Beantown Podcast - 03032018_Quinn David Furness presents the Beantown Podcast (Oscars Predidctacular)

Episode Date: March 3, 2018

Quinn sits down with special guest Ryan Ligon, co-host of the Car Ride Convos Podcast, to ramble about Black Panther, lesbian films, and our full list of 24 Oscars predictions

Welcome to the Bean Town podcast. This is your host, Quinn David Furnace. This is my voice. This is what I sound like. We are coming to you live from Bean Town USA. Beautiful. 817 St. Paul Street. Welcome to the 2018 Oscars Predactacular. How are you? What's going on? It is a lovely week here in B-town. There is a Not a polar vortex coming but some sort of vortex that's about to to hit us tomorrow and in Saturday So if you haven't yet go out and and buy all the bottled water from the grocery store that you can get your hands on and buy all the bottled water from the grocery store that you can get your hands on. Yeah, we are really happy today to be joined by an old friend and old coach.

He is the host of Co-host of the Car Ride Convose Podcast. You can check that out on YouTube and SoundCloud. It is absolutely hilarious and I actually mean that I really enjoy listening to it. Welcome to the show Mr. Ryan Liggan. How are you? What's going on? I'm so excited to be on the Beentown podcast. It's been a dream of mine and, uh, yeah, it's, um, it's really a dream come true. Yeah, absolutely. So Ryan, you are studying civil engineering at UMass. That is correct, yes? Yeah, yeah, that's correct.

That's what I do. And, hey, hate myself for it every single day. So you'd say you're pretty qualified to make some Oscars predictions. You know, actually, my qualifications really stemmed from, I've seen Black Panther recently. I really feel like I know everything about film and film history and it's just really important to me. It's funny you should mention that I went and saw Black Panther last night,

915 showing on a work night. So yeah I was feeling I was feeling a little adventurous, but yeah, I actually, I did enjoy Black Panther quite a bit. I'm not normally a huge superhero guy or a Marvel person, but for all the, like, flaws that I had with Black Panther there were equal if not more, I think, really important social and political and racial and a lot of different adjective commentaries and stances that the movie took that I actually really appreciated. And I was reading Chadwick Boseman, I think, as the lead actor and he had an interview yesterday or something like that.

And he was talking about how he views his character as The villain of the movie black panther as the villain of the movie and I actually really appreciated him Saying that because I that's kind of what I was feeling the whole time when I was watching that film actually really Identified I didn't identify, but I I saw the point of Michael B. Jordan's character quite a bit, and I liked him a lot. What are your reactions to Black Panther? Actually, I'm not just a practice this. I am probably more so than you,

but I do not like Marvel movies. I, it's a combination of, you know, the first ones, I mean, there's some good stuff in there somewhere if you didn't get hard enough. But, you know, I've really suffered from the Marvel fatigue as of recently, but this movie definitely had a lot of reenfactors that I really feel like I haven't been, you know, experiencing with some of their more recent releases. So to say that I didn't hate it is a super big plus for me and I'm not a Michael B. Jordan fan,

but I thought that dude had it on screen. Like that guy, I want a movie based solely around his character. Yeah. And a lot of people really draw the draw line at, you know, the only two villains that Marvel has ever done right is Loki and, you know, Michael B. Jordan's character, which I'm totally... What was the name of that character? Killmonger. Killmonger killmonger yeah killmonger

and those are the only two villains that that they've really done right in the marvel universe and you know i really don't see look that i kind of see him as he's he's such a good anti hero he's like a he's even more fun than that you know so i really think that Killmonger is the only you know villain that Marvel's really pulled out in this entire release order that I really think is super strong and his motivations are very clear and there's a lot of really great comparisons between him and Raza Ghoul. Sure. Sure. Batman begins.

Batman. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so the gold standard for super hero villains is in my opinion, Heath Ledger's Joker. And the reason Joker is so compelling is because he's not just this super powered guy who comes in and tries to be the crap out of you. And so I think there's different types of villains obviously, but I feel a lot more compelled by the guys who have legitimate reasons for what they're

doing and not just I'm going to show up. And I always think of the final, so I know this isn't Marvel, so this isn't kosher, but the final fight between General Zod and Superman and the original Man of Steel movie where they just like punch the crap out of each other for 10 minutes and they're both like these invincible deities and I that's what most Marvel films feel like to me where they're just punching each other and it's like you guys occasionally one person will die, but I don't know. I never feel that moved by it.

So that's my biggest beef with superhero movies. But yeah, Black Panther did a much better job of avoiding that sort of thing in my opinion. So. No, I completely agree. I completely agree. It's something that I kind of went into the movie thinking that I would hate it. And just because I just as of recently, every Marvel movie that I go in, I'm like, here's

the same cheesy Disney formulaic, you know, we're pulled up, shit, that Disney puts out, you know, and you know, what it is that's happening is I was watching, I was like, this is like, this is a very entertaining film and I really hope I see, we get to see more from that character, you know. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I don't think I saw the second Avengers probably for the fatigue reason and I don't know if I'm that compelled to see Age of all-tron because it kind of looks like it's just gonna be two and a half hours of people Punching each other so I don't know if it comes out and the reviews are super positive and it's not just like oh my god the action was so cool. If there's something beyond that, then I might shell out some money to go watch it. But otherwise, I feel like seeing one of them, you've seen

a lot of them. So we'll see what happens. Yeah. Well, let's go ahead and jump into our Oscars predictions here. For the listeners listeners we are going to go We're gonna make a prediction for every single category. I think there's 24 categories So what we're not gonna do is elaborate on categories like best documentary short subject because I haven't seen any of them and my knowledge is As limited as limited can be but we will at the very least make some stabs. At each category and leading off for us we have the best animated short film. So I actually, you'll have theaters around town that will you know show all the Animated shorts and show all the live action shorts and the theater that's closest to me Actually is doing this currently so I had the opportunity to go watch both of those sets of films

So best animated short film my pick is going to Lou which is the Pixar Entry Ryan what are your thoughts on best animated short? Best animated short, you're going to lose. I really have not seen any of these, but I do happen to know of of next quarters work who is nominated for negative space. And so I will, I'll just throw it out there. No, no elaboration, that's just gotta be. Sure, that's gotta be the one, yeah. Yeah, this was the first year that I had ever had the opportunity to go watch all of the short film nominees

and it actually is a really enjoyable experience. So if you ever get the chance in the future to the and theaters for everyone out there, I actively encourage it because it was really enjoyable. Negative space was a really quirky, really different kind of animation, but yeah, that was fun as well. Next, we are moving on to best live action short film So likewise, it got to see all five of these in theaters This one is tough because the one that I liked the most was my nephew Emmett, which was based on a true story

about lynching in the South in the 1950s, but here's the thing. So one of these films to Calb Elementary is about a school shooting and voting opened up, I think two days after the Parkland shooting. So I would be shocked if something else won.

So my pick for Best Live Action Short Film is to Calb Elementary. Well, you know what, I'm gonna have to go because I haven't actually seen any of these. I'm going to have to pick my nephew image since you gave it so good review. Because that just seems like the right thing to do. I know the image till story. Sure. Yes, it's definitely a really moving thing.

And to see it, you know, did on in short form like that would definitely be something that I'm interested. That sounds great. Yeah, absolutely. I think the next next couple one maybe next next two one here, next two ones, best documentaries. I have zero elaboration because I've seen none of them. So best documentary, short subject, boy, I am going to go with heroin. What are you thinking, Ryan? Heroin. Could you actually, Mike Peter's craft,

read me those again? Sure. So, no, we're gonna make the most of this year. So as I casually switched your different one that has all the nominees on it. So okay, so we're on best documentary short and of course it takes me to the top and I'm looking at best picture, which is not helpful. Hey, we're avoiding dead air. You know, we're mixing, we're mingling, it's working. Here you go. Wait, wait, actually, actually, it just popped up. It just popped up. Okay. Alright. Alright. So the nominees are Egethan Eddie. Heaven is a traffic jam on the 405 heroin knife skills and traffic stop those are the those are the five. Yeah. Yeah. I've actually seen heroin.

It's a Netflix documentary. And as far as documentaries, I don't I could have sworn that documentary went 38 to 45 minutes. So I don't know what exactly they mean by short form, you know, versus long, because that seems, you know, decently long, because I remember it wasn't short. I mean, by any means, I'm thinking, I'm thinking kind of 10 to 15 minutes here. Yeah. But heroin wasn't bad. It was, it was a good, very deep dive into, you know, heroin, which is always, I feel like it's such a white person thing to say like joins are so fascinating but I don't know it's um it's definitely interesting and as far as streamable content everybody hasn't it looks I mean streaming it's not bad it's pretty good great so is that your pick yeah

all right there we go there we go uh that's the one I feel out of all these probably least confident in, because I have no knowledge of any of it. Let's go ahead and move on here to its partner. Best documentary feature, the nominees we're dealing with here are Abacus, Small enough to jail. That's the first one, Faces Places, Icarus, Last Men in Aleppo and Strong Island. Likewise, with the short subjects, the feature length documentaries, I really

don't know anything about. So I'm just going to go off of what I've been reading, and that is Faces places, Ryan, what are your thoughts? My thoughts are exactly this. Like my previous, you know, streamable content, Icarus. I thought it was actually, you know, so much stronger than the heroin short form one. Yeah, it's basically just Russian-Russian doping in professional sports. Very interesting fascinating Absolutely fascinating. It seems very timely. Yes

Wasn't there there was a Russian curler who got booted for doping. I think I think that happened like two weeks ago That's yeah, I don't know man Was she the one they're okay? I kid you know there was a Russian athlete that was wearing a shirt casually in South Korea that said in Russian it said, I do not dope. I heard about that. Yeah. Like meme or something like that.

And she got busted for. She got busted for dope being man. Man, it just it's must be just like so in grains in the culture for you to, it's just like, you know you're gonna get tested, I don't understand. Yeah, it's crazy. I'm not knowledgeable enough about it to have a super educated opinion, but it seems really stupid on their behalf. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you have to watch it. It's pretty, it's wild. Yeah. It yeah. Yeah. I mean, you have the watch and it's pretty, it's wild. Yeah. Absolutely wild. Yeah. Let's, let's, let's keep slogging away through the, the lesser nominees here. Best visual effects. Now, this is a really interesting one because I feel like everyone at the beginning was talking about Blade Runner and if there's something Blade Runner is going to win it has a decent shot at this but now a lot of people are talking about War for the plan of the apes. So I, and this is not a good way to vote at all but I have seen Blade Runner 2. I have not seen

plan of the apes 3. So I am going with Blade Runner 2049. Ryan, where do you pick in? That's a fantastic pick. You just made a Blade Runner 2049. You said you saw it. I did see Blade Runner, yes. Oh, it's great. It's great. And it looks beautiful. But war of the planet age has something that Blade Runner does not, and that is Andy Sirkis. Yeah. And his motion capture. So I got to pick that one. I got to, it's hard to bet.

I can see it's circus as motion capture. That guy's very brilliant. And it's time that he gets recognized for that. What did you think about Andy Sirkis and Black Panther? So I don't remember I'm pretty sure his character is in Avengers Age of Ultron. Okay. I believe. And I really like his character. Yeah. It's weird. It's really, it's some juice stuff crazy guy. I don't know. I Really, but I'm also a lover of all things Andy circuits because I was not big into The Lord of the Rings movies

Okay, I remember him being the one person that really captivated me Sure sure. I'm a Andy circuit sucker. You can call me that. Yeah, he was pretty damn crazy in Black Panther. This is his character. He's always a little on edge. And I think that's something that can make you compelling. You're just kind of crazy and you're not predictable. So yeah, I thought he was good. He, you don't see him much in the flesh, but I know he was in

The prestige as well a Christopher Nolan movie that a lot of people don't seem to know about who I talked to and I'm like Oh, that's a fantastic film David Bowie plays Tesla in it. So yes, yeah, it's worth a worth a watch We plays Tesla in it. So, yes, yes, it's worth a watch. And it definitely, that's a shame that you know a lot of people that I haven't seen it, but that's a good one. Yeah, I'll talk to, so Christopher Nolan is, you know, on no shame, one of my favorites. And, you know, people, pretty much everyone seems to know the Dark Knight trilogy and inception. And most people, even though I didn't like the film that much, most people seem to know the dark night trilogy and inception. And most people, even though I didn't like the film,

that much, most people seem to know Interstellar. But you mentioned the prestige, and they're like, oh, I'd never heard of that. Oh, man, it's huge. Jackman is Christian Bale, Michael Cain, a very prominent British cast. But yeah, if you're listening, you haven't seen the prestige.

It's a fantastic movie. Scarlett Johansson looks pretty fine in it. So yeah. Yeah, we got to keep moving here. We have two sound, nominy or categories going here. And for as much as I love movies and pride myself to a certain extent I'm being somewhat knowledgeable with movies, I do not have a good way of differentiating between sound editing and sound mixing in terms of what movies are more competitive

than other movies in those categories. Ryan, do you have anything on the differentiation between editing and mixing from an Oscar standpoint that you can shed light on or are you lost as well? No, it's funny because at one point in my life, I wanted to be an audio engineer. And this has always been such a pro-plexing differentiation between the two.

And the best I can tell you is that, so sound mixing, I think, is very exemplified by, have you seen Dunn Kirk? Yes, I have. OK, so sound mixing. you know how it gets like, I mean, you're starting bleeding at some points in Dunkirk. Yeah. And how obviously there's choices to really max out

the audio in those situations. That's kind of, I feel like is exemplified, you know, in the sound mixing area by Dunkirk. And editing, I would assume, is something to do with effects layering which would be more like a very cliche like Star Wars you know saying like you need the lightsaber sounds and like the the swollen memes you know you need all that stuff and just like mix it in there yeah that's the editing versus mixing that's the best I got and I really don't have any more than that, which is unfortunate considering that was a career path I once considered.

Yeah, yeah. Well, let's throw some predictions out there. I again feel unconfident, disconfident, not confident in this one. Although I feel like for each, so that both categories at any mixing have the same five films nominated as if it wasn't confusing enough. Very helpful for us from the Academy. So, everything I've been reading has said that baby driver could take one or two of these, but it seems like Duncirk is probably the safer bet. I really liked

Baby Driver. I thought it was in a very enjoyable film for what it was. So here we go on a limb. Let me take Baby Driver for sound editing and Duncirk for sound mixing. I have no strategy behind how I split those two up, but yeah, that's what we're saying, Ryan, order your thoughts. I'm gonna be no strategy, this no strategy as well, and take baby driver for mixing and Duncirk for editing, as long as that's opposite. I believe it is, but it's it's late enough and I had a

couple of beers already tonight to we might wake up tomorrow and find out something completely differently. But that's okay, because we are going to keep moving to best original song. I for a long time had been reading and was hearing that the song from Coco was like a lock for this and that it wasn't really that close. I have now started to hear the song from what the Hugh Jackman movie which is embarrassing that I am forgetting then then it's greatest showman. I've been hearing that that song is starting to maybe creep

into the discussion, but I'm going to go with my gut for best original song and I'm going to take, remember me from Coco. Nice, nice, that's a good pick, that's a good pick, very good pick. Yeah. I don't know how I not pick either Mary J. Blige or Sub-Age of Seasons. That just doesn't sound like something that I wouldn't do. So I'm going to go Mystery of Love from Call Me By Your Name by Sub-Age of Seasons. Very good.

Did you see Mudbound? Yeah. It's on Netflix, right? Yeah, everybody, if you're listening to it, you have Netflix. Don't act like you don't. You're stealing someone's password. You're listening to this.

Watch Mudbound. It's a great movie. It's great. A little somber at times. OK, mostly somber. But totally worth the watch. If you're paying, what is it? $9.99 a month now, $13.99 a month?

I don't know, it keeps on getting jacked up. Watch mudbomb, just do it. It doesn't take that much time. It's like an hour and 48 minutes long. So. Yeah, it's not so bad. It's definitely on my short list of, I'm not gonna be able to get a viewing

in before the Oscars, but yeah, definitely this month when I'm not going crazy on college basketball, I will certainly have time. Oh, yeah, I mean, you know, you had a tune in that Villanova. See, see when they're going to implode at any moment, you know, I saw it. So while we like while we were talking before this, I had the, let's see, it was, this is a great podcast. Virginia versus Louisville on and Louisville was beating Virginia by two with one second left. And I just had like the game cast up. I didn't have a feed up. And Virginia won by one point, meaning they presumably hit a three pointer at the buzzer with one second left. So I have no rooting interests for UVA or Louisville, though I never mind it when Louisville loses. So I'll have to check that one out on the highlight

reel. After we finish up here, but I was at trivia earlier tonight and watching my team, Wichita State play Central Florida. And they got a little bit of a scare on the road that they went into overtime and won there. So Ryan, are you a college basketball person at all? Yeah, but I don't really have like a team like I set up every year and I'm like, this is my team, like I'm choosing, I'm choosing this is, I have no royalties, I've no, you know, every college I've ever gone to is like sub D2, you know, so. Yeah, I'm not really, I'm not really too worried

about affiliations and stuff, so I take it's name every single year. And this year, I've been pretty perplexed for Genius Point Well, but they don't excite me just like Villanova doesn't excite me because they both do two things really well. They both are good defenders. But as far as their offense, sometimes, their offense really suffers in the drought.

