CODA

Movie: CODA

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay

How I watched: Apple TV

When I fell asleep: Didn't

When it had me: When I learned that deaf people are noisy!

When it lost me: I don't think it did

What I have to say:

CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults. This movie follows a family of four with only one hearing child. I love that deaf actors are getting so many more roles these days. That seems to be the primary reason for this film's nomination. This is a solid movie, an enjoyable movie. Also a movie lacking some extra oomph that makes it feel like a traditional "Oscar Movie". 

I don't mean that as a complaint. The idea of an "Oscar Movie" is so subjective and often silly. There is such a stereotype that it's only fit for the Academy if there is an actor transformation, an ugly crying scene, Nazi atrocities or cutting edge film technology. This movie isn't any of that, which makes it feel mild by comparison. However, I'd rather we include ten nominees, allow for some mild films and showcase actors who aren't usually a part of the norm.

I learned some things about living with and as deaf people, which was great. I cried a few times, so they definitely had me invested. I enjoyed all of the characters and their arcs. In fact, now that I think about it, this was an original story that wasn't a reboot or a sequel or based on a comic book. Maybe this movie is a unicorn, because it is exactly what they say doesn't get greenlit in Hollywood anymore!

Don't Look Up

Movie: Don't Look Up

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing

How I watched: Netflix

When I fell asleep: Nope

When it had me: Right when they made the calculation

When it lost me: It didn't

What I have to say:

This movie was really triggering for some people. I found it quite funny and only mildly disturbing. I think the story of a meteor heading toward earth was meant to be an allegory for climate change. It served just as well as a commentary on the pandemic. I found it cathartic to laugh at how unforgivably stupid we all are (although certainly some much more so than others.)

Some characters serve as archetypes while others feel like more direct stand-ins for actual figures. The gleeful insanity of humanity is painted in such a way that I sort of love us as much as I hate us when watching it. We are SO TERRIBLY flawed, how can we hope to do better? Maybe we REALLY are doing our best. And a recurring joke about a general who charges people for snacks made me so incredibly happy to see my kind of ruminating brought to life on the screen.

The tone of the movie seemed like a tricky one to pull off. It dares us to laugh at ourselves and never quite feels as angry or resentful as I would expect it to. After all, it's a movie that says we are valuing wealth and fame over intelligence and seriousness and it will literally mean the end of all but the very richest of us. I don't think anything about that premise is an exaggeration, or even wrong. It tells us the best we can hope for is to die in good company. It seems depressing and fatalistic but is it wrong? 

The strongest move in this film, for me, was to include seemingly random cutaways to nature, animals, vistas and people from around the world, often poor people, just living their lives. In the midst of this wacky send-up we are being reminded without overt comment of everything we have to lose. That coupled with a line by Leonardo DiCaprio in the final scene, "We really did have it all, didn't we?" make this movie transcend from straight satire to a bittersweet love letter to a planet that is hurting from the ugly parasitic species that is doing the harm. I continue to be a fan of Adam McKay's pull-no-punches film making.

Nightmare Alley

Movie: Nightmare Alley

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design

How I watched: HBO Max

When I fell asleep: I did not

When it had me: Creepy carnival? Right from the start!

When it lost me: I don't think so.

What I have to say:

This movie was right in my sweet spot. Nightmare Alley has everything! Art deco, noir, fringes of society, Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, murder! Ok ok, I'll watch! Most of all, it was very beautiful.

I loved getting a peek behind the curtain into the tricks of scam artists! We all feel like such mysterious tortured individuals, but in reality, we are very predictable humans with a fairly narrow and universal emotional breadth and life experiences. Those who are willing to see us through that simple template are able to prey upon our feelings of stark uniqueness and manipulate us with ease. Psychology can break down the common human experience and use it to help us see ourselves more clearly and help heal our wounds. And scam artists can monetize that knowledge and give us some degree of relief in exchange for a steep price. And if either can help us, should we judge which way a person gets relief?

This movie is a remake from the 1940s and based on a book. I enjoyed the inclusion of knowledge of trauma and the way it changes people in this movie (I'm assuming that's a new touch in Del Toro's version). Trauma gives some of us superpowers by making us hyper-vigilant and extremely in tune with the shifting, nuanced emotions of others. If you learned this as a survival mechanism, you might make a great mentalist too!

Nightmare Alley has a nice sense of tension and impending doom. I keep needing to edit myself in order to avoid spoilers, so let me cut this short!

If I could go live inside this movie for a day and just be an assistant to Cate Blanchett in her sleek art deco office, that would be the cat's meow. This is the only movie so far that I wanted to UHaul, so that's notable!

The Power of the Dog

Movie: The Power of the Dog

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design

How I watched: Netflix

When I fell asleep: I didn't

When it had me: Benedict Cumberbatch

When it lost me: Not until the very end!

