shot at different angles, the sequence betrays a few other amusing mistakes, like, McQueen’s Mustang and the bad guys’ Dodge Charger pass the same green VW Bug three times. In watching the film for the umpteenth time last night, I also noticed that the Dodge loses six hubcaps during the course of the chase. These slight imperfections are obscured by the Oscar-winning editing.

And there are other wonderful distractions, whether you're 10 years old or flying down the freeway in a hunter-green Mustang at some older and more reckless age, full of vinegar, piss and testosterone. That's right: Jackie Bisset’s in it.

By Steve Evans

Netflix is producing an adaptation of the one Stephen King novel I've long considered unfilmable -- Gerald's Game, published in 1992. It's my favorite of King's books, although in truth I've plowed through less than a dozen of his 54 novels so maybe I'm missing out. This one, though, is a psychological doozy.

Lots of people are looking forward to the upcoming big-budget adaptation of It, King 's five pound door jam of a novel. But news of this quiet little production from Netflix has got me cautiously hopeful that it might turn out interesting.

That's because film adaptations of King's books are a mixed bag. David Cronenberg's adaptation of The Dead Zone (1983), Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (the 1980 film that King reportedly hated) and Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976) are riveting. Others, like Firestarter, Christine and Pet Sematary, are just silly.

I admire the producers for even trying to film the twisted tale that is Gerald's Game. Most of the story is confined to a bedroom in an isolated cabin in the woods. Briefly, the tale recounts a trophy wife handcuffed to the bed by her kinky husband for sex games. When he suddenly drops dead, she's trapped without food or water and not a soul within 100 miles...well...at least no one you'd want to meet under such circumstances.

This book really got under my skin. Shuddering even now in recollection of a couple key scenes.

The film just finished principal photography with a cast of mostly unknowns. No streaming date announced yet, though we can expect it this year.

Fear "The Unknown"

By Steve Evans

A 23-year-old Joan Crawford stares down the immortal Lon Chaney in The Unknown (1927). Marvelous rainy-day film directed by horror specialist Tod Browning, who made 10 films with Chaney and transitioned into talkies with Dracula (1931) and the legendary Freaks (1932), an oft-misunderstood film greeted with such outrage on initial release that it effectively ended his career.

Here, Chaney plays an armless knife thrower in a Spanish carnival, in love with the owner's daughter. Except he's actually hiding his arms, wrapped tightly beneath his shirt, because he's a criminal fugitive who can be identified by the double-thumb on his left hand. Murders, double-crosses and a shocking (for its day) twist ending make The Unknown one of the great surviving silent films. The performances are uniformly astounding, with the consensus being this is Chaney's best work for Browning. It's certainly his most twisted.

The Unknown was considered a lost film until 1968 when a print was found in the archives of the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. The delay in discovery was because the print had been stored among hundreds of other film canisters labeled "L'inconnu" ("Unknown" in French).

I'm thinking of bringing back the gypsy look.

Beware Dr. Mabuse

By Steve Evans

Meet criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse. (Mah-boo-zaa) Not someone you'd want to see climbing through your bedroom window at night with a knife in his teeth.

Image from the great 1933 Fritz Lang film, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse. Hitler banned the film on grounds it was an "incitement to public disorder" and the Austrian-born Lang soon after fled Germany for Paris, eventually emmigrating to America in 1935. Perhaps the greatest of the German Expressionists, Lang also directed Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), widely acknowledged as his masterpiece.

Dr. Mabuse reminds me of Trump without his teevee makeup.

Reliving Groundhog Day

By Steve Evans

In the spirit of current events I'm calling out Punxsutawney Phil for delivering Fake News today with his forecast of six more wintry weeks. Damn rodent. Bring on spring.

Groundhog Day is an obvious time to celebrate the great 1993 film by Harold Ramis that afforded Bill Murray one of his best roles as a churlish TV weatherman condemned to relive the same cursed day until his attitude improves. It's a gentle moral lesson folded into a solid comedy, with an impossibly sweet Andie MacDowell as Murray's love interest.

As allegory, the picture is open to all sorts of interpretations. If you went to Synagogue or Sunday School, the film could be seen as an exploration of purgatory. If you commune with Buddha,  the movie's themes of transcendence and rebirth through selflessness would seem to bolster that devotion to Zen.

As a bit of social-media ephemera, Groundhog Day remains in the popular lexicon of shorthand for an endlessly repeating and unpleasant situation. Except...nothing lasts forever. And that is neither Zen nor Judeo-Christian. It is atheism, defined. If you had to awaken to I Got You Babe day after day, you'd lose the faith, too.

This is a great movie and a kindly parable for all times.