And The 2019 Oscars Go To...

March 21^st, 1999. Oscar night twenty years ago. Back when the timing of the award ceremony rivaled the NCAA basketball tournament, but still 45 million viewers tuned in to see Tinseltown honor the best films of 1998.

That year the nominees for Best Picture were Shakespeare in Love, Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful, Elizabeth and The Thin Red Line. Like any list of nominees, a case could be made if each film deserves to be there. If the current rule of having up to ten films be nominated was around in 1999, the field could have also included The Truman Show, Out of Sight, Rushmore, American History X, A Bug’s Life, Pleasantville, A Simple Plan or the film that has probably has the most staying power out of them all, The Big Lebowski.

At the end of the night, Shakespeare in Love beat out the World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, still considered one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history. It might not be as egregious a winner as Crash or The Artist, but Shakespeare in Love also had stiffer competition.

The truth is I would make time to sit down and watch Saving Private Ryan again, but I can’t say that about the other Best Picture nominees. Honestly, I would probably choose most of the other movies I mentioned from that year except for Saving Private Ryan.

The Hollywood awards season happens so soon that audiences don’t have much time to fully digest the nominated films, which is not always a good thing. Any year can be looked back with some criticism, with some having stronger cases than others. In my opinion, which in essence is how the winners are picked (but only by the opinions of a select few), 1999 is one of the years that deserves a do over.

Will a similar sentiment be felt if there are any considerable “upsets” during Sunday’s awards? And how will this year’s nominees be looked at 20, 10, or even 5 years down the road? Only time will tell. For now I can only speculate who will take home the trophies in the categories that hopefully will not be awarded during a commercial break (I’m looking at you, Best Sound Mixing).

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams, Vice

Marina de Tavira, Roma

Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Emma Stone, The Favourite

Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

Marina de Tavira can be considered one of the first “surprise” nominations, where Emily Blunt could have squeezed in for either A Quiet Place or Mary Poppins Returns. But the Academy is always going to lean towards the indie darling over movies people actually see. Stone and Weisz could essentially cancel each other out, which leads to King, who's been the frontrunner all through award season. If Beale Street Could Talk was snubbed for Best Director and Best Picture, so look for King to score for one of the film's three nominations.

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman

Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born

Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Sam Rockwell, Vice

Driver snuck in here over Timothée Chalamat's addict portrayal in Beautiful Boy or even Michael B. Jordan for Black Panther. But blockbusters normally are not Oscar’s cup of tea. Surprisingly, this is Sam Elliott’s first nomination, and he captures every scene he’s in. However similar to Rockwell, Elliot might need more screen time to persuade voters. Grant could be gaining steam, but I’m going with Ali for playing world-class pianist Dr. Don Shirley. His chemistry with co-star Viggo Mortensen is terrific, and if voters are going to honor the polarizing film, this is it. Plus Ali crushing it in this season of True Detective could also sway voters. This would be Ali's second Best Supporting Actor award in three years (Moonlight, 2017).

Best Actress

Yalitza Aparicio, Roma

Glenn Close, The Wife

Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born

Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Like de Tavira, Aparicio is a first-time nominee, and beat out potential snub Toni Colette for Hereditary. But just like most blockbusters, the Academy turns its nose against horror and comedies. I’m all in favor of Gaga, who along with her powerful voice shows that she can act as well. But sometimes voters need to reward its veterans, and Close is certainly no stranger to Oscar let down. Going back to 1982, she’s been nominated 6 previous times with zero wins. It’s Close’s turn to take home the prize.

Best Actor

Christian Bale, Vice

Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born

Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate

Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Viggo Mortensen, Green Book

Dafoe’s nomination is a little unexpected here, seeing as Ethan Hawke has been continually praised for First Reformed. Bale could be a dark horse, since voters love complete transformations. And Bale has the former Vice President’s mannerisms down to a science, even gaining 40 pounds for the role. Like Gaga, I would lean towards Cooper, seeing as he learned how to play the guitar and sing to play Jackson Maine. Malek is everyone’s darling though, and even though he lip-syncs throughout the film, he captures every aspect of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. And voters love real life portrayals. Malek wins with his first nomination.

Best Director

Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman

Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War

Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite

Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Adam McKay, Vice

With all due respect to Pawel Pawlikowski, who I’m sure made nice film, there’s little to no excuse for excluding Bradley Cooper here. How can he direct co-stars Sam Elliot and Lady Gaga up to receive nominations and still be left off this list? Plus, people actually went and saw A Star Is Born, which I’m not sure I can say about Cold War. None of it is going to matter anyway. Besides the scenes with dog poop and full male nudity, Cuarón made a beautifully shot movie that the Academy loves, even if it is a complete snooze fest. He’s been dominating award season, and anything different here would be a complete shocker. Cuarón will win for the second time in this category (Gravity, 2014).

