These are the first half of my thoughts on the Academy Award Best Picture Nominees for this year. Belfast I believe will probably be the winner but I didn't review that in these films. I will post the second half of the nominees soon with Belfast being one of them.
King Richard
I saw this on the small screen, not the big screen, and was still entertained. I am a big believer in the big screen experience is the only reason I mention that. Will Smith as Serena and Venus’s dad pushing them hard is a great story but I found myself wanting to know more from the girls perspective. It is about Dad and I get that. Its not called Richard's family, it is clearly about Richard, but maybe it is the fact we know what the girls become that I am wondering more about their thoughts and feelings or maybe the actresses were that good, but I wanted more. Will Smith makes sure every time the camera gets turned on that you don’t forget who the story is about. Its a gripping tale and we as Americans love stories about Americans succeeding in light of the challenges. Our country was built on it and quite frankly it is a great thing that we remind ourselves of it every now and then. It was not a bad film but could have used a little more getting to know the girls, because after all they are the tennis stars.
West Side Story
Steven Speilberg must have wanted to do this for years. This seems more like a project that he should have produced and put his name on but had someone else direct. It looked great but felt uninspired. Not sure how it could win best picture when Speilberg has so many much better pictures that did not. It just feels like a slicker version of the same Romeo and Juliet story that has been on the stage for years instead of the characters really popping and coming to life. At least all Latinos were played by Latinos and not white dudes with spray tans. Tony Kushner the screenwriter did say this one has much more to do with the original novel than the classic musical with Rita Moreno did.
Nightmare Alley
Guillermo Del Toro said when he accepted best director for the shape of water that he was going to keep making his monster movies. Well that is exactly what he has done. This one starring Bradley Cooper as a sharp Carnie who ends up with the tables turned. Del Toro has one of the sharpest eyes for making a gothic looking picture. I would love to see what a collaboration with Tim Burton might make….who knows it may end up bringing about the apocalypse it could be so dark. Cooper is good and Rooney Mara is fantastic as well. It seems like a great excuse for Del Toro to make a gothic film more than anything, but hey, he tries to have a plot. There should be more movies of the wicked lives of Carnival freaks in the early 20th century. There are some twists and turns and some work but I feel like it is a film that cinematographers will watch in the future more than people who will rewatch it straight for entertainment purposes.
Power of the Dog
The visuals are amazing, have to love the characters who have a bit of a Coen -esque quality, when the Coens aren’t trying to be funny. The story of a grumpy cowboy and life changing around him when his brother gets married and brings a kid into the household who is on the feminine side. Eventually it brings out the feminine side of the cowboy and then he dies. As what happens many times when they try to make an oscar worthy film, what they capture on camera trumps the story. The story, although well acted and well performed can be a tad slow and boring. Just seeing the scenery however is very cool and all of the actors try to capture your attention even if the actions they are performing aren’t very capturing. Again another Netflix film that could be just fine 10-15 minutes shorter. I learned in film school that if you can cut something from a story and nothing changes, it shouldn't be in the story. Even the trick ending doesn't necessarily get the catharsis that it should.
Dune
How in the hell does this get nominated for best picture. The film is beautiful. From the director who brought you Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 comes an adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune that fans have been waiting for for a long time. It looks like kids imagined it in their minds when they read the book and makes us forget the cliff notes version of Dune that David Lynch gave us in the 80’s. The problem…..this is like episode one of a Netflix series not a stand alone movie. Many of the main characters barely are in the film and hardly any of the best parts of the novel have really even come up yet. Fellowship of the ring may have been the best movie of its trilogy but it wasn’t nominated for best picture because the academy waited until the story was finished to nominate the whole thing as best picture. This should have been done similarly. It felt like being abandoned on a desert island and finding a book to read, only to get done and realize you only have the first two chapters. It could very well be best picture.....when its finished.
Don’t Look Up
Adam McKay has done things like the Dick Cheaney movie Vice but is mostly known for his partnership with Will Ferrell for many years on films they did together. I wonder is this movie is even only nominated for an oscar because of all the oscar nominated people in the film . Dicarpio, JLaw, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett…..they almost always get some kind of love from the academy so does all that constitute the nomination. I didn’t even mention Meryl Streep. The film is a satire on politics and how insane politics can get, how insane people can get, even to the point of their own extinction as a comet rushes to earth. There were a few funny moments but way too many…look at how funny I am being right now moments. When the characters are trying too hard to bring out the laugh you have to wonder if it is even that funny to begin with. (Many SNL actors need to read that) The film does pick up speed in the last third of the film and it struggles with what many netflix films struggle from and that is not enough cuts. Netflix leaves their directors alone more than any other studio and in doing so you get films that always seem about ten to fifteen minutes too long. To me this is one of those films that everyone will have forgotten even exists in a couple of years….has anybody watched ‘The Artist’ or ‘LaLa Land’ lately?
Many of you know that I started watching all of the Best Picture Nominees years ago because I enjoyed coming across films I may not have watched had they not been nominated and finding really good flicks. I try to watch as many as I can and I have watched many stinkers. This years lot feels more like films are being nominated for their artistic beauty, which I certainly have an appreciation for, as opposed to the story they tell. They are mostly unique stories which is cool to see nominated but I also like it when someone makes a film that comes out of nowhere and becomes one of those films that I can watch over and over again.
Ill post commentary on the rest of them shortly.
The DR
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