Oscar Nominations 2024: 6 of 11

We've made it to the single-digit movies, and this is another group with one of my top films of the year in it:

Straume (Flow)

2 nominations

• International Feature: Latvia (1st time nominee)
• Animated Feature

Director: Gints Zilbalodis

Cast: N/A

The reason that every critics group said that Flow was the best animated film of the year is because it is the best animated film of the year. It's not going to win the Oscar, and that's just absurd, honestly. This movie is wonderful. It's a deeply moving, heartwarming, scary, and also quite funny odyssey as a cat experiences an apocalypse, an apparently worldwide flood that drowns everything. But this is not an adventure film so much as it is a film about working together, living together, being together. Flow also has wonderfully spiritual sequences. It's just exquisite. As for the nomination for International Feature, this is Latvia's first nomination, which is cool, but I am surprised by this nomination. A few years ago, when this award was called "Best Foreign Language Picture", Flow would have been disqualified for having no dialogue. Apparently that rule is out with the change in award title. I'm not mad, either way, because this movie is in my top ten for the year.

Will win: N/A

Could win: Animated Feature

My rating: #8 out of 97

September 5

1 nomination

• Original Screenplay: Moritz Binder & Alex David & Tim Fehlbaum

Director: Fehlbaum

Cast: John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Marcus Rutherford, Benjamin Walker, Georgina Rich, Zinedine Soualem, Cory Johnson, Rony Herman

This movie is tight and clever and absolutely never feels exploitative. Instead it feels really smart about the violence at its center despite the fact that this is a thriller about telling a good story via television news. I think my favorite part of this is how careful and intelligent it is. For one thing, the movie demonstrates that "terrorist" comes into being to describe these particular guerrillas in the 1970s, which is super interesting. September 5 also make the argument that this didn’t need to happen if these local Munich police had been better, if the Germans hadn’t also already attempted to commit genocide a mere thirty years prior, and if the Israeli government would have negotiated. It really puts this violence in context in a very smart way, I think. But this is also gripping drama, even though most of us probably know how it ends. The acting is really fucking fantastic too, and John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benesch are absolutely great. I was very into this.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #27 out of 97

Maria

1 nomination

• Cinematography: Edward Lachman (El Conde, Carol, Far from Heaven)

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Stephen Ashfield, Vincent Macaigne, Lydia Koniordu

I wrote in my initial thoughts on this movie, that it is overwrought and melodramatic and excessive, but that to me it seemed to get to something true after all. Everyone I've spoken to about this film, though, has found the film to be fairly bad. I kinda get it, but I didn't hate this. I love me some Angelina, and I adore Maria Callas, so I was bound to mostly like this, I guess. Ed Lachman definitely deserves his nomination here—his second in two years after not being nominated for twenty years!—and indeed the visuals really were the most stunning part of Maria.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #65 out of 97

More 2024 posts:

1. Emilia Pérez, The Brutalist, Wicked

2. A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Anora

3. The Substance, Dune: Part Two, Nosferatu

4. I'm Still Here, Sing Sing, The Wild Robot

5. Nickel Boys, The Apprentice, A Real Pain

7. The Seed of the Sacred Fig, The Girl with the Needle, Gladiator II

8. Inside Out 2, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Memoir of a Snail

9. Animated Short Films

10. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Alien: Romulus, Better Man

11. A Different Man, Elton John: Never Too Late, The Six Triple Eight

Maria (2024)

Pablo Larraín is doing his usual Pablo Larraín thing here. For my money, Maria is not nearly as good as Spencer, but it's a good deal better than Jackie (not that that would be difficult). 

On the one hand Maria is overwrought and melodramatic and excessive. It frequently feels theatrical and false, calling attention to itself as a performance or dramatization. But on the other hand, all of the masks in Maria feel true and deep and desperate. 

In many ways, although this is a film about a diva who was never not on stage, never not faking it, Larraín gets to something honest and sensitive. Just because the tears had to be manufactured doesn’t mean they don’t come from real grief.

The art direction is gorgeous in this, and the makeup is exquisite. Jolie is luminous and every bit the movie star. I was also in love with Pierfrancesco Favino (he’s always good, but he is the real heart of Maria, and he teaches us how to love her).

