Navalny - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Daniel Roher 
Odessa Rae 
Diane Becker 
Melanie Miller 
Shane Boris 

Isn't amazing that Vladimir Putin always wins elections to the tune of 99% of the voters? One might assume that he never has any opposition nor anyone else even running for office.  Enter Alexei Navalny. This is a guy who cares about Russia and seeks the overturn of Putin's corrupt government. In 2020 while traveling, he was hospitalized in Germany for poisoning by a nerve agent. While the Russian government did everything they could to prevent Alexei's wife from seeing him, and waiting until the poison had cleared his system to even allow for testing, his wife brought the attention of the world to this abhorrent situation. Once the poisoning was confirmed, a team of journalists went to work to confirm that Putin was the one who ordered it and that Russian scientists were involved.  In one of the greatest scenes in movie history, a scientist is caught on tape confessing to the crime (and never heard from again...) and even the team can't believe it. The thing that is so compelling about this story is how Navalny never gives up. Even when he knows for sure that his personal freedoms are threatened, he returns to Russia again and again. He fully expects to be assassinated, and his message to Russians continues to be that old Edmund Burke line, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing."  He, and his family who are along for the ride, are truly modern day heroes. What an incredible film.

A House Made of Splinters - 1 nomination

Best Documentary Feature
Simon Lereng Wilmont
Monica Hellstrøm

Children in Eastern Ukraine are living along the 20 mile line where there is not yet fighting with Russia, and the war hasn't officially begun.  They live in a group home while their parents, mostly raging alcoholics, are working with the courts to determine if the children will be returned to their homes, or moved to a foster home or orphanage.  It appears that most of these kids don't have parents who ever show up even to visit.  The social workers and teachers at the home are amazing, they provide so much love and care, but each child has only 9 months to live at this home at which point they will leave for a different destination. We follow a number of children and their stories, most heartbreaking among them is a child whose two younger siblings are also in the home and at maybe 11 years old, he must take care of them both.  The prospect of separating the three kids is devastating. 

One of the most difficult parts of this film is that these children are seemingly caught in a terrible cycle in which they live without caring parents (or without parents who have the capacity to show their care), then they themselves vow to be better parents or to not have children at all, they themselves become alcoholics, they have kids, and their kids end up in this same group home. And, to finally finish off your tender heart, just as the film is ending, the war is beginning in earnest and all of these children must be evacuated, but as the movie notes, there is no safe place anywhere in Ukraine to take them.

For the first time ever, I'll note how truly perfect the name of this film is. It would be nice to be lulled into the belief that these kids are finally, for the first time, in a stable and joyful home where adults take care of them. But no, this home - this seemingly better home - is one that is made of splinters.  These children don't die and there are no stab wounds.  There are just 1000 tiny cuts, each one damages their souls, if not their skins.

Fire of Love - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Sara Dosa
Shane Boris
Ina Fichman

Katia and Maurice Krafft have one hot marriage! The only husband and wife volcanologists in the business, they spend their lives researching and chasing volcano eruptions, and hopefully this helps them identify warning signs and the things that devastate communities who live nearby.  There's a lot to learn in this film about volcanos, including the fact that there are two types - the red version that has very slow moving lava and can be approached by humans; the other a more grey type that is much more deadly because it moves fast and unpredictably. Katia and Maurice have been everywhere and their adventures are not only fascinating, they produce the most exquisite footage of volcanos that we get to see in the movie - Maurice took years of footage, and most of the film that humans have of volcanos was taken by him at some time.  He was the "official photographer and videographer" of the volcanic world. Watching the film, you almost relax watching these researchers go so close to the raging lava, but ultimately and tragically, the pair is killed doing what they love at the Mount Unzen eruption.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Laura Poitras
Howard Gertler
John S. Lyons
Nan Goldin
Yoni Golijov

Nan Goldin is a famous photographer with an incredible life story. She's a true Bohemian who has done all the drugs, had all the sex, and had all the fabulous gay best friends anyone could want. She's had every experience in the book, and her biopic is outrageous enough without the addition of her courageous activism. That is, without the true story of the film, there's more than enough for a compelling and outrageous life. But Nan Goldin is not one to rest on her fame and her fortune - having been addicted to Oxycontin herself, she takes up the crusade to hold the Sackler family accountable, and to get others to do so, as well. In particular, she has targeted the prestigious art museums that have received money from the Sacklers, and campaigns ruthlessly with die-ins to remind these high profile places that their donor walls are drenched with the blood of those who died because of the lies Purdue Pharma told about their product not being addictive. Nan and her crew formed P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), and they continue to crusade in favor of holding the family responsible, raising awareness, and especially supporting those who are suffering from this terrible addiction. Nan takes serious personal risk by going up against the art museums which display her pieces, but this woman is not deterred by anything. What an incredible film.

