*Except Avatar Because I Don’t Care
By Oonagh Ryan
TW: Discussion of SA in Women Talking section
The 95th Academy Awards are tonight and there’s one question on everyone’s mind: “Who’s Will Smith gonna slap this time?” Oh, and also, “what film will win that coveted Best Picture award?” As a loser with Letterboxd, I spend a lot of time in candy-coated, soda-stained velour seats and have been lucky enough to watch most of the nominees on the big screen. But if you didn’t have this pathetic amount of free time the past year to catch these films, you’re in luck! I’m here to catch you up on this year’s top ten.
Everything Everywhere All At Once dir. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
The minds that brought you Swiss Army Man, a fun but forgotten A24 comedy, debuted this undeniably unique flick. The film follows Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn Quan Wang as she battles the IRS, a prickly relationship with her daughter and the destruction of the universe. Or the multiverse, that is. It is an incredibly visually stunning film with moving performances and a kick-ass score–Mitski AND David Byrne? Together?! To watch it anywhere but a theater is to do the movie, and yourself, a disservice. Death to streaming! The movie is hilarious and heartfelt, action-packed and powerful. Something about Everything really did it for me. Maybe it’s the mommy issues of it all or maybe my middle-school obsession with “Absolutely (Story of a Girl)” by Nine Days took over, but for whatever reason, this movie just scratched that itch for me. Two hot-dog thumbs up.
Tár dir. Todd Field
Tár is truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen. This slow burn of a character study follows celebrated conductor Lydia Tár’s (Cate Blanchett) fall from grace and it’s like a car crash you can’t take your eyes off of. I couldn’t help but notice a building tightness in my chest and about an hour into the movie I pinpointed the root of my unease: there’s zero non-diegetic sound. A movie about music has none. The lack of a score makes Tár feel like the other shoe is always about to drop and when the film finally crescendos, the payoff is so worth it. Calling this a “cancel culture” movie is a shallow understanding of the film as dense as this one. Blanchett truly gives the performance of a lifetime; not to sound cliche but she truly becomes Lydia Tár. If Michelle Yeoh wasn’t so fantastic in Everything Everywhere All At Once she’d have Best Actress in the bag. I’m rooting for Blanchett but I doubt Tár will win Best Picture; it doesn’t fit the Oscar bait mold that some competitors do (*cough* The Fabelmans *cough*) and it didn’t make as many waves as Everything. It may not have been the best of the year but Tár was a truly unique experience and its brilliance deserves to be recognized.
Elvis dir. Baz Luhrmann
I’m gonna come right out and say it. I’m an Elvis apologist! This Elvis Presley biopic is a dizzying, accidentally hilarious, overstuffed spectacle for the ages. If you told me this was edited by a thirteen-year-old K-pop fancammer, I’d believe you. The staccato pacing is nauseating and the way Tom Hanks (Colonel Tom Parker) looks and sounds is, well, also nauseating. Austin Butler (Elvis Presley), on the other hand, is hard to look away from. He inspires that teenage adoration that defined Elvis’ early career. I’ll happily admit that I’m one of them girls who wants to see him wiggle! His performance is tender and careful yet still congruent with the insane writing and editing. He totally leans into the absurdity of the film and earns his place on the silver screen. Elvis is a crazed kaleidoscope that certainly doesn’t deserve Best Picture but sure would be the funniest choice to win.
Top Gun: Maverick dir. Joseph Kosinski
Call me a boot-licking, propaganda-buying, military industrial complex-loving sheep because I really fucking liked this movie. It’s one of few sequels that manage to live up to its original’s glory. It was engaging throughout, genuinely heartwarming and most importantly, Miles Teller (Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw) has a mustache. And God does he look good in it. I may be a girl who hates action movies and loves mustaches but I’ve got to admit that what makes this movie special isn’t Teller or any one of his equally sexy costars, it’s the surprising lack of CGI. The practical effects used in those gripping action sequences are evocative of an era of movie-making long gone and sorely missed. I’ll happily pretend to be a flag-saluting, red-blooded American for two hours if it means I get to indulge in this nostalgic style of action flick. Altogether, Top Gun: Maverick is a pretty perfect blockbuster. That being said, if it wins Best Picture I will fly a Boeing F-1 whatever into the Dolby Theatre.
The Banshees of Inisherin dir. Martin McDonagh
Probably my personal favorite of the year, Banshees is an incredibly moving meditation on male friendship. As the civil war wages on in Ireland, the fictional island of Inishirin off its coast sees its own civil war between best friends Colm and Pádraic. But the film isn’t some grand metaphor for Irish political history; it’s a deeply human story of love, sorrow and astonishing stubbornness. It’s also really feckin funny. Colin Farrell (Pádraic Súilleabháin) is simply incredible as “one of life’s good guys” and a pretty clear pick for Best Actor. At first I thought the film clicked with me because I’m deeply familiar with the Irish-Catholic mulish thing, but I think the desire to day drink and fear that all my friends secretly hate me probably had something to do with it too. Either way, Banshees moved me in a way none of the other nominees did. It also inspired one of my favorite movie-going experiences. Once the credits started rolling, strangers in the seats around me all began chattering about what they thought. Soon, we were all in one big conversation, each of us sharing what was most meaningful to us, what we thought symbolized what and whether we were team Pádraic or Colm. It reminded me just how much I love going to the movies. The Banshees of Inishirin likely won’t win Best Picture but I certainly won’t complain if it does.
The Fabelmans dir. Steven Spielberg
I have much love for the Academy’s golden boy but The Fabelmans wasn’t my favorite. It was sweet and charming and visually impressive but dare I say, a little boring. The coming-of-age film follows Sammy Fabelman, played by Gabriel LaBelle, as he learns to deal with the chaos around him through filmmaking. This love-letter-to-cinema trend is getting a little tired and for such a clear self-insert, it lacked the kind of personal touch it needed for the weak writing to get a pass. It obviously looked great because it’s fucking Steven Spielberg, but directorial prowess doesn’t necessarily translate to script-writing. (I’m cringing typing this because I know Spielberg is one of the good ones in every sense of the word and there was real heart involved in making this film, but it just didn’t entirely translate.) I had a perfectly lovely time watching but if it was made by anyone else, I doubt this would be in consideration for Best Picture, much less a probable frontrunner. However, the David Lynch cameo was one for the ages and the final shot was one of my favorites of the year but those things alone don’t warrant a pretty good movie going all the way.
Triangle of Sadness dir. Ruben Östlund
Neither a box office buster, nor a popular fan favorite, Triangle of Sadness is a surprising addition to the slate of Best Picture nominees. This ham-handed satire of the super wealthy may be a bit trite but it certainly has some merit. The film is funny, engaging and bolstered by some genuinely good performances. Charlbi Dean’s role as vapid but incredibly likable Instagram model, Yaya, is an obvious standout. Her truly seductive beauty and the way she uses it in her performance is pretty hard to forget. She very sadly passed away right before the film’s theatrical release and it’s hard not to wonder how many doors her truly incredible work would’ve opened for her. However, good performances don’t make up for amaetur class commentary. I love Woody Harrelson (“The Captain”) but I don’t need him to tell me that rich people are shallow. The film certainly isn’t going to win Best Picture, and really doesn’t deserve it. But, if you get a chance indulge in its banality then give it a try, if for no other reason than to catch Dean’s noteworthy performance.
Women Talking dir. Sarah Polley
If nothing else, Women Talking is aptly named. The film centers around a conversation between the women of three families as they try to decide how they should react to the rampant sexual abuse in their small Mennonite colony. I have really mixed feelings about this movie. In and of itself, it’s an incredibly thoughtful and tender exploration of the intersection of faith and trauma. ‘Moving’ is much too trite of a word to describe the performances as they really left me for a lack of any. The film is careful with its depiction and discussion of assault and doesn’t define its characters by their trauma. Where Women Talking falters is in its attempt to be a post-feminist thinkpiece on the patriarchy. There are obvious #MeToo parallels and it tries way too hard to have a message. And such a banal message it is. The “women have power when they speak up!”isn’t just a tired theme, it’s fucking insulting. Speaking up doesn’t do what we like to pretend it does and movies are not the solution to sexual assault. The fact that Brad Pitt was able to produce Women Talking says a lot more about the “power” of speaking up about abuse than the movie itself does. The story is beautiful when we’re not forced to look at the Mennonite colony as a microcosm for society at large.
All Quiet on the Western Front dir. Edward Berger
This film largely follows teenaged Paul Bäumer’s (Felix Kammerer) experience as a German soldier fighting in France toward the end of WWI. It is a visually impressive, well-acted and beautifully scored film, but ultimately, it’s just a war movie. It’s not that war movies can’t be good, but it’s pretty hard for them to be interesting. You can watch the first ten minutes of All Quiet and know exactly what will happen in the next 150. The film will have an anti-war message and yet end up glorifying war. That is what every war movie is. That’s not to say All Quiet has no value, it’s a beautiful movie, like truly breathtakingly beautiful– it should pretty obviously win Best Cinematography. But when scenes of slaughter are so beautiful, it kinda deflates the anti-war message, doesn’t it? All Quiet on the Western Front is just the newest addition in a long line of exactly the same thing. It’s worth a watch but don’t expect to see anything you haven’t seen before.
This diverse list of nominees all have promise but only one can win! My money’s on Everything Everywhere All At Once but it doesn’t really matter what I think because a bunch of old, white men in California already made the decision. Tune in to ABC tonight at 8 p.m. EST to catch the award season finale. Happy Oscar Sunday!
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