Best Picture 2024

Ok, it feels good to be watching these even if the ceremony just happened. Hear about them ad nauseum and finally get to watch them. Conan was a great host and very happy he's coming back next year again. Was kinda surprised that Anora did so well, so I'm looking forward to watching it to see why it was so loved. Another nice, diverse group of films let's get to it and hopefully don't take until next year to finish this again (aw shit, I did take until next year. Literally like 2 weeks before the 2025 ceremony, ah well.).

2024 Best Picture

 

Anora

 

This film, and Sean Baker, dominated out of nowhere. I don't think anyone was expecting this film to do as well as it did come Oscar night. I mean, Baker was the first person ever and 4th nominated, to win BP, Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing for the same film. That's an insane haul, though it makes sense because Baker does everything on his films. He was even credited, with his wife, for Casting. If that was an award this year, which they have been trying hard to get into the Awards Ceremony (the Casting guild, I mean. update: it's now a nominated category), I'm sure he would have won that, too. Everything seemed to come together for Baker on this film. His previous film, The Florida Project, was nominated for Supporting Actor for Willem Dafoe, which was good and he had buzz for Tangerine (shot entirely on an iPhone which is why I watched it), I know I need to watch his other films to see how they add to his story. But Anora feels like a departure and feels like more of the same in a good way. He's touched on sex workers before in Tangerine and Red Rocket, but this feels way more focused and deliberate. This film focuses on Ani, a stripper who meets a rich Russian guy who is young and the son of an Oligarch, who loves to party hard. Ani starts hooking up with the dude for money and becomes enamored with the lifestyle he lives and the son starts falling for her and eventually proposes to her because he doesn't want to go back to Russia to work for his father and then flies to Vegas to marry her. This gets the attention of his family's handlers who are Armenian and tasked with annulling the marriage and getting the son away from Ani and back to Russia. This is the part of the film that is interesting to me. I'm no prude, but the first 30 minutes or so of Madison being naked a ton just felt gross and exploitive, though I understand it is establishing who Ani is. When the Armenians show up, we get Yuri Borisov who helps make this film so much more interesting and just the whole wild antics they perform to try to control Ani and find the son who has left in a rage to avoid going back to Russia. It's almost like a road trip movie at this point where the group goes to all these different locations looking for the son all while Ani says she isn't going to annul and loves the son and is acting like a tough New York stripper. I liked how Ani seemed to fight for a guy she barely knew because she wanted the lifestyle and also because she didn't want to go back to the club with her tail tucked between her legs. And it felt like she may have had some genuine feelings for the son. Eventually they find the son and his parents arrive from Russia to take him back and we see that the son really didn't care about Ani and was just having fun before he had to go work. Ani stands up for herself but accepts her fate and has to figure out what to do next. All of that part of the film is great and was completely compelling as I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I was hooked and feeling for Ani as all of her new world crumbled around her. I think this is where the film wins Best Picture, though I'm sure the nudity sucked a lot of people in. It's a great film and is something that should make people want to dive deep into Baker's output before this film, me included.

A Complete Unknown

I will be completely honest before I start this review. I do not like Bob Dylan's music like at all, so I'm wondering if this film can open me up to his stuff or if it will be more personal than music related. Well, having seen it just now, I can confidently say I still don't like his music, though I can definitely appreciate his style a bit more. Also, I guess I forgot or didn't really know just how many famous songs he has but there's a bunch that even the most casual listener like me will recognize. But how is the film, since I ain't here to critique Dylan's music? Honestly, I think it's a very well made film and right in director James Mangold's wheelhouse, since he did make Walk the Line (I almost typed Walk Hard, which is the superior musical biopic film) the Johnny Cash film with Joaquin Phoenix. And I can see a lot of that film in this one, since this film kinda treats Dylan as this enigmatic, mysterious folk music wunderkind. Both lead by star performances from their musical icons, Timothee is fantastic and most of the acting from the other known and notable musical figures are great, as well. The acting is why we watch this, the story not so much. I didn't feel like I really learned much about Bob Dylan at all, which I think should be the main thing besides getting the songs right. I don't really know where he came from or who he was, just that he inserted himself into the folk scene with ease and seemed to write hit songs quickly and everything just fell into place and happened so easily for him. I didn't really see much struggle or any obstacles he had to overcome. Some people didn't like him moving to electric guitar, I guess and he had a tumultuous love life because Dylan was portrayed as a fuck boy rather than a sensitive lover boy, which is what it felt like they wanted him to come across as. I love that all the singing and guitar playing is done by the actors themselves, because I think it really makes the film better overall instead of lip synching and taking us out of the illusion. The main draw is just hearing and seeing the songs get played and this film succeeds at doing that. The rest of the film is mostly nothing and entirely forgettable, though it could have been so much better than what we got.

The Brutalist

 

This was the last film I watched for this year, for a couple reasons. It is the 5th longest BP nominated film ever at over 3 and a half hours. It had a 15 minute intermission which was the first intermission for a film in theaters in literal years. So it's long and I had heard various folks say boring, long, and gets good in the second half, which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. It's about Adrien Brody escaping Europe after being imprisoned by the Nazis and coming to America where he starts building a big project for Guy Pearce's character. That's the simplified version obviously but there is a lot more depth to this film overall. It has a couple of the greatest film shots of the year and probably ever with upside down Statue of Liberty and Brody with sparks in front of him. Both are so iconic and got me so hyped for this film. I don't know exactly what I was expecting of this film, perhaps a meditation on architecture that tied into a character study of the architect and his experiences. I guess, in a way, that's kinda what the film is about. But I did think the architecture would play a more prominent and important role and be featured earlier. I do see that someone who survived the Holocaust could and would come up with brutal looking architecture to mirror their experience. Obviously a lot more to parse out from this film than just architecture. It's an incredibly well made film with the Vista Vision cinematography, excellent acting, great direction. A solid, cohesive film that feels like it will be on lists of greatest ever films that we get from time to time, though this would not be my choice for something like that. But it feels like a filmmaker's type of film, you know? And I haven't even mentioned the AI controversy that popped up because they used an AI language something or other to make the Hungarian (I think) that Brody and Jones speak sound more convincing. Which I think is fascinating and honestly helps the film so we don't get the actors tripping over words they don't know or sounding ridiculous speaking a language they don't actually speak. To me, a non issue. I found parts of this film boring, I found parts of this exciting, and I found parts of this perplexing as to why they decided to take the film in that direction. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. Also, didn't really like the 1980s epilogue part as it kinda broke the immersion with this different looking period to a film that didn't really need it. It felt like they didn't know how to end it and decided to film something that looked like it would be just white words on a black screen or something. I dunno, watch it for yourself and see if this is the genius I hoped it would be or the disappointment it actually was to me.

Conclave

 

Oh my goodness, this might be my favorite film of the year! I still have most of the category to go through, but it is so thrilling to watch. I watched this literally a week before the Conclave to choose Pope Francis' successor started, so it gave so much insight into what will actually be happening, outside of all the twists and turns of the political intrigue (how cool we got an American Pope!). So it was a truly fascinating watch that was extremely timely for me. I was so excited to watch this the first time I saw commercials on TV for it, because it was not even on my radar even though it should have been seeing as it was Edward Berger's newest film (having just done All Quiet on the Western Front). I know it's based off a book that did well, and it feels like almost a pulpy thriller where there is so much political intrigue and secrets coming to light where you just can't put the book down, well I just couldn't look away from this film. I love when films are tight and move their story along at a brisk pace. It becomes way more thrilling as I was wondering what was going to happen next and wanted to know who would be elected Pope. Although, I think most people can figure out very early on just who exactly is going to be Pope like I did, the ride to get there was still fantastic. Though, I did not expect the 'twist' which I think gives us a lot to think about with this film. Berger can really craft a film, as it just looks great with soooo many beautiful scenes that you could pull out and point to as the best individual scene or shot of the year. Just so many shots that were exquisite like the one with all the Cardinals outside in a piazza with white umbrellas moving around like ants. The writing won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and the film had a total of 8 nominations, including a great score and the beautiful Costume and Production designs. All of which was well deserved and it's crazy that the film only won a single Oscar. In some other years, this may have swept the ceremony and I would have been here for it. Great acting from everyone involved from a great script and a brilliant director makes for an incredible BP nominated film. My only issue is that I wanted the film to go on for another hour or so to see what happens and just to see the pomp and circumstance of it all (which was a conscious decision by the director to not show any of the crowds or aftermath, to keep everything focused singularly on the Conclave itself), but I'll guess we'll get that in real life here very soon.

 

Dune: Part Two

For reference purposes, go read my review for the first film back in 2021 because it sums up why I love the source material so much. In that review I said that I could see this film winning BP, which may have happened if it hadn't been pushed a year out instead of releasing closer to the first one. The buzz and excitement had died down and we got a pretty great group of nominees, so this was going to have to be perfect to win. So was it? Honestly, no, for a number of reasons. Mostly I think because the first film gets to introduce us to this world and all the fun characters and the sand worms and the fremen and the ornithopters, which is all very exciting to see on the screen. And in this film, we are used to that stuff, so the action needs to be there to take over and bring it all home. There's a stretch in the beginning to middle of the film where we are with Paul and the fremen that is a bit dull to me even though it is driving the plot forward. There's some important stuff going on with Paul's mother and Paul himself becoming more of a leader, but the setting with the fremen in the desert is kinda boring and I wish for more time with the Harkonnen's or just somewhere different. I started feeling stifled by the heat and desert. But the film picks back up when it turns its gaze to Austin Butler's character, Feyd-Rautha, who looks so badass and is the heir to Baron Harkonnen and a sadistic, cruel being. Butler totally owns the role, too. The visuals once he is introduced just become mesmerizing. I love the whole black and white look and what Villeneuve is able to do with it to make it look interesting and more than just a stylistic choice. And the film just gets better from here on out because things start to happen and we become invested in the story again. I don't mean that to sound so awful, because the film until this point is far from bad. I'm just happy to be getting the Dune experience a second time. Because it is riveting entertainment and shows us how amazing this story can be and gets me hyped that there will be a third film for Messiah, which I admittedly don't know anything about, but if it's Villeneuve, then I am onboard. I just hope it doesn't take 4 more years or more to get to us.

Emilia Perez

Oh boy, where do I even start with this one? I'll start by saying this was the lone movie of the year that I dreaded having to watch. All of the bad reviews and word of mouth in the Oscar sphere and negative vibe the cast and crew had really made me want to skip this. And y'all know I don't skip a thing. Before getting to the review and movie itself, there is a lot wrong with this movie. Made by a Frenchman who doesn't know English or Spanish, the movie gets a lot wrong with being set in Mexico. The movie starts with a jury trial, which Mexico doesn't have jury trials, and just gets a lot of the cultural essence of Mexico completely wrong. It's as if the film is written and made by a guy who knows nothing of Mexico other than cartels. Jacques Audiard admitted he didn't know much about Mexico and after going there to scout locations and not finding the Mexico he assumed, they decided to shoot the movie in freaking France. Never mind the language issues the movie faced with Selena Gomez being criticized for barely being comprehensible to Spanish speakers even though she was raised to speak Spanish. Zoe Saldana's accent is apparently all over the place and not Mexican sounding which her character is supposed to be (she is of Dominican descent). These are the little things in the movie that are not done right or well and shows how little care for its subject there is from the cast and crew and shows that the movie could have been set in Kenya as the setting didn't seem to matter except for plot points. Then there is the use of AI to alter the voices of the women during some songs. Obviously, artificial intelligence is a hot button issue these days when it changes the work of actors or takes the job of crew and just adds to the list of why this is such an insincere piece of work. And then the movie is pretty reductive and some say transphobic when it comes to the portrayal of trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon, who is trans in real life. It certainly feels dated and almost as an afterthought. Audiard initially wanted to use the transition as a comedic element to the story before being talked out of it by Gascon, which shows just how shitty and out of touch Audiard is. But of course Gascon is even shittier as a person, which shows that trans folks aren't above reproach and can be awful people too with her behavior and tweets that surfaced during the awards season run up. This is all a disastrous set up, so how is the movie itself? Well, it's not great, but when it's just the story, it's not bad. Saldana is a Mexican lawyer who is contacted by Gascon's cartel boss (I think?) who wants her to find a doctor so he can transition to being a woman. He successfully becomes she and eventually reunites with Saldana and gets her to get his children back to Mexico from Switzerland. Gascon's Emilia Perez then has a change of heart about her actions as a boss and founds an NGO that helps find bodies of the disappeared through her connections to the cartel business. She keeps her former wife close but loses it when she says she's gonna get married and move the children with her. Some violence happens and both Gascon and Gomez die. It's kind of interesting for a bit, but it takes too much time for something that is ultimately not that interesting because it's super predictable. I actually enjoyed the first song or two that happened as they gave off a different vibe. I know the movie is deemed a musical, but the director kept calling it an opera or operatic, which I totally get. The initial songs are good and interesting but then we get the vaginoplasty song and it's truly awful. Like boggles the mind how bad it is and that it was included and someone spent time putting it together. I don't like Mi Camino either, way to waste Gomez's talent, and the song El Mal from Saldana is not that great either, though I do kinda like her choreography in it. Honestly, I think there is a good to great film here if some of this is tweaked. A better director could do wonders for it and probably elevate it to something beyond camp. Audiard is garbage and the movie suffers because of him. I know some folks love that it was bold and brash and took a big swing and did things differently, but the movie is so  problematic, that it's hard to see the positives. I say watch it yourself and figure out if you like it or not, because I sure don't. Yuck.

I'm Still Here

Man, this film just feels like a Best Picture nominee. I loved it and am so glad we are at 10 nominees, because a foreign film like this might never have been nominated in previous years. I will admit my Brazilian history knowledge is pretty nil, but I do know they've had a military dictatorship somewhat recently. So seeing a film that shows what it was like to live under that regime and hope for the safe return of their father/husband, hits even harder when the American political landscape is starting to look the same. We've got troops being sent into cities, with the courts kowtowing to whatever whim Trump's dumb ass wants, and a federal government who doesn't give a shit about rounding up folks anywhere, anytime to send them to awful prisons. It's wholly relevant and scary and made me feel so much more in tune with what the film and story is saying. I think it was very well directed by Walter Salles, as it has a sense of urgency in the background that finally comes to the forefront as the father is taken away to be tortured and killed. It has great acting from Fernanda Torres, who was nominated in Best Actress, but the kids do a great job, as does the father/husband who is taken away. Really, it's the impact of the film that really does it for me here. So vital to what's going on today and done in such an engrossing way with a riveting story that made me feel sad. It's really terrific and I'm so glad it was nominated because people should see this film, no matter that it's a Brazilian film. This one just felt like an Oscar film and I'm happy it was.

Nickel Boys

This is probably the tenth film of this group of ten to get in the category and probably the least known of all of the films nominated here. The main draw of this film is that the majority of the film is shot in the first person perspective. Now, some people and some current filmmakers heavily praised this film for being innovative and pushing the medium forward, though this has been done previously in other films. But my reaction was that for the first part of the film, it didn't work for me at all. It was like the field of view was zoomed in or you're looking through binoculars or something and aren't seeing a real first person perspective. I feel like some folks may get a little sick or nauseous from how the camera is placed at times and I feel it's a bit distracting from the actual story. Which is about a young black man who is very smart and gets accepted to a tuition free HBCU in Florida and while seemingly hitch hiking and getting picked up by a black dude, they get pulled over because the guy stole the car and the kid gets caught up with him and is sent to a boys home that turns out to be abusive and exploitative and possibly where kids are murdered. The initial kid escapes with a friend but are caught and the kid is shot and killed, but the friend makes it back to the kid's grandma to tell her what happened. It's a sad story based on a real boys home in Florida that was notoriously abusive and they dug up tons of graves of kids who were murdered there. Meanwhile, the first person thing gets better as they start flipping between the two kids and have some shots that are normal, so that weird perspective doesn't stay and the film gets more enjoyable to watch. There are some weird shots of space and war and different things that I didn't quite understand. I think maybe it was just framing what was going on in the world at the same time, I dunno, it was certainly an interesting choice that did nothing for me. This really wasn't a film I enjoyed watching much at all, but it is nice to see a film trying something different and get rewarded with a BP nom for it, as that may allow other weird films get some recognition for being different narratively and stylistically. They aren't always going to succeed, however, but I appreciate the attempt, and hey, you may just love it more than I did. I'm not sure if this is one of those films that will get more respect and love as the years go by and we applaud the Academy for their choice or not. Guess we will have to wait and see.

The Substance

This film is why I will forever be a fan of the Academy going to a flat 10 film category here. If we were back on the 5 films or the 5-10 films trajectory, I am not sure this one gets in. I think this might be the first body horror film nominated for Best Picture, though I have to check the 30s in case I forgot something. But that's so impressive! It's a legit genre that has given us great films in the past like The Fly and The Thing. This film is cloaked in sex appeal as it features a naked Demi Moore (almost 60 and still smoking hot!) and Margaret Qualley (Andie Macdowell's nepo baby and Jack Antonoff's wife) as they are two sides of the same coin essentially. Moore is a decorated actress who has been relegated to aerobics video vixen (a la Jane Fonda) and gets cancelled by the nasty, predatory studio head (Dennis Quaid, named after Harvey Weinstein in the film). She then seeks out the Substance which was sent to her and she followed up with. She took this substance and transformed into Qualley and they were supposed to switch off every week, but Qualley got greedy and it became a horror show from there. It obviously says a ton about ageism and beauty standards and the entertainment business as a whole and can kinda mirrors Moore's journey as an actress. Just look to this ceremony as the hot young thing wins over the veteran older actress. The colors in the film are so welcomed, because I feel like a lot the films in this year are so muted or dark, that it's nice to see pops of color. The actual body horror parts are well done and believable with how they are combined and they look horrific and awful and it's so interesting that it comes from such a simple premise. The film is so sexual, too, which I honestly didn't expect, since I went into this blind. I didn't know we'd get full nudity from Moore and Qualley, so props to them especially Moore. I imagine that was part of the reason she was a frontrunner, but also because she is terrific in the role. This is a great BP pick, but also an unusual pick which is why I love the Oscars and how this category is chosen now. Can't see anyone watching this disliking it, as it is well made and why Coralie Fargeat became one of the few female directors nominated. Absolutely worth checking out.

Wicked

I have had the pleasure of seeing Wicked on the stage twice now. Once with an ex in Nashville which helped get me into musicals and opened me up to theatre as a whole. The second time with my parents where I live and it blew them away which was pretty cool to see and hear. So I was very excited to see this film adaptation and felt it was way overdue, but my excitement was tempered seeing Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande get the main parts. No hate on Erivo, I just didn't know her pedigree on stage and wasn't amazed by her previous nomination. And Grande being a pop star made me wonder if she had it in her to be a film star that this film would demand, ya know, acting (forgetting she was a Nickelodeon star before that, oops). But of course Erivo has the chops and Grande has the voice and has been acting as different versions of herself throughout her career (black, Asian, whatever her Pete Davidson era was). So the acting was fine and the visuals were what you would expect from a blockbuster film where even the stage versions had insane visuals. The film has the exact feeling you want from this story. It's magical in a way and makes you feel like a kid imagining a fantastical world. The songs are as amazing as advertised and Defying Gravity is a showstopper for sure. It was cool to see Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel have a nice little part including Idina vocalizing some Defying Gravity ending in her cameo. Man, I was just in awe watching this film actually happen and seeing all the beats from the stage get transferred to film was awesome. I can't wait to see the second part, because I can't even remember what happens in it or what possible songs there could be. It's also good to see Michelle Yeoh find something great like this so soon after her Oscar win. A good role for her and a great film for us.

I said it last year, too, but still loving that we keep getting very diverse nominees in this category. A film about a trans person, no matter if its one of the worst BP noms of all time, is pretty wild (Emilia Perez, as if I had to actually tell you what I was referring to). Nickel Boys offers up a different point of view, literally, and may be remember in the future for that, though I did not really enjoy the gimmick. I'm Still Here, one of the few Brazilian films to hit with the Academy, not a big hit with me, sorry Brazil. A Complete Unknown is just your standard biopic/singing Oscar fare. Anora, as the winner is interesting that the Academy would go for this. Is it because of the nudity and sex? I've liked other Sean Baker films more. The Substance is the first body horror film nominated that I can see, which is also wild. Fun film, with lots of nudity as well, which the Academy has shown they love recently. I'm putting The Brutalist here because I feel it's one of those films that will be loved by filmmakers increasingly in the future and it's a super well made film. Wicked was just fun to see a big, fun musical come to life and make that transition from the stage. I will always put Dune high because Villeneuve never disappoints and it's a great world to watch. Conclave blew me away. Best film of the year for me. Just a thrill ride all the way through and so compelling. Loved it. Very good group of nominees and I hope this continues as we barrel ahead.

