OSCARS 2023

 

Around this time last year, I wrote that "Everything, Everywhere All at Once" would be one of the best movies of 2022. After another weak year in movies, it turned out to be the best one. Also, as I predicted in my review, the Communist Party in China found the movie to be subversive and prevented its release there. Without any sense self-awareness or irony, there was plenty of talk in media and acceptance speeches about the limited representation of Asians in American cinema. As if.

Having rolled my eyes as hard as I can, there is an obvious way that the Academy does not appreciate the contribution of Asians to cinema and an obvious way to remedy that. There does not yet exist an Oscar category for Stunt Direction. Stunt Direction is an import from Asia. The influence of Asians in the realm of stunt direction over the course of the past fifty years has transformed how action movies are made. Before the Asians taught us how to block and shoot fist-fights, all the movies had were static people pointing guns at each other. If the Academy wanted to do something about Asian representation, it should create this category and give out a few honorary Oscars to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and all the other great technicians of martial arts that have gone unrecognized over the years. This is one category that "Everything, Everywhere All At Once" would surely have won and although the movie earned many awards, the stunt choreographers Brian Le and Andy Le didn't get theirs for their incredible work. 

My Oscar categories have solidified and probably won't change in the near future. I've ditched the "Foreign Language" and "Animated Feature" categories as kids' tables categories. The categories of "Best Use of a Song", "Stunt Direction", and "Best Use of Cultural Appropriation" are here to stay. I have also started considering certain TV shows as long as they end in the year of the awards, so at the very least I can judge the whole (after all, who knows if "Severance" will actually be a well thought out TV show when considered in its totality). It is tough considering TV shows because it is so much harder to see a decent amount of them. It's hard enough seeing a decent amount of movies. But, as the point of giving out awards is to give recommendations for movies/tv to watch, the inclusion of TV shows that I believe have merit (Atlanta, especially) is better than the unfair exclusion of TV shows I haven't yet watched (see Better Call Saul). Without further discussion, here are my choices. Winner in Bold.

Best Original Screenplay

The Banshees of Inisherin - Martin McDonagh

Everything, Everywhere All At Once - Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinart

The Northman - Sjon and Robert Eggers

Turning Red - Julia Cho, Domee Shi

Vengeance - B.J. Novak

Best Adapted Screenplay

We Own This City - George Pelecanos and David Simon

Documentary Now! Soldier of Illusion - John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader

Pinnochio - Guillermo Del Toro

The Whale - Samuel D. Hunter

White Noise - Noah Baumbach

Best Documentary

The Beatles: Get Back

Navalny

Best Costumes

The Batman

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Northman

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Best Hairstyling/Makeup

The Batman

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Whale

Best Original Score

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Banshees of Inishiren

Everything, Everywhere All At Once

See How They Run

Top Gun: Maverick

Best Sound Design

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Batman

Nope

Tar

Top Gun: Maverick

Best Use of a Song

The Batman - “Something In the Way”

The Beatles “Get Back” - The Rooftop Concert

Atlanta Series Finale: “Dream of a Lifetime” Marvin Gaye

Turning Red - 4*Town

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - “Eat It”

Best Production Design

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Batman

The Banshees of Inisherin

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

The Northman

Best Film Editing

Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Nope

See How They Run

Top Gun: Maverick

We Own This City

Best Use of Cultural Appropriation

Atlanta: “The Goof that Sat by the Door”

Everything Everywhere All at Once - Breakdancing Martial Arts

Turning Red - “Wallace & Gromit” inspired animation

Weird - The Al Yankovic Story - Song Parodies

White Noise - Lectures on Elvis and Hitler

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Anya Taylor-Joy - The Northman

Jamie Lee Curtis - Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Kerry Condon - The Banshees of Inisherin

Saoirse Ronan - See How They Run

Best Supporting Actor

Ashton Kutcher - Vengeance

Brendan Gleeson - The Banshees of Inisherin

Christian Bale - Thor: Love and Thunder

Ke Huy Quan - Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Steven Yeun - Nope

Best Stunt Direction

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Batman

Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Jackass: Forever

RRR

Best Actress

Alison Brie - Spin Me Round

Cate Blanchett - TAR and Documentary Now! Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport

Michelle Yeoh - Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Zar Amir-Ebrahimi - Holy Spider

Zazie Beetz - Atlanta: “Tatare”

Best Actor

Adam Driver - White Noise

Brendan Fraser - The Whale

Brian Tyree Henry - Atlanta: “Andrew Wyeth, Alfred’s World”

Colin Farrell - The Banshees of Inisherin

Patton Oswalt - I Love My Dad

Best Visual Effects

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Batman

Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Nope

Top Gun: Maverick

Best Cinematography

All Quiet on the Western Front

Atlanta: “New Jazz”

The Batman

Empire of Light

Nope

Best Director

Robert Eggers - The Northman

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert - Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Martin McDonagh - The Banshees of Inisherin

Hiro Murai and Donald Glover - Atlanta

Jordan Peele - Nope

Best Picture

Atlanta

The Banshees of Inisherin

Everything, Everywhere All at Once

Holy Spider

Nope

The Northman

Pinocchio

Top Gun: Maverick

Turning Red

We Own This City

Vengeance

Tar (3/5 Stars)

Tar, written and directed by Todd Field (his first movie in over 15 years), is about a renowned conductor of symphony orchestras, Lydia Tar, played here by Cate Blanchett. It is a strange movie, not necessarily in content or tone, but in construction and point of view. 

