Who Should Win? Who Will Win?

Well, my least favorite post of the year has arrived, and this year it's worse than ever.  The awards season has been so all over the place that making accurate predictions is probably the toughest it has ever been.  And don't forget my rule, if you use my predictions and you win you Oscars pool, I get 10% (or at least a shout out on social media.)  So, here are my final thoughts, and happy Oscars!

Best Picture:
Should Win: BlackKklansman - this was the most compelling of all the films, and based on a true story makes it even more interesting.  Unlike Green Book, the real people support the film.
Will Win: Green Book? That's right, folks, I've been wrong before on this category but this time I truly have no idea.  Roma is in the lead with GoldDerby.com, the #1 predicting service online, and I know that the people who loved this film really loved it, but there are also plenty of people like me who thought it was one of the most boring movies ever.

Director:
Should Win: Spike Lee, for his body of work (which often happens with the Academy) but also for creating his best film ever.
Will Win: Alfonso Cuaron - 10 nominations for a single film is a pretty big sign that the Academy liked his work.

Actress:
Should Win: Glenn Close
Will Win: Glenn Close, let's not forget that she is also the most nominated actor ever not to have won an Oscar, AND that she was magnificent in The Wife.

Actor:
Should Win: Christian Bale, he became Dick Cheney.  That was crazy.
Will Win: Rami Malek, he has been winning a lot of the awards along the way including the SAG award which is the greatest predictor (usually) of the Oscar.  I would not be unhappy with this choice, I was just slightly more impressed with Christian Bale. (and I do mean slightly)

Supporting Actress:
Should Win: Regina King
Will Win: Regina King, truly, there is no one else who I think comes even close on this one.

Supporting Actor:
Should Win: Richard E. Grant
Will Win: Mahershala Ali, butalsomaybe Richard E. Grant.  I know that Mahershala won the SAG award (and PS, I think he should have been nominated for Lead Actor, that was NOT a supporting role), but there is something so magical about a lifelong, talented working actor being nominated for the first time.  Sometimes Academy voters like to reward that.

Adapted Screenplay:
Should Win: BlackKklansman
Will Win: BlackKklansman, I refer to the screenplay awards as the "should have gotten the Oscar but won't" awards.  It is very rare that the screenplay winner is the Best Picture winner.  I know, that's crazy, but look it up!

Original Screenplay:
Should Win: Vice, I thought it was hilarious and quirky and totally original.
Will Win: The Favourite, again, this film had 10 nominations.  It won't win a lot, but it was also so original and again, will be a big nominee without winning Best Picture.

Cinematography:
Should Win: Never Look Away
Will Win: Roma
Just a note on this category, two of the five films were shot in black and white.  Interesting resurgence of this beautiful look.

Costume Design:
Should Win: The Favourite, with honorable mention to Black Panther
Will Win: The Favourite, period pieces are almost exclusively the winner of this category (though one of my favorites of all time was Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and the winner of the category came to accept her award in a dress made of credit cards!)

Film Editing:
Should Win: Vice, by a miracle mile
Will Win: Vice

Makeup and Hairstyling:
Should Win: Mary Queen of Scots
Will Win: Mary Queen of Scots, from the opening shot of the film, you knew you were in for something really special.  The number of impressive and unique hairstyles alone will carry the makeup artists to the award.

Production Design:
Should Win: Tie for The Favourite and Mary Poppins Returns
Will Win: The Favourite, again, those period pieces really dominate this category's winners.

Original Score:
Should Win: First Man (not nominated), or Mary Poppins Returns, beyond compare
Will Win: Black Panther is going to shock the experts and come out on top.  (GoldDerby.com predicts If Beale Street Could Talk)

Original Song:
Should Win: Shallow from A Star is Born with a very close runner up of I'll Fight from RBG
Will Win: Shallow, go get your Oscar Gaga!  And here's the thing, Gaga has a great chance of the EGOT someday.
Emmy - she did amazing work on American Horror Story (and won the Golden Globe), which means more TV in her future
Grammy - check
Oscars - will win for Shallow, but SHOULD HAVE won for "Til It Happens to You" from The Hunting Ground
Tony - Who says she won't write a musical someday? 
I'm on EGOT watch for LG.

Sound Editing:
Should Win: First Man (being predicted by GoldDerby.com)
Will Win: A Quiet Place, don't forget this film won its guild award which is helpful (not a predictor, because of the number of cross over voters in this category)

Sound Mixing:
Should Win: Black Panther
Will Win: Bohemian Rhapsody, lip syncing is apparently the toughest to achieve and also, that movie is EVERYTHING.

Visual Effects:
Should Win: Ready Player One, I am not kidding, they created an entire universe!
Will Win: Avengers: Infinity War, all the experts say so (I do not consider myself an expert, PS, this is based on research)

Animated Feature:
Should Win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Will Win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Documentary Feature:
Should Win: RBG for the awesome kick ass nature of the subject, and Of Fathers and Sons for the achievement of somehow embedding with an ISIS family without getting murdered
Will Win: Free Solo, based on the year that The Walk won, we seem to like films about idiots doing something incredibly dangerous and living.

Foreign Language Film:
Should Win: Never Look Away or even Capernaum
Will Win: Roma, ridiculous.

Animated Short:
Should Win: One Small Step (girl power!)
Will Win: Bao, which I also loved

Documentary Short:
Should Win: A Night at the Garden or Period. End of Sentence
Will Win: Period. End of Sentence

Live Action Short:
Should Win: Skin
Will Win: Skin, all the experts are calling it for Marguerite because it was the only one that wasn't depressing, but Skin is timely and relevant, and I think it could squeak it out.

And, just for funsies, a friend of a friend wrote this adorable poem which he has given me permission to share.

Twas the night before the
Oscars, and all through LA
Red carpets rolled out for
Hollywood's big day.

The statues were nestled
backstage in a case,
in hopes they would meeta
celebrity's face.

And my friend with their
comments, and I with my own,
Turned to Twitter to our
opinions be known.

Then all of a sudden, there arose
such a noise,
The Academy called forth all
the girls and the boys.

"Now Rami! Now Glenn! Now
Bradley and Emma!
On Gaga! On Spike! On Viggo
and Roma!"

"To the front of the stage! To
the Governer's Ball!
Now hashtag! Hashtag!
Hashtag it all!"

- Hiko Mitsuzuka

Shoplifters - 1 nomination

Foreign Film - Japan; Hirokazu Kore-eda

Shoplifters follows a Japanese family who is underemployed and makes ends meet by robbing local stores.  One day when coming home, the dad and son come upon a small girl on her own balcony, alone, crying, and neglected.  They take her with them, they feed her and clothe her and eventually "adopt" her into their family.  But as she grows, the local community assumes that her mother probably killed her because she has totally disappeared.  While this is happening, the parents want her to start shoplifting, as well, but the the son wants to protect her from this life.  Meanwhile, the son begins to question his own life and his own origin story.  This family is much more troubled than it seems, and poverty is the least of their problems.

Shoplifters was an entertaining but mediocre movie.  I heard it referred to as "poverty porn," which I think is not a fair accusation - there are lots of stories about lots of things and lots of different kinds of people.  The compelling part of this story is not that they are poor, but that they work so hard to take care of each other.  The connections between the characters is what we are drawn to, and this mom and dad who have labored to create a normal life in the context of their poverty is why I think this film was nominated in the first place.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film, I'm just not sure that it is worthy of an Oscar nomination.

*Dear readers, we are there!  Tomorrow is the big day, and I have now reviewed ALL of the films.  This is a difficult year to prognosticate, but stay tuned tomorrow for my Who Should Win/Who Will Win post!

Never Look Away - 2 nominations

Foreign Language Film - Germany; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Cinematography - Caleb Deschanel

Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of this year's Hidden Gem award is Never Look Away.  (The Hidden Gem award is given by me every year to a film that I'd never heard of before the Oscars nomination, but becomes one of my favorite movies of the year.  The first winner of the Hidden Gem award was Lars and the Real Girl.)  Honestly friends, I didn't really want to see this film.  It's 3 hours and 9 minutes, it's about Nazi Germany and the aftermath, and the previews were not compelling.  But it's a nominee and I always see every film.  So, as Yoda would say, "judge me by my size, do you?"  Big mistake.

