The Oscar-nominated 2023 films in a nutshell

Here is a very brief guide - which won't really guide you at all - to all 53 nominated films. 

20 Days in Mariupol: Devastation, up close and personal, as Russia invades Ukraine. You will be haunted by some image forever; for me, it's the simple pet turtle. 

American Fiction: It seems like the type of people who stand up to applaud at the reading of We's Lives In Da Ghetto are in charge of a lot right now. 

American Symphony: Mostly forgettable documentary that tells two stories and doesn't quite strike the chord I think it wants to. Jon Batiste is fascinating but do I need to watch him lie around and have talk therapy sessions via phone? I think no. 

Anatomy of a Fall: Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, I'm straight trippin' about that dog, though! 

Barbie: Feminism for Absolute Beginners, but to make it palatable to the mens we'll let the interminable Kens sequence go on and on and on for 50 times longer than a snippet of Closer to Fine plays 

Bobi Wine: The People's President: If you weren't already thoroughly demoralized by politics in your country, try becoming thoroughly demoralized about Uganda's instead! 

El Conde: Manic pixie dream exorcist

Elemental:  The main character is named Ember which is what I call Emma the Cat, and that is not the only reason I rather liked this!

Flamin' Hot: I was definitely the first one on my Awards Season block to see this. I am, simply put, a changed woman when it comes to the Flamin' Hot Cheetos. 

Four Daughter: Another documentary, another devastating experience, this time in Tunisia. 

Godzilla Minus One:  **completist minus one -- this isn't showing anywhere and I can't watch it** 

Golda: I could watch Golda Meir and Henry Kissinger banter all day. This is likely not the correct takeaway from this film. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: I find the GotG films refreshing and funny and thoroughly entertaining and was NOT prepared for an animal experimentation torture plot. What the. Come on, Marvel. Escapism? Please? 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Time travel has never ever ever made sense in movies so why should it start now? 

Invincible: (SHORT)  Powerful performances, although the title is technically a lie, spoiler alert. 

Io Capitano: More powerful performances, man's inhumanity to man, a series of terrible events, and my goodness I am so into international human rights tragedy films. Why are they my type. 

Island in Between: (SHORT) Probably more interesting for me for the nostalgia/hey-I-used-to-live-around-there factor than the doc itself. 

Killers of the Flower Moon: More humans? More terrible things done to other humans. This is one of the most meticulously researched, planned, and well-executed pieces of filmmaking ever, but the pros made it look too easy. 

Knight of Fortune: (SHORT)  The quirky tug-at-your-heartstrings short. 

Letter to a Pig (SHORT): The beyond-quirky avant-garde quietly bizarre and profound short.

Maestro: The scene with the family where the grown kids put on the record and dance nostalgically and joyously seems to represent so much. Your hard work was worth it, Bradley. 

May December: Off the charts fucked-up humans and so delicious to watch them all self-destruct. 

Mission:Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One: Adrenaline x 1,000,000

Nai Nai & Wo Po: (SHORT) For me it's a hard pass on the fetishizing of grandmas. 

Napoleon: Batshit crazy Napoleon! Really makes me want to re-read War and Peace soon. 

Nimona: Woe is me no one understands me alas but I can't explain anything or answer a question because then I'd have to maybe stop whining?  #1 pet peeve alert. 

Ninety-Five Senses: (SHORT)  What does it in fact mean to be alive? This will sneak up on you with that question. 

Nyad: Pitch perfect performances from Annette and Jodie as they depict Diana Nyad's quest to swim from Florida to Cuba. 

Oppenheimer: Manly male humans blowing up the world, 'cause they can

Our Uniform: (SHORT) LOL @ the disclaimer to avoid offending people who like being forced to wear a hijab. 

Pachyderme: (SHORT) There is always a creepy one in the bunch. Leave the elephants out of it, you wicked humans. 

Past Lives: Writer things, Korea things, what to do with my life things, all my favorite things. Bonus for Nobel AND Pulitzer prize discussion plot points. 

Perfect Days: Also my kind of movie. And it takes my life's work of not defining people's lives by their work to the next level.     

Poor Things: The less said about this monstrosity the better, but it's basically a bunch of men using a woman's body and with a baby's brain to take advantage of, to boot! Easily the one of the three P___ ____s nominees that needs to gtfo. 

Red White and Blue: (SHORT)  My favorite live action short, which is about abortion and pulls off what it sets out to do perfectly. 

Robot Dreams: Past Lives, but for dogs who befriend mail order robots. 

Rustin: This year's flying-under-the-radar performance that will stump trivia players in future years trying to remember who else got nominated for 2023.  (Except the Obamas; they'll remember.) 

Society of Snow:  I have always been and do remain #TeamEatTheHumans

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: I still think multiple Spider-Man movies have the same titles but I found this one to be snazzily animated and engaging, if a bit heavy on the WOULD you just TELL him already plot drivers. 

The ABCs of Book Burning: (SHORT) Predictable, hot topic, but occasional bursts of awesome like the mullet kid who just likes to read and know about stuff. 

The After (SHORT): This year's oddly pointless little film with drama, violence, and a confusing ending. 

The Barber of Little Rock (SHORT): Non-profit community development is my jam! And also this guy's jam. He's good at it! 

The Boy and the Heron:  Definitely not short. As a Miyazaki heretic, I can only say: This finally ended. 

The Color Purple: Adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation. Fantastic production and dancing. The songs themselves leave a bit to be desired. 

The Creator: In the great war with A.I., who is the real enemy?  The whole A.I.-getting-smarter/emotional thing, much like time travel, never ever ever makes sense, but we're probably never ever going to stop having people try to write these plots anyway. 

The Eternal Memory: The personal is political. With a bonus cat! Who shows up at least 3 times! 

The Holdovers: The Mormon church does not send parents of minor children on missions, so I couldn't get into this film until that plot hole flew away on a helicopter. After that: Misfit Friends Story for the win. 

The Last Repair Shop (SHORT): My favorite documentary short. A random slice of life, surprisingly touching human stories, art, making a difference, giving everyone a chance, L.A., all the good stuff is in this one.   

The Teachers' Lounge: I may still be decompressing from the teaching career I never wanted and too fragile to love this. 

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: (SHORT)  Wes Anderson knows that he should really only have ever been making short films, right? 

The Zone of Interest: Bizarrely uninteresting film - because it's actually a conceptual art project - that manages to take a Martin Amis novel's premise of all things and make it even more male as it mansplains that well, ACTUALLY, what happened was, the Nazis were people who smugly carried on living their lives while being responsible for evil; you know, some people don't know that. 

To Kill A Tiger: No actual tigers appear in this film. It's a metaphor! 

War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko:  (SHORT)  And produced by the dollars of Sean and Yoko. But I liked it. War Is Over? As someone said about Life Is Beautiful back in 1998: "Would that it were."

Who Wore It Better? - Oscar flicks edition

One of the last films that I saw while working my way through the nominees involved our action hero's train meeting disaster at a bridge ... and then I thought, hmmm, that's interesting, I watched a different action hero's train meeting disaster at a bridge just the other week. This inspired me to do a little bit of Oscar Nominees - Who "Wore" It Better?  Fashion, shmashion - who needs red carpet dress face-offs when you've got weird similarities popping up in the nominated flicks to analyze! 

Who Wore It Better?

Action heroes on trains arriving at bridges, off which they plunge into European rivers
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny vs.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Who wore it better?  Tom Cruise & Company, by a long shot. My heartbeat truly increased watching this film sequence. How on earth will they top it for Dead Reckoning Part Two??!

Sandra Hüller 
Anatomy of a Fall vs The Zone of Interest

(Yes we all understand we are not wearing anybody and she is not "it")
It's not every year that a lead actress is in two Best Picture nominees! A lot of United Statesians are discovering her now for the first and second time because they aren't Oscar completists who saw her in Germany's Foreign nominee Toni Erdmann a few years ago. At any rate, out of these two...

Who wore it better?  The verdict is Anatomy of a Fall. 

She powers us through this film. A talky tour-de-force. 

Marie Antoinette's guillotine
El Conde vs. Napoleon

Listen, I want to be clear: I am NOT knocking Napoleon for historical inaccuracy. I rather enjoyed the freewheeling 3-hour extravaganza of Joaquin playing batsh*t crazy Napoleon. But how can you top Vampire Pinochet actually licking her blood from the blade after? 

Who wore it better?  El Conde.  
Or as I like to call it, the manic-pixie-dream-exorcist movie. 

A prosthetic nose and make-up that made some people very mad
 Golda vs Maestro

Haha, see, get it, they actually wore this one! Although some people were extremely upset about it. Not Maestro Leonard Bernstein's own children, though. One critic I read did point out that Bradley Cooper kept his own eye color, so that should be a demerit. But the fascinating amount of work that went into aging him decades? Pretty impressive. Golda on the other hand took place mostly over mere days, so not much in the aging, just the transforming of Helen Mirren into her in the first place. I thought she was incredible in this role. "But she's not Jewish!" some people whined. So much whining about both of these films! And because of that, I'm going to have to applaud them both even more. 

Who wore it better?  TIE.

This concludes our first annual Weirdly This Thing Is In Two Movies edition of Who Wore It Better?

Completed Category: International Feature

 Well this is a bonus for sure! I did not think that I was going to complete Foreign International Feature before the big day but the fates conspired to make it so! 

The fates did not prevent me from being tired, and sick though. When's the last time I was sick with such an ugh virus for the actual ceremony?  Which I will be assuming I don't feel much better tomorrow. Hmm. Anyway, allons-y!

IO CAPITANO - ITALY: Spoiler alert that Italy is in this film even less than Florida is in Nyad. And there are about four words of Italian. And it's a co-production of Italy, France, and Belgium but takes place in Senegal, Mali, Niger, Libya, and international waters. Anyway I absolutely loved it but it would be kind of interesting if it won and joined the ranks of Italy winners like The Bicycle Thief, Cinema Paradiso, Life is Beautiful, The Great Beauty...  It won't win though because the winner of this category has already been anointed, but I would love for this to win. It was interesting, compelling, ferocious, and full of humans doing terrible things but also helping one another. I swear, I have two types of films that are My Kind of Movie, and this is one of them - international human rights tragedies I guess. I am trying not to spoiler but I really want to shout out one small part whose actor proved "There are no..." If you've seen it, remember the man who is the go-between when they build the fountain?  There is so much that crosses his face when the Rich Boss Guy comes out to look at it and we get this little twinge of sympathy as we realize his life is seriously on the line here too and he's kind of maybe doing his best?  Or certainly not the worst of the Libya men who do stuff, not by a long shot. There are a million incredible moments in this film and I loved it. 

PERFECT DAYS - JAPAN: This is my other My Kind of Movie. Thoughtful and wistful. I absolutely loved it. Wim Wenders directed it, but it's Japanese, so this continues our cross-cultural shenanigans, and it made me want to hie myself back to Japan (it's been too long). I cannot freaking stand how people talk about people's professions as if that is who they are and I have a million thoughts about that and what capitalism hath wrought and so forth but in this movie I definitely had some feelings about that. Fantastic performance from our lead and a bunch of wonderful profound moments. Ten out of ten! 

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW - SPAIN: About the Uruguayan team plane crash in the Andes. See? Cross-cultural shenanigans everywhere.  The survivors and family gave their approval and some of them even had cameos in the film. It's absolutely fantastic and is possibly the only one with a chance of beating the film that will win this category, although not much of one. It did get an additional nomination, make-up and hairstyling, which was in fact impressive especially at the end as their bodies became gaunt and dirty and ravaged by the time stranded. If you are wondering "Did we need another retelling of this story?" the answer is Yes. We needed this one.  Also, for the record, ever since I heard about this story decades ago I have always been 100% decidedly on #TeamEatTheHumans. No reason not to at all! 

THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE - GERMANY: Very German! Very modern/Gen Alpha kids. This film has a way of ratcheting up the tension as you move around the various school locations and through the days and revelations of new facts as things get stirred up about who is stealing money in the school. There are so many moments when you're so frustrated with these characters - or is that just me?  I did not really love the ending, but at any rate this was interesting for the most part. 

THE ZONE OF INTEREST - UNITED KINGDOM: Because that's what we need, isn't it - the U.K. winning for Best Foreign International Film?!  Hahaha ... it's so going to, though. As I have mentioned a few other places, I did not love this film, which was not a film i.e. a cinematic narrative so much as it was an art project. It took Martin Amis' book title and premise/setting and nothing else, including that it did not take the plot, and it also forgot to replace it with a plot of its own. It shocks us with the revelation - ?? who didn't know this? -- that the evil Nazis went about their lives while committing unspeakable atrocities. I know this film worked for a lot of people but I am not one of them. I was glad when it ended, not that I understand what he's trying to say with the ending -- we shouldn't have janitors? What? Whatever. Mark your Oscar pool ballots for this winner. 

Order I want them to win:
Io Capitano
<tie>Perfect Days and Society of the Snow
<gap>
The Teachers' Lounge
<gap>
The Zone of Interest 

Order I think they will win: 
The Zone of Interest

Society of the Snow
Io Capitano
Perfect Days
The Teachers' Lounge

Ahhhhhh I am so glad I got to see all of these flicks! My favorite Category!
I'm still not offended by calling it Foreign. 

Completed Category: Animated Feature

 This is a bonus post! I didn't think I was going to be able to complete Animated Feature, but I was able to travel to a single solitary Wednesday evening showing of Robot Dreams. 

I have been trying to be lenient in my judgments of the Animateds because everybody knows they are Not For Me but what I've got this year is a clear divide between a top three that are like Awww, that's nice and a bottom two that are like Blarrrgh is this thing over yet!?

Also I am starting to feel like in a whole lot of Animated film more than even other styles one of my least favorite tropes occurs frequently, which is If This Character Would Just Tell That Character...  I am aware that this trope has also been heavily relied on in "great" comedies for years and sure it can be found in many genres, but I'm about to create a Bechdel-like test for Animated flickcs only it will be like, "Is a character keeping something secret that s/he doesn't have to?  If s/he would just spill it, could this entire movie end now because there's no actual other plot going on?:" 

THE BOY AND THE HERON: Exhibit A of the Is this thing over yet? My goodness this was interminable. Every character was a psychopath. Now we all know that I have been a Miyazaki heretic as long as there have been Miyazaki devotees - if heretics can be bored out of their minds, I mean. Let's apply my test:  Yes, there are MULTIPLE characters keeping things secret. No the boy's quest to figure it all out is not interesting, by the way. 

ELEMENTAL: Awwww I like this one. Not just because the main character is named Ember which is one of my nicknames for my cat! Interestingly, there were parts of this movie where she and her Waterboy did the OPPOSITE of my test, meaning, they just came out and said things instead of a bunch of hand-wringing as plot device, which may have contributed to me liking this so much. On the other hand, she was definitely keeping a secret or two from her dad, but not in the "If only I said this one thing all of this would go away" way. More complex things happened as people found things out, and this includes her finding out about herself. I like this one! 

NIMONA: I don't like this one. Not much, anyway. It was so frenetic. It was also built upon a foundation of "You don't understand my pain!"  OK, tell me about it. "Stop asking me questions!"  On and on and on like that for 2 hours. Or it felt like at least that long. .Lord godz though this girl shows up and is like "WOE is ME because no one knows who I AM or what HAPpened to me" but then she won't answer a goddamn thing she is asked, so honestly gal shut up please. 

ROBOT DREAMS:  Since I saw this last night it is very fresh in my head. It does not suffer exactly from my test criteria but it sure did infuriate me that the beach guard person couldn't let him back on the sand. Honestly, I can't believe how sad this movie actually made me because it kinda had weird vibes at first. It really managed to pull you in though.  Could have been a wee bit shorter. 

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE: I enjoyed this one for the most part, although my decidedly amateur opinion about superheroes probably makes no sense, but I thought there was fantastic animation. However, we are absolutely in Would-you-just-freaking-tell-him territory.  

And so...the order I want them to win: 
Elemental
Spider-Man:Across the Spider-Verse
Robot Dreams
<Enormous Gap>
Nimona
The Boy and the Heron
(those last two switch back and forth depending on the day as to which one annoys me more) 

Order I think they will win: 
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Boy and the Heron
Robot Dreams
Nimona
Elemental

I really have no idea, though. 

So tell me, Animated experts and fans!  Which one did you love? 

Completed Category: Original Score

 This will probably be my last Category post besides Best Pic. 

And to be honest, I did what I did lots of years, which is really only love and pay attention to the score in one or two movies. I am known for forgetting to think about the Score until later except on rare occasions. And on those rare occasions, no one ever seems to love the Score that grabs me as much as I do.  Anyway...here we go. 

AMERICAN FICTION: I forgot to pay attention to the score very much in American Fiction. However, it was jazzy (duh, character named Thelonius Monk) without being annoyingly jazzy (I said what I said). And I will add one big plus: this movie has some wild tonal swings, but it pulls them off and you don't feel all over the place while careening from mockery to family tragedy to lampooning to frustration to family melodrama, and I think the score helped pull it all together! 

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY: Watched this a few days ago to complete this category. I knew I was completing this category and tried to pay a little attention to the score, but mostly I kept thinking about when the old familiar Indy theme kicked in and was obviously less struck by whatever original score stuff John Williams came up with for this. Side note, he's old! Will they give him another Oscar so he can be the oldest winner ever? Probably not, actually. 

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: Hey! I paid a little attention to the score in this one! In fact, I think it was so well done; I was absolutely entranced for the first hour or so as all the pieces are being laid out and there was this thrumming pulsing music underlying it all and drawing me in (making the time cruise by, I might add). Then there were also other emotions and time-period-evoking elements to the score as well. I would honestly think this has a chance and should have a chance. 

OPPENHEIMER: Oh but then there's this again! Recurring theme on the blog this year, eh?  Such-and-such is great, but Oppenheimer.  Well, it was fine work that I - surprise - didn't focus on as there was so much else going on in this flick. At any rate, there was certainly a lot to score! Well done, Gory. (Ludwig Goransson, can I call you Gory? What, no?) And I mean, including scoring scenes of actual atomic bombs and whatnot. This was a monumental task that not just anyone could accomplish. 

POOR THINGS: Didn't hate the Original Score, but sure did hate the movie! Let's just no thanks this. 

And so, order I want them to win: 
Killers of the Flower Moon
American Fiction or Oppenheimer
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
<big gap>
Poor Things

Order I think they will win: 

Oppenheimer
Poor Things UGH
American Fiction
Killers of the Flower Moon
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

I don't have a lot to say on this one, partly because I'm tired today/this week, so feel free to weigh in here with your Score thoughts if you have more words than I do.

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: Directing

 Directing! This is a "big" category that everyone cares about. 

Let's get something straight. We'll be having absolutely none of this "Ohmgrdz do you think the movie directs itself?  How can it be nominated for Picture and not give the Director a nomination?" That is a terrible, terrible take, for two reasons: 

1. There are ten Best Picture nominees and five Director nomineees. Ten and five do not equal each other, no matter how bad you are at math. 

2.  The Oscars have made it a different award for a reason, just like with Screenplay, Cinematography, and everything else that goes into a motion picture. That means they are awarding two different things; otherwise it would be one award. 

All right? Good. Now that we've got that straight, let's check out the five nominees who did not steal anyone's nomination. 

JUSTINE TRIET, Anatomy of a Fall: This is probably the one that surprised the most people and sent them into paroxysms of "but Greta created a whole  Barbie world!" whereas I was like "Oh darn, no Celine Song for Past Lives."  But it's pretty sad that we all accept four nominated men and then argue about which woman the fifth spot should have gone to.  "When there are five!", amiright RBG?  Anyway, I still keep forgetting about Anatomy of a Fall until I have to write another category about it. There's no way she's going to win, but I did like how it was crafted and paced and how the actors played into different moments and you got little glimpses of their perspective while keeping everything so mysterious. Side note that she is three years younger than me, what the...!

MARTIN SCORSESE, Killers of the Flower Moon: I swear I am going to spell his last name wrong until the day he dies. I always want there to be two Cs in it. Anyway, sorry Marty, but I'm not sure your masterpiece is going to get you this award. You picked quite a year! I wish you and Leo had done this in time for last year and maybe you could have saved us from the sh!tshow of EEAAO. And this being your swan song possibly and everything. I am saddened that I don't think it is to be. 

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, Oppenheimer: Because Oppenheimer. Everyone is so ready to crown Christopher Nolan, finally -- you remember what that was like for you, eh, Marty? - and it is to be. 

YORGOS LANTHIMOS, Poor Things:  Which thank godz that means this psychopath won't win, good heavens. The scary thing is he probably has a small chance. Shudder. 

JONATHAN GLAZER, The Zone of Interest: And there will undoubtedly be a few folks who vote for this conceptual art project. Honestly it's hard to say which I think ruined this movie more, the Screenplay or the Directing. The premise was so potentially interesting (and so Martin Amis's) and I absolutely did not care for what he did with it in making this film. 

And so. Order I want them to win: 
Scorsese - Killers of the Flower Moon
Nolan - Oppenheiemer
Triet - Anatomy of a Fall
not those other two clowns

Order I think they will win: 
Nolan - Oppenheiemer
I can't even bear to think about the rest because it makes me think about how people are voting for...
Lanthimos - Poor Things
Glazer - The Zone of Interest
instead of Scorsese - Killers of the Flower Moon
hey, Triet! - Anatomy of a Fall, it's an honor to be nominated, eh? 

Only one more week!
Where does the Oscar time go? 

Completed Category: Sound

 Another category I completed by watching The Zone of Interest was Sound, the category it has an excellent chance to win! 

]

We have definitely reached the point in Oscar season where I am tired, and having a busy work week. So let's get on through this, shall we? 

THE CREATOR:  On Nominations Day, I was one of the ones who said, "What's that?"  That's me, just over here being ignorant of sci-fi, fantasy, action, and other spectacles at the movies! Ha. I didn't not like this movie, but I also didn't really ever get super-into the whole "We are A.I. and we were wronged!" thing. It was all kinds of creepy. A.I. is like time travel -- people never quite know what to do with it in movies, because there is always some gaping logic hole if you think too much about what's going on. Anyway, Allison Janney showed up, which I was into. But we're here to talk about Sound. There was a lot of it! 

This probably won't win. 

MAESTRO: This has a lot of nominations. In addition to the so-called big ones, here we are in Sound. While there was of course music in this flick, there surprisingly wasn't that much. Honestly this was so much more about an interpersonal relationship than anything else.  This probably won't win. 

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE: One of my hobbies during Oscar season has been typing out and/or speaking the full title of this movie, every time I mention it, just 'cause. There's so much of it! There was also so much Sound. But, there were even more visual shenanigans. Still, there was a lot going on, and so supremely executed, and you know, let's dream big for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, shall we? This has a small chance to win. 

OPPENHEIMER: What does it sound like to detonate murderous nuclear bomb tests in the desert, terrifying, torturing, and killing thousands and thousands of animals?  Goddamn humans. This movie has a chance to win, because there is a chance for Oppenheimer  to sweep everything, kinda like a bomb blasts away everything in its path, except the latter is much more painful for the living things on the ground than an Oscar ceremony. Humans are legitimately the worst and I hope every Oppenheimer acceptance speech mentions that. 

THE ZONE OF INTEREST: But see, to win this category a film would have to beat this. And this was a uniquely powerful use of Sound. As you have probably heard by now, this film conceptual art project depicts a shiny happy evil Nazi family living their best life in a house next to Auschwitz, which you hear but never see.  It's really well done and certainly remarkable. I didn't care for this movie, which I thought failed on lots of levels, but not on this Sound level!  This has an excellent chance to win. 

