We've made it to the single-digit movies, and this is another group with one of my top films of the year in it:
2 nominations
- International Feature: Latvia (1st time nominee)
- Animated Feature
Cast: N/A
The reason that every critics group said that Flow was the best animated film of the year is because it is the best animated film of the year. It's not going to win the Oscar, and that's just absurd, honestly. This movie is wonderful. It's a deeply moving, heartwarming, scary, and also quite funny odyssey as a cat experiences an apocalypse, an apparently worldwide flood that drowns everything. But this is not an adventure film so much as it is a film about working together, living together, being together. Flow also has wonderfully spiritual sequences. It's just exquisite. As for the nomination for International Feature, this is Latvia's first nomination, which is cool, but I am surprised by this nomination. A few years ago, when this award was called "Best Foreign Language Picture", Flow would have been disqualified for having no dialogue. Apparently that rule is out with the change in award title. I'm not mad, either way, because this movie is in my top ten for the year.
Will win: N/A
Could win: Animated Feature
My rating: #8 out of 97
1 nomination
- Original Screenplay: Moritz Binder & Alex David & Tim Fehlbaum
Cast: John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Marcus Rutherford, Benjamin Walker, Georgina Rich, Zinedine Soualem, Cory Johnson, Rony Herman
This movie is tight and clever and absolutely never feels exploitative. Instead it feels really smart about the violence at its center despite the fact that this is a thriller about telling a good story via television news. I think my favorite part of this is how careful and intelligent it is. For one thing, the movie demonstrates that "terrorist" comes into being to describe these particular guerrillas in the 1970s, which is super interesting. September 5 also make the argument that this didn’t need to happen if these local Munich police had been better, if the Germans hadn’t also already attempted to commit genocide a mere thirty years prior, and if the Israeli government would have negotiated. It really puts this violence in context in a very smart way, I think. But this is also gripping drama, even though most of us probably know how it ends. The acting is really fucking fantastic too, and John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benesch are absolutely great. I was very into this.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #27 out of 97
1 nomination
- Cinematography: Edward Lachman (El Conde, Carol, Far from Heaven)
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Stephen Ashfield, Vincent Macaigne, Lydia Koniordu
I wrote in my initial thoughts on this movie, that it is overwrought and melodramatic and excessive, but that to me it seemed to get to something true after all. Everyone I've spoken to about this film, though, has found the film to be fairly bad. I kinda get it, but I didn't hate this. I love me some Angelina, and I adore Maria Callas, so I was bound to mostly like this, I guess. Ed Lachman definitely deserves his nomination here—his second in two years after not being nominated for twenty years!—and indeed the visuals really were the most stunning part of Maria.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #65 out of 97
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