Oscar Nominations 2023: 5 of 9

The rest of the movies that got Oscar nominations all got only one nomination. Some of these will be hidden gems (usually the International Feature nominees), and some of these will be completely abominable (usually the Original Song and Makeup & Hairstyling nominees), but I still watch them all. This post only has three films because the next post will have five:

The Color Purple

1 nomination

• Supporting Actress: Danielle Brooks

Director: Blitz Bazawule

Cast: Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, Halle Bailey, Ciara, H.E.R., David Alan Grier, Deon Cole, Jon Batiste, Louis Gossett Jr.

I very nearly hated this. An entire fifth of my second book is about the novel–movie–musical adaptations of The Color Purple, so I had high hopes for what this movie could have been. It's nearly a complete failure, I think. You can read my objections to the new movie's complete removal of the musical's spiritual themes here, but my real objection is that this new movie is not a film adaptation of the stage musical. It is a musical adaptation of the 1985 movie. And that is just a bad choice all around. Now, listen, Danielle Brooks is obviously a highlight of this new movie that no one needed. She gets nominated for the role Oprah Winfrey was nominated for in 1986. It's hard to be mad at Brooks getting praised; who doesn't love Danielle Brooks? (She played the same role on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony there.) But this isn't winning anything, and it's the biggest missed opportunity of a film this year.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #69 out of 75

El Conde

1 nomination

• Cinematography: Edward Lachman (Carol, Far from Heaven)

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Jaime Vadell, Gloria Münchmeyer, Alfredo Castro, Paula Luchsinger, Stella Gonet, Catalina Guerra, Amparo Noguera, Antonia Zegers, Marcial Tagle, Diego Muñoz, Clemente Rodríguez, Rosario Zamora

Pablo Larraín reimagines the Chilean dictator and war criminal Augusto Pinochet as a centuries-old vampire who faked his death in 2006 but is living on, feeding on the hearts of Chileans whenever he needs a boost. This is completely outrageous. "El Conde" is "The Count", which, apparently, Pinochet called himself, but it is also, of course, Dracula. El Conde is disgusting, satirical fun. I’ve never seen a world leader skewered in quite this way. This is a brazen, shocking comedy that loathes its central figure, but the film manages to enjoy itself, and consequently we do too, as it describes Pinochet’s many, many crimes against humanity. It's gorgeously shot by Todd Haynes' usual cinematographer (Lachman did not do May December). I am not sure how I feel about Larraín, though, honestly. I'm not sure what he's doing. I don't understand these projects of his. Spencer, Jackie, El Club, El Conde: What's going on?

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #33 out of 75

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

1 nomination

• Original Score: John Williams (The Fabelmans, Star Wars: Episode IX – the Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: Episode VIII – the Last Jedi, 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)

Director: James Mangold

Cast: Harrison Ford,  Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters, Ethann Isidore, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas, Karen Allen, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Martin McDougall, Alaa Safi

Why did they even bother with this trash? I mean, I guess I hope Jez Butterworth and Mads Mikkelsen got paid well? This was so fucking stupid. And also I want to say that I do not enjoy this colonial trope where our “heroes” descend on some non-American city like Syracuse or Tangiers and then wreck a whole bunch of shit and steal people’s motorbikes so that they can chase bad guys. This is basically a staple of the James Bond movies and the Mission: Impossible movies, but I just don’t understand how I’m supposed to stop thinking about the random newly married couple whose car just got stolen before their honeymoon while Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Harrison Ford drive off in their honeymoon vehicle. Like, I know I’m supposed to be focusing on whatever McGuffin the script has provided, but that is not where my brain goes. This was nominated because the Music Branch is corrupt and ridiculous and they nominate John Williams every single year he has a score out. Mind you, three of the four previous Indiana Jones movies were also nominated for best "original" score, and they have found a way to nominate him for the most recent three Star Wars films as well. It's just so ridiculous when they could have finally given Joe Hisaishi a nomination for The Boy and the Heron or honored Michael Giacchino's gorgeous work on Society of the Snow. But no; the Music Branch is over here nominating John Williams for his fifty-fourth Oscar for a terrible fifth movie in a tired franchise. What a snooze.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #67 out of 75

