Io Capitano – 8.8

Matteo Garrone, a master director, created multiple vivid and convincing worlds: the shanties of Dakar, the emptiness of the Sahara, the hellholes of Libya, the turbulence of a Mediterranean crossing, just to name his principal locations. The artistry of his shots also fed the most beautiful closing credits I’ve ever seen. The settings  were secondary, however, to the gripping, and shocking, story of two Senegalese cousins lured to Europe by a dream. While we can only hope for a happy ending to their story, the film title–”I  Captain”–marks the personal growth of Seydou, the astonishing 16-year-old who carries the film.

Society of the Snow – NR

I couldn’t get past the horrible dubbing of the Netflix version to give this a serious viewing. The subject did not appeal to me, hence I avoided it in the theater, and the hokey, inauthentic English-language dialogue left me, so to speak, cold.

The Teachers’ Lounge – 8

A sweetly intense performance by Leonie Benesch as a new sixth-grade teacher having a bad week at school. I couldn’t figure out how the various conflicts would get resolved, and felt better when  the director couldn’t either. In the meantime, though, there were memorable characters and dilemmas that made you think in this worthy Oscar submission from Germany.

Oscar Nominations

With so many presumptive winners already in place, thanks to industry scuttlebutt and numerous awards from critics and industry groups, it is the nomination announcements that offer modest surprises and merit discussion. And with one movie, Oppenheimer, so clearly superior to the rest of the field, the Oscar ceremony itself will tend to boring; so best take my whacks at the field now.
Best Picture: As mentioned, Oppenheimer is a thoroughly deserving winner, and it should take home awards for its director Christopher Nolan, original score, supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.) and a number of the technical awards I’m not competent to judge (editing, etc.) Anatomy of A Fall is probably my second favorite movie, so I’m delighted, and surprised, to see it here. I also applaud Barbie, American Fiction and The Holdovers, although it’s hard to think of them as Best Picture material. I didn’t even like Maestro, Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things. I was one of the few not entranced by Past Lives, and Zone of Interest has made it neither to a streaming service nor Santa Barbara. I would replace Past Lives with the similar but superior Fallen Leaves, and the three big budget bombs with, say, May December, Air and Priscilla. Not that they should win, but I would at least enjoy seeing clips from them again.
Best Actress: All acknowledge that this is the loaded category, or in World Cup terms the Group of Death, where some worthy contender(s) will lose out. Already losing out in the nominations was Natalie Portman, who gave a subtle and convincing performance in May December, a film that was surprisingly snubbed all around. Sandra Huller was great, but so was her lookalike Alma Poysti in Fallen Leaves. And Margot Robbie certainly deserves something for conceiving, producing and embodying Barbie, the movie sensation of the year. As for the actual nominees, I couldn’t stand Emma Stone; Carey Mulligan was delightful but has had more difficult roles; Annette Bening was excellent, but her movie won’t carry her. Lily Gladstone was far and away the best thing in Killers of the Flower Moon and a vote for her would be historic and will allow Academy members to bypass Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro, as they should.
Best Actor: Colman Domingo’s Rustin hasn’t shown here, or if it did I missed it. I disliked Bradley Cooper in Maestro as much as Emma Stone in Poor Things, so that leaves me with Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright and Cillian Murphy, all of whom performed admirably, if not exceptionally. I favor Giamatti, only because he so exceeded my low expectations, but I would be happy with any of the three. With so many of the good movies starring women there weren’t a surfeit of flashy male leads and I’m thrilled that Leonardo DiCaprio was omitted. I did like the always reliable Matt Damon in Air, but comedies get no respect.
Supporting Actor: What qualifies as “supporting” always troubles me. There should be a limit on screen time or lines if you want to be in this category. Comparing Ryan Gosling’s role in Barbie to Sterling K. Brown’s in American Fiction is like comparing a watermelon to a grape. Yes, the movie wasn’t named after him, but Ken was nothing if not a co-lead. I didn’t fancy him in the movie, but he seemed like a good guy when receiving the Kirk Douglas Award at the SBIFF Gala, so I won’t begrudge him the Oscar if he somehow upsets Robert Downey Jr. I couldn’t stand DeNiro or Mark Ruffalo, so this seems a weak field. How about Tobias Menzies in You Hurt My Feelings? Or Ben Affleck in Air? Both comedies, although Ruffalo’s and Brown’s weren’t exactly serious roles. Dominic Sessa held his own with nominees Giamatti and Randolph in The Holdovers. And Jacob Elordi was a remarkable Elvis in Priscilla, especially compared to last year’s Austin Butler.
Supporting Actress: May December and Nyad were very similar in having female co-leads. Why the producers determined that Julianne Moore should be entered in the Supporting field with Natalie Portman as the Lead I have no idea, although since neither was nominated it’s not an issue. Jodie Foster’s character “supported” Bening’s, but her role in the film was just as crucial. I thought she was the weak link, though. America Ferrara is a really nice nomination (in a truly “supporting” role), but Da’Vine Joy Randolph checks all the boxes.
Best Director: This should be a slam-dunk for Christopher Nolan. My only comment is astonishment at the exclusion of Greta Gerwig, who performed the seemingly impossible task of creating an intelligent sophisticated movie about a doll that was both artistic and commercial. And as much as I admired Anatomy of a Fall, why is its director here? Original Screenplay, where it has a better chance, would have been enough.
Everything Else: Once again I’m dumbfounded that so many technical awards go to Best Picture nominees. Oppenheimer is truly great, but does it really qualify as one of the year’s best, out of all movies made, in all the categories in which it received nominations: Production Design; Costume Design; Cinematography; Editing; Makeup and Hair Styling; Sound; Original Score? As I mentioned, we’ll be hearing that name a lot, come March 10.

