Best Pictures #54: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards: My Pick for Best Picture

by A.J.

Best Pictures #54: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards

My Pick for Best Picture

The 91st Academy Awards for films released in 2018 was held on February 24th, 2019 and will be remembered as the year that the Academy tried to change things up to reach a larger audience. In order to boost ratings (even though the Oscars are the highest rated non-sports event on TV), the Academy and Oscars telecast producers proposed ideas such as cutting out performances by the Original Song nominees, giving out awards during commercial breaks, and, most notoriously, adding the category of Best Popular Film. After massive backlash from people in the film industry and Oscar fans, all of these decisions were rolled back. Actor-comedian Kevin Hart was set to host, but he and the Academy caught heat for Hart's years old homophobic jokes on Twitter. The Academy wanted Hart to formally apologize, Hart refused, and dropped out as the host. So, the Oscars would air without a host for the first time since 1989. The final hiccup for the telecast happened when, after announcing that all of the Original Song nominees would perform, Kendrick Lamar announced just days before the ceremony that he would not be performing "All the Stars" from Black Panther. 

The ceremony itself was no more or less eventful than previous ceremonies with hosts (excluding the year the wrong movie was read for Best Picture). Queen (with Adam Lambert singing) opened the show, presenters had mostly amusing banter, and, of course, eye-catching gowns and dresses. Alfonso Cuaron won his second Oscar for Best Director and, as a fan and Latin/Hispanic person, his award had a special meaning for me. In 2013 (Cuaron's Gravity), 2014 (Inarritu's Birdman), 2015 (Inarritu's The Revenant), 2017 (Del Toro's The Shape of Water), and now 2019 (Cuaron's Roma) the winner of the Best Director award has been a Mexican filmmaker. Glenn Close was the odds-on favorite to take home Best Actress, but The Favourite's Olivia Colman took home the award and no doubt upset the ballots of people trying to win their Oscar pools. My ballot was thrown off too, but I was very happy she won. Spike Lee finally won an Oscar for his work on BlacKkKlansman's adapted screenplay. Samuel L. Jackson, who presented Lee with the award, was almost as excited as Spike Lee, who jumped and hugged his friend. 

Samuel L. Jackson's reaction to Green Book winning Best Original Screenplay could not have been more radically different; he stuttered over the names of the winners as he did a double take in disbelief. This was the reaction had by everyone at my Oscar party when Green Book won Best Picture. After a progressive step forward last year with the unconventional The Shape of Water as Best Picture, the Academy took a giant leap backwards by giving Best Picture to a mediocre, bland, conventional, and unchallenging movie like Green Book. Green Book will now have the distinction of joining Crash and The Greatest Show on Earth as one of the worst films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. If ever there was a year that made the case for going back to just five Best Picture nominees, this was that year. Of the eight nominees, there were five solid, quality pictures (Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Roma, and A Star is Born) and three that belonged nowhere near any conversation about the best movies of the year (Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, Vice). Of those five quality pictures, there is one for me that stands out as the actual best picture of 2018.

My Pick for Best Picture of 2018: A Star is Born 

Long before the fourth version of A Star is Born hit theaters, critics were singing its praises and raving about it non-stop. This always makes me skeptical about a movie. By the time a regular filmgoer like me gets to see the movie, will it be hyped out? Were the critics suffering from a bad case of festival fever (liking a movie too much because you saw it before anyone else)? In the case of La La Land: yes. A Star is Born, however, completely justifies the praise it has received. No other movie in 2018, not even Roma, affected me quite like the characters and pathos in Bradley Cooper's A Star is Born. I have no doubt that this was a passion project for Cooper; you can tell that care and thought went into every scene. While I'm happy Alfonso Cuaron won Best Cinematography for his excellent work in Roma, I would have given that award to Matthew Libatique for A Star is Born. Consider the image of Jackson performing "Pretty Woman" while extremely drunk. The camera sways slightly, but the angle is canted so we see him from below, cast in shadow and harsh stage lights, while the rest of the musicians wait anxiously for him to play the opening riff. The image of Cooper, head tilted down, wearing a cowboy hat and suit accompanied by his badass distorted electric guitar should be a very cool image. Instead this is one of the most tense moments in the movie. From the choice of angle and the lighting, you feel that he may fall flat to the floor (and on top of you) at any moment. It is thoughtful cinematic touches like this that work on a subconscious level that set Cooper's A Star is Born apart from not only its predecessors, but, for me, every other film in 2018.