Never Look Away follows Kurt from his childhood into his adulthood.  As a young boy, he demonstrates a talent for art, and it is nurtured by his beautiful Aunt Elizabeth who is a free thinker but suffers from mental illness.  In alignment with Nazi policy, she is taken from her family and her doctor, Professor Seeband (in charge of the eugenics program in Germany) sends her to the gas chambers with fellow sufferers.

Kurt grows up and begins his life as an art student, where he meets, falls in love with, and marries fellow student Ellie.  Though he has found some success as an artist under the oppressive regime, they escape together to West Germany where he joins a new art school.  He struggles to find his voice as an artist until he begins to uncover certain secrets from his past, and finds that the dots connect to Ellie's family, as well.

It is hard to describe this film for how magnificent it was.  When the film ended, I wasn't ready to let these characters go, I wanted to know more about their lives and their futures, and just enough was left unresolved that made the story compelling.  It was deeply satisfying, and every scene moved the story forward.  Normally with a film this length, I can identify 20 minutes that the filmmakers loved but should have cut.  Not so with Never Look Away.  It was beautiful and heartbreaking and hopeful.  The only thing I'm sad about with Never Look Away is that it is being overshadowed by Roma, a remarkably mediocre film.  This one deserves to be the winner.

Cold War - 3 nominations

Foreign Language Film - Poland; Paweł Pawlikowski

Cinematography - Łukasz Żal

Director - Paweł Pawlikowski

Cold War is the entry from Poland following Wiktor, a brilliant musical director who opens the film auditioning young people to join a troupe that will revive traditional folk music and dancing just following World War 2.  Poland is looking to regain its independent identity, and this tour is just the thing to help accomplish that.  Wiktor falls in love with a young woman in the cast named Zula, who frankly still seems like a teenager at the start of the film, which for me made it hard to get on board with their love from the beginning.  As things grow more dangerous in Poland, Wiktor tries to convince Zula to defect with him to France.  She fails to meet him and he goes alone to a new country.  

The tour continues and they find themselves together again in France (he, living there, her on tour there), and they both leave their partners to reunite as a couple, this time living in France.  (By now she is a fully formed adult, and I grew more comfortable with their relationship.) They produce a magnificent album and they begin to have success when Zula becomes dissatisfied with their fancy lives and insists on returning to Poland.  Eventually he goes after her and is arrested and put into a labor camp.  She finds him there and pulls strings to get him out of prison early, but that does not mean that their lives will get better, as the complications of living in such a difficult place crush any hopes they have for the future.  As she sings in a traditional Polish song, "oy yoy yoy."

I enjoyed Cold War but (as I did last year with Call Me By Your Name), I have a very difficult time with romantic relationships between adults in their 30's and teenagers.  (Call Me By Your Name was a 17 year old and a 24 year old, I know.)  I understand the need for this device in this film, but it doesn't mean that I have to like it.  At least in this one, eventually we see the couple together when they are both adults.  It is a sad, confusing, touching story.  The use of black and white is so right on with this film, and it is interesting that two films this year both nominated for Director and Cinematography are shot in black and white.  I don't suspect that Cold War will win any awards, but it is worth seeing.

Capernaum - 1 nomination

Foreign Film - Lebanon; Nadine Labaki

12 year old Zain lives in poverty with his family in Beirut. There are so many children in his home that we, the audience, never actually see all of them on screen together at one time.  His negligent parents are way out of their depth in being able to care for and feed all of their children, and as the oldest, Zain works to support his family.  When a grown adult comes to the family to marry Zain's beloved younger sister, he does everything he can to prevent it but he is too small to protect her.  Following a tragic incident, Zain has had enough of this family and he runs away from home.  When he arrives at a small beachside town, he meets an Ethiopian immigrant mother, Rahil, who takes Zain into her home (tin shack) where he discovers the most adorable baby of all time.  They all live together until one day, Rahil is picked up by immigration and locked up, disappearing without Zain or baby Yonas ever knowing where she has gone.  Suddenly, Zain must provide for himself and this baby, which proves to be an overwhelming and impossible task.  Human traffickers are more than happy to take the baby from Zain who knows in his heart this is the wrong thing to do.  In Zain's life, there are simply no good choices.

Capernaum is truly a heartbreaking film.  It is the one film this year where I literally sobbed in the theater. Capernaum is the runner up for my "hidden gem" award - meaning the film that I had never heard of prior to it receiving a nomination, and truly becoming one of my favorite films of the year.  I highly, highly, can't highly enough, recommend seeing it.  Just bring a box of tissues.

A Quiet Place - 1 nomination

Sound Editing - Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl

A Quiet Place is a SCARY film.  The world has been overrun by aliens who are determined to kill all beings, and they find you when you make even the slightest sound (let's not even think about how anyone survives without expelling gas for a year).  The Abbott family lives on a farm, and they have somehow managed to keep their family alive and intact, with occasional but dangerous foraging through a nearby town.  Because one daughter is deaf, they are able to communicate without actually talking out loud.  Still, a moment of humanity results in the tragic loss of the youngest child, which could partly be attributed to the oldest daughter's negligence.  It is a crazy world, and this family wants nothing more than to figure out what the aliens' weakness is, and how they can potentially overcome the threat.  Still, their lives are maddening where any dropped glass could spell death for the entire family.  Complicating matters further, Mrs. Abbott is pregnant giving new meaning to a silent birth, and what do you even do with a screaming baby? 

I'm not a big fan of jump-scare films, and admittedly, I watched this movie holding hands with my mother the whole time.  But, it was incredibly clever, very well acted, and even let me practice my own rusty sign language.  I don't think I could watch it again because I'm a big chicken, but for my least favorite genre, I enthusiastically endorse this one.

Solo: A Star Wars Story - 1 nomination

Visual Effects - Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Dominic Tuohy

The thrilling part of Solo is that it is an origin story, so we learn how Han Solo got his last name, how he meets other key players in the universe like Lando Calrissian, how he meets best buddy Chewbacca, etc.  But the fun of the film is learning other things about Han, the back story of how he tries to escape imprisonment with his love, how they were separated and the adventures he went on trying to get back to her.  There is a lot of cross and double cross in this film, so much so that it's almost impossible to share a summary of it without really spoiling the experience of watching it. 

The casting of the young players, Han, Lando, are done so beautifully that it is easy to imagine these two people growing up to be Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams.  That, to me, was the biggest gamble of the film - if you cast these characters poorly, you get an entirely unbelievable recreation that doesn't work.  But both of these young actors, Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover, nail it. 

For those of you who follow the blog, you know that it is impossible to make a Star Wars universe film that I'm going to dislike.  But this one worked - even for the die hards, and that's saying something.

Ready Player One - 1 nomination

Visual Effects - Roger Guyett, Grady Cofer, Matthew E. Butler and David Shirk

The year is 2045 and people have basically stopped living in the real world.  The entire world, poor and rich alike, spend their time and money on a large video game universe called the OASIS.  When the multi-jillionaire inventor of OASIS dies, he sends a virtual message to the world letting everyone know that his estate and shares in the game are up for grabs to the first person to solve three puzzles (in game speak, "finds three Easter eggs").  Wade Watt is a young man who has a gift for the games, and he has corralled a number of allies to help him along.  Of course, the mega corporation Innovative Online Industries (IOI) will do anything in their power to make sure that they, not Wade, are the winners of the fortune.

If there is any justice in the world, Ready Player One will win the Visual Effects category.  The effects are spectacular.  An entire digital world made up of every kind of game experience you could ever want comes alive on screen.  There is literally nothing else I've seen this year that could touch what the effects designers created for this film.  This movie just wouldn't be what it is without its effects, and the effects seem to have been created just for this kind of film.  I love sci fi films anyway so I was destined to enjoy the film, but it happened to be the most fun you could have without being on Space Mountain.  You must see it.

First Man - 4 nominations

Visual Effects - Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles and J.D. Schwalm

Production Design - Nathan Crowley (Production Design); Kathy Lucas (Set Decoration)

Sound Editing - Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan

Sound Mixing - Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis

First Man retells the story of NASA's early years and its attempt to land people on the moon.  It focuses on Neil Armstrong and his balancing of pushing toward a dream and the concerns and demands of his wife and family over that mission's dangerous nature.  There is an incredibly heroic and inspiring story in this film, and it's hard to know how much of what happened in the film is true.  In some ways, this is another film about humans pushing their limits to achieve incredible feats, but people died in the lead up to the success of this NASA mission, and so we have to ask ourselves (as we did in the nominated documentary, Free Solo), was the achievement worth the sacrifice?  First Man contends that indeed it was, and that families who lost astronauts in the name of exploration (um, AMERICAN exploration) did so to serve a greater ideal.

First Man was truly robbed of an Original Score nomination.  The music enhanced the experience of the film magically, and though I usually note that the achievement of a score is to enhance the film without calling attention to itself, in this case, the standout music put the final touches on this movie's magic.

As you know, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing are the stuff of extraordinary war, musical, and science fiction films and First Man is none of those three.  But the technical elements, the dialogue, and the music came together so perfectly in this film, that these nominations were inevitable.  There was certainly talk of other possible nominations, particularly for Claire Foy who played Armstrong's no nonsense wife.  I was truly taken in by it all.

Christopher Robin - 1 nomination

Visual Effects - Christopher Lawrence, Michael Eames, Theo Jones and Chris Corbould

Christopher Robin is the sweetest little film that follows an adult Christopher Robin too busy for his wife and daughter.  When he finds his way back to Hundred Acre Wood, he reconnects with his old pal Winnie the Pooh who also leads him to reunite with Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, Rabbit, and Owl.  They reignite Christopher Robin's imagination which helps him approach his difficult job with new eyes.  This film captured the voices of these beloved characters so well, and in addition to being sweet and touching it was also funny and smart.  Watching these stuffed animals become real living beings only reinforces the quality of the visual effects.  I enjoyed this film so much, as did all the people who saw it with me (yes, all adults... long before it was nominated.  What can I say, we're suckers for Piglet and Pooh!)

Avengers: Infinity War - 1 nomination

Visual Effects - Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Russell Earl and Dan Sudick

We have arrived at my favorite category!  Visual Effects is always chock full of sci fi and superhero films, both of which are a love of mine when done well.

Avengers: Infinity War is the first of a two part sequel that is also the build up of most of the Marvel franchise (18 films and counting).  In each part of this universe we have identified 6 Infinity stones - these come right from the comic books.  Here is a breakdown of the stones: The Space Stone (blue), the Reality Stone (red), the Power Stone (purple), the Mind Stone (yellow), the Time Stone (green) and the Soul Stone (orange).

• Anyone holding the space stone can create a portal from one part of the universe to another. (originally appears in the first Avengers film)
• The mind stone allows the holder to control the minds of others. (first appears in the first Avengers movie, but is affixed to superhero Vision's forehead)
• The Reality Stone grants the user power to manipulate matter. (first appears in Thor: The Dark World)
• The Power Stone bestows upon its holder a lot of energy—the sort of energy that you could use to destroy an entire planet. (appears in Guardians of the Galaxy)
• The Time Stone grants its owner the power to re-wind or fast-forward time.  (first appears in Doctor Strange)
• The Soul Stone allows the user to control others “souls,” both living and dead. (appears in this film)

Why am I telling you all of this?  Because darkest Lord Thanos appears in this Avengers film on a quest to assemble all of those stones and to wield the most power in the universe that even our Marvel heroes won't be able to defeat.  But Thanos claims that his intention is pure - to restore order to the universe and reduce overpopulation in order to save it.  

This is what I love about many science fiction films - the bad guys are bad guys because they are willing to sacrifice humans for the sake of a bigger ideal.  Is it wrong to want to save the universe?  Of course it isn't.  But the devil is in the details and our band of superheroes must do everything in their power to save the people/beings in the universe, not just the physical world.  

In case you haven't already guessed, I loved it.

Documentary Features - all nominees

Documentary Feature - Talal Derki, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert

Of Fathers and Sons was the most difficult and most disturbing of the 5 documentary nominees.  The filmmaker returns to his native Syria and builds a trusting relationship with Abu Osama, who is a founder of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra Front.  As he builds up his terrorist organization, he sends two of his eight children (under the age of 13) to a military training camp to also join the fight as Jihadis.  This is the indoctrination into hate that we all know well, but seeing it in action is heart wrenching.

Documentary Feature - RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim

Friends, loyal readers, I watched this entire film and I have no idea what it is about.  Remember those books in the 80's that captured "A Day in the Life" where photographers were sent around the globe to capture a moment in time that would represent the subject? (A Day in the Life Around the World, A Day in the Life of America)  You'd flip through the book and see still photos that were ornate and beautiful and quietly mundane.  A colorful wedding ceremony in India on one page, and a farmer in the midwest milking a cow on another.  This is the only comparison I can make to Hale County, This Morning, This Evening.  It was snapshot scenes of Hale County, Alabama - sometimes with dialogue, sometimes without.  Nothing happens in this film.  Nothing happens at the end of this film.  There is a 6 minute sequence of high school kids in a locker room screwing around, but you can't hear the dialogue, you just see them walking around, talking to each other, sitting around.  There are snippets of a couple of characters talking about their lives and a very sad moment involving Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, but even then, it's hard to care (other than basic human empathy) because you don't know these people and you don't care about them.  If ever the tag line of the blog applied (I watch all the films so you don't have to watch the bad ones), it would be to this film.  I didn't get it.

Documentary Feature - Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill

Alex Honnold is a famous rock climber, renowned for a style of climbing known as "free soloing" in which climbers ascend thousands of treacherous feet with no climbing equipment - no ropes, no belays, no nothing other than some chalk for the hands.  Alex dreams of being the first person to climb El Capitan free solo in Yosemite.  There is no question that he is fit enough to do it, but in free solo climbing, one mistake equals death.  In his many practice attempts, he fails at many of the most difficult parts of the ascent.  Making this more difficult, he is in a relationship with his girlfriend, and when a friend of theirs dies in a free solo accident, she expresses deep sympathy for the friend's wife.  "What did she expect?" says Alex.  

This film is frightening to watch, especially when we know that documentaries don't have to have a happy ending to be compelling.  But to me, the most important moments of film happen with the documentary crew talks about how they are helping or hindering Alex's aspirations, and what they should do first if he falls.  There is a moment when one of the cameramen has his camera fixed on Alex, and he turns away from watching.  He asks his fellow filmmakers, "how can you guys watch this," and I also asked this of myself.  Am I really supposed to be entertained by a guy risking his life for literally no reason other than he wants to?  If he dies, am I complicit in his death by the act of wanting to watch his attempt at being superhuman?  Is being superhuman even possible?  I won't tell you how the film ends, but I will tell you my husband thinks I was more afraid watching the film than Alex was climbing the rock.

Documentary Feature - Bing Liu and Diane Quon

Minding the Gap follows young skateboarders into their difficult lives.  The filmmaker is Bing, and he pursues the question of his abusive relationships with his family, as he does with those of his friends.  In a way, this film asks the question of why people choose to do dangerous things, and how their upbringing influences their personality development.  It shines a light on people who run to peers who choose danger instead of having peril inflicted on them at home.  It is an unexpectedly wonderful documentary that seems like it's going to be about skateboarding and turns out to be about abuse.

Documentary Feature - Betsy West and Julie Cohen

Original Song - "I'll Fight" - Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

The incredible legacy of one of the most important Supreme Court justices in history is explored in this film.  RBG has not only become a pillar of the law, but an icon to people everywhere.  Her history of acting as a legal champion particularly for women's issues are what have made her a hero to young people.  Her brilliant mind and her feisty leadership make for an outstanding documentary.

Border - 1 nomination

Makeup and Hairstyling - Göran Lundström and Pamela Goldammer

Every year, there is an Oscar nominated film that I've only heard of because of the nomination, and it becomes my sleeper favorite movie.  I call these films my "hidden gems."  Examples of my hidden gem winners have included Lars and the Real Girl, A Man Called Ove, and The Hunt.  (all films you should see)  Border is a film I hadn't heard of before it was nominated for Makeup and Hairstyling, and it is most decidedly NOT a hidden gem.  Border might be the most bizarre Oscars film I've seen (though I'm taking nominees).

Border's central character is a woman named Tina who looks more cro magnon than human.  She works for the border patrol in Sweden and is able to smell people's feelings, so when they walk by her and they are nervous because they are trafficking something illegal, she knows right away to pull them aside.  She grabs everything from people carrying more alcohol than the legal import limit to a man carrying child pornography on a flash drive.  One day, a stranger comes through customs who looks like the male equivalent of Tina.  She grows obsessed with him and invites him to stay in her back house as a boarder. He helps her discover her true identity and learn of her origin story, all while she is helping local police solve a child pornography mystery happening in their town.  But the suspicious man knows more than he should about this horror happening around them, and Tina must decipher more than one mystery in her world.

The makeup and hairstyling in this film are incredible, though.  In addition to their faces (you'll be shocked if you look at Tina's face in the film versus the beautiful actress Eva Melander who plays her), there is an indescribable scene with genitals that I can't erase from my memory.  Even still, makeup and hairstyling prowess aside, this is a film worth skipping.

Animated Shorts - all nominees

Animated Short - Alison Snowden and David Fine

Animals struggling with their inner demons in a support group in this adorable and hilarious animated short.  When a large ape with anger issues joins, the dog therapist must find a way for him to share his big ape feelings without destroying the office and killing the other members of the group.

Animated Short - Domee Shi and Becky Neiman-Cobb

It is hard to let your child grow up and move out of the house.  Sometimes, you need to make a little Chinese dumpling baby with whom you can make new memories, share activities, and relive what it was like to raise a child.  But when even the dumpling grows up and wants his own life, sometimes you have to eat the ones you love to keep them with you.  This was the only one of the animated shorts that I had seen before, and it was so cute that I remembered it these many months later.

Animated Short - Louise Bagnall and Nuria González Blanco

Dementia is such a cruel disease.  This beautiful little short follows a woman into her memories before she struggled to know the people around her.  The touching moments when she remembers her adult daughter make all the difference in her life.

Animated Short - Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas

My favorite of the Animated shorts, One Small Step follows a little girl's dream to go to the moon, and her father's unyielding support.  Together, they dreamed, they flew, the imagined.  When her dream to join the space program is rejected, her father never loses hope.  And when he sadly passes away, she works harder than ever to make their dream her reality.  Girl power!

Animated Short - Trevor Jimenez

It's hard to be the child of divorced parents.  When going back and forth from mom's house to dad's and back again, the child must adjust as his parents move on with their lives, find new partners and paths, and he must find his place in each of the spaces.  Of the five, I found this film the least engaging.

Live Action Shorts - all nominees

A word about this year's nominees...

With the exception of one of these films, this was an incredibly hard batch to watch.  I'll describe each film below, they were almost all outstanding but not an easy group to watch as a unit.  I do recommend finding a way to see these films, but if you can space them out, that would be better than watching them all at once.  And now I'll explain why.... spoilers abound in this post, so if you prefer to wait until you've seen the films, save this one for later.

Live Action Short - Rodrigo Sorogoyen and María del Puy Alvarado

Madre is the short film from Spain.  A woman and her mother have come home from a day out and they are talking without a care.  Suddenly, the woman receives a call from her 6 year old son who is out on a trip through France and Spain with his father, her ex-husband.  The boy is on a beach but he doesn't know where, doesn't know the name, doesn't even know which country he is in, and his father has left him alone while the dad went to retrieve something from the car.  He has been stranded alone for what seems too long, and his cell phone battery is running out.  Hysterical, his mother does everything she can to stay on the phone with boy while also trying to get help.  Making matters worse, a mysterious man has appeared on the beach and the boy doesn't know what he is there for.  When the cell battery goes dead, we (and the mom) know almost nothing about where he is, where his father is, if he is safe, if the man who has approached is a kidnapper, and if this mother will ever see her child again.  It is some of the best acting I've seen in a short.  But it's a heart wrencher.

Live Action Short - Jeremy Comte and Maria Gracia Turgeon

Two tween boys are running around deserted areas of their town playing a weird game of tricking each other.  The points seem to be scored based on who falls for something the other sets up, who reacts to any strange situation.  It's a lot of "gotcha, made you look" nonsense.  When they run into a quarry, Fauve (the boy pictured in the poster) gets stuck in some quicksand but being on the edge of the marsh, he is able to get himself out.  His friend barely believes that he is actually stuck, so he doesn't come to Fauve's aid while the kid is stuck and truly panicking.  When Fauve frees himself, he gets revenge by throwing his friend into a deeper part of the quicksand, and it is nearly too late when both boys realize that what is happening is not a joke, not a trick, but a very deadly situation.  Fauve runs to find help, but the boys have finally gotten themselves into a situation that can't be joked away.