In the wake up #MeToo, we have all heard various stories of executives that have abused their power to gain sexual favors from female subordinates. In real life, we hear these stories from the outside. We are not in the room where it happens and by default such stories have a he said/she said quality to them. A fictional movie like Tar though is not constrained to an outsider’s view. Because the writer/director has the ability to create what went on in the room, there doesn’t need to be any uncertainty involved as to what happened. The strange thing about “Tar” is that the movie is told from the inside, that is, it is told from Lydia Tar point of view, it follows her around in the privacy of her apartment and is present during confidential conversations. But even so, the scandal in question involving an allegation of abuse of an up and coming conductor, is never shown or explained in any detail. This leads to a strange viewing experience because we see Lydia Tar reacting to the outside world reacting to the vague rumors of a scandal, but we don’t actually know whether what the world thinks happened in that room is actually true or not.

This is one of those movies a certain type of movie critic loves because it allows them to interpret it however they wish (and thus show off their considerable skills in interpretation). I am not one of those critics. I am compelled to reveal that I spent a considerable amount of this movie confused as to what I was watching. The unexplained scandal is only one aspect of the confusion I had. I also had a hard time telling who it was Lydia Tar was talking to in any given scene. Near the beginning, she had a polite dinner with a character whose name I didn’t quite catch but who is played by Mark Strong. This character played by Mark Strong had some position in the orchestra but I didn’t pick up on what it was, or I did, but didn’t know what the position meant. Really, all I knew about the guy was that he must be wearing a wig because Mark Strong, the actor, is famously bald.

Not that the movie is being deliberately vague about that scene, it just isn’t all that helpful either. I have a feeling that if I knew a lot about symphony orchestras, I could probably have picked up on what they were talking about, and, in turn, its political undercurrent. I think that symphony orchestras, being bastions of elitism, are probably run in the discreet and indirect manner that shows up on the screen here. In this world, Lydia Tar, a direct and dominant personality, bullies her way through people, perhaps not realizing that what is left unsaid will find its way back to her. 

Other times, I think the movie should have helped me a little bit. I know part of this movie takes place in New York City because I know that Juliard is located there and I recognize some of the streets and buildings. But this movie also takes place in a city where most people speak German. It was not clear to me where that was and there were no scenes of travel between locations. (The movie opens with a train scene, but you can’t get to Germany from NYC by train. So…) Lydia Tar has more than one residence, that much I picked up on. I couldn’t tell you on what side of the Atlantic Ocean either one of those residences were located.

I did grasp how Lydia Tar went about seducing her charges. In one scene, she takes a young cellist out to lunch and gives her information unknown to the rest of the orchestra, that Tar is going to choose a piece of music for the upcoming performance, which includes a cellist solo. This young cellist goes out and gets a head start practicing for the solo. Then Tar tells the orchestra the news and asks the lead cellist in front of everyone whether or not they should have auditions. The lead cellist, confined by politeness, has to agree. Then Tar schedules the audition for early the next week and asks the lead cellist if that is enough time. The lead cellist, confined by politeness, has to agree. The audition itself is blind, that is the listeners cannot tell who is playing the cello behind a large partition. But one cellist is clearly better than the other, and, lo and behold, it turns out that the better one is the young cellist that Tar wants to seduce.

It is a good question here as to whether Lydia Tar has taken advantage of the young cellist. There doesn’t appear to be any objection on the young cellist’s part. What is clear is that Tar has unfairly manipulated the lead cellist and has been dishonest and disrespectful to the orchestra. What this movie might be about ultimately is not about the comeuppance due a person in power for their taking advantage of a subordinate, but how an organization fights back and expels such a person for her crimes against the whole.

Of course, if this movie was about the latter, you would think that Todd Field would show scenes of people in the orchestra plotting the downfall of Lydia Tar. But we don’t see that. The movie stays with Cate Blanchett the entire time. She seems oblivious to the machinations around her until it is already too late. I am reminded by the last quarter of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon wherein the title aristocrat is shunned by his peers but no one actually tells him that it has happened.

Overall, the way everyone scurries about outside the frame doing things for reasons they will never articulate, reminds me of all the more annoying people I know in real life. A part of me thinks Lydia Tar will be happier having nothing to do with them. She loses everything it appears, except the work and the music, and perhaps that is what really matters to someone like her. In one scene, she goes way out of her way to eloquently and publicly defend the music of Bach against the charge that he is white and male. Who knows? Maybe she is entirely innocent.

Cate Blanchett has been one of our best actresses since she played Queen Elizabeth at the age of 28. She has considerable talent as an actress and cuts a striking figure but, unlike most big name actresses, has never really been sexy. Not being known for sexiness is a boon to the aging actress, and not unlike Meryl Streep, it lends Blanchett a gravitas that will likely have her hoovering up all the best roles for women (and men, see I’m Not There) past a certain age. Meryl Streep was 57 when she played Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, a role that finally made her a bankable star to a wide audience. It is fair to say that Streep’s career has been as strong as ever for the past 20 years since she turned 50. Cate Blanchett is now 53 and I think it is very plausible that she will have a Streep-esque run in the next 20 years that will have her doing some of her best work. She’s already played a Queen. It’s only a matter of time before she plays a President. That is not to say her range is limited to power roles. She also did a great job this year playing an incompetent hairdresser in Documentary Now’s Two Hairdresser’s in Bagglyport. Blanchett can do anything.