Everything Everywhere All at Once - 11 nominations

 

Best Original Screenplay Dan Kwan Daniel Scheinert

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Son Lux

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) Ryan Lott David Byrne Mitski For song "This Is a Life"

Best Motion Picture of the Year Dan Kwan (producer) Daniel Scheinert (producer) Jonathan Wang (producer)

Best Achievement in Directing Dan Kwan Daniel Scheinert

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Michelle Yeoh

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Stephanie Hsu

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Jamie Lee Curtis

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Ke Huy Quan

Best Achievement in Costume Design Shirley Kurata

Best Achievement in Film Editing Paul Rogers

Mothers and daughters, amiright?  (For the record, my mother - who reads this blog - is the absolute best.)

Everything Everywhere All at Once is the multiverse movie we needed.  It is weird.  It is wild. And it is spectacular. It is another Best Picture nominee whose entire principal cast is nominated for Oscars, and that's because the performances were just that good, and each person played the same person but like 14 different people as themselves.  Get it?  (Ok, that's fair... confusing is the way the multiverse cookie crumbles.)

Let's see how much of this nearly indescribable film I can describe.  Evelyn Quan runs a laundromat with her husband Waymond.  They are Chinese immigrants who have a daughter, Joy.  Joy is eager to introduce her white girlfriend to her family and especially her grandfather, but Evelyn is reluctant thinking that they are just not ready to learn of Joy's relationship, and minimizes the introduction to be Joy's "friend."  For a daughter seeking connection and to be truly seen and valued for who she is, this is a difficult moment to navigate.  

Meanwhile, the laundromat is being audited by the IRS.  When the family goes to the building to meet with their unsympathetic IRS agent Dierdre, the multiverse is opened to Evelyn, and she learns that every choice in one's history sends that Evelyn down another path with very different outcomes.  We learn of a "big bad enemy" Jobu who is simultaneously experiencing all of her own timelines at once, and Jobu has figured out how to destroy the world with an "Everything Bagel black hole" to relieve herself of her own misery and chaotic life.  Evelyn is endowed with powers to fight the big bad (and that itself is it's own cool explanation), and we are taken on a tour of her many alternate lives only for her to realize that love and acceptance is what is required to heal this crazy situation.  (no spoilers, but these alternate universes produce some VERY creative and fantastic scenes.)

The day I saw this film, I pronounced it the winner of the Costume Design category (THERE IS A SHIRT MADE OUT OF TEDDY BEARS, YOU GUYS), and I thought surely a nomination for Production Design, as well.  With nominations in all of the possible "top of the line" categories, this little film could take the big prize.  This is one you absolutely don't want to miss in any of your alternate timelines.

Elvis - 8 nominations

Best Motion Picture of the Year Baz Luhrmann (producer) Catherine Martin (producer) Gail Berman (producer) Patrick McCormick (producer) Schuyler Weiss (producer)

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling Mark Coulier Jason Baird Aldo Signoretti

Best Sound David Lee Wayne Pashley Andy Nelson Michael Keller

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Austin Butler

Best Achievement in Cinematography Mandy Walker

Best Achievement in Costume Design Catherine Martin

Best Achievement in Film Editing Matt Villa Jonathan Redmond

Best Achievement in Production Design Catherine Martin Karen Murphy Beverley Dunn

The film follows Elvis Presley from his teenage years when he meets his infamous manager, Colonel Tom Parker, through the end of his own life and career.  Being a Baz Luhrmann film, you know that the movie is so much more than that, and you can see the nominations in Costume Design and Production Design that Luhrmann productions are famous for.  

