Oscar Nominations 2022: 3 of 9

This year's nominees:

Avatar: the Way of Water

4 Nominations

• Picture
• Production Design: Dylan Cole, Vanessa Cole & Ben Procter
• Sound
• Visual Effects

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Britain Dalton, Jack Champion, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Bailey Bass, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Joel David Moore, Edie Falco, CCH Pounder

I expected to love this, and... I loved it. It's visually stunning, and it's a superb action movie that frequently feels just like you're on an enormous ride. I had a great time. The double fight sequence at the film's end is completely excellent. I think the movie thinks it is getting to important questions of meaning and deep themes, but actually Avatar just needs to be enjoyed on the level of pleasurable visual spectacle. I don't think any movie this year can top Avatar for that. It's just extraordinary. I'm also currently obsessed with Polynesia, and when I watched this I had just finished the book Sea People; I loved the way the film made the new Na'vi we met into a riff on Polynesian societies, with tattooing and a different relationship with the water. And then they cast one of my favorite actors, Cliff Curtis, as the Polynesian Na'vi chief? Great move. Oh one other thing I loved. I was super into the way the movie treated the whale-adjacent creatures as persons, referring to the Kate Winslet character's friend as a composer and talking about how much she wanted a child. I do not understand how Britain Dalton's character began understanding the whale-language instantly, but hey, not all of it has to make sense.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects

My Rating: #9 out of 63

Triangle of Sadness

3 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Ruben Östlund
• Original Screenplay: Ruben Östlund

Director: Östlund

Cast: Charlbi Dean, Harris Dickinson, Dolly De Leon, Woody Harrelson, Vicky Berlin, Zlatko Burić, Arvin Kananian, Sunnyi Melles, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies

I know lots of people loved Triangle of Sadness, and I wanted to love it. I love Ruben Östlund's other movies, and his brand of satire and sincerity makes great sense to me. This movie is divided into three parts. Part one is great, and part two is better than great. It's absolutely hilarious, and it's so intensely outrageous that I was laughing out loud, nearly in tears in the theatre and completely enjoying myself. But then act three happens. In this part of the film, a bunch of rich folks are stranded on a deserted island and they expect a cleaning woman from their yacht to work for them by catching food for them and helping them survive even though they are themselves useless/helpless. This is a funny conceit, and it's made all the more enjoyable because of brilliant acting by Dolly De Leon and Harris Dickinson. This even has the added element of sexual politics with Dickinson trading sexual favors for other favors. But the trouble with this act is that it's the plot of Lina Wertmüller's 1974 film Travolti da un Insolito Destino nell'Azzurro Mare d'Agosto (Swept Away), which starred Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. Original screenplay? I've literally seen the whole thing before. Indeed, Wertmüller's movie was remade in 2002 by Guy Ritchie with Madonna and Adriano Giannini (Giancarlo's son). I know that if I hadn't already seen this movie I would have liked it more, but I have seen it, so Triangle of Sadness fell flat for me.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #44 out of 63

The Whale

3 Nominations

• Actor: Brendan Fraser
• Supporting Actress: Hong Chau
• Make-up & Hairstyling

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Cast: Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton, Sathya Sridharan

I have already written out most of my feelings about Darren Aronofsky's film. I won't repeat much of that here, but I will say that I hated this movie; it's the worst movie I saw in 2022 (so far). However, I am delighted for Brendan Fraser, and I won't be at all mad to see him win this Oscar. He's great, and he's had a lot of gaps in his wonderful career, so I'm very glad to see him back in the spotlight and hopefully getting more work. It's weird that it has to be in this enormous fat suit and for this stupid movie, but what can you do? I also think this movie will win for best make-up: the fat suit actually was the most realistic thing in this intensely unrealistic film, to my mind, so giving it an Oscar makes sense to me.
Will Win: Actor, Make-up & Hairstyling

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #63 out of 63

Babylon

3 Nominations

• Production Design: Anthony Carlino & Florencia Martin
• Score: Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)
• Costume Design: Mary Zophres (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, La La Land, True Grit)

Director: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jovan Adepo, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li, Lukas Haas, Max Minghella, Olivia Hamilton, Eric Roberts, Katherine Waterston, Olivia Wilde, Ethan Suplee

This is a very good movie, at least for most of its running time. For its first two acts I was having a great time. I say first two acts, but one does wonder how many acts this movie had. It really was far too long of a film, and I think it might have done a lot better with the Academy if it had been shorter – even by forty minutes or so. This movie begins with a party, and the entire thing is wild and fast-moving, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Having Brad Pitt at the film's center during this part of the movie makes things so much easier. Watching him, I just sort of relax. Like, I know he's going to be great and he's going to keep this movie working perfectly. Then we're making movies on two different sets simultaneously before sound pictures, and the whole thing is pleasurable, like really just fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants fun. Somewhere in act two we descend into the bowels of hell, though, and the film really takes a perverse turn. I rather liked this part too, actually, but it did bring things down quite a bit, perhaps too far for Chazelle ever to be able to bring us back up from it. For the film's final section, we jump ahead to 1952 and sit in a theatre and watch Singin' in the Rain with Diego Calva. This is where the film really lost me. The character cries because he remembers the people he made movies with, but the film we're watching has proved what Jean Smart's character said to Brad Pitt's. The town doesn't care about you. They remember you by transforming your pain into something else, writing songs for other actors to sing, and forgetting everything you went through so that instead of remembering they can think about the new stars, the new costumes, the new audiences, the new dollars they can rake in. For me, the ending of this film is coldly cynical, and yet Chazelle asks us to feel very different, satisfied, exultant emotions. This section didn't sit right with me, but Babylon is still a really good movie.

Will Win: Score

Could Win: Production Design
My Rating: #15 out of 63

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Elvis

2. The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

More posts coming soon:

4. The Batman, Women Talking, Living, and Aftersun
5. Blonde, To Leslie, Glass Onion, and Causeway
6. Argentina, 1985, Close, Eo, and The Quiet Girl
7. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Pinocchio, Puss in Boots: the Last Wish, Turning Red, and The Sea Beast
8. Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Empire of Light, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, RRR, and Tell It like a Woman

Check out my new book Love Is Love Is Love – out March 24!