At Eternity's Gate - 1 nomination

Actor - Willem Dafoe

At Eternity's Gate follows Vincent Van Gogh during his time in Arles.  I'm no art historian, but it seems that this is place where Van Gogh painted some of his most famous paintings including the iconic sunflowers and others.  Vincent's mental state is on the decline and his close relationship with his brother seems to be one of the only things that give him life and connection.  One of the remarkable pieces of the film is that it is shot so that we can see through the painter's eyes, which apparently suffered from degeneration.  There were times that only the top half of the screen was clear and the bottom half was fuzzy.  There were times that the camera movements were so bumpy that it felt like the world was spinning a bit out of control.  It becomes clear how Van Gogh conceived of some of the tremendous strokes and movements in his painting - it may be that those were reflective of how he was actually seeing the world.  

The movie was good but difficult to watch.  It's depressing.  It's hard to watch someone slip into madness.  But watching iconic paintings come alive in scenes that depict the real people and the real places... that was thrilling.  Willem Dafoe might be the reincarnation of the painter himself.  There is a moment in the film when Van Gogh's famous self portrait is hanging on a wall, and it looks like it might be a picture of Willem Dafoe.  They have the same bone structure in their faces!  That was truly impressive.  Dafoe deserves this nomination without a doubt.

The film is worth seeing, but be prepared, it doesn't look like other movies look and you have to be able to accept the confusion that happens on the screen.  If the Blair Witch Project made you nauseous, this one is a definite skip.  Still, I was moved and think the performance alone is important enough to see the movie.