So here we are at the third annual Crammy Awards and I’m your host, yet again, Cameron Black, aka The Blog Complainer. This year’s Crammys will be very different to the two previous years, as there will be no nominees for the categories (which is why there was no nomination post this year), but rather just a winner and the reason why. I did this because I want to usher in some new categories that will highlight specific moments, performances and scenes in films and shows. Deep down in my subconscious I know the main reason why I got rid of having nominees, is because it’s a tedious task to think of 5 possible winners for 20 different awards. I’ve back at Uni now, I don’t need this in back of my mind for another year.
One final note is like last year all the awards will be hidden under a little dropdown box, but what’s different is in order to explain some of these awards I’m going to have to spoil some things. You’ll still be able to see what won, but in case you don’t want a particular movie or show spoiled, there will be a little warning ahead of time.
The Crammy TV Awards
Our first award was kind of tough. A fair amount of the shows I watched last year had pretty strong openers. In order to root out a winner, I based this award on the show that had the most memorable first episode and was able to have me hooked within that episode.
The opening of Squid Game is so good, that the rest of the series really struggled to live up to it. The first episode focuses almost entirely on Gi-Hun, our protagonist, and ultimate relatable, down on his luck, underdog. There is the memorable scene in the subway that is a very obvious metaphor for the whole show. Finally let’s not forget about the first of the six games, it’s in the episode title and it was bloody brutal, and that was the hook that got me to check out the rest of the season.
A hard one because pretty much all of the shows I watched had some of the worst conclusions for a season I’ve ever seen, however by the end of the year I did find one series that not only really impressed me, but actually excited me enough to want to see more.
I watched Invincible about three months ago and it was pretty good for the most part until the last two episodes that were absolutely amazing. It’s all got to do with Ommi-Man, Invincible’s dad and easily the most brutal and cruelest take I’ve seen on the evil Superman trope. My feelings of the first season finale can be summed up with hopelessness and revulsion. The whole episode has Ommi-Man beating the ever hell out of his son, in order to get the message across how their race is. Meanwhile thousands of people are killed during this battle, in the most horrible gruesome manner ever, which is the most sickening thing I’ve ever seen in a superhero property. (That moment on the train is never going to leave me.) I do love the episode and appreciate it ends with a glimmer of hope, but I would never watch it again, because of how traumatising it was.
I almost went with any of the opening theme homages from WandaVision, but then I thought there is only one song from that show that I happily listen to on repeat, and it wasn’t an opening song to the show. This one was kind of hard because most shows don’t really have an opening theme anymore, but I ended up going with the theme from Loki, because of how the music suggests mystery with the flashing letters nicely setting the tone for the first two episodes. It had a lot of Black Mirror vibes, which is why I enjoy it and it’s one of the few things I liked about that show.
Most of Squid Game’s flack comes from it’s one note, cliched villains, which I mostly agree with. Player 212 would be my favourite as she was unpredictable and a real low life who did whatever she could to find someone who could help her stay in the games as long as possible. The actress Kim Joo-Ryong played the character really well, as she proved to be an outlook for me while I was still trying to get into the show and trying to get attached to more serious characters.
I felt like I had to throw a bone to Cobra Kai at some point, because it’s not really good enough for the any of the other awards. As I’ve stated in the past, Johnny Lawrence makes Cobra Kai, the show wouldn’t work without William Zabka and the writing that goes into making him the funniest and standout character on the show. I’ve yet to get around to seeing season 4 of Cobra Kai to know if they mess him up or not, but with season 3 where the show took a real dip, Johnny Lawrence carried that show.
I couldn’t really think of another supporting TV role that messed with some of the other awards, so I ended up going with Kathryn Hahn’s performance from WandaVision, the nosey neighbour, who the show stupidly turned into the main villain, because who can imagine a Disney+ show where the main character was the villain, because I can’t. Hahn really hams up her role before the reveal and even continues to be a fun presence once her true intentions are on display.
I couldn’t help myself, I needed to give more praise to Ommi-Man, but now I can talk about JK Simmons excellent portrayal of the character. JK Simmons was already great as the father/mentor for our main hero, but when he went evil, that’s when it gets real! Thanks to Whiplash I knew he had scariness down pat, but adding the evil Superman role on top of that, makes him extra terrifying. It was a winning formula in my books, which has resulted in the best villain of 2020’s thus far.
It feels like a distant memory when WandaVision was the only Marvel Disney+ show, and if you haven’t already noticed the recurring trend, it was the best one. The show was carried by it’s unique premise and the two leading performances from Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda and Paul Bettany as Vision. They really work well together either when they’re in the pretend sitcom or when they’re butting heads off camera, there was no denying that they made the show. Especially in the middle episodes where Wanda falls more and more into her own fantasies and Vision debating her mental state and his own existence.
A hard one to nail down, without repeating myself, so I ended up going with the second game or the cookie game from the third episode that embodies everything I liked about this show. I guess it could be debated that this isn’t a scene rather a sequence, but since this is my award show, I’m giving it a pass. The debating of what the next game will be, backstabbing your best friend so he has less of a chance to survive, and seeing all the dead bodies of the people who failed the challenge makes this solid TV viewing. While it was hard to be really concerned for any of the main characters lives being endangered, only because there are over 200 expendable contestants still left in the game, but the tension this scene creates is enough to overlook that while watching.
Now for the final TV award, and I bet you’re all going to love this one.
