Voting on this year’s Academy-nominated films closed yesterday, so I can finally post this without influencing any decisions. Ultimately this was a great year. There were very few ‘statement pieces,’ and people returned to theaters in a big way. The Marvel wave has crested. Zero of the Best Picture nominations were musician bio-pics1, we got two foreign films in the top ten, two directorial debuts, four films adopted from novels, and only one from a piece of non-literary IP. Three of this year’s Best Picture nominations are films about writers, meaning people are finally accepting how interesting we are.
Here is a break-down of the Best Picture noms. I’ve seen most of them only once, and these impressions all include spoilers.
My Top 3:
Past Lives
I watched this movie about twenty minutes after seeing Barbie, which definitely helped. But I re-watched it last week and it holds up, very well. It’s a brutally real movie. Both characters are decent, and they want the same thing, and yet shit doesn’t work out. Time passes, people change, circumstances complicate emotions.
The cinematography deserves a huge shout-out. The presentation of characters in reflections, through veneers, the rustic beauty of the retreat house, the seclusion of the actors into their own frames, it’s all visually stunning and none of it feels egregious. It is the way Celine Song tells her story, and it makes for a fascinating re-watch.
Greta Lee is incredible as the lead. She has this impeccable wryness, this sort of ready-to-smirk smile that comes off as brutal, but the people who love her in this movie know it’s only a defense. She has had to be hard to make the life she wants.
The final exchange between Nora and Hae Sung will stay with me for a long time. As she walks away from the Uber, her and the camera perform some of the most incredible choreography I’ve seen between an actor and a DP, all set to the back-drop of Lower East Side store-fronts.
Has there ever been such a good ‘falling in love over Skype’ montage before? How did they convince us of that in under two minutes of these characters on their laptops? Incredible.
Notable is the monologue in bed between Nora and her husband. The, “in this story I’m the bad guy” scene. It was a brilliant touch, and adds a great depth to the story. Was he being selfish in that moment? Was he being too passive, letting his beloved slip away? Should he have been more jealous, more insecure? Could he have been more supportive, despite the painful reveal that he feels as if he doesn’t have access to a sacred place in his wife’s heart? There are no answers to these questions. This movie, like life, is brutal. But it’s also endearing, also funny, also sweet and nourishing.
Oppenheimer
You might not think it looking at me, but I once thought Christopher Nolan was done for. Says a good deal about my loyalty, since he was batting a thousand as of three years ago, but Tenet was bad. It was so bad, I thought it signaled some sort of existential break in Nolan’s mind. I thought we might have to strip him of his DGA license, and I went into Oppenheimer to very sternly surmise whether we were to lose one of our great chair-less directors.
But it’s a masterpiece. And more than that, it was one of the most watched movies of the year and it was about a scientist facing a series of moral conundrums. AND it was over three hours long (three hours and nine seconds). That is an incredible sign for the state of cinema.
The bomb scene is undeniably breath-taking. The complication towards the end, when Strauss suggests that Oppy is a power-hungry manipulator, is the sort of nuance that one doesn’t expect from blockbusters.
Should he have focused more on the victims of the bomb? Yes, of course. And yet, that wasn’t this film was about, and the moral weight of the bomb is well-known enough to us all to not require heavy-handedness. We know what’s at stake.
In turns this film made me think Oppenheimer ended all war forever, and that he ignited the entire atmosphere of earth. In the end I came down somewhere more complicated than either of those extremes. I have an essay on Oppenheimer and the role of scientists dropping in two weeks, but this film did not shy away from the question.
There were some Nolani-isms that by this point are exhausting. The worst one in this movie was ‘A character says something snarky, and then another character uses it against them in their next scene together.’ If you’re unlucky enough to notice it, you’ll realize that most of the dialogue in the second half of this film somehow follows this structure.
Poor Things
My favorite of the year. This film is as “about life” as any movie gets. It’s about how we learn to communicate, how we receive education, about coming up against barriers, about dealing with emotions starting with the supposedly simple and evolving into the incredibly complicated. It is funny, well shot, has a career-great performance at the top, gathers all of the themes of the directors previous work into one place, and is full of great film-making decisions (see notes on the score below).
The cinematography and set design is a masterwork in patience and story-telling. The slow transition from black & white into color, the way the physical world begins as fantastical and full of the manifestation of Bella’s childlike wonder to the end, when she returns to London demolished by the weight of reality, forced to confront the death of a complicated parent, and the city’s design has become as morbid and bleak as her perception of the world.
