Dogs Bark

Who Are We To Disagree? - - Kinds Of Kindness (2024, USA, Color, 164 min) - - 4 September 2024

Recommended. But barely, because Kinds Of Kindness is a strange and challenging movie, or actually, three short - - but subtly interconnected - - challenging movies. Yorgos Lanthimos’s (The Favourite) masterful Poor Things, set him up for an easy A, but Kinds Of Kindness is much harder to like.  The opening music sets up the theme: The Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams, which most reviewers assign to dominance and control. But it’s the dream - - specifically, the American one - - that Lanthimos and co-writer Efthimis Filippou (The Lobster) are playing with herein. It’s just that control is crucial to the dream. The cast is wonderful, with the Lanthimos regular Emma Stone (Poor Things) once again nailing down strangeness, backed up by the luminous Margaret Qualley (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), Willam Defoe (Poor Things) and non-regular, but Cannes-be-knighted, Jessie Plemons (The Irishman), who adapts perfectly. It’s gruesome and bleak, so beware . . . Kinds Of Kindness is never kind.

Duke's Picks - - The Oscars (2023) - - 3 March 2024

So, due to the summer phenomenon called Heimenopptabarb (did I say that right?), or perhaps the full absorption of cinema into the multiversal stream, I actually managed to see (and review) most of the nominated films before the day of the unveiling. And with two glaring omissions, I am not unhappy. Of course, the idea that Ken could drive his monster truck into the acting category - - but Margot was left at the curb - - is so ironically stupid; however, leaving Greta Gerwig off the directing ballot is even worse. Apparently, toxic Kenergy is still a problem. And what’s with nominating Barbie in the adapted screenplay category? Adapted from what? Her diary?

Oh well, we proceedeth onward.

Best Actor in a Starring Role - - Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction - - This was a crazy strong category. Any one of these actors did a splendid job. If I could choose two, it might be Wright and Cillian Murphy, two fine actors who deserved past nominations and will win more. Either one will make me happy, and the smart money is on Cillian. Giamatti deserved a nod for Sideways, and this role was very good, but not as hard. 

Best Actress in a Starring Role - - Lily Gladstone, Killers Of The Flower Moon - - Because of the insane oversight of Margot Robbie in Barbie, this Award is asterisked, which is sad because I don’t know who would be dropped from this astonishing group of performers. I might pick Emma Stone for the Oscar since her performance in Poor Things was so unique, perhaps too unique for the Academy. Bening and Mulligan were just up to their usual very high standards, and Sandra Hüller (Anatomy Of A Fall AND The Zone of Interest) was astonishing in both of her Oscar-nominated films. But Lily Gladstone, in Killers Of The Flower Moon, charmed everyone - - including me - - with her meticulous and intelligent performance in a fantastic role. More of her and Hüller, please.

Best Actor In A Supporting Role - - Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer - - Like Lily and several other of my choices . . . this could be a lock. I don’t know about the Academy, but I like to see actors play against type, and a mean-spirited, anti-Commie bureaucrat is about as far as you can get from Downey’s public persona. Mark Ruffalo in (Poor Things), Robert De Niro (Killers Of The Flower Moon), and Sterling Brown (American Fiction) were very good in limited parts. And I thought Ryan Gosling was wonderfully funny.

Best Actress In A Supporting Role - - Jodie Foster, Nyad - - I didn’t see The Color Purple, so this is a limited opinion, but of the ones I did see, Emily Blunt in Oppenheimer was near perfect. And many think she got gypped on The Devil Wears Prada, so she’s got the inside track over Globe-winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers). I loved America Ferrera in Barbie but I thought that Jodie Foster was terrific in Nyad, a very calm, thoughtful performance.

Best Original Screenplay - - Justine Triet & Arthur Harari, Anatomy Of A Fall - - In my mind, this is a two-way battle between the two non-English speaking films, Anatomy Of A Fall and Past Lives. Both are insightful and great commentaries on modern life. Both are deeply satisfying scripts. Anatomy Of A Fall is a more complex story, so it wins my book by a nose.

Best Adapted Screenplay - - Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach, Barbie, Again, I have no idea why Barbie is presumed to be adapted. No other story about Mattel’s toy has featured her in an LAPD mugshot or sent her to a gynecologist. What . . . ever. I loved this movie, and the script was triumphantly original. Having said all that, the other four screenplays were almost as good.

Best Cinematography - - Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer - - I didn’t see El Conde, but I’m not big on autocratic vampires. This is only van Hoytema's second nomination . . . despite his amazing career. He should have won in 2018 for Dunkirk and wasn’t even nominated in 2015 for Interstellar. I hope these errors are corrected this year.

Best Costume Design - - Yorgos Lanthimos and Best Production Design - - James Price, Shona Heath, Zsuzsa Mihalek, Poor Things - - These are obviously two separate Awards, and each has its own skills, but the wildly creative art direction of Poor Things combined them in ways that were perfectly harmonized. Actually, Barbie was also painted this way, so I have no argument with seeing the Oscars distributed between the two films. I love Jacqueline Durran (Pride & Prejudice), who is nominated for Barbie.