Best Pictures #53: 2018 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: A Star is Born

by A.J.

Best Pictures #53: 2018 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

A Star is Born

“We’re Far From the Shallow Now”

I was skeptical when I saw the trailer for A Star is Born; it seemed like just a big budget vanity project for Bradley Cooper who stars, co-writes, directs, and sings. When I finally saw A Star is Born, I was more than pleasantly surprised. Before the credits rolled, this film had me so thoroughly entertained and moved, I knew this was the kind of experience I hope to have (and so rarely get) when I go to the movies.

This is the fourth version of A Star is Born. The previous versions were made in 1937 with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason, and 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. In 2018, Bradley Cooper plays Jackson Maine, an alt-country singer-songwriter who can still pack auditoriums but is deep into alcoholism and substance abuse. One night, at what Jackson is too drunk to realize is a drag bar, he meets a talented young waitress and singer named Ally played by Lady Gaga. He immediately recognizes her talent, invites her to his next concert, drags her out on stage to sing the song she sang for him the night before, and overnight, yes, a star is born.

The music in A Star is Born is good enough to justify the success of the fictional musicians. Jackson Maine’s songs are just the right blend of country and rock to have mass appeal. The break out hit from the soundtrack is “Shallow” sung by both Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. It would be a complete and utter shock if it did not win the Oscar for Best Original Song. As a performer, Lady Gaga is famous for her over the top and outlandish theatrics that for me always distracted from her voice and music, which I quite enjoy. Here, her voice and skills as a songwriter are front and center. As an actress, she, unsurprisingly, has a great screen presence and proves that she is not just a musician trying to be a movie star. She is the emotional center of A Star is Born. We believe and never question her love and loyalty for Jackson despite his alcoholism. Lady Gaga's nomination for Best Actress is well earned. 

Bradley Cooper plays one of the most believable drunks I’ve seen on screen. When playing an alcoholic any actor or actress has the temptation to go for big showy scenes of sloppy behavior. Cooper, wisely, and more accurately, plays Jackson as someone that is a little drunk all the time. The people closest to Jackson as aren't worried about him flying off the handle as they are about keeping him on his feet. He remembers that alcohol is a depressant, so his outbursts are as sleepy as they are soul crushing and regrettably memorable. Sam Elliott turns in a great performance, of course, as Jackson’s older brother and is nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I found a particular delight in watching Andrew Dice Clay play Ally’s father because he is playing a character we so rarely see on film, a believable loving and supportive father.  

A Star is Born has picked up 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but shockingly Cooper did not receive a Best Director nomination. Retelling A Star is Born was a passion project for Cooper; he held on to the project until he was the right age to play Jackson Maine. Finding a compelling and engaging way to tell a story that has been told three times before is no easy feat. I watched all 3 previous versions recently and it is amazing how A Star is Born 2018 hits so many of the same beats, and even has the some of the same dialogue as the previous versions but does not feel like a tired rehash. The approach Cooper the director and cinematographer Matthew Libatique take toward the material makes every scene look and feel fresh even as we move down a familiar path. 

A Star is Born is something almost nonexistent today: a movie for grown-ups from a major studio. This film does not condescend to its audience and allows its characters to behave to like real people dealing with serious problems. This is a sentimental picture but that sentiment is earned. Jackson and Ally’s romance is believable because of the hard valleys we see them experience as well as the peaks. A darkness looms over Jackson, but Ally does what she can for him, and for herself, because that’s what you do for someone you love. A Star is Born works as love story, a drama, a fantasy and cautionary tale of stardom, and a story about substance abuse all wrapped up in a soundtrack of great music. Even if you know where the story is going it is so well executed that every moment and every emotion is still gripping and affecting. There may be another A Star is Born made 20 years from now, but I think this one will remain as the stand out.

Nominees: Bill Gerber, Bradley Cooper and Lynette Howell Taylor, producers

Director: Bradley Cooper

Screenplay: Eric Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters; based on A Star is Born by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott

Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Live Nation Productions, Gerber Pictures, Peters Entertainment, Joint Effort

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Release Date: October 5^th, 2018

Total Nominations: 8, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Bradley Cooper; Actress-Lady Gaga; Supporting Actor-Sam Elliott; Adapted Screenplay-Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters; Cinematography-Matthew Libatique; Original Song-Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt for "Shallow"; Sound Mixing-Tom Ozanich, Dean A. Zupancic, Jason Ruder, Steven Morrow

Best Pictures #52: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Roma

by A.J.

Best Pictures #52: 2018 (91^st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Roma

"For Libo."

A movie like Roma does not come along too often. The new film by master filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón has the look and feel of an epic film and the intimacy and emotion of a small, personal film. From the trailer, plot description, and lavish, wordy praise it’s received from critics you might get the impression that Roma is the epitome of an arthouse movie. Perhaps it is, if that means it is also a beautiful, superbly crafted, and deeply affecting cinematic achievement. It’s hard to describe what makes Roma so special because it elicits such an emotional response in the people it connects with, myself included. Roma works on so many levels I suspect any viewer will connect with it in some way.

Cuarón’s screenplay is loosely based on his experiences as a boy in Mexico City in the early 1970’s, specifically on his relationship with the family maid/nanny. This is not a story about a young boy, however. Seeking to pay tribute to the women that raised him, Cuarón makes them the focus of the movie. He even dedicates this film to his real life nanny, Liboria "Libo" Rodriguez. We follow a year in the life Cleo, a servant for an upper-class family in the Mexico City district of Roma. She cleans the house (including endless amounts of dog poop), cares for the children, and is treated as lovingly as a servant can be by her employers. First time actress Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo is so good and feels so natural in her role that she’s earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Marina deTavira has received a Supporting Actress nomination for her role as the family matriarch, Sofia.

Cleo’s eventful year begins when her boyfriend abandons her in a movie theater after she tells him that she is pregnant. At the same time, we gather from overheard snippets of conversations between Sofia and other adults that her husband has left the family. She tells her children that their father is on a long business trip in Canada. Sofia and Cleo do not necessarily become any closer, but Sofia and her mother are happy for Cleo and take her to see the doctor. The life events in Roma, both big and small, are episodic, but thankfully the story never meanders or feels aimless. Cleo accompanies the family to a relative’s estate, goes on a search for her wayward boyfriend, and goes with the family on a vacation to the beach. The outside world intrudes abruptly and harshly into Cleo’s day to day life though natural and man-made disasters. The focus is kept on Cleo throughout these events, which in a way makes them more real. A forest fire at a New Year’s party provides some of the film’s most memorable images. Just as the children are only marginally aware of the world of the adults until they feel a direct effect, so too are the adults with the larger world. Roma is not without some heavy-handed moments such as when a toast to someone’s doesn’t happen because the cup breaks, or when the characters go to see Marooned (I’m sure both Cleo and Sofia feel that they have been marooned by the men in their lives).

For Roma Cuarón did the cinematography himself, and it is safe to say that he learned a thing or two from his long-time cinematographer, the legendary Emmanuel Lubezki, who has won 3 Oscars in a row. Cuarón shot his picture in glorious black & white on 65mm cameras. This is what makes Roma so visually stunning and gives it the feel of an epic. Typically, 65mm cameras are used for big budget action films like Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and, most recently, Dunkirk. When a modern filmmaker uses black and white, they tend to emphasize shadows. Cuarón’s camera captures wonderful shadows but it is much more concerned with what light illuminates. Sunlight seems to make everything it touches have an ethereal and dreamlike glow. The black & white makes every image feel like an old photograph conjuring old memories and emotions. Whenever the camera moves it is slow and deliberate and long, unbroken shots are numerous. Cuarón does not use many, if any, close ups. Instead his camera keeps its distance acting like window into Cleo’s life. The emotions in this story are so universal that you don’t need tight close ups on faces to know what a character is feeling or share in their emotions.

Alfonso Cuarón's filmography is impressive to say the least. He directed the best of all the Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men, regarded by many as his masterpiece, appeared on several Best of the Decade lists for the 2000’s. I expect Roma will challenge Children of Men’s title as his masterpiece and make an appearance on the next round Best of the Decade lists.

Roma received a very brief theatrical release from its online streaming distributor, Netflix. It played in Austin in just one theater for two weeks and I was lucky enough to see it on a big screen. Seeing these images projected larger than life was a very enjoyable experience. I watched Roma again on my TV recently, and it is still visually and emotionally compelling. This is the sign of a truly great film. No matter how or when you see it, those sights and sounds will swirl around and take you on a journey.   
Nominees: Gabriela Rodríguez and Alfonso Cuarón, producers
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Screenplay: Alfonso Cuarón
Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira
Production Companies: Espectáculos Fílmicos El Coyúl, Pimienta Films, Participant Media, Esperanto Filmoj
Distributor: Netflix
Release Date: November 21^st, 2018
Total Nominations: 10, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Director-Alfonso Cuarón; Actress-Yalitza Aparicio; Supporting Actress- Yalitza Aparicio; Original Screenplay- Alfonso Cuarón; Cinematography-Alfonso Cuarón; Production Design-Eugenio Caballero, Barbara Enriquez; Sound Editing-Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay; Sound Mixing-Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan, José Antonio García; Foreign Language Film-Mexico

Best Pictures #51: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: The Favourite

by A.J.

Best Pictures #51: 2018 (91^st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Favourite

“Favour is a breeze that shifts direction all the time.”

At first glance The Favourite might seem to be just another British costume drama but this very R-rated story about the private relationships of Queen Anne absolutely subverts genre expectations. Everything from the stylistic choices to the characters make this a darkly comedic, vulgar, and wonderfully outrageous film. This is one of my favorite films of 2018. It is so totally engrossing with such memorable characters and scenes (especially an elaborate and ludicrous dance) that I had to see it twice.

Queen Anne ruled England from 1702 to 1714. The highlight of her reign was overseeing the union of England and Scotland in 1707 (creating the kingdom of Great Britain), something no previous English king had managed to achieve. This film focuses not so much on history but speculates on her personal relationships. Her closest friend since childhood, Lady Sarah Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), acts as Anne’s caregiver, companion, adviser, and lover. She even runs the country for Anne. Lady Sarah’s status is challenged when her cousin, Abigail (Emma Stone), begins to work her way into the Queen’s favor.

Anne may have had a royal life but it was not an easy one. She suffered through 17 miscarriages, still births, and untimely infant deaths, the death of her husband, and many physical ailments. She was the last monarch of the House of Stuart and only 49 when she died. Olivia Colman wonderfully portrays Queen Anne as a fragile, wounded soul searching for small moments of happiness, and also capable of acting like a spoiled child or a mad monarch at any given moment. Though Anne is more of a supporting character, Colman has picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She’s so good I can’t complain about her being in the wrong category.

Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are really the leads but they have each been nominated in the Supporting Actress category. Each actress gives the best performance of her career, though each already has an Oscar for a movie and performance I didn’t particularly care for (Emma Stone-La La Land) and a movie and performance I keep forgetting exists (Rachel Weisz-The Constant Gardener). Lady Sarah and Abigail offer Anne different kinds of love: Lady Sarah tells Anne the truth even if it is harsh and unpleasant, Abigail always flatters Anne. Weisz has no problem going from loving and sweet to stern and even cruel. She delivers crude, acerbic insults with deft ease. Weisz is also quite comfortable and easily believable as an intelligent, capable woman in power—using that power often and effectively—controlling and besting her male political counterparts. Both Weisz’s Lady Sarah and Stone’s Abigail manipulate Queen Anne for their own gain, but Abigail is the more insidious of the pair. Emma Stone has never had a role like this before. Her character is clever, funny, and charming, and also devious, selfish, and quite unlikable. Stone does a great job handling all the different facets Abigail. 

Director Yorgos Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan make frequent use of fish-eye lens and canted angles to keep the audience off balance. They use slow motion for particular moments and holds on close ups of faces when the instinct of any other period movie would be to show as much as possible. The costumes by Sandy Powell look fresh and unique and not just like the costumes we see on a regular basis in period pieces. Lady Sarah, as a woman in power, is an unconventional character for her time and she has unconventional costumes to match. Her shooting outfit, which includes a hat and trousers, is the most memorable costume in the movie. Even the costumes for the men have interesting flourishes. Big, long crazy wigs were very in style. The foppish opposition party, led by Nicholas Hoult, even powder their faces. “A man must make himself look pretty,” he says.

