New movie review: BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Daniel Jimenez Cacho in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Bardo.

Alejandro González Iñárritu, it seems, is truly a director’s director. I read and listen to a lot of critics, and the general consensus going back to at least Babel in 2006 is that his film’s are undercooked, overlong, and indulgent. His peers, on the other hand, have always been vocal in their love for him and his art. This goes a long way toward explaining why Iñárritu is one of only three directors ever to win the Best Director statue at the Oscars two years in a row. He is the only one to accomplish this feat in the past 70 years.

His new film, BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (which we will be calling Bardo from here on out), may be the peak example of the divide between the critical and artistic communities. It deals with an artist and, like Birdman before it, features a scene with a thorough dismantling of a critic. Take that for what it is worth, but Bardo has within its generous running time enough to chew on for detractors and devotees, alike.

Consider me among the devotees. I have always found a certain brilliance within each of his films, and though Bardo is not his most accomplished feature – that probably remains the Best Picture-winning Birdman – it is probably his most fascinating. Like the celebrated later work of Federico Fellini, the film is not merely dreamlike, rather it is dreaming itself. 

Still, Iñárritu’s film is much more than a Mexican 8½ – though, at times, it is that, too. It explores Fellini’s pet themes of classism, the extravagances of wealth, and the political storms that often serve as a backdrop to everyday life, but Iñárritu is also interested in deconstructing his own privileges and prejudices. For good reason, Fellini stuck to a strictly Italian milieu. Bardo offers up the insights of a director who is straddling two cultures, neither of which truly has a place for him.

Daniel Jiménez Cacho stars as Silverio Gama, a former journalist and director of “docufiction” films. His art seeks to bring reality to life through invented historical scenarios that get at a deeper understanding of society, what Werner Herzog might call “ecstatic truth.” He depicts himself in imagined conversations with significant cultural figures such as Hernán Cortés, interrogating the conquistador about his crimes against humanity. We hear about this encounter early in the film, long before we actually see it, and we have a pretty good idea of the kind of artist Silverio is.

Not coincidentally, he is similar to the kind of artist Iñárritu is. The film, from a script by Iñárritu and Birdman co-writer Nicolás Giacobone, exists in two worlds. There is the real world, in which Silverio is receiving honorary awards from organizations in Mexico and the United States and must come to terms with what this recognition means and is worth, if anything. Then, there is the dream world, which is woven seamlessly into the fabric of the story. It jumps backward and forward in time, sometimes by years. Space collapses in on itself. There are ghosts. It operates on a logic unique to the unconscious.

It may help here to offer a brief rundown of what Iñárritu has been up to in the seven years since his Oscar-winning The Revenant – another movie I loved that was not particularly critically acclaimed but found champions within the industry. In 2019 alone, he received an honorary doctorate from the prestigious National Autonomous University of Mexico, he was made a commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, and he became the first person of Latin American descent to serve as president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. 

He was already the first Mexican filmmaker to receive the best director award at Cannes, the first Mexican nominated for either Director or Producer at the Academy Awards, and the first Mexican to win Original Screenplay and Best Picture at the Oscars. His place as a modern master in the international cinema landscape is assured. Bardo finds him grappling with all of this success while also recognizing that much of it is built on the back of his much lauded debut feature, Amores Perros.

That film depicted the harsh realities of Mexican life and the often brutal nature of humanity. It was also Iñárritu’s last film, until Bardo, to be set primarily in Mexico. In Bardo, Silverio appears conflicted over finding global acclaim for showing the messiness of his homeland. Is it honesty or exploitation? After all, Silverio and his family actually live in Southern California now, though they maintain a home in Mexico City.

Silverio’s wife, Lucía (Griselda Sicilliani), has no trouble pointing out the contradictions and hypocrisies in his varying stances. During an excellent breakfast table scene, after Silverio argues with his son, Lorenzo (Iker Sanchez Solano), Lucía spells it out plainly. He chooses to live in Los Angeles, and though he expresses nostalgia for Mexico, he portrays it in a harsh light. Yet, if anyone else dares to speak of that harshness, he vehemently defends the country’s culture and people. He is lost, caught between worlds. Of course, we learn this is what “Bardo” means: Limbo.

It is not, however, solely a creative and cultural purgatory in which Silverio finds himself. It is also the purgatory of grief. In the film’s fanciful opening passages, Lucía gives birth to Mateo, a son who whispers to the doctor that he would like to return to the womb. His reason: The world is “too fucked up.” Hard to argue with that logic, and the doctors return Mateo to whence he came. The moment itself is comically absurd, but its tragic underpinnings could not be more clear. Later, Silverio reveals that Mateo lived for just a day before dying. They keep his ashes by the bedside, and his memory haunts them, literally and figuratively.

For all of the flights of fancy and surrealist touches in the film, by opening with this scene, Iñárritu is grounding the audience in the emotional reality of the story. Silverio is moody and difficult and pretentious, yes, but he and his family have quietly mourned the loss of Mateo for years. That loss colors everything they do and do not do. How does one move on from this kind of pain? Can a family run from the ghosts of the past? Can a nation?

Among the common complaints of this film is its running time (2 hours, 40 minutes), though it is 20 minutes shorter now than when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September. I could have lived in the world of Bardo forever, but if I have a criticism, it is this: The resolution of the Mateo storyline, which I will not spoil here, is the emotional high point of the film. There are another 20 to 30 minutes after that, all of which are important in wrapping up the themes of the movie, but it never gets better than the quiet catharsis of a family letting go.

Bardo undoubtedly is a lot of movie, and that is without touching on its many technical achievements. Chief among them is the gorgeously fluid cinematography of frequent Woody Allen and James Gray collaborator Darius Khondji, whose work here perfectly evokes the tone and purpose of each moment in Iñárritu’s film. The score, a collaboration between Iñárritu and Bryce Dessner, is equal parts melancholy and anarchic, like a circus at the end of the world.

The director’s greatest achievement, however, comes in the blending of these impressive crafts with a complex, compelling story and a thematic richness found in the work of too few filmmakers. Bardo is a self-portrait painted in big, bold strokes, risky in a way that is both energizing and inspiring. It is no wonder fellow directors such as Lulu Wang and countryman Guillermo del Toro came out immediately with the highest of praise for the film. Of course other talented, inquisitive artists can appreciate everything that is going on here. Maybe someday, the rest of us will catch up.

See it? Yes.

Rise and Fall: The 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2022

Cate Blanchett, in Todd Field's TAR.

There are a few basic truths when compiling a list of the most anticipated movies of the fall. Chief among these is that the director rules. Nothing is more exciting than a new feature from a brilliant filmmaker, and this year offers an embarrassment of riches. Next: All buzz is good buzz. Most of the films below have debuted at one film festival or another, and the first round of critical notices is in – some good, some bad. The good reviews just make me more excited, and the bad ones just make me curious. The anticipation remains.

Nevertheless, great filmmakers sometimes make terrible films or, worse, middling, unmemorable films. Looking back over my previous “Most Anticipated” lists, the movies run the gamut from my personal top 10 and Best Picture winners to pure trash and everywhere in between. That is what is so exciting about anticipation. Before the film starts rolling, it could be anything. There is virtually no chance the following 10 films will end up as my top 10 of the year and a similarly slim chance that all 10 will even be good. But, right now, we don’t know. There is only hope.

This year, more than most, my hopes are high for the final four months of the year to deliver great cinema. This is primarily due to the fact that the first eight months have been mostly disappointing, with just one or two movies I would consider truly great. We need greatness back on screen, and though not all of these movies are likely to deliver that, they are the best chance we’ve got.

Before we get to the list, five more films I am excited to see in the rest of 2022: Laura Poitras’ Golden Bear-winning documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; Andrew Dominik’s already-controversial Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde; Sam Mendes’ Olivia Colman-starring ode to movie theaters Empire of Light; Steven Spielberg’s memoir on film The Fablemans; and Rian Johnson’s whodunnit sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Now, the 10 movies I cannot wait to be front row, center for this fall:

10. The Woman King, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood

Release date: September 16

Viola Davis is such a tremendous actress, able to lose herself completely in characters, that I think we sometimes forget what a badass she can be on screen. But, if you look at her filmography, it is not short on action movies, thrillers, and good old-fashioned shoot-’em-ups. Steve McQueen’s excellent heist thriller Widows has probably been the shining example of this – until now.

With The Woman King, Prince-Bythewood appears to be unlocking the final level of Viola Davis Action Star. Based on the true story of a fierce band of women warriors in 1800s coastal Africa, Davis’ ascendance to the action throne is just one reason to be excited for this film. Beyond that, Prince-Bythewood seems to be telling a story of empowerment, determinism, and the eternal struggle to preserve one’s homeland, and there is never a bad time for this type of story.

9. White Noise, directed by Noah Baumbach

Release date: November 25

For someone of his stature, Baumbach’s resumé is quite a bit more uneven than it might seem at first. For every masterpiece like Frances Ha and The Squid and the Whale, there is a misfire or mediocrity like The Meyerowitz Stories or Mr. Jealousy. However, when he is on his A-game, there are few outside of Alexander Payne who can match his acerbic wit and dry, cutting observations on modern life. That said, White Noise is one heck of a curveball for the writer-director.

Starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, both on their fourth collaborations with the director, this is Baumbach’s first adaptation, and he has picked a doozy. The film is based on Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name, which sees a college professor and his family facing down a potentially cataclysmic event. For a director who has always focused on smaller stories of human foibles and the like, it will be fascinating to see what Baumbach does with a story this grand and this strange. 

8. Avatar: The Way of Water, directed by James Cameron

Release date: December 16

What is there to say? We have waited 13 years for this, the sequel to the biggest movie of all time. Cameron is the king of spectacle, and of course, the first trailers are awe-inspiring, introducing audiences to previously unexplored parts of Pandora. There is no reason to believe the director of The Terminator, Titanic, and Aliens will not pull off something truly special here, and yet, that is what many people seem to believe right now.

Cameron faced similar doubt before he launched Titanic, formerly the biggest movie of all time before he topped it with Avatar, which faced even greater doubt. He works on scales few filmmakers could even imagine, both from a budgetary and a story standpoint. He is synonymous with success, innovation, and entertainment. To doubt him is to risk being made the fool, and that is a risk I am unwilling to take. Give me my popcorn, show me to my seat, and bring it on.

7. Decision to Leave, directed by Park Chan-wook

Release date: October 14

Admittedly, I had been a bit of a Park novice until last year. Of course, I had seen Oldboy many years prior, and I loved The Handmaiden when I saw it in theaters, and I enjoyed his section of the Korean horror omnibus Three … Extremes. But, I had only scratched the surface. Last summer, I finally caught up with the first two parts of his vengeance trilogy – Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance – as well as his unique take on the vampire mythos, Thirst.

Each film was impressive, surprising, and invigorating. I look forward to diving further into his filmography and that includes my excitement for his latest feature, which has already been submitted as the Korean entry for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. It received widespread acclaim when it premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and Park won his first best director award at the festival. 

6. Women Talking, directed by Sarah Polley

Release date: December 2

Polley’s last film was the excellent experimental documentary Stories We Tell, in which she examined the ways we alter and obscure our personal histories to suit the narratives we need to believe about our lives. It was raw, it was honest, and it was uncompromising. It seems likely all three of those words will be used to describe her newest feature, about a group of women in a religious colony who must reconcile their beliefs with the reality of their existence.

The subject matter is likely to be a major talking about around this film, which deals heavily with sexual assault, and it will almost certainly be a difficult sit for most audiences. But in her three previous features, Polley has proven herself uniquely attuned to the tone and purpose of her message, and there may be no working filmmaker more likely to treat the material with the care and consideration it deserves. All of this is not to mention a ludicrously stacked cast that includes Frances McDormand, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, and Ben Whishaw.

