Oscar Nominations 2023: 1 of 9

Every year I post about each of the films nominated for Oscars—this year there are 38 features plus 15 short films. Usually, I see all of them except for the documentaries (I am just not that interested in documentary film; I'm not sure why), but this year I'm also going to do myself a favor and skip the live-action short films. As a group they tend to be terrible every single year, and then for some reason the worst one usually manages to win. 

This year there is a lot for me to appreciate; many of my favorite films of the year got at least one nomination (Oppenheimer, Past Lives, American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall). I am not sure I understand the incredible amount of love the Academy has for what I thought were total snooze-fests (Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things), but who knows; other people have different tastes than I do. 

I guess it's worth saying one more thing about Barbie, since that movie is taking up most of the social media oxygen at the moment. I'll just say one thing flatly: if you seriously think Barbie missed out on a Best Director nomination, it is my humble opinion that you need to see more movies. Is it true that more women should be nominated for Best Director? It absolutely is. But it's not the director of Barbie who was overlooked in this category: it was Carla Simón, Erige Sehiri, Chie Hayakawa, Léa Mysius, Manuela Martelli, and especially Celine Song. Each of these women made amazing movies this year, and the only reason we're not talking about them is that our own viewing preferences skew white and corporate and American, and not enough people have seen their movies. I would encourage everyone to watch more films directed by women. There were many great ones this year, especially: my top 11 for 2023 includes 6 films directed by women.

That's just what I liked, though. The more complicated issue is how nominees are selected in the first place. Each voter selects five names. But only one of those names gets a vote. So let's say my top 5 directors were Cord Jefferson, Justine Triet, Christopher Nolan, Celine Song, and Carla Simón. That would be my list this year, but then I'd need to rank them. If I rank them (1) Simón, (2) Triet, (3) Song, (4) Jefferson, and (5) Nolan, then my vote would end up counting for Justine Triet and no one else. Here is why: the way they count the votes is to stack them all by who you vote for #1. My vote for Carla Simón would have been eliminated after the first round because she didn't get enough number 1 votes; then my vote would have been moved to the Triet pile, which just got bigger. And now my vote doesn't count at all for any of the names that are lower on my list. This means that the ranking actually matters during the vote, and names at the top matter way more. What happened with Barbie, then, is that not enough of the voters in the Directing branch put Gerwig at the top of their ballots. Which, I think, makes sense. The directing isn't what is most sensational about Barbie.

The problem for me every year is that the Academy concentrates their nominations on 5 or 6 movies and don't see more movies or spread the wealth better. This is, I think, the exact opposite issue from the complaint that Barbie only got 8 nominations instead of 10. I would have preferred fewer nominations for Barbie and more solo call-outs for excellent work in only one category, like the wonderful lone nomination for El Conde's cinematography! Nominations like that show that that branch is actually watching things (unlike this year's production design and costume design nominations – which are identical: zzzz). 

I will go film by film discussing each movie individually rather than discussing categories, beginning with the movies most beloved by the Academy this year. If the nominee has been nominated for Oscars previously, they will be listed next to their name in parentheses). This year's nominees:

Oppenheimer

13 nominations

• Picture
• Director: Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)
• Actor: Cillian Murphy
• Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Nolan (Inception, Memento)
• Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder, Chaplin)
• Supporting Actress: Emily Blunt
• Film Editing: Jennifer Lame
• Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk)
• Production Design: Ruth De Jong & Claire Kaufman
• Original Score: Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Black Panther)
• Costume Design: Ellen Mirojnick
• Sound
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Nolan

Cast: Murphy, Blunt, Downey, Alden Ehrenreich, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Tom Conti, Matt Damon, Jason Clarke, Josh Hartnett, David Krumholtz, Trond Fausa, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek

I loved this. I saw it in IMAX with what appeared to be everyone in the Physics department at FSU. The acting is wonderful, and I loved the usual Christopher Nolan time puzzle. I have complained for a long time that Nolan's movies are soulless, and I rather expected this one to be that too, but it isn't. I was very moved by it, and found the whole thing fascinating. In fact, I've been loving Christopher Nolan's movies lately. I even loved Tenet. My favorite performances in Oppenheimer were Emily Blunt, Alden Ehrenreich, Trond Fausa, Benny Safdie, and Cillian Murphy, but I think just the amazing list of actors in this pushes Oppenheimer over the edge. It's an actor-fest, a marvel of technical work, and the script is great. I expect this to win a lot of Oscars. I think it's hard to be mad about this, too. Nolan has never won Best Director (it's only his second nomination!) and Cillian Murphy has never been nominated, let alone won. If you look at the list of contributors above, you'll see that this is the first nomination for almost everyone, so giving them Oscars is exciting. It's not like this is the Scorsese team, who have all been nominated 10 times apiece and already have 2 statues at home. These women and men are a new generation of filmmakers who the Academy has never honored before.

Will win: Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Film Editing, Cinematography

Could win: Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Original Score, Sound, Makeup & Hairstyling

My rating: #2 out of 71

Poor Things

11 nominations

• Picture
• Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)
• Actress: Emma Stone (The Favourite, La La Land, Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
• Adapted Screenplay: Tony McNamara (The Favourite)
• Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight, Foxcatcher, The Kids Are All Right)
• Film Editing: Yorgos Mavropsaridis (The Favourite)
• Cinematography: Robbie Ryan (The Favourite)
• Production Design: Shona Heath & Zsuzsa Mihalek & James Price
• Original Score: Jerskin Fendrix
• Costume Design: Holly Waddington
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Lanthimos

Cast: Stone, Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Kathryn Hunter, Christopher Abbot, Jerrod Carmichael, Hanna Schygulla, Suzy Bemba, Vicki Pepperdine

I found this movie boring, and all of the awards love it has received is baffling to me. I found the performances in this weird and not very honest, and I think, weirdly, that Stone and Ruffalo were two of the people I liked least – the worst performance was definitely Jerrod Carmichael's. But hey, whatever, people like things that I don't like, and that's how it goes. I really hope I like Lanthimos's next movie better, because I actually do like his work, including the last movie of his that the Academy loved, The Favourite. Still, expect this to win a few Oscars below the line on March 10th, and actually... Emma Stone could win another Oscar. There seems to be a lot of love for her around, so if people decide to vote against the Lily Gladstone avalanche, they'll vote for Stone.