Yorgos Lanthimos's previous films include the bizarre Dogtooth and the love it or hate it The Lobster (I hated it). This is easily his most mainstream movie, which is saying something since The Favourite might be the most unconventional period movie since Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Unlike his previous films, Lanthimos did not pen the screenplay (Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara wrote The Favourite's Oscar nominated original screenplay); this might be why the material is palatable. There is just the right blend of humor and melancholy in The Favourite, but as the film goes on it moves into dour territory in the third act. It is as if Lanthimos couldn't let a whole film go by without injecting some of his dour, bleak sensibility. Still, I very much recommend The Favourite for its fresh take on an established genre and the brilliant performances by Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone. Even as they are being outrageous and vindictive, these people are a delight to watch.   

Nominees: Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday and Yorgos Lanthimos, producers

Director: Yorgos Lanithos

Screenplay: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara

Cast: Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone

Production Companies: Scarlet Films, Element Pictures, Arcana, Film4 Productions, Waypoint Entertainment

Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Release Date: November 23^rd, 2018

Total Nominations: 10, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actress-Olivia Colman; Supporting Actress-Rachel Weisz; Supporting Actress-Emma Stone; Director-Yorgos Lanthimos; Original Screenplay- Deborah Davis; Tony McNamara; Cinematography-Robbie Ryan; Editing-Yorgos Mavropsaridis; Production Design-Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton; Costume Design-Sandy Powell

Best Pictures #50: 2018 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Green Book

by A.J.

Best Pictures #50: 2018 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Green Book

“The world's full of lonely people afraid to make the first move.”

Green Book checks all the boxes of an Oscar bait movie: period setting (1960’s), based on a true story (but maybe not that true), respected/award winning actors (Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali), a name director (Peter Farrelly), deals with race (segregation in the American South), characters from different backgrounds learning from and about each other (but they’re so different!). Specifically, Green Book is about the friendship that arises between Tony Vallelonga, a white nightclub bouncer from the Bronx, and Dr. Don Shirley, a black classical pianist from Midtown Manhattan, when Tony becomes Don’s driver and bodyguard on a tour through the Jim Crow South in the 1960’s. Their friendship could make an interesting story but the approach taken by co-screenwriter Nick Vallelonga (Tony’s real-life son) and director Peter Farrelly is so familiar as to be dull beyond belief.

Tony Vallelonga, or Tony “Lip” to his friends, is played by Viggo Mortensen in what is without a doubt his showiest performance. Typically, his performances are so subtle and without ostentatiousness (even when he is playing a Russian gangster or the devil), that he disappears into his character and never draws attention to himself. This is not the case with this working class, unsophisticated, loud, tough guy bigot. Mortensen hits every note required by his role; there’s just not a lot to his character. Still, in the tradition of nominating great actors for their most mediocre roles, the Academy has nominated Mortensen for Best Actor.

The same goes for Mahershala Ali as Dr. Don Shirley. There should be a lot for his character to work with: being an educated, sophisticated, and successful black musician playing high profile venues and exclusive parties in the Jim Crow South. He is ostensibly the guest of honor at the private parties of wealthy high society people but they will not let him use their bathroom. He should be the lead character and we should feel his inner struggles and emotions beyond him just trying to remain dignified. Instead, Dr. Shirley is a reserved, private, and lonely person which is a pretty good excuse for a white screenwriter to not have to get into the head of a black character. All that is required of Don Shirley is to be serious, refined, dignified, and, most of all, be unamused by Tony’s shenanigans. Ali won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Moonlight, and he is nominated for Supporting Actor again, but, as with Viggo, this is nowhere near his best work. Ali delivers what his underwritten role requires, but having an actor like him play this part is like having his character play chopsticks.

Green Book gets its title from the real-life travel guide published for black motorists during segregation so they could find a restaurant, gas station, or hotel that would accept them without trouble. This book is barely used in the movie. You would expect it to play a larger part since it is what the movie is named after. Green Book presents itself as a story about race and class, but really it is a mismatched buddy road trip movie. The problem is that is not good at being either. Will the laid back, sloppy guy and the serious, neat guy drive each other crazy? I'll admit I laughed at some of the gags and jokes, but the punchlines are not original.

