Hamnet - 8 Nominations

 

Best Casting: Nina Gold

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score): Max Richter

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes

Best Achievement in Directing: Chloé Zhao

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Jessie Buckley

Best Adapted Screenplay: Maggie O’Farrell, Chloé Zhao

Best Achievement in Production Design: Fiona Crombie (production designer), Alice Felton (set decorator)

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Malgosia Turzanska

Hamnet is the beautiful and deeply moving story of William Shakespeare and his family; how he met his wife, his rise in popularity, and the family that he left behind when he went to London to put on what would become enduring work that would live well beyond his lifetime. With this film, Chloe Zhao has done something powerful. While we have seen films before that play out a “real life” story that eventually become a Shakespeare play (a la, Shakespeare in Love), this feels grounded in a world that feels as real as it is theatrical, and as theatrical as it is real. Of course the technical categories lend themselves to the experience, but what makes this movie are the performances from Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, and the three child actors who play their children. (At this point, I can’t see anyone taking the gold from Jessie Buckley.)
We know that Chloe Zhao is an outstanding director, but the thing that connects her Oscar winning Nomadland to Hamnet is her ability to have enduring compassion for her women leads while still showing them to be fully human, whether pooping in a bucket in a van or giving birth alone in the woods.
And here is my big reveal - if you are going to see only 2 or 3 of the nominated Best Pictures this year, make sure that Hamnet is one of them.

Gladiator 2 - 1 nomination

• Best Achievement in Costume Design

• Janty Yates 
• David Crossman

If you had asked me how many nominations Gladiator 2 was going to get before the announcement date, I would have told you probably in the area of 6-8. The original, which I disliked, got 12 noms, just short of the record 13, and won 5.

This film serves as a true sequel, many years later, and as the movie progresses, we see the familial and generational connections to the original. It's a trope we see over and over again - Luke Skywalker is no coincidence, that's Darth Vader's son! Again in this version, there are two (not one) tyrannical rulers who love watching the blood sport, there are two strong warriors (not one) fighting for what's right, and there is one unknown son coming back and discovering his true identity. This one was much more interesting, much more compelling, and even the gladiator scenes in the arena were much more creative (I'll leave you to discover the sharks for yourself).

This is not a movie for everyone - I probably could have given it a pass without  the Oscar noms, but I was shocked to discover how much I enjoyed it. I felt this one had more depth to the characters and more intrigue that keeps you on the edge of your seat, rather than just the choreography of fight scenes. Worth it for a Saturday night streamer when you can't find something else to watch. Between Denzel, Paul, and Pedro, it's nice eye candy if nothing else.

Nosferatu - 4 nominations

 

• • Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

  • David White
  • Traci Loader
  • Suzanne Stokes-Munton
• 
  • Best Achievement in Cinematography

  • Jarin Blaschke
• • Best Achievement in Production Design

  • Craig Lathrop (production designer) 
  • Beatrice Brentnerova (set decorator)
• • Best Achievement in Costume Design

  • Linda Muir

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.

Conclave - 8 nominations

 

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

  • Volker Bertelmann
• 
  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Tessa Ross 
  • Juliette Howell 
  • Michael Jackman
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

  • Ralph Fiennes
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

  • Isabella Rossellini
• 
  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Peter Straughan

•     Best Achievement in Film Editing

      Nick Emerson

• 
  • Best Achievement in Production Design

  • Suzie Davies (production designer) 
  • Cynthia Sleiter (set decorator)
• • Best Achievement in Costume Design

  • Lisy Christi
  • 
    

Palace intrigue meets 12 Angry Men in this fascinating story of the College of Cardinals who meet to elect the new Pope after the current Pope dies. If you're like me, you've watched a no action chimney for long periods just waiting for the signature white smoke that tells the world, we have selected a new head of the Catholic Church. Not unlike the political world, different cardinals come with different views - some more liberal, some more conservative, some clinging to the traditions, some looking to shake things up. With each successive vote where no candidate claims the majority, scandals and cover ups emerge, voting blocs are assembled, and brothers power swap to win the vote in the end. Interestingly, the film contains "a big reveal" that I didn't think was necessary, and I that I thought was more about making a point than anything else. It was like the ending after the ending. I found the film engaging enough without it, though I have heard others say they disagree.

I was utterly entertained by the movie, and not just because I'm into secret society, behind closed doors worlds (and don't get me started on cults). The allure of a process that millions pledge to abide by but have no insight into is fascinating. Ralph Fiennes gives one of his best performances which is subtle, quiet, and has tremendous depth. Surely Isabel Rossellini spends probably less than 15 minutes in the film but her role is pivotal in the telling of the story. Stanley Tucci brings his brilliance and every moment he is on screen is captivating. (And frankly, I would have voted for him.) Conclave's power is in the conversations and while I really enjoyed it, in a world with 5 Best Picture nominees rather than 10, I don't think this movie would make the final cut. Nonetheless, since it did, you won't regret watching it.

A Complete Unknown - 8 Nominations

 

• 
  • Best Sound

  • Tod A. Maitland 
  • Donald Sylvester 
  • Ted Caplan 
  • Paul Massey 
  • David Giammarco
• 
  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Fred Berger 
  • James Mangold 
  • Alex Heineman
• 
  • Best Achievement in Directing

  • James Mangold
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

  • Timothée Chalamet
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

  • Monica Barbaro
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

  • Edward Norton
• 
  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Jay Cocks 
  • James Mangold
• 
  • Best Achievement in Costume Design

  • Arianne Phillips

In a very musical year at the Oscars, A Complete Unknown was truly one of my favorites of the year. The performances from Timothee Chalamet, Ed Norton, and Monica Barbaro blew me away - and for the film, I understand all three had to learn guitar and Ed Norton banjo for an unbelievably convincing turn as Pete Seeger. It is a biopic that begins when Bob Dylan arrives in New York, figures out where Woody Guthrie is hospitalized, and visits him with this guitar and his impressive lyrics. He and Pete figure out pretty quickly that this kid has the makings of a star. We watch Dylan's rise to fame and his ultimate ambivalence about what stardom does to his life. He doesn't appreciate being in the spotlight, and he REALLY doesn't want to be locked in a box of what "folk music" means. He doesn't want to be anyone's performing monkey, so he won't play the game, nor will he play Blowin' in the Wind, no matter how much the audience wants to hear it.

All of this tumult though is overridden by the pure joy of Dylan's songs and try as I might to be quiet in the theater, I couldn't help singing along. The music is timeless, and even when you're watching what sometimes looks like a petulant child (do you think that I like doing every thing required of me in MY job? That's called being a grown up, Bob), the performances and the story are so compelling that they can't be resisted by the hardest of movie goers. I hope that audiences of all ages are going, but if you're over 50 and you haven't seen it, I just don't know what you are doing with your life.