Hello everyone. No, I didn't abandon this blog despite my two month absence. After so many successive, and extensive, viewing experiences I need a short break. It's also awards season, which translates into me running off to the theater to see as many of the major contenders as I can before they leave. And once the Oscar nominations are out, torrenting the rest of them and watching every nominee in a few of the major categories.
These categories include (for those new to me doing this): Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay -- Adapted, Screenplay -- Original, and Animated Feature. Why Animated Feature you ask? Because I really love animation and one of my eight million childhood dream jobs was going into the field.
Without further distraction, let's get down to what I would vote for in these nine major categories!
PICTURE
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Damien Chazelle is going to win this thing in a walk, and I can't entirely be mad about it. For all of La La Land's narrative and acting problems, it's a solidly envisioned and directed effort. I get his nomination, and will only mildly grumble at his eventual win. I can't say I totally get the presence of Mel Gibson or Kenneth Lonergan whose films are hardly directorial achievements of the highest caliber. Hell, Hacksaw Ridge's strong showing just baffles me completely.
So that leaves us with Denis Villeneuve and Barry Jenkins, both of whom had huge challenges in adapting their material for the screen and making it all work. As much as I loved Arrival, Moonlight just stuck with me. I can close my eyes and remember several images from the film, including the ocean baptism and slow seduction/reunion in the diner. Moonlight is a great movie for a variety of reason, and Jenkins' direction is one of them.
ACTOR
Denzel Washington, Fences
What an anemic year for Leading Actor that Ryan Gosling's emotionless, monotone warbling garnered him a second career nomination. Gosling is a very fine actor, and if he had been nominated for something like Lars and the Real Girl I wouldn't be complaining. He's adequate in La La Land, but there's any number of fellow leading men in his generation that could have given that exact same performance. While Viggo Mortensen is the best thing about the overly twee, quirk-fest mess that is Captain Fantastic. His work is layered and wonderfully quiet, but I don't know how I feel about stronger performances like A Dangerous Method or A History of Violence going unrewarded in favor of this.
Even worse is Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge. He's another strong actor, but he's been far better in films like The Social Network, Red Riding: 1974, Boy A, and Never Let Me Go. So what gets him his first career Oscar nomination? Doing a Huckleberry Hound impression in a disingenuous movie that wants to have it both ways. So what we're left with is a two-man race of contrasts.
Casey Affleck and Denzel Washington both play men broken by life and trying to make good with the remnants, but they go about it in two different ways. Affleck's character pushes everyone away and burrows within himself, picks fights at bars, and refuses to engage in any deep or meaningful way with his own emotions and others. It's a somber part, and Affleck expresses deep wells of pain and anguish. If he wins, it's a richly deserving performance. But there's just something about Washington's go-for-broke work that won me over. Perhaps it's the pages and pages of dialog he must recite while stopping and starting on complex emotional tangents and showcasing a broad range, or maybe it's just how gleefully unlikable his character is. This is a bitter broken man taking his hurt out on the ones he loves. Either one deserves a win, but Washington wraps his voice around Wilson's prose like a comfortable sweater.
ACTRESS
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Before you think I'm going to use this space to tear into La La Land again, just know that I thought Emma Stone's performance was the far superior one between the two and the real standout. It's just that the script doesn't offer much for her to do. There's a few bits of comedy, a chance for her to demonstrate her pleasing chemistry with Ryan Gosling, and she sings well enough. There's just no drama or soul in La La Land's full-frontal sugar rush assault.
Even worse is the laziness of throwing Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination for just appearing in any movie nowadays. There's been a recent trend over the past 10 years to nomination (and award) her for gorgon-like overacting (August: Osage County), thinly written comedic roles (The Devil Wears Prada), and middling biographical films that left her with nothing to do (The Iron Lady). Florence Foster Jenkins is not an improvement on this trend, but it is yet another example of Streep's tendency towards material that allows her to shine to the detriment of the surrounding material.
Much better are the other three women. Shock nominee Ruth Negga is all scaled back and quiet acting. She has no big Oscar-y scene, but her work is transcendent for the ways in which she makes Mildred Loving blossom as the story progresses. Natalie Portman has the unenviable task of finding a way into Jackie O, a pop icon that feels as towering and omnipresent now as she was in her heyday. Portman's turn breaks the back of a biographical film by revealing parts of the performance are as much of an act as the interview Jackie O gives throughout. Portman's Jackie must change between public and private face so quickly and imperceptibly that it's nearly Herculean in its efforts, add to that the impeccable vocal intonations and you've got a career-high for the actress.
And then there's Isabelle Huppert in Elle. The French cinematic goddess has never been one to shy away from a complicated or difficult part or subject matter. In fact, she seems most at home in the more provocative and thorny material. This tale of a rape victim purposefully reenacting her assault and plotting revenge may take the cake. Huppert's by turns frightening and compassionate here, and hers is the trickiest part to play of the five nominees. Not only would I give her the Oscar for her performance, but as something of a career achievement award.
This year's Best Actress was overloaded with potential nominees, and three actresses in particular deserved a chance. Amy Adams must carry Arrival, Taraji P. Henson demonstrating that is possible for girls to excel in STEM education and power-through mountains of racism in Hidden Figures, and Annette Bening's simply marvelous work in 20th Century Women. These are the types of fully realized and well acted roles we should be nominating and rewarding.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
While Leading Actor is a bit of wash, Supporting Actor is bursting with award worthy performances. Lucas Hedges is great as a teenager seemingly unable to understand how fundamentally his life has changed in the wake of his father's death. Jeff Bridges plays a US Marshall that sounds like talking dip, drops casually racist jokes as a way of bonding with his partner, and brings a steel-eyed grit and pathos in his final scenes of confrontation with Chris Pine. Michael Shannon is one of our best eccentric actors, and he plays a Texas Ranger in such a way that it is as engrossing as it is individualistic.
Then there's what Dev Patel and Mahershala Ali bring to their films. Patel takes over the main role in the second half of Lion, and he gives a soulful, textured performance. His expressive eyes are a textbook example of what minute acting for the screen should look like as he's possessed by repressed memories that blur the lines between past and present. While Ali's time is brief, he gives his character enough colors to last with you. Not only does he provide the ocean baptism, but he functions as a surrogate father figure, a voice of moral and emotional support, and the face of guilt as the realizes the hurt he's inadvertently thrust upon the boy. It came down to the two of them, but there's just something about Ali's work that hits you hard.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis, Fences
Must like Leading Actress, the omissions are just as worthy as the ones that made it in. Octavia Spenser is solid and dependable in Hidden Figures, but Janelle Monae does her one better. Not to say that Spenser is unworthy of the love, her scene with Kirsten Dunst in a bathroom confrontation practically sealed it for me, but Monae has more to do and trickier material to play. Then there's Academy darlings Nicole Kidman and Michelle Williams, both of whom are underused in their films for my tastes but deliver the goods when it counts. Kidman's adoptive mother in Lion never asks for our sympathy, but she earns it with her strong maternal display, supportive nature, and a stellar monologue where she describes why she chose to adopt instead of giving birth. While Williams exists predominantly in Manchester by the Sea's flashbacks there's a reunion scene between her and Affleck that hits you like a sledgehammer to the gut.
First-timer Naomie Harris transforms from loving mother to abusive drug addict to an apologetic, broken woman in Moonlight. She gets several big scenes to play, including one where she confronts Ali's drug dealer that twists your stomach into knots with its combination of vitriol and visceral impact. Any other year, and I'd be championing her to the win. But this thing belongs to Viola Davis' career-best work in Fences, the first black actress to ever reach three Oscar nominations.
Davis is always worthy of a win with any of her nominated performances, but she digs deep into the truth of Rose and it's almost jarring how exhaustive and honest her portrayal is. Her placement in the supporting category could be argued, but her worthiness as the eventual champion cannot. If this isn't the role of Davis' screen career, then it's for certain in her top five most essential works. Sure, the scene where she lashes out at Washington, her face covered in snot and tears, will get the highlight treatment, but it's the bone-deep tiredness and quiet grace that she moves about the frame throughout that preps you for that big moment.
SCREENPLAY -- ADAPTED
Moonlight
I thoroughly enjoyed both Lion and Hidden Figures, but their screenplays have problems. Hidden Figures is clearly a scrubbed clean feel-good version of the true events, but the story is too important for me to be mad at its placement here. Lesser true story films have been nominated and won here (hey, The Imitation Game) that Hidden Figures occupying a slot doesn't bother me. Same goes for Lion, which loses its shape and momentum between the first and second half, but it sticks the landing and hits you with its emotional subtly.
The appearance of Fences is understandable on the strength of August Wilson as a writer, but they literally just filmed the play. There's no screenwriting or adapting here, really. It's an achievement of great writing, just maybe not great screenwriting. Where does that leave us? With the same two movies that I keep circling back towards.
Arrival has a complicated structure that doesn't explain itself until the very last moments. It requires deep thought and attention to be paid, but it's not impossible to follow. It also makes linguistics as enthralling and nerve-wracking as Spotlight made investigative journalism. But this thing belongs to Moonlight which checks in a series of characters in three distinct periods. It's chiefly about witnessing one man growing into his truth and trying to heal his broken soul. Each of the three chapters refer to each other, with events in the third paying off seeds from the first and so on.
SCREENPLAY -- ORIGINAL
20th Century Women
The worst thing about La La Land is its script, so it even getting a nomination here is a joke. The only explanation I can think of is sheer goodwill carrying it in with the tide. Nothing happens in that movie that you can't predict thirty minutes prior, and the dissolution of the central relationship over one semi-tense dinner is a joke. Of course, if I were to poke holes at all of the logical and narrative gaps in a musical's script, I'd have to forsake my love of the genre but there's something particularly egregious about La La Land's white-bread fairy tale.
The others I get completely. Manchester by the Sea is by one of our preeminent writers, so of course its story of grief management and emotional turmoil gets a nomination. And, frankly, it deserves it for the ways in which it refuses to give the audience the expected payoff. While Hell or High Water begins life as a sturdily made piece of genre fare, it slowly emerges as a character study of economic and emotional desperation as the veneer of civilized society is unbalanced and some of the ugliness and chaos circling underneath leaks out. Either one of them pulling a surprise take-down on La La Land would bring me immense joy.
But the two nominees in this group that I enjoyed the most were The Lobster and 20th Century Women. The Lobster may not entirely work, but the audacity and strangeness, the acuity of its emotional truths and originality of its plot. Trying to summarize won't make it feel like any less of a fever dream, and the whole thing will prove divisive. I got a lot of enjoyment out of it, but everyone else's mileage will vary.
Then there's 20th Century Women, another deeply felt character study from Mike Mills. Something of a spiritual cousin to his prior film, Beginners, 20th Century Women takes a look at the other half of parental-child relations in its story of a single mother struggling to raise a teenage son. I see something of my own relationship with my mother in this story of a single mom who loves her son but can't seem to understand him. It provides a trio of three-dimensional women, two types of men we rarely see in films, a punk soundtrack, and the chance to see Annette Bening dancing around a bedroom to Talking Heads. It's a wonderful little movie that really should have garnered more nominations than just this one.
ANIMATED FEATURE
Kubo and the Two Strings
In any year a winner like a Zootopia or a Moana would feel like a justifiable conclusion. Disney's Neo-Renaissance continues with these two entries, and they're another pair of solidly made efforts. Personally, I liked Moana a bit better than Zootopia even if the former takes a bit longer to truly get sailing while the later hits the ground running. But Disney's dominance in this category (back-to-back recent wins, and they own Pixar) is starting to feel stale. Especially when studios like Laika go unrewarded for continually producing great work, and Studio Ghibli has but one statute to its name despite their second great genius producing a masterpiece for the ages with The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. And none of this has even covered the majestic beauty of Tomm Moore's two feature films, The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, that both deserved a golden statue as far as I'm concerned.
What I'm taking a long time to say is this, there are other studios producing great work and not getting the rewards for it. Laika deserves love, Gkids buys up stellar international animated films for American release to little applause or attention. The truly daring stuff keeps losing to the safer American choices.
So naturally, my three favorite films in this category stand close to zero chance in walking home a winner. My Life as a Zucchini is a bittersweet, tender story about children in an orphanage, and the film never once shies away from the tremendous hurt and damage these kids feel. It's charming to look at, like Play-Doh creations moving around dioramas. The animation branch is always nominating works that are vibrantly unique like this. Shame the rest of the Academy won't reward them.
The Red Turtle is a multi-national release, and yet another feather in the heavily adorned cap of Studio Ghibli. A film completely free of dialog and heavy on magic realism, The Red Turtle is immersive in its refreshing simplicity. The fact that it even got the nomination is the reward here. But much like My Life as a Zucchini a large part of me wishes for a miracle to happen and for something like this to win.
But if any of these films stand a chance to knock Zootopia out of the game, it's Kubo and the Two Strings. Here is one of my top five favorite films of 2016, easily. Kubo uses a quest-narrative to explore parental loss, the power of art to heal, and dealing with grief. Fairy tales are built upon mutating tragedy and strife into digestible bits by wrapping their morality plays in romance, adventure, rousing entertainment, and magic. Kubo openly embraces and plays with these conventions, and it's one of the greatest cinematic fairy tales I've seen in years. This film stuck with me long after my first viewing. (For my money, this was also the strongest ensemble of films in any of the categories that I watched.)
So there you have it. These would be the winners if I got to choose them. Hope you enjoyed reading this thing. I'll return to my usual Star of the Month routine soon!
These categories include (for those new to me doing this): Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay -- Adapted, Screenplay -- Original, and Animated Feature. Why Animated Feature you ask? Because I really love animation and one of my eight million childhood dream jobs was going into the field.
Without further distraction, let's get down to what I would vote for in these nine major categories!
PICTURE
- Moonlight
- Arrival
- Hell or High Water
- Manchester by the Sea
- Fences
- Lion
- Hidden Figures
- La La Land
- Hacksaw Ridge
Nothing is going to topple La La Land from its practically predetermined victory lap in most major categories. 2016 was a rough year, and La La Land is feel good balm that leaves you with a dizzy high, pats Hollywood on its own back, and is generally likable. It's also completely forgettable with no dramatic tension to pull its narrative along, the whitest version of Los Angeles this native son has ever seen, and propelled by a unmemorable score. All it does is remind us of better movies from MGM's glory days and Jacques Demy's musicals. In a contentious election year, the feel good rah-rah movie always wins (Rocky, Argo, Slumdog Millionaire, just to name a few).
With that out of the way, let's talk about the rest of the nominees! Moonlight has stuck with me, practically burrowing parts of itself under my skin and staying there. Perhaps it's pieces of my own childhood reflecting back in Chiron's, but there was something there that soothed and broke my soul in equal measure. While Arrival was a subterranean sneak attack on my emotions. While wrapped in a glossy science-fiction exterior, Arrival boils down to a mother telling the story of her life to her daughter. It presents the humanity in lieu of the explosions and monstrous alien attacks we're used to in science-fiction. I adored it. These two films felt like elegiac poems for our deeply human desires to love, be loved, connect, and be better versions of ourselves.
Then there's the more grounded human dramas of Hell or High Water, a solidly made Neo-Western led by an underrated performance from Chris Pine, and Manchester by the Sea, a devastating glimpse of grief drowning every character we encounter. They're both wonderful movies with solid writing, great acting, and heartbreaking pathos. I love how Hell or High Water refuses to give us the big gun fights until the characters have painted themselves into a desperate corner, and the Western mantra of blood-for-blood as a way of keeping the equilibrium must be adhered to.
Next up a trilogy of enjoyable but flawed movies. Fences is the type of movie that we go to watch great actors, both known movie stars and unknown character players, tear into great material. It's clearly just the stage play filmed with little to nothing done to open it up, but August Wilson's prose and the central performances from Denzel Washington and Viola Davis make it a moving, enthralling journey. Lion is a quiet sneak attack, but it's also a movie that's stronger in the first half and deflates and goes flabby in the second. Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel turn in solid work, and I appreciate how it forsakes big fireworks in favor of sharper emotional pinpoints. Lastly, Hidden Figures a story that deserves to be told, but is clearly run through the Hollywood machine to make everything more digestible to a wider audience. Large chunks of the film ring false, but it's a rah-rah feel good winner that works in large parts to an obscenely talented ensemble headed by a terrific trio.
Finally, there's Hacksaw Ridge. God, my best guess is that the same voting block that gave films like American Sniper and Bridge of Spies a ton of nominations ushered this one in as well. I hated this movie. It's a piece of pious gore porn for the fundamentalist Christian set that all but pins a halo on Andrew Garfield's cute face from the first frame while Mel Gibson takes masturbatory glee in the scenes of brutality and carnage. I get the sound nominations, even the editing one, but this was one of the best directed films of the year? The conservative dad/uncle brigade of the Academy is large enough to throw a picture nomination at it?
DIRECTORNext up a trilogy of enjoyable but flawed movies. Fences is the type of movie that we go to watch great actors, both known movie stars and unknown character players, tear into great material. It's clearly just the stage play filmed with little to nothing done to open it up, but August Wilson's prose and the central performances from Denzel Washington and Viola Davis make it a moving, enthralling journey. Lion is a quiet sneak attack, but it's also a movie that's stronger in the first half and deflates and goes flabby in the second. Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel turn in solid work, and I appreciate how it forsakes big fireworks in favor of sharper emotional pinpoints. Lastly, Hidden Figures a story that deserves to be told, but is clearly run through the Hollywood machine to make everything more digestible to a wider audience. Large chunks of the film ring false, but it's a rah-rah feel good winner that works in large parts to an obscenely talented ensemble headed by a terrific trio.
Finally, there's Hacksaw Ridge. God, my best guess is that the same voting block that gave films like American Sniper and Bridge of Spies a ton of nominations ushered this one in as well. I hated this movie. It's a piece of pious gore porn for the fundamentalist Christian set that all but pins a halo on Andrew Garfield's cute face from the first frame while Mel Gibson takes masturbatory glee in the scenes of brutality and carnage. I get the sound nominations, even the editing one, but this was one of the best directed films of the year? The conservative dad/uncle brigade of the Academy is large enough to throw a picture nomination at it?
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Damien Chazelle is going to win this thing in a walk, and I can't entirely be mad about it. For all of La La Land's narrative and acting problems, it's a solidly envisioned and directed effort. I get his nomination, and will only mildly grumble at his eventual win. I can't say I totally get the presence of Mel Gibson or Kenneth Lonergan whose films are hardly directorial achievements of the highest caliber. Hell, Hacksaw Ridge's strong showing just baffles me completely.
So that leaves us with Denis Villeneuve and Barry Jenkins, both of whom had huge challenges in adapting their material for the screen and making it all work. As much as I loved Arrival, Moonlight just stuck with me. I can close my eyes and remember several images from the film, including the ocean baptism and slow seduction/reunion in the diner. Moonlight is a great movie for a variety of reason, and Jenkins' direction is one of them.
ACTOR
Denzel Washington, Fences
What an anemic year for Leading Actor that Ryan Gosling's emotionless, monotone warbling garnered him a second career nomination. Gosling is a very fine actor, and if he had been nominated for something like Lars and the Real Girl I wouldn't be complaining. He's adequate in La La Land, but there's any number of fellow leading men in his generation that could have given that exact same performance. While Viggo Mortensen is the best thing about the overly twee, quirk-fest mess that is Captain Fantastic. His work is layered and wonderfully quiet, but I don't know how I feel about stronger performances like A Dangerous Method or A History of Violence going unrewarded in favor of this.
