BAFTAs 2019: Predictions & Wishes

It’s the BAFTAs tomorrow night! If you didn’t know, I’ve always loved BAFTA night. It’s the only awards show that’s easy to watch in the UK, and for some reason, I’ve watched them for years, even before I got into blogging. I remember in 2012 rooting for Argo to win everything it was nominated for simply because it was the only movie I’d actually watched.

Anyway, it’s always a bit of fun putting together some predictions for the night. I think my husband thinks I’m a bit nuts when each award starts and I’m frantically flicking through pieces of paper to remind myself what I predicted would win! I’ve never been very accurate in my guesses but I’m not hardcore enough to even understand half of the subjects – plus the BAFTAs can be random at the best of times.

So without further ado, here are the nominees in full for the 2019 EE BAFTA Awards, as well as my predictions and wishes for the winners:

BEST FILM
BlacKkKlansman
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star Is Born

My gut says Green Book is going to win, and I wouldn’t be mad either because I liked it much more than I thought I would. I’d still love to see A Star Is Born take it though.

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Beast
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
McQueen
Stan & Ollie
You Were Never Really Here

I can’t see any scenario where Bohemian Rhapsody doesn’t win this unless they get scared of the backlash and give it to the dull Stan & Ollie instead. I want The Favourite to win.

LEADING ACTOR
Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born
Christian Bale – Vice
Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody
Steve Coogan – Stan & Ollie
Viggo Mortensen – Green Book

He’s winning it everywhere else so I can’t see Rami Malek losing the BAFTA. A girl can dream of Bradley Cooper winning though.

LEADING ACTRESS
Glenn Close – The Wife
Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Olivia Colman – The Favourite
Viola Davis – Widows

I’m so torn on this category. I think Olivia Colman will win but I don’t know who I would pick myself. I would honestly be over the moon for any of these ladies, with the exception of Glenn Close.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman
Mahershala Ali – Green Book
Richard E Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell – Vice
Timothee Chalamet – Beautiful Boy

This is equally as tough for me! I think Mahershala Ali will take it, he deserves it too, but I would give my left arm to see Adam Driver win, and Richard E Grant was fantastic as well!

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – Vice
Claire Foy – First Man
Emma Stone – The Favourite
Margot Robbie – Mary Queen of Scots
Rachel Weisz – The Favourite

It was a good run, but I’m entering clueless territory now. I haven’t the foggiest who will win this one but I love Emma Stone so she gets my vote!

DIRECTOR
Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman
Pawel Pawlikowski – Cold War
Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite
Alfonso Cuaron – Roma
Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born

This is the one where I’m hoping the BAFTAs will be random and let Bradley Cooper have the award he really deserves!

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
Jessie Buckley
Cynthia Erivo
Barry Keoghan
Lakeith Stanfield
Letitia Wright

This has been the easiest year for me to decide my vote. Lakeith Stanfield has been amazing in everything I’ve seen him in – he fully deserves it!

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Apostasy – Daniel Kokotajlo (writer/director)
Beast – Michael Pearce (writer/director), Lauren Dark (producer)
A Cambodian Spring – Chris Kelly (writer/director/producer)
Pili – Leanne Welham (writer/director), Sophie Harman (producer)
Ray & Liz – Richard Billingham (writer/director), Jacqui Davies (producer)

Oh boy, here comes my first eeny meeny miney mo pick…Beast!

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Capernaum
Cold War
Dogman
Roma
Shoplifters

Being the uncultured swine that I am, I haven’t seen any of these. Surely with it’s Best Picture nomination, Roma will win it, although I’ve heard great things about Shoplifters.

DOCUMENTARY
Free Solo
McQueen
RBG
They Shall Not Grow Old
Three Identical Strangers

I think the only documentary I’ve seen recently was to do with Britain’s favourite biscuit…sorry. I’ve heard a lot about Free Solo though so let’s throw a prediction that way.

ANIMATED FILM
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

Is it just me or is this category weirdly weak compared to recent years? I’m hedging my bets on Isle of Dogs for the technical element, but I’ll probably kick myself when Spider-Man wins.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Cold War
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
Vice

I can’t decide whether The Favourite or Green Book is going to win…I keep changing my mind. I think The Favourite has the most nominations though so I’m going with that.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
BlacKkKlansman
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star Is Born

You know what? Let’s throw caution to the wind. In my notes I’d scribbled down A Star Is Born for this one but I think BlacKkKlansman is more deserving.

ORIGINAL MUSIC
BlacKkKlansman
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns
A Star Is Born

Mary Poppins feels like a good pick, but only a couple of pieces were really that memorable, so I’m going to go with A Star Is Born (and probably regret it).

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Bohemian Rhapsody
Cold War
The Favourite
First Man
Roma

I think The Favourite is the obvious choice here – but if First Man is going to pick up anything on the night it’ll be this one.

