Like many of you reading I didn’t have time to watch all ten films nominated for Oscars, airing this evening.
If you’re around my age or older, you may also miss the days when there were half as many nominees and the Academy actually did the work of properly curating the films. Alas, here we are. And no, I won’t be seeing a film about Train Dreams even though I heard the film is fantastic because nothing screams, “I’m so happy I live in the here and now,” more than watching films about the physical dangers and imminent threats of early 20th Century life in the Western U.S. (see Killers of the Flower Moon or A River Runs Through It). Seriously, I want my modern plumbing and in-home bathroom! And I won’t be watching Bugonia, either and not because of the shaved head look on Emma Stone (ha, ha SNL Weekend Update), but because basically even though I enjoyed Poor Things, I’m over Yorgos Lanthimos films, especially as his best one came out over ten years ago now: The Lobster.
So here are the performances and films that I’m rooting for (or at least quietly cheering on) this evening:
Best Actor: Wagner Moura aka Narcos’ Pablo Escobar for The Secret Agent
Make no bones about it. The Secret Agent IS this year’s I’m Still Here [read my stellar review here] and Brazilian cinema is having a moment, that I personally hope lasts, and much of its power comes from how these films foreground human connection and the healing force of relationships against the backdrop of Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. Wagner Moura is exceptional in playing not one, but two roles in this memorable film that captures the essence of Brazilian life during this era.
Moura’s primary character, Marcello/Armando is a scientist who refuses to play ball with the corrupt, shadowy forces profiting from the regime. It requires a performance built on restraint, quiet courage, and constant vigilance. Moura nails that beautifully.
The Secret Agent is now streaming on Hulu. Overall, the film is fantastic and all of its characters richly carved out and real.
Best Actress: Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
This was a tough one, if only because I saw Hamnet and Jesse Buckley’s performance as a grieving mother won me over [per my review]. But then I saw Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, also playing a mother, coincidentally. A modern one, though, dealing with the hardships and underappreciated realities of being essentially the primary caregiver to her daughter. And mother of mothers, I could not choose. But I have. Maybe Conan O Brien’s unexpected performance in this was the deciding factor or Byrne basically talking to herself for the entire film duration since her daughter was not onscreen. Either way, I have done what the Academy could not with their Best Picture nomination and whittled it down for you on the Best Actress nom. And you’re welcome.
Best Film: Sinners
No other film was as explosively and disruptively different, in that blockbuster sense, than Sinners, which combines a reckoning with the past, present, and future in a way that is fun, celebratory, and serious all at once. The story is compelling, the music and dance numbers dazzle, and the quality is strong across the board. Vampires too. I just want this film to take it, even though, yes, I loved Hamnet as well.
Best International Film: Sentimental Value
Why?
In Summary: Best Picture: Sinners, Best Actor: Wagner Moura, Best Actress: Rose Byrne, and Best International film: Sentimental Value
Oscars Gossip Miscellanea (Cause I’m Fancy with Words)
Everyone needs to stop the Timothée Hal Chalamet hate over his comments on no one going to opera and ballet anymore. He’s not the cultural voice of his generation. He’s an actor. He was talking to McConaughey for crying out loud. And I for one, am not getting in his way in his quest for Best Actor. That man is committed. He’s method. He’s like if Brando, Brody and Pitt had a child in some throuple hybrid Why Choose? configuration. Leave him be. Marty Supreme, that is. Also, you know it’s bad when Spielberg has something to say about it. [People] But folks, Chalamet will outlive most of you reading this (and definitely Spielberg) unless he does something really stoopid and he kinda is the voice of his generation. So there’s that.
A 🔥Take: One Battle After Another is not the film that should make the very talented Paul Thomas Anderson (or PTA for short) a Best Director/Best Film shoo-in this evening. Licorice Pizza and Alana Haim, I was there for. This one, was meh, or “mid.”
Speaking of Alana and a film the Academy showed ZERO love for:
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion, the seminal novel about celebrity culture and the corrosive undercurrents of Hollywood, is experiencing a resurgence, as a new generation of readers discovers just how sharply its observations about fame, emptiness, and the machinery of the entertainment industry still resonate today. But did you know it was adapted into a film in 1972, co-written screenplay by Dunne and Didion, and distributed by Universal Pictures? Talk about a meta moment of art and life crashing into one another on a Hollywood backlot, and Anthony Perkins and Tyne Daly (Cagney & Lacey) were in it!
A bonus Didion and Dunne trivia factoid dinner party topic:
Book Read for Saturday: Highly recommend Come to Dinner: A Life of Food and Friendship with Joan Didion by Sara Davidson, published by Empress Editions and now available for pre-order. It’s a perfect spring palate cleanser in that it’s light, warm, and companionable and with a depth and gravity that with leave you feeling both restored and a little recharged.
Beautiful story of an enduring female friendship between cultural icon and literary legend Joan Didion and journalist and author Sara Davidson whose relationship over decades involved the deeper stuff of life - love, loss, understanding and resilience.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.