2022 Oscar Nominations Breakdown

Note from 3/29: The Academy Awards have now come and gone, and many of the following predictions are embarrassingly wrong. Please direct all ridicule to the comments. Now on to the original article!

The time is upon us again! Film Twitter has been engaged in some civil (and some uncouth) discourse throughout the day, as the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards were announced today!

The ceremony is being held later than usual this year so as to avoid attention conflicts with the Olympics, which end February 20. The Oscars ceremony will be held March 27, which will make it one of the latest Oscars shows (behind last year’s, held April 25). I will be watching live, but we have a little under two months before the actual show — so let’s make our predictions now, shall we! In this article, I’ll also discuss what I believe should have been nominated that wasn’t (and vice versa), with some commentary in between!

Review: “West Side Story” Razzle Dazzles the Remake Landscape

Just when you thought remaking a classic couldn’t make it any better, here comes Steven Spielberg, one of the greatest directors of all time, adapting one of the greatest stories of all time — yep, it’s Romeo & Juliet on the streets once again with a “reimagining” of West Side Story.

“Reimagining” is in quotes here because there’s not many ways that Spielberg’s West Side Story deviates from the 1961 film. It follows the same track, most of the scenes are recreations (albeit with much more flair and welcome splashes of color), but the differences that are there admittedly serve the story better. 1961’s West Side Story isn’t a nostalgic favorite of mine, but I can recognize why it’s regarded as a classic and why it’s looked back on as one of the greatest musical films ever made.

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 3: Licorice Pizza, West Side Story, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Encounter

 

Does Licorice Pizza live up to the film bro hype and secrecy, and does Diary of a Wimpy Kid rekindle our nostalgia in a positive way? And what the hell is Encounter, a new film from Amazon Prime? In the latest episode of The Lenient Critic Podcast, Jesse Garra joins Rowan to review four of the latest films, and preview four that we will see in the coming weeks! They also break down their top five children’s book adaptations and talk about what they’ve been watching recently.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

And, if you’ve seen Encounter, here’s a bonus episode where we discuss it in detail!