For the third year in a row, I'm happy to say I've seen every movie nominated for an Oscar. I was really hoping I'd be able to do full-length reviews for each of them but, as is too often the case, just ran out of time. I did manage to write about more 43 of the 53 nominated films, which is a personal record for me. (I reviewed "No Time to Die," "Raya and the Last Dragon," and "Shang-Chi" last year.) However, just to make the effort worthwhile, I've once again written capsule reviews of everything else I saw. All of this is in preparation for my Live Blog - the twelfth year I've done that! - which I'll be doing as the ceremony unfolds, which I have no doubt will be an absolute fiasco. Anyway, on with the reviews:
Disney squeezes one of their most amusingly devious animated villains through the superhero origin story meat grinder. This includes a secret identity, a supervillain to fight, and a big dramatic reveal in the second act. The already ridiculous story gets increasingly unlikely as it goes along. The soundtrack choices and references to the cartoon are both painfully obvious. Emma Stone and Emma Thompson, along with Craig Gillepsie's energetic direction and some admittedly spiffy costumes, give it their all. But it's not enough to justify this crass studio product's existence. [5/10]
Joe Wright knows how to direct the hell out of an sword fight or a dance number. Which makes it odd that so much of this romance feels strangely passionless. The songs aren't bad but ultimately prove forgettable. Peter Dinklage is well cast in the titular part except for the fact that he can't sing. In fact, most of the cast is made up of non-singers and it's really distracting. Ultimately, this is a nice try to blend indie rock songs, respectful costume drama, and sweeping romance but doesn't make for a satisfying whole. [6/10]
Documentary Shorts:
Textbook definition of a short that probably should've been a feature. “Audible” shoves in so many topics and ideas into its forty minutes run time. What begins as the story of the struggles a deaf high school football team face soon grows to touch upon mental illness and teenage suicide, sexuality and relationships, and the main boy's relationship with his estranged father. While it's compellingly assembled, well directed, and especially good at putting us inside the mind of deaf youths, many of the other topics are not really explored in any meaningful way. [6/10]
Bracing depiction of the homelessness crisis in the United States. The interviews and footage of people forced into these desperate situations are absolutely heartbreaking. The brief scenes devoted to the "Not in My Backyard" crowd will make you want smack someone. Yet this still comes off as a bit shallow. (Which makes it ethically dicey, considering the subject matter.) I think focusing on just one story, instead of short slices of a whole swath of folks, would've helped this feel more substantial. This definitely needed fewer drone shots of the city streets while sad music plays and no scenes of politicians talking about how hard it is to solve this problem. [6/10]
Lusia Harris strikes the viewer as an utterly delightful human being. She's all smiles, laughing frequently, as she describes her achievements. She's incredibly humble, seeming more like a small town grandmother than a basketball champ and Olympian. She's doesn't linger on the question of what might have been, had she came along when women's sports were more prominent. Which allows this short to capture a place in not just sports history but women's history too. [7/10]
An intimate look at life in an Afghanistan camp for people displaced by war, following a young man who wishes to join the army. What most strikes me about this short is how funny the guy is, how much he loves his wife, the joy he feels when their first child is born. Despite the absolute poverty they live in, they find a degree of happiness just by being together. This makes the ending, which jumps ahead four years, all the more effecting because it shows keenly and bluntly how war and limitations effects the lives and dreams of young people more than most. [8/10]
A guy made a movie about a kid he bullied in elementary school obviously to absolve himself of the guilt he felt for these actions. He then changed his mind about including an interview with the guy, making this documentary feel like it doesn't have an ending, and concludes by telling this person the short was never about him anyway. I enjoy trying to unravel the mental gymnastics necessary to figure out why the fuck this filmmaker thought that was okay. If you look at the entire short as a self-aggrandizing and incredibly half-assed apology, it becomes an amusing examination of the psyche of the director. That does feature some insight into how and why bullying happens and a quirky visual style. [7/10]
The first half of this is a frequently absurd comedy about extremely Italian topics such as having a huge and weird family, being horny, and loving soccer. At almost exactly the half-way point, the protagonist suffers a personal tragedy that triggers a severe tonal shift. That's pretty interesting but this still felt kind of shapeless to me. Beautiful cinematography and interesting individual scenes - like the virginity loss scene or the bear-related prank - are pretty memorable. [6/10]
Ridley Scott plays this story of a rich family in-fighting like an opera, which often veers towards full-blown camp. Every effects a ridiculous Italian accent, with Jared Leto's make-up covered performance being especially over-the-top. The script is highly episodic, with far too much time devoted to squabbling over stock shares, to the point that the climatic act-of-murder almost feels like an afterthought. This leads to a tonally uncertain and overlong motion picture. [5/10]
Pixar in slice-of-life mode, it turns out, really works for me. The story here, of friendship and simple life goals, is so lovely and heartfelt. The characters, both in their designs and personalities, are adorable. Watching these three misfits grow and adventure together is so endearing. The animation is utterly gorgeous. And it's all so fantastically Italian. The narrative may be derivative in some regards but that did nothing to prevent me from enjoying it. [9/10]
The expressive, multi-media animation style provides a kinetic energy that carries this one a long way, supporting a lot of manic humor and nicely cartoon-y character designs. The Mitchells are mostly a pretty lovable group, with the dinosaur-obsessed son being my favorite. This also feels like one of the few big budget studio films to understand the internet. It's way too fucking long though and some of the gags are repeated far too much. [7/10]
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