It's a weird year at the Oscars. Many promising titles like "Widows," "First Man," "Mary Poppins Returns," "Leave No Trace,""Boy Erased," and "If Beale Street Could Talk" never managed to gain the necessary support and momentum to make any kind of impact on the awards races. There's the big influence of Netflix this year, the big diversity push, and a clear shift toward more populist choices. It feels like the "Best Popular Film" kerfuffle and the hosting controversy really set the tone.
That leaves us with one of the most curious sets of Oscar nominees in some time. Many of the Best Picture nominees are noticeably weak, including "Vice," "Black Panther," and "Bohemian Rhapsody." There's certainly a lot to like about these films, but they also have massive flaws. "Black Panther" was in no way the best action film this year, and has been mocked for its poor CGI. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a treat to watch, but much of the narrative falls apart under any scrutiny. The current frontrunner is a black and white Spanish language period film, "Roma," with no recognizable stars. Yorgos Lanthimos and Spike Lee are both nominated for Best Director, and their films, "Blackkklansman" and "The Favourite," are some of the stronger contenders. I suspect that "A Star Is Born" or "Green Book" might win because they're the only nominees that resemble the typical prestige drama we expect Oscar films to be.
I get less and less interested in the acting races every year, as they feel more and more arbitrary. However, I'm secretly glad that a lot of the performances that were getting a lot of buzz and heat, despite not really being all that impressive, didn't land nominations in the end. I have nothing against Timothee Chalamet, Claire Foy, or even Ethan Hawke, but I'm not remotely surprised or bothered that they didn't make the cut. That said, there were few real surprises. Marina de Tavira for "Roma" is the big one. It's easy to make predictions for most of the winners this year: Bale for "Vice," Mahershala Ali for "Green Book," and Regina King for "If Beale Street Could Talk." Best Actress could go to Lady Gaga, Olivia Colman, or Glenn Close, but I'll be rooting for Colman personally.
Other major categories have some interesting races. The Polish Foreign Language film nominee "Cold War" scored nominations for Best Director and Best Cinematography, while the German nominee "Never Look Back" also got a Cinematography nomination. This has contributed to an unusual situation where the Best Cinematography and Best Editing categories, usually bellwethers for Best Picture, only have a single nominee in common: "The Favourite." Alfonso Cuaron will probably prevail for director, but it's the other nominees in Best Director that raise some eyebrows. Pawel Pawlikowski and Adam McKay beat out newbie Bradley Cooper for slots. Bryan Singer is still persona non grata, which is why he's missing.
There has been some grumbling about "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" missing out on Best Documentary, and "Eighth Grade" not getting a screenplay nod, but the only snub I really have any strong feelings about is the lack of Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" for Best Foreign Language film. That said, I haven't seen most of the Foreign Language nominees yet. The surprise nomination that makes me happiest to see is "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" from "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" making it into Best Song. Netflix scored a very good haul, and I hope their squabbles with the Academy are over for now. I'm also glad that despite the rule changes, the little seen anime "Mirai" made it into the Best Animated Film category.
Overall, I'm not disappointed with this year's nominations, probably because I haven't been paying as much attention to the awards race this year. It only seems to be by extraordinary luck that I've managed to see as many of the nominees as I have. Maybe the nominees are just the films that Academy voters actually managed to see on their own this season and didn't have to expend too much energy hunting down. A related trend I've noticed is that the Best Picture nominees are generally the more positive, feel-good titles. I'm not surprised "First Man" and "First Reformed" lost out, for instance, because they're so somber and dark. This year, in the current climate, the more uplifting watches may just be what everybody is more receptive to.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment