Oscar Fever: How Do The Best Film Nominees Stack Up?
Movies can be polarising. But when it comes to the Oscars, you’d think all the films would deserve your attention, but maybe not. Here the Tonic team discuss this year’s contenders.
Marina Go Let’s start with Belfast. It is so beautiful, honestly, that I think it’s got to be a hot chance for best picture. It opens in 1969 Belfast, is shot in black-and-white, and is based on the life of its director Kenneth Branagh. There is sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics, with bombings literally at the doorstep of the home of this little kid, nine-year-old Buddy. But even though he lives amid the conflict, he has this joyful, wonderment of life, which is extraordinary. The story centres around the fact that his dad wants to get his family out of Belfast to London, and his mum doesn’t want to go because she loves Belfast. Judi Dench plays Buddy’s grandmother and she’s deliciously understated but biting. And the soundtrack by Van Morrison – it’s like a love letter the city. There was nothing about the movie I didn’t like. But one funny thing: I met a man in a movie queue a bit later who said that the whole time in Belfast, he was just waiting for something to happen.
Patricia Sheahan Some of the scenes in Belfast are a bit too “perfect” and confected for my taste. But Branagh’s heart is in the right place and the cinematography is impressive
Rachelle Unreich I loved CODA in the Oscar line-up. I was entranced by the story, which centres on a deaf family and their hearing daughter who wants to sing. It’s a remake of a French movie and it’s the kind of movie I’d watch for a cry. You know how sometimes you have to watch a movie to have a really good cry at the end?
MG My family sobbed and sobbed. We were so engrossed in CODA, it was brilliant. One of the most beautiful scenes for me was when the hearing daughter was performing and her deaf family have to look at the audience members to see their reactions, because otherwise they wouldn’t know what effect she was having. It had Marlee Matlin in it, who won an Oscar for Children of a Lesser God many years ago.
Ruth Mercator I saw Don’t Look Up and enjoyed it. I thought it was very funny but at the same time it’s not subtle. I’m not sure who it was trying to convince [of climate change] because I think the people who need convincing wouldn’t be convinced by seeing it. Ultimately, my problem with it was that it didn’t know who its audience was.
RU I loved the trailer, which makes it clear what the premise is: two astronomers try to convince the world that a planet-killing comet is hurtling towards Earth, with a very blah response from everyone. There’s a star-studded cast: Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio … but the middling reviews kind of put me off.
PS Me too, even though the director, Adam McKay, has done good films before.
MG I did watch it, and I loved it. Interestingly, my son loved it the most and I wondered if this wasn’t aimed at a younger market. For him, it crystallised the problem of not speaking up, not looking up.
PS I saw the Japanese film Drive My Car. It’s quite intense and brings to mind the films of Ingmar Bergman, so if anyone has ever done a deep dive into Swedish cinema of the 1970s, the classic movies…
RU So depressing?
PS Ah, no, not depressing. Just thoughtful. Very ordinary things happen in the story. but they have great resonance. It’s about a husband and wife who have had a child die are not coping very well with it. It’s based on a story by Haruki Murakami and does leave you with a lot to ponder.
““I’m so glad Kirsten Dunst is nominated for best supporting actress. She’s done a lot of mainstream films which could have led her to be overlooked as a serious actor, but she makes such interesting choices. ””
RM One of my favourite movies of the year was The Power of the Dog. It’s stayed with me and Benedict Cumberbatch’s acting is so impressive. It’s a psychological western – a charismatic rancher intimidates his brother’s new wife and her son – and the repression of his character’s true self is evident in just the tiniest twitches of his face. He’s at the top of his game, and I’m not always a fan but this is spectacular …
PS … and visually stunning. Spellbinding. I don’t think I looked away from the screen once.
RM I never questioned that New Zealand, where it was filmed, wasn’t the American west.
Carlotta Moye The colour palette was perfect, and the costuming incredible: that oversized hat and the white stiff done-up shirt – that was so simple but so thought out.
MG I couldn’t take my eyes off it, there was this underlying suspense, and that’s Jane Campion’s direction.
RM You were on the edge of your seat the whole time. I mean, he was a time bomb. You think, '“something bad is going to happen here.”
RU I am so glad to see Jane Campion being recognised once more, and that Kirsten Dunst is nominated for best supporting actress. She’s such an interesting actor and she’s done a lot of mainstream films which could have led her to be overlooked as a serious actor, but she makes such interesting choices.
CM And kudos to Jane Campion, who is always so good at casting. She always goes left of centre and discovers someone new, like Anna Paquin in The Piano.
RU I know we had different views on West Side Story. Steven Spielberg is my favourite director, but my question is: should a classic movie be remade when the original starred one of the most iconic stars ever, Natalie Wood?
RM I went into that film thinking that but I think this new version makes better sense of the set-up because you understand why the two gangs were fighting each other – this was about the encroachment of one culture on another which is something that the whole world would recognise.
PS I reckon the more West Side Story, the better. I watch the original again and again, and I’ll watch this one again and again. I love how the Spielberg version has delved into the social history of New York City. I don’t care if it’s the same as the old one.
MG I haven’t seen the old one, but I did enjoy this one. The only thing I thought was Tony didn’t look like the kind of guy who had been in jail. I imagined he’d have a slightly harder edge to him, as opposed to him being a gentle giant.
PS I love that they had sex! That didn’t happen in the original version.
MG The only other best movie Oscar-nominated film I’ve seen is Licorice Pizza. I loved it. It’s a coming of age movie about a high school guy who’s obsessed with a woman who’s 25, and the friendship they form. Nothing sexual happens, but they’re drawn to each other. I loved the setting, the San Fernando Valley in the ’70s – the fashion and the whole atmosphere. It’s a joyful, light film and there’s a bit of a social message around the adults – they were all either trying to make it, or they had made it, and were celebrities. These kids were surrounded by adults who were stars and who had led them astray, or were just absent, so the kids had to try to make it on their own when they were young. I really liked it.
CM It wasn’t nominated for best picture, but I really loved Spencer and Kristen Stewart, who is nominated for best actress. It wasn’t a caricature – it really felt like she was that role. The fashion was incredible, and you felt the tension of three days over the Christmas period in that house in Sandringham with that family and you can understand exactly why she exploded. I wanted to punch them, as well! I felt sorry to watch her unravel like that. It was this constant harassment of her through the movie which was really powerful. Because of the way it was filmed, you’re in her mind.
RU I think we have covered a good cross-section of films that people should see. I guess there’s no excuse for me to binge watch Love is Blind 2 this weekend anymore…