Challengers (2024)

Challengers is the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross show. 

Actually, look, everyone in this is a star. And they’re all sexy as hell. And this is shot gorgeously. And the editing is fucking brilliant. And the script is just a silly sports melodrama, but it doesn’t matter because it’s so perfectly made and exquisitely directed. 

The fucking shot when everyone is turning their heads back and forth to watch the ball and Zendaya just is staring straight ahead??! Perfection.

I know not everyone will love the ending of this movie, but what I love about the ending is the way that Challengers moves into the realm of the metaphorical more and more steadily as the match goes on until it just exists purely as metaphor and refuses to go back to the real. It's so great.

Cinema Q

I decided to make this list after reading yet another critique of how Call Me by Your Name. The author of this particular think-piece was bemoaning the lack of queer cinema. What he meant was that although we have more films with representations of gay people in them, and even (I think he said this) more films about gay topics, we don't have filmmakers who are using the kinds of queer filmmaking techniques pioneered by Derek Jarman.

Pariah

In the first place, I don't really see how this is remotely true – Saint Laurent and Cemetery of Splendour and Moonlight and Carol simply were not that long ago, and each of them is plainly using queer techniques. As, for that matter, is Call Me by Your Name.

The main critique I read of Call Me by Your Name was, of course, that it didn't have enough sex in it. I can't say I really disagree. Although I thought the film was very sexy, the novel is explicit in ways that the film seemed occasionally to avoid. Not that Call Me by Your Name isn't sexy; it obviously is. And there are plenty of quite explicit sequences in it. But it seems to shy away slightly from gay sex. I don't need to make excuses for that, and I don't particularly care to. I rather agree. This bothered me a lot about Moonlight, too, even though I also loved that film.

God's Own Country

I think what irks me when I read takedowns of Call Me by Your Name by queer critics is that they always seem to want the movie to do everything. Call Me by Your Name is too romantic, and it doesn't deal with homophobia, and there's not enough sex, and it's set in the 1980s, and it doesn't deal with HIV/AIDS, and it's too bisexual, and it's about two males, and it doesn't take place in the U.S., and it's not about me. Theses writers seem to be really furious that every gay film doesn't include all the things. Which leads them to hate, say, Love, Simon, for not being the queer teenage breakthrough film they've been looking for forever, or to complain: where is the Moonlight for ladies?

Signature Move

Do we need more films about queer people? Yeah. Do we need more films about queer women in particular? Yeah. Do we need more movies about trans and gender-nonconforming folks? You know we do. Do I want to watch more stories about queer people that don't end in tragedy? For sure.
 
But every film about queer people doesn't need to do all things, and my first reaction whenever I read complaints like the ones about Call Me by Your Name is Oh! You don't see enough movies about queer people. Because it turns out they are there. Did you want a movie about a young woman developing an attraction to other women and developing superpowers at the same time? You should see Thelma. Were you interested in watching more explicit gay sex as part of the film's narrative? You should see Beach Rats. Were you interested in homophobia and its effects on both sex and love? You should see God's Own Country. Did you want to see a movie about a girl falling in love with a gender-nonconforming person in Chicago? You should see Princess Cyd. Were you interested in HIV and its effects on the queer community? You should see 120 Beats per Minute. Did you want a pure fantasy about a teenager meeting another queer teenager and developing a relationship? You should see Handsome Devil. Were you wanting a movie about a transwoman dealing with homophobia and grief? I hope you saw A Fantastic Woman. And these were just the films released in 2017.

120 Beats per Minute

My point is that these films exist. We're just not watching them. And then we're complaining that the ones that we do watch don't do all the things we want them to do. All the critiques I read of Call Me by Your Name were tinged with this complaint. But it's not this enough. And I wished it did more of this. That's cool. It's totally valid. Call Me by Your Name was doing its own, particular, Luca Guadagnino–James Ivory thing. Ivory has been making movies since the early 1960s and he sees the world a certain way, and Guadagnino has particular interests as a filmmaker related to sensuality and nature and food. I loved this film, and I loved it for what it was... and I also understand not loving it for those same reasons. But to move from there to complain about the state of queer filmmaking is, to my mind, ignorant. Watch more queer movies and you'll see that there are lots more queer stories out there. I can't think of a better time for queer cinema than right now – and maybe that's because I recently saw 120 Beats per Minute, which was easily one of the best movies of 2017 and is unquestionably the best film about AIDS I've ever seen. It actually just might be objectively the best film about AIDS ever made.

So, I want to inaugurate a Cinema Q list. A long list of movies about LGBTQI topics and queer people for every year. The list will be annual and will link to whatever comments I've written about it. I am imagining this as a resource, but also as a kind of memory bank. I will update this list continually when I know about a queer film or when someone messages me a recommendation.

The female Moonlight, incidentally, was called Pariah. Did you see it?

Cinema Q

Oscar Nominations 2018: Part 3 of 12

Back to Part 1 or Part 2.

My Best of 2017.