I watched just under 10 shows last year (for someone who finds it hard to get into TV shows, this is pretty good for me), but none of them hit my criteria for the best show of 2021, as they all had problems. The one show that was closest to being consistently engaging and entertaining would be the Disney+ show, Only Murders in the Building. This show didn’t win any of the other awards, because it’s more of a light comedy and the only real drama comes from the big cliffhangers at the end of every episode. It was a fun little murder mystery topped off with the great chemistry between Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selina Gomez.
The opening to James Gunn’s Suicide Squad is quite a marvel, and is a real surprise it’s from the same company that made the 2016 Suicide Squad. It nicely sets up this team of likable rogues, before sending them all off to a battlefield to be completely massacred. It’s fun, comedically dark and it builds up the stakes for the main team of criminals that we’ll be following for the rest of the movie.
The ending to The Last Duel would easily be the most tense final showdown of last year. The whole film is setting up to this point where two men fight for the fate of one woman’s life, despite the fact they’re really doing this for themselves. Matt Damon’s character is fighting for his honour, while Adam Driver’s character is fighting to justify ever having lustful desires for Jodie Comer’s Marguerite. It’s really hard to tell how this ends, but Ridley Scott makes the point very clear in the closing minutes of The Last Duel that Marguerite loses regardless of the outcome, as she’s still a woman trapped in the backwards world of 1300’s.
I know I said in the past that Surface Pressure was my favourite song from Encanto, but We Don’t Talk About Bruno has really grown on me in the last month, and is the one I frequently listen to. I understand why it’s number one on The American Billboard Hot 100 and why people were upset Disney didn’t put it up for an Academy Award. The song has a lot of variety because it will change gears to fit a character’s personality depending on who is singing at the moment. The recurring theme of this one guy representing of all the misery and shame hiding within this family, which explains why (no pun intended), they should never talk about Bruno, because bad things will follow and Mirabel only learns this at the end of the number, when she sees his final prophecy. I also like how it’s framed like a traditional Disney Villain song, which is flipped on it’s head when we actually meet Bruno, adding another on future rewatches. I pretty much convinced myself this is my new favourite song, but I don’t know Surface Pressure is just more catchy, while I view We Don’t Talk About Bruno more as the better made song.
I only included this choice, because this movie flew under the radar and only those who have seen it know how great Caleb Landry Jones was in it. This is one of the best portrayals of someone who is mentally disturbed that I’ve seen. Jones isn’t playing Nitram, he is him, he is someone who looks like a lost soul, that you want to help out, while also not wanting to get know too well because he kind of scares you. The whole film is building towards the inevitable moment where he finally snaps and does something truly unspeakable!
I admit I chose Ben Affleck’s performance from The Last Duel in reaction to the baffling decision of the Razzies to choose him for Worst Supporting Actor, along the lines of Jared Leto’s sort of laughably bad Italian job from House of Gucci. Plus The Last Duel is a solid movie and deserves more love, which this award show is going to give. Back to Affleck, who is really fun at playing this smug jerk lord, who keeps Adam Driver away from facing any rape charges, because they’re good drinking buddies, they share women together and he’s not some honour bound complainer like Matt Damon. I did not expect him to play a role this good, and now I want to see him do more stuff like this.
Kind of like the last award, I didn’t expect this performance to be as good as it is, but when you have Willem Dafoe in your movie, you should expect nothing else. Dafoe is fantastic as he easily just fades back into the dual role he played almost 20 years ago of Norman Osborn and The Green Goblin. He can be sympathetic, threatening and he easily steals the movie whenever they focus on him and ignore the parodies of the villains from previous Spider-Man films.
This was an easy win as I’ve stated in the past it’s a career defining performance for Anthony Hopkins, as the elderly man with some seriously bad dementia. A very tragic movie that is carried along thanks a leading performance and the great writing in the film, that can kind of do your head on the first and the rewatches afterwards.
Not too much Pixar love this year, luckily this category exists so we can just focus on what Luca does best and that is have convincing likable kid characters. You got the two fish boys who want a life of adventure on the surface and then you add the young girl who tells them how to win their dream moped, and it’s just these characters having fun interactions, accompanied by the solid acting and writing.
I only just remembered that before The Suicide Squad, Zack Snyder’s Justice League was my favourite DCEU film. This is mainly thanks to how well the heroes and the main villain were handled. Out of all the superhero movies of last year, Snyder’s Justice League easily had the most emotionally involving epic CGI final battle, as it did such a good job at making me care for the characters. The big standout moment of which is when the League are defeated and they bring back that The Flash can run so fast that he can travel back in time, which he uses in order to save the world. Plus afterwards where the League send Steppenwolf’s corpse hurtling back to his master is so brutal, but satisfying. Then the final stare down with the League and Darkseid is the icing on the cake to this end this awesome scene.
Finally the last award. I went with Best Directed Film for my finale, because I didn’t want to rehash the best film again, which can already be seen in the best movies of 2021 list. It might not be the grandest finale ever, but when you’re changing things up, you’ll learn to refine things later.
I did not choose Dune just because Denis Villeneuve was snubbed by the Oscars for Best Director. I have been writing this for at least a week before the Oscar nominations came out, and this is just a fun coincidence. Villeneuve’s directing was what I was expecting to love before watching it thanks to his previous works Sicario and Blade Runner 2049. It’s got amazing cinematography and CGI that doesn’t look terrible. Then you have the slow epic rich story, even though it’s incomplete, but how Villeneuve brings the world of Dune to life, is what makes you want to see more of it.
How about that the end of another Crammys. Hopefully my next post doesn’t take a month to create. Thanks for your patience and I have been The Blog Complainer, signing out.
