Oscar Nominations 2022: 1 of 9

 Oscar nominations are here!

Every year I post about each of the films nominated for Oscars (this year there are 34 plus 10 short films). I see all of them except for the documentaries (I am just not that interested in documentary film; I'm not sure why). I will hope to be able to post about the short films, too, but I am not sure I'll be able to catch them. If I am, there will be 10 posts instead of my planned 8.

This year there is a lot for me to appreciate; most of my favorite films of the year got at least one nomination (Eo, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Banshees of Inisherin), and I actually think I approve of the Academy's choices a little more than I usually do. In addition, it's worth noting the biggest story of all for this year: sixteen of the twenty acting nominations went to first-time nominees. That's an extraordinary number; much more than usual. It's also a very diverse crop of nominees, with the acting branch, in particular, awarding a diverse slate of nominations across the films it chose to honor.

I will go film by film discussing each movie individually rather than discussing categories, beginning with the movies most beloved by the Academy this year. If the nominee has been nominated for Oscars previously, they will be listed next to their name in parentheses).

This year's nominees:

Everything Everywhere All at Once

(天馬行空)

11 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
• Actress: Michelle Yeoh
• Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
• Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan
• Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis
• Supporting Actress: Stephanie Hsu
  
• Film Editing: Paul Rogers
• Score: Son Lux
• Costume Design: Shirley Kurata
• Song: David Byrne, Ryan Lott & Mitski

Director: Kwan & Scheinert

Cast: Yeoh, Quan, Curtis, Hsu, James Hong, Hallie Medel, Harry Shum Jr, Jenny Slate

This movie is the frontrunner, and although last year's frontrunner did not win, I think this year's frontrunner will take home the big prize. Everything Everywhere is a huge crowd-pleaser, and its popularity has only grown since its nomination. It also scored eleven nominations when it was expected to get something more like seven or eight. Stephanie Hsu was a surprise here, and the nominations for Son Lux, Shirley Kurata, and the songwriting team behind "This Is a Life" were all also surprises. This is great news all around. Everything Everywhere is delightfully clever, wonderfully self-referential, and gorgeously made. It didn't hit me emotionally in the way that it seems to have connected with the generation of college students I teach, but it's great. One of the successes of this film is the way that it traffics in nostalgia and depression while also sort of managing to cope with those emotions and offering a way forward through them. I love the way, especially, the film gives us a kind of metaverse of Michelle Yeoh's wonderful career as a movie star. Also, aside from David Byrne, who won for Score in 1988, these are everyone's first nominations. It's all very exciting, and I expect this movie to win many Oscars including the big one.

Will Win: Picture, Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor

Could Win: Film Editing, Score

My Rating: #8 out of 61

The Banshees of Inisherin

9 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Martin McDonagh
• Actor: Colin Farrell
• Original Screenplay: Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, In Bruges)
• Supporting Actor: Brendan Gleeson
• Supporting Actor: Barry Keoghan
• Supporting Actress: Kerry Condon
• Film Editing: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen (Sound of Metal)
• Score: Carter Burwell (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, Carol)

Director: McDonagh

Cast: Farrell, Gleeson, Condon, Keoghan, Pat Shortt, Gary Lydon, Sheila Flitton, Jon Kenny

I loved this. It's a quiet tale of people going insane and petty violence bred of isolation, frustration, and boredom. Like all McDonagh plays and screenplays, it's very funny, but this one – unlike his usual work – takes violence very seriously. The violence in Banshees is horrifying, surprising, and never there for comic effect, even when it makes you feel very, very strange, as when Colm begins amputating his own fingers for no reason other than his own pettiness. The fact that the entire film is set during the troubles, with an extraordinary amount of violence happening on the main island, makes the entire violent spectacle of Banshees even more poignant. This film also boasts some wonderful performances, all of whom have been honored by the Academy here. For me, Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, and Kerry Condon are the standouts here, but honestly the entirety of this film feels humane and sensitive. I was very taken with it.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Actor, Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Score
My Rating: #3 out of 61

Im Westen Nichts Neues

(All Quiet on the Western Front)

9 Nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell
• International Picture: Germany (Never Look Away, Toni Erdmann, The White Ribbon, The Baader Meinhof Complex, The Lives of Others, Sophie Scholl: the Final Days, Downfall, Nowhere in Africa, Beyond Silence, Schtonk, The Nasty Girl)
• Cinematography: James Friend
• Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck & Ernestine Hipper
• Score: Volker Bertelmann
• Sound
• Visual Effects
• Make-up & Hairstyling

Director: Edward Berger

Cast: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Edin Hasanović, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Daniel Brühl, Adrian Grünewald, Thibault de Montalembert, Andreas Döhler, Devid Striesow, Sebastian Hülk, Luc Feit, Anton von Lucke

This was, I suppose, exactly what I was expecting from an adaptation of this anti-war novel. But this film blew me away. After the first five minutes I paused it and said to myself "Are you really about to put yourself through this?" I got up and fixed myself a drink and then came back and pressed play. I'd call it relentless if it weren't so perfectly calibrated in terms of its intensity. It knows exactly how much to give you at any given time, and its emotional journey is expertly directed by Edward Berger. I was emotionally drained by the end, and rightly so. This is not a film for the faint of heart. At one point it left me uncontrollably sobbing. This is an extraordinary movie. It's brutal, it's pitiless, and it places its blame squarely with the war machine and the ideology that supports it. Im Westen Nicht Neues is also gorgeously shot, and is probably the most beautifully photographed film of the year. Its extraordinarily large number of nominations for a film in the German language were a huge surprise. The last non-English film to do this well was Roma (2018).
Will Win: International Picture, Cinematography

Could Win: Adapted Screenplay

My Rating: #2 out of 61

Elvis

8 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Austin Butler
  
• Film Editing: Jonathan Redmond & Matt Villa
• Cinematography: Mandy Walker
• Production Design: Catherine Martin (The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet), Beverley Dunn (The Great Gatsby) & Karen Murphy
• Costume Design: Catherine Martin (The Great Gatsby, Australia, Moulin Rouge!)
• Sound
• Make-up & Hairstyling

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Cast: Tom Hanks, Butler, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Olivia DeJonge, Kelvin Harrison Jr., David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Dacre Montgomery, Luke Bracey, Leon Ford, Alton Mason, Yola, Gary Clark Jr.

I could not take this movie seriously. Tom Hanks' performance is insane and somehow a complete caricature. I don't understand the Austin Butler thing at all: I didn't find him at all interesting, and I didn't like this movie one bit. As always, Baz Luhrmann throws a great party, but all of his characters are cartoons, and I simply cannot relate. Elvis was not the worst movie I saw this year – it's at least trying some things, and Austin Butler gives a sort of guileless performance, but this movie was bad.

Will Win: Production Design

Could Win: Cinematography, Costume Design, Sound
My Rating: #53 out of 61

More posts coming soon:

2. The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
3. Avatar: the Way of Water, Triangle of Sadness, The Whale, and Babylon
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!