Documentary Shorts

Most often, I leave the short films posts to the very end of the Oscars season, often because I haven't yet seen them to be able to write about them.  This year, 4 out of 5 were so incredible, I wanted to write about them while Oscars Documentary Shorts programs are still in theaters.  If you can catch them, I highly recommend that you do.  The first two, my favorite two, are on Netflix so if you can't see any others, at least watch Audible and Lead Me Home.

AUDIBLE
Matt Ogens and Geoff McLean

It's a big year for deaf culture! What an incredible short following the winning football team of a deaf high school in Maryland.  Individual stories about the lives of the players including their universal connection to a friend who died by suicide years before.  The team's commitment to showing that they can play and win against any team, the coaches' commitment to their kids, and the stories of the kids and their families were so beautiful

LEAD ME HOME

Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk

The homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle are featured in this powerful short that is almost surely the winner.  We follow the lives of unhoused people, the organizations committed to making a difference against a very uphill battle, and the busting of stereotypes of who and how people become homeless will surely inspire you to get involved.

THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL

Ben Proudfoot

This short film will have you cheering and totally charmed.  Shaquille O'Neal is one of the executive producers of this film about Lucy Harris, a kick ass women's basketball player who led her team to 3 consecutive national championships, her Olympic team to the silver medal, and even was the first woman the NBA invited to try out for one of their professional teams.  You won't have heard of her until now, but once you see the film, you'll not soon forget her.

THREE SONGS FOR BENAZIR

Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei

This was the only of the documentary shorts that mostly confused me.  It's about a couple in Afghanistan who, to be sure, face an incredibly hard life with few choices.  This is the story of one couple and I believe it to be emblematic of what little life is left for Afghanis who have remained in country,

WHEN WE WERE BULLIES

Jay Rosenblatt

This short really resonated for me, as a former bullied child.  It is the quest of two classmates from the 5th grade trying to piece together a bullying incident in school where the whole class ganged up on the awkward kid, and trying to get their arms around why they did it and how they feel about it today.

tick, tick... BOOM! - 2 nominations

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Andrew Garfield

Best Achievement in Film Editing Myron Kerstein Andrew Weisblum

We have arrived at MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF THE YEAR.  Let me remind you that it is almost impossible for me to rank order movies from best to worst, I'm generally entertained by most films so saying something is awesome is not a rarity, and the way my brain works, picking one favorite thing in any genre (favorite food, favorite movie, favorite Disneyland ride, etc.) almost never happens.  With tick, tick... BOOM! this was the easiest decision of the year.

First, some context.  It happens that my family has an association with the Larson family, and I share this only to say that I spent the better part of 2001 listening to the original cast recording any time I was in my car.  I know all the songs by heart even though I had never actually seen the show staged.  Those of you who listen to my podcast "2 Movie Jews" will know that this was my most highly anticipated film of the year.

Then, our national treasure Lin Manuel Miranda released this beauty into the wild on Netflix, and my heart exploded.  Andrew Garfield was magnificent (and ps, he LEARNED TO SING for this film... SAY WHAT???) and though I missed a few of the original songs from the show, LMM managed to give a wink and a nod to the song cuts that just didn't work for the movie narrative. 

Attention must be paid.  There is a song in the show called "Sunday" that is a humorous revamping of a serious song from Sunday in the Park with George (another famous musical for you non-musical types).  I watched this scene multiple times, with Miranda having recruited a who's who of Broadway for this fantasy scene (Chita Rivera! Joel Grey! Bernadette Peters! And more!). If you're a musical theater fan, you'll spend half the scene shouting out names of people you recognize.

But it's important to know that the plot is about a man about to turn 30 and examining his life, his work, if he will ever be successful.  The movie is basically a biopic (with surely liberties having been taken) as Jonathan Larsen struggles his way to becoming the writer of one of the most beloved musicals in history, Rent.  There is a lovely tribute to Larsen's mentor, Stephen Sondheim, which frankly Bradley Whitford played so convincingly that I almost thought it was Sondheim himself for just a quick moment.  Larsen tragically died the night before Rent opened, and I can't think of a more fitting homage to his talent than this film.  Watch it, then watch it 10 more times.  You'll be glad you did.

