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| Writer-director Barry Jenkins' masterful Moonlight is among the nine nominees this year for Best Picture. |
Welcome to Last Cinema Standing’s
Countdown to the Oscars, our daily look at this year’s Academy Awards race. Be
sure to check back every day leading up to the ceremony for analysis of each of
the Academy’s 24 categories and more.
Best Picture
The nominees are:
Arrival
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
It has been a few years now since a movie ran away from the
pack. Last year, it felt like any of four films could have been called out for
the top award. Before that, Birdman
and Boyhood battled it out for the big
prize, and 12 Years a Slave and Gravity the year before. You have to
look back to Argo in 2012 for the
last time a film gobbled up everything on its way to the big win at the Oscars.
Jack Nicholson and Michelle Obama presented that award. Can you imagine such a
thing now? Damn it, it has only been a month, and it seems so long ago that
hope mattered or was even possible.
We have talked in this series about the new president and
his administration and how these awards reflect a cultural backlash against our
just-beginning national nightmare. It is no coincidence we see films nominated
like Iranian master Asghar Farhadi’s The
Salesman, Ava DuVernay’s 13th, and
shorts like The White Helmets, Watani: My Homeland, 4.1 Miles, and Ennemis Intérieurs.
All of these films directly confront the most pressing issues of the day.
I have every hope the winners of Academy Awards on Sunday
will use the platform of the ceremony to speak out, to protest, and to sound a
rallying cry to the rest of us. There is no doubt the administration and its
supporters, in an attempt to stoke class divisions and nurture their beloved
us-vs.-them mentality, will point to this as yet another example of Hollywood
elitism. I prefer to think of the Academy as speaking for the majority of
Americans, who do not support the hate, racism, sexism, bigotry, and ignorance
spewing from and encouraged by the White House.
The Academy Awards are a big, fancy-dress ball being held at
a time when it almost does not seem worth it to get out of bed in the morning.
It has been hard all season to look forward to Sunday evening with any real joy
or anticipation. Political events seemed to have sucked the very idea of joy
out of our national consciousness. So, I understand if some people do not want
to watch (mostly) rich people get dressed up and award each other gold statues,
but I would also argue it means more than that.
Th nine Best Picture nominees listed above and discussed below
are about us and how we feel right now in this place and time. Some of us want
escape, some want confrontation, some need inspiration, and others just need to
see themselves reflected in a world turned upside down. Roger Ebert, that
greatest of all film writers, once said: “For me, the movies are like a machine
that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about
different hopes, aspirations, dreams, and fears. It helps us to identify with
the people who are sharing this journey with us.” If ever there were a time we
needed that machine, it is now.
La La Land (directed by Damien Chazelle) – As an Oscar
contender, there is nothing that compares to La La Land in the history of the Academy. It is just the third film
in 89 years of ceremonies to garner 14 nominations. The first to do so was All About Eve in 1950. While both films
are ostensibly show-business films, All
About Eve is a dark, cynical satire, while Chazelle’s film is an earnest
paean to the magic of art. The other film with 14 nominations is Titanic, which like La La Land is a romance, but let’s not compare the scale of the
two. No one need be reminded of the epic nature of James Cameron’s historical
fiction, and by comparison, the Hollywood musical seems small.
Chazelle’s film, then, is in a class by itself. It has
pulled away from everything else in such an historic manner, I would not be
surprised to see it break the record for Oscar wins, shared at 11 by Ben-Hur, Titanic, and The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King. La La
Land is double nominated in Best Original Song, so there is one it cannot
win, except in the unlikely event of a tie. Ryan Gosling is not among the
frontrunners for Best Actor, so there are two. That leaves 12 and the record
within reach.
Here are the Awards we can be nearly certain of: Picture,
Director, Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Original
Song, Original Score, and Sound Mixing. That’s nine, which would be an
impressive haul and the most since The
Return of the King in 2003. Editing and Sound Editing are a toss-up between
La La Land and Hacksaw Ridge, while Original Screenplay is between this and Manchester by the Sea, and that is all
that stands between Chazelle and history.
The question lingers: Why? Why this film? Why now? A
starry-eyed musical romance about two dreamers following their lives’ passions –
how does this speak to us today? Well, it is an escape into a fantasy land of
hope and optimism, two hours during which you can sink into your chair, click
your heels, and be whisked away into another world entirely, a happier world.
It is natural, in times such as these, to need such an escape.
I have felt every day since the election: ‘Just bring me
another drink, in bed; no worries, I’ll pull the covers back over my head
myself.’ I do not suppose I am the only one. La La Land is the briefest of respites from the national
depression. It is also a marvelously realized film, and whatever minor flaws it
has are covered by its audacity and unbridled enthusiasm. With it, Chazelle takes his place as one of
the modern visionaries of cinema.
Moonlight (directed by Barry Jenkins) – There are a couple
films here with an outside shot of upsetting the apple cart, and we will
discuss those in a moment, but the only film with a reasonable chance of
toppling La La Land is Moonlight. It is the critical favorite
by a wide margin. It is second in nominations total behind La La Land, tied with Arrival
at eight. More than any of that, though, and what will linger long after the
awards have been handed out, it is a uniquely artistic, gorgeously rendered
examination of a life. Talk about a machine that generates empathy.
As the film opens, Little (Alex R. Hibbert) could be any of
us. He is a small, shy, sensitive boy being bullied for who he is. He meets his
mentor, Juan (Mahershala Ali), a drug dealer but a kind man. He grows and
becomes Chiron (Ashton Sanders), who is not yet comfortable in his own skin and
has difficulty adjusting to the emotional and physical upheaval of adolescence.
Finally, he is Black (Trevante Rhodes), a man who embodies all of that – the shy
boy, the angry teen, the kind mentor – but still has little idea who he truly
wants to be.
Moonlight is
glorious because it charts the path of a life that could be any life, but in
its specifics and details, it opens a door and invites us to step into this
life, which we perhaps only understood intellectually. Jenkins helps us
understand emotionally. At the margins of this society are people with the same
hopes, fears, dreams, and aspirations as everyone else, but because opportunity
never knocked on their doors, their lives took a different path. Most of us
will never walk a mile in those shoes, but Moonlight
shows us what it is like to lace them up.
Hidden Figures (directed by Theodore Melfi) – Every year, there
is a popular favorite, a movie everybody saw and everyone liked and everyone
thinks should win Best Picture. Call it the People’s Choice. In the recent
past, that would have referred to movies like The Martian, American Sniper,
and Gravity. These movies are usually
well made, conventional but with an arty pedigree, and huge hits at the box
office. Enter Hidden Figures, a
well-made flick that feels conventional but has a degree of artiness and is the
highest grossing of these nine nominees.
USA Today conducted a recent poll, in conjunction with
Fandango, asking 8,000 movie-goers – a sample size a little larger than the
Academy – what should win Best Picture. Hidden
Figures led with 26 percent of the vote, followed closely by La La Land. Now, 26 percent will get you
nowhere on a preferential ballot, which requires 50 percent plus one vote to
win, but it is still informative. In a group that contains several
crowd-pleasing entertainments, Melfi’s film is the one that pleased the crowd
most. That it happens to be about three smart, black women is a wonderful
bonus.
Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan
(Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) are American heroes for
what they accomplished, yes, but more for how they accomplished it. To be black
in this country has never been easy, and to be a woman in this country has
never been easy, and black women have had perhaps the toughest time of anyone. The
story of these brilliant people and their work at NASA is inspiring, the script
is witty, and the performances are superb, but what matters most is if one more
young, black girl – hopefully many more – decides to pursue a career in science
or mathematics. That is what we mean when we talk about the power of these
movies.
Manchester by the Sea (directed by Kenneth Lonergan) – There is
no formula for winning Best Picture or making the kind of movie that will even
be nominated. The more cynical among the film commentariat will sometimes see a
log line or cast list and declare a film signed, sealed, and delivered for the
Academy. Often as not, they are wrong. Speaking in the most general terms, a
film needs one of two things to win Best Picture: wow factor or importance. If
a film features both, so much the better. The last three Best Picture winners
could not be more dissimilar, but they all had one or the other – Spotlight (importance), Birdman (wow factor), and 12 Years a Slave (both).
I mention all of this because Manchester by the Sea was tabbed as an early favorite for the top
prize based on the critical response, which was breathless, and its cast and
performances, which are universally superb. While it has found love in the
nominations process everywhere, it has not caught on anywhere but for lead
actor Casey Affleck, though even he is battling off a late charge by Denzel
Washington. The reason, it seems to me, is that it lacks either the wow factor
of some of these contenders, such as La
La Land, Hacksaw Ridge, or Arrival, or the importance of films like
Moonlight, Hidden Figures, and even Hell
or High Water.
None of this is to say Manchester
by the Sea is not a wonderful film, which it is, nor that it failed to
accomplish what it sets out to accomplish, which I believe it does. Lonergan’s
script is a remarkable achievement of character development, emotional
resonance, and quiet humor, and he very well could win an Oscar for it. The
work by Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, and the rest of the cast is
outstanding. However, next to the frontrunners, and indeed some of the films
ostensibly trailing it, Manchester by the
Sea lacks that essential element that would drive Academy members to vote
for it.