Best Direction - - Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer - - I could be a little bitch and protest Greta’s insult, but that would add a second insult to the five people nominated for their outstanding work. In fact, it’s hard to choose; however, Nolan’s work on Oppenheimer rose a bit above . . . and he’s never won this Award. Amazingly, Marty (Killers Of The Flower Moon) has only won one out of ten nominations.  

Best Picture - - David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie B, Barbie - - I loved Barbie for all the politically right (left?) reasons. I have always had a warm spot in my heart for girl power. Barbie mocks 21st-century femininity at the same time as it celebrates it. The Billie Eilish song (What Was I Made For?) and America Ferrera’s now famous soliloquy detail the (still) sad state of gender (ir)rationality, but Eilish and America don’t seem so much sad . . . as just frustrated. And Ryan Gosling is wonderful, mocking the traits that keep men performing the same crazy and limiting behaviors. I wonder if Elizabeth Jean Carroll would reduce her compensation by a dollar for each viewing of Barbie forced on her assailant. Anybody remember A Clockwork Orange?

And so it goes . . . I actually won’t be at the ceremony this year. Not with Meg Ryan, Isabella Rossellini, or anyone else. I will be flinging my decrepitude across the globe to a meeting at Cinecittà. If you don’t believe me, we can first visit La Bocca della Verità.

And until next time, I’ll see you . . . at the movies.

Karmic Connection - - Past Lives (2023, USA/Korea, Color, 105 min) - - 29 February 2024

Strongly recommended. Celine Song (The Wheel of Time), the writer/director of Best-Picture-nominated Past Lives has made a wonderfully thoughtful film about the lessons of life.  Two Korean children - - boy and girl - - growing up together are separated, come together as young adults, and then ten years later in New York. The woman, played by Greta Lee (St. Vincent), is ambitious and breaks off their romance. In the final sequence, she has wed a native New Yorker (John Magaro, First Cow) who speaks little Korean. Hae Sung (Teo Yoo, Decision to Leave) shows up on a visit, clearly still enamored of his childhood sweetheart. Nora (Lee) must explain how she cannot return his feelings, despite her affection. Her husband is just trying to understand both of them, linguistically and emotionally. The story is simple but impressively acted and totally authentic. A very adult movie . . . in the best sense of the word.

 

A Marriage Is A Mystery - - Anatomy Of A Fall (2023, France, Color, 151 min) - - 26 February 2024

Strongly Recommended. The center of Anatomy Of A Fall is the death - - possibly by suicide or murder - - of a man from an upstairs window while his wife sleeps one floor below. The heart of the film is the death of a marriage. The excellence of Justine Triet’s (Sybil) script/direction is the interleaving of these two tragedies in a way that makes us want to know the real story. And do we get that? We get something from Sandra Hüller’s (Zone Of Interest) careful, nuanced, and Oscar^© nominated performance, and we believe her enough to feel sympathetic . . . but with a lingering whiff of uncertainty that is unsettlingly satisfying. Most of the plot is taken up in a courtroom, attended by Hüller’s stoic son (talented youngster Milo Machado-Graner) who delivers a key bit of evidence at the end. This is a very well-made movie, deserving of its Best Picture nod.

Wrighting The Writer - - American Fiction (2023, USA, Color, 117 min) - - 12 February 2012

Recommended. Jeffery Wright (Cadillac Records) is one of our best actors and if the Academy decides that American Fiction awards him that statuette . . . I won't be upset. Wright plays Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison, a name redolent of two African-American geniuses and in that, we realize that American Fiction is one . . . a satirical folk tale and not real. This is confirmed near the end, when Monk changes the conclusion of the movie several times. I know, you gotta be there. The fiction does not keep writer/director (and Tucson native) Cord Jefferson from constructing some wonderfully real characters to bounce off Monk, particularly his dementia-suffering mother, delightfully played by Leslie Uggams (Roots) and his gay brother Cliff (also Oscar^© nominated Sterling K. Brown, Black Panther). Most of the white characters are inane but should not be taken seriously.  Despite this American Fiction, is a charming picture only diminished by the rather feckless ending.       

Watashitachi No Yuujin - - The Yakuza (1974, USA, Color,112 min) - -31 January 2025

Recommended. The Yakuza might only appeal to movie historians. It bombed at the box office. It's frequently called a neo-noir - - and it has some noir elements - - but it's really a hard-boiled detective story. The script was written by Paul Schrader (Raging Bull), based on a short story by his brother, Leonard (Kiss of the Spider Woman). The next script Schrader wrote was Taxi Driver, where he was allowed a bit more fake blood. Actually, Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) was one of the many directors considered for The Yakuza . . . until Sydney Pollack was drafted (The Way We Were). This was Robert Mitchum's (Out Of The Past) last major starring role, paired with martial-arts phenom, Ken Takakura (Railroad Man). Mitchum is doing a favor for a US gangster, retrieving his daughter from a Yakuza boss. It's a good movie . . . somewhat flawed by a lack of commitment to the genre. 

