Four Good Days - 1 nomination

 

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
Diane Warren (music and lyric by)
For song "Somehow You Do"

Four Good Days is a harrowing story of Molly, a drug addict for 10 years, who has been promised a light of hope at the end of the tunnel.  Her doctor has told her that if she can stay clean for just four full days, she will be eligible for a monthly shot that prevents drugs from taking any effect in her body, a drug that prevents toxic substances from binding to the central nervous system rendering them so ineffective that the addict will resist their pull.  Molly's mother Deb has been through the wringer with her and her decade long addiction, and the vicious cycle of ineffective rehabs, and all of the things that those failures have wrought.  A tense relationship with a history of lies, theft, abuse, worry, and the torture of loving someone but knowing that there's nothing you can do to help her.  So now Deb decides to help (once again) and clings to the hope that a mere four days will get her daughter to the promised land.

It's a difficult film but this is Mila Kunis at her absolute best.  Partnered with Glenn Close the film goes from tropey rehab film to engaging movie.  Have we seen much of this before? Sure. But with these powerhouse actresses at the center, it was worth the time.  I truly enjoyed it (as much as you can say that with such a difficult story.)

Now, sad to say, Dianne Warren - with her 13th Oscars nomination for Original Song is still not going to win.  (Don't get me started on 'Til It Happens to You, which should have won... but I digress.). Her day is coming, but this talented songwriter just can't catch a break.  Listen to the song, it's beautiful.

Hillbilly Elegy - 2 nominations

 

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling Eryn Krueger Mekash  Matthew W. Mungle  Patricia Dehaney

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role - Glenn Close

I loved the book.  Hillbilly Elegy is based on the true story of JD Vance who grew up in Appalachia with a drug addict mother who has bouts of sobriety but can't get out of her own way; and a strong grandmother who was there for him when life got too hard.  In the film, JD is called back home to help his mother right at the moment when he has the most important interview of his life out of Yale Law School.  JD walks the tense line between escaping and managing his difficult past.  

What makes the book extraordinarily beautiful is how carefully and intentionally Vance looks at his childhood.  This film attempts that, but then adds in this weird high stakes "which life will he choose"/"will he make it in time" which is totally unnecessary to the story.  But when the film is focusing on his family and his childhood, we get a glimpse into a life about which most of us know very little.  The movie has a lot to teach us about the cycle of poverty and how difficult it is to escape, even when one is ready to "lift himself up by the bootstraps."

The performances are unsurprisingly magnificent - Amy Adams and Glenn Close deliver sensitive and difficult portrayals of women doing their best in a truly hard life.  I dearly hope that Close will win her first Oscar this year (her 8th nomination with no wins, the most for an acting category), ironically, she is up against Olivia Coleman who nabbed the Oscar from Close's clutches the last time they went head to head in 2019.

A lot of critics viciously panned this film (it has a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, while at the same time, has an audience score of 84%).  If you know nothing about the book, it is just fine and worth watching if you can't find something else.  I don't think it deserved the hate it got, but I don't think it made the most of the real story.  If I had known absolutely nothing about the book, I think I would have said it was good enough to spend a couple of hours watching it, but wouldn't have insisted that everyone I know watch it immediately (like I do with Nomadland and One Night in Miami, seriously, have you watched those yet???)

Watch the trailer here.

The Weirdest Oscars Year

Welcome back, friends, to another year in the wonderful world of outstanding movies.  Thank you to all of you who have followed my blog for so many years!  Today, I did a quick check of total views, and in all these years, I've had over 63,000 views, which means that my mother has not had much else to do all this time.

This is an interesting year for movies, given COVID-19 and the sad restrictions placed on movie theaters.  If there is anything I have missed, it's going to movies and talking about them intensely with friends (more on that another time...).  The upside of the downside has been the generosity of the studios in providing their content to streaming services, which means we got to watch all the best films from the comfort of our homes.  All year, in pre-supposing what the Oscars could or would do, I have been jokingly referring to "Best Picture, Sonic the Hedgehog" - the last film I remember being in actual theaters.

