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.

Aftersun - 1 nomination

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Paul Mescal

I don't know, guys. This one is a bit of a puzzler for me. The story is simply a vacation experience with a father and daughter who spend time together, love each other, and there is very little drama.  We gather that there is something that the father is going through, though it is never shared with us. The vast majority of the film is just scenes from a vacation, with a lot of moments where you are wondering, is something terrible about to happen?  Nope, nothing significant happens at all. It's just slightly more interesting than someone taking you through their vacation videos and photos.

Now, if you do any reading about this movie, you learn that the daughter is attempting to, as an adult 20 years later, learn more about her father, trying to identify which of her memories from the vacation are real and which are not, and exploring "the father she never really knew" through the lens of this experience.  The problem is, if you have to get all of that from reading about the film and not at all from the film, then it has missed the mark.  There are tiny moments that I would guess last less than 5 total minutes in the movie hinting at confusion and suggesting that this is all memory, but not enough to make clear this film as a flashback.

I can't even say the movie was confusing but the performance was remarkable. Ok, it was fine (and one could argue that Mescal's character is actually in a supporting role) but hardly Oscar nomination worthy.