OKAY, OKAY: IT’S OSCAR TIME

I think over the years I’ve expressed how phlegmatic I am about the Academy Awards (TM). I don’t hate them, but each year I find them increasingly irrelevant to the merits (or lack thereof) of the films they reward with the little gold guy. I’m way too long in the tooth to think that an Oscar Winner means much other than this is what some members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences came up with. Most of the voters are actors, but credit where it is due, I’m often pleasantly surprised at some of the technical awards that are given out, but even there, meh.

I’m not necessarily awards-averse. However, I find that festival awards are better litmus tests for figuring out the quality of any given film than, say, the Big Game on Sunday Night. All of this said, this year’s awards are pretty solid. There really isn’t much I have to complain about in terms of nominees and regardless of who wins, I’ll be okay with it. If I’m being honest, I haven’t had a real issue with who’s got what since, well, 2022, the Year of the Slap. I really didn’t think Smith was the best actor that year (Denzel, Cumberbatch, and Garfield all turned in stronger turns, but hey, let’s give the Award to the guy who slaps the shit out of Chris Rock - I mean, if there were justice, the governing board should have stepped in and tossed Smith out on his ear in the moment and frankly, I really didn’t think much of King Richard as a film although, truth be told, it epitomizes the phrase “Oscar bait”, so there is that).

I mean each year, there are moments when I have my preferences and my own private sense of injustice (I remain one of the few who has detested - not disliked -  detested a number of well-reviewed, well-received, and rewarded films that I found, well, detestable.

I also have been wrong about some of the movies I thought would make  it to the finish line as being “Oscar Bait”. It’s nice to be wrong sometimes.

I haven’t reviewed any of the nominees for Best Picture this year. Why? Dunno. Really have been focused on other things and other films, though I really did intend to do some analyses on them. Also, why don’t I take a look at nominees in other areas? Dunno. Not sure I care that much, but where it seems relevant, I’ll mention them below, because of course, of course, I’m going to do some quick recaps here.

Let’s go in alphabetical order.

Bugonia

I love me some Lanthimos and Stone pairings and while this may not be the best, it might well be Yorgos’s most accessible film. Stone plays the CEO of a corporation whose product was responsible for the hospitalization and coma that Jesse Plemons’ Teddy’s mother is in. He’s convinced that she’s an alien from Andromeda executing a plan to destroy humanity, and has gone so far to kidnap her and attempt to convincer her to contact the emperor and call of the plan. 

There’s some great pitch-black comedy in here, but also some trenchant observation about conspiracy theorists, loneliness, and desperation. It’s not as surreal or really, as darkly humorous as Lanthimos can get, but I like the idea that he and Stone picked up noms for Best Picture and Actress (she’s also a producer). Will Tracy’s screenplay is also nominated, as is Jerskin Fendrix’s score. All good here. 

If I have any knocks, it has less to do with the film than with the Academy recognizing a minor work of a great artist. We’ve seen stuff like before; Martin Scorsese getting Best Director for The Departed was all well and good, but it really felt more like, “sorry, we fucked up on not giving you the statue for, say, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Age of Innocence, Goodfellas, you know, all those…so here’s a consolation prize). By the way, I really love The Departed, but I don’t put it in the top ten of his body of work.

F1: the Movie

A good, solid film. I found it fun and immanently forgettable, if well-done popcorn entertainment. Pitt was fine, but Kerry Condon walked with every scene she’s in just because she’s Kerry Condon. I honestly have no notes except to say that I didn’t really think this would get a nomination. They’re also up for Best Film Editing, Sound, and Visual Effects and these make sense; it’s not a life-changing work about the human condition but it is definitely about cars going fast, ego, and triumph. Do I sound dismissive? I’m not, really. If it won, and the card is too stacked with a couple of other bangers to beat, I wouldn’t be mad. Perplexed, but my blood wouldn’t boil. It’d just be another case of the AMPAS being AMPAS.

Frankenstein

I swore I thought I’d written this up, but I was so very wrong. I should - and I might, later. One of the projects that Del Toro has been talking about doing for decades and it pays off in ways I really did not expect. Liberties are taken with the source material, but that’s as it should be, and the choices made grew on me long after I left the theater. Jacob Elordi brought a pathos to the Creature not seen since, well, Boris Karloff. It’s a heart-tugging turn, but I feel like Oscar Isaac didn’t get enough accolades for his turn as Dr. Frankenstein,  a study in so many different shades of human hubris and failure and a descent into failure on par with Walter White. I’m almost too much of a fan of Del Toro’s to be objective about his directing, but I think he leveled up again here. I was surprised when Nightmare Alley got nominated, and I didn’t think that was one of his stronger films (see also Yorgos Lanthimos above), but here, the stops are pulled out and we have that remarkable collage of spectacle, horror, and humanity come together in an almost perfect form.

It’s the humanity of the Creature that makes the film so poignant, of course. This is in line with just about every iteration since Shelley’s novel saw print. It’s also very much a part of Guillermo del Toro’s sense of finding that humanity in the so-called monster that works out so well. 

Best Picture, though? Sure. Why not? Certainly, Elordi deserves the Best Supporting Actor nom and I really do think Dan Lausten is overdue for an award. Adapted Screenplay? The competition is stiffer here than just about anywhere. I can’t say that’s what I see happening, but if it did, I’d be fine with it. As for Best Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, and Original Score, again, I’d have no problem. Although, on that last category, I do have a favorite this year which will show up in the next entry.

Hamnet

I wasn’t ready for this. Every so often, a film comes along that takes your breath away because of that special confluence of vision(s) and performance, individual moments and collective impact, and plot and theme. I really was unprepared for what Jessie Buckley was going to bring. I wasn’t surprised at Chloé Zhao’s direction (look, she’s a master as much as del Toro, Lanthimos, Anderson, and Coogler; if nothing else, this has been a great year for recognizing stellar directors); but I was shaken by the overall result. To my core.

Given that there are two extremely big movies looming large over the award night, I doubt Zhao will get the Best Director prize or Hamnet Best Picture, but by God, there is much wrong if Buckley doesn’t walk with a statue. Adapted Screenplay? I’m supportive! Casting? For sure! Costume Design and Production Design, I can also get behind, but Best Score? Oh, if there is any justice, Max Richter gets his first little man! Again, I’m too much of a fan to find any critical distance here.

Marty Supreme

In any other year, this might be the one to beat. Josh Safdie’s directing and writing was as on point (in a much different direction) as Chloe Zhao’s (about the highest praise I can give someone). This has been touted as Timothée Chalamet’s finest performance and I am inclined to agree. It’s one of those turns that capitalizes so much on the actor’s charm being buried beneath an abrasive individual’s character. More than that, though, it’s a tumultuous picture, emotionally and narratively, and in some cases, as fantastical as Bugonia. But they pull it off.

If Marty Reisman didn’t exist to build this Marty on top of, someone like Safdie would have had to invent him. Normally, films like this that capture a period so well are matched unfavorably against others by masters like Scorsese or Coppola, but Safdie nails the post-war milieu even while trafficking in anachronisms that don’t take you out of the picture. It all comes down to Chalamet’s performance, though. None of this would work with someone with less commitment or understanding of what is driving this sonofabitch. And he is a sonofabitch; he is inured to the problems of everyone around him down to his girlfriend’s pregnancy. But his drive is organic. Sure, he’s a hustler, but he’s not wrong about who he is and what he is capable of. 

This is also very much a film about class and who gets to live the American dream; who gets to get ahead and who remains under the soles of the well-heeled. Yeah, Marty’s a prick, but he’s no less a prick than so many others in the film that give him short shrift and when someone does extend a hand, he’s as quick to take it as kind of fuck it up. Also, Safdie’s use of Sharktank’s Kevin O’Leary and Abel Ferrara is inspired. Both turn in credible and disturbing performances. Gwyneth Paltrow shines as a faded movie star essaying a turn on Broadway, full of longing, and hubris not so very different from Marty’s and the two of them winding up in the sack makes more sense than you might realize. Part of it is in their need for each other on purely material terms - Marty needs her clout with her husband (O’Leary) and she needs Marty to kind of stick it to herr husband - but also, let’s face it; they’re both emotionally needy. There is a sense of something oedipal in his bedding her and you feel like she still needs to feel desirable. Lastly, Odessa A’zion, as Marty’s married childhood friend who he’s gotten pregnant is a wealth of nuance, with genuine love for Marty and understandable anger, often in the same moment. 

I probably need to do a full write-up of Marty Supreme, too. There is a richness and complexity here that no short recap is going to do justice (that word again) to.

In the other categories, I’d be perfectly happy if Marty took a few, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography (like Lusthaus, Darius Khondji hasn’t got an Oscar? WTF, AMPAS?), Casting, Editing, Production Design? I’m happy for whatever the pic gets.

One Battle After Another

Fuuuuuck (one of two). So here’s the first Big Kahuna of the Season. If you haven’t seen it, nothing I can say in under a couple of hundred words is gong to meaningfully convey the power and scope of what we have here. Look, Paul Thomas Anderson has long since proven himself a worthy in the pantheon of cinema, but this stands as unique in his oeuvre. It’s as epic, say, as There Will Be Blood, but has carved out enough space for characters to be realized as fully human, and very flawed, while also, somehow, being both funny as hell and tragic as death. There’s the broader historic-political text and context surrounding the characters and what they’re - all of them - trying to accomplish. These elements in themselves would be enough to secure some notice, but there’s so much going on and Anderson somehow contains it and lets it breathe without sucking up the oxygen in the theater.

Again, a recap is ludicrous here, but suffice it to say that Leonardo DiCaprio has added another excellent performance to his formidable credits. Added along with him are Benecio. del Toro and Sean Penn in supporting roles and Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills, one of the best characters (and complicated) ever. I hate to think del Toro and Penn might wind up cancelling each other out, but there are other performances out there, right?  Taylor is in a crowded race, as well. More on those as we get there, but if the Academy calls her name, I’d be pleased.

In terms of the screenplay, I’m predisposed to support any work related to Thomas Pynchon, but in a case like this, it’s cheeky because the movie is based on a not huge part of Vineland. That said, after Inherent Vice, give Anderson all the Pynchon material he wants to adapt! 

Cinematography? So this is Michael Bauman’s first nod and he’s worked with Anderson over the years, but take a look at his filmography and check out who he’s worked with as a gaffer and lighting technician. He was also Anderson’s co-cinematographer on Licorice Pizza and one of several on Phantom Thread. Small wonder his work here is so good.

Okay. I know I was a little effusive regarding my main man Max, but Jonny Greenwood is way overdue.  And yes, this is one of those movies where the score is as much part of the sound design as a piece in itself. 

Casting, Editing, Production Design, and Sound; again, I’m just repeating myself.

The Secret Agent

I am tickled pink this is up for Best Picture. Every time I see an international feature nominated, I feel as though movies do make a difference. From the opening moments to the finish, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s opus had me. It is, of course, a thriller with a political bent, where suspense builds from life in the Brazilian dictatorship in the late 1970s. But it has moments of sometimes surprising and not always gentle, humor. It also reminded me of other films fraught with what it means to live under a totalitarian government and what can happen if you run afoul of that government. 

Movement is circumscribed and who you speak to can end your life. Wagner Moura is remarkable as Armando/Fernando and it is gutting to see how his sacrifice almost vanished into history. We aren’t quite to the point in this country where disappearance is complete erasure. However, a film like O Agente Secreto may show us what we are in danger of becoming. There have been other films in the past couple of years (and more) that show what life under oppression is like. We need these films.

Wagner Moura is likely most familiar to audiences from Narcos and Narcos: Mexico as Pablo Escobar. You may have also caught him in the Russo Brothers’ less-than-adequate The Gray Man or perhaps Alex Garland’s Civil War. In any case, I’m super happy he has also gotten the nod for Best Actor. 

