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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Darkest Hour

First Hit:  Maybe the brightest and best two hours in the theater this year.

If my memory serves me correctly, my middle school history teachers painted Winston Churchill as a roundish, heavyset, and controversial bull-doggish sort of man who saved England from Nazi Germany. But what did that really mean? How did he do this? This film sorts out the enigmatic view I had of him.

What this movie does is shine a light on a controversial 3-week period in England’s history about whether to negotiate a peace agreement with Nazi Germany or to fight them to the end.

When the film begins Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) is losing the support of Parliament’s conservative party and Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) doesn’t want to be elevated to Prime Minister while he’s pushing for a negotiated peace. Parliament is in an uproar and King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) is deeply concerned about his country.

Chamberlain floats and gets traction for the idea to hand over conservative power to Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman). Being a controversial person, not well liked by anyone, the conservatives figure if Churchill fails then Halifax and his solution will step up to save England from what is happening in Europe, wide-spread destruction and surrender.

Churchill’s reputation as being difficult and having backed failed campaigns in Africa and Gallipoli proceeds his ascension to Prime Minister. But as he would state  in his defense, these campaigns weren’t all his doing. He also had backed England returning the Pound to a pre-WWI gold standard parity, which had caused its fair share of problems.

When summoned to accept the position of Prime Minister from King George, the clock starts and the film effectively marks the passage of the days and decisions by displaying the day and month prominently every so often.

What makes the situation so incredibly difficult is that most of England’s active army has been corralled onto the beach at Dunkirk with the German army closing in. England’s ships have been all but destroyed by the Germans, their airplanes have been mostly shot down by the superior German Luftwaffe and last but not least, the United States has vowed to stay out of the war to this point and cannot assist England. This last item is poignantly shared in a desperate phone call Churchill places to President Roosevelt.

To save as many of their troops as possible, Churchill sends out a command asking all private boat owners having boats from 30 – 100’ long, to set sail to Dunkirk to save the British troops. (Note: See one of the other best films to be released earlier this year Dunkirk to witness this amazing event.)

In a moment of desperation Churchill asks Halifax to begin exploring a negotiated peace with Nazi Germany. But as Winston was known to do, he deviated from the script and reached out to the people of England to ask what they wanted him to do. As we all know, he chose the path of “We will never, never, never surrender.”

The way this film is shot, we believe we’re in the early 1940’s. The darkness of the time is expressed though spending a lot of time in small underground rooms and darkened hallways moving with him as he finds a way through his own dark depressive drinking way of creating his answers through the inspirational speeches and talks he gives. The final speech he gives to Parliament is frightfully stirring. I also loved how he made England sound big and small by referring to it as an island instead of a country.

That Churchill drank all the time, smoked cigars, and was depression prone was duly present, but the strength, power, and encouragement he brought to his country shines through from beginning to end.

Oldman quite simply is the best actor in a lead role this year. His embodiment of Churchill is full, complete, and by every measure extraordinary. Lilly James as Elizabeth Layton, Churchill’s assistant, typist, and confidant was sublime. Her enthusiasm, struggle and devotion was the heart this film sits upon. Mendelsohn was perfect as the stuff-ish King George VI who learned to embrace and trust Churchill. When he shared with Winston that his family, the royals, wanted to know if they needed to exile to Canada, the bond was made. Kristen Scott Thomas (as Churchill's’ wife Clementine) was wonderful. She provided support when needed and was a perfect sounding board for Winston. Dillane was strong as Viscount Halifax, who didn’t think England stood a chance and believed that a negotiated peace was the best way to save the people, culture and country. Anthony McCarten wrote an amazingly rich script. The dialogue perfectly reflected the times. Joe Wright’s direction was sublime. The story was told with genuine care and creates power of the decisions made at the time. What made it even better was I wanted the film to go on and tell me more of the story.

Overall:  This is truly a contender for best film of the year.

Anna Karenina

First Hit:  Unfortunately a failed attempt at a stylized version of a great story.

A great love story has to begin with chemistry.

Here, we have a beauty (and I mean this) in Keira Knightley (playing Anna) repelling her husband Jude Law (playing Karenin) for Aaron Taylor-Johnson (playing Vronsky).

This premise just didn’t work. Although Taylor-Johnson is handsome enough there wasn’t any chemistry with Knightly. On the other hand, when you have an unshaven Law playing her husband with his sublime sense, one wonders did they mix up the roles. Anyway, this was only part of the problem with this film. It does this odd thing of flip-flopping between being a play in a theater, using the theater as a backdrop, and then dropping the theater aspect altogether and we're in a real life scene.

This mistake of switching venues and perspectives takes away from the story because one’s mind has to readjust to the story – again and again. Why make a Tolstoy story even more complicated? Was Knightley the right person to play Anna? Probably not, because when I read the book (some 30 years ago) I pictured a woman who was older and maybe more weighty and round.

Additionally Law didn’t seem 20 years older than Knightly as the story describes. The other story in this book is between Princess “Kitty” (played by Alicia Vikander) and Levin (played by Domhnall Gleeson) is a little more romantic and there is actually some chemistry in their relationship as the film moves towards its ending. I found it amusing that the nicest people in the film are Karenin and Levin.

Knightley, was miscast but her performance was one of the strongest in this film. Law had an uninteresting role but his inner beauty and strength did shine. Gleeson was the most interesting character in the film but that isn’t saying a whole lot. Taylor-Johnson did not hold up the role as the “to die for lover”. Vikander was good. Tom Stoppard wrote a tired screenplay from a great book. Joe Wright got mixed up early on as to what type of film he was making and it showed.

Overall:  Don’t bother to watch this film.

Hanna

First Hit: Saoirse Ronan was beautifully believable as Hanna, which made this film work.

The opening scene has Hanna, in deep snow and obviously in the far northern reaches of the planet, stalking a deer; her piercing grownup eyes watching the cautious deer foraging.

She releases an arrow which finds the deer in its chest. The deer runs and Hanna runs after it in the deep snow, by now the audience is aware that she has some extraordinary skills. The deer is dying, she apologies for not hitting the deer in the heart, pulls a gun and shoots the deer.

She guts the dear, collecting rib bones when a man appears behind her and says, “You’d be dead.” It is her dad Erik (played by Eric Bana) and they begin to fight. He is teaching her how to survive. They live in a minimal cabin in the middle of nowhere.

Hanna tells her dad that she is ready to leave. He digs up a box that has a switch on the top and tells her that her enemy will come after her the moment she flips this switch. She flips it; Erik packs a small bag, puts on a suit and heads out into the snow.

A US covert unit led by Marissa (played by Cate Blanchett), comes after Hanna. Capturing her they place her an a round observations cell. The agency sends in a woman pretending to be Marissa and Hanna kills her and then escapes the inescapable building.

The race now is on to capture Hanna and Erik. There are shots of Hanna that are amazingly haunting. Her look, lack of fear and her capability to learn quickly is amazing and all this from a young teenage girl.

Although there are some faults with the film, including the way Blanchett played Marissa, I enjoyed the whole film and the music by The Chemical Brothers fit the way it was shot and directed.

Ronan was amazingly cool, complex, and interesting to watch as Hanna. I could not think of another young teenage actress that could have pulled it off the way she did. Just some of her facial looks were powerful and haunting. Bana was very good as Hanna’s father. Blanchett or the way she was asked to play this role was the weak link in this film. Seth Lochhead and David Farr wrote an interesting script. Joe Wright didn’t quite have a handle on Blanchett’s role but all else was wonderful. I really liked the pacing, the use of different types of sets and buildings, and most of all how he made Ronan this perfectly normal/abnormal girl who also killed people.

Overall: This wasn’t a great film but it was good and very interesting to watch. I think it could have been a great film, but I’m not sure how.

Atonement

First Hit: This is wonderful, thoughtful and elegantly written, acted, and photographed film.

The story is about a young girl named Briony, initially played by Saoirse Ronan, who sees a series of events which hurt her 13 year old feelings and in the misinterpretation of these events she knowingly implicates her sister’s lover Robbie (James McAvoy) in a case of assault and rape (although the charges are never clear).

She does this because her young confused heart is hurt. Her sister Cecilia, played by Keira Knightley, tells Robbie she loves him and will wait for him as he is being carted off to prison. However, he is given a choice of serving his country as a soldier in WWII instead of doing his prison time, which he chooses to do. He and Cecilia stay in contact via letters and it is through these letters you sense the depthness of their love for each other.

As Robbie travels to Dunkirk after losing many in his platoon we witness the devastation of Dunkirk and it gives us a great sense of the suffering the English Army took at this beachhead.

I was entranced with the characters and felt their feelings as I traveled through the film. There are three actresses that play Briony.

Besides Saoirse, there is Romola Garai (As the 18 year old), and Vanessa Redgrave as the 70 year old author who has written a book called “Atonement” which is her way to give Cecilia and Robbie the life they never had together.

The writing in this film is poetic and given the quality of the acting the story comes alive by intermixing some old film footage.

The direction was excellent and Joe Wright effectively uses the technique of letting the audience go through a couple of scenes twice, from two different viewpoints, to better understand how a scene affects each character differently in the expanded scene.

Editing of this film was also superb and created a great flow. The acting all the main characters was excellent. Keira and James were especially believable as their chemistry was sizzling and I continue to look forward to films to which they are attached.

Overall: This was an excellent film and deserves to be considered for awards.