Oscar Winner: Anora

My Winner: Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Wicked

The Brutalist

The Substance

Anora

A Complete Unknown

I'm Still Here

Nickel Boys

Emilia Perez

Leading Actor 2024

This race was kind of annoying, because it was pretty much Brody's second Oscar all the way through. If you have read this blog at all, you would know I hate multi-Oscar winners. I would rather reward someone new because I then feel like you'll be rewarding someone down the line because they lost to Brody's second Oscar. Maybe that's Chalamet or Fiennes, or even Stan, though the first two were more of a threat to win than Stan. Not to say Brody's win won't be my winner or won't be worthy, but I just hate second winners when you have the opportunity to crown someone new and deserving. We shall see if anyone else is deserving.

2024 Best Actor

 

Adrien Brody - The Brutalist

 

Some say Adrien Brody is still delivering his acceptance speech to this day. Kidding aside, Brody is/was 2 for 2 at the Oscars and apparently the only male actor to achieve this feat, though the number of guys who have won 2 Oscars is low. Apparently the key for Brody is to be in a Holocaust or Holocaust adjacent film. Maybe Timmy should follow suit since he's pretty emaciated looking already. I keed, so let's get back to Brody's performance. He plays Laszlo Toth, a fictional accomplished architect who survived Buchenwald and made his way to America. He joined his cousin who made furniture and seemed to be unfulfilled until a drunken night with his cousin and cousin's wife gets weird and they encourage Toth to sleep with the woman and then later afterwards the woman accuses him of trying to sleep with her and it leads to Toth leaving. But during this time, the cousin landed a renovation gig at a wealthy man's house as a surprise and Toth leads the reno as the accomplished architect he is. They are found out by the owner, Guy Pearce's character, who screams and yells at them to get out. Later on, Pearce tracks down Toth because he saw his work in a magazine and wants to be his benefactor and the two strike up a relationship based on Toth building a huge complex/building for Pearce. Mild drama ensues and a weird scene where Brody is raped by Pearce happens and you can see how intense this film can be. What I like about the performance is that this feels like a fully realized and complete performance from Brody. He creates a character with so much depth that we almost inherently know that he's been through some shit without having seen or been specifically told of it, simply because he looks ragged and like he's been running from Nazis for a long time. He survived being at Buchenwald and we see that in his eyes and his hesitance to connect with people. One of the things I liked about this performance is how Brody would kinda change when introduced to new people, like he'd take a drag of his cigarette and almost bow up and saunter around while looking at whoever in a cockeyed manner and it feels like a defensive gesture to protect himself. It's a choice that serves the film and performance so well for me. It's little things like that that make a performance feel lived in and like it's second nature for Brody to do. Brody comes from Hungarian lineage and his Hungarian is great; I don't care about the AI upscaling controversy. I like his relationship with his wife, Felicity Jones. It's almost business like in the film. When she comes into the film, they don't seem lovey dovey, it feels matter of fact. She questions him a lot and always thinks before responding to him as if she needs to choose her words carefully. Brody's portrayal grows as the film goes on from someone who was unsure about the world and about life into someone very sure of himself and what he was meant to do. It's a great arc played well by Brody. He also is a heroin addict in the film, yet this isn't played up to some crazy degree where it overtakes the story and film itself. It's too easy to get lost in a drug performance, but Brody plays it natural and let's it be more of an inconvenience and something that happens than something that needs to be played up to a histrionic degree. There is soooo much depth and nuance to Brody's performance. I feel like it's just dripping off the screen and feel like essays and video essays will be done on this performance in the future to dissect everything people see and don't see going on in Brody. I see why the Academy loved this performance. I think he has grown and matured a ton as an actor which is interesting for someone who has already won an Oscar previously. Just like the other nominated performances in this film, Brody's has stayed with me days after I watched the film. It's gotten better in my mind and I can see the brilliance and have settled into being perfectly fine with this win.

Timothee Chalamet - A Complete Unknown

I am definitely a big Timmy Tim fan and he is apparently the second only Best Actor nominee to lead two different BP nominated films in the same year, behind Brad Pitt in 2011. That's pretty cool and just points to Timmy's meteoric rise as the top young actor in the business. I love everything he does and was keenly interested in how his Bob Dylan would come out. And I am impressed! He definitely has the look of Dylan and I do like his effort in sounding like him, as well. I am most impressed by his singing and guitar playing ability, all of which was actually done by Timmy and isn't a voice double or actually Dylan and isn't a hands double for the guitar. I just find it so amazing when actors dedicate themselves to learning a whole new medium or activity/ability to be able to do it convincingly so, too. He sounds great and he looks great. I just wish that the film around him was great. I am not the biggest fan of this story that doesn't really dive into who Bob Dylan is or where he comes from or anything really about his motivations. It's like he's a folk music savant who can instantly come up with classic songs after some noodling o waking up in the middle of the night. But that's not really any fault of Timmy and not much he can do with a terrible story. The main thing I hate about the film is how it makes Dylan out to be this fuck boy type of player. He's in a relationship with Elle Fanning, yet hooks up with Monica Barbaro's Joan Baez, without any second thought and keeps coming back to Fanning even after broken up for a place to stay. I say all that to make the point that the film treats him as this enigmatic, mysterious figure and that's the way Timmy has to play the character because the script and story doesn't give him any other choice. So Timmy is hamstrung and still gives us something wholly interesting just because of his own movie star gravitas. Him not winning the Oscar doesn't come as a surprise because he does exactly what the film demands of him. But we can see exactly why Timmy is becoming one of the biggest stars in the world and why he will one day, probably soon, win an Oscar of his own. I can't wait to see what that performance will look like. And why am I calling him Timmy?

Colman Domingo - Sing Sing

It's funny because Domingo is in the same exact spot that he was from last year, I just had to change the film name. And I told y'all he was going to be nominated here again for this film, that one was too easy to see. I've become a fan of Domingo solely because of the Oscars, as I didn't know who he was before this, though he did have an Emmy win for Euphoria and some other awards nominations and love. And he'll probably get nominated for another Emmy at the next show for The Four Seasons, a Netflix show where he gets to be really funny and probably more like himself than we have ever seen in this space (and he did end up getting nominated, damn I'm good). It's a fun performance and it makes me want to see more of him in better films. Rustin and Sing Sing are not great films by any stretch of the imagination. Domingo is what elevates those films into something you need to watch. This film has him as a prisoner who I guess was innocent and we watch as he takes part of a program where the inmates put on theatre shows and watch their process and interactions. It's kind of an inspirational, nothing film - I hate to say it, but you are really only watching for Domingo, as most of the other actors are former prison inmates from the theatre program and there's also a Paul Raci sighting, which was nice to see. Domingo's character is a guy who tries to help mentor the new guy to the program and be a friend but can't quite breakthrough the tough guy exterior. But eventually he does soften and the two are friendly and Domingo helps the guy with his upcoming parole hearing. Domingo has his own clemency hearing which is where the performance really starts to shine as we see him talking to a board that talks over him and seems to gloss over the fact that he had new evidence that showed he was innocent and had the audacity to say she couldn't reach the DA's office to talk to them even though it seems like that's part of her job. During this I could see how frustrated Domingo was getting and I could feel my blood pressure rising in response to him not really getting a fair shake. That proved to be Domingo's breaking point as his anger boiled over at a rehearsal and he quit on the program in righteous fashion that was so palpably poignant. He was like why the fuck does any of this matter as we are still in prison, which I think we can all understand the anger and frustration he had, which was incredible to see. It's what I want more of from Domingo. Yes, he's a great actor in the quiet parts and the internalizations of emotions, but he is a force of nature when he wants to turn on the feelings and raw emotions. It's why I hope he can find some big or great film to show off in soon, because he fully deserves it.

Ralph Fiennes - Conclave

 

I am a big Fiennes fan (a fienned perhaps?) and feel like he should have already won an Oscar for Schindler's List. But alas, here we are after like a 30 year drought where he was still giving great performances that Oscar overlooked. Nominated again this time for playing a Cardinal who runs the Conclave to elect the new Pope. This is a thriller film that has twists and turns and is adapted from a popular book, so it definitely has a bit of a pulpy vibe to me which is where the gravitas and acting ability of Fiennes comes into play to sort of control how serious the tone can get. Because Fiennes' Dean of the Cardinals character controls how the Conclave goes with calling for votes and trying to keep the drama that comes to a minimum. The good thing is that Fiennes looks and feels every bit the part of a Cardinal with how he dresses, moves, and talks, as some parts are in Latin and he impressively makes it sound natural. It's good, serious work for a role and film that demands it, since it is the guy leading the process to pick a new Pope. I think that's what I love most about the performance as a whole is that Fiennes is wholly believable and helps guide us through the process along with the Cardinals and it never feels like he stands out in a bad way. You can see the burden of the job in his face as he navigates the process and the political back room dealings and gossip and drama. This role is heavy and obviously matters a great deal and we see that reflected in the performance. But when Fiennes needs to bring the authority, he very capably and dutifully does. Like when he confronts the group about the woman who was brought in as a nun who had had relations previously with the African frontrunner Cardinal or in dealing with the Italian Cardinal who is fiery and conservative. There are some internal conflicts going on within Fiennes as he questions his faith and wonders why the old Pope wanted him to stay when he wanted to retire. I think these are handled well by Fiennes as he keeps it mostly internalized and we don't get any corny down on his knees cursing God scenes or anything over the top. It's just another great performance from Fiennes who should get an Oscar eventually if he puts in the work because I think the Academy is ready to recognize him for his career efforts.

Sebastian Stan - The Apprentice

 

It's good to see Stan in something that isn't Marvel. Sometimes those actors get so bogged down in Marvel things that we don't get to see them do some real, good acting for a long time. Dude is a great actor and in like the prime of his acting life, don't waste it all on Marvel movies coming out intermittently. Do it on stuff like this, where you are rewarded with an Oscar nomination, which is a win in itself because there was a dislike of voting for someone playing Trump that was a real thing. But what I love so much about Stan's performance is that he treats Trump as a character and not a caricature. The latter is the easiest thing to do and we have all seen the SNL stuff and all the various things that have satired and lampooned Trump. What Stan does is build an arc and make a fully believable character come to life. In the beginning of the film, Stan's Trump is almost meek, a guy unsure of himself looking for guidance. He meets Roy Cohn, who he will eventually emulate to the worst degree, and finds someone to envy and imitate. Stan plays Trump so perfectly because we see the mannerisms of his body and his speech come to life and get more pronounced as the film goes on. It's incredible work from Stan and is better than just mocking him and making the mannerisms into something funny or ridiculous. Again, Stan kind of plays the early Trump as someone almost scared of what it takes to get power and what it means to do all it takes. As the film goes on, (which is really entertaining) Trump starts to transform into the mogul he becomes by acting like Cohn, even as Cohn dies of AIDS. I just think the transition is so good from Stan as he fully becomes Trump as we know him. It's incredible that this was nominated as I said early because this film had lawsuits trying to keep it from releasing, but I feel his work in A Different Man helped him get here. It's always when an actor has two high profile films that are filled with controversy that it seems to help them get nominated. This is probably the fairest take Trump will get in film for a long time. I can see an Adam McKay film about him coming in the next 20 years that will be crazy and ridiculous, but Stan offers up a legit performance of this garbage human being.

The usual group of solid acting MEN. Stan is the clear fifth nominee, because FUCK TRUMP, and I would never nominate his garbage ass. But power to Stan for getting people to vote for him that wasn't illegally manipulated by Elon Musk (2024 election was stolen). Fiennes is great but nothing that stands out for the win. Domingo is just below him but he is kinda like Fiennes in that he is wasted in his efforts now and will hopefully win in the future, and I am going on record that Domingo will be nominated for the Michael Jackson biopic (so brave of me). Timmy Tim should have won (ok, maybe not, calm down fan boy me) but Brody gave another insane performance in a Holocaust adjacent film and how can you deny him that. It's his bread and butter.

Oscar Winner: Adrien Brody - The Brutalist

My Winner: Adrien Brody - The Brutalist

Timothee Chalamet

Ralph Fiennes

Colman Domingo

Sebastian Stan

Leading Actress 2024

Well, this was certainly a wild race for a lot of the year. Madison was the front runner before awards were given, then Demi wins at the Globes and the narrative flips to her. Then Torres also wins at the Globes and the Brazil fans get vocal and then Gascon has all of her drama and controversy and meanwhile Erivo is just happy she gets to sing occasionally and be weird with Ariana. And then Madison ends up winning, which was a slight shock to me on Oscar night, though not an upset or anything. Very excited to watch these and see how it all shakes out for me.

2024 Best Actress

 

Mikey Madison - Anora

 

I don't know what it says about the Academy or Hollywood that for two years straight now, Best Actress has gone to someone who has been in I guess you could say 'explicit' sex scenes or at least was nude a lot. I'm no prude, but I am not into gratuitous nudity, just feel like it's unnecessary, though understand Madison is a stripper / sex worker and establishes how comfortable she is in her skin. I just hope next year's winner isn't part of this trend because then it just feels exploitive and makes the Academy look like a bunch of gooners. But anyway, there is an actual performance from Madison in this film and it is honestly very good. Her interactions with her fellow strippers seems authentic and she has that very New York accent that works well for the character. Her romance with Vanya is very business like at first since he is paying for her time, but you can obviously see her falling in love with the money and the big house and parties. This ain't no Pretty Woman performance, though, as things start to get messy after she marries Vanya in Vegas and his family finds out and sends some goons to make him divorce her. In this part of the film, you almost believe she actually loves her man as she tries to fight to keep her status and stay married. This is where I think that Madison really starts to shine in the performance. She gets almost primal fighting against the goons and trying to get through to Vanya as they drag her along everywhere searching for him. I love that she keeps fighting and trying to convince them he won't divorce her and it makes the meeting with his parents that much more tense and raw and somewhat emotional when she realizes she meant nothing to him all along and it was just him being a rich spoiled brat using her as his own personal sex toy. The performance has a lot of power behind it as we see Madison trying not to get thrown back into the life she thought she left. The ending is also very interesting in how Madison reacts with Igor and it feels like her trying to process things and someone showing her kindness gets her into working mode, though I don't know to what end. It's a good performance from Mikey and it's cool how a mostly unknown actress comes out of nowhere and wins Best Actress. It feels like the opposite of when they give the Oscar to a veteran like Demi and then have to make up the loss to the new, young actress who then has a couple more great performances. I don't know if Mikey will be great again, but I hope this opens up some new opportunities so we can see what else she can do besides be a scream queen.

Cynthia Erivo - Wicked

I don't really know why I was so worried that Erivo might not be able to pull off this performance. She was the only good part about her previous nomination and that's where I feel like some actors just need to be put in the right spot or even just put in a big budget film to be able to shine. I feel like that's what Colman Domingo needs and is exactly what Erivo got as a huge part in Elphaba and really got to show off what she can do. She has impressive pipes and knocked her famous song out of the park. But she also nails the acting part of the unloved, green witch who has to prove herself to everyone else. I enjoyed her performance and chemistry with Grande a lot, even if it got weird during awards season, because it is the crux of the film them becoming friends and pushing each other. It's fully believable and Erivo displays the anger and anxiety and fear perfectly for the role. I'm interested in how the second film will play as I think Erivo will have a more important part of the whole film as she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. I imagine it should be great again as the filming was all done at once, so she's not having to recapture the magic of this performance years later and I bet we will see her nominated again for this role next year. Not really a hot take but I'd bet a lot on her being back here again. I think this will become one of those beloved performances that people love when looking back on the Oscars years later and I'm glad she was able to deliver it.

Karla Sofia Gascon - Emilia Perez

This should have been a great, celebratory nomination of the first trans female ever in this category. Instead her awful tweets resurfaced and her behavior in response turned a lot of folks off to her as a person and soured many on the film and performance, too. Obviously, trans people can be awful shitheads just like anyone else and I think highlights that we can't just anoint trans folk as infallible and amazing just because they are trans. Not trying to be controversial, but being trans doesn't mean you are automatically an amazing actress or person. I mean, this performance definitely has its flaws. For one, it's a musical and Gascon can't sing for shit. They even used AI to enhance her voice and make it better, and the director and people that did the songs seemed proud of that fact. But you should at least be able to sing if you're going to be in a musical. I think it's cool that she played the pre-transition version of the character which was probably tough for her to return to those roots and that mindset. It was convincing to me and made the performance better because there was a tangible connection there. I also think she settles in once she is able to truly be her real self. That part of the story is fine, though I don't really see anything amazing in her performance. If she weren't trans, would we be nominating this at all? I don't think so, because the acting isn't quite great, which makes sense as Gascon had mostly acted in telenovelas before this. I'm not anti-woke (which is such a nonsense term) or transphobic, I'm just calling it as I see it, because I think her being trans is a big part of why she was nominated and I hate stuff like that as I've said many times in this blog. I want to see the best of the best nominated and I frankly don't think Gascon's performance is good enough.

Demi Moore - The Substance

 

This was the darling nominee and performance of the year. Moore was the frontrunner for much of the year after Madison and trading off with Torres at times. She won the Globe, which is what really skyrocketed her to possibly winning an Oscar, and also won the SAG for this role. It had pedigree and a narrative of her making a comeback after years in the business and not being recognized and I legit thought that on Oscar night, we'd hear her name called. That didn't happen but I imagine being a part of all of this was so thrilling and exciting and nice that the nomination was the reward. She plays a decorated actress who is now doing exercise videos and gets cancelled. So she turns to the substance which will create a younger version of herself, don't we all want that when we get older (no.)? But she has to switch off every 7 days and her younger version doesn't adhere to that because she is caught up in her fame and self indulgence. This means Moore starts becoming more hag like in various ways. It starts with her finger becoming ancient, which she obviously doesn't like. Things happen (watch the damn film) and Sue wins out temporarily, as this creates a monster that takes over Sue and ruins her celebrity life. I think the acting from Moore while searching for the substance and going through with it are great. She meets the physical demands of the horror role and you can sense her frustration at the newer version of herself who doesn't respect her time. It's great physical acting and the acting between the two souls is great as well. It doesn't feel as if Moore is stretched much in an actor sort of way though. Once hot actor gets old and has to try and come to terms with that, which is Demi to a T, so it's not exactly some new unseen side of Demi. It's good acting and I enjoyed it, but I was never wowed and never understood the love Demi was getting other than she's an actor people know from the past who has been in shitty things recently and then finally popped off again for the first time in forever. The nomination is the prize here and I'm glad the Academy didn't just give it to her in a sympathy vote for being older.

Fernanda Torres - I'm Still Here

 

Torres sort of came out of nowhere, winning the Golden Globe for Drama - Actress, though not against anyone else in this category. But it was a kind of big win for her as it got people paying attention to the performance and the film. At one point, she was the frontrunner and there was a lot of hype around her possibly winning and it being huge for the Brazilian fans and acting community. It was interesting to note that she is the second Brazilian actress ever nominated in this category, the first being her mother Fernanda Montenegro in 1998. So she has the pedigree and I feel that was part of the reason she was so hyped up at times. But also, this is just a great performance overall, all that other stuff be damned. It parallels what is going on in America right now. The alt right gestapo in ICE is disappearing American citizens because they dare oppose the Orange Fuhrer and also ironically have darker skin than them. Torres plays a wife and mother whose husband is disappeared by the military junta (though I think in Brazil it's just military dictatorship, at this time). She was taken in at the same time but let go very quickly and we see the abhorrent conditions and the chaos of not knowing where someone is. She then has to put on the brave face when back with her kids of everything is fine and we will get through this and we will keep fighting to get your father out. And she really does continue to fight as the years go on as she eventually learns her husband was killed from the democracy that took over. And then we see her go on as her family does the same and we see her (actually her real life mother) enjoy a family gathering. Torres is so great in this performance and this role. I wish I had more to say than she was just great, but she holds the family together and navigates a shitty bureaucracy that goes from you get nothing, to here's everything. I dunno, it's a very good performance that is starting to resonate for too many people these days. Torres is actually exceptional in this role and if she had won, I don't think I'd be that mad about it.

