These four films each received 5 nominations. All four are nominated for Best Picture:
5 nominations
- Picture
- Director: Justine Triet
- Actress: Sandra Hüller
- Original Screenplay: Arthur Harari & Justine Triet
- Film Editing: Laurent Sénechal
Cast: Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Jehnny Beth, Samuel Theis, Camille Rutherford, Saadia Bentaïeb, Anne Rotger, Sophie Fillières
One of the best movies of the year and the winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival (there is not generally a lot of overlap between Cannes and the Oscars). This is a troubling, unsettling film with a brilliant script and superb acting all around. The Academy did very well with their screenplay nominations this year, especially, rewarding excellent adaptations and original work. The Film Editing nomination here means that this movie's position is much higher than other films with the same number of nominations. Film Editing is a category firmly linked with Best Picture. I was surprised and truly delighted by all of the love for this film on the morning of the nominations; I don't think it will win anything, but I hope this means everyone goes to see this movie.
Will win: N/A
Could win: Original Screenplay
My rating: #6 out of 72
5 nominations
- Picture
- Director: Jonathan Glazer
- Adapted Screenplay: Jonathan Glazer
- International Feature: United Kingdon (Solomon and Gaenor, Hedd Wyn)
- Sound
Cast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Imogen Kogge, Freya Kreutzkam, Ralph Herforth, Ralf Zillmann, Stephanie Petrowitz
I am a bit shocked by the intensity of affection the Academy has for Glazer's movie. This is a very difficult movie to enjoy, and it's designed to create a visceral reaction of horror and disgust. Glazer's work in general has been very off-putting to the Academy in the past, and this movie is just as troubling and horrifying as his other work, and yet here it is with five nominations. I think for me my difficulty with Glazer's movie is that everyone in it is so reprehensible; and the film (understandably) isn't attempting to let us into their thought processes or working to humanize them – I wouldn't want the film to do that. But this makes for a very weird viewing experience, one where it's easy not to feel implicated by the horrors on screen, to hate the men and women who did this without feeling any personal connection or responsibility for their actions. I'm saying I wanted more from this movie, and perhaps something slightly different from what we got. In any case, Zone of Interest is a very well made film, and although I didn't connect with this movie as much as I connected with Glazer's Under the Skin, I still think every single bit of it is intriguing, and Glazer is an exacting, exciting filmmaker who deserves this recognition. Does it win anything? I think it will win International Feature as well as Sound (this is actually a film about sound), and it may also win adapted screenplay, although it's a very, very loose adaptation of the original novel.
Will win: International Feature, Sound
Could win: Adapted Screenplay
My rating: #36 out of 72
5 nominations
- Picture
- Actor: Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man)
- Original Screenplay: David Hemingson
- Supporting Actress: Da'Vine Joy Randolph
- Film Editing: Kevin Tent (The Descendants)
Cast: Giamatti, Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston, Naheem Garcia, Brady Hepner, Ian Dolley, Jim Kaplan, Michael Provost, Andrew Garman, Stephen Thorne, Gillian Vigman, Tate Donovan
And now for something much more heartwarming. Amid the difficult movies the Academy loves this year is something easy to love and irascible yet touching. The Holdovers is a movie that is genuinely affectionate toward its characters, despite its propensity to laugh at them. It's one of the best movies of the year, and Alexander Payne's work is getting softer and more interesting, I think, as he gets older. Payne's movie boasts some beautiful performances, including the eventual winner of the Supporting Actress Oscar, and perhaps Best Actor too. I want to say one thing about Randolph's performance, which I find really excellent. I have heard people say that this is an Octavia Spencer role, a kind of stock comic foil part written for a different actress, and so Randolph's work isn't that remarkable. I find this line of thinking really stupid. In the first place, Spencer's work is excellent; she's good in absolutely everything, and she has the ability to turn mediocre writing into comic brilliance and fill it with sensitive, character rich nuances. Octavia Spencer works magic with the stock roles she is given by this industry. In the second place, Da'Vine Joy Randolph was fully robbed of an Oscar nomination in 2020 when the Academy slept on Dolemite Is My Name and refused to give it the nominations it deserved for Ruth Carter's costumes, Randolph's superb supporting work, and Eddie Murphy's excellent lead performance. I'm still irritated about this. Randolph is an excellent actress, and she's great in The Holdovers in a part that is much more interesting than a comic foil. The haters can choke.
Will win: Original Screenplay, Supporting Actress
Could win: Actor
My rating: #15 out of 72
5 nominations
- Picture
- Actor: Jeffrey Wright
- Adapted Screenplay: Cord Jefferson
- Supporting Actor: Sterling K. Brown
- Original Score: Laura Karpman
Cast: Wright, Brown, Erika Alexander, Issa Rae, John Ortiz, Tracee Ellis Ross, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Miriam Shor, Jenn Harris
This was one of my favorite movies of the year. It's so smart, so funny, and so consistently surprising. I just absolutely loved it. Does it win anything? I think probably not, but I don't mind. We have this very very good movie as our own reward. I do want to say one thing about American Fiction that has bugged me since I saw it. I mentioned in my original response to the film that Sterling K. Brown is miscast. I stand by this. He's great in the film, don't get me wrong. In fact, I put him on my own supporting actor list for the year, and I think he's great in anything he's in. But his character should have been played by a more feminine actor. This is a gripe I have in general with casting gay characters. I wrote in my book Love Is Love Is Love that we don't actually have as much of a problem with gay male sexuality in our culture as we have with gay male femininity. Sterling Brown is very muscular and masculine throughout, and this serves to make him a much more easily digestible gay character (for audiences both gay and straight) than he'd be if he were played by a more feminine actor, but it would have reflected the issues the character has – the struggles with his mother, the difficulties feeling accepted by his brother, the issues with his kids – if he had also been struggling with the way his femininity was perceived. All of this just would have made more sense to me with someone like Noah Ricketts in the part. This, after all, amounts to a small gripe, however. American Fiction is in my top 5 films of the year.
Will win: N/A
Could win: Adapted Screenplay
My rating: #5 out of 72
More posts coming soon:
If living in a world where Sterling K. Brown is chasing around twinks is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha. I agree with this too, and he is hot as hell. But that wasn't the character on paper. Remember when the mom was like "I always knew you weren't gay"?
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