Happy Oscar Day! Here we are again! Even after all we’ve been through as a society, I still love the Oscars, and I still love movies, and I still like making my Top Ten Favorite Films of the Year List.
But before you get into it, I want to remind you that I often like trash movies lol! You’ll see. The older I get the more I tend to listen to my heart and choose movies that I personally enjoyed, even though most critics (or people with good taste for that matter) would disagree with me. So without further adieu!
10. Don’t Look Up
9. The Harder They Fall
8. The Power of the Dog
I think it’s between this movie and CODA tonight. I also think Jane Champion is going to win Best Director and she deserves it. The Power of the Dog was masterfully made. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, the music is perfectly unsettling, setting the eerie tone, and the performances are top notch. If it were up to me, I would give Best Actor to Benedict Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actor to Kodi Smit-McPhee. The scenes that they have together are so thick with delicious subtext and nuances that under less skillful actors, the movie would have failed. And we can’t forget Kirsten Dunst’s performance! If it was up to me, Kirsten will win tonight, but unfortunately I don’t think she has much of a chance. Jane Champion, though. She can do it!
7. The Tender Bar
My Ben is back! Not that he really went anywhere, but it was nice to see him in a role other than Batman. I did also love seeing him in The Last Duel (especially with that hair!), but The Tender Bar in my opinion was more enjoyable. It’s a rather basic movie, and some would argue a bit too basic, but I thought it was sweet and, well, tender if you will. Ben plays Uncle Charlie, a father figure to Tye Sheridan’s character, JR, who’s father is a deadbeat. It’s a coming of age story that shows the importance of family.
6. House of Gucci
Please don’t make fun of me because I really liked House of Gucci! Some critic described it as a campy film that played more like an SNL skit. To that I say, “And?” Sorry, not sorry that I loved it. I thought Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, and Al Pacino were all really great in it. I even loved Jared Leto’s widely panned performance! Personally I dig a cheesy, over the top, soap opera-y melodramatic murder drama every once in a while. If you can’t enjoy something like that from time to time then you take yourself way too seriously!
5. Passing
I loved Passing and I am a little upset that it got snubbed at the Oscars! The acting from Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga is some of the best acting I have ever seen in my life – I’m not even kidding! Acting students should study this film. Ruth Negga plays Clare, a black woman who is passing as a white woman. She’s married to a white man who doesn’t know his wife is actually black. Tessa Thompson plays Irene, an old friend who knew Clare before she started passing. The scenes with Clare, her husband, and Irene are so good – SO GOOD! Irene knows the truth, Clare knows Irene knows the truth, but the husband doesn’t know the truth, and the subtle looks that are exchanged between them is just…perfection. Absolute perfection. Rebecca Hall should have been nominated for Best Director.
4. Pig
I’m not really sure how Nick Cage became an internet sensation, and I don’t really care because I live for the Nick Cage memes. Because of these memes, I tend to forget that Nick Cage is actually a good actor! Pig perfectly marries his inexplicable meme persona and his impressive acting skills. He plays a once revered but now banished (by choice) chef who sells foraged truffles for a living, and lives in the middle of the woods with his truffle sniffing pig. When his pig gets kidnapped, Nick Cage goes full Nick Cage, and he will not stop until he finds the people responsible for stealing his pig! I’m making this movie sound like a slapstick comedy – it’s not. It’s actually quite a serious drama, and it’s very good!
3. Nightmare Alley
I was surprised but delighted to see that Nightmare Alley got nominated for Best Picture. It won’t win, but it’s my personal favorite of the nominated films this year. It’s so unmistakably Guillermo del Torro: fantastical, whimsical, unsettling, and delightfully bizarre. Bradley Cooper plays a man down on his luck who joins the circus in order to have a place to live and earn money. He learns the tricks of the “mind reader” act, and decides to break off from the carnival and start his own act. He soon becomes a trusted psychic to the rich and powerful, however, if he gets exposed as the fraud he is, it could mean his life!
2. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
I haven’t liked the Marvel films as of late. I hated Black Widow, and watching The Eternals was like pulling teeth. But Shang-Chi was fantastic! And I’m not just saying that because I’m Chinese, and Shang-Chi is Chinese! It’s genuinely a great action superhero movie! These days, there are so many action movies, that fight scenes often feel stale and unoriginal. But Shang-Chi manages to make the fight scenes fresh and exciting again! I was sitting on the edge of my seat during the bus fight scene! I also loved seeing Tony Leung in his first English speaking role. I don’t know if you guys know this, but Tony Leung is a HUGE movie star in Chinese cinema. Huge! Homeboy’s been around forever, and he chooses this movie for his American film debut! I think it says a lot about the quality of Shang-Chi!
1. Zola
Zola is a film that reminds me why I love filmmaking. Why I went to film school. Why once upon a time I had dreams of being a filmmaker. It’s a simple movie that probably cost next to nothing to make, yet it’s so good! Taylour Paige and Riley Keough should have received Oscar nominations and I will die on this hill. Serious question: why can’t portrayals of poor, trashy, tore up, ratchet AF strippers and hookers win Oscars? I mean how many times has someone been nominated for playing Queen Elizabeth I? Three off the top of my head! And how many times has someone been nominated for playing ghetto ass, straight out the trailer park trash? I can’t think of any. Let me know if you do.
Anyway, I digress. Zola is based on a true story of one woman’s bat shit crazy, life threatening experience after agreeing to go out of town to strip in a club with a girl she hardly knew, but thought she could trust. Watching this film felt like being grabbed, shaken, spun around ten times, then getting dunked in a pool of ice. But in the best possible way, of course! It is a wild ride!My thoughts on the other Best Picture nominated films:
Dune – Uuuuuughhhhh. This was painful for me to get through! I don’t like sci-fi, I didn’t read the book. Definitely not my cup of tea!
Drive My Car – It’s three hours long and feels like it. Very well done, good performances, decent story, just…so, so long!
Belfast – Very well made film with great performances, but in my opinion, nothing terribly special.
Licorice Pizza – Didn’t see it.
West Side Story – I think Spielberg did a great job with this re-make! Loved the scene where Maria and Tony meet.
King Richard – I hear Will Smith has the best chance of winning, and he definitely deserves it. This is the feel good movie of the year, and incredibly inspiring.
CODA – Didn’t see it.
Comments
Post a Comment