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

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

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

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 Nominations 2021: 6 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

5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World

Cruella

2 Nominations

• Costume Design: Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road, The King's Speech, Gosford Park, Anna and the King, Sense and Sensibility, The Remains of the Day, Howards End, Maurice, A Room with a View, The Bostonians)
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Craig Gillespie

Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, John McCrea, Mark Strong, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Emily Beecham, Kayvan Novak

I did not really care about this movie, and I waited a very long time to see it. It suffers from the same central problem that plagues The Devil Wears Prada: to wit, it loves its central villain, makes her the most fabulous character in all creation and then expects us to dislike her. Well, I didn't. I guess we're supposed to think she's terrible for committing lots of murders and stealing other people's designs and being a really good editor. But in a world like this where literally everything is fake and the reality is all just surfaces, how can one hate someone who is almost pure surface, who is supremely the best at surfaces? Also this movie is, for some reason, two hours and twenty minutes long. My other real gripe is that it didn't seem like Emma Stone was having very much fun. It felt really earnest for a really long time. Ok but there is something I want you to notice about Jenny Beavan's career. Her earliest nominations are all for Merchant-Ivory films – adaptations of novels by Henry James, E.M Forster, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Then she makes Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility, and she continues to dress rich British people, including kings. Then she makes Mad Max: Fury Road and wins. And now she's going to win again. I thought this was a longshot until I saw it. The film is filled with awesome dresses and creative silhouettes. My money is behind Jenny Beavan.

Will Win: Costume

Could Win: Makeup & Hairstyling

My Rating: #48 out of 58

Spencer

1 Nomination

• Actress: Kristen Stewart

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Stewart, Sally Hawkins, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris, Timothy Spall, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry, Stella Gonet, Laura Benson

I've written about this film here. I think Spencer is a polarizing movie, and the central performance is equally polarizing, although I fall firmly on the side of thinking Stewart is wonderful in it. There has been lots of drama with this nomination. Stewart was long considered the favorite to win the Oscar in this category, and then Nicole Kidman somehow won the Golden Globe award instead. This was followed almost immediately by a snub from the Screen Actors Guild, who thought Lady Gaga and Jennifer Hudson deserved nominations. Insanity. This was all rectified when Stewart scored her first Oscar nomination on February 8, but things were definitely touch and go. Smart money now says the favorite to win Best Actress is Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but I'm sticking stubbornly to Stewart. She's a hard-working actress who has been churning out excellent indie performances for years, and her performance in Spencer is lovely. I think she deserves this, and I think the votes will split in her direction.

Will Win: Actress

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #15 out of 58

The Hand of God (È Stata la Mano di Dio)

1 Nomination

• International Film: Italy (The Great Beauty, Don't Tell, Life Is Beautiful, The Starmaker, Mediterraneo, Open Doors, Cinema Paradiso, The Family, Three Brothers, Dimenticare Venezia, The New Monsters, A Special Day, Seven Beauties, Scent of a Woman, Amarcord, Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, La Ragazza con la Pistola, The Battle of Algiers, Marriage Italian Style, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, 8 1/2, The Four Days of Naples, La Grande Guerra, Kapò, Big Deal on Madonna Street, Nights of Cabiria, La Strada, The Bicycle Thief, The Walls of Malapaga, Shoeshine)

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Cast: Filippo Scotti, Marlon Joubert, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betti Pedrazzi

I adore Paolo Sorrentino, as you probably know. And The Great Beauty is one of my favorite films of all time, so I fully expected to love The Hand of God... and I did. It's a beautiful, very funny film, even quirky according to Sorrentino standards. The performances are excellent – particularly by Teresa Saponangelo and Luisa Ranieri – and the editing, photography, and design are all impeccable. It's the usual perfect Sorrentino movie, directed with supreme confidence. I loved this. It's on Netflix, and if you haven't seen it yet, I recommend it.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #8 out of 58

Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom (লুনানা)

1 Nomination

• International Film: Bhutan

Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji

Cast: Sherab Dorji, Ugyen Norbu Lhendup, Kelden Lhamo Gurung, Pem Zam, Sangay Lham

I've been rooting for Lunana since Bhutan submitted it for the 2020 Oscars but it was disqualified because it was never released because of the global pandemic. Then Bhutan submitted it again for the 2021 Oscars (a couple of countries did this), and it seemed a real longshot. This got a final slot in the five nominees for International Film. Drive My Car, Flee, and The Worst Person in the World all got multiple nominations, and so it's clear that they were shoo-ins for the category. There still remained a large amount of competition, including Finland's Compartment No. 6, which already had a U.S. distributor, Iran's A Hero, directed by multiple winner Asghar Farhadi, and Austria's Great Freedom, which I was also rooting for – since it stars Franz Rogowski and is about a gay prisoner. In any case, Lunana scored a nomination! The film itself, however... is pure Disney. It's a sentimental plot through and through: young man who wants to leave Bhutan is forced to teach small children in the most remote school in the world, high in the mountains. He is resentful and bitter, but then he slowly learns to love their way of life. It's sweet and wholesome, and the vistas are gorgeous. This movie does get better at its end – the last twenty minutes are actually excellent. But, and I hate to say this, you've seen plenty of movies just like this before. Whatever. I'm glad Bhutan got its first nomination, I'm glad Pawo Choyning Dorji made this movie, and I'm glad I saw it.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: Unranked; this is a 2022 release.

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

Two Movies about the Royals

I really liked Spencer. The vaguely horror-film style of Pablo Larraín is not always to my taste – I found Jackie really off-putting – but Spencer is scored by Johnny Greenwood instead of Mica Levi, and though that kept things in a decidedly terrifying minor key, it wasn't the descent into madness that Jackie was.

But anyway this movie is great. It's tense and intriguing, and it documents a kind of insanity within the British Royal family (not actual insanity, just insane behaviors). In many ways, Spencer is a film about Diana that is also a film about Prince Harry today, and indeed Kristen Stewart herself, which I think makes the whole thing much richer. The way everyone pokes and prods and has something to say, the way they're watched and scrutinized. It's a terrifying, weird life – a very nice one to be sure, and I am not usually one to feel sorry for very wealthy people, but one can see how difficult it would be to be an actual human person in this insane world.

This is definitely worth a watch. And Kristen Stewart is finally going to get a Best Actress nomination, so that's cool.

And then there's David Lowery's The Green Knight, which is an adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and might, for all I can tell, actually be titled this. (The title is something of a mystery to me. It is, appropriately either Sir Gawain... ...and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or ...The Green Knight, but I'm splitting hairs, I guess.) 

Here's the thing. Why is this movie so boring? It looks fucking cool. It is designed beautifully. It has Dev Patel looking gorgeous and having lots of feelings. But it's mysterious without being intriguing. It doesn't ask you to puzzle through what's happening at all; instead it behaves as though you really already ought to know what the fuck is happening.

And maybe The Green Knight would have been interesting if I had read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight beforehand. I really ought to have. The film is a revisioning of the poem, and I guess it needs knowledge of that in order for it to mean anything.

To be fair, I was with this for a while, but then near the very end, the movie takes a turn and launches off into a quick montage of the future (without, I might add, telling us what it's doing), and during this montage I just kept thinking why am I watching this???? Who cares! Honestly, though, I was just so bored. I didn't know enough of about any of the characters to be interested in them.

Oscar Noms 2017: 3 of 13

Part 1 - La La Land, Moonlight, Arrival
Part 2 - Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion

Part 3:

Fences

4 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Denzel Washington (Flight, Training Day, The Hurricane, Malcolm X, Glory, Cry Freedom)
• Adapted Screenplay: August Wilson
• Supporting Actress: Viola Davis (The Help, Doubt)

Director: Washington

Cast: Washington, Davis, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Mykelti Williamson, Saniyya Sidney

You can read my review of this movie here. I loved it, incidentally. Word on the street is that Washington really wanted a Best Director nomination for this movie; it didn't happen, but he may end up taking home another Oscar for acting (it would be his third) if the SAG award is any indication. It is important that I say again that Viola Davis should not be campaigning in this category, but, hey, what can you do? I think if I had to vote, I would still vote for her. She is great in the movie. The screenplay nomination is actually sort of baffling to me; I have no idea what these writers were thinking. I mean, Wilson has been dead for years, and that nomination could have meant something to a screenwriter like Jeff Nichols (Loving) or a team like Park Chan-wook & Chung Seo-kyung (The Handmaiden). It is weird to me that they did not think of this.

