Overlord and MichaelM, lol
RDJ is very good in OPPENHEIMER. Same with Murphy, and Robbie as Barbie for that matter. I don’t think they are quite “Best Actor” level performances, but I also didn’t see enough new releases last year to say who all should go ahead of them.
Well, I disagree.
**And that character felt largely extraneous.
Strauss was extraneous?
I thought Downey was fantastic in OPPENHEIMER and refrained from using his typical acting tics. I think that he’s going to win as part of an overall OPPENHEIMER victory.
That said, I agree that Gosling was transcendent. Much like Kevin Kline in A FISH CALLED WANDA, he delivers a performance that is clearly in another league of ability. He may have the best shot of winning for any of the BARBIE nominees if they’re prone to say ‘BARBIE needs at least one Oscar.’ That said, I still think Downey takes the prize.
Downey stands out in Oppenheimer because he had the advantage of getting to play an entire monologue without Nolan cutting away to something else.
If Barbie only gets one Oscar, it should be for set/production design.
don’t worry
my fanedit will fix that
I’ll cut in disorienting shots of all the IRON MEN!
I thought RDJ was good in OPPEN. He didn’t shed his mannerisms, but they were used well to play a character that was a somewhat fresh departure for him. Not so foppish!
What a lot of people fail to see when they complain about Gerwig being “snubbed” for Best Director is the high likelihood that she’s still going to end the night an Oscar-winner (for Adapted Screenplay).
Anyway, RDJ deserves to win his category.
Do you think that the directing of Barbie deserved a best director nomination?
I didn’t see it! So it would be indefensible for me to comment one way or the other.
I also haven’t seen ANATOMY OF A FALL, THE ZONE OF INTEREST, or POOR THINGS, but I will say that BARBIE’s direction appeared to be more cinematic than anything I’ve seen from ANATOMY OF A FALL or THE ZONE OF INTEREST (acknowledging that trailers can’t convey everything). I value style in that category more than pretty much anything else, and BARBIE certainly seemed to have a style.
Honestly, the real Best Director snub that nobody’s talking about is David Fincher for THE KILLER (which was excluded across the board). By any standard, that was some of the best “directing” of 2023, but because the movie wasn’t important enough, it’s nowhere to be found.
FYI: Anatomy Of A Fall is now a $6 rental and well worth your time. Superb acting across the board. You want to talk about snubs? The kid playing the blind son does extraordinary work, better than a lot of actors ever achieve. Anatomy has tension from the get-go, keeping you second-guessing about the truth over what happened.
Can we let go of the idea that a movie needs to have every shot production designed within an inch of its life in order to have a style? Anatomy Of A Fall and The Zone Of Interest have distinctive visual styles. An abundance of production design doesn’t mean “better” style anymore than the movie with the most editing automatically becoming the movie with the best editing.
I was not specifically talking about production design (though that clearly contributes to BARBIE). If I were, clearly I’d be pounding the table for Wes Anderson… and I don’t do that!
To attempt to clarify what I was getting at: fairly or not, I put a lot of value on a film being highly visually engaging as the metric for what constitutes the “best” direction. I want to see technique. Impressive camerawork, inventive staging. Now, you certainly don’t have to dazzle me visually in order for me to think you’ve made a great film, but you do have to impress me somewhat on that level if you want my vote (like I get a vote!) for Best Director.
And again, as I acknowledged, I haven’t seen ANATOMY OF A FALL or ZONE OF INTEREST. Perhaps I would be impressed. ANATOMY’s resolution was unfortunately spoiled for me, so I’m in no great hurry.
From what I understand, Glazer directs the absolute fuck out of Zone of Interest. That’s the reason to see it, as it is with most Glazer films.
Barbie should have been nominated because it’s the biggest hit of the year and everyone loved it. That’s hard! And objectively the best art isn’t a thing anyway. Hell, Gerwig should have been nominated just to avoid the obvious and predictable backlash.
The point about Cooper and Alexander Payne not being nominated is a good one. This way it feels like less of a snub, and more the Academy’s leaning into challenging, artier fare in the directing category this year- which is certainly justifiable. Plus, the big box office movie doesn’t always get nominated for director, even when it has increased cultural relevance. Coogler didn’t get the nod, for example (granted, I think Barbie is a better film than Black Panther.) At the end of the day, I think it qualifies as a bit of a snub, but not a super egregious one.
There. I’m glad that’s settled. I’m sure everyone will be happy now.
Cooper’s a weird case, because I think MAESTRO is an example of a very well-directed mediocre movie. It looks fantastic, but fails at what it (seemingly) is trying to do beyond that.
Nominating it for Best Cinematography is probably the right way recognize it from that standpoint.
Academy awards say they are for the “Best” but usually reward the “Most”. That’s true of acting, production design, editing, directing, scoring, whatever.
pfft
moviesports
Anatomy of a Fall is a tremendous film, it deserves every nomination it got. The Editing nomination in particular is incredibly well-deserved, and I’m rooting for it to take home the Original Screenplay win.
Miyazaki said stuff your award ceremony!
Anyone else watching?