Sharing my love of all things Oscar. I see all the movies with nominations so you don't have to - and I do my best to research and help pick the winners. Subscribe, share your comments, and feel free to share with others. Follow me on Twitter @JodiBee.
September 5 follows the television producers and crew on site at the German Olympics when the Israeli team and their coaches were taken hostage. Original footage from the reporters and the terrorists is interwoven with the movie being shot today. The interviews and clips are almost exclusively real clips from the 70s, adding a sense of authenticity and realism to the narrative storyline. The real question at hand remains, what do you air during a terrorist attack? There's an incredible moment when the crew is broadcasting the police raid that is happening right outside the doors of the rooms where the hostages are being held and a member of the tv crew realizes that the terrorists are watching tv and seeing the "surprise" attack in real time. Journalistic ethics are perhaps the most antiquated of the relics in the film, and I was nostalgic for that, as well as a time when kidnapping and murdering Jews was pretty universally considered a bad thing. Those were the days.
Nonetheless, I loved this film. It's Apollo 13 at the Olympics - we know the outcome and yet we are on the edges of our seats at every moment. I would have loved for this movie to get more attention. The palpable tension of a German translator observing that the Germans have once again let the Jews down spoke to a society that has the good grace to admit that killing Jews is wrong.
Here's something I'll bet you didn't know as you think about the immigration debate. ICE has a practice of arresting and deporting green card applicants AT THEIR IMMIGRATION INTERVIEWS. Yep, you read that right. The people who have filled out all the forms, lived productive non-criminal lives, contributed to the economy, and sometimes even gotten married to citizens (as they are allowed to do), are then picked up and deported despite following the rules to naturalize. Now maybe you'll say "but they came here illegally!" Sure, let's accept that as true. Do we really want to be the nation that kicks out those who have become part of our American fabric, especially when they are doing everything else they can to follow the rules? This ain't Cobra Kai, and No Mercy ain't an admirable way to live.
Anuja
Adam J. Graves and Suchitra Mattai
This beautiful little film stars two young orphan sisters working in a sweatshop in India. The younger, Anuja, is brilliant with math and has the opportunity to go to a fancy boarding school. She and her sister can be lifted out of poverty with a proper education. She faces a serious dilemma, take this once in a lifetime opportunity, or stay with her sister and work their fingers to the bone until they are dead? It was an excellent short and I'm extra proud to say that I'm friends with the composer!
I'm Not a Robot
Victoria Warmerdam and Trent
I saw a meme not long ago that said, "What makes us human? It turns out, it's the ability to identify traffic lights in 4 of these pictures." Surprise, upon trying to authenticate not being a robot, a young music producer fails to pass the Captcha tests. It is from this that she is able to surmise that she is actually her boyfriend's robot, and she is NOT happy.
The Last Ranger
Cindy Lee and Darwin Shaw
This gorgeous film follows the dedicated professionals who risk their lives to protect rhinos against those who would cut off their horns and leave them for dead. When a ranger offers her young friend the chance to join her and see the many magnificent animals, they encounter a dangerous situation that changes both of their lives forever. This movie is based on a true story.
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Nebojša Slijepčević and Danijel Pek
I read an article not long ago wherein a history teacher presented his class with a question, "if you had lived during the times when slavery was legal, would you have enslaved people or would you have been an abolitionist?" (I'm guessing he won't be allowed to teach about enslaved people in America soon enough, but this is while it was still legal.) "Guess what," he wrote, "everyone in my class would have been an abolitionist." But what happens when people are taken away right in front of you? What if the takers are armed? Do you speak up and stand up, or do you protect yourself and your family and say nothing? We all like to believe that we would be the bold ones, but would we? We never know until we are in that situation, but if history tells us anything, most people would stay quiet, even when they expect themselves to be brave. And that's what this film is about.
Death by Numbers Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. Robillard
Here's a powerful story of a Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school student who was shot by a fellow student and asked to testify at his trial years later. Her strength, her courage, her righteous anger leaves us asking why we can't solve this problem, why certain weapons are available to the public (and for the record, I am not anti gun). In the context of the next film in the list, it is very hard not to be rooting for the shooter to get the death penalty for killing over a dozen people and severely injuring over a dozen more. One wonders what the difference is between this murderer and...
I Am Ready, Warden Smriti Mundhra and Maya Gnyp
This one. As a young troubled nineteen year old, John Henry Ramirez murders a young father for the change in his pocket. He is sentenced to death (one horrifying murder, but still, ONE) and he seems to have made peace with his fate. He says goodbye, he takes responsibility, he apologizes, he becomes a better man, and he says that if his death can help soothe the pain of the family who lost the father, then it would be worth it. In this one, we are rooting quite strongly against the death penalty - including a pro-death penalty elderly woman who befriends John and fights for a reprieve from the Texas Governor (like that would ever happen).
Incident
Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven
What to do when police violence is pieced together quite literally before your eyes? This is not me making a political statement, I'm not a person who wants to defund the police, nor am I a person who disbelieves that there are inequities in our justice system. But this case, this one case, we see a situation unfold escalated by two rookie police, and we see the holstered gun removed from the dead man - perhaps to reinforce the bogus claim that he was about to shoot - a blatant lie.
Instruments of a Beating Heart
Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric Nyari
Weirdly, this sweet documentary is the only one that made me cry. The little group of 1st graders, about to become second graders, work tirelessly to learn Ode to Joy so they can properly perform and welcome the incoming 1st graders. Ayame works hard to win the part of the cymbal player, but then struggles to keep up with the rest of the class. Her music teacher is tough but when she triumphs, the celebration is palpable.
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington
Badass Oren O'Brian is the first woman ever to be hired to the New York Philharmonic, hired by the great Leonard Bernstein. And you guessed it, she was a DEI hire - or what even is that? With a legacy of superb playing of the double bass, and teaching student after student to find his or her greatness, we learn that sometimes, the only way to crack through the discrimination of a time, is for a great leader to decide that it's time to hire someone who doesn't look like "the guy we've always hired." She shows that inclusion is most often not about hiring the less qualified person, and more about not hiring the less qualified person who looks like all the other qualified ones. Somebody with vision HAS to decide. And Oren showed them, surviving for over 40 years with her instrument in one of the greatest philharmonics in the world.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Never Too Late
from Elton John: Never Too Late; Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin
A documentary 50 years in the making, Elton John: Never Too Late is exactly the film you think it is. With footage over the superstar's career and talking heads explaining EJ's genius, it is nearly impossible to believe how much he has been through in his life. His musical gift is immeasurable and almost unmatchable, he has done everything a pop star would be expected to do and so much more. Last year, John joined the ranks of the other 19 people officially crowned with the four-fecta, an EGOT, having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (and in some cases, multiples of each). This is not going to garner EJ another Oscar, to be sure, but I'm a fan of his music and of his person, and I enjoyed this one so much. Like A Complete Unknown, be sure to watch this film (on Disney+) with forgiving people in the room, because there's no way you'll escape singing along, out loud, to the very best of Sir Elton John.
Guys, guys, guys, guys. What is it going to take for Diane Warren to win a freakin' Oscar??? (don't talk to me about honorary Oscars) This woman has been nominated for Oscars for Original Song SIXTEEN TIMES, and if that's not impressive enough for you, may I also add that she has been nominated EVERY YEAR for the last eight years? Readers of the blog know that I'm still mad about "Til It Happens to You" from The Hunting Ground which she wrote with Lady Gaga and that produced one of the most moving moments in Oscars history during the telecast. But ok, let's say I'm willing to let that go - may I also add that this being the only nomination for The Six Triple Eight is enraging. If Warren also doesn't win (which I suspect she won't again this year), I'm going to raise my fist for both injustices now.
The Six Triple Eight is based on a true story of a regiment of all black women in World War 2 who were given the perhaps impossible challenge to sort and distribute over 17 million pieces of mail to American soldiers and from them to their families; and they did so in less than 3 months. They took their jobs seriously, and in cases where they couldn't read the writing clearly enough to distribute it, they undertook other methods to decipher where the letters were meant to go. The performances in the film were moving and heavy duty, the screenplay hit all the right notes. If you watch the movie (and you should), you'll help me decipher why it got so little attention. Everyone to whom I have recommended this picture has thanked me for it. So will you. And you won't even need to send me a thank you note.
The song is beautiful and so instead of posting the trailer as I usually do, I'm posting the YouTube video of H.E.R. singing the song. Enjoy!
Young Thomas has been sent to Transylvania to close a lucrative Real Estate deal by his employer. Leaving his young, beautiful wife Ellen at home, he discovers a creepy castle and an even creepier owner. He is aware that something odd is going on as he passes out and awakens with a bite mark, and each night as he dreams terrible dreams, he awakens with more bite marks in the morning. He insists on leaving, but not before the owner gets him to sign a contract in a foreign language that is presumably the land sale document. Though he questions if he should sign a document which he can't read, he also is lured by the commission he will earn and be able to take care of his beloved wife and make the couple rich.
