2025--One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson

 2025: One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson

Nominated: Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, Train Dreams

Should Have Won: Frankenstein

Be Sure to see: Naked Gun, Weapons, Wolf Man, Woman in the Yard

"Freedom's a funny thing, isn't it? When you have it, you don't appreciate it and when you miss it it's gone. It's just gone. Poof,"--Pat

The synopses alone for One Battle After Another didn't make it feel like a film I'd enjoy. I anticipated lots of gunfire and DiCaprio just chewing up the screen. I got both of those, true, but it was the relationships and military tactics that steal the show. And it must have among the longest opening sequences before the title appears I've ever seen. I looked it up and know Raising Arizona is 11 minutes, Evil Dead Burn is 16. This movie clocks in at almost 13. Not that this hurts or helps whether someone would enjoy it. 

Pat and Perfidia are lovers in a revolutionary group called the French 75. Not being too familiar with military terminology I had to look up what a revolutionary group is. After Col. Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn in an Oscar winning performance) catches Perfidia planting a bomb, he sexually assaults her in return for letting her go. So right off the bat we know what kind of character we're dealing with there. After Perfidia has a daughter, Willa, there is a subplot on who the child belongs to, Pat or Lockjaw. At first I thought this point would be on the backburner for what I would car about but by the end I got why it was needed. 

Once all of is set up, it becomes an "eliminate all of the wrong doers one by one" picture. One of the best scenes is an interigation where the whereabouts of the French 75 members are. Many of the side characters have interesting things to do like the man who gave Pat his new identity and Benicio Del Toro's character who is Willa's martial arts instructor.  The strangest thing about the movie for me is it had a way to seem to make time lag. After what seemed like an eternity of run time, I checked the counter and found only an hour and seven minutes had passed. I don't know if that is a positive or a negative observation. 

Years have passed and Pat has a new name (Bob) and has gone into hiding with his Willa and Lockjaw's hunt for them becomes the focal point. There are some good action sequences between the long lags of Pat (or Bob, as he's now known) and Willa's relationship. 

As a whole, One Battle After Another didn't make a strong impression me but there were pieces I really enjoyed. Parts that stand out are Pat trying to remember a password, a low-speed three-car chase and how the chase ends, and a very interesting score. The music is just simple stacato piano notes. It's funny when an epic score like, say, Glory or Braveheart, is in the same breath as a few piano notes but sometimes simple is better (Jaws enters the chat). 

Back to that three-car chase, I said it was low speed but it was more like "normal" speed, I suppose. Comparing it to epic chases like in Bulllitt or The French Connection seems irelivant. The outcome of the chase is the high point. Willa makes a decision which shows how smart she's become over the years, being raised by the type of man her Pat is. 

I was nitpicking on some things like a line about fumbling the ball on the 90 yard line, considering there is no 90 yard line. That's the pedantic side of me I suppose because I know what he meant. One Battle After Another is pretty good, I guess, but nothing really knocked my socks off. I guess I was just still sore about Frankenstein losing. 

2024--Anora, Sean Baker

 

2024--Anora, Sean Baker

Nominated: The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perez, I'm Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, Wicked

Should Have Won: Nosferatu

Be sure to see: Longlegs, Lisa Frankenstein, Maxxxine, Saturday Night

"It's classic Ivan. I've been dealing with his shit since he was six years old. And now his parents are going to kill me and my family will never talk to me again,"--Toros 

Well, if nothing else, Anora has the best opening shot in best picture history. It's just a slow motion shot of women performing lap dances. I'm not against this kind of movie, and not really opposed to one winning best picture, but it does make me wonder if you could go back 80 years and tell Humphrey Bogart or Bette Davis a movie abut a stripper turned prostitute will win best picture, what would they say?

The story is simple enough. Anora, the stripper turned prostitute mentioned, meets Ivan at her club. She goes to his house for a job and discovers his father is Nikolai Zakharov, an oligarch (or rich business leader, as Google informed me). She agrees to pose as his girlfriend for one week for a fee. They fall in love and marry so that Ivan won't have to move to Russia. His father catches wind of this and doesn't approve. That's it; nothing too complicated. 