All That Breathes - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Shaunak Sen
Aman Mann
Teddy Leifer

Saud and Nadeem are brothers living in Delhi who have devoted their adult lives to taking care of black kites (birds) who are seemingly falling out of the sky due to increasingly poor air quality in India.  They will go to any lengths, they will risk their personal safety, and they deliver medical care with such kindness and gentility that one has to wonder why this has become their crusade.  They barely sleep, even their families know that their top priority is caring for these birds. They do this against a backdrop of a more and more violent city under changing circumstances that makes their life's work all the more meaningful. Their dream is to open a proper clinic with an open air cage on the rooftop where the birds can rest and recuperate, and one of the brothers applies to veterinary school in the United States so that he can become an even more skilled practitioner.  All That Breathes is an incredible and inspiring documentary - I generally am creeped out by birds, and I couldn't look away.  It's lovely to have an Oscars film that is more heartwarming than sad, especially in the documentary category.

Babylon - 3 nominations

 

Best Achievement in Production Design Florencia Martin Anthony Carlino

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

Best Achievement in Costume Design Mary Zophres

Babylon begins with an epic, lavish, over the top party filled with debauchery, drugs, and indecency (in maybe the best way?). At this party are Hollywood's elite and here comes young Nellie who arrives proclaiming herself to be a star and befriending Manny who is managing the craziness of the event. (No, really, he brings an elephant that the host requested... though I could have lived a full life without watching the scene where the elephant takes a giant crap right in Manny's face). The party scene is electric (and frankly is responsible for the Production Design nomination) and it is here where we meet most of the key characters. There is Lady Fay Zhu - a lesbian cabaret singer, Sidney Palmer - a jazz trumpeter, Jack Conrad - a huge star (who helps Manny get a PA job), and Elinor St. John - a gossip columnist who follows all of their careers.  Each goes up and down the ladder of success as movies go from silent to talkies, and each fares differently as time goes on.  Manny's career soars as he rises through the ranks all the way to Director and Producer.  Interestingly, there are many references to the film Singing in the Rain, which also captures that silent to talkie transition period.  As the film goes on, the story goes from light to very very dark, with very few happy endings.

There are three standout moments of the film.  First, there are two distinct monologues about the beauty and power of the movies.  As a movie lover, these two monologues were the highlights of a film that desperately needed a more disciplined editor and director. Second, at the very end of the movie, there is a montage reel having little to do with the story that is pure appreciation and adoration for the movies with moments from across the decades (including a shot of the first Avatar whose sequel coincidentally opened the same weekend as Babylon) that was inspiring and joyful but hardly worth the wait.  This movie is the tale of two halves - a first half that was fantastic to watch, and the second half which lost the plot and frankly, the viewer.  If you haven't already watched this 3 hour epic, I would recommend giving it a skip... but do check out the costumes online, THEY deserve the nomination.

The Quiet Girl - 1 nomination

Best International Feature Film

Ireland

When Cait's very pregnant mother and her abusive father decide that their household is too crowded for all of their children and the baby that is about to be born, they send her away to her cousin's home to live "for as long as the cousin would like." You definitely get the feeling that they don't care much if the girl ever returns home. While Cait's family lives in poverty in the Irish countryside with 5 about to be 6 siblings and a no-goodnick father who spends all of their money, their cousin Eibhlin (pronounced a bit like Eileen) and her husband Sean live in a house with running water and with relative wealth. At first, Sean is a bit reluctant to form a connection with Cait, but over time both Eibhlin and Sean form a deep attachment to the girl. Cait goes from being ignored or picked on without even proper shoes to wear to living with people who dote on her, take care of her, pay attention to her, and show her a great deal of kindness, and through their love, she transforms. What makes her circumstances so special is not the money, but simply Cait's ability to exhale, to live without fear of her abusive father, and to find joy in the smallest of things. She goes from being sent away to not wanting to return home.

While I wouldn't rank The Quiet Girl above some of the other International films that were on the short list for the Oscars, I did very much enjoy the movie. Interestingly, one of the funders of this film was the Institute for the Preservation of the Irish Language (don't quote me on the title of the Foundation, but this captures the gist), which means that the film was primarily in Irish and minimally in English. It's a very nice movie that's worth watching.