Will Win: Supporting Actress

Could Win: Actor

My Rating: #16 out of 86

Hell or High Water

4 Nominations

• Picture
• Original Screenplay: Taylor Sheridan
• Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges (True Grit, Crazy Heart, The Contender, Starman, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Last Picture Show)
• Film Editing

Director: David Mackenzie

Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham, Katy Mixon, Dale Dickey, Joe Berryman

I really liked this movie too. Have I noted yet how surprised I have been to have liked everything so much this year? It really is sort of strange. It is worth noting that this is a screenplay nomination that will really make a difference. Taylor Sheridan is primarily known as an actor, and so this will certainly have an appreciable effect on his career. I don't expect Hell or High Water to win anything on February 26th, but I think that's just fine. This movie surprised everyone by continually appearing on awards lists and top-ten lists. It is a strange movie for people to have noticed, I think, but I don't mind. It's an exciting movie, with a pretty great stick-it-to-the-man attitude and a really lovely fraternal relationship at its center.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #18 out of 86

Hidden Figures

3 Nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Theodore Melfi & Allison Schroeder
• Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer (The Help)

Director: Melfi

Cast:Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Mahershala Ali, Jim Parsons, Glenn Powell, Aldis Hodge, Olek Krupa, Donna Biscoe, Kimberly Quinn

This movie is fine, but I sort of don't get the hype. I have gotten tired of this candy-coated version of the early 1960s that we are all somehow supposed to believe happened. This is actually one of the reasons why Ava DuVernay's Selma was such an extraordinary achievement: the version of the 1960s we are usually fed these days pretends that most white folks weren't actually racist, they were actually nice, welcoming white people who were just waiting for a black woman with a little gumption to challenge the status quo. This is a bunch of nonsense – and also not how racism actually works. Still, the actresses at the center of Hidden Figures are a pleasure to watch (especially Taraji Henson), and the movie has a lot of fun in the candy store it builds. It is a delight to watch Henson show up a racist Jim Parsons by doing really complicated math in front of him, and it is fun to see Monáe bring a court order into her all-white engineering class and tell everyone in the class to go fuck themselves (it's actually PG; no one tells anyone to go fuck himself). I love seeing representations of black folks in fabulous clothes doing awesome things on my movie screens. But all of this comes at a price. We cannot start to believe that Jim Crow wasn't that bad; if we do, we deny the violence and daily humiliation that black folks in the U.S. had to put up with constantly. To my mind, even the phrases "first black woman to..." and "first woman to..." hide within them a kind of denial of the racism on which this country was built – they make it seem like it was some power inside the individual that allowed him or her to achieve something others could not. That isn't really how it worked, of course. Think of the many, many people who came before (Troy Maxson from Fences is precisely this type of character) who were prevented from achieving their dreams, not because they didn't have the gumption of Dorothy Vaughan or the talent of Jackie Robinson, but because the racist laws in Virginia and South Carolina and Florida and Louisiana – and the racist "gentleman's agreements" in Arizona and California and Illinois and New York – demanded that they be kept from exercising their capabilities. So, call me a curmudgeon, but although I thought Hidden Figures was fun in a bubble gum kind of way, I found myself frequently annoyed.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #46 out of 86

Jackie

3 Nominations

• Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan, Closer)
• Costume Design: Madeline Fontaine
• Score: Mica Levi

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Portman, Billy Crudup, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, John Hurt, Beth Grant, John Carroll Lynch, Max Casella

These three nominations for Pablo Larraín's movie make perfect sense; they are essentially what this movie is. Jackie can be boiled down to its costumes, its central performance, and its haunting horror-film score. I appreciated Jackie, but as I said in my notes on it, I didn't really enjoy the movie, even though I sort of got what it was trying to do. I am really pleased for Mica Levi and her nomination, too, even though I was not really a big fan of her score for this movie. I was obsessed with her score for the strange sci-fi/horror movie Under the Skin, my favorite film for 2014, and so I am glad she is getting some recognition. I only predicted a lone nomination for Portman for this movie (with the possibility of a costume nod), so I am honestly surprised by the three nominations Jackie picked up. This means that it connected with audiences way more than I thought it would – and clearly more than it connected with me. Still, don't expect it to take anything home on the 26th. Jackie's just happy to be invited to the party. She'll be wearing black.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #50 out of 86