If Luhrmann's going to give you spectacle, he is going to give you SPECTACLE.  This is his first biopic, and to say that he pulled off the presentation of history is possibly an understatement (with the caveat that biopics are not documentaries and have no obligation to real events).  While I wasn't alive at the time, Luhrmann doesn't shy away from including the iconic costumes and settings that we all have in our minds' eyes about what Elvis' life was like.  And the addition of a dead on performance by Austin Butler as Elvis makes the whole thing seem real.  (In a rare misstep, the casting of Tom Hanks seems off.  Hanks who can do no wrong in my eyes was weighed down - literally - by the use of weird prosthetics, which are also nominated for the film.  You know who could have been a better casting choice?  Lance Barber from Young Sheldon.)

The story hits all the highlights - getting arrested for too-sexy dance moves stolen directly from the African American community, being sent off to the army, meeting 14 year old Priscilla Presley and marrying her (which by today's standards, ew... I guess by any standards, ew), awakening to the issues of civil rights and wanting to do something to lend his voice to the movement, drug use, and the eventual opening of his eyes to the manipulations by Colonel Parker when it was far too late to do anything about it.

There is no question that Austin Butler's performance is perfect, and I'm starting to question if he is, in fact, Elvis reincarnated.  But there was something slightly flat about the film and when it was finished, I said, "ok, that was a movie." The Elvis singing moments ARE thrilling, don't get me wrong.  But the emotional response Luhrmann is going for?  I didn't find it.  Maybe it would be better to head to Blueberry Hill, if you're really looking for your thrill (I hear that's where Elvis found his).

The Banshees of Inisherin - 9 nominations

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Kerry Condon

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Colin Farrell

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Carter Burwell

Best Motion Picture of the Year Graham Broadbent (producer) Peter Czernin (producer) Martin McDonagh (producer)

Best Achievement in Directing Martin McDonagh

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Brendan Gleeson

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Barry Keoghan

Best Original Screenplay Martin McDonagh

Best Achievement in Film Editing Mikkel E.G. Nielsen

At the heart of Banshees is an ending friendship between a pair of lifelong mates, Colm and Padraic.  At first, Colm just stops talking to Padraic with no explanation but eventually, he relents and tells the Irishman that he is just too boring.  Colm wants to live out his life composing music and building his life's legacy, and waste no time on anything else. In a small village with people who have done the same thing day in and day out for decades, this decision seems particularly cruel, and Colm adds the threat that if Padraic won't leave him alone, he will cut off a finger for each time that Padraic talks to him.  (Spoiler alert: Colm is not being hyperbolic.)

At the same time, Padraic's beloved sister has found a job on the mainland and has informed him that she will be moving away from their shared home. Colm causes the accidental death of Padraic's pet miniature donkey. It's a lot of loss for one person, and Padraic loses his grip and promises Colm dire consequences.  

Honestly, I haven't even addressed the side story lines and characters - one of whom is actually nominated for this film!  The entire principal cast of this film is nominated for their brilliant work in this masterpiece.  I'm not the first to say, but I have never seen Colin Farrell better. If you only know Brendan Gleeson from the Harry Potter films, you're in for a serious treat.  In a year where Avatar and Top Gun are in the Best Picture list, Banshees of Inisherin is the quiet, complex, character-driven, deeply emotional story we needed for balance and equilibrium. The movie is no flash, all substance, with a sprinkle of magic the Irish bring to storytelling like nobody else.  It is absolutely worth seeing.

Avatar: The Way of Water - 4 nominations

 

Best Sound Julian Howarth Gwendolyn Yates Whittle Dick Bernstein Christopher Boyes Gary Summers Michael Hedges

Best Achievement in Visual Effects Joe Letteri Richard Baneham Eric Saindon Daniel Barrett

Best Motion Picture of the Year James Cameron (producer) Jon Landau (producer)

Best Achievement in Production Design Dylan Cole Ben Procter Vanessa Cole

Jake Sully is back in this beautiful sequel to the original Avatar film.  He has married Neytiri, and together they have 4 Na'vi children and one semi-adopted human child (known as Spider). Jake serves as the chief of the Omatikaya clan in the forests of Pandora.  Though killed in battle in the first movie, Colonel Miles Quaritch and others are back and reincarnated as Na'vi avatars who have had the human soldiers' memories implanted in their brains, and they are ready for another fight.  Driven by revenge and a need to take over Pandora's resources, the members of the "RDA" are eager to kill Jake and his family. They manage to kidnap Spider and bring him back to the military ship to interrogate him and hopefully turn his allegiance to the humans.

The Sully clan determines that their presence among the forest Na'vi is putting the entire community in danger so they flee and ask for refuge among the Metkayina clan who live by and commune with the ocean.  Reluctant to bring danger into their community, the tribe ultimately welcomes the family and teaches them how to live among their people.

But the RDA soldiers are not going to give up.  They chase the family and hunt the Tulkun whale-like creatures who live in spiritual harmony with the Na'vi tribe as a means of drawing Jake Sully out to kill him.  All this for both profit and revenge, again kidnapping Sully's children and threatening the peaceful existence of the clan.  Though I won't offer any spoilers, part 3 of this 5-part saga is well set up with this story, both for characters who will want revenge and for the fate of Pandora and its Na'vi inhabitants.

As expected, Avatar: The Way of Water has swept the technical categories for nominations.  As the first one was, this film is visually and audibly stunning (I even paid extra for the 3D experience, and it was worth it). The story is emotional and compelling, and it delivers on the big budget epic Hollywood experience that only James Cameron can produce.  Is it a must-see film?  Not really.  If you see it (and you saw the first one and liked it) will you love it?  Absolutely.

All Quiet on the Western Front - 9 nominations

Best International Feature Film Germany

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling Heike Merker Linda Eisenhamerova

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Volker Bertelmann

Best Sound Viktor Prasil Frank Kruse Markus Stemler Lars Ginzel Stefan Korte

Best Achievement in Visual Effects Frank Petzold Viktor Muller Markus Frank Kamil Jaffar

Best Motion Picture of the Year Malte Grunert (producer)

Best Adapted Screenplay Edward Berger Lesley Paterson Ian Stokell

Best Achievement in Cinematography James Friend

Best Achievement in Production Design Christian M. Goldbeck Ernestine Hipper

It is 1917, three years into World War One.  The film follows Paul, a young idealistic German teen who enlists in the army with his friends, all of whom have been inspired by the tropes of war - fighting for freedom, fighting for country and fellow Germans.  The realities of war become harshly real from the first day in the trenches, when one of Paul's friends and fellow recruits is killed in their first moments in battle.  Meanwhile, armistice negotiations begin as the German command becomes weary and recognize that they are losing the war.

Paul persists and endures hardships, battles, starvation, and the deeply painful loss of fellow soldiers and friends.  Sadly, once the peace negotiations conclude and the end of the war is near, a battle hungry commander orders a final battle and for the Germans to continue fighting until the last moment of 11 a.m. when the armistice takes effect.  

The challenge of this film is to remember that the allies were fighting against the Germans, that they were the enemy, and that we are not rooting for the Germans to win the war (and of course, most people watching know that they didn't win the war) but with the pull of the protagonist narrative, it is hard to keep in mind that we are watching "the bad guys" and we want them to lose. Isn't that a great example of what movies can do - they can shift our lens to see the other side and their hopes, dreams, patriotism, and humanity even when we know intellectually that the outcome the protagonist is yearning for is decidedly not the one we would want in real life.

The film is gritty, the visuals are stunningly real.  There is no romanticizing war here, there is only loss.  In fact, this film is characterized as an anti-war movie, which is ultimately the point of the story. It's a long film at almost 2 and a half hours, but it doesn't feel long.  The Academy has a long love affair with war films and I think we will see this joining the ranks of other epic films nominated and loved by Hollywood.  

It is rare for an international film to break into the Best Picture category and though an incredible achievement in film making, I'm not sure that I would place this film in my 10 best of the year.  It is worth seeing, but if you only have so much time, this film would not be a top contender in my book.

You can stream it now on Netflix.