Hacksaw Ridge (directed by Mel Gibson) – The Oscar story of Hacksaw Ridge is the story of Gibson’s
return to the good graces of the Academy. The film, Gibson’s first as director
since Apocalypto in 2006, premiered
out of competition at the Venice Film Festival and received a 10-minute
standing ovation. Its adequate, if not stellar, domestic box-office numbers are
mitigated by a solid overseas haul, and the capper came nominations morning
with six nods, including Best Picture. Mel Gibson, at least for now, is fully
back. We talked a lot about the ethical quandary of that in discussing Best
Director, so I will not rehash it here. The work stands alone.
And what beautiful work. Gibson’s credentials as a filmmaker
have never been in doubt, and his twin Oscars for directing and producing Braveheart are hard-won, if not
necessarily the choices I would have made. What he has needed – what all
directors need – has been a story worthy of his gifts. He finds it in the
true-life tale of Desmond Doss, a Quaker and conscientious objector during
World War II who nonetheless joins the U.S. Army in an effort to preserve as
much life on the battlefield as he can while refusing to take a life or even to
carry a gun.
For a film that is ostensibly about the virtue of
nonviolence, Gibson packs a hell of a lot of blood and guts into his picture,
but at no point does he fall into the trap of making war look pretty or poetic.
It is gritty, grimy, gross business, and the film depicts the honest darkness
with a refreshing lack of sentiment. This is the big action star and action
filmmaker in Gibson putting his talents to use in service of a cause larger
than mere thrills or entertainment. Hacksaw
Ridge uses its trappings as a brutally gory war flick to hide its true
nature, that of a grand, glorious anti-war statement.
Arrival (directed by Denis Villeneuve) – Speaking of films that
hide their true nature, anyone walking into Arrival
expecting to see a traditional alien-invasion movie, with all the attendant
firepower and destruction, left sorely disappointed. That is, unless they were
able to give themselves over to one of cinema’s truly unique experiences this
year – an elliptically told story about the power of words and virtue of
patience that ultimately speaks volumes about the world in which we live.
The short story on which the film was based – “The Story of
Your Life” by Ted Chiang – was published in 1998, nearly 20 years ago, but its
themes and ideas grow more relevant with each passing day. It is a story of
communication, of seeing the world through eyes that are not your own, and of
accepting that our lives and views are not so big in the grand scheme of
things. In a world of radical self-importance and nihilistic individuality, this
is perhaps not the message most want to receive, but it is the message we all most
need.
Villeneuve’s direction, Amy Adams’ central performance, and
the script by Eric Heisserer combine to make sense of a story that by design,
has no beginning or end. Events occur, or have occurred, or will occur,
seemingly at random, but as the pieces fall together, we get closer to
understanding what it all means and how it all fits. This is the character’s
journey as well, slowly, methodically coming to understand the whys of the world
around her and finally coming to grips with that understanding.
Lion (directed by Garth Davis) – Some movies sneak up on you.
You are not prepared for their depth or beauty. You cannot conceive of their
brilliance until you are awash in it. I did not expect much from Lion. I had heard all the rave reviews,
but most described it as a sort of weepy, which to me suggested it would be
emotionally manipulative in some way, that it would not play fair with our
hearts and minds. Its trailers did it no favors in selling it as just that kind
of film. I went in with decidedly lowered expectations. How wrong I was to have
doubted.
Davis’ film is anything but the generic,
based-on-a-bestseller melodrama I so dreaded. It is a contemplative, quietly
moving, deeply affecting look at the inner turmoil and emotional upheaval of a
person whose life is split in two and who cannot move forward until the pieces
are put back together. In addition to the remarkable, heart-on-its-sleeve
story, the artistry put on display by first-time feature director Davis is
positively splendid. The director daringly transitions from a neo-realist,
nearly silent opening half into a more dreamlike, surreal second half that
blends memory and reality, sensation and absence into a whirlwind of competing
emotions that perfectly mirrors the main character’s headspace.
Lion is one of
those rare pleasant surprises at the movies. I see enough and read enough that
I know what to expect when I buy my ticket and take my seat – most of the time.
When a movie comes along like Lion,
though, and from the first frame to the last simply bowls me over with its
intelligence, its grace, and its beauty, I can do nothing but marvel and
appreciate that I have had an experience that does not come around very often.
Hell or High Water (directed by David Mackenzie) – I have a
little game I play every year, like a thought experiment, in which I try to
guess which Best Picture nominees my dad would enjoy most. I learned my love of
film from my father, then as I grew older, I grew a different appreciation for
the art of cinema from the one I knew as a child renting VHS tapes from the
video store across the street. Suffice to say, my father’s and my taste have
diverged.
While there are few films he enjoys that I do not – apart from
a few tiresome comedies, which I would not begrudge anyone – I feel certain
most of my favorite films would not appeal to him. This does not bother me and
is perfectly normal, but when I find a movie I know my father will love, I get
excited. It is fun to show something to the man who showed me everything when I
was growing up. All of this is a long way of saying Hell or High Water is the kind of rollicking, adventure thriller
that will appeal to anyone with an appreciation of cinema or anyone who just
wants to have a good damn time.
The magnificence of Mackenzie’s film, written by Taylor
Sheridan, lies in its ability to be two things at once. It is a whip-smart,
down-home thriller about a couple good ol’ boys on the run from the law and the
lawman chasing after them. However, it is also an earnest condemnation of the
big-business world and the politics of money that have depressed entire regions
of this nation, destroying livelihoods and wrecking futures for generations to
come. So few movies can be all things to all people, but Hell or High Water succeeds in entertaining and informing in a way
of which I think my dad would approve.
Fences (directed by Denzel Washington) – In just the past two
months, I have written thousands of words about the greatness of Fences – its performances, its
direction, and above all its writing. There is not much more I can do to
convince the unconvinced, to interest the disinterested. I simply sit and
wonder how anyone could not be shaken to the bone, moved to their very core, by
the story of Troy Maxson (Washington), his wife, Rose (Viola Davis), their son,
Corey (Jovan Adepo), Troy’s first son, Lyons (Russell Hornsby), his brother,
Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson), and his friend Bono (Stephen Henderson).
Playwright August Wilson’s masterpiece is about these people
and the way they live. It is about how they communicate, how they interact with
the world, how the world treats them. It is about the ways they wrong each
other, care for each other, love each other, and find equal amounts of joy and
sorrow in one another. No work of American literature has better captured or
better expressed the basic humanness of us all. It is not a blueprint for how
to live our lives but a blueprint for how we have already lived. Wilson writes
as if he knows who we are, what we have done, and what we will do. He writes
this way because he knows all of this of the Maxsons, who stand for every one
of us and yet stand alone.
The play, as Wilson’s only true peer Shakespeare once wrote,
is the thing. Every bit of brilliance in Fences
stems from the words on the page. But Washington’s task does not end there. He
is the first director to bring a work by Wilson to the big screen, and his
responsibility in so doing is immense. Of course, lest we forget, this is
Denzel Washington, one of the great talents of our time, and he lives up to
every responsibility he has to the text. He mounts the picture marvelously,
performs in it incomparably, and directs it admirably. We are lucky, now, to
live in a world where such greatness was captured, even for an instant.
The final analysis
There are certain years in Academy history that stand out
for their Best Picture lineups. The first, and most often cited as the greatest
year in film history, let alone Academy history, is 1939, when nominated for
Best Picture were winner Gone with the
Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,
Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Wuthering Heights, among others.
Another is 1967, 50 years ago now, and as is my
understanding the subject of one of those strange, themed Academy Awards
ceremony tributes that honor films that came out in the anniversary of the
ceremony year, not the year of the films being celebrated. For instance, the
ceremony of 50 years ago, honored the films of 1966, much as this one
celebrates the achievements of 2016. I digress. In 1967, the nominees were
winner In the Heat of the Night, The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who’s
Coming to Dinner, and Doctor
Doolittle.
Less often spoken of but to my mind no less miraculous is
1976, when the nominees were winner Rocky,
Taxi Driver, Network, All the President’s
Men, and Bound for Glory. It has
been a while since we have had a year of such vintage, though I would argue
2005, which honored Crash alongside Capote, Goodnight and Good Luck, Brokeback
Mountain, and Munich, belongs in
the conversation.
La La Land will
win Best Picture this year. It will probably sweep the awards in a possibly
record-setting fashion. It will do so, however, at the head of a class of
nominees that deserves a place on that illustrious list of best years in
Academy history. Moonlight and Fences belong to the ages. La La Land is an invigorating, admirable
champion from an exciting, young visionary director, and it will be looked back
upon fondly.
The other six nominees are all glorious achievements and a
year featuring any one of them could not have been a bad year for the movies.
These nine films speak to who we are today, the people we were yesterday, and
the people we could be tomorrow. Their individual accomplishments are many, but
taken together, it is one of the greatest groups the Academy has ever produced,
and years from now, generations yet to be born will look back on these films
and know something good came from the mess we made of this world. If we cannot
say the same about the society we have fostered, at least we do not have to be
embarrassed of its cinema.
Will win: La La
Land
Should win:
Moonlight
Should have been
here: O.J.: Made in America
This weekend: I will
have up a couple more fun items tomorrow and Sunday morning, including a
ranking of all 62 nominated films, so be sure to check back for that, and then,
at long last, the big show arrives.
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