Nyad – 6.5

Recommended mainly for the performance by Annette Bening (so much better than Emma Stone’s), who created a character that neatly meshed with the archival footage of the eponymous marathon swimmer. The story of inhuman endurance was catnip for directors Chin/Vasarhelyi, after Meru, Free Solo and Rescue. Their problem here is that swimming from Cuba to Key West is neither as photogenic or dramatic as mountain climbing, and when the story requires them to show the same thing four times it verges on boring. The moments of drama (e.g., shark attack) were trite and predictable, but through it all Bening was a force and a character to cheer for.

Poor Things – 3

A sick movie. The fantasy sets of 19th century European cities were fun, especially Dickens’s London, but there was nothing to enjoy in the rest of the two hours and twenty minutes of ugliness. The story was beyond absurd and if that was to make a point, I surely missed it. Emma Stone’s Golden Globe performance struck me more as a party trick than acting; and as much as I like sex, the film’s obsession with it was numbing.  Willem Dafoe was good, as always. Friends counseled, if you can get past the first thirty minutes you’ll like it. I couldn’t find anything that changed.

Damsels in Distress (2012) – 6.5

Interesting that less than a dozen years ago a film could run wild with jokes about suicide. The humor also seemed dated, unless you’re still reading the Harvard Lampoon and watching Chevy Chase flicks. My viewing partner called it “stupid,” but I found it stupid funny. Greta Gerwig starred, with her trademark intelligent-naive affect, leading a cadre (coven?) of attractive college coeds who adopt a mission of raising their fraternity counterparts from hopeless stupidity, only to find their intellectual and moral superiority doesn’t protect them from romantic vulnerability. In short, this overlooked effort by Whit Stillman is nothing less than a proto-Barbie.

Between Two Worlds – 6.5

A beatific Juliette Binoche is onscreen this entire film, which makes it worth watching if, like me, you relish her acting and beauty. The story of a journalist going undercover to do a book on cleaning ladies has a ring of truth, which it is, and the film reads more as social commentary than drama.

Vertigo (1958) – 5

Seeing Vertigo on critics’ lists of all-time best films, including Time’s last week, and not remembering if I’d seen it, we rented it for TV viewing. Our first reaction was that it must have been colorized, so garish were the reds and greens. Whatever the cause, it gave the film a very dated look, along with all the artificial driving scenes. The next problem I had was with the acting, or maybe the characterizations. Kim Novak’s performance was wooden, or more accurately stoney. James Stewart was typical James Stewart, a gee-whiz naif, which didn’t comport with his role as a San Francisco police detective. And while he was clearly infatuated with her, there was little chemistry between them. I never suspected her love for Scottie until she announced it. Barbara Bel Geddes was better as Midge, but I couldn’t figure out that relationship either.
Those problems, however, paled compared to the plot. Right at the start Scottie is left dangling from a bent gutter with no visible means of rescue or escape as his police partner falls to his death. He walks with a cane for a short while afterward, but we are never told what happened, other than this causing an acute case of “vertigo.” The plot that follows, of course, pivots around a murder/fake suicide that exceeds Scottie’s rooftop escape for implausibility. In order to dispose of his wealth (and inherit her fortune), shipping magnate Gavin Elster convinces his girlfriend to impersonate his wife (no one else notices?), have her pretend to be haunted by an ancestor and seduce his old friend Scottie, and then lure him up a belltower firm in the belief that Scottie won’t be able to reach the top, where he is waiting with his dead wife, ready for defenestration. Oh, and then escape from the belltower unnoticed, another point that Hitchcock finessed. Surely there were better, safer ways to do away with one’s spouse.
In fairness, the film’s followers focus on its story of obsession, not its murder plot. Scottie is clearly obsessed, but it’s not pretty, nor particularly convincing. He browbeats Judy (the resurrected Madeleine) in an over-the-top manner that keeps raising the questions, what does he think he’s doing and why does she put up with it? When he is so obsessed, though, how does he flip the switch so completely when he sees her necklace? Would he really have even noticed it? And how would he have made such a quick mental calculation? In short, the whole film was one big, dated implausibility that, to my mind, ranks well behind The Man Who Knew Too Much, North By Northwest, Psycho, 39 Steps, Rear Window, Strangers On a Train and probably others.

