A sentence that I’m positive will entice you to finish the rest of this newsletter: I don’t really have a ton to say about the Oscars ceremony last night.
Everything Everywhere All at Once was one of my favorite movies of 2022, and it won more above-the-line (writing/directing/acting/producing) Oscars than any movie in history. It’s a triumph both unexpected for a movie this wild and weird … and yet totally expected given the steamroller trajectory it took through all the precursors of awards season. (That didn’t make it any less sweet to watch Michelle Yeoh triumph in Best Actress, though!)
I will always love and anticipate the Oscars, but something about last night just felt a bit too … inevitable to me. That’s not just a comment about the domination of EEAAO and All Quiet on the Western Front, whose wannabe Inception “BRAHHHHM!” noises worried me when it picked up a bunch of trophies in the middle of the ceremony. In some sense, I got what I wanted — the show went back to basics with a single host and returned to a familiar format beloved by the audience that tunes in every year.
But it all just felt like a pro forma exercise by everyone involved, save maybe the quartet of overcome acting winners. No one really felt like they wanted to be there, a gnawing sense of unease punctuated by the high-profile absences of Tom Cruise and James Cameron. We were missing a sense of this being a big Hollywood celebration presided over by its brightest stars — there was no “mayor” of the Oscars like Meryl Streep or Tom Hanks to give a reliable reaction shot and hold court over the room. A muted “champagne” colored carpet on the entryway didn’t do many favors, either.
I don’t think I feel the same existential tailspin as last year’s post-Slap newsletter after this year’s ceremony. Kimmel was a decent host with a killer monologue, and it was nice to see all the categories presented during the telecast again. Some of them actually got nice intros that did the important work of explaining the craftwork of movies — something best exemplified by Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors presenting Best Cinematography.
In that brief glimpse of passion, you saw what was missing from the rest of the ceremony: a reverence for the past that looked forward to the future. A drive not only to present some shiny statues but also to celebrate a craft that means so much to so many. I want the Oscars to exist not as something that the town gets through. I want it to be something they all want to get to. A sacred honor, not a begrudging obligation.
Many cinephiles love this show and want it to thrive even in a world where cinema occupies so much less of the cultural conversation. I have to wonder how many people who participated in last night’s show truly, meaningfully felt the same. I’m not so cynical to believe that they don’t — but it didn’t really shine through in this sleepy ceremony.
ALSO … 10 GREAT 2022 MOVIES THAT DIDN’T EVEN GET NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR
Armageddon Time, Peacock Premium/rental
Turns out there was only room for one Jewish filmmaker’s coming-of-age story in the Oscar crop this year, but I hold out hope that James Gray’s Armageddon Time will — like the rest of his films — eventually find its audience of appreciators. This tough, lacerating lesson in the world’s unjust systems offers no easy answers for the problems its directorial avatar faces. Gray even told me so when I interviewed him last fall!
Bones and All, rental
I mean, the Timothée Chalamet sensuous cannibal movie was probably always made for Tumblr and stan Twitter, not the Oscars. Still, I’m bummed that Luca Guadagnino’s tender portrait of outsiders traversing a hollowed-out American midwest couldn’t seem to break through on any front. If you can handle the gore, you might find this sweet romance quite gorgeous. (Here’s my review from Venice last fall.)
Catherine Called Birdy, Amazon Prime Video
Maybe you chose The Last of Us finale last night instead of the Oscars, which … fair enough! If you need more of star Bella Ramsey in your life, they are absolutely dynamite in the Middle Ages-set teen comedy Catherine Called Birdy. It’s got all the wit you might love from director Lena Dunham without as much of the … you probably know your hang-ups. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my space for the entirety of this one!
God’s Country, rental
I will begin this recommendation with a bias acknowledgment: God’s Country was produced by a friend of mine, Halee Bernard. But I also think it’s a killer adult drama that sizzles with intensity and artistry! As Thandiwe Newton’s firmly resolved professor in the rural West fends off hunters encroaching on her property, she detonates an atom bomb’s worth of fused personal and political weight. Even in spite of my connections to it, I would still recommend the film.
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., Amazon Prime Video
No shade to Danielle Deadwyler and Viola Davis who got the lion’s share of the attention for the shutout of Black women in the Best Actress category, but if I was picking a Black performance to recognize there, it’d be Regina Hall in Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. As the long-suffering wife of Sterling K. Brown’s megachurch pastor, Hall embodies the tensions of Black femininity without trying to resolve them for anyone’s comfort. She makes us sit with how difficult the decisions are for her character, leaving us in a state of perpetual wonder about what’s really percolating behind her neatly regulated emotional presentation.
Official Competition, rental
If you are part of the increasingly winnowing demographic that still watches the Oscars, you’re the target demo for this uproarious satire of the silly business of manufacturing prestige fare for awards. Official Competition features two extremely game comedic performances from Antonio Banderas and a never-wilder Penélope Cruz — it’s a raucous good time.
Pearl, rental
As she accepted her Oscar last night, Jamie Lee Curtis said, “To all of the people who have supported the genre movies that I have made for all these years, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, we just won an Oscar together.” But it’d be great if the Academy could make room for a performance like Mia Goth’s in Pearl, a scream queen turn for the ages. This movie pretty much sealed the deal for me that I’m always along for the ride with whatever she is cooking up.
Riotsville, U.S.A., Hulu
The Oscars love a political documentary when it allows them to cheer for a cause and feel good about themselves, as aptly illustrated by last night’s winner Navalny. If you want something that is willing to make you sit with uncomfortable truths about our history and reality, settle in for Sierra Pettingill’s Riotsville, U.S.A. This archival-based doc about a police training ground developed to respond to the riots of the late-1960s is revelatory without hitting you over the head with its contemporary relevance.
She Said, Peacock Premium/rental
Back before true crime documentaries became a bankable genre, people usually just waited to see these stories fictionalized in serious dramas. She Said, a dramatization of how The New York Times broke the Harvey Weinstein exposé, now feels like a relic of a bygone cinematic era. I actually thought this movie was pretty good, though, and worth your time. Especially if you love to nerd out over a journalism procedural, it’s right up your alley.
Three Minutes: A Lengthening, Hulu
Who doesn’t love a movie that runs under 1 hour and 10 minutes?! You won’t feel cheated of any substance in Bianca Stigter’s Three Minutes: A Lengthening, though, which poetically excavates all that lies within a small reel of 16mm film shot in a Jewish neighborhood in 1938 Poland. It’s a harrowing reminder of the power inherent in the archive — both in terms of what we can remember and what we allow ourselves to forget.
You can always keep up with my film-watching in real-time on the app Letterboxd. I’ve also compiled every movie I’ve ever recommended through this newsletter via a list on the platform as well.
Before you tire of all things EEAAO, these interviews with newly minted Oscar winners are really fantastic stuff.
Loved both of these how the sausage gets made pieces at Vulture, one on in-flight movies and another on movie theater projection.
For Decider, I said stream it to Sin Eater (part of the New York Times Presents docuseries on FX/Hulu).
I also ranked every Best Picture winner last week in a series of five newsletters — if you want to see everything everywhere all at once, so to speak, I published it as a list on Letterboxd.
You can keep track of all the freelance writing I’ve done this year through this list on Letterboxd.
I will most likely be taking the rest of the week off of newsletter duty after all the work I put into the five editions of my Best Picture ranking ... but there’s a chance something might intervene and force my hand. We’ll just have to see!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall