Two Completed Shorts Categories

I saw the Live Action Shorts on Friday, and thought they were almost all really good, so I guessed that this year the Animated would be creepy or whatever, since in many years one or the other of those two sets of Shorts has been known to be a bit off the rails.  But then Saturday I saw the Animated Shorts and they were... also good?!

Live Action Shorts (in the order presented in the cinema program)
The Singers
A Friend of Dorothy 
Butcher's Stain
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Jane Austen's Period Drama 

Animated Shorts (in the order presented in cinema program) 
The Three Sisters 
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls 
Butterfly
Retirement Plan 

So not only do I not loathe any of this year's Best Picture nominees, but this year we're also safe from creepy what-the-hell- did-I- just- watch! shorts. So far. 

All right.  Do I have clear favorites? I just might have one or two. Of the Live Action Shorts: Butcher's Stain and  Two People Exchanging Saliva. I also think each of those has a chance to win.

I have read mixed reviews of Butcher's Stain  but really haven't agreed much with criticism I've read so far. It's hot topic political, as the Butcher in question is a (Palestinian?) Arab working in a grocery in Israel. But it's not really "about" that conflict per se, as much as it is about misunderstanding, judgment, betrayal, and how we're all struggling and lots of us are making others struggle. I think that after seeing it, when you look back you see how precise each moment was. In it, the personal is political, while in Two People Exchanging Saliva, the political (or societal) gets very, very personal. The minute I saw this mildly bodily-fluid-esque title on the Shortlist, I thought two things:  1. That's probably French (yes) and 2. I'm going to hate this, aren't I?  NOT AT ALL!  I loved it.  It is dark, moody, riveting, subversive, and exquisitely executed.  I think any voter would have to acknowledge that this is the best-crafted of the five nominees! I absolutely recommend it - and the less you know about it beforehand, the better.  I found myself thinking about it while brushing my teeth later that night. 

Of the three others, two were lovely and one is stupid. The Singers was lovely, and great in its simplicity that  really brings emotional complexity. It also makes you want to go hang out in the bar with these gruff, grizzled old guys for an evening!  It would be an honor - like this Short being nominated. A Friend of Dorothy I've heard getting some buzz for a possible win, which I think would be a mistake. Don't get me wrong, as it was sweet and also very well done, but a little predictable and the smarmy white grandson  is a caricature.  I did like that last lingering shot, though.  As for Jane Austen's Period Drama, I already knew it was stupid, as I watched it on Kanopy a few weeks ago. It is nothing more than a Saturday Night Live sketch with editing.  I could not believe I was watching an Oscar-nominated short. Ridiculous.

My favorite of the Animateds was Forevergreen.  Oh, I loved it so much.  There is a little sound the bear makes when first picked up by the tree that warmed my heart! Forevergreen is fun, humorous, and adorable, while also being profound, touching, and cautionary. It's an allegory and a joy. I want it to win! 

There are three others that I liked but don't necessarily want to win. Retirement Plan is great, and I wasn't the only one laughing out loud multiple times because it's delightful while also being starkly true, but it is kind of slight, really when you get down to it, as a cinematic endeavor. It's a bit like that world-renowned Baz Luhrmann song "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)." The Girl Who Cried Pearls is the stop-motion one (right? See, I've learned a thing or two about animation Istilldon'tcareaboutit shhhhdon'ttellanybody.)  It also has a nice story with a good, solid ending and it's one I could see people voting for.  Butterfly is pretty and also packs a political punch, but also feels a bit slight compared to some others. 

But the real contender here could be The Three Sisters. This was absolutely glorious, fun, and low-key exhilarating to watch, while being not quite like any animation I've seen before. It looks like a camera holding a wide landscape shot, and the way the drawn characters move is so interesting. It's also funny and quirky and clever.  It only loses one little half-star for, you guessed it, bodily fluids. But I basically forgive it because it's wonderful. 

I don't think I'm going to give you my Order I Think They Will Win because I don't know  I am very busy and life is Short.  (See what I did there.) 

Completed Category: Best Original Song

 Oh, this weird little category!

Original Song
"Dear Me" - from Diane Warren: Relentless
"Golden" - from KPop Demon Hunters
"I Lied To You" - from Sinners
"Sweet Dreams of Joy" - from Viva Verdi!
"Train Dreams" -  from Train Dreams

Now, listen.  I am going to tell you right now that I greatly enjoyed the Diane Warren documentary, and I don't care what anyone thinks about my enjoyment of it.  Notably, it did not make the shortlist for Documentary Features, but this latest song that Diane wrote did in fact get her another Original Song nomination, and she once again, I'm sorry to say, is unlikely to win. I learned so much about her and her life and her friend group, and I will tell you that her prickly personality, stream of f-bombs, and liking animals more than people all really work for me.  The song "Dear Me" is performed by Kesha and is not the greatest Diane Warren song. Oh well. Try again next year! 

Another movie I love, but am not picking to win this category? Train Dreams.  I still want all of you to watch that gorgeous, sad, lovely movie (it's on Netflix!) when you are in an appropriate, thoughtful mood.  The song, performed by  Nick Cave, very much fits the vibe of the movie, but it's not anything next level as a song.  Moving on... 

Viva Verdi! is the "Huh?" movie of this year's Oscar nominees. Well, it's a documentary about some folks living in the retirement home in Italy designed by Verdi himself (!) as a home for retired/older musicians. It was a really interesting little slice of life, but again, not nominated as a doc but rather for the song "Sweet Dreams of Joy."  Well, it was fine.  You can actually enjoy the folks singing a lot of more famous songs throughout the film in little snippets, by the way, if you're into that kind of thing.  But the movie also features their personalities and some history. It's available to rent on the Jolt indie film streaming service (I told you, Huh?)  Thanks, Jolt!  It's an honor for you to be nominated, Viva Verdi. 

Right, then. Sinners vs. KPop Demon Hunters.  It is going to be hard for anything to beat the extremely popular and now Grammy-winning "Golden" and KPop Demon Hunters delighted everybody, or at least a lot of bodies. But there is a tiny smidgen of a chance that Sinners busts out to a big night and collects trophy after trophy including this one for "I Lied To You."  That of course would mean Sinners seizes the glory - and the Oscars - from One Battle After Another  or as I now think of it One Nomination After Another.  A girl can dream. 

Which of these movies and songs did you like? 

Order I want them to win:  
Keeping in mind that I'm not sure how much I care, really?  And that as much as I liked Sinners I'm not all that into blues, which I know is like an egregious sin among most guitar players but I said what I said? Probably the same as the... 

Order that I think they're likely to win: 
Golden, I Lied to You, big gap here, still in the gap, still in the gap, Train Dreams, then another gap and then Dear Me or Sweet Dreams Of Joy  

Two Completed Categories: Supporting Actress & Supporting Actor

I completed these categories, along with Lead Actress, when I watched Sentimental Value last week, because the general approach with that movie seemed to be "You get an acting nomination! And you get an acting nomination!"  However, the same could be said of One Scene Battle After Another.  Each of those flicks has FOUR acting nominations.  And Sinners got three. 

Actress In A Supporting Role
Elle Fanning -Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas - Sentimental Value
Amy Magigan - Weapons 
Wunmi Mosaku - Sinners
Teyana Taylor - One Battle After Another 

Actor In A Supporting Role
Benicio Del Toro - One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi - Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo - Sinners
Sean Penn - One Battle After Another 
Stellan Skarsgard - Sentimental Value

 

That means out of 20 acting nominations, 11 are for only three movies, and then there are nine where only one performance is nominated from the film.  Of the ten Supporting nominations, EIGHT are from those same three movies, and then one in each category from a single nominated performance. The interesting thing though is that there are two films with four nominations, but not one in each of the four categories; rather, one film doubles up in Supporting Actor with no Actress nom and one doubles up in Supporting Actress with no Actor nom. 

Yes, this is interesting.  I mean, you know. If you're an Oscar dork/completist such as myself. 

So anyhoo, what do we like, loathe, or think is overrated?  And will the movies that doubled up split the vote and thus lose those particular categories? 

I mentioned already that I like Sentimental Value.  Really. But I think y'all need to calm down a little bit about it. Actually, I don't know that I could see either Elle or Inga winning even without a vote to split, but they are just part of the freely doled out love for that movie. It's a movie that people are proud of themselves for liking. You might think that's One Interminable Scene After Another, but no, that's different; that movie is one people are pressured into liking by the film zeitgeist and the insistence that you love Paul Thomas Anderson, no really, you do. That being said, Teyana Taylor has a reeealllly good chance here. People loved her in One Battle... and she honestly might also be carrying a bit of the torch for the other women from her film that didn't end up getting nominations -- yes, people thought there might be even more.  She seems to be everywhere, she won the Golden Globe (but she read her speech off a piece of paper, boo), she presented at the Grammys, and she is definitely running strong for this award.  

While I am hoping (against hope?) that Sinners does win some awards and is not completely steamrolled by Seventy-Five Million Battles One After the Other, I think Wunmi Mosaku is the honor-to-be-nominated one and this won't be the category where Sinners triumphs.  The absolute wild card here is Amy Madigan in Weapons. I weirdly saw Weapons in a crowded theatre the Thursday evening that it came out down the street from where I lived last August - I know, who am I, right?! - and it's not my kind of movie and it was a bit silly and Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys was completely batshit crazy but hey, she did her thing, and she is loved. Enough to upset everybody on Oscar night?  Who's to say?  Weirder things have happened. Including in several of these movies, where lots and lots of weird stuff happens. 

Speaking of weird, Sean Penn's absolutely looney tunes unhinged performance is nominated along with Benicio Del Toro for Is This Battle Still Going On Seriously.  That movie just would not end, but when Benicio showed up is when it pulled me back in.  I thought he was fantastic in a million ways, which is not to say that Sean wasn't great, but Sean was around for more of it (and there was so, so much of it) and his character is evil and weird and gross and basically Benicio was one of the best parts of the flick, but really at any rate neither of them is that likely to win this -- they really might split their One Vote After Another.  I think it is more realistic that nobody calms down about Sentimental Value and Stellan Skarsgard wins, and thus the movie that doubles up in one Supporting category wins the other Supporting category both times.  

I personally loved Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi, who is definitely honored to be nominated. But! Could Delroy Lindo in Sinners work some magic here? He is - like Amy Madigan - loved by many actors and others and it is strongly felt that he is overdue; he could be the surprise here in that kind of Mark Rylance way. We shall see. 

When I don't hate any of the movies -- even the one that dragged on and on and on -- it's harder for me to rant about who should win. Delroy Lindo's was one of the most captivating performances.  Jacob Elordi  had a lot going on, and his degree of difficulty with how lovely he made that character is something to behold. I'm always fond of Benicio and Elle, including their work here. I'm not really mad at anyone who wins these -- even if I really couldn't stand the characters played by either Teyana Taylor or Sean Penn in One Battle After Another After Another. 

Order I want them to win for Supporting Actress, I guess: 
Wunmi/Amy/Teyana barely separated, then a gap, then Elle then Inga, but all are so close. I just don't have a strong soaring favorite here, but I do like Sinners the most.  

Order I think they will win: 
Teyana Taylor, Amy Madigan, Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Wunmi Mosaku. 

Order I want them to win for Supporting Actor: 
Benicio or Delroy, Jacob, Sean, Stellan
Order I think they will win: 
Stellan Skarsgard, then Delroy Lindo or Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Jacob Elordi

Which performance was your favorite?  

Completed Category: Lead Actress, featuring 5 women

Quick reminder that I am #TeamBugonia and I would love for that film to be rewarded in spades but let's get real about the Best Actress  situation, shall we? 

Actress In A Leading Role
Jessie Buckley - Hamnet
Rose Byrne- If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Kate Hudson - Song Sung Blue
Renata Reinsve - Sentimental Value
Emma Stone - Bugonia 

First, I would like to congratulate the Academy for nominating five women in this category. Please keep doing that!

Second, the reality of this situation is that Jessie Buckley is heavily, heavily, heavily favored to win this.  And I'm not really mad at that, other than it being no fun to have foregone conclusions or even frontrunners; we want suspense!  I liked Hamnet, it was lovely and faithful to the book, her character is earthy and witchy, and also I think Jessie Buckley could maybe play me in the movie of my life.  The only thing I'm bummed about is we have had to endure all of Yorgos Lanthimos' weirdo films, including his multiple collaborations with Emma Stone, including the psychotic Poor Things for which she won her second Oscar for goodness' sake (should have been Annette Bening in Nyad that year!!!)  and I was so very sick of their madness and then Bugonia  this year was so wonderful. Based on everything the two of them have put me through, my expectations couldn't have been lower, so I was pleasantly shocked at how fantastic it was. The best thing Yorgos and Emma have done to us by far, and THIS is the year that she has no real chance? Sigh. 

Well but them's the breaks. You know who else likely has no chance and whose performance I greatly enjoyed? Kate Hudson in Song Sung Blue. To be clear, that movie was a mess, with both screenplay and tone swinging wildly all over the place and hitting very little, but I could watch Kate singing Neil Diamond songs with Hugh Jackman for another two hours or two days or two months maybe.  Absolute Kate Hudson performance charm doing its thing, with some surprise serious moments to really act some different emotional stuff. (Because the movie is all over the place, as mentioned.) 

I could be the tiniest bit worried that Renata Reinsve could pull some votes because people have lost their minds about Sentimental Value. This is another film that I liked, after gingerly approaching it with trepidation due to the previous off-putting collaboration from that actress and director.  It's no Bugonia, but I really liked it. But it's as if people had decided they were going to nominate her before they even watched it. And nine nominations for the film? Nine?!  We kinda need to calm down about Sentimental Value.  

And then there is Rose Byrne.  She won the Golden Globe for Actress-Musical or Comedy (Jessie Buckley won Actress-Drama of course) and some people are whispering that she maybe upsets and wins the Oscar for the lunatic shitshow that is If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. And there is nothing I want less for this movie than an Oscar, except for how much I want my life to be nothing like anyone's in this movie at any point ever.  I do have legs, and if I could kick a film with them, I would kick this one. It is an excruciating journey through several people's terrible behavior, terrible choices, and terrible reactions to other people's behavior and choices.  You know how I've praised Hamnet for having three kids in big roles and none of them even slightly annoying? Yeah, If/Legs/Kick is the exact opposite of that.  The child is a total nightmare in every way from first scene to last.  I am on the hamster's side and everything about this flick can go away. Rose Byrne was definitely fierce and committed and whatnot but my goddesses can we please just not. 

And so. 

Order I want them to win: 

Emma Stone, Jessie Buckley or Kate Hudson, then a big gap, Renata Reinsve, then an even bigger gap, then Rose Byrne please no no no no although at least she is a woman but still just no 

Order I think they will win: 

Jessie Buckley

Then maybe if there's like voter fraud or we ban Shakespeare or some other crazy thing, maaaaaaybe people will make psychotic choices for Rose Byrne, or get nostalgic about their years of loving Kate Hudson and her family, or feel proud of themselves for watching Renata Reinsve in films with subtitles, or remember how much they like Emma Stone even though they gave her Oscars for all the wrong movies.  

But probably it'll be Jessie. 

Two Completed Categories: Adapted Screenplay and Original Score

Welcome to the end of the first week of Oscar nominations! 

Have you made your checklists? Have you added up your totals of how many you need to see?  Have you lamented the fact that unless you are in Southern California you might not get to see Viva Verdi before the ceremony?  Have you asked yourself why you haven't yet moved back to Southern California?  I have done all of these things!

As of nominations morning, I already had two completed categories. 

Adapted Screenplay
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another 
Train Dreams 

Original Score
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Similar nominees! Let's see what separates them, and what we think. 

First of all, I'll make it clear from the outset this year that I am a full-fledged member of #TeamBugonia. I love it, and I absolutely love it.  It is the best thing Emma & Yorgos have done, by far.  I was getting a little tired of their cinematic antics and when the Lanthimos-directed Poor Things earned Emma Stone another Oscar a couple years ago I was miserable; I loathed that flick. And I was dreading Bugonia, and my expectations couldn't have been lower as I grudgingly headed into the theatre back in November. Much to my pleasant surprise, it was fantastic.  I will be thrilled if it wins anything, although I don't know that it will. More on that as we move through the season. 

On the other hand, I am completely not buying the hype for One Battle After Another.  Yes, it was wild and had moments of hilarity and serious themes and staggering sequences and great performances. It was also interminable. I call it One Scene After Another. Enough. 

Adapted Screenplay is an interesting category. As much as Bugonia is my favorite of the five films, I don't know if it's the best adaptation of previously published material. It is based on a Korean movie, Save the Green Planet!  For this category, I think about what it took to take the prior work and turn it into this work, and in that sense I think there are two other strong contenders, both of which I also like immensely, Hamnet and Train Dreams. 

Hamnet is a wonderful, earthy, lovely, witchy, gritty, literary book that I found to be such a clever re-imagining of what led to Hamlet,  and the film was beautifully faithful to the book while giving us a glorious cinematic experience.  I am 100% OK with Hamnet winning everything, too. 

Train Dreams is a slight, odd novella that I read last year in anticipation of then-months-off Awards Season, and when I read it I thought it might work better as a film. I now agree with myself. The book is barely more than an idea, but the movie is another earthy, gritty, quietly powerful bit of art that rewards quiet contemplative viewing.  Did you see it?  What did you think? 

And Frankenstein?  Again, not so much the screenplay moved me here as Guillermo del Toro's weird and wondrous and lush filmmaking vision.  But it was beautiful and bookended well, with lots of great choices -- and his films don't always necessarily land for me, either, but this one surely did. 

And then there's Original Score, which is always hard for me to decide short of a true marvel (for example, The Brutalist last year or Gladiator more than two decades ago) because I honestly sometimes forget to pay attention.  When I contemplate these nominees now, I have to think back to how I was ushered through the film.  And honestly, all of them are fine, although it is unnecessary to reward One Battle After Another here. The music of Sinners was absolutely a huge part of it, but not necessarily because of the Original Score. It's possible that Sinners, a stunning movie, will pick up a slew of awards including this one. But the same can be said for Hamnet.  Will Bugonia and Frankenstein be shut out? 

Order I want the Adapted Screenplay nominees to win from my #1 pick to no thanks: 
Train Dreams, Hamnet, Bugonia, Frankenstein, One Battle After Another
Order I think they will win, if you'd like my help in your Oscar pool (ha!): 
Hamnet, One Battle After Another, Bugonia, Train Dreams, Frankenstein 

Order I want the Original Score nominees to win: 
Bugonia, Hamnet, Sinners or Frankenstein, One Battle After Another 
Order I think they will win (although I'm really truly not sure): 
Sinners, Hamnet, One Battle After Another, Frankenstein, Bugonia 

Well, that's two categories done out of 24! 
How about you? 
Is your Oscar nominee viewing off to a good start? 

Who Wore It Better? Mid-Life Crisis Edition

Checking in quickly for an early, special edition of Who Wore It Best?

This year, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Brad Pitt, those high wattage movie star besties so dear to my Gen X heart, all starred in awards-conversation films featuring a full-fledged middle-age-turning-to-later-years What Is My Life's Work? crisis, with a bonus shared plot point of Who Does This Young Whippersnapper Think S/He Is? 

And I loved all of them. 

Only F1 has ended up with Oscar nominations, so Brad is going to have to carry this particular torch through the home stretch ("Wait for the straightaway!") but the Golden Globes did acknowledge George and Julia too. 

Jay Kelly - Hollywood, fake friends, Europe, awards, acting, sincerity, trains, career-spanning montage 

After the Hunt - academia, fake friends, pontificating, marriage, relationships, advisors, group think, ivory tower, identity, was-s/he-just-using-me? 

F1 - racing, real friends, fake fans, managers, family, co-workers, team building, car building, media, corporate sponsors, mavericks, mistakes, Europe, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, casino, podium finish, lessons learned 

Who Wore It Best?  

I LOVE THEM ALL 

#swan 

Completed Cateogry: Best Picture

 Oscars Day is here! 
Everything is terrible in current events - but we still have the Oscars.
(Which also have some terrible things happening.) 

Best Picture

Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Perez
I'm Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked

Remember: The interesting thing about the Best Picture race, nowadays, is that in the era of the preferential ballot voting (aka ranked choice voting), anything can happen!  And if your movie gets a lot of second, third, and fourth place votes, that can help you more than getting a bunch of first and last place votes. 

If I were a Best Picture ballot-wielding Academy member voting today, I... would be late, first of all, as voting has already closed.  But if I were a Best Picture ballot-wielding Academy member voting on time two weeks ago let's say, here is my ballot! 

Order I want them to win - and due to human psychology, affected by "knowing" other people will be voting for certain films: 
1.I'm Still Here   2.The Substance  3. Conclave  4. A Complete Unknown   5.Wicked   6.Dune: Part Two 7.Anora  8.The Brutalist 

not getting any votes on my ballot (because, simply, I don't want them to win Best Picture - I'm not actually saying there is nothing redeeming about the films. I'm saying I do not think either of them deserves to win Best Picture, and therefore I won't give them even my 9th or 10th place vote for Best Picture):  Nickel Boys, Emilia Perez

The five movies that I loved are in my top five spots, with a bit of playing with the order in which I loved them just a bit, to try to put my (fake) vote where it can do the most. My #1 and #2 choices here, are partly because I do NOT think either of those will be the first one eliminated. (I also loved them.)  When things start to get serious, I want Conclave to get my vote over Anora and The Brutalist, so I can't put that too far down. I'm sad that I don't think A Complete Unknown has a chance in this category, but I did love it, as I did Wicked, which has slightly more of a chance here of getting loads of second and third place votes.  Then spots 6 through 8 are simply the order I want them to have my vote. 

Order I think they will win: 
Anora  or Conclave- I'm still not sure which, The Brutalist,  I'm Still Here, Wicked, The Substance, A Complete Unknown, Emilia Perez, Dune Part Two, Nickel Boys   

Completed Category: Visual Effects

 It's my last completed category! I watched my last of this year's nominees today! 
I'm a #Completist. 

Visual Effects
Alien:Romulus
Better Man
Dune Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked 

Furthermore, the reason that the last movie I watched, today, was the last nominee I watched is because I additionally set a side quest for myself: to re-watch/watch ALL of the Planet of the Apes movies, starting with the 1968 Charlton Heston original, through the sequels, the remake, and the excellent reboots, ending with this year's nominee. And I did it!  I triumphed over Oscars season. I am a completist AND I did a side quest.  So many apes. I got really into these last few - which have also been nominated for Visual Effects, during years when I didn't complete all the nominees and had a few rogue leftover Makeup, Sound, Song, Visual or other random flicks still to watch. But this year, I decided to correct this situation, check off a few more past nominees, and why not just watch all ten Apes movies, eh? 

So: should Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes win Visual Effects?

Well, I mean, that would be fine. These reboots are so well done, with the motion capture and this wondrously imagined world. (I'm actually going to miss it, after being so devoted to my Apes for a few weeks here). 

But is it more likely that Dune: Part Two or Wicked will win this category?  Yes, I think so.  Dune: Part Two is gorgeous and a stunning achievement and I think everybody wants to give it some technical awards.  On the other hand, First Dune did win some a few years ago, and we also have another gorgeous achievement, Wicked, which everybody wants to give some awards, but then again, they know there will be a second Wicked, so ...?  It's confusing. 

Alien: Romulus also created a world although a lot of it was on a spaceship, and while it paid some fun homage to the original Alien flicks, it might just be an honor to be nominated. 

Better Man is the weird nominee here; it's a fancifully, inventively done biopic of Robbie Williams, who is far more famous in the U.K. than the U.S.A., and who is depicted in the entire film as a monkey. I cannot explain for the life of me why this works so well but it's really marvelous and quite enjoyable. It would be delightful and amusing if it wins over the big multiple-noms films. 

Order I want them to win: 
I don't even know. It's the end of Oscars season! I'm so tired. 

Order I think they will win: 
Dune: Part Two, Wicked, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Better Man, Alien: Romulus 

Well - which Visual Effects nominee do you think is the best? 
The best film overall? The best technical achievement? Both? 

And, are you a #completist? 

Completed Category: Documentary Feature

My second-to-last completed category!  One more nominee to see after this. 

Documentary Feature Film
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Soundtrack To A Coup d'Etat
Sugarcane

Let me just say, once again, that whether a documentary is interesting or good is not based on the topic.

 There can be an amazing documentary about a subject in which I have no interest that has me riveted. Or, the opposite: a topic I would love to know more about can be covered in a terrible documentary, making for an excruciating 2.5 hours, such as is the case with Soundtrack To A Coup d'Etat.  Holy cow is this a boring look at the mid-twentieth century tragic and murderous foreign policy of Belgium and the U.S., and political shenanigans in the Congo, up to and including the murder of Patrice Lumumba. I am deeply interested in this history! This documentary bored me immensely. Also, it was irritating. There's this whole jazz motif going on, and it drove me straight up a wall.  I really don't like jazz and I'm pretty sure that's related to how much I hate this film.  The film is constructed of various jazz music that is sometimes lyrically appropriate and sometimes relevant because the film at that time is talking about when Louis Armstrong or whoever traveled to Africa at that time -- so many layers, like a piece of jazz music, right?  Ugh. It was awful. There were actually close-ups of people singing where you could see their saliva - gross, shudder.  And the shots of Dizzy Gillespie's puffy cheeks gave me the fantods. Now, on the other hand, the frequent clips of Malcolm X talking were by far a highlight of this film - more of that, please. Less of everything else.  Side note: this is not solely about "We Didn't Start the Fire" (Belgians in the Congo!) but also a fair bit of Car 54 Where Are You?  (Khrushchev's due at Idlewild!) 

Anyway. Onto the four good documentaries! 

Black Box Diaries - haunting, stunning achievement, quite personal while being globally relevant, as one woman documents her pursuit of justice in the aftermath of a sexual assault. Why are men. 

No Other Land -  depressing, infuriating look at oppressively macho Israeli military posturing over a bit of land that they would like to forbid Palestinians to live on, for no discernible reason.  

Porcelain War - still more depressing stuff, with art and nature and beauty struggling to keep their heads above the mass of violent warfare that is the Russian invasion of and war in Ukraine.  

Sugarcane -  another personal depiction that meanders through major trauma and its effects years and decades later on the survivors of "Indian schools" in Canada as well as on their descendants. I really thought this was well done, with the weaving of one personal search for healing amid the wider community and even world search for healing related to this horrible bit of history. 

There is really only one that I can't bear to see win, but my order in which I'd like to see them win:  Sugarcane, Black Box Diaries, Porcelain War  (really, any of those three!), then No Other Land

Order in which I think they'll win: 
Maybe Porcelain War? Or Black Box Diaries.  I might like Sugarcane more than some other people do, but I did notice Lily Gladstone's name as an Executive Producer, which probably means she'll have  successfully campaigned it to some extent.  No Other Land probably won't work for some people. I don't know who votes for Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat ... Steely Dan fans? Overwrought fever dreaming men? I don't know. 

Which documentary did you think was the best? 

Completed Category: International Feature

I greatly enjoy foreign films. One of my favorite categories! 

International Feature Film
Flow
Emilia Perez
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
I'm Still Here
The Girl With The Needle

This year? Not easy, my friends. 

There are four incredible cinematic accomplishments and one travesty of a nomination. I do not see how any member of this or any other Academy who watches all five of these could even consider voting for the abject mess that is Emilia Perez.

Flow is a sweet little cat film 🐈‍⬛️ and misfit friends story with no dialogue and lots of struggles and success, as we have mentioned elsewhere. Welcome to this party,  Latvia! If Flow loses both here and in Animated, I'll be devastated.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is such a well-done look at Iran; it skillfully incorporates real-life videos of protests from recent years while placing you into this family's little world, then creating tension that sneaks up on you and builds to a fever pitch. 

I'm Still Here, also nominated for Actress in a Leading Role (Fernanda Torres) and freaking Best Picture is incredible - except that it depicts a true Brazil story - and I've not felt sadder in some time than I did after watching this loving family experience man-made tragedy. 

And then last night I watched The Girl With The Needle, which is a slow burn but then dear gods will it mess you up. There are so many questions to contemplate about these characters and their choices. What should we do, what can we do, why are men, why are humans, why any of it? Go see it knowing absolutely nothing! Other than: humans, poverty, Denmark, war, devastation, black and white -- the film, not life choices. But prepare for heart palpitations. 

Order I want them to win:  Any of the three, seriously. Maybe Seed of the Sacred Fig, I'm Still Here, The Girl With The Needle. Next Flow only because it better freaking be winning Animated. And then a giant huge gap bigger than sixty- four Grand Canyons, and then gtfo E.P.

Order I think they will win:
I'm Still Here maybe possibly please. Then stupid freaking E. Perez because humans are the worst. Then the others... although if the voters have the sense the gods gave a goose then they'll do the right thing here. Which is to say, do anything but the worst thing. 

Completed Category: Costume Design

I actively like so much of what's going on this category! 

Costume Design
A Complete Unknown 
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked

Look. I love Wicked. I love it, and I said when I watched it that I wanted it to win everything it's nominated for. And that's still mostly true, other than the fact that Ariana is category fraud supreme and I just can't even but the odds-on favorite Zoe is also fraudulent, and for a disaster of a film, so it might as well be Ariana, but anyway the point is yes I would be happy for wonderful, creative, gorgeous, inspiring Wicked to win for Costume Design. 

But. I would also be just fine, it turns out, with Gladiator II winning in this category. !  No seriously though, Emma the Cat and I just watched it this week during our little winter vacation ski trip and boy were we riveted. The costumes are so beautiful, and so detailed, and so MANY.  I was super into revisiting the Gladiator world and I think I kind of like sequels that leave 20 years in between more than every-couple-of-year sequels. There is so much delicious craziness in this flick, with Denzel, and the loony twin emperors, and a billion soldiers, and it's all exquisite. And this is the only nom that the film got. We might have to take this one away from Wicked, y'all. What do you say? 

I really don't think the others have a chance.  Conclave would if it was on its way to a sweep - remember, people really thought Conclave was going to be our Best Picture for a while - but that ship seems to have sailed.  The cardinals' get-ups are gorgeous and fit for each one of the characters specifically but it's still less of an Achievement in Costume Design than either Gladiator II  or  Wicked. 

Nosferatu might be able to pull this off just because it's so fanciful, unreal, and set long ago & far away.  (But then - so are Wicked  and Gladiator.) 

 A Complete Unknown  is honored to be nominated. The most recently set AND most relatable and realist  of the Costume nominees is almost never the winner. Conclave is more recent but isn't a period piece, and its world is removed from us regular folks (even us Newport Folk Festival-playing regular folks), but even it I think doesn't really have as much of a chance. 

Order I want them to win: 
Gladiator II, Wicked, Conclave, A Complete Unknown, Nosferatu 

Order I think they will win: 
Wicked, Gladiator II, Nosferatu, Conclave, A Complete Unknown 

Completed Category: Documentary Shorts

Friends, enemies, countrypeople, et. al., it's one of those years where I'm going to insist that you absolutely need to watch the Documentary Shorts. 

Documentary Short Film
Instruments of a Beating Heart
Incident
I Am Ready, Warden
The Only Girl In The Orchestra 
Death By Numbers

This year we have: life, death, death, life, and death.

Issues include: racism, death penalty, killing of civilians by police, school shootings, sexism, grief, the meaning of life, creating art, and overcoming obstacles. 

You can see the Doc Shorts in select theatres this week and honestly, yes, it's worth dropping whatever you have to do or have scheduled the next few days.  Seriously, get a babysitter, take the afternoon off work, skip your church group - or heck, gather up and bring your church group - and hie thee to the cinema. 

Now, this is certainly a viewer-discretion-is-advised situation, but on the other hand, this is documentation of real life, and nobody really exercised discretion to prevent the real-life people from having to witness and/or experience terrible things up to and including being shot and killed. 

For those who cannot get to the cinema, please watch the ones that are available at home via streaming. Here is the link to Incident, which should be required viewing for you, your family, your neighbors, your friends, your enemies, and whoever else you can find strolling blithely around this Earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW65ChIjur4 

Incident depicts the killing of a Black man by police in Chicago, and the things the officers both instinctively and calculatedly say and do in the minutes following the incident.  I want this one to win. I think it might. I've never seen a Doc Short quite like it, the way it uses and split screens the various body camera and CCTV camera footage. 

I Am Ready, Warden depicts the lead-up to the execution date for a death row inmate, with input from the condemned man, his murder victim's son, his own son, a church lady who has become his adopted godmother, and a Texas government official. I also want this one to win. It could. It crafts this story so, so, so very well. The "cast" of characters really immerse you in the swirling realities of one man's sentence to death. 

Death By Numbers  depicts the written and spoken reflections of Sam Fuentes,  one of the survivors who was injured in the Parkland, Florida school shooting a few years back as she prepares to testify and speaks to the killer at the sentencing and victim impact statement days in court. She's a great writer. I hope she continues to heal and survive, and to gift us with her words.  I mourn the friends and teachers she lost that day as well as everything that has been taken from her and from other dead and living school shooting victims.  

One of the "feel-good" ones of the bunch is The Only Girl In the Orchestra, uplifting despite the gasp-out-loud sexism and affecting consideration of questions of what should we do with our lives? I recommend it for anyone who has: played music, listened to music, lived in New York, lived as an artist, admired a family member, admired a teacher, watched classic Westerns (no, seriously), touched a stringed instrument, moved a piano, or celebrated the gift of being alive.  It's on Netflix. 

The other feel-good one is Instruments of a Beating Heart, despite the occasional kids crying after either not getting a part they auditioned for or making mistakes as they rehearse the parts they did get. This is an adorable slice of life little film about 7-year-olds preparing to perform "Ode to Joy" with tambourines and whatnot for the incoming first graders at their school in Japan. I adore it. I recommend it to anyone who has ever tried to do something, failed, or succeeded.  It's available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRW0auOiqm4 

Order I want them to win:  THIS IS SO HARD
Maybe Incident or I Am Ready, Warden, then Instruments of a Beating Heart, as those three are such interestingly crafted documentary observances, and then the other two which are also A+ content if a bit more traditional let's-follow-this-person storytelling -- Death By Numbers  and The Only Girl In The Orchestra.  I will not be mad when any of these five win, except for the part where the other four have to not win.  

Order I think they will win:  I DON'T KNOW I said this is hard!!!!!! maybe Incident? 

Completed Category: Animated Short

Well, I guess it wouldn't be the Animated Shorts if there weren't something totally bananas that makes you go, What in the what did I just watch? 

Animated Short Film
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!

This is how it breaks down: two that you can watch with your sanity intact, one head-scratcher, and two why-jesus-and-all-the-gods-why. 

