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.

Thank you for visiting my site. May you all Be Well...

Divergent

First Hit:  Not very believable, a little long, some good acting, therefore this film is all over the place.

The future looks grim if you think this film has any modicum of truth. If it is, then I’m not interested in being there.

Basically, the story is that one city, Chicago, is surrounded by a very high concrete wall topped by metal fencing that looks more like antennas. Is Chicago the only society left and how do we know? Society is made up of five different types of people. Really! Is it really possible to take 10’s of thousands of people have them predetermined and predisposed to fit into 5 or 6 personality types? No. These personality types are designed to fulfill certain societal roles.

The personality types (I won’t bother using the names they used as these words are as bad as the story) are:  People who govern. People who are brave. People who are peaceful. People who are intelligent. And, people who are truthful. Right, as if one is predisposed to truth, why can’t they be predisposed to also be peaceful? Oh, that’s where Divergents come into play.

The Divergents have no one predisposition. There is a “test” every young person takes which tells them what they are. Then after learning the results of their test, in a public presentation, each chooses a group to associate with. Although everyone can chose another role than the one they are predisposed, they don’t often pick something different.

However, once they chose a role they are stuck with it and cannot go back to their families or anywhere else. When someone fails the test, they are labeled a Divergent because they have no one predisposition and are considered a threat to society. Tris (Shailene Woodley) learns she is a Divergent but chooses to be in the brave group because they seem to have more fun and are active. As a recruit she excels at some things and struggles at others like fighting. She is mentored by Four (Theo James). Her mother Natalie (Ashley Judd) who is a govern (or is she?) tries to support her.

Her best friend is Christina (Zoe Kravitz) and her help each other pass the test to become a full fledge brave person. If one fails to pass their initiation test they become homeless. There is other stuff about a faction wanting to take over control of the government as led by Jeanine (Kate Winslet) as well but all this is part of an unclear story.

Woodley is very good and does her best with the role, but the whole thing is preposterous. James is good and the chemistry between him and Woodley is good. The downside of his acting or the screenplay is that his difference is telegraphed throughout the film. Kravitz was actually one of the best things about the film – I enjoyed the energy she brought to her role. Winslet was lost in this useless role. Judd was OK as Woodley’s mother and hid her secret well. Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor wrote a poorly conceived script from a published book. Neil Burger directed this and given the script and story it was OK.

Overall: This was so poorly strung together that the result was; it was too long and unbelievable.

Hope Springs

First Hit:  Poignant and well-acted film about how love and real romance begins with communication.

Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) have been married for 31 years, sleep in separate rooms, and barely talk to each other.

Arnold complains or is critical about everything and appears to always be worried about spending money – he’s a tax accountant. Kay is a housewife with a part-time job in a clothing store. Kay is unhappy with the whole situation while Arnold seems complacent with the status quo. Kay decides to seek the assistance of Dr. Feld (Steve Carell) who helps couples re-find their magic through communication.

Kay throws down the gauntlet to Arnold by telling him, she’ll be on the plane and he can choose to go or not. Through Dr. Feld’s sessions Arnold and Kay struggle and learn to find their love and caring for each other again.

The story is filled with the truth of what happens to couples when they quit communicating with each other. Each person is stuck in their own comfort zone and struggling to find a way to move forward as their life is reaching their later stages.

The fearless quality of the script to have this couple in dialogue about real issues was fantastic. The acting by both Streep and Jones was outstanding.

Carell showed honest restraint while facilitating the direct discussion with dialogue between the couple with pointed questions.

The only fault I found with the film was that I didn’t believe that Jones and Streep had any real or believable romantic and physical chemistry. But this didn’t take away from the point of the film.

Streep was perfect as the woman who followed or, maybe better, acquiesced to her husband’s path for their life together as demonstrated by accepting of a water heater for Christmas. Jones was fantastic as a man who has insulated himself from life especially his wife. He’s loyal but he ignores her. Carell is really good here as a therapist and enjoyed the way he portrayed Dr. Feld. Elizabeth Shue had a minor role as Karen, a bartender in a Maine seaside bar, and it made me wish she was doing more films – she was really engaging. Vanessa Taylor wrote an outstanding script. David Frankel did a great job of bringing a pointed script to life and it has got to help when you have two actors like Streep and Jones.

Overall:  This was a thoroughly enjoyable film.