Evaluating the nominees

[Mister Tee]

Thank you, my friend, for joining us to this extent. As usual, your grades are sometimes harsher than what I'd distribute, but your overall gestalt of things comes remarkably close to mine.

[CalWilliam]

Thank you very much for this. Such good taste and humor, and always a treat to read.

[Uri]

Was All Quite on the Western Front a typo or a pun? This is the second time I've seen someone change Quiet to Quite.

I wish it was a pun, but no. Just Hebrew speaking person's poor English (I'm fishing).

I get the Wizard of Oz reference in 84 years, but it should be "we've been" not "I've been" unless you're a lot older than I think you are.

I'm a 60 yo old soul making a point.

[Big Magilla]

Uri,

Love your analysis. You should go back through the years and evaluate the Oscar races you haven't already done.

Two questions, though.

Was All Quite on the Western Front a typo or a pun? This is the second time I've seen someone change Quiet to Quite.

I get the Wizard of Oz reference in 84 years, but it should be "we've been" not "I've been" unless you're a lot older than I think you are.

[Uri]

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. Tár – B. I am not well-versed when it comes to the world of classical music, but from time to time I detected some overpopularized takes on it. Other than that – it’s a brilliant character study crowned by a devastating, Freaks-like, ending.
2. The Banshees of Inisherin – B. Human Nature is so funny. Human Nature is so sad. Everything is right here, all at once. No need to look elsewhere. McDonagh seems to know and love these people, the time and place they inhabit and their inner mechanisms. (And since “nitpicking” is my middle name – just like Mildred Hayes was a New Englander planted in the South to serve as an agent for us smart viewers, so is Siobhán Súilleabháin – I found her somewhat anachronistic, serving the same purpose. Luckily, in both cases, the acting was so strong it worked).
3. All Quiet on the Western Front – D/not ranked. War is Hell. Who knew?
4. Triangle of Sadness – D. A self congratulatory satire which does its best to reassure its target crowd of self-perceived sophisticated in their preciously comfortable, mildly progressive views. And its ending was a direct rip-off from a Little Britain Lou and Andy sketch.
5. The Fabelmans – D. It was so constipated, so reserved and guarded it couldn’t even be called self-masturbatory. Which fits perfectly well with the pre-pubescent nature of Spielberg’s oeuvre.
6. Everything Everywhere All at Once – D. For the past 84 years I’ve been very well aware there’s no place like home. This notion was charmingly conservative back then. This time around it was just tedious. We were not amused.
7. Top Gun: Maverick – I guess a full disclosure is due – I quit it after about an hour and a half. Whatever, here’s my ranking: D/F. D for being a kinetic nonsense people under the age of 12 might take seriously. F for being a kinetic nonsense people over the age of 12 might do so too.
8. Elvis – F. It’s a Baz Luhrmann’s film.
I haven’t got a chance to see Women Talking. There is no chance in hell I will ever watch Avatar II.

Best Director
1. Todd Field – B. He is so good at getting under the skin of the characters at the center of his films. And it has a lot to do with knowing how to fully utilize every asset – as well as deficiency – of his actors in the best possible way.
2. Martin McDonagh – B. At times, I find him to be too smart for his own good, not sensitive enough to the needs of his own films, forcing his vision on them. Not here (mostly). Yes, sensitive is a good term to apply here.
3. Ruben Östlund – D. All the time, I find him to be too smart for his own good, not sensitive enough to the needs of his own films, forcing his vision on them.
4. Steven Spielberg – D. For me, even if I, more or less, liked some of his later films (parts of Saving, Catch Me was nice), after Close Encounters and Riders it was mostly a downhill ride.
5. Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – D. I guess that for some of you here, it wouldn’t be that big a shock learning I’m not going to join these guys’ fraternity.

