Rank 'Em: The 2022 Best Picture Nominees

It's been a good year for movies, and this is a pretty strong Best Picture lineup.  There are titles I think are missing, but no obvious clunkers, as there have been in years past.  From best to least best, here are the Best Picture nominees of 2022, ranked.

Power of the Dog - I could nitpick this to pieces, but it wouldn't change that Jane Campion's western about the myths of masculinity is easily one of the best films of the year.  I like that it defies easy categorization and it doesn't give up its secrets easily, almost demanding to be rewatched and discussed to pin down each of the slippery parties involved.  Most of all, I like that it gives four excellent character actors the chance to play characters - ones that will stay with me for a while. 

West Side Story - He actually did it.  Steven Spielberg got the gang back together and remade one of the most beloved screen musicals of all time.  What's more he successfully updated and reworked it for the 2020s, resulting in a more nuanced, more insightful, and more emotionally resonant version of the musical.  In the process, he's made one of his best pieces of cinema in years, full of youthful energy and vigor, with just the right amount of love for the original too.

Licorice Pizza - This is the kind of movie that I typically want nothing to do with.  It's full of problematic characters in a problematic era that too many filmmakers have whitewashed in the name of nostalgia.  Paul Thomas Anderson, however, embraces all the awkwardness and ungainliness of the '70s, portraying everybody as needing to grow up in some capacity, and accepting their fallibility with good humor.  Nobody - including our heroes - gets away unscathed.  

Dune - The biggest problem with this film is that it's incomplete.  Villeneuve's talent at orchestrating spectacle is impeccable, and he's assembled a truly dazzling array of talent both onscreen and behind the camera.  However, for everything that it manages to accomplish, I can't help feeling like I still haven't seen the full picture of what "Dune" is.  So far so good, but as much as I appreciate everything that went into this film, I'm not comfortable slotting it higher than this.  

Nightmare Alley - This is Guillermo Del Toro in a more subdued gear, remaking a classic film noir about a Depression era con man.  I really appreciate Bradley Cooper here, creating a more well-rounded monster than Tyrone Power in the original version.  The film always seems to be on the verge of becoming a splashier genre picture, which is a little frustrating considering what we know Del Toro is capable of.  Still, I like that this is exactly the film Del Toro set out to make.

King Richard - It's hard to make a good sports film these days, and the secret of "King Richard" is really that it's a film about the Black Struggle.   I feel like "Minari" did a lot of similar material better last year, but Will Smith hasn't been this good in a long time, and frankly may never be this good again.  And I just love that the big finale is built around negotiations for a sneaker deal - a totally cynical and realistic depiction of what success in sport really means.

Drive My Car - I just don't understand it.  Ryusuke Hamaguchi has made a three hour melodrama about a theater director processing his wife's death and infidelity, and it's taken the world by storm.  I find the film effective, if honestly a little boring, but there's nothing here that accounts for the outsized amount of praise that's been heaped on it.  Is it the Chekhov?  Is it the Murakami?  Is it everybody in Hollywood identifying with the pretentious main character? 

Don't Look Up - I think I like this better than most, because I'm more appreciative of Adam McKay's efforts to dramatize the frustration of being the voice of reason and responsible activism in a world that doesn't value it.  I like "Don't Look Up" better when it's being sincere, and sympathizing with its heroes instead of trying to lampoon its ridiculous villains.  As satire it's not great, but its anti-Trumpian messages are delivered in an entertaining way.  

Belfast - It's hard to be critical about someone's passion project, and Kenneth Branagh is finally creating something original that's clearly near and dear to his heart, but this one just wasn't for me.  For an earnest child's eye view of the Troubles, this just strikes me as way too sentimentalized and oddly romanticized.  The cast is stellar and deserves all the kudos they've gotten, but too often "Belfast" feels like a parody of the movie that it's trying to be.     

CODA - Finally, I think "CODA" is a charming movie, but half of it is your typical high school love story and rising star story that doesn't even try to mesh tonally or visually with the other, much stronger half, about the heroine's hardscrabble life in a fishing town.  It's absolutely a great watch for the right audience, and I'm glad it's getting all this attention, but when I look at some of the titles in the running that didn't get a slot, "CODA" is the first one I'd drop.  

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"Belfast" and "The Last Duel"

I really wish that "Belfast" worked for me.  I like that Kenneth Branagh is making something so personal and so sweet.  I like all the actors involved.  I'm not remotely surprised that some people adore this film.  However, I seem to be completely immune to its charms.  "Belfast" is about a working class family in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, who undergo some difficult times.  We see events unfold through the eyes of nine year-old Buddy (Jude Hill), who lives with his older brother Will (Lewis McAskie), his no-nonsense Ma (Catriona Balfe), and his loving Granny (Judi Dench) and Pop (Ciaran Hinds).  Buddy's Pa (Jamie Dornan) is frequently away for work in England, and isn't home when a Protestant riot breaks out.  Suddenly Buddy's once idyllic neighborhood is full of uncomfortable tensions, and his parents are fighting over the family's future.

Branagh's approach to the potentially difficult material is to couch it in nostalgia.  Buddy may be poor, but he's a happy, lively kid who has good relationships with his parents and grandparents, and has a healthy mischievous streak.  While his parents are debating moving to England, Buddy is more concerned with the pretty girl in his class, and getting roped into petty theft by one of the older neighborhood kids.  He sees the world in literal black and white, with the exception of movies.  The Troubles and all the difficult questions they bring stay mostly in the background, aside from an explosive final confrontation between the adults.  Buddy's attempts to grapple with these issues are fleeting, often played for laughs due to his misconceptions, or only seen through the filter of his childish worldview.  The tone of the film is kept very child-friendly, and it's designed to be an audience pleaser.

This makes for a very charming movie, but I couldn't get over how idealized and sanitized Branagh made his childhood.  Buddy lives in a version of Belfast that feels like it came out of a storybook, and Dornan and Balfe are unreasonably good looking for being working class Irish parents in the 1960s.  Even the local criminal figure, Billy Clanton (Colin Morgan), is oddly good looking.  I'd compare it to something out of a Hollywood film of the same era, but at least Hollywood was sensible enough to cast character actors with interesting faces in their melodramas.  And frankly, there's not much of a story to "Belfast."  It never feels like Buddy's family is facing any real danger or real strife.  There's a subplot with the grandparents that might have managed to tug the heartstrings if it had devoted more time to them.  But it didn't.

Now on to "The Last Duel," which I fully intended to pair up with Ridley Scott's other 2021 movie, "House of Gucci," but that review needed more than three paragraphs to adequately work out my feelings towards.  My thoughts on "The Last Duel" are more straightforward.  It's a very good film, but one I'm probably never going to watch again because I found the experience unpleasant - in a good way.  Three characters in 1300s France, the squire Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), his rival Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), and his wife Lady Marguerite (Jodie Comer), each recount the events that lead up to a duel between Jean and Jacques.  Marguerite claims she was raped by Jacques.  Jacques believes the encounter was consensual. The script was split up between three writers - Nicole Holofcener, who wrote Marguerite's POV, and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who wrote Jean and Jacques.'  Affleck also appears in the film as Count Pierre d'Alencon, the hedonist nobleman that Jean and Jacques have both sworn fealty to.

   

"The Last Duel" is refreshing in the way that it reframes the usual medieval tale of valor and chivalry from a feminist perspective.  Jean and Jacques' narratives present squabbles over land and position, and their attitudes toward Marguerite appear benevolent, if misguided.  Then we get to Marguerite's version of events, revealing that both of them are cruel and selfish in their own ways, and being a woman in the 1300s in this kind of situation was utterly nightmarish.  The film keeps getting more unpleasant and intense, with the actual stakes of the duel not fully revealed until near the climax.  There's so much riding on the outcome by the end, that the duel itself is one of the most thrilling fight scenes I've seen in years.  However, the preceding two hours of screen time that it takes to get there are absolutely exhausting to get through.  The emotional and physical violence, the culminating dread, and the sheer brutality of medieval society is unrelenting.

Thanks to Ridley Scott it all looks great.  The duel is wonderfully visceral and the actors really sell the damage that the two men deal to each other.  There's great attention paid to historical detail, as the film was based on true events that are fairly well documented.  However, none of the American and British actors attempt a French accent, thankfully.  The performances are good, and in the case of Jodie Comer very good, and it's a shame that the film was such a dud at the box office, taking it out of awards contention.  As Ridley Scott epics go, this is one of his better ones because it's themes and characters are so strong.  Those looking for simple action adventure fare, however, are advised to look elsewhere.     

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My Most Anticipated Films of 2022 - Part 2

Continued from last time, here's the other half of my list of most anticipated films of 2022, this time featuring all the indie, arthouse, and foreign films.  I want to caution here especially that there's no guarantee that these films will come out in 2022, since most of them don't have release dates and distribution is not a sure thing.  Some may score bigger deals later, but for now these are the movies that I'm more worried about slipping off people's radar.

Everything Everywhere All at Once - Even if this were just a glum indie movie starring Michelle Yeoh, I'd be onboard, but because this is the latest film from the fabulous filmmaking duo Daniels, we're going to get so much more.  I was moderately entertained by their debut, "Swiss Army Man," but this one looks like they're finally ready to unleash their full cinematic powers on unsuspecting audiences.

The Whale - Darren Aronofsky's latest film involves Brendan Fraser playing a 600 pound gay man trying to reconnect to his daughter, played by Sadie Sink.  Samantha Morton and Hong Chau are also in the cast.  This is based on a 2013 play, and being adapted by the original playwright, so I think we can safely rule out any "mother!" style antics.  Still, this is Darren Aronofsky we're talking about so all bets are off.   

Dual - Riley Stearns has had a fantastic track record so far, and I tend to love high concept, "Twilight Zone" -esque indie films.  They get away with so much more.  And it doesn't hurt that the cast is fabulous - Karen Gillan, Jesse Eisenberg, and Aaron Paul are in the mix, with Gillan playing a woman who has to fight her own clone to the death.  How could I not be excited to see a film with a premise like that?    

Next Goal Wins - I know that the whole Disney/Fox merger is still being sorted out, but where is this film?  Principal photography wrapped back in January of 2020.  I know they're swapping out Armie Hammer for Will Anett, how long could that possibly take?  And Michael Fassbender hasn't been seen onscreen since 2019.  I was kinda hoping this would be a comeback vehicle.  Where is this film?

White Noise - Noah Baumbach has quietly become one of my favorite directors recently.  His latest will star Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig in a satire about a small town's reaction to an environmental disaster, which touches off the main character's existential crisis.  I haven't read the Don DeLillo novel that this is based on, but Baumbach sounds perfect for this kind of material.    

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On - Jenny Slate is frequently heard in animated films because of her distinctive voice, so I guess it's not a surprise that she's written an animated character for herself, a little mollusc named Marcel.  She and writer/director Dean Fleischer-Camp collaborated on a charming short film about Marcel a few years ago, and now a feature version is being prepped with A24.  

Bones & All - Before we get Timothee Chalamet as Willy Wonka and more "Dune," he'll be starring in the latest Luca Guadagnino film with Taylor Russell.  It's a love story featuring teenage cannibals.  The YA novel source material has had very mixed reviews, but Guadagnino has demonstrated  that he knows what he's doing and I trust he'll be able to deliver something memorably touching and horrific.   

Infinity Pool - Speaking of horror, I wasn't the biggest fan of Brandon Cronenberg's last film, "Possessor," but the man has plenty of talent and I am very curious about his next film, about a romantic vacation gone wrong.  It's a sci-fi thriller of some kind, starring Alexander Skarsgaard.  The nature of the sci-fi and the thrills are yet unknown, but I expect the usual Cronenberg body horror in some capacity.  

 

The Son - Florian Zeller's last film, "The Father," was a wonderful surprise that netted Anthony Hopkins an Oscar.  That film was based on Zeller's own play, one of a thematic trilogy.  Now he's adapted another, "The Son," starring Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern.  Anthony Hopkins will also reportedly be in the film, though this is not a sequel to "The Father," having an entirely different set of characters.  

"The Imaginary" - A cryptic trailer was released last year for the latest Studio Ponoc film.  I really enjoyed their first feature, "Mary and the Witch's Flower," and I'm glad to see that they're tackling another.  This one will be based on a book by A.F. Harrold, about an "imaginary friend," Rudger.  It should help to tide me over until Miyazaki finishes "How Do you Live?" - currently looking at a 2023 release date. 

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My Most Anticipated Films of 2022 - Part I

I still feel somewhat doubtful about this, but I think the time is right to be writing my yearly film anticipation lists.  Please keep in mind that there are never guarantees about what's going to make it to screens by December and what isn't.  With the industry still in so much turmoil, I expect some of these titles will be delayed until 2023.

As always, I'm splitting this feature into two posts, one for the mainstream studios film with bigger budgets, that everybody hears about, and one for the foreign, indie and art house fare that may break through to the mainstream eventually, but only the cinephiles anticipate this far in advance.  Netflix releases are now categorized with the studio films instead of the indies.  

Here we go.  Bigger releases first, in no particular order. 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent - Lionsgate acquired this script, which showed up on the 2019 Black List, about Nicolas Cage playing a fictionalized version of himself, who agrees to perform for a Mexican drug lord superfan in order to save his family.  It sounds meta and weird enough to be interesting, and hopefully Cage is game to sell the premise the way that only he can.  

Knives Out 2 - I don't want to think too hard about the wider implications of the "Knives Out" sequel ending up on Netflix, but I am definitely ready for more of Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc.  The cast that Rian Johnson has assembled for this latest venture is super encouraging - Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, and Kathryn Hahn! - and the marketing antics have already been hilarious.  I can't wait.  

Pinocchio - Here's one of Guillermo Del Toro's passion projects finally making it to screen, thanks to Netflix.  This is going to be done in stop-motion animation, with an all-star cast.  Del Toro has promised that this will be a much darker adaptation than what we're familiar with, and is definitely not to be confused with the live action "Pinocchio" being readied for Disney+ by Robert Zemeckis next year.

The Northman - Robert Eggers is making a Viking revenge saga.  That's really all I need to know.  Alexander Skarsgaard will star as Prince Amleth, one of the major inspirations for Shakespeare's Hamlet.  That means you can probably figure out who Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, and Anya Taylor-Joy are playing.  Oh, and Bjork's appearing as a witch.  This will be her first major film since "Dancer in the Dark."

Nope - So far Jordan Peele has released a poster of a creepy looking cumulus cloud with a string of pennant flags hanging down from it, and I am so ready for this.  I liked "Us" and "Candyman" better than most, and I am definitely looking forward to both of his 2022 projects, "Nope" and the stop-motion animated film "Wendell and Wild" that he and Henry Selick have in the works with Netflix.  

Tár - It has been sixteen years since writer/director Todd Field's "Little Children" was released.  After multiple cancelled projects, he's finally back with a film about a female orchestra conductor, Lydia Tár, to be played by Cate Blanchett.  It's described as an "intellectual drama" about music, ambition, and motherhood that takes place in Germany.  Hildur Guðnadóttir will be composing the score.

The Fabelmans - Steven Spielberg hasn't been too consistent recently.  However, he can still deliver a great film occasionally, and "The Fabelmans" will be about subject matter near and dear to his heart -  his own childhood.  Michelle Williams and Paul Dano will be playing the fictionalized versions of his parents, and Seth Rogen will be playing a fictional uncle.  Fingers crossed that this goes well.

