The Oscars - My Countering

I was going to do a blog about the Oscars in a more calm manner, one where I have a proper look at the nominations and get into what they did right, what they didn't.  Well the thing is, some of the omissions were ones so massive, and some of the decisions were so wrong-headed (11 nominations for Joker?  Really?  11?  It's the frontrunner.  Are you kidding?), that I decided I had to do a proper retort to this.  Now there were some fine decisions made, most of the Best Picture nominations are very strong (and then there's Joker squatting in amongst them, like it slipped past the bouncer saying "I'm with them"), glad that Taika Waititi, Greta Gerwig, and Rian Johnson got some noms (although none for Best Director, when the guy behind The Hangover did), and that an international feature like Parasite (which you bet I'll be seeing as soon as it gets a proper release over here) has gotten a lot of love.  But still, there are some notable absences and bad calls, like an all male Best Director line up again, in a year when there were a load of female lead features to pick from.  So what I'm going to do is take a note from The Kermode Awards, and give my thoughts on what I think should have gotten in there.  Now these aren't necessarily my favourites of last year, they are ones though where I genuinely do think that they are of the calibre to deserve the nod.  Before I start, I can't comment on ones I haven't seen yet, so I can't say much about Rocketman, Little Women, The Farewell, or Dolemite is my Name, even though I plan to catch up with all of them this month.  Let's get started though with...

Best Documentary Feature
Now there's a good spread of these in here, I have heard very powerful things about For Sama, although there are two that stand out as absent here for me.  Firstly, there's Diego Maradona.  You know that I am not that literate with the world of the sportsballs, but I do understand what it means to people, the very human stories tied up with the world of playing professionally.  This doc from Asif Kapadia, who also did Senna and Amy, shows us why Maradona was the most hated, and most loved player in his day, including how one game he played highlighted both reasons at once.  But my pick for the best left off the Oscars goes to Apollo 11, an experience that is pure cinema, immersing you straight into the most significant mission in NASA's history, an incredible sight to behold in iMax, and a great tribute to the 50th anniversary of that one small step for a man.

Best Visual Effects
Yes there are some good choices, and I think the Irishman does deserve a nod in here for how well the digital de-aging has been used, we have come a very long say since Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy.  Still, there are ones that I would have gone for instead of others on the list, I've got two potentials for this one too. Firstly Detective Pikachu, because the same year we had another video game based film go back to the drawing board after making its lead character look terrifying, this managed to make Pokemon of all things look plausible in a live action setting, and still look like their game counterparts.  Secondly, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, for the sheer scale of the kaiju effects, as well as giving the monsters a real sense of personality; who doesn't love Ghidorah's left head Kevin?  I'd swap both of those for The Lion King, because whilst the photorealistic animals in that are a good technical achievement, both Pokemon and Godzilla could have their CGI characters actually emote, they felt so much more like characters.  Seriously, cue up a clip from the 2019 Lion King, watch it with the sound off, and just try and tell from the look of the characters what they are emoting, and then do the same with the 1994 Lion King, and you'll see what I mean.

Best Supporting Actress
I'm joining in the common consensus on this one immediately; where is Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers?  Hustlers was a great little crime flick based around the complex world of sex workers/performers, and J Lo's performance as the mentor/confidant/maybe love interest to Constance Wu's lead was a huge part of its success.  I admit to not being exactly her biggest fan before, but her role in this was a revelation, a perfect fit of performer to material.  Plus, for an actress who just turned fifty last year to get a role where she's not just the co-lead but gets to be that damn glamorous too, that's the chance of a lifetime!  Oh, and whilst I'm on this roll about Hustlers, where's the love for Constance Wu for the lead actress, eh?  That brings me nicely to...

Best Actress
Before I carry on, I just should note something about these nominations.  There is literally only one person of colour in the acting categories, and the role said actress played?  Harriet Tubman.  That genuinely does feel like them extra desperately going "no, really, we're not racist!  We nominated Harriet, so how can we be racist?".  Good grief, it's especially galling because we had a whole raft more WOC performances that could have been chosen from, including my personal pick.  You know, quite a few Critics' Circles in their awards of the year gave their Best Actress nods to this woman, and rightly so, because how many other horror films are there where the lead actress gets to be both primary antagonist and primary protagonist at the same time, actually sharing screentime with themselves, and perform both pitch perfectly.  Yep, not just the nomination, in my opinion the Best Actress award should have gone to Lupita N'yongo for Us.  I said early last year that I'd be angry if she didn't get into the nominations.  Prophecy fulfilled I guess.

Best Supporting Actor
I'm always iffy when nominations are doubled up, it just pushes out someone or something else that could have given it a lot more variety.  The issue with the #BAFTAsSoWhite is extra galling when for best actress, not only are all the nominees white, but one's the same white woman twice!  In here, it's not the same actor doubled up, but the same film, both Pesci and Pacino for The Irishman.  Which is unfair because at least one fantastic performance is denied from the list; Willem Defoe in The Lighthouse.  It's in many ways a cliche, the grizzled old man of the sea, right down to the accent, but by god he makes it work beautifully, he has some amazing speeches and interplay with Robert Pattinson in here.  On the topic of The Lighthouse though, one thing I will say the Oscars got right was giving this the nod for Best Cinematography, it's beautifully done in 4:3 black and white... mind, I can't help but wonder if it's because of the number of members of the Academy who got started when all films were like that...

Best Costume Design
Just watch that trailer for Dolemite is My Name.  Just take it all in.  I've not even seen the full film, but even I can see it deserves the nom!  Ruth E. Carter, you got robbed.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Why is Joker in this category?  What exactly is it adapting; bits of the comics (in which case, it really does not capture the spirit of any of them), or random bits of the various Martin Scorsese films it's ripping off?  Ergh, well I have a far better nominee for this one, a screenplay that manages the tricky task of not only bringing a very long and complex novel to the screen, but also act as a follow-up to the film adaptation to its predecessor, when said adaptation legendarily took a revisionist approach.  My nod is, of course, for Doctor Sleep, which pulls off a really impressive juggling act with it's elements from Stephen King with it's elements from Stanley Kubrick, and in doing so actually provides what I (and apparently King himself) sees as an even better conclusion to the story.

Best Original Screenplay, Best Direction, Best Leading Actor, Best Picture
I'm putting all of these together, because there is one film that came out last year, just made it to UK shores a few weeks ago, which should have been a shoe in for any one of these categories, instead it didn't get a single nod from the Academy at all, with three of the slots it could easily have gotten taken up by bloody Joker again.  And how surreal is it that I am getting this angry and righteous over a film starring Adam Sandler?  Yep, I am talking about Uncut Gems.  This story of one man's spiral into self destruction is a truly remarkable piece of work, not least for how well it manages to keep you sort of on the side of main character Howard Ratner, even as he makes decisions that had a big chunk of the audience at the screening I went to gasp out "NO!  DON'T!".  That's a credit to the skill of the Safdie Brothers' screenplay, their direction (especially for one set piece where the solution to all of Howard's issues is behind a glass door he just can't get open), and the absolute barnstormer of a performance Sandler gives, making such a spectacular screw-up seem so real.  I saw it on a preview on the 2nd of January; if it had been shown literally three days earlier, it would have gotten into my top ten of the year list!  Seriously, if you've not seen it yet, catch a screening on the big screen.  It's coming to Netflix soon, but this is a big screen film, which deserved a chance to get the big award such works deserve.

Well, that was cathartic, I feel better about this now.  What does make me feel a bit vindicated in all this, not just being ranty, is the fact that I know for sure a lot of people, including quite a few big name critics whose opinion I trust, are not happy with the state of the whole thing either.  Also, in the end success or failure at the Oscars doesn't really affect a films longevity; sometimes a good call is made, sometimes it isn't, but in then, it's the love by an audience that makes a film an enduring piece of work.  So let's celebrate the true cream of the crop by last year, by recommending them, help them to find more people to love them, and let's make it clear that the Academy needs to start properly looking at the zeitgeist, getting past their own biases if they are to at all stay relevant.

I'm going to end now with a little bet with you about the awards ceremony itself; I can see them giving Joaquin Phoenix Best Actor, for much the same reason they gave it to Leo with The Revenant; to stop him doing something even more insane next film to get one.  However, I think that Joker won't win Picture, Direction, or Screenplay, for one simple reason; to make sure Todd Phillips doesn't open his mouth on stage all night.