Back to:
Part 1 - La La Land, Moonlight, Arrival
Part 2 - Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion

Nostalgia for Old Glamor

Hollywood loves itself, and movies about old Hollywood seem to arrive on the scene every year. Last year we had the abysmal Trumbo, but not so long ago, we had The Artist, which was delightful and went on to win Best Picture. And, incidentally, I really liked Hail, Caesar!, this year's Coen Brothers spectacle. This year's winner will be about Hollywood, too, (I'm talking about La La Land, obviously), but it will be a different kind of nostalgia trip that three movies I'm reporting on today were.

First, a movie that is already on DVD, Woody Allen's Café Society. Is this movie about café society in New York? I guess it is. But more importantly this movie is just bad. Jesse Eisenberg plays a young Jewish kid and neurotic Woody Allen surrogate, who falls in love with a woman he can't have. Fine. That part of the film is actually sort of interesting.

The really bad part is Steve Carrell as his movie-mogul uncle. The film is filled with name-dropping absurdities. Carrell informs us that "I'm expecting a call from Ginger Rogers" or some other nondescript idiocy. There are no actors in Kate Hepburn or Hedda Hopper drag, and actually I can't believe that I am about to say this, but I think the film could've been improved by that camp gesture that usually so annoys me. I say this because without actors in drag as famous people, Café Society feels like a hermetically sealed Woody Allen universe that has no attachment to reality in any way. I never for one moment believed Steve Carrell was a movie executive, I never believed he had lunch with Errol Flynn, and I never, for that matter, even believed he lived in Los Angeles.

As I've said before about this period of Woody Allen's career, I feel like Allen can still write a movie – the premise and ending of Café Society are intriguing – but he no longer knows how to direct one (cf. Magic in the Moonlight, Blue Jasmine, To Rome with Love). Café Society feels phony in the extreme, filled with caricatures on movie sets doing things that real people never do and saying words that sound like bad readings of a Woody Allen screenplay. I still feel an attachment to Allen's universes, and that's why I saw this, but if you care about yourself, you will skip this film.

* * *

And then there is Rules Don't Apply, the first film by the great Warren Beatty since 1998's Bulworth. (Honestly, how is that possible???). This is actually a fairly charming little movie, although it does wear out its welcome after awhile.

Ms. Collins and Mr. Ehrenreich

Beatty has said that Rules Don't Apply is not a film about Howard Hughes, but is instead a movie about two young people who get caught up in Hughes's world. The two have been damaged by Christianity so much that they feel like they can't love one another even though they do. All of this is true. the film is about that, but Rules Don't Apply has Howard Hughes in it, and Hughes is too large a character for the film to be about anything else. Rules becomes about Howard's strange peccadilloes, even if it wants to be an old-fashioned love story about two kids overcoming silly Christian mores. 

The storytelling here is charming, though. Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, Beatty himself, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, and the other (numerous) actors who appear in the film are all absolutely delightful. And the whole thing has a delightful whimsy that didn't wear thin for me, even though the Rules as a whole feels fairly shallow. 

Perhaps most disappointing about Rules is that it isn't going to get any Oscar nominations. Or... well, actually, I actually think the song "The Rules Don't Apply" actually deserves a nomination, and may garner the film its only one. It's just not a deep enough movie, glamorous and cute as it was.

* * *

Last but certainly not least is Jackie from Chilean director Pablo Larraín, who has had three movies released in the U.S. in 2016 (The Club was earlier in the year and Neruda is in theatres now). 

Jackie is an intense character study of Jacqueline Kennedy from just before the president is shot and killed to the end of his funeral procession. The form of the film is odd, though, and this is most clearly marked by Mica Levi's dissonant horror-film score, which either makes or breaks the film, depending on your perspective. But Jackie is not Jackie without this score. Levi's music is overwhelming, insistent, and always troubling. As Jackie interacts with Robert Kennedy, with Rose Kennedy, with Jack Valenti, with Lyndon Johnson, one has a constant sense of disturbance, disruption, even terror. It's a very jarring effect.

