Mar 112023
[Iām not covering the shorts or documentaries, and I never do sound as I donāt trust my viewing environments. Iāve seen everything Iām voting on except Avatar: The Way of Water (so Iām going to treat it as Avatar I) and Andrea Riseborough in Leslie, but then thatās been the story of this award season; nobody has]
CINEMATOGRAPHY
ELVIS (Mandy Walker)
[I wouldnāt have called ELVIS the best of the year (why isnāt Babylon here?), but it is best of the nominees. BARDO: FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS has some wonderful moments, but many others where Iād call the cinematography good, but nothing special. TĆR comes in third, doing all that is needed for the story, but nothing more. I think EMPIRE OF LIGHT is only here to note Roger Deakinsā lifetime work. And ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT was very good, but for what they were doing, it needed to be better still].
VISUAL EFFECTS
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
[OK, completely unfair, but as the original would win in this category by a mile, Iām confident in giving it to this sequel.]
COSTUME DESIGN
BABYLON (Mary Zophres)
[Huh. A category with a whole lot of deserving nominees. Thatās weird this year. BABYLON was not a great movie, but it was a beautiful one, and part of that was the never ending string of amazing costumes. Still, this is a close call with BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER, and I wouldnāt be upset if that won. Both ELVIS and EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE have costumes that advance the plot, and the plot kinda is the costumes for MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, though I did find that the weakest nominee.]
PRODUCTION DESIGN
BABYLON (Florencia Martin; Anthony Carlino)
[Again, BABYLON is a great looking one. ELVISās design is good, but BABYLON just tops it.]
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (Camille Friend and Joel Harlow)
[Some good choices here, with both THE WHALE and THE BATMAN as standouts in makeup. And the work in ELVIS and ALL QUIET is good too, but the variety of ingenious work in WAKANDA FOREVER takes the award.]
FILM EDITING
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Paul Rogers)
[This one is easy. Editing this, with worlds changing many times in a scene, must have been insane. The editing in THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, ELVIS, and TĆR varied between fair and poor, leaving only MAVERICK as competition, and while itās editing is good (anything being good in that film is a rarity), it is a distant second.]
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
BABYLON (Justin Hurwitz)
[This was a lightweight year for scores. BABYLONās does the most to define the picture. The others, with one exception, were OK, though none had that magic I look for in a great score. The exception is ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, where the score was poorly conceived and is distracting.]
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
NAATU NAATU (from RRR; M.M. Keeravaani/Chandrabose)
[Itās a shame that just the song is nominated. Itās the dance that is overwhelming, but the song is good, and is part of an amazing scene. And all of the other nominees are terrible, songs I never want to hear again.]
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO
[The stop-motion animation here must be rewarded. This is absolute masterwork in animation. Most of the rest is good enough (the songs are a weak spot) not to detract from that animation. THE SEA BEAST is a strong second, with excellent animation, and even better script and voice work. PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH is also worthy, making this one of the better categories. The final two arenāt in the running, TURNING RED is generally poorer and condescending, while MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON is as if the goal was to make the MOST Indie film ever, with every indie film trope turned up to 11.]
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
LIVING (Kazuo Ishiguro)
[Not a great category, but LIVING hits the right notes when needed. GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY has a reasonable number of clever lines, so slips into second. For the rest: TOP GUN: MAVERICKās script is absolute trash and its nomination is absurd; WOMEN TALKING has the screenplay of a stageplay, and not a good one, with far too many repetitions; ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a particularly poor adaptation of the novel.]
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (The Daniels)
[A better category than adapted screenplay. The winner takes it due to wit and twists. Of the rest, TRIANGLE OF SADNESSās screenplay has some issues, but the others show a skilled hand.]
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
KE HUY QUAN (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
[This is considered a lock, and I agree it should be. BRENDAN GLEESON is good enough in The Banshees of Inisherin while I found BARRY KEOGHAN annoying in the same film. JUDD HIRSCH wouldnāt make my top 2 for supporting actor in The Fabelmans. BRIAN HENRY (Causeway) is my 2nd place choice, but he doesnāt have a chance.]
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
JAMIE LEE CURTIS (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
[A category with no embarrassing choices. None are better than CURTIS, so Iāll let my desire for her to get an Oscar decide it. HONG CHAU (The Whale) would be an equally good choice. KERRY CONDON (The Banshees of Inisherin) gives the best performance of that film, and ANGELA BASSETT (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) is always good and she only lags behind because she seems less her character and more just ANGELA BASSETT. STEPHANIE HSU (Everything Everywhere All at Once) would be my last choice.]
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
AUSTIN BUTLER (Elvis)
[This is a three-way for me, between BUTLER, BRENDAN FRASER (The Whale), and BILL NIGHY (Living). FRASER is just turned up a notch higher than Iād like, and BUTLER has more to do than NIGHY, but all three are reasonable choices. COLIN FARRELLās role is a bit too easy, and PAUL MESCALās performance seems to be more about the editing. All that said, I hope FRASER wins.]
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
MICHELLE YEOH (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
[This is a two way race, YEOH or CATE BLANCHETT (TĆ”r), and both are excellent, but Yeoh does more. ANA DE ARMAS (Blonde) and MICHELLE WILLIAMS (The Fabelmans) are both quite good, but theyāre footnotes.]
DIRECTING
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
[This is rough, choosing between The Daniels and Steven Spielberg for THE FABELMANS, but when itās hard to choose, Iāve got to go with the better result. The directing for THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN and TĆR is fine, and that of TRIANGLE OF SADNESS is a little less than fine.]
BEST PICTURE
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
[Nothing else is close. Nothing else would be in my top 10 for the year. THE FABELMANS is the most skillfully made film of the year, so itās not an embarrassment as a nomination. ELVIS, TĆR, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT,
WOMEN TALKING, and TRIANGLE OF SADNESS are need reedits, and the last two need radical rewrites. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN is OK, and TOP GUN: MAVERICK is garbage (and it is a complete embarrassment to our country that this thing is in the same list as ALL QUIET ā makes Americans look like war-mongering assholes). And it is just so stupid.]
Overall, not a great year or a great group of nominees, but the right winners could make this a feel good year.