Movies are the music of the eyes
The Academy Award primer you didn't know you needed
I don’t just stick to live music. I like anything where someone is willing to exchange a ticket for admission. Movies definitely qualify. I’ve long been interested in movies and the Oscars and the awards races. The last couple of years it has really gotten out of hand - this is the second year in a row where, after a Valentine’s Day double header to finish it off, Tricia and I have seen all 10 Best Picture nominees (Tricia has technically only seen nine this year, but more on that later). And, since there are a lot of good movies here, and most of you likely haven’t seen most of them, I thought I’d take a step away from the normal programming to give my two cents on the race.
First, the bigger picture. It was a strange year in movies. There were a lot of quite good movies. It’s probably a deeper field than we have seen in a while - you could have made a good case for the 10 nominees, the three big snubs I mention later, and four or five more films as legitimate nominees. But the top end isn’t strong - certainly not compared to last year. The Zone of Interest last year was the most hauntingly brilliant, disturbing movie I’ve seen in years, and nothing this year can hold a candle to it. None of this year’s movies are as good as The Holdovers, Poor Things or Oppenheimer, either. That’s not to say it wasn’t a good year. I had a great time at the movies. It’s just that it has made me realize how spoiled we were last year.
On to the crop. Here, in alphabetical order, are the ten nominees for Best Picture this year.
The Nominees
Anora: This was the favorite to win the Best Picture for a long time, then it chances seemed to die. Now it seems to be on the rise again, and feels like the most likely winner. It’s been such a weird awards season.
This is a fun, smart crazy romance/chase/drama. Mikey Madison stars as a stripper in New York who falls in love and marries a Russian oligarch’s young son. It was a bad decision in so many ways, but we are far better off as viewers for it having happened.
I thought it was thrilling and fun and funny and just really good. Tricia fell asleep in the theatre for parts of it. It’s not surprising, then, that I have a much higher opinion of the film than she does. I’d be happy if it wins the big award. And, though anything is possible, at this point I expect it to.
The Brutalist: This is a movie that is really, self consciously determined to be a FILM. They are desperate for you to know that every thing is a metaphor or a symbol, and that what they are doing is so very important. It’s more than three and a half hours long, and has a 15 minute intermission between acts. It’s about a Hungarian architect who flees the holocaust, winds up in Philadelphia, and strives to build an architectural legacy - building the ugly, brutalist concrete behemoths that Calgarians that were here in the ‘70s and ‘80s know too well - while becoming wrapped in a series of webs.
The first act is pretty brilliant. I was very much into it. The wheels fall off so massively and spectacularly in the second act that Tricia and I have spent a ridiculous amount of time discussing whether it was intentional. The first act was too good for the second half to accidentally be this flawed. I really hope it was on purpose - especially for the complete mess of an epilogue.
Adrien Brody is The Brutalist. He’s great, though he very clearly is acting at all times - nothing effortless there. He’s quite likely to win his second Best Actor trophy, though I’d give to Timothee Chalamet without a thought. Guy Pearce is Brody’s benefactor. He’s brilliant - though his fate is completely garbled in the end. The whole movie was made on a budget of just $9 million - which seems impossible. But if I was in charge I’d have upped the budget to $10 million, and spent the extra million hiring someone to rewrite the second act. It could definitely win Best Picture, but I suspect that if it did we wouldn’t look back on it fondly in a couple of decades.
A Complete Unknown: I expected to be really grumpy about this movie. It is a biopic of Bob Dylan, but only from 1962-65. I don’t massively care about Dylan, and biopics are pretty stale these days, so I was worried. But I had a really great time.
Timothee Chalamet plays Dylan - he was also the lead in Dune, so he had a pretty big year - and he is just incredible. He does his own singing and playing, and is so convincing that from now on when I close my eyes and think of Dylan I’ll see Chalamet. Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger are amazing. Boyd Holbrook comes dangerously close to stealing the whole movie in brief appearances as Johnny Cash.
This is just a great movie. Lots of fun. Amazing music. Only as much plot as is needed. An acceptable amount of education. If you like music, you’ll have a good time.
Conclave: The Pope dies, and a conclave is called to elect a new one. A bunch of diabolical madmen are locked in a building until a winner emerges and the smoke turns white. Chaos ensues.
This movie is a lot of fun. Very well acted. Interesting. Plenty of twists and turns. It’s pretty great. But it’s not nearly as smart as it wants you to think it is, and it kind of fading from my mind a lot more than others on this list. But it feels very much like a throwback to the kinds of movies that were made in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. I miss those, so I liked this one. It’s also among the safer choices on this list - you could show this one to almost anyone and they would enjoy it.
Dune: Part Two: I quite liked the first Dune. It is confusing and I don’t ever understand the details of sci-fi or fantasy movies. But it looked cool, the acting was great, and I had fun. This second edition is about 30 times better than the original. So great. So fun. So interesting. A work of art.
There are sandworms. So cool. There are buddies. Betrayal. Rousing speeches. Weird societies. Madmen. Cool vehicles. Crazy caves. Lots of dunes. I was pumped right up by the end of this thing. And I can’t wait for the last part of the trilogy - though it’s unclear when, or even if, it will come. But it isn’t going to win best picture. It never had a chance. Still, see it if you haven’t. Dune!
Emilia Perez: This is the most nominated movie this year, and for the life of me I can’t understand why. Well, actually that’s not true - it is because Netflix directed their money cannon at the promotion of this film. But it’s all but certain that they now wish that they hadn’t. The campaign for this one has been a true disaster.
Before we get into the drama, let’s lay the scene. This movie is a musical - one with atypical songs to say the least - about the fierce leader of a Mexican drug cartel who fakes his own death so that he can transition into living his true life as a woman. With the help of a lawyer - played by Zoe Saldana, who is very well positioned to win Best Supporting Actress - he sets up his new life, and makes sure that his wife and children are safe without him. Eventually, though, she misses her family. So, she poses as the aunt of her former drug lord self, and brings her family back to Mexico to live with her. I have not made a word of that up.
The controversy around this one is multi-faceted. Though it is set in Mexico, it is a French film that was filmed entirely in Europe. Director Jacques Audiard saw no issues with that, and didn’t bother to hire Mexican actors, or to learn anything about Mexico. Why let facts get in the way of stereotypes, as the saying goes. Mexicans weren’t impressed. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Karla Sophia Gascon, who played both the cartel leader and his aunt, became the first trans woman to be nominated for an Oscar when she got a Best Actress nod. And, right after that, a series of truly vile social media posts by her were uncovered. That they weren’t uncovered in advance is stunning. But instead of apologizing and going underground, she went nuclear. She blamed other actresses for attacking her. She did several increasingly bizarre interviews, and made a rough appearance at an awards show in her native Spain. She blew it all up, and forced her studio, her director, and her co-stars to distance themselves from her. It seemed two months ago like the film was barreling towards a Best Picture win - despite the fact that no one seems to have actually liked the film. Now it likely has no chance at all.
I respect that the filmmakers were willing to take risks and try some things. But I am very certain that you don’t need to take all the risks, and try all the things, in one movie. It’s a mess. It’s not good overall. And it’s confusingly weird. If there were justice this would be out of the top ten without question in favor of one of my snubs.
I’m Still Here: The second movie of the Valentine’s double header, this was a true story in Portuguese about the abduction and murder of a former Brazilian Congressman by the military dictatorship of the early 1970s. A perfect Valentine’s movie. And a movie about a dictatorial government that rejects truth and has no respect for opponents was a real nice escape from current realities.
Fernanda Torres plays the wife, who spent time in prison herself, and then spent the rest of her life fighting for her government to acknowledge the truth of what happened to her husband. She was brilliant - by far the best part of the movie aside from the house that they lived in a block from the beach in Rio - and became just the second Brazilian woman ever to be nominated for Best Actress. The first was her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, for her role in Central Station in 1998 - which was directed, as this movie was, by Walter Salles.
This is a very good, subtly handled, straightforward biopic. I learned a lot - which wasn’t hard because I knew precisely nothing about Brazil in the 1970s going in. I respect the movie a lot. But I would have easily replaced this one with one of my snubs. It was good, but not top ten good.
Nickel Boys: This was the other Valentine’s day movie, and if you thought dictatorial murder wasn’t bad enough for the occasion, this one was inspired by a true story about a reform school in Florida in the 1960s that abused and murdered black inmates and anonymously disposed of their bodies. And yes, I suggested both movies as a Valentines date. Sorry ladies, I’m already taken.
Beyond a gripping story very well told, this one has a very interesting gimmick - one that doesn’t come across as nearly as gimmicky as I thought it might. Throughout the movie the camera is a character. There are two boys at the core of the story, and the camera acts as the eyes of one or the other the entire time, occasionally shifting back and forth so we can see the other one when we need to. It’s disorienting at first because you never get any background shots or carefully framed shots, the camera is never still, and the main characters are always present and central to whatever is happening. But you get used to it after a while, and it’s really cool. I don’t think I need to see it in many more movies, and done wrong it would just be a disaster, but it really worked here.
This movie was as hard to watch as it was beautiful. It has been extremely hard to see up to this point, and it was a big surprise when it got a Best Picture nomination. It has no chance of winning, but it certainly belongs in the race.
The Substance: This horror movie is insane in a way that can be exactly explained like this - for the climax scene the director ordered 21,000 gallons of fake blood, and fire truck pumps to spray it all over an audience in a theatre. Tricia opted out of this viewing, and while I enjoyed the movie immensely, I can’t say she was wrong. If you have issues with gross things you will hate this one.
Demi Moore, in a role that is very likely to win her her first Oscar for acting, stars as a fading actor turned aerobics TV host - a national level Charlene Prickett, for those able to pick up a very specific regional reference. She’ll turn you way off of injecting anything into yourself ever - which is mostly a good thing to be turned off of. And, thanks to a small but brilliant role by Dennis Quaid, you’ll also never want to eat shrimp again.
It is amazing that a movie this batshit is nominated for Best Picture. But it’s also a sign that there is hope for the world. This movie is daring, brilliant, exciting, bizarre, gross, and I have been thinking about it constantly since I saw it. A Best Picture win isn’t going to happen, but I would love if it did. Among this group of ten movies it is my pick - to an extent that surprises me.
Wicked: I really like Wicked the musical. Tricia and I saw it in L.A. in 2008. I know the soundtrack well. I could have, and should have, really liked this movie - it’s a pretty faithful interpretation of the first act of the musical, after all. I really, really didn’t.
It wasn’t all bad. Ariana Grande, starring as Glinda, is spectacular. So talented it makes you grossly jealous. And the monkeys looked cool.
But the issues. So many issues. It is more than three hours long, and felt to me as if each hour was a month. Each song and dance number is about nine times longer than it needed to be. Cynthia Erivo, who is Elphaba, is stunningly talented, but she just drives me crazy in this role. Elphaba should have a glint of mischief and fuck-you-ed-ness in her core. She does in the show. Erivo plays the character so painfully earnestly here, though, that I never was rooting for her. I was definitely supposed to be.
I’ll see part two in November, and I’ll hope it all gets tied up with a bow. But the awards campaign of this movie ran out of gas early, and I wasn’t sad about it.
The Snubs
There are three movies that deserve to be nominated that weren’t. Two were expected to be right up until the nominations were announced. The other, mystifyingly, was never in the race.
A Real Pain: This is my favorite movie of the year. Written and directed by, and starring, Jesse Eisenberg, it’s about two Jewish cousins who, after the death of their grandmother, return to her native Poland together to see where she came from, and what she lived through during the holocaust. The two cousins are very different, and the one played brilliantly by Kieran Caulkin has no shortage of issues. Their interactions with each other, and with the rest of their tour group, are a master class in small film making. Sad. Funny. Cringy. Just great.
I didn’t know my grandmother - my dad’s mother - very well at all. And the interactions I did have were mostly a long way from positive. My dad had a rough time being her son, and that probably dug a hole that was tough for me to climb out of. My cousins had a much different, much better relationship with her. A couple years ago I spent a night out with a cousin and his friends, and as he talked about his grandmother it was as if he was speaking of a stranger. Unrecognizable. The two cousins in this movie had a very similar experience growing up, and it grabbed me over and over again as I watched.
This movie is on Disney+ now - surely the only holocaust movie on that network - and I couldn’t be more enthusiastic in my recommendation for you to check it out.
Sing Sing: This is a really great movie that likely only got shut out of the race because the studio made the film far too hard to see. It’s a simple story based on a real program in Sing Sing prison which lets inmates develop and perform in plays. Most of the cast of the film are former participants in the program, playing fictionalized versions of themselves. In the wrong hands this movie could have been cheesy and gross. But it just wasn’t. It’s really great, and you can’t help but come out of it feeling better about everything.
Challengers: This is probably the most fun I had at a movie all year, and I have no idea why it was never a contender. It was released in April, and people seemed to forget about it. Truly a shame.
Zendaya was the best women’s tennis player in the world. She met two young male players who were inseparable, and they instantly both had mad crushes on her. She got injured, her career ended, she started coaching her husband - one of those young men - and a triangle that affected all of them was firmly established. It looks good. It sounds good. It’s sexy as hell. It’s hilarious. This is just a masterpiece of a movie. It’s on Prime, and you should definitely watch it.
Honorable Mentions
There are a few movies from this year I haven’t seen yet - September 5 and Juror #2 atop that list. Others that I have seen that are worth a look despite not being serious Oscar contenders, though, include:
Nosferatu: A faithful retelling of the classic Dracula-esque vampire story, this movie looks as cool as a movie can look. Amazing attention to detail - sometimes at the expense of a soul. Really cool.
Heretic: It was the year of horror movies, and this was another gem. Hugh Grant, in an incredible display of acting that should have been nominated, plays a man who invites two young female Mormon missionaries into his home to talk religion. It doesn’t go well. Both creepy and really thought provoking.
Civil War: A movie about journalists covering a war that has ripped the U.S. apart as rebels attempt to overthrow a despot President and reclaim Washington. Clearly a work of impossible fiction. Not at all the movie I thought it was based on the trailers - and all the better for it.
Strange Darling: A serial killer movie told with no regard to chronological sequence that goes nothing like you expect it to. Really impressive.
Hundreds of Beavers: If you see only one movie out of the 19 I talked about, make it this one. I won’t even try to describe it other to say that not a single word is spoken, there are indeed hundreds of beavers, and Tricia and Tristan and I laughed - hard - for two hours straight. It’s a masterpiece. It’s on Prime.
Thank you for this list and your thoughts, it will help Mike and I reduce the time we waste trying to figure out what to watch!!!! I always love your take on things.