Category: Best Directing

Posted on 2022-04-09 | No Comments |

Amarcord (1973)

It is hard to not immediately compare this to The Hand of God as they are both Italian films featuring a teenager as he comes of age surrounded by a cast of eccentric characters. It’s obvious this influenced that other film. While I’m still rather done with films centered on white, teenaged boys, especially when they all seem to feature adults sexually taking advantage of children, this one exceeds the others as it allows the focus to move away from the boys and let the other characters have time to shine. Set in a Northern Italian seaside village during the 1930s Mussolini era, it offers a real sense of time and place while also having just enough surreal, dreaminess to invoke a feeling of nostalgic memory.

Oscar Win: Best Foreign Language Film

Oscar Nominations: Best Director; Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Posted on 2022-04-09 | No Comments |

West Side Story (2021)

When this remake of West Side Story was announced, I wondered what purpose it could possibly serve. The 1961 version has received high acclaim since it was made and seems better situated to exemplify the preceding decade. After watching this film, my misgivings weren’t allayed. In this take on Romeo and Juliet, Rachel Zegler, whose brother David Alvarez is a leader among the Sharks, spontaneously falls in love with Ansel Elgort, a former member of rival gang the Jets. While the film doesn’t establish their ages, the actors look as if there is about a fifteen year difference. It also doesn’t help that Elgort is rather weak in the role, particularly when he’s singing with the much talented Zegler. Overall there are some bad (constantly overpowering the view of the actors with light sources), neutral (changing the tomboy character to a trans man and the Jewish doc to Rita Moreno), and some great changes (little bits of added backstory and casting Latinx actors who intersperse more Spanish into their dialogue) but as a whole don’t give enough difference in vision to explain why anyone wanted to make this version happen.

Oscar Win: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Sound; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Directing

Posted on 2022-04-02 | No Comments |

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

When boxer and amateur pilot Robert Montgomery’s plane crashes, he’s prematurely pulled into the afterlife before his time by Edward Everett Horton. Horton’s boss Claude Rains finds Montgomery a new body to inhabit and he falls in love with Evelyn Keyes when he’s resurrected. I long ago saw Warren Beatty’s 1978 remake of the story, but this version is particularly adorable. Rains steals the show as the bemused and ever-patient Mr. Jordan. Honorable mention is given to James Gleason portraying Montgomery’s manager who is dragged in to the whole changed body scenario.

Oscar Wins: Best Writing, Original Story; Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

Posted on 2022-03-18 | No Comments |

The Power of the Dog (2021)

In 1920s Montana, ranchers Jesse Plemons meets and marries widowed inn owner Kirsten Dunst, much to the chagrin of his abusive brother Benedict Cumberbatch. During the summer, Dunst’s son Kodi Smit-McPhee visits the ranch and also endures Cumberbatch’s abuse but overtime finds common ground with the rancher. Not being a fan of Jane Campion nor really of Westerns, I didn’t have high expectations of going in, but I came away quite impressed. There’s a long interwoven tale here of shifting power dynamics, sexuality, and gender roles that slowly reveals itself and doesn’t become clear until its final moments, and maybe not even then. The performances are strong across the board and play against each other in incredible ways.

Oscar Win: Best Achievement in Directing

Oscar Nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (2); Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Production Design; Best Sound; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

Posted on 2022-03-06 | No Comments |

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Told in newsreel-style, this film reconstructs events undertaken by Algerian rebels during the Algerian War of Independence, focusing on the experiences of Ali La Pointe during that time period. It doesn’t shirk from presenting a forthright account of the atrocities committed by both sides, from the outright terrorism of the revolutionaries to the war crimes by the French. It’s a up close, bitter and honest portrayal of war, particularly as it rages within a city.

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

Posted on 2022-03-01 | No Comments |

The Citadel (1938)

An adaptation of a novel that helped lay the foundation of the NHS, Ronald Donat is a doctor who over the course of his career witnesses firsthand the inequalities of for-profit medicine from the coal miners whose ailments are ignored to the rich folk whose hypochondria is treated with the best medicine could offer. Rosalind Russell is his beautiful, faithful wife who encourages him to follow the moral path. For me, it was mostly just an okay film though it does get its message across. Donat carries the film well, but his voice here reminded me a lot of Ray Milland so I was distracted multiple times, making sure Donat hadn’t suddenly morphed into Milland.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Director: Best Writing, Screenplay

Posted on 2022-02-04 | No Comments |

The Little Foxes (1941)

The Hubbards are a rich family living in the South in the early 1900s. The only daughter of the family, Bette Davis must contend with a society where her brothers inherited from their father and are independently wealthy while she had to find a pliable husband to support her financial ambitions. The three Hubbard siblings are all ruthless and conniving, more concerned with acquiring more than the human collateral damage along the way. Davis is quite good in her role, wicked but still as restrained as society expects her. She goes toe to toe with her brothers, particularly the equally manipulative Charles Dingle.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Leading Role ; Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture

Posted on 2022-01-23 | No Comments |

Woman in the Dunes (1964)

When amateur entomologist Eiji Okada misses the last bus home after a beetle expedition, local villagers offer him board at a young woman’s cabin which sits on the bottom of a large sand dune. Unfortunately their hospitality masks ulterior motives. Initially, there’s quite a bit of privilege that Okada’s character holds in his situation. He can’t imagine this other way of living nor that people won’t rationalize things the same way he does. There’s a great claustrophobic atmosphere to the locale. The cabin is small and tightly packed with the dunes towering above, sand constantly trickling in at varying intervals.

Oscar Nominations: Best Director; Best Foreign Language Film

Posted on 2022-01-03 | No Comments |

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

Based on the same battle as the infamous Tennyson poem, Errol Flynn and his brother Patric Knowles are British officers stationed in India. A love triangle develops between the two brothers when Flynn’s fiancé Olivia de Havilland inexplicably falls in love with Knowles. This love story is used as the impetus for all of the military actions in the film, especially the final titular charge, and requires the viewer to ignore the chemistry between Errol and Olivia. While the similar looking Knowles is excellently cast as Flynn’s brother, he lacks the charisma and charm of the other actor.

Oscar Win: Best Assistant Director

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound, Recording; Best Music, Score

Posted on 2022-01-01 | No Comments |

Romance (1930)

When Gavin Gordon’s grandson announces he wants to marry a woman of a different social class, Gordon recounts his own similar tale from years earlier when he fell in love with opera singer Greta Garbo. Garbo is quite capable when portraying a tragic romance, but the film itself doesn’t offer much else. It is short and simple but it feels longer than it actually is.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Director