Mortensen and Ali work well together but there’s not enough to make their characters or their relationship feel like something you haven’t seen a dozen times before in other movies that deal with race and friendship. This is a just a recital not trying to be anything new. By the time Tony and Don are racing back to New York to make it home in time for Christmas dinner I had gone giddy from an overdose of clichés. Will Green Book make you feel good and provide two hours of inoffensive, unchallenging entertainment? Maybe, but when you can predict every beat and every scene what’s the point of watching? There are high quality actors, costumes, and production design but ultimately Green Book is nothing more than a big budget Hallmark Channel Hall of Fame movie. 

Nominees: Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga, producers

Director: Peter Farrelly

Screenplay: Nick Vallelonga & Brian Hayes Currie & Peter Farrelly

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini

Production Companies: Participant Media, DreamWorks Pictures, Innisfree Pictures, Cinetic Media

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Release Date: November 16^th, 2018

Total Nominations: 5, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Viggo Mortensen; Supporting Role=Mahershala Ali; Original Screenplay-Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly; Editing-Patrick J. Don Vito

Best Pictures #49: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: BlacKkKlansman

by A.J.

Best Pictures #49: 2018 (91^st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

BlacKkKlansman

“If I had known this was a Klan meeting, I wouldn’t have taken this motherfucking gig.”

Spike Lee’s career is full of peaks and valleys. Lee has always been aware of the power of film to directly and indirectly affect and influence audiences. At times, he can be overly didactic and forget to capture viewer attentions with entertainment. Other times he perfectly blends his skills as a visual storyteller with a message or issue he wants to address with incredible results. His latest film, BlacKkKlansman, is definitely a peak. It tells the unbelievably true story of Ron Stallworth, a black undercover police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs in the 1970’s. Lee, working with a screenplay by Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & himself, based on Stallworth’s book, bundles a true story, a crime thriller, and a social drama about race and racism together with a lively and even comedic tone for a film that is as entertaining as it is unsettling.

John David Washington (yes, Denzel’s son) plays Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer in Colorado Springs. Stallworth begins his career in the records room but after he is reassigned to the intelligence unit, he begins an investigation into the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. The rookie Stallworth makes a rookie mistake, however, and gives his real name to the Klan recruiter he speaks to over the phone. So, when the Klan wants to meet him, Stallworth enlists fellow undercover cop Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to pose as white Ron Stallworth in person while he pretends to be white Ron Stallworth over the phone. Like I said, an unbelievable true story.

John David Washington handles both the lighter and heavier material in BlackKklansman with ease. His character never saw any conflict in being a both cop and a black person until he meets and begins a potential romance with Patrice (Laura Herrier) the head of the Black Student Union he was initially assigned to investigate. Adam Driver gives a great low-key performance as Flip. Driver portrays him as an average person that is very good at his job but finds himself in an unusual, extraordinary situation. It’s the kind of subtle performance that usually gets overlooked during awards season but Driver has managed to pick up a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Stallworth’s infiltration of the Klan over the phone leads to many conversations with the head of the KKK, David Duke. Topher Grace plays Duke almost too well, capturing the insidious affability and unassuming presence that was meant to be the new face of the Klan.

Throughout BlacKkKlansman, other movies are referenced to show the power of cinema in regards to race and culture. The movie opens with one of the most famous shots from Gone With the Wind and a recreation of a racist propaganda film from the 1950’s. The classic Tarzan movies and Blaxploitation films are also referenced. The most emotionally affecting scene for me comes when Harry Belafonte, as an elderly speaker at a Black Student Union gathering, shares how a harrowing injustice he witnessed as a boy was inspired by the silent epic The Birth of a Nation. In 1915, D.W. Griffith, a pioneer of early filmmaking who invented much of the basic language of cinema, made the first big budget, epic film. It portrayed the KKK as the heroes and protectors of post-Civil War white Southerners. After its release, it inspired hate crimes and revived the long extinct KKK. Film historians have long wrestled with how to present or teach The Birth of a Nation; it’s importance to film history is as undeniable as the movie is revolting. I think Spike Lee has finally found a way to present both the importance and the horrendous nature of The Birth of a Nation.

BlacKkKlansman seems to be unsure of what note it wants to leave the audience on. It is a very entertaining and even comedic story but also a serious one dealing with problems that are still unfortunately relevant today. Lee inserts real footage from the Charlottesville protests to emphasize that the KKK is still a real and dangerous threat (and of course he is correct). Though this documentary footage packs a powerful emotional punch, it would in any context and feels inorganically tacked on. It is one of a few missteps in an otherwise entertaining and powerful piece of cinema.

Nominees: Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele and Spike Lee, producers

Director: Spike Lee

Screenplay: Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee, based on the book by Ron Stallworth

Cast: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace

Production Companies: Blumhouse Productions, Monkeypaw Productions, QC Entertainment, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Legendary Entertainment, Perfect World Pictures

Distributor: Focus Features

Release Date: August 10^th, 2018

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Spike Lee; Adapted Screenplay- Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee; Editing-Barry Alexander Brown; Original Score-Terence Blanchard

Best Pictures #48: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Vice

by A.J.

Best Pictures #48: 2018 (91^st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Vice

“I want you to be my Vice.”

Comedic writer-director Adam McKay tries, and fails, to bring the same energy and insight from his Oscar nominated examination of the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short, to the most notorious vice president since Aaron Burr. Vice is the story of the rise to power of Dick Cheney and how he changed the executive branch’s use of power forever and for the worse. The film opens with a title card informing the audience that this is an attempt to tell the story of the most secretive figure in recent American political history which is a difficult thing to try. It’s not a good sign when before the movie even begins it apologizes for itself.

Christian Bale plays Dick Cheney and we see him first as an aimless drunk in Wyoming in the 1960’s that, spurred on by his wife Lynne (Amy Adams), cleans up his act and becomes the right-hand man of Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell) during the Nixon and Ford presidencies. Watching him enjoy his quiet accumulation of power and the satisfaction and status it brings during the 70’s and 80’s is the most interesting segment of the movie. Once the film hits the W. Bush years when Cheney acted behind the scenes to increase his own personal power and wealth Vice should hit its stride, but instead it goes on autopilot and plays like a tired collection of Cheney’s greatest hits. Vice is very angry at Dick Cheney and condemns him plenty for his actions but that is like picking low hanging, blatantly obvious fruit.

Christian Bale is great as Dick Cheney. The strength of his performance is, naturally, from his skills and talent as an actor, not just from the makeup he is under and the weight he gained for the role. He speaks with that low growl I remember so well from the W. Bush years and imitates perfectly the small laugh and smile Cheney would sometimes let slip. Cheney was not much of a public speaker or campaigner so his wife Lynne steps up and rallies people to her husband’s cause. This is where Amy Adams gets to step out from the bland role of “wife of a biopic subject” to be an active player and interesting character. Bale is nominated for Best Actor and that is no surprise. Amy Adams has earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but she played essentially the same character, and played her better, in The Master. Sam Rockwell, in full goofball mode, plays George W. Bush and though he's barely in the movie, Rockwell has picked up a Supporting Actor nomination. 

The life of Cheney is narrated by Jesse Plemons playing an average American and Iraq War veteran who says he’s related to Dick Cheney... in a way. When we find out how he’s related to Cheney it causes cringes and eye rolls. In The Big Short McKay used a hyperactive and self-aware filmmaking style to excite and engage the audience about a pretty boring and convoluted subject: the stock market and investment banking. He used cameos from stars like Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez to explain complex financial ideas and practices using clever and easy to understand metaphors. There is nothing complicated about how Cheney grows and abuses power. He asks a lawyer if what he wants to do is okay. The lawyer says yes. There’s nothing hard to follow there but McKay has the narrator hold our hands through it anyway.

Cheney’s final actions in the movie are meant to play like a final heartless betrayal signifying that he is beyond all hope of redemption, but Vice never presented him as someone with anywhere to fall from. That would only happen with a movie that attempted insight into its subject’s emotions and motivations and even dared us to sympathize with the unlikeable main character. In Nixon, Oliver Stone built up audience sympathies for Nixon and then let him squander and betray those sympathies making his fall all the more tragic even though you rooted for him to fail. With Nixon, Stone posed the question: What does it profit a man to gain the world if he loses his soul? (this Bible quote actually appears at the beginning of that film). In Vice, McKay forgot to ask any questions, attempt any insight, or speculate on motivations. This movie has only one message: this Dick Cheney is one bad dude. If you were born before the year 2000, you don’t need a movie to tell you that.

