Everyone has an opinion when it comes to the “bests” of any particular year, and this one is no different. The Golden Globe Awards were the fastest out of the gate and, in the past, have been a fairly accurate predictor of what the Oscar nominations will be, if not also the winners. It is possible, if not probable, that the Globes’ great lead time over the Motion Picture Academy’s announcement was very influential on Academy voters, not only in considering films they might not have thought about as award contenders but also as a way to skip over films that they might otherwise have considered when choosing what to watch on the “Academy Screening Room.”
This year, I have seen all the Best Picture nominees and, unsurprisingly, I have my own opinions on what should and shouldn’t have been on that list. There are precious few surprises in the Best Picture category.
“Anora” is a multiple award winner with accolades for the young star Mikey Madison. To some, she came out of nowhere, but for anyone who saw her in Pamela Adlon’s series “Better Things,” where she played the sullen, rebellious and disrespectful teenage daughter whose anger allowed her to submerge her vulnerability, this is no surprise. She is a definite contender for Best Actress whose performance as a lap dancer/hooker who thinks she’s hit the big time reveals depth that goes beyond the soft porn sex that is organic to her character. She is mesmerizing, and the film, a very worthy contender, reveals surprising layers of complexity unexpected in such a graphic story. It also has, arguably, the best line in any film this year: “Your son hates you so much he married [a hooker] to piss you off.” Even if you haven’t seen the movie, that line says it all.
The odds-on favorite at this point is “The Brutalist.” I dragged my feet getting to this one because, as I told anyone who would listen, “Nothing is going to get me to spend four hours with Adrien Brody.” But went I did, and I’m glad. Not only did Brody surprise me, but the slightly less than 4-hour time frame was worth it. Brody, whose vocal and physical mannerisms have always annoyed me, played the lead, a Holocaust survivor who ekes out a career in Pittsburgh as an architect. Almost soundlessly, Brody relies on his very expressive face and eyes whose depth reveals a hard life survived and a tenacity to continue regardless of the odds, developing along the way a very memorable character. He is, in fact, better than this film, which meanders off in incomplete directions. That is not to say the film isn’t good, because it is; it’s just not as great as it could have been had director/co-writer Brady Corbett developed or dropped some of the unfinished characters and minor storylines that added little, other than time, to the overall plot. Guy Pearce, very credible as the patron of the architect, has some very good moments but, again, it is a lack of development that hinders his ability to fully flesh out the character. Felicity Jones, the architect’s wife, deserves a nomination just because she found more to play in this poorly sketched character than was obviously on the page.
“A Complete Unknown,” an attempt at telling Bob Dylan’s origin story, is a revelation. Directed and co-written by James Mangold, the Bob Dylan on screen unfolds as a musician and writer of genius who was unapologetic in the way he used people and circumstances to rise above the already talented field of folk singers in the Greenwich Village of the early ‘60s. Not only is this film evocative of an era, but it also yields one of the best and most surprising performances of the year. Timothée Chalamet gives a full-throated performance that doesn’t spare the arrogance, narcissism and manipulativeness of one of our greatest living artists. For me, having revered that era since my teens, Mangold has made a masterpiece. Most surprising, however, is Chalamet, a young actor who has always looked like a strong wind would topple him and shaking his hand might break it. And on top of everything, Chalamet sings all the songs with such a verisimilitude you could often swear it was Dylan’s voice. For me, one of the minor weaknesses was Monica Barbaro, who played Joan Baez. I felt none of the fire or earthiness of Baez, and her singing, unlike Chalamet’s, didn’t approach the magic of Baez. Ed Norton, as Pete Seeger, is very good and credible, portraying the fundamental goodness and eventual perplexity of a man whose time has passed.
“Conclave” is an excellent film raising intriguing questions about the process of electing a pope. Although Nanni Moretti’s film, “We Have a Pope,” was a more complex film covering much of the same material, “Conclave” presents the factions, politics and vote-getting strategies of the College of Cardinals as the conflict between ideology and Realpolitik. What is undeniably great about the film is the performance of Ralph Fiennes as the Cardinal leading the election. Subtle, sensitive, realistic and political, Fiennes finds all the colors, and more, to excavate the depth of this character and thus raises the film above some of the less subtle elements. Isabella Rossellini is also nominated for her role as the nun who holds some of the cards.
Neely Swanson spent most of her professional career in the television industry, almost all of it working for David E. Kelley. In her last full-time position as Executive Vice President of Development, she reviewed writer submissions and targeted content for adaptation. As she has often said, she did book reports for a living. For several years she was a freelance writer for “Written By,” the magazine of the WGA West, and was adjunct faculty at USC in the writing division of the School of Cinematic Arts. Neely has been writing film and television reviews for the “Easy Reader” for more than 10 years. Her past reviews can be read on Rotten Tomatoes where she is a tomatometer-approved critic.