Will win: Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling

Could win: Actress, Production Design

My rating: #60 out of 71

Killers of the Flower Moon

(𐓀𐒻͘𐓂͘𐓄𐒰 𐒹𐒿𐒰𐓆𐒼𐒰 𐓓𐒻͘𐒼𐒰 𐓊'𐒷𐓍𐒷)

10 nominations

• Picture
• Director: Martin Scorsese (The Irishman, The Wolf of Wall Street, Hugo, The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, GoodFellas, The Last Temptation of Christ, Raging Bull)
• Actress: Lily Gladstone
• Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook, Cape Fear, Awakenings, Raging Bull, The Deer Hunter, Taxi Driver, The Godfather: Part II)
• Film Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker (The Irishman, Hugo, The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, GoodFellas, Raging Bull, Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music)
• Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto (The Irishman, Silence, Brokeback Mountain)
• Production Design: Jack Fisk (The Revenant, There Will Be Blood) & Adam Willis
• Original Score: Robbie Robertson
• Costume Design: Jacqueline West (Dune: Part One, The Revenant, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Quills)
• Original Song – "Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)": Scott George

Director: Scorsese

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Gladstone, De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Scott Shepherd, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, John Lithgow, Tatanka Means, Everett Waller, Talee Redcorn, Yancey Red Corn, Jason Isbell, Brendan Fraser

This is another movie that did not work for me and that I thought was quite boring. This is a very frustrating film, and it drove me a little crazy. It's also a thousand years long, for reasons I don't really understand. But the real issue for me – and I've already said this, so I'm sorry for repeating myself – is that this film is only from the perspective of the Osage people at the very beginning and the very end. The remainder is a film made from the emotional and narrative perspective of people who tried to murder them. This is intensely frustrating, and it belies everything that Scorsese and everyone else involved with this movie said was supposed to be happening. (For example, we see the murder of Anna three separate times on screen in Flower Moon; not one of these is from her perspective. It's actually shocking when you think about it. We watch her murder three times from the point of view of her murderers??? What kind of ethical filmmaking choice is that?) This movie was the critical darling of the year, and I thought for a bit it would win the big award and maybe win everything else, too, but I think Killers of the Flower Moon is on the descent. Note its surprise omission from the Adapted Screenplay category! Even Lily Gladstone, who has been the presumptive Best Actress winner for months, may find herself in real competition with Emma Stone. I think Lily Gladstone is rather boring in this movie – the whole movie is boring; it's not her fault, really – but I will be happy for her to win. She's a cool woman, and she's been making good independent movies for years.

Will win: Actress, Original Score

Could win: Picture, Director, Production Design, Costume Design

My rating: #53 out of 71

Barbie

8 nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) & Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, The Squid and the Whale)
• Supporting Actor: Ryan Gosling (La La Land, Half Nelson)
• Supporting Actress: America Ferrera
• Production Design: Sarah Greenwood (Darkest Hour, Beauty and the Beast, Anna Karenina, Sherlock Holmes, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) & Katie Spencer (Darkest Hour, Beauty and the Beast, Anna Karenina, Sherlock Holmes, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) 
• Costume Design: Jacqueline Durran (Cyrano, Little Women, Darkest Hour, Beauty and the Beast, Mr. Turner, Anna Karenina, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) 
• Original Song – "I'm Just Ken": Mark Ronson (A Star Is Born) & Andrew Wyatt (A Star Is Born)
• Original Song – "What Was I Made For?": Billie Eilish (No Time to Die) & Finneas O'Connell (No Time to Die)

Director: Gerwig

Cast: Margot Robbie, Gosling, Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, America Ferrera, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell, Helen Mirren, Ariana Greenblatt, Michael Cera

This is a very funny movie, and I had a great time at it. I still laugh once a week at Issa Rae's delivery of "Oh? Is this The GodFATHer?" I did think the movie didn't really stick its ending, though. I mean, why would anyone choose to be a real human person when one could be a doll and not have to work? No thanks. In many ways, the end of this movie felt to me like an apologia for mainstream culture, and that didn't sit well with me. In any case, the script (it's an original script, despite appearing in the adapted category) is great, and it was really excellent to see America Ferrera's surprise nomination. I'm so pleased about that. She's a jobbing actor who has been working hard for years – as long ago as Josefina López's Real Women Have Curves, the play. There's lots to be excited about here, and the Academy obviously loved this film. This and Oppenheimer and Mario Bros. and Dead Reckoning Part One really saved the box office receipts this year, too, so it deserves props for that as well (even though Mario and Dead Reckoning did not receive any similar affection from the Academy). One more thing: I think the backlash related to Barbie missing out on Best Director and Best Actress nominations may translate into more wins on March 10th, so I expect it to take home a couple more than I would have predicted if this movie had ended up with 10 nominations instead of 8.

Will win: Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Song

Could win: Picture, Costume Design

My rating: #23 out of 71

Maestro

8 nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born, American Sniper, American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook)
• Actress: Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman, An Education)
• Original Screenplay: Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) & Josh Singer (Spotlight)
• Cinematography: Matthew Libatique (A Star Is Born, Black Swan)
  
• Sound
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Cooper

Cast: Cooper, Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Vincenzo Amato, Sarah Silverman, Maya Hawke, Michael Urie, Sam Nivola, Alexa Swinton, Miriam Shor

This is a very good movie that I think is a little tough to love, and so it isn't much of a surprise to me that people liked it less than (I feel like) they ought to have. There's a way, too, that the movie is very hard on Leonard Bernstein, a man beloved by many in Hollywood, despite the way the movie actually adores him and sympathizes with him. I've already written about how well I think Cooper did with this and how fucking great Carey Mulligan is, so I won't say any more about that. But... I don't think this will be winning any Oscars on March 10th. 7 nominations is a lot, so the Academy definitely respects it, but it's not taking home any gold. The only real category it could win in – Makeup – has really polarized people. The other day one of my students told me he couldn't take the movie seriously because the makeup was too silly (!). I really liked this movie, though, and I think it deserves its nominations and maybe more.

Will win: N/A

Could win: Makeup & Hairstyling

My rating: #17 out of 71

More posts coming soon:

2. Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest, The Holdovers, American Fiction

3. Napoleon, Past Lives, Society of the Snow, Nyad

4. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, The Creator, Rustin, May December

5. The Color Purple, El Conde, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

6. Animated Features

7. Godzilla Minus One, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Golda, American Symphony, Flamin' Hot

8. Animated Short Films

9. Perfect Days, The Teachers' Lounge, Io Capitano

Maestro (2023)

I think Maestro is a hard film to love. Its main character is difficult and inscrutable. And yet… Bradley Cooper's film does love him very much, and it’s very generous with him. I found this carefully and just a bit coldly (or perhaps I mean exactingly) directed. 

Here's one example of what I mean. After the premier of Bernstein's Mass Leonard and Felicia have a terrible fight while their kids are in the other room and the Thanksgiving Day parade is going on behind them outside the windows. It's kind of an amazing sequence because the camera gives us the entire thing in longshot. We never get access to their faces. It's as if the fight, even for the characters, is happening to someone else. We simply watch this fight unfold without being let in. And the sequence is not short, so this choice becomes very apparent very quickly.

Another example is the way the camera lingers with Leonard or Felicia when they make a difficult decision or tell a lie, and we sit there. Unlike, let's just say, the quick fade to black that we got with Coppola's Priscilla, Cooper makes his characters squirm. They have to sit and stew in their choices, deal with them, live with them. This happens several times, but one of my favorites is when Leonard lies to his oldest daughter about the rumors she's heard at school. Felicia tells him he has to lie to her, so he does, but then we watch what that has cost him.

There are many beautiful directorial choices like this involving light and shadow and other wonderful ways Cooper asks the camera to look at these characters, many of which I just wanted to applaud, even while sitting in my seat. My absolute favorite of these, though, is when Leonard returns to his lover David for the first time after spending a long weekend with Felicia and falling in love with her. He tells David that he and Felicia are off to lunch but that he should meet them for a drink later, and then he quickly apologizes I didn't mean to spring that on you... maybe that was insensitive of me. The camera, though, never goes to Leonard. We stay with David the whole time, we watch what this revelation means to him, and we watch him have to manage his own shock and grief so that he can be polite with Leonard in front of Felicia. It's an incredible scene.

I really liked Maestro and I respected it a lot. It’s wonderfully acted. Carey Mulligan is luminous. Bradley Cooper is wonderful. And I thought Matthew Bomer was excellent in his small part. Cooper’s direction is so exacting and careful. I find myself just in love with him and his choices more than the movie itself. This sounds like I didn’t like the movie. But I did. I liked it a lot! I just am finding it hard to love, perhaps because the man himself was so hard to handle once people chose to love him.

P.S. For people complaining that they wanted the movie to be more about Bernstein's music... ok, I guess. But it isn't about that; this movie is about Bernstein's relationship with Felicia Montealegre.

Nightmare Alley #2

The new Nightmare Alley does in fact fix the problems of the original 1947 film. I had faith that Guillermo Del Toro would opt for a darker ending, and that he would make the character's decline make a great deal more sense. This new version of William Lindsay Gresham's novel is also much more violent (thankfully), and the production design, score, costuming, makeup, and hairstyling are all gorgeous.

But Del Toro has introduced some new problems into the mix, as well. [You should stop reading now if you haven't seen it yet.] In the first place – and I hate to say this because I absolutely love Bradley Cooper – I don't think Cooper works in this movie. He could work, but he's playing the part weirdly, way too close to his chest, like he is hiding everything in the world. This part needs a clearer, honest portrayal that takes in absolutely everyone, a seducer's portrayal. This just isn't that: Cooper feels hidden and terrified for most of the film, wide-eyed and surprised rather than open-faced and genuine. It's hard to imagine him tricking anyone at all. He certainly never takes us in, and I feel like he probably should do this at times. Is he a nice guy? Cooper never lets us believe that he is.

Rooney Mara and Toni Colette also both seem to be playing their parts using the most shallow choices possible. Both of their parts are slightly smaller because of the way the new screenplay works, but Mara opts for a totally guileless portrayal rather than someone with some teeth, and Colette's version of her character is barely a hustler at all – just a kind of sad horny lady. 

Cate Blanchett comes out unscathed, though. Her part was the worst of the three in the original, and not only has it been beefed up here, her character is more interesting, dangerous, and sexy than anything we saw in 1947. Blanchett plays the part like a complete diva, and she wears gorgeous gowns, has gorgeous hair, and poses in front of walls inlaid with wood while endlessly smoking cigarettes and smiling with the reddest lips possible. She's a hustler, and we know it, and it's nothing but fun. Her final scene has been expanded here, and it's a delight – best thing in the movie. 

Props, too, go to David Strathairn, who is consistent and wonderful. His character here is very different from anyone we've seen him play recently, and he's filled him with life and made distinct, intriguing choices.

All in all, I guess I didn't find this film so markedly different from the 1947 movie. It feels technically better, but it also has such a polished shine to it, and the acting is so stilted, that this 2021 version always just sort of feels soulless.

Oscar Nominations 2019: Part 1 of 11

Every year I post about each of the films nominated for Oscars (this year there are 33 + 10 short films). I see all of them except for the documentaries (I am just not that interested in documentary film; I'm not sure why).

As always, a large number of the films in my own top 10 for the year were passed over (Vazante, You Were Never Really Here, The Strange Ones, Lean on Pete), but some of them scored a nomination or two (Shoplifters, Into the Spider-verse, Mirai), and this year one was nominated for Best Picture (Roma). In other words, as there is every year, there is something for me to appreciate here, even as I am, as always, impatient with the Academy's choices.

