Oscar Picks etc...

Predictions are meaningless thats why they are so much fun, so for the records here is my "will win should win" breakdown in the big categories tonight. Best Picture: Either Spotlight or The Revenant. Both are bravura efforts, Spotlight the more earnest film, the Revenant is a biarchy tour 'd force between DiCaprio and Tom Hardy but it is a survival story up against a big social issue film. Lacking in Big Profile Limey Disease Porn, it comes down to these two. Me, I'd love to see "The Martian" win the big, it remains the only sci fi movie that spoke to me this year, with a strong performance from Matt Damon. "Mad Max: Fury Road" is also nominated...but at best Charlize Theron deserved a Best Actress Nod...the film itself basically runs out of ideas at the 80 minute mark and Tom Hardy phoned it in lets face facts. Best Actor: Matt Damon deserves it, DiCaprio seems likeliest to win although Eddie Redmayne is nominated and Brits vote in a spoilerish block for any jobber who was born in the UK. Best Actress: I have to be the only man in the USA who liked "Joy" so I'm with Jennifer Lawrence who is a sort of "Female DiCaprio" i.e. an actor with a popular base and solid box office record who nonetheless has serious chops. Alas "Joy" will gat no heat this year....so I say that spoilerish block goes for Charlotte Rampling. Actor in a Supporting Role: Tom Hardy from "The Revenant" as I suspect that film might have a minor sweep tonight, but Sly Stallone deserves it, that man has made Arm Wrestling Movies its a career fraught with setbacks and he will never be in that room again. Actress in a Supporting Role: I am hoping Jennifer Jason Leigh can sneak thru a British Actor Surge that is split between Kate Winslet and Alicia Vikander....yeah we are down to that. And "Inside Out" deserves the Best Animated Feature Oscar hands down....all the best acting in the last ten years seems concentrated in Pixar Features.