What I have to say:

This movie tapped into one of my favorite experiences while I engage in cinematic gluttony: the feeling when I have no idea where a film is going next. I came in with no knowledge of this movie or its source material so I just went on a ride. Will there be forbidden love? Will there be death? Is it all about power struggle? Are outside forces going to upset the balance? I don't know! Anything could happen! 

What I did know was that when you have a mean, bully like Benedict Cumberbatch's character, sooner or later emotions are going to boil over. So that tension kept me in a place of wariness as I waited for the story to unfold. While I waited, the film was gorgeous with beautiful vistas and really good acting. We took a couple of turns I didn't see coming and eventually the film ended. And I was completely lost. I mean, I didn't even know what had happened. It felt anticlimactic and I definitely thought I had missed something.

Dear readers, I had to go ask the internet what the heck I missed and have someone explain it to me. I am not proud of this. I usually follow even the trickiest of movies. Needing help is NOT one of my favorite movie experiences. I really don't know if the movie is hard to follow or if I was just having an off night. Maybe I got too attached to the feeling of wandering through the film with no expectations and missed a few cues along the way. (Note: I have checked in with a few other people who also felt very unclear about what was going on here.)

Once I had a better picture of what was going on in the movie, I found out I liked it a whole lot! But I can't help but deduct from my overall score of the film because I needed the cliff's notes to get there. This might be a movie that benefits from additional viewings. But we don't have time for that during full on Oscar Gluttony!

Drive My Car

Movie: Drive My Car

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best International Feature

How I watched: At the Laemmle, with slight people panic

When I fell asleep: My eyes closed once, third act.

When it had me: It didn't grab me all at once, it grew on me slowly.

When it lost me: Some sequences of driving

What I have to say:

Let's talk about long movies. Drive My Car was so long that it was very difficult to find parking. The lot by the Laemmle is closed and all the street parking is a 2 hour maximum. I know this isn't the film maker's fault but I was faced with a decision to either leave during the movie to move my car (drive it, as it were) or park illegally and hope for the best. Never mind, what I chose. It's not important.

Drive My Car was so long that my eyes grew heavy in the third act and as they closed I caught myself thinking, "I think I know enough Japanese by now that I can follow along without subtitles..." Then I realized I was falling asleep, because that for sure was not true and I had to sit up straight for a while so I could read the movie again.

Drive My Car was so long that 41 minutes into the film, the opening credits barged their way onto the screen, completely confusing me. So about halfway through the running time of the movie Luca, we are just now being introduced to the actors? The first 41 minutes was just a sort of prologue??? 

I am not opposed to long movies. I have enjoyed very long movies. I am also a film editor, so if you sit me down for 2:59 of a film it is impossible for me to not look for places where it could have been cut. Like sometimes we see more driving than I needed. I know the film is called Drive My Car but I mean, it really is a LOT of driving. Also, I worry that a lot of people won't go see long movies. Is your message best served by making it so long that you exclude some audiences? Maybe. Ok, enough of that.

Why is the movie so long? First, it's based on a book. A book is long form and you don't want to lose great stuff or sell it short, so you make a long movie. That makes sense. Also, the movie deals with grieving. As we all know, grief doesn't end at a funeral. It is a life long journey and that is the primary theme of this movie for me, how we change, grow, stunt and suffer at the hands of our grieving process. So it makes sense that this is not a fast paced, quick-cutting romp through a life journey. It is a contemplative, meditative, spacious, quiet, measured amble through hurting, healing and moving on.

The time and attention given to small aspects of the characters is lovely. The acting is very underplayed and also extremely moving. The tensions stretch out and the connections have real time growth. It all ends up feeling decidedly true. I really liked the experience of this movie. I remain shocked that a film like this even got nominated for best picture. I couldn't help but wonder how they even got enough people to sit through three hours in order to vote for it. Escapist entertainment this is not. It is thoughtful and observant and I'm guessing, the last horse to cross the line in the Best Picture race.

Belfast

Movie: Belfast

Nominated For:  Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound, Best Original Screenplay, 

How I watched: Prime Purchase

When I fell asleep: I did not

When it had me: The look had me right away

When it lost me: I drifted a bit at the end of the 2nd act

What I have to say:

Although the film takes place in 1969, amid tension and violence acted out against Catholics by militant Protestants, it feels older. Shot in black and white and centered around a little boy and his short pants and rucksack, it becomes hard for an American viewer to place this film in the same time frame as the Black Panthers and Woodstock. This is how we are presented with Belfast, a small town somehow lost in time and steeped in tradition. 

This film was relayed through such complex compositions. The visuals were often so breath taking that I felt visually nourished, if that makes any sense. So many angles and depths to each shot and almost always a character visible in the background or on the periphery. There was a lot to interest your eye and also a constant sense of accompaniment. Each shot reminds you that you are not alone, someone is always near. This could have seemed menacing but instead it was almost cozy; a fact of life lived closely with family. Camera angles remain low, from the perspective of the child that leads us through this story. In the same vain, the viewer receives a lot of information through over-hearing conversations, catching snippets here or there or from a variety of other sources. I was captivated by this grounding of the film's events through the experience of a kid. Such strong choices. I really felt like I went somewhere specific and experienced something. 