There is also the sense of consolation that in lieu of receiving the Best Picture Oscar, The Secret Agent could win Best International Feature Film. Except it does have competition there, too.

Sentimental Value

Joachim Trier’s quiet, beautiful film of a filmmaker attempting a comeback professionally and perhaps even with his daughters is a character study like we haven’t seen honored by the Academy in a very long time.

Trier is up for Best Director, as well. Renate Reinsve is in line for Best Actress, and Stellan Skarsgaard is in the running for Best Supporting Actor. All of these are worthy nominations. As with One Battle After Another, two actors are vying for Supporting Actress: Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleas (if I’m being honest, I’d like to see it go to Inga, should that happen). Trier and his co-writer Eskil Vogt are also looking at a Best Original Screenplay nod, and Olivier Bugge Coutté is up for Best Editing.

I think this is where I’m taken aback with how stacked this year’s nominations are. If you haven’t seen Sentimental Value, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I need to pause here to reflect on something else: awards are nice as far as they go in recognizing excellence; but they are idiotic when you take a closer look at the works involved. This is true in most years, but 2026 is one Oscar year where the idiocy is underscored by an embarrassment of riches. However, how do you measure a Wagner Moura against Ethan Hawke (remarkable in Blue Moon)? Or Jessie Buckley against Renate Reinsve? Why would you put a big movie like One Battle After Another against a quiet gem like Sentimental Value or a compelling sociopolitical thriller like The Secret Agent against a nearly unclassifiable film like Sinners (oh, we are getting there)?

This is why I can’t take Oscar Winners seriously as gauges of true quality cinema. This year, I would argue every nominee is worthy and it’s difficult to refrain to lauding each of the Best Picture nominees as genuine masterpieces (not all of them, but all are excellent, at the very least). 

Okay, the next entry is the Other Big Film of the season.

Sinners

Fuuuuuuck. (Two of two.) If Hamnet surprised me emotionally and for that matter, narratively, Sinners was the other film this year that did the same in a much different register. 

Again, Ryan Coogler is a genius. He has given us a body of work that is nothing other than engrossing, compelling, and demands reflection, even as the messaging is couched in genre films. The additional beauty of this is that, like Jordan Peele, he can get a point across about race and social issues that a lot of people might not even be aware of on first or even second watch. But none of his films are lost in polemic because, goddamn, they come from an organic and heartfelt place executed with as sound a talent as anyone has ever seen. 

Taken on the surface, Sinners is a mash-up of 1930s gangster film mixing with something like vampire/folk horror. Throw in some of the best cinematography and a musical score to die for (I’m still loyal to Max, but if Ludwig Göransson wins, I’m not going to be broken-hearted). Oh, and the performances??? Let’s go:

Michael B. Jordan. If, as seems to be the case, it all comes down to One Battle After Another and Sinners being the two Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots duking it out, my bet is on Michael taking the gold; he’s playing twins with assuredly different personalities, but subtle and as real as you can get. Sorry, Leo, I’m in Mr. Jordan’s corner this round.

Best Supporting Actor: Delroy Lindo. With all due respect to Elordi, del Toro, and Penn, my loyalties are divided on this between Delroy and Stellan. These are two very different characters by two of the most accomplished actors around. Personally, though, and irrespective of how much I loved Skarsgãd’s performance, I think it’s time for the Academy what a jewel Delroy Lindo is.

Wunmi Mosaku as Annie for Best Supporting Actress. This is tougher than Best Supporting Actor. However, having said that, if Wunmi picks it up, again, I’ll be happy! Hell, I’ll be very happy!

So what about that cinematography? First of all, how is it that we are at the 98th Academy Awards and Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first woman of color to be nominated for this award? Let that resonate for a bit. Almost a century. I suppose we should sigh and say “better late than never”, but bear in mind that she is only the third Black person nominated (after Remi Adefarasin for Elizabeth back in 1998 and Bradford Young for Arrival in ten years ago.) This may require a separate piece that I’ll have to work on. 

