Warning: The following consists of unreliable Oscar night guesswork and raw, untrammeled favoritism.
But first! Give it up for the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday! They’re only one year older than the priceless James Hong, my fellow University of Minnesota alum and one of the greatest character actors we have in this universe. Though Hong was not nominated (mistake!) for this year’s likely best-picture front-runner “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” he’s a crucial player — and a welcome master of steely comic calm — in that film’s tale of one beleaguered family, a troubled mother-daughter relationship and an infinite array of realities.
Stats first. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has won nearly everything it can up to now, notably the Directors Guild Award, the Producers Guild Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award. As noted by Los Angeles Times Oscarmeister Glenn Whipp: Across the last eight out of nine years, if a film swept the guild trifecta, it went on to win best picture on Oscar night.
