Category: Oscar Nominee

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Fanny (1961)

On the evening before he intends to go to sea for five years, Horst Buchholz impregnates Leslie Caron. When she discovers she is pregnant, she agrees to marry much older but richer Maurice Chevalier who has been wanting her for awhile. I’m not generally a fan of Caron, but she’s not too bad here. The tone of the film is a bit odd. It’s a bit too light on tension to be a drama, but much too long and melodramatic as a story to be a comedy. It really feels like it should be a musical, and indeed was based on the book from a stage musical. Reading up on it, Charles Boyer, who played Buchholz’s father, apparently wouldn’t have signed on if it was, which would have been a shame because he is quite a bright spot to the film.  Best Picture Nomination

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

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Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

There is probably not a better example of tender, homey Americana than this film. Henry Fonda is the young Abraham Lincoln, beginning before he even became a lawyer to one of his early defense cases involving a murder. I wouldn’t have necessarily thought Fonda would make a good Lincoln, but I was thoroughly impressed with his portrayal. He brings an intelligent, folksy charm to the characterization, similar to what I’d expect from James Stewart, while managing to physically look similarly to the most popular images of Lincoln. The story was quite interesting in telling a lesser known part of Lincoln’s biography.

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Original Story

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Speaking in Strings (1999)

This documentary details the life and career of professional violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg who is known for her overly emotive playing style which she has often been criticized for. The subject matter isn’t one I’d generally gravitate toward and what is provided doesn’t go much beyond her wikipedia page. It was relatively engaging and I found the descriptions of her drive and work ethic to be interesting.

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features

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The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020)

Inspired by Wim Delvoye’s work Tim, Yahya Mahayni is a Syrian refugee who in desperation to reunite with the love of his life, agrees to become a living work of art by having a Schengen visa tattooed onto his back. By becoming something other than just human, he is allowed to travel in ways he was later afforded, but it is not long at all before he discovers he has made a deal with the devil and signed away the majority of his life in the process. It’s a dark, depressing look into the hopelessness that can be found in the experiences of poor refugees, being primed for exploitation byt the better off, which is unfortunately let down by a too-convenient ending.

Oscar Nomination: Best International Feature Film

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

After watching about a dozen superhero films in the early 2000s, I called it quits. The oversaturation was too much and the stories weren’t that distinctive to waste my time on them. Every so often I’ll check out an origin story hoping to see something different and I almost always continue to be disappointed. Being a Kim’s Convenience fan, I was interested to see Simu Liu in an American blockbuster film. Watching the film, I was also excited to see Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh are also in the film. Having a typical convoluted superhero plot, Leung was a bad guy many eons ago, stopped being a bad guy when he fell in love with Fala Chen, became a bad guy again when his wife is murdered, and kidnaps Liu and his sister Meng’er Zhang in a misguided attempt to save his wife. There’s plenty of action and an incredible amount of CGI and it’s way too long. Maybe I would have liked it better if there weren’t already dozens of films similar to it. I’m sure there will be a sequel, but that film is destined to be more entwined with the other hundreds of Marvel films, television series, and whatnot that I haven’t seen, my experience here wouldn’t make me want to slog through another.

Oscar Nomination: Best Achievement in Visual Effects

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Balseros (2002)

In 1994, after a wave of unrest in Cuba, a mass exodus began of Cubans using makeshift rafts to try and reach the United States, leading to the United States enacting a wet feet/dry feet policy. This documentary follows the lives of seven Cubans urgently attempting the journey before the policy was established and what happened to those individuals years later after they had arrived in their new country. It’s a bit long and unfocused, jumping from story to story and not giving much time for each character to breath and develop for the viewer. While still slow in the second half, it got more interesting when focusing on the immigrant experience in the United States, how, even for those who are welcomed, it can vary greatly and that it requires infinite perseverance and luck to survive.

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features

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The Hurricane (1999)

Seeing the film poster for many years, I had gone into this expecting a boxing film. Indeed it is about boxer Ruben ‘Hurricane’ Carter, portrayed by Denzel Washington, but it focuses on his life after he was wrongly convicted for murder and the nearly 20 years he spent in prison for this crime. Parallel to his story is the experiences of Lesra Martin (played by Vicellous Reon Shannon), an American teenager who was fostered in Toronto and became interested in Hurricane’s case after reading his autobiography. Dan Hedaya as the cop hounding Hurricane his entire life and determined to keep him in jail is a bit too much of a mustache-twirling bad guy. Though I find the relationship intriguing, the trio fostering Martin are otherwise indistinguishable and somewhat white savior-y. The strengths in the film lie solely on Washington’s portrayal. At this point in his career, Denzel was well versed at charismatically leading a film and he is incredibly powerful here. The emotions and experiences he displays run the gamut from cocky prize fighter to dignified dissident to resigned prisoner, all handled adeptly.  Sports

Oscar Nomination: Best Actor in a Leading Role

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The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

Ten years after their last pairing, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers portray a successful, though often bickering, husband and wife song and dance team. When Ginger meets a French playwright, the duo separate so Ginger can pursue a dramatic role. There is great familiarity in how Rogers and Astaire work and dance together here that makes their roles as a married couple, perhaps especially when they are squabbling, believable. This also includes Astaire’s lovely dance with multiple pairs of shoes to Shoes With Wings On. It doesn’t make any sense at all that it is supposedly being performed on stage, but it is really a lovely mix of special effects and Fred’s dancing skills.   Musical

Oscar Nomination: Best Cinematography, Color

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Annie Was a Wonder (1949)

Told from the perspective of narrator John Nesbit’s childhood, this short tells the tale of Swedish immigrant Annie who was hired to be a maid by Nesbit’s family. It’s a cute little bit of nostalgia, but is a really simplistic view of the lives of servants, reminiscent of Southern representations of slave characters in Civil War films.

Oscar Nomination: Best Short Subject, One-reel

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Othello (1965)

Even though it’s not really a life’s goal, I definitely warm to Shakespeare adaptations as I become more and more familiar with the story. Here we have a hammy Laurence Olivier as the titular Othello whose jealousy for his wife’s attentions is stoked by rival Iago. For me the costumes and make-up distract from any issues with the performances though. As if the blackface of Othello isn’t generally unsettling enough, Olivier’s makeup here has a weird bluish tinge as if he also had been on a colloidal silver regimen at the same time. While seemingly consistent with other Olivier Shakespeare productions, the wigs on many of the characters are unflattering and ill-fitting, as are the caftans that seem to comprise the majority of Othello’s wardrobe. The barebones set pieces seemed to work better here than they do in Richard III ; the colors especially helping to invoke the tragic mood of the work. I do enjoy seeing Maggie Smith in her younger roles. Years of watching Downton Abbey reruns and Harry Potter films always has me unprepared to see her softer side.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Actress in a Supporting Role (2)

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