A Complete Unknown - 8 Nominations

 

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  • Best Sound

  • Tod A. Maitland 
  • Donald Sylvester 
  • Ted Caplan 
  • Paul Massey 
  • David Giammarco
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  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Fred Berger 
  • James Mangold 
  • Alex Heineman
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  • Best Achievement in Directing

  • James Mangold
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  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

  • Timothée Chalamet
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  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

  • Monica Barbaro
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  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

  • Edward Norton
• 
  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Jay Cocks 
  • James Mangold
• 
  • Best Achievement in Costume Design

  • Arianne Phillips

In a very musical year at the Oscars, A Complete Unknown was truly one of my favorites of the year. The performances from Timothee Chalamet, Ed Norton, and Monica Barbaro blew me away - and for the film, I understand all three had to learn guitar and Ed Norton banjo for an unbelievably convincing turn as Pete Seeger. It is a biopic that begins when Bob Dylan arrives in New York, figures out where Woody Guthrie is hospitalized, and visits him with this guitar and his impressive lyrics. He and Pete figure out pretty quickly that this kid has the makings of a star. We watch Dylan's rise to fame and his ultimate ambivalence about what stardom does to his life. He doesn't appreciate being in the spotlight, and he REALLY doesn't want to be locked in a box of what "folk music" means. He doesn't want to be anyone's performing monkey, so he won't play the game, nor will he play Blowin' in the Wind, no matter how much the audience wants to hear it.

All of this tumult though is overridden by the pure joy of Dylan's songs and try as I might to be quiet in the theater, I couldn't help singing along. The music is timeless, and even when you're watching what sometimes looks like a petulant child (do you think that I like doing every thing required of me in MY job? That's called being a grown up, Bob), the performances and the story are so compelling that they can't be resisted by the hardest of movie goers. I hope that audiences of all ages are going, but if you're over 50 and you haven't seen it, I just don't know what you are doing with your life.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery - 1 nomination

 

Best Adapted Screenplay
Rian Johnson

A group of friends who love mystery and puzzles gather at the home of Tech billionaire Miles Bron. Each comes with his or her own back story and complications, and they are particularly jarred when their former friend (and Bron's former business partner) Andi Brand arrives and joins them for this exclusive experience.  But when renowned private detective Benoit Blanc receives his own invitation, the group (and especially the host) is curious, as Bron never sent Blanc an invitation. We learn that Bron is on the brink of marketing an alternative energy source called Klear which he claims is safe, but perhaps at least one member of the group knows otherwise.  The real mystery unfolds when two members of the group are killed, and Benoit Blanc must leap into action and solve the crimes. The movie is great fun and holds up to the original Knives Out film, for which Rian Johnson was also nominated.  (And in an Oscars twist, his first nomination for Knives Out was for Original Screenplay. In this film, because the character and story is based on that original film, he is now nominated for Adapted Screenplay.  Isn't that fun? Or am I just an Oscars nerd? Oh well, two things can be true.)

SPOILER ALERT - if you haven't seen the film and don't want to know what happens, do not read on. I will not address all of the surprises in the movie except one, and unfortunately, I think it's the hole in the plot that makes no sense. The story unfolds and we learn that Andi has a twin sister and that Andi herself has died, and that the person who actually shows up to the island, the person who received the invitation to the island, is actually the twin sister Helen.  (Janelle Monae plays both parts.) We learn that it is Miles Bron who, in fact, killed Andi, and that Andi didn't die by suicide.  When Helen/Andi arrives at the island, Bron welcomes her and says he is really glad she came.  But here's the thing, HE killed Andi.  HE knows that the real Andi is dead. So why would he send the real Andi an invitation to the weekend, and why would he not know that the person who stands before him is Helen, and not the Andi that he murdered? This plot hole undermines the entire story, so it's a pretty big one. Unless someone can point to something in the film that reveals that Bron knew that the guest was Helen all along (and there is nothing in the movie to suggest that he thinks this person is anyone but Andi), it's a bit of a problem.  Having said that, it's a super fun film and who even cares?  

I heard Rian Johnson interviewed and one of the points that he makes is that a well written murder mystery film like these or Agatha Christie's don't need hints so that the audience can solve it ourselves. They need to be joyrides with big surprises at the end. And this one was more than enough for me to be entertained.

BIRDMAN (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - 9 nominations

Best Picture - Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole
Actor - Michael Keaton
Supporting Actor - Edward Norton
Supporting Actress - Emma Stone
Director - Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki
Sound Editing - Martin Hernández and Aaron Glascock
Sound Mixing - Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga
Original Screenplay - Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo

Birdman is the tale of an actor, known primarily for his portrayal of a superhero, seeking validation by mounting a serious production on Broadway.  At the start of the film he is in rehearsals just days away from opening as he deals with emotional actors,  a nervous lawyer, a recovering drug addict daughter, and a haunting voice of self-loathing and self doubt embodied by his former character, Birdman.  

Michael Keaton gives a vulnerable performance and we understand that this play means everything to him - financially, spiritually, and emotionally.  He has constant hallucinations of superhero powers that range from telekinesis to flight, and each setback in the play slowly chips away at his sanity.  His ex-wife very pointedly tells him, "you confuse love for admiration," and the most powerful Broadway reviewer says, "you're not an actor, you're a celebrity."  All of this while he deals with a nervous female lead (Naomi Watts), an insane but clearly brilliant last minute cast addition in Edward Norton (himself manic and unstable, but hilarious), and a confused and struggling daughter in Emma Stone, who is raw and emotional in her own right.

This is a completely different kind of movie, and that's a tribute to Director, Alejandro Iñárritu, who had a clear vision having produced, directed, and written Birdman.  The screenplay is sharp tongued and quick witted.  It is funny and dark and emotional.

For the technical categories, the cinematography is subtle - I had to watch the film a second time to really ingest the brilliance of the camera work.  Yes, there are lots of shots in dark places with interesting lighting that usually attract the attention of this branch, but the amazing work comes in taking a drama and shooting it like a superhero movie.  I'm not sure that any of the three technical awards will go to Birdman, but the merits of the nominations are clear.

Watch the trailer here: