Have the Oscar nominations ever mattered less than on a Thursday morning, with Los Angeles distracted and thrashed by so many? Wildfire. Withheld federal aid to California. A self-candibling film industry in crisis.
But L.A. has also shown us a city that cares about its endlessly different types of neighbors. It’s inspiring even in the face of everything. And in an oddity of the times, the Oscars actually seem kind of… timely? Relevant, even? This can’t be right.
For some of the less worthy 2024 Academy of Motion Picture Love, the love of the motion picture seems wrong enough as it is.
Yet from the perspective of dialectical tension, in a culture divided against itself, but never entirely free of politics, the 13 nominations for Netflix offer “Emilia Pérez”—a French-Mexican Trans Cartel Music Melodrama, a French-Mexican trans cartel music melodrama, directed by a French, Jacques Audiard – Send a Message. An executive order, if you will, from the Academy.
Some recaps/opinions:
1. Big day for “Emilia Perez,” Top of the pile with 13 nominations, followed by “The Brutalist” and “Rogue” with 10 apiece. I would nominate Cynthia Erivo for all 10 for “Wicked”, because she saves that movie from its shortcomings. Also eight nominations for both “Conclave” and “A Complete Unknown”. These three films are dominated by music and the hawk-like stare of Ralph Fiennes, a third-time Oscar nominee.
2. Big day for “substance”. To which I say, huh? For those who are reluctant to see “The Brutalist” because it is 3½ hours long (and well worth it), I will limit my comments to a first feature filmmaker’s one-note Hollywood samba: “Substance.” It’s short, but feels very long. Cheers to Demi Moore’s Best Actress nomination, though. He’s the latest valedictory reminder that most everything has a chance to go wrong with a movie once the actors start filming.
3. Meanwhile, “Nickel Boys” It got richly deserved Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nods, but nothing for director Ramel Ross in his stunning feature debut. And nothing for Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light”? Are these movies, what, too cool? Too scary? Not enough or push enough?
4. Minute-wise, it runs in the family: Isabella Rossellini, supporting actress-nominated (deservedly) for her seven-minute, 51-second turn as Sister Agnes in “Conclave,” is the daughter of Ingrid Bergman, who won the Oscar for her witty, 14-minute-and- Won a third Oscar, a 14-minute-and-a-minute cameo, and change scenes of the casual group, as a Swedish missionary in “Murder on the Orient Express.” In form. Some actors, though not these two, need more time to make an impression.
5. One of these days… The real-life subject of “The Apprentice,” the intriguing docudrama about Donald Trump’s mentorship at the hands of a ruthless Manhattan player, may break down and take a look at the movie he tried to sue. . Or maybe he already is. Sebastian Stan and Jeremy both picked up Oscar nominations for their performances as Trump and Roy Cohn, respectively, to the surprise of many. They both have more history than most think. A matter of history…
6. We are living it, even more than usual! Awards season momentum for “Emilia Perez” gathered steam long before January 20, when our new president signed an executive order dealing with gender identity. Trump said during his inaugural address, “It shall be the official policy of the United States Government that there are only two genders, male and female.” The timing of the Oscar nominations being announced the same week conjures up the image of an Academy rebuke, given the number of nominations for a film not primarily in English and the first lead for an openly transgender performer, Spanish actor Carla Sofia Gaskin. Actress nomination.
7. Keep an eye on the child with the hair. Unbiased by the evidence, I would not rule out “a complete unknown” in one of its high-profile nomination categories. It’s a cozy throwback in many ways: a slick, uncluttered big-budget Hollywood biopic of a megastar, directed by an industry favorite, James Mangold, with Mangold’s fellow nominee Timothee Chalamet (as Bob Dylan), Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez) and, most notably, Edward Norton (Pete Seeger). On one hand…
8. “A Complete Unknown” Doesn’t feel like a movie of the moment. On the other hand: If there’s enough of an old-guard, middlebrow, tradition-minded Oscar voting block within the current Academy membership to surprise us in a few weeks, who knows?
Meanwhile, some people probably feel like they’ve read their fill about the trans drug lord musical on Netflix. Good. Still, I’d love to be a fly on the wall for some conversations, perhaps going on right about now, somewhere in the world, looking like:
“Hon, can we just watch something, you know, ‘regular’? A good, old-fashioned mystery with no agenda to push in my face?”
“Sure. Let’s try “Conclave.”
Two hours later:
“Wait. What?”
The 97th Academy Awards will be held on March 2 at a ceremony at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood and will air on ABC.