5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, directed by Ryan Coogler

Release date: November 11

The original Black Panther film was a cultural force almost without equal. It became one of the highest grossing films of all time, it breathed fresh life into a stale genre of films, and it spoke to and for a massive and massively underserved filmgoing audience. It would be asking too much to expect the sequel to reach those heights, but if anyone can make it happen, it would be Coogler.

I do hope he gets away from the superhero genre sooner rather than later, and his historic Best Picture Oscar nomination last year for Judas and the Black Messiah suggests he has his eyes firmly set on the kind of stories he wants to tell. I hope Wrong Answer, his long gestating film about the Atlanta test score scandal, comes to pass. And, I hope he has a blank check to make whatever he wants forever on the back of his MCU success. But for now, superheroes or not, whatever Coogler makes, I am 100 percent in.

4. Bardo (False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths), directed Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Release date: November 18

Iñárritu’s past two films (Birdman and The Revenant) topped this list in their respective years, and there is good reason for that. No one is making films as interesting or as inventive on the same kind of grand scale Iñárritu does. Early reports suggest this is no less grand and no less inventive. And, honestly, it is evidence of the special fall ahead of us that this film clocks in at just No. 4 on this list. 

It should be mentioned that those early reports out of multiple film festivals have been scathing, at least on the critical side of things. Critics have labeled it a mess, a slog, and a self-important, self-indulgent disaster. However, Iñárritu’s fellow filmmakers have sung his praises, with luminaries such as Chloé Zhao, Barry Jenkins, and Lulu Wang declaring it a masterpiece. There was a similar split between artists and critics on the receptions for Birdman and The Revenant, which likely explains why Iñárritu won Best Director for both films despite critical misgivings. For me, Iñárritu has earned the benefit of the doubt.

3. The Banshees of Inisherin, directed by Martin McDonagh

Release date: October 21

McDonagh took a lot of flack for his last feature, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, and its handling of race in America. And though I liked that film immensely, it probably was ambitious for an Irish filmmaker, no matter how intelligent and talented, to try to tackle such thorny topics as police brutality and systemic racism in the rural US. With The Banshees of Inisherin, McDonagh is firmly in his own milieu.

Reuniting with In Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, McDonagh’s latest has received glowing notices out of the festivals, with some hailing it as the writer-director’s finest achievement yet. Considering In Bruges remains one of my favorite films of all time and the first trailer suggests something altogether strange and unexpected, it would be hard to imagine being more excited for a film.

And yet, there are two more features to speak of:

2. Triangle of Sadness, directed by Ruben Östlund

Release date: October 7

Only 10 filmmakers in history have multiple Palmes d’Or. Just three of those filmmakers won for consecutive films. Billie August won for Pelle the Conqueror in 1988 and The Best Intentions in 1992. Michel Haneke won for The White Ribbon in 2009 and Amour in 2012. And now, Östlund has won his second in a row, following up 2017’s The Square with this year’s similarly geometrically concerned Triangle of Sadness. Including his 2014 international breakthrough Force Majeure, it is safe to say Östlund makes event movies for the arthouse crowd.

Taking aim directly at the moneyed elite and the implicit contradictions and hypocrisies of the modern economic system, Östlund’s film takes places on a doomed luxury cruiseliner. The setting and story are ripe with possibilities for skewering the upper classes, and Östlund is a filmmaker who has never shied away from that kind of skewering, whether it be with a scalpel or a broadsword and often both at the same time.

1. TÁR, directed by Todd Field

Release date: October 7

The man. The myth. The legend. 

By coincidence, many of the filmmakers on this list are returning from extended absences. Neither Östlund nor McDonagh has made a film in five years. It has been seven years for Iñárritu between The Revenant and Bardo. Polley had not made a feature for 10 years before Women Talking, and of course, Cameron has been working for 13 years on his Avatar sequel. But, none has been gone as long as Todd Field.

An actor best known for a supporting role in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Field made his feature filmmaking debut in 2001 with the Best Picture-nominated In the Bedroom. He followed that up in 2006 with Little Children, to my mind, and without caveat or reservation, one of the finest films of the 21st century. In the 16 years since, he has not directed a single film, nor has he helmed an episode of television. He has simply been gone.

Sure, he has been attached to any number of intriguing projects over the years with big names such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonathan Franzen, Cormac McCarthy, and the like, but none has come to fruition. His explanation to the New York Times in an interview earlier this year: He often sets his sights on productions that are, by their very nature, difficult to get made. 

On paper, TÁR would also seem to be an inherently difficult-to-make project, yet here we are, less than a month away from the long-awaited return of one of my favorite filmmakers in the game. It does not hurt anticipation that the early reviews out of the festival circuit are raves or that star Cate Blanchett reportedly delivers the finest performance of a career filled with fine performances or that the exquisite trailer promises a psychological drama of the highest order. It all adds up to my most anticipated movie of the year – hell, of any year in a long time.

A Personal History of Oscar Watching: 2015

Michael Keaton and Co. accept the Oscar for Best Picture at the 2015 Academy Awards ceremony.

The 87th Academy Awards

Ceremony date: February 22, 2015

Best Picture: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu for Birdman

Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything

Best Actress: Julianne Moore for Still Alice

It is fascinating to me how we use events to mark time in our lives. Intellectually, I know this ceremony was the #OscarsSoWhite ceremony. This was the year that particular criticism of the Academy really took off, and it has not let up since, nor should it. The criticism is fair and the discussion is vital to the long-term health of the Academy specifically and the industry in general. That can all be true, and yet that is not what I think of when I think of this ceremony.

By the time of the 2015 Oscars ceremony, we had been in New York a little more than a year. I had a steady job. We had a home. We had movie theaters and restaurants and parks and streets that we loved. New York had become more than a city. It was a way of living, and we did our best to soak up every second of life.

Part of that meant going to the movies, frequently and joyfully. I can tell you every theater I saw every Best Picture nominee in, and I can recount the experience in full. Eight movies in four different theaters, each one special. My wife and I were talking about it the other day, and she could not believe that we visited 34 different theaters in five years in New York. Every single one of them was unique, a reflection of its place in the city, an integral stitch in the cultural fabric.

We saw Richard Linklater’s Boyhood at the Lincoln Plaza (RIP) for my 26th birthday, apropos as there may not be a better birthday film than Linklater’s chronicle of lives lived. We saw Birdman in a packed house at the AMC Lincoln Square and knew instantly it was a special feat of filmmaking. The Imitation Game played a sold-out screening at The Paris, where the acoustics can be spotty in the cavernous hall, except when it is filled with people as it was that night. Damien Chazelle announced himself to us (and at least part of the world) in one of the small side theaters at the Regal Union Square.

These are all beautiful memories of a place and time, drifting further into the past but remaining clear as ever in my mind’s eye. This is how I mark time, and the Oscars are the great signposts of my life. I know where I was, whom I was with, and what I was doing for all of them.

The Daily Racing Form office. I used to work here.

On this particular occasion, Jen and I huddled together in the Daily Racing Form office on the 12th floor of the building at 44th and 3rd Avenue. I was working on the copy desk at the Form, and the TVs were usually on for racing during the day. On a Sunday night, though, we were all alone. We grabbed takeout from Davio’s just around the corner. As I said last time, Italian food in the city: almost always good. This was spectacular.

While the #OscarsSoWhite controversy and the ludicrous lack of recognition for Ava DuVernay’s masterful Selma dominated the conversation in the lead up to the show, the ceremony itself was about one thing: Boyhood vs. Birdman. It is remarkable how many years recently have come down to two films – usually one a more grounded human tale and the other a technical marvel. But perhaps that is just me, applying a loose narrative to events ruled more by the heart than the head.

I have always felt Boyhood, though good, is overpraised, while Birdman has been wrongly maligned. Unfortunately, the way this ceremony played out only reinforced those views. The Academy fell hard for Birdman, giving it four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Meanwhile, critical darling Boyhood came away with a single award for Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette, an award I would have given to Birdman’s Emma Stone.

