For some years now, some of you may remember, I’ve made it a point to watch all of the best picture nominees. This year, for the first time ever, I’d already seen all of them when the nominations were announced. Achievement unlocked, as they say in whatever they say that in.
Since I was ahead of the game there I thought maybe I could also review them all for the first time ever. I always don’t get around to a couple of them, and that’s what happened this year too. I did review AMERICAN FICTION and ANATOMY OF A FALL together, as well as BARBIE, MAESTRO, OPPENHEIMER, POOR THINGS and THE ZONE OF INTEREST. The ones I missed were THE HOLDOVERS, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and PAST LIVES, so I’ll say a little about them now.
I wrote about two-fifths of a review of THE HOLDOVERS after seeing it, then the holidays passed and it felt weird to post about, so I never finished. But the movie has stuck with me. It’s a sweet Christmas story for those who can be grumpy and cynical. Paul Giamatti (THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO) is really funny as Paul Hunham, the miserable ancient civilizations professor of a Massachusetts private school who has to stay over winter break 1970 to babysit the students with nowhere to go.
I like the real, unvarnished humanity of it. Most of the characters seem like assholes at first, then we start to see their sympathetic sides, but without them having to turn magically perfect. When Hunham is introduced talking to Barton Academy headmaster Dr. Woodrip (Andrew Garman, JULIE & JULIA) we learn that he’s being retaliated against for refusing to pass the son of a major donor. Dr. Woodrip is clearly in the wrong but comes off as the more relatable one, exhausted by Hunham’s bitterness and pretentious historical allusions. The guy is pretty obnoxious! But in a fun way.
His student Angus Tully (exciting rookie actor Dominic Sessa) doesn’t exactly get a hero’s entrance either. On the one hand you can see them lovingly setting him up as a particular archaic phenotype of nerd with his W.C. Fields poster, pot references and plan to be the hit of St. Kitts wearing what another kid calls “women’s underwear” but that Angus says is “the same swimsuit James Bond wears in ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE. It can’t get more masculine than that.” On the other hand he really seems like the bad guy at first, the richer-than-the-other-rich-kids douche bragging about his tropical beach vacation, and blowing the class’s chance at a makeup test with his whining, when he’s the only one who got a good grade. Then Mom calls at the last minute to tell him their trip is now her honeymoon, so he joins the other holdovers while still wearing his travel tie and pathetically lugging around his fancy luggage.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who I loved in DOLEMITE IS MY NAME and the excellent High Fidelity series on Hulu, will likely/hopefully win best supporting actress for her role as Mary, the cafeteria manager. One of the kids is racist/classist toward her and Hunham flips out, infuriated by the lack of awareness these kids have about their privilege. Mary is mourning the loss of her son in Vietnam – she worked at Barton so he could attend there, he still had to join the military to pay for college, now he’ll never get there. Problems these kids never had to worry about once in their lives.
Director Alexander Payne (SIDEWAYS) apparently hasn’t seen BLACK CHRISTMAS, so instead he took the premise from a Marcel Pagnol movie called MERLUSSE (1935), and recruited TV writer David Hemingson (The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Kitchen Confidential, Whiskey Cavalier) because he’d written a pilot set at a boarding school.
I’m a softy in middle age, I cry at all kinds of shit. I honestly might’ve made it through this one clean if there wasn’t a big emotional scene about Angus’ father that happens to be pretty similar to one of my most painful memories. I think this is a crowdpleaser because it tries to be honest about life. It’s one of those, “Yeah, we’re all fuckups, who are we to judge?” kinda movies. Some people have it easier, but everybody has problems. Life and people can be terrible, but also they are beautiful and can come through for you when you don’t expect it. It’s sad at times, but it’s funny and hopeful. It’s life-affirming but it has to work to get there, so it doesn’t feel full of shit. At the end I felt sad our time together was over, just like they do. You hope they’ll stay in touch but you know they can never re-create that time together. They just gotta appreciate that it happened.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON is one of those movies that I felt too intimidated to write about on only one viewing. I appreciated its slow burn gut punch depicting the unlikely oil wealth of the Osage community, the way the system sought to constrain them and how white people swooped in like the toucan smelling Fruit Loops, itching to kill them and steal their money. We kinda take Leonardo DiCaprio (THE QUICK AND THE DEAD) for granted now, so I’m not surprised he didn’t get nominated, but I love that he plays this character as a goofy looking doofus. I don’t blame Scorsese for the shitbrains who watch WOLF OF WALL STREET and want to be like Leo, but it’s funny to see him do one where you can’t imagine there possibly being one person on earth who thinks this guy is cool. Professor Hunham is cooler, and he has a condition that makes him smell like fish.
