Tag: Frances McDormand

The Oscars – A Little Now And Then

Every year, right in time for the Oscars ceremony, I usually write two pieces about film. The first one details the current nominees and supposes who the winners would be if I had a vote. The second one details the ceremony from a decade in the past and examines how our perception of those past nominees has changed in the subsequent years. This year is a bit different. I’m combining both posts because in my research I’ve discovered that I don’t have much to say about the 2011 Oscars ceremony and I don’t feel like I care much about this year’s crop of nominees. Perhaps it’s pandemic brain setting in. I’ve seen most of this year’s films (save for Minari) but in many of the categories, I just don’t see one nominee standing out amongst the pack. As for the ceremony ten years ago, I’m going to detail that right now.

In February of 2011, the 83rd Oscars ceremony took place, celebrating the best of film from 2010. Usually, this is where I pick apart the winners and dissect where public discourse has led these films in the ten years that have passed. I’m shocked to report that, since I began this yearly project, the 2011 Oscars is perhaps the most time-accurate ceremony I’ve yet researched. I believe there would be differences now but the overwhelming majority of previous winners would still hold onto their statues today. The top two prizes are the only differences I can conceive. I do not think The King’s Speech wins best picture anymore. No way. The same goes for Tom Hooper as the best director winner for helming The King’s Speech. Those honors would now go to David Fincher for his work on The Social Network. For my money, I also believe The Social Network would now walk away with the best picture statue as well. It’s funny to me, after taking The Social Network off of my own top ten list from ten years ago. A strange thing happened the moment I chucked it aside and claimed it to be a film I’ve thought very little about in the years since: I haven’t stopped thinking about it. The film is oddly prophetic for the society we find ourselves in. I don’t think Academy voters would be able to deny it any longer. As for the rest of the big winners: Firth would still win, Portman would still win, Bale still wins, and Melissa Leo (although with stiff competition from Weaver) still wins. I went through the entire list and couldn’t come up with a single compelling reason for any of the previous winners to lose their prize today. I honestly never thought this project would produce a ceremony so accurate, a decade later. But this is why I’m so fascinated with said project.

On to this year’s crop of nominees. I carefully sketched out the hopefuls and asked myself: do I really care about this race? The answer was almost always no. This isn’t to say that there’s zero resonance for me, it’s more akin to these works not separating themselves from each other. Now, for ten of them, I do have clear favorites and I’ll go over them now.

For Best Picture, I like this crop of nominees quite a bit. The weal link here is The Trial of the Chicago 7. That said, Judas & The Black Messiah, Promising Young Woman, and Nomadland are my clear favorites. Out of this group, Nomadland struck the deepest chord. It’s a film of exquisite tranquil beauty while hiding a storm of pain beneath the surface. It was clear to me then that it was the best film on this list and that sentiment still holds true.

Best Director is a killer crop of nominees. The most recent of them I’ve seen is Thomas Vinterberg’s work on Another Round. He pulls a lifetime of thought and feeling out of his actors, anchored by (maybe the best in the biz) Mads Mikkelsen. He made this a race but Chloe Zhao’s confidence in herself and trust in her actors carries the day for me and she better win this statue on Sunday night.

Stepping back to Vinterberg again, Another Round will and should win the International Feature Film Oscar on Sunday. What an incredible film about the galaxy of life we still have inside of us somewhere, even when we feel lost and hopeless. The film also features the most pitch perfect ending to any film I saw this past year. Marvelous.

Cinematography is another category I have strong feelings about. Nomadland wins this in a landslide. Easy peasy. If you haven’t seen the film, google the trailer and tell me I’m wrong. For argument’s sake, Judas & The Black Messiah also features some exquisite camera work.

The writing nominees also catch my feelings. Kemp Powers’ great script for Regina King’s One Night In Miami is my pick for adapted screenplay. The film depends on words more than any other film nominated and the words are all very, very good. The original screenplay category better damn well go to Emerald Fennell for her incisive writing on Promising Young Woman. God damn! What a fucking movie! One of the best scripts in quite some time.

Supporting Actor is a mixed bag for me. First, I love Lakeith Stanfield but I’m confused over him being in this category and not Lead Actor. In Sound Of Metal, Paul Raci takes what could’ve been a simple mentor role and turns it into a career defining performance. It is minimalist perfection. My vote, however, would go to Daniel Kaluuya for his performance as Fred Hampton in Judas & The Black Messiah. This dude never puts a foot wrong. He’s going to need a warehouse to store the hardware he will accumulate over his career. What an actor.

Supporting Actress is Maria Bakalova all the way. The moment I saw the new Borat film, I predicted this moment. It was as clear as a freshly washed window to me. Hoy smokes, this actress came out of nowhere and delivered my absolute single favorite performance of the year. It is simply astonishing work. Let me repeat: astonishing.

Lead Actor will likely see the late Chadwick Boseman be honored for his work in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. I can’t argue that because it’s the performance of his short yet illustrious career. My personal preference is for Riz Ahmed to win for Sound of Metal. I love internal performances and Ahmed gives one for the ages. He’s an actor currently showing us he still has miles to go before fully mining the depth of his talent and I cannot wait to be right there in the front row for his journey. Riz Ahmed, my second favorite performance of the year.

Lead Actress is Frances McDormand. I don’t even know how to elaborate on that. She is an actress of such immense power and depth that she can mesmerize without saying a single word and she does a lot of that during Nomadland. Working in tandem with her director, Chloe Zhao, she somehow sums up so much of America in a two hour runtime. It’s McDormand all the way for me.

That’s it folks. The rest of the categories just don’t hold any favorites for me. Maybe Mank’s production design or Nomadland’s film editing, but that’s it. Regardless, the ceremony will give us plenty to argue about for years to come — it always does. I’ll be back on Friday to discuss some new things happening and then I’ll return to poetry next week. Until then, love each other.

Ghost Dog And Nomadland Walk Into A Bar And Gangs Of London Destroys It

I’m retreating, further and further, into stories these days. The world is increasingly made up of vitriolic people only concerned with their own immediate and selfish desires. It’s tough to take. Maybe it’s just the result of losing a year of our lives to this pandemic but we’d almost certainly not have lost nearly this amount of time had adults been in charge over the past year.

I digress.

My novel is out of my brain and into the hands of people deciding whether or not to release it into the wild and I’ve already begun work on my next project. I know I stated last week that I have two ideas worth following right now but for the time being, I’m focusing on one of them — a memoir…of sorts. Families tell stories and build legends. These stories are passed on from generation to generation with small details changing until the stories resemble very little of the truth originally behind them. None of this matters. The core is the core and as long as that remains, the rest is fair play to the storyteller. I have a lifetime of stories, some of which have been passed down and many others which I have experienced myself. It’s been a fun project to check back in with the family house on memory lane and I hope to honor the history of my own crazy family by gifting these stories to the rest of the world.

In the meantime and more precisely, in my downtime, I’ve been watching some movies (and a show) that have been long on my “to do” list. I watched Jim Jarmusch’s brilliant Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai. I told you all that I’ve been meaning to do a re-watch and I finally did just that over the weekend. What I didn’t expect was to have that movie blown off the map by something else.

First, I’ll deal with Ghost Dog. The film is perfectly crafted for what it is and aims to be. It’s lazy and hypnotic in equal measure. The story goes nowhere while, at the same time, teaching us all real life lessons worth a lifetime. The RZA’s score is impeccable — a low key masterpiece of film scoring. Every note and beat accents each scene and builds upon itself, constructing a welcome soundscape to get lost inside of. Jarmusch’s camera is stagnant and slow, capturing everything in Ghost Dog’s periphery. It’s so effective by allowing us to feel alive inside this world. We focus on the insects and the birds. The sound design compliments everything else and finishes off our immersion. We can feel the heat on our backs and smell the sickly sweet aroma of a parked ice cream truck. The writing is sparse and simple but extremely effective. Why waste words? Looking back, I believe Jarmusch has been an enormous influence on filmmakers like Nicolas Winding Refn. These artists come across more like painters than filmmakers sometimes — living and breathing in the abstract while forcing us onto their wavelength. They create portraits and allow those portraits to speak for themselves. It can be challenging but when this type of material connects, it lands harder than anything else. I find it all much more rewarding than anything else. Ghost Dogs still holds up, all these years later.

I’m skipping the big one for a moment to speak on two other viewings real quick. First, the film I Care A Lot, starring Rosamund Pike, Eiza Gonzalez, Peter Dinklage, and Dianne Wiest. I dug the hell out of this film. It’s acerbic as all get out and possesses the psychopathic heart of a serial killer. Rosamund Pike is one of the most interesting actors working today. She is always in absolute command, not just in every film but every single scene she is in. Study her even when she’s not speaking. Her body language, face, hair, posture, they are all speaking volumes at all times. For his part, Dinklage is a titan. He’s able to create a palpable sense of thoughtful danger at every moment in this film. You cannot remove your eyes from him. Last, Dianne Wiest. My goodness is she great in this film. She always come across so sweet and delicate, like a favorite family member. Here, she uses this to create a quiet sense of constant menace. I’ve never seen her like this before and I hope awards voters do not forget her performance here later on this year.

Next, the streaming service AMC+ has a British drama on offer called Gangs Of London. It stars one of the guys from Peaky Blinders and mama Stark from Game of Thrones. I don’t even know why I bring that up because it makes little difference. The important aspect is that this show is made by Gareth Evans, the psychopathic director of the two Raid films.

Side note: Raid 2 is far better than the first film. I’ll be taking no questions on this topic.

The story here is fine but typical. The show is well acted and competently presented in every other aspect. The reason for it’s existence is as a showcase for insanely creative violence. I love grounded, martial arts infused fisticuffs. I grew up on Bruce Lee. Evans needs to be on some sort of watch list because his brain is demented. These fight scenes are absolute batshit fucking bananas — all of the superlatives apply. Episode six is basically a one hour long gun fight war battle royale to the death between a band of gypsies and a Nordic hit squad. I mean, my gawd! That’s where I’ve left off and I have no idea how they’re going to top that.

And finally, the movie that blew me away and then some: Nomadland.

Frances McDormand can do no wrong. She has always been one of my favorites, ever since Blood Simple. Chloe Zhao directs her (and the rest of the film) with a plain spoken grace. There isn’t much dialog and what we do get is short back and forths which inform us of lifetimes lived by these people. Every single shot of this film could be a post card. It’s a wonderful story about the beating, human heart still trying even in the face of complete devastation. I believe McDormand and David Straithairn are the only actual actors in the film. Everyone else on camera is an untrained actor, most of whom are really living the nomad life. This all adds up to build an indisputable effect of realism. Every setting feels lived in — every frame alive. The film raises up our own defiance of societal norms, allowing us, if only for a moment, the ability to cut through our own daily bullshit and take stock on what is truly important. It’s easily the best film of the year and the one I’m rooting for to win everything it’s currently and hopefully nominated for.

That’s it. That’s enough. Other writing to do. Next week, Hopefully I will have watched Judas and the Black Messiah by then. If not, who knows? Until then, love each other.