This year's nominees:
1 Nomination
- International Film: Argentina (Wild Tales, The Secret in Their Eyes, The Son of the Bride, Tango, The Official Story, Camila, Truce)
Director: Santiago Mitre
Cast: Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Santiago Armas Estevarena, Alejandra Flechner, Gina Mastronicola, Jorge Varas, Laura Paredes
I was into this. I know it's mostly a procedural courtroom type thing, but I didn't mind. I liked it a lot. It felt exciting to me to learn this much about fascism and the guerra sucia in Argentina. I knew a lot about it already, but this was satisfying in lots of ways, and I thought it was very well acted. Unlike many of the international nominees, this film is on Amazon Prime, and so it is easily accessible. I will say I am a bit surprised that this got nominated over the many other possibilities that were submitted by various countries – especially Mexico's Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Venezuela's The Box, and France's Saint Omer. It's good, but all of those are better. Still, it's a fair choice, and the Academy loves Ricardo Darín.
Will Win: N/A
Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #24 out of 67
1 Nomination
- International Film: Poland (Corpus Christi, Cold War, Ida, In Darkness, Katyń, Man of Iron, The Young Girls of Wilko, Nights and Days, The Deluge, Promised Land, Pharaoh, Knife in the Water)
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Cast: Sandra Drzymalska, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Lorenzo Zurzulo, Isabelle Huppert, Andrzej Szeremeta
This was my favorite movie of the year. I've written about it already here, so I won't say too much more about it, but it really blew me away. I think my favorite part of how this film works is the way that it asks us to think about things from the perspective of the non-human... and that the film tries to do this cinematically and not just narratively. This isn't Homeward Bound or something like that. This is a film that treats the world as a violent, awesome place but that also asks what the role of animals is in this world that we have made. It's an awesome film, and I love it. It's now streaming exclusively on the Criterion Channel.
1 Nomination
- International Film: Ireland
Director: Colm Bairéad
Cast: Catherine Clinch, Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Michael Patric, Kate Nic Chonaonaigh, Joan Sheehy, Tara Faughnan, Neans Nic Dhonncha, Carolyn Bracken
This movie is not playing anywhere near me, and I have no way to see it. I am very annoyed about this. Somehow I have managed to see eleven of the ninety-three films submitted in the International Feature category, and yet this film that made the shortlist and then got lucky enough to be nominated is only playing in a few select cities. This is especially dumb because right now is the time when interest has to be the highest for this film. It should be in way more cities. Once Oscar night rolls around on March 12, no one is going to care about this movie. (This happened last year, for example to Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom). All that to say, I have no idea if this movie is good or not. It is the only one of the nominees that I won't be able to see before Oscar Sunday. I'm salty, obviously.
Will Win: N/A
This movie is not playing anywhere near me, and I have no way to see it. I am very annoyed about this. Somehow I have managed to see eleven of the ninety-three films submitted in the International Feature category, and yet this film that made the shortlist and then got lucky enough to be nominated is only playing in a few select cities. This is especially dumb because right now is the time when interest has to be the highest for this film. It should be in way more cities. Once Oscar night rolls around on March 12, no one is going to care about this movie. (This happened last year, for example to Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom). All that to say, I have no idea if this movie is good or not. It is the only one of the nominees that I won't be able to see before Oscar Sunday. I'm salty, obviously.
Will Win: N/A
Could Win: N/A
My Rating: Unranked
Close
1 Nomination
- International Film: Belgium (The Broken Circle Breakdown, Bullhead, Everybody's Famous, Farinelli: il Castrato, Daens, The Music Teacher, Paix sur les Champs)
Director: Lukas Dhont
Cast: Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele, Émilie Dequenne, Léa Drucker, Kevin Janssens, Igor van Dessel, Marc Weiss, Léon Bataille
I had a feeling from the trailer that this was going to be one of my favorite films of the year, and I waited and waited and waited for it to be in a theatre near me. When it finally got here I made sure to go to the movie by myself because I knew I was going to be a sobbing mess. All of my predictions were right, although I didn't actually know what this movie was going to be about, and how it works is actually rather surprising. Close is about two boys who are like brothers, physically close and intimate with one another in the most beautiful, extraordinarily loving way. They're both beautifully acted, too, and so you fall in love with them as an audience... and you fall in love with their relationship. We see them first in the sort of edenic throes of their affection, and then the two go off to school. What they meet there is homophobia, suspicion, and hostility: the school is a place of hostile masculinity and demands that they account for their relationship. They are bullied as sissies and weaklings, and the movie studies the boys and their responses to this very closely. I will say no more about this movie, but it absolutely broke my heart, and, like Lukas Dhont's last movie, this one is a finely crafted portrait of young people dealing with emotions for which they have few words and even fewer coping mechanisms. Close carefully sets up its scenario, and it's deeply felt and wonderfully humane.
More posts coming soon:
7. Animated Features
8. Animated Shorts
9. Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Empire of Light, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, RRR, and Tell It like a Woman
I'd love it if you checked out my new book Love Is Love Is Love – out March 24!
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