Best Actress
1. Cate Blanchett – A. Masterfull. Great acting.
2. Andrea Risenborough – D. GREAT ACTING by the numbers. Tee rightly brought up her lack of distinction, and for me it’s about her not really bringing, beyond professionalism, an off script/screen conviction which perhaps would sell some of the contrived bullshit this film asks her to do. Turning around one’s life because some song was on a jukebox? Pfffff.
3. Michelle Yeon – D. I’m not really familiar with the full scope of her work, it seems, so maybe she is due, although one can not get it, knowing her only from CTHD, that geisha film or the one about those rich Asians. And certainly not from watching her here. She has a very pleasant, even friendly, on-screen presence but there’s no true depth or realness to her turn here. As is the case with others here – it’s greatly due to the filmmakers’ faults. (But some of it can be seen as her not rising to some of the occasions here – surprisingly, in the In the Mood for Love section, she failed to convey the Maggie-Cheung-like weary glamor needed).
4. Michelle Williams – D/Not ranked – it’s supporting. I like Williams a lot and I’m willing to accept her even in roles she doesn’t seem to be right for (see down the line). Not here. It has a lot to do with Spielberg’s wishy-washy take on his own Life which led him to cast her as an idealized, saccharine – hence non-Jewish – version of his mother, I guess.
5. Ana de Armas – F. Marylin was all about a very special kind of sensuality, which made her exciting and stimulating yet accessible and non-threatening. It’s being extremely beautiful and sexy while keeping that layer of baby fat way into adulthood (*), you know. Poor scrawny de Armas has none of these.
(*) This is why Williams was effective in her turn as MM.

Best Actor
1. Colin Farrell – A. I’ll admit – for many years my take on him as a pretty-face brat might have hindered my judgement. Not this time. Mastering the complexity of a simpleton is not an easy task – in a way harder than Blanchet portraying a very intelligent, multi-layered person.
2. Paul Mascal – B. I’m lazy, so I’m using my last evaluation, that of 2019, as a template and my second rated actor that year was Adam Driver, and this was what I wrote about him: “A fine, well measured performance by a potentially great actor”. I think it works just fine this time too.
3. Branden Fraser – C. Having the image of his younger self in our minds gives the performance a huge head start. He is fine, but his film is very bad. A pity.
4. Bill Nighy – D. I made the effort and saw Living in a theatre. I guess that had I watched it at home I would have struggled. A tiresome piece. And placed in its center with nothing substantial to do, Nighy, the fine actor he is, is perfectly obvious.
5. Austin Butler – D. Elvis was all about a very special kind of sensuality, which made him exciting and stimulating yet accessible and non-threatening. It’s being extremely beautiful and sexy while keeping that layer of baby fat way into adulthood, you know. Poor scrawny Butler has none of these.

Best Supporting Actor
1. Barry Keoghan – B. A lovely treat: a character – and a performance – which managed to surprise us as the film moves along.
2. Branden Gleeson – B. This one is not a surprise. For better or worse, the fact this role was written for him with him in mind is obvious.
3. Judd Hirsch – D. It’s a stunt cliché – the streetwise, loud-mouthed old Jewish guy. And since Eli Wallach was apparently not available, they went with the next in line stunt casting.
4. Ke Huy Quan – D. He’s very energetic, on and off screen, isn’t he?
I haven’t seen Causeway.

Best Supporting Actress
1. Kerry Condon – B. She is indeed very, very good. Did I fully buy her as a 1923 spinster on a remote Irish community? Ahm, not really. Not her fault, though.
2. Hong Chau – C. She is fine, but her film is very bad. A pity.
3-4. Jamie Lee Curtis/Stephanie Hsu – D. They are props. Whether they play mundane grumpy civil servant/grumpy eternal teenager or some fantastical entities (I was about to say fantastical versions of these mundane characters, but it requires a certain amount of coherence for then to work as such, a coherence EEAaO lacks).
I’m a serious guy, so I won’t watch Wakanda Forever until I complete watching the first Black Panther (which will never happen).