The Unheard Known - - The Zone Of Interest (2023, USA/UK/Poland, Color, 105 min) - - 27 September 2024, International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Recommended. The Zone Of Interest is the latest meditation on Hannah Arendt's observation that Nazi bureaucrat Adolph Eichmann exemplified "the banality of evil." Eichmann could more easily abstract the slaughter of human beings than the family of Rudolf Höss, Kommandant of Auschwitz (Christian Friedel, The White Ribbon). The story centers on Höss - - like Eichmann, a blandly ambitious functionary - - and his wife, played by Sandra Hüller (Anatomy Of A Fall), as a whiney, grubby Army spouse. Director Jonathan Glazer (Under The Skin) methodically unveils the horror underlying the banality of the Höss family . . . fussing over their flower garden. First, comes the barbed-wire-topped concrete wall bordering Höss's backyard. Then, the constant smoke. Finally, it's the background noise . . . wailing children, barked orders, and random pistol shots seeping through the walls. And most terrible is a 24/7 rumble, the ravenous oven's roar. The Zone Of Interest is Oscar^©-nominated for sound . . . evil sound.

Diana And Her Nymph - - Nyad (2023, USA, Color, 121 min) - - 24 January 2024

Recommended. Nyad is a very good movie about remarkable resolve and athletic prowess. Annette Bening (American Beauty) is fine as Diana Nyad, hinting at the past trauma that drove her. Married co-directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (Free Solo) do a workman-like job. The story of Diana Nyad’s passion to complete the previously-believed impossible swim from Cuba to Florida is stirring. The cinematography, including Nyad’s struggle with a storm at sea, is painterly. But it’s Jodie Foster (Silence Of The Lambs), playing Bonnie Stoll, Nyad’s coach and best friend - - but explicitly not her lover - - who steals the show. Foster is the first out, lesbian actor who has been Oscar^©-nominated for playing a lesbian character. Why is this important? It’s not just about representation; it’s about authenticity. And that authenticity is apparent in Foster’s performance, an unvarnished characterization at the top of  her game, intense, beautiful, natural, and true

Born Irascible - - The Holdovers (2023, USA, Color, 133 min) - - 8 January 2024

Recommended. Despite the Golden Globe, it's not certain that Paul Giamatti (Sideways) has any lock on the Best Actor Oscar^©; however, we clearly have a new heartwarming Christmas story. The Oscarian uncertainty emerges from the pat casting . . . Giamatti as a crusty-but-benign, prep-school teacher. Still, he imbues this aged stereotype with new life and is set against a very dissimilar pair . . . an African-American cook, played by Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Rustin) who is enduring a tragic loss and Giamatti's charge (newcomer Dominic Sessa), the only student with nowhere to go over Christmas break. While “heartwarming” can quickly turn to overcooked, director Alexander Payne (Election) and writer David Hemingson (Just Shoot Me!) never allow the corn syrup to flow. Most of the story takes place during an extended - - and illicit - - “field trip” to Boston, with the usual disasters and confusion. In the end, everyone turns a page in this nice little movie.     

An Ugly Truth - - May December (2023, USA, Color, 117 min)

Not recommended. This is painful because - - although the output of director Todd Haynes (Carol) is uneven - - Natalie Portman (Closer) and Julianne Moore (The Hours) are wonderfully talented, and Portman produced May December. But this is a nasty movie.  Despite this, the many nominations and awards for tyro Charles Melton (Bad Boys for Life) seem reasonable. Melton plays the husband of Moore, and the father of her child from a romance that started when he was 14. Yuck. The tale is adapted from the true life of Mary-Kay Letourneau and her 12-year-old former student. Even more yucky. Portman and Moore play their characters minus any display of moral complexity . . . despite the obvious and well-played confusion/anguish of the object of their lust. Perhaps, then, this is the intention of Haynes . . . to mock two white women who seduce a young man of color. So what . . .  it's not a story worth telling.

Nose Job - - Maestro (2023, USA, Color and B/W, 129 min) - - 30 December 2023

Recommended. This is - - arguably  - - the age of bewildered sexuality and gender in the movies. And given the variations - - within and between - - these human qualities, movies need to be as fluid as untrammeled personalities. But there was a time when the current candor did not exist. And that is the proscenium for Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s (Silver Lining Playbook), exuberant, one-man performance as Leonard Bernstein. Berstein’s sexual ambiguity included a marriage to a star in her own right, Felicia Montealegre (Studio One), played with brilliant nuance and a boffo Mid-Atlantic accent by Cary Mulligan (Promising Young Woman). This is Mulligan’s best work ever, showing the monstrous, heartrending, - - and occasionally - - glorious experience of marriage to a genius. The story’s culmination comes in the 1973 performance of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony at Ely Cathedral. Bernstein’s concluding ecstasy and his passionate off-stage embrace of Montealegre, despite their turmoil, is the perfect metaphor for their life together.