The Menu (2022)

  This wasn't nominated for anything but Hong Chau was nominated for her performance in The Whale so that's kind of related.

Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) is on a date from hell.  Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) is a foodie and obsessed with Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) and his super-exclusive restaurant, Hawthorn.  The restaurant can only be accessed by boat, it seats 12 guests, and prices out at $1250 a person.  Margot is not a foodie but is willing to go along for the experience.  Chef Slowik, however, has planned a meal no one will forget and Margot represents an unwelcome deviation.

This has been called a horror movie but I'd classify it more as suspense/thriller than true horror.  That being said, I loved loved loved this movie.  It was great from the opening frame to the final credits.  I loved that it's divided by courses, that it treats the food as almost its own character, and that it really draws out the tension even when it has told you exactly what is going to happen.  I don't want to ruin it because I think it works best when you can be surprised by it.  It's so good, though.

The Menu is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Turning Red (2022)

Nominated for Best Animated Film  This was very cute.  

Meilin (Rosalie Chang) does her best to always be a dutiful daughter.  She gets straight A's in school and helps take care of her family's temple every afternoon.  But Meilin is changing, growing up, and soon discovers that when she experiences an overwhelming emotion, she transforms into a giant red panda.  This is a trait passed down from her ancestor, shared by all the women in her family.  There is a ceremony to lock it down but it can only be performed on the day of a red moon.  The same day Meilin's favorite boy-band, 4-Town, is coming to town.  She desperately wants to go to the concert with her friends but it would be seen as an act of incredible disrespect to her mother (Sandra Oh).

This makes a fun companion piece to Everything Everywhere All at Once.  Like seeing the mom's perspective and then the daughter's.  

It's Pixar.  It's sweet, funny, beautifully animated, all the hallmarks we've come to expect from the studio.  It is obviously the frontrunner for Best Animated Feature.  We'll see how it goes, though.  There are some heavy-hitters in this category this year.  Turning Red is currently streaming on Disney+.

Elvis (2022)

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume, Best Hair and Makeup, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound  The obligatory biopic!  Like recent years, this is about a famous musician but it is less Rocketman and more Nightmare Alley: The Musical.

Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) is a carnival grifter, a snowman, as he calls it.  He is constantly looking for the next big con, an act that thrills and titillates.  He finds it in Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), a young singer with a unique act:  he can sing Black people's music while being white.  Elvis grew up dirt-poor in the Black section of town, dreaming of becoming a comic book superhero.  He was influenced by gospel, rhythm & blues, and country western music and had released one record that was getting airplay.  Parker saw a boy filled with fear and knew he could mold him into a star.  But as the money and the fame grew, Elvis became bolder, wanting to expand across the globe, which threatened to expose Parker's deepest secret.

I think this is the first truly depressing Baz Luhrmann film.  Like, Moulin Rouge was a tragedy in the classical sense but Elvis is a downer.  And I'm going to be frank here, it's the first Baz Luhrmann where the music kind of sucks.  Which makes no sense!  It's ELVIS, for God's sake.  How do you fuck that up?And I get what he was doing, showing modern artists who have sampled Elvis's songs and reinvented them for a modern age, but it didn't match the tone of the film at all for me.  It ruined the immersiveness.  

Austin Butler.  Did he look like Elvis?  A little.  Enough.  In certain angles.  He certainly did his best.  Did he sound like Elvis?  Holy shit, yes, he did.  I have no idea what Austin Butler sounds like in real life, this was the first thing I've ever seen him in but I have heard Elvis in interviews, historical footage, and music (duh) my entire life and Butler nailed it.  Is it enough to get him Best Actor?  We'll see.

Cinematography is not my favorite so far.  Definitely a frontrunner for Production Design, though.  Second place on Costumes.  Making Tom Hanks look like Danny DeVito's Penguin is a Hair and Makeup accomplishment, sure, but it's not beating Colin Farrell's Penguin.  