You know, so sure, I don't know, I have made the decision yet. Eventually, I will. Auburn is looking like it might be might be my team this year. You never know. Okay. Okay. Who knows? with 10 days here, nine days, something like that. So yeah, this big 10 tournament happening right now, Northwestern lost today, which was disappointing. So they're done for the season after last year's Cinderella, which was so cool. And this year they lay a giant egg. Cool. Yeah, it was, it was pretty disappointing.

But oh well, let's, let's keep going here before we run too long. So we are still on music, music, original score. Ooh, so this is actually a really interesting one that I haven't given that much thought to John Williams nomination number 51. I don't think he is competitive for this. But boy, best original score I love Hans Zimmer I love the Dunkirk score but I am gonna go with shape of water on this one I liked

that score I thought it fit the movie really well what are your thoughts Ryan? Well this is this is kind of your expertise, right? You would think so, but probably not. I don't know. I trust that you have me be here. I'm going to go with the Phantom Thread. There's something about the Oscars. The judges, they just love eating up that, that biopic old school film stuff, very proper piano, you know.

Sure. That would go with that one. Sure. Okay, next we have what I think will be a quick one, because I've never heard anyone else say anything else. Best makeup and hair styling, I'm going with darkest hour. Darkest hour? That's a good one. I'm gonna go with Wonder. Okay, okay. I feel you that's that's it. To me feels like going out on a limb

although I don't know much about Wonder so I guess we'll find out. Did you see Wonder? No but I've seen a lot of trailers for and I can just tell but I think that you definitely have the advantage with the darks hour The one the only other one hominid is Victoria and that dual which I I don't know anything about out of all these movies. I've I've not heard a single Peep about it, so I don't know Yeah, I I don't know much about that Best film editing is next and this is one where I think

Christopher Nolan is obviously not physically winning the award for this one but the the editing for Duncirk was just so Different but it worked that I haven't read anything else that is going to make me say, oh yeah, that's definitely going to be this one. So I like done Kirk for best film editing. How about you? I feel like this kind of edges into kind of the main categories and I really feel like this is where three billboards outside of Ebbing County.. Ebbin Missouri, I don't know, Ebbin County, Ebbin Missouri really starts cleaning up.

So I'm gonna have to take John Gregory for that one. Very good, very good. Next, we are at Best Production Design. This is a category that I admittedly feel relatively lost on and I understand what production design is but do I really feel confident in my ability to differentiate and pick not really. So I am going to go ahead because it's not going to get anything else and go on a limb here and say beauty in the beast for best production design. People aren't really talking about it. I think it's the only category

that it's nominated for, but it was either the first or second highest-grossing film of 2017. So let's take a sleeper pick here and go for beauty in the beast. What are you thinking? Let's take a sleeper pick here and go for a beauty in the beast. What are you thinking? Man, you know you're sleeper picks. That's actually a good one. I didn't see the movie, but my wife hasn't. She told me how incredible an intricate everything is on that one. But I'm going to have to go with a different intricately designed production.

And that is Blade Runner 2040. You've seen it really, so you could definitely probably agree to some degree. That's pretty crazy production design on that one. Absolutely. Yeah, there isn't really a, I'm looking at the nominees for that one. I don't think there's really a wrong choice for best production design. They're all very good movies. And yeah, so yeah, I don't have much of a any sort of knowledge or edge in that, but I say, hey, let's go for it. I also did not see the new Beauty and the Beast movie, but I am a big, you and McGregor fan. So maybe one day, I will check it out. I think he plays the candlestick, something like that. Let's go ahead. I think this, at least for me, is another quick pick.

Best costume design. I am going with Phantom Thread on that one. Phantom Thread, nice. It's not loading up for me currently, but I'm going to have to pick the darkest hour. I'm sure it's nominated, right? Let's see. You're right. So we're looking at, so, okay, so beauty and the beast was nominated for this as well. Then we have darkest hour, phantom thread, shape of water, and your favorite, Victoria and Abdul. Yeah, that's a big, darkest hour in this one. Okay. That seems about the pick. If you're not careful, Victoria and Abdul is going to come in and steal best picture before

we know it's going to be nice. They might just clean up. They might just clean up. about the pick. If you're not careful, Victoria, now, dole's gonna come in and steal best picture before we know it's gonna be nice. I just clean up. I have no idea. All right, let's keep going. We're starting to get into some heavy hitters here. We're getting into that territory. Our first really big one here, best cinematography.

Boy, I have this is actually one I've thought Our first really big one here, best cinematography. Boy, I have, this is actually one I've thought a lot about and I'm completely torn between Blade Runner and Duncurk, but a lot of people are talking about Roger Deacon's and how many nominations he's gotten and hasn't won yet. So it feels right. I'm gonna go ahead and go with Blade Runner for best cinematography.

That's a definitely commendable pick. That's solid. That's probably, I don't know. My first choice of kind of tied. So I guess I can pick my second, but Rachel Morrison for mudbound. I mean, absolutely killing it in that movie. Which is not a surprise. I mean, she's very talented. So yeah, but I don't see a such a Roger Deakin's or Rachel Morrison don't walk out with this thing.

Sure. And for the record, I know one's saying you can't pick what I pick, so I don't want you to be losing any money here, but All right, well you're I don't want you to make a fool yourself on you know what could be America's number one podcast with Time yourself. Yeah, let's let's keep going. I think this is another one that Let's let's keep going. I think this is another one that Should potentially be quick at least on my end best animated feature film. It's not boss baby. I'm going with cocoa You're absolutely right. This is actually a pick that I will double with you. Although an honorable mention should be Loving Vincent that movie I don't know how long it took to make, but supposedly they painted every single frame in the Vincent Vengo style. Absolutely incredible, but I think Coco walks away with it.