Let’s talk Best Film Editing; again, this year has been remarkable for the amount of mastery onscreen. Michael Shawver’s work here is right up there and he’s been around since Fruitvale Station and has worked with Coogler ever since. This has to be mentioned because, to my mind, the editor of any film is the closest collaborator to the director. When you have a team like Coogler and Shawver this much in synch, you are by default, more likely to be guaranteed as pure a work as you can get. (There are other director-editor teams, but that is also to be covered at a later date.) In any case, Shawver’s work ensured that Sinners pops. Like Andy Jurgensen’s work on One Battle After Another or Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie’s on Marty Supreme, all of these films felt much fleeter than their runtimes would suggest (and honestly, Sinners was the shortest of the three). I also hasten to add that Shawver edited one of my fave films from 2024, Abigail (another one that I’m unsure of why I didn’t review it…)

A special shout-out to Ruth E. Carter, being nominated again for Best Costume Design. A two time winner (for Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), she works magic again here. 

Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects are all solid (at least). However, for Sound, I have to tip the hat to the team assembled. Chris Welcker, Benjamin A. Burtt, Brandon Proctor, and Steve Boeddeker have all worked on some amazing films (as have other nominees, but these stuck with me as the credits rolled when I saw Sinners in the theater). 

Oh, and Best Song? Why not? “I Lied to You” is superb (by Raphael Saadiq and Göransson). Saadiq’s work is massive, having worked with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Beyoncé. Even here, though, the competition is stiff; they’ll be up against the musical juggernaut that is “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters.

I’ve also been pretty cursory about mentioning Best Casting (in this case, Francine Maisler), but I’ll come to that at the end of this entry.

And now, our final contestant:

Train Dreams

Life is unfair that this remarkable, still masterpiece is in the running against these giants of spectacle. Again, see my questions previously. I cannot convey how deeply moving this film is. It’s not really a “slow burn”; it’s far more meditative than that and the comparisons with Malick and Lynne Ramsey make sense. However, it’s very much its own film. It’s Clint Bentley’s second directorial effort and remarkably assured. That he isn’t up for Best Director strikes me as an oversight, but that probably just means that his time will come. Having said that, he is up for Best Adapted Screenplay (with Greg Kwedar). Between Hamnet and One Battle After Another, I think we have a three-way match. Frankenstein is great, but that film is more of a package and the screenplay, while perfect for the film, doesn’t quite stand shoulder to shoulder with these three. And sorry Bugonia, but this is not your time.

Adolpho Veloso’s cinematography in this is as good as anything he’s done, and that’s saying a lot. This is also another first Academy Award nomination and if he doesn’t receive the Oscar, I believe we can rest knowing he will be up for more in the future.

Finally, Train Dreams is up for Best Original Song and oh, what a song. “Train Dreams” by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner is another elegiac masterwork from them and Cave’s vocals carry as much of the passage of time and the ache for connection as we see in Robert Granier in the film. Which brings me to one more gripe of mine.

Joel Edgerton has a range like few other actors. I really don’t think there’s anything he can’t do, but his work here as Granier is as vital and real as, say, Jessie Buckley’s as Agnes Hathaway in Hamnet. I should be (and am) happy that Train Dreams has garnered the acclaim that it has, but I feel like this was an oversight by the voters.

Last thoughts

Best Casting: finally. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why this has not been a category since at least the 1960s (or earlier?). More and more, it becomes apparent how finding the right cast for a film is critical for a work’s success. I won’t say that if you switched out, I don’t know, Joaquin Phoenix for Leonard DiCaprio, that One Battle After Another would be a lesser work (I don’t see that being a thing), but it would be a very much different movie. There is an alchemy to how a cast comes together and I think it goes beyond mere “chemistry reads”; remember, the studios didn’t want Pacino for Michael in The Godfather. 

So here are the nominees for Best Casting:

Nina Gold for Hamnet

Jennifer Venditti for Marty Supreme

Cassandra Kulukundis for One Battle After Another

Gabriel Domingues for The Secret Agent

Francine Maisler for Sinners

And the Oscar goes to….