Elvis is back in theaters for a limited run and it is currently streaming on HBO Max. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress (x2), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song, and Best Original Score  I put off seeing this until the nominations were out because it was so hyped I felt like it could only be a disappointment.  Happy to report that everything you heard was true.  This is a great movie.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) is struggling with a failing laundromat, an IRS audit, and a Lunar New Year party with her emotionally distant father (James Hong), her perennially optimistic husband (Ke Huy Quan), and her depressed daughter (Stephanie Hsu).  Then she finds out that she's one of an infinite number of Evelyns in an infinite number of universes but that the universes are imploding because of a mysterious threat named Jobu Topaki and her other-universe husband (Ke Huy Quan) thinks she is the key to stopping it.  And THEN she finds out that her home-universe husband wants a divorce.  And that she can access the skills and experiences of her alternate versions.

This isn't about the multiverse.  That's old hat at this point.  Hell, even the bagel joke has been done.  This isn't about novelty or googly eyes or hot dog fingers.  The glory, the joy, and what will be the enduring nature of this film is in its connections.  It is a simple story told in a complex way.  It is the story of generational trauma, of conflating kindness with weakness, and how you can look but not see even when it's right in front of you.  I admit, I did not feel any emotional connection to this movie until the last 15-20 minutes, but then I was ugly-crying until the credits rolled.  Everybody in this is great.  Michelle Yeoh is (and always has been) incredible.  Ke Huy Quan is the emotional backbone.  Jamie Lee Curtis is game for anything, bless her, but I would give the edge to Stephanie Hsu, who had to walk a much finer wire between versions of her character.

Screenplay could go anywhere at this point.  I haven't seen the other nominees yet.  Song and Original Score I wouldn't hold out hope for, but Costumes has a fighting chance.  Editing, I'm reserving judgment.  Best Actress?  Supporting Actor?  Supporting Actress?  On lock.  And it's a definite frontrunner for Best Picture.  I think Best Director is a long shot.  It's currently streaming on Showtime but I bought it on blu-ray because I knew I was going to love it.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

  This is a weird one, folks.  Did you know there was a Czech New Wave film movement?  Because I did not.  I like to think I'm fairly conversant in the major shifts within film and then I get thrown for a loop.  This fairy tale from hell comes to us from the distant land of 1970.  Content warning:  animal death (on-screen), suicide, attempted rape of a minor

Valerie (Jaroslava Schallerová) is attempting to navigate the stormy waters between girl- and womanhood while fending off advances from a horny priest (Jan Klusák), a literal vampire (Jirí Prymek), and her jealous, youth-obsessed grandma (Helena Anyzová).  Her only friend and ally is her brother/love interest (Peter Kopriva) who gives her magic pearls to keep her from harm.

There was A Lot to unpack here.  Symbolism all over the damn place.  Lots of ruminations on guilt and pleasure, organized religion vs paganism, the role of women in the home and in society, the unfair and frankly treacherous concept of purity.  The societal comment that a woman's worth resides in her youth and especially in her sexual inexperience feels very modern, because we keep having to have that stupid conversation every decade.  In one of the scenes, a bride is shown on her wedding night being drained of vitality by a vampire.  Literally the moment of her deflowering, she becomes used and lesser.  Not exactly subtle, but effective.  

That could be the tagline for the whole film, really.  Not Subtle, But Effective!  It would be an insane double-feature with The Company of Wolves, and if you wanted to go for the hat trick of batshit vampires, werewolves, and witches, you could throw in Häxan as well.  You may want to schedule some time off afterwards for self-care, watch something bland and soothing.

Valerie and All Her Bullshit is streaming on Criterion.

Home (2015)

  I can't remember why I added this.  It's not very good.  Like a knock-off Lilo and Stitch.  If Stitch were a cluelessly genocidal colonizer.

Oh (Jim Parsons) is a Boov, an alien species known primarily for running away from everything.  All he wants is to make friends and throw a party, but when he accidentally sends the invite to the entire galaxy, it alerts the Boov's enemy to come to their newest hiding spot, Earth.  Oh needs to cancel the invite but as a wanted fugitive, it's a little tough.  He also must contend with an angry human named Tip (Rhianna) who was separated from her mom (Jennifer Lopez) during the Boov's relocation of all humans to Australia.  

They might as well have called this Manifest Destiny: The Animated Adventures.  The Boov move to a planet, forcibly relocate all "backwards, primitive" inhabitants, then use all their resources while making poorly informed assumptions about the culture they are trampling.  It's a White (Purple?) Savior narrative dressed up in cutesy clothes.  Oh is scared of Tip but still demands she help him and only realizes that she's a thinking, feeling creature (and ergo, so are all humans) after a transatlantic road trip.    Then of course he'll move heaven and earth to see her reunited with her mom.  

It's an interesting take, to be sure.  I hadn't seen it addressed in any other children's films but I think it's still clunky and centers on the wrong viewpoint.  It's streaming on Netflix if you're interested.

95th Academy Award Nominations

You know what goes great with coffee on a Tuesday morning?  Outrage.   *ahem*  Why in THEE FUCK is Top Gun 2 nominated for Best Picture?!  And Glass Onion gets the pity Adapted Screenplay nod??  Excuse me??  And where exactly is Nope?  Nowhere to be seen!  SIX!  SIX nominations for Top Gun!  *sips coffee* Oh, the whole main cast of EEAO got nominated, that's nice.  And Brendan Fraser.  That makes me happy.  No disrespect to Cate Blanchett but if Michelle Yeoh doesn't win, I will riot.  Haven't seen either movie yet, but I've loved Michelle Yeoh since Wing Chun.  What the fuck is Triangle of Sadness?  And why didn't RRR get on the International Feature list?  I thought that was a shoe-in.

Best Picture

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking

Best Director

Martin McDonagh - The Banshees of Inisherin
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert - Everything Everywhere All at Once
Steven Spielberg - The Fabelmans
Todd Field - Tár
Ruben Östlund - Triangle of Sadness

Best Actor

Austin Butler - Elvis
Colin Farrell - The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser - The Whale
Paul Mescal - Aftersun
Bill Nighy - Living

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett - Tár
Ana de Armas - Blonde
Andrea Riseborough - To Leslie
Michelle Williams - The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh - Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actor

Brendan Gleeson - The Banshees of Inisherin
Brian Tyree Henry - Causeway
Judd Hirsch - The Fabelmans
Barry Keoghan - The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan - Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Hong Chau - The Whale
Kerry Condon - The Banshees of Inisherin
Jamie Lee Curtis - Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stephanie Hsu - Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Adapted Screenplay

All Quiet on the Western Front
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Living
Top Gun: Maverick
Women Talking

Best Original Screenplay

The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Triangle of Sadness

Best Animated Feature

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
The Sea Beast
Turning Red

Best International Feature 

All Quiet on the Western Front
Argentina, 1985
Close
Eo
The Quiet Girl

Best Documentary Feature

All That Breathes
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Fire of Love
A House Made of Splinters
Navalny

Best Film Editing

The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick

Best Cinematography

All Quiet on the Western Front
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Elvis
Empire of Light
Tár

Best Costume Design

Babylon
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Best Hair and Makeup

All Quiet on the Western Front
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
The Whale

Best Production Design

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
Elvis
The Fabelmans

Best Original Song

"Applause" - Tell It Like a Woman
"Hold My Hand" - Top Gun: Maverick
"Lift Me Up" - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
"Naatu Naatu" - RRR
"This is a Life" - Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Original Score

All Quiet on the Western Front
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans

Best Sound

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Elvis
Top Gun: Maverick

Best Visual Effects

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Top Gun: Maverick

Best Animated Short

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse
The Flying Sailor
Ice Merchants
My Year of Dicks
An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake, and I Think I Believe It

Best Live Action Short 

An Irish Goodbye
Ivalu
Le Pupille
Night Ride
The Red Suitcase

Best Documentary Short

The Elephant Whisperers
Haulout
How Do You Measure a Year?
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Stranger at the Gate

A lot of work cut out for me, as you can see.  Oscar ceremony is March 12.  Best to get cracking.