Oscar Nominations 2023: 3 of 9

We're jumping to a slightly lower tier with the next four movies:

Napoleon

3 nominations

• Production Design: Arthur Max (The Martian, American Gangster, Gladiator) & Elli Griff
• Costume Design: Janty Yates (Gladiator) & Dave Crossman 
• Visual Effects

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Rupert Everett, Tahar Rahim, Edouard Philipponnat, Mark Bonnar, Paul Rhys, Riana Duce, Ben Miles, Ludivine Sagnier, John Hollingworth, Youssef Kerkour, Miles Jupp, Scott Handy 

The best thing about this movie was its visual effects, so I'm glad it got honored there. I've written about this movie already and what I thought about its interminable running time, its real lack of adventure, and its deep pettiness toward the emperor at its center. I was not surprised to see it appear in the production design and costume categories. Both are excellent achievements, but I do wonder why this branch bothered with this movie. There are actually more interesting costumes and production designs in other places. Also, it's hilarious to me that the Academy split the Art Directors branch so that the Costume Designers had their own branch (this happened in 2013), and yet here both branches are nominating the same 5 films in their respective categories. Boring. Also Napoleon won't be winning anything. And I am very sorry that this movie is not better.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #63 out of 72

Past Lives

2 nominations

• Picture
• Original Screenplay: Celine Song

Director: Song

Cast: Greta Lee, Yoo Teo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah, Yim Seung-min, Yoon Ji-hye, Choi Won-young, Ahn Min-young

This is one of the most original films to come out this year, and it is probably also one of the most critically acclaimed films this year. It deserves all of its accolades. This movie is a real exploration of the multiverse. Our past lives or other lives really do exist, they live on in our memories, and they pop up suddenly with the arrival of a former lover or a memory of something that might have been. Celine Song's movie explores the singular heartbreak of meeting someone with whom one could have had a whole entire life except that your choices have taken you in different directions. If you haven't seen this film, you should. I am very glad it managed a Best Picture nomination. It deserves it, despite it being what seems like a "small" movie next to something enormous like Napoleon or Oppenheimer.

Will win: N/A

Could win: Original Screenplay

My rating: #4 out of 72

Nyad

2 nominations

• Actress: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right, Being Julia, American Beauty, The Grifters)
• Supporting Actress: Jodie Foster (Nell, The Silence of the Lambs, The Accused, Taxi Driver)

Director: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Cast: Bening, Foster, Rhys Ifans, Eric T. Miller, Anna Harriette Pittman, Nadia Lorencz, Karly Rothenberg, Luke Cosgrove, Marcus Young, Ethan Jones Romero, Jeena Yi

This is much better than it should be. I was very surprised to like this as much as I did. But this is, in the first place, quite a fun time, and in the second place, pretty damn inspirational. I am actually surprised that Annette Bening got a nomination here. I know she was nominated in all precursor awards shows, but I thought for sure she'd be a sort of also-ran in the category. She's s solid in this, but she does spend most of her time in the water being pummeled by exhaustion and jellyfish, so we spend most of our identificatory energy on Jodie Foster, who I adored in this movie. The real standout of Nyad is the return of Jodie Foster! And it heralds her new appearance on TV in True Detective. She's back, baby, and she's so good. (But this isn't going to win any Oscars.)

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #30 out of 72

La Sociedad de la Nieve (Society of the Snow)

2 nominations

• International Feature: Spain (Pain & Glory, The Sea Inside, All about My Mother, The Grandfather, Secrets of the Heart, The Age of Beauty, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Course Completed, Double Feature, Carmen, Begin the Beguine, The Nest, Mama Turns 100, That Obscure Object of Desire, My Dearest 'Señorita', Tristana, Bewitched Love, Los Tarantos, Placido, La Venganza)
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona

Cast: Enzo Vogrincic, Agustín Pardella, Matías Recalt, Esteban Bigliardi, Diego Vegezzi, Fernando Contingiani, Esteban Kukuriczka, Francisco Romero, Rafael Federman, Valentino Alonso, Tomas Wolf

This movie is so good! Do not be deterred by its long running time and its troubling subject matter. It's wonderfully shot and beautifully acted, and it packs a powerful emotional punch. This is on Netflix, so unfortunately most of us won't be able to see it on a big screen, but if you can, you should. The plane crash in the film's first act is one of the best I've ever seen put in a movie. It's edited impeccably, and one has a sense of every single thing that's happening. Then the movie shifts into an almost completely different mode as we suffer with the passengers the long wait in the mountains with the hope that someone will come rescue them. Somehow Bayona is able to manage the shift from intense action to contemplative, philosophical film. It's quite a feat, and Society of the Snow is really not to be missed. Enzo Vogrincic is extraordinary in this, and the entire company is amazing. Honestly, I'm surprised this wasn't nominated for more awards. Right off the bat, I can say that I really wish the Music Branch would stop hating Michael Giacchino; his score for Society of the Snow is absolutely beautiful and memorable, and it'll be in your head for days afterward.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #28 out of 72

More posts coming soon:

1. Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie, Maestro

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

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

Oscar Nominees 2013: Part 6 of 13

The Impossible

1 Nomination

• Actress: Naomi Watts (21 Grams)

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona

Cast: Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Sönke Möhring, Ploy Jindachote, Geraldine Chaplin

This could have been a movie-of-the-week-style sentimental melodrama. And it wouldn't surprise me if some viewers received it that way. I found the whole thing riveting. Now, it's not called The Impossible for nothing: the story is (to be oxymoronic about it) truly incredible. This family's story is really lovely, though, and the acting is great across the board – from the big stars Watts and McGregor, to the young children, to a beautiful single scene starring legendary actress Geraldine Chaplin. For me this is one of the hidden gems of the year, buried, for some reason, at the very end of the year. I want, also, to say that I am really happy that Naomi Watts snagged a nomination here. She is one of Hollywood's hardest-working performers, but she hasn't been nominated since 21 Grams which was over 10 years ago. She is a good performer who doesn't always get the best roles (my friend Justin once quipped that she's the poor man's Nicole Kidman) but she always does good work and chooses interesting films. Remember I ♥ Huckabees or The Painted Veil or We Don't Live Here Anymore? Good stuff.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #13 out of 63

Moonrise Kingdom

1 Nomination

• Original Screenplay: Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) & Roman Coppola

Director: Anderson

Cast: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban, Jason Schwartzman, Harvey Keitel

Yeah, this is an excellent picture. In my top ten for the year. And actually I think it is sort of absurd that Adam Stockhausen's incredible production design was overlooked by the Academy. (I am not surprised, I just think it is absurd.) I also think that Moonrise really ought to win this award. This film is honest and profound while being simple and very, very funny. In short, it accomplishes a great deal in a short amount of time, while never losing steam. I don't harbor any dreams that it can actually win the Original Screenplay Oscar, but it deserves it. And the truth is, Wes Anderson's films are so consistently interesting that even if Oscar never quite pays attention, they will always be must-sees for me.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #7 out of 63

The Sessions

1 Nomination

• Supporting Actress: Helen Hunt (As Good as It Gets)

Director: Ben Lewin

Cast: John Hawkes, Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Rhea Perlman, Adam Arkin, Ming Lo, Annika Marks, W. Earl Brown

This is a movie with a very big heart but not much else. John Hawkes plays famous disability-activist and poet Mark O'Brien, and the movie charts his relationships with a couple of different women, most importantly his sex therapist (Helen Hunt). Unlike most films, The Sessions is very sex-positive, and because I love sex-positivity, I was disposed to enjoy this movie, but... well the film shifts its tone with rapid frequency, moving from broad comedy to ineffectual stand-up (the scenes with William H. Macy) to scenes played very seriously. Hunt is absolutely wonderful in her role, and she has a scene near the end with Rhea Perlman that is wise and beautiful. But by that time I was rather tired of The Sessions, which I must say  has the absolute worst title of any movie this year. If you thought Silver Linings Playbook's title was bad (and it is), surely The Sessions takes the cake. The Sessions??? I know The Forty-Year-Old Virgin was already taken, but have a bit more imagination.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #47 out of 63

An Appreciation of Supporting Actors

I am not one to rant about whom the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences decides to nominate for its big awards. I think the nominations really are the coolest thing about the whole Oscar process. Because the nominations are given by peers who are working in their fields, I really do believe that it's an honor just to be nominated.

First-time nominee Bradley Cooper

This year, there were four actors nominated for the very first time – Bradley Cooper, Hugh Jackman, Quvenzhané Wallis, and Emannuelle Riva. This is an incredibly small number by any standard. Last year there were nine actors with first-time nominations. In 2011 there were eight. In 2010 that number was a whopping twelve.

Two thoughts. First, it is to the Academy's benefit to nominate a large number of new people every year, to give a kind of official blessing to actors who have been working hard for many years and to enable them to get more and better work (like Jacki Weaver or Shohreh Aghdashloo or Octavia Spencer or Sophie Okonedo), and when they fail to do this, they really fail a whole bunch of good, hard-working performers. Second, what this small number of first-time nominees demonstrates even more fully is an absolutely astounding lack of imagination. Instead of nominating a bunch of truly amazing supporting performances, they chose to nominate in both supporting categories ten actors who have all been nominated before. All of them. For the men it's even worse. Every single one of the nominees for supporting actor has won an Oscar before. Each and every one of them has an Oscar. Robert De Niro, in fact, has two.

Now it is true that in Silver Linings Playbook De Niro probably gives his best performance in the last fifteen years. Broad love for the film meant that he was definitely getting a nomination. But is it really an astounding performance in any way? Tommy Lee Jones, Philip Seymour Hoffman (who I think is always overwrought), and Christoph Waltz? All of whom already have Oscars? Why is it that 4 of the 5 nominations in this category come from Best Picture nominees? Last year that ratio was 2 out of 5. In 2011 only 1 out of the 5 was in a movie nominated for Best Picture (eventual winner Christoph Waltz).

My favorite performances of the year from supporting actors – apparently – had no shot of a nomination. Most have never been nominated for Oscars before, I guess, and so they're on nobody's radars. A true shame because there were some really wonderful performances by hard-working, excellent actors happening on the sidelines of this year's movies. I will stop complaining for the rest of this post and (instead) talk about some of these great performances.

Tom Holland is great in The Impossible. This true (but totally preposterous) story of a family separated and battered by the tsunami in 2004 is an emotional rollercoaster and is filmed in gruesome detail. Holland plays the eldest of a trio of boys who are separated when the giant waves hit. Holland's character Lucas manages to locate his mother (played by Naomi Watts) and though she is very badly wounded, he helps her to safety, rescues a random baby, and then while he's in this hospital filled with refugees, he starts to help people find their family members, going from room to room calling out names in the hope that people will be reunited. As I say it is incredible, but my generally skeptical heart of stone melted constantly when Holland was onscreen. His performance is honest and beautiful and completely believable, and as we follow the ups and downs of his narrative of loss and terror, the overwhelming nature of what he is going through also manages to be our way of going through it. It is an excellent performance.

Nate Parker in Arbitrage plays a young man named Jimmy who gets embroiled in the dealings of Richard Gere's scheming, criminal businessman Robert. Gere's character basically foists his entire problem onto Jimmy, and Jimmy has to deal with the difficult ethical question of whether or not to turn Gere's character in to the police or to protect a man to whom he feels indebted. Richard Gere's performance created quite a lot of buzz during Awards season, but Nate Parker is a revelation. His moral quandary and his total desperation as the noose around him and Robert tightens are beautifully performed, and – given that he is also the ethical center of the film – his decisions resonate deeply with the audience. Arbitrage, at key points in its narrative, asks us to put ourselves in Jimmy's shoes, and Parker's performance has a suppleness and power that makes that identification riveting and deeply emotional.

In A Royal Affair, Mikkel Bøe Folsgaard plays the crazy Danish/Norwegian king Christian VII in eighteenth-century Denmark. The performance already won the 2012 Silver Bear at the Berlinale, and his work is really impeccable. Folsgaard manages to play this young monarch with a vulnerability and humanity despite his truly ridiculous and oftentimes violent and cruel behavior. And as much as the audience is alternately disgusted with him and terrified of him, I found myself sympathizing with this young man, who has no control over his irrationality, and needs more than anything else someone to attempt to understand him. It is completely due to Folsgaard's excellent work that the performance doesn't descend into Tom-Hulce-in-Amadeus craziness. Instead, King Christian is a character we want to succeed, whom we want to forgive even when he behaves erratically.

In Monsieur Lazhar, a primary-school teacher kills herself in her classroom and in the morning, she is found when the school bell rings. The film is no great shakes, honestly, but Émilien Néron, who plays the young boy who discovers his teacher's body, and who harbors an enormous amount of guilt about his teacher's suicide – he blames himself. Néron is superb in this part. He communicates his character's terror and disaffection perfectly. This kid will break your heart; I promise. I couldn't watch him without welling up. It is exactly the kind of performance that deserves to be honored, and it isn't just me who thought so: Néron won the 2012 Jutra Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Monsieur Lazhar.

In the excellent Beasts of the Southern Wild there is more than one standout performance. Everyone is understandably talking about young Quvenzhané Wallis's fabulous work in the movie, but Dwight Henry as Hushpuppy's father is also wonderful, and in a true supporting fashion that never overshadows or eclipses Wallis. In many ways, Henry's character is the conflict of the film, pulling his daughter in various directions and teaching his daughter the things she needs to know before he goes. It's a desperate performance of parental anguish and physical agony. If the film is as intensely moving as it is, this is not due only to Wallis, director Benh Zeitlin, and the excellent script, score, photography, etc. (it really is the best movie of the year) but also due to Dwight Henry's performance and the fierceness with which he approaches this role.

And you already know how much I loved Samuel L. Jackson in Django Unchained since apparently I can't seem to shut up about how good he is in that movie. In fact, Jackson steals the movie from all of his co-stars. Jackson's role, granted, is the best written role in the film, but the actor's skill at playing Tarantino's dialogue to the hilt, his genius at knowing just what kind of film he is in, and his way of making a role into something iconic illustrate that Jackson is not only one of the most exciting actors to watch onscreen these days, he is clearly also one of the most shrewd. The performance is over-the-top while managing to be empathetic and surprising, and it's completely, totally, perfect for Django.
 

And there are more. Anna Karenina's earnest farmer Levin is played with mannered intensity and timid passion by Domhnall Gleeson. His performance is eager and honest, and it is perhaps the most emotionally charged work in what I thought was a beautiful film. And Christopher Walken's sad, aging dog-napper in Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths also deserves mention. It's an excellent performance of a profoundly tired character dealing with great loss. There is also Irrfan Khan as the adult survivor of a great adventure in Life of Pi, and Javier Bardem psychopathic villain in Skyfall.

No matter how you look at it, there were some beautiful performances by supporting actors this year. Some of these performances were the best things in their films, and some simply made excellent films even better with their honest work. In any case, I had a great time watching these actors at the movies this year, and I hope they stay on all of our radars, Oscar nomination or no.