As every year I wait in excitement for the Oscar night (even if often the movies I would like to see there are not nominated), but I still think it's fun to see who's winning, to try to understand the world we live in. The winners of the Oscar night are often the most "feelgood" and "politically correct" movies, so even if some of these may be good, they often aren't. The ongoing war in ucraine is of course influencing the nominees and the winners, and as always actuality is mirrored in moviemaking. the realism in movies is still going strong, as it should be. Just try not to just follow one stream of thought, try to think freely in any situation.
I've been guessing the nominations, and tried hard to watch as many movies as possible, even though here in Norway many movies'll come after their eventual victory.
So here it come my personal opinions on the nominated I got to watch. It may be a winner here, or maybe not. Enjoy the night, the red carpet, and try and watch some good movies, not only the "blockbusters", with huge productions and little meaning. Here we go!
The Fabelmans
The Fabelmans tas a typical Spielberg movie, with all feelings you would expect. I Think the Way he porteraits his mother is special, maybe at the edge of an unsolved Oedipus complex, and even if he desperately tries to save her, by painting her mental illness with pastel pencils, we all know too good how much more nuanced is that world. How much darker and uglier.
In this movie I found no nemesis, no evil, everyone is saved. Ok, that's Spielberg way to do that, right? Some religion, some cowardliness. I don't agree with that view, not everybody can be saved.
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Since the politically correct wave is still going strong, and people's eyes just tolerate these pastel pencils, I guess this one is going to take one or two oscars. Strong colors are scary.
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Banshees of Inisherin is a strange movie.
Even if I've been living with and together with musicians all my life, I still find it hard to understand the musician here. He's arrogant, sick with a light kind of delusion of grandeur and at the end a little boor. He makes extreme stupid decisions, exaggeratedly over the line of what could be necessary. To me, it looks like he's trying to make his friend feel guilty for his own failures, for his incapability to create good music, so he tries to punish him, by punish himself (what a contorted way to do things, omg).
On the other side of the water, civil war is going on, and that's without any doubt a metaphor of this strange friendship which's going into pieces: meaningless and unnecessary.
The filming of the beautiful landscape is breathtaking, the characters are deeply described, even if sometimes I felt they were a little two-dimensional, as if they weren't capable to fully develop their cognitive abilities. We may not forget tho that we're talking about people who're living in a rural small society, living in a small island far from everything, in the early 1900's Ireland, so maybe the portraits are truthful.
I truly liked this movie, even if I'm not sure it's going to win an Oscar. if people see it as a metaphor of war, given the Ukrainian situation, it may actually have a chance.
Triangle of sadness is another strange movie, with I first believed would be a modern revisitation of Lord of the Flies, but in reality focused on other aspects of humanity. The movie is divided in three chapters, and it felt like the two first were a sort of mix between preparation and introduction to the third one. There're some hilarious scenes in this film, but I feel it could have been so much more outrageous, had it dared a little more! I had all the time a feeling of something crazy was going to happen, and it never did.
The main theme here is obviously a critic of the superficial rich part of humanity, people who wouldn't§t survive one day without technology and facilities the modern world supplies, people who's more interested in finding the instagrammable spot. I must say that this critic has started to sound old, in my ears, and there's no originality in it anymore, like everybody had already pointed it out. The funny scenes made me forgive that, but yet: I was so hoping for the tarantinian turn which neve came. Even if I got the feeling that the director was criticizing and making fun of the rich people, I felt he was forgiving them as well. Some of them drown, but the ones that survive live well on the island, they're not being punished for all the dumb things they both say and do. In the last scene we then understand that the cathartic process we were promised never happened, og no one of the characters has a chance to become a better human being.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Even if this movie is in German, it was very easy to follow the conversations, so no dubbing needed.
It was very strong, following the development of the mood throughout the whole movie, from party-like to desperation, fear, then up again to happiness and down again.
What this movie is screaming (just as the book did) is the total lack of meaning of the war, where young people sacrifice their lives to a goal they don't understand, while people who decide discuss and play with their lives.
Absolutely a good movie, it'll probably take a statue home tonight.
To Leslie
To Leslie is a surprisingly good independent low-budget movie.
The story is simple, inspired to the real life of a woman who lets her drinking issues destroy her life.
There's no doubt that Riseborough deserves the nomination, and possibly the statue for best actress in a leading role, she really has the amazing ability to show us all the sides of this multifaceted person, whit all her ups and downs. Watching this movie one gets happy, irritated, frustrated and sad, and this gives depth to the character and to her role.
There were absolutely need for this endorsement from other actors, and that's a sign to Hollywood, cause they're still not aware that they no longer have the monopoly on the good quality movies, and that a good idea with the right people can now concretize in a well done movie, since mostly everyone has now access to relatively good technology. Sound mixing could have been done better, tho.
This was a though cookie.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once takes the idea that there's many different universes at the same time (the multiverse) to a whole new level, by making travel between them easy, all of them at once.
The movie can feel a little chaotic at the beginning, but one gets quickly used to this special roller coaster, and then it's easy to follow the story which is developing. The story of a family which's struggling with misunderstandings, distance between each other, unrevealed feelings.
Just like it happened in Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (amazing movie from 2004) even in different realities soulmates will in the end find each other, somehow. The special effects are working very good, and this makes the movie a must watch, even if I'm not sure it has enough feelings to win the best Picture award. Maybe some other award, the Daniels made a wonderful job with both directing, producing and with the screenplay, while Michelle Yeoh is incredible in playing all the different versions of her role.
A metafore of our modern everyday, where we play different roles in different arenas, both in real life and online, and our fear of the context crash, which can both give us superpowers and make us vulnerable, is real. Good work!
Le Pupille
Nice short, old-fashioned, like only the Italians can do. The girls are cute, the desires are so real and the surrealistic tone its the whole representation in a wonderful way.
Nattrykken
This short movie made me angry in just a few seconds. There's so much hate, discrimination and loneliness that you wish you were there to say or do something. I like the end, tho.
I truly enjoyed this movie. Butler was amazing in this role, and I truly suffered through the whole evolution of the events. It's sad Elvis was used and burned quickly just to make others rich, and that the fans devoured him without thinking he was a human being.
A typical entertainment film, fun, full of suspense, with a Agatha Christie touch (á la10 little Indians) but an unexpected twist. I love James Bond playing the detective role, it's quite ironic.The nomination is deserved, but I don't believe it's a winner.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
We never get enough anti-nazi rhetoric, but if you decide to mix it with a holy book like Pinocchio, you're walking on a dangerous field. The movie wins the prize, of course, but next time change the name of the marionette.
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