A wild race that came down to the one who was originally crowned the winner back in Sundance or Cannes or whatever. Gascon is utter garbage. Not good or interesting or worthy of the actual nomination. Let's forget her. Erivo was a great part of that film and sang the shit out of her songs, respect but not very worthy. Moore is so brave in exposing herself like she did, but we need more than nudity to win, (I say as Madison slaps her pussy one more time to taunt Moore). Torres I think was super close to winning. I think if Madison didn't have the nudity, Torres could have won and I think that is a super hot take! Yes, nudity seems to be a factor for winning recently and it's awful. Great group of women. I kinda want Torres as the winner, a year later, but Madison is fine.

Oscar Winner: Mikey Madison - Anora

My Winner: Mikey Madison - Anora

Fernanda Torres

Demi Moore

Cynthia Erivo

Karla Sofia Gascon

Supporting Actor 2024

This was a boring race to follow all season long as it was Culkin from start to finish and no one else even came close. And I have heard some not so great things about Culkin's performance, so I'm hoping that's wrong and it deserves the win and it's not just because he's likable and gives a nice speech. Cool to see Pearce finally nominated because it feels like he should have had one already and Strong feels like a good addition because of his dedication to the craft. Let's get going on this one.

2024 Best Supporting Actor

 

Kieran Culkin - A Real Pain

Category fraud is a serious offense, Jim! But for real, Culkin is in most of this film and is a co-lead, why is this Supporting? Because the other main actor, Jesse Eisenberg, wrote and directed this maybe? I dunno. Also, just to get it out there, I have never seen Succession, which got a ton of Emmy love and wins and many folks said that this performance was a carbon copy of Culkin's character in that show. That's annoying if true, but also, I don't feel like enjoying someone's TV work should come into play when judging their nominated work at the Oscars. We all know that stuff happens, but I wish it didn't. I have no frame of reference for his Emmy winning work, so I'll just judge this performance as is. And boy is it insufferable! His character is an annoying asshole. He is apparently homeless and dealing with the death of his grandma, who he was super close to, as he and his cousin go to Poland to see where she was from (she was a Jew who escaped Poland and a concentration camp, I think). So Culkin's character says some wild, random shit that kills moods, but of course the other tour members and the tour guide thank him for being real and honest. Gag me please. The character is awful and somehow we are supposed to like this guy? I get we are supposed to separate character and actor, and Culkin does a great job at being this character, but I also see from throughout the awards season that he was exactly like this character in real life and this feels like more of just an extension of Culkin and not actual acting. I found myself relating so much more to Eisenberg's character as he didn't like social interaction and was constantly trying to get his cousin to stop or shut the fuck up. I recognize that Culkin is a great actor in a very specific type, which this fits, but I don't like the character and that's due in part to how Culkin plays it. Not a fan, but get why it swept. And if this is anything like the TV character, then I need to get on that show ASAP.

Yuri Borisov - Anora

Talk about a complete unknown, move over Norton. Borisov is a name and face no one knew prior to this film and that's what I love about Sean Baker films. You can get some really good performances that way and Borisov delivers one that is so subtle and quiet that it's kinda wild that this got singled out for some love. Borisov plays Igor, who is a goon that goes to check on the son of a Russian oligarch who has gotten married to a stripper, to make him divorce her because the family is embarrassed. Igor seems like your typical henchman but comes off as more measured and not just a mindlessly violent thug as they try to corral and calm down the son and keep Mikey Madison's Ani out of it and calm herself. Igor brings some welcomed humor to the film and role as he and the other bumbling goon struggle to contain Ani as she fights them and he bear hugs her and then ties her up. There's no inclination that he will be a vital part of the story or that he is anything more than just a goon (I obviously like that word a lot). But he does seem to bring a bit of empathy to a role that would often not lend itself to having any kind of depth and we start to see that Igor is a bit different. He has these one word responses that are funny and seem typical of some dumb goon. As the story unfolds, and the group go all over looking for the son with Ani in tow, we start to see these little moments of empathy where a look or Igor asking about if her coat is mink or not to try and assuage her fears and Igor starts to fully form in front of our eyes. No better scene shows who Igor is than when on the private plane with the Russian oligarch, the son, his mother and Ani and Igor asks the family to apologize to Ani. I don't know if he just feels sorry for her or if he's attracted to her and is acting like a white knight or he's just a stand up guy who happens to be a goon. But then we get towards the end of the film and see their playful, almost flirty interaction before he drives her home and then she hops on top of him to ride him and the ending ends up a little ambiguous as in what's going on between these two. Is there going to be a happily ever after where this man is who she really deserves or is she just reacting to trauma with sex because that's the only way she knows how to deal with it? I really enjoyed Borisov in this film. It was like this strange character that we have to try and figure out and see where it's going to end up. Just a very fascinating supporting performance that feels like it would usually get overlooked and thankfully didn't because it's such a rewarding performance from Borisov.

Edward Norton - A Complete Unknown

Norton's 4th acting nomination, it feels like he has more to me for some reason. He's done a lot of terrific work and is again nominated here for his work as Pete Seeger, a folk music legend who from the film helped launch Bob Dylan in a way. Again, I have no frame of reference for who Pete Seeger is, so I'm only judging Norton's performance as is. There is a gentleness and warmth to this performance that I don't think I've really seen from Norton before. He cares deeply for his friend Woody Guthrie, who is in the hospital with a debilitating disease, and helps introduce Dylan to the folk scene in NYC and really loves folk music to the point he doesn't want to see it die out and wants it to keep being the voice of the people. We even get to see Norton play a song and does it well, to the point where it didn't feel out of place at all. We see Norton excel in the scenes where he is playing almost a mediator to make sure Dylan comes to a show or plays a certain thing. He's trying to keep folk relevant and alive as the world keeps changing and that begets the conflict of the film as Dylan wants to grow and expand his sound into rock and electric. We see Norton calmly keep trying to talk with Dylan about a festival even though he keeps getting brushed off or Dylan comes off as an asshole, but Norton never lets it get to him. Maybe the best scene for Norton is when Dylan takes the stage at the festival and goes electric and the crowd is in an uproar because they want the Dylan songs they know and love and management is running around on fire trying to figure out what to do and Norton goes to the sound board to try and get them to turn it down or off and he is finally showing his exasperation and anger at the situation and probably at how the world is moving on from folk music. He looks at an axe nearby and the cables on the ground and we see the idea going through his head before his wife snaps him out of it. I like that we got to see that brief instance of the intensity we know from Norton before it subsides back into who the character actually is as a peaceful man. It's honestly just a good performance, certainly not amazing or up to his previous nominations but it was good to see him back in this space again.

Guy Pearce - The Brutalist

 

It's about time Pearce has an Oscar nomination after turning so many great performances like Memento, LA Confidential, and The Rover, which I love a lot. Finally he's here, but how is the performance? It's complex and very strong work. He plays a very interesting character in a wealthy industrialist who becomes a sort of benefactor to Adrien Brody's accomplished architect who seemingly becomes jealous of Bordy's talent and eventually rapes him. I didn't get the rape part but I felt like it was Pearce showing that he owns Brody and can do whatever he wants with him, though Brody may be the artistic genius. I didn't like that moment of the film and still don't fully understand it and don't feel it was necessary and think it was to shock the film awake, honestly. I was worried about this performance from the first moment we meet Pearce as he comes screaming into his home wondering what the hell is going on and who these people are that are working on it. I thought, oh, is this what the performance is going to be? Loud and histrionic? But thankfully that was pretty much the end of that as he mostly played a calm and collected guy, this introductory scene shows who he is inside, as the rest of the performance is mostly internalized. Pearce becomes a likable guy, schmoozing Brody with praise and compliments and trying his hardest to get Brody on his side to be able to use him for his benefit, which ends up being a huge complex/building in the nearby downtown. He definitely has ulterior motives which seem to be to leave a lasting legacy via being the guy who commanded Brody to build iconic buildings and for him to create a downtown. Pearce sees Brody as an opportunity to greatness and thus uses him as he sees fit. I guess that can make the rape scene make sense in a way, but I still don't think it fits the character. Pearce does a lot in making this guy charming and very WASP-y and hiding who he really is underneath his collected facade. I think it boils down to Pearce discovering the guy who renovated his study room was an accomplished, well regarded architect and he used his kindness as a way in to Brody's world despite that being a front to garner himself acclaim and more prestige. There is so much depth and nuance to this performance that if you aren't paying attention you might miss a man who is toying with his property. I think it's some solid, incredible work from Pearce and we see exactly most reviews and talk online always said finally, he has an Oscar nomination. This performance has only gotten better in mind since I finished this film a couple days ago. Surprised this made no play for the actual Oscar as this seems right up the Academy's alley.

Jeremy Strong - The Apprentice

 

This is a strong performance, pardon my obvious pun. I'm honestly sitting here wondering how this didn't win and Culkin did. Both coming off massive success with Succession, the TV show, and both nominated here together. I bet that was a pretty cool moment for them. What I know of Strong as an actor is that he is one of those super dedicated people who will become a character through and through in the method acting style and the result is some intense, amazing work. Some would say overacting, and I guess you can see that in earlier work, but not in this performance. Strong plays Roy Cohn, a lawyer to Trump in the early days, who basically created the Trump we know today. He's essentially a villain like figure that Trump admires because he has money, power, respect, and influence. It's what Trump looked up to with his Daddy issues and formed his persona to an extent. Strong is great at being the guy who can make Trump do what he wants. Strong has the bravado and confidence that Trump seems to lack. Strong exudes power that Trump wants and Strong makes it come off as believable power. The undercurrent of Cohn's homosexuality is ever present and it's almost as if you can believe Trump will buy into that part of the power as well. Of course, we now know he used sex to control his wife and was a degenerate rapist of young girls with Epstein. I just think Strong is convincing in the role as a man who has the power necessary to help crown kings and unfortunately uses it to mold the Trump we know today. Eventually, Cohn becomes this pathetic figure who is dying from cancer, which was really just AIDS because he couldn't admit who he really was. The apprentice is Trump as he becomes the new Cohn in spirit, though not in intellect. Strong also looks so much like Cohn if you look at pictures of him and see why Trump is the Orange fucktard he is now, since Cohn was super tan from I would assume tanning beds or sprays. I think this is a great performance that seems to capture who Cohn is and I hope we see more great work from Strong in the future, because he is on a roll.

