The Lighthouse - 1 nomination

Best Achievement in Cinematography - Jarin Blaschke

"At least it will be nominated for Cinematography and I'll have had to see it," I said as the lights came up after The Lighthouse concluded.  My son and his girlfriend had heard about this movie with only two actors (if you can believe it, they hadn't heard of either... even Robert Pattinson! Of course I reminded them about Harry Potter and those vampire ones) in which both struggle to keep their sanity while tending to a Lighthouse on a remote island in New England.  It's a highly stylized film and admittedly, the attention to beautiful detail with the language and the accents is impressive (assuming they are right about those... they sure seemed right).  But as the descent into madness takes hold, the film got less and less interesting to me, exactly the opposite of what all of the directing and screenplay choices were meant to be going, I presume.

Bottom line, this is the kind of film that you either love or hate.  If you've seen My Own Private Idaho, this film reminded me of that with some of the posed - stop the scene - moments, and coincidentally, I didn't love that one either.  There is something to be said for the film, there is no denying that it's a rich portrayal of madness, but that's not really my genre, so I don't recommend it.

I've thought a lot about what to recommend if you liked this movie.  I was going to go for Pete's Dragon, also with many scenes surrounding a lighthouse.  But instead, I'm choosing also cinematically beautiful AND descent into madness film, Shutter Island.  (or if you really loved this, go for My Own Private Idaho!)

Here's the trailer:

At Eternity's Gate - 1 nomination

Actor - Willem Dafoe

At Eternity's Gate follows Vincent Van Gogh during his time in Arles.  I'm no art historian, but it seems that this is place where Van Gogh painted some of his most famous paintings including the iconic sunflowers and others.  Vincent's mental state is on the decline and his close relationship with his brother seems to be one of the only things that give him life and connection.  One of the remarkable pieces of the film is that it is shot so that we can see through the painter's eyes, which apparently suffered from degeneration.  There were times that only the top half of the screen was clear and the bottom half was fuzzy.  There were times that the camera movements were so bumpy that it felt like the world was spinning a bit out of control.  It becomes clear how Van Gogh conceived of some of the tremendous strokes and movements in his painting - it may be that those were reflective of how he was actually seeing the world.  

The movie was good but difficult to watch.  It's depressing.  It's hard to watch someone slip into madness.  But watching iconic paintings come alive in scenes that depict the real people and the real places... that was thrilling.  Willem Dafoe might be the reincarnation of the painter himself.  There is a moment in the film when Van Gogh's famous self portrait is hanging on a wall, and it looks like it might be a picture of Willem Dafoe.  They have the same bone structure in their faces!  That was truly impressive.  Dafoe deserves this nomination without a doubt.

The film is worth seeing, but be prepared, it doesn't look like other movies look and you have to be able to accept the confusion that happens on the screen.  If the Blair Witch Project made you nauseous, this one is a definite skip.  Still, I was moved and think the performance alone is important enough to see the movie.

The Florida Project - 1 nomination

Actor in a Supporting Role - Willem DaFoe

The Florida Project follows the poor residents of a motel near Disney World, where people live for extended periods of time.  The children in the complex are unruly, the parents in the complex are mostly people who are down on their luck in some way, scraping by to keep a roof over their heads.  Moonee is 6 years old, precocious, and a bit of a trouble maker.  Her mom gets by in any way she can, sometimes legally, sometimes illegally.  Her mom, Halley, does what she can to keep an eye on Moonee, but she is untroubled by the shenanigans that Moonee gets into.  Willem Dafoe is the manager of the motel complex, and he has a soft spot for Halley and Moonee, and deals with the grind of low income living.

For the first 25 minutes of this film, I couldn't find a single redeeming element.  I hated the kids who were wild and rude, I thought Willem Dafoe was fine, but this part was certainly not Oscar worthy, so I had to go back to watch it again to see what all the fuss was about.  But I gave it a second chance.  

Truth be told, there wasn't enough of a plot to wrap your arms around, and I still wouldn't say that I liked the film, but it did get more engaging as the story went along.  It was more of a character study with situations than an overriding movie with a plot, but I started to understand at least what the filmmakers were intending, which was to show the despair associated with these street families. The story is very intentionally set under the looming eye of one of the richest, most decadent experiences available in the country - Disney World (one character in the film loses his passes for his family of 4, which cost $1700).  The disparity of experience in this one town are jarring and are important to consider, sadly, this film just didn't speak to me.