Best Picture
The clearly transparent (why use one word when you can use two?!?) shift to popular films is obvious. Still, there is much to celebrate in this year's crop of top films. I'll jump on it right up front: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once deserves its embarassment of riches spate of nominations. I enjoyed The Man in the High Castle, but found its "Nazis invade multi-verse" storyline cumbersome. The MCU's use of it is always forgiven by some superpower or another. This movie handled it well, while being both funn and touching. Long live the multi-verse!
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All Quiet on the Western Front
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My wife asked why we didn't study WW I in school as much as WW II and Vietnam. I didn't have a good answer until we watched the movie. Now I think it was too much for the nuns to explain in the context of a living, loving god. This movie is really well done and disturbing. Particularly difficult in a year where Top Gun is the #2 grossing film. Make no mistake: I enjoyed Maverick, both for the nostalgia and the knuckle-tightening flight sequences. But the juxtaposition of the false promise of glory here and the false delivery of glory against an unnamed enemy there is striking. This one is too dark to win, however.
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Avatar: The Way of Water
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The living avatar of "support the theaters or lose profits" (it's not available anywhere online until March 28th, and Disney cynically released the original Avatar for a month last year, clearly intended to get dollars from people who thought they were seeing a new film). Great technical accomplishment from a greedy industry.
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The Banshees of Inishirin
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Hard to explain how two actors can create such chemistry. I'm told that the way Crosby, Stills and Nash were formed is because they were in the same studio while in different bands. Someone asked them to sing a particular song and their voices blended perfectly. I guess this is what Gleeson and Farrell bring in acting. They've only done two films together (this one and In Bruges). Here's hoping they do more. This film is beautiful, shockind and moving. I would be surprised if it won, but not at all upset.
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Elvis
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I have a personal bias here. I'm not fan of the King, but I went to the International Hilton with my parents, grandmother and several aunts and uncles in 1972 for his Teddy Bear residency featured in the film. (N.B. I blew off the concert, even though my parents had paid for a ticket for me -- don't think I'd let that stand, no matter what shit the kids pulled). I have great nostalgia for that period. More to the point, Austin Butler's performance is brilliant, even if Tom Hanks' portrayal of Colonel Tom was quizzical (what was that accent, Tommy boy?!?) I think Elvis is treated kindly here, largely because he's been so comically portrayed in the last 20 years. This will not win, but Austin sure might.
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Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
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Wow. Not what anyone expected, but so well received. Multiple actors playing multiple characters seamlessly; great humour (some shockingly funny); and a touching story. MCU can learn a lot about how this multi-verse was displayed.
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The Fabelmans
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The one that doesn't fit here. It's a self-aggrandizement of a director worthy of praise. The story is interesting, but not compelling. It also spends a lot of time explaining the value of a director's work. As a cinephile, I enjoyed that part, but it was a pat on his own back from Spielberg in the way that King Richard was a gift to the Williams' sisters' dad last year. I don't think a lesser known director gets a nod here (or in Best Directing or Writing).
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Tar
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This one took a lot of heat that escaped me. Admittedly, I don't know Lydia Tar's real story (and she predictably took umbrage with her portrayal). But my anecdotal knowledge of how most conductors operate comports with this story. Cate Blanchett was the story here, not the overall film.
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Top Gun: Maverick
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Again, I enjoyed it. But the too-many-lucky twists were too much for me. I don't object to a story where everything aligns for the hero, but this one was calling out for a tearful ending and we didn't get it. Missed opportunity for movie goers; great recruiting film for the US Navy.
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Triangle of Sadness
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Ridiculous story that had me rapt. There is some stomach-wrenching humour (if you've made it through Monty Python's Meaning of Life, you'll be ok here). This is the kind of movie that usually only gets a writing nomination, but heartening to see it in Best Picture this year.
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Women Talking
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This looked like a straight play to me. I'm ok with that when the writing is great -- and, like Fences a few years back, it is. Sarah Polley should win for Screenplay. Not for the movie that is a play, though.
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RIP
For Profit...
Why all of the anti-military talk?!? You want to be taken over by some nanny-state. And stop bashing me and my colleagues. If we're nothing but paid actors, we should be eligible for these awards. Hey, think I'm on to something....
For Real...
You forget about me?!? Fuck you and your movie truth ranting. I have all of your kids on my truth platform. Long live TikTok.
That's it. Now you have same number of NEW readers as old -- zero!