This turned out to be a pretty good group even if the winner was severely lacking for me. I didn't much care for Culkin, as we have seen this same performance from him in other work. Yawn. I'd much rather watch Burisov than Culkin. A welcome performance in his film with humor and sympathy. Pretty good stuff for an actual unknown actor to achieve. Norton is okay, he's fine. Nothing amazing but he has the pedigree and brings a warmth to the film at times. Pearce should have been much more of a challenge to the winner. I think it's his best work in a long time and I'm glad he was rewarded for it. Strong was...strong (womp womp). I think he should have won but I wonder if the voters didn't want to reward Cohn/Trump, which I think is a valid reason to not vote for Strong. It feels like the Academy got both Supporting categories wrong to me. This is why I should have an At-Large vote Academy, if you're listening/reading! I can dream, anyway. On to the next.

Oscar Winner: Kieran Culkin - A Real Pain

My Winner: Jeremy Strong - The Apprentice

Guy Pearce

Edward Norton

Yuri Borisov

Kieran Culkin

Supporting Actress 2024

Another boring race in this category. Saldana was the frontrunner almost the entire time and there was no real suspense or buzz for anyone else to challenge her. I honestly hate when we have essentially wire to wire winners. I want the fun of not knowing whose name is going to be read out loud on Oscar night. Knowing it's a foregone conclusion months before the ceremony takes a lot of the joy out of being an obsessive Oscar fiend. Nonetheless, I am excited to watch all of these performances to see if Saldana was a good choice or not.

2024 Best Supporting Actress

 

Zoe Saldana - Emilia Perez

 

It's cool that Saldana has an Oscar. She has been part of some huge franchises in Marvel and Avatar and done some other smaller work that's good, too. But for this movie, she is essentially the lead, so we get yet more category fraud winning in Supporting. No fault of Saldana, of course, and she really gives this performance her all. You can tell she is acting her ass off and wanting this to be great. I hate that the movie is bad because she deserves a good movie surrounding her that would be remembered fondly. She plays a lawyer that helps out a cartel boss to transition into a woman and then supports her after the transition try to make amends for her sins. It's an interesting story, made so because of Saldana's acting as the lawyer who is earnestly trying to help in the transition and afterwards in helping those disappeared by the cartels be found to give families peace. She is fully believable in the role and can play the tough badass and the sensitive friend with equal parts of the earnestness noted already. I think the movie is better when she is onscreen and doing her thing. Even though her dancing and singing is a bit cringe-y, I enjoyed some of the songs she had. They are certainly not her strong suit, so luckily she has the acting chops for the rest of the performance to fall back on. And that's the thing about her performance, we know she's an incredibly talented actress that does some really good work in lesser films, so it's nice to see her branch out a bit and do something that looked like it was a bit out of her comfort zone. She still did a great job with what she had to work with, no matter how bad the movie was.

Monica Barbaro - A Complete Unknown

The film itself is kinda whatever to me, but I do love that the actors, Barbaro included, sang the songs and played the instruments themselves. It's massively impressive to me to be able to learn those songs and be able to sing them and sound good and do the real life counterpart justice. Barbaro plays Joan Baez, who is a renowned folk artist that I don't recognize any of her songs. But this isn't about me, just mentioning because I don't have a frame of reference for Baez like I do for Bob Dylan, so I can really only judge the performance as it is. I think Barbaro is solid, but doesn't wow me. Just solid, good work. My take on Baez is a woman who is starting to become the Queen of Folk and who seems very business like, looking after herself foremost. When she meets Dylan, I think it's more of a curiosity for Baez as she is intrigued by the music but maybe a little off put by his demeanor and behavior. But she still sees someone she can work off of and with to her benefit. Them hooking up is just a result of two people working closely together and nothing more. Barbaro is good during these moments because she doesn't get all lovey dovey with Dylan, but asserts her independence as someone calling her own shots on what happens. When she feels she's being used, she kicks him out and it's refreshing to see that because she isn't just gaga over him because of who he is, since her star at times is much bigger. I like that Barbaro plays some of those scenes with some hesitation and like she's sizing up who he really is, which seems to be a fuck boy that she can see through. I also like the little quips that she and Timmy spit at each other while on stage at times. It's fun to see that aggression come out but then immediately change into let's kill this song. Like I said, I feel that Barbaro is solid, but not exactly amazing and it's nice to see her rewarded here after her coming onto the scene with Top Gun: Maverick. This feels like it won't be the last time we see her nominated and wouldn't be surprised to see her back again soon.

Ariana Grande - Wicked

Ok, I was very conflicted about this nomination having not yet seen this performance. I am not a fan of Ariana's pop music and she has a less than stellar reputation with licking donuts and cosplaying or appropriating aesthetics like black and Asian to get attention. I know she is a great singer with some pipes on her, but I was most worried if she could hang acting wise. But this is why we watch the films. I enjoyed the hell out of Ariana's performance. Yes, she can sing wonderfully and that is on full display here. But she is also very funny and engaging as an actor and has the most amazing chemistry with Cynthia Erivo, which we saw on full, weird display during the Awards season. But their chemistry is paramount to the success of this film as a whole, because if you don't buy them eventually becoming besties, then the film is lost. Ariana has a lot of great moments early on where she is establishing herself as Galinda. Her comedic timing is spot on and her facial expressions really help make her character. Her kindness is real and almost doesn't feel like it's for the film as she befriends Elphaba. Her performance is actually way better than I could ever imagine and I fully fell for it. I never expected Ariana Grande to give us something that could win an Oscar, and I didn't want her to, but this absolutely does the job. This is in serious contention for my win. 

Felicity Jones - The Brutalist

 

This is a much better nomination than her first one for The Theory of Everything, which I was very much not a fan of (film or her performance). Jones has matured as an actor for sure and she plays the wife of Adrien Brody's character dutifully. And really she is here mainly because of her last big scene where she confronts Guy Pearce and his family while they eat and accuses him of raping her husband. It's an incredibly powerful scene that is impeccably acted by Jones. You have to believe her confrontation is from the soul and it for sure is, which was my complaint about her first nomination - no soul. This is a performance where her years of torture and abuse in the concentration camps shows itself in her heated response of trying to protect her husband. She seems measured and thoughtful about her confrontation, as if she is compelled to do so after mulling it over. She's very intelligent and it shows in how she interacts with her husband and how calculated she seems when responding to anything. Her character is interesting because it's almost as if she and Brody aren't in love and are just a match of convenience or necessity. Her accent work is great, I don't care about the AI improvement to it, and her performance made me want to see more of her character. She only pops in during the second act and don't hear a lot about her before that. It's strong and compelling work. I don't know if I'm making sense with this review, but I enjoyed Jones a lot more in this role and performance than her previous nom and feel she gets in with that Oscar moment last scene that is very powerful. It has sat with me for a bit now and I keep thinking about her performance, so that's a good sign to me. Just wish she was in the first half of the film, too.

Isabella Rossellini - Conclave

 

This is a very short nomination as far as screen time goes. Which hasn't necessarily mattered to the Academy in the past, as they have rewarded very short performances before with a win (looking at you Judi Dench). So this doesn't really feel out of place based on that criterion. You also have to understand she is something of acting royalty or at least a nepo baby if that's how you want to put it because she is the daughter of multi-Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman and famous Italian director Roberto Rossellini. So she has that going for her for the older generation of Oscar voters, who love this kind of thing. But also, her short, yet powerful performance stands out in a film where she is the only female actor who gets to really have a part and do anything in this film. She plays Sister Agnes, who is the head caterer and housekeeper, who mostly stays in her lane but does have a couple scenes where she is roped into the political intrigue of the Conclave and has her Oscar moment when speaking up during a meal to call out one of the Cardinals who has a lot of support to be the next Pope, but pulled some shenanigans to discredit another possible frontrunner. It's brave and something totally unexpected by me that the film would do and I loved that it helped to keep the reality of the story, though I don't believe this would ever really happen, I just feel like for this nun to do this in this moment felt very real. I also loved her little curtsy after she said her piece which just perfectly punctuated the moment. Rossellini knew exactly how much to give to a role that could have easily just been a background character or a character used to highlight some bit of exposition about a tradition or procedure and have no real bearing on the story or the film. Rossellini gives her character the perfect edge needed to keep the intrigue going in the story. I quite enjoyed what she brought to the film, though I don't think she's in this enough at all to be serious for a win.

This category actually ended up being a very good group, thank the Lord baby Jesus! The winner is actually my least favorite. Saldana is just not interesting to me in a film that I despise. I have no idea why she swept this category all season long. It boggles the mind really. Barbaro is next. I love that she sang and played the guitar, but her Joan Baez doesn't really have a lot to do in the film. Jones surprised me with how much I liked her. Powerful performance that should have been introduced earlier in the film. But really helped elevate the film. I wouldn't have minded a win for her, honestly. Rossellini is runner up for me. I think she gives the film a much needed presence and her short time is what powerhouse acting is. Grande is my winner which might be shocking, but I think she adds so much to the film and is a great Galinda. She does everything to make this her own role and not just be like Kristin Chenoweth's version. That's a tall order for people who were highly anticipating this film and this performance and she still knocked it out of the park. That's why I think she deserved the Oscar and I'm no Grande stan. Would be a much better winner than Saldana, blech. Going to roll into the current 2025 Oscars after this all gets published. Very excited to delve into that.

Oscar Winner: Zoe Saldana - Emilia Perez

My Winner: Ariana Grande - Wicked

Isabella Rossellini

Felicity Jones

Monica Barbaro

Zoe Saldana

Best Picture 2023

A fun fact for this year, among the top 6 categories (including Best Director) there are only 13 films nominated for 35 total spots. I feel like that may be some kind of record. Seems wild to watch so few films for that many nominations. Once the awards season really settled in, this was Oppenheimer's win all the way. The only suspense was Al Pacino just coming out on stage, opening the envelope, and mumbling myeyessee...Oppenheimer, and then looking around confused. It took a second to realize it had won but that was really the only issue of an otherwise great ceremony. It was mostly to the point and I think a lot of people enjoyed the five past winners talking about the five nominees in each acting category. Though I hope they don't do that every year or else it will lose its luster. I was really hoping to watch everything before the ceremony but could not finish the previous year in time because I got lazy and because I took forever to finally watch Avatar 2. So I blame James Cameron. My goal for next year is to try and do the Oscar death race, which is watch absolutely everything nominated before the ceremony, including all the shorts. That means I have to at least finish this year on time, but with 13 films, I don't think it will be much of an issue. So let's go!