Of course when he returns home, he realizes what he has done - he has signed a document nullifying his marriage opening the door for Nosferatu to join with Thomas' wife, and who Nosferatu has claimed as his own for decades. On the other hand, if his wife does not submit to the vampire willingly within three nights, it is made clear that Thomas will be killed. Ellen summons the vampire to her room, and tricks him into having sex with her and draining her blood until sunrise, killing Nosferatu with sunlight and herself in sacrifice for Thomas.
This is not my kind of movie and I'll bet if you go back into the blog history, you'll be hard pressed to find a single film of this genre that I liked. Not so with this one, it was gorgeously filmed and the story was so engaging that I liked it very much. I most certainly would not have seen it if not for the Oscar nominations, but that just teaches me a lesson that sometimes a good film is a good film, even when it comes in a package that I wouldn't normally open. I'm hardly opening my veins for the next vampire flick, but when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. This one was worth the view.
Edward is an actor who lives with neurofibromitosis, a genetic condition which manifests in him with disfiguring facial features, the kind typified in The Elephant Man. He is used to being stared at, and he has created a full life though he has yet to find a lover who can accept him for who he is and not what he looks like. He takes an experimental drug which over time removes all of the skin and tumors leaving only the handsome face of Sebastian Stan. But Edward has trouble adapting to his new life, one that has him working as a very successful real estate broker, yet he is drawn back to the theater and to auditions, when he discovers that his only appeal as an actor is his old face. He doesn't quite know how to live, how to be in the world without the face and life experience that he knows well. The new look doesn't comfort him, it unnerves him. When he meets and befriends another actor with the same condition who seems to live in the world without shame, without judgement, he seems to question his whole life and his whole personality.
The film does a good job of playing on the title - is he a different man now that he has a new face and a new life? Are the two phases of his life separate so as to make his one identity two different identities? Does a man with the same condition but a vastly different life experience show him what he could have been had he been a different kind of man? While my husband referred to this as "The Substance but for men," the execution of the change and the commensurate challenges to one's identity make this film far more interesting and far less gross.
It's not for everyone and I wouldn't say that you MUST see this movie. But if you're willing to go on the journey with Edward to identify the core of identity, you might just like it. Or perhaps you would if you were a different... never mind.
Denmark traditionally does very well in the Oscar race, and I've seen lots of terrific films in this category. This one is no exception. Karoline is a young factory worker whose husband hasn't been heard from in over a year since he went to war. Her boss seduces her and wants to marry her when he discovers that she is pregnant, but his mother is not having it. Alone and scared, she decides to go to the women's bathhouse and tries to give herself an abortion with a long knitting needle. Another woman and her daughter discover what she has done to herself, and they offer to take her in and help her. By day, this woman runs a candy store, and under the cover of secrecy, she also takes babies from desperate women who simply can't afford to raise them, and she tells the women that she gives the children to families eager to adopt. But there is a darker secret that Karoline discovers, and when she does, her life changes forever.
This was a depressing film on so many levels, but it was excellent. Of course, I never share the most important spoilers, but I can tell you that this is not the film to watch when you want to see something light. The Oscars are not exactly known for their upbeat selections, but this one is particularly difficult and offers the tale of another unintended consequence when women have their choices limited or taken away.
While Germany is credited for this International Feature, the film was shot in secret in Iran and smuggled out to be assembled and produced in Europe. It is set against the background of nation-wide protests against the oppressive government which our protagonist Iman's teenage daughters support, and in which he is forced as a judge to pass sentence (often the death sentence) against protestors who are brought before his court. He is given a handgun to keep at home and when the gun goes missing, he panics knowing that losing it could result in his own death sentence. He goes over the edge and threatens his family with interrogations that increase in intensity, ultimately causing his own downfall and the collapse of his happy family life.
While this film is very well done, it is another one that lasts almost three hours (with no intermission). I don't have deep knowledge of what it is like to live in Iran and there are many surprising pieces of the story reflecting a lifestyle of which I would never otherwise have known. On the other hand, almost every scene in the movie had me on the edge of my seat, as each piece unfolds and all one can see is danger and disastrous consequences around every corner. If this is life in modern day Iran, human rights abuses abound, and it is most accurate to say that there are really no rights at all. That's what it is like living in an autocratic theocracy, and perhaps this is the best possible lesson for our time.
This year's Animated Features do not have a bad one in the bunch (and that's saying something, there is usually at least one I don't like). The stories are compelling, the animation is fantastic, and none is like the other. I highly recommend all of them!
Flow - 2 nominations
Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman
Flow is also nominated for International Feature Film from Latvia.
This is a beautiful film visually and thematically, where a cat whose home is devastated by flood assembles a small crew of friends traveling the seas and looking for a safe refuge. There are crazy characters and gorgeous vistas, dangers and moments of comfort. (and some scenes where you kind of wonder what was flowing into the filmmakers systems, a bit of a cuckoo drug trip) This is not a dual screen movie, and if you can, it's worth it to see in the theater. The visuals are just too stunning.
Inside Out 2 Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen
Riley and her more complex set of teenage emotions are back and trying to navigate the challenges of popularity, loyalty, and the most essential questions of maturity and human relationships, all while playing hockey. Joy, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, and Fear welcome Ennui, Anxiety, Envy and Embarrassment to their emotional attic, and these more complex emotions mean more difficult experiences for the team - especially Joy - to navigate. While Joy is looking for ways to sequester hard emotions, Anxiety is taking control and developing a self-talk that is not healthy for poor sweet Riley. The sequel does a great job of bringing the chaotic but optimistic tone of the first film into the second one, and it's worth a watch for sure.
Memoir of a Snail Adam Elliot and Liz Kearney
Let's start with our most important announcement - Memoir of a Snail is NOT an animated movie for children. It explores adult themes and follows twin sister Grace separated from her beloved brother Gilbert after their alcoholic father dies. She has an intense snail collecting hobby and they each go to foster homes that are less than ideal and moreover, Grace's life becomes a series of difficult and devastating losses. But she survives by befriending an older woman named Pinky who puts joy and spirit back into her life. Meanwhile, Gilbert has no such refuge, except for one child who is kind to him in the abusive home he lives in. When tragedy strikes, Grace realizes that she should have been looking for her brother rather than spending money on snail paraphernalia. Now, I know this is going to sound a little bit crazy, but Memoir of a Snail is my Hidden Gem Award winner. It's emotional gravity and brilliant storytelling (and wonderful animation) was a surprise that knocked me out.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Richard Beek
OMG, W&G do it again! And this time, the film manages to bring back an old familiar character from a prior film - an evil penguin who has been locked up in prison thanks to our leads, and now he wants revenge. Wallace continues to be an incredible inventor, but this time, he invents an AI robot garden gnome who will do all of your chores unless his coding turns him into pure evil! When he builds a tiny, evil, robot garden gnome army, they set to the task of framing Wallace. Ever on the case and never fooled by shenanigans, Gromit must save the day and set the world right before the penguin escapes and Wallace is locked up forever. As always, a delightful film, funny, sarcastic, and yet totally relevant to the AI landscape of today's world.
The Wild Robot - 3 Nominations Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann The Wild Robot is also nominated for Original Score and Best Sound.
The Wild Robot is another film that I recommend seeing in the theater. An incredible film of a robot who crash lands on a deserted island who takes up mothering a baby goose. "She" protects the baby at all costs, and learns what it means to love, to let go when your baby grows up, and how to create community. She shares the spirit of needing a village to raise a child, and what a mother might be willing to sacrifice to save her child. Everything that this robot has learned about humanity changes her to her core, and when fighting with the company that created her, there is nothing she wouldn't give up to protect her child. The animals on the island are not only voiced by terrific actors, the whole experience of the movie is action packed and worth every moment. You'll note that The Wild Robot is actually nominated for 3 Oscars including Original Score and wowee, it's worth a listen event without the film.
Well, I haven't exactly been panting to write this blog post. I saw the preview for this film and I thought it looked like a brilliant and scathing commentary on aging and fame. What I got was a horror movie with a basically interesting idea (though if you take one moment to think about it, the premise is deeply flawed) with a seriously questionable ending.
The basic plot is that Demi Moore (who is pretty wonderful and who ironically looks amazing) is a middle aged former model and current fitness show star and her creepy boss/studio exec gives her notice that he is shutting down her show and tells her that she is no longer marketable because she is too old. She comes upon a handsome young man and his seemingly older counterpart who explains that they are same person and that they are taking a substance that gives back youth. She tracks down the "company" and begins a regimen. What they don't tell her is that she isn't going to go back in years and that a younger version of her is going to be birthed from her body and they will have to switch off one week at a time. (and for my taste, that scene... ew.)
The plot hole is that she doesn't know what happens in the weeks that she is lying dormant, and her younger twin doesn't know what she is doing while she is lying dormant. So, why would anyone recommend something that they themselves don't get to experience? Moore's character doesn't recapture her youth, the mutant she births does. She doesn't get to live a new younger life, she gets to lie on the floor being fed intravenously while her mutant lives the younger life. Why would anyone recommend this once the bait and switch has happened for the first person in the experiment?
At any rate, of course things don't go exactly to plan and the ending is possibly the only plausible one they could muster but I'm betting there are a bunch of act threes somewhere in a garbage can. Many people are raving about this film and it has a more than decent chance of winning this prize. My only theory is perhaps they watched the movie while on substances of their own.
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