Don’t Stop Believing (Oscars 2022)

“The Artist begins…”

“Nothing symbolizes the Academy’s out-of-touchness as much as the omission of this song ‘Unchained (The Payback/Untouchable)’. Seriously, when else are you going to get a chance to award an Oscar to 2pac and the Godfather of Soul at the same time.”

“My other favorite apocalyptic films this year: This is the End, The World’s End, and World War Z. Good year for the apocalypse. Glad it didn’t happen.”

“One thing I’ve learned in this life is to never count out the Dame.”

“I will still gladly take a Sly Stallone award here. What an amazing valedictory performance for the guy…”

“Now we literally know what it’s like for two films to win in a certain year (it is even completely possible, but probably really unlikely, that someone died thinking La La Land was Best Picture…”

“Could the Deaks finally pull one out (this is 14th(!) nomination) for his hypnotic dark future dreamscape of Blade Runner: 2049?”

“The Favourite is my favorite….”

“Wow Tom Hanks, thank you, I can’t believe you just said my name and are talking with me.”

-Quotes over the years from my Oscar previews and recaps

Ten years ago on an Oscar Sunday I launched my film blog, at the time called PSH for President. A lot has changed since then (let’s see, my man Roger Deakins has won 2 Oscars, there have been controversial awards winners and snubs, the show runs too long for some people, there has been some improvement in diversity and recognition, you can stream almost all the nominees now, there’s a Hoffman and a Dench in the mix…okay so the more things change…), but I’ve cherished the experience, and look forward to wherever the movie road takes me. Alright enough preamble, let’s get on with the show:

Three Women, a Guy and a…KFC?

“She’s one heck of a driver. I can guarantee that, no problem. Why don’t you meet her and see for yourself?”

-Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

The Lost Daughter: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of the Elena Ferrante by the same name features brave performances and script and shows a complicated web of emotions and the choices made in service of those feelings. Gyllenhaal picked up a few deserved trophies at the Spirit Awards and may be a dark horse winner for Adapted Screenplay (she could have been nominated for directing too, at times I saw and felt her presence in Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley).

Cruella: I thought director Craig Gillepsie and co. did a good job with this Cruella de Ville origin story, charged by a gleefully dark performance by Emma Stone in the title role, and I think it may nab the costume design Oscar (my gosh, that trash dress!)). It was also recently nominated for the Dorian Award, Campy Flick of the Year, from GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics 2022, which I think is my favorite new award category.

Spencer: Can I have three fried chicken sandwich meals and a Kristen Stewart upset? She disappears into the role and makes it her own, all the while giving us a very humanizing portrayal of a complex person. I appreciated how director Pablo Lorrain gave us an acute sense of her anguish and despair, but left a little opening for some light to come in.

Free Guy: For a relatively breezy, not-a-thinkee flick, I thought the Ryan Reynolds vehicle Free Guy handles the video game as life simulation conceit much better than The Matrix Revolutions. The weird, unnecessary inclusion of Disney IP in the midst of a climactic final fight scene muddles it a little, but you could do worse for a fun big budget movie.

The truth of the matter

“We have no idea what’s going to happen. to us. Nobody tells us anything. The journalists come and film us. We hope something will happen, but no. They go home to make TV programmes… But nothing really happens. It’s just us and the guards.”

-Amin Nawabi, Flee

Flee: Flee tells the story of Amin Nawabi: the terror and pain of his struggle as an Afghan refugee and also his journey in coming to terms with his homosexuality. It’s a rare nominee across three categories: International Feature Film, Documentary Feature, and Animated Feature. I hope it wins something on Oscar night, and I also hope to see more films take on the animated documentary style, although it will be hard to match Flee’s emotional force.

Summer of Soul: What doubles as a fun concert documentary is also a significant piece of history, saved as it was from fading away from memory in a vault. I’ve wondered how certain reels of footage can still be unearthed anew from long ago (like what was used for Get Back for example), and sometimes ponder what else is out there we don’t know of.

As good as these are, though, Ascension is my pick for best documentary for its sublime, haunting depiction of how capitalism is playing out in modern China, and how it manages to reflect our own society in both startling and unsurprising ways. I thought it was really well edited too, filled with images that were seemingly discordant and yet ultimately harmonious: of jellyfish, flashing storefront lights, people putting together sex dolls, a rave party at a waterpark, and people clapping in unison and then stopping abruptly.

The list

“You’re Buddy from Belfast 15, where everybody knows you and your pop looks out for you and your mummy looks out for you, your daddy looks out for you, your granny looks out for you, your brother looks out for you, and the whole family looks out for you. And wherever you go and whatever you become, that’ll always be the truth. And that thought will keep you safe. It’ll keep you happy… Will you remember that for me?”

-Belfast (Kenneth Branagh)

*I took a few of these awards ideas from the recent Bill Simmons podcast (February 15th) that discussed a few ways on how to fix the Oscars, which is a fun listen.

• Biggest Oscar question (and possible awardee): Will Shaq be in the building to possibly accept an Oscar for the ah-mazing short documentary, The Queen of Basketball?
• Biggest phenomenon I felt little to no connection with: Encanto (although I do like the score by Germaine Franco).
• Best performances not nominated: Bradley Cooper in Nightmare Alley, Frances McDormand in Macbeth, Dakota Johnson in The Lost Daughter, Ed Harris in The Lost Daughter, Rachel Zegler in West Side Story (but thank God Ariana Debose is the frontrunner), Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jonah Hill in Don’t Look Up, Emilia Jones in CODA, Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in the World, and Pam Grier in Jackie Brown (wait wrong year, but yes she WASN’T NOMINATED. People would go nuts about this today).
• 2022 Movie MVP candidates: Cooper (for Nightmare Alley and Licorice Pizza), Lin-Manuel Miranda (directed tick, tick…BOOM! composed Encanto, and is nominated for an Oscar for his song “Dos Oroguitas”), Timothee Chalamet for being in two best picture nominees (Dune and Don’t Look Up), as well as a Wes Anderson flick (The French Dispatch), Jane Campion (writing and directing The Power of the Dog), PTA (writing and directing Licorice Pizza), Ryusuke Hamaguchi for writing and directing Drive My Car, Adam McKay for writing and directing Don’t Look Up, Ariana Debose (my pick for performance of the year for West Side Story), and Sian Heder for adapting and directing CODA.
• Best film debuts: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Rachel Zegler, Ariana Debose, Jude Hill, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant
• Best dame Judi Dench performance: Dame Dench in Belfast
• Best Irish grandpa-grandson relationship I vicariously lived through: Ciarin Hinds and Jude Hill in Belfast
• Best fictional art I wish was real: The Bobcat strip from The Worst Person in the World, and the Uncle Vanya production in Drive My Car
• Best Harry Potter alum performance: Ciaran Hinds (Aberforth Dumbledore) wins for a stupidly moving performance in Belfast, edging out his director Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley) as Malcolm in Macbeth*, and Emma Thompson’s (Professor Trelawney) fiendish fashionista in Cruella
• Best stunt: The truck scene in Licorice Pizza
• Best ensemble: The Power of the Cumberdunstons-McPhee

* Something to watch, is Melling going to turn out to be the best of the young actors from that series? Time to step up your game, Daniel Radcliffe.

The Best Picture Nominees

“There’s dope stuff, like material stuff, like sick apartments and watches, and cars, um, and clothes and shit that could all go away and I don’t wanna see that stuff go away. So I’m gonna say a prayer for that stuff. Amen.”

-Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay)

Don’t Look Up: I went into the latest from Adam McKay not expecting to like it all, but was pleasantly surprised, and thought it stood out amongst the field as a dark comic satire that shows the foibles of our time and offers no rosy outcome if we continue down this path (and if you’re into Joseph Campbell check out this article).

West Side Story: This was a funny movie for me– I’ve been on a musical kick lately and really enjoy the form, and so I came in expecting to love this movie, but that’s the thing with expectations…Don’t get me wrong, some of this movie absolutely dazzles and I think it’s high moments may be higher than anything I’ve seen this year, but some of it falls flat and it feels about half an hour too long. Basically yay for everything with Zegler, DeBose (fantastic and deserving of a win), and Rita Moreno and nay for the Jets (I could have done without “Officer Krumpke”).

Belfast: I wasn’t crazy about this either(my Irish heritage and interest in learning more about the Troubles maybe creating unfair expectations), although if it exists solely as a reason to watch Hinds and Dench do their thing then so friggin be it (maybe I should take what Oscar Isaac said to heart: do your own stuff). I did like the camerawork, though, the black and white color, and the lean running time, and realized that if it acts as an entry way for people into learning about that tragic history then that’s certainly a good thing.

The Power of the Dog: Some of the user reviews on IMDB call the film too much of a “slow burn,” but I love this sort of thing, and it’s this shift away from tedious plot machinations into rich explorations of character and setting that we can lose ourselves in and really relish. Like who the hell is Phil Burbank, rancher brother to George who marries a woman and acquires her land. He ruffles the ol feathers of those he’s around, to put it lightly, and is driven to sadistic lengths, even while attempting some air of normalcy by keeping his job as a ranch hand and having congenial conversations with the aforementioned people around him. There’s a point when the veneer cracks, and a vulnerable side exposed that contradicts the menacing symbolism of his overt on-screen actions. It’s a brilliant performance and I wonder if Benedict Cumberbatch just dug his heels in and followed the script, which is apparently all Anthony Hopkins does to prepare for his roles (I love that man). And then there’s Smit-McPhee, who gives a sublime turn, and doth pull the shadows of the Montana foothills to his purpose (but is it enough to stop the Kotsur steam engine? We shall see).

CODA: I was watching CODA the other night, toward the tail end of my annual Oscarathon, and realized how it had me in its grasp the way really moving movies can. Maybe it’s a little corny at times, but whatever. You feel the pull of the story of Ruby and her family and how they made it all work in spite of all the obstacles in their way. And what a gift to get these stories at the tail end of winter, at this winter, when you really need them (with apologies to T.S. Eliot, March can really test the mettle). Maybe CODA will ride its recent momentum to a Best Picture win, maybe it won’t. But to quote the great Norman Dale, I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end of the day. In my book, it’s a winner.

Enjoy the Oscars everyone, and thank you for reading now and for all these years*.

*I know, here we are in T.O.T.C** 4 and I’m not even writing about Dune (and apologies to Will Smith for not seeing King Richard yet). Well, we’ll just have to wait for my… 11th annual Oscars column won’t we?

** Time of the Timothee Chalamet