Spencer - 1 nomination

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Kristen Stewart

The Windsors are crashing. The entire Royal family has gathered at the royal estate to celebrate Christmas.  Meanwhile, Princess Diana has reached her limit - she can no longer pretend that her marriage has any or ever had any love, and the corporation isn't happy.  As she slowly deteriorates throughout the weekend, it becomes clearer and clearer that she can survive this, and her internal mental state is declining as her eating disorder is increasing.  It seems like a straightforward story, but takes these bizarre detours into Diana's strange imagination, only reinforcing that one can never know what is real and what is deranged fantasy.

Stewart has been at the front of this Oscars race for months now.  And I thought her performance was chillingly good, but I think once you've seen Elizabeth Debicki play Princess Diana in The Crown, it's hard to see anyone else in the role.  I liked the film but I can't quite put my finger on what was missing for me.  It's now streaming online, so definitely worth seeing what all the buzz is about.

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Being the Ricardos - 3 nominations

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Nicole Kidman

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Javier Bardem

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role J.K. Simmons

Being the Ricardos imagines a week in the life of Lucy and Desi Arnaz while producing their top-rated hit show, "I Love Lucy."  We see how a Cuban and a woman owned and operated their show, exercised their incredible power, and navigated the racism and sexism of the time.  Alongside this plot, we see a marriage in trouble over cheating rumors, and an embattled Lucy with a past affiliation with the Communist party.  All the while, fretting over every minor comedic detail, we also see how Lucy Arnaz crafted the Lucy Ricardo persona down to the tiniest detail.  In fact, I most believed Kidman as Lucy Ricardo and less as Lucy Arnaz, and I'm wondering if that's because I watched her shows as a child and so thorough fused the two in my mind.  Kidman's reproduction of the Lucy Ricardo voice is impressive. Honestly, I'm a little shocked that Nina Arianda was never in the mix for an Oscar nomination, so beautifully and convincingly playing Vivian Vance in the film.  I found her performance more believable and on point than even Javier Bardem's, whose nomination is my least favorite of the Leading Actor category.

I'm an ardent Sorkenite and his writing style gets me every time.  I thought Being the Ricardos was a truly entertaining film.  Do I consider it Oscars great?  Meh, maybe not.  Do I consider it a fun film for a Saturday night great?  You bet I do.  And that's all the "'splainin'" I got to do.

 

Parallel Mothers - 2 nominations

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Penélope Cruz

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Alberto Iglesias

Parallel Mothers is the story of two single mothers who give birth in the same hospital on the same day rooming together pre and post birth.  Janis is a successful photographer in her 40s whose former boyfriend is married, and Ana is a teenager in school and living at home.  Though they are seemingly opposites, they form a fast bond.  They go their separate ways but find each other again a few months later, when Ana reveals that her baby died of SIDS.  Janis asks Ana to come live with her and watch her baby while Janis goes back to work.  The movie is absolutely an Almodovar gem, but once again (small spoiler alert), when Janis and Ana engage in a sexual and emotional relationship, it bothered me.  (what's with all these pedo storylines this year???)

I don't want to share too much more about the film's plot because the spoilers will ruin it for you.  I sincerely enjoyed it, and being an Almodovar fan, I'm comfortable with how he uses sexuality in most of his films.  He is obsessed with mothers and he worked on this film for so long that there is actually a poster on the wall for Parallel Mothers in his 2009 film Broken Embraces.  But again, I have to push back on these inappropriate relationships in film - the story did not require it and frankly, no story requires it.  The film was tainted for me once they started sleeping together, though I remain an ardent fan of this incredible filmmaker.

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The Lost Daughter - 3 nominations

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Jessie Buckley

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Olivia Colman

Best Adapted Screenplay Maggie Gyllenhaal (written by)

The Lost Daughter follows Leda, a middle aged college professor on vacation in Greece.  Her quiet, secluded resort is overtaken by a large extended family with grandparents, aunts and uncles, young children, and parents boisterously enjoying their vacations while Leda watches them.  When one of the children goes missing, Leda leaps into action and finds the young girl, making a small connection with the group.  Leda reminisces about her experience as a young mother, which frankly, was not great.  The scenes jump back and forth between young Leda trying to build an important career (and ok, having an affair with a colleague) and struggling to want to be a good mom, and middle aged Leda watching another young mother struggling, and even having her own affair.

So far, the people I've talked to either love or hate The Lost Daughter and in most cases, the lovers have been women and the haters have been men (not exclusively, of course).  This is a different kind of film about a woman - it's not the "can women have it all" tired trope, it's "what happens when women don't want it all, and it turns out what they really want is an impressive career?"

I absolutely loved this film.  Though the plot doesn't reflect my own circumstances, I was weirdly proud of the movie.  It's finally an honest and new take on a woman's choices, which felt thrilling to me.  Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley are both their usual brilliant selves (look for a future Oscar for Jessie Buckley, but not likely for this film), and it's the only time in history that I could find where two women are nominated for playing the same role in the same movie as younger and older selves.  Maggie Gyllenhaal was robbed of a directing nomination, frankly, for her debut with this film, but this will not be her last shot at the gold if this film is any indication of her talent.  Bravo to Gyllenhaal on an extraordinary film.

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The Eyes of Tammy Faye - 2 nominations

 

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling Stephanie Ingram Linda Dowds Justin Raleigh

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain

The Eyes of Tammy Faye has been sadly overlooked by audiences for the little gem that it is.  The film follows Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker from their young years all the way through the scandals that plagued them and brought them down as a power preacher couple.  Jessica Chastain was beyond amazing, capturing Tammy Faye's voice and perky nature, and the film gives us a great behind the scenes look at what could have been happening while they built their evangelical empire.

This might be the first and only time that the makeup is practically its own character, but that was also true for the real Tammy Faye whose over the top eyelashes and disco makeup were her signature look.  Chastain is a naturally beautiful woman and the makeup transforms her.  Even Andrew Garfield's face (who plays Jim Bakker) morphs in such a way that he really does look a lot like the real person. 

The Eyes of Tammy Faye isn't a splashy enough film to get a lot of attention, and the PR campaign for it was pitiful.  That's a shame because the movie is a goddamn (pun intended) delight.

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West Side Story - 7 nominations

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Ariana DeBose

Best Motion Picture of the Year Steven Spielberg (producer) Kristie Macosko Krieger (producer)

Best Achievement in Production Design Adam Stockhausen (production design) Rena DeAngelo (set decoration)

Best Sound Tod A. Maitland Gary Rydstrom Brian Chumney Andy Nelson Shawn Murphy

Best Achievement in Costume Design Paul Tazewell

Best Achievement in Cinematography Janusz Kaminski

Best Achievement in Directing Steven Spielberg

It's the Jets and the Sharks, baby!  In the classic remake of Romeo and Juliet, two gangs are locked in a territorial struggle.  New York city is evolving, immigrants from Puerto Rico are making America their home, and the people who live there are delighted and immediately embrace change.  Just kidding - the tensions run high, and actually this remake of the classic film is much more overtly violent than the original.  A young Puerto Rican girl, Maria, falls in love with Tony, a local white kid.  Meanwhile, Maria's brother is the head of a gang and Tony's best friends are members of the rival gang.  Maria's brother's girlfriend Anita is the voice of the generation of immigrants who work hard and want to make America their true home.  But xenophobia is a powerful drug and nobody supports Maria and Tony and their relationship.

The original West Side Story is one of my favorite movies and musicals, and I was really nervous for this one.  If you listen to 2 Movie Jews (my podcast), I said as much and was cautiously excited about this film.  How do you improve on perfection?  (well, ok, the entire cast of Puerto Ricans was made of white people with dark makeup on except for Rita Moreno who won an Oscar for that performance, almost perfect).  Moral of this story?  Never bet against Steven Spielberg.

The performances by Ariana DeBose who played Anita and Mike Faist who played Riff were stunning.  Seeing Rita Moreno recast into a new role was heaven, and Spielberg hit it out of the parking giving Moreno the classic song "Somewhere."  Ansel Elgort as Tony, teenage heartthrob and star of multiple Young Adult films who I usually enjoy, was the only misstep. He just didn't work as Tony, and I wish I could put my finger on why, too little passion in his adorable face, maybe?

The movie is absolutely brilliant and is one of my favorites of 2021.  You must see it.

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The Power of the Dog - 12 nominations

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Kodi Smit-McPhee

Best Adapted Screenplay Jane Campion (written by)

Best Achievement in Directing Jane Campion

Best Motion Picture of the Year Jane Campion (producer) Tanya Seghatchian (producer) Emile Sherman (producer) Iain Canning (producer) Roger Frappier (producer)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Jesse Plemons

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Benedict Cumberbatch

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Kirsten Dunst

Best Achievement in Production Design Grant Major (production design) Amber Richards (set decoration)

Best Sound Richard Flynn Robert Mackenzie Tara Webb

Best Achievement in Cinematography Ari Wegner

Best Achievement in Film Editing Peter Sciberras

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Jonny Greenwood

I don't like Westerns.  I don't generally like slow, "methodical" films that kind of meander to their plot. I don't often like films with sinister, intentionally uncomfortable characters.  So you'd think that I'd hate The Power of the Dog, right?  WRONG.  I loved it.  I loved loved loved it.

Jane Campion's film about two wealthy brothers who own a farm captures everything I love about characters and movies. One brother, Phil, eschews all the trappings of wealth.  He can do every job on the farm and never asks his ranch hands to do anything he wouldn't do himself.  It's a culture of toxic masculinity and he is the head "bro."  But we see some cracks in that veneer, and we begin to learn that Phil's identity is more than what he projects.  On the other hand, his brother George is the opposite; polite and the epitome of a wealthy businessman, and when he meets Rose (and her son) at a restaurant she owns that the crew patronizes, he cares for her in a time of emotional crisis and ultimately marries her.  She comes back to the ranch, now the lady of the house, and Phil torments her so subtly that she begins to melt in front of our very eyes.

Important advisory - GET PAST THE FIRST 15 MINUTES.  I have heard numerous complaints that "I couldn't get past..." - I promise, the payoff is worth it.  This is the rare film that the methodical set up has a giant payoff.  The performances are lessons in acting, no surprise given that married couple Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons have both been working since they were kids.  Benedict Cumberbatch never puts a wrong step and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee is deliciously meek and totally creepy.

As with most sweeping epic films, cinematography and the original score are absolutely critical to this movie's success.  I simply can't say enough good things.  If you have time for just 3 films this year, make this one of them.

Nightmare Alley - 4 nominations

 

Best Motion Picture of the Year Guillermo del Toro (producer) J. Miles Dale (producer) Bradley Cooper (producer)

Best Achievement in Production Design Tamara Deverell (production design) Shane Vieau (set decoration)

Best Achievement in Costume Design Luis Sequeira

Best Achievement in Cinematography Dan Laustsen

Stan Carlisle runs away to join the circus.  There, he learns the secrets of the clairvoyant act thanks to Madame Zeena and her husband Pete who take him under their wings.  Stan falls in love with the electric lady, Molly, and they run away together.  Two years later, Pete has become a premier psychic act and con man in Buffalo.  When a psychiatrist, Dr. Ritter, comes to his show to reveal him as a fraud on behalf of her friend, Stan wins the moment and Dr. Ritter's fascination.  Together, they conspire to swindle her friend who is living with the guilt of having forced a mistress to get an abortion from which she died.  I won't give away further spoilers but somehow, the movie gets even more intense from there.

I'm shocked that none of the performances in this film were nominated, they were outstanding and in some cases, truly creepy.  The cast is chock full of powerhouse actors and former Oscar winners, and Bradley Cooper's snub for this film was a real surprise as many predicted this to be "his year" to win.

Guillermo del Toro is simply a genius at creating the darkest themes and the most beautiful and perfect production and costume design, and cinematography.  The three worked together masterfully to make multiples kinds of worlds - the gritty circus, the shiny, elite Buffalo performance stages, and everything in between.  His characters get what they deserve, even when you want to root for them to escape.  His imagination knows no bounds, and Nightmare Alley delivers exactly what it advertises in the preview.  

The film is absolutely not for everyone, but if you like a good, dark story with sinister characters, this one's a keeper.  I loved it.

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Licorice Pizza - 3 nominations

 

Best Motion Picture of the Year Sara Murphy (producer) Adam Somner (producer) Paul Thomas Anderson (producer)

Best Achievement in Directing Paul Thomas Anderson

Best Original Screenplay Paul Thomas Anderson (written by)

Oy caramba, I feel strongly both ways on this film.  On the one hand, I liked the characters, I liked the journey and the arc of the story, and it was so much fun to see the "Valley" in Los Angeles during the time period when I was also growing up.  The fun of the nostalgia in the movie, seeing the portrayal of Joel Wachs as a new early career politician, the memory of the gas crisis, and so many other details reminding me of growing up in Los Angeles in the 70s tugged at my heart.

Here's the problem, 15 year old go-getter/entrepreneur/actor/publicist/businessman Gary befriends 25 year old Alana at school picture day.  She's a bit aimless and hasn't figured out her direction in life, and she starts working for Gary.  Their companionship and friendship grows with an uncomfortable sense that he wants more (as a 15/25 year old relationship, blech) and she has a fascination with him that she can't quite explain.  We can't quite explain it either except that we assume that as an unsettled young woman, this 15 year old who has such a handle on his life (his mother works for him, for heavens sake!) is exciting and fascinating to her, he is almost a role model for her.

Along the way are some pretty great moments with Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn in short, thrilling, cameo roles.  Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim are fantastic in their debut performances.  I had a tiny, very Jewy giggle during the Shabbat dinner scene which shows the family singing the prayer over the Shabbat candles, accidentally using the Chanukah candle lighting tune. I, and 5 other people likely in the world would even notice that tiny error.

So I loved it, right?  WRONG.  I'm sorry, I couldn't get past what I'm calling this year's obsession with inappropriate relationship storylines.  This is pedophilia plain and simple.  (There is a theory that the movie, which appears to last a few months actually spans 3 years making them 18 and 28 when they get together, but even then, what on earth could a 28 year old woman have in common with an 18 year old child? I have kids, trust me, 18 year olds are children no matter what the law says.  ICK.)  You may remember I had the same problem with Call Me By Your Name several years ago, just like I have the same problem with Red Rocket this year, just like I have the same problem with Parallel Mothers... do you sense a theme?  Knock it off with the pedo stuff, movie makers.

I'm generally inconsistent with my evaluation of Paul Thomas Anderson movies.  This is the first time that I just can't say unequivocally, "I liked it" or "I hated it."  How about, "I hated liking it."

King Richard - 6 nominations

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Will Smith

Best Motion Picture of the Year Tim White (producer) Trevor White (producer) Will Smith (producer)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Aunjanue Ellis

Best Achievement in Film Editing Pamela Martin

Best Original Screenplay Zach Baylin (written by)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) Beyoncé (music and lyric by) Dixson (music and lyric by) For song "Be Alive"

I love a good sports story.  Sports genre films quizzically tie with musicals as my favorite genre because win or lose,  the inspiration that comes from hard work, from never giving up, from dreaming a big seemingly unattainable dream gets me every time.  In this case, the story is less about the athletes and more about the parents (and primarily celebrating the dad) who led Venus and Serena to tennis excellence.  In fact, one could argue the strange decision to do a biopic not about the women athletes who are surely among the best of all time in the sport but instead about the man who charted their path to greatness.  

But there are moments - fewer than I'd like but still wonderful moments - where we see how this man (and you better believe his wife too) fomented the girl power that Serena and Venus displayed; how he taught them to believe in their own worth,  how he instilled their feminism into their DNA.  There's no question in his mind who these power athletes are about to become, and because of that, little question in their own minds about what they can achieve.

We can certainly debate the choice of centering the film on the father rather that the daughters, but we can't forget that there is something extraordinary (at that time especially) of a black family navigating the elite tennis world, and the leadership and vision that Richard Williams showed in his unwillingness to see anything but the best for his kids (all of his kids, actually).  

What we can't debate is whether King Richard stands up as an Oscars-worthy film.  The performances were top notch, and what a treat to see Will Smith back to his real acting chops, and Aunjanue Ellis giving life to Williams' wife Brandy.  The screenplay, the music, the directing, they all worked for me.  And of course, the song by Queen Bey is awesome.  Sometimes people ask me to choose the three films they should see from all the Oscar nominees, and I would slide King Richard into spot #4... if you can, make time for four because this one is a great one.