Nominees: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, producers

Director: Adam McKay

Screenplay: Adam McKay

Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell

Production Companies: Plan B Entertainment, Gary Sanchez Productions

Distributor: Annapurna Pictures

Release Date: December 25^th, 2018

Total Nominations: 8, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Adam McKay, Original Screenplay-Adam McKay; Actor-Christian Bale; Supporting Actress-Amy Adams; Supporting Actor-Sam Rockwell; Editing-Hank Corwin; Makeup and Hairstyling-Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe, Patricia Dehaney

Best Pictures #47: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Black Panther

by A.J.

Best Pictures #47: 2018 (91^st) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Black Panther

Wakanda Forever!

Marvel’s Black Panther will forever hold a place in Academy Awards history as the very first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture. It is also only the second comic book movie to be nominated for Best Picture—the first was Skippy in 1931 (which was my favorite of the Best Picture nominees for that year). Black Panther is also notable for being a major studio movie that features a predominantly black cast and crew. It was the highest grossing film of 2018, received critical acclaim, and now has been nominated for 7 Academy Awards. Despite all of that, Black Panther is most notable of all for standing out amongst the din and spectacle other superhero movies and giving us memorable characters and a new and exciting country: Wakanda.

The fictional African nation of Wakanda is a feast for the eyes. The costumes for its people blend traditional African motifs with a sleek futuristic sensibility with creative and impressive results; it’s no surprise costume designer Ruth E. Carter has received an Oscar nomination for her work. Production designers Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart have received much deserved Oscar nominations for creating the look of Wakanda. The visuals of both interiors and exteriors are exciting and dazzling. The design for the snowy mountain homeland of Wakanda’s reclusive Jabari tribe alone deserves an Academy Award. Most of all the production design creates a high-tech futuristic place that feels like it could be a part of the real world.

Of course, Black Panther is woven into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The African superhero first appeared in Captain America: Civil War, where the king of Wakanda was killed by terrorists making his son, Prince T’Challa, unexpectedly king. T’Challa also became the Black Panther, protector of Wakanda, aided by a super suit and magical potion that gives him super strength. The brilliance of the screenplay by director Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole is it does not require you to have seen other Marvel superhero movies to enjoy or understand the characters or plot. This might be the most accessible film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe aside from the first Iron Man back in 2008.

Chadwick Boseman plays T’Challa/Black Panther and he does a good job of playing not just a believable superhero but also a believable leader of a country. Though T’Challa is the main character, the stand out characters and performances are in the supporting cast. Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger is easily the most memorable and interesting villain of any Marvel movie. Killmonger is a living breathing person (not just a big CGI bully like Thanos) with understandable though not admirable motivations. T’Challa’s allies are the mostly female and all badass warriors and scientists of Wakanda. Letitia Wright plays Shuri, T’Challa’s younger sister. She is the Q to his James Bond, inventing cutting-edge, high-tech gadgets and since they’re siblings the characters have a lively back and forth banter. Lupita Nyong’o is T’Challa’s ex-girlfriend and Wakanda’s chief spy, Nakia. Danai Gurira is Okoye, Wakanda’s tough and unflappable general. Martin Freeman is good comic relief as a fish-out-water CIA agent awestruck by Wakanda.

I think part of the reason for Black Panther’s success with audiences and critics and the reason it doesn’t feel like just another superhero movie is its story follows the template of a James Bond movie rather than a superhero movie. There is even a memorable action scene set in a posh casino followed by a car chase. The rest of the action sequences are not as jarring or bombastic as those from The Avengers movies. You can follow what is happening and where and who it is happening to; you can actually be engaged in the action. Moreover, there’s reason for the action. Killmonger’s sincere but villainous motivations and T’Challa’s dilemma in being both a protector and a leader add substance to superhero spectacle.  

Nominees: Kevin Feige, producer

Director: Ryan Coogler

Screenplay: Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole

Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o

Production Companies: Marvel Studios

Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Release Date: February 16^th, 2018

Total Nominations: 7, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Original Score-Ludwig Göransson; Original Song-Sounwave, Kendrick Lamar, Anthony Tiffith, SZA for "All the Stars"; Costume Design-Ruth E. Carter; Production Design-Hannah Beachler, Jay Hart; Sound Editing-Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker; Sound Mixing-Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Peter J. Devlin