Items filtered by date: Wednesday, 23 January 2019

This year’s Oscar nominations are locked in. As someone who worked on and off in film, video and TV production for 20+ years and has “starred” five thousand movies on Netflix, I usually have plenty to bemoan about after reading said nominations. This year surprises me. This year I’m more like, “Yeah, I guess that mostly looks okay to me and my snotty ass opinion.” Although, I must say that it is certainly an odd choice (at least, so far) to go without a host this year. We’ll see how well that goes. Hopefully, better than the last time the Oscars went without a host (back in 1989.)

This year (like every other year) offers a series of fun “firsts.” As in, first time a superhero movie has been nominated for Best Picture (Black Panther), first time Spike Lee has been nominated for Best Director (BlacKkKlansman), first time Sam Elliott received an Academy Award nomination for acting (A Star is Born).

It’s that last one that made me actually go, “Wait. What? Really?”

Yes, really! After 50 years in the industry and having acted in about 100 films and TV shows we will now see the (kind of annoying) Academy Award Nominee (or, probably - winner) moniker in front of Sam Elliott’s name, too. I really do love him as an actor. And I love him even more for the fact that, when Elliott first learned of his nomination he jokingly said, “It’s about fucking time.”

Indeed it is. (And he’s probably going to win).

All that interesting stuff being said, it really does seem like a typical Oscar year with some obvious front runners. A Star is Born is going to win a lot when the awards should probably go to Roma. Although, in terms of A Star is Born, which I liked just fine (but do NOT buy the ending, like - at all!), how a movie can have three best actor nominations, a best screenplay nomination AND be nominated for Best Picture without having a Best Directing nod is, frankly, absurd.

But, whatever. It’s not like they need to check with my snotty ass opinion before they make their list of potential nominees. (But, they totally should).

Aside from that, I’m really hoping that “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” pulls out a win against the (Pretty Much Always The Winner!) Pixar film. If you have not yet seen the new animated Spider-Man flick, you should. It really is a charming and delightful “for the entire family,” kind of movie.

Oh yeah, and another first - First Time Meryl Streep has NOT been nominated for Best Actress. (Okay, that’s not actually true, but still - you all know what I’m talking about).

But, for the record, Trump is wrong. She is NOT way overrated. She’s, bloody, great! And she probably should have like, ten Oscars by now. But whatever, Again, they don’t ask for my opinion.

But, again - they totally should. =)

Full list of this years nominations:

Best Picture

“Black Panther”

“BlacKkKlansman”

“Bohemian Rhapsody”

“The Favourite”

“Green Book”

“Roma”

“A Star Is Born”

“Vice”

Lead Actor

Christian Bale, “Vice”

Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”

Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”

Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”

Lead 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?”

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”

Supporting Actress:

Amy Adams, “Vice”

Marina de Tavira, “Roma”

Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”

Emma Stone, “The Favourite”

Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

Director:

Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”

Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”

Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”

Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma”

Adam McKay, “Vice”

Animated Feature:

“Incredibles 2,” Brad Bird

“Isle of Dogs,” Wes Anderson

“Mirai,” Mamoru Hosoda

“Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Rich Moore, Phil Johnston

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Animated Short:

“Animal Behaviour,” Alison Snowden, David Fine

“Bao,” Domee Shi

“Late Afternoon,” Louise Bagnall

“One Small Step,” Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas

“Weekends,” Trevor Jimenez

Adapted Screenplay:

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel Coen , Ethan Coen

“BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee

“Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty

“If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins

“A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters

Original Screenplay:

“The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara

“First Reformed,” Paul Schrader

“Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly

“Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón

“Vice,” Adam McKay

Cinematography:

“Cold War,” Lukasz Zal

“The Favourite,” Robbie Ryan

“Never Look Away,” Caleb Deschanel

“Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón

“A Star Is Born,” Matthew Libatique

Best Documentary Feature:

“Free Solo,” Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

“Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross

“Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu

“Of Fathers and Sons,” Talal Derki

“RBG,” Betsy West, Julie Cohen

Best Documentary Short Subject:

“Black Sheep,” Ed Perkins

“End Game,” Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

“Lifeboat,” Skye Fitzgerald

“A Night at the Garden,” Marshall Curry

“Period. End of Sentence.,” Rayka Zehtabchi

Best Live Action Short Film:

“Detainment,” Vincent Lambe

“Fauve,” Jeremy Comte

“Marguerite,” Marianne Farley

“Mother,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen

“Skin,” Guy Nattiv

Best Foreign Language Film:

“Capernaum” (Lebanon)

“Cold War” (Poland)

“Never Look Away” (Germany)

“Roma” (Mexico)

“Shoplifters” (Japan)

Film Editing:

“BlacKkKlansman,” Barry Alexander Brown

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Ottman

“Green Book,” Patrick J. Don Vito

“The Favourite,” Yorgos Mavropsaridis

“Vice,” Hank Corwin

Sound Editing:

“Black Panther,” Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Warhurst

“First Man,” Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan

“A Quiet Place,” Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl

“Roma,” Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay

Sound Mixing:

“Black Panther”

“Bohemian Rhapsody”

“First Man”

“Roma”

“A Star Is Born”

Production Design:

“Black Panther,” Hannah Beachler

“First Man,” Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas

“The Favourite,” Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton

“Mary Poppins Returns,” John Myhre, Gordon Sim

“Roma,” Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez

Original Score:

“BlacKkKlansman,” Terence Blanchard

“Black Panther,” Ludwig Goransson

“If Beale Street Could Talk,” Nicholas Britell

“Isle of Dogs,” Alexandre Desplat

“Mary Poppins Returns,” Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman

Original Song:

“All The Stars” from “Black Panther” by Kendrick Lamar, SZA

“I’ll Fight” from “RBG” by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson

“The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns” by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman

“Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice

“When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch

Makeup and Hair:

“Border”

“Mary Queen of Scots”

“Vice”

Costume Design:

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Mary Zophres

“Black Panther,” Ruth E. Carter

“The Favourite,” Sandy Powell

“Mary Poppins Returns,” Sandy Powell

“Mary Queen of Scots,” Alexandra Byrne

Visual Effects:

“Avengers: Infinity War”

“Christopher Robin”

“First Man”

“Ready Player One”

“Solo: A Star Wars Story”

Do you remember in elementary school or in high school when there were mean and unruly kids who were constantly bullying students into submission because they did not go along with them and their rebellious ways? Everyone knew that these bullies were wrong, and yet, within themselves, they were always anticipating when that bully was going to get his (Psalm 94:16).  Of course, for some reason or another, that bully getting his was not going to be from their hands.

We see these same bullies in government and media today.

I have a question for you, where did Diane Feinstein and friends in government who are now quietly introducing a major gun bill derive their delegated authorities?  We know it is not coming from the American people that they are to receive their delegations (1 Kings 13:33)?

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” -Declaration of Independence

Her co-conspirator in subversive and lawless activity, Nancy Pelosi, also said recently that they “will act boldly and decisively” on guns.  I ask, where did she derive delegated authority from “We the people” to enact that which is unlawful? She didn’t! And neither did Diane Feinstein or any other anti-gunner.  Then to whom are they working for?

Today, the American people are being terrorized and are clearly being assailed by a power that is foreign to America and the US Constitution through feigned representation and feigned policy disguised as law.

Attack after attack, coming from those who are there to “ensure your God-given rights.”

In countering these criminals, let’s go to the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights where it states:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Our forefathers made clear the very purpose of the 2nd Amendment and the militia.

“Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American. … [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.” – TencheCoxe, Delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.

John Adams:

“Arms in the hands of the citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense.”

Thomas Jefferson:

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

George Mason:

“When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually…

“The people have a Right to mass and to bear arms; that a well Regulated militia composed of the Body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper natural and safe defense of a free State. …”

He goes on,

“I ask, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people. …”

Friends, our forefathers did not arm the American people for the purpose of hunting, but rather to protect themselves from those who were doing the hunting: namely in their time, the tyrant King George.

Look to the present and how these outlaws are attacking your God-given rights to bear arms through their purposed, misconstrued misinterpretations and policies.

They are attempting to strip away your ability to protect you and your family from people such as themselves (Luke 11:21), and if you dare refuse to submit to their tyrannical ways, they then label you as an enemy of the state, when in fact, they are the ones guilty of transgressing constitutional law (1 Kings 18:18).

When pursuing the Declaration of Independence this last week, I recollected that it was our forefathers who were throwing off tyrants that would not be ruled by God. As a matter of fact, three-fourths of that documentation is our forefathers highlighting the usurpations and injuries committed against them by one that was attempting to further enslave them.

"To disarm the people...was the best & most effectual way to enslave them." -George Mason, Father of the Bill of Rights

Look at some of the sentences found in our Declaration:

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

How foreign this is to the average American today, which of course, helps explain why Americans tolerate tyrants in government capacity in all forms (John 8:44).

Doing that which is right and lawful when it comes to today’s politicians is as foreign to them as it was the tyrant King George and his subordinates (Psalm 94:20, Romans 12:21). As a matter of fact, our founding documents fly in the face of (Expose-Luke 12:21), stand in direct contrast in much of what has and is taking place in American government today.

In short, these criminals mean to steal away what your forefathers and veterans have fought bled and died to give Americans on the behalf of their sacrifices (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Our forefathers set forth an example for their posterity to learn from, and their example was clear in exhibition tolerance for tyranny nowhere at no time (Hebrews 13:7). Do you remember friends that during the writing and establishing of our foundations as a nation that there was a revolutionary war going on, so they understood the price being paid for their freedoms.

The US Constitution preamble states:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice (Jeremiah 9:24), insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Note: A message to those who act on the behalf of those who are violating Americans and their God-given rights need to understand that when they do so, they are no longer law enforcement, but have now become agents of the state. Remember, tyrants cannot do what tyrants do without someone doing it for them. Don’t play the fool.

Remember, America's God-given rights must be fought for because if not, it merely means that they have been forfeited (1 Timothy 6:12). 

“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” – Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788

Either the American people are going to throw off tyranny within, or the tyrants will throw off their rights.

One must remember as well that these are the same criminal politicians attempting to disarm you that are in fact alluring illegals into this country while Americans suffer their abuse. Government is an extension and a reflection of "We the People" and this is a reflection that does not look American in any sense of the word. They are pushing Americans and their backs to the wall friends, and in the end, inciting a response. Americans must connect with each other and begin to look out for each other against them that have set themselves against the United States Constitution. It is for the American people to draw the line in the sand and resist tyranny at every step, for it is clear as that we once again are dealing with, tyrants here in our homeland.

In closing…

Back to the time when bullies finally figured out that the people were no longer going to take their authoritative rebellious and oppressive methods... No, wait a second, I will let Flick give you a powerful lesson from a movie back in 1998 called “A Bug's Life” (Matthew 18:3).

Bradlee Dean is a guest contributor to GCN news. His views and opinions are his own and do not reflect the views and opinions of the Genesis Communication Network. Bradlee's radio program, The Sons of Liberty, broadcasts live M - Sat here at GCN. This op-ed was originally published by Sons of Liberty Media at www.sonsoflibertyradio.com. Reprinted with permission.