My main complaint – and I am sure this will come up in my commentary in the following weeks – is that Academy voters (and guild voters, too) just don't see enough movies, especially films from other countries. A slate of nominees like the International Cinephile Society's list for 2019 is way better than the one that Oscar made. And I honestly think it's just that the voters in the ICS just see more movies. But I am done expecting the Academy to vote for really, really good stuff. They will always skew toward the mediocre, I think. And that is just how it goes.

As usual with these posts, I will go film by film discussing each movie individually rather than discussing categories, beginning with the movies most beloved by the Academy this year. If the nominee has been nominated for Oscars previously, he or she will be listed next to his/her name in parentheses).

This year's nominees:

Roma

10 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
  
• Actress: Yalitza Aparicio
• Original Screenplay: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Y Tu Mamá También)
• Supporting Actress: Marina de Tavira
• Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón
• Production Design: Eugenio Caballero (Pan's Labyrinth) & Bárbara Enríquez
• Foreign Language Picture: Mexico (Biutiful, Pan's Labyrinth, The Crime of Father Amaro, Amores Perros, Letters from Marusia, Tlayucan, The Important Man, Macario)
  
• Sound Mixing
• Sound Editing

Director: Cuarón

Cast: Aparicio, Tavira, Nancy García García, Jorge Antonio Guerrero, Verónica García, Diego Cortina Autrey, Carlos Peralta, Daniela Demesa, Marco Graf, Fernando Grediaga, Andy Cortés

I loved this movie. I loved the way that it was shot. I loved the way that it mostly relegated the bourgeois problems of its supporting characters to the background in order to focus on its main character's challenges of life, love, and work. The fact that Roma was made in both Spanish and Mixteco felt really special. But more than all of this, the filmmaking is just superb, and Roma is able to focus on the quotidian and the epic simultaneously, and even more importantly to place the quotidian within the epic with deftness and intelligence. I found Roma a little more intellectually satisfying than emotionally satisfying, but overall I loved it. As for what this movie will win come Oscar Sunday... Cuarón is a lock for director, but I think the amount of love this movie saw when nominations were announced (both acting nominations were real surprises) means that Academy members love this movie a lot more than your everyday Netflix subscriber does. And, I have to say, the Academy is getting this one right. Oh, also, when Cuarón wins Best Director on February 24th, he will be the fifth Mexican director to win in the last six year. The will be the first time Mexico has won the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Will Win: Picture, Director, Cinematography, Production Design, Foreign Language Picture

Could Win: Original Screenplay

My Rating: #9 out of 66

The Favourite

10 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
• Actress: Olivia Colman
• Original Screenplay: Deborah Davis & Tony McNamara
• Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)
• Supporting Actress: Emma Stone (La La Land, Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
• Cinematography: Robbie Ryan
• Film Editing: Yorgos Mavropsaridis
• Production Design: Fiona Crombie & Alice Felton 
• Costume Design: Sandy Powell (Mary Poppins Returns, Cinderella, Carol, Hugo, The Tempest, The Young Victoria, Mrs Henderson Presents, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Shakespeare in Love, Velvet Goldmine, The Wings of the Dove, Orlando)

Director: Lanthimos

Cast: Colan, Weisz, Stone, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn, James Smith, Mark Gatiss

I reviewed this movie here. The Favourite is a hilariously bizarre Lanthimosic version of English history. What's brilliant about it is that it looks like it's a period film, and it is a period film – it's about England's Queen Anne – but then it is also a Yorgos fucking Lanthimos movie, which means that it is also insane. This means that it is very very funny and people continuously behave in ways that surprise and shock the viewer. The worlds Lanthimos gives viewers access to make perfect sense, but they operate on their own internal logics. He's really an extraordinary filmmaker, and I can't wait to see what's next. The costumes simply must win. Powell has 3 Oscars already, but she hasn't won in 10 years, and anyway the Academy doesn't mind giving costume designers additional Oscars. Colleen Atwood won two years ago for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. She's gonna win. Whether anything else can win here, I'm not quite sure, although I think The Favourite will also take home Original Screenplay.

Will Win: Original Screenplay, Costume Design

Could Win: Actress, Film Editing, Production Design
My Rating: #17 out of 66

Vice

8 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Adam McKay (The Big Short)
• Actor: Christian Bale (The Big Short, American Hustle, The Fighter)
• Original Screenplay: Adam McKay (The Big Short)
• Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri)
• Supporting Actress: Amy Adams (American Hustle, The Master, The Fighter, Doubt, Junebug)
• Film Editing: Hank Corwin (The Big Short)
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: McKay

Cast: Bale, Adams, Steve Carrell, Rockwell, Jesse Plemons, Allison Pill, Eddie Marsan, Justin Kirk, Tyler Perry, LisaGay Hamilton, Lily Rabe, Bill Camp

I really disliked Vice, a dislike I wrote about here. I'm not here to say Vice is a bad film, but it definitely was not for me. I am surprised that the Academy loved this as much as it did. Three acting nominations is a lot, and this is Adam McKay's second best director nomination in just a few years. It's quite impressive. The reason Vice doesn't work, to my mind, is that McKay tried to do the kind of Brechtian historical analysis he did with The Big Short but instead of analyzing a historical moment he tried (half-heartedly) to analyze a man. It didn't work. As for winning Oscars, it looks right now like Christian Bale will take home his second acting Oscar. I don't think he's very good in the movie, but that seems to be a minority opinion. But let's take a moment to talk about Amy Adams, who always seems to get outshone in these movies with Christian Bale. I am not sure I understand that. I feel like this woman – who is excellent in everything, as far as we can tell – should probably be directing movies by now. I have a feeling she can probably do anything. Let's give her a bunch of money and see what she'll do. Also, Vice should probably win makeup and hairstyling. It's the most high profile of the nominees in that category.
Will Win: Actor, Makeup & Hairstyling

Could Win: Original Screenplay, Film Editing

My Rating: #65 out of 66

A Star Is Born

8 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Bradley Cooper (American Sniper, American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook)
• Actress: Lady Gaga
• Adapted Screenplay: Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters & Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Munich, The Insider, Forrest Gump)
• Supporting Actor: Sam Elliott
  