COSTUME DESIGN
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots

Boo to big, poofy skirts – this is England, surely every studio wardrobe has an abundance of them. I want Mary Poppins to win, the costumes were gorgeous.

EDITING
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
First Man
Roma
Vice

I haven’t seen Vice yet but if it was edited in the same way as The Big Short I feel like it stands a good chance. Plus I haven’t chosen it for anything else yet – let’s do it!

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
The Favourite
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma

I’m sorry but the sets on Mary Poppins Returns were just magical – please let it win!

MAKE-UP AND HAIR
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Mary Queen of Scots
Stan & Ollie
Vice

I haven’t seen it (and can’t summon the desire to) but the make-up and hair in the trailer for Mary Queen of Scots was so crazy that I think it could win.

SOUND
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
A Quiet Place
A Star Is Born

Please oh please let A Quiet Place win!

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
First Man
Ready Player One

I don’t care if everyone else feels pretty ‘meh’ about Ready Player One, I loved it and the CGI was brilliant, so it gets my vote.

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Oldboy (2003) vs. Oldboy (2013)

I had so much fun writing my Point Break (1991) vs. Point Break (2015) post that I was dying to do something similar. My chance finally arose when I decided that Oldboy (2003) would be my first Blind Spot movie of the year. I’d heard terrible things about the 2013 remake and since I ended up enjoying the South Korean original so much, it was an easy decision!

You can read my full review of the original Oldboy here, but let me recap my thoughts for you quickly. It was brilliant, it was dark, twisted, uncomfortable at many times, and smart. So smart in fact that one of my very few criticisms would be that I struggled to follow the story at some points, but that’s largely down to my inexperience with foreign movies and having to rely on subtitles.

From what I can gather, Oldboy fans didn’t want a remake. Why mess with a classic? The same question is on many lips with all of the Disney remakes we’re getting this year and I can see where they’re coming from, but I do have a counterpoint. Wouldn’t it be beneficial for an Americanised remake to stir curiosity in moviegoers, enough to make them watch the original?

So let me cut to the chase. I watched the remake. I really enjoyed it! Was it as good as the original? No – but as a couple of my fellow bloggers told me – a lot of the hate is undeserved.

Spike Lee’s version is very much a reimagining of the original, it’s been adapted for a Western audience. One wouldn’t be wrong in saying it’s also been ‘dumbed down’, but I would say not to the point where the twist becomes less shocking.

There were two noticeable nods to the original that I spotted. The street vendor who sold Joe the rubber duck for his daughter is wearing a pair of angel wings, just like Oh Dae-su wore in the opening to the original. Marie has a tattoo of an octopus on her arm which is a reference to the octopus that Oh Dae-su ate in the original. I love spotting things like this and I wonder if there were more!

A few things that I want to complain about:
– The ending didn’t have the same impact. It was moving in the remake but horrifying in the original.
– The bad guy in the remake was almost funny in how over the top he was. The bad guy in the original was quiet and chilling.
– The fight scene in the corridor. You know the one I mean. It was just nowhere near as badass!

All in all, you just can’t beat the original. That said, I really don’t think the remake deserves the hate it got. If you’re intrigued by the premise of the movie but don’t have the patience to read your movie, I don’t think you’d be doing a terrible thing by giving the 2013 version a go.

ODEON Limitless – Is It Worth It?

I’ve been a member of ODEON’s Limitless for just over 3 months now, so I thought now was as good a time as any to look back at how much use I’ve gotten out of it, and see just how good value it is! If you haven’t heard of it yet, you pay £17.99 per month and in return, you get to see as many movies as you like, whenever you like. 3D and IMAX cost a little extra, but you do get 10% off all food and drink in the cinema.

I’ve been tempted by the offer for a long time, as before we became parents my husband and I would go to the cinema at least 3 times a month. Thing is, we always went with a 2-4-1 deal so having 2 memberships just wasn’t worth it. Of course, our little bundle of joy put a stop to date nights, but after a while, I realised that didn’t need to stop me from going on solo trips, and so I took the plunge!

The first time I went to the cinema alone was super weird, it was a busy screen on a Saturday night, in fact, it was Hereditary (2018) so I was terrified for multiple reasons! Once I realised that absolutely no one was bothered by the fact I was alone, it changed my mindset completely and I’ve never thought twice about it since.