I thought Jackie was a weird movie. I rather appreciated what it was trying to do, but I can't say that I enjoyed it. I liked its version of character study – one that takes stock of a person in crisis and then makes judgments about her based on the decisions she made during this very difficult time. Jackie has a great deal of affection for its central figure, but is also deeply suspicious of her, sees her as fundamentally flawed, ambitious, vindictive, perhaps even shallow. This makes the whole thing complicated and interesting, certainly, but... well it just isn't all that pleasurable. I found myself growing impatient with Mrs. Kennedy, with her tics and her wealth and her pretensions ("I don't smoke", she tells a reporter, though she has been chainsmoking throughout the entire film).

Jackie is going to get a single Oscar nomination for Natalie Portman (and maybe could net one more for Costume Design), but I can't see this picture connecting with audiences in a big way.

In fairness to Larraín's movie, I will say that my central thought while watching the pageantry of Jack Kennedy's funeral was about how classy it all was. Say what you want about Jackie Kennedy, she had class. How far we have fallen! We are about to install the most vulgar, classless president in American history into the White House, and the new First Lady won't even be moving into the house where Jackie, Caroline, and John Jr. lived. It is very hard not to think about President-Elect Trump while watching Jackie, and it may be that, finally, that makes the movie difficult to watch.

More movies to come! I'm seeing lots of them.

The Club

Pablo Larraín has two movies that will be released in the U.S. in 2016. Look for Neruda in December (Neruda, like El Club was last year, is Chile's submission to the Academy Awards Foreign Language Film category for 2016). Larraín also seems, at this point, to be the one Chilean director whose films are getting imported into the U.S. market with regularity.

El Club follows a group of priests and a nun who are living in an isolated Chilean town in a kind of home for disgraced clergy, men and women whom the Catholic church wants to take care of, but whom it no longer wants contacting parishioners.

The men and one woman in the eponymous club are unbelievably selfish, entitled individuals, and the film displays its characters unsparingly and without sympathy, but... at the same time, the movie seems to rest on and enjoy the success of these characters, even while condemning their behaviors.

El Club is a portrait of evil, psychopathy, and cruelty. The film also tries to describe tragedy in many ways, but for me it fell short of this because it didn't sympathize with victims of violence as much as it aligned itself with its perpetrators by asking us to enjoy their evil machinations.

I am not sure that this is what Larraín intended, but it is what I saw when I watched the movie.

Oscar Nominees 2013: Part 9 of 13

A Royal Affair

1 Nomination

• Foreign Language Film: Denmark (In a Better World, After the Wedding, Waltzing Regitze, Pelle the Conqueror, Babette's Feast, Harry and the Butler, Paw, Qivitoq)

Director: Nikolaj Arcel

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, David Dencik, Trine Dyrholm, Harriet Walter, Cyron Melville, Charlotte Rampling

An intriguing and opulent political thriller involving madness, a ridiculous amount of prostitution, and the writings of Voltaire. This is the kind of movie that Patrice Chéreau or Régis Wargnier used to make – the type of movie that used to do really well in this category and usually starred Isabelle Adjani or Gérard Depardieu and occasionally both of them. A Royal Affair's attractiveness is also due to its excellent acting talent. Its lead actor is international film star Mads Mikkelsen, and the other lead roles are played by Alicia Vikander (who was in Joe Wright's Anna Karenina this year) and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, whose performance I've praised here and here. The acting is excellent, the plot is fascinating, and the location is sumptuous. All of this is quite a winning combination – not for Oscar, mind you, but you will enjoy the film if you rent it. Competition in this category is way too steep for Denmark to win again so soon.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #24 out of 64

No

1 Nomination

• Foreign Language Film: Chile

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Gabriel García Bernal, Antonia Zegers, Alfredo Castro, Néstor Cantillana, Jaime Vadell, Marcial Tagle, Luis Gnecco

