Napoleon - 3 Nominations

 

• Best Achievement in Visual Effects

• Charley Henley
• Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet
• Simone Coco
• Neil Corbould

• Best Achievement in Production Design

• Arthur Max (production designer)
• Elli Griff (set decorator)

• Best Achievement in Costume Design

• Janty Yates
• David Crossman

This biopic chronicles Napoleon Bonaparte's life story, his rise to power, and his famous relationship with his (mostly) beloved wife, Josephine.  He spends his early years in battle and rises to popular acclaim through his prowess as a tactician, and his ability to rally people behind him. Eventually, amid calls from the people, Bonaparte is anointed as Emperor by the Pope, and he continues to win serious battles against the Austrian and Russian armies. Meanwhile, a drama ensues at home when his mother realizes that Josephine is unable to produce an heir, and she pushes Napoleon into an affair with a mistress who is able to do so.

Once he commands the troops to a devastating loss at Waterloo, Bonaparte is exiled to the island of St. Helena where he writes his memoirs until his death.

It was good to see Joaquin Phoenix execute this role so beautifully, as I find him hit and miss. There is no question that the three awards for which this film is nominated - all technical categories - are well deserved.  Josephine's period piece dresses alone garnered the nomination, and the palaces in France did the same for Production Design.  This Ridley Scott film will hardly go down in history as a great biopic, but if you have interest in the history of this time period, it's certainly worth watching.

Joker - 11 nominations

Best Motion Picture of the Year - Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper, Emma Tillinger Koskoff

Best Achievement in Directing - Todd Phillips

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Joaquin Phoenix

Best Adapted Screenplay - Todd Phillips, Scott Silver

Best Achievement in Cinematography - Lawrence Sher

Best Achievement in Costume Design - Mark Bridges

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling - Nicki Ledermann, Kay Georgiou

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) - Hildur Guðnadóttir

Best Achievement in Film Editing - Jeff Groth

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing - Tom Ozanich, Dean A. Zupancic, Tod A. Maitland

Best Achievement in Sound Editing - Alan Robert Murray

Do you see that movie poster at the top of this page?  That is the moment that Joaquin Phoenix won his Oscar.  He has been nominated 4 times and he has been excellent in every film.  He came very close with Walk the Line, but this is the role that is going to take him past the finish line.  One of very few times that two different actors will have won Oscars for the same role (Heath Ledger won in 2008 for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight).  Don't worry my Oscars babies, I've found the articles with the all the trivia of others who have done it, see the bottom of this blog post.)

Joker is a dark film.  Phoenix lost over 50 pounds to play this role, to make the character of Arthur Fleck (A-fleck, isn't he supposed to be Batman? Haha) weak and easy to pick on.  Fleck has a strange disorder in which he laughs at tense moments and he carries around a little card to explain his affliction to strangers when Fleck seems to be behaving inappropriately.  Arthur lives with his mother, is trying to make it as a stand up comedian who is obsessed with a version of The Tonight Show, and he moonlights as a hospital clown.  As his life begins to spiral, Fleck morphs into a man who will not accept the cards he has been dealt and becomes a sociopathic monster.  Joker captures the origin story of the villain, and also, a small glimpse into the origin story of Batman himself.

This is another instance of a film capturing a ton of awards without being taken up by mostly acting nominations.  That means that this film is being lauded primarily for the craft of making it, and there is no question that Joker earned every nomination in the list.  The character of the Joker first appeared in Batman comics on April 25, 1940, so there must be something very compelling to allow this character to appear and reappear in shows, comics, and films over and over again.  We now have three iconic Joker performances - Jack Nicholson (Batman, 1989), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight, 2008), and Joaquin Phoenix (Joker, 2019).  Each a powerhouse performance set in a solid film.  I walked away awestruck by this film, and if you have the time, it's worth the watch.

If you loved Joker, my guess is that you'll love Batman: The Definitive History of the Dark Knight in Comics, Film, and Beyond, by Andrew Farago

Here's the trailer:

OSCARS TRIVIA ALERT!

Two different actors for the same role:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/24122/quick-10-10-pairs-actors-oscar-nominated-same-role
The same actor for the same role in the same movie, but two Oscars:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-classic-hollywood-harold-russell-20161130-story.html

INHERENT VICE - 2 nominations

Costume Design - Mark Bridges
Adapted Screenplay - Paul Thomas Anderson

How I wanted to love Inherent Vice and then come to you and tell you that all of the negative commentary was just from people who didn't "get" the movie.  It was a lot of dialogue, but I understood what was going on for the first chunk of the film, though unfortunately, I didn't see how most of the scenes were about moving the story forward.  

The basic plot (from what I could decipher) was that a local real estate mogul, Wolfman, and the ex-girlfriend of protagonist "Doc" (Joaquin Phoenix) have gone missing.  Doc is a private investigator/drug dealer, who has a history with the police and FBI, none of whom like him.

In an early scene, the ex, Shasta, tells Doc that the mogul's wife and her boyfriend are going to put him secretly into an asylum. A pretty large cast of characters show up occasionally in the film to give Doc tidbits as he researches where Wolfman and Shasta have gone.  And that's truly all I can explain about this film.  How it could be nominated for Adapted Screenplay is totally beyond me, except that I would call the movie a series of conversations in which clues are given to Doc that seem to be making sense to him while we have no idea what's going on.

The costume design was fun and hideous as 70's authentic costuming should be, but while American Hustle was the best of that decade's clothing, Inherent Vice was truly the worst of the 70's garb.  The cast was an assembly of Oscar nominees, Oscar winners, and popular powerhouses.  The elements were all there except I still don't know what the heck happened during those few hours.

Inherent Vice is the epitome of my motto for this blog - I see all the Oscar nominated films so you don't have to see the bad ones.  I still have a handful of films to see, but I would rank this in the bottom three films of all 60 with nominations.  See it at your own peril.