5. Sirāt, Avatar: Fire and Ash, K-Pop Demon Hunters
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Song Sung Blue
Weapons
The Voice of Hind Rajab (صوت هند رجب)
This year's single-digit nominees are:
1 nomination
- Actress: Rose Byrne (1st time nominee)
Cast: Byrne, Conan O'Brien, A$AP Rocky, Danielle Macdonald, Delaney Quinn, Bronstein, Ivy Wolk, Mark Stolzenberg, Manu Narayan, Christian Slater
This is the third Safdie movie of the year. (Actually though. Josh was a producer.) It's structured just like a Safdie Brothers film—things just get worse and worse. But this is really strong! It’s a kind of feminist version of The Plot Against Harry, and it is filled with insight and terror about motherhood and being a woman in general. I was very into it. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You could only be the title of a comedy of course, and this is funny; it’s just a deeply bleak humor that is simultaneously terrifying and actually a film about existential dread. As I say, I was into it. I hadn't heard of this movie before Rose Byrne started getting end-of-year awards for her performance, but she absolutely deserves them, and she's be my pick to take home the statue this year. I don't think she can win, though. It feels to me like Jessie Buckley's year. (Kind of a shame—Rose Byrne is awesome in this.)
Will win: N/A
Could win: Actress
My rating: #31 out of 94
1 nomination
- Actress: Kate Hudson (Almost Famous)
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi, Ella Anderson, King Princess, Mustafa Shakir, Hudson Hilbert Hensley, Shyaporn Theerakulstit
Kate Hudson's most recent nomination was 25 years ago! That seems crazy. I avoided watching this movie, betting that Hudson would not wind up in this fifth Best Actress slot, but I knew it was a losing bet all along, and I dragged myself to the theatre for a matinee of this on the day that the Academy Award nominations came out. I left the theatre crying, and the movie really is emotionally affecting. Which isn’t to say that Song Sung Blue is a good movie. It isn’t. But the whole thing is so intensely and insanely earnest and so deeply invested in making its audience cry that it’s hard not to just go along with it and fucking cry with them. Did I mention this is a kind of jukebox musical of covers that tells the story of a Neil Diamond impersonator and a Patsy Cline impersonator? It's also a true story that is so wild it feels completely unbelievable, though, I mean, why would anyone lie? Everyone seems so honest and polite and, well, midwestern in this. In actuality, Song Sung Blue (my god, that's a bad title) is way too long, and every single song wears out its welcome, but I think maybe that’s just the nature of the people at the film’s center. They want to be the focus, and they want to take up space and have your attention, but they never quite earn it.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #74 out of 94
1 nomination
- Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan (Twice in a Lifetime)
Cast: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, Madigan, Cary Christopher, Toby Huss, Whitmer Thomas, Callie Schuttera, June Diane Raphael, Scarlett Sher
This was fun. It's deeply fucked up, and I'm really not used to watching things like this, but my niece Hannah insisted, so we watched this together and covered our faces and cringed. This is a kind of horror-response to school shootings that deals with the senselessness and helplessness of parenthood when many children have been lost to violence at once. In my "Summing Up 2025" post, I said that Weapons is about the queer child, the mysteriousness at the heart of the child who is doing things we don't and can't understand; indeed another movie about children that got an Oscar nomination this year—the animated film Arco—has an identical scene to the one in Weapons, in which three children run away from home and toward certain danger while their parents remain mystified or unaware. This is scary, but it's also funny at times, and for me it manages the balance of terror and humor well. (Also, please more Alden Ehrenreich. He's so amazing in everything.) I'm delighted that Amy Madigan got an Oscar nomination for this. Her last nomination was in 1986—a full forty years ago, and I've always hated her awful character in Twice in a Lifetime, so I'm glad she can be nominated for another but very different horrible, hateful character.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #47 out of 94
1 nomination
- International Feature: Tunisia (The Man Who Sold His Skin)
Cast: Motaz Malhees, Saja Kilani, Amer Hlehel, Clara Khoury, Nesbat Serhan, Ramy Brahem
This is a chamber drama slash docu-fiction film that is built around a series of real phone calls and social media posts. The film pointedly tells us as it begins that the voice we will hear onscreen is the actual voice of Hind Rajab. The movie is about a six-year-old Palestinian girl who is in the backseat of a car at a gas station when the Israeli army fires at the car, killing everyone in it except the girl. She calls the Red Crescent, and speaks to rescue workers there who work to get a team out there in the middle of a militarized zone in order to save her life. The army is still out there with tanks, so the idea of an ambulance saving this girl in the middle of a warzone is nearly an impossible task, but the Red Crescent workers do their best to make it happen. This film is much, much better than I expected it to be. It’s a taut drama based on historical events that occasionally merges with the video and audio on which it is actually based. This makes for interesting filmmaking that—in this case—really works. The screenplay is great, and the film boasts an excellent cast with some truly moving scenes. The best thing about this is its real avoidance of cheap sentimentality. This is a hard hitting movie that doesn’t shy away from the story it needs to tell. I should say a few things, finally, about the International Feature nominees this year because it's an extraordinary group. I think I probably would have nominated South Korea's No Other Choice instead of this movie, but it's still an excellent group—as evidenced by the fact that The Voice of Hind Rajab is the only one of these films with only one nomination: all of the others have two or more. But do yourself a favor and check out some of the other films on the shortlist of this category. I recommend, especially, South Korea's No Other Choice, Chile's The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, The Dominican Republic's Pepe, and North Macedonia's The Tale of Silyan, but there are another five or ten that will come out in 2026 that I plan to see. I'm especially excited for Palestine's Palestine 36, The Philippines' Magellan, Germany's Sound of Falling, and Poland's Franz.
Will win: N/A
Could win: N/A
My rating: #26 out of 94
More Oscar posts:
4. F1, Blue Moon, It Was Just an Accident5. Sirāt, Avatar: Fire and Ash, K-Pop Demon Hunters
7. Arco, Elio, Zootopia 2, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
8. Animated Short Films
9. Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Lost Bus, Kokuho, The Smashing Machine
10. The Ugly Stepsister, Diane Warren: Relentless, Viva Verdi!
No comments:
Post a Comment