A very funny political thriller about the plebiscite in Chile in 1988, this film also stars an internationally known acting talent, Mexican star Gabriel García Bernal. Pablo Larraín's movie is the first film submitted by Chile ever to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. The whole thing is quite a coup. But No is a bit of a difficult film, an artistic experiment in returning to 1980s-style filmmaking that many viewers might find irritating. In any case, Chile, I am sure, is simply happy to be invited to the party. I found this film to be a fascinating perspective on an important historical period in South American history. That it is also quite a funny film is a testament to Larraín's considerable filmmaking skill.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked – 2013 Release

War Witch

1 Nomination

• Foreign Language Film: Canada (Monsieur Lazhar, Incendies, Water, The Barbarian Invasions, Jesus of Montreal, The Decline of the American Empire)

Director: Kim Nguyen

Cast: Rachel Mwanza,Serge Kanyinda, Ralph Prosper, Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien, Mizinga Mwinga, Diana Uwamahoro

This movie is excellent and is also about an important international phenomenon – the use of child soldiers in warfare. War Witch is Canada's third nomination in this category in as many years: they have clearly hit upon a winning formula for choosing films that will be selected by the Academy. And this one is the best of their selections since Deepa Mehta's Water. War Witch is deeply moving, beautifully filmed, and also incredibly theatrical, using storytelling techniques that reminded me of Alejandro González Iñárritu's superb Biutiful. Kim Nguyen's film is not uplifting or about "the indomitable nature of the human spirit" or anything like that. Instead, it's simply good storytelling about inhuman violence. Side note: Rebelle, War Witch's original title in French, is also the title Disney used when it released the cartoon-adventure Brave in France. Du plaisir pour toute la famille!

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: Not ranked – 2013 Release

Telluride at Dartmouth #4

I am so frustrated for not having posted yet about Pablo Larraín's No, which played at Telluride and will play at the New York Film Festival next month. You will note that though I liked this film quite a bit it is not ranked in my 2012 rankings because (as far as I can tell) it does not yet have a U.S. distributor. I should also tell you that it is, as of today, Chile's official selection for the Foreign Language Oscar.

Plus, it's a really good film. It stars Gael García Bernal (everyone's favorite Mexican actor) who I know you all remember from Y Tu Mamá También, Amores Perros, El Crimen del Padre Amaro, Bad Education and a million other movies. No's subject matter is the plebiscite in Chile that functioned as a referendum on the government of General Augusto Pinochet. García Bernal is an advertising man who runs the "No" campaign, which calls for Pinochet to be ousted.

Okay, now here's how the film works. No is shot as though it is a piece of 1980s South-American television: the aspect ration is closer to 1:1.33 than I have seen in a movie in a long time, the lighting is decidedly televisual, and the film stock looks really old to eyes used to watching things like, say, Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

At first I found this conceit irritating. I know it's a movie about the 1980s, but I don't wanna watch a 1980s movie, mom! Why can't you just film it like all the other pretty movies from 2012, thankyouverymuch. But I'll be damned if the whole thing doesn't just work after a while. We watch so much advertising footage in the course of the film, witness so much of what Chileans saw on their small screens at home, that what is an advertisement and what is reality becomes strangely blurred. So much so that by the time Gael and his son go to a political rally in the film's third act, I wasn't sure whether Pinochet's advertising team had captured the pair on video, if they were broadcasting that video on television as a smear campaign, or if it was really happening. In this way, Larraín's film manages to conflate anti-Pinochet propaganda, footage of Pinochet himself, the blatant semiotics of advertising imagery, and the narrative of No itself. The more I think about it, the smarter it becomes.

Furthermore, No, this film about the overthrowing of a dictator who proclaimed a "dirty war" on his own people, who committed countless atrocities, is unapologetically comedic. In fact, No is really funny. Larraín is able to balance the material dangers that his protagonists faced as they combated Pinochet's regime, the potential for violence that always hangs over them, with a true spirit of victory and fun. And there is something funny about Pinochet and his uniform (in the same way that Chaplin proves that there is something funny about Hitler in his delightful burlesque). This directorial skill seems to me to be a rather extraordinary one, a feat rarely pulled off by even the most experienced of directors (I am thinking now of that painfully unfunny fowl in Mr. Spielberg's War Horse.) That No is also an entertaining piece of historiography, an important political commentary on the reasons why people vote against their own interests, and a catalog of Pinochet's crimes against the Cuban citizenry is truly remarkable.