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: 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: Original Screenplay

I love to think about the Screenplay categories! In fact, I want one of my next checklist projects to be: Watch All the Nominated Screenplay Films Ever.  That will take a while. In the meantime, this year: 

Original Screenplay
ANORA
Written by Sean Baker
THE BRUTALIST
Written by Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
A REAL PAIN
Written by Jesse Eisenberg
SEPTEMBER 5
Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; Co-Written by Alex David
THE SUBSTANCE
Written by Coralie Fargeat

I only just this week completed this category because I had September 5 lingering for a while simply because #IAmVeryBusy and also I knew it was easily available to rent on demand as opposed to some others in which one must still be in pursuit* and so I knew I'd get around to it as soon as I could get around to it. 

*This year, we're looking in pursuit at you, Porcelain War. And with Ukraine having become a daily news story this week, at that! Every damn year, we are forced to go through this with one or two nominated flicks - a refusal by the distributor to, ya know, distribute the film during the two months between Oscar nominations and Oscar ceremony. It's so fckng stupid, every damn year. It's like - "Hi! We want to give you our money! Please take it in exchange for a streaming rental  of your film!"   "No."  "OK well, could you have it play in theatres across the country/world?"  "No."  "Hmm, well, we really want to see it? Can we please? Remember, we are trying to pay you for this. Money for your film! Isn't that what you wanted?"   "Why oh why is the film industry dying nobody goes to movies why oh why won't they see my film i weep i wail i gnash my teeth why oh why!"  "Um..er..." 

Anyway, that was a tangent about a totally different category. Back in Screenplay-land, September 5 is available, and I paid for a streaming rental and watched it! Amazing how that works! I enjoyed the movie and thought it was well done, everyone all tightly crammed in the control room and whatnot. I was also like, hey! I know her! about the actress playing translator and much more Marianne - not a real person, a composite character - as she starred in last year's International nominee The Teachers' Lounge.  Good for her, Oscar-ing it up two years in a row.  I think this screenplay fully and completely did its job, keeping you interested and invested, while laying out and guiding you through the story, but I am pretty sure it will not win, as people are heavily invested in voting for some of its competition. 

The Brutalist is going to get votes, in this and in other categories. I think it is going to get more votes in other categories.  First of all this thing is long and it pummels you, and I mean, as a story it's fine and all (if a little bit terribly intense) but its strengths are more so in the Directing, Cinematography, Score, and other elements of its pummeling you for four hours of your life.  We could possibly see it sweep all its nominations, but I don't think so. Don't worry, you're still the Brutal-est screenplay. 

Although I've gotta say, The Substance almost gives ya a run for yer money in the brutal department!  The Substance  is glorious and crazy and ridiculous and socio-philosophical and wonderful and I love it. That being said, the ending where it gets a little shaky (or splattery) before bringing it all home is its weakest point. I still love it and I forgive it all its flaws and won't mind even a tiny bit if it DOES win here - and it does have a chance - but I think we have to seriously reckon with the other two competing nominees. 

A Real Pain accurately describes its character played by Kieran Culkin, who is likely to win Supporting Actor for his co-starring lead role. This is a typically perfect kind of Screenplay winner: indie vibes, but famous people, and interesting content that raises some socio-political questions, and also fun. I personally related immensely to this film, because I too took a trip to Poland as an adult and met up with a group of other adults (on a Habitat for Humanity build) and then took a week by myself to go see my great-grandparents' hometown. So I was nostalgia-loving this in addition to being entertained by it. The only annoying thing about this film is its accurately described title (lead!) character, whom you want to throttle. Screenwriter (and co-star) Jesse Eisenberg just won the BAFTA, too, and had no speech written, he said, because he didn't think he would win. True? Maybe. A Real Pain had all the buzz for quite a while. What overtook it? 

A film that had even earlier buzz, then cooled a bit, but has surged back even more since nominations day: Anora. This thing is a well-done screenplay of misfit friends, another title character who comes into situations like a wrecking ball (but is met with other wrecking ball types who outdo her in that department), surprising scenarios, an ante that gets upped a few times, and the edginess that people love to love in their films. I personally walked away from Anora shaking my head and wondering #WhyAreMen, but the sex-work-is-work prostitution apologists will be out in droves making sure that question doesn't get too much attention to distract us from the feel-good train wreck of Anora. 

Order I want them to win: A Real Pain, September 5, The Substance, Anora or The Brutalist

Order I think they will win: Anora, A Real Pain, The Substance, then a gap and then The Brutalist, September 5. 

This is too close to call.  But I do think the bolder Anora might succeed here.
Which one do you think will win? 

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: Supporting Actor

 This is the other category I completed by watching The Apprentice. 

Actor In A Supporting Role
Yura Borisov - Anora
Kieran Culkin - A Real Pain
Edward Norton - A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce - The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong - The Apprentice

This is a category where I really like all five performances. I wouldn't be mad or at least not really mad when any of the five of them wins, except for the fact that one of the nominations belongs in another category! However,  I have a clear far and away favorite who I want to win, who will sadly not win. 

Three of these nominees are from films also nominated for Lead Actor. Will we have men from the same film in both of the men categories? (you know, the two for male actors? unless they get nominated in an Actress category of course).  It has happened before that the Lead and Supporting Actor winners are from the same film - including for one of my top Oscar-winning Best Pics of all time, The Best Years of Our Lives, as well as for Going My Way, Ben-Hur, Mystic River. Dallas Buyers Club, and most recently, Oppenheimer.  This shows us that a majority of the time the two men's categories (there are two) winners won for the same film, it was also the film that won Best Pic, but not every single time.  And so - theoretically A Complete Unknown could do this, even if The Brutalist  wins Best Pic, and I would like that. 

I don't think chances are strong for The Apprentice here. But it was a great honor for Jeremy Strong to be nominated, and he's Gen X!  Which I'm mildly obsessed with this year.  He made us feel all kinds of things, such as sympathy and affection for Roy Cohn, which is quite an amazing feat. This would be one of the best upsets of all Oscar time, if he wins. By the way, I still haven't watched Succession in which he's evidently great, and I need to do that. 

The other honor to be nominated is Yura Borisov. Where the heck did he come from, right?! Russia, actually, is the answer. Side note that he apparently voiced the cat in a The Master and Margarita film, which I didn't know existed until five minutes ago and which I need to have in my life. Anyway, he's freaking fantastic in Anora, and his part is so interesting, the way he is the least frantic of this gaggle of misfit friends - so, so well done. 

Now, everybody thinks Kieran Culkin is going to win, and he probably is, because he's category fraudulent here and was absolutely a co-star of A Real Pain. So, ugh. Moving along...

What if, indeed, The Brutalist the Brutal-est starts sweeping everything beginning with an early evening win for Guy Pearce?  I honestly wouldn't mind that much. We've had worse Oscar nights. I liked his performance even more than Adrien Brody's.  It was wild and bold and scary and fantastic. He is also Gen X. 

But you know who the best Gen X-er in this category is? My favorite, which I feel so, so strongly in my heart, is Edward Norton in A Complete Unknown.  Ed Norton as Pete Seeger was revelatory. I was transfixed by him in every scene as he conveyed so much about Pete Seeger, and about Bob Dylan, and about everything that was going on with and around them - it was wonderful beyond belief and him not winning Supporting Actor is the thing that is going to make me the absolute saddest on Oscar night. 

Order I want them to win: 
Edward Norton, Edward Norton, Edward Norton, Edward Norton, Edward Norton

Order I think they will win: 
Kieran Culkin the Category Fraud, Guy Pearce, possibly Edward Norton who should win, Jeremy Strong, Yura Borisov

Down with fraud! Up with Seeger! 

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: Supporting Actress

 We'll make this quick, because this category - so often a fraudulent mess - is a total fraudulent mess. 

Actress In A Supporting Role

Monica Barbaro *A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande * Wicked
Felicity Jones * The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini * Conclave
Zoe Saldana * Emilia Perez 

(Pretend that there are a tilde and an accent mark where they belong. 

The smart money, if you will, says Zoe Saldana will win or possibly Ariana Grande, maybe, just possibly.  Neither one of them deserves to win, because they are both co-stars in their respective movies. They are actresses in leading roles, and their nominations here are nonsense. 

Of the actual Supporting performances: 

Monica Barbaro is freaking fantastic, like the others in A Complete Unknown, which is way less of a traditional biopic and way more of a study of some humans who came together, talked, sang, loved, learned, clashed, and changed the world. 

Felicity Jones, I suspect, might become another Cate Blanchett/Michelle Williams/Meryl Streep type who can show up to work knowing a nomination is a real possibility.  She does a lot in The Brutal-est (I mean - they all do. Of all my criticisms, I've certainly not said that was an easy flick to make!) but it's all so brooding and dark and dismal - I'm not thinking she's going to be the dark horse who surges ahead here. 

Isabella Rossellini?  I love her in Conclave  and the way she sure has some stuff to say to all the pontiff-icating men is stand-up-and-cheer time, for sure.  I would love for her to sneak in and grab that Oscar away from the excellent, fraudulent stars. 

Order I saw the movies: 
Conclave, Wicked, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, Emilia Perez

Order I like them:  Similar!  3-way tie, then Brutal-est, then ugh

Order I want their SUPPORTING actresses to win:
Monica for A Complete Unknown, Isabella for Conclave, Felicity for The Brutalist

Order I think they will win:  Zoe, Ariana, Isabella, Monica, Felicity

Category fraud is so goddamn stupid. 

Completed Category: Directing

 Oh boy, let's kick off some completed category posts! 

Achievement in Directing

Anora *Sean Baker
The Brutalist * Brady Corbet
A Complete Unknown * James Mangold
Emilia Perez * Jacques Audiard
The Substance * Coralie Fargeat 

Directing is always so intense.  And in this category, there are always directors nominated for some very serious flicks, and some staggering accomplishments, and more often than not there is a "what the heck did I just watch," and sometimes those three things overlap. Ooh, like in a Venn diagram! 

As we will discuss several times throughout the course of this bloggage, The Brutalist  should henceforth be known as The Brutal-est, as it pummels you for four unmerciful hours. Well, that's not actually true: you get an intermission!  I like intermission at the theatre; I can easily go get my popcorn refill. Anyway, should Brady Corbet win for The Brutalist?  I mean, he really might do so.  And there are all sorts of #SeriousCinema reasons, but also he took years and years, apparently, to film the thing, and no one thought he could pull it off, of course. The Los Angeles Times called it a "whopper of a film."  At the very least!  And there were some things I liked about it very much - the Original Score for example, which is not this category, and the way he shot the early-on-in-the-flick men-paying-for-sex scene without making it about gazing at women's bodies. At all. This is the complete exact precise opposite of... 

Anora.  Well, well, well, what have we here? Sean Baker (who? I know. This category has all first-time-in-this-category nominees for the first time since James Cameron was the king of the world! Sean Baker is the director of The Florida Project, that's who, so we know he) has a way of getting his movies' long-haired, sharper-than-you-think-they-are, but-also-sharper-tongued, young women  to carry us through a motion picture.  In both of these films of his that I've seen, we watch these people who are a bit less "there but for the grace of god go I" and a bit more "good god, will someone, anyone, make some better choices, please!"  But Anora has captured a lot of viewers' hearts, and as one person I know put it, "That was way better than it had any right being."  I personally very much dig the misfit friends stories, and hooo-boy do we get one of those here.  I can't exactly say that I never wanted this long dark night of lost souls to end, but it was entertaining and propelled you right along. I am not here for anyone to blather on about mistreated "sex workers" and I do not feel sorry for the character Ani, nor her colleagues, and least of all would I ever feel a shred of sympathy for the many, many, many gross disgusting men both in the film and in the real world who buy human flesh. If I walked out of The Brutal-est saying "What just happened to me for four hours?" I walked out of Anora saying "Why are men."  That said, she (the main character) reminds me of the gals from Long Island I met when I lived in New York. Also, Sean Baker is Gen X! We need more Gen  X winners. Like maybe...

Coralie Fargeat!  Who's she?  She was born in the mid-1970s like the coolest kids were, she's French, and she directed The Substance.  I loved The Substance.  Yup, I'm sold.  Did it spiral just a wee bit out of bloody control as it careened toward its ending?  It did.  Do I forgive it this flaw? I absolutely do.  This film is a marvelous work and it's a wonder, but nothing at all like other films I've called "marvelous" or a "wonder" over the years.  It's wild and bizarre and so very L.A. and it tackles profound societal issues and it might earn Demi Moore - Demi Moore! she's one of those very-very-late Baby Boomers who feels like an honorary Gen-Xer - an Oscar. #TeamTheSubstance? Maybe. But I could also find myself on ... 

