Film

Motion picture, drama

“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”
“Lion”

Motion picture, musical or comedy

“20th Century Women”
“Deadpool”
“Florence Foster Jenkins”
“La La Land”
“Sing Street”

Motion picture, animated

“Zootopia”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“Moana”
“Sing”
“Kubo and the Two Strings”

Motion picture, foreign language

“Divines,” France
“Elle,” France
“Neruda,” Chile
“The Salesman,” Iran
“Toni Erdmann,” Germany

Actress in a motion picture, drama

Amy Adams, “Arrival”
Jessica Chastain, “Miss Sloane”
Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”
Ruth Negga, “Loving”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”

Actor in a motion picture, drama

Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
Joel Edgerton, “Loving” | Video Q&A
Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”

Actress in a motion picture, musical or comedy

Annette Bening, “20th Century Women”
Lily Collins, “Rules Don’t Apply”
Hailee Steinfeld, “The Edge of Seventeen”
Emma Stone, “La La Land”
Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”

Actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy

Colin Farrell, “The Lobster”
Hugh Grant, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
Ryan Reynolds, “Deadpool”
Jonah Hill, “War Dogs”

Supporting actress in any motion picture

Viola Davis, “Fences”
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures”
Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”

Supporting actor in any motion picture

Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Simon Helberg, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Aaron Taylor Johnson, “Nocturnal Animals”

Director, motion picture

Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
Tom Ford, “Nocturnal Animals”
Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”
Mel Gibson, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”

Screenplay, motion picture

Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
Tom Ford, “Nocturnal Animals”
Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”
Taylor Sheridan, “Hell or High Water”

Original score, motion picture

Justin Hurwitz, “La La Land”
Jóhann Jóhannsson, “Arrival”
Nicholas Britell, “Moonlight”
Dustin O’Halloran, Hauschka, “Lion”
Benjamin Wallfisch, Pharrell Williams, Hans Zimmer, “Hidden Figures”

Original song, motion picture

“How Far I’ll Go” (“Moana”)
“City of Stars” (“La La Land”)
“Can’t Stop the Feeling” (“Trolls”)
“Faith” (“Sing”)
“Gold” (“Gold”)

Whether or not you are a regular movie-goer, most people know that the best movies all come out this time of year, just in time for Oscar consideration. The movie Miss Sloane will without a doubt be nominated for best picture and Jessica Chastain, who plays the lead role, will in my opinion, definitely win this year for best actress because her performance in this film is tremendous. For those who think that being a great actor or actress is trivial, they should see this movie. How anyone can remember so much complex dialogue in scene after scene and be so believable in her role, is a truly great accomplishment.

This storyline of this film is about political operatives and lobbyists in Washington and specifically gun lobbyists, even though the NRA was never mentioned by name in this entire movie, probably for political reasons. At the start of this movie, Elizabeth Sloane, played by Jessica Chastain, is an employee of a political lobbyist firm that supports the gun lobby. During a lunch with a major gun lobbyist who wants to bring more political support for no gun control by influencing young women to buy guns, Sloane switches over to the other side and quits the firm she is with. She then tries to do the impossible, by supporting a new bill that wants more background checking for guns. Why an obvious bill like this is considered impossible to pass is what is wrong with Washington. Defending the second amendment for years has been confused with Government control and taking away the rights of citizens to bear arms, rather than improving laws so that known terrorists and crazy people can not get their hands on guns or ever be able to buy machine guns or other dangerous firearms that no law abiding citizen would ever need. Of course, money and payoffs are involved and the gun lobby has enough money to suppress the obvious need for more common sense gun control for many years. A great argument is made in this film where Sloane debates gun control with another political operative and compares gun control with having to get a drivers license. Why is it that we require people to get a license to drive and pass a test, but not for owning a gun?

The main character of Elizabeth Sloane is portrayed in this film as someone who works 16 hour days, has no personal life, wants no personal life and needs drugs both to get to sleep and keep herself awake. There are people like Elizabeth all around Washington and as her doctor points out to Sloane over the phone, the way she is living her life, she will not live very long. This much is very obvious when you watch her extremely high stress, high pressure, rapid fire life.

I thought this movie was extremely well acted, most especially by Jessica Chastain and the many twists and turns, especially at the end were well done. John Lithgow also stars in this film as a senator and his part mostly consists of chairing various senate hearings that are investigating Elizabeth Sloane. The ending was a surprise and I thought was one of the best parts of the entire two hours. I give Miss Sloane a very high recommendation.

The new comedy movie “Office Christmas Party” starts off in an interesting way. Jason Bateman is in his divorce lawyers office and during their meeting, there are several comments suggesting that his financial life, which consists of many years of hard work, will never be the same. He makes a comment, “It’s only money”, which is a comment that for me, always makes me nauseous. At the end of their meeting, the lawyer mentions his final bill which is in the stack of papers Batement is holding. Trying to make something as life changing as a bitterly contested divorce funny at the start of a comedy movie is challenging, to say the least, as there is nothing funny about the idea of financial ruin just because you married the wrong person or the marriage just didn’t work out. My opinion is that this first scene was a bad way to start any comedy film, even if you have never been financially ruined by a divorce.

The idea of an office Christmas party as the central theme of a movie, either dramatic or comedy is a great one. I remember thinking, why didn’t someone think of this idea before and this could be a great idea for a dramatic movie as well, considering the complexity of office politics. For the most part, this movie could be considered an opportunity lost because although the idea behind this film is great, the screenplay and ultimately the movie missed too many opportunities to be funny enough to make the entire premise work for the whole two hours. There are many famous actors in this movie, along with Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, Jennifer Aniston, T.J. Miller and most importantly Kate McKinnon, who in my opinion completely steals this movie.

Kate McKinnon is one of those rare comedic talents that comes around once every 25 or so years. Currently, McKinnon is saving Saturday Night Live as the most talented performer on that show, but she has still not found a movie where she could be the star to showcase her many comedic talents. McKinnon is so naturally comedically talented that she can get away with saying or doing nothing in any scene because of her eyes. She is one of the very few television or movie actors in the last 50 years who can make you laugh just because of her funny eyes. Johnny Carson has this rare ability, so did John Candy as does Will Farrell and even Chelsea Handler. This ability to make people laugh just from one subtle look is extremely rare and should be celebrated by everyone who appreciates what is truly funny. There are several scenes in this movie where McKinnon either steals or rescues a moment that would not have worked without her talents. Unfortunately, her presence was not enough to save this movie as I only give it a very marginal recommendation. I liked the technical thread of the internet company, which was inherited by Jennifer Aniston and T.J. Miller and how it tied into the insane ending, but other than that, the movie was not original enough or funny enough to give it any more than a marginal thumbs up, that I only give this film because of McKinnon.