Oscar Nominations 2022: 4 of 9

This year's nominees:

The Batman

3 Nominations

• Sound
• Visual Effects
• Make-up & Hairstyling

Director: Matt Reeves

Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Paul Dano, Andy Serkis, Peter Sarsgaard, Jayme Lawson, Barry Keoghan 

This movie was visually very cool, and I love me some Robert Pattinson. I must confess that this film was too long, but it looked interesting the whole time: cool lighting, intriguing sound design, great score. I was interested, too, in the sort of anti-Joker turn it took, where the villain became a terrifying army of people who idolize people like the Joker. For me the Catwoman character really didn't work as a plotline with any interest – or maybe I find Zoë Kravitz boring, who's to say? As for the Colin Farrell of it all? It's sort of mindblowing that he played Oswald Cobblepot in this. He's completely unrecognizable. Anyway, this is a slick bit of business. It's been a very long time since I've seen it, but it's good. I don't think it'll take home any trophies, but maybe the Academy will like the (far superior) make-up of this film over The Whale's prosthetics.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Make-up & Hairstyling

My Rating: #28 out of 65

Women Talking

2 Nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley (Away from Her)

Director: Polley

Cast: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Ben Whishaw, Michelle McLeod, Frances McDormand, Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil, August Winter

I came to this place for magic, and instead I got Women Talking. Y'all, this movie. The women talk, but they only say things you've already heard. They debate, but the terms of the debate are without any intrigue. They weigh various consequences for their actions, but none of that feels remotely real. The plot of Women Talking is apparently based on real events that happened in a Christian religious community slash cult in South America. The events have been fictionalized by novelist Miriam Toews, with the events transplanted to the United States. This transposition makes things seem very odd. It's clear that we are in 2010 – a man in a truck blares the date over a loudspeaker to make sure we catch it – but it sure doesn't look like a place in the U.S. in 2010. Well, that's because it isn't. It's a fiction invented in order to debate a question that is not a question at all. This wouldn't have bothered me really if it was designed to get me to think differently about something. But it isn't. It is designed, instead, to confirm a bunch of things I already know: the gender binary and assumptions deriving from the gender binary are harmful and deeply inequitable; violence against women and sexual violence can be profoundly traumatic; bonds between women can often be very, very strong when fighting the oppression of men; women often develop separate cultures in order to preserve their own safety, enjoy themselves, create space for themselves, and for other reasons; it is difficult to love someone who is a member of a class who oppresses you as a member of another class, and yet this is the conundrum of heterosexuality. Women Talking has all of these ideas embedded in it, but it actually doesn't interrogate any of them. It's quite a bad film, actually, and I find myself rather stunned that it snagged a best picture nomination.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #57 out of 65

Living

2 Nominations

• Actor: Bill Nighy
• Adapted Screenplay: Kazuo Ishiguro

Director: Oliver Hermanus

Cast: Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke, Barney Fishwick, Adrian Rawlins, Oliver Chris, Hubert Burton, Patsy Ferran, Lia Williams, Zoe Boyle, Jessica Flood

This is gorgeous. Bill Nighy is completely incredible – his performance is not just the kind of stuffy British thing you might be imagining; instead it's wonderfully vulnerable, simple, and beautifully nuanced. This entire film is filled with nuance, and it boasts a truly excellent performance from Aimee Lou Wood, as well. Ishiguro's screenplay is also a beautiful standout here. The film brims with the deep feeling and impossibility of speaking at which Ishiguro excels so wonderfully. He understands this period of British life with utter perfection, and I found this movie unpredictable and moving, despite the fact that it's based on Kurosawa's Ikiru. I don't think this movie will win the two Oscars for which it is nominated, but if you haven't seen this movie, I think you should. And if you love Bill Nighy in this, you should also check him out his great performance in Their Finest.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #19 out of 65

Aftersun

1 Nomination

• Actor: Paul Mescal

Director: Charlotte Wells

Cast: Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Brooklyn Toulson, Spike Fearn, Harry Perdios, Ruby Thompson

Honestly I haven't stopped thinking about this film. It's such a beautiful piece, and it explores form in a pretty wonderful way. This is a film about memory – of a woman's attempt to understand her father by remembering a vacation they took when she was a child. The entire film is filtered through her memories but not as memories, instead we see the memories through the media that help her remember and, indeed, limit what she can remember. What complicates this is that she hasn't really known her father all that well, although she has loved him intensely and still does. Her father – perfectly, beautifully played by Paul Mescal – possesses a deep, powerful sadness for which he has developed some coping mechanisms but which seems always to threaten to overwhelm him. I loved this film. Paul Mescal's nomination was a bit of a surprise: he and Andrea Riseborough and Brian Tyree Henry (more on them in the next post) and Stephanie Hsu all got surprise Oscar nominations this February, but Mescal's is perhaps the strangest of these. It's not a showy part, and he doesn't have any really big Oscar-winning moments. Instead, Mescal just lives truthfully in this character in a way that feels heartbreaking and profound. I'm so glad he got nominated.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #6 out of 65

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

3. Avatar: the Way of Water, Triangle of Sadness, The Whale, and Babylon

More posts coming soon:

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

Hey!

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