#TeamACompleteUnknown.  Wow, do I love me some Bob Dylan and some Joan Baez, which you already know if you've known me for more than about five minutes, not that anyone I know is reading this so I still have to document these things for posterity.  And this film with pitch-perfect (no pun intended) performances is not a traditional biopic; it's more of a study of some personalities that came together like atoms bonding and clashing and sharing electrons for a time and exploding into something more and sometimes causing damage and sometimes creating something heretofore undiscovered. It got three well-deserved acting nominations (more on Ed Norton, who is a revelation as Pete Seeger, in his category post coming soon), and the whole thing is so immersive and carefully considered and real, and someone like me whose go-to karaoke song has long been (like, for 2 decades+) Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" was primed and ready for A Complete Unknown, and yes, yes, I treasure it, and James Mangold's magnificent directing is a big reason why.   

You know what I don't treasure?  Emilia Perez. Why does this movie have to be. It is such a freaking trainwreck in so many ways, but oddly, it's not the Directing per se, just the whole entirety of the thing. I mean, don't get me wrong: director Jacques Audiard made a lot of terrible choices, such as making the film in the first place, pretending men can be women, collecting a bunch of terrible songs and terrible song-and-dance numbers and sprinkling them throughout the most implausible nonsense while pretending to take everything seriously, and pummeling the audience with a mix of zaniness and tragedy and plot holes. But it's not like Mamma Mia-shit-production values bad, nor like Everything Everywhere All At Once we-are-in-the-hands-of-10-year-old-boys bad; it's just bad-bad. 

Chronological order in which I saw the flicks over a month and a half:
Anora, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, The Substance

Order in which I like the flicks: 
A Complete Unknown 

The Substance

[--gap--]
Anora

[major gap]
The Brutalist

[major serious chasm gap]
Emilia Perez

Order in which I think they will win: 
The Brutalist, Anora, gods forbid Emilia Perez uggggh, A Complete Unknown, The Substance

I would be very happy to be wrong about my winner prediction!  But 4 out of 5 of these can win; the other will cause me to throw things at the TV. 

Completed Category: Documentary Feature

This is one of my favorite categories! I love good documentaries. It's pretty rare for a terrible one to get nominated in Documentary Feature. (It has happened, but rarely.) 

Part of what I love about Documentary Feature watching is learning about things around the world. It's my favorite when the five noms give us five different countries and preferably some history from each one. 

BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT: First up, Uganda. Bobi Wine is a famous pop star who speaks to and for the people, which of course means he and his movement are widely quashed, with some people even being killed, by the president-dictator-for-life in power who insists that everyone is still voting for him. This is such an interesting (though sad and frustrating as well) look at Uganda. Bonus points because we also get a campaign road trip with a map route. 

THE ETERNAL MEMORY: At first glance, this is more about an interpersonal relationship and the debilitating devastation of Alzheimer's but as it goes along you realize you're also going to get glimpses of Chilean history and the film weaves in the theme of how this journalist acted as a recorder of Chile memory - think about the verb recordar in Spanish! - even as we watch him lose his own. Bonus points for the CAT! Who hangs out in multiple scenes!

FOUR DAUGHTERS: Of all the places I almost went to but didn't, Tunisia sticks in my craw the most sometimes. I gotta get there. Anyway, this doc is sad and engaging, almost transfixing, as you plunge into the relationships of this mother and her daughters, two of whom are now eaten by the radicalization wolf, as she puts it. The way they choose to depict this family's story is unique and effective, and that makes me think it has a serious chance of winning here. 

TO KILL A TIGER: First of all - not an actual tiger! It's a metaphor. There are no tigers in this film. India frustrates the hell out of me whenever I watch a documentary or read a book about something happening there. It's always someone trying to fight some enormous injustice, and you get some little bit of hope, and then there are 1 billion more injustices to fight the next day. That said, this documentary did a lot of work and frankly could have edited it down a tad more because it kind of starts to drag after a while, but then in the end it pulls you back in. This is the kind of documentary that makes me think humans are so frequently so terrible to one another, but, as long as we are all here thank godz there are people trying to shine at least one light in the darkness. 

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL: More lights shining in dark days in Ukraine. This is a constant barrage of sadness and misery, and sometimes I still think about the pet turtle even two months after I watched this. The journalist filmmakers did fantastic work, and it's Ukraine, so this has a really really really good chance. 

Order I want them to win: 
This is probably my hardest category to rank! 
Maybe 20 Days in Mariupol
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
Bobi Wine The People's President
To Kill A Tiger

But they are so close in that ranking it might as well be a 5-way tie for me. 

Order I think they will win: 

20 Days In Mariupol
Four Daughters
To Kill A Tiger
The Eternal Memory
Bobi Wine: The People's President* 
*unless Academy voters see shades of trumptydumpty and fear him becoming prez for life and that ratchets up the relatability factor here giving this more votes

I love Documentary Feature watching! 
Which one was most impressive to you? 

Completed Category: Makeup and Hairstyling

 Some years this category is weird and makes me watch something I would have actively avoided if not for the nomination. This year it has four nominees with nods in other categories including three Best Pic nominees and only one outlier. I watched the outlier last night. 

GOLDA: Right so, first of all I thought Helen Mirren was great. The scenes with Kissinger especially, but really the whole film. I understand there was some Controversy about her playing Golda Meir because Mirren is not Jewish. Anyway, the film held my interest throughout but then I mean I don't want to get into spoilers but I was sort of confused by the ending and thought I must have missed something I should have been paying closer attention to vis-a-vis the generals and spies and who had done what.  Ah, well. The makeup & hairstyling work was fantastic. Give it the prize! 

MAESTRO: Uh-oh, another Controversy! Anyway, this film was good, as I have noted elsewhere, and way more about his wife Felicia than I knew it was going to be, and there is more going on with the makeup & hairstyling of her character over the decades in the film than with him!  Also, 21 years ago I had to listen to all of everybody, up to and including Denzel Washington, who would not shut up about the prosthetic nose worn by Nicole Kidman in one of my top three all-time favorite films, The Hours, and as far as I am concerned, I don't owe anybody another second of my time listening to whining about prosthetic noses ever again for as long as the Oscars shall live.  I will be fine if this wins in this category, and maybe even more so if some whiners get mad about it. 

OPPENHEIMER: Is this going to sweep and thus win here too? Maybe. That would be the way for it to win this, though. 

POOR THINGS: If you haven't yet heard me say how excruciating of an experience watching this movie was, hi! Welcome!  Poor Things sucks. I actually hated Emma Stone's hair in this; it freaked me out. Not even remotely the thing I hated most about this, though! That said, the makeup job on Willem Dafoe was jaw-dropping. Possibly literally. If I let you give Poor Things this Oscar, could you pleeeeeease keep it to just this one?  No?  Ugh, do I really have to throw in Production Design?  Godz I just want this to go away. 

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW:  But this! This I want to sweep! But it's only nominated in two categories (should be in more - we're looking at you, Sound) and it's probably going to not win Foreign International so this might be its only chance and... that would be OK. It was great!

So you see my dilemma! The one I want most to win this category isn't the one I most want to win a prize that will probably need to win this category. 

Order I want them to win: 
Golda or Society of the Snow <tie>
Maestro
Poor Things (ugh, grudgingly)
Oppenheimer

Order I think they will win: 
Poor Things (ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh) 
Oppenheimer  or Golda
Maestro 
Society of the Snow (sadly) 

But, I might be wrong! What do I know about makeup and hairstyling?! I can't be bothered to do either on a daily basis. 

Completed Category: Original Song

 The category I completed earlier this week was Music - Original Song. 

And it just so happens, as I mentioned when the nominations came out, that this is the first category I unwittingly started on this year!  I was delighted on Nominations Day when I realized that I had seen... 

FLAMIN' HOT: "The Fire Inside" - This is Diane Warren's umpteenth nomination, and it has become kind of amusing in recent years for us Oscar completists to dredge up the increasingly random flicks for which she writes a song. But this year, I had a total moment with Flamin' Hot, the story of the guy who invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos, at the UnidosUS convention I attended for work; they showed the film (and served tasty snacks) at our Saturday night entertainment event, and both the real-life guy and the star of the movie were there, and... I kinda really liked it!  There is certainly a part of me that wants this to finally, finally, finally be Diane Warren's year. 

BARBIE: "I'm Just Ken" - But she is going to have to beat Barbie. Now, to be honest, I don't know that "I'm Just Ken" has much of a chance here. I think this song is fun, and that's all. In fact, I'm kind of like, Really?! about it even being nominated. I'm Just Ken was a fun phenomenon - but the song is pure silliness. Then again, we've seen the Oscars devolve into bigger lunacy than that, so who knows?  Still, the bigger buzz hype is for the other song from this film...

BARBIE: "What Was I Made For?" - ...because people are over the damn moon about Billie Eilish. And here's the thing: Yes, she's talented.  Yes, some of her songs are great. This song? Is kind of meh.  But people like it, and they want to give Barbie awards, and they want to give Billie Eilish awards, so this has a really really good chance. 

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: "Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)" - But this is the most interesting nomination, and the Osage singer Scott George was surprised by his nomination (read more here) and is kind of out of the whole Oscars loop, which is the absolute opposite of all of the above, and people might just want to give Killers of the Flower Moon something especially if they're voting against it for Lead Actress and.... I'm saying there's a chance.  I'm also really looking forward to the performance of this and hope they bring the Osage singers and that it's freaking awesome and important.  

AMERICAN SYMPHONY: "It Never Went Away"  - And then there's this song from a documentary, about Jon Batiste, and hey - the song is good. The doc is kind of forgettable, but he's really interesting, and this would put him one step closer to an EGOT, eh? 

Order I want them to win: 
"Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)" - Killers of the Flower Moon
"The Fire Inside" - Flamin' Hot
"It Never Went Away" - American Symphony
<big gap>
(tie) "What Was I Made For?" and "I'm Just Ken" - Barbie 

Order I think they will win: 
"What Was I Made For?"
"Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)" 
"The Fire Inside"
"I'm Just Ken" 
"It Never Went Away" 

But this one is really hard to call. There might be a late breaking switch in the vibe.  I might be back to revise my thoughts here. 

Also - the Ken part of Barbie was interminable. I know people love that movie. It was  - fine. 

Completed Category: Actress In a Leading Role

 

Were you alive and well and on the internet this past week? Then you might have heard: Barbie was nominated for Oscars but Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were not nominated, although Ryan Gosling was, and therefore the Academy has re-enacted the entire plot of the film: patriarchy!  At least that was one narrative that was shared, and shared, and shared.  As I mentioned in my initial post about Nominations Day, I had kinda forgotten that when Barbie made a billion dollars last year, that meant a whole lot more moviegoers were going to show up with opinions in Oscar season about what the Academy "always" does and what it "should" or "needs to" do. 

The Actress In A Leading Role aka Best Actress category was one that I had completed before the nominations came out, turns out - with or without Barbie - and so I, too, had opinions this week. I also had some facts. One fact is that when there are five nomination slots and many contenders, there will always be somebody who is disappointed. 

Also, by the way? It is not a "snub" every time someone we wish had been nominated is not nominated. But people love to throw that word around. It makes them feel Oscar-y, I think. 

What I kept asking people was, Which of the five nominated Actresses in Leading Roles would you want un-nominated for Margot to get in?  I didn't mean it facetiously. I know which one I'd give the boot! Can you guess?  Let's take a look at the nominees. 

ANNETTE BENING, Nyad: I was SO glad to hear her name called. I was worried. I was worried because I thought it might be Margot, Natalie (Portman), Lily, Emma, and Carey. I have been worried lo these few Awards buzz months, because I thought Natalie was going to steal Annette's Oscar again, like in 2010 (Black Swan), and I was straight-trippin' on the fact that THEN Annette was in the movie with Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right) and NOW Natalie is in the movie with Julianne Moore (May December) and everyone was buzzing that Natalie was like totally in for sure and starting to drown out swimmer Nyad but then it didn't happen like that at all. Annette is nominated! Hurrah! for playing Diana Nyad, who finally swam all the way from Cuba to Florida after many attempts and who is a headstrong but also body strong woman who gives some people grief but also has done some for real stuff in her time on this here Earth. I frankly loved Nyad and I also think Annette's performance was a marvel, and I want her to finally win her Oscar so, so, so very much. I don't have high hopes because I see how the winds have shifted and everyone's all like "It's a race between Emma and Lily!" but you just never know. Maybe if she goes to bed early in England like Anthony Hopikins did?  (Speaking of former Oscar connections to co-stars eh...)  She's just so good. And she basically became a marathon swimmer for the role, earning the praise of real-life Nyad and changing her own life for the better.  Gooooo Annette! 

LILY GLADSTONE, Killers of the Flower Moon:  But yeah, then we have this extremely strong competition here, which is an incredible, layered, powerful, poignant performance from Lily in the devastating adaptation of the book that examined the investigation of the murders of dozens of Osage in the early 20th century. In this case, Lily was nominated while Leo (nardo DiCaprio) wasn't, and that shocked people too. But that wasn't a re-enactment of #patriarchy! so it didn't get as many memes. Anyhoo, Lily is fantastic because this whole story is so terribly complex and fraught and infuriating and she is somewhat of a center around which a lot of happenings orbit, and I never wanted to take my eyes off the screen. In hearing her talk about specific scenes and with everything I've learned about the research and details and participation of the Osage in this filmmaking, I cannot be mad if it wins anything or even if it won everything (it won't though) so I'm happy for Lily and her Golden Globe, and I hope she makes a ton more movies forever, but I still don't quite want her to beat Annette.  But can anyone beat Lily? 

EMMA STONE, Poor Things: Well, yes. And...ugh.  So, Emma gives a maniacal, deep-digging, off-the-charts performance in this batshit movie and I just - hate this so much. The movie is excruciating to watch for the first half and then it gets a bit more palatable but it's still really entirely weird and wrong, like every Yorgos Lanthimos film, but in this case we are being told it's a feminist story and that Emma's character Bella Baxter is empowered and that the movie is a "nuanced" look at what it means to be a woman. People (men) have actually used that word, "nuanced."  Yes, to describe Poor Things. Um, Poor Things is a lot of things, but it is decidedly not nuanced. Nor is it feminist. Speaking of patriarchy, in Poor Things, Bella's body is controlled by various men in various ways until she becomes "empowered" by selling herself in a Parisian whorehouse. Don't you just love it when men explain women's liberation? It's enough to make you want to go find a bunch of bros on a beach somewhere strumming Matchbox Twenty for way entirely too long. 

CAREY MULLIGAN, Maestro: Carey is almost at that Meryl Streep level - or if not quite there, maybe Cate Blanchett - where you just know she's going to bring the Oscar buzz and most likely get a nomination. Interestingly, Carey was a lot of the Barbie-opinion folks' choice to sacrifice her slot for Margot, which I canNOT agree with, particularly since some of the said folks professing that opinion also noted that they had not in fact seen Maestro yet. One said that Carey couldn't be a Leading Role nominee for a biopic about Maestro Leonard Bernstein. To anyone thinking that, I can only say: Watch the movie. It's about them, not him. Her role honestly outshines his in a lot of ways. And, she's really damn good. I had no idea what I was in store for and as soon as I watched it I was like, yup, Carey's in! But it might not be her year to actually hold the statuette in her hand. 

SANDRA HÜLLER, Anatomy of a Fall:  It's such an honor to be nominated, isn't it?  Really. I hope that Sandra enjoys every second of this year, her multiple nominated flicks (she's also in The Zone of Interest), and how transfixed everyone was by Anatomy of a Fall and its many, many lingering questions. It's a talky movie, and she takes us right to the heart of a character going through a bizarre, unsettling situation with a great deal at stake, who absolutely has to remain calm. It's quite a feat. I think we haven't seen the last of her 'round these Awards parts.  But I was honestly surprised that she got nominated and Margot did not - which still does not mean "snub." 

And so, this is the order in which I want them to win, my preference: 

---> Annette Bening <----  
(tie) Carey & Lily 
Emma (ugh ugh ugh to the movie) 
Sandra

But this is the order I think of likelihood of winning, ugh: 

Emma (ugggggh, by thismuch)
Lily  (ohhh so close)
Annette  😢
Carey
Sandra

Please please please let me be wrong. Please let everyone remember how much they love Annette and want to make up for all the times they've not awarded her. I will accept a faux-lifetime achievement win, seriously, if that's what it takes. 

Who's your pick for Best Actress In A Leading Role? 
Whose performance surprised you?
Which movie did you love? Or hate more than I hated enduring Poor Things? 

Oscars time!

 The Oscar nominations are here, which it means it is time for my annual attempt to reignite the fire that once was this blog, Linda Without Borders.  Let's see if we can make it burn in 2024!  Because guess what? I am flamin' hot! More on that below. 

Prior to Awards Season, I had not been going to movies at the theatre much for a while; 2023 was a bananas year. Like many of you, I did go see Barbie and Oppenheimer. Unlike many, I had absolutely zero interest in going at any point close to opening weekend. I saw Barbie in September and Oppenheimer in October. Then, because #IAmVeryBusy I didn't do much else until basically Golden Globes week -- and it was time to dive in! But I did see Poor Things in time to have lots of opinions for that ceremony, and my opinions are mostly "UGH why Emma Stone must you participate in this why UGH" but more on that later as well, surely, with its obnoxious amount of noms. 

And so that brings us to Nominations Tuesday!  What did we think? 

Oppenheimer leads the way! 
I am good with its thirteen nominations and I will be OK with it if Christopher Nolan finally wins for Directing. Well done film! I was in Los Alamos just last year; it's such a weird little place plunked down in the middle of my beautiful Southwest, and when I was hiking in the Bandelier National Monument and some other spots around there I just kept thinking about how terrible it was for all of the birds, deer, squirrels, snakes, coyotes, rabbits, and so on and so on when suddenly a bunch of humans murdered the air and land and thousands of animals, on their way to murdering a few hundred thousand humans. We (humanity) are honestly so horrible to every living thing and this movie is great and, alas, it goes over some people's heads and they go "Oooh! We are smart! We make science!"  Great film. Horrible species. 

But, do I want Robert Downey Jr. to win? 
Weeelllll, maybe. I am disappointed in the Supporting Actor category. Because it is missing Willem Dafoe in Poor Things. 

But I hated Poor Things?
Yes, that is correct. I disliked Poor Things, but Willem Dafoe's performance is one of the most interesting portrayals that I have ever seen in my life. I won't spoiler anything here, but every second he is on screen and every new bit you learn about his character and every decision he makes - it's remarkable. I don't usually get too involved in this or that "snub" but I am so, so disappointed about him. This is one of my already completed categories, so we'll delve into it soon. Speaking of "snubs"...

Was Margot Robbied?
I'll tell ya what. When Barbie made a billion dollars, which is like 25 times more than many Oscar nominees make, I kinda forgot to anticipate that 25 times as many people would come out of the woodwork and onto the internet on Nominations Day with their opinions about what the Academy should/shouldn't/did/didn't do. It is amateur hour out there!  When I got sick of people re-sharing the meme on Tuesday about how Margot and Greta Gerwig not getting nominated is the whole plot of Barbie, I started commenting asking people which of the five nominated actresses they didn't want in the Lead Actress category. Some said, "Carey Mulligan" which tells me that they haven't yet seen Maestro, except for the one person who told me herself. I quote this person: "Carey Mulligan. Not a diss on her, and I haven't watched Maestro, but she should have been considered in the Supporting Actress category. I can't recall ever seeing the Oscars nominate anyone but a singular lead for a biopic."   I -  what?  That is such a spectacularly bad take.   
First of all, you haven't seen this movie but ... ?   SO then maybe don't proclaim this? Maestro is about their relationship. Mulligan is 100% a star of that film. 
Secondly, you "can't recall" that, eh?   That doesn't mean it hasn't happened. The Theory of Everything. What's Love Got To Do With It. Walk the Line - Reese Witherspoon won Lead Actress. Seriously just no. Anyway, that is what it was like out there yesterday and today on the internet.  Sure, I'm sorry for Margot. But I need people to stop pretending they know what they are talking about regarding the Oscars and the Academy.  And by the way, Actress is one of my other already completed categories, so we'll talk more about this soon, but how about we get rid of, if anything, Emma Stone's nomination for depicting all different kinds of sex? Yes, that's another eye-roll at Poor Things. There will be more. I will roll so many eyes that I might need Willem Dafoe to surgically implant a new one in my head.  

What nominations are we happy about? 
I mean - Jodie and Annette!!  I am one of a few (apparently) who loved Nyad, but more so I loved both of their performances fiercely and while I was so worried leading up to Awards Season that it sounded like Natalie Portman was going to steal Annette Bening's Oscar again, as she did in 2010 (Black Swan), only this time it would be with Natalie in the movie with Julianne Moore (May December) instead of Annette in the movie with Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right) but that TOTALLY didn't happen. No Natalie, only 1 nod for May December and it's not for any acting, and Annette is instead going to have her Oscar stolen by - ugh, Emma Stone.

Also happy about Past Lives, which I adored, getting two nominations -- but I wanted more. 

We will (maybe) get into all of these categories over the next few weeks here on the blog (somebody hold me to this), but first let's talk about the very best thing that happened while I was listening to the Nominations live announcement. Now remember: I was behind, but during Golden Globes week I set out to become less behind, checking off a few of the multiple GGlobes nominees that I suspected would also become multiple Oscar nominees and delving into the biggies: Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor (ugh) Things, Anatomy of a Fall, American Fiction, and the like.  Well. So there I am listening to the nominations and they list the songs, and yeah two songs from Barbie, and the Wahzhazhe from KotFM, and oh of course a song from Diane Warren called "The Fire Inside" and let's see what increasingly obscure film did she write a song for this year to collect her billionth nomination and never win every year forever ... Flamin' Hot. 

Wait. Flamin' Hot?! I SAW that movie. I had a total moment with that movie. Not in a theatre, not on a streaming service, and not on a DVD. At the UnidosUS work conference I attended last July, our Saturday night gala event was a screening of Flamin' Hot - with both the star of the film and the real life guy who invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos both there in attendance.  My co-worker and I had a blast eating seven billion snacks including these flamin' hot man n' cheese balls that changed my life. We somehow made our caterer waiter love us so he kept bringing us extra. We hobnobbed and took photos and enjoyed the film. I went into that evening derisively:  a movie about the guy who invented flamin' hot Cheetos? Seriously? and I left a new woman, with a true appreciation for all things flamin' hot.  It's an ongoing thing for my colleague and me. And in all sincerity, I enjoyed the film, directed by Eva Longoria. I really recommend it!  But I also had entirely expected to hear it announced on Nominations Day.  Goooo Diane Warren! Maybe the two songs from Barbie can split their vote. 

What about you?  What did you think of the nominations? 

What have you seen? What do you want to see next?  With only 29 or 41 that I need to see, depending on how you count the Shorts, I don't even have to watch one a day and I can still be done by the end of February, as long as everything that needs to come to theatres for me in fact does come to theatres.  I am  on track for a totally manageable completist year. Let's blog about it! 

Nothing, Nowhere, At A Bunch of Different Times

Helllllooooo, blogosphere. I've missed you. Let's kick off Awards Season!   Throughout 2022, I have mostly been ignoring the movies of 2022. I've been instead watching, as I tend to do, movies from my various projects, many of which these days are "Movies That Won Best Director But Not Best Picture" or "India's Submissions for Foreign Language Film" and other such lists that send me scurrying mostly to previous decades. I've seen just a handful of films in theatres and an even less full hand of new streamed films this year. But it's Awards Season now, so I've plunged in with a theatrical viewing the other day of The Whale, and a streaming viewing last night of Everything Everywhere All At Once.  

Now. 

I do remember when EEAAO came out a few months back and a lot of people posted about it, and I got a kind of general sense of its strangeness and the idea that it might elicit strong opinions, garner devoted fans, and also create a group of people who just didn't get it. I really wasn't paying attention to the details, though. IMPORTANT NOTE: I have not been paying attention to a lot of details anymore this year because Entertainment Weekly abruptly and devastatingly ceased to publish a print edition this year, cutting off my key lifeline, my favorite source of pop culture entertainment news.  

Do I get E-W (pronounced, as you well truly know by now, ee-dub) newsletters via email? OF course, and I have for years. Do I open them and read them and read the EW.com site as devotedly as I read every issue cover to cover for three decades?  Hell, no.  I liked the magazine, E-W is dead, and I am out of the loop on some things on which I would have been in the loop had E-W not betrayed us readers in this manner. Specifically, in this case, Daniels. 

A few years back, Daniels, these two boys (and I fear I really do mean that, boys) Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who are both named Daniel, decided to stylize themselves as filmmakers as the entity Daniels, but that's the least of our problems here. The far greater problems are the film they released a few years ago called Swiss Army Man, and the film they released this year, EEAAO. I remember that when Swiss Army Man came out, I read about Daniel Radcliffe (not a Daniel in Daniels, evidently, but just a Daniels-adjacent Daniel) and I had the good sense not to go see this film in which he plays a flatulent corpse, despite it playing at Chicago's Music Box Theatre or getting "acclaim" from "film buffs" or whatever other enticements anyone could come up with, because I read about it, and I had the self-respect and sense the godz gave a goose to prevent myself from going to see it. Easy decision. 

This year, thanks to E-W's betrayal and abandonment, my focus on many other mostly older films to view, and the fact that I Am Very Busy, I didn't really realize that this Everything Everywhere All At Once that Everybody jabbered about briefly was another "cinematic" offering from Daniels. Had I known, I could have proceeded with more caution last night. Of course, I still would have had to see it, because I do have SOME awareness of what's happening Oscar-talk-wise as we head deeper into Awards Season (what do you take me for, someone who thinks the Oscars aren't important?!?! Get out) and I knew and, sadly, know that EEAAO is going to get nominations and, terrifyingly and frighteningly, likely some awards. 

The movie is terrible. The Editing, I might add, is fantastic. That's the category it should win. Assembling that film from the footage of seventy billion separate universes in the way that they did,  where within scenes it's flitting back and forth every few seconds, was a truly commendable, phenomenal feat. I applaud the Editing and cannot overstate how remarkably done that aspect is. 

The movie sucks.  (Have I mentioned that? I will a few more times.)  It's a mess, it's boring, it's endless, it's a vulgar fever dream, it thinks highly of itself, it's not worth the 2-hour investment, etc. etc. But here's the question is opened up for me to think about: 

Whence this obsession with multiverses / the multiverse / multiple universes, of late?  I now have a theory. 

Because I live under a rock, and that rock is called I Don't Care About The Thing You Are All Jabbering About Rock, I've seen only a few of the Marvel (MCU) movies. Definitely fewer than half of them. Maybe about 7. However, because I occasionally come out from under my Rock to get an iced coffee, I am aware of the current Cinematic trend/fad/obsession/storyline/prism through which to view the world that is the multiverse in those films, and I actually rather enjoyed the Spider-Man one last year where they all met up.  (Spoiler alert? Probably not. Sigh, whatever.)   Also, in the real world, so to speak, I have read A Brief History of Time and  I have seen clips where Stephen Hawking said there are probably other universes and whatnot, so I know the multiverse is a whole thing, in philosophy, quantum physics, and thought, not just in theme parks movies. 

But. It reeeeeeallllly is a big thing in Movie World right now.  A Letterboxd review of EEAAO mentioned that multiple universes are "having a moment,"  and while I was watching EEAAO, that was in fact the question I asked out loud at one point (to the living room):  WHAT IS WITH THIS WHOLE MULTIPLE UNIVERSES thing that is everywhere (all at once) now? 

I think that it's because as secular as people think they are, they aren't. At all. 

More and more people, we hear, don't go to church, aren't religious, don't describe themselves as religious, don't identify as Christian/Jewish/Muslim/Sikh/Jain etc. prefer "spiritual" to "religious," don't believe in God(s), answer "unsure" on the surveys, and so forth.

More every year! lament the old-guard religious types.  More every year! enthuse the good-riddance secular/agnostic types.  

I'm usually in the latter category, and, what's more, I happily threw the spiritual/personal god/agnostic/there-must-be-an-afterlife baby out with the religious bathwater and went full on atheist.  I don't believe in god(s) anymore than I believe in ghosts, poltergeists, fairies, unicorns, vampires, or werewolves.  I do believe they all make for wonderful stories, mythologies, literature, and art, and even community and communal storytelling, song, and service. None of it should be taken literally. 

I have found, however, that many "secular" and even "atheist" people who have abandoned the Organized Religion ship can't quite let go of a comforting ideology. While they no longer cling to "God" they desperately want to fill that god-shaped hole with an idea of Something More, even when they have a hard time admitting this to themselves. 

 

I am now starting to see how the popularity of multiple universes really works for them.  Imagine! Instead of this life being it ("so depressing!" the religious folk often characterize it), imagine that you are actually living a whooooooole bunch of other lives!  Except they're not really you, but also they are. And maybe, someday, like Evelyn in EEAAO, you will get to meet your husband and daughter and frenemy from some of the other universes and sort of catapult among them for a few hours and save the world. 

Maybe, you don't have to accept the mistakes you have made and the limitations you have reached and the ticking clock of your time in this life running out because you can just be all, Wheeeee! I have a bunch of other lives - somewhere - out there. 

As my man Keating would say in Dead Poets Society, "Excrement."  That's what he thought of Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, and that's what I think of this once-again letting-yourselves-off-the-hook of living a meaningful life right here, right now, in this one - this ONLY one. 

As my man Keating would go on to say, CARPE DIEM. Because "we are food for worms, lads." 

In real life (i.e. not Dead Poets Society), I had an English professor in college who taught Biblical Backgrounds in Literature. We read basically the entire Bible as literature and studied its words and influence. It was a fascinating class. He steadfastly avoided answering ANY students' questions/queries/pleas about his own personal religious beliefs for the entire semester. On the very last day, he finally answered, telling us that he did not believe in the Bible God or any other God, and that he found life infinitely more rewarding and precious for knowing that it would come to a definitive, irrevocable end.  

I agree. 

I think there are a lot of people who agree, deep down, but are terrified -- I mean 100% flat-out terrified -- to admit that.  That this life is it.  And what are you doing with it? 

"What would you do with it?  What did I do with it?" as Tim McGraw sings. 

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" as Mary Oliver asks. 

Multiverse, schmultiverse. 

You're not living everywhere all at once.  And you're not off the hook. 

Live here. Now. 

Birthday Bloggage: Reflection Time!

Tomorrow, yikes!, is my birthday. I don't want to say I've been depressed, exactly, about this approaching birthday, but I have at least been nigh on discomfited, mostly along the lines of "why the !@#$%&* haven't I accomplished everything I wanted to have accomplished by now?!"

But that's never a really useful birthday-approaching thought process, now is it?

So I decided to give myself some good advice: "Accentuate the positive!" (so original, I know), and to take said good advice from myself, that is to say, to think about things that I DID do during the past year.

Some things I did while I was (*) years old:

• Worked on the writing of three new books -- yes, I now have three books in active progress.
  Negative spin: I have so many works in progress and haven't finished any of them.
  Positive spin: I have put into action THREE new book ideas and made progress on all of them! 
• Wrote a bunch of songs.
  Negative spin: What am I going to do with them? And they might all be terrible.
  Positive spin: Holy shite I've been writing songs! Like, lots of songs! I've discovered this whole new part of myself over the past nine months. It's incredible and I seriously don't know what to make of it, but I'm digging it. 
• Traveled all around the Midwest and even some other parts of the U.S., with no small number of road trips during the last year, having driven to: Iowa (twice), Nebraska, Wisconsin (several times), Michigan, Indiana, and we mustn't forget St. Louis for the total solar eclipse which was AWESOME and, related to the point above, was the genesis of the first song I wrote, an eclipse metaphor about the universe/love/life that just kind of poured out of my brain while I was sitting on the highway in post-eclipse traffic trying to drive back to Chicago.
  Negative spin: I didn't get to go on the Habitat for Humanity trip to Prince Edward Island I'd been planning to attend. Positive spin: So f-ing what? I got to see family, friends, three weddings, and the super-cool eclipse event that was apparently the opening of a new chapter in my life. 
• Lost weight - I finally shed all those back-in-the-U.S.A pounds.
  Negative spin: Don't really have one. Except that so many of my clothes are too unwearably big, ha! 
• Took even more classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music aka my second home these days, adding to my regular weekly guitar class several more including guitar fingerboard theory, vocal techniques (twice), songwriting (see above!), and perhaps foremost in my joy the Modern Country Ensemble, which I enjoy so thoroughly that I am now taking it for a fifth session in a row. It is a joy and a treasure, and every sixteen weeks we perform a real live gig. My Monday nights at the Old Town School are such a given, and now Tuesdays too...
  Negative spin: I'm busy. Positive spin: I love it. 
• Became a regular volunteer at the Old Town School of Folk Music, which enables me to afford everything I just mentioned in the previous point.
  Negative spin: Yup, really busy. Positive spin: I love it. 
• Made new friends. Building community is hard enough when adults stay put, and I gallivant about the world so much that I may have had it even harder, plus I actually really need solitude and seriously carve out time each week to be alone, but whether it was the whole staying-in-one-place-for-three+-years thing, or the whole hanging-out-with-music-people and hanging-out-with-books-people and hanging-out-with-yoga-people things, I have definitely made actual new friends during the past year, which is interesting and nice. I mean, I'm disgusted with so much of humanity (negativity!) that it's rather nice if rare when I find humans I like (positivity, check it!) 
• Finished my Prez Bio reading up through Dubya, which technically is the completion of my Prez Bios reading project, which you'll recall was launched during Dubya's administration and was called Reading a Biography of Every President In Order, To See Where We Went Wrong. Of course, since then we have gone even wronger, and I am going to also read books about Obama (after which point the presidency dies and my project dies with it so don't you even dare suggest...) but I did technically make it to the "end" of what I set out to do. Finally!
  Negative spin: What took me so long? Positive spin: I did that! 
• Speaking of books, some of the great ones I read this past year: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk by John Doe et. al., Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee, Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Enlightenment by Robert Wright, American Plays of the New Woman ed. by Keith Newlin, and La vida util de Pilo Polilla  by Vivian Mansour Manzur, along with a bunch of other good and some not-so-good ones, AND I recently led in my local store the book group discussion of The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer, which was the inaugural selection of the Barnes & Noble nationwide book club. 
• Found interesting English/ESL teaching work with some non-profits, mostly teaching immigrants, which led me to discover how much more enjoyable it is to teach these classes as opposed to the for-profit school for which I'd been working (and which I swear drove me to drink) the previous couple of years here in Chicago. That was interesting to learn.
  Negative spin: I seriously didn't want to go back to the classroom at all... Positive spin: Work. Work earns money. Work accomplishes things. Work it. 
• Speaking of work, at all three of the part-time jobs that I had one year ago and still have, I have had my accomplishments recognized with different positions/training/new responsibilities kind of things. Negative spin: They weren't promotions to full-time massive-money-making career ops. Positive spin: Employers recognize that I am smart and do things.

And ya know, those are just a.) the easily listable things b.)that I'm willing to discuss on a public blog. I have also done other things on philosophical, personal, introspective, and psychological levels that either aren't as quantifiable or easy to notate or don't really need to be delineated here or whatever. But my point is - it was quite a year, now that I stop to think about it.

AND I saw Indigo Girls perform four times during it, plus Emily Saliers' solo show. So there. Not to mention dozens of other bands and singers, and totally I didn't mention how much new music I came to know about because of Spotify. I even succumbed to Spotify Premium this year. Consider me thoroughly Spotified. . 

AND I saw a bunch of good movies. 

AND I spent so much quality time with my kittens like you would not believe. 

AND I de-cluttered my closet and got rid of clothes I don't wear anymore and got rid of some other stuff around the house, too.

AND I continued to discover new restaurants and happy hours and hiking (walking) spots around Chicago and to look at the Lake on a regular basis. 

So although I did not in fact really conquer life, the universe, and everything in the ways I had planned to do... I did other things instead! 

Let's see what the next year brings. 

A Brief History of My Week

What happened was, on Tuesday night I was on Facebook, engaged in multiple conversations on my and others' pages/status update threads, about three horrible things that had all happened, to wit: #trumptydumpty firing Tillerson and all the retaliation goin' on in the #trumpsterfire, plus the dog killed in the overhead bin of a flight, plus the 7,000 pairs of shoes outside the Capitol calling for gun sense. None of these conversations was a pleasant conversation. Even with people who agreed with me on whatever aspect of the topic, the discussions were filling me with outrage, because there was so much, well, outrageous behavior that had happened on Tuesday on the part of humans. So I spent a long time Tuesday night, up too late for sure, feeling increasing outrage and disgust, pretty much all directed at humanity out there.

Over and over in the comments of these various anger-inducing conversations, Fb-friends (or, as I call them, Fbriends) made comments along the lines of, "Well, people are stupid." "Yeah, people are terrible." "Humans don't deserve what they've got/" "Humans are the worst." And so forth. 

Which, frankly, I feel is all true. But it was making me feel awful, and I had SO much outrage. More, even, than the usual outrage felt on any given day since 2016.  

Amid all that, the only other news story piercing these swirling topics of doom was another sad story, that Stephen Hawking had died. 

That reminded me: there are some really smart people in the world. Geniuses, in fact. Why, then, was I wasting my time fretting so fiercely about all the stupid people? 

Why was I engaged in fruitless arguments, dealing with the nonsense babble of #trumptydumpty supporters and other hideous specimens... why? When I could be reading the words of smart people instead? 

Wednesday I found myself in a Barnes & Noble, where I picked up a copy of A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and resolved not to go back on Facebook until after I had read it. Simply, replacing the stupidity with the smarts. 

Boy, it's been a nice four days! 

Some unanswered questions that I will try to answer: 

Q: Why hadn't I read A Brief History of Time before now? 

A: Seriously, have you seen my to-read piles? Egad. But it is now proudly shelved in "read" -- and "finally." 

Q: Didn't I hate being "that guy/gal" reading it the week he had died? 

A: Well, duh. But I got an excuse note from a supervisory book related figure in my life who understood the nature of my predicament (the outrage, the step away from Fb, the normally-I-wouldn't-do-this ... and oh yeah, p.s., also the uh, we're not exactly worried people will think we're not smart). 

Q: So...did I like the book? 

A: Hell yeah! So funny and personable! So the story of the universe! So worth reading, y'all seriously. It won't even take you four days -- you'll be able to return from your Brief History of Facebreak much faster than I did, if you have anything resembling free time/a normal life, which I do not. 

Q: Is it hard? 

A: Well, the universe is hard. So there's that.

Q: What is a singularity? Is time travel possible? Will we ever have a Grand Unified Theory? Is the weak anthropic principle a valid outlook? What's a gluon? What would happen to an astronaut falling into a black hole? Can we really know the mind of God?  

A: Uh, guess who tackles these questions? Not me! That would be, our boy Stephen. Come on, go buy the book folks. AT A BOOKSTORE, PLEASE, THANKS. 

I recommend the illustrated version. 

You are not in my future light cone, #TrumptyDumpty. You are in my elsewhere, and you can damn well stay there.