Evaluating the nominees

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Uri
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Evaluating the nominees

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Am I getting old and demented? (Yes). Have I given up? (Maybe). Anyway, after uncontrollably firing in all directions last year, I feel much more at ease with this year list. Not one for the ages, but at least it doesn’t aggravate me the way the previous one did. Small mercies indeed, but still. Peace.

My rating: A- the ultimate best of the year, B- very good, would make a decent, worthy winner, C- a nomination should suffice, D- not necessarily bad, but not award material, F- a failure.


Best Picture
1. Manchester by the Sea – B. I just saw that Precious Doll scored it a mighty 8/10, and it made me think that maybe there’s something about being of a certain age and in a particular place in one’s life that make this film resonant in a more profound way. For me, anyway, this was one of the most powerful films I saw for quite a long time.
2. Moonlight – B. Taking the White Guilt element off the equation first – this is not a Masterpiece. It is a very emotionally effective, wisely constructed yet not manipulative piece. I stated before it has a lot to do with applying old, primary narrative forms, but in a fresh and satisfying way and onto a not too often visited setting. An impressive piece.
3. Hell or High Water – C. Speaking about old, primary narrative forms. A vital, moderately innovative take on an older cinematic era and its take on an even more older cinematic heritage. If this was 1974, it would have been overshadowed by all those Conversations and Chinatowns and Godfathers, but since we don’t seem to have them anymore, it will do.
4. Hidden Figures – D. Growing up, I loved those books about Great Men (and an occasional Woman - Madame Curie, that is) for kiddies, with all their anachronisms, simplifications and those neat little closures. HF is quite good for what it is – telling a story that should have been told while being a nice catharsis device made of the finest plastic. It pushes all the expected buttons (it literally has its obligatory They-Call-Me-Mister-Tibbs moment). It’s just the right movie about Mathematics for people who can’t do basic Arithmetic – the ending credits tells us Katherine and Jimmy were long married by the time these events happened.
5. La La Land – D. Cole Porter mentioned “the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire”, capturing the transcendent nature of the original movie musicals LLL aims to be homage to. Alas, there’s nothing nimble about LLL. Did I suffer watching it? No. Was I greatly disappointed? Definitely yes.
6. Arrival – D. This might have work on paper – whatever ideas and themes it supposedly explores, the film makers didn’t really work a way to convey them, some for being too abstract, some for the simple reason that unlike the vagueness of the written word, the concreteness of the visual images made them omit crucial information to avoid spoilers. And they had a massive void in the center of it all in the shape of Amy Adams. Sorry.
7. Lion – D. The score is for the first part, which has some energy to it: a cute child, exotic locations (for my western eye, that is), the built in kinetic vibe films about trains often have and an emotionally effective, if somewhat generic, beat. The latter part really amounts to nothing.
8. Fences – D. When Betty Draper found out the truth about Don, she said: “All this time I Thought you were some football hero who hated his father”, and by this she practically summed up 90% of American Drama. Oh, sorry, Fences IS different – the characters are Black! Anyway, the material is treated with such reverence; it makes stage shows filmed by one static camera look like Keystone Cops chase movie.
9. Hacksaw Ridge – D. The most contemporary film of this bunch – it really feels as if it was made in 1944, and just like in, say, Dragon Seed, with North California standing for China and Connecticut debutants as Chinese peasants, here we have this down under fake America filled with all those Ozzies and Limeys. And just like with the fake setting, there’s a distinct scent of dishonesty about this film as a whole.

Best Director
1. Barry Jenkins – B. It’s a young man’s film and that’s a good thing. There’s intensity, freshness and a kind of creative naiveté to his work here which keep it emotionally effective. And it’s really about time.
2. Kenneth Lonergan – B. The heavy lifting was done more in the writing. But he did materialize it beautifully, making it all about the caracters interactions and the human scope. It’s a mature man’s film and that’s a very good thing.
3. Damien Chazelle – D. It’s a young man’s film and that’s not a particularly good thing. Although I totally believe his enthusiasm and commitment to this kind of cinema I love too, I found the way he tried to reincarnate it to be heavily handled and not really inspired.
4. Denis Villeneuve – D. I simply don’t have anything to say here. Maybe it’s because it was so dark, I literally didn’t see much of his work.
5. Mel Gibson – F. No. Just No.

Best Actor
1. Casey Affleck – A. This is as good as “non actorly” performances get. A superlative turn. In my book he’s the second best American actor of his generation (#1 being his bff Joaquin Phoenix), so the realistic chance of him winning made me very happy (he should have already won as best actor for Jesse James/Robert Ford too). Losing, and to Washington of all people, would be the greatest travesty ever.
2. Ryan Gosling – D. It’s not that he can’t be non actorly at times too (Blue Valentine), but here he’s all about cutely coaxing for the camera, knowingly (but not necessarily off-puttingly) charms his way through stuff he’s not particularly good at. To his credit, there is a built in wink in his performance as if he let us know he doesn’t take it too seriously and neither should we. But this time, likeability should not put him in the mix for acting honors.
3. Andrew Garfield – D. Really, the sole reason of his acting career is for him to eventually play the title role in The Anthony Perkins Story, so this is his take on Friendly Persuasion, I guess (which makes Silence his, what, Crimes of Passion?) It’s a pity, since he’s a good actor (should have been nominated for Boy A and The Social Network), but he’s stuck in this Sincerity Limbo, both in his castability and in his actual acting.
4. Viggo Mortensen – D. It was said about Norma Shearer that when she was required to express a new emotion, she changed a dress. And here, when VM needs to convey a major character evolution, he shaves his beard. It’s a dreadfully written character (not to be confused with a dreadful character, but while we’re at it, so it is), and the film cowardly relies rather solely on its star’s obvious physical charisma to sell it.
5. Denzel Washington – F. He’s so full of himself he’s not really a good actor (anymore, I’ll give him this).

Best Actress
1. Isabelle Huppert – Not eligible/B. La Dentellière, Violette Nozière, Loulou, Une Affaire de Femmes, Madame Bovary, La Cérémonie, Merci pour le Chocolat, La Pianiste and many more. What happened? Why now? So random – it’s not even as if they love the film she’s in, as was the case with Riva. And while she’s certainly very good here, I wouldn’t even rank it as one of her own top ten performances. Pointless. (Although I’m very happy for her since she seems to be truly excited about it all).
2. Natalie Portman – B. Yes – I was surprised too. She’s capable of projecting vulnerability but usually it’s hindered by stiffness and remoteness, but here all this as well as that air of a not fully matured former child actor working hard at being a sophisticated adult serve the character of Jackie, or rather the take on her character this film suggests.
3. Ruth Negga – B. I must say – I read what people wrote here about Loving, and most of the shortcomings they stated were exactly what I found to be the strengths of this quietly impressive film, which is way better than most of those on the Best Picture list. And Negga, as well as the wrongfully overlooked Edgerton, is very good at this not easy task of keeping this very, well, not limited but limited in scope character coherent and present.
4. Meryl Streep – D. As with quite a few of her last nominations, once again, the problem is not with her actual acting, which is fine, but with the film itself which is rather fluff. And her character practically stands there in the center for everyone and everything else to react to, not having much to do. This nomination is not disgraceful in any way, just not particularly distinguished.
5. Emma Stone – D. Like with Streep, it’s not about the way she does what she does but what she’s required to do – she has no character to play. It’s more of a notion, an idea of a person rather than a flashed out one, and this notion is not fresh or perceptive or challenging in any way. Still – she is talented and has a great presence so all credit for her for pulling it off, but it’s just not enough.

Best Supporting Actor
1. Mahershala Ali – B. Here’s an actor I wasn’t aware off a couple of months ago and now, after seeing him in two supporting roles, one of them being a rather slight one, he’s a fully conceived, defined and charismatic thespian for me. And this charisma, as well as talent, is very well applied in this role, making a somewhat unrealistic, idealized character a very real one.
2. Jeff Bridges – B. There’s something so beautifully emblematic that 45 years after getting his first nomination for The Last Picture Show, he’s now up for it again for practically channeling his then co-star, co-nominee Ben Johnson. Anyway, he’s Jeff f*cking Bridges for goodness’ sake, and that should be more than enough on any given day.
3. Lucas Hedges – C. He nicely captures this lightness of being a reasonably good looking, socially adequate, not dumb yet not deeply thinking teenager (probably not unlike what his character's uncle used to be as a young person), which is crucial as a counterbalance to the sorrow-of-the-world gravitas of Affleck’s presence. A fine supporting turn.
4. Michael Shannon – C. If they must have someone from this film, they surely picked the right one here. He’s very solid as a doomed yet still an island of grounded humanity in a film filled with characters that are sterile or terminally wounded at best and monstrous at worst. And he was lovely in his cameo in Loving.
5. Dev Patel – D. His performance is rather monotonously dour and whatever emotional impact it has on the viewer derives mostly from the fond memories of that cute little boy, not from what he actually does. A miscalculated (as well as rather misplaced, category wise) nomination.

Best Supporting Actress
1. Michelle Williams – B. A small, pivotal role, expertly executed. A presence, an emotional impact, felt well beyond the limited, actual screen time an actor has to convey it. This is what this category was supposed to be all about, and this is exactly what she is doing in her film. A Job well done.
2. Octavia Spencer – D. She proved she has range and versatility in films such as Fruitvale Station, alas, these gigs don’t seem to bring home much bacon nor Oscar glory. Sassy, scene stilling ones do. So, as was noted by many before me, she’s back giving exactly the same performance she gave in The Help. And yes, now she’s officially the go to actor when the Academy feels it needs to throw a random bone at a talked about film. Spencer is this year Mark Ruffalo.
3. Naomie Harris – D. Hers is the least interestingly written role in the film, the most clichéd character and she doesn’t elevate it much with her performance. She decently does what is asked of her but not much more. She’s serviceable.
4. Viola Davis – D. Marco put his finger on it much, much earlier than I, I must admit. She’s a very confined (not necessarily limited) actress. And unfortunately, it’s seems to be a self inflicted confinement. She’s so immersed at being a respected GRAND THESPIAN, every bit of vitality is sucked out of her acting. She’s an oh so intense Felicia Rashad. And she’s a lead.
5. Nicole Kidman – F. She’s not an actress. Never was, never will be. She looked luminous once. Not anymore, alas not in a way which makes her believable as a non-glamorous, real life woman. I’m afraid nothing works for me here.
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