My complaints were minor. It felt like a LOT of song cues and there was a stall for a bit where I would have started dozing had I been more tired. But overall, I felt charmed, moved, and invited into an authentic moment in time. The character of Pops, the grandpa, was so specific and grounded in reality that he somehow felt representative of all grandpas to me...surely we all know one just like him?

What resonated most for me in this moment was the tension between the family's daily life and the larger picture of societal change swirling around them. The mom's character wants nothing to do with the change, keeping her head down and staying grounded in the realities of their daily life; paying the bills, feeding the kids, family functions. It reminded me of so many people I know who are disgusted by politics and say they choose to ignore it all because they have a life to live and no time for all that nonsense. It is shocking to see how quickly the town adapts to checkpoints and guards and barricades as they go about their daily lives (but honestly not THAT shocking as I mentally check that I have face masks stored in at least five different places.) The character of the father is more dialed in to the larger climate and knows that the changes going on around them cannot be evaded. Eventually, they can no longer ignore the magnitude of unrest and must figure out what comes next for them. Grounding yourself in your daily life may help you stay sane and present in your but sometimes it does not pay to ignore the big picture because whether you like it or not, that will affect your life too. Overall, a very beautiful movie that gives you a lot to think about.

Dune

Movie: Dune

Nominated for: Best Picture, Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Make-Up and Hairstyling

How I watched: A Theatre (gasp!)

When I fell asleep: I did not

When it had me: From the start

When it lost me: It didn't

What I have to say:

I read this over the summer in preparation for the movie. I never saw the original movie incarnation, but this one looked damn good so I made sure to get on board. This movie was steeped in mood and vibe and magnificent scope and thundering importance. It was one of those rare adaptations where everything felt correct; like somehow not exactly what I had pictured, but absolutely right nonetheless. The casting of this film was the single most astonishingly perfect piece. Who can play boyish but wise beyond his years and carry gravitas while looking like a mouse other than Timothee Chalamet? He is the one perfect choice! Everyone else was terrific as well and I can't wait for the second installment. The sound felt really tremendous in this movie. This was during one of those rare pockets of time where I felt safe enough to go to the movies, so it makes sense that full Dolby sound kind of knocked my socks off; I have been sadly deprived for a good while. The only down side may have been that you needed to read the book first to really dive in? Friends that did not start with knowledge of the book seemed to be a lot less impressed overall, which maybe makes it a movie that relies on a prior relationship with the source material; it should be able to stand on its own. That being said, my kids had not read it and still loved it, so it is possible.

Oscar Nominations 2022! The game has begun.

I almost threw in the towel this year. About a month ago, I just had no desire to be the Oscar Glutton. Two years of pandemic, a year of home construction and a general waning faith in the ability of humans to do anything but disappoint me was weighing me down and making me feel like there was no point. YOU know what I mean; you've struggled with the exact same human emotions at some point in the past two years (or maybe are feeling it right now) so I'm not telling you anything shocking.

However, home construction is drawing to a close, Omicron is maybe getting bored with us and I just remembered there are humans who do NOT disappoint me and some of them are you, my readers!

So, I'm back! I intend to watch every movie nominated in every category before the Oscars Award Ceremony airs, or get as close as I can. I started bingeing every highly rated movie on ALL my streaming services a couple weeks ago, just in case I decided to return to full Gluttony. The nominations have been announced and I can imagine the possibility of maybe venturing to a theatre once in the next month? I mean, only if it is mid-day and I am wearing two of my government issued N95s, because I am still cautious AF, but it is a possibility.

I didn't even know the nominations were coming out today! I thought it was going to drop after the Super Bowl. So here is the full list of nominees, if you are interested.

I have seen 4 of the 10 Best Picture Nominees, and 16 out of 37 movies total. I can (probably) do this.

My favorite title is Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom. I have questions already!

My biggest disappointment is that they didn't nominate the song Just Look Up from Don't Look Up. Any song that includes the lyric, "Get your head out of your ass and listen to the goddamn qualified scientists" deserves consideration in my opinion.

Let me help you out if you are looking to watch the Big 10. Here's where you can find them:

Belfast - Rent on Prime

CODA - Apple TV

Don't Look Up - Netflix

Drive My Car - In Theaters, not streaming so far

Dune - Rent on Apple TV

King Richard - Rent on Prime

Licorice Pizza - Prime

Nightmare Alley - HBO Max

The Power of the Dog - Netflix

West Side Story - Coming Soon to Streaming supposedly

Ok, we're off like a herd of turtles, as my grandfather used to say! Go watch a movie!