For a good portion of the movie it is just parties and sex scenes and I really didn't know where it was heading to warrant a best picture Oscar. it picked up with two henchmen (?) show up to try to keep Ivan from marrying Anora. In this scene , Ivan flees the house leaving his new bride alone with the two guys. A third is eventually called in to help and this guy turned out to be my favorite character. His name is Toros and I guess he's like what Tom Hagen is in The Godfather--not in the family but handles its business. He reminded me very much of the cook in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in that his actions toward Anora are empathetic, aggressive, then empathetic again. When he arrives, the two men have Anora tied up because she went on a tirade after Ivan left, breaking household items and one of the men's noses. Toros is sentimental to her situation, then turns because of the reason he had been sent, then nice, then not. Should Anora trust him? Should the audience trust him?  He's clearly not on her side yet is a little more attentive to her needs than the other two are. This entire segment from when the first two men arrive to when Anora and the three men leave to search for Ivan is funny, scary, heart-pounding, and depressing all at the same time. It is my favorite scene. 

Recently, I have seen some winners that have reminded me of movies from the past. 2019's winner Parasite made me think of multiple films. In Anora, there is a line very similar to what Butch says in Pulp Fiction. Anora says Americans do not give meanings to names which is also what Butch says to the cab driver in  Pulp Fiction. So a movie that had lots of nudity, reminded me of Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Pulp Fiction, gave me many different emotions, and made me care about the characters? Yes, I liked it. But best picture? Nah. The Academy Awards have been heading in a weird direction the past decade or so. Mikey Madison, who played Anora, won best actress. I'd say that a prostitute winning best actress is a big step but 34 years ago Julia Roberts was nominated for her role as a prostitute in Pretty Woman. She didn't win though. Kathy Bates won for Misery that year. Hookers and psychopaths. Now that is an idea for a blog right there. 

2023--Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan

 

2023--Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan

Nominees: American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest 

Should have won: Oppenheimer

Be sure to see: Cocaine Bear,  Evil Dead Rise, Plane, Super Mario Brothers, M3gan, Skinamarink Thanksgiving

"Would the Japanese surrender if they know what was coming?"--Edward Teller

"I don't know if we can be trusted with such a weapon, but I know the Nazis can't"--J. Robert Oppenheimer 

This will be the least descriptive and most "unprofessional" review on this whole blog. This movie won the Oscar in February. I saw it in the theater before the Academy Awards. After it won I figured I needed to watch it again but I had no desire to. It is now early November that I finally got around to typing this. Is it because I didn't like the movie and vowed never to watch it again? Not at all. It's very good. But it is also not my kind of thing and really long. I'm also not knowledgeable enough in the subject matter to give a fair review. It's about the creation of the atomic bomb. It's good and all but I can't do it justice without getting the facts wrong. I'm still putting it in my should have won pick because I do understand that it is excellent. I've written 96 reviews. I did my best on 95 of them. Give me a pass here, huh? 

2022-- Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, Daniel Scheinert

 

2022—Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, Daniel Scheinert

Nominated: All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fablemans, Tar, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, Women Talking

Should have won: Elvis

Be Sure to See: Bodies Bodies Bodies, Bullet Train, Christmas Bloody Christmas, Pearl, Violent Night, X

"I wanted to say in another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you"--Waymond Wong 

     If nothing else, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is the weirdest best picture winner. And this has the potential of being the worst, shortest, and least focused review I've done. It was a difficult movie for me to follow. It is weird—and I like weird—but I also like to know what is going on.  This movie seems to be all about technical achievements, editing, and effects. That's not to say I disliked the movie. It just wasn't best picture material for me. 

     Evelyn Wang is in trouble with the IRS bank and is at the office looking at receipts. It seems she confuses hobbies for business, as it is so elegantly stated. The employee going over her taxes is played by Jamie Lee Curtis in an Oscar-winning role. I've adored her for her whole career but, as much as I've liked her movies, "It's about time she gets an Oscar" never crossed my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed Halloween, My Girl, True Lies, A Fish Called Wanda, The Fog, even Freaky Friday. But none of those are particularly Oscar worthy. She wins one here for supporting actress but I must say I found Stephanie Hsu's performance as the daughter more deserving. 

     The movie also won for editing which I completely understand, although I liked how Elvis was cut together more. This movie showed creative ways of entering alternate dimensions so I get how it bagged that award. 

    Michelle Yeoh carried the movie and showed command in every scene she was in which was, well, pretty much every scene. And it was nice to see Ke Huy Quan again. You know him as short Round from Temple of Doom or Data from The Goonies. Ninety-four-year-old James Hong spent the movie in a wheelchair with few lines but I'm glad to see he's still working. 

    I'm not sure who this movie is supposed to appeal to. There is one fight sequence but not enough to entertain kung fu fans. The entering dimensions aspect throws sci fi into the mix but not enough to thrill sci fi fans. I don't know who the target audience is, really. It's interesting and weird, has bizarre moments and slow ones. It has a false ending where you think it's over but still has an hour left and a scene where two rocks overlooking a canyon have a conversation for a while. This was my favorite part. Does that tell you how I feel about the movie? To be honest, I don't even how I feel about it. I saw it twice and I'm glad I did. I just can't see how it won over Elvis.  

NOTE: With all of the commas in this title, you should know the director is Daniel Scheinert. I probably didn't need to say that but...

2021--Coda, Sian Heder

2121--CODA, Sian Heder 

Nominated: Belfast, Don't Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, Power of the Dog, West Side Story 

Should Have Won: Coda 

Be Sure to See: Godzilla Vs. Kong, Halloween Kills, The Little Things, Old, A Quiet Place 2 

"Duet. It's in the word. You must duet together."--Mr. Villalobos

After Ben-Hur (1959) and The Departed (2006), CODA is only the third remake to win the coveted best picture Oscar at the Academy Awards. This retelling of the 2014 French film LaFamille Belier follows the Rossi family, particularly daughter Ruby who is the only member who is not deaf. Ruby is played by Emilia Jones who carries the movie as she is in practically every scene. It could be irony or coincidence that the one thing Ruby cares most about is singing, something her family could never really experience. Except, of course, for the hard bass in rap which her father Frank says he enjoys. Though the film really focuses on Ruby, each character has his or her running story, as does the family unit as a whole. 

Their income relies on their daily fish catch and every employee is affected when an issue arises at work. It is Frank who speaks up with the help of Ruby who interprets. Everyone hears how angry he is, but I think even if she were not there to interpret, his non-verbal action really gets the point across. There are two stories running in this movie. Along with the family business and Ruby's interpreting, Ruby joins a choir to pursue her dream of singing. A good portion of the movie deals with her and a boy singing a duet of Marvin Gaye and Tammie Terrell's You're all I need to get by. Though the family's plot is the main focus, there is a lot of this second storyline I enjoyed, People have always teased Ruby because of her abnormal family which I'm not sure how realistic that is. I, like her duet partner Miles, think it is pretty cool to be the only hearing member of a deaf family. And I particularly like the choice of song. I honestly don't know if it was intended but You're all I need to get by seems appropriate since the deaf members of the family rely so much on Ruby to interpret. That's my thought, anyway. 

The choir teacher, Mr. Villalobos, was probably my favorite character. He was really complex. He was kind of a douche yet at the same time really cared about his students, particularly, Ruby. Helpful and a jerk at the same time; difficult to pull off. Like many sports movies that build up to "the big game", this movie builds up to the concert which the family attends. I sort of predicted something would happen but in more of a wishing way. I thought, "man you what this movie should do? This." And then a minute later it happened. Good decision.. Predictable, I guess, but correct. Watching the audience made me think of the scenes in old silent movies when they didn't put the dialogue cards on the screen. Could you still follow the plot simply by watching the actors' expressions? They say communication is mostly non-verbal and this scene is a great example of that. The deaf members of the family looking at the expressions of the audience members was the best moment of the movie for me. 

An important aspect of the movie is how Ruby wants to go to Berkley to sing but her parents would prefer her to stay home. Her brother, who is another key character in the movie, has strong feelings about the matter as well. What the final decision ends up being I'll let you discover but I found it kind of weird they were making it feel like she would have to travel so far away. I looked it up. Berkley is only about 35 miles from Gloucester, their hometown. Could it be her parents wanted her to stay not for emotional attachment to their daughter but because they simply needed her to be an interpreter? 

For the past few years , the Academy Awards have made sure to focus on minorities. This year, a new group was represented. Deaf characters played by deaf actors represented the best picture Oscar. CODA was a very well-made and thoughtful movie. Many times in dramas, the comedic scenes seem forced or out of place. The ones here fit with how the family lived. As far as Oscar-worthy movies go, I don't feel it had many technical strengths. Editing and cinematography and so on, but the story and acting carried it. I cared about the characters and I hope to see more from Emilia Jones, the lead actress, and Troy Kotsur the lead actor. I'd like to hear what else they have to say. 

NOTE: In case you're curious about the title's meaning, CODA is not referring to the ending of a piece of music but an acronym for Child Of Deaf Adult. It is fitting, however, this movie does deal with music.

2020--Nomadland, Chloe Zhao

 

2020--Nomadland, Chloe Zhao

Nominated: The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Should have won: Nomadland

Be sure to see:  The Invisible man 

"I didn't want my sailboat to be in a driveway when I died. Yeah, and it's not. My sailboat's out here in the desert."--Merle

2020 was an odd year for a lot of things, films were certainly one of them. This was the first time since 1955 where I had heard of zero of the best picture nominees before I saw a list of candidates. Zero. Not a one. The winner back in 1955 was the endearing film Marty with Ernest Borgnine. The "should have won" slot up there was pretty hard to fill for this year because nothing I saw was particularly good. But since Nomadland is the only movie nominated that I bothered to watch, I guess it would be unfair of me to lump them in a negative category. Covid caused me to have my all-time low in theater going since I started keeping track. I saw only 4 movies that were released in 2020 on the big screen: The Invisible Man, Bad Boys 3, Underwater, and Wonderwoman 84. Two were lousy, one was so-so, and The Invisible Man was the best. I did eventually see Hillbilly Elegy on television. Now comes Nomadland which was certainly the best movie of the ones I've seen. So I'll give it a pass in the should have won category for now.  Though I hear The Trial of the Chicago 7 is good. 

The movie tells the story of Fern, a woman who loses practically everything in the recession and travels through the American West, living in her van. But as she says, she's not homeless, she's houseless and that's not the same thing.  As the movie starts, she loses her job after a US Gypsum plant closes down where she had worked for years. She then gets a job at Amazon and for a few minutes it brought back memories of my seven years there. Their little stand up meeting was similar with safety tips and whatnot but their building was a lot nicer and wow, what a big break room! But I digress. 

As Fern travels from destination to destination, I couldn't help but be awed by the scenery. The spas in the Badlands could have been supporting characters on their own. In this respect, the movie reminded me of the 1985 winner Out of Africa. Pretty scenery and pretty boring. Much of the movie is just pretty locations, minimum score except a pleasant piano, and nomads in the desert. One positive thing was how real the cast felt. Not too many of these people were actors. Almost everyone's character was also the name of the person playing them. Maybe five people were played by actors with different names and I recognized only two people in the whole movie, Frances McDormand and David Strathairn who you might know from A League of Their Own or The River Wild. I also noticed, not that it should really matter, that the cast had the opposite effect the scenery had. As lovely as the landscapes were, this movie had about he most unattractive cast I've ever seen. But that's ok. It seemed very real. 

Some of my favorite scenes were simple speeches given by nomads about their past. One lady who learned she will be dying in a few months tells a story that paints such beautiful visuals of the animals she has seen while travelling the country, I had to watch it twice. And another man tells a story of his son's suicide. If there had been more scenes like this I would have enjoyed the movie more. Some people might have still found it boring if it were just people sitting around telling stories. I suppose that's true if there had been 15 scenes of it. But the two times it happened, I was completely enthralled. And being an astronomy nerd, I loved the scene where they look at Jupiter through the telescope and talk about the speed of light.  

I guess the movie was ok. I found it to be extremely boring despite an ok story. It is the third most boring winner behind Out of Africa and Hamlet (through no fault of its own; it was just a Laurence Olivier play someone filmed). Frances McDormand is in every scene and carries the movie just fine. I've gotten to where I find her hard to take in the last few years. It is like she's become a completely different actress from her Raising Arizona and Fargo days.  But the movie isn't very good and it just cracks my top ten worst winners sliding in at the number 10 spot--or 84th best, if you will. Maybe if it hadn't won best picture of the year and I watched it I would appreciate it more. But then again, 2020 didn't produce too many contenders. But it is still 84th out of a pretty elite group. I'm glad I saw it. 

2019--Parasite, Bong Joon-Ho

2019--Parasite, Bong Joon-Ho 

Nominated: Ford Vs Ferrari, The Irishman, JoJo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood

Should Have Won: 1917

Be sure to see: Booksmart, Good Boys, Knives Out, Late Night, Midsommer, Queen and Slim, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,  Toy Story 4, The Upside, Us

"You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all."--Ki-Taek Kim 

In the Academy Awards' 92 year history, only one horror movie has won the best picture honor. A couple more should have won like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby. Of course 2017's The Shape of Water was a throwback to 1950s Universal Monster movies and a couple more have been nominated. Parasite,  2019's winner, might not fall into the horror category in the traditional sense but it certainly teeters on the edge of the genre. It has many horror trappings ranging from brutal knife violence to suspense to using secret identities to accomplish unethical results. As much as I enjoy these themes, I'm hesitant to agree with the movie being a best picture caliber movie, though I am glad to see the pendulum swing. 

The destitute Kim family is living in a basement, making their living folding pizza boxes. The son, Ki-woo, gets word the wealthy Park family needs an English tutor for their child. Upon seeing how well-to-do the Parks are, the rest of the Kims pose as unrelated people yet highly qualified potential employees. Until this point, the film is played out like a drama, as most best picture winners are. It is when the Kims begin their employment with the Parks that the movie shows a darker side. 

Kim daughter Ki-Jung poses as an art therapist for the Park's son. She frames the Park's chauffeur for sexual misconduct so her father can take his job. But it is how Chung-Sook (the Kim wife) infiltrates the housekeeper role intrigued me most. It is the only time I've ever seen a peach allergy and a packet of hot sauce used to end a career.  It is in the is segment of the movie where elements of other filmmakers' styles shine through. The way this scene mixes up the lineage of the narrative is straight out of Quentin Tarantino's playbook. The technique is not a flashback, per se, but as Ki-Taek (the husband/chauffeur) is talking to Mrs. Park about a possible incriminating picture he "accidentally" took, the movie flashes back to the family practicing their lines of how this encounter should play out.  This is one of my favorite scenes. The rehearsal part is pretty realistic. In an Oceans Eleven-type movie, there would be no hiccups in the rehearsal. A plan would be quickly discussed, then carried out. But the Kims are not professionals so going over the plan doesn't go as smoothly as they'd hoped. Once the family takes over as various caregivers in the Park house is when we see where the title comes from. The poor destitute Kims leach onto the Parks and when the Parks are away on a camping trip, the Kims are hanging out at their house. A key piece of dialogue is spoken about the class system and the reasons the Kims want to carry out this plot. This is a key moment in the movie, I think. Until this point, I'd say the Kims are villains. They are dishonest and have corrupted lives. But if their actions are to better themselves and pointing out the haves vs the have nots, how much can they be faulted? 

The last third of the movie kicks in when Moon-Gwang, the Parks' former housekeeper, reappears because she had forgotten something in the basement when she was fired. The comedy fades away and the movie turns sinister, violent, and, in the tradition of lots of Asian horror movies, just plain weird. There are scenes that reminded me of so many other movies I have seen or emotions I have felt while watching some classics. When the Kims are hiding under tables and beds in hope they won't be discovered, I got worried they would be discovered. Then I remembered we really should not be rooting for this family since they are the dishonest ones. This aspect held elements of Double Indemnity or Psycho. The linear mix up in the sabotage of the housekeeper  is a Tarantino staple but there is also a moment where somewhat of a hostage situation takes place not by a gun or a bomb, but by the threat of hitting a send button on a phone. Remember the opening scene in Pulp Fiction? This whole segment is the apex of this movie. We figured sooner or later the Kims' luck would run out but not in this way. From the time Moon-Gwang appears to check on what she had left until the credits roll, it was one surprise, shock, or flash of violence after another. Then, in a surprise, the final couple of minutes touch a completely different set of emotions. Pretty sentimental actually when compared to the previous half hour.  I was extremely surprised this movie was even considered a best picture contender. The violence in Silence of the Lambs had a sort of elegance to it, perhaps fooling the Academy. Parasite is a hateful and murky violent movie...well the final act anyway. Other than Moon-Gwang and her secret, there are really no characters to root for. Even the Park family, though they did nothing wrong, aren't particularly likeable.  Or maybe they are likeable but Ki-Taek Kim's interpretation of them to his family had me believing him, too. In a way, the Kim family tricked me just as much as they had tricked the Parks. 

I really did enjoy the movie and I'm glad it won simply because a movie with such creepy themes hardly ever gets recognized. I don't really agree with it though. 1917 or Tarantino's Once upon a time in Hollywood would have been better choices. But it really is a movie fan's movie, I think. Either intentionally or unintentionally, I picked up on nods to lots of older movies.  I noticed aspects that reminded me of Pulp Fiction, Double Indemnity, Rear Window, Psycho, Dial M for Murder,  Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, JoJo Rabbit, The Boy, and a milliion movies where people are hiding for an extended period of time with the danger mere feet away. I think this movie has many themes but the one I took to the most is who do we root for? Is it ok to root for the bad guys every now and then? 

Note: Parasite was the 11th foreign language film to be nominated for best picture and the first to win. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is the only other one I've seen. Also, this was the final best picture winner of the decade. I'll rank them here from my favorite to tenth favorite.

1. The Shape of Water, 2017
2. Parasite, 2019
3. The Artist, 2011
4. Argo, 2012
5. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), 2014
6. 12 Years a Slave 2013
7. Green Book 2018
8. The King's Speech 2010
9. Spotlight 2015
10. Moonlight 2016