God bless the Academy for providing 40 full days to read and review all 56 nominated films, and if you're a fan like me, I know you have already knocked many of the movies nominated off of your "must see" lists.  I'm down to 11 feature films left, and most of the shorts, so I'm ready to get going with this year's Jodi's Oscars Blog! As always, I'm most grateful to those of you who read and share.  I do this because I love it and not for any other reason, so when people read the blog, it means the world to me. (bermanoscarblog.blogspot.com)

A couple of observations about this year's nominees.

1. Oh, you sneaky Academy.  We see that you have combined the Sound Mixing and Sound Editing categories into just one category: Sound.  I'm sure that eliminating that one category is really going to bring the length of the broadcast way down in time.  On the upside, it turns out that last year was the last year that I will ever explain the difference between mixing and editing to my wonderful readers.

2. I'm sure there will be lots and lots of Buzzfeed-type lists about surprises and snubs, but I'm devastated for Regina King, who I think delivered one of the finest directing debuts, and certainly one of the top 5 this year.  I'm thrilled to see more women nominated (should we be celebrating that this is the first time in 93 years that 2 actual women were nominated at the actual same time in this category, or should we just be seriously embarrassed?), but it should have been 3.  Regina, you're the winner in my eyes!

3. Speaking of things to celebrate and be embarrassed about, first time ever an Asian American lead actor has been nominated, and first woman of Asian descent to be nominated for directing.  Yes, to be celebrated but it took 93 years for that to happen?  Are we kidding?

4. Jingle Jangle should have had all the nominations.  Costume, score, song... and it got nothing.  Boo.  Boo, Academy, booooooo.  This would have won my Hidden Gem award, so please go watch it on Netflix.

5. Glenn Close got her 8th nom (never won) and Diane Warren got her 12th nom (never won), and I don't think their unlucky streaks are going to change this year.  It is a little funny that poor Glenn is once again up against Olivia Colman who snatched the gold from her hot little hands in 2019.

Tomorrow, I will start reviewing the Best Picture nominees and to borrow a cliche... HERE WE GO!

The Wife - 1 nomination

Actress in a Leading Role - Glenn Close

The Wife was truly one of my favorite films this year.  It is a master class in acting.  Glenn Close is a bloody beast.  She doesn't need a script, she doesn't need dialogue, she doesn't need costumes, she doesn't really need anything but her face.  She could read the phone book and make it into Macbeth.  (And is the most nominated actor never to have won an Oscar - this is her 7th nomination.)

In this film, Close plays Joan Castleman, the wife of Joe who has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.  They travel to Switzerland and intermixed into the story is their young life in which Joan is a young and up and coming writer who has an affair with Joe when he was her professor.  She is warned as a young woman that she has no future as a writer because of her gender, and she sets her sights on making sure that her husband can achieve his dream of being a famous author.  

While in Switzerland, a reporter comes sniffing around and suggests to Joan that her writing as a young college student had tremendous potential, and reminds her that her husband's was not of the same high quality.  The mystery ensues.  

This was such a great film.  Normally, I'm not a fan of the slow-paced narrative (as you can read in so many of these blog posts), but it so worked in this movie.  The acting is superb across the board and the plot twist unfolds so beautifully that you can't help but be on the edge of your seat the entire time. I HIGHLY (that's my first all caps this year) recommend this one - truly do not miss it.

Jodi's Oscars Blog - Year 5!

Welcome back to Year 5 of Jodi's Oscars Blog!

Today is always the first day, and yes, I have woken up at 5 a.m. to watch the announcements live at 5:20.  To quote Kumail Nanjiani, "I asked why we don't start at 5:15 and they say, no, that would be way too early."  (Way to go Kumail and Tracee Ellis Ross for a great job hosting this morning.) Thank you to all of you who have reached out to express excitement for another year of reviews.  It truly makes me so happy when someone says, "I wait all year for your reviews," or "I went to see this film on your recommendation, and I loved it."  Who knew that my lifelong obsession with the Oscars would bring so many friends together. 

Big news! This year, I'll be adding a Facebook Live component in which I will talk about one category at a time.  I hope you'll watch (and be kind, I'm no "on camera talent!")

Some quick thoughts about the nominees in general.

For those of you shouting, "Gaga, go get your Oscar," I hasten to remind you that Glenn Close is now the most nominated actor ever without having actually won an Oscar.  Seriously, Glenn Close has never won an Oscar.  Never mind that The Wife was a badass performance, the Academy doesn't like to let aging pros go into that good night without a win (not that Close is even close to dying nor would it be a pity Oscar!).  I know most people haven't seen that film, but you should if you want a Master Class in acting.  Having said all that, A Star is Born is now 4 for 4 on getting Oscars nominations for the actress playing the ingenue.  (and yes, I'll never get the time back on the rabbit hole that took me down - so I'll share my question with you... how many actors have been nominated for the same role for the same basic film/remake?  Off you go, fellow nerds.)

It's exciting to see Spike Lee nominated for what I think is his best film (yes, I liked most of his others).  I would like to see him take this category, though I suspect stopping the Roma train would be a lot like trying to stop a, well, train.  I'm a little shocked that Bradley Cooper wasn't nominated for Director, but when you look at the films in the category, he got shut out by some pretty impressive candidates.

This is the year of the Foreign Films!  Roma, Cold War, Never Look Away, and Border all busted through other categories usually restricted to North American films.  (Though Sweden has been on a tear with Makeup and Hairstyling, this year is no exception.) 

The final interesting thing about the nominees this year is that there is a lot of love spread throughout a number of films.  There are only 52 films nominated (sometimes goes as high as 60ish), and 8 of these films have 5 or more nominations.  That should make whittling down your list much easier this year, with The Favourite and Roma leading the pack at 10 each.  No spoilers, but there were an awful lot of terrific movies to see this year, so look for me to be a very positive reviewer in the next few weeks.

Welcome back to the blog, and thank you again for tuning in and let's get to it, movie lovers!

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - 2 nominations

Makeup and Hairstyling - Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White  
Visual Effects - Stephane Ceretti, Nicolar Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould

It is hard to describe how much I loved Guardians of the Galaxy.  As I've shared, I'm a bit of a Marvel and superhero groupie, and the easter eggs in this film were a bit delicious.  But this was one film that I loved enough to see it twice in the theatre.  It's a great bit of fun.

The plot of the film follows Peter Quill, aka Star Lord (Chris Pratt), a scavenger of planets who finds valuable objects and sells them to a pawn dealer.  He steals a valuable orb, and is then pursued by a former business partner and the dark and evil Ronan the accuser.  Meanwhile, two bounty hunters, Rocket, a raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper, and Groot, a tree-ish character voiced by Vin Diesel, are doing their best to capture Quill for money.  They, and Star Lord, get arrested with a green beauty named Gamora who is also trying to get the orb to keep the earth safe.  In jail, they meet up and join forces with the very powerful Drax, who is seeking revenge for the deaths of his wife and child.  The movie is the best example of the genre being action-packed, imaginative, and also hilarious, with all the snappy repartee one would expect of a film starring Chris Pratt and a talking raccoon.

The makeup transforms some of the characters so thoroughly that they are unrecognizable as humans. Somehow, turning Zoe Saldana green makes her even more beautiful, which is why we can never be best friends. (Zoe, call me! We can work it out!)  The work is certainly expected in the context of a Marvel movie that takes place in alien settings, but even Glenn Close whose character is basically human, is transformed with her hair and makeup.

Finally, the visual effects were remarkable.  There is no question that in making a movie like this, the bar is set very high because the limits of what can be done are left only to the visual effects folks' imaginations.  What makes the effects so spectacular is that they are not limited to explosions (though there are plenty of those), but they are at once visually stunning and often, unbelievably beautiful to watch.  I have to guess that Guardians of the Galaxy is a contender for the big prize.

Watch the trailer here: