Saturday, February 10, 2024

2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Tár


Cathy's Comments: Boring. Quit at the 1:40 mark. 🙁 

Added in 2024: This movie is about an absolutely loathsome individual. Interesting subject matter (I love discussions about the nature of art) but it's just so boring.

Chris's Comments: I wish we could be watching this with my mom for extra analysis.

Then: Halfway through, still waiting for something to happen!

Then: We made it 101.6 minutes into the movie before quitting. I guess it’s better than Triangle of Sadness.



(Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 4 out of 10 nominees):

Unranked:
    - Originally written February 4, 2023
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2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - All Quiet on the Western Front


This one doesn't rate highly on the list of best picture nominees, for either Chris or myself.  In fact, Chris's comment was, "This movie was much more terrible than I expected. I connected most strongly with the goose."

To my happy surprise, the movie was dubbed in English, and I didn’t have to deal with subtitles. One nice thing is that with English being a Germanic language, the dubbing works extraordinarily well. As I've aged, I've grown to prefer dubbing over subtitles (I used to strongly prefer subtitles, wishing to hear the actor's original voices), but subtitles make the movie a lot more work for me.

Both of us hated the score. It was like a typical score most of the time, interspersed with a jarring discordant synthesizer - clearly intended to tell the viewer, “This is a dramatic, horrifying moment.”

It was beautifully filmed - the cinematography was simply outstanding, but it focused too much on the horror of war (which it captured well) and too little about the characters (though the actors did an excellent job with what little they had to work with). The story, which is already a little weak in the novel, was barely present in this movie.

I went into this new movie kind of excited about it. I taught the novel during one of my brief stints as an English teacher, and while it's not my favorite novel of all time, I like it OK, well enough in fact that after we completed that unit at school, I read it to Chris, who remembers it being slow, but not the worst book he's ever read (high praise!).  We've both seen the 1979 version with Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine (and we agree that it was OK but a little boring). That version had one thing going for it that this movie didn't - it focused on the characters of Paul and Kat enough that you cared more about them and connected with them. 

With this version, we didn't really care about the characters, because it took a step back and felt like an art-house film whose sole purpose was to show the horrors of war (and it did that very very effectively - there were many horrifying, powerful scenes, but they were separated by many boring ones), and because it stepped away from Paul and Kat, neither Chris nor I connected with them at all.  The only human character Chris felt strongly about he wanted dead (the German commander who sent the soldiers on a suicide mission at the end so they wouldn't be dishonored, a senseless attack that resulted in many dead soldiers for no gain whatsoever).  Chris's main comment (and it will only make sense if you watch the movie) was, "The goose was the protagonist." 

I cared slightly more for Paul Baumer than Chris did, but I, too, felt a lack of connection.  So, it was a beautiful movie that showed the ugliness of WW1, but in the end was an epic failure because nobody cared about the people living (or dying) because of that ugliness.



    (Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 9 out of 10 nominees):
    Unranked:
    - Originally written March 1, 2023
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    Friday, February 9, 2024

    2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Top Gun: Maverick

     


    This is another 2023 Best Picture nominee that I didn't write much about at the time.  It's the only one of the nominees that I'd seen prior to the AMPAS releasing the list of movies released in 2022 that were nominated for Best Picture. 

    Was it a good movie? My first thought is that it's a fun movie but not Oscar-worthy.  Of the 10 movies nominated, I ranked three of them below Maverick.

    I enjoyed it a great deal, seeing Mav and Ice again and the many great flying scenes.  It was less homoerotic than the original, I suppose, and I was glad the love interest was age-appropriate for once.  Decent acting, more humor than the original, and it looked great.  I missed seeing Goose's wife Carole (Meg Ryan) though, as well as Charlie (Kelly McGillis), Maverick's love interest from the original movie.

    I do have to relate a funny conversation that occurred when Chris and I watched the movie:

    Scene: the characters are talking about the teeny-tiny target that will be impossible to hit with a fighter plane and we have the following conversation:

    Me: "it's not impossible--"
    Chris (*slightly* before me): "It's not impossible. I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home!"
    Me: Goddamn it!!! You said it first!!!"
    Both of us: [dissolve into laughter].

    It's great being married to a fellow nerd.  (To the non-nerds out there: It's a Star Wars reference.)