Even worse is Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge. He's another strong actor, but he's been far better in films like The Social Network, Red Riding: 1974, Boy A, and Never Let Me Go. So what gets him his first career Oscar nomination? Doing a Huckleberry Hound impression in a disingenuous movie that wants to have it both ways. So what we're left with is a two-man race of contrasts.
Casey Affleck and Denzel Washington both play men broken by life and trying to make good with the remnants, but they go about it in two different ways. Affleck's character pushes everyone away and burrows within himself, picks fights at bars, and refuses to engage in any deep or meaningful way with his own emotions and others. It's a somber part, and Affleck expresses deep wells of pain and anguish. If he wins, it's a richly deserving performance. But there's just something about Washington's go-for-broke work that won me over. Perhaps it's the pages and pages of dialog he must recite while stopping and starting on complex emotional tangents and showcasing a broad range, or maybe it's just how gleefully unlikable his character is. This is a bitter broken man taking his hurt out on the ones he loves. Either one deserves a win, but Washington wraps his voice around Wilson's prose like a comfortable sweater.
ACTRESS
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Before you think I'm going to use this space to tear into La La Land again, just know that I thought Emma Stone's performance was the far superior one between the two and the real standout. It's just that the script doesn't offer much for her to do. There's a few bits of comedy, a chance for her to demonstrate her pleasing chemistry with Ryan Gosling, and she sings well enough. There's just no drama or soul in La La Land's full-frontal sugar rush assault.
Even worse is the laziness of throwing Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination for just appearing in any movie nowadays. There's been a recent trend over the past 10 years to nomination (and award) her for gorgon-like overacting (August: Osage County), thinly written comedic roles (The Devil Wears Prada), and middling biographical films that left her with nothing to do (The Iron Lady). Florence Foster Jenkins is not an improvement on this trend, but it is yet another example of Streep's tendency towards material that allows her to shine to the detriment of the surrounding material.
Much better are the other three women. Shock nominee Ruth Negga is all scaled back and quiet acting. She has no big Oscar-y scene, but her work is transcendent for the ways in which she makes Mildred Loving blossom as the story progresses. Natalie Portman has the unenviable task of finding a way into Jackie O, a pop icon that feels as towering and omnipresent now as she was in her heyday. Portman's turn breaks the back of a biographical film by revealing parts of the performance are as much of an act as the interview Jackie O gives throughout. Portman's Jackie must change between public and private face so quickly and imperceptibly that it's nearly Herculean in its efforts, add to that the impeccable vocal intonations and you've got a career-high for the actress.
And then there's Isabelle Huppert in Elle. The French cinematic goddess has never been one to shy away from a complicated or difficult part or subject matter. In fact, she seems most at home in the more provocative and thorny material. This tale of a rape victim purposefully reenacting her assault and plotting revenge may take the cake. Huppert's by turns frightening and compassionate here, and hers is the trickiest part to play of the five nominees. Not only would I give her the Oscar for her performance, but as something of a career achievement award.
This year's Best Actress was overloaded with potential nominees, and three actresses in particular deserved a chance. Amy Adams must carry Arrival, Taraji P. Henson demonstrating that is possible for girls to excel in STEM education and power-through mountains of racism in Hidden Figures, and Annette Bening's simply marvelous work in 20th Century Women. These are the types of fully realized and well acted roles we should be nominating and rewarding.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
While Leading Actor is a bit of wash, Supporting Actor is bursting with award worthy performances. Lucas Hedges is great as a teenager seemingly unable to understand how fundamentally his life has changed in the wake of his father's death. Jeff Bridges plays a US Marshall that sounds like talking dip, drops casually racist jokes as a way of bonding with his partner, and brings a steel-eyed grit and pathos in his final scenes of confrontation with Chris Pine. Michael Shannon is one of our best eccentric actors, and he plays a Texas Ranger in such a way that it is as engrossing as it is individualistic.
