Category: Best Directing

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Minari (2020)

I have little patience or sympathy for father characters who are willing to lead their families on a path of destruction all because of their own hubris, leaving the mothers to sacrifice all they can just to keep the family together. Steven Yeun and Han Ye-ri play this tropes to perfection. Thankfully that’s not the entire story here and we have the wonderful Youn Yuh-jung as grandma, coming in to provide support and humor while also helping her grandson to find his strength. Middle America has never looked so good visually. I viscerally felt like as I was in the setting, one that is similar to others I have known intimately. Alan Kim is adorable as young David and manages the rarity of a cute child character who feels real instead of stilted.   Best Picture Nomination

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

Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Original Screenplay; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

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Nomadland (2020)

I only have one Best Picture nominee left to watch from this year (Minari is sitting next to my TV, waiting to be watched) so I can’t give a definitive answer whether this deserves to be Best Picture. Thus far I’m not mad at the pick. It doesn’t scream that it is entirely a new story, but it does feel like a now story: people driven from their homes and finding an alternative way to being when capitalism fails them. It is also provides beautiful views of Middle America. I don’t know what kind of life Frances McDormand would have had if she weren’t an award winning actress, but she is truly believable as a rugged, hard-working woman able to do whatever she needs to to get by. On the other hand, as much as I love David Strathairn, in a ‘normal’ Hollywood movie he could pass off as a fade into the background everyman, but in this one, he looked too clean and pretty.   Best Picture Winner

Oscar Wins: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role; Best Achievement in Directing

Oscar Nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Cinematography

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A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Stylistically I just can’t get into later career Kubrick. I had tried watching this years ago, at that time ending during the home invasion scene, but my current commitment to watching Oscar films is relentless. I’m not turned off by the excessive violence, though I find no interest in Alex as a character, since it feels very cartoon-ish. Instead, it’s the mod-y but futuristic British vibe that runs through the film. I think I need to keep a list of films that give off that vibe; Tommy is another.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Film Editing

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The Sundowners (1960)

Perhaps confusing this with the 1950 film of the same name, I really expected this to be an American Western. Instead this is a flick about a family of Australian sheep drovers in the 1920s. I’m not so sure what to think about the unevenness in the accents of Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, but they do have a lot of chemistry as the married couple. The story itself is an inoffensive romp where the couple tries to come to a compromise when one partner wants to settle down while the other experiences wanderlust. Amongst the new friends they meet along the way are characters played wonderfully by Peter Ustinov and Glynis Johns.   Best Picture Nomination

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

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The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

As a light, but exceptionally long, rendering of the well-known story of the Frank family and their companions hiding from the Nazis, this film is adequate. It gives a good view of the crampedness of the quarters they shared and some of the harrowing events that occurred while they were there. But it is told in a relatively breezy way. Aside from going through the motions to keep from being found, there’s not as much of a sense of both the danger and tedium that had to exist for such a long period of time together. Millie Perkins is not particularly believable as a young teenager, a bit too cute and precious. On the other hand, Joseph Schildkraut as Otto Frank and Shelley Winters as Petronella Van Dam bring real emotion to their roles, the former as a father trying to keep everyone safe and the latter trying to hold on to life as she once knew it.   Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Wins: Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

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