And so. Remember the good ol' days when Sound Mixing and Sound Editing were two separate awards?  If that were still true the Academy could give Sound Mixing to The Zone of Interest and Sound Editing to Oppenheimer. Alas, they'll have to make a choice. 

Order I want them to win: 

I'm fine with The Zone of Interest here
Mission:Impossible -Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer

Maestro (I feel bad for Bradley and I do want his movie to win some stuff) 

The Creator (Don't forget it's an honor to be nominated.) 

Order I think they will win: 
The Zone of Interest
Oppenheimer
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Maestro 
The Creator

How does that Sound to you? 

Completed Category: Adapted Screenplay

 Well, I finally saw The Zone of Interest.  And it was a giant disappointment. But I completed four more categories, so there's that.  Guess we'll start here. 

I will be perfectly content if any of three of these films win, and if either of the other two win, I will throw Things at the Zone of the television. 

AMERICAN FICTION: I read that Cord Jefferson is from Arizona! Bonus points to him. Also, he wrote a pretty good screenplay here. The ending is - an interesting choice. I know there are layers upon meta layers, but it still might put off a few people. And of course, some of the fresh wit of this comes from the Percival Everett book it adapted, which I also liked, while the major departures from the book (Boston, the manner of one character's death) I think served the film well, but were those his changes or changes by committee? Also a lot of what I loved about this film was the performances. In general I think this is a good, more-than-solid, A-minus, not quite my first choice. But lots of people will vote for it. 

BARBIE: And a lot of people will vote for this. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach wrote a fun and thoughtful screenplay - yes, based on something that already exists, for one more reminder for those who don't believe the Academy knows how its Original vs Adapted rules work - and Greta also famously directed it to a billion dollars at the box office but wasn't nominated for Directing. I think Barbie has a more than great shot at winning because of both of those things, the not being able to award Greta otherwise AND the fact that it was a good screenplay that saved moviegoing, at least for a little while. So, what's stopping it? 

OPPENHEIMER: Oh. That. Yeah. Oppenheimer was great, it is going to win some Oscars, and this might be one of them. But - Christopher Nolan adapted it from a book (and an actual real life), unlike, say, some of the other brilliant things that have emerged from his mind as Original over the years, which is not to say he didn't do wholly original and brilliant things with it, just that there's a different starting point. Also, more importantly, he will almost surely win Directing, and the film might win a whole lot of stuff, so this category could be where people back off from him and give Gerwig the prize since they're handsomely rewarding Nolan elsewhere. 

See? All three of those have a chance, and make for a super-interesting race.  Unlike...

POOR THINGS: Ugh.  Ugh times one million. Screenwriter Tony McNamara said, and I quote, that he hates "sex scenes for no reason."  Well, Tony, self-aware you are not. Perhaps even worse, he said that he was always failing English class in high school and could never get his head around grammar but wouldja look here, now he's a writer. Ugh. Every single thing about this movie is another check in the Ugh column for me. I know some people are going to vote for him because he wrote words for Bella the franken-baby-mind (discovering sex) and words for Bella the grown-up-mind (roaming around the world getting naked with more people), but my godz do I hope it's just a few people and that I don't have to throw (Poor) Things at the TV when this award is announced. 

THE ZONE OF INTEREST: Now this one is (Zone of) interesting here only because it's utterly baffling to think about how it could possibly garner votes for this category. First of all, it's honestly less of an adapted screenplay than Barbie. It didn't even keep the characters from Martin Amis' book! It took the title and premise and part of the setting and then created an entirely different (lack of) story. The book was a mess in many ways, but this didn't bother trying to improve on it, just said OK literary estate of Martin Amis, thanks for the premise, bye!  Secondly, though, what screenplay we have here is - not much. So it's not as if Jonathan Glazer went and wrote a different story; he wrote instead a kind of art project.  Now, we all know that I do not care for fever dream projects masquerading as cinematic narratives, so this did not work for me in the slightest. But I also think there are objectively major flaws, such as: what's happening here?! in the infrared sequences that come out of nowhere? if Grandma is going to make a stand can you at least tell us about it? can you in fact depict anything that happens at any point?  and what on earth are you trying to say with the ending - that we shouldn't have a museum?  Everything is so unclear but on top of that it's also boring. Was his take on the banality of evil that he could one-up everybody by making the most horrific shocking acts of humanity unfathomably dull?  Seriously, we know this is going to win International (Foreign) film and maybe Sound, but really don't think it's going to win here. 

I'm reluctant to even try to predict but ... who cares, this is all just my personal fever dream blog rantings anyway!  HA.

Order I want them to win: 
Barbie

Oppenheimer

American Fiction
<huge gap>
<chasm>
<the Grand Canyon>
<all of the fabric of space time>
tie for last: Poor Things and The Zone of Interest

Order I think they will win (MAYBE): 
Barbie
American Fiction
Oppenheimer
who cares

Completed Category: Supporting Actress

 Yesterday I finally saw the new The Color Purple, thus completing a category!

In fact, I didn't just watch the new The Color Purple but instead made a day of it and watched the 1985 movie and then in the evening, this Awards Season's flick, which is an adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation. You know, some Awards Season jabberers are really throwing around the nonsense that this new movie is "an adaptation of the book."  That is such a lie. For one thing it is based on the musical straight up. Like, your screenplay includes book and songs from the musical. Pretty sure those songs weren't in Alice Walker's book!  (I read it!)  And then, I suppose someone COULD skip over the 1985 film adaptation - but you didn't. It is absolutely referenced and incorporated in many ways.  Multiple cast members are on the record saying this. Let's be real. Anyway, none of that is the point of this post! 

EMILY BLUNT, Oppenheimer: She was fantastic in this. I know, I know, when is she not? But my goodness does she elevate her part to the very very most it can possibly be. You know Christopher Nolan wasn't going to write a killer female part in this manly male man-fest of maleness but Emily Blunt took what was written and made it the absolute most because she's one of the greatest actresses working today, period. I want her to win an Oscar! 

