Beginning of the End

 


“Oppenheimer” poster art via IMDB


Apart from the buzzy excitement of the ceremony itself, when it comes to Academy Awards I've long believed that the nominations were better than the wins. 

Being acknowledged as one of five great artists in your field, or one of 10 mighty movies, is a different proposition from actually winning the prize – especially in a contest that moves the goal posts every time it's played. Let us not forget that the greatest field general of modern Oscar campaigns was probably Harvey Weinstein, when he wasn't otherwise preoccupied.

The nominations were announced Tuesday; winners will be named Sunday, March 10.

Oscar nominations mark the beginning of the end of another movie awards season.

My personal nod to the year's best movie gets on the  “Oppenheimer” bandwagon. It wins on the basis of degree of difficulty among other things. It's about the beginning of the end, too.

Christopher Nolan's biography of the “father of the A-bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer, historically recreates the scientifically impossible but morally imperative need to create the doomsday weapon before Hitler did. That triumph was followed by the anti-communist paranoia after World War II that wound up crucifying the film's protagonist.

Not only is “Oppenheimer's” cinematography a majestic epic of historic recreation, but it masters the even greater challenge of making the invisible visible. It allow the audience to “see” atoms and nuclear reactions, as it takes us into the genius minds of Oppenheimer and his associates (Albert Einstein was a supporting actor) that manifested the bomb, and its earth-shaking consequences.

As we all know, “Oppenheimer's” release coincided with “Barbie's,” resulting in the Barbieheimer juggernaut that made a couple of billion dollars for the studios that released them.

The linkage of the two films, which seemed to have nothing in common, was sheer brilliance from a marketing standpoint It kept Barbieheimer front and center in people's minds despite the the actors' strike preventing their stars from engaging in the usual advertising blitzes around the films' openings.

In fact, the films have more in common than you might think. Both told of creations that changed life as we know it, beginning in the 1940s and '50s. While the lethal dangers of atomic energy are obvious, Barbie was an early product of a fledgling corporation named Mattel, working with a new substance also developed in laboratories – plastic. 

Plastic's threat to humanity wasn't as apparent as the bomb's, but its toll on health and the environment continue to mount more than a half-century later.

If “Oppenheimer” was the year's best movie, that doesn't mean it was my favorite. That distinction was divided three ways : First up, “Poor Things,” a wiggy, whimsically raunchy comic exploration of the meaning of life from a place between “Frankenstein” and “Monty Python.” It delivers well-deserved acting nods for Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo among its 11 nominations.

“American Fiction,” a fresh, ingenious satire of American attitudes about race, features the best performance of Jeffrey Wright's career, and marks the arrival of a wonderful new filmmaker, writer-director Cord Jefferson. And “Anatomy of a Fall,” with Oscar nods for its star Sandra Hüller and writer-director Justine Triet, frames in a murder mystery and courtroom drama, a profound inquiry into the elusive nature of truth, and the human mind's endless capacity to muddy it up.

Wes Anderson's "Asteroid City" would have been in there, too, but it wasn't nominated for anything. Have to settle from the best short nomination for his "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar."

Every new Oscar season comes with breathless “news” accounts of snubs of this or that artist or picture. This year, that distinction most glaringly goes to “Barbie” writer-director Great Gerwig and producer-star Margot Robbie. Critics claim their omission proves the film's premise: the bros are in charge. While “Barbie's” twin heroes weren't at the very top of my list, their achievements were undeniably awesome, and certainly deserving of better treatment from Oscar nominators.

Besides snubs, industry insiders and professional reviewers like to look for trends and otherwise read the tea leaves in Oscar nominations. For me, the most disturbing trend is the replacement of content with marketing. The stars of “Barbie” and “Air” – the origin story of Air Jordan sneakers – are both made of plastic and other manmade substances, rather than more human stuff. The line between story and product placement is hard to find these days. In the same vein, the fact that “Killers of the Flower Moon” was a Martin Scorsese production was a distraction and got in the way of telling the story.

Nonetheless, the quality of acting and screen craft in movies has never been higher, and the ingenuity and brilliance of screenwriting never brighter.

Here's the complete list of the 95th Academy Award nominations with links to reviews that ran in this space, and links to viewing platforms lifted verbatim from The New York Times.


BEST PICTURE


“American Fiction” 

https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/12/american-fiction.html


“Anatomy of a Fall”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/12/anatomy-of-fall.html

Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vuduand YouTube.


“Barbie”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/11/air-barbie.html

Stream it on Max. Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.


“The Holdovers”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-holdovers.html

Stream it on Peacock. Buy it on Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu and Amazon.


“Killers of the Flower Moon”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2024/01/killers-of-flower-moon.html
Stream it on Apple TV+. Buy it on Amazon, Vudu, Google Play and YouTube.


“Maestro”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/12/maestro.html

 Stream it on Netflix.


“Oppenheimer”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/12/maestro.html

Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV,Google Play ,Vuduand YouTube.


“Past Lives”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/08/oppenheimer.html

Rent it on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vuduand YouTube.


“Poor Things”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2024/01/poor-things.html


“The Zone of Interest”


BEST DIRECTOR

Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”
Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things”
Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”
Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”


BEST ACTRESS

Annette Bening, “Nyad”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/11/nyad.html

Stream it on Netflix


Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Sandra Hüller, “Anatomy of a Fall”
Carey Mulligan, “Maestro”
Emma Stone, “Poor Things”


BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper, “Maestro”
Colman Domingo, “Rustin”
Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”
Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”
Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Emily Blunt, “Oppenheimer”
Danielle Brooks, “The Color Purple”
America Ferrera, “Barbie”
Jodie Foster, “Nyad”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sterling K. Brown, “American Fiction”
Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”
Ryan Gosling, “Barbie”
Mark Ruffalo, “Poor Things”


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, “Anatomy of a Fall”
David Hemingson, “The Holdovers”
Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, “Maestro”
Samy Burch, “May December”
https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/11/may-december.html

Stream it on Netflix.


Celine Song, “Past Lives”


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
Tony McNamara, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest


BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Io Capitano, Italy
Perfect Days, Japan
Society of the Snow, Spain
The Teacher’s Lounge, Germany
The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse


BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Bobi Wine: The People’s President
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
To Kill a Tiger
20 Days in Mariupol


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

El Conde
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things


BEST EDITING

Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things


BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things


BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP 

Golda
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Society of the Snow


BEST SOUND

The Creator
Maestro
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
The Zone of Interest


BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

The Creator
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon


BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things


BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“What Was I Made For?”, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Barbie
“I’m Just Ken,” Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie
“The Fire Inside,” Diane Warren, Flamin’ Hot
“It Never Went Away,” Jon Batiste, American Symphony
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” Osage Tribal Singers, Killers of the Flower Moon


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

American Fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things


BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT

The After
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, White and Blue
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

https://rickchatenever.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-wonderful-story-of-henry-sugar.html 


BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderme
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko


BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island in Between
The Last Repair Shop
Nai Nai & Wai Po


Comments

  1. Kevin SamsonJanuary 26, 2024 at 12:45 PM

    Thanks for the insight and detailed information. I take it Poor Things and American Fiction are not available except in theaters. Still, I'll be in front of our flat screen with my popcorn and a lot to watch!

    ReplyDelete

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