Predicting the 91st Academy Awards [UPDATED]

The Academy Awards: the final destination for movie awards shows. Voted on by about 8,000 members across the film industry, it's basically Hollywood's Super Bowl, and film nerds like me love to try and predict the winners! It hasn't always been easy, and this year in particular, with the Academy seeing a new influx of voters from around the world, accurately guessing which films and performances will come away with a gold statuette will be a challenge. A challenge I accept!

* = Haven't seen it YET

10 Biggest Oscar Snubs of 2019

It happens every year: the Oscar nominations are revealed, and movie nerds everywhere weep in disappointment after one of their favorites is inevitably left out of the party. This year in particular I found so many snubs and some truly baffling nominees (seriously - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs? Vice?), so, who am I to end a tradition? Here are, in my opinion, the top ten Oscar snubs of 2019:

10. Paddington 2
Snubbed for: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture

Although it saw a number of nominations last year from the BAFTAs (essentially the "British Acamedy Awards") - including Supporting Actor, Screenplay, and Picture - it turns out that Oscar voters must have forgot about this amazing, heartwarming sequel to Paddington since its stateside release in January. It's too bad - it's one of my favorites of the year!

Top Ten of 2018!

I always put a great deal of thought into my top ten movies every year, because I always use it as a touchstone for this moment in my movie watching journey. If a certain movie lands in my "top ten," it enters a special place in my heart forever. So here are ten of my favorite films from 2018 that have entered into the "Peter Waters" pantheon!

10. Green Book
Dir. Peter Farrelly

Dumb and Dumber is (abashedly) my favorite movie of all time, but even after defending that 90s goofball comedy for years, even I was surprised that director Peter Farrelly could pull a movie like Green Book off! The film, based on a true story, follows the budding friendship between Dr. Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a world-class African-American concert pianist, and his driver Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), a tough-talking Italian American from the Bronx, as they embark on a concert tour through the Deep South in 1962. Although it's a little hokey, it's the good kind of crowd-pleaser. Funny, heartfelt, and socially-conscious, Green Book is a pleasant deviation from Farrelly's typical low-hanging slapstick material!

The Talkies: 2018 "Best Of" Superlatives!

Welcome to my 7th annual movie blog superlatives: "The Talkies!" Leading up to my official Top Ten of the year, here I will honor the year in movies through different categories, from acting to music to cinematography! At the end, also enjoy a special Spotify playlist of the tracks featured in this post! Thanks again for reading, you loyal blog readers!

BEST ACTOR - Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread

Supposedly Daniel Day-Lewis's "final" performance before his announced retirement (we'll see how long that pans out), his portrayal of Reynolds Woodcock, a meticulous, strict, self-absorbed dress designer in 1950s London, is yet again up to the master-class level we expect of him.

Despite his extremely particular tastes, Woodcock winds up courting a bright-eyed waitress unaccustomed to his lifestyle and is one of the few people to challenge his routine. Similar to Hitchcock's Rebecca, their mutual attraction and distrust lends to some tense scenes as their small rebellions build off of each other. It's such a particular, specific, genius, and subtly comical performance and although I don't believe it's the last we'll see of Day-Lewis, it would be a fantastic note to end his career on!

Review Round-Up: December

Happy holidays everyone! These will be my last reviews of the year before I post my "Best Of" Superlatives, Top Ten of the year, and most anticipated of 2019. I just want to say thank you to all my readers out there! I may not be writing as frequently as I once did, but I have been super busy! Whether you're reading this in a waiting room or on your laptop or sitting on the toilet - I hope you enjoy!

Aquaman

Dir. James Wan

Aquaman, with his gaudy orange and green costume and ability to talk to fish, has sort of been the laughing stock of DC Comics characters for a long time. But in the latest DCU film from director James Wan, Jason Momoa ups the character's "cool factor," making him a hulking, tatted-up surfer bro with a Rob Zombie beard. Simultaneously embracing Aquaman's innately silly concept while giving the character a "badass" revamp, this latest superhero flick does do a considerable job bringing the character to new places - but the story of this half-breed Atlantian/ human and his adventures trying to unite the surface world and the water world is a mostly incomprehensible, CGI-filled mess with cringe-worthy acting and insane plot devices that make no sense at all (this movie argues that, yes, dinosaurs are alive and well, living in the Earth's core).

Final Verdict:

SKIP IT

Review Round-Up: October and November

To all the people that say the first year of teaching is the most difficult: I hope you're right. My life has been practically a constant stream of lesson planning, grading, meetings, e-mailing, disciplining, and losing sleep! Despite all that, I've been able to sneak in a bunch of movies! So I may not be able to write full-length reviews like I used to, but hopefully these bite-sized "review round-ups" will satiate you loyal blog readers! Thanks for reading!

25 Scariest Shots in Horror Movies

Halloween is coming up, and us film nerds around the globe are prepping our horror movie marathons. For this blog post, however, instead of making a typical horror movie review or "best of" list to ring in the season, I wanted to focus on the smallest building block of film: THE SHOT. Movies are more or less just a series of pictures flashing by your eyes, and some of these single images have the ability to conjure our deepest, darkest fears. This blog post is a celebration of 25 iconic, unsettling, downright creepy-crawly shots that have haunted our dreams over the years and the cinematographers who helped immortalize them on screen.

* = Oscar-nominated cinematography