• Cinematography: Matthew Libatique (Black Swan)
• Sound Mixing
• Song – "Shallow": Lady Gaga (The Hunting Ground), Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt 

Director: Cooper

Cast: Cooper, Gaga, Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Rafi Gavron, Anthony Ramos, Dave Chappelle, Drena De Niro, Barry Shabaka Henley, Michael D. Roberts, Michael J. Harney, Ron Rifkin, Greg Grunberg, D.J. Shangela Pierce, Willam Belli

I like this movie more now than I did when I saw it. Lady Gaga is a very good singer, and she is good in A Star Is Born whenever she is singing. Whenever she's not, I don't get it. As for Bradley Cooper, I'm actually mad that anyone is talking about any of these other actors. The idea that Cooper lost to Rami Malek at the Golden Globes is actually insane. And I don't understand how a beautiful, sensitive, heart-rending performance like his in this movie could be compared in any way to Bale's stoic cartoon of Dick Cheney. It's really absurd. Cooper is superb in this film. Some people are saying he was snubbed in the best director category... no. He's a brilliant actor and he should be awarded for that. I think A Star Is Born is not going to win Best Picture, although it certainly still might. I think its wins on the 24th will be in sound mixing (it wasn't nominated for sound editing) and best song. And the song is pretty fucking great, I have to say. But it's definitely insane that Hollywood has decided not to give Cooper any prizes for this movie which has made a ton of money and is actually really high quality. This is the most Hollywood of the top four movies this year. They really ought to give Cooper a little gold man.

Will Win: Sound Mixing, Song

Could Win: Picture, Actor, Actress
My Rating: #40 out of 66

2018 Acting Nominations

Just some quick thoughts on these categories now that lots of groups have weighed in with their choices.

Best Actor

Right now, the locks are Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), Christian Bale (Vice), and Viggo Mortensen (Green Book) with Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) in a less-secure fourth slot. It might seem like Bale is less secure, but the Academy loves Christian Bale and they love Adam McKay. Bale, you might recall, got a supporting actor nomination for The Big Short, and the movie was nominated for all sorts of awards. The fifth slot belongs to either Ethan Hawke (First Reformed) – he's the critics' favorite – or John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) who is, after all, Denzel Washington's son. I don't know which of these it could go to – and it may be that Malek's slot is less secure than I think and Washington and Hawke get in and Malek doesn't (my preference). Rounding out the possibilities in this category are Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Mary Poppins Returns), and Robert Redford (The Old Man and the Gun) – all are unlikely.

Best Actress

The locks are Glenn Close (The Wife), Olivia Colman (The Favourite), and Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born). I just want to say that Sony Pictures Classics has been doing a great job with this Glenn Close campaign. The Washington DC critics were the only group who mentioned Close, but here we are in mid-December and the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild both nominated her. And The Wife is back in theatres everywhere. Well done. Slot 4 goes (deservedly) to Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), I think. As for slot 5, the options are: Toni Collette (Hereditary), Yalitza Aparicio (Roma), Regina Hall (Support the Girls), Nicole Kidman (Destroyer), Rosamund Pike (A Private War), and Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins Returns). Strangely, I think Blunt will end up in this slot. But maybe someone else will emerge in the next month.

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali (Green Book), Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born), Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and Timothée Chalamet (Beautiful Boy) all seem like sure things here, although as we move into early January, I expect Chalamet will become less secure. The fifth slot will go to either Steven Yeun (Burning), Sam Rockwell (Vice), Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther) or – the likeliest candidate – Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman).

Best Supporting Actress

The Screen Actors Guild for some reason threw a curveball this morning and didn't nominate Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) in this category, even though she seems like a sure bet. Both Rachel Weisz (The Favourite) and Emma Stone (The Favourite) are also locks. Amy Adams (Vice) looks like she'll fill the fourth slot here. That leaves one more nomination, but no one can seem to agree who should get it. The most likely seems to be Elizabeth Debicki (Widows), but also mentioned so far have been Margot Robbie (Mary, Queen of Scots), Nicole Kidman (Boy Erased), Claire Foy (First Man), Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place), Zoe Kazan (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), and Cynthia Erivo (Bad Times at the El Royale).

A Star Is Fine

I saw A Star Is Born last night, and I'm here to report that it's fine.

The far advance buzz was that this movie was going to be a disaster. I had also read that Lady Gaga was awful in the movie (this from a particularly hateful set of blind items that I read all the time because I am a crazy person). I was pretty prepared for the movie to be really bad (and I expected to skip it entirely) until last month when Star started playing at festivals and everybody – including the critic from Vanity Fair – said it was great. Everyone seemed to love this movie, and everyone started saying it was going to win Best Picture, that Gaga and Bradley Cooper were shoo-ins for Oscar nominations, that the whole thing was incredible and fresh and great.

A Star Is Born is not all of those things, but it is good. Cooper (who directed!) is using a slightly re-written version of the 1976 Barbra Streisand–Kris Kristofferson film. (The 1954 Judy Garland–James Mason film is a remake of the 1937 Janet Gaynor–Fredric March movie. The first two are set in Hollywood; the more recent two are set in the music industry.)

The music is great in this film, and it is shot well. It is also filled with some excellent supporting performances from Anthony Ramos, Ron Rifkin, Dave Chappelle, and especially Sam Elliott. (And a small dose of fabulousness from Shangela – the real winner of RPDR All Stars 3, but that's another story.)

Bradley Cooper is, honestly, brilliant in the film, and because he is such an excellent actor, the film succeeds in many ways. He is open and available to the camera, even when he is playing drunk or closing off from the other characters. One feels one has access to him. He is truly superb in this, and his small gestures, gravelly voice, and bad habits all feel lived in, fiercely inhabited. He's just great – a perfect, grounding, "authentic" foil for the high theatrics of Lady Gaga's personality.

