The 94th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 27. In preparation for them, I caught up on the movies that were nominated in the top six categories: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, and Supporting Actor. Here are the five that I viewed.
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| Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tōko Miura in "Drive My Car" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
1) “Drive My Car” (Best Picture, Best Director) If you’re looking for a movie that’ll take you on a poignant and expansive journey of self-rediscovery, you can’t do any better than director-cowriter Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film, which is based on Haruki Murakami’s 2014 short story of the same name. The movie follows actor and theater director Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), who suffers the loss of his wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima). Two years later, he’s hired to direct a multilingual stage production of Anton Chekhov’s play, “Uncle Vanya,” all while forming an unexpected friendship with Misaki Watari (Tōko Miura), who’s been hired as Yūsuke’s driver. Nishijima provides a performance that’s loaded with many rich, complicated layers that offer a view into this troubled artist’s life. Meanwhile, Miura portrays a character who’s rich in emotion and wisdom, giving an effectively stoic performance that allows you to not only see the focus that Misaki has on her job, but also how she tries to hold back the pain from years of heartache. The screenplay by Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe shares a story that’s every bit as much a road movie as it is a story about reconnecting with and making sense of your past. Not only that, but the narrative parallels the events of “Uncle Vanya” to a beautiful degree, leaving their stage performance of the play to be one of tremendous impact that won’t leave you anything short of enraptured. The film has a three-hour runtime, and because of that, the direction and writing allow us to experience the full effects of the plot and the talks amongst the characters as we sit and let everything unfold. So, just get in the car and give yourself over to wherever this drive takes you. You won’t forget it.
Grade: A
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| Milena Smit and Penélope Cruz in "Parallel Mothers" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
2) “Parallel Mothers” (Best Actress) Before watching writer-director Pedro Almodóvar’s latest drama, I’d only seen three of his movies from his decades-long career, but that’s still enough to know that he’s one of international cinema’s most distinct visions. When stepping into his new film, I knew I was in for something special. His movie follows Janis Martínez (Penélope Cruz) and Ana Manso Ferreras (Milena Smit), two mothers whose lives are changed forever when they give birth on the same day. Cruz delivers a beautiful performance as a new mother who exhibits a determination and purpose when it comes to focusing on both her work and parenthood, but soon faces a deep emotional struggle when she makes a life-shattering discovery. Meanwhile, Smit excels in a stunning breakout performance that’ll make you hope to see more of her talent in forthcoming movies. The chemistry between Cruz and Smit carries the movie through as their characters bond over the course the film, only to become strained and possibly irreparable in the third act. Almodóvar’s screenplay offers an examination on motherhood and the challenges that come with it, all while placing it against and relating it to the thought-provoking backdrop of Janis and her home village excavating for the remains of her great-grandfather and other men who were killed and buried there during the Spanish Civil War. As a director, Almodóvar evokes heartrending drama from his cast, all while providing his reliably beautiful use of colors within the environments of the film, ensuring that his settings stand out every bit as much as his talented cast. With the staying power of this film, Almodóvar once again shows that his ability to engage an audience is as potent as ever.
Grade: A
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| Olivia Colman in "The Lost Daughter" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
3) “The Lost Daughter” (nominations: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress) Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut finds her adapting Elena Ferrante’s 2006 novel of the same name. In this stunning, anxiety-inducing psychological drama, the story follows Leda Caruso (Olivia Colman), a college professor who’s on holiday in Greece. While over there, circumstances will arise that will cause her to face her troubled past. Colman provides a performance that’s masterful in its heartbreak, but refrains from being showy. This is work that has you feel her character’s inner pain seep through the screen, making it a performance that’s not always easy to watch, but one that you must experience. Jessie Buckley’s career continues to unfold in marvelous directions, doing so here by portraying a younger Leda and giving older Leda’s flashbacks a detailed view into why she grew up into the person that she became. And, with just a few minutes peppered here and there throughout the film, Dakota Johnson’s performance as a vacationer, Nina, who bonds with Leda shows so much poignancy despite having little screen time. Gyllenhaal brings a wonderful directorial effort in her first go-around behind the camera. The way in which she utilizes close-ups (courtesy of cinematography by Helene Louvart) to provide a quiet, in-depth view of the emotions and challenges that go into motherhood is one of many aspects that make this movie as powerful as it is. No matter how much screen time each of these characters is given, the cast and Gyllenhaal are able to express the complexities that Leda, young Leda, and Nina face in their lives, ensuring that you’re absorbed in each of their stories as they unfurl from one emotional beat to the next. Gyllenhaal has proven herself to be a great actress over the last couple of decades, and now, we see the beginnings of someone who’ll be a terrific filmmaker.
Grade: A
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| Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman in "Being the Ricardos" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
4) “Being the Ricardos” (nominations: Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor) - The story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz is one of the most iconic of the entertainment industry, leading to the television phenomenon of “I Love Lucy,” a sitcom that broke ground in many ways and has lived a long life since then. In Aaron Sorkin’s latest film as a writer-director, he follows Ball and Arnaz (Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem) as they go through a week of preparations to film their next episode, all while facing professional and personal challenges. Kidman provides a wonderful performance as Lucille, exhibiting the hungriness of success in an industry that she loves, as well as the determination to overcome the unexpected obstacles that threaten her success. Meanwhile, Bardem gives off a lot of energy as Arnaz, displaying his character as the dynamic performer and savvy businessman that he was. In supporting performances, J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda are comical to watch as the always-bickering William Frawley and Vivian Vance, who portrayed Fred and Ethel Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” while Tony Hale and Alia Shawkat, as show producer Jess Oppenheimer and show writer Madelyn Pugh are also memorable as their characters face their own tensions on set during an especially difficult week. Although Sorkin’s script offers an enticing view of the work behind creating an episode of “I Love Lucy,” it also spends time focusing on the years that Lucy and Desi shared before creating the show. The issue is that the sequences involving the show’s preparations are more interesting and should have been the whole movie, instead of trying to balance being a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the show and a Lucy/Desi biopic. Between writing and directing, Sorkin is more proficient at the former. His direction feels workman-like and doesn’t have much of a distinct style, which is something that an entertainment-industry story like this could have used.
Grade: B-
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| Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jennifer Lawrence in "Don't Look Up" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
5) “Don’t Look Up” (Best Picture) - Adam McKay has had a frustrating filmmaking career over the last few years. While his attempts at mining comedy from real-life events started out well with “The Big Short,” it didn’t quite work out with “Vice.” He falls even further with his latest film, which centers on two astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) as they try to alert the world about an oncoming collision with a comet. DiCaprio and Lawrence work well together, and their onscreen bond is one of the only memorable things about this movie. The rest of the cast has several big names, but only Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett stand out as the United States President and a talk-show host, respectively. Mark Rylance, a talented actor, stands out as well, but not in a positive way. His performance as a tech billionaire is rather grating, seeming to take his similar, yet good performance in “Ready Player One,” and portraying his “Don’t Look Up” character in such a way, but to an annoying degree. As for McKay and David Sirota’s screenplay, there’s a subtle detail here and there, but for the most part, the story falls into the same trap as “Vice” in being too heavy-handed and is further bogged down by McKay’s self-indulgent directorial style. The critiques on politics, social media, and current events aren’t saying anything groundbreaking, and there are a couple of subplots that could have been left out to trim down the movie. The material for an amusing satire is present, but it’s so smug and lacking in nuance that any entertainment that you could have received out of this is absent. If McKay continues his career like this, things aren’t looking up for the quality of his upcoming films.
Grade: C
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