The two that you can watch with your sanity intact are Magic Candies and Yuck!  This is not to say there's nothing weird in Magic Candies -- talking inanimate objects really get the ball rolling here. But it's cute, follows a well-paced narrative, has clear and convincing animation, and delivers a good message. 

Yuck! has a lot of the same attributes, actually, with less surrealism (despite being French!)  This is simply a sweet story about the universal experience of being kids who are thisclose to outgrowing their "eww gross!" reaction to K-I-S-S-I-N-G.  Will either of those two short films that I liked win?  Well, I don't know.  What does the Academy want from an Animated Short?  Do they want things I want, like sharp, clear visuals and sensible narrative and reasonably intact sanity?  Or do they want - something else? 

Perhaps they want a whale - a very large and very square whale - washed up on a beach, and some fever dreamy attempts to save it interspersed with flashbacks and chaos and feelings of despair. If so, then In the Shadow of the Cypress is for them!  This is definitely a little film for people willing to puzzle out some layers of symbolism.  If you're the type who can't even get past things like the green light on Daisy's dock then this might not be the unpacking of symbols task for you. 

This year in the Oscars, we have a lot of men -- not just in the number of Acting nominees, but also in the titles of films nominated in Visual Effects, Makeup, Live Action Shorts - and here in the Animated Shorts, it's Beautiful Men time. Now, do you think that these men are, in fact, Beautiful, or might the title be wry and cynical in some way? Well... have I taught you nothing?  By the way you will get the chance to judge a whole lot of an animated's man's body to decide if he is beautiful. I mean it. There was a not-appropriate-for-children disclaimer and everything. 

And if you like naked men in your Animated Shorts and you're ready to go full wacko?  Well, have we got the Animated Short for you. It's time to Wander to Wonder, kids.  I really don't know what to say about this one - and I mean that in 100% earnest. I simply don't know what to say. This film is not for everybody, but I guess it's for somebody. That somebody is not me. 

Order I want them to win: Magic Candies, Yuck!, In the Shadow of the Cypress, [big gap], Beautiful Men, [bigger gap], cancel the Oscars, outlaw all animation forevermore, Wander to Wonder. 

Order I think they will win: Magic Candies, maybe In the Shadow of the Cypress, Beautiful Men, Yuck!, please-all-the-gods-forbid Wander to Wonder

Check out the Shorts in a cinema near you, now playing! But, don't say I didn't warn you about the weirdos and the naked men and the weirdo naked men! 

Completed Category: Animated: Redux

 Yesterday I was tired; this morning I found the energy to say a tiny bit more about the Animated Feature Film nominees. 

Have you seen them?

First of all, Flow is amazing and might win. It's about a cat!

Of course it should win! Actually, it's a wonderful, mesmerizing little journey and misfit friends story. It's also nominated in the International Feature category; it's Latvian, with no dialogue; the director is fun on the socials. Bet against it in your Oscar pool at your own risk.

My second favorite is Inside Out 2, which I thought was clever and actually engaged me more than the first one (which won). I rather enjoyed Ennui ("Ennui, are you paying attention?" "Non.") and I think the broccoli boat should be a Disneyland ride?!

Memoir Of A Snail is the weirdo one, and not for kids. It was so not my style at all, but then grew on me a little bit because the old woman voiced by Jacki Weaver is amazing (in a kind of get-off-my-lawn way) and I love the snail at the end

Also not really my thing is Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, although I'm sure that humor and the misunderstanding between them works for some people. It makes me feel anxious about the dog! Like, wake up dumb human! Anyway, this had a major scene with a bridge that tried to get in on last year's Mission Impossible/Indiana Jones years-later-sequel-dramatic-scene -of-peril-on-a-big-high-bridge who-wore-it -better territory.

Speaking of who-wore-it-better, this year's theme is robots that you order or buy to do a job and whose prime directive may or may not jibe with what you need. Reality, much? The Wild Robot is not the only nominated flick to do this (in various categories) but it's a big one and lots of folks' favorite. Could win.

What's your vote?

Toutes les réactions :

Completed Category: Animated

This will be brief because I am tired.  Not because I've reached that point in the Oscar season of being tired but because of too much life stuff. But, maybe I do need to start taking off the entire month of February for watching Oscar nominations!  

Animated Feature Film
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of A Snail
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

I liked: Inside Out 2. 
I ... meh:  The Wild Robot, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Not really my thing, although bits of it grew on me, mostly the snail saving the day: Memoir of a Snail

But I LOVED: Flow

It's about a cat. 

I would be perfectly happy to have more movies like Flow! 
Let's give it the Oscar. 

The End. 

Completed Category: Lead Actress

 The film I saw to complete this category also completed Best Picture but we'll save that for later, and for now just think about...

Actress In A Leading Role
Cynthia Erivo - Wicked
Mikey Madison - Anora
Demi Moore - The Substance
Fernanda Torres -  I'm Still Here
Mr. Carlos "Karla Sofia" Gascon, a man - Emilia Perez

 Are you thinking to yourself "Gee that's weird, why is there a man nominated in the Actress category?"  Well, posterity, if you're reading this and the human species has somehow managed to survive, you probably have history books that note the 2020s as a time of great strife, and a whole lot of nonsense, sometimes simultaneously. One of those areas is the idea that there are "transgender" people who somehow aren't the sex that they are. We're not going to waste any more time on that here (Ask Me Anything - but elsewhere) other than to point out how totally fucking stupid this category is this year because of the nomination of a man, and how sad we are for Angelina Jolie, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Pamela Anderson, Nicole Kidman, Amy Adams, or whichever woman would have had that fifth slot. 

Now, I will also say that while there are four wonderful performances by Actresses in Leading Roles here, they all make me sad (as does the man's - for being nominated), except for Cynthia in Wicked.  On the contrary, Wicked is so much pure joy!!!
Even though it, too, has many layered socio-philosophical questions and lots of turmoil, the movie and the production and everything about it just bring me so much joy, and I'm so happy for the supremely talented Cynthia Erivo in this nomination. I might even be rooting for her if I weren't annoyed by the category fraud regarding her --> co-star Ariana Grande, who is nominated in Supporting. The category fraud sort of spills over and ruins this nomination.  Anyway - she also might get nominated for Second Wicked, when that comes around. She really is so talented.  She's an "EGOT nominee" as they say. and has won several awards.  Someday, Cynthia. 

As much as we love Wicked, most people think one of two other nominees will be the likely winner.  And most people do not think that it will be the man, Gascon, nor that it will be Mikey Madison from Anora.  I mean - she was great, in that she carried the movie, basically the entire thing, and it was entertaining. That flick is not for everybody, but a lot of people sure do love it, and there is certainly talk about it winning in major categories (even Director and Best Picture!)  However, there are two stronger contenders here.

Fernanda Torres is nominated for the Brazilian film I'm Still Here, which is also nominated for not only International Film but Best Picture as well, and it is a heartbreaking performance.  Based on a true story, it made me sadder than just about anything has in a while - humanity is so frustrating and infuriating and horrible from time to time, and the thing is, people simply don't have to be the way they are, but they are.  I get so sad, after watching I'm Still Here, thinking about the family, and the other families of other victims of dictatorships, and about the people who suffered and were tortured and died, for no good reason. None. Fernanda's character endures impossible things, and she might - juuuuuust might - be the winner. 

But. Then we have The Substance. 

Demi Moore is enthusiastically supported and beloved in this 100% bonkers film that I absolutely adored. It's got Hollywood (in spades!), it's got messages, it's got a star we've all grown up with or seen 100 times, finally getting her Oscar nomination.  It is a rollicking ride and it ups the ante multiple times and Demi Moore knocks it out of the park, giving us everything we could want and more on this wild ride. 

With her Golden Globe win and her trending buzz (and her lack of public relations nightmare mistakes - at least not yet!), Demi Moore is starting to really be favored to really win this Oscar, and I am 100% OK if the Academy makes this choice. 

What a year. What a time to be alive. 

Order I want them to win: 
Demi, Fernanda, Cynthia, Mikey

Order I think they will win: 
Demi, Fernanda, Cynthia, Mikey, the man

Who was your favorite Lead Actress performance? 

Completed Category: Makeup & Hairstyling

 Over the years, the Makeup category has given me the chance to see some films I otherwise never would have seen! 

Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Perez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked

This year, four of the films got a bunch of other nominations, but the weird one that is here for the Makeup party is A Different Man. Interestingly, its star, Sebastian Stan, is nominated for a freaking Lead Actor Oscar, for a different film! What a weird year. A Different Man definitely does some very interesting, very heavy things with makeup and hair. Mostly makeup though, except for fitting hair all around the "deformities" I suppose... interesting little film. 

Not the weirdest film of the bunch, though!  There are at least two that are weirder, and mostly not in a good way.  It is really saying something when the land of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch is the most normal of the bunch! On that note, I would love for Wicked  to win here and everywhere it's nominated (except Score ... and, well, I'm not really into Ariana's category fraud) but I don't think it's going to. I think one of the weird ones will. 

Emilia Perez?  Gods forbid. I hate that movie. The less said about it the better, although I suppose the whole transforming a man into both a creepy-ass looking drug lord AND a man pretending to be a woman is a bit of work for the Makeup artists and Hairstylists. So much ugh. Next? 

Nosferatu?  I mean - definitely some cool and creepy looking folks running around this one, too. And, I'm assuming Makeup helps with all the blood and bite marks and whatnot?  Pretty good work all around. 

Still - I am on #TeamTheSubstance. I definitely want The Substance  to collect some awards (Go Demi!) and this is absolutely one where it has a good shot. I won't spoiler you but let's just say when you think you've seen some impressive stuff, there is still more to come with prosthetics and skin and hair and all of it. It's a crazy, ridiculous, profound movie and I'm definitely one of its fans.  Have you seen it yet?  What did you think? 

Order I want them to win: 
The Substance x 1,000,000 
then Nosferatu or Wicked or  A Different Man ... but really just still The Substance

Order I think they will win: 
The Substance, A Different Man, Wicked, Nosferatu, Emilia Perez

Completed Category: Lead Actor

 This is one of the two categories I completed by watching The Apprentice, which was 100% not on my radar until the Golden Globes nominations came around. 

Actor In A Leading Role

Adrien Brody - The Brutalist
Timothee Chalamet - A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo - Sing Sing 
Ralph Fiennes - Conclave
Sebastian Stan - The Apprentice

All of the men nominated in this category are men! Isn't that interesting! It shouldn't be, but it is. 

Anyway, the first of these films I saw was Sing Sing, a few months ago. While I really loved it, and Colman Domingo gave a commanding performance, I don't think this is his year to win. He is definitely going to rack up a bunch of nominations over a few years, though, which is great. He's great. The movie is a fantastic look at creating art and being human, even when locked up, and so this is like a 10 out of 10 for triumph of the human spirit. Some are sad that no Supporting Actors were nominated, but to me it was an ensemble triumph above all else. Humans need to be better than we are, and some of us are trying to be. Go watch Sing Sing. 

The next one I saw was Conclave, the pontiff-icating movie.  Will Ralph Fiennes win an Oscar, finally?  Perhaps.  He drives this spectacular conclave weekend and it's a doozy.  I had read the book and knew everything, and still felt all the requisite tension and emotions. I am 100% OK with him winning. 

After that I saw A Complete Unknown, and here we have some major competition for Ralph, because Timothee Chalamet contains multitudes, and one of those multitudes is now Bob Dylan. This is not a standard biopic, as I have mentioned elsewhere, rather a depiction of a period of time when some amazing strong personalities and talents came together in various ways with our man, with wondrous as well as heartbreaking results. Timothee is so very good, along with several other performers in this film. For a while, the buzz was that this was his award to lose. 

But then there's Adrien Brody. Is The Brutalist a juggernaut? Is it going to crash and burn?  Is it going to go off the rails mid-triumph, like its main characters?  Who's to say? I don't want to discount the work that Adrien Brody did, but this film really pummeled me, including his performance. (Don't do drugs, kidz.)  I want The Brutal-est to win some awards (mainly to stop the lunacy of certain other film) but in this category he really is in about 4th place for me. I don't think this is a common opinion, though. 

And finally, I saw The Apprentice. You know, not only was this movie not on my radar, but I didn't even know who Sebastian Stan was, so there's that. Why, what's that you say? No, I don't really follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or I haven't - but actually I've recently launched a project to watch it all in order and catch the ones I've missed. I'm only on Iron Man 2, though, so no Sebastian. But! Apparently he starred in I Tonya. Oops - I remember those guys, but I'll have to go back and look at it again to really realize who he was/is. At any rate, now I've seen him doing The Donald, and I have to say, this was quite a performance. It isn't just about nailing the mannerisms or whatever, but he really took us on a journey. I couldn't look away.  (And I am VERY capable of looking away from the actual current events.)  But, I think it's an honor for him to be nominated. 

Order I want them to win:
Ralph or Timothee, Sebastian, Colman, Adrien

Order I think they will win:
Adrien, Timothee, Ralph, Colman, Sebastian 

Who was your favorite Lead Actor performance?

Completed Category: Production Design

And this is the other category that I completed on Nominations day, by seeing Nosferatu that evening!

Production Design

The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked

I am pretty much #TeamWicked here, but I suppose I'll say something good about each nominee... 

Let's start with our old friend The Brutal-est which might win, especially if it sweeps everything on its way to Best Picture. The collaboration between Production Designer Judy Becker (previously nominated for American Hustle) and Set Decorator Patricia Cuccia is honestly some amazing work.  I won't even be mad, like not really really mad anyway, if they win. You can watch a cool interview with them here about working on the flick, with interesting little details like "OK, we can ship a container from Toronto to Budapest; what can we bring?" and she's driving all around Ontario buying pieces from random people. On top of its intensity and favored-to-win-stuff status, The Brutalist is clearly a staggering accomplishments in certain ways, and the Production Design is one of them. 

What about Conclave? This is another film that has had some might-win-a-lot buzz, but also simply might not be able to triumph over the stiff competition.  Here is an interview with the Conclave nominees, Cynthia Sleiter and Suzie Davies (the latter previously nominated for Mr. Turner). I noticed that Cynthia worked in the art department for Angels and Demons, so she has a bit of experience with papal conclaves, eh?!  And as Suzie put it, why pass up a chance to live in Rome for six months!  (Cynthia already lives there.)  While they did a lot of incredible work to recreate the Sistine Chapel, among other sets, as they were not allowed to film in the real place, they did have some flats from a warehouse from a previous Sistine Chapel set. But, they did have to refurbish and redo the whole thing, and I'm not trying to say it wasn't a ton of work. Basically - I'd be happy if they win, too. 

Will Dune: Part Two steal the statuette from either of those two intense productions? Similar to some other awards, the first Dune already won this category, and I really think that might mentally free people up to vote for something else.  It's like, sorry Production Designer Patrice Vermette, but we already rewarded you and heard your speech a couple of years ago!  Set Decorator Shane Vieau apparently didn't work on the first Dune? but he did win previously for The Shape of Water, which was a weird-ass movie.  They said that for Dune: Part Two, little details like the fabric of the stilltents that collect the planet's scarce moisture could take months of production design work. While Dune is amazing and beautiful, and I actually liked Part Two a fair amount, I just think as an Academy voter I might reward something else over this. But here's an interview with them. 

As I've mentioned, I completed this category with Nosferatu.  I will admit that Nosferatu looks really, really cool, and I dig that dark, scary castle a whole lot.  I think the chances are slimmer for Craig Lathrop and Beatrice Brentnerova to win but they definitely have the whole weird, historical, but also fantastical, stunning, intense vibe going for them. In addition to the castle, there were homes and streets and ships and inns and the cemetery - these are no slouches, that's for sure. 

But let's talk about Wicked, shall we?  I mean, I just love it: the absolute joy of the visuals of this film, the creation of a vibrant world with a slew of invented locales, plus the mighty task of re-inventing the Emerald City, the yellow brick road, and things that we all hold in our hearts from years of being alive on an Earth where The Wizard of Oz exists. If you have any doubt about the sheer number of brilliant details in this work, watch this interview with Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales who in my opinion knocked it out of the park. They say that they were gobsmacked and it was one of the best challenges they were ever given. They had been working on Wonka before this and they talk about the interesting process of combining texture and sets with CGI to create these fantastical worlds. But what they do with colors and with sets and with details to immerse us is pure magic. They take simple concepts like  dorm, luggage, farm and transform them for us into visual marvels.  Bonus points for them talking about using the maps in the books as initial source and guide. When I watched Wicked, Part One, I immediately wanted it to win everything, which I sadly know it won't do, but this might be the category in which I will cheer for it the hardest. 

Order I want them to win: Wicked, Conclave  or The Brutalist, Nosferatu  or Dune: Part Two. 

Order I think they might win: Wicked, The Brutalist, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Nosferatu. 

Completed Category: Cinematography

 This is my first post about a category completed AFTER the nominations were announced -- on Oscar noms night, in fact, at the theatre down the street, seeing Nosferatu. As of the announcement that morning, I had already completed three: Directing, Editing, and Supporting Actress. That night, the weirdo vampire helped me complete two more! 

Cinematography

The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Perez
Maria
Nosferatu

First of all, I always hasten to point out that this is the category that, without it, you couldn't have a film. All the others, it's theoretically possible to make a movie without it - you could have a movie with no Supporting Actor, or no Original Song, or no Sound, or no Visual Effects.  You could even do something totally weird and indie and avant garde and, like, make a movie fully improvised on the street with no Screenplay and no Production Design, or even no Directing. But Cinematography IS the filming. We wouldn't be here without it!

Second of all, when you look at these five nominees, you just might go... Huh?!

On nominations morning, I sat there hoping against hope that Angelina Jolie, she of the declining buzz, would swoop back in to the conversation, get a Lead Actress nomination, and take the place of the man (Gascon) who got nominated instead. When Cinematography was announced and Maria was included, I thought, Wow! That bodes well for Angelina! Alas, it did not. It boded unwell. 

The movie Maria was bizarre, unsettling, fascinating (if, like me, you didn't know how messed up Maria Callas was nor how much of a jackwad Ari Onassis was), and a real dig-deep endeavor for Angelina.  While she was overlooked (which I would accept, if not for the whole man thing), the movie did manage to snag this nomination. Cinematographer Ed Lachman has been here (nominated) before, for Far From Heaven (ugh), Carol (ugh), and last year's weirdo El Conde (manic pixie exorcist movie). He explained the following to the Los Angeles Times about shooting the film: "We have the 35mm black-and-white for her memory of the past, Super 8 to show the intimacy with the people closest to her, 16mm is of this documentary crew filming her and then 35mm color is the master point of view."  Wow, right! Did I notice all that as I watched it?  I surely did not. But, I did notice, as an amateur viewer, that it was really cool and interesting how they went into the flashbacks, and how we were carried through the different parts of this movie. It is truly an interesting and compelling cinematography accomplishment. 

But, you know we are going to hear a lot about a few other flicks here, so let's take a quick look. The ugh of ughs, Emilia Perez, is here. Blah blah blah it transcends narrative filmmaking blah blah.  Too bad its end result is a big ol' mess. Cinematographer Paul Guilhaume has a lot of jabber to say about how the camera depicted the movement and vision and characters' thoughts and all sorts of other mumbo jumbo and who cares. If this wins here on Oscar night, it's time to start worrying about this dumb flick collecting way too many awards. 

Luckily it has some very stiff competition in Dune: Part Two and The Brutalist.  Greig Fraser was not only nominated for first Dune, he won! Can he repeat?  I'd like that. Dune is so pretty! And Dune: Part Two was better than the first. But #TIL that our man Greig did not read the book Dune - he purposefully, specifically did not read it, nor watch any other interpretations or anything else anyone had done with Dune, so that he was only reckoning with the script and then working with Denis Villenueve and company. I find that fascinating!  

As for The Brutal-est, the cinematographer is named Lol! That's a fun name. Lol Crawley certainly contributed to the intense pummeling that the film gives the viewer, and he seriously might win just on the strength of that looking up askew at the Statue of Liberty, alone! I won't be that mad if he does win. 

Lastly, after seeing those four films above and after the nominations announcement, I headed to my local cool old theatre down the road on nominations night and watched Nosferatu.   Let me be the first to say that I did NOT love this film but that I found it incredibly lush and visual and very cool to look at.  And cinematographer Jarin Blaschke talked about what a challenge it was to shoot so many scenes in darkness, and how he really played with moonlight and shooting people for "page after page of dialogue" in no lights. This is all quite an accomplishment.  However, he was previously nominated for The Lighthouse, which is an Oscar nominee that I have not seen and am actually terrified of seeing. So should I hold this against him?  (ha) 

Well, there is a lot of great work going on here, so, once again, it's totally OK for four of these flicks to win, but one will cause me to throw things at the TV. 

What's your Cinematography nominee of choice? 

Order I want them to win:  Nosferatu or Maria, Dune: Part Two or The Brutalist, then E.P.

Order I think they will win:  The Brutalist, Dune: Part Two, Nosferatu, Emilia Perez, Maria