So, these are the movies I’ve seen so far using my membership:

Hereditary – 23rd June 2018
Sicario: Day of the Soldado – 1st July 2018
Tag – 8th July 2018
Skyscraper – 15th July 2018
Incredibles 2 – 21st July 2018
Mission: Impossible – Fallout – 26th July 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp (Secret Screening) – 30th July 2018
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – 2nd August 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp – 9th August 2018
The Meg – 13th August 2018
Christopher Robin – 21st August 2018
American Animals (Secret Screening) – 28th August 2018
Searching – 6th September 2018
BlacKkKlansman – 9th September 2018
The Predator – 13th September 2018
A Simple Favor – 21st September 2018

As you can see, I’ve fallen behind on reviews. Turns out just when you think your baby sleeps through the night they like to pull the rug out from under you – and I didn’t want to subject anyone to blog posts that made zero sense.

Anyway, that’s 16 movies in 3 months! What I love the most is that some of these are movies I probably would have missed and possibly never even seen, but as I really want to make my monthly fee worthwhile, I’ve gone to see things I perhaps normally wouldn’t, and actually ended up loving them.

I’m not going to lie, ODEON’s offering is weak compared to Cineworld’s Unlimited card, but I don’t live close enough to one to make it worth it. What will be really interesting is if other chains like Vue and Showcase join in and start some proper competition.

That said, I love being a Limitless card holder. It’s made me really appreciate having a couple of hours to myself to escape the house and immerse myself into a movie without having to think about work, milk bottles and nappy changes.

My Current ‘Must Watch’ List

Every movie fan has a list of movies somewhere that they need to watch, whether it’s kept on their phone, scribbled on a piece of paper or simply stored in their memory. As a bit of a nerd for organisation, I’ve been loving using Letterboxd for the past couple of years as an information source and a diary of what I’ve seen. It also has a Watchlist feature which I’ve been adding to for a long time now!

It’s gotten to the point now where there are so many movies in this list, that when I have the free time to watch something, I can’t decide between them, and so some of them have been on this list for over 2 years!

Some of them are classics I’ve been meaning to see for too long, some are movies I know will be terrible but I like the cast, and many are ones that have grabbed my interest from reviews I’ve read by other bloggers. There are also some that haven’t been released yet in the UK, but I don’t want to forget about them.

So to resolve my issue of an ever-growing list, I’ve vowed to watch all these movies by the end of the year. Of course, my list will have more added to it, but I’ll watch the current list in full by New Year’s! In fact, I think I’ll turn this post into a blog page and hyperlink my posts as I complete them!

Here’s the list in full…

Short Term 12 (2013)

Rushmore (1998)

The Neon Demon (2016)

Maggie’s Plan (2015)

Moonlight Mile (2002)

The Shallows (2016)

The Purge: Election Year (2016)

Café Society (2016)

Frank & Lola (2016)

I, Daniel Blake (2016)

Pete’s Dragon (2016)

Demolition (2015)

Away We Go (2009)

Odd Thomas (2013)

It Comes at Night (2017)

As You Are (2016)

Your Name. (2016)

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Secret Window (2004)

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)

The Salesman (2016)

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

The Drop (2014)

Unicorn Store (2017)

Detroit (2017)

Stronger (2017)

Certain Women (2016)

Isle of Dogs (2018)

Office Christmas Party (2017)

A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

Upgrade (2018)

This is Spinal Tap (1984)

Hotel Artemis (2018)

Traitor (2008)

Before I Go to Sleep (2014)

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

The Matrix (1999)

Mommy (2014)

If you’re still reading at this point – what do you recommend I should see first?

New Year’s Resolutions 2018

Long time no see! Even my laptop was shocked when I switched it on for the first time in 3 months yesterday evening. Who knew having a baby consumed so much time and energy? Rather than start a new diet in the New Year, I’m making an effort to get back into blogging, because I do enough exercise rocking my baby to sleep, and I’m completely out of touch with the movie world, and that makes me sad. Like I have no idea what movies are even contenders for the Oscars this year, so you know I haven’t even started to watch them!

I’m breaking myself in easily though, and I’m aiming to post once a week to begin with as a bare minimum. My little one, Daisy, has just started sleeping in her cot in her own room which frees up a bit of me time late at night, and so that’s when I get to do my blogging. Actually watching movies or reading books is taking more time than it ever used to, but I’m excited to get back into it!

Last year in 2017 I just missed out on my goals so I’m making it a little easier for myself in 2018 and having just 3 resolutions:

1 – Get back into blogging, and stay active (at least once a week) for the entire year
2 – Watch 52 new movies
3 – Read 6 new books

I’m feeling positive! Mainly because I feel like I’m going to have my identity back, I’ve been known in my circle of family and friends as the ‘movie guru’ and so since October last year I’ve felt like a fraud! I still have so many of last year’s releases to catch up on but I’ll make it eventually.

So that’s it from me for now, tomorrow night I’m looking forward to catching up on all the blogs I follow, and finding out what’s what in the movie world!

EDIT: My blog is still snowing and Wonder Woman is my most recent banner. FML. I’ll sort those later!