Though at the time I predicted Boyhood for the top awards, it seems now it was always likely to go this way. Birdman is a perfect Academy movie, a tribute to true artists, toiling away, struggling to make art that matters. It strikes out at focus-group-tested tentpole movies and attacks critics who may have their knives out in search of the blood of inauthenticity. There is pretension in Birman, but insomuch as there is, that pretension is earnest. Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and Co. believe they are making great art and that that is a worthwhile endeavor. How could the Academy disagree?

Neil Patrick Harris hosted – Doogie Houser to me, the guy on How I Met Your Mother (a show I have never seen) to many – and failed to live up to the high bar set by his own Tony Awards gigs. That said, I found him energetic and entertaining. The Oscars ceremony is a different beast from the Tonys, and while Harris did the best he could, the musical theater schtick will only go so far in a roomful of cinema people.

After Birdman won the top prize, we headed home on the train. It was a long journey from my office in Midtown East up to our studio in West Harlem. At least, it felt long at the time. By the 90th Oscars ceremony, I would know better all the ways of getting around, the trains you could rely on and the ones best avoided. I would grow and learn and change, but every year, the Academy Awards would come back around to mark that growth and that change. To mark time.

Quick notes: Common and John Legend performing “Glory” from Selma remains one of the all-time great musical performances in Oscars history. … It was impossible to beat Foreign Language frontrunner Ida, by Pawel Pawlikowsi, but Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan is a masterpiece and one of the best films of the decade. Do seek it out. … I am also here to stump for Animated Feature nominee The Boxtrolls, which is a sneaky great animated film.

___

Next time: We go to New Jersey to see how far a dollar can stretch and Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Oscar.

Share the wealth: Spotlight wins, Mad Max cleans up, Leo steals the show

Spotlight took home the award for Best Picture on Sunday night at the Academy Awards.

We can now put a bow on the most unpredictable Oscar season in recent memory. With four films battling it out for the top award going into the night, the Academy spread the love around to all of them. Tom McCarthy’s masterful investigative journalism drama Spotlight took Best Picture, as well as Best Original Screenplay, while George Miller’s action extravaganza Mad Max: Fury Road picked up six awards, all in the crafts categories.

Alejandro González Iñárritu won his second consecutive Best Director award – just the third person in history to achieve that feat – for his epic The Revenant, for which Leonardo DiCaprio earned his first Oscar for Best Actor and Emmanuel Lubezki won his record third straight Best Cinematography award. Adam McKay and Charles Randolph won Best Adapted Screenplay for McKay’s The Big Short, which was shut out elsewhere on the night.

With DiCaprio taking home Best Actor and frontrunners Brie Larson and Alicia Vikander winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, the only surprise in the acting categories came in Best Supporting Actor, where Mark Rylance won for his glorious, subtle performance in Bridge of Spies, besting sentimental favorite Sylvester Stallone for Creed.

Chris Rock proved a tremendous host and pulled no punches when it came to the diversity issue that has hovered over this Oscars season. He was funny, sharp, and quick, moving the show along while also delivering a damn fine evening of entertainment. His bit with the Girl Scout cookies was hysterical – a relative of and improvement upon Ellen Degeneres’ pizza-delivery stunt from two years ago – and he successfully revisited one of the most famous sketches in recent Oscar history, asking movie-goers in Compton whether they had seen the nominees. They had not.

DiCaprio, who earned a standing ovation from a crowd clearly excited to hand the thespian his first Academy Award, thanked the people who made The Revenant possible and thanked his parent before going off on an impassioned speech about the environment and our responsibility to be stewards of the natural world. DiCaprio’s victory was as much a foregone conclusion as any on Oscar night, and the whole movie-loving world was waiting for this moment. DiCaprio owned every second of it with a speech that will be replayed and rewatched for decades to come.

The biggest surprise of the night came when the low-budget sci-fi thriller Ex Machina beat out four huge blockbuster hits in Best Visual Effects, likely due to split support among the more popular films. The win was one of my favorite moments of the evening on a show full of moments that made me cheer out loud. In addition to wins for DiCaprio, Spotlight, and Ex Machina, I was most excited for Bear Story in Best Animated Short, Stutterer in Best Live Action Short, and Ennio Morricone winning Best Original Score for The Hateful Eight.

I had some problems with the broadcast and some of the winners, but I am just so overjoyed for the Spotlight team and DiCaprio that I do not want to focus on those right now. I will have a more thorough reaction tomorrow, but for tonight, let’s just enjoy the fact the Academy awarded a masterpiece of American film its top award.

Good night. More to come tomorrow.

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Director

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directs Leonardo DiCaprio in Best Picture frontrunner The Revenant.

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 this month for analysis of each of the Academy’s 24 categories.

A quick programming note: Yesterday, I said we would cover Best Foreign Language Film today. However, instead, we will look at Best Director. Best Foreign Language Film will follow Wednesday with Best Animated Feature on Thursday and finally Best Picture on Friday.

Best Director

The nominees are:

Lenny Abrahamson for Room

Alejandro González Iñárritu for The Revenant

Thomas McCarthy for Spotlight

George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road

Adam McKay for The Big Short

Four of these directors have never been nominated for Best Director before. The last time that happened in this category was 2007. In that year, interestingly enough, there were six nominated directors, and five had never been nominated. Joel Coen was the only previous nominee, and he shared the award win with his brother, Ethan Coen, for No Country for Old Men. This year, Iñárritu is the only previous nominee, having won just last year for Birdman.

Another bit of trivia: It has been 65 years since a director has won this award in back-to-back years. In fact, it has happened only twice. Joseph L. Mankiewicz won in 1949 for A Letter to Three Wives and in 1950 for All About Eve, while John Ford won in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath and in 1941 for How Green Was My Valley. Iñárritu has a very real shot this year of becoming the third name on that list.

How about this? Though Best Picture and Best Director are strongly correlated – both awards have gone to the same film 63 of 87 times – no director has ever directed back-to-back Best Picture winners. Even when Ford and Mankiewicz won Best Director twice in a row, only in the second years did their films win Best Picture. Well, Iñárritu directed last year’s Best Picture winner and helmed one of this year’s frontrunners. The feat would be unprecedented.

Finally, since 1990, only four times has the winner of the Directors Guild Award not gone on to win the Oscar for Best Director. Iñárritu has already made history by becoming the first back-to-back winner of the Directors Guild Award. In that same span, the Directors Guild winner has directed the Best Picture winner all but five times. All of this means we could be set up for a historic night at the Academy Awards, but the other four nominees might have something to say about that.

Alejandro González Iñárritu for The Revenant – If it were up to me, this would not even be a question. The Revenant is not only the most beautiful film this year, but it is among the most beautiful films ever made. In scope, ambition, and execution, there is no film that comes close in this lineup, and I say that with all due respect to the other nominees. The magic that Iñárritu captured is unparalleled.

Working from a fairly bare-bones script, Iñárritu turns the film into a meditation on god, nature, and man’s place in the universe. By allowing the narrative to drift freely through memory and dreams, then back to the harshness of life, Iñárritu crafts a wholly sensory experience that engulfs viewers in its mélange of sights, sounds, and emotions. This is to say nothing of the hardships the production faced in even filming such an epic tale of survival.

When taking this all into account, Iñárritu’s achievement is just stunning. So much so it boggles the mind. It is high art depicting a brutal reality on the largest canvas imaginable. There is nothing to which it compares, and if Iñárritu makes history, it will be a hard-earned, richly deserved distinction, coming on the back of the most majestic film of the year and a true masterpiece.

George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road – Perhaps I have dipped into hyperbole, making the case too strongly for my preferred winner. The truth is Miller’s work is awe-inspiring in a completely different way. Mad Max: Fury Road is a big, bold statement, a referendum on the action genre while being an almost perfect exemplar of the genre. For a film that feels so wild, so out of control, like it might fly off the rails at any time, Miller’s precision in the writing, choreographing, shooting, and editing is what makes everything click into place.

Miller is a living legend with a small but beloved body of work. Since 1979, he has directed just nine feature films, four of them in the Mad Max series. Somehow, the same man responsible for Max Rockatansky, Imperator Furiosa, and Immortan Joe is also largely responsible for giving us Babe the pig and Happy Feet.

