Oscar Nominations 2025: Post 9 of 11 (Live-action Shorts)

1. Sinners, One Battle after Another, Sentimental Value

2. Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, Hamnet
3. Bugonia, The Secret Agent, Train Dreams

4. F1, Blue Moon, It Was Just an Accident

5. Sirāt, Avatar: Fire and Ash, K-Pop Demon Hunters

6. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Song Sung Blue, Weapons, The Voice of Hind Rajab

7. Arco, Elio, Zootopia 2, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

8. Animated Short Films

I changed my mind and decided to watch the live-action shorts. I don't know why I did this, but I guess I was feeling hopeful. This year's Live-action Short Film nominees are:

A Friend of Dorothy

1 nomination

• Live-action Short

Director: Lee Knight

Cast: Miriam Margolyes, Alistair Nwachukwu, Stephen Fry, Oscar Lloyd

Miriam Margolyes is very cute in this, but this is schmaltzy. All three of the central characters are drawn in two dimensions, and Oscar Lloyd's performance is truly horrific. This is not a film about this particular woman at all, but "old people"; it's not a film about this young man but "aspiring young gay kids who want to be actors" or maybe just "how young people ought to be". Even its version of homosexuality is very silly—its chief references are Martin Sherman's Bent and Matthew Lopez's The Inheritance—a particular touch that could not be more on the nose. This overplays its hand in a big way, and this becomes decidedly tiresome by the time she tells the young man that she's never ever been seen by anyone in her whole life until he came along. Like... really? Who believes this? One thing: I adored a tiny sequence in the movie when the young man is in the shop and looks at the other gay stranger and then looks down at that tiny boy in a suit. That got a big laugh out of me in the theatre—none of the fifty elderly people in the theatre laughed, though, so I must have been the lone friend of Dorothy there. Anyway everyone else seems to love this. The Queer Cinema Archives instagram account just featured it, and you can watch it on YouTube. Smells like a winner to me.

Will win: Live-action Short

Could win: N/A

My rating: #5 out of 5

Jane Austen's Period Drama

1 nomination

• Live-action Short

Directors: Julia Aks, Steve Pinder

Cast: Aks, Ta'imua, Samantha Smart, Nicole Alyse Nelson, Hugo Armstrong, Marilyn Brett, Dustin Ingram

This made me laugh, but it's pretty dumb. It's an extended comedy sketch that became a short film. It works well for what it is, and the names of the women are legitimately hilarious. But... there's something weird for me about using the idealized Jane Austen narrative to do this. It seems also to be making fun of Jane Austen, and I am not specifically opposed to this, but it makes the film seem off to me. In any case, this is quite funny, and I had a good enough time with it. It just felt extravagantly silly.

Will win: N/A

Could win: Live-action Short

My rating: #4 out of 5

The Singers

1 nomination

• Live-action Short

Directors: Sam Davis

Cast: Michael Young, Chris Smither, Will Harrington, Judah Kelly, Matt Corcoran, Michael Keyes, Leroy Griffith, Daniel "Hutch" Hutchinson, David Scott "Muffin" McMurry, Luis "Tio Rigo" Rigoberto Amaya, Arthur "Roy" Farewell, Graham Mackie, Robert Broski, Jim Donnelly, David Jenner, Brian Coover, Jorge "Mr. George" Antonio Linares, Reuben L. "Rocket" Gonzales, Steve Corning

I liked this a lot. It moved nicely between different conversations without worrying too much about making sure we understood what was going on, and I liked the Russian-night-with-endless-snow of it all. This felt like something out of Turgenev or Chekhov (which of course it is), but by this I mean that it has a gentle humorous attitude toward its characters that is both mocking and loving, ironic and generous at the same time. I am especially fond of the scene where the young man leaves the bar quietly without telling anyone. For me, though, the hug was too much. This film is the one with Netflix money behind it. I don't think it can win because it's way too much of a monosexual all-male environment for voters—especially given the gay leanings of Dorothy and the feminist bent of Period Drama. But I do think this has a chance to spoil, and it is legitimately good, so that wouldn't be amiss.

Will win: N/A

Could win: Live-action short

My rating: #3 out of 5

Butcher's Stain (כתם קצבים)

1 nomination

• Live-action Short

Directors: Meyer Levinson-Blount

Cast: Omar Sameer, Rona Toledano, Levinson-Blount, Dror Marko, Sara Raed, Oron Caspi, Eilon Cohen, Hadi Salama

Butcher's Stain won 2nd place at the Student Academy Awards in October 2025 so it comes to this with some pedigree already—Academy voters like this. Unfortunately, I don't think this really does much of anything, though. It's a kind of analysis of a problem that sees the main issue is people who jump to conclusions too quickly. Which, isn't really analysis: it's more like a proposal for everyone to slow down. Not a terrible proposal, but not one with any teeth to it either. I did like the ending of this. I don't think I have much more to say, though. I think I've grown tired of films with strong moral points of view.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #2 out of 5

Deux Personnes Échangeant de la Salive 

(Two People Exchanging Saliva)

1 nomination

• Live-action Short

Directors: Natalie Musteata, Alexandre Singh

Cast: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Luàna Bajrami, Aurélie Boquien, Vicky Krieps, Nicolas Bouchaud, Mitchell Jean, Mustapha Abourachid, Thibault De Lussy, Lucile Jaillant

This is my favorite of the five. It definitely goes on a bit too long, but it's intriguing and enjoyable, even if at times the prohibition on kissing in this world feels a bit, well... twee. I think perhaps I also just loved Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who is wonderful in this. And I adored the fashions (designed by Rezvan Farsijani) in this little film. They feel original and playful, and make this short film feel very expensive. The audience I was with did not care for this film at all. The over-sixty crowd I saw the movie with were actually incredulous. They thought it made no sense at all and was just weird for the sake of being weird. This is, in fact, a Greek Weird Wave film—even if the director isn't Greek—it's the kind of film Yorgos Lanthimos used to make, or that Christos Nikou and Athina Rachel Tsangari still make. It's designed to start us thinking about our own world by displacing a series of things that we take for granted and then studying its own characters. I found this film quite rich.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #1 out of 5

All 2025 Oscar posts:

1. Sinners, One Battle after Another, Sentimental Value

2. Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, Hamnet
3. Bugonia, The Secret Agent, Train Dreams

4. F1, Blue Moon, It Was Just an Accident

5. Sirāt, Avatar: Fire and Ash, K-Pop Demon Hunters

6. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Song Sung Blue, Weapons, The Voice of Hind Rajab

7. Arco, Elio, Zootopia 2, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

8. Animated Short Films

9. Live-action Short Films

10. Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Lost Bus, Kokuho, The Smashing Machine

11. The Ugly Stepsister, Diane Warren: Relentless, Viva Verdi!

Oscar Nominations 2025: Post 3 of 10

1. Sinners, One Battle after Another, Sentimental Value
2. Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, Hamnet

This year's nominees are:

Bugonia

4 nominations

• Picture
• Actress: Emma Stone (Poor Things, The Favourite, La La Land, Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
• Adapted Screenplay: Will Tracy (1st time nominee)
• Original Score: Jerskin Fendrix (Poor Things)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Cast: Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone

Oof. This film is decidedly in conversation with Ari Aster's Eddington and Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle after Another, and while I think Bugonia is interested in ideas similar to those films, it's not nearly as interesting as those movies. In fact, I thought this was weirdly boring—I guess rather like having a conversation with a conspiracy theorist… or an apologist for fascism. It felt to me like being forced to listen to a racist or a conspiracy theorist's opinions for two hours (an activity I decidedly do not enjoy). Bugonia goes around in circles tracing loop after loop, and we hear the same things over and over, watch the same scene again and again. I think maybe there’s supposed to be dramatic tension at certain points, or suspense, maybe? I didn’t feel any of that. Actually, I have a feeling this was supposed to be funny, but I didn't do any laughing. This was not pleasurable to watch. A man a few rows in front of me was snoring loudly. As a rule I also dislike Emma Stone, and this might have had a good deal to do with my antipathy toward this. She just never seems like a real human person in her movies—which, I suppose is perfect for both Lanthimos in general and this film in particular. But I do wonder if I would have liked this movie better with a different actress than Emma Stone as the lead. It's possible, but I doubt it. I think the screenplay is just really boring. So much talking! No Oscars for Bugonia on the big night. Stone just won two years ago (for the second time), but more importantly both Jesse Plemons and Yorgos Lanthimos missed out on nominations, so that means that this movie—despite its nomination for Best Picture—clearly didn't connect with Academy voters as much as other films, even some of the other films with four nominations.

Will win: N/A

Could win: N/A

My rating: #83 out of 91

O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent)

4 nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Wagner Moura (1st time nominee)
• International Feature: Brazil (I'm Still Here, Central Station, Four Days in September, O Qu4trilho, O Pagador de Promessas)
• Casting
  

Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho

Cast: Moura, Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria, Robério Diógenes, Roney Villela, Gabriel Leone, Alice Carvalho, Hermila Guedes, Isabél Zuaa, Geane Albuquerque, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Thomás Aquino, Laura Lufési, Isadora Ruppert, Igor de Araújo, Ítalo Martins, Udo Kier

This is one of my favorite films of the year, and it almost was #1. It's a taut political thriller with a fantastic cast. Wagner Moura is wonderful. The best part of this, though, is Mendonça’s beautiful approach to memory and nostalgia. His shots are filled with ghosts (he has a great documentary called Pictures of Ghosts that functions as a companion piece to this), and his characters feel their histories pumping in their veins even if they can’t remember them or find their records. I love Mendonça's films, and I'm so glad that the Academy is finally recognizing his work. Go see this movie.

Will win: International Feature

Could win: N/A

My rating: #2 out of 91

Train Dreams

4 nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Clint Bentley (Sing Sing) & Greg Kwedar (Sing Sing)
• Cinematography: Adolph Veloso (1st time nominee)
• Original Song – "Train Dreams": Nick Cave & Bryce Dessner (both 1st time nominees)

Director: Bentley

Cast: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Nathaniel Arcand, Clifton Collins Jr., John Diehl, Paul Schneider, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy, Will Patton, Alfred Hsing, David Paul Olsen, John Patrick Lowrie

This is so beautiful and simple and smart. It has a kind of Terrence Malick feel to it without the Malickian screenplay habits. And it's filled with memorable, gorgeous performances. In fact, I think Joel Edgerton only just missed out on his first (and long overdue) best actor nomination. Edgerton is a wonderful actor, and these awards bodies need to pay more attention to his excellent work. Most importantly for the big night, though, is the cinematography. Adolph Veloso really captures something here, and I think everyone expects him to take home the trophy. It's worth saying, also, that films like Train Dreams and F1 (we'll get to that in a day or two) are the reason we have ten slots for Best Picture these days. The point of having a category with ten nominees is so that a small picture that won't win best picture (and a big budget action movie that won't win best picture) can get recognized as one of the best movies of the year. And Train Dreams really is that.

Will win: Cinematography

Could win: N/A

My rating: #14 out of 91

All 2025 Oscar posts:

1. Sinners, One Battle after Another, Sentimental Value

2. Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, Hamnet
3. Bugonia, The Secret Agent, Train Dreams

4. F1, Blue Moon, It Was Just an Accident

5. Sirāt, Avatar: Fire and Ash, K-Pop Demon Hunters

6. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Song Sung Blue, Weapons, The Voice of Hind Rajab

7. Arco, Elio, Zootopia 2, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

8. Animated Short Films

9. Live-action Short Films

10. Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Lost Bus, Kokuho, The Smashing Machine

11. The Ugly Stepsister, Diane Warren: Relentless, Viva Verdi!

Oscar Nominations 2023: 1 of 9

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oppenheimer

13 nominations

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

Director: Nolan

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

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

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

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

My rating: #2 out of 71

Poor Things

11 nominations

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

Director: Lanthimos

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

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

Will win: Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling

Could win: Actress, Production Design

My rating: #60 out of 71

Killers of the Flower Moon

(𐓀𐒻͘𐓂͘𐓄𐒰 𐒹𐒿𐒰𐓆𐒼𐒰 𐓓𐒻͘𐒼𐒰 𐓊'𐒷𐓍𐒷)

10 nominations

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

Director: Scorsese

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

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

Will win: Actress, Original Score

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

My rating: #53 out of 71

Barbie

8 nominations

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

Director: Gerwig

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

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

Will win: Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Song

Could win: Picture, Costume Design

My rating: #23 out of 71

Maestro

8 nominations

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

Director: Cooper

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

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

Will win: N/A

Could win: Makeup & Hairstyling

My rating: #17 out of 71

More posts coming soon:

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

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

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

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

6. Animated Features

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

8. Animated Short Films

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

Poor Things (2023)

I thought Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things was rather boring, actually. 