Some argue that the film is too long. I’m not the right person to contend with this argument, because when a film touches me as much as this one did, I tend to wish it was six hours longer, if only so I can spend more time re-watching it. The sequence of her developing from a child to leaving with Mark Ruffalo is much shorter than you think. Some say they should have chopped the Paris / Prostitution sequence, but friends of mine claim that to be the most important part of the film, and I could’ve watched Bella learn about socialism and pleasure for far longer. Some think it could have ended with the wedding, and she never had to run off with Christoper Abbott. But then we wouldn’t have the missing puzzle piece of her life pre-lobotomy, which to me was the great reveal of the film.
A huge shoutout to Dixie Chassay, who was the casting director for the greatest show of all time, Patriot. She put together two of the quietest comedians ever, Ramy Youssef and Jerrod Carmichael, she got my guy Christopher Abbott to make a third hour appearance, and who doesn’t love Margaret Qualley? Plus, who thought Mark Ruffalo was capable of this performance?
I also think the score deserves an Oscar. I know Oppenheimer’s is widely lauded, but it’s very one-note, sounds like a lot of other stuff, whereas this one from Jerskin Fendrix (don’t you want to hear that name called out on network television?) is an all-time great. It is less ‘songs played during the movie’ than a true score, the use of instruments to carry the tone of the film. If you listen to the album months after seeing the movie you will immediately be placed back into the world of the film. This one especially, from potentially my favorite scene in cinema since the Triangle of Sadness puke montage, is absolutely haunting, and brings me right back to when Jerrod Carmichael stops Emma Stone from running down the stairway into the Alexandria slums, confronting the brutal morality of the modern world.
The Rest:
American Fiction
I was confused during this movie. I watched it after it got its nomination, which is a terrible way to watch a movie. With that, “oh, this is supposed to be good” attitude. I always end up preferring movies— ahem, Maestro— that I’m told are bad before I see them. We all have our biases.
I also did something I never do, which is watch a trailer before seeing the movie. It came on while I as waiting to see Poor Things at Lincoln Square, and I didn’t have much of a choice. The trailer was really good, but like with all modern trailers I immediately knew the entire plot of the movie. There was no whimsy. Its why I hate trailers. No surprises except for the very end, and I hate waiting for the very end. Anyways, this movie I was especially waiting for the very end.
Why, I wondered, was the acting so strange? Why was the score SO bad? Like, noticeably wrong? There were endearing moments, especially with the sister, but something just felt so off. So many decisions seemed bad. The basic plot is that he is spoofing the reading community by giving them something ridiculous, which they eat up. About a third of the way into the film, I asked if this movie was perhaps the same thing. An obviously ridiculous film that spoofs the viewer by delivering exactly what they ask for. This was the Oscar nomination talking— as in, clearly something layered is happening here, because what I’m watching isn’t Oscar-worthy. And in the end, that’s sorta what happens. They half-ass their way out of the movie by making the movie itself a creation of the writer. And that was cool. But it didn’t quite justify everything. You can do everything wrong, on purpose, but all that stuff still has to be cinematically and artistically cohesive.
In the opening scene of this movie there is a debate about reading texts with the N-word in a college literature class. Instead of having the discussion, the film cuts away off a smirk from Jeffrey Wright like, “can you believe these kids?” I mean, yeah. They are the dominant voice in modern education. You are an artist, Mr. Director, let’s have the discussion! That’s essentially the issue with the movie. It gets so close to so many interesting social dynamics and questions… and sorta drops them. Goes for the soapy choice, or the comedic choice, or mic-drop choice.
Anatomy of a Fall
This movie was essentially one long discussion, much of it in French. This marks the second of two Oscar-nominated films led by Sandra Hüller, the german actress who made international fame after the 2016 comedy, Toni Erdmann. Besides making this cover of a 50 Cent song iconic, the movie complicates the True Crime genre, a genre which I’ve been bored of since the second season of True Detective. I have no notes.
One thing that strikes me is that this film isn’t necessarily about whether or not she did it. That question isn’t even answered in the end. It’s about the experience of the viewer, about the journey of blame they go on throughout. How quickly did you write off Sandra Voyter as a murderer? How much evidence did you ignore to hold on to your belief that she wasn’t? If she didn’t push him, did she drive him to suicide with her brutality? And the biggest question of the film: how long did it take you to realize that the kid was blind?
I’m very excited about this Justine Triet / Arthur Harari writing duo. Imagine writing that fight scene with your husband? Ooh-fah!
Barbie
Ah, Barbie. When this movie was first announced, I was incredibly excited. Noah Baumbach is easily in my top 5 favorite directors, and it was first hinted at in a Variety cover story about him and Greta, framed as a collaboration. When it started looking like it was her movie alone, I was still pumped. Knowing how incisive and funny she is, I was excited for the Barbie take down, the obliteration of the megalith that grew from a doll. Margot Robbie has a nearly perfect track record in choosing scripts. Ryan Gosling is my boy. This was gonna be great. The last thing I expected was an advertisement, which, seeing that the Barbie brand doubled its value at the release of the film, is what it was.
This was also decidedly a Movie, rather than a film. I hate punishing something because it did well, but when you reach a certain level of mass appeal, it signals to me that you sacrificed something honest for universality. This is just one of my core beliefs, and I’m working on it— it probably indicates some misanthropy brewing in my soul. But I go for the gritty, hyper-realistic sorta fare and this was the exact opposite. It felt like a Marvel movie. It felt— and I know that this was the point— plastic. And I just don’t like plastic.
There was a brand of feminism in this film which felt very second-wave, and I know for a fact that Greta’s own ideas on women-hood are leagues beyond the ones presented in this film, but I’m glad it exists, if only for the sake of twelve-year-old girls in the middle of this country who have never been exposed to these sort of ideas which, to us young urbanites, are almost regressive. Almost.
Phew, okay. I’m glad that’s over. I walked out of this film and directly into a screening of Past Lives and was reminded of all the things that I didn’t like about Barbs. That it didn’t feel like a singular vision. That it didn’t present a true, heartfelt story. That the sets were fake, and the people were fake, and the story was fake. But again, the movie Barbie just wasn’t made for me, just like Barbie dolls aren’t made for me. And that’s fine. I just miss Greta. I hope she makes a heartfelt drama next. Something fancy and smart.
The Holdovers
The golden age of all-male catholic-school movies is decidedly over. We’ll never again have the five year run that brought us School Ties, Kicking and Screaming, and Dead Poet Society. Should there be a renaissance? No. Do we miss them? Surely. The Holdovers bungles this aspect of the film, failing to create the bonds and traumas which usually define those movies. At the point of the film when the besieged lads band together, the entire crew, sans Angus Tully, is literally air-lifted out of Barton Academy. So this isn’t one of those movies, even though it probably wants to be.
The movie shouldn’t work. There is so much to distract you throughout— a corny guitar score, some shoddy acting and cartoonish antagonists who inexplicably morph for the sake of a punchline. But somehow throughout the entire movie I felt very warm. It’s a warm movie, what can I say? That’s sort of the trademark of this Alexander Payne guy. Nebraska, Election, Sideways, Downsizing, About Schmidt…. they’re all bad movies. But they make ya feel something very subtle and hard to come by in a movie.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Sometimes it’s hard to decipher between “this is a great movie,” and “this is a movie with two of the best actors of all time.” KOTFM is one of the darkest films I’ve seen… ever? It also strikes that note of incredibly dark super early, then doesn’t change pitch once. It is not like A Little Life or I Know This Much Is True, which continue to get darker and darker throughout. It just drops you into a deep pit, and never once throws a rope down to fetch you. When Jesse Plemmons arrives halfway through as one of the nation’s first FBI agents, it isn’t like other Scorsese films, where the Law is the enemy and causes paranoia. It is the only shot at redemption the film offers.
For all its dismal broodiness, this is a story I didn’t know about, and one that’s really important for understanding this country. It made me dream of a different America, one with pockets of diversity. Black Wall Street. An Osage empire in Oklahoma. Libertarian havens in Deadwood. Budding, heathen-Hollywood. The California Missions. In this version of our country, you would have real choice as to what type of adventure you’d want your life to be, while remaining under the blanket of a distant government. Most of these dreams died (read: were brutally murdered) in the 1910s.
Leo’s role in this is not something we see a lot. He plays a character with agency and power who is really, really stupid. He played that character so well that I didn’t even realize what he was doing long past when it was obvious. He never really understood the full implications, either, and it was a huge source of confusion and pain for him because of the amount of effort it took to remain willfully ignorant. Why is this important? Because most films are about smart people, or at least wily people, or at least normal people. The fact is, a noteworthy percentage of humans are pretty dumb, and they sometimes do awful shit, or are manipulated into doing awful shit for other people. KOFTM raises awareness of this very important issue.
Maestro
Man I just can’t understand the hate around this movie. I think it probably has to do with how desperately Bradley Cooper wants to be taken seriously, which is unsettling, for sure. But this movie is not bad! It’s definitely not the Bernstein movie I wanted, but the more I think about it, the more boring that movie seems. This was a pretty radical look at someone universally adored, and it was a great portrait of what it means to love someone who is loved by everyone. The marital arguments throughout were sharp and consistent.
I think there is a really good hour in the middle here. The surrounding bits are the fat that feel very Oscar-baity and nauseating to me. The dance number? Why, Brad? To implicate how gay he was? To point to a deep love of musical theater in the man? That does happen to be a major, complicated theme in the real Bernstein’s life. He was torn between the high- and low-brow, and probably wanted to have both in a way which would keep him from having either, fully. This theme is very gently touched on in the film, but not with the dance scene. That was just… because Cooper loves dance?
But that pales in comparison to the most glaring, confusing aspect of the film. Cooper’s nasally accent is just incomprehensible to me. I have seen approximately three thousand Bernstein interviews on Instagram, and halfway through this movie I had to pause and watch a few on Youtube to confirm that he did not, in fact, at all, have that nasally voice. It sounds like Cooper was fighting an intense cold throughout the entire movie, and there’s not even a hint of that in the real Leonard’s voice. It’s bad enough in a vacuum, but with the added layer of controversy over his prosthetic nose, the nasal voice really just boggles me.
I will say this— the cathedral conducting scene, when he plays a long movement from Mahler’s 2nd… that was fuckin good. But that’s also the moment when all of his issues disappear, and he suddenly has no conflict, and this becomes a movie about someone whose wife is dying. Which is not the movie that it was, and the movie that it was is never resolved.
The Zone of Interest
Oof. Really great movie, but OOF. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on here, having read nothing in advance. At a certain point I thought, oh no, are they Polish Jews, and the war is coming for them? Oof. It wasn’t until she tells her friend that she found her diamond in her toothpaste that I realized what I was watching.
If I have a note, it’s that the girl walking through the night and planting food for the prisoners never came to anything. Besides a fight breaking out off-screen “over apples,” I’m not sure this portion of the film really clicked for me. I think I may have just missed this reveal in translation. That being said, it was a crucial point of humanity in the film— it proved that it was possible to appreciate the horror happening just over the wall. That even a child could see it. And that’s the question of the film— what does it take for us to realize the horror occurring beneath our comfortable lives? One of the common defenses against citizens who didn’t do more to stop the Nazi’s was that “the full extent of what they were doing” wasn’t known until after the war. But this family can’t use that defense. So, what defense do they have? In the classic hypothetical— what would YOU have done during the holocaust?— these characters all miserably fail. All except the grandmother and the apple-girl, I suppose.
Noteworthy:
Saltburn
I give some cursory notes on this film here. I’m mostly excited about this moment of significant Irish actors. We saw major performances this year from Cillian Murphy, Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott and Barry Keoghan.
I like that this film divides the crowd. I like the bold decisions made by the actors throughout. I like the cinematography and the script. The, “look at how he manipulated everyone” montage in the end was unnecessary, but more than that, it was unimpressive. Sometimes Soderbergh will do the same thing, and it will also be unnecessary, but it will at least be engaging, and convince you that the heroes were not only smarter than the antagonists, but the audience as well. This montage was already fairly obvious to the audience, and just confirmed the stupidity of everyone else in the film. Would’ve been a lot better had those reveals been sprinkled throughout.
May December
There was something very odd, similar to American Fiction, happening in this movie, and it too was verified by the ending, when it’s revealed the caliber of the film that Natalie Portman is preparing for. The difference for me is that this film felt cohesive throughout, like even though I didn’t understand what it was, they had a vision that they were aiming at. Having it be justified in the end was a cherry on top. The final frame was also a sort of punchline, warmly bringing me back to the world of Tár. Ultimately, it was not psycho or sexual enough to earn the psycho-sexual label, but still an enjoyable watch, full of juicy moral q’s and memorable lines. “This is just what adults do.” Ouch.
Wes Anderson
Zero nominations for Asteroid City is a bit of a let down. It’s certainly not one of his best, but it’s a fine film and confirms the ridiculous practice of waiting for September to release Oscar-bait (unless you’re Barbenheimer).
That being said, we also got four short films from Wes this year, a practice that’s way less common than it should be. Remember when PTA and Spike would churn out awesome music videos? It’s been a while since we’ve seen side projects like this, especially in this vein. Who would have thought Roman Coppola would make such a good cinematographer?
Wes Anderson seemed to have Roald Dahl clogging his brain, and I’m sure he would have done ten years of films based off the writer if he couldn’t get him out of his system this way. These short films follow a very interesting narrative style, where you are read an abridged version of the story while watching some imaginative but simple sets shift around behind the one or two characters in each. These were like taking shots of Wes Anderson, highly distilled, and it made me excited for the next big project he decides to work on.
Inside
I thought this Willem Dafoe film where an art-thief gets locked in a billionaire’s apartment was pretty cool. Definitely in the top 2 of 2023 Films Directed by a Greek. Amazing trailer, too. And, to be honest, you could probably just watch the trailer and feel the full range of emotions the film offers.
I choose not to count Maestro here