Countdown to the Oscars: Best Director

We’re counting down the days until the Academy Awards! We’ll be here, breaking down each of the 23 categories, talking a bit of history, and trying to figure out who is going to win all those gold statues. So check back throughout the next three weeks for Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars.

Best Director

The nominees are:

Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once

Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans

Todd Field for TÁR

Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness

From 1960-1999, a span of 40 years, Best Picture and Best Director split just four times. Mike Nichols won Director for The Graduate in 1967, when In the Heat of the Night won Picture. Bob Fosse won Director in 1972 for Cabaret, beating out Francis Ford Coppola for his Best Picture-winning The Godfather. In 1981, Warren Beatty won Director for Reds, which lost Picture to Chariots of Fire. And, in 1989, Oliver Stone won his second directing Oscar for Born on the Fourth of July but lost Picture to the ever-controversial Driving Miss Daisy. That’s it. Four times in 40 years.

Since 2000, it has happened nine times, six in the past 10 years. I am not sure exactly what explains that shift. As we have discussed in previous years, splits tend to happen when there is a film voters admire but don’t love in the race, going up against a film they love but which maybe doesn’t display the same technical prowess. La La Land vs. Moonlight. The Revenant vs. Spotlight. The Power of the Dog vs. CODA, etc. This tends to hold pretty true.

They match when the well loved film can also boast some sterling crafts achievements, such as Birdman, The Shape of Water, and Nomadland. But, even then, movies don’t tend to win big anymore. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King tied the all-time record with 11 Oscars in 2003. Since then, the highest totals came in 2008, when Slumdog Millionaire won eight awards, and 2009, when The Hurt Locker won six. Since 2012, no Best Picture winner has won more than four awards. That likely ends this year. Right now, the only question with Everything Everywhere All at Once is: How high can it go?

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once – Winning this award will make Kwan and Schinert the sixth- and eighth-youngest directing winners in history, respectively (Kwan is roughly eight months younger). Coincidentally, sandwiched between them at No. 7 on the list will be Lewis Milestone, who was 35 years, 36 days old when he won his second Best Director trophy for All Quiet on the Western Front. Kwan will be 35 years, 30 days old on Oscars Sunday. 

Milestone will remain the third-youngest winner, having won his first award just before his 34th birthday. Damien Chazelle sits at the top of that list, being roughly seven months younger than Norman Taurog was when he won for Skippy in 1931. Taurog held the record for 85 years before Chazelle came along with La La Land. Anyway, the Daniels. Usually, a Best Director Oscar gives you the freedom to do whatever you want the next time out, but if Swiss Army Man and Everything Everywhere All at Once don’t represent them doing whatever they want, then I can’t even imagine what it is they want to do. But, it sure will be interesting to see whatever it is.

Todd Field for TÁR – If you haven’t noticed, I am just so happy to have Todd Field back and directing movies again. It was a long wait between Little Children in 2006 and this, but it was worth it because Field came back with a masterpiece. It is an undeniable work, announcing its brilliance from the very beginning with a wild gambit: opening with the full credits, run in reverse. Instantly, we are made aware this will be unlike any movie we have ever seen.

Field then delivers on that promise over and over again. It’s not just the precision of the camerawork or the propulsive rhythm of the storytelling or the high-wire balancing act of character and tone. It is the way Field orchestrates all of them, conducting his film like Lydia Tár might conduct a symphony except that Field is very real and the results are plain as day for anyone to see. If you want to call this a comeback film, then it is the greatest comeback film ever made. Let’s just hope the next one comes a little quicker.

Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans – Spielberg is already part of a lot of Oscars history. For instance, with this nomination, his ninth, he ties Martin Scorsese for the second-most nominated director of all time, three behind William Wyler. An interesting tidbit I found: Spielberg was already on the list of 32 directors nominated in consecutive years when he achieved the feat for Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981 and ET: The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982. Now, after being nominated last year for West Side Story and this year, he joins the list of eight directors who have achieved the feat twice or more.

I’ll give you that list, in addition to Spielberg: Wyler was nominated four years in a row from 1939-1942; John Ford (1939-1941) and John Huston (1950-1952) were each nominated in three consecutive years; Billy Wilder achieved the double three times; and Clarence Brown, Frank Capra, and Fred Zinneman did it twice. If we’re playing “one of these things is not like the other things,” I’ll admit I had never heard of Clarence Brown. He’s actually a six-time nominee, good for eighth all time. Of those, I have heard of but never seen National Velvet and The Yearling, and the other four I have never even heard of. A knowledge gap I’ll need to rectify.

