Marty Supreme - 9 nominations

 

Best Casting: Jennifer Venditti

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Darius Khondji

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas, Timothée Chalamet

Best Achievement in Directing: Josh Safdie

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Timothée Chalamet

Best Original Screenplay: Josh Safdie (writer), Ronald Bronstein (writer)

Best Achievement in Production Design: Jack Fisk (production designer), Adam Willis (set decorator)

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Miyako Bellizzi

Best Achievement in Film Editing: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie

Marty Mauser is a shoe salesman with a dream - to become the world champion table tennis player. He is a hustler, he has a married girlfriend who is pregnant with his baby, and what’s more, each one of his disastrous decisions puts him in danger, or at least right at the edge of it. But he is singularly focused on achieving greatness, much like the actor who plays him and openly says that he aspires to be one of the all-time greats in his own field. The film is frenetic, much like Josh Safdie’s other works (especially Uncut Gems), and this is another year in a row when the Producer/Director is also the Writer/Editor and is nominated for all four categories (including Best Picture). Last year, Sean Baker took home all four prizes.

Does this put Marty Supreme on the path for the big win, Best Picture? In the mix, maybe. For the win? I don’t think so. Having said that, it’s hard to argue that the frenetic style of movie making - when done well - must be a top contender for Editing. And Timothee (who longtime readers of the blog will know I have nicknamed “Greasy” because even after an on-screen shower, he still somehow looks a bit greasy to me) was outstanding. For an actor who brings his A game powerfully in every role, this was his best performance of his career. The nominations in some of the technical categories (costume, production design) are expected for period pieces but are unlikely winners against films like Hamnet and this year’s darling, Sinners.

I highly recommend the film with the caveat that it can be dizzying. If you’re not up for that kind of experience, then give it a skip.

Maria - 1 nomination

 

• Best Achievement in Cinematography

• Edward Lachman

In the time leading up to the Oscars announcement, if you had told me that Maria was going to receive just one nomination - and not for Angelina Jolie - I would have told you that you are nuts. This epic film on the complicated life of Maria Callas, thought to be one of the greatest opera singers of all time, is wonderful. If you are a fan of opera, so much the better but not a prerequisite for enjoying the movie. When we meet Maria at the beginning of the film, she is already rather isolated with her butler and her maid, and she hasn't performed in years. Her health is declining and for reasons unclear to her employees and dear friends, she has agreed to be the subject of a documentary film. At the same time, she is meeting quietly with music conductor Jeffrey Tate to see if her voice is strong enough to maybe perform again. All the while, we are reliving her young life including her tragic affair with Aristotle Onasis and singing for Nazis as a young woman to keep her family safe.

Here's the incredible thing; the Oscars has a history of rewarding those who learn to sing for their movie roles, or those who we simply know as actors who showcase their vocal talents in a film - especially in biopics. Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter (won), Gary Busey in The Buddy Holly Story, Renee Zellweger in Judy (won), Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon (won) in Walk the Line... the list goes on and on. But not to nominate Angelina Jolie who learned how to sing OPERA? She was magnificent as an actress (as she almost always is), but when I watched the film, I assumed that the performance was all dubbed. It was not. This is perhaps the most offensive of the snubs this season, just for that feat alone. You should watch it for the same reason.

 

Nosferatu - 4 nominations

 

• • Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

  • David White
  • Traci Loader
  • Suzanne Stokes-Munton
• 
  • Best Achievement in Cinematography

  • Jarin Blaschke
• • Best Achievement in Production Design

  • Craig Lathrop (production designer) 
  • Beatrice Brentnerova (set decorator)
• • Best Achievement in Costume Design

  • Linda Muir

Young Thomas has been sent to Transylvania to close a lucrative Real Estate deal by his employer. Leaving his young, beautiful wife Ellen at home, he discovers a creepy castle and an even creepier owner. He is aware that something odd is going on as he passes out and awakens with a bite mark, and each night as he dreams terrible dreams, he awakens with more bite marks in the morning. He insists on leaving, but not before the owner gets him to sign a contract in a foreign language that is presumably the land sale document. Though he questions if he should sign a document which he can't read, he also is lured by the commission he will earn and be able to take care of his beloved wife and make the couple rich.

