This next group includes two of my favorite movies of the year:
2 nominations
- Picture
- Adapted Screenplay: Joslyn Barnes & RaMell Ross (1st time nominees)
Cast: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jimmie Fails, Daveed Diggs, Craig Tate, Najah Bradley, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Luke Tennie, Bryant Tardy, Trey Perkins, Sean Tyrik, Gralen Bryant Banks
RaMell Ross’s film takes a little getting used to. It’s shot from a first-person perspective, and it also jumps around in time. Which is to say that I spent the first second or two of each shot—a good deal of the film—figuring out what I was watching. The overall effect is unsettling and mysterious—one just isn’t used to watching a film this way—and eventually this all had a hypnotic effect on me. The cinematography works like a spell on the viewer, and I began to feel a bit like I was in a dream or as if I was in the way it feels to remember something that one only half-remembers or wants to forget. Nickel Boys is emotionally powerful and smart. The sequences, especially, with the men long after they’ve left the prison, are deeply moving, and I thought Craig Tate gave us a wonderful performance in Older Chickie Pete. I fell hard for this and have moved it to my #1 for the year. It's just so ambitious and exciting and intriguing while also being smart and emotionally moving. The fact that this got nominated for Best Picture is a real win. I think it speaks very well of the Academy, honestly. I must admit that I am surprised that this isn't nominated in the Cinematography category, but who knows what those guys were thinking. I am also very, very puzzled that Nickel Boys is not on the Best Picture list for the Image Awards, which seems really strange. But this movie has run a very strange campaign, and the movie was only wide in theatres in late January. It feels to me like this should have done better in awards season all around. But, hey, a good movie is its own award, and this movie is great.
Will win: N/A
Could win: Adapted Screenplay
My rating: #1 out of 97
2 nominations
- Actor: Sebastian Stan (1st time nominee)
- Supporting Actor: Jeremy Strong (1st time nominee)
Cast: Stan, Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick, Mark Rendal, Ben Sullivan
This is a really strange movie. Like Ali Abassi’s previous movie, Holy Spider, The Apprentice mainly follows a person whom we are supposed to understand as reprehensible. In this case it is a young Donald J. Trump, who will learn how to be evil, selfish, and petty from the American Republican bureaucrat and lawyer Roy Cohn. Well, no, DJT doesn’t learn how to be selfish and petty from Cohn, but he does learn some very important tactics related to blackmail and other villainies. He also adopts wholesale Cohn's three rules for life—attack attack attack, never admit wrongdoing, always claim victory. Sebastian Stan is honestly quite good in this, offering us a very human portrayal of a rather soulless individual, while the film goes about its business critiquing him. I was less impressed with Jeremy Strong’s Roy Cohn, which is much more subdued than the men played by James Woods in Citizen Cohn or Al Pacino in Angels in America, but who knows: maybe Strong’s Cohn is the more realistic of the three. (I haven’t seen either of the two famous Roy Cohn documentaries, Where's My Roy Cohn? or Bully. Coward. Victim., because I don’t like documentaries and I hate Roy Cohn.) Either way Cohn was an evil, horrible man. And The Apprentice outlines just how much of an influence he was on DJT. And overall I think this is actually an interesting film despite its awful subject matter and occasionally strange tone.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #60 out of 97
2 nominations
- Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin (1st time nominee)
- Original Screenplay: Jesse Eisenberg (1st time nominee in this category)
Cast: Eisenberg, Culkin, Liza Sadovy, Daniel Oreskes, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Ellora Torchia
This is simple and sweet and very funny. I also found this deeply, profoundly moving with some really excellent performances. Kieran Culkin gives a great lead actor performance, for which he will win a supporting actor Oscar, but the acting is wonderful all around, and the movie is one of the best of the year. It's in my top ten, and it really ought to have made it into the Academy's top ten, too. Still, I'm glad Eisenberg got a screenplay nomination at least. It's well deserved. This movie is absolutely great.
Will win: Supporting Actor
Could win: N/A
My rating: #7 out of 97
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