Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Anticipation Grows

With the announcement yesterday of the Academy Award nominations, the countdown has officially begun for the AMC Best Picture Showcase.  This is an event I have attended more often than not in the past decade and has become a staple in my yearly happenings.  Tickets go on sale this Friday and I am looking forward to the schedule in order to see what movies are grouped together on which days, as it is a two-day event.

Some years, especially when there were only five nominees allowed, the field wasn't quite as enticing as others, but during the past few events the majority of the movies shown have been on my must-see list at one time or another.  And this year is no different.

A friend of mine who has recently started joining Joanna and I at the showcase is going to miss a film or two on one of the Saturdays due to being double-booked.  It got me to wondering what my ranking of the films is based on my anticipation.  This will no doubt end up not being the list of my favorite to least favorite of the movies as there are always surprises, both good and bad, each year.

If I had to classify the Oscar nominees in the Best Picture category in order of the most enthusiastic I am about seeing, it would probably be the following:

La La Land
Arrival
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
Moonlight
Fences
Manchester by the Sea
Hacksaw Ridge
Lion

My only disappointment is that Sully was not included in the category as I missed it in theaters.  It seems a little unconventional that as a guy I would put a musical at the top of my must-see list and the war movie near the bottom, but I love Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and I've heard nothing but great things about La La Land.

We'll see how things end up with the nine movies being ranked in order of favorite to least liked, but I can guarantee it won't look like the above.

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