Of course when he returns home, he realizes what he has done - he has signed a document nullifying his marriage opening the door for Nosferatu to join with Thomas' wife, and who Nosferatu has claimed as his own for decades. On the other hand, if his wife does not submit to the vampire willingly within three nights, it is made clear that Thomas will be killed. Ellen summons the vampire to her room, and tricks him into having sex with her and draining her blood until sunrise, killing Nosferatu with sunlight and herself in sacrifice for Thomas.

This is not my kind of movie and I'll bet if you go back into the blog history, you'll be hard pressed to find a single film of this genre that I liked. Not so with this one, it was gorgeously filmed and the story was so engaging that I liked it very much. I most certainly would not have seen it if not for the Oscar nominations, but that just teaches me a lesson that sometimes a good film is a good film, even when it comes in a package that I wouldn't normally open. I'm hardly opening my veins for the next vampire flick, but when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. This one was worth the view.

Emilia Perez - 13 nominations

 

• 
  
  

  • Best International Feature Film, France
• • Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

  • Julia Floch-Carbonel 
  • Emmanuel Janvier 
  • Jean-Christophe Spadaccini
• 
  • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

  • Clément Ducol 
  • Camille
• 
  • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song), "El Mal"

  • Clément Ducol 
  • Camille 
  • Jacques Audiard
• 
  • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song), "Mi Camino"

  • Clément Ducol 
  • Camille 
  Jacques Audiard
• 
  • Best Sound

  • Erwan Kerzanet 
  • Aymeric Devoldère 
  • Maxence Dussère 
  • Cyril Holtz 
  • Niels Barletta
• 
  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Pascal Caucheteux 
  • Jacques Audiard
• 
  • Best Achievement in Directing

  • Jacques Audiard
• 
  Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

  • Karla Sofía Gascón
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

  • Zoe Saldana
• 
  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Jacques Audiard 
  • Thomas Bidegain 
  • Léa Mysius
  • Nicolas Livecchi
• 
  • Best Achievement in Cinematography

  • Paul Guilhaume
• • Best Achievement in Film Editing

  • Juliette Welfling

Remember when I said that being nominated 4 times for a single movie was pretty impressive? Well Jacques Audiard is nominated 5 times for this single movie, where he seems to have done everything except craft services. Guess what else? The film is nominated for Adapted Screenplay, because Audiard had already produced an opera libretto which was based on a book.

The story follows Rita, a discontented defense attorney who is engaged by a cartel kingpin to give him the cover he needs to transition to being a woman, including helping him fake his own death and relocating his wife and children to Switzerland. Once she has transitioned, she begins to live a new life as a philanthropist and do-gooder (with a hint of corruption on the side), and she decides that she misses her family terribly and asks Rita to bring them back to Mexico to live with her. Her ex-wife rekindles an affair she was having while still married, and adds another layer of complication to this already complicated life. The film reflects on criminality, corruption, family, and the question of whether life truly changes when the core personality does not.

Before I saw the film, I had no idea it was a musical. Selena Gomez turns out to be a non-fluent Spanish speaker who pulls off acting and emoting while speaking the language. Zoe Saldana turns out to be a trained dancer who can also really sing. And those were just the smallest of surprises. Everything about this film is not what you expect it to be, in all of the best ways. I loved it, the music and the songs are excellent and beautifully choreographed. The cinematography was exceptional. I imagine that Selena Gomez was a breath away from a Supporting Actress nomination (which would have tied EP with the three other films in history to garner 14 nominations, the record.) The whole of this film is even greater than the sum of its parts, and its parts are pretty magnificent.