Then there's what Dev Patel and Mahershala Ali bring to their films. Patel takes over the main role in the second half of Lion, and he gives a soulful, textured performance. His expressive eyes are a textbook example of what minute acting for the screen should look like as he's possessed by repressed memories that blur the lines between past and present. While Ali's time is brief, he gives his character enough colors to last with you. Not only does he provide the ocean baptism, but he functions as a surrogate father figure, a voice of moral and emotional support, and the face of guilt as the realizes the hurt he's inadvertently thrust upon the boy. It came down to the two of them, but there's just something about Ali's work that hits you hard.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis, Fences
Must like Leading Actress, the omissions are just as worthy as the ones that made it in. Octavia Spenser is solid and dependable in Hidden Figures, but Janelle Monae does her one better. Not to say that Spenser is unworthy of the love, her scene with Kirsten Dunst in a bathroom confrontation practically sealed it for me, but Monae has more to do and trickier material to play. Then there's Academy darlings Nicole Kidman and Michelle Williams, both of whom are underused in their films for my tastes but deliver the goods when it counts. Kidman's adoptive mother in Lion never asks for our sympathy, but she earns it with her strong maternal display, supportive nature, and a stellar monologue where she describes why she chose to adopt instead of giving birth. While Williams exists predominantly in Manchester by the Sea's flashbacks there's a reunion scene between her and Affleck that hits you like a sledgehammer to the gut.
First-timer Naomie Harris transforms from loving mother to abusive drug addict to an apologetic, broken woman in Moonlight. She gets several big scenes to play, including one where she confronts Ali's drug dealer that twists your stomach into knots with its combination of vitriol and visceral impact. Any other year, and I'd be championing her to the win. But this thing belongs to Viola Davis' career-best work in Fences, the first black actress to ever reach three Oscar nominations.
Davis is always worthy of a win with any of her nominated performances, but she digs deep into the truth of Rose and it's almost jarring how exhaustive and honest her portrayal is. Her placement in the supporting category could be argued, but her worthiness as the eventual champion cannot. If this isn't the role of Davis' screen career, then it's for certain in her top five most essential works. Sure, the scene where she lashes out at Washington, her face covered in snot and tears, will get the highlight treatment, but it's the bone-deep tiredness and quiet grace that she moves about the frame throughout that preps you for that big moment.
SCREENPLAY -- ADAPTED
Moonlight
I thoroughly enjoyed both Lion and Hidden Figures, but their screenplays have problems. Hidden Figures is clearly a scrubbed clean feel-good version of the true events, but the story is too important for me to be mad at its placement here. Lesser true story films have been nominated and won here (hey, The Imitation Game) that Hidden Figures occupying a slot doesn't bother me. Same goes for Lion, which loses its shape and momentum between the first and second half, but it sticks the landing and hits you with its emotional subtly.
The appearance of Fences is understandable on the strength of August Wilson as a writer, but they literally just filmed the play. There's no screenwriting or adapting here, really. It's an achievement of great writing, just maybe not great screenwriting. Where does that leave us? With the same two movies that I keep circling back towards.
Arrival has a complicated structure that doesn't explain itself until the very last moments. It requires deep thought and attention to be paid, but it's not impossible to follow. It also makes linguistics as enthralling and nerve-wracking as Spotlight made investigative journalism. But this thing belongs to Moonlight which checks in a series of characters in three distinct periods. It's chiefly about witnessing one man growing into his truth and trying to heal his broken soul. Each of the three chapters refer to each other, with events in the third paying off seeds from the first and so on.
SCREENPLAY -- ORIGINAL
20th Century Women
The worst thing about La La Land is its script, so it even getting a nomination here is a joke. The only explanation I can think of is sheer goodwill carrying it in with the tide. Nothing happens in that movie that you can't predict thirty minutes prior, and the dissolution of the central relationship over one semi-tense dinner is a joke. Of course, if I were to poke holes at all of the logical and narrative gaps in a musical's script, I'd have to forsake my love of the genre but there's something particularly egregious about La La Land's white-bread fairy tale.
