Now that the Oscars are over, and we know that Oppenheimer won Best Picture and most of the prestige awards while Poor Things won for design and for Emma Stone, we can look back on the incredible crop of movies this year and reflect on which ones have stuck with us.
This year, I tried to watch as many of the nominees as I could, and it was a great decision. For this month’s blog, I’ve decided to make a list of five of my favourites, in no particular order and from no particular category. If you haven’t seen these already, I highly recommend checking them out. Many of them are just getting to the streaming services. Oppenheimer There’s a reason the film won seven Oscars and was the first real box office hit to win Best Picture since Return of the King. The movie was riveting, with impeccable storytelling and style and a sense of frenzied passion in the pace that kept you hooked despite the three-hour running time. Christopher Nolan has elevated himself to the peak of the filmmaking elite, joining directors like Scorcese, who he beat this year, and even Stanley Kubrick. The performances by Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey, Jr. won Oscars for each of them, with both playing intensely driven men with opposite motivations - one for scientific knowledge, the other for political power. Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh were transcendent as Oppenheimer’s two great loves, with both women capturing both the rush and the eventual devastation of falling for a brilliant person with duties beyond themselves. The violin-driven score and the repeated visual motifs that suggested something quantum and unknowable in the cosmos helped to drive home the mystery and ultimate darkness of Oppenheimer’s work to win the war. This one will remain a classic. The Holdovers A cantankerous high school professor at a prestigious all-boys boarding school draws the short straw and gets stuck chaperoning a few students over Christmas Break in early 70’s Massachusetts. Directed by Alexander Payne and starring Paul Giamatti, who’ve reunited from the classic wine movie Sideways, the film brings warm music, holiday ennui, and ultra-natural and emotional performances by everyone, but especially Da-Vine Joy Randolph, who won a Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as a cafeteria manager who’s recently lost her son in the war. This will become a perennial holiday movie for millions. Anatomy of a Fall This film was one I watched more out of a sense of duty than interest, as I wanted to have a good survey of the Best Picture nominees. But it turned out to be one of the best crime stories I’ve ever seen, and I think like most viewers, I’m still not sure what the “truth” is. From the weirdness of an instrumental cover of 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. being one of the major plot elements, to the incredible performance of the blind son who was the only real witness to the crime, the movie hooks you with its central mystery of how the boy’s father wound up dead after falling from an attic window in his home. The last third of the movie takes place in a French courtroom as all the facts, affairs and deceptions are laid bare. Godzilla Minus One Anytime a Godzilla movie wins an Oscar, I’m ready to celebrate. I loved this movie when it came out, and it was a blast to see it win the award for Best Visual Effects, with the Japanese team accepting the award while holding miniature Godzillas. The film is worthy of a prestige award, as it has uncommon depth for a monster movie, getting into the complexities of the creature and winning some sympathy for him. The effects are indeed incredible, but the fresh take on the genre will bring it a lasting audience. The Zone of Interest This film by Jonathan Glazer, the British director of Under the Skin and about a dozen Radiohead music videos, is a true art film, depicting the blandness of evil through a portrait of a Nazi family living a happy life in a lovely home against the walls of Auschwitz. The husband does his best to make his wife proud by perfecting a design for kilns. I would never have guessed that two of my favorite films this year would star Sandra Hüller, but just as she’d done in Anatomy of a Fall, she carried the depths of self-deception in her face in her portrayal of the Nazi wife. The film won for Sound Design over the favorite in Oppenheimer, a tribute to the persistent eeriness of the underlying atmospheric tones. This one will be watched and analyzed by film students for years to come. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorBardya Ziaian is a Toronto-based business executive, film producer, actor, and entrepreneur with specific expertise in the areas of Fintech, brokerage services, and financial systems. Archives
February 2023
Categories |