Oscar Nominations 2021: 5 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story

2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley

3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter

4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee

 

Tick, Tick... Boom!

2 Nominations

• Actor: Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)
• Film Editing

Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Cast: Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry, Jonathan Marc Sherman, MJ Rodriguez, Judith Light, Bradley Whitford, Ben Levi Ross

I was stunned that I liked this as much as I did, but, listen: Tick, Tick... Boom! was the best musical of the year, followed closely by Belle and Encanto. What's amazing about this is that Belle and Encanto are animated films and Tick, Tick... Boom! isn't, although it does have some cool fantasy sequences – that work well and lean into the theatricality of the piece. It's a pretty stunning achievement, honestly, and I'm glad Garfield has shown up here. He's just great in this. The film editing nod from the editors branch means that they thought it was the best musical of the year, too. Musical films win in this category every once in a while – Bohemian Rhapsody, Whiplash, Slumdog Millionaire – but this movie is just happy to be at the ceremony, I think. It's a small scale movie of a minor musical theatre piece, but Miranda, Garfield, and company knocked it out of the park.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #11 out of 58

Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas)

2 Nominations

• Actress: Penélope Cruz (Nine, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Volver)
• Score: Alberto Iglesias (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Kite Runner, The Constant Gardener)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Rossy de Palma

I loved this movie, but I didn't write about it when it came out. It seemed to demand a little too academic of an analysis from me, and I was really busy that month. But here goes: I know a lot of people have had trouble making sense of the first section and last section, which are very seriously about genocide in Spain, and the long middle section, which is sexy and pulpy and brazenly melodramatic. But here's the thing. Melodrama is about the dividedness we experience in side the self. The very purpose of melodrama is to speak about how none of us is single. We are simply not one. Coupling is impossible in melodrama because we are already not one and so we can never be two. We are divided. Our loyalties are split – as Janis's loyalties are split between love for Spain and love for her father, between love for her lover and love for motherhood as such, between her love for Ana and her love for Arturo. But also the question of the pulpy melodrama at the center of Parallel Mothers is a question of paternity/maternity. What does it mean to build a legacy? To have a child? To love it? To want it to last longer? And then to want also to draw back on those in the past. The parallel mothers are, in many ways, all those mothers in the village, raising their children on their own in the fatherless town. The final, gorgeous, heartbreaking shot of Parallel Mothers brings these two plots together flawlessly. This could be your father. This could be your lover. Fascism in Spain broke up the family line. It took babies out of the hands of their fathers. So, I think that what seems like tonal dissonance in this film is actually a perfect parallel.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #7 out of 58

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

2 Nominations

• Actress: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, The Help)
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sam Jaeger, Gabriel Olds, Mark Wystrach, Louis Cancelmi

This is a good enough movie, and I enjoyed myself quite a bit. It's also a rather gay movie, even though there are almost no gay characters. The whole thing just has a very gay sensibility. Jessica Chastain is excellent as Tammy Faye, and she manages to be nuanced and sensitive and give us a portrayal of Tammy Faye's depth as a human even when Tammy Faye herself is the shallow caricature we are seeing on television. It's pretty amazing actually, and she is the favorite to win best actress (although I am betting against her). Obviously, also, the Tammy Faye makeup is iconic, and so this film just had to be nominated in that category. It could potentially win that one too.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Actress, Makeup & Hairstyling

My Rating: #38 out of 58

The Worst Person in the World (Verdens Verste Menneske)

2 Nominations

• Original Screenplay: Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt
• International Feature: Norway (Kon-Tiki, Elling, The Other Side of Sunday, Ofelaš (Pathfinder), Nine Lives: the Story of Jan Baalsrud)

Director: Joachim Trier

Cast: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner, Helene Bjørnebye, Vidar Sandem

This is another one of the best movies of the year. I'm telling you: the Academy got a lot right this year. This deserves both of its nominations and actually a bunch more. The three main acting performances are extraordinary, with Renate Reinsve leading the pack. I defy you not to fall in love with her. She's incredible. I love Joachim Trier's movies; I think he has deep insights into human behavior, and this film is no exception. There are just extraordinarily wise sections of this film that ask you to think deeply about your own choices and what you're willing to risk. It's so good. I recommend that you see this movie, and I am not one to recommend movies, usually. But The Worst Person in the World is sexy and funny and wise and dynamic and heartbreaking all at once.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #2 out of 58

6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

I never did see the documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye on which this film is based, and I'm sure my thoughts would be richer if I had, but here we are.

I quite liked this movie. Jessica Chastain is fully and completely committed to doing Tammy Faye Bakker at every moment, and this performance feels nuanced and sensitive and loving even when Tammy Faye herself feels like she's a cartoon. It's a great performance, and the accolades Chastain is receiving are deserved. (Also, the makeup is great!)

One of the issues I have with the film itself is that it doesn't really let us in on what is going on with Jim Bakker and his swindling deals. The Eyes of Tammy Faye sort of takes Tammy Faye's perspective, and since she didn't concern herself with Jim's dealings, his sexual assaults, and his (was this real?) homosexual affairs, we learn absolutely nothing about any of them. This feels weird; I felt sort of robbed of the explanation for the Bakkers' downfall, and because this was left out we really didn't get to see Tammy Faye's responses to any of this. It just feels like a big chunk of the story is missing. A character played by Sam Jaeger appears in act two, and I swear I still don't know who he was supposed to be other than a rich man. (I just googled it. He was playing Roe Messner, whom Tammy Faye married right after divorcing Jim Bakker. The film makes it seem like she's just hanging out by herself in a tiny apartment.)

The other result of leaving out Jim Bakker's shady deals is that the real villain of the film turns out to be none other than Jerry Falwell, who is a complete asshole in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. I have nothing bad to say about that. It's clear in this movie that Falwell and Pat Robertson are calculating, wealth-amassing figures exploiting their tax-exempt status and attempting to influence U.S. American politics; what they are not is spiritual leaders. (It is insane to me that these men who run businesses that are exempt from U.S. American taxes can simultaneously claim to be somehow oppressed. Literally the government lets you work without paying taxes and you're oppressed???)

Anyway, I had fun, and I was too young to remember much of what goes on in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, so I learned things.

Oscar Nominations 2018: Part 6 of 12

Back to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, or Part 5.

My Best of 2017.

Logan

1 Nomination

• Adapted Screenplay: Scott Frank (Out of Sight) & Michael Green & James Mangold
  

Director: Mangold

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Dafne Keen, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant, Boyd Holbrook, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal, Quincy Fouse, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Richard E. Grant

The absolute best X-men movie we've ever had. I cannot believe this got an Oscar nomination, but goddammit it deserves this. The strongest component of Logan is, of course, its script, which is smart and poignant and (actually) quite moving. But the quality that makes Logan stand out from other X-men movies specifically and other superhero movies in general is that this superhero movie is rated R. The R rating made Logan into what it is. We've never seen Wolverine's claws wreak the bloody havoc they wreak in this movie. We've never seen the pain that Logan feels, the agony he experiences as bullets rip through his flesh, before. Mangold's willingness to do this, to go there – as well as Fox's willingness to allow this – elevates the level of the film to the level of something important. This isn't a stupid action movie where no one gets hurt. In this film, people are bodies. They get wounded, they hurt, they break apart. It's not only an ethical move for a superhero movie, it also makes for great storytelling. This is one of my favorite movies of the year.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #16 out of 81

The Big Sick

1 Nomination

• Original Screenplay: Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Nanjiani, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Zoe Kazan, Adeel Akhtar, Anupam Kher, Zenobia Shroff, Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant, Kurt Braunohler, David Alan Grier

This is funny and romantic and I really liked it. I am really happy it got this nomination, too, because the entire enterprise is cute and very funny. Holly Hunter is also excellent in the movie. I can recommend this to everyone. I don't think there's anyone who won't like this movie. It isn't going to win the Oscar, but this nomination is great news for Nanjiani's career.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #23 out of 81