The Woman King - This film promises to show me something that I have never seen onscreen before, and I can't wait.  Gina Prince-Bythewood will helm a historical epic about the West African kingdom of Dahomey, and its female warriors, led by a general played by Viola Davis.  Key members of the "Underground Railroad" cast, which I enjoyed greatly last year, will be making appearances.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) - The fact that it's a "Part One" should make me wary, but the first "Spider-verse" movie was one of the best films of the past decade, animated or otherwise, and I choose to see this kind of ambition as a good thing.   The less I know going into this the better, so I haven't sought out any information on the new films to date, and I'll try to keep in that way.  

Killers of the Flower Moon - Apple TV+ is doing its best to get into prestige film, and has Martin Scorsese's latest collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro in the works.  I'm trying my best to keep my expectations reasonable, because Scorsese is very hit-or-miss from me.  But as long as Scorsese takes it easy on the de-aging technology, this should be quite an event. 

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"Finch" Isn't the Name of the Robot

"Finch" was previously known as "BIOS," and I was curious about it for being the second feature from Miguel Sapochnik, who is famous for his work on "Game of Thrones."  It was also one of a handful of high concept, original science-fiction movies that were slated for 2020 - Tom Hanks and a robot surviving the apocalypse together sounded ambitious and promising.  However, "Finch" is very derivative, essentially "Cast Away" or "I Am Legend" with robots.  And though it's filled with fancy effects, "Finch" also feels much smaller in scope than I was expecting.

Tom Hanks plays our primary human character, Finch, who has survived a solar flare that turned Earth's atmosphere into a hellish mix of high temperatures, dangerous radiation, and extreme weather events.  Other humans have survived, but Finch is afraid of them, and keeps his distance, using the technology at his disposal to hunt for supplies during the daytime, when conditions are at their worst.  He only has his dog, Goodyear, and a few small helper robots for company.  Realizing that his exposure to the radiation is killing him, Finch builds an android, eventually named  Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones), and charges him with taking care of Goodyear after he's gone.  Circumstances force them to uproot from their home in St. Louis and flee toward the west coast in a camper van, as Finch teaches Jeff about the world and how to survive in it.  

"Finch" feels oddly like a throwback to the '90s and 2000s, mostly due to the presence of Tom Hanks, playing boomer music and dispensing his gruff life lessons.  I wasn't surprised to find Robert Zemeckis, the director of "Cast Away" and "Forrest Gump," listed here as a producer.  There's also the characterization of an AI like Jeff as a sort of childlike, benevolent entity similar to Johnny 5 from "Short Circuit," or "E.T."  I'm not saying this is a bad thing.  It's nice to see a story like this that has such a strong streak of optimism after the last few years of grim apocalypse media.  Hanks is as charming here as he ever was, and the effects work to bring Jeff to life is fantastic.  I love all the thought that went into his design - baseball glove hands, a mouthless red-orange head, his clothing choices, and a few other surprises.  You can see the influence of WALL-E, Chappie, and other cinema robots over the years, but Jeff is distinctive enough to be memorable on his own merits.  

Still, though "Finch" runs nearly two hours in length, it feels shorter than it should be.  There are these weird narrative ellipses and a rather abrupt ending that suggest some creative misgivings late in the game, or that the film's production was limited due to COVID or some other production trouble.  The wasteland that the characters inhabit is very evocative and well considered, but at the same time it's extremely stingy with certain details, and naggingly empty throughout.  If this were a smaller independent film, I wouldn't be so bothered, but this production clearly had the money for a few more flashbacks to the initial disaster.  I'll note also that there were also additional cast members announced for the film back in 2019, but none of them appear in the finished film.

And that leaves us with a sparse, predictable, very well executed science-fiction buddy movie that is much more personal than similar projects usually are, but comes off as a little toothless for 2021.  The title, "Finch," is a remarkably bad title, but it gets to the heart of what the filmmakers ultimately decided to focus on, which was Tom Hanks's character.  His struggle and his humanity are lionized in a familiar, uncomplicated way, and if the movie had come out twenty years ago, I have no doubt that "Finch" would have been a sizable hit for everyone involved.  

However, Universal sold the movie to Apple+, forgoing a theatrical release entirely.  And it's hard not to think of "Finch" as another "Greyhound," a watered down echo of much better, more innovative films from an older era and style of filmmaking.  

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My Favorite Carol Reed Film

During my deep dive into 1950s films, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't a big fan of film noir.  I bring this up because I feel that I need to acknowledge that "The Third Man" is considered one of the greatest film noir ever made, and the best film directed by Sir Carol Reed, one of the most beloved English film luminaries.  I don't dispute this, but after a rewatch of "The Third Man," I'm afraid my position remains unchanged - "The Third Man" is a magnificent film, but not my favorite of Reed's by a long shot.  

Carol Reed's list of accolades is a considerable one - Academy Award winner, first winner of a BAFTA for best British film, and an influence on dozens of other prominent filmmakers.  He's best known for his post-war films about war and crime, psychological thrillers and suspenseful dramas, often about haunted men on the run.  My favorite Carol Reed film doesn't represent any of Reed's strengths.  Instead, it's almost the total antithesis,"The Agony and the Ecstasy," a film made near the end of Reed's career, during a slump in his fortunes, about Michaelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.  It's one of Darryl F. Zanuck's notorious roadshow spectacles of the 1960s, and Reed was hired because Fox couldn't get Fred Zinnemann.  It was a notable flop, mostly remembered for the zany "Animaniacs" spoof it spawned a few decades later.

And despite it all, I love this movie.  I love that it opens with a lengthy, pretentious documentary segment introducing us to Renaissance art and the work of Michaelangelo.  I love that the scope is narrowly focused on the creation of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, and Michaelangelo's antagonistic relationship with Pope Julius II.  I love that the film is talky and grandiose and spends so much time hyping up Michaelangelo's art.  Critics of the time complained that the film was more art history lecture than cinematic experience, and ignored Michaelangelo's personal life, but that was one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.  I've always loved films about artists and the creation of their art, and there are few artists with work as awe-inspiring as Michaelangelo.  I was totally won over by the production, which recreated vast sections of the Sistine Chapel in Cinecitta Studios in Rome.  The power of the images came through, even though the first time I saw "The Agony and the Ecstasy" was on a tiny television screen.  It's no surprise that the film was nominated for five Oscars, including for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography (color).  

Most of the action, or inaction according to the film's detractors,  comes down to the artist and the pope.   They are played by Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison at their most ego-driven, and larger-than-life.  The two actors did not get along during the making of the film, which I think helped their performances.  They're both hamming it up delightfully in swords and sandals epic mode, not even trying to hide their distinctive accents, while their mutual disdain for each other comes across loud and clear.  Heston plays Michaelangelo as an antisocial grump who won't compromise on anything, while Harrison is the charming patron who gradually loses patience with his grand endeavors.  Rarely have I seen an Odd Couple pairing more over-the-top, couched in more ostentatious pageantry, and more entertaining to watch.  The inadvertent laughs these two provide fill me with such joy.           

As contrived and occasionally silly as the film is - there's a wild artistic epiphany scene, a deathbed resurrection, and a totally invented female love interest for the historically homosexual Michaelangelo - I so appreciate the film's willingness to elevate and celebrate artistic achievement in such magnificent terms.  When I finally saw "The Agony and the Ecstasy" on a more properly sized screen (not the original 70 mm, but good enough), I couldn't help but be dazzled by its scope and ambitions.  Art is often best appreciated through the eyes of other artists, and like Milos Forman was able to bring Mozart's genius to life in "Amadeus," I feel that Carol Reed and his crew were able to bring the work of one of the old Renaissance masters to the big screen in a memorably spectacular way.  

What I've Seen - Carol Reed

Night Train to Munich (1940)

The True Glory (1945)

Odd Man Out (1947)

The Fallen Idol (1948)

The Third Man (1949)

Outcast of the Islands (1951)

Trapeze (1956)

Our Man in Havana (1959)

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)

Oliver! (1968)

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"Swan Song" and "Zola"

I'm surprised at the good notices that have been received by "Swan Song," not because the movie itself is lacking, but because this isn't the kind of film that usually gets this kind of attention.  Written and directed by Benjamin Cleary, "Swan Song" is a science fiction film about a terminally ill man, Cameron (Mahershala Ali), who secretly clones himself in order to spare his wife Poppy (Naomie Harris) and their young son from the tragedy.  Cameron has second thoughts when the time comes to give the clone his memories, secretly insert him into his life, and say goodbye.  Glenn Close and Adam Beach play scientists, and Awkwafina plays a woman who also went through the cloning process.

"Swang Song" is an existential melodrama more than a typical genre film, carried by a strong central performance by Mahersha Ali.  It's a wonderfully humane, vulnerable performance, following Cameron's struggle to make the best decision for himself and for his loved ones.  The film itself commits to depicting his emotional journey in the most grounded terms possible, fully fleshing out Cameron's history with his loved ones, his struggle to accept his condition, and his quickly evolving relationship with his clone.  The film is so internal and so unconcerned with explaining anything to do with the creation of the clones, "Swan Song" often feels more like an allegorical piece than science fiction proper.

I think this is why I resisted its charms.  The film is a very straightforward, very charming and occasionally romantically tragic, but its characters have an odd lack of curiosity, and its approach to its subject matter is super narrowly focused.  Awkwafina is the only character allowed to be funny.  Cameron and Poppy are idealized in the extreme, living out a picture perfect life in the near-future that feels awfully contrived.  The film is entirely about Cameron's dilemma, and never considers the moral implications of the clone from any other points of view.  We don't get to see what happens if things go wrong, or really even entertain the possibility of it happening.  I think the film is fine for what it is, but its scope was too small for me to come away entirely satisfied.    

Now on to "Zola," the film that I have been trying and failing to write about for months.  It's more interesting to consider the circumstances around "Zola," and the social implications of "Zola" than the movie itself, which I can only describe as an interesting, but uncomfortable watch.  I know parts of it are meant to be funny, but none of the humor worked for me.  The movie is about the title character, played by Taylour Paige, who is a part-time stripper in Detroit.  She's cajoled into a road trip to Florida with fellow stripper Stefani (Riley Keough), her boyfriend Derek (Nicholas Braun), and her roommate X (Colman Domingo) to perform at a club.  Zola only learns that X is a pimp, and she's being shanghaied into a prostitution racket, when they're already on the road. Things only escalate from there as large amounts of money, guns, murder, and suicide come into play.  

"Zola" was based on an epic Twitter thread posted by the real Zola, and a David Kushner article profiling her, which were then adapted by Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris for the film.  It's tempting to want to dismiss the story as a group of trashy characters doing trashy things, but dig a little deeper and you quickly see how race and privilege define how the characters relate to and interact with each other.  Zola is the smartest one on the trip, but because of her status as an economically disadvantaged woman of color, she can't get away from the self-destructive, violent, and criminal behavior of those around her.  Stefani is the worst, who is absolutely willing to rope Zola into dangerous schemes by playing on her sympathy and good nature.  

I appreciate that these characters are taken on their own terms, far from polite society.  Zola's actions may seem counterintuitive until you get acclimated to the context that the events are happening in, and learn to appreciate how canny and resourceful she really is.  The filmmaking is loud and brash and rough-hewn, but it fits these characters and their outrageous, vibrant lives.  The performances are dialed up so high that I had some trouble with them at first, but Colman Domingo and Riley Keough prove especially good at balancing the humanity and the insanity of their deeply damaged characters.  I wish that I liked the movie more than I do, because I think it offers some important ideas, but the aggressive style and the uncomfortable atmosphere wore on me.  Also, the film stays a little too close to its source material - cutting off too quickly, and leaving its characters in limbo.

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