DANIELLE BROOKS, The Color Purple: She was definitely great. The whole talented cast of this was great, but I suppose we had to focus on someone and she sure was strong and confident and funny and heartbreaking and amazing in each of her scenes, so I am very OK with this nomination.  She also mentioned that in at least one scene she consciously paid homage to Oprah (who played the role in the 1985 film this is an adaptation of an adaptation of). Does that help her chances here? I say it couldn't hurt. 

AMERICA FERRERA, Barbie:  I almost forgot about this for a second! (or rather, a month, since the nominations came out)  Of course her monologue went viral last summer as everybody discovered Feminism 101 through Barbie, and listen: I am OK with Feminism 101 - y'all have to start somewhere! -  but she also had a little bit more going on in this film than just that.  Still, even if you score straight up zero picks on your ballot and lose your entire Oscar pool, if you take a side bet about which clip from Barbie will be shown for her clip for this category, you can still win something for the evening.  As for the actual award, here, I think she is in honor-to-be-nominated territory. 

JODIE FOSTER, Nyad:  Oh godz do I want her to win. However! I also have to point out that this was really pushing it on the Supporting vs. Lead thing, which you know is my pet peeve, and on which this year otherwise is doing very well overall.  Jodie really is a co-star of this movie. But she of course gets marketed as Supporting - and not because the role is in fact Character Who Supports The Other Star in her life and quests, but because this charade is the very favorite nonsense Awards Season charade we have to endure every year.  And because that is annoying, I won't be 100% mad when she doesn't win. But I also will be fine if she shocks the hell out of everyone and wins  - which could juuuuuuuust possibly happen because she is so well-liked and connected to SO.MANY. Academy voters, and because her performance was absolutely off-the-charts.  Pitch perfect every single second. 

DA'VINE JOY RANDOLPH, The Holdovers:  You know, as I was just typing her name, I wondered: what did kids with apostrophes in their names do for that bubble back when we filled in the bubbles on the standardized test and scantron answer sheets?  Huh. Have I really never talked about this?  Two of my close friends in high school had punctuation marks in their names. Anyway, Da'Vine (or is it Da'Vine Joy?) has been winning a few statues these past few months and it's looking likely that this will be another for her. It was the scene in the kitchen that did it, I think - but also she does throw a fair amount of sass to Paul Giamatti's character, which he richly deserves I might add.  Everyone loves a misfit friends story (at least I do) and she's a strong, kind, but also fun part of this one. 

Order I want them to win: 
Jodie Foster
Emily Blunt
Da'Vine Joy Randolph
Danielle Brooks
America Ferrera 

Order I think they will win: 
Da'Vine Joy Randolph

maaaaaaaybe Jodie Foster
Emily Blunt

America Ferrera 

Danielle Brooks

They were all so great!  What a cool-ass group of actresses. 

Seriously take that Barbie monologue side bet though, if you can get anyone foolish enough to go against you on it. 

Completed Category: Short Film (Animated)

 And now I'm done with all the Shorts!  Saw the Animateds yesterday. 

And guess what - regarding the question of which of this year's set of Shorts is clearly better or worse than another set of Shorts, I was actually good with all the Live Action and most of the Animated. And most of the Documentary Shorts. So basically, there was no omg-wtf set this year. 

That's not to say there weren't some heavy topics!  I'll keep my thoughts short, since the Shorts were short. (Which is how I like my Animation, by the way.) 

OUR UNIFORM:  I was into this and then it ended too abruptly.  It's a kind of meditation about how girls are forced to wear the hijab (nowadays) in Iran and at the beginning there was a disclaimer of no offense to anyone who chooses to wear hijab but that this was about the experience of being forced to wear it in a certain place. Eye roll. 

LETTER TO A PIG: This is a meditation on .. a lot of things. Including escaping death, but also war and pigs (not War Pigs though) and some other stuff.  I want to watch this again and maybe again and again. 

There was no disclaimer of no offense to anyone who has not hidden in a pig sty. 

PACHYDERME: This was creepy as f*ck. I do not want to watch it again and again. There was no disclaimer of no offense to anyone who had a positive experience in a house with an elephant tusk on display. 

NINETY-FIVE SENSES:  I did watch this one twice. (It's available online and I also saw the group of Shorts in the theatre.) I like this one a lot too. It is heavy. It is also about being alive in a way unlike anything I've ever seen before. It kinda sneaks up on you of how good it is.  There was no disclaimer of no offense to people who do not have five senses. 

WAR IS OVER! INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC OF JOHN & YOKO: It's about war.  I liked it a lot! I was thinking it was the best and might win until I walked out of the theatre and heard two people complaining that it was the worst of the five. What!? It was so good. War is bad. Chess and birds and cease-fires are good. There was no disclaimer of no offense to the wars that are not over. 

Order I want them to win:  top 3 might as well be a tie

Ninety-Five Senses
War Is Over! Inspired By the Music of John & Yoko
Letter To A Pig

then Our Uniform
then big gap then Pachyderme

Order I think they will win: 
I am pretty sure this category is one of my worst in terms of predictions? Sadly I don't keep stats so we'll never know but that is my impression. Once in a while I get it right. Hmmmmm... 

probably War Is Over! Inspired By the Music of John & Yoko? 

maybe Ninety-Five Senses? 
maybe Our Uniform? 

maybe Letter to a Pig  which was weird but I loved it
please not Pachyderme

Have you gone to see the Animated Shorts at your local cinema? 

There's also a Highly Commended but not nominated one that was kinda like The Shape of Water 🤣🐟 except about real fish - sort of.   Animators sure can do weird stuff! 

Completed Category: Short Film - Live Action

Shorts week continues for me with the completion of the Live Action Shorts. 

I like them all, which is always nice, to not have either a dull slate or that one terrible one that needs to go away. Not this year! All are good - but there is a clear winner. I will avoid spoilers here.

THE AFTER: This one has star power, but it's also kind of strange; it fails to totally pack its punch even though it's super intense for a moment. It kind of fizzles out in a head-scratching ending. It's also short and not bad or anything, just left me feeling like they didn't really know what they wanted for the conclusion. 

INVINCIBLE:  Also well done, extremely well-crafted in fact, with beginning, middle, and end. I'd give it an A if this were film class, or at least an A-minus. This year, though, a poignant story of a troubled teenage boy with a strong young actor performance isn't quite enough to rise to the top of the heap. 

KNIGHT OF FORTUNE:  This is great. Two men have an encounter and more at a morgue, but there's a lot going on beneath the surface and the story unspools with little twists and turns,while still being a quiet, contained, emotional little journey.  In any other year I might say this is first place, but... 

RED, WHITE AND BLUE: Oh, yes. This one. I'll not say anything much about it other than it's about a woman in a state in the South trying to travel to a different state for an abortion. Go do yourself a favor and watch this one, which can be rented on Vimeo, even if you don't get to your local cinema to see the entire Live Action Shorts collection.  (Which you should totally do by the way.)

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR:  Wow! Wes Anderson in small doses is the best Wes Anderson. And he matches perfectly with a Roald Dahl story. This is what he always should have been doing - keeping it short. 

Really, we don't need a big deconstruction of anything here. I simply enthusiastically recommend that you support whichever theatre near you is showing the Oscar-nominated Shorts. Most years I think that either the Animated are good and the Live Action are meh not so much, or the Live Action are great and the Animated are no thanks, and based on how good these five Live Action are, I don't have high hope for when I go see the Animateds. It must be a Live Action year! 

Order in which I want them to win: 
Red, White and Blue obviously
then basically could be a tie but I'll try to rank...
Knight of Fortune
Invincible 
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
The After 

Order in which I think they will win: 
Red, White and Blue, if anyone has any sense in their Academy-votin' heads
maybe The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar? 'cause people love Wes Anderson
maybe The After? because people love David Oyelowo
maybe Knight of Fortune? It's great. 
sorry Invincible

But like, none of the #2 through #5 rankings matter. Gooooo Red, White and Blue! 

Will definitely be throwing things at the TV on Oscar night if the right one doesn't win here. 

Completed Category: Documentary Short

 It's my first completed Shorts category this year, and quite the opposite of last year when I was thwarted and nobody would let me complete all of the nominees before the ceremony and it was mainly this category's fault because they weren't showing at a theatre in Atlanta (although the Animated and Live Action were) and one didn't become available online to rent/stream until last June!  How do I measure a year?  In Oscar nominees watched, that's how! But why dredge up the past? 

Anyway, so the powers that be decided to let me see all the Doc Shorts this year, thank you very much, and this I have now done. 

THE ABCs OF BOOK BANNING:  Hot topics do well at the Docs and at the Shorts and at the Doc Shorts, so this already starts out ahead. Is it well done? Yes. Are the featured people interesting? Yes. Does it invite me to look at this topic in a new way, or offer some fresh perspective?  Honestly not really. This series of reactions and analysis from a bunch of people, mostly young, about banned, challenged, and restricted books is not really breaking any new ground. Does it draw someone in who might not be interested in the topic at first? It does all right. People like charming little kids, right?  (They're not all that little.)  The first group of girls who started us off with their self-assured platitudes were a wee bit obnoxious, but some who get interviewed later are rad. The blond boy with the kind of mullet-look is by far my favorite.  "I just like to know stuff."  Yes. My man. Look for him. He's great. 

THE BARBER OF LITTLE ROCK:  Community development is my jam!  Haha kidding, it's just my job five days a week, as they say. But I fully loved Arlo Washington, his work, his team, the barber college, the way they drove around to show and point out the discrepancies between the predominantly white and predominantly Black communities on either side of a freeway, and the clear, cool-headed examination of the persistent racial wealth gap.  This absolutely featured interesting people, new perspective, and a way of drawing you in. I don't really fault it but it could have been a teeny tiny bit clearer on chronology but not in a way that mattered. Basically, good! Totally OK if it wins. 

ISLAND IN BETWEEN: I liked this one probably more than some people because I like to contemplate China and China-adjacent things and I am always fascinated by Taiwan, both so China and so not right now. This look at the Taiwan island that is just off the coast rightupthisclose to mainland China just really worked for me. But it might float in the middle of the pack here. 

THE LAST REPAIR SHOP: This one, though!  What a beautiful little slice of life, really well done, intimate (yet global in reach), a brilliant interweaving of stories, a profound look at how we really can make a difference.  I am one million percent #TeamTheLastRepairShop.  I always say any film that makes me feel positive feelings about humanity did a damn good job! In this case, the group of co-workers at a musical instrument repair shop and several kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District who have discovered how important playing a musical instrument is to them  tell their close-up stories, and the filmmaker weaves a pitch perfect macro out of the micro. I loved it! 

NAI NAI & WAI PO: Meh. This was kind of one note. Definitely was telling you it was more clever than it was. The premise of a guy documenting his two living grandmothers, who live together, was all right but the execution was...meh. Sometimes weird little ones like this resonate with people though, eye-rollingly to me. 

Order I want them to win: 
The Last Repair Shop
The Barber of Little Rock
Island In Between
The ABCs of Book Banning
Nai Nai & Wai Po

Order I think they will win: 
Like I said, probably The ABCs of Book Banning has the strong upper hand here
The Barber of Little Rock  has a chance
I hope The Last Repair Shop has more of a chance; maybe the L.A. connection will help? 
Nai Nai & Wai Po, ugh
Island In Between - just not sure how much this will wow people

Did you see the Documentary Shorts? 
What do you think? 

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: Costume Design

 We get a two-fer in my Oscar diary bloggage today, because viewing Napoleon last night completed two categories for me.  The second one I shall pontificate about is Costume Design. 

As it happens, Costume Design and Production Design have the exact same five nominees, which has happened only twice before -- you can read all about that here, if you're so inclined. I was inclined! 

BARBIE: As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, please please please give Barbie the Production Design Oscar, but I don't feel anywhere near as much pain to think about it losing anything else, including Costume Design. Yes it was great and fun, and honestly there is so much that goes into Costume Design in general that I don't want to say it isn't hard or anything but -- I'm putting this in the middle of the pack here. Lots of pink, lots of fun, lots of sharp looks, some women dressed as dolls, some men dressed as dolls, even a man dressed as a woman doll, two different worlds, Beach, there's lots of fun here. I wouldn't throw things if it won, but just don't need it to. 

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: But this! This really does need to win something and I'm running out of categories for it, and this sure would be a great one! As much as I support Lily Gladstone, I need Annette Bening to win Actress, and this here Costume Design honestly might be Killers of the Flower Moon's best other chance.  Again I will mention the intense but we're-so-professional-we-make-it-look-easy research and deliberate preparation that went into this flick and the support and work of the Osage community, but when you find out about the tiny little things like Mollie wearing something on her outfit that would indicate she'd been previously married but Ernest being oblivious, and all the other finely detailed little touches, you just have to be like let's please give this film an Oscar. Here would be fine. 

NAPOLEON:  I liked this crazy mess of a Napoleon movie, which I am aware some others did not enjoy as much, and I will say that I found his hat at times absolutely riveting. This was a high degree of difficulty and a lot of really cool crowns.  Also, the uniforms helped us out with the plot and various international players at times, and basically, I won't be mad at all if this wins and for now it's my strong strong second choice. 

OPPENHEIMER:  Meh. Not here. Like, it was fine - I think. Haven't heard of any egregious errors to match its props/flags error. But in general I think there was just not as much costuming as any of these other films. A lot of the scenes were the same scene flashed back and forth to, so the same suit or whatever, whether they had to make ten copies of it over the course of filming. 

POOR THINGS:  Enough with this movie.  And how much do you really care about the Costume Design when you're just waiting for Emma Stone's clothes to come off as her body gets passed to the next man who gets to possess it?  Ugh. 

In most years, Costume Design isn't one of my most thrilling races, but I occasionally do have a strong feeling or two.  And, as usual, we have a several-hundred-years-ago historical epic, a several-decades-ago smart film, something whimsical, something thoughtful, something weird.  All the usual suspects are here, and I'm not sure whether this will just get carried along with whichever one is winning everything, or if a unique contender will emerge. 

Order I would like them to win: 
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Barbie
Oppenheimer OR Poor Things,  don't care

Order I think they will win: 
Poor Things, ugh
Barbie maybe
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer

Completed Category: Production Design

I finished two categories by watching Napoleon - two categories with the exact same slate of five nominees!  One of them is Production Design. 

BARBIE: This is the first of these five films that I saw, and this is the category that I most want it to win. And none of these other four have surpassed it in my opinion. It took some toys we had all seen and most of us even held in our hands and made a magical, beautiful world - with compelling undertones. I think the movie as a whole is juuuuuuust a smidge overrated and its takedown of The Patriarchy is to say the very least incomplete, but hey - y'all beginners gotta start somewhere. While the film is flawed, the Production Design is not, at all. You truly believe you are traveling between these two worlds, and that this one really exists out there somewhere, giving you some instruction for how to think about your own world. It will be a travesty when Barbie loses this category. 

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: This has become a recurring theme here but Scorcese & Company did their jobs and their meticulous research so incredibly well, and created a world to tell us a haunting story, and I think it is a wonderful, scathing, entrancing film. However, in this category it is second place for me. I really don't want it to get shut out, so I won't be mad and throw things if it wins here. The degree of difficulty is more than you might think, with every little bit of house, business, outdoor, indoor, street, gathering, barber shop, car, explosion, you name it perfectly depicted. Strong strong silver medal.  Maybe we could have a tie? 

NAPOLEON: And this one, which I watched last night to complete the category, also did some visually marvelous work. With another incredible degree of difficulty. However, I understand that it also worked some magic with Visual Effects?  At any rate it was stunning, and somehow gorgeous when depicting bloody massacres, so hey - well done everybody.  I know this movie didn't work for a lot of people but I for one massively enjoyed batshit crazy Napoleon and Josephine, and all the other madness. It also made me nostalgic for when I read War and Peace. Mostly, I found it delightfully dark and amusing and weird and a totally solid entry here. 

OPPENHEIMER: Ya know, I recently went to Los Alamos. I've also been all around the Southwest, having grown up in Arizona, and been many times to New Mexico, but only the other year finally went to the actual weird little made-up town that still sits there in the middle of a gorgeous landscape where they unleashed hellish fury, terrifying and killing untold number of animals and plants, before moving on to kill hundreds of thousands of Japanese humans. You have to show i.d. to drive into the actual town. Anyway, I honestly loved the film Oppenheimer and I also honestly don't think this had the same degree of difficulty as several others in this category, but mostly I am going to have to say something here about the still-unanswered (as far as I can tell) 50-star flag thing. Much has been made of the use of USA flags with 50-stars in a climactic scene set when there were only 48 states. Some insist that director Christopher Nolan did it on purpose, with that scene in color being Oppenheimer's memory, envisioned  from 50-state 1963. I think those insisters are reaching. Some claim to have been extras in that scene and report (on the internet) that the flags were some cheap bulk props brought in, which would be such an astoundingly bonehead mistake that it's hard to believe -- but then again, look at the stupid things humans do on the regular, like destroy all the life they come across. Anyway, I know Oppenheimer is going to win something, but I'm scratching it from this category. 

POOR THINGS: I wish I could scratch Poor Things from existence. It doesn't get better any time I have to write about it as the weeks pass. However, I will say that this Production Design category is kinda like how I was for Editing with Everything Everywhere All At Once. Terrible, excruciating movie that I wish I had never had to sit through, but this one category was sure done well. And that, I fear, is why it will probably beat Barbie, much to my dismay. 

Order that I would like them to win: 
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon 
Poor Things
Napoleon
Oppenheimer

Order that I think they will win: 
Poor Things
Oppenheimer
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon 
Napoleon 

Oh, how I want Academy voters to do the right thing

 

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.