2023 Best Picture

 

Oppenheimer

 

Hey, Christopher Nolan finally breaks through with a film about nuclear physics and the atom bomb?! I guess that makes more sense than Tenet did. Ayyyy. Anyway, this was the backend of the two-headed behemoth with Barbie we know as Barbenheimer which is so damn clever! I like that a pair of movies get branded together because it's so fun and just speaks to how all of this isn't that serious when you really boil it all down. They tried it this year with Wicked and Gladiator II by calling it Glicked and it just didn't work and was kinda lame, but this film associating with Barbie was pure genius. They tapped into an audience that would probably never had gone to see this film even with it being a Nolan film, which is not the big draw that it used to be. It's a three hour film about nuclear physics and the man that created the atomic bomb and that feels like it shouldn't be so compelling but that's what Nolan can bring. My big takeaway was that this was a long film, but it flew by because the story was so compelling and engaging that you forget it was so long. But also, that third act with the trial stuff was so boring and really killed the vibe of the film. It should have ended with the bomb going off because that felt like the crescendo of the film and story, yet it insisted on keeping going. I know there is payoff in that third act, but it doesn't really matter because I didn't find the RDJ stuff interesting at all, though I got its purpose. I just feel like the film could have been much tighter and wrapped up better than extending it with the boring part of the film. The visuals were great, but I actually anticipated more explosions and whatnot. It really was a look at the gradual ramp up of the creation of the atomic bomb and it felt like we were privy to the goings on of those involved. This is a solid Best Picture winner that I am happy to watch again if it comes on TV, which is wild to say about a 3 hour film.

American Fiction

I watched this film twice, mostly because after the first time I just couldn't quite articulate my thoughts even though I enjoyed it a lot. There was a very long time between viewings and I think the second watch helped me understand the film a bit better. The story is about an author, a Jeffrey Wright at his best, who has been having a hard time getting his new book published and sees a young, educated black woman being celebrated for writing a stereotypical "black" book that is hugely popular. So Wright, uh, writes his own book in the same vein under a pen name and it becomes hugely popular and held up as a modern classic with everyone wanting to know who the author is. Obviously, this kind of satires the black experience as entertainment where some white lady wants to be the first to call it a masterpiece to seem hip and some white executive tries to relate to it so he can make it into a movie. We see the absurdity through Wright's eyes (again an incredible performance from him) and also experience the absurdity of sorts of his family life, as we see throughout the film. Cord Jefferson, who directed, wrote, and produced this as his first film ever, won Best Adapted Screenplay for his work. And honestly, the acting is top notch all around, but is clearly led by the stellar writing that is so funny, slick, emotional, powerful, and just perfect at times for the film. Jefferson had previously won an Emmy for writing an episode of Watchmen and it stands to reason that he is someone to watch in the future if this is the kind of output he can deliver. But back to the acting, it's all so good. Wright finally gets a well deserved Best Actor nomination and Sterling K. Brown, playing Wright's brother, finally gets his due from the film world with a Supporting Actor nomination. But the rest of the cast including Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Keith David, Adam Brody, among others, are great additions to the film. The story has so many funny moments that it can be easy to miss just how scathing the deeper meaning of the black experience can be. The major draw of the film is absolutely the story and acting and the Oscars making Best Picture a firm 10 nomination category is a reason people will revisit this film in the future and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did. I especially liked the scenes where Wright is coming up with the novel and the scenes play out in real time and the characters look to Wright for better lines or characterizations. It's a thoughtful, captivating, and entertaining film about a world many of us could do more to understand.

Anatomy of a Fall

 

I am watching this as the second of the two foreign films nominated for Best Picture, the first time that's ever happened in Oscar history. And both of the films star Sandra Huller, which is pretty neat. I am so happy that with the more diverse and inclusive Academy, we are starting to see some films and performances get recognition and nominations that probably wouldn't have even just a few years ago. This film is a great representative of that point since it is a French film, starring the German Huller, that has a lot of English spoken throughout the film. I know I say this a lot, but it is better to go into films blind, I think, because you don't have any expectations or preconceived notions of what it might be about. I only vaguely knew this was about a death and thought it may be a whodunit, but it actually is a very well made courtroom drama. I think what sets this apart from other films of the same genre is that we have no idea if Huller's character is innocent or not. I read that Huller was told by Justine Triet, the director and writer (for which she was nominated for both and won the Oscar for Original Screenplay), to play the character as if she were innocent without telling her whether she actually was or not. And the editor (who was also nominated in Best Editing) said that the main challenge for them was to edit Huller's character in an ambiguous way because leaning too far one way or another made the film less interesting and I agree with that completely. The power of the film is all of these elements combining; the directing, writing, editing, and acting to give us this thought provoking look into a family drama of did she kill her husband or did he kill himself or what exactly happened? It's a raw and honest look at a relationship and how tough it can be especially after an accident blinds their son. We are riveted by the will she or won't she be convicted as well as the inner lookings of her marriage and family life that are laid bare for the court to see in all its ugly glory. I like that the tense feel of the film isn't just because we are waiting to see if she did it or not and I think that's part of why the film is so successful. The other main reason is because Huller gives an enthralling performance and is at the top of her game. The other surprise was that the child actor was very good in this, and if you've seen some of my reviews on them before, you know I am not kind to them. But he was perfect in the role and that is one of the things that makes for a great film is when everything comes together. A great year for foreign films and I really hope this isn't an outlier of a year because we have seen some great foreign films recently.

Barbie

 

The other part of the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon. It was truly a joy to watch as people flooded theaters again to watch a double billing of the two most completely opposite films ever. And the fact that the directors and actors all responded by supporting each other and doing press work later was the icing on the cake. People were dressing up in all pink to see this film and then going to Oppenheimer right after is a testament to their unity and appeal. This film feels like it shouldn't exist. Why would Mattel allow this film to be made that basically calls out their leadership? I don't know, but I'm glad they did. I think they recognized that this wasn't going to be a box office bomb and were right when it made over a billion dollars. The aesthetic is amazing. When you are doing Barbie, you have to go all out with referencing all different iterations of Barbie and Ken. It looks vibrant and alive and just looks how a Barbie move should. It's exactly like people playing with like a Barbie neighborhood and bought Dreamhouses and cars and all that. It's got to have a beautiful lead as the Barbie herself and Margot Robbie fits that. Ryan Gosling is the perfect Ken. Getting those right is key to making the whole film believable. There are a ton of articles that dissect what the film means about patriarchy and feminism and capitalism and being yourself. I tried reading some and felt they were so convoluted and lost in themselves that they stopped being about the film and started being more about political and social agendas. Just watch the film and see what you think it means. To me, it's not that Barbie should rule or that Ken should rule, but that we need to come together and try to be the best versions of ourselves. I don't even think that the film really goes too deep into any real discussion on this and is legit just a film about Barbie and Ken. The humor is terrific, the songs are so good and deservedly won a Best Song award and had the best moment of the Oscar ceremony with the I'm Just Ken song. You've got an iconic monologue from America Ferrera that will probably be remembered for decades and shown over and over again. It's an incredible directing effort that somehow didn't get Greta Gerwig a Best Director nom, but admittedly this year was pretty tough. Margot Robbie also didn't get an acting nomination though I feel she should have on top of her producing nom. Michael Cera's Allan may have been my favorite part of the whole film because he's just so out of place but is an actual produced friend of Ken by Mattel. There's so much to find and love about this film that I can see why it made a billion dollars and sparked a cultural phenomenon.

 

The Holdovers

I'm not going to hide my affection for this film - this is absolutely a new Christmas favorite. And the director, Alexandor Payne, absolutely hates that characterization. He said that he thinks the cozy feeling attributed to the film is wrong and wants it to be known as just a good film and not a Christmas film. Motherfucker, you set this film during a Christmas break, so no, you don't get to tell us that you would rather it be just a normal film. You knew what you were doing so just go with it, man. Because this is a fantastic film that evokes the 70s with its aesthetic, its vibe, its characters, and its story. I love the scene transitions because they steal from the 70s with them dissolving into each other and making you feel a certain way. This is the second collaboration between Payne and Paul Giamatti and I wasn't kind to the first iteration, Sideways. I hated Giamatti's character and really didn't like his acting and just didn't give that film much of a chance though I did love The Descendants and Nebraska. I may have to visit that film again to give Giamatti a fair shake, but this is true for now. And I adore Giamatti here. I think this is the perfect character for him. From now until forever, this is the film and character I will forever associate with Giamatti because he makes it his own. And for those that have no idea, Giamatti is a professor at a boys boarding house who has to babysit the holdovers. Dominic Sessa, who deserved a Supporting Actor nomination, is the lone boy who Giamatti has to look after eventually. It's as you'd expect when hijinks, though I'd rather call it necessary plot points, get moved forward. Eventually Giamatti and Sessa settle their differences and come to an appreciation of each other. I never quite knew where the film and story would end up and I felt sad when it did end up at the point it did. I actually kinda love that the film didn't end up on some saccharine ending where everything is perfect. The ending is heartfelt but also true to life and speaks to Giamatti's character's sacrifice. The characters are fantastic, the story is compelling, and the lessons are more of a suggestion. Love this film a ton and enjoy that it's given us a new Christmas favorite, Alexander Payne's opinion be damned.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Hey look, another 3 and a half hour Scorsese film gets nominated in Best Picture. I joke, but this one didn't feel as long as it was to me, which is always a huge plus. It helps to have a story that you've never heard about with some great acting and of course great directing from Marty. The story was the highlight because we have so few stories about American Indians that aren't told through a white lens. And that's one of the interesting things about this film is that the Osage Indians, who the story is about, had a lot of say in the script and story and had things changed and rewritten to better reflect their people and beliefs and that is seen in the film because the book is told from the FBI perspective and the Osage convinced Scorsese it would be better to tell it from the point of view of the Osage - and the fact that Marty listened and changed it to that is great credit to him, because I'd imagine most other directors would have told them to fuck off. And I think it makes it a better and more unique film honoring that tribe and community. The story is that in early 1900s Oklahoma, oil is found on native lands and makes the Osage very wealthy because they control the rights to the land and oil money and members of the tribe start being murdered in great numbers to where the tribe goes to D.C. to ask the government to intervene and eventually the FBI shows up in one of their first cases ever. It focuses on Robert De Niro as the defacto king of the area and his nephew, Leo DiCaprio, who marries one of the Osage women, played by Lily Gladstone. The men scheme a way to get Gladstone's rights so they get her family's money. These three give incredible performances and I wish Gladstone had won Best Actress, because she was phenomenal. It's also one of the first films in a long time for Scorsese where a woman has a vital, important part in the story, which has been a big criticism of his films for awhile, so it was good to see him actually give us a strong female lead film. The main issue is the length of the film. It could have easily been edited down a bit and still been as strong in my opinion and length is a huge reason why people don't watch certain films like this. Marty not shying away from showing how poorly the Osage were treated by the white folks who wanted their money was nice to see this story not get whitewashed, not that Marty would ever do that, but it's nice to see a film shine a light and turn a mirror around to show us how awful we have been in the past. If you can get past the length, the film offers up a rich, indelible look at a moment in our history that we would be better off not forgetting.

Maestro

I was very intrigued about this film because I'm a big fan of Bradley Cooper's other directorial work A Star is Born. Not only a talented actor, he's becoming a really great director, too, and it's cool to see that happening almost in real time with each new project. This film is about the American composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia and their career and relationship. It's definitely a very niche subject matter because I imagine most people aren't aware of who he is. I know about him because his only film score was for On the Waterfront, which I adore. Interestingly, before Cooper did this film Steven Spielberg was in talks to possibly work on it and after he passed, he suggested Cooper do it after seeing a scene from ASIB and helped him whenever Cooper had questions or needed advice on things. I love that because Cooper is learning from the best including Marty Scorsese who was the first director attached to this project and stayed on as a producer. Cooper had some big directing brains to pick at and it shows in the final film because Cooper has a lot of great visual moments and shot compositions and the choice to film a lot of it in black and white is inspired. There's just so much directing talent on display in this film that I could watch this on repeat and find new things to appreciate. I am so surprised Cooper wasn't nominated for Directing because the Academy has loved nominating actors who turn into directors a ton in the long history of this award. But also, I must mention that the acting throughout is phenomenal especially from Cooper as the main lead. A lot of folks seemed to not like the story and felt it was mostly Oscar bait or that the subject was boring, which blows my mind. It touches on Bernstein's homosexual tendencies and Cooper doesn't shy away from showing that and how it effects his relationship with his wife and kids and that's some interesting, heavy subject matter. Also, a lot of the music is very good, but it helps to be into operas, choral arrangements, and classical to really get the full effect. The conducting scenes are typically pretty good to watch but some are so affected from Cooper that you get why some say it's baity. The music itself is almost like a character in the film and I love how it's ever present and driving the film along to its ending. I really enjoyed this film and how passionate Cooper was in his directing and acing because it made it a very rewarding watch for me. No idea why this didn't seem to connect more with the Oscar fans online, but I am super excited to see what Cooper does for his next directing effort.

Past Lives

One of the things about writing these reviews that I often think about is should I start writing immediately after watching a film or should I let some time develop between watching and writing so I can maybe be less emotional. Because I loved this film and feel like I need to let this wave of emotions wash over me to write something coherent. It's an emotionally resonant and devastating look at what could have been between two former childhood crushes. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo play the two former crushes and grew up in South Korea before Lee's family immigrated to Canada. Even in those early scenes (obviously played by child actors) you can see the bond they have and the sweetness with how they interact with each other. That sets up the premise of the film when twelve years later they reconnect online with Lee now living in NYC and Yoo still in Seoul. This is a brisk film at an hour and forty-five minutes because the chemistry between Lee and Yoo is so transfixing and utterly palpable. They start talking over Skype a lot and just watching these interactions is surreal because you can see the nervousness and awkwardness and the attraction and that bond they still have over a decade later. The film breezes by because you are so caught up in their relationship and want to see them succeed even though you know they don't. Which is what happens when neither can really schedule a time to actually visit the other because of their job/school commitments. And it feels too real because I think a lot of us have had either that long distance relationship or a flirtation or crush that went unrequited because of things out of your control. Yoo then eventually visits NYC after twelve more years where they didn't talk and Lee is now married to an American man. Their meeting together and then with the husband is so touching and visceral, it's like I'm standing in the room with them as all of this goes on. It's emotionally affecting without being manipulative for the audience because this is a universal theme everyone can feel and is not strictly Korean. Celine Song wrote and directed this, her debut, and her choices to keep Yoo and the husband separate on set until they actually film their first scene together shows how in command she was of this story. She did the same with Lee and Yoo, also, and it just makes their story that much more compelling because it feels so real and authentic. How Lee and Yoo weren't nominated for their performances is baffling to me. They are so full of this subtle, understated work where mere glances tell a thousand stories. I really hope this film launches them into more work and that we see more from Song, too. She is only the second Asian woman to direct a Best Picture nominated film which is highly impressive and speaks to how important the changes to the Academy have been in recent years. This is an incredible film that will make you shed some tears and think about your own what might have been moments.

Poor Things

I'm sorry to say, but I had absolutely zero interest in this film for no real reason. I have enjoyed Yorgos Lanthimos' films before this, love Willem Dafoe, and know this had the Best Actress winning performance in it, but I still was not at all interested. But of course, I ended up enjoying it, which is a lesson for those (Academy voters included) that don't watch or give up on films after a few minutes. Actually watch the films and you never know what may actually end up being something you like. This film is inventive and stylish and pretty unique story wise. It's about Bella Baxter played by Emma Stone, who is reanimated from a pregnant woman who killed herself by Willem Dafoe's character who took her baby's brain and inserted it for the adult brain. Crazy stuff indeed, the story shows us Bella basically growing up and discovering herself sexually and philosophically as odd as that combo sounds. Yorgos does a great job with the directing, I liked how he started the film in black and white to mirror Bella acting like a baby since babies can't see color and then adding color until it was completely realistic looking at the very end. Just like how Bella goes from minimal vocabulary to talking normally, it's those small details that make the film so much more interesting, though it is plenty interesting from the jump. The film just is a great amalgamation of amazing acting, inventive production design, wonderful direction, and a great score. I wish I could be a bit more academic in my review, but this is one where I say I simply loved it more than I thought I would and think everyone should see this one. It had buzz to win, though it was minimal, but I get why people would champion this to win. This is filmmaking!

The Zone of Interest

I didn't know a whole lot about this film going into it, which is honestly how I kinda like to watch these nominated films now. Give myself as much of an unbiased view as possible, though invariably I will know a lot about some of these as they get talked about so much. This one is a film from Jonathan Glazer, his first in ten years since Under the Skin and who also made the Supporting Actor nominated film, Sexy Beast back in 2000. I loved both of those films a lot, so I was very intrigued to see what this one had in store knowing that it dealt with a Nazi family living outside a concentration camp. Well, that family was the Commandant of Auschwitz who indeed lived literally a wall away from the camp. That's essentially what the film is about as we see this family go about their daily lives swimming, fishing, gardening, having meals outside, just being a normal family. Another review mentioned the mundanity of their lives and I loved that word because it is in stark contrast to the screams, gunshots, trains, smoke from the crematoriums that we constantly hear and see in the background. It's the banality of evil as we see this family go about its life as if the Holocaust just beyond the wall is a normal, everyday going on. Glazer uses a lot of wide angle shots to give the camera a detached feeling and also to better show the little bit of camp we can see behind the wall. Glazer also set up a bunch of cameras in the house they used to capture the actors without any crew present and to get authentic shots of them as they went about daily life as the actors never knew if they were in wide or closeup shots. All of this really helps to drive the point of the film home and it makes for such an interesting experience. Couple that with the scenes of a local Polish girl going around at night leaving apples at the worksites of the prisoners (which apparently was based on a real story) that were shot with a thermal camera so that she is in stark, bright white contrast to the darkness around her, it really plays off the main story very well. The story itself isn't a whole lot, but it's compelling because we know what is going on and know how callous the wife (played by Sandra Huller) is being as she threatens her help or gloats about all the amenities she has to her mother. We see that the evil is not just a raving, fascist lunatic with a little mustache, but a mundane family accepting and helping to commit the atrocities we see as if it's another normal day. I thought this film was very engaging and thought provoking while just genuinely being a pretty great film itself. Happy with this choice from the Academy.

The change to 10 nominees flat has been for the better and this year shows how necessary that change was. We essentially get 2 foreign films in this category and both felt deserving and not ham-fisted in here to show how diverse and woke and all that that the Academy likes to do. Oppenheimer is a good winner that I think will start to rank up there when doing all time BP lists. Got to add Barbie next to complete the Barbenheimer marriage, but it also is a great film that is going to be very easy to rewatch any time its on TV. Past Lives blew me away and was the highlight of this category for me. Just some very subtle and nuanced work that was so compelling. I just saw the trailer for Celine Song's next film and it was an underwhelming rom-com, so I hope she can be back here again. The Holdovers is a new Christmas classic, no matter what the director wants. It's got a great vibe and is just a great overall film. Then I've got the two foreign films up next with Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest. The death (murder?) of a man and the subsequent trial were riveting with great acting from Huller. And seeing the other side of the coin for a Holocaust film was really interesting and scary how evil can truly look. Killers of the Flower Moon is good Scorsese that will be up there with his classics, though not quite near the top. Maestro I enjoyed but understand why others had issues with it. Poor Things was much better than I thought it would be, but the subject can be problematic despite the great acting. American Fiction brings up the rear, even though I liked it, it feels like the one people will forget about the most, unfortunately. Alright, good group, but let's get to the most recent one so I can get back to the old films again.

Oscar Winner: Oppenheimer

My Winner: Oppenheimer

Barbie

Past Lives

The Holdovers

Anatomy of a Fall

The Zone of Interest

Killers of the Flower Moon

Maestro

Poor Things

American Fiction