It Was Just an Accident - 2 Nominations

 

Best International Feature Film: France

Best Original Screenplay: Jafar Panahi (writer), Shadmehr Rastin (script collaborator), Nader Saeivar (script collaborator), Mehdi Mahmoudian (script collaborator)

France’s submission for International Feature takes place in Iran, where a car pulls into a mechanic’s shop containing a man, his pregnant wife, and his daughter. The lovely mechanic, Vahid, hears the squeaking of the man’s prosthetic, and he is certain that he recognizes the man as his sadistic jailhouse captor. Vahid finds a way to knock out and kidnap the man and digs a grave to bury him alive, but Vahid isn’t certain that the man he suspects is the man he remembers. He rounds up a mismatched little crew of fellow former prisoners to help him confirm the identity, but his kind nature continues to impede his plans for revenge.

Somehow this film finds a way to be funny, profound, and ask important questions about ethics, regret, and forgiveness. It was the most unexpected of the Oscars films for me both for the quality of the story but also, for the surprise of a challenging movie that still made me laugh time and again while dealing with truly difficult stories. Iran is hardly the expected setting of a comedic drama, but It Was Just an Accident executes brilliantly.

I’ve now seen 4 of 5 International Features (and frankly, the one I’m delaying until the very end is one I’m dreading) and I would rank this one in 4th place of the 4 I’ve seen so far. Having said that, if you have the time and you’re looking for a good foreign language movie to see on some night at home, this one is certainly worth it.

Avatar: Fire and Ash - 2 Nominations

 

Best Achievement in Visual Effects: Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Deborah L. Scott

In the 3rd installment of the Avatar story, Jake and his Navi family are still being hunted by the military and now they have discovered a new enemy, the Ash tribe who are hungry for power and will do anything to obtain it. James Cameron again takes us to a magnificent place where the spiritual and the ecological meet. The film does its best to teach simple values and while the tropes of good and evil may be overly binary in the Avatar universe, I still find the movies both exciting and entertaining. Visually, they are incomparably stunning - that goes for all of the technical categories, the costumes, the makeup and hairstyling, the visual effects, the production design, the sound design; there isn’t a detail in this world that isn’t both bespoke and utterly detailed.

This isn’t a film that you mustn’t miss. It’s not likely to win either one of the awards for which it is nominated. But I enjoyed it and if you’re a fan of this genre, you will too.

Blue Moon - 2 Nominations

 

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Ethan Hawke

• Best Original Screenplay: Robert Kaplow (writer)

It is opening night of Oklahoma!, and Richard Rogers’ big night without his longtime collaborator, Lorenz Hart. Hart has arrived early to the bar where the show’s after party at Sardis is set to take place, and at first, he resists the temptation to drink, but not to rant. Rogers has taken a hiatus from working with Hart both to give Hart time to deal with his alcoholism, and also because when he was drinking, he was an unreliable partner. Hart has a lot of opinions about Oklahoma, but primarily that it was too silly and happy and upbeat (minus the rape, of course), and wants Rogers to get back to working with him on more serious pursuits.

The film is very close to a monologue, and Ethan Hawke is in every single scene. I imagine pages and pages of lines without a single interruption. It’s Olympic level acting, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him better. His longtime partnership with Director Richard Linklater takes a whole new path with this movie where little happens but you simply can’t look away. I’m pretty sure that I had my mouth agape for a good portion of the film, just dazzled by this performance that was nothing like I’ve seen before.

It doesn’t matter if you know who Rogers and Hart are, if you’ve ever seen Oklahoma!, or if you know anything about New York theater. I hope you’ll see the film just to see Hawke’s work in this role, a truly unexpected but brilliant execution. It’s not a showy movie, but it’s fantastic.

Train Dreams - 4 Nominations

• Best Achievement in Cinematography: Adolpho Veloso

• Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song): Nick Cave (music and lyric), Bryce Dessner (music), For “Train Dreams”

• Best Motion Picture of the Year: Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, Michael Heimler

• Best Adapted Screenplay: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar

Train Dreams is a quiet, sad, beautiful film with powerful performances - it’s a totally different speed than the entire crop of other movies in the Best Picture category. Joel Edgerton plays a railway construction worker who meets and marries Gladys. As the country’s need for logging increases, he transitions to this seasonal work, coming home each year to be with his wife and eventually daughter. When a tragic fire burns down his home, he is haunted by the idea that perhaps his daughter is alive and looking for a way home.

This is not an upbeat movie, but I found it to be wonderful. In the hullabaloo of loud and frenetic stories, Train Dreams changes the pace and makes an impact. If you’re not fond of the slower paced, or of the performances that are as much internal as expressed, then perhaps this wouldn’t be for you. But the scenery alone (and therefore, the Cinematography nom) is worth the price of admission.

 

The Secret Agent - 4 Nominations

 

Best Casting: Gabriel Domingues

Best International Feature Film: Brazil

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Emilie Lesclaux

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Wagner Moura

For a second year in a row, Brazil has a strong showing for the Oscars, with almost identical nominees (Best Pic, International Feature, and a lead acting role) with only the addition of the new category for the Casting award. Brazil of the 70s is certainly rich fodder for movie making. This time, Marcelo is returning to his hometown as anonymously as possible in kind of a witness protection program to see his young son who has been staying with his wife’s parents while he has been on the run. Simultaneously trying to keep his cover as he looks through official records to see what information he can get about his mother, while also hiding from those who want to do him harm thanks to a patent he holds to a game changing invention. His is a dangerous life but this doesn’t keep him from dreaming of a future with his son.

The Secret Agent unfolds just slowly enough to be intriguing and just fast enough to keep you engaged. From the opening scene, it’s clear that this is a dangerous place. Dangerous to drive, dangerous to live, dangerous to connect, dangerous to share anything real about oneself, and definitely very dangerous to have invented something that powerful people want. I think this is the likely International Feature winner (much like I’m Still Here last year) but unlikely to win the others.

I’m still getting my arms around the casting category, but this is surely a tribute to the lead actor and everyone in the supporting cast who surrounds him. I thought this film was outstanding and so worth watching. It’s another chapter in the brutality of an authoritarian regime, surely a worthwhile topic for the days we are living through now, eh?

F1 - 4 nominations

 

Best Sound: Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo, Juan Peralta
Best Achievement in Visual Effects: Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington, Keith Dawson
Best Motion Picture of the Year: Chad Oman, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Joseph Kosinski, Jerry Bruckheimer
Best Achievement in Film Editing: Stephen Mirrione

Put your hand up if you remember my favorite film genre: that’s right, musicals! But tied for first with musicals is without a doubt sports movies. Sports movies have heart - someone (or a team) work hard to overcome obstacles and they win! or they lose! but they learn something about grit and cliches like “the love of the game” and “it ain’t over til it’s over.” And when that last second arrives, “it all comes down to this.” If you’re not on the edge of your seat, or crying a little bit, then either you are made of stone or the movie wasn’t very good.

F1 was every cliche in the sports book. The seasoned athlete who has wisdom, experience, and calm is engaged to work with the young hotshot who knows everything and has it all ahead of him. The seasoned pro thinks all of the technology for training is ridiculous, the young gun thinks the old pro is past his prime and too old school to teach him anything. Then the wizened teammate begins to make big scores for the team moving them closer and closer to their goal, and their relationship blossoms while they chase the dream. Yep - that’s all in there, including the forbidden and unprofessional courting of the woman on their team; this time she is an expert on aerodynamics and building cars that go really fast.

But I just told you that I love a sports movie and F1 is no exception. Every single nomination for the technical achievements is well deserved - the sound, the editing, the visual effects combine to make one hell of an exciting, edge of your seat experience. A best picture? No. Nothing has me more surprised than the inclusion of F1 in that prestigious list, and I wonder if that isn’t just Jerry Bruckheimer and Brad Pitt working the circuit to make the top 10. I could easily replace F1 with two or three of the other films that have nominations this year. Having said that, a super fun romp with a lot of heart makes F1 a fantastic watch for a light evening with a great bowl of popcorn.

Bugonia - 4 Nominations

 

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score): Jerskin Fendrix

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Lars Knudsen

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Emma Stone

Best Adapted Screenplay: Will Tracy

Longtime readers of the blog will recall that I am an ardent fan of Yorgos Lanthimos movies (and if you’re newer to his work, please go back and check out his first nominated film for International Language, Dogtooth) and he is a superb, authentic, and unique director. He has a slightly off kilter sensibility and has tremendous compassion for the oddball. He and Emma Stone have proven to be a powerful partnership making Oscar nominee after Oscar nominee (and sometimes winner!)

This is another quirky one - two conspiracy theorists, Teddy and Don, have determined that Michelle - a high powered, highly successful executive is an alien from another planet. They kidnap her because they are certain that her alien race is determined to destroy earth and all of its inhabitants. Once she understands what is happening, she attempts to employ every negotiation tactic she’s learned in her career, doing her best to gain their trust enough to let her go. It is never really explained how they have come to such deep knowledge of this alien kind, but every signal is given that at least one of the kidnappers (Jesse Plemmons) is a man who has done his homework.

The film is undoubtedly entertaining, and this is exactly the kind of picture that we expect from Lanthimos. The casting of these actors is spot on, but it is almost tragic that Jesse Plemmons was overlooked for this film. He is utterly believable and has the special sauce that allows you to escape into his reality, even if we “know” that his delusion is impossible. While I wouldn’t put Bugonia in my top three of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture, I’m awfully glad it got this recognition because hopefully more people will see it (including you!).