Gaga brings with her enormous baggage, of course. She has been a huge pop star, and she is also a fashion icon at this point. So her appearance in the movie is weighted down by this. How do you play this young woman as a kind of authentic, honest person who loses her way, when the person we know from the television is already this outsized, over-the-top star? Cooper mostly does a good job of dealing with these problems, but once Gaga's character becomes a famous pop star, it felt impossible to me that she had never been one. The whole thing feels so tiresomely inevitable. Her voice is excellent, and she powers through some great original songs that all work to great effect. These are the movie's best moments, I think – the moments when I was totally on the movie's side. When Gaga's singing, A Star Is Born is doing great.

The rest of the Gaga performance is almost non-existent. Honestly, it looks to me like they've edited around what was probably a fairly stilted or over-the-top performance. If you look carefully, you'll notice that the movie focuses much more on Cooper's character than it should. In many ways, Gaga's character disappears for sections of the movie. This is fine, because Cooper is so damn good, but the movie's simply not about Gaga's character. And this seems to me like a corner into which the director was backed by a performance that didn't quite work. There are, for example, no typical fight scenes between the two. She never really lays into him at any point. In most of her big emotional scenes Gaga cries quietly while looking at another actor. And she has no monologue in which she deals with what happens at the film's end (the usual Oscar-bait scene). Instead, the film's emotional payoff arrives with a speech from Sam Elliott and then a song from Gaga. As I said, the songs are great, and she does a great job connecting us emotionally through music, but I think she should thank the film's editor for her performance.

A Star Is Born is good, but more than anything else the whole thing just feels sort of tired, like the movie's main character – who spends much of the film trying to escape, drinking too much, and passing out – or like a movie that's been remade three times since 1937. Everything in A Star Is Born is cliché, and this, of course, is because it has had time in the last 80 years to cement itself as a cliché. All its plot twists are expected, all its emotions familiar. In other words, it's not that Cooper's film isn't good. It is. It's just that the whole thing felt a little empty to me – as though we were all going through the motions, audience included. There's this moment in act two when Gaga's manager looks over and says "You've been nominated for three Grammys including best new artist" when I thought Well that came out of nowhere and then thought Of course she got nominated for three Grammys. Everything that happens in this film felt contrived to me. It's a fairly well done bit of business, and it has a superb central performance, but it's just business as usual.

Oscar Nominations 2018: Part 10 of 12

Back to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, or Part 9.

My Best of 2017.

War for the Planet of the Apes

1 Nomination

• Visual Effects
  

Director: Matt Reeves

Cast: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Karin Konoval, Amiah Miller, Terry Notary, Ty Olsson, Michael Adamthwaite, Toby Kebbell, Gabriel Chavarria, Judy Greer

Such squandered potential. This movie looks very cool and the first two movies in the series were very cool, but this one overdoes every scene, overplays every hand, and is all around just extra. I think I would be ok with this if it weren't a melodrama, So what ends up happening is that most of what it overdoes is feelings. We have evil villains, we're shown that the alt-right is evil and racist, and every ounce of feeling is milked out of us while a tiny white girl-child looks at us with tears in her eyes. For me this fell flat. There are five options for the visual effects Oscar. The Star Wars movie seems to me the most likely winner – Shape of Water didn't get one, despite its 13 nominations – but I suppose if that one doesn't win, this one will, and last year's winner (The Jungle Book) was a lot like this one: computer-animated animals.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Visual Effects

My Rating: #62 out of 82

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

1 Nomination

• Visual Effects
  

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, Kurt Russell, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan

I hate to criticize this film for the same thing as I criticized War for the Planet of the Apes, but I was also mostly bored with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. This is a shame. The first one was so good, that I suppose such a thing is easy to replicate. But this one felt like a great confused mess to me, and instead of Chris Pratt fucking up and getting into trouble, this is about him, like, finding himself and learning his origins or somesuch business. There are so many feelings in this movie. This is just unnecessary! Tell us some jokes, blow some things up, have baby Groot dance. Why take things so seriously? Normally I am really into father–son narratives, but I found this one silly. Vol 2. does have some cool setpieces, and whenever we were in full fight mode I was usually enjoying myself, but I think this movie mostly just returns us to the usual Marvel, it's-almost-the-end-of-the-world-if-only-we-could-save-it formula. This is better than Apes, certainly, but not by much.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #55 out of 82

Kong: Skull Island

1 Nomination

• Visual Effects
  

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Toby Kebbell, Corey Hawkins, John Ortiz, Tian Jing, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann

This is the one that deserves to win. It is so much better than the other nominees (including Star Wars and Blade Runner). I really really liked this movie, and I know, I know, it's a King Kong movie, but this one is excellent. Obviously, I love monster movies, and this one gives us monster after monster after monster, but it also does this really well, and it is has some interesting themes to boot. I can't recommend this enough, and although I know it won't win on March 4th, I'll be rooting for it.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #19 out of 82

Oscar Nominees 2016: Part 5 of 11

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10. Part 11.

45 Years

1 Nomination

• Actress: Charlotte Rampling

Director: Andrew Haigh

Cast: Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James, Dolly Wells, David Sibley, Sam Alexander, Richard Cunningham

I loved 45 Years. It is one of my favorite films of the year. It still hasn't been released everywhere, so this means it is coming to a theatre near you soon. Make sure you get out to see it. It is deeply, deeply troubling. This film follows a (straight) couple who, a week away from a big 45-year-anniversary party that they're planning, gets a letter that says the authorities found the body of a woman the man loved before he met his current wife. They've been married 45 years, but the man is deeply affected by this discovery, and the woman doesn't really understand. Slowly more and more information comes out (or at least seems to come out), and both characters begin to unravel. Charlotte Rampling is astounding in this movie. It is probably the best performance in a film by anyone this year. Rampling has gotten awards buzz a couple of times – for Under the Sand and Swimming Pool – but it is a little odd that an actress this good and this dependable is only now getting her first Oscar nomination. But it is a well-deserved one. I've been thinking that maybe Rampling could actually win this award; I figured that once people saw the movie they were just going to need to vote for her. I don't think that is really true anymore – it's Larson's to lose – but hopefully this nomination does mean that Rampling gets more roles like this one and we get some more great performances in the future. It's worth noting, by the way, that Tom Courtenay, who plays her husband is also superb in 45 Years, and Andrew Haigh, the director also does an excellent job. This was in my top ten for the year: it's a great movie, not just a vehicle for a single actor.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Actress

My Rating: #8 out of 64

Joy

1 Nomination

• Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook, Winter's Bone)

Director: David O. Russell

Cast: Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Édgar Ramírez, Dascha Polanco, Bradley Cooper, Elisabeth Röhm Jimmy Jean-Louis

This movie is a lot like David O. Russell's other recent films, American Hustle, The Fighter, and Silver Linings Playbook, which means that it is poorly scripted but delightfully character-driven, so that we don't really mind that the movie isn't about anything because we're having so much fun with the characters and their different goals. There are two very big differences between Joy and these movies, though. First of all, Joy is really only about one character. It seems like we are also going to follow Bradley Cooper's character and Édgar Ramírez's characters, but then we don't. We only really follow Joy herself as she makes, what seemed to me, ridiculous move after ridiculous move. The other big difference between Joy and other David O. Russell movies is that this one is no fun at all. Everyone in it is miserable for the entirety of the film. To be fair, he cast the always-serious-in-films Jennifer Lawrence, and she plays the role like every role she plays, as though she's never had a happy day in her life. I also can never shake the feeling that Lawrence is playing dress-up in movies. She never seems to relax into a role. She's never ever had a confident performance. I always get the feeling she's hoping we won't notice something. In the final (absurd) scenes in this movie, which has jumped forward many years, Lawrence is supposed to be a confident businesswoman and executive who has tons of power and money, but she still plays the part as though she's terrified she's gonna get chosen for the Hunger Games. Her total inability to relax, and the fact that she looks nothing like a fifty-year-old executive would have made this last sequence in the film laughable if it weren't so boring. I am not being hyperbolic when I say this, so take me seriously: I honestly think that every adult part played by Jennifer Lawrence in the last four years or so would have been played better by an actress like Kate Hudson, someone who has a lot more of a range than Lawrence, an actor who only seems able to frown. (This convinces me that Lawrence really should do a romantic comedy. Maybe she'd loosen up in one of those.) In any case, Joy is one of the worst movies of the year. Avoid.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #62 out of 64

Trumbo

1 Nomination

• Actor: Bryan Cranston

Director: Jay Roach

Cast: Cranston, Michael Stuhlbarg, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, David James Elliott, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Stephen Root, Christian Berkel, Dean O'Gorman, Richard Portnow

And just slightly better than Joy but still awful: Trumbo. I have already written about how terrible this movie is, so I'll let you read that rather than reproduce it here. We should all be glad, at least, that this movie only got this one nomination – the Academy ignored its art direction, script, costumes, and the absurdly phoned-in performance of Hedda Hopper by Helen Mirren. But even this Bryan Cranston nomination is too much. Cranston's nomination squeezed out much more deserving performances by actors this year: Abraham Attah in Beasts of No Nation is only the most egregious example, but while I'm talking about this I want also to mention Géza Röhrig, who is amazing in Son of Saul, and Michael B. Jordan in Creed. Any one of these three actors belongs in this slot; Cranston, who is actually quite a good actor, does not. If you don't need to see Trumbo, trust me, you do not want to. Avoid.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #61 out of 64

Oscar Nominees 2015: Part 5 of 12

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.
Part 5 of 12:

Guardians of the Galaxy

2 Nominations

• Visual Effects
• Makeup

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoë Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, John C. Reilly, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Glenn Close, Karen Gillan, Benicio Del Toro

This was an awesome movie and I loved it. I loved all of its jokes; I loved the way it sent up the seriousness (unintentional campiness) of the Marvel universe; I loved Zoë Saldana; but most of all I loved Chris Pratt. Now, I know everyone loves Chris Pratt these days so this is not any big news or anything, but he is just so lovable! As for Guardians of the Galaxy itself, its use of '80s music, and its interest in anti-heroism make it fun and action-oriented without any of the deadly sentimentalism and nobility we have come to expect from Marvel Studios movies. I can't recommend this enough. It's one of the best action movies of the year.

Will Win: Makeup

Could Win: Visual Effects

My Rating: #33 out of 78

Still Alice

1 Nomination

• Actress: Julianne Moore (The Hours, Far from Heaven, The End of the Affair, Boogie Nights)

Director: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland

Cast: Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish, Stephen Kunken, Shane McRae, Erin Drake

Julianne Moore is finally going to win an Oscar. And it is about time. She has been nominated four times before (and got close to winning in 2003 for Far from Heaven), but this time it is for real. And one of the things that's great about this is that Still Alice is such a good movie. This isn't a picture that was especially tricked out so that Moore could win awards, this is a sensitive, well-made picture directed by the independent-film directing team who made The Fluffer and Quinceañera. In any case, I loved this movie, and I loved Julianne Moore in it, and I even loved K-Stew.
Will Win: Actress

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #21 out of 78

Gone Girl

1 Nomination

• Actress: Rosamund Pike

Director: David Fincher

Cast: Ben Affleck, Pike, Carrie Coon, Neil Patrick Harris, Kim Dickens, Missi Pyle, Patrick Fugit, Tyler Perry, Lola Kirke, Boyd Holbrook, Sela Ward, Emily Ratajkowski, David Clennon, Lisa Banes, Casey Wilson

A badass thriller that I found totally shocking at times. This is also a really interesting feminist film about the ways that women are forced to behave in certain ways and become objects that men can love ("cool girls", the film calls them). But the best part of Gone Girl is watching the nooses tighten around people's necks, watching the plots thicken, and the pleasure of squirming in your seat while someone does something you know is going to turn out really, really poorly. This is a well-shot, well-acted, exquisitely scripted tough-as-nails picture that got totally fucking ignored by the Academy for reasons I don't really understand. Was it too sexy for them? Too much about their television-addled lives? Too hard on its male characters? In any case, Rosamund Pike got a deserved nomination here, even though the film's director, screenwriter, composers, cinematographer, and editor all also deserved nominations. This is one of the great fuckups of this year by the Academy, if you ask me. This movie isn't in my top ten (there are too many good movies this year – not that Oscar is paying attention to many of those) but I know quality when I see it, and this deserved better. It's excellent.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #14 out of 78

Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night)

1 Nomination

• Actress: Marion Cotillard (La Môme)

Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Cast: Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, Catherine Salée, Baptiste Sornin, Timur Magomedgadzhiev, Christelle Cornil, Myriem Akheddiou, Olivier Gourmet, Serge Koto, 

One of the year's absolute best. Cotillard plays a woman who is trying to go back to her job. To do this she needs the people who work on the floor of the plant with her to vote that she can have her job back. But if they vote yes, their boss has decreed that they will not get their bonus; the bonus will be used for her salary. It's a capitalist nightmare (i.e. real life) staged in human terms. Cotillard is superb and she just barely squeaked out a nomination here over Jennifer Aniston in Cake (whose movie could have gained steam if it had come out earlier). The film itself was submitted by Belgium in the Foreign Language category, but didn't make the January shortlist. The Dardennes, although they make near-perfect films every time they make one, have never been the Academy's particular cup of tea. They've never been nominated before. But, hey, Haneke finally got nominated for Amour two years ago, so maybe it's just a matter of time before the Dardennes are honored. Go see this movie, though. It is another one in my top ten for the year.
Will Win: N/A
Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #3 out of 78

Oscar Nominees 2015: Part 2 of 12

Part 1.
Part 2 of 12:

American Sniper

6 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Bradley Cooper (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook)
• Adapted Screenplay: Jason Hall
• Film Editing: Joel Cox (Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven) & Gary D. Roach
• Sound Mixing
• Sound Editing

Director: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Cooper, Sienna Miller, Sammy Sheik, Luke Grimes, Navid Negahban, Jake McDorman, Keir O'Donnell, Eric Close, Cory Hardrict, Eric Ladin

This movie is awful. I am not sure that it is a huge surprise that a genre-picture directed by Clint Eastwood has made such a huge splash with the Academy, but it is certainly strange that a movie no smarter than, say, Predator or Rambo, a movie that is way less intelligent than a movie like Three Kings or Jarhead or this year's superb Fury should be nominated over any other film. But here we are and this movie is selling tickets like nobody's business. People seem to love this film's combination of gun-violence, anti-Arab sentiment, and video-game aesthetics. I found this combination irresponsible and deeply troubling. It's also basically little more than a shoot-em-up picture with some excellent acting. That said, Bradley Cooper really is great in the movie, and in a crowded category, he deserves his nomination as much as anyone else does. The nomination for Screenplay, however, is a bit of an absurdity; the characters speak in clichés and the script consists mostly of obvious, thudding symbols like bibles and rifles falling in the dust. This is making millions right now at the box office, though, and it should win plenty of statuettes come Oscar night. One more thing: this movie showed up very, very late to the party, and still managed to pull off six nominations, something other latecomers (Selma, Cake, A Most Violent Year) were not able to do. That it did this is mostly due to Eastwood's popularity among the Academy, but its tardiness still hurt it, otherwise we'd have seen nominations for Sienna Miller, here, and for Eastwood himself.

Will Win: Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing

Could Win: Picture

My Rating: #65 out of 73

The Theory of Everything

5 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Eddie Redmayne
• Actress: Felicity Jones
• Adapted Screenplay: Anthony McCarten
• Original Score: Jóhann Jóhannsson

Director: James Marsh

Cast: Redmayne, Jones, Charlie Cox, Harry Lloyd, David Thewlis, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, Alice Orr-Ewing

Well, I loved Harry Lloyd in this, and Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are both good (I loved Jones in last year's The Invisible Woman). This movie, though, is just so similar to The Imitation Game, and that is decidedly not a good thing. Still, it seems to have staying power. Redmayne won the Screen Actors Guild Award, and he may take the Oscar, too, although I don't think he will: Oscar tends to like its lead actors older. But it is definitely possible. All of this is a snoozefest. I don't want to keep complaining about this year's season, but most of the big films bored me to tears. The Theory of Everything, does have more redeeming qualities than Imitation, and it also has a weird love triangle that is at least intriguing.

Will Win: Score

Could Win: Actor

My Rating: #56 out of 73

Whiplash

5 Nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Damien Chazelle
• Supporting Actor: JK Simmons
• Film Editing: Tom Cross
• Sound Mixing

Director: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Miles Teller, Simmons, Paul Reiser, Melissa Benoist, Nate Lang, Austin Stowell

Well this is an excellent film. This is one of the best of the Best Picture nominees and one of my favorite films of the year. It's riveting filmmaking and the fact that it did as well as it did with the Academy is a shock and a delight to me. I was especially pleased to see this film's editor, Tom Cross, get a nomination. He deserves it. The editing is perhaps the most exciting thing in the movie, and this in a film that is a white-knuckled ride; I left the movie raving about Tom Cross, as well as Miles Teller and JK Simmons. Everything about this movie is just great.
Will Win: Supporting Actor

Could Win: Adapted Screenplay

My Rating: #9 out of 73

Foxcatcher

5 Nominations

• Director: Bennett Miller (Capote)
• Actor: Steve Carell
• Original Screenplay: E. Max Frye & Dan Futterman (Capote)
• Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) 
• Makeup

Director: Miller

Cast: Channing Tatum, Carell, Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave

This is very good, but its nominations are a little odd here – note that there is a Best Director nomination, but not a Best Picture nomination. This is an indication of respect for the movie but not affection. (My own review reflected this feeling when I saw it, as well.) Steve Carell's nomination here is unfortunate, because it could so easily have gone to David Oyelowo for Selma. Still, it's not undeserved; just unnecessary. I don't think it can realistically hope to win any Oscars on February 22, either. It's a very, very good movie, but I don't think anyone really loves it that fiercely.
Will Win: N/A
Could Win: Makeup
My Rating: #14 out of 73