As far as Spielberg and The Fabelmans, the master still has his fastball, as they say. No films look like Spielberg films. No one moves the camera like he does, with due credit to his longtime cinematographer Janusz Kamiński. There is something classical about the feel to everything he does, which suits this material well. I wouldn’t call it my favorite Spielberg film of recent vintage, but there is no mistaking what makes the legend a legend.

Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin – McDonagh gets unfairly painted as only a writer in certain film circles. It is true that his screenplays are second to none, but it is not true that he lacks a visual flair or a directorial stamp. On the contrary, his work reminds me most of ‘70s Terrence Mallick or William Friedkin: gritty but gorgeous. Everything is purposeful but never feels overplanned. Camera movements flow effortlessly, motivated by plot and character.

Coming from the stage, as he does, he is of course an actors’ director. Between this and his previous film, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, he has directed six different actors to nominations, garnering recognition in each of the four acting categories at the Oscars. That’s not an accident. The Banshees of Inisherin only works as well as it does because McDonagh is a smart, insightful director, in addition to being one of the great film writers of our time.

Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness – This is what most Oscars watchers would call the wild card slot. It’s the fifth Best Director nominee that always feels like a one-for-us nod from the Directors Branch. In recent years, that has mostly meant recognition for foreign auteurs making critically acclaimed arthouse pictures. Last year, that would have been Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Drive My Car. In 2020, Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round. Bong Joon-ho won it all from that position in 2019 with Parasite. In 2018, we got Paweł Pawlikowski with Cold War.

This time around, it’s Östlund’s turn with his Best Picture-nominated satire Triangle of Sadness. It’s likely Östlund’s fans, myself included, are more excited for this nomination than the Swedish auteur himself is, considering he is coming off winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes for this very film. That was his second Palme in as many features, an even shorter list than the one we talked about above with Spielberg. Triangle of Sadness is an excellent film, wonderfully directed by a world cinema master at peak form. Gotta love the Directors Branch for bringing him to the show.

The final analysis

The Daniels are just the fifth directing pair in history to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards. They will be the third pair to win, following Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story in 1961 and Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men in 2007. 

I could pretend like there’s some competition in this race, but there’s not really even a whiff of it in the air. Like the Coen Brothers before them, there is every likelihood the Daniels will win three awards on the big night: Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay. It’s a helluva coming out party for a duo with just one previous feature on their resumé.

Will win: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once

Should win: Todd Field for TÁR

Should have been here: Sarah Polley for Women Talking

A note about my favorite snub: There couldn’t be anything else here. Women Talking is the best film of the year, and apart from perhaps Todd Field’s work on Tár, it is also the best directed. From the color palette to the performances, to the way the camera soars in and out of certain sequences, Polley’s work is first in its class, and she deserved to join that all-too-short list of women nominated for Best Director.

Next time: Best Actor

New Movie Review: TÁR

Just being mad does not make one a genius, nor does genius require that one be mad. Case in point: writer-director Todd Field and his latest creation, Lydia Tár. Field’s third film should leave no doubt that he is a genius of the cinema, but he is far from mad. Rather, in interviews, he comes off as humble and humbled by his unusually protracted Hollywood journey. Whereas for the titular protagonist of TÁR, portrayed with equal parts ferocity and precision by Cate Blanchett, her madness seems to grow as her genius comes into question.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves, and if there is one thing TÁR exudes, it is patience. So let’s begin at the beginning. We are introduced to Lydia Tár during a New Yorker conversation on stage in front of hundreds of – it would not be a stretch to call them – worshippers. Worshippers at the altar of high society. Worshippers at the altar of classical music. And worshippers at the altar of the great composer who claims before them that she controls time itself. As she will find, however, there is no more dangerous place to be than placed upon a pedestal.

Immediately after this, Lydia indulges the fawning of a fan in the lobby. In fact, she revels in it, both in the attention of a beautiful woman and in the flattery of her own brilliance. For Lydia, the two go hand in hand. She is hurried away by her assistant, Francesca (a perfectly seething Noémie Merlant), who has seen this act before. The maestro (not maestra, we are informed in the opening scene) is needed at lunch with a wealthy benefactor who hopes to learn her artistic secrets. He fancies himself an amateur conductor and wishes to see her notes. She refuses and suggests he lacks whatever alchemy produces great artists, an alchemy which she, of course, is certain she possesses.

Within three scenes, Field and Blanchett have established so much about their main character. She is a gifted self-promoter who feeds off the adoration of the crowd. She needs their love, but beyond that, she absolutely believes she deserves it and has earned it through her “genius.” And, possessed of this genius, she also feels it is hers to share with the crowd or withhold from a benefactor. With all of this firmly in mind, Field delivers the coup de grâce of his film’s first act.

Lydia delivers a guest lecture to a conducting class at Juilliard. A student who identifies as BIPOC and pangender conducts a piece by an unknown modern, female composer, of whom Lydia is instantly dismissive – most likely in the very manner the classical music establishment would have first dismissed her. She suggests the student give a try with some Bach. He demurs and says that he cannot in good conscience conduct a piece by a composer whose personal life was so reprehensible. She seems personally offended on Bach’s behalf, and what follows is a lengthy treatise on an age-old debate: Can we – and more importantly, should we – separate the art from the artist?

Of course, this is Lydia’s class, and she holds all the power. In front of a packed house – her favorite – she pokes, prods, and belittles the student who dared question Bach’s place in the pantheon. Her position: simply that it would be infantile to deny or disregard someone’s obvious genius based on his questionable personal life. Would not the student, she asks, want to be judged on his work and not his own private life? At this, he has had enough and angrily storms out of the classroom. Perhaps in Lydia’s eyes, she has won. But won what, and at what cost?

The rest of the film will engage with and deconstruct this argument, using Lydia Tár herself as the subject. We will come to learn of accusations of impropriety from a former protégé. We will witness acts of petty deceit and staggeringly poor judgment. We will see her treat those closest to her, including her partner, Sharon (a wonderful Nina Hoss), with coldness and ingratitude. We will watch her act in ways that would have future students refuse out of principle to engage with her work.

This would be fascinating enough to watch in and of itself, particularly with Blanchett’s wrecking ball of a performance at its center, but it would be somewhat trite. The argument between art and the artist, by now, is shopworn and a little boring. The trick of the film and what makes it a masterpiece is that Field is not interested in debating whether artistic genius excuses personal failings. He seeks to interrogate whether genius itself is a myth, and this becomes far more exciting to explore over the course of the film.

For the purposes of this investigation, it is immaterial if Lydia Tár is guilty of the specific charges levied against her, and Field smartly leaves it up to the audience to decide how much is true, how much is fabricated, and just how much we can believe any of the stakeholders. During a conversation with a retired composer and former mentor of hers, Lydia is told that these days, an accusation is as good as a conviction in the court of public opinion. The film’s final hour bears this out.

As Lydia’s world unravels, we learn more about what it took to fashion the mystique that surrounds her, and we begin to question how much is real and how much is smoke and mirrors. It is not by accident that in her moments of greatest self-doubt, Lydia lights a pair of candles to stare into her own reflection. In a late, standout scene that features Blanchett and Hoss going toe to toe to great effect, Sharon asks if Lydia remembers the politicking and maneuvering it took to place the conductor in her position of power.

You see, Sharon is the first chair violinist of the Berlin Philharmonic, which Lydia conducts. We learn in the film’s opening conversation that historically, orchestras once were led by the first chair violinist, something which Lydia deems highly illogical – of course, the conductor is vital to the orchestra! But, without Sharon, could Lydia have reached the heights she has? Indeed, without the musicians who sit before her, what would there be to conduct?

It is here that we should note Field’s fascinating opening gambit. Before that New Yorker conversation and before anything else, the film begins with its end credits played in reverse, culminating in the title card, “Written, produced, and directed by Todd Field.” Field has been coy in interviews as to the exact meaning behind his decision to start the film this way, but it certainly foregrounds the reality that it takes hundreds and hundreds of people to mount a movie. Field’s name may be most prominent in the credits, but his film could not exist without all the names that come before it.

It is a metatextual act of humility on Field’s part, the kind of humility Lydia Tár would be incapable of displaying. This humility is well earned and very real for Field, who has been out of the game for the better part of 16 years. Though he has directed many commercials, he has not had his name on a short, a documentary, an episode of television, or a feature film since the equally brilliant, though vastly different Little Children in 2006.

He has been attached to numerous projects over the years alongside fellow luminaries such as Joan Didion, Cormac McCarthy, and Jonathan Franzen, among others, but nothing ever came to fruition. If you ask Field how it is that TÁR came to be the project that finally made it happen, he will tell you he is just as surprised as anyone. The vagaries and whims of Hollywood, he suggests.

Whatever it was that brought Field back and TÁR to the big screen, the cinema is better for it. If genius exists, then Field has it, propped up as he is by the tremendous actors and many fine craftspeople – Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir foremost among them – who helped make this film happen. If, on the other hand, genius is a myth, then Field is doing a damn fine imitation.

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.