Killers of the Flower Moon

 

I know this picture is from a different film. But this is how they strap you in to watch it at the theatre. No breaks for anyone!

Movie: Killers of the Flower Moon

Running Time: 3:26 (aaaaah!)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Editing, Costume Design, Production Design, Original Song, Original Score

How I watched: AMC A List

When it had me: Lily Gladstone's quiet power

When it lost me: It almost tipped too far into comedy?

What systems does it challenge: White Supremacy, Generational Trauma, Genocide

As the first review I'm writing for the 2024 Oscar ceremony, I guess I feel most certain that this will be one of the Best Picture nominees. I was really looking forward to this movie because as a fan of Martin Scorsese, I tend to prefer his non-mafia related films. I was not disappointed. This film feels like it has so much careful thought and deliberate decision making. There's a reverence to the topic that imbues the whole thing with meaning. Which is good because some would say that he shouldn't even be making this movie; perhaps film makers from First Nations should be telling their own histories. I can only say that I hope they get to do so, in a myriad of styles and permutations.

The story is tragic, disgusting, infuriating, mind-boggling. Gather ye Americans and sit through this discomfort. Reckon with the violence that birthed our glorious country and squirm when you see the unctuous stupidity and depravity of Leo DiCaprio's sweaty face. Go ahead and feel badly about it; it's not our fault, just our history.

The acting is fantastic. The cinematography is amazing. I'm thinking of you, scene of a property being burned. Hazy heat distortions, saturated oranges and reds, white devils silhouetted in the foreground. A real nightmare grounded in the action of terrorists. The moment was such a meditation on grief, anger and loss. It worked for me.

Leonardo Di Caprio and Robert DeNiro have such a great chemistry on screen. Almost too good. A couple of their scenes felt ad-libbed and almost funny? Their take on evil mastermind and evil follower really leaned into Leo's character's stupidity to such a high degree at times that I thought I would lose it. It walked a careful line and didn't go too far.

Can we talk about my hero, Thelma Schoonmaker? Holding those tonal boundaries, giving me time to breathe and process, weaving a three and a half hour tale in such a way that I wasn't angry to sit through it? She is a virtuoso of our craft! Please give her an Oscar.

There was a court scene at the end. That's the second time this year. I sat through a whole history and then end up in court. This was truncated enough for my liking, but it feels like such a potential trap to fall into.

I loved this film and I feel like no one talks about it. It got a respectable number of nominations but I don't think it will garner any wins other than possibly Lily Gladstone. I'd suggest you break it into smaller chunks if you plan on watching it but theatres got in trouble for offering an intermission. That's not how Marty and Thelma want you to take it in. Sorry.

**Double Feature** Barbenheimer!

Movie: Barbie and Oppenheimer

Running Times: 1:54 (yay!) and 3:00 (ugh!)

Nominated for:   Oppie - Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Costumes, Hair and Makeup, Sound, Production Design, Original Score

                            Barbie - Best Picture, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design, Production Design, 2 Original Songs

How I watched: AMC, Oppenheimer on 70mm!

When it had me: The hype was strong

When it lost me: I waned at the end of Oppenheimer

What systems does it challenge: Patriarchy, Toxic Masculinity, Nuclear War

I'm going to try to review these together because we Barbenheimered. Both films came out on my child's 18th birthday and this is how they wanted to spend the day. Imagine that! I knocked out 20 nominations on one day back in July!

Barbie. I didn't want to see this movie because of my complicated internal relationship with misogyny. Barbie is stupid and reductive of women and pink is pretty much an insult and no way you'll catch me dead near that. VERY Gen X of me. But of course, this movie is not what anyone expected and what everyone needed and an absolute delight.

Greta Gerwig treats us to sunny comedy that looks with clear eyes at the perils of being a real woman when everyone expects you to be a beautiful object. She gives us kindness for men who are not encouraged to have their own identities and complex feelings. She used all of the world's pink paint! She literally made me laugh and cry and care like Nicole Kidman said I would. I want it to win so many things!

Now Ken is nominated but not Barbie and not the director and people are being so funny about how wrong that is and I love it. And yet, I also think I prefer Ryan Gosling's performance to Margot Robbie's. And maybe because to someone from my generation it is more impressive to see a man participate in a feminist work than it is a woman which is still my programmed inner patriarchy setting women up for higher standards. Greta Gerwig! Come save me from myself!

The director category always feels like a let down because we have 10 great films but only five great directors. Greta's vision and commitment to the world of this film is so hard core and detailed; it's every bit as masterful as Yorgos Lanthimos. Personally, I'd probably replace Yorgos with Greta in that category because Poor Things never fully formed as a complete thesis for me whereas Barbie did. But I know I'd rightfully get lots of arguments on that.

When Christopher Nolan took over, he wowed us with sound. The sound design is absolute fire and needs all the awards. The score, too is part of that soundscape that really took charge of the world. There is a scene where Oppenheimer faces the gravity of what he has done and the sound from this scene is foreshadowed in earlier elements of the film. It is a big, powerful, poignant moment that I continue to think about with frequency. It left a mark.

This movie projected on 70mm was so incredibly beautiful! Soft and delicious and deep and intense! Cillian Murphy's face was haunted and vulnerable and moving.

I've heard arguments that there should have been more time given to the victims of Oppenheimer's bomb but I don't see how that fit into this film. Let's have another movie about that. I've also heard that it is wrong to devote 3 hours to the white guy that invented new methods of genocide but maybe we should see how these decisions get made and how best intentions get away from you. Maybe it can help us make difficult decisions in our own lives, though most of us won't be contemplating world-ending technologies.

This movie was powerful AND it was too long. And it ended, like Killers of the Flower Moon, with a court scene. In this case the trial felt so drawn out. I felt as if I had already gotten the big moments out of the film and now I was sitting through tedium. If only Thelma Schoonmaker could have come over and tightened this up by about 22 minutes! If not for this slightly belabored ending, I would call Oppenheimer the inarguable BEST FILM of the year. Editing is important, Nolan! At least to me.

What an absurdly great day at the movies! Such different films but both powerful and cinematic and entertaining. And to be out with a bunch of weirdos dressed in pink and black and all excited for a cinematic event was more fun than I've had at the movies in a very long time.

Nomination Day or "Now I am become Glutton, the Consumer of films."

 "Now I am become Glutton, the consumer of films."

                                                                            -Autumn

*Actual footage of me watching all of the Best Picture Noms

 

The Oscar Nominations have arrived at our laptops this morning and I'm feeling excited. Thanks to my new investment in theatrical membership I am WAY ahead of the game. I've been racking up possible nominees for months and as of today I only have 17 1/2 movies to watch before the Academy Awards airs on Sunday, March 10th. (Yes, there is half a movie for me to catch up on. I got halfway through El Conde on Netflix and gave up because I was too bored and now, four months later, I get to go back and watch the second half. How fortunate.)

Oppenheimer got the most nominations at 13, followed by Poor Things at 11. I'm listening to the Oppenheimer score as I write this and wondering how many of those 13 will Oppie take home. I think it's going to be nine of them, effectively sweeping this year's awards. I hope for more diversity than that after watching all of these films, but I sort of doubt it.

You can see the full list of nominees here.

Looking over the nominees, it almost feels like there is something for everyone. I think they have been striving for this for a while. There's always plenty of drama (Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, Zone of Interest, Maestro) and there's also some comedy (Barbie, American Fiction, Poor Things, The Holdovers). You've got Past Lives if you're into romance and Anatomy of a Fall covers mystery, thriller and crime. If you like musicals, there's something for you in Maestro, Barbie and The Color Purple.

If you dig deeper into the categories, you can find your science fiction offerings (The Creator, Godzilla Minus One) and action (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) both of which were pretty surprising nominations, actually. As usual, horror fans get nothing unless we try to claim Godzilla or El Conde as monster movies. Come to think of it, I think Zone of Interest was actually the horror offering this year, just not in the way we usually think of the genre.

It was a big year for movies shot on film! One half of the nominees were shot with good old celluloid stock. I don't think all movies need to be shot that way but I always get special warm feelings when they are.

Let's look at representation! I think it was a banner year for bisexuals in cinema! Four of the ten Best Picture nominees at least give a nod to the existence of bisexual people! And they aren't always bad people even though they do usually negatively impact the world around them. Still, progress is progress, I think.

American Fiction, Rustin and The Color Purple center African American stories. And Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon and Zone of Interest all tell the stories of the white people who carry out various war crimes and genocides. Yeah, ok. This isn't going great. Let's just say representation always needs more work.

The biggest disappointment for me is that Saltburn got completely snubbed. It's in my top three of the year and I just don't see how it didn't fit in anywhere. That feels rude to me. Personally, I'd take out The Holdovers and put it up for Best Picture but they NEVER ask me.

The greatest news is that both Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown were both put up for American Fiction! That movie is also in my top three and I'm thrilled about all five of its nominations.

This year's winner for "Movie I Least Expected I Would Have to Watch" goes to Flamin' Hot, a movie about the invention of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. I'm not judging the film (well not yet, but I will soon), it just doesn't feel like a typical Oscar subject. But then again, neither does Barbie!

The Official Oscar Countdown has begun! Come along with me; watch some movies, discuss some film making and guess what Hollywood will do next. Let's feast!