The others I get completely. Manchester by the Sea is by one of our preeminent writers, so of course its story of grief management and emotional turmoil gets a nomination. And, frankly, it deserves it for the ways in which it refuses to give the audience the expected payoff. While Hell or High Water begins life as a sturdily made piece of genre fare, it slowly emerges as a character study of economic and emotional desperation as the veneer of civilized society is unbalanced and some of the ugliness and chaos circling underneath leaks out. Either one of them pulling a surprise take-down on La La Land would bring me immense joy.
But the two nominees in this group that I enjoyed the most were The Lobster and 20th Century Women. The Lobster may not entirely work, but the audacity and strangeness, the acuity of its emotional truths and originality of its plot. Trying to summarize won't make it feel like any less of a fever dream, and the whole thing will prove divisive. I got a lot of enjoyment out of it, but everyone else's mileage will vary.
Then there's 20th Century Women, another deeply felt character study from Mike Mills. Something of a spiritual cousin to his prior film, Beginners, 20th Century Women takes a look at the other half of parental-child relations in its story of a single mother struggling to raise a teenage son. I see something of my own relationship with my mother in this story of a single mom who loves her son but can't seem to understand him. It provides a trio of three-dimensional women, two types of men we rarely see in films, a punk soundtrack, and the chance to see Annette Bening dancing around a bedroom to Talking Heads. It's a wonderful little movie that really should have garnered more nominations than just this one.
ANIMATED FEATURE
Kubo and the Two Strings
In any year a winner like a Zootopia or a Moana would feel like a justifiable conclusion. Disney's Neo-Renaissance continues with these two entries, and they're another pair of solidly made efforts. Personally, I liked Moana a bit better than Zootopia even if the former takes a bit longer to truly get sailing while the later hits the ground running. But Disney's dominance in this category (back-to-back recent wins, and they own Pixar) is starting to feel stale. Especially when studios like Laika go unrewarded for continually producing great work, and Studio Ghibli has but one statute to its name despite their second great genius producing a masterpiece for the ages with The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. And none of this has even covered the majestic beauty of Tomm Moore's two feature films, The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, that both deserved a golden statue as far as I'm concerned.
What I'm taking a long time to say is this, there are other studios producing great work and not getting the rewards for it. Laika deserves love, Gkids buys up stellar international animated films for American release to little applause or attention. The truly daring stuff keeps losing to the safer American choices.
So naturally, my three favorite films in this category stand close to zero chance in walking home a winner. My Life as a Zucchini is a bittersweet, tender story about children in an orphanage, and the film never once shies away from the tremendous hurt and damage these kids feel. It's charming to look at, like Play-Doh creations moving around dioramas. The animation branch is always nominating works that are vibrantly unique like this. Shame the rest of the Academy won't reward them.
The Red Turtle is a multi-national release, and yet another feather in the heavily adorned cap of Studio Ghibli. A film completely free of dialog and heavy on magic realism, The Red Turtle is immersive in its refreshing simplicity. The fact that it even got the nomination is the reward here. But much like My Life as a Zucchini a large part of me wishes for a miracle to happen and for something like this to win.
But if any of these films stand a chance to knock Zootopia out of the game, it's Kubo and the Two Strings. Here is one of my top five favorite films of 2016, easily. Kubo uses a quest-narrative to explore parental loss, the power of art to heal, and dealing with grief. Fairy tales are built upon mutating tragedy and strife into digestible bits by wrapping their morality plays in romance, adventure, rousing entertainment, and magic. Kubo openly embraces and plays with these conventions, and it's one of the greatest cinematic fairy tales I've seen in years. This film stuck with me long after my first viewing. (For my money, this was also the strongest ensemble of films in any of the categories that I watched.)
So there you have it. These would be the winners if I got to choose them. Hope you enjoyed reading this thing. I'll return to my usual Star of the Month routine soon!
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