Academy Awards - The Oscars

Once again it is time to celebrate a year of film watching. Here are my choices for the following awards along with a few thoughts about some of the selections and non-selections The Academy made.

• Actor in a Leading Role – The nominees are: Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Timothee Chalamet (Call me by Your Name), Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread), and Denzel Washington (Roman J. Isreal, Esq.). Who else could be on this list? Tom Hanks (The Post), James Franco (The Disaster Artist), and Richard Gere (Norman). However, regardless of who wasn’t on the list, the runaway best performance is Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour. His Winston Churchill was simply sublime.
• Actress in a Leading Role – The nominees are: Meryl Streep (The Post), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Francis McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird). Who didn’t get nominated? Rachel Weisz (My Cousin Rachel), Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes) and Jessica Chastain (The Zookeepers Wife). If it were up to me, I’d select Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird because of the variety and excellent delivery of teenage emotions she effectively brings to the screen. Margot Robbie was utterly fantastic as Tonya Harding. Francis McDormand was filled with angst and fire as the woman who lost her daughter to rape and murder. Sally Hawkins was ethereal as Elisa Esposito a deaf woman who communicates with the captured creature. Meryl Streep showed the subtle development of strength as her character Katharine Graham.
• Supporting Actress – The nominees are: Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird), Allison Janney (I, Tonya), Mary J. Blige (Mudbound). Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water). Who is missing from this list? Melissa Leo (Novitiate), who gave one of most outstanding performances of the year. The film wasn’t seen and that is a shame. This is a strong field but choosing from the nominees, I’d select Allison Janney. Her depiction of Tonya Harding’s mother was vividly cold.
• Supporting Actor – The nominees are: Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World), Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Willem Defoe (The Florida Project), and Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water). A great set of actors. Missing? Steve Carell (Battle of the Sexes) gave us an incredibly life like Bobby Riggs. I’d have to say that Sam Rockwell would get my vote although each of the above deserve the recognition.
• Best Cinematography – The nominees are: Bruno Delbonnel (Darkest Hour), Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk), Rachel Morrison (Mudbound), Dan Laustsen (The Shape of Water), and Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049). Great list of people creating and delivering great pictures. My vote would go for Hoyte van Hoytema in Dunkirk. I admired the multitude and type of scenes that were shot and how they were made into a cohesive feeling of awe.
• Writing (Adapted Screenplay) – The nominees are: Dee Rees and Virgil Williams (Mudbound), Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter (The Disaster Artist), James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name), James Mangold, Michael Green and Scott Frank (Logan), and Aaron Sorkin (Molly’s Game). My vote would go to  Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter for The Disaster Artist.
• Writing (Original Screenplay) – The nominees are: Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water), Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird). This is probably the tightest category to be contested. Each of these stories is amazingly original. Therefore, I don’t have a single selection, they all are deserving.
• Film Editing – The nominees are: Lee Smith (Dunkirk), Tatiana S. Riegel (I, Tonya), Jonathan Amos and Paul MacHliss (Baby Driver), Sidney Wolinsky (The Shape of Water), and Jon Gregory (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). All very good, however the standout in editing goes to Lee Smith for Dunkirk. This is a story based film and not a character based film and because of this the editing makes this film engaging.
• Directing – The nominees are: Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), and Jordan Peele (Get Out). What is missing. To me there are huge gaps here. Margaret Betts (Novitiate), Kathryn Bigelow (Detroit), Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya), and Joe Wright (Darkest Hour) all had a great firm hand on their story's and told them with excellence. Out of the nominees, I’d vote for Christopher Nolan and Dunkirk because he made this event come alive. However, Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) got amazing performances from her cast.
• Picture – The nominees are: Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Phantom Thread, Get Out, The Post, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Shape of Water, and Lady Bird. All these pictures, except Phantom Thread (review in process) are films I loved to watch for different reasons. What is missing? I think Novitiate, Detroit, and Battle of the Sexes were deserving as well. However, Novitiate would be my candidate for replacing Phantom Thread which I didn’t really find likable or engaging. Who will win? My wish would be Dunkirk, Lady Bird, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in that order. If Novitiate was in the mix, it would be a tie between it and Dunkirk.

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The Shape of Water

First Hit:  Beautifully crafted and acted, and I didn’t find it all that interesting.

Although most of the scenes are dark and have a green color tint, they are beautifully crafted. The greenish tint is in the walls of the lab, the color of the hallways in the facility, the color of the water in which the beast lives and the van that was used to transport the beast. To break up this hue, color, like the deep dark red velvet seats in the movie theater, would be used to signify boldness.

The movie theater plays a role in the film because it is the home of Giles (Richard Jenkins) and the amazing star of the film Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins). They live upstairs in small apartments.

Sally is a mute and works at a laboratory as a janitor. Her workmate, friend and protector is Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer). One day, when they are cleaning a secret room of the lab Sally is startled by the beast (Amphibian Man / Doug Jones) when she places her hand on a chamber he's being contained in. The amphibian has been captured and is being studied by Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) who is also happens to be a Russian spy.

The US government is trying to keep the amphibian secret and has hired Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) to keep tabs on the creature. Strickland is cruel and thinks himself superior to everyone, especially Zelda and Elisa. He shows his cruelty by carrying around a cattle prod which he uses to  control the amphibian.

Eliza’s days are monotonous and the same. After sleeping; she gets up goes into the bathroom, masturbates in her tub, makes a sandwich for herself to take to work and one for her neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins), goes to work, cleans the lab and bathrooms, returns home and spends time with Giles in his apartment where they watch dancing films on television.

Loved the scenes when Giles and Eliza do dance routines while sitting on the couch. Sweet and touching and added a heartfelt feeling to the characters.

Dancing is nice aspect of this film and it brings a lightness to this, otherwise, heavy film. The dance routines were directly from some of the films of the 1940s and 50s.

The obvious set-up is that Eliza feels a deep connection with the amphibian partially because they both don’t speak. However, they find a way of communicating with each other. She falls in love with him and is stressed because of the cruelty Strickland imposes on the amphibian. The question becomes, will she fight for the amphibian?

One of the failings of this film were the scars on Eliza’s neck. This detail was too obvious and allowed me to see the end before it came.

This film is a love story and in many ways, it really works well. I’m not sure of the necessity of having Hoffstetler be a Russian spy and I’m not sure why the pie store owner needed to be a racist. I just didn’t think it enhanced the story.

Hawkins was perfect for this role. Her clarity of purpose, her portrayal of being mute and desire to be seen as a person, was divine.  The development of her finding the strength to act on her love was compelling. One of the best performances of the year. Just as Hawkins was purposeful in her role, Shannon was equally intense as the man who wanted to control the amphibian. His driven personality to succeed at his job, his way, was perfectly played. Jenkins was great as the scared and scarred neighbor that had been let go from his job as product illustrator. Stuhlbarg was fantastic as the Russian agent who wanted science and this discovery to prevail over the wants of the Russian Government. Spencer was great as Eliza’s friend and protector. I sensed that writer and director Guillermo del Toro wanted this film to be both an interesting and emotional journey, but I found it lacking in interesting department, except when I was thinking about how the scenes were shot and the detail of the well-crafted pictures, like the cracked tile in Eliza’s bathroom. However, the direction by him of this cadre of actors was exquisite and keep me engaged.

Overall:  Although exquisitely beautiful in its crafting, it did not leave a lasting impression of greatness.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

First Hit: Despite a lot of interesting looking creatures this film is a bomb and definitely wasn’t worth seeing.

I’m not sure why I went to see this film, maybe I was just curious or because I admired Guillermo del Toro’s wonderful work in Pan’s Labyrinth.

The quick story line is: There is the all powerful Golden Army of the underworld which is currently sleeping because of a truce between the underworld and humans who had previously waged epic battles. Whoever has the golden crown will have control over the Golden Army which is virtually indestructible.

When the truce was finalized, the crown was broken into three pieces, one held by a human, one by the king of the underworld, and the third by Princess Nuala (played by Anna Walton) daughter of the king. The son of the king, Prince Nuada (played by Luke Goss), who is also the twin of the princess, dislikes the truce and runs off into hiding. When he learns that part of the crown, owned by the humans, was being auctioned off, he comes up to the human world and steals this one part of the crown.

Hellboy (played by Ron Pearlman) and his cohorts (played by Selma Blair, Abe Sapien and others) are called in to investigate this other world invasion because they have powers of their own and will assist the human government in finding out what is going on.

The Princess senses the danger of what her brother will do and joins Hellboy and his band on stopping the prince from obtaining the final piece of the crown and the map indicating where the Golden Army is being hidden.

There are battles throughout this sequence  between the Prince and Hellboy and crew. In the end you already know who wins already so I don’t need to go any farther.

This film is a mess. It meanders and the story line is wasted and was very uneven in its quirkiness. Add poor acting and the constant shift between comic book characters and an attempt at making the film believable, we end up with a fully grown mess.

Overall: This film is a full on groaner.