I think … well, I don’t know, the whole thing felt too silly to take seriously in any real way. And some of the acting is horrible (especially Jerrod Carmichael). I liked Christopher Abbott and Ramy Youssef, and I guess I thought this had a few good ideas. But nothing much felt new here, despite the constant weirdness and the Frankenstein anatomies.

And why was it so long? There's an entire sequence where Bella goes back to her father–husband that contained no surprises or character development at all, despite the fact that Christopher Abbott was my favorite actor in the movie.

I'm a Lanthimos fan, but this was not great. That poster, though, is amazing.

Saltburn (2023)

There is much to love about Saltburn, like Emerald Fennell's previous feature, Promising Young Woman, this movie is glossy and bright, with witty barbs and humorous scenarios, but Saltburn is much better than PYW, primarily because it is having a lot more fun. Paradoxically – since Saltburn is about very, very wealthy people – this film is a good deal less smug than Fennell's first feature. Or rather, to be smug in Saltburn is to ask to be punished. The most smug person in the room is always Farleigh, and the film never, ever takes Farleigh's side.

I shouldn't spend a ton of time comparing Saltburn to PYW because it isn't really fair, but I will make one more point of comparison and then move on. One thing I loved about Saltburn is that it is always on the main character's side. We always follow Oliver, even when he's being very, very strange. This is not true of PYW, which often took the point of view of the men who were troubled by the main character's strange behavior. But Saltburn's central character is a very strange dude. In fact, the film begins with a question. Was I in love with him? Did I love him? It's a mystery the movie continues to play with. How does Oliver feel about Felix? Oliver does some truly baffling things, so much so that at times I was squealing and squirming in the theatre. Like oh my god the bathwater. And the cunnilingus. So much good, weird stuff. I loved every bit of this weirdness. But even when the camera watches Oliver watch Felix have sex with a girl in his dormitory, the camera is on Oliver's side. We watch with him. We never see Oliver from anyone else's perspective, except (very briefly) when Farleigh sees Oliver and Venetia from the window.

One of the great things about this tactic on Fennell's part is that Oliver himself remains a social mystery. How does everyone else feel about Oliver? It is actually very difficult to answer this question because the film doesn't care; Saltburn is interested in how Oliver feels about how everyone feels about Oliver, but the movie spends almost no time judging Oliver from the perspective of the family. Even when Ollie wears out his welcome with Sir James and we know that Sir James wants Oliver to leave, Saltburn doesn't take Sir James's side. We're on Ollie's side, stubbornly refusing to leave Saltburn until we get our payoff.

The next James Bond?

This movie is cast beautifully. Barry Keoghan is a perfect star. Carey Mulligan is pitch perfect in her small, weird, depressive part. Jacob Elordi is gorgeous (although to my mind slightly lacking in power – he's never, for example, quite as awesome as Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley), and Richard E. Grant is an utter delight. But for me the real revelation is Rosamund Pike. She tears into this fucking role and is unstoppably funny. She's just truly genius and deserves an Oscar nomination for this part. The movie is not Oscar stuff, I don't think, so I am not sure she can score a nomination. I will beat this drum, though. She definitely deserves it.

The other intriguing thing about Saltburn is the way it sort of riffs off of Pasolini's very sexy 1968 film Teorema. Saltburn doesn't have the intriguing spiritual elements of Pasolini's movie, but Oliver does seem to have a kind of pansexual power over the people in the house, and this definitely made me think of the way Terence Stamp worked through every family member, seducing each one in turn. 

Anyway, Saltburn is wacky and weird and a ton of fun. For me, when I try to think about Oliver and who he is I think the film does a great job of moving away from him as a sort of symbol or icon. One might see Ollie as a kind of symbol of ancient necessity or something (the way Keoghan's part worked in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, for example), but Fennell's characters are surprisingly rich and complex here. Even the film's villains – Farleigh and Elspeth and Sir James and Felix and Venetia – are interesting and complicated; they're not easy symbols or shallow figures created to make a point. Everyone feels full and fascinating. My explanation for all of Ollie's behavior is not that he loved him, so much as, perhaps, he needed to consume these people like a sort of ancient cannibalism or vampirism (he says that he is a vampire, after all), in order that he might be able to become them. He's a Tom Ripley for 2023, sexy and lonely and completely insane. In any case, I had a great time.

A Lone Wolf

George MacKay is great in Wolf. There are these moments when he stalks down the hallway and he completely looks like he should be a wolf. But Nathalie Biancheri's film never manages to give us the real weirdness of the Yorgos Lanthimos films on which Wolf has obviously modeled itself. This is a movie that wants to be about what it means to be human – a good human, a good man, etc. – but it's a film that instead opts for what appears to be an allegory for transgender. And I'm just not sure what Wolf has to say about transgender – or that it should be taking up space making up allegories for how people experience gender. 

This just didn't work. It's opening sequences feel like Lanthimos territory, and in their way these early moments in the movie prompt laughter just as the scenes in The Lobster do. But then the film refuses to go off the deep end the way a Lanthimos movie would. It settles instead for the world we already know. Wolf leaves us with liberal platitudes with which we are comfortable and familiar instead of any real unsettling questions.

Oscar Nominations 2019: Part 1 of 11

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

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

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

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

This year's nominees:

Roma

10 Nominations

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

Director: Cuarón

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

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

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

Could Win: Original Screenplay

My Rating: #9 out of 66

The Favourite

10 Nominations

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

Director: Lanthimos

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

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

Will Win: Original Screenplay, Costume Design

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

Vice

8 Nominations

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

Director: McKay

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

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

Could Win: Original Screenplay, Film Editing

My Rating: #65 out of 66

A Star Is Born

8 Nominations

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

Director: Cooper

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

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

Will Win: Sound Mixing, Song

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

The Favourite

The Favourite was pretty great. I wanted it to head eventually in a more surprising direction, but this is a beautifully realized film. I laughed a great deal and enjoyed myself immensely.

Sandy Powell is a genius and honestly deserves a 4th Oscar.

Olivia Colman is excellent in The Favourite, and I really loved Rachel Weisz, too. The supporting cast is also excellent. Nicholas Hoult and Joe Alwyn are both especially funny. (There is this amazing scene where Nicholas Hoult just pushes Emma Stone into a ditch that had me cackling.) I have to say that I never really like Emma Stone, though. Something about her always feels like she's playing dress-up – like she never quite gets over hoping that we'll believe her.

The Favourite is not perfect (even if its costumes are). It loses steam by act three, and my theory for why this happens is that the film actually stops surprising us. In most of Lanthimos's films, one never feels as though one has understood all of the rules. He changes them up again and again, until we are bewildered and puzzled beyond what is bearable. He did this with Dogtooth and The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (though I think that one was slightly more accessible – and slightly less interesting because of this). But with The Favourite, we actually learn the rules of the game. They become clear at about the point in the movie, I think, when Emma Stone watches from the bookcase while Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz fuck. The world, I think, begins to make sense in that moment, and like Emma Stone's character, we, too, understand what needs to be done, how she can win.

And so the delightfully confounding insanity of the film's first act and most of its second is replaced by a kind of toleration of the queen's peccadilloes. Her desires and whims become things which we both understand and which begin to grow tiresome.

The film's ending still works very well, and the acting stays excellent, but the screenplay loses its energy, even if there are still a few delightful scenes in the last half of the movie (I'm thinking especially of the sequence where the men hurl citrus fruits at that naked courtier).

And... this movie is about Trump, right? The ending certainly put me in mind of our president. (The oranges being hurled at the naked man, while not an obvious Trump reference, certainly could be read as one. He is orange, after all.) But I think, too, that perhaps my impatience with the film's latter half is a kind of Trumpian boredom, too. What I mean is this: a surprising person with a lot of power is interesting. What is he going to do? Whom will he bomb? Will we all die? What idiocy is going to come out of his mouth next? But once one realizes that there are no surprises left, that he hasn't anything really interesting to say, that he (like Queen Anne) just wants to be loved and adored and he doesn't care who gives him that fix, the whole thing becomes a bit of a chore. It's no longer an adventure at all.

Again, I really liked this movie – I'm just trying to make sense of why that last third of the picture didn't totally knock it out of the park.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

There is a ton to say about The Killing of a Sacred Deer. In the first place, it's an old-school Greek tragedy, with a central daimon who enacts vengeance – what the Athenians called necessity – against someone, and by extension, his family. But, of course, this is Yorgos Lanthimos, so Sacred Deer is totally batshit.

The thing is, this film, by comparison to The Lobster and Dogtooth, actually isn't nearly as crazy. In many ways it is rather straightforward.

I was into it, anyway.

The film's best parts are the "normal" stuff, before the movie goes ancient on us. I loved the ancient tragedy stuff, too, don't get me wrong. But my favorite parts of any Lanthimos movie are his versions of normal, bourgeois behavior, where people speak in stilted ways and make slightly odd requests of one another.

The other great thing about Sacred Deer is the work of the actors. Colin Farrell is positively killing the game this year (he turns out great performances in this, in Roman J. Israel, and in The Beguiled) and every other year, if we are all honest. (Can you remember him giving a performance that wasn't good? I can't.) He is great in this. And Nicole Kidman has got to be the most fearless female movie star working right now. Do you know any other actress of her caliber who is willing to get naked and play a character this nuts for a film as small as Sacred Deer, a film that has zero awards ambitions? Kidman is doing the work. She isn't in it for the awards. She's making interesting film after interesting film and choosing them carefully.

And then there's Barry Keoghan, the film's strange minister of justice. He's good in Dunkirk, but he's electric in this. Creepy and sexy and compelling while also being totally terrifying. It's a really extraordinary performance.

I read one criticism of Sacred Deer that accused Lanthimos of being on autopilot – that this film just feels like a poor man's copy of his earlier stuff. This strikes me as unfair. Lanthimos is still getting stellar performances out of his actors; he's still creating strange worlds; he's still exploring bourgeois values and relationships. And this movie does all of those things in a slightly new way. It is definitely worth a watch. I found it totally enjoyable.

Oscar Noms 2017: 7 of 13

Part 1 - La La Land, Moonlight, Arrival
Part 2 - Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion
Part 3 - Fences, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Jackie
Part 4 - Florence Foster Jenkins, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Passengers, Rogue One
Part 5 - Deepwater Horizon, Kubo and the Two Strings, Moana, A Man Called Ove
Part 6 - Captain Fantastic, Elle, Loving, Nocturnal Animals

Part 7:

The Lobster

1 Nomination

• Original Screenplay: Efthimis Filippou & Yorgos Lanthimos

Director: Lanthimos

Cast: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux, John C. Reilly, Olivia Colman, Ben Whishaw, Angeliki Papoulia, Garry Mountaine, Ariane Labed, Jessica Barden, Imelda Nagle Ryan

I am a big fan of The Lobster and I am so happy that it was nominated in this category. Lanthimos's work is so interesting, and his voice is truly unique. This is a complicated, funny, extremely weird movie that – the more you think about it – isn't really all that weird. It's one of the best movies of the year and not to be missed. Come to think of it: you know, the original screenplay category is often where the Academy really shines. It chooses some of the oddest scripts in this category, but really can shine a light on new voices in filmmaking. Just look back through some of the films that have been nominated in this category – Ex Machina, Straight outta Compton, Nightcrawler, Her, Margin Call, A Separation. It really is a category the Academy can be proud of, I think. And this year's choices (except for La La Land, really) are all very deserving.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #12 out of 92

20th Century Women

1 Nomination

• Original Screenplay: Mike Mills

Director: Mills

Cast: Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Lucas Jade Zumann, Billy Crudup, Allison Elliott, Thea Gill

This was my #2 film for the year. I absolutely loved this movie. I loved its central performance by Annette Bening (she was robbed of a nomination), but actually 20th Century is a true ensemble piece with five great performances at its center and lots of memorable smaller characters. I loved 20th Century's exploration of a different kind of motherhood than we're used to seeing. I loved that it was a coming-of-age film that wasn't through the kid's point of view, and then wasn't a coming-of-age film after all. It's a movie about parenting that doesn't pretend to be a movie about growing up! (I'm looking at you, Boyhood.) But it's also this amazingly feminist movie about the decisions our mothers make as they raise us and how someone might go about raising a boy so that he doesn't grow up to be a jackass. And it's about the connections we make with people in our lives that last only for a little while but can have an enormous impact on us. It's about getting old. But it's also about living in a world of uncertainty, trying to make sense of a world that doesn't really make sense anymore, trying to understand the way our kids see the world even though we don't see it that way at all. And at the same time, 20th Century is this portrait of a woman who doesn't always tell the truth, who has lots to hide because she is afraid of a lot of things, but who still wants to be open and generous with this kid she loves and wants to raise as best she can. It's so complex and beautiful and funny and quirky, and I absolutely loved it.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #2 out of 92

Silence

1 Nomination

• Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Kubozuka Yōsuke, Issei Ogata, Tsukamoto Shin'ya, Adam Driver, Asano Tadanobu, Liam Neeson, Ciarán Hinds, Komatsu Nana, Yoshi Oïda

I didn't really dislike Silence, per se, but this film does not work. It's beautiful, of course, and this is due in large part to Rodrigo Prieto's nominated cinematography here. The production design of the film is also beautiful, and the acting is moving and intriguing (Garfield's performance here is surely one thing that pushed him over the edge for his nomination for Hacksaw). But Scorsese's film makes some very strange – even awkward – filmic choices. Much of the film involves speaking to a god who does not speak back (this is the eponymous silence, the god's silence after a prayer), but then, surprisingly, at a point late in the film the god does speak to Garfield's character. What? Something shifted in me when this happened and the film sort of lost me. It felt like a rule that had been set up for the audience over the long hours of the film had been suddenly and inexplicably broken for a reason I couldn't really understand. One of the reasons I found this choice so troubling is that the majority of Silence is about ethics: What are the choices I should make when faced with terrible violence? What are the choices I should make to save others, even though my decision might force me to do something I wouldn't normally do? What is my duty to my fellow man vs. my duty to my faith? But once the god does talk to a person, those questions are easily resolved. Can't the god just tell you what to do? And why has the god been silent for so long when it had the power of speech up its proverbial sleeve the whole time? This is, perhaps, the film's oddest choice, but there is yet another! The film's third act (which is structured like an epilogue), is actually quite a lengthy plot entirely its own that could be a film in its own right. We jump forward in time several times, and the film's central character, with whom we have spent so much time and whom we understood so well, makes a series of decisions that do not accord with what we know of him. For this third act, the film keeps its distance from the main character, never inviting us into his thoughts the way the first two acts did. This is so weird. We are not asked to dislike this character, we have followed him for too long for that,we are only asked to watch what he has done, but are no longer let into why. In fine, Silence is a complex, very long film that is interesting in its exploration of ethics, but awkward in its execution. Lots to recommend, lots to fault.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #55 out of 92

Hail, Caesar!

1 Nomination

• Production Design: Jess Gonchor (True Grit) & Nancy Haigh (True Grit, Dreamgirls, Road to Perdition, Forrest Gump, Bugsy, Barton Fink)

Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Cast: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Veronica Osorio, Jonah Hill, Allison Pill


This is so much fun. I can't recommend this enough. It is a silly little film, slight even, but it is so good at its own nonsense that it succeeds perfectly. This is a film set in old Hollywood that is really neither ironic nor nostalgic. It is a send-up of Hollywood, but not an ironic one. Instead, it's a fond send-up of Hollywood, one that genuinely loves Hollywood and can laugh at its silliness while taking pleasure in it at the same time. The stars, the glamor, the backstage gossip! The Coen Brothers' look into this is a kind of Chekhovian bit of brilliance that laughs at it all but can't help loving it. Best in show – amid a large number of great actors – turns out to be the relatively unknown Alden Ehrenreich, who is hilarious as an action star who can't act his way out of a paper bag. It's laugh-out-loud hilarious. This is also a really smart movie that involves a surprise cameo from a member of the Frankfurt school and an articulation of some of the goals of twentieth-century American Communism but with a Coen Brothers spin, off course. It's so much fun. Trust me.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #18 out of 92

Back to:
Part 1 - La La Land, Moonlight, Arrival
Part 2 - Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion
Part 3 - Fences, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Jackie
Part 4 - Florence Foster Jenkins, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Passengers, Rogue One 
Part 5 - Deepwater Horizon, Kubo and the Two Strings, Moana, A Man Called Ove
Part 6 - Captain Fantastic, Elle, Loving, Nocturnal Animals