An Oscars that started late and yet finished ahead of schedule, all while delivering no egregiously terrible prizes (at least outside of the short films) … that deserves a round of Messi applause!
As expected, Oppenheimer ran the table but stopped short of a historic sweep. Like last year’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, the win total was a solid seven trophies. I’m glad that the Academy spread the wealth a bit and didn’t make the night feel quite so lopsided. If you followed my predictions, you would have gotten a respectable 18/23 choices right … mostly because I underestimated the love for Poor Things. Never bet against the Searchlight campaign muscle; their “defy expectations” phase 2 slogan really seemed to break through.
The closest thing to an upset we got from the ceremony was Emma Stone winning Best Actress, her second in seven years. She’s not the youngest to ever win two, but it’s still a remarkable accomplishment all the same. I love that she’s never taken critical and commercial success enjoyed by few others as an excuse to rest on her laurels. In her Poor Things performance as well as in the off-beat indie films she’s helping get off the ground as a producer, she’s pushing the envelope and letting her freak flag fly to an admirable degree. And when accepting the Oscar, she stayed as real as ever.
I was sad to see Lily Gladstone miss a historic win for a Native performer tonight — I hope this won’t be the last we see of her, both on-screen and in that auditorium.
It was another big night for international cinema with Cannes Film Festival favorites Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest getting their teams to the stage. I fist-pumped when we got the long-awaited steel drum cover of “P.I.M.P.” as Justine Triet and Arthur Harari’s walk-up music.
Admittedly, I was most exuberant during the ceremony (which was better than any post-COVID show but still a step down from other ‘10s high-points) when we got Ryan Gosling performing “I’m Just Ken.” What other star of that caliber has put his or her self so on the line during the telecast like that? Gosling remains the Best Supporting Actor on my ballot and more than Kenough for me. Movie stars are great!
But ultimately, it was a great night for all cinema. To quote A.A. Dowd in The Daily Beast:
“This is the first time in recent memory that every single one of the Best Picture contenders feels like it belongs. That’s not a quality judgment. (For this writer’s wholly subjective money, there are countless movies worthier of recognition than, say, Maestro.) Rather, it’s an acknowledgment that the Academy has offered an uncommonly eclectic lineup and provided a wide view of the year in cinema. For once, the whole slate is made up pretty much entirely of movies that mattered.”
American Fiction might not have been among my favorite nominated movies, but I’m grateful that small American independent cinema is still getting made and has a place at the table. Cord Jefferson’s speech made an impassioned plea to continue celebrating movies at all scales. Oppenheimer is a unicorn in the industry, but every movie is a miracle.
“There are so many people out there who want the opportunity that I was given,” Jefferson pleaded .”I understand that this is a risk-averse industry, but $200 million movies are also a risk. But you take the risk anyway. Instead of making one $200 million movie, make 20 $10 million movies or 50 $4 million movies. I want other people to experience that joy. The next Martin Scorsese is out there. The next Greta [Gerwig] is out there.”
And, of course he continued, “The next Christopher Nolan is out there.” But tonight, we celebrate the Christopher Nolan we had. This felt inevitable since the summer, yet it still took me by surprise how emotional I got watching him take stage and holding an Oscar. “Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old,” he concluded his speech. “We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”
Seeing him accept the trophy from Steven Spielberg felt like a passing of the baton from one generation-defining filmmaker to the next. As Spielberg did for Gen X, so Nolan has created the cinematic dreams of millennials as they came of age. As Spielberg did for Gen X, so Nolan has created the cinematic dreams of millennials as they came of age. His win validated the career and creation of a singular visionary artist first and foremost. But it also solidified something larger about a generation of moviegoers as they got to watch their most majestic myth-maker taking his place in the history books.
To paraphrase Lady Bird’s mom, awards are not life’s report card. Here are 10 great movies from 2023 that got zero Oscar nominations!
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret., Starz (and rental)
As I watched the movie musical adaptation of Mean Girls last week (bad), I had yet another reason to appreciate just how brilliant Rachel McAdams is. Her performance in Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. is the central component elevating Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation from page to screen. McAdams expands the story to show how Margaret’s mother is on a journey of her own, not just window dressing for the protagonist. “Craig often trains her lens on McAdams in close-up to convey the inner turmoil of frazzled homemaker Barbara with nothing more than a series of glances,” I wrote in my paean to the actress’ talent. “This nonverbal establishment of the character’s unreconciled independence from her own parents helps lay the groundwork for Barbara’s journey to become influenced by and intertwined with her daughter Margaret’s own maturation.”
Should have contended for: Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay
Fallen Leaves, MUBI
“If you haven’t experienced the droll comic sensibilities of Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, give yourself a treat,” I wrote last May to preview the Cannes Film Festival debut of Fallen Leaves (winner of the Jury Prize). “Though he’s been at this for decades now, I’m startled by how contemporary the understated humor of his films feel — almost like it presages the anti-joke mentality popularized by nihilistic TikToks.” The strange romance at this movie’s core won me over entirely as two shy loners struggle to overcome their baggage to consummate their connection. At just 81 minutes and featuring a coda nodding to Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, I was an easy mark for Kaurismäki’s prickly charms.
Should have contended for: Best International Feature
Flora and Son, Apple TV+
Filmmaker John Carney nearly titled one of his movies Can a Song Save Your Life?, which I think adequately establishes the stakes for his entire filmography. He’s a director who sincerely believes it can. Flora and Son expands upon his central obsession to charming results as an emotionally stunted single mother learns how to relate to her rebellious teenage son through playing music together. It’s a heartfelt, hardscrabble tribute to the power of a song.
Should have contended for: Best Original Song
Full Time, Amazon Prime Video
“With a neorealist’s eye for domestic detail and social structure, Full Time follows Julie’s (Laure Calamy) agonizing quest to better the life of her family by securing a better job,” I wrote in my rave review. “The filmmaking stays true to this sensation by making Julie’s life feel as volatile and tenuous for the viewer as it does for her. It’s a high-octane thriller fueled by the sweat and stress of a woman about to burst from trying to hold it all together.” I stand by my headline that the film feels as stressful as today’s economy is. Full Time is like an Uncut Gems for the working woman.
Should have contended for: Best Actress, Best Original Score
Kokomo City, Paramount+
“So many times in documentaries, especially LGBT documentaries, it’s always so sterile,” D. Smith told me of her approach to Kokomo City. “I wanted [something more] animated. Not outlandish or ridiculous, but the furthest from a stool in front of a brick wall.” Her look at Black trans sex workers meets the subjects where they are and produces a revelatory document of their existence and humanity. In a year where queer representation at the Oscars manifested through largely sterile Netflix biodramas (Rustin, Nyad, maybe Maestro if it actually wanted to unpack Bernstein’s sexuality), a nominee like this would have really pushed the conversation forward.
Should have contended for: Best Documentary Feature
The Mission, Disney+ and Hulu
Maybe I’m just in the tank for documentarians Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine (Boys State, The Overnighters), who I think are putting out some of the most incisive looks at the American character from truly unique and unexpected angles. The Mission takes a look at how evangelical Christian zeal gets caught up in colonialist visions of manifest destiny. The film is comfortable with the unknowability of its subject’s true motives as he attempted to bring the Bible to the most remote island on Earth (to tragic ends). The way the directing duo steeps us in the uncomfortable questions this story raises rather than trying to produce authoritative conclusions feels like a balm in this documentary landscape.
Should have contended for: Best Documentary Feature
Monica, Hulu
A movie with the quiet grace of Monica never really stood much of a chance in a climate where best acting usually equates to most acting. (Credit to Variety for going out on a limb and giving it a cover story.) Out of Venice in 2022, I wrote that “[Andrea] Pallaoro’s quiet film wields the paradoxical power of cinema to create pure illusion.” I think this is such a valuable blueprint for where movies about the trans experience can go in an age of increased visibility. We don’t have to focus on chest-thumping from a soapbox, instead sitting with the quiet tragedy of a transitioned woman (Trace Lysette) coming back to care for her dementia-addled mother (Patricia Clarkson) who has not connected her presence to the person she once was.
Should have contended for: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress
Passages, MUBI
“We’re filming this like these two people are having sex. This is the length of the sex that they’re having,” Ben Whishaw told me of the scene that got Passages slapped with an NC-17 rating. “It felt completely essential to the story. Not gratuitous or exploitative or anything else like that. I always think that, of course, there should be a sex scene if you’re discussing intimacy between a long-term couple.” Far more adult than the adult scene in this drama is the raw vulnerability inherent to watching a partnership unravel thanks to the electric egocentricity of one member (Franz Rogowski).
Should have contended for: Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Costume Design
Priscilla, Max
Shout-out to friend of the newsletter Hannah Strong, author of Sofia Coppola: Forever Young, on identifying so much of how Priscilla would fit into the director’s filmography. “There will be elements of On the Rocks with a troubled marriage, the antiquated South with The Beguiled, fame and infamy with The Bling Ring,” she speculated back in June 2023. “There are so many things that Sofia does incredibly well as a filmmaker, but her films about fame, excess, and the things that does to people and society is where I think she's particularly strong.”
Should have contended for: Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling
You Hurt My Feelings, Paramount+
What’s it going to take for Nicole Holofcener to get her due? She’s been Oscar-nominated for adapting Can You Ever Forgive Me?, but she’s not seen as the true artistic vision behind it. I did a deep dive on her last summer and wrote to extol the virtues of her latest: “You Hurt My Feelings most closely resembles a parable: a short story using fictional humans to remind viewers of how to uphold their values. The film isn’t instructive, and it doesn’t have to be. As a deeper dive into Holofcener’s work shows, she illuminates inner lives influenced by outer circumstances — and that proves its own form of commentary and comedy.”
Should have contended for: Best Original Screenplay
Back in the news: as it’s beginning to hit theaters, here’s my review of Love Lies Bleeding from Sundance.
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