Gosh, what a lovely looking film about far-future political intrigue centered on a sandbox planet. 160ish minutes with lots… of… slow… intense… talking… but it never dragged. Most difficult suspension of disbelief for me: Timothée Chalomet, hardened desert fighter fighter.
I bet it was hard to deal with all the sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
The Shorts
It’s hard to talk about these with out giving stuff away, so I’m going to be extremely vague.
The After
Holy cow, David Oyelowo can act. This could have easily slipped into unnatural melodrama, but Oyelowo never wavers.
Red, White and Blue
Strong story and performances, but unlike The After this one can’t quite avoid the melodrama.
Knight of Fortune
My favorite of the nominees. Funny, sad, heartfelt, touching.
Invincible
If you’ve ever wanted to see a 16 year old deftly anchor a 30 minute film, watch Léokim Beaumier-Lépine in Invincible.
The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar
I don’t know if it was seeing in a theater or just having more time to digest it, but I enjoyed this more the second time around.
Nimona (the movie) was pretty good. Decent (but mostly predictable) story. Animation that ranges from “inspired” to “we are running out of money”). Fun when it should be. A scary monster that’s pretty darn scary looking.
Nimona (the character) was great. Chloe Grace Moretz has exactly the right combination of snark and energy, and the character design takes it over the top. Totally steals the show from the main character, disgraced knight Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed).
Probably the best animated movie about a futuristic city based around medieval knights I’ve ever seen.
I thought I was getting tickets to the live action short film Oscar nominees, but I knew something was wrong when all the trailers were for animated movies (but I did get to see a brief flash of the comedy brilliance that is the Minions. One of them spanks another one’s butt! HILARIOUS!).
Five nominees plus two bonus movies that I think were added to make the run time more reasonable. Let’s give ’em each a sentence or two, in viewing order!
The nominees:
Our Uniform
I think this one was my favorite. Animated on top of articles of clothing, it’s about life in Iranian schools for girls.
Letter to a Pig
Second favorite. It starts with a Holocaust survivor talking about hiding from Nazis in a pig pen, then explores how that trauma impacts later generations.
Pachyderme
A quiet story of a girl staying with her grandparents, particularly her grandfather. Very low-key, soft animation. Worth watching, but there’s not very much animation in this animation.
Ninety-Five Senses
A man (Tim Blake Nelson)narrates over moments of his life that have varying levels of significance. Saying more would give away too much. Watchable, but not mind blowing.
WAR IS OVER!
Two soldiers on opposite sides use a carrier pigeon to play chess. Made with Unreal Engine, which made every shot feel like a highly detailed Fortnite scene. Also uses “So This Is Christmas” to drive an emotional beat it doesn’t quite earn. Not my favorite.
Bonus shorts:
Wild Summon
Marianne Faithfull narrates a documentary about the spawning habits of salmon, except the salmon are replaced by big-mouthed fish people wearing SCUBA gear. The stakes feel higher when it’s little humans trying to survive. I think someone misheard someone else saying “wild salmon” and decided it would make a good movie title.
I’m Hip
Nothing makes it clear that someone isn’t hip more than them constantly repeating that they are hip. Old-school style 2D animation that’s interesting but not innovative and a weak song made this my least favorite short of the night.
Bonus unrelated animation!
Someone shared a clip from the 1990 Jetsons movie that’s a music video for a Tiffany song, and somehow it rocks. It’s like CalArts animation grad students broke into Hanna-Barbera studios and animated one part of the film.
I knew about the first one (since I watched the movie specifically because he’s nominated for best actor), but didn’t realize the second until he showed up onscreen.
Rustin
He’s great, and the movie has some outstanding performances, but it’s so generic that it draws away from the power of the events shown. Still good, but I wish it was a little more adventurous.
Drive-Away Dolls
Exactly what the trailer promised. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan in a raunchy lesbian-centric pulp mystery road trip comedy. It doesn’t make sense, and lots of sections don’t work, but the leads are great. I laughed a bunch. Colman Domingo is really only in this for a few scenes, but I’m still counting it as a CDDF.
A lovely film about food and love. Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel have great chemistry together, and Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire has a huge career ahead of her. PREDICTIONS: best foreign film and cinematography nominations. Don’t go when you’re hungry.
…and while I enjoyed this movie a lot, I probably didn’t appreciate this movie as much as I would have thanks to issues completely beyond the control of the film.
Issue one: The Taste of Things is a movie takes its time, letting the audience quietly observe as incredible meals are meticulously and lovingly created. That’s great, except I saw Perfect Days, an even more quiet, meticulous and loving exploration of one man’s life, yesterday. In comparison, The Taste of Things felt action packed.
Issue two: the woman who thought that standing in the hallway where she couldn’t see the film meant she could talk on the phone and the audience wouldn’t hear her.
Bonus Movie: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
I like Wes Anderson’s short films better than his full length features. All of his flash and affectations get time to shine without getting too tedious. This is an odd duck, though. It’s sort of an illustrated reading of Dahl’s short story. Actors play multiple roles, and it makes no attempt at realism. Has Anderson ever directed an actual play? I wonder if he’d be good at it, or lean too heavily into actors facing the audience reciting their lines. PREDICTION: Won’t win best short this year.
My Movie Stats
Counting shorts, I have seen 24 films this year. That’s 3.36 films a week, or one film every 2.08 days.
Oscar-nominee specific stuff:
Every best picture
4/5 Best Actor (I’ll get you, Colman Domingo)
5/5 Best Supporting Actor
4/5 Best Actress (well, 4.25 out of 5, since Katherine watched Nyad and I was in the room for a lot of it)
3/5 Best Supporting Actress
5/5 Director
2/5 Animated Feature, but I plan to watch Robot Dreams this week
Maybe I’ll actually watch the Academy Awards this year. I haven’t done that since dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Ah, the Fifties: when aliens so advanced that they can travel thousands of miles between seconds can be defeated by guys driving trucks with weapons they built in two months. When people could be followed by a flying saucer on Monday, and not mention it to their army general father until the next day over dinner. When spacesuits that scientists claim they are unable to to damage can be pierced with bullets. When a vital part of communicating with aliens was have dead batteries in your tape recorder so the alien voices would slow down. When most of the world moved at 24 frames per second, but spacecraft moved at 12. When a woman would expect credit for her work, but proudly demand to be called “Mrs. Doctor Russel A. Marvin.”
I’m so glad we’ve left all this behind and moved into the unassailable logic of movies like Argylle and The Beekeeper.
Also: The lead scientist is named Dr. Marvin, and I kept waiting for Dr. Marvin Monroe to show up.
If you’re looking for a slice-of-life movie about a charming toilet cleaner going through his very structured daily routine that isn’t a comedy and is (except for about a dozen words) entirely in Japanese, then you should see this film. You should also see it if that isn’t something you thought you wanted to see. All of the cast is strong, but Koji Yakusho is the soul of the movie. He’s on nearly every frame of the film, and his performance never falters.
I declare this movie A Wimmer! (that’s what the cool people call a Wim Wenders movie that’s a winner)
I saw it again, this time with friends and a bigger audience, and it worked much better. Still not a great film, but much more fun. If you’re going to watch it, do it with as large of an audience as possible.
A misfire, but much less of one than I expected it to be.
It’s set before Peter Parker’s birth, so it’s full of “let’s talk about Spider-Man without talking about Spider-Man” moments. My favorite was when a character said “when you accept responsibility, you will gain great power.” I also enjoyed when someone said the bad guy was “like some kind of spider… person.”
Some really rough dialogue, slippery motivation, disappearing characters, dropped plots, and misguided fan service.
Still, I officially declare this movie Better Than Morbius. maybe let it play in the background while you’re doing housework.
Also: The IMAX poster is way cooler than the standard ads. Look at this thing:
Bonus Movie: The Last Repair Shop
Are short documentaries about people who fix musical instruments for LAUSD students supposed to make me cry? And then cry again while talking about it? Because this one did. A pretty straightforward talking heads (and playing heads, I guess) short film. The score was surprisingly distracting for a movie about giving kids the chance to expand their lives with music- until the end, when it suddenly clicked for me and I retroactively appreciated all of it.