He is a six-time nominee across four different categories and won his only Oscar for Best Animated Feature as the director of Happy Feet – when you watch Mad Max: Fury Road, try to wrap your mind around that. However, this is his first nomination for directing, and with Iñárritu already a winner, there could be a push to award Miller for his distinguished career and his remarkable achievement this year.

Adam McKay for The Big Short – Now, if it seems odd Miller would have directed multiple animated children’s hits and the decidedly not-for-children Mad Max films, try on this bit of cognitive dissonance: The director of Anchorman and Step Brothers is now a multiple Oscar nominee. Here is the thing about that, though, you do not get to where McKay has gotten in his career without being a bright, savvy, talented filmmaker.

McKay had already proven all those things throughout his career, but with The Big Short, he has proved he is engaged, engaging, and passionate about the state of the nation. That is a lot more than can be said for many other artists. McKay’s stamp is all over The Big Short with its smart editing, unfussy camera setups, and snot-nosed attitude. Not everything works all the time in this film, but McKay’s willingness to step outside the box and look at the financial crisis and world banking collapse from a skewed view is always an asset.

Thomas McCarthy for Spotlight – McCarthy has been rightly lauded for his and Josh Singer’s work in piecing together the screenplay for Spotlight; however, some have also taken the opportunity to deride McCarthy’s direction of the film as flat or uninspired. Such charges could not be further off base. These commenters seem to believe if a film is not flashy or does not call attention to itself, the direction must not be that special. This belief is so obviously wrong it is laughable, but here we are, having to defend one of the best films of the year as well directed.

Anyone watching closely will see the care and thought that has gone into every frame of Spotlight, from the strategic positioning of the camera when the reporters are going through the archives – wide enough to show us the enormity of the undertaking – to the scattering of churches throughout the background, a subtle reminder of the church’s influence over everyday life in Boston.

The film’s bravura closing passage, set to a children’s choir performing “Silent Night,” is among the most memorable and effective sequences of the year, thrilling, cathartic, and utterly haunting. If voters cannot see the artistry in McCarthy’s accomplishment, they probably should not have a vote. McCarthy may not win this award against his flashier competition, but his inclusion is without a doubt merited.

Lenny Abrahamson for Room – Most pundits, yours truly included, had predicted the other four nominees in this field, being as they directed the four frontrunners for Best Picture. The fifth slot we had chalked up for Ridley Scott for The Martian or maybe Todd Haynes for Carol or Steven Spielberg for Bridge of Spies. However, when Room showed up in four major categories – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay – it was clear the Academy had fallen hard for this brutal, beautiful little movie.

Abrahamson deftly blends an impressionistic art-house film with a pulpy thriller to deliver one of the truly unique viewing experiences of the year. With the story confined for the first hour to a single room, Abrahamson opens up the characters’ world with an array of carefully employed camera angles and selective edits. He shows us a tragic situation through the eyes of a child who does not yet know enough about life to understand the tragedy, and in doing so, Abrahamson turns a difficult viewing experience into one of the must-see films of the year.

The final analysis

Abrahamson’s is the only name on this list it would be an out-and-out shock to hear called out on Oscar night. Any of the other four could win, and each would tell us something different about where the night is headed. If either McKay or McCarthy wins, that would be the clincher for their respective films. The Academy showing its love in that way would be the ultimate indication one of those films will win Best Picture.

If Miller wins, we would have to question the love for The Revenant, and because Mad Max: Fury Road at this point is a highly unlikely winner, the door would be open for either Spotlight or The Big Short to claim the top prize. If Iñárritu wins – and all signs are pointing that way – anything could still happen. A split has not been uncommon in recent years between Best Picture and Best Director, but Iñárritu clutching his second directing Oscar in a row would invite the possibility that history is about to unfold.

Will win: Alejandro González Iñárritu for The Revenant

Should win: Alejandro González Iñárritu for The Revenant

Should have been here: Miroslav Slaboshpitsky for The Tribe

Tomorrow: Best Foreign Language Film