Definitely not Boss Baby though. I mean I did not see Boss Baby, did you? No, but I saw the trailer and that was it. Oh, it did something right to get nominated for any Academy Awards, so I mean it had to it had to, but it's so perplexing seeing it up here. And I'm just like really what like what I don't know, I don't know. Andy Circus must have been the baby. So some big emotion capture or something. Well, I have no know. Andy Circus must have been the baby. So some big emotion capture. So I have no idea. I'm so complex.

It's definitely no Victoria and Abdul, but it will do. Okay, here's another really interesting one, at least from my perspective, best foreign language film. So I'll go ahead and read off the nominees real quick. We are dealing with the insult which was a lesbian film. I was surprised to see that No, Lebanese a fantastic woman similar but different

Fantastic woman which was Chilean loveless which Russian, which is coming to my theater next weekend, so I will not get to see that before the ceremony. On body and soul, which is Hungarian, and then the square, which is Swedish. I have seen two of them. I've seen Fantastic Woman, and I've seen the insult. I am going to go ahead and pick Fantastic Woman for foreign language film. What are you thinking? I'm actually weirded out. I could have sworn there was a German film. I guess I'm wrong I guess though, because it was starring Diane Clueger. I don't know off the time I had, but we've got the internet up thankfully and we'll check out what's going on. I mean I'm obviously wrong because I'm looking at the same list too, but I could have sworn that that was nominated as well.

I'm looking at it, I'm totally dumbfounded. In the fade? Yeah, yeah. I guess that wasn't not interesting. Yeah, I guess not. No, you're right. It was selected as the German entry for the best foreign language film, but then it didn't make it to the, so it was on the short list. And it didn't make it to the final five.

So interesting, interesting. Well, you know what today seemed like not today, but this year just seems like the year for Russia. So I can't not pick Lovelace, right? Sure. It's like a perfect year for Russia to win it, you know? Well, cheating scandals. Yeah, it seems like a very, the trailer seems very intrigue. I will be going to the theater to watch that at some point in the next two weeks.

It seems like an interesting movie, but I really don't know enough about it right now. It's a bit panimated. I can't tell from now. No, it's not. It seems like an interesting movie, but I really don't know enough about it right now to be able to pan. Is it animated? I can't tell from what. No, it's not. It's green, yeah. Okay. No, no. Live action.

Nice. Yeah. Okay, that's foreign language film. We are into the big dogs now. Best original screenplay. So again, nominees for best original screenplay, we have Get Out, we have Lady Bird, we have, if my list would load, I could tell you the other ones. The big stick I think is on there. You are probably right. Let's see. I've got two different lists going here and it's difficult to scroll back and forth. I don't know why

this one has screenplays all the way down to the bottom. Okay. Original screenplay. Get out Lady Bird, big sick, shape of water and three billboards. This is one where I am going get out, not super confidently, but I don't know. I think if it's going to win anything, this is the one that it's got to shot at. Yeah, I agree. I actually put money down on this one winning it i think the odds are definitely in in favor because i'm right didn't put down a lot and i think that the outcome is like i don't know three hundred dollars something that probably putting down five bucks or something um...

but i'm gonna go with another long shot since you're here because i agree with you i think that you know jordan pio i have to go he's definitely got a good shot in this category but i'm gonna go um come mail non-johny and his wife um forgive me for not Emily V. Gordon okay yeah exactly um for the big sick that's that's what I'm gonna go with very good very I liked the big sick I would have loved to to see Ray Romano and or Holly Hunter get some sort of nomination, but I mean the acting fields are pretty stacked as they love. Yeah, they're

stacked, but honestly, I mean, I don't think Ray Romano has, I mean, he killed it. It was great. That was the one thing I came away from a movie that I was like, oh my goodness, like this guy, this guy needs more work, like get him out there. Yeah, yeah. I love when he goes on Kimmel because his son works for Jimmy Kimmel, and so he always brings him out and tries to get him dates and stuff. It's pretty hilarious. You can find stuff on YouTube, but yeah, Ray Romano is a, for all the hate that everybody loves, Raymond gets Ray Romano himself is actually a pretty damn funny guy. Let's keep going here. One that I feel very confident and pickwise, best adapted screenplay.

We have for nominations calling by your name, disaster artist Logan, Molly's game and Mudbound. I am going with calling by your name on disaster artist Logan, Molly's game, and Mudbound. I'm going with Colleen by your name on this one. Nice, nice. Actually, that's one of the ones that I haven't seen. I have a really hard time not picking. Do I go Aaron Sorkin or do I go Mudbound on this one? It's hard to get better against Aaron Sorkin. I'm gonna go verge of Williams for Mudbound. Okay. Okay. I got to see this Mudbound because you sure seem to be putting a lot of chips on it. I mean, if I'm having a hard time deciding between

Aaron Sorkin and Mudbound, I mean, we definitely something with watching. Sure. I hear you. Okay, we are into the final stretch here. We have our four major acting categories, none of which, let me preface it with this. I don't feel like any of these, we're gonna see any surprises or upsets, but then again, I guess you never predict a surprise or an upset, that's the nature of a surprise and an upset.

So let's start with best supporting actress. We have Lori Metcalfe, nominated. We have Alison Janney, nominated. We have the lady from Phantom Thread, Leslie Manville. We have Octavia Spencer and we have Mary J. Blige. Of course, unless you're living under a rock, you know this, Alison Janie is the big favorite for this. What I just wanna say here is, yep,

I'm picking Alison Janie, but man, I loved Lori Metcalfe and Lady Bird, probably my favorite performance of the year. I think she just captured that, like, working class mom, just, I, American ideal so well. And she just executed it flawlessly. So I think Alison Janney was fantastic. I think she deserves it, but I don't think Laurie Metcalf does not deserve it.

But my pick for best supporting actress is gotta be Alison Janie, Ihtanya. I'm gonna have to actually go Laurie Metcalf, I haven't seen the movie, I've heard a lot of buzz about her, but I also haven't seen Ihtanya, so I guess it's kind of thick air in Israel. Actually, aside from Mudbound, I haven't seen any of the other nominations either.

So going to the Warren Metthath, she's great, and I'm excited about the Roseanne. It's a continuation, I think. Apparently not. He's back baby Unbelievable Unbelievable Yeah, going to Lori McAfel in that one. Yeah, maybe we can get Rosanne to come back and sing another national anthem Maybe the next all-star game with Fergie. That would be great. Please. Please do it to that That would just make my life so I just so much more important

that happened. Absolutely, absolutely. Actor in a supporting role. So we have Christopher Plummer, all the money in the world. Of course, he replaced Kevin Spacey and filmed his stuff in like 35 minutes, I think. That's not correct. But Richard Jenkins, shape of water two from

three billboards we have Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell and then Willem DeFoe Florida project this is going to be kind of similar to what we just talked about in that Sam Rockwell is by and large the favor right now and yep he's going to be my pick but two things I want to say here first Michael Stulberg in calling by your name was Spectacular the speech he gives at the end of it To his son to the Shalamay is probably the my favorite thing I've ever seen on film it was just

Amazing and so poignant. So it was really bummed that that Michael Stulberg did not get nominated. He was also in the post and shape of water. So he just kind of managed to be in three of the best films of the year, which was really cool. The other thing I want to say is Willem DeFoe and the Florida Project. A lot of people I talk to have never even heard of the Florida Project and haven't seen it, of course, if you get the opportunity to watch the Florida Project, Willem DeFoe gives a spectacular performance. It's really hard to put it into words why it's so good. You just sort of

have to watch it, but he plays a motel manager who sort of takes on a patron-ly type position, not patron-ly paternal type position. Those are different words. And yeah, it's way different than Spider-Man if that's what you're thinking of. So my pick for actor and a supporting role is Sam Rockwell. Ryan, what are you thinking? I got a couple notes before I make my pick. Sam Rockwell, you ain't shit, buddy. Me and my wife saw you walking your dog in New York City. I think it was like west of the big park, you know, the big apple. And, um,

yeah, buddy, you, uh, you know, he's a good guy. He's a good guy. We saw him and I was just like, who's that guy? Who's that guy? And my wife and I were going back for like 25 minutes and we were like, that's the guy from Moon. That's that guy. And yeah, I'm just very, very interesting thing. Our second point, Richard Jenkins, my boy,

from the Cal Bill in Illinois. There we go. There we go. Virtually, and I grew up close to, not completely, but my take, man, I'm gonna have to willem to foe. I mean, you've seen the movie, I've seen the movie, just an absolutely solid pick, But my ghost on this one, my ghost horse, my... You're thinking of Ghost Rider with Nicholas Cage. Ghost Rider! Exactly. No, my... Dark Horse. Dark Horse. Perfect. Perfect.

No, my dark horse. My dark horse. Perfect. Perfect. Woody Harleson. Not bad in three billboards outside of Ebby, Missouri. Not bad at all. Guy really knows how to wrap up a solid role. Yeah, I was having this conversation with my parents

a couple of weeks ago after they saw three billboards. And we both are just really happy with how well Woody Harrelson is doing from a like a serious acting point. He's just a very likable figure and is a fantastic actor and just seems to be doing all the right things right now. So yeah, really happy for him. I'm not going to give any spoilers away or away or anything that but he writes a note at some point in the movie

you can really tell by the by what he has to say with the note in what sort of connotations the note has uh... the guy who wrote this movie needs to write you see i i think the playwright he's uh... very famous as far as New York plays go Yeah, this guy needs to do more stuff because I mean you you and your family saw the movie just absolutely killer It's it's it's a very moving. It's a very moving speech from the letters. It's very crazy Absolutely, let's let's

Plug on here actress in a leading role. We have Sally Hawkins from Shape of Water. Francis McDormand from Three Billboards, Margot Robbie from Itania, Merrill Streep from the Post and Sursher Ronin from Lady Bird. I am again, gonna go with the flow here and take Francis McDormand, Three Billboards. Two notes. I really like Sally Hawkins in Shape of Water. I don't know Sally Hawkins very well, but to do what she did in that film without saying a single word pretty much

and the emotion that she put in her facial expressions is really well done. So I commend her for that. And then search her own and this is her third nominate Oscar nomination and she's what like 23-24 I think. That is pretty damn amazing. So she was wonderful and ladybird as well. I just think the Frances McDormand is in a different stratosphere for this performance specifically. So I'm going to stay mainstream and pick Francis McDormand.

I got to follow suit. I really don't feel like that there's any other nominee other than Francis McDormand. I was going to come away with this one. Yeah. And the last thing I'll say about that, it just says I was thinking about it. Margot Robbie in Itonia. That was a wonderful film and all the acting in there was great. And Alison Janney will steal the headlines because kind of like Gary Oldman, she just completely took over that role. Gary Oldman didn't play Tanya Harding's mom.

It was actually Winston Churchill. But no, Margot Robbie is kind of going overlooked in this category, which is fair because I don't think that she's competitive, but her performance in Itanya was really strong. If you haven't seen Itanya, it's a really captivating, entertaining movie, like very well-paced, very well-edited music is wonderful. So, itiner was a really enjoyable film as well. Let's finish up the acting category here, one that might be the biggest lock out of anything we have on the circuit today. Actor in a leading role, we have Danzel Washington for Roman J. Israel, Gary

Oldman for Darkest Hour, Daniel Caluah, Get Out, Daniel De Lewis, Phantom Thread, and Timothy Shalamey, call me by your name. My two notes here are that Timothy Shalamey was amazing and I truly believe that the performance he gave in this film was leaps and bounds worthy of an Oscar. The other thing, Daniel DeLewis said that this is going to be his last film.

He was great as well in Phantom Thread, but it was so, I guess, subtle and controlled that it's just not not enough to compete against Timothy Shalame or Gary Oldman in my opinion and of course it's what everyone's talking about Gary Oldman's finally going to get his Oscar for darkest hour and I am not going to be the guy who picks against that Ryan your thoughts. I'm going to have to follow suit on this one. It's really hard to I actually have to have to follow suit on this one. It's really hard to. I actually have I have

money on Daniel. They Lewis. I have, we'll see, I have Ken on Danze Lewis, I believe, which I think if he wins, I can't wait for him or the post, but $10 down gets you like $700 or something like that. And I just don't see like why you would ever not bet against Dan Veeleus. Sure. At the same time, I know Gary Oldman is a lot. No Timothy Shalame is a second runner up. And if it is a dark horse, it really is Dan. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I feel wrong saying, Coaluea, because it just sounds like alcohol. Yeah.

But Denzel Washington in Roman J.S. is realist choir, is not half bad at all. And that guy needs to be, he's going to be in this category for, you know, God knows how many years. I mean, just a solid actor, one of the best. I don't see it not going to get open though I really don't I feel like in that movie He has speech after speech after speech after speech after speech after speech that's just so unpointed with

His character and stuff and I love the transformation Transformation and I guess he went to the hospital because of how many cigars he was smoking on kind of something. He got to back up. I don't know. He deserved it. Yeah. Yeah, I I don't know. I want Timothy Shalame to win so much because I just really loved his performance. But at the end of the day, I find myself being like, oh yeah, I can't believe Gary Oldman's going to win. Then I'm like, wait, no. Gary Oldman is one of my favorites and he totally deserves it. I think the only thing that like makes me a little upset is this movie in my opinion was Total Oscar Bate. But that's okay because he played it so well and I can't complain. Gary Oldman was fantastic. But that actually transitions that kind of thought right there transitions me into our last category here, which is of course, best picture.

The nominations are three billboards, shape of water, the post, phantom thread, ladybird, get out, done Kirk and call me by your name and darkest hour. So the one thing I wanted to say here is, I'm a little upset get out, done Kirk, and call me by your name, and Darkest Hour. So the one thing I wanted to say here is, I'm a little upset that Darkest Hour got nominated for Best Picture because I felt like it kept itanya off of it. And I really liked itanya a lot more, honestly, than I liked Darkest Hour. So that was my only film that I would like to switch out other than that. Watch all these films, most of them at least twice. And yeah, I just really liked

all them. Before we pick, Ryan, go ahead and elaborate a little bit if you'd like. Yeah, definitely watch Dunkirk twice, definitely. I'm not, I'm normally pretty immune to, you know, the editing process, but this one for about five seconds had me, had me really, just a bit. But I have to second your thoughts on Star Exhower. It is such a total biographical Oscar clickbait film. And that's not a discredit, Gary Olman's performance whatsoever. It has purely to do with the film.

And I feel like I-Tanya is a movie that the Academy has a really hard time pulling in because it has the it has editing similar to the big short if you remember that film from one year ago two years ago and it may have been three years ago I'm so old but the Academy really doesn't like editing like that where it really breaks the fourth wall at times and or has a documentary style of twists. Far as notes go, there's a couple of these movies that I have not seen that I really can't wait to. As far as narrative goes, the Academy really wants to pick the post.

They really want to. They won't. I have a few feelings who they're going to pick instead of that. But there's always a narrative that the Academy wants to follow. And sometimes they want to soapbox and get political. And the post is something they really, really, really want to pick. Get out is kind of a second to that but honestly I just feel like get out is a legitimately good film so I don't feel like it you know as much but there's a lot of good talent in this category and if it went to anything except

for the darkest hour I feel like and possibly the Phantom Thread in some ways, but Downzee is a good actor. I feel it could be justified. I feel like there's not a whole lot of Oscar clickbait this year compared to most years. Some years, it just gets too gratuitous. But this year seems to be the exception, especially with what is it? We'll see. Nine. Nine nominations. That's pretty incredible. Nine nominations. And one, maybe two, let's call it one and a half, Oscar clickbait.

Sure. So the one thing I want to say before we make picks is that we completely botched a category and by botched, I mean, missed. That's my fault I've been leading the conversation here. We did not pick a director. So before we give our final picks for best picture here, let's very briefly just run through the directing header. Excited feel very confident. My pick. We have Christopher Nolan for Duncerc, Jordan Peel for Get Out, Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, Paul Thomas Anderson for Phantom

Thread and Guillermo del Toro for Shape of Water. I have no reservations about this pick. I think Guillermo del Toro is going to win this one. Man, I'm gonna I'm gonna definitely dark or this one. But I'm going to go credit girl wig on this one. Very good, very good. I would love to see any one of these five people when it honestly I like all of them and all five of their movies were spectacular in their own rights. And yeah, but I't know. I'm very influenced by the conversation on this because everyone seems to be talking about how Guillermo del Toro's got this

one in the bag, but I could see Jordan Peale as a dark horse here. Christopher Nolan finally got a nomination and Duncirk was just so good. Paul Thomas Anderson never disappoints. So yeah, it's I don't know. I feel pretty confident that Del Toro is going to win this one. But we will see in a couple of days here. Okay, last thing we have to do here is make our best picture picks. And I am being completely honest right now, and that I have thought about this for weeks and weeks. And up until this moment, I still don't have a pick that I feel confident in. I, in my opinion, it's coming down to three films. So I see, and I kind of parallel

this to last year. So last year I felt like Lalla Land and Manchester by the C were both really strong contenders and then Moonlight was also a contender but more of the Dark Horse candidate. For me this year, I view that as shape of water and three billboards kind of being the two front runners and get out being that Dark Horse candidate. For as much as I loved Dunkirk, I just don't think the academy is gonna go for it.