Top Ten 2022

It has become traditional at year’s end that I look back and select ten memorable films I’ve seen in the preceding twelve months, and I shall hew to tradition, even though a look back convinces me that this was the worst year of cinema I can remember. Was it a hangover from the pandemic? A migration of talent to television series? Uncertainty about the fate of the world? Who knows? One trend that was constant was the absence of spectators in the theaters. At a 7:30 Monday showing of Devotion I was completely alone. It seems inevitable that the industry will suffer, then change. Movie budgets and star salaries could drop by 50% or more and it wouldn’t necessarily hurt the product. Many of my favorites–e.g., Banshees of Inisherin–could be made on a shoestring. At the same time, the year’s highest grossing films, albeit few and far between, were still high-budget blockbusters; so I fear Hollywood will chase in that direction for a while to come. The number of big-budget flops, however, will shake something. Usually, the last weeks of December are full of pedigreed, Oscar-intended releases that we have to wait until February to catch. This year, not so much. That said, here are my favorites:

1. Argentina 1985. A true story of a political reckoning in, per the title, 1985 Argentina, this had superlative ensemble acting around a remarkable lead performance and a convincing sense of realism (compare, e.g., to the similar She Said). It got bonus points for showing me a culture and a moment of history I was unfamiliar with. And, always welcome, a heartwarming ending.

2. Official Competition. The most fun movie of the year, with Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderis and Oscar Martinez having the time of their lives playing actors making a film. The plot twists wee delicious, the spare cinematography elegant, the intelligence welcome.

3. The Banshees of Inisherin. So Irish, so stubbornly tragic, so forlornly beautiful, but above all such amazing peformances by Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Kerry Condon and all the regulars at the pub. This was obviously and fittingly a playwright’s movie.

4. The Bastard King. A totally remarkable nature docudrama in which the life of a lion is not only anthropomorphized but raises issues central to our own species, from climate change on down. Filmed in sepia, each scene is more jaw-dropping than the last.

5. Call Jane. In spirit a sequel to the superior The Trial of the Chicago 7, this was the political feel-good film of the year, unfortunately made timely by the Dobbs decision.

6. Tar. The final ten minutes ruined what was otherwise the most powerful, thought-provoking American film, with two great performances by Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss and a unique dive into the world of classical music.

7. Cyrano. As much a ballet or opera as a movie, this reimagining of a well worn fable with Peter Dinklage as the fulcrum brought the 17th-century French settings to lovely life.

8. Phantom of the Open. Always room for a feel-good comedy with a good heart. The golf sequences were spurious but Mark Rylance’s characterization was deft.

9. Top Gun: Maverick. Strictly formulaic but an expertly executed tried-and-true formula. The anonymity of the enemy downplayed the militarism, and Jennifer Connelly was the heartthrob of the year.

10. The Good Nurse. Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain in a quietly powerful “based-on-a-true-story” indictment of our health care system.

PS: The Quiet Girl and All Quiet On the Western Front While not available for viewing in Santa Barbara in time for the initial list, both of these films are up for 2022 Oscars and merit inclusion on the above list, replacing Phantom and Nurse, as much as I liked those quirky choices. All Quiet is powerful both as action film and political statement, while Quiet Girl is a pure expression of love and beauty, a psychological probing worthy of an Irish Bergman.

Top Performances
While not a fan of combining the categories of Best Actor and Best Actress, I do see merit in eliminating the often artificial distinction between Lead and Featured Actor, when studios use it to game the Oscars and snag an award for a featured performance that may be onscreen as much as many leads. So, without increasing the total number of nominees, here are the performers whose work I consider award-worthy.

Cate Blanchett, Tar
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Jessica Chastain, The Good Nurse
Emma Corrin, Lady Chatterly’s Lover
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Sally Hawkins, Phantom of the Open
Nina Hoss, Tar
Zoe Kazan, She Said  
Keke Palmer, Nope 
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu 
Sigourney Weaver, Call Jane

Antonio Banderas, Official Competition
Paul Dano, The Fabelmans
Ricardo Darin, Argentina 1985
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Eddie Redmayne, The Good Nurse
Mark Rylance, Phantom of the Open
David Strathairn, Where the Crawdads Sing

Ten Worst
Finally, I can’t go quietly without singling out the major disappointments. I’m avoiding obscure titles here and considering only films that made some critic’s best-of list:

Aftersun 
Crimes of the Future
Elvis 
EO
Everywhere Everything All at Once
Fire of Love
Glass Onion 
Nope
Petite Maman
Woman King