Call Me by Your Name

4 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Timothée Chalamet 
• Adapted Screenplay: James Ivory
• Song – "Mystery of Love": Sufjan Stevens

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois, Vanda Capriola, Antonio Rimoldi

This is my favorite movie of the year. I love it unapologetically and unabashedly. One of my favorite things about it is that it is a deeply sensual film – like of all of Guadagnino's movies – but that when Elio falls in love with his idol Oliver, the film shows us this in ways other than the traditional male-gaze ways of doing this (normally the camera would focus on specific body parts and linger on them, and through this we would experience Elio's attraction to Oliver). But Guadagnino shows us that Elio sees Oliver not as a sex object but as a conquering hero, someone way cooler than him, someone free and unrestricted and confident, and it is this that attracts him. The novel on which this is based covers a great deal more area than this film; in the tradition of the coming-of-age movie, Guadagnino and Ivory's movie focuses on the one summer of Elio and Oliver's meeting, and only gestures toward the longterm effects of that summer. This is a choice that works well for the film. Movies need to cut down the plot elements in novels for time reasons (Mudbound ought to have taken a note about this). There is so much more to love about Call Me by Your Name. I think I loved every single scene. I found the whole thing deeply moving. I love this film, and so I also think it is ridiculous that it didn't get a best director nomination, that Michael Stuhlbarg didn't get a supporting actor nomination, that Walter Fasano isn't nominated for editing, and that Sayombu Mukdeeprom didn't get a cinematography nomination. Apparently this connected with Academy members fairly well, but they weren't as overwhelmed as I was. Oh well. As for winning Oscars, James Ivory is going to win. Although he has been nominated for directing A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, this will be his first Oscar in his more-than-fifty-year career. I can't wait for his speech.

Will Win: Adapted Screenplay

Could Win: Actor, Song

My Rating: #1 out of 78

Mudbound

4 Nominations

• Adapted Screenplay: Dee Rees & Virgil Williams
• Supporting Actress: Mary J. Blige
• Cinematography: Rachel Morrison
• Song – "Mighty River": Mary J. Blige & Raphael Saadiq & Taura Stinson

Director: Rees

Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Mary J. Blige, Jonathan Banks, Kerry Cahill

This movie is a real disappointment, and I continue to be surprised that of all the Netflix movies that would actually break through, that it is this mess of a film that managed to do it. (Beasts of No Nation, which appeared only two years ago, easily deserved six nominations and got zero.) I guess what maybe is even more disappointing to me is that Dee Rees, whose first film was the lesbian coming-of-age drama Pariah made this rather boring movie that is mostly about straight white folks. I hope her next movie is a return to something interesting. I don't think I'll say anything more about the film; I've already written about how wooden I think Mary J. Blige is and what a mess the screenplay is, but I will say I recently saw Hostiles, and that film's cinematography is much, much, much better than the work in this movie. So now I'm annoyed about that nomination, too. Sigh. Who knows why the Academy likes what it likes.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Song
My Rating: #62 out of 78

Star Wars: Episode VIII – the Last Jedi

4 Nominations

• Score: John Williams (Star Wars: Episode VII - the Force Awakens, The Book Thief, Lincoln, War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, Munich, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Catch Me If You Can, Artificial Intelligence: A.I., Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Patriot, Angela's Ashes, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Sleepers, Nixon, Sabrina, Schindler's List, JFK, Home Alone, Born on the Fourth of July, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Accidental Tourist, Empire of the Sun, The Witches of Eastwick, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The River, Return of the Jedi, E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, The Towering Inferno, Tom Sawyer, Cinderella Liberty, Images, The Poseidon Adventure, Fiddler on the Roof, The Reivers, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Valley of the Dolls)
  
• Visual Effects
• Sound Mixing
• Sound Effects Editing

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hammill, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, Andy Serkis, Frank Oz, Lupita Nyong'o

Yesterday I listened to a friend of mine go on a rant about why this movie was not good, but his points were related to the plot choices that the series is making – not enough Skywalkers – and then also a discussion of the silliness of the movie, its irony about its own cheesiness. Obviously I am not really a fanboy of this series, and so it does not matter to me what they do plot-wise. And because I already think these movies are really cheesy, I rather like it better when a film admits to being silly, when it knows it is silly. As pertains to Oscar, I will say that I was actually sort of shocked that John Williams' score for this movie got nominated. The music branch will nominate Williams every single year – this is his 51st nomination. That certainly is no surprise, but it is odd to me that they didn't opt for his music for The Post instead of the recycled scoring in this movie. It's sort of embarrassing that they do this every year.
Will Win: Visual Effects

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #34 out of 78

I, Tonya

3 Nominations

• Actress: Margot Robbie
• Supporting Actress: Allison Janney
• Film Editing: Tatiana S. Riegel

Director: Craig Gillespie

Cast: Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Paul Walter Hauser, Julianne Nicholson, Bobby Cannavale, Ricky Russert, Anthony Reynolds, Joshua Mikel

This movie was not for me. It was fun for everyone I saw it with, but I was rather annoyed with its single note, its almost complete lack of stakes, and its missed directing opportunities. I never knew what the stakes were at any given moment – if she wins this competition what happens? Does she get rich? Does she get an endorsement deal? Does she think she'll be happy? The movie never communicates any of this. This is partly because of the perspective that the film takes, where we're listening to interviews about something that happened a long time ago, but it is partly because the film doesn't script these things into what its doing and the direction is unclear. I liked Margot Robbie in the movie well enough, but Allison Janney plays the same scene again and again; I found this a bit exhausting, actually. The more I've thought about it, the more I think this movie would've been better if it had been a better sports movie.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Supporting Actress
My Rating: #50 out of 78

2011's Nominees: Part 9 of 12

I AM LOVE

1 Nomination:

  · Best Costume Design

Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Flavio Parenti, Pippo Delbono, Alba Rohrwacher, Marisa Berenson, Mattia Zaccaro

 
Another film that is wonderful that was mostly ignored by the Academy. I Am Love is actually a masterful achievement. If you love food or John Adams or Tilda Swinton or Italy or pretty things you will love this movie. I have written about it here, and it wasn't my favorite movie of the year, but it is excellent nonetheless and Tilda Swinton's performance is absolutely genius. The woman is at the top of her game – a shocking thing to say about an actress who has been giving incredible performances for over a decade – and the fact that the Academy ignored her (and cinematographer Yorick Le Saux) ought really to give them shame. But, as someone wise once said, a good film is its own reward. I Am Love is one of the year's must-see pictures.

Will Win: N/A
Might Win: N/A
My Rating: #15 out of 48

THE ILLUSIONIST

1 Nomination:

  · Best Animated Feature

Director: Sylvain Chomet
Cast: Jacques Tati (!), Jean-Claude Donda, Eilidh Rankin

 
Lovely, beautiful, charming, whimsical, funny, nostalgic, and magical, but also critically aware, and very very smart. I cannot tell you how much I loved this film and was moved by it. I was not as over the moon about Chomet's previous film, The Triplets of Belleville, but The Illusionist (not to be confused with the boring film with Edward Norton) just hits every note perfectly. I cannot emphasize what a great movie this is. I don't think The Illusionist has much of a chance of winning the Oscar against Toy Story 3, but it is my favorite in the category all the same.


Will Win: N/A
Might Win: N/A
My Rating: #2 out of 48

SALT

1 Nomination:

  · Best Sound Mixing

Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, August Diehl, Andre Braugher

 
Who is Salt? Who cares. This movie is actually one of the stupidest action movies I've ever seen. What happened to Phillip Noyce? Remember when he made Rabbit-Proof Fence and everyone was talking about him? Now he makes awkward Angelina Jolie vehicles that mostly consist of chase scenes. Where did it all go wrong? The colossal stupidity of this movie nearly defies description so I am not going to go into it. Suffice it to say, that you may avoid this film easily without it impacting your life and you would be wise to do so.

 
Will Win: N/A
Might Win: N/A
My Rating: #47 out of 48

I Am Love

Before catching I Am Love (Io Sono l'Amore) – about which I had been excited for weeks – I had never seen a Luca Guadagnino movie. I guess this should not come as much of a surprise. I have never even heard of any of these movies before, and – let's not lie – I've heard about a lot of movies.

I Am Love is, of course, intriguing first of all because it involves Tilda Swinton, and because it involves Tilda Swinton speaking Italian. I Am Love is also a food movie. Swilda falls in love with her son's friend because he is an excellent chef, so the moment of falling in love happens over a plate of prawns.

The movie is a lot of things. Let me say first that this is totally an art film, by which I mean this: I Am Love's most distinguishing feature is that the score is almost entirely the music of John Adams. Adams has not made many film scores, and there is a reason for this. This reason is the same reason that not a lot of films have been made with, say, the music of Steve Reich. Oddly, though, I found Adams' music very compelling for the film.

I Am Love is also shot in a very distinct way. I found the look of the film very similar to The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which I think was probably a conscious choice on Guadagnino's part. There are a lot of odd aerial shots. It looks really cool.

The film's subject matter on the other hand, struck me as very conventional. It is the old, old, old story of a woman's (re?)awakening as she falls in love (sort of) with a younger man and begins an affair with him that points up just how unhappy she is with her life. This affair – and the woman's new dissatisfaction with her life – makes clear the corruption or the decadence of the society in which she lives. This realization happens for both the woman and the audience. It isn't exactly the most novel of plotlines.

But the filmmaking is just so interesting in I Am Love. The filmmaker's love of food is evident. The fashion is incredible. And the music, as I mentioned, is fascinating. How Guadagnino uses Adams' music is interesting. I Am Love is slow; it takes its time with plot, character, theme, all of it. And it certainly does not work the whole time – as I said, the plot is far more conventional than it ought to be – but I Am Love is always intriguing. There is always something cool to look at. Surprises are always occurring.

Also, the end. I love a good ending, and I have to say that I Am Love's ending is really, really awesome. And again, this is mostly to do with the fascinating score by Adams.

Anyway, I think this is worth checking out if you are into slow cinema. It doesn't always work as well as it wants to, but it's got some great stuff in it.