Continuing on with nominations that were and were not expected, we should finish the Best Picture nominations with the ones that were puzzles to me, along with some surprises and snubs, because there always are disagreements when it comes to “Bests.”
“F-1,” with a cast that boasts Brad Pitt, relies primarily on its occasionally exciting racing footage at actual Formula One tracks like Abu Dhabi and Las Vegas. The movie itself suffers from a lack of originality with the theme of an old-timer (Pitt) agreeing to come back into the game after a devastating accident years before to help out a close friend (Javier Bardem) and mentor a young turk with potential (Damson Idris). No surprises. The characters are all stereotypes and the script actually dulls some of the racing rivalries. Still, the star power and the race footage brought lots of eyeballs to this Apple-produced film. See it now on Apple.
Both “Frankenstein” and “Train Dreams” were intended for streaming by Netflix and released only nominally in theaters. “Frankenstein,” a creation by Guillermo del Toro, is a visual masterpiece but never seems to heat up despite casting two hunks in the roles of Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and the monster (Jacob Elordi). Del Toro is a master at painting a picture, and he more than succeeds with his “Frankenstein,” from the chilly Arctic locations to its Victorian London environs, but the possibilities of making this a more universally themed classic seem to have been missed. The relationship between Victor and his monster is clearly love/hate with slight homoerotic overtones. The yelling, screaming, fright and fighting is there, but what is missing is the emotion, leaving the film all form and no substance.
“Train Dreams” is a real puzzle. A critical darling, it left me completely cold and surprised by its nomination. Starring Joel Edgerton, directed by Clint Bentley and based on a novella by Denis Johnson, it is a character study of one man’s life in the woods as he makes his way through the forests of Oregon as a lumberjack. Chopping trees is hard work and leaves little time to bond with his fellow men. Passively, always a watcher and rarely a participant, he sees racial violence against Chinese co-workers, bar room fights and death by falling trees. Finding a wife, he determines that he will build a better life for his small family, one that eventually includes a daughter, but even that is thwarted when, in fitting tribute to the vicissitudes of nature, they are lost in a forest fire. Never giving up hope, he lives the rest of his life in solitude, always with the hope that they are not dead and will eventually find their way back to him. Life goes on around him and the changes are massive, ones that, again, he views impassively. And then he dies. That’s it.
Most of the nominations for actors have already been mentioned. A few, however, were not in Oscar-nominated films. Ethan Hawke was nominated for his role in “Blue Moon,” a movie I absolutely hated. Hawke was better in the film than I credited him with. He portrayed Lorenz Hart, the prolific and brilliant lyricist of songs like “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “Falling in Love with Love,” “Isn’t It Romantic” and, of course, his least favorite creation, his golden goose, “Blue Moon.” Hawke portrays him at the end of his life, miserable, a closeted homosexual, alcoholic and no longer collaborating with Richard Rodgers. It is the opening night of “Oklahoma” and Hart is beside himself with anxiety. Perhaps I was mostly put off by the tricks used to disguise the 5’10” Hawke as a man of the petite stature of 5 feet at best. The gyrations needed to make him look short were distracting.
Rose Byrne received a Best Actress nomination for her stunning turn as an overwhelmed mother in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” The Golden Globe winner for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical was a head-scratcher. This was a very dramatic role, but the Globes had already given Best Actress in a Drama to Jessie Buckley for “Hamnet” and, no doubt, felt a need to honor Byrne for her brave performance. The Globes has done this in the past when they felt the need to honor two different actors who should have been in the same grouping. Case in point was when they shoehorned Matt Damon in “The Martian” into the Comedy and Musical category. Byrne is very good but has a tendency to play this role at the top register, leaving her very little room to maneuver to the quieter moments.
Kate Hudson’s Best Actress nomination was for her role in “Song Sung Blue,” playing Claire, part of a Neil Diamond tribute duo. The film, one of my favorites of the year, did not get a lot of love from the Academy and Hudson campaigned hard for the film and her role in it. As Claire, she showed the range and depth of a middle class woman who finds happiness in life with the right partner only to be felled in a freak accident and have to claw her way back to health. It could have been cliché. Even though this is based on a real person, the “finding happiness in love and life, losing it all and then working to regain it” is not a new concept. That Hudson breathes life into this formula is a tribute to her acting.
What were the surprises and snubs? There were several. From my point of view, “F-1” was a nod to commercial success. It was certainly deserving of all the technical nominations it received, but it was a stretch to call this overworked scenario full of stereotypic characters a viable Best Picture. I feel similarly about “Train Dreams,” which left me cold from beginning to end. I still can’t figure it out. Ethan Hawke’s nomination for “Blue Moon” was a surprise but, given that Paul Mescal was the actor who would probably have gotten that slot, it was, as they say, six of one half a dozen of another. Elle Fanning’s Best Supporting Actress nomination still puzzles me. She’s fine but doesn’t rise to the level of the others in the very fine “Sentimental Value.”
The snubs were more plentiful. The omission of “Wicked for Good” was startling. It was a box office behemoth with the same wonderful cast and marvelous effects. Of no more substance than “F-1,” it surely deserved a place at the same table.
Jesse Plemons, as critical to “Bugonia” as Emma Stone, was, for some reason, not nominated in either the Best or Supporting Actor category. It’s a puzzlement, as the lyrics from “The King and I” express. I was surprised that Jennifer Lawrence did not get a nomination for her harrowing portrayal of a woman in the throes of mental illness brought on by postpartum depression, exacerbated by an unfaithful husband and an unfriendly environment in “Die, My Love.” Lawrence was outstanding in a film that wasn’t, so it’s probably similar to a great player on an unremarkable team not getting an MVP. Kathleen Chalfant was amazing in a little-seen film called “Familiar Touch.” She portrayed a woman descending gradually into dementia as she adjusts to her new assisted living quarters. Rarely, if ever, has the slow tumble into memory loss, with occasional flashes of lucidity, been depicted with such sensitivity and subtlety. Criminally underused in film and on stage, Chalfant has always been an actor of immense depth.
My favorite film of the year, “The Life of Chuck” was ignored along with Tom Hiddleston, an actor who deserved a nomination. Granted, this small film, based on a Stephen King novella, had an interesting but confusing structure, starting at the end and ending at the beginning, it demanded a great deal of attention on the part of the viewer to put the puzzle pieces together. But the clues are all there in a poem by Walt Whitman and Carl Sagan’s explanation of the Cosmos, leading to the eventual understanding of the intersecting parts and players. It is totally satisfying and begs to be watched multiple times (I’ve seen it four times and each deepens my understanding of King’s intentions). Hiddleston portrays Chuck with colors that I didn’t even know existed. Assured from end to beginning (remember it starts with Act Three and ends at Act One), he is the everyman for every occasion. As this film, and his stage work, attests, Hiddleston is so much more than Loki! See it on Netflix.
Watch the Oscars on ABC and Hulu on March 15 at 4 p.m. Pacific Time. Conan O’Brien is your host.
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.