Nominated song:

Trailer:

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Dune - 10 nominations

 

Best Sound Mac Ruth Mark A. Mangini Theo Green Doug Hemphill Ron Bartlett

Best Achievement in Visual Effects Paul Lambert Tristan Myles Brian Connor Gerd Nefzer

Best Achievement in Production Design Patrice Vermette (production design) Zsuzsanna Sipos (set decoration)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Hans Zimmer

Best Achievement in Film Editing Joe Walker

Best Motion Picture of the Year Mary Parent (producer) Denis Villeneuve (producer) Cale Boyter (producer)

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling Donald Mowat Love Larson Eva Von Bahr

Best Achievement in Costume Design Jacqueline West Bob Morgan

Best Achievement in Cinematography Greig Fraser

Best Adapted Screenplay Jon Spaihts (screenplay by) Denis Villeneuve (screenplay by) Eric Roth (screenplay by)

I love writing this blog.  But every now and then, a film comes along that makes writing a huge challenge.  Dune is one such movie, mostly because the plot is so complicated with so many storylines, characters, and subplots that describing it would take pages.  Here's the central story - the House of Atreides is assigned by the Emperor (of space?) to take over a desert planet that produces spice.  Spice is what allows interstellar travel, and is the most valuable commodity in the galaxy.  There is so much more to the story with messianic tropes, supernatural powers, family complications, coups and backstabbing and betrayal; the film (based on the book) is practically Shakespearean.

It's a sci-fi masterpiece, and admittedly, I didn't really love the original (but that could also be because the first time I saw the 1984 film was last year, and the visual effects were distractingly cheesy).  Dune has long been considered the book that is simply impossible to turn into a movie, and this part 1 by Villeneuve has proven that adage wrong.  It's a bit shocking that the director himself was not nominated for a 10 nominee film, but you'll note that Dune is nominated in every single technical category.  That is no mistake.  This film is epic in the truest sense of that word.  The cast is thrillingly strong (even Chalamet, who I generally find flat in his affect most of the time in most of his roles), and I have to note that this is Hans Zimmer's 12th Oscars nomination, and the one for which he is most likely to win his second award.

Dune is not for everyone.  It's still a science fiction film at its core.  It's long, it has lots of characters and subplots (as I already mentioned), and this is only part 1.  I believe part 2 will have more exciting action and will ramp up the tension.  This film is also the first half of a two parter, meaning that most of this film feels like important details for the set up, but doesn't necessarily have a payoff standing on its own.  That's ok, it was absolutely worth the time, "if you like that sort of thing."

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Drive My Car - 4 nominations

 

Best Motion Picture of the Year Teruhisa Yamamoto (producer)

Best Achievement in Directing Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Best Adapted Screenplay Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (screenplay by) Takamasa Oe (screenplay by)

Best International Feature Film Japan

This long and methodical film follows Yusuke, a well known actor and director who performs a unique production of Uncle Vanya.  After tragedy strikes in his life, he is invited to Hiroshima to stage a similar production, with the twist that most of the characters speak different languages thanks to creative casting.  One of the characters doesn't speak at all and she uses sign language throughout the production, a detail I simply loved.  The theater company has a rule that he may not drive himself while he is in their employ due to his glaucoma, and they hire a young woman who is reputed to be an excellent driver (not the Rain Man kind, the actual kind).

One of the young men he casts who is given the lead happens to also be a man who was having an affair with Yusuke's wife two years prior.  This young man, Takatsuki is erratic and perhaps too young for the role, and eventually puts Yusuke into a very difficult position that ultimately will decide whether the play goes on.

In addition to all of this, the relationship between the driver and Yusuke grows, partly because of their common history of past tragedy.  In a relatively expected arc, they go from skeptic strangers to friends who help each other find catharsis.

Many critics consider Drive My Car to be the best film of the year, including Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times.  Its nomination for Best Picture seemed almost a lock. I liked the film but I thought it was too long.  The "preamble" of the film setting up the main plot line took almost 45 minutes.  I think this can be typical of the high brow work of Japanese film and ultimately the story is engaging and the characters are well drawn and interesting.  But fair warning, if you prefer a director whose internal rule is that every scene must move the story forward, this is not the film for you.  If you can sit in the long set up and allow for a lot of daylight between story, then I do truly recommend this film.  It's lovely and worth it, but only if you can sit through the 3+ hours without complaint.

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