Category: Best Directing

Posted on 2022-08-11 | No Comments |

Drive My Car (2021)

Two years after the unexpected death of his wife, actor-director Hidetoshi Nishijima accepts an offer to direct a multilingual production of Uncle Vanya for a Hiroshima theatrical festival. Because of insurance purposes, the festival organizers require him to be driven by professional driver Toko Miura, an introverted young woman who has also experienced loss in her life. Like director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s previous film, I wasn’t sure if I was really wanting to continue with this early on, especially as the credits for this film don’t appear until after 40 minutes at point which the main story begins. That isn’t to say the earlier minutes were unnecessary fluff, it was just difficult to see where it was going. Visually gorgeous with relatable themes of relationships entwined and sharing grief, it never feels like it’s three hour run time. My biggest takeaway remains as a fascination with the idea of a multilingual performance. I’d love to see one on stage now, but it’s already incredible watching the necessary process to make such a thing work unfold.

Oscar Win: Best International Feature Film

Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Adapted Screenplay

Posted on 2022-07-29 | No Comments |

Hope and Glory (1987)

One British family’s experiences during World War II are told through the eyes of 10 year old Sebastian Rice-Edwards. I’m generally more interested in what average people experience during wartime over the actual battles and this film delivers in that regard. Though the various members encounter almost every obstacle possible, the story still maintains a natural bent as to what an ordinary family might have witnessed while under siege. With some fantastic acting and visuals, the story maintains a sense of humor and wonder at the novelty of the experiences without dismissing the dangers and terror that existed.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen; Best Cinematography; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

Posted on 2022-06-19 | No Comments |

Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

During a lunch with a bunch of comedians, one of them shares an anecdote about Danny Rose, played by Woody Allen, a hapless talent agent who works mercilessly for his clients. It’s relatively amusing, but it heavily features Woody Allen being Woody Allen. The standout is Mia Farrow playing bawdily against type as the mistress of Rose’s top client whom he must escort to the client’s big performance dodging gangsters who are commanded by her ex-boyfriend.

Oscar Nomination: Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Posted on 2022-06-15 | No Comments |

America, America (1963)

Anatolian Greek Stathis Giallelis is entrusted with the entirety of his family’s wealth and charged with travelling to Istanbul to help in a cousin’s carpet store, but he has bigger dreams of travelling to America. An immigrant epic inspired by Elia Kazan’s own family’s immigration tale, It is a never-ending recitation of the resilience, drive, and luck required for someone to even have a chance at rising above their station and reaching for something better. The film lies on Giallelis’s shoulders and he conveys the desperation and hardship of his situation with bold determination that cannot be extinguished.

Oscar Win: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen

Posted on 2022-06-12 | No Comments |

Nashville (1975)

Nashville’s sweetheart Ronee Blakley comes to town after recovering from an alleged burn accident at the same time a cadre of individuals also descend on the city for various reasons. It’s in most ways a typical sprawling Altman ensemble film with quirky characters and a narrative that goes in many directions while also coming together at points, especially the political rally climax . More than any of his other works, it feels like it is a mirror of the United States in all its highs and lows, particularly at that particularly time period at the cusp of its 200th birthday.

Oscar Win: Best Music, Original Song

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Supporting Role (2); Best Director

Posted on 2022-06-09 | No Comments |

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

In 1933, retired schoolteacher Robert Donat falls asleep reminiscing about the last fifty plus years he served at an all-boys British public school. I generally don’t get a lot out of inspirational educator stories, but pleasantly this focuses more on Mr. Chips’s life and how he is affected by events more than being a motivational teacher. The aspects of aging Donat’s character through so many years with makeup and Donat’s own acting is quite well done. Donat’s relationship with Greer Garson is sweet and would have made a cute romance story on its own. It is clever how the same young actors were used to play generations and generations of each family, representing the constants and the changes a teacher experiences being at the same institution for years on end.

Oscar Win: Best Actor in a Leading Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Sound, Recording; Best Film Editing

Posted on 2022-06-08 | No Comments |

The Collector (1965)

After coming into a large sum of money, socially awkward, amateur entomologist Terrence Stamp buys a country estate and abducts Samantha Eggar, a young London art student who has caught his eye. The film disorientingly begins from Stamp’s perspective, providing a chance for the viewer to sympathize with the lonely and traumatized young man only to turn that sympathy into realization of what that trauma has created. It’s very claustrophobic and demanding with solid performances from the two leads. I’m fascinated by old homes with secret hideaways, such as priest holes.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Posted on 2022-06-02 | No Comments |

Licorice Pizza (2021)

On school picture day, fifteen year old child actor Cooper Hoffman hits on much older photographer’s assistant Alana Haim and somehow this develops into a relationship. The plot meanders aimlessly with the teenaged Hoffman starting various businesses and still trying to get into Alana’s pants while she tags along on his adventures. Paul Thomas Anderson’s films are very hit or miss for me and this is very much a miss. Aside from the disturbing age difference in the primary relationship, the actions of the characters rarely make much sense or feel realistic in any way. It doesn’t help that the leads are rather dislikable in their own ways and more dislikable whenever they’re together.

Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Original Screenplay

Posted on 2022-05-31 | No Comments |

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Aspiring actress Naomi Watts arrives in Los Angeles to stay at her aunt’s empty apartment while she goes on auditions, only to find amnesiac Laura Harring showering in the bathroom. Or maybe not. The film is not told in any straightforward sort of way and much is open to interpretation, which is expected from many of David Lynch’s works. It’s definitely not my cup of tea, but looking at some analyses, it’s at least reassuring to note that the interpretations I’ve come up with aren’t that far off the mark of what other people have thought up.

Oscar Nomination: Best Director

Posted on 2022-05-27 | No Comments |

Moulin Rouge (1952)

Unexpectedly this isn’t about the famous Parisian cabaret, but instead focuses on the life of one of its more famous early patrons, the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, told mainly through his relationships with women. The result is a fairly standard biopic, with its typical stretches of the truth, that is greatly improved during the few glorious scenes set in the titular club. Jose Ferrer plays the tortured artist, and his father, quite impressively, especially when noting the efforts required to portray someone of a much shorter stature. The transition montages of Toulouse’s art does at least give the viewer exposure to the prolific artist’s work.

Oscar Win: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Costume Design, Color

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Film Editing