The Florida Project

1 Nomination

• Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire, Platoon)

Director: Sean Baker

Cast: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Dafoe, Christopher Rivera, Aiden Malik, Valeria Cotto, Mela Murder, Josie Olivo, Caleb Landry Jones

Ugh. I have already detailed my experience with this film, which I so wanted to be good. But The Florida Project is not good, and I have, frankly, been completely baffled by the love that so many American critics have shown this shallow, meaningless movie. Sean Baker is a filmmaker that deliberately tries to avoid saying anything, and so his movies finally provide no insight into the characters he has created. I felt this with Tangerine and it is true again with The Florida Project. I am an empathetic person, and so I find this entire enterprise incredibly frustrating. It's just all so shallow, and actually it begins to feel sort of hostile after a while. The more that I think about how The Florida Project works, the more I feel as though it is contemptuous of its intriguing characters. But I guess I am supposed to be talking about Willem Dafoe... Dafoe is excellent in this movie, and not only because he is an actor among non-actors doing excellent work (he also has a superb scene with Caleb Landry Jones, who is an actor and is also in Three Billboards). Dafoe's characterization is beautiful and humane and I would be totally pleased if he won the Oscar for this. But fuck this movie.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Supporting Actor

My Rating: #76 out of 81

All the Money in the World

1 Nomination

• Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners, The Last Station)

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Michelle Williams, Mark Wahlberg, Plummer, Romain Duris, Charlie Plummer, Timothy Hutton

This film is surprisingly slow, and I am not sure I understand what it is trying to do. I think that's because this movie isn't quite sure what it is trying to do. Is this a meditation on wealth and greed, and perhaps on how being totally greedy keeps one from having real feelings toward family or real relationships with those one supposedly loves? Or is this an action-movie-slash-heist-movie about a kidnapping and rescue. As it turns out, All the Money in the World does both of these things halfway, and doesn't do either of them very well. Michelle Williams spends the whole movie doing a kind of Natalie-Portman-in-Jackie accent that – even if it's accurate – sounds stilted and strange and made me doubt her sincerity. Mark Wahlberg is completely and totally miscast, like a bull in a strange china shop. And then there is the Kevin Spacey–Christopher Plummer debacle (or is it a saga?). Plummer is fine in the part, but the ghost of Kevin Spacey, who was fired while the movie was in post-production, haunts this whole enterprise. It would feel like more of a triumph if the movie were any good, but it's mostly not.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #68 out of 81

The Big Sick

The Big Sick is really funny. Holly Hunter and Ray Romano are great.
And I laughed a lot. Also, turns out this is super queer: it's totally about killing your parents.

Unintentional Hipsters

I used occasionally to visit this website called Unintentional Hipster. I think it was a tumblr. And it was mostly just pictures of elderly people making ridiculous fashion choices and riding around on bicycles. But, actually, if a bearded, manbunned twentysomething who also went to the gym were in the same outfit, we would all be like oh hello, can someone introduce me to THAD over there?

This is the premise of Hello, My Name Is Doris, an adorable romantic comedy out now on DVD about a sexagenarian hoarder whose mother has recently died. Doris, whose life has, obviously just changed very dramatically, falls in love with a much younger man who has recently started working at her job. (The man, by the way, is Max Greenfield, who is really quite gorgeous, but perhaps a bit bland.)

Hilarity ensues.

And a lot of awkwardness. So much awkwardness.

But Hello, My Name Is Doris is almost totally delightful, and Sally Field plays Doris to the absolute hilt. It's a great comic performance.

I think what I liked so much about this movie is that although it is clear that Doris misreads the situations in which she finds herself, and she doesn't understand how to deal with these young people, the film also knows that these young people do not know Doris herself. Her life is rich and full and interesting, and they don't understand that.

In any case, this is a very funny, delightful little film with a beautiful central performance, and a hilarious supporting performance by Tyne Daly as Doris's BFF.