And I also really loved calling by your name and it might be my favorite movie of the year along with Lady Bird, but they don't think the Academy is going to go for it. And I also really love to call it by your name. And it might be my favorite movie of the year along with Lady Bird, but they don't seem to be legitimate contenders for it. So on the spot now, having to make a pick for best picture, I am going to go with Get Out. And that's my, maybe my boldest pick of the night here. But Ryan, what are you think it for best picture?

Man, you just went completely dark horse in there. I like it. I like it. You know, my thought process behind it is, like I said before, the post, you know, that's like their, that's their political statement. That's what they want to make. But I don't think they're going to make it this year, and I think it's either, you know, the favorites is either like you said, the shape of water or three billboards, and the real dark courses,

you know, political statement is get out and ladybird, there's just such young, raw talent in those two films Man, I gotta get to three billboards though that is It's hard not to pick that one Yeah, yeah, so my my the one thing that just kept sticking in the back of my head is I was going through these films is that In my opinion the last two years dark is one so two years ago it was spotlight the Mark Ruffalo film and then last year of course Moonlight One. Neither of those films came into the award ceremony like the clear frontrunner not that there is necessarily a clear frontrunner although I would argue Lalla Land was a pretty clear frontrunner last year. So I am just going to try to keep riding that train of dark

course and we'll see what happens. I don't know. The only you alluded to the only film going to be upset if it wins is darkest hour, but I can't imagine a world where that happens. Yeah, these were all films that I enjoyed, had no reservations with them, except for Darkest Hour being a little bit of Oscar bait. But yeah, I mean, we'll see what happens. I did like it out. I thought it was a really important film in just spectacular, that that was Jordan Peel's first shot at, and that's what he came up with was was really cool to see.

So yeah Ryan do you have any last second thoughts on this year's Oscars? Who's hosting Oscars this year? Jimmy Kimmel's hosting it again. Wow. About other predictions that I have. You know, I really don't see that they're going to mess up the best picture when I'm here. I can't imagine they do that. You wouldn't think so. No. Yeah. What are your thoughts on late night hosts? How do they rank for you? Oh, late night hosts. Wow, this is out of left field. Oh, yeah.

Are we throwing in late night, like late, late hosts? Are you talking like Carson daily or what? No, anyone, anyone who's on after 10 p.m. qualifies in my book. All right. all right. So, you know, I think that the real dark horse winner of this entire thing is that I don't remember Scottish or he's Irish, but he's not. You can't watch him on the American cable. It's his name. That is dark horse. That's so dark horse. Hold hold on hold on. But first I gotta go cold bear. Sure. And I think that his show has really developed over the years and and that in over the years it's only been like three years I believe. Yeah. Yeah and it's gone from it. People were really complaining about his records for the longest time with, you know, audience and

stuff like that, but it's really developed over the year, but I will give him that, you know, a lot of it has to do with things politically and stuff like that. People are really drawn to a political show. Nowadays, this rewice set of Myers is kind of thriving right now. As opposed to before that, people were very concerned about that time's life. Man, but I got to go co-bear number one number two Jimmy Kimball. Jimmy Kimball. I really like his and I think has to do with a lot of his connections in LA and stuff like that. How he's able to he's interacting with sports, he's interacting with politics, he's interacting with celebrity. I mean he's all over the place and I can't say that

is you know the same everywhere else uh... celebrity and he's he's all over the place and i can't say that is you know the same everywhere else uh... third is valentine feel he's kind of uh... he's kind of dropped off recently and i feel like that a lot of it has to do with fact that you know americans don't want the the very posh

uh... fun that let's be silly show i I think that we're kind of in like a very serious time in the behind him is Seth Myers in the behind him is jet Corden Yeah, James James James not Josh James Corden But the dark horse here. I don't know you know you've heard of him But Graham Norton. Oh yeah, Graham Norton. Absolutely, he's great.

Oh yeah, Cite No. Carson Daly's last. Carson Daly will last. Last in the ratings and in the time slot. Exactly, exactly. And yeah, I like his music acts, but he's just kind of a very uninteresting person, you know, and of course his show format is Completely different like it's not even it's unfair that I'm throwing him in this category, but I'm just doing it just because That's the way it's set up, you know, so well if they if they push Carson daily back any further into the night He's gonna start hosting the zero-th-hour of the today show. So, serious. Well, great. That's the podcast. I mentioned in our conversation before we started that

I tried to keep it to 30 to 40 minutes. I'm glad to see that we did make it in that time frame, so no worries about going on too long. But Ryan Ligand, do you want to give a quick highlight of your current podcast that you're hosting? Yeah, Ben, check us out on YouTube. We're at Car Ride Convo's podcast also on SoundCloud. We have some crazy stuff in the works. I'm not going to say when it's coming out, what exactly it is, but there's some weird stuff coming up and just stay tuned. And the reason why you should really stay tuned to the Car Right Conference podcast is because we're the only podcast that could end in a fiery car accident and the resulting death of

two people co-hosted the podcast. Thanks for having me, Alclin. Yeah, you're going to be on edge the whole time. It's as much a thriller as it is a comedy and just people talking. So I appreciate that. Ryan will hang on to you for one second after the podcast ends to wrap things up and get you your payments, of course, but no, I'm just kidding. This has been the bean-town podcast with Quinn David Furnace.

I do want to give my listener discretion is advised tag, just in case there are any adult words that we use after this, which is not going to happen. First, might be using some profane language here and there and second the podcast is just objectively terrible. Anyways, this has been the Oscars Predictacular. Predictacular, excuse me. The Oscars are Sunday, March 4th at some time. I don't know when the sun goes down. Jimmy Kimmel's hosting. Be sure to check it out.

It's on ABC. Thanks for listening if you made it this far. And I hope you are having a great weekend. Bye. and I hope you are having a great weekend. Bye.