Who Should Win? Who Will Win?

The day has arrived! Thank you so much for those of you who have been following my reviews of all 53 nominated films. There were some great ones this year. You can expect Oppenheimer to have a big night tonight, and here we go!

Best Picture
Should Win: Poor Things

Will Win: Oppenheimer

It's won basically everything along the way, and you can count on Oppenheimer tonight.

Director

Should Win: Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things

Will Win: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Lead Actress

Should Win: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon and Emma Stone, Poor Things

Will Win: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Poor Things marks the best and most interesting performance in Emma Stone's career. But Lily Gladstone's win would be historic and she was incredible in that film. She won the SAG, I'm going with Gladstone for the win.

Supporting Actress

Should Win: Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple

Will Win: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Randolph has won everything, and she'll win again tonight.

Lead Actor

Should Win: Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Will Win: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

Supporting Actor

Should Win: Sterling K Brown, American Fiction

Will Win: Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer

Adapted Screenplay

Should Win: American Fiction

Will Win: American Fiction

Can you tell that I loved this movie? The Screenplay award is often the consolation prize for a great movie that isn't going to win Best Picture.

Original Screenplay

Should Win: Past Lives

Will Win: Anatomy of a Fall

Cinematography

Should Win: Oppenheimer

Will Win: Oppenheimer

Costume Design

Should Win: Poor Things

Will Win: Poor Things (although the experts are divided between Poor Things and Barbie)

I'm going with Poor Things. The costumes were not just based on other outfits, there were truly original.

Film Editing

Should Win: Oppenheimer

Will Win: Oppenheimer

Makeup and Hairstyling

Should Win: Poor Things

Will Win: Maestro

Production Design

Should Win: Poor Things

Will Win: Poor Things

Original Score

Should Win: Killers of the Flower Moon

Will Win: Oppenheimer

Original Song

Should Win: It Never Went Away, American Symphony

Will Win: What Was I Made For, Barbie

Sound

Should Win: Oppenheimer

Will Win: Oppenheimer

Visual Effects

Should Win: Godzilla Minus One

Will Win: Godzilla Minus One

Animated Feature

Should Win: Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse (or my sweet Robot Dreams)

Will Win: Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse

The animation added to the great story makes this a shoe in. Having said that, The Boy and the Heron had a lot of attention this year, and could be a sleeper win.

Documentary

Should Win: 20 Days in Mariupol

Will Win: 20 Days in Mariupol

I really really hope so. Though I was overwhelmed by To Kill a Tiger (and actually, all of these docs were outstanding, please see them!), the bravery to even do this film was overwhelming.

International Feature

Should Win: The Zone of Interest

Will Win: The Zone of Interest

The absolutely haunting nature of this film should have it getting so much more attention than it has gotten.

Animated Short

Should Win: Letter to a Pig 

Will Win: War is Over

I often say never ever to bet against Holocaust themed films, but at this time between the war in Ukraine and Israel will appeal to Academy voters.

Documentary Short

Should Win: The Last Repair Shop

Will Win: The Last Repair Shop

Though there is some buzz also for The ABC's of Book Banning, AND Sheila Nevins, the patron saint of documentaries was an Executive Producer.

Live Action Short

Should Win: Red White and Blue

Will Win: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Don't forget, if I do well enough for you to win your Oscars pool, I get 10%!

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (2 nominations) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (1 nomination)

 

• • Best Sound

  • Chris Munro
  • James Mather
  • Chris Burdon
  • Mark Taylor
• 
  • Best Achievement in Visual Effects

  • Alex Wuttke 
  • Simone Coco 
  • Jeff Sutherland 
  • Neil Corbould

In all honesty, this is only the second Mission Impossible movie that I've ever seen, and this one I saw only for Oscars nominations.  This one is about Ethan and his team trying to stop what appears to be an unstoppable weapon. As always with visual effects films, the twists and turns are so complicated to recount, that I'll just say that this movie, as with seemingly all Tom Cruise movies, is very exciting, lots of grabbing the "key" and then a double cross and a steal back, and a pretty amazing scene with a train falling in a chasm. Of course the story is not resolved in this one, so if you love the Mission Impossible films, you are guaranteed at least one more.

• Best Achievement in Visual Effects

• Stephane Ceretti 
• Alexis Wajsbrot 
• Guy Williams 
• Theodore Bialek

Gamora is dead and the team is reeling from her loss. Rocket Raccoon gets knocked out, and we are able to see his entire original story, which is truly heartbreaking. A scientist who is experimenting on animals brings Rocket to life and he develops a group of friends in their incarceration. The crew discovers more who need them, and they fully engage in trying to save especially some humanoids on the planet Arete. While there are multiple storylines, it's a pretty engaging film and definitely a good additions to the Guardians franchise.

Godzilla Minus One - 1 nomination

 

Visual effects

Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima

Post-war Japan is not a great place to live. But the country is slowly recovering from the atomic bomb.  Koichi is a suicide fighter pilot and lives with the shame that during the war, he faked a plane malfunction to keep from dying. While on the small island having his plane checked, Godzilla makes his first appearance which Koichi never forgets. Some time later, he has begun a life and fallen in love, and when his neighbor presents him with an orphan daughter, he and his wife care for the child, much to his chagrin. Godzilla reemerges from the sea killing his wife, and he is left to raise the child. But the government has a plan to destroy Godzilla, and his skills as a pilot call upon him once more to fight the unfightable. He and others design a special plane but they discover that Godzilla may be much harder to eliminate than they thought.

I am not a fan of these films. I find they rely too heavily on visual effects and don't invest enough in the story. I was shocked to have thoroughly enjoyed this film. It is certainly exciting, but the writers invest so much into the story and the characters that the visual effects enhance story without being the only essential element of the story. Godzilla Minus One's title is a hint that this is an origin story film, but actually represents the notion that Japan could not have sunk any lower post-war, it was at "zero" and the monster somehow drags the country into a deeper abyss, bringing it to "minus one." I recommend seeing the film in the original Japanese with English subtitles.

The Creator - 2 nominations

 

• Best Sound

• Ian Voigt 
• Erik Aadahl 
• Ethan Van der Ryn 
• Tom Ozanich 
• Dean A. Zupancic

• Best Achievement in Visual Effects

• Jay Cooper 
• Ian Comley 
• Andrew Roberts 
• Neil Corbould

Sometimes the best sci fi films are the most difficult to describe, and this honestly one of those. The fundamental element of this film is a human war against robots with artificial intelligence and of course, our protagonist discovers a "child" who is potentially able to end the war. In addition, the war comes as a result of AI having detonated a nuclear warhead, which turns out not to be true, and the detonation was actually the result of human error. John David Washington beautifully portrays Army Sergeant Joshua Taylor, the child's protector and himself both a victim of injury of the bomb, and a survivor who lost his brother and his father in the tragedy. But still, he puts his whole self and heart into protecting this robot child because he genuinely believes that the robot is both innocent and has the ability to bring the fighting to an end.  The tropes of the film are not unique to this film (messiah child, anyone?), but the visual effects and the sound are both spectacular and are really standouts among this year's films. It's a good enough film - nobody is going to remember this one next year, but it's a fun and exciting romp if you are looking for something fun on a Saturday night.

 

American Symphony (Original Song), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Original Score)

 

IT NEVER WENT AWAY

from American Symphony; Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson

Oh goodness, American Symphony seemed sure to be the Oscar winner for Documentary Feature, for which it was not even nominated. This incredible story of musician Jon Batiste - a homegrown star of New Orleans - while his star is on the rise. He takes the 2022 Grammy for Album of the Year competing with the likes of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga among other luminaries, while also touring the country performing, while also writing his magnum opus. Sound busy enough for you? Well, in addition to all of that, his wife is fighting a very nasty cancer, ultimately leading to the diagnosis of a chronic cancer that devastates them both. The juxtaposition of the life in which all one's career dreams come true while all of one's personal family dreams become a nightmare emerge in this beautiful, heartbreaking, soul filling documentary. It is on Netflix and totally worth your time. (Enjoy the nominated song below.)

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

John Williams

Can we ever get enough of the iconic John Williams and his incredible scores? With his 54th (and seemingly final) Oscars nomination, this is a pretty good one to go out on. Williams is the most nominated LIVING person in history (with only Walt Disney surpassing him with 59 career nominations), and if you listen to this or any of his scores, it is easy to see why.

Another reboot Indiana Jones film, this one shows an aging Indy who must retrieve the Dial of Destiny - a magical artifact that can transport people through time, allowing the carrier to rewrite history. As usual, Indy is racing against Nazi baddies who want to go back in time and help Hitler win the war, but this time, his goddaughter Helena Shaw is on the scene to take the lead.  Far surpassing the more recent Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull reboot, if only for the involvement of his original love interest played by Karen Allen.  This film has everything that a revival should - plenty of Easter Eggs to find, bringing back original cast, and all of the fun and joy that the original set of films offered in the first place. With Williams' score overlaid on this film, it was a nostalgic yet modern treasure.  One certainly worth of Indy's time and bullwhip.

 

Golda - 1 nomination

 

• Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

• Karen Hartley 
• Suzi Battersby 
• Ashra Kelly-Blue

This one was a serious cryer for me! It is 1973 on the brink of the Yom Kippur war in Israel when Syrian and Egyptian troops appear to be staging to attack Israel.  It is an existential threat. Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel is skeptical of the reports, as her defense minister and army hero Moshe Dayan. The scenes depicting the screams of the soldiers in battle as they realize how outgunned and outmaneuvered they are nearly broke me.  Eventually, Ariel Sharon devises a plan to defend the country at the edge of the Suez Canal and miraculously, the Israelis win and hold the line.  After a number of battles, Israel emerges from the war triumphant and lives to see another day, but Golda takes the lion's share of the blame in not having reacted right away.  Though a commission eventually clears her of any accusations hanging over her head, this was the turning point in her political career from which she never recovered. Still, the film ends with her meeting Anwar Sadat of Egypt and making peace, and with her living to see the Camp David Accords.

At this time, this is a particularly extraordinary film to watch. Israel will never be destroyed by its enemies, will always be on the path of peace when there are partners whose charters do not call for its destruction and the murder of all Jews in the land, and will always dream of a day when they can live in harmony with their neighbors. And yes, the makeup turning Helen Mirren into Golda Meir was excellent.  

May we all pray for peace.