Women Talking - 2 nominations

 

Best Adapted Screenplay Sarah Polley

Best Motion Picture of the Year Jeremy Kleiner (producer) Dede Gardner (producer) Frances McDormand (producer)

We have finally arrived at the Best Picture nominee I've most wanted to blog about, Women Talking. How I wish that the Academy (like SAG) had an award for the entire cast, but since it doesn't, I'd like to nominate every single actress in this film for the Lead Actress award (yes yes, I know that some of the women were in supporting roles, but each contributed to the whole so completely that I award the entire cast the Oscar, so mazel tov to Claire Foy, Frances McDormand, Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey and so many others who deserve this prestigious made up award).

The importance of this movie can't be overstated. A community of women elected by their peers has come together to decide what to do about the continuing attacks on women and girls in their patriarchal and extremely conservative Christian community.  The women and girls have been given tranquilizers and raped (and in one case, a girl as young as 4 years old), but even when that is not happening, many of them are also severely abused by their husbands.  They are in a sheltered Mennonite community where they've received little to no education, and all they are perceived to be good for is household management. Even the act of not forgiving the men for their violence is considered sinful and would deny them their place in the hereafter, or so they've been told.

They debate three choices - forgive and do nothing, stay in the community and fight (maybe even expel the men), or leave and escape this life.  The power of their voices lamenting the bone-crushing sadness of no good choices, and the utter horror of having no personal autonomy make the film nearly debilitating for the audience.  The story is a loud and visceral scream from deep down in the soul.  I am only sorry that the brilliant direction from Sarah Polley was overlooked for an Oscars nomination, and frankly, I would have happily seen this film receive so many more as recognition of what it accomplishes.  It's a must see.

First Man - 4 nominations

Visual Effects - Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles and J.D. Schwalm

Production Design - Nathan Crowley (Production Design); Kathy Lucas (Set Decoration)

Sound Editing - Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan

Sound Mixing - Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis

First Man retells the story of NASA's early years and its attempt to land people on the moon.  It focuses on Neil Armstrong and his balancing of pushing toward a dream and the concerns and demands of his wife and family over that mission's dangerous nature.  There is an incredibly heroic and inspiring story in this film, and it's hard to know how much of what happened in the film is true.  In some ways, this is another film about humans pushing their limits to achieve incredible feats, but people died in the lead up to the success of this NASA mission, and so we have to ask ourselves (as we did in the nominated documentary, Free Solo), was the achievement worth the sacrifice?  First Man contends that indeed it was, and that families who lost astronauts in the name of exploration (um, AMERICAN exploration) did so to serve a greater ideal.

First Man was truly robbed of an Original Score nomination.  The music enhanced the experience of the film magically, and though I usually note that the achievement of a score is to enhance the film without calling attention to itself, in this case, the standout music put the final touches on this movie's magic.

As you know, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing are the stuff of extraordinary war, musical, and science fiction films and First Man is none of those three.  But the technical elements, the dialogue, and the music came together so perfectly in this film, that these nominations were inevitable.  There was certainly talk of other possible nominations, particularly for Claire Foy who played Armstrong's no nonsense wife.  I was truly taken in by it all.