Of course the movie’s center of gravity is Lily Gladstone (Reservation Dogs), who projects so much power as his wife Molly, with less dialogue or hot-shotting to work with. She has a wry sense of humor and some rich lady swag, he makes her laugh and she thinks he’s cute, so she’s happy to promote him from personal driver to boy toy. Too bad she starts to love him and doesn’t catch on to the insidious plot until it’s too late. Keep this on the down low but right after seeing the movie I found out me and Gladstone went to the same high school. I went a decade earlier, sure, but nobody’s keeping track. Maybe I’m old, maybe I’m young, who’s to say? Not old enough to forget the fight song, so I’m gonna sing it if she wins. (After her speech.)
I did write a little bit of a review in my notebook, focusing on three pieces of media in the movie – the newsreel at the beginning, the newsreel about the Tulsa race massacre that seems to give them ideas, and the radio play at the end. But I didn’t finish my thought and I don’t quite remember what it was, so maybe if I watch it again I’ll return to the topic.
I definitely plan to rewatch PAST LIVES, the achingly beautiful romance about New York City writer Nora (Greta Lee, TOP FIVE, GEMINI) reconnecting with a shy, handsome South Korean man named Hae Sung (Teo Yoo, CODE NAME: JACKAL), who she was in kid-love with when they were both 12, but then her family emigrated to the U.S.
Now she’s grown up and American, has a different language and name, and is happily married to nice white guy Arthur (John Magaro, THE BRAVE ONE, MY SOUL TO TAKE, CAROL), who I gotta say I relate to because he acts like a grown person in a healthy relationship instead of the usual people you see in movies. He fully supports Hae Sung coming to visit, has complete faith in Nora and their marriage, but also recognizes the connection there he can never have, the parts of Nora he can only understand in theory, and the awkwardness of sitting there while his wife has a conversation he can’t understand. From Hae Sung’s point of view it’s very compelling because he’s at a bad place in life and needs to make this hail mary pass of a wild romantic gesture that is likely doomed to failure, or at best to create more heartbreak, but could bring some closure he could really use right now. Or it could make things worse. And for Nora it seems clear what to do but all the old emotions it brings up take her by surprise. As the movie did to me. The longing dial is turned up all the way on this one.
It’s all so natural and observant, perfectly acted, gorgeously shot, a mix of completely universal emotions and very specific ideas about the immigrant experience. I saw this early in the year and felt pretty sure it would be one of those “throw ‘em a bone” small movie best picture nominees. I’m glad it was, and that it won the top Independent Spirit Award. A great, great movie.
I expect OPPENHEIMER to win best picture. I wouldn’t vote for it myself, but I get it. Part of me thinks there’s a sliver of a chance for BARBIE to win on what I call the CODA theory. The idea is that there can be a movie that everybody who doesn’t put it in first place does put it in second or third, so it ends up edging out one that a whole bunch of people put in #1 but others put at the bottom. But I don’t really think OPPENHEIMER is very divisive, and also I looked back at the CODA year and there wasn’t really an obvious frontrunner like there is here.
What would make me most happy would be if THE ZONE OF INTEREST won, but that’s not gonna happen. Too arty and too relevant, I think.
Although I enjoyed all of the best picture nominees (and BARBIE and PAST LIVES would be somewhere in my top ten) my actual favorite movies of 2023 were JOHN WICK CHAPTER 4, INFINITY POOL, BEAU IS AFRAID and GODZILLA MINUS ONE. In my mind the biggest snub is Mia Goth not getting a supporting actress nomination. Should gotta a nomination for PEARL the year before, too. She’ll get in there some day, I hope.
Other movies I really liked but haven’t reviewed so far: ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET – made me cry. ASTEROID CITY – how the fuck does Wes Anderson never get nominated for production design and all that?
The other day I watched RUSTIN (interesting story, somewhat goofy movie), and if I can get to THE COLOR PURPLE before Sunday I will have seen all the nominees in the acting categories. I’m expecting Cillian Murphy to win best actor, though Giamatti would be an exciting upset. Emma Stone seems like the one who could maybe beat Gladstone, and she’s very good in a difficult comedic, physical role there, but like I said I’m pushing for Gladstone. For supporting actor everyone expects Robert Downey Jr., which is fine. My choice would be Ryan Gosling in a more unusual role no one else could’ve/would’ve done the same. I already told you I want Randolph for supporting actress (unless THE COLOR PURPLE changes my mind).
In the animated feature category I haven’t seen ROBOT DREAMS, which has no U.S. release yet. I reviewed ELEMENTAL and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE but not THE BOY AND THE HERON or NIMONA. The former was very good but I feel like I don’t entirely get it yet, the second was enjoyable but I barely remember it. I expect a win for Miyazaki, though I think I got more out of SPIDER-VERSE and definitely consider it the most impressive on a technical-execution-of-animation level. I would’ve liked to see TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM nominated, but I acknowledge that story-wise it’s a little lightweight. I just loved the style of it, and it had more laughs than any of these.
Adapted screenplay is probly gonna be OPPENHEIMER, I’m sure that was a difficult one to crack. BARBIE would be great – I mean, who the fuck could figure out how to do that? They put great minds on it for years, nobody could crack it until now! THE ZONE OF INTEREST would also be good but maybe we don’t think of what’s great about it as coming from the page.
Original screenplay will be THE HOLDOVERS I think? I’d approve. Mrs. Vern thinks it’ll be ANATOMY OF A FALL, but we’re both rooting for PAST LIVES. I like that MAY DECEMBER got a nomination too.
The whole world expects Godzilla to win his first ever Oscar, in the visual effects category. Can you believe in all these years he’s never been nominated for best actor? Can’t wait to see his speech. And then it’s your move, Gamera. You got this.
I kinda think the late Robbie Robertson should win original score for KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Probly gonna be OPPENHEIMER though, and good for Ludwig Göransson. Make-up win for CREED.
I’m gonna end on the original song category. First of all, it’s really funny to me that it includes two songs from a Barbie movie and one from a Cheetos movie. That’s the world we live in: our artists finding ways to scratch beautiful renderings onto mountains of corporate detritus. I’m interested in the two Barbie ones because they show kind of a divide that surprised me. A few weeks before the nominations I noticed that Vulture’s Oscar predictions had the two BARBIE song nominations being the Billie Eilish one “What Was I Made For?” and the Dua Lipa one “Dance the Night.”
I was astonished by that. I wondered if they were crazy or if I was. To me THE SONG from BARBIE is obviously “I’m Just Ken,” the musical number performed by Ryan Gosling as Ken. One of the most memorable scenes, a crucial thematic and character moment, a flashy celebration of cinema, a song that got stuck in my head for a couple days both times I’ve watched it, also one I’ve heard discussed and referenced from opening day until now and assumed months ago was for sure the best song winner. I thought nominating any other BARBIE songs over “I’m Just Ken” would be like nominating “Computer Blue” or “The Beautiful Ones” for PURPLE RAIN and not “Purple Rain.” Yes, great songs, bangers, timeless classics, but it’s fucking “Purple Rain”! It’s the anthem, and the crucial scene in the movie! What the fuck!?
(Okay, I cheated – if it was “Let’s Go Crazy” I would’ve had a harder time disapproving.)
Vulture later changed their predictions, and yes, it was “What Was I Made For?” and “I’m Just Ken” that were nominated. And today I have no idea if my initial “I’m Just Ken’ is the obvious winner, right!?” instincts were correct. “What Was I Made For?” won the Golden Globe, as well as Grammys for Best Song Written for Visual Media and even Song of the Year, the first time a soundtrack song did that since “My Heart Will Go On.” And when I raised this question about the Vulture predictions on Twitter many people told me Eilish would definitely win and/or deserved to.
I’ve got a bias here, being X years older than Lily Gladstone. Eilish seems cool and I got nothing against her at all, but that style of modern ballad sounds interchangeable to my ear, the way old jerks used to say all rap music sounded the same. So I honestly had to be reminded where it appears in the movie, I was thinking it just played on the car radio or something. In fact it’s during an important montage and the melancholy tone it creates is effective. And looking over the lyrics, they do tie into the themes of the movie, even if that doesn’t register to me much when watching it.
But I still believe, without any hesitation, that you could replace it with many other songs in the same register and the montage would still have the same effect. But if you removed “I’m Just Ken” you would be straight up hobbling the whole movie. To me that’s the end of the story, it’s not about what song you like hearing on the radio, it’s about what it does for the movie (that’s why “Hard Out Here For a Pimp” was one of the most worthy winners) but I understand people have different ideas of what “best song” should mean.
Here’s where I gotta kind of launch into a rant, though. Content warning: Getting worked up about something I saw on Twitter, even though who cares? Somebody with way more social media reach than me made the reverse argument of mine, that “What Was I Made For?” is the heart of the movie and that it’s crazy, even insulting, to put “I’m Just Ken” next to it. There were also many pointing to it as a sign of sexism that Gosling was nominated for supporting actor when Margot Robbie wasn’t nominated for best actress and Greta Gerwig wasn’t nominated for director. That it was ironically mirroring the movie, for the guy to get all the attention (although – did you see the movie? Ken actually doesn’t get the attention, there’s a whole song he sings about it).
Okay, first of all, I wanted Robbie and Gerwig to be nominated. But I’m sure they’re happy to settle for best picture and adapted screenplay nominations and having the actual biggest money maker of the year and universally great reviews. That’s pretty good.
Second of all, it’s just not considering how things work. Even if we take these nominations as an objective ranking of art, it doesn’t point to Gosling being better than Robbie. Maybe there were more amazing performances from women this year, so the competition was steeper for Robbie than it was for Gosling. Who knows? People always ignore that these are various separate individuals voting, not the Stone Cutters sitting down at an evil table and saying “okay, we’re choosing Ken but not Barbie.”
But the reason I gotta rant is that I feel these “oh great, they chose Ken” arguments are disrespectful to the movie and to Gerwig. It’s understandable why some women would get more than I did out of Eilish singing about not being real, and less out of Ken singing about similar things from his perspective. And I don’t expect everybody to latch onto the themes of the Kens’ excitement about and ultimate disappointment with their interpretation of traditional masculinity the way I did. But it’s obviously a big part of the movie, and part of Gerwig’s genius in creating this joyfully pink, girly movie that’s has fun exploring different facets of womanhood but also speaks to men about masculinity. Also, since part of the joke of Barbie Land is reversing patriarchy, Ken singing about his dissatisfaction is part of the movie’s critique of patriarchy.
So I think that’s a very superficial reading of the movie, and my stance is that if you don’t think Ken (as created by Gerwig as part of her movie) is worth celebrating then you don’t think the movie or the director have as much depth as they actually do, and you are not gonna win the righteous movie takes Oscar this time. Better luck next year. I’m sure you’ll come up with something.
Anyway, thanks everybody. Have fun watching or not watching the show on Sunday. Remember it starts an hour earlier this year for some reason. It feels a little late to rehash all the other best movies of 2023, so instead I will brag about my favorite non-timely writings of the year. Those are my proudest accomplishments. New releases are for nerds.
Favorite review series:
Uncle Sam Wants Yu
1983: Summer of Nub
THE EXORCIST movie franchise
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER trilogy
URBAN LEGEND trilogy
Most important revisits:
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET Halloween essay
MAN ON FIRE and DOMINO
SCREAM 4
Most interesting discoveries:
MEKKO
TIKTIK: THE ASWANG CHRONICLES
SHAMO
DEAD PIGS
March 7th, 2024 at 10:58 am
Eh, you almost had me until Computer Blue
(that’s like a top five Prince song imho)