Best Picture

Black Panther

BlacKkKlansman

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Favourite

Green Book

Roma

A Star Is Born

Vice

An argument could be made that other films from 2018 such as If Beale Street Could Talk, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Spiderman: Into The Spider-Verse, Eighth Grade, Widows, The Death Of Stalin, Call Me By Your Name, First Man, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Annihilation, Searching, Hereditary, or even Paddington 2 could make this short list. Personally, I’m a little surprised that a comic book film like Black Panther was nominated (even though it deserves to be), and I believe it will be a film that’s still watched and talked about several years down the road. The same goes for A Star Is Born due to its star power, and I actually believe in Cooper and Gaga’s love story as it unfolds on screen. I’m not sure if Roma, the clear-cut favorite, will have the same shelf life. Many critics will probably say I have no soul for this, but I tried to give this movie a chance. I began to doze off twenty minutes into the film, eventually fast forwarding through the remainder and making occasional stops, not feeling I missed any of the minimal plot. But looking at Oscar’s recent history with Moonlight and The Shape of Water, low-budget, coming of age stories that excel in visual achievement are king. Cuarón and Roma will walk away with the big prize of the night.

Reminiscing Over Green Day and 'Dookie'

A couple of weeks ago I was scrolling through Twitter, and came across this article from The Ringer.

You ever have a surreal moment and realize after it hits you that you know you’re getting old? In the back of my mind I knew that Green Day’s Dookie was released in 1994, towards the end of my high school years, and was played repeatedly in my first car, whether on the radio or by cassette, when I finally obtained a driver’s license. When I saw the headline ’25 Years Later,’ it took me for a bit of a loop.

The article goes on to tell a first-hand account of Green Day’s September 9^th, 1994 free concert at the Hatch Shell in Boston, which lasted for a good twenty minutes before it escalated into a full-blown riot. Several weeks earlier Green Day was the breakout band of Woodstock ’94, a concert to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the original festival in upstate New York. That same month the band released “Basket Case,” the second single from Dookie, which was played on a continuous loop on MTV. The culmination of these events vaulted the band to commercial success, all laid by the groundwork of their third studio album released on February 1^st, 1994.

Although they never repeated the success of Dookie sales wise (10 million in the U.S.), Green Day still managed to stay relevant through the years, even while the pop punk genre fizzled out of the mainstream during the 2000s. Can they credit this sustained success to the subsequent releases after Dookie over the last quarter of a century? As someone who has maintained a fandom for the band through the years, and to remember Dookie on its 25^th anniversary, I felt obligated to do a deep dive into the band’s catalogue. If I had to personally rank their albums, and highlight some of their strengths and weaknesses, it would go something like this.

12. Warning (released October 3^rd, 2000)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “Minority,” “Warning,” “Waiting”

Many fans and critics will rank this album higher, but this is probably my least favorite album of theirs. It’s one the band’s most progressive and stripped-down record, with acoustic guitars making appearances on multiple tracks. These songs are good, but this might have been a reason that I found this album difficult to initially get into when it was first released. This was also the year of Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP, Coldplay’s Parachutes, and Radiohead’s Kid A, so there was other music occupying my speakers. Plus, I was probably anticipating something similar to their previous album, Nimrod. Decent record, and ‘Minority’ is as catchy as they come, but not one of my go to options.

11. 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours (released April 13, 1990)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “At The Library,” “Going To Pasalacqua,” “Paper Lanterns”

This is essentially Green Day’s first album, even though it mixes the release 39/Smooth and the EPs Slappy and 1000 Hours. I often associate this with Kerplunk! as the two records I needed to buy after the success of Dookie, also triggered by “Going To Pasalacqua” and “Paper Lanterns” being displayed in the band’s MTV: Jaded in Chicago ’94 concert special (which at one point had recorded on VHS, eventually wearing out the tape). The album is pretty much what you might expect; raw pop punk songs that don’t extend over the four-minute mark. It’s not great, but a decent debut with some highlights of what’s to come.

10. ¡Tré! (released December 11, 2012)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “X-Kid,” “99 Revolutions”

9. ¡Dos! (released November 13, 2012)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “See You Tonight,” “Lazy Bones,” ‘Wild One,’ “Baby Eyes,” “Wow! That’s Loud”

8. ¡Uno! (released September 25^th, 2012)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “Nuclear Family,” “Stay The Night,” “Fell For You,” “Oh Love”

Like many critics, I lump these records together, all being released within three months of each other at the end of 2012. They were overshadowed by lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong’s onstage meltdown at the iHeart Radio Festival on September 21^st of that year, leading to his essential stint in rehab and the cancellation of a number of U.S. tour dates. !Uno! is definitely the most consistent, providing a pop punk tone that is reminiscent of their early days. If ¡Tré! wasn’t partnered with the other two, I would probably have it at the bottom of this list, mostly because I’m turned off by the ballads ‘Brutal Love’ and ‘The Forgotten.’ There’s definitely some good stuff here though, although the albums never received the promotion and recognition they deserved.

7. Insomniac (released October 10, 1995)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “Armatage Shanks,” “Geek Stink Breath,” “Brain Stew/Jaded,” “Walking Contradiction”

The day had finally came. The follow up to Dookie, and a heavily anticipated album in the fall of 1995 when record releases used to mean something. At the time I remember forcing myself to like it, wanting it to be as good as its predecessor. It wasn’t by any means, but still sold over 2 million copies. The template was pretty much the same as Dookie, but with a darker tone. This was also the tour that I saw the band in a fifteen thousand seat arena, and witnessed a mob of kids bum rush and topple a security guard just to be part of the mosh pits on the floor. This was when Green Day was at the height of their powers, even if Insomniac fell a little short.

6. Kerplunk! (released January 17, 1992)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “2000 Light Years Away,” “Welcome To Paradise,” “Christie Road,” “Dominated Love Slave,” “No One Knows”

The other pre Dookie release on label Lookout! Records, and the first album to feature drummer Tré Cool. It also came out four months after Nirvana’s Nevermind, so grunge was on the rise, but Kerplunk! still had some initial success for an independent label. The record is slightly more polished than 39/Smooth, and also significantly better. It would go on to sell 1 million copies in the U.S., but most importantly it helped pave the way for the band to sign with Reprise Records and eventually record Dookie.

5. Revolution Radio (released October 7, 2016)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “Bang Bang,” “Revolution Radio,” “Still Breathing,” “Forever Now”

Bouncing back after Armstrong’s meltdown, this record is reminiscent of the band’s previous rock operas American Idiot and 21^st Century Breakdown, evident in Armstrong’s attack on social issues and the mini-opera track ‘Forever Now.’ In a year where some of the top critically reviewed albums came from Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, and Beyoncé, a rock throwback to some of the band’s stronger material was a pleasant surprise. Any run of the mill fans should definitely give it a listen.

4. 21^st Century Breakdown (released May 9, 2009)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “Know Your Enemy,” “Before The Lobotomy,” “Peacemaker,” “Last Of The American Girls,” “The Static Age,” “21 Guns”

Produced by Butch Vig, famously known for producing Nirvana’s Nevermind, this is the band’s second rock opera. Similar to its predecessor American Idiot, it takes on social issues and authority as it follows the story of a young punk couple. The album displays some of the band’s best songwriting, building on what they accomplished in American Idiot. It went on the win Best Rock Album at the 2010 Grammy’s, the second time they’ve won in that category.

3. Nimrod (released October 14, 1997)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “Nice Guys Finish Last,” “Hitchin’ A Ride,” “Redundant,” “Scattered,” “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”

Green Day is three chord power punk at its core, but this is the record they begin to diverge into new territory. The album features harmonicas (“Walking Alone”), horns (“King For a Day”), a surf-rock instrumental (“Last Ride In”), and a very successful acoustic ballad (“Good Riddance”). The result is a more melodic effort, and a sign the band was maturing from being punk brats. With 18 tracks that clock in close to 50 minutes, it was their most extensive and complex effort until…

2. American Idiot (released September 24, 2004)

Tracks to keep on repeat: “American Idiot,” “Holiday,” “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends”

Doing their best Who impersonation, American Idiot is Green Day’s first punk rock opera that also brought them back to relevance. It’s charged with politically motivated and adult themes, and it shows in the band’s mature songwriting. Two of the songs (“Jesus Of Suburbia,” “Homecoming”) are mini-operas themselves, and both reach the 9-minute mark. The album sold over 6 million copies in the U.S., won Best Rock Album and was nominated of Album of the Year at the 2005 Grammys, and spawned a Tony Award winning Broadway musical. It’s considered by many as not only one of the best albums of 2004, but of the entire decade.

1. Dookie (released February 1, 1994)

Tracks to keep on repeat: Besides the whole album? “Burnout,” “Chump,” “Longview,” “Basket Case,” “Welcome To Paradise,” “She,” “When I Come Around”

No real surprise here seeing as this piece is commemorating this album. Besides its critical acclaim and critical success that launched Green Day’s career, what else can be said about this record? Top album of 1994? It’s in some prestigious company, but deserves to be there. One of the best albums of the 90s? An argument can certainly be made. It even garnered a tweet from Serena Williams (yes, the tennis phenom) on its anniversary that the album changed her life “for the better,” and she thanked the band members by tagging them individually.

But regardless if you’ve had the feeling like me that you're getting old and perhaps lost touch with Green Day, there’s no doubting the pop cultural impact of Dookie. So go to Apple Music, Spotify, or even dig out your old CD if that still suits your fancy, and crank up these three-chord classics for old times sake. You'll be thankful that you did.