    (Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 1 out of 10 nominees):

    Unranked:
    - Originally written November 1, 2022, updated February 2024
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    2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - The Fabelmans


    I can't believe I didn't write anything last year about The Fabelmans, especially given it was one of my favorites of the 2023 Best Picture nominees. I called it "excellent" last year, but Chris didn't like it nearly as well as I did and rated it merely "good."

    Acting, cinematography, writing - all of it was excellent.  But what really stood out, was the storytelling. The (semi?) autobiographical movie told the story of how a young artist became a great filmmaker, and the movie gave a peek into the sometimes troubled lives of the young filmmaker and his family. It also showed us what it was like for him behind the camera, how he told his stories.

    As a wannabe storyteller myself, this movie gave me all the feels.



    (Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 6 out of 10 nominees):

    • Elvis (Excellent movie with stellar acting, music and costumes; Cathy: 3, Chris: 1)
    • Everything Everywhere All at Once (Excellent, beautiful, imaginative and utterly bizarre; Cathy: 2, Chris: 2)
    • The Fabelmans (Good story about a storyteller; Cathy: 1, Chris 3)
    • Top Gun: Maverick (Very enjoyable but not really Oscar material; Cathy: 4, Chris 4)
    • Tár (Interesting topic, boring movie about a loathsome person. Only watched 60%; Cathy: 5, Chris: 5)
    • Triangle of Sadness (Terrible, gross, and Cathy only watched half; Cathy: 6, Chris: 6)

    Unranked:

    - Originally watched February 10, 2023, updated February 2024
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    2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Winner - Everything Everywhere All At Once

     


    Chris's review: It is, so far, winning by a huge margin.

    Cathy's review: Everything Everywhere is a total brain twister of a movie. I LOVED it. Added in 2024 from memory: gorgeous costumes, fantastic acting, imaginative, mesmerizing, wonderful special effects.



    (Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 3 out of 10 nominees):

    Unranked:

    -Originally written January 28, 2023
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    2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Elvis


    Chris's comments: I think this one’s winning so far.

    Cathy's comments: Damn. This was really, really good. And Austin Butler did a spectacular job in the title role. Added in 2024 (from memory): Excellent acting, excellent sound/music/singing, and excellent costume design, though Tom Hanks looked weird in a fat suit.



    (Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 5 out of 10 nominees):

    • Elvis (Excellent movie with stellar acting, music and costumes; Cathy: 2, Chris: 1)
    • Everything Everywhere All at Once (Excellent, beautiful, imaginative and utterly bizarre; Cathy: 1, Chris: 2)
    • Top Gun: Maverick (Very enjoyable but not really Oscar material; Cathy: 3, Chris 3)
    • Tár (Boring movie about a loathsome person. Only watched 60%; Cathy: 4, Chris: 4)
    • Triangle of Sadness (Terrible, gross, and Cathy only watched half; Cathy: 5, Chris: 5)

    Unranked:

    - Originally written February 6, 2023
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    2023 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee - Women Talking

    Women Talking was a beautiful movie. Thought-provoking, and honest and … a complex and very human story. Definitely not a feel-good movie, though.

    The filmmakers made two interesting decisions: they don’t depict the violence (only the aftermath, and that generally only in glimpses), and the men (with only two exceptions) were basically not even a part of the story. Exception one: a sympathetic male schoolteacher who has seen a bit of the world, and two - innocent little boys who are damaged by the situation (though differently) just as the women are.

    These decisions allowed the viewer to concentrate on the women and their horrifying experiences, but even more, it allowed us to really listen to them.


    (Pithy Reviews; and Rankings of 8 out of 10 nominees):

    • Women Talking (Excellent and haunting; Cathy: 1, Chris 1)
    • The Banshees of Inisherin (Excellent, beautiful, and a little surreal; Cathy: 2, Chris: 3)
    • Elvis (Excellent movie with stellar acting, music and costumes; Cathy: 5, Chris: 2)
    • Everything Everywhere All at Once (Excellent, beautiful, imaginative and utterly bizarre; Cathy: 4, Chris: 4)
    • The Fabelmans (Good story about a storyteller; Cathy: 3, Chris: 5)
    • Top Gun: Maverick (Very enjoyable but not really Oscar material; Cathy: 6, Chris: 6)
    • Tár (Boring movie about a loathsome person. Only watched 60%; Cathy: 7, Chris 7)
    • Triangle of Sadness (Terrible, gross, and Cathy only watched half; Cathy: 8, Chris: 8)


    Unranked:

    - Originally written February 25, 2023

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