Chris Knipp
01-24-2017, 10:10 AM
Academy Award nominations 2017.
My first comments on the big ones.
BEST PICTURE
Arrival (Villeneuve)
I was not so deeply impressed by this. He is an impressive director and this is a new direction (sci-fi), but the follow-up never lives up to the arresting opening sequences.
Fences (Denzel Washington)
A little surprised because this is a film of a play that still feels like a play, but it seems like a great play and wonderful acting, so, no objection here.
Hacksaw Ridge (Mel Gibson)
This is cheering actually because it's a fine film with a great lead performance but I thought Mel was taboo and they wouldn't touch it. Good for them: they did. The first part is a conventionally well made movie, the second half is a blistering wartime action film. Garfield shines throughout.
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie)
To be honest, I have trouble remembering the director of this, but due partly to my tastes for noir and good actioners, this has from the first viewing been clearly one of top five English language films (American setting, Scottish director) of the year. I just learned that Mackenzie also directed the extraordinary juvenile prison film Starred Up, which not a lot of Americans have seen. Also Starred Up was star-making serious role for the explosively talented Jack O'Connell, who around the same time played a more humorous part as the new main bad boy in 2nd generation of the BBC TV series "Skins." (Seasson is a must-see; hard to follow.)
Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi)
This like Fences may show a desire to make it clear this is not going to be an Oscars-so-white year. It's a well acted, very enjoyable film, but not a great film, too conventional in my view. But this is a warm and vivid movie about female black empowerment at a 1961 (shockinglyl) racist and Jim Crow NASA.
La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
Sort of a Golden Boy director, whose Whiplash (brilliantly effective but terribly manipulative) was hugely admired, and everybody welcomes this as a needed feel-good musical moment. But the screenplay doesn't live up to expectations, and I was very disappointed, left flat. So I sure hope this doesn't win all the prizes it's predicted to be destined for.
Lion (Garth Davis)
No, not really. This isn't a work of cinematic art. It's a feel-good movie. I love Dev Patel and am glad he got to be more substantial (looking) in this but he's not the great actor in it, the kid is. Again, a "who's he?" director, another Aussie.
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
YES! Brilliant screenplay, brilliant acting. Even questions about structure, placing of flashbacks, fall away in the face of the emotional truth, subtle wit, sense of place, and humanity here. And the acting!
Moonlight – Barry Jenkins
Again, YES! This, the year's great black film (with not one white person in it). It came to me as a surprise from Jenkins. It took him a while to get to a 2nd feature; and it's such a shocking change from his first. You may well wonder what the heck he was doing with Medicine for Melancholy (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2265-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2008/page2&s=&postid=20075#post20075) (SFIFF 2008), though I quite enjoyed that one. This is an original, vivid, powerful black gay ghetto coming-of-age movie that would stand out in any year.
My choices are Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea, with Hell or High Water and Hacksaw Ridge runners up. I wish they'd nominated Love and Friendship, but Whit Stillman is beyond their radar. And Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross) needs to be here too.
My first comments on the big ones.
BEST PICTURE
Arrival (Villeneuve)
I was not so deeply impressed by this. He is an impressive director and this is a new direction (sci-fi), but the follow-up never lives up to the arresting opening sequences.
Fences (Denzel Washington)
A little surprised because this is a film of a play that still feels like a play, but it seems like a great play and wonderful acting, so, no objection here.
Hacksaw Ridge (Mel Gibson)
This is cheering actually because it's a fine film with a great lead performance but I thought Mel was taboo and they wouldn't touch it. Good for them: they did. The first part is a conventionally well made movie, the second half is a blistering wartime action film. Garfield shines throughout.
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie)
To be honest, I have trouble remembering the director of this, but due partly to my tastes for noir and good actioners, this has from the first viewing been clearly one of top five English language films (American setting, Scottish director) of the year. I just learned that Mackenzie also directed the extraordinary juvenile prison film Starred Up, which not a lot of Americans have seen. Also Starred Up was star-making serious role for the explosively talented Jack O'Connell, who around the same time played a more humorous part as the new main bad boy in 2nd generation of the BBC TV series "Skins." (Seasson is a must-see; hard to follow.)
Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi)
This like Fences may show a desire to make it clear this is not going to be an Oscars-so-white year. It's a well acted, very enjoyable film, but not a great film, too conventional in my view. But this is a warm and vivid movie about female black empowerment at a 1961 (shockinglyl) racist and Jim Crow NASA.
La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
Sort of a Golden Boy director, whose Whiplash (brilliantly effective but terribly manipulative) was hugely admired, and everybody welcomes this as a needed feel-good musical moment. But the screenplay doesn't live up to expectations, and I was very disappointed, left flat. So I sure hope this doesn't win all the prizes it's predicted to be destined for.
Lion (Garth Davis)
No, not really. This isn't a work of cinematic art. It's a feel-good movie. I love Dev Patel and am glad he got to be more substantial (looking) in this but he's not the great actor in it, the kid is. Again, a "who's he?" director, another Aussie.
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
YES! Brilliant screenplay, brilliant acting. Even questions about structure, placing of flashbacks, fall away in the face of the emotional truth, subtle wit, sense of place, and humanity here. And the acting!
Moonlight – Barry Jenkins
Again, YES! This, the year's great black film (with not one white person in it). It came to me as a surprise from Jenkins. It took him a while to get to a 2nd feature; and it's such a shocking change from his first. You may well wonder what the heck he was doing with Medicine for Melancholy (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2265-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2008/page2&s=&postid=20075#post20075) (SFIFF 2008), though I quite enjoyed that one. This is an original, vivid, powerful black gay ghetto coming-of-age movie that would stand out in any year.
My choices are Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea, with Hell or High Water and Hacksaw Ridge runners up. I wish they'd nominated Love and Friendship, but Whit Stillman is beyond their radar. And Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross) needs to be here too.