Live Action Short - Marianne Farley and Marie-Hélène Panisset

Marguerite is the lightest of the films with an elderly woman who is being cared for by a young home health care worker, Rachel.  When Rachel reveals that she is in a relationship with another woman, Marguerite recalls a younger time in her life when she also was in love with a woman.  "But it was a different time," she says, and shares that she never told the object of her affection of her feelings.  To see young Rachel deliver not only the amazing physical care she is there to render, but to also tend to Marguerite's emotional side is a touching and beautiful respite from the other films.

Live Action Short - Vincent Lambe and Darren Mahon

Detainment was one of the most horrifying of the Live Action shorts, and for this landscape, that is saying a lot.  It recalls the kidnapping and murder of a 2 year old baby James Bulgur, and how the police interviewed the two 10 year old perpetrators of the crime.  I strongly caution you against googling the actual crime, the details (both those portrayed in the film and those excluded) so horrifying as hard to leave behind once you know the facts of the case.  In fact, some of the details were so gruesome, they weren't even shared with the jury in the case.  Jon and Robbie, the two young murderers, were the youngest ever to be convicted in adult court in Britain.  Both young actors who portrayed them in this film should get some sort of commendation for how superbly the reenacted the interviews on screen.  This again, was a difficult film to watch.

Live Action Short - Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman

Completing the set of truly disgusting stories in the Live Action category, Skin shows a family of neo-Nazis who love their guns and their white supremacy, and practice irresponsible parenting that no rational person would endorse.  They live among and play with their community of idiots.  When the family goes to the supermarket for groceries, a black man at another register entertains their son by playing with an action figure.  The two share some giggles and it's nothing that any person hasn't done in line when making eye contact with a sweet kid.  But neo-Nazi dad doesn't like a black man talking to his son however harmlessly, and the situation escalates to the point where he and his friends beat the living daylights out of the black man while his wife and two kids watch helplessly in the car.  But this is not where the story ends.  The injured man's friends (and his son) kidnap the perpetrator and tattoo his entire body in black ink.  He is literally now a black man.  They drop him off in his neighborhood and he makes his way back to his own home, not totally aware of what has happened to him since his kidnapping.  Thinking that the dad is a black intruder, the mom pulls a gun but realizes in time that it is her husband.  Not so for the child who has been taught how to use shotguns for most of his life.  He shoots the "black" intruder to death as he has been taught to do, not realizing that he has just killed his own father.

Madre trailer:

Fauve the film:

Marguerite trailer:

Detainment trailer:

Skin trailer:

First Reformed - 1 nomination

Original Screenplay - Written by Paul Schrader

Minister Toller spends his days being of service to the members of his congregation.  He consoles, he visits, he tends to his flock.  When a pregnant parishioner comes to Toller to counsel her clinically depressed husband, he comes to her aid.  Her husband Michael is suffering from despair, triggered by his sense of injustice as an environmental advocate.  The minister is surprisingly affected by these issues, and even jeopardizes a major donor who is bank rolling the renovation of his historic church, due to the donor's companies which are major environmental polluters.   But Minister Toller's emotional struggles become worse and worse until he contemplates an audacious and deadly act to be carried out at the church's anniversary event, attracting other high profile clergy, donors, and respected members of the community.  His insanity reaches a fever pitch and all you can do as an audience member is hold your breath.

This film is nominated for Original Screenplay, although there was some buzz about Ethan Hawke as a dark horse candidate for a Lead Actor nomination.  It is a quiet film and a tight story, but the quiet performance given by Hawke is what makes the film worth watching.  This is not the Ethan Hawke we know from other roles and it might be the first time I've seen him take himself out of the part and take on an entirely different person from who he seems to be in life.  In most roles, there is always a piece of the character that is Hawke himself (see, Boyhood).  Not so in First Reformed.

The name of the film is a subtle nod to the central dilemma of the film.  Yes, it is certainly a Christian reference and likely there are many churches around the country named First Reformed.  But with added layer of activism, the film is asking, who will be the first to change our